Archive for the ‘youtube’ Category

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How TV Ruined Your Life

How TV Ruined Your Life is a 6 episode BBC 2 series, written and presented by Charlie Brooker. It examines the ways in which our realities and media are inexorable from and and constantly affecting one another. This is just the first episode. Skip on over to YouTube to view the rest of the series.

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Is this in poor taste?

Cultural References

The video below is both humorous and curious in its stage-y, daytime TV’d out way. If you don’t speak Spanish, well, first of all, you should probably learn Spanish. But, if’n you don’t, they’re basically saying that they took the little girl seen in the video, put her in a white camisole, brushed her hair, and stationed her creepily in a hotel lobby. They stress that they did nothing else to the girl, sans makeup or special effects. Watch how people react at the slightest allusion to "The Shining." Again, humorous and curious.

I would also like to point out that the cleaning lady’s reaction is perfectly priceless. The three or four different scenarios I can imagine for her are absolutely blowing my mind. This hearkens back to our Japanese Video of the Week days, eh?

Japan’s Stereo (Post-Rock)

Why does Japan’s rock scene seem to be overflowing with post-rock bands? Do they think that the genre’s inclination to forgo vocals will endear them to a more global audience? Do its heart-rending crescendos and diminishes appeal to something in the typical overworked, emotionless Japanese psyche?

These are just vague musings, don’t pay them any mind. Whatever the reason, post-rock bands are abundant. Here are the best.

MONO

The sort of band that you don’t listen to every week. You can’t; the human body’s not built to withstand that sort of emotional pressure. The appropriate interval between experiences of their desolate silences and engulfing barrages of noise is perhaps around a year - but like Christmas, it can be an event that your entire world seems to revolve around.

LITE

After beginning with intricate yet atmospheric math-rock, they experimented in two directions by writing both catchier songs and blurrier ones. Their latest venture - the sudden, surprising introduction of synths - has yet to reveal itself as a either a hideous mistake, or a progression that leads to their more unique and interesting music yet.

ENVY

Their recent, unfortunate tendency to swoop into overly grandiose, rising-into-the-sunset melodrama - along with their often one-dimensional vocalist - can’t erase the fact that thet have created some of the most powerful, moving hardcore ever commited to tape.

TE

Dynamics instrumental ability, guitars that both twinkle and rasp: Their musical arsenal is shared by any post-rock act you’d care to mention, but Te wield their weapons with a sheer force of will that is awesome to behold. It feels like the songs are jumping from the speakers and literally forcing themselves into your ears.

TOE

Toe don’t use the same vast dynamic gulf between quiet and loud that many post-rock bands do. It’s a fact that males their emotional impact harder to find - but there’s no mistaking its existence when you do. One of the most subtle and wonderfully textured bands in the genre.

DOWNY

Music made for walking through the city at night. The guitars and vocals are the wispy, drifting mist; the bass and drums are the looming buildings. Eerie like nothing else.

Japan’s Stereo (The Dismemberment Plan)

The Dismemberment Plan played together from the late 90s to the early 00s. The sort of people who care about bands like this REALLY cared about this band.

(By the way, if their band name is making you think they’re some sort of violent, angry death metal act, then please note that it is a quote taken from the decidedly less threatening environment of Groundhog Day, a Bill Murray comedy)

The reason why they were cared about has to do with how they actually sounded - an indie-art-punk aesthetic at their core, with all sorts of bits and bobs thrown in. Vocals were stuttered, spoken, sung, rapped; the lyrics were both intelligent and funny, something which is incredibly hard to achieve.

They broke up in 2003, but played a couple of shows in 2007 to raise money for a friend with spinal muscular atrophy. That, as it turns out, wasn’t the end - early January sees a re-release of the ‘Plan’s best album, "Emergency & I", and to celebrate they’re playing a few more gigs.

Not many, mind you. A handful, mostly in America. But Japan’s lucky residents will get the chance to witness this rare treat: in Kyoto on February 7th, and Tokyo on the 13th.