Efterklang - Swarming

Efterklang - Caravan

Efterklang - Cutting Ice to Snow

It should also be mentioned that the last video is not technically a music video, but rather clips from the documentary “In A Dream” by Jeremiah Zagar.  I felt it was too beautiful a song and video to exclude based on a technicality.

I hope your eyes (and ears) bleed.

Second thing: I cannot get enough of the opening shot in this video.  Its not all that original, but it just sets the tone and feel of the video so effectively.

Finally: Does anyone know who that 3rd fellow is?  I am too lazy to do the research…

Greg Laswell - How the Day Sounds

Ears=bleeding.

The video for this song, “Window”, is absolutely spectacular. Rich with metaphoric imagery and suits the feel of the music quite well. Pretty much everything I look for in a music video.

I hope your ears (and eyes) bleed.

My hope for this weekly segment is to highlight a music video that features both awesome visuals and awesome music, but the priority will go to the visuals (because lets be honest, sometimes an awful band will make an awesome video, and vica versa).

I figure I better start this segment off with a bang, so here is my first highlight:

I love when the director for a video comes up with a really simple idea and executes it really well.  There is not really a story to this video, but it is still fun to look at.

Now for a shameless plug:

I hope your ears (and eyes) bleed.

Anyhow…

Rather than pour out accolades (which you will undoubtedly read with a grain of salt since you already know how I feel about them) I will merely let the music speak for itself.  Here are three songs from Colour Revolt that I think are most telling of their musical styling.

The first song is off of their self-titled EP, which I consider one of the best EP’s ever put out.  I honestly listened to these 6 songs over the course of 2 years more than any other album or artist.  The sheer aggression in their sound is incomparible.  Even the most hardcore of hardcore metal bands fail to capture the aggression that Colour Revolt acheives on this EP.

Colour Revolt-Change Your Face or Change Your Name

The second song is from their newest release (March 2008) “Plunder, Beg, and Curse”.  After 2 years of waiting and anticipating their first full length album under the name Colour Revolt (they released an album under the name “Fletcher” in 2003), I will admit I was a little nervous.  I was afraid that I had hyped up this release too much and that it could never match the expectations that its predecessor demanded. Fortunately, this was not the case.

Colour Revolt-Swamp

This last song is another off “Plunder, Beg, Curse”, but just to show you their brilliance and range I am going to include a version they did for Daytrotter.

Colour Revolt- Naked & Red

Colour Revolt- Naked & Red (Daytrotter Session)

And since this is a preview for a live music event, I thought I should also include a live performance.

I hope your ears bleed the colours of the rainbow.

My problem with hip-hop is twofold: 1) not enough melodic content (it doesn’t have to be in singing), and 2) unrelatable lyrical content. I like introspective lyrics rich with metaphors and ambiguity.

If you know of such artists — I’m all ears!

If you want you can read the novel of a response I wrote, or you can be satisfied with this nutshell: generally I agree that most hip hop is unmelodious, un-relate able, extrospective (fun new word), etc…but, as within all genres (except country maybe.  Ha!) there are those artists that search outside the boundaries and expectations the labels of genres (i.e. Rap, Rock, Indie, Metal) tend to set.  So while I might not care for the genre of hip hop as a whole, there are bits, usually buried deep under all the other crap, that still make my ears bleed.

A prime example of this for me is the artist P.O.S.

Despite the fact that his album, “Audition” was released in 2006, it was easily one of my favorite albums of 2007.  I must have listened to that album hundreds of times, and more than one of the songs on that album found its way in my “Top 25 Most Played” list on iTunes (not an easy achievement, I might add).

To make this post more relevant to the time, however, I introduce to you Doomtree, a project featuring P.O.S, as well as some lesser known artists (Cecil Otter, Dessa, Lazerbeak,…so very many others).  What sets them apart form other hip hop artists is the fact that the muscial background of this Minneapolis based group is punk rock, so they spin the hip hop genre in a whole new, way more interesting, way.  Its aggressive, not angry.  It’s introspective, not arrogant.  It says something other than “I want to sex you up hott baby.”  In other words, it is everything that Ludacris is not.  Which is a very good thing.  Because Ludacris makes my brain bleed.  That is called an aneurysm,  which is bad.  Doomtree makes my ears bleed.  That is called good music, which is good.

Doomtree-Accident

Hopefully all that idiotic babbling has not got you thinking that I am only a fan of Samantha Crain because I happened to go to school with her. After you take a listen surely you will agree with me that she is one of the most talented new artists, putting her own unique twist on the folk sound. If you still refuse to believe my terribly biased opinion, perhaps you will heed the words of a more reputable source.

Samanta Crain - Beloved, We Have Expired

May your ears bleed evermore.

Snob Scrilla - There You Go Again from Jan Reichle on Vimeo.

Maybe you are like me and don’t care much for hip hop, but every so often an artist like Snob Scrilla does something so fun and unique with the genre that it is hard to ignore. Quite unfortunate, however, is the fact that I haven’t found a way to buy his album, since he is on an indie label based out of Austrailia. Check out his Myspace until America decides they want their ears to bleed the music of Snob Scrilla.