Friday Five Weekly Video Mix, Vol. 5

We're back with another episode of the best music videos we've found around the world this week! Check it, we found some really unique ones on this round.

5We start things off with Tom Vek, a multi-instrumentalist from the UK who dabbles in freakish experimental rock. Apparently he has a massive underground following over there. I should point out that Tom Vek is the presenter at the beginning, not the pulpishly sweet transvestite lip-syncing his vocals.



4Oh look! An “in the club” hip-hop video that actually has some fucking style! This is how they do it in Malaysia. Malaysian producers Goldfish and Blink bring the electro disco beats with Malaysian singer Ze! and Malaysian rapper Altimet on vocals. I'm hooked.



3

DJ Fresh drops a kick-ass skate video for his drum and bass track “Louder”, featuring Sian Evans. Not a new concept, obviously, but who doesn't love a good skate video? This one is fantastic, and it has a hell of a summer vibe.

2Damn, this video is a nightmare. I.R.O.K. shows us what would have happened if Rainbow Arabia had gone the low-budget stock footage route with their “Omar K” video. I'm not sure why, but I think Diplo should give this guy a call. I think it's because the song has kind of a jungle dancehall vibe, and when I watch the video, I think, “Nobody knows who this guy is, but he just singlehandedly made a video more awesome than all of Major Lazer's shit combined.”



1How do I describe this video without spoiling it? Let's just say, some may find it controversial, but I couldn't help laughing my ass off! It definitely goes bloody overboard a few times, but those were the parts that made me explode with laughter. Kids really are never as innocent as we think they are.

Friday Five Weekly Video Mix, Vol. 4

5Finnish duo LCMDF brings a cool retro-styled video for their synthy pop tune “Future Me”. No plot, just a seaside Polaroid adventure.



4Alex Winston braves a haunted cathouse in this video that starts off a little odd but quickly turns to freakishly bread-flying-out-of-a-toilet weird.



3The Sound of Arrows have earned themselves a reputation for melodramatic synthpop tunes and videos to match, but somehow they continuously straddle the line between campy and just awesome.



2Xuman's video for “Side by Side” is a dark and haunting narrative of a night at the museum, but not everything is as lifeless as it seems.



1The Supermen Lovers present one of the most kick-ass animated music videos I've ever seen. Two computer screens take a chance on love while they soar on an adventure through the clouds.

Friday Five Weekly Video Mix, Vol. 3

5The Gift shows us their take on the classic let's-run-away-together-and-fuck-shit-up storyline. I really like this one, but I would have done the same thing he did at the end of the video, if she kept insisting on wearing that black wig.



4Afrobeta can pick up the slack that Frankmusik has left in the electroclash scene. Peaches' leotards, glamourized Hyper Crush-style, with a tinge of that glitchy electro sound from Eastern Europe that we stumble upon occasionally (see Bedük), and the girl is just good enough at rapping and yelling that she leans more toward catchy than ridiculous.



3Patrick Wolf is famous for calling Mika a ‘twat’ in 2007, and for his subsequent appearance on the British panel quiz show Never Mind the Buzzcocks, but he also happens to be a fantastic genre-defying musician. He lives in a magical rainforest that grows inside his own home, as seen in the following video. Here is an excited red star, to draw more attention to how great this video is. ★!



2If you haven't seen this, you probably live under a rock, in Saskatchewan, AND in space. His name is Tyler, The Creator, and he's Pitchfork's latest shock rap sensation. The thing with shock rap and other shock entertainment, is that legions of posers fail at it, but among them are a few mad geniuses. Tyler is one of those deranged masters of things that offend, disgust and insult the soft-skinned people who charge the outcries that, ironically, make shock rock and shock rap successful.



1It feels wrong to say anything funny or sarcastic about Monarchy's new video. It's just too awesome. It's like when people joke about how slow motion makes things melodramatic, when really, they usually just make things actually dramatic. I really don't get the cupcakes, though, but even they add to the enigma of this video.

Monday Five Replacement Video Mix: Vol. 2

Well, I got distracted by all the pandemonium of last weekend's official worldwide Judgement Day Rapture (which was postponed, btw), and I posted a quick Rapture Video Mix on Friday, before running off to find out God's favourite ice cream flavour. So, since there wasn't really an official Friday Five, here is the replacement Monday version. Volume 3 will be back on Friday, later this week, unless the world is again stricken by another false catastrophe, in which case I'll be eating Heavenly Hash and listening to Blondie and Britney Spears all weekend, again.

Oh, I'm going to start putting arbitrary numbers on the videos, like it's a countdown. The order isn't significant, thought it might be one day.

5Since this is only the late replacement mix, we'll start things off on a dull note with “Step On” by the Happy Mondays, one of the worst music videos ever made for one of the best songs ever made. Watch as they dance like noodles and take their sunglasses off, only to put them back on again.



4Young people running through fields and playing games seems to be the winning formula for indie/electronic music videos these days. Here's Starfucker's interpretation of the concept. Whenever I introduce Starfucker to a friend, they ask who it is, and I say "Oh it's Starfucker," and then I always hesitate for a second, wondering if I said the FUCK part too strongly, and have offended them. But those awkward moments aren't the only reason Starfucker is one of my favourite bands. Just watch the damn video. It's sort of cool.



3“I said I was a musical genius. I repeated it until it became meaningless. Because you assumed I was joking, and then you thought about it like, ‘He's not joking!’” The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales, who has adds a new prefix to his name with every project, is getting ready to release the world's first orchestral rap album. Upon watching this video, my thoughts were, “This is so horribly bad that it might actually work, simply because he knows how crazy he is, and that makes all the difference.” For those who don't know Gonzales, he is famous for being Feist's roommate and for once besting Andrew WK in a piano battle, after distracting him by tossing a gold chain at him.



2Krissi Moses, yeah we have no idea who she is, and neither does most of the internet. Sticking with today's theme of sub-par music videos that have some redeeming quality to them, “You're Forgettable” a forgettable girl-power, man-eating tune with a surprisingly hilarious and sexy video. Krissi herself plays the lead, a vengeful bitch disguised as a vacuous trollop.



1And last, we have a weird video by Teams vs. Star Slinger. The track is a semi-catchy tune that's mostly just a DJ being a little too self-indulgent (oh god, I've just accidentally had it on repeat while I was formatting and editing this article. Now I hate this track!), but it's a cool soundtrack to the video, about an odd little alien man who's just trying to fit in, in our world. Does it spoil anything if I say there's an unexpected ending?

A Rapturous Playlist for Judgement Day

Judgment Day is now upon us! Let's put on some celebratory tunes while we await the big moment!



Post a comment if you think of any songs I missed!

Friday Five Weekly Video Mix: Vol. 1

Presenting, our first-ever weekly feature! Five new music videos every Friday! This week we've got a sweet selection of weird and creative videos we've discovered lately.

NewVillager - Lighthouse
Experimental freak-pop madness. Love it.


Amanda Palmer - Map of Tasmania
If you're old enough to know what a map of Tasmania is, you probably won't like this video.


Chilly Gonzales - You Can Dance
It's like a classy version of Benny Benassi's infamous “Satisfaction” video.


Little Comets - One Night in October (One Guitar Version)
English indie rock band plays one of their first hits with all four band members on ONE acoustic guitar! It sounds incredible.


Lights - Second Go
I feel so reluctant, recommending anything by a mainstream teen idol popstar like Lights, but she was actually cool for a few brief moments before becoming famous, like Owl City and Kesha were. Watch her get down and dirty in this one-take video!

The Sound of Arrows

In case you missed it.

Architecture in Helsinki Gets a Contact High

Architecture in Helsinki is back! In late 2008, just over a year after their last album, they released “That Beep”; it caught my attention as I kept hearing it in clothing stores everywhere (??) and I hoped it was the sign of a new album on the horizon. But, time went by and I thought maybe they did make a new album and it got lost in some record label's internal warfare or something, like I've seen happen to many a good album. I still have no idea what happened, but here's “Contact High”, the lead single (technically the second single) off their new album, Moment Bends. Which, by the way is amazing—see the preview below...

Architecture in Helsinki - Contact High (YSI)
BONUS: I just posted the guitar tabs for “Contact High” at UG.

And here's the video, weird and modernist, a perfect fit for the song.



Album Preview
The new album, Moment Bends, plays like they brainstormed some ideas and settled on “let's make it sound like a greatest hits package, except all the songs will be new and ridiculously catchy.” It feels like almost everything on it could be a radio single, but at the same time, all the songs have a different feel, almost like they were from different eras. For example, I'm listening to “B4 3D” right now and it's kind of a mellow 80s ballad with synthy basso profundo vocals. Now I'm listening to “Escapee”, an almost excessively catchy twee-ish tune, despite the fact it has no real chorus. And now I'm listening to “Desert Island” which has dominating synths and an (obviously) tropical feel to it, with a surprising climactic build at the end.

There's enough catchy songs to spready over a decade of albums. They should have called it “Greatest Hits of This Album”. Moment Bends drops everywhere next week, on May 3!

Architecture in Helsinki is touring at home in Australia and then North America over the next couple months. They're stopping in Vancouver on June 5th and I can't wait!

Darwin Deez Q&A and Tour Preview

Darwin Deez is best described by random YouTube comments. Watch one of his music videos and you'll find comments like “i feel so much more hipster after watching this video”, “hes so retardedly happy” and “This guy is definitely Moss of The IT Crowd.”



He has just started his first headlining tour in North America and we'll be seeing him on Monday at The Media Club in Vancouver. Before his tour kicked off, we wrote him to answer a few questions.

SK: Hey Darwin! Glad to have you here on Silence Killer, if only by email. I understand you're back home in North America for another tour. How was the UK tour with Little Comets?
DD: Love those guys so much. They are so so so sweet. And manly. We had a good time prank calling their music biz contacts at 2 am in a Travelodge. And they rock.

SK: A lot of bands are terrible at describing their own music within traditional genres. Tell me about your music, using big and unusual words.
DD: It's heliocentric and electrochemical...not. Ummm, it's minimal. If i say it's minimalistic is that a bigger word? It's simple and funkadociously fresh. I don't like big words, I guess. I like to be very clear and specific as much as possible! I always just call it homemade, authentic indie pop/rock.

SK: Math time. ____ + ____ = Darwin Deez. First things that come to mind. Don't say MGMT + Yo Gabba Gabba. Those are mine.
DD: Thriller + Dismemberment Plan?

SK: Where do you go when your creative parts are in need of new inspiration?
DD: I don't know. Chapel Hill, North Carolina, I guess. My parents' house, in other words.

SK: I think your jheri curl/pornstache combo is a perfect fit for the Deez steez. Do people ever make awkward comments about it, or tug your curls to see if they're real?
DD: Thank you! It's something. I like the way they both frame my face so I've kept them. And it's good to be recognizable in this business. And yes comments, and yes tugging.

SK: What do you do in the "green room" to prepare yourself before your set?
DD: Eat Asian food, I guess. And hope it doesn't sit too heavy in there while I'm dancing around like an idiot!

SK: Often when I go to a concert, the band says that they love the audience and it's their favourite place to play, but sometimes I think they just say that to every audience. What is your actual favourite place you've played?
DD: Seattle. But Vancouver was also a great show (that's the stage persona talking). We were opening for Bishop Allen and Throw Me the Statue last year and we actually got encored. As an opener!

SK: Tell me one popular band/singer/musician you're into right now, and one not-popular one. Then tell me your favourite album of 2010.
DD: One popular band I'm into is the Floyd. I'm having a moment for Dark Side of the Moon this week. A not popular one is my friend Jacob Ciocci's noise band, Extreme Animals. My favorite album of 2010 is Shut Up, Dude by Das Racist. Their first mixtape. Genius.

SK: I love your lyrics. You definitely stand out, lyrically, amongst the bands I'm into right now. What is the cleverest line you've written?
DD: Sweet, thank you! I think it might have been this rap couplet: “Rayanne Graf takin' a spray tan bath with Ray Bans on / the gay man's gone / for Christmas / Ricki / chasin' Angela Chase / wish she / was my so-called wife.” But you have to be a My So-Called Life fan to get it. Maybe “You are a radar detector...[because] you are always looking out for me.” That one's for everybody, but again you have to be familiar with an uncommon piece of electronics to get it!

SK: That's all! Any parting words for my readers and your fans?
DD: Please come to our show in Vancouver and check out myspace.com/friendsband and listen to “Friend Crush.” This band of our buddies will be gigging with us and it's one of my favorite songs of 2010. It's actually worth visiting myspace for!



Darwin will be at The Media Club in Vancouver on Monday, supported by Fol Chen, followed by twenty US dates, ending in New York City. Pick up his self-titled album anywhere or come see him live! I hear he likes dancing.

Cosmo Jarvis - Gay Pirates

The last time we reviewed Cosmo Jarvis, he was singing a charming song about Melanie, the girl next door and the grimy-but-cute boy who is in love with her. Cosmo is back with a fiery new single “Gay Pirates”, which is well, a love song about gay pirates. He brings on the charm once again, turning whatever you'd expect from the title, into a tragic ballad of two swashbuckling lovers.

Buy the single on January 23rd or pre-order it now from Cosmo Jarvis, where you can also download an acoustic version of the song! The single is the first from his upcoming sophomore album Is the World Strange Or Am I Strange?, slated for late March 2011. If you're in the UK, he has a few upcoming live dates before Christmas!

Cosmo Jarvis - Gay Pirates (Acoustic) (YSI)
Cosmo Jarvis - Gay Pirates (Live) (YSI)

You Say Party Films Big-Budget Video in India

Pardon the lack of postings lately; I'm still recovering from an legendary Halloween weekend of hijinks and tomfoolery.

You Say Party has just dropped their new video for “Lonely's Lunch”, filmed on location in India. It looks big-budget, like a mini action movie. Check it out.

Going to see The Bloody Beetroots tonight, so a concert review will be coming soon!

Groove Armada's Saint Saviour Going Solo Tonight!

Groove Armada recently announced the next phase of their career, saying farewell to their full band stage show. It's been a long road, from the early missteps of “I see you baby, shakin' that ass” to their breakthrough album with Richie Havens, up to the present with their last transcendent vocalist, Saint Saviour. Now that Groove Armada have finished their last-ever full band tour, Tom and Andy will have the time to work with Saint Saviour as a solo artist.

Saint Saviour began as Becky Jones, lead singer of an electro band from a few years back called The RGBs. The band shared management with Groove Armada, who took them on tour, and the rest is history.

Her first single debuted earlier this month, and it's a hell of a departure from the pop, electro and dance singles she has previously recorded. “Woman Scorned” is a scathing rock song that has put her high on my list of new artists to watch. The single is out now on iTunes and as a limited 7" vinyl. Here's the video:



It all begins tonight (Oct 23) as Saint Saviour plays her first solo show at Bush Hall in London. If that's anywhere near the place you call home, you can buy tickets for only £8.00 and see history in the making tonight!

Now that you've heard “Woman Scorned”, here's a banging remix to show you what it sounds like when you take Saint Saviour's new style back to her dance/house roots. Plus, I have included Becky's fantastic cover of Depeche Mode's “Enjoy the Silence”.

Saint Saviour - Woman Scorned (MOPP Bang Remix) (YSI)
Bonus: Saint Saviour - Enjoy the Silence (YSI)

Fun & Steel Train at The Media Club

Fun, one of Silence Killer's most-hyped bands since we were one of the first to write about them in early 2009, finally brought their show to Vancouver last night. We said they were “about to be New York's latest indie pop sensation” and they've come a lot further than that in the past year and a half. Last winter they toured with Jack's Mannequin, then in spring with Paramore and Relient K. Now they're on their first headlining tour, with 9 dates left in North America before they head to the UK for 9 dates with Paramore and B.o.B, then back home for 11 more dates starting in New York.

The show really began with the opening act, New Jersey indie rock band Steel Train. I had no idea who they were, but within a few songs, the audience was having so much fun, I thought they might upstage the headliners. As it turns out, Steel Train's frontman Jack Antonoff is also Fun's guitarist. Earlier, I was wondering why the DJ had been playing Yo Gabba Gabba's “Party In My Tummy!” and one of the roadies was wearing their t-shirt. It turns out, Steel Train wrote Yo Gabba Gabba's song “It's Fun to Dance”, which they played for us, pushing the crowd over the edge of insanity.

Fun finally took the stage while everyone was calming down, driving the crowd back into an uproar with the song that caught everyone's attention in the first place—“At Least I'm Not As Sad (As I Used to Be)”. I love when a band plays their best song first. Saving it for later makes you look less than confident in the rest of your music, whereas opening with your best jumpstarts the crowd's excitement, which usually lasts til the end.

Fun's lead singer, Nate Ruess, has an amusing habit of lengthening the interludes in their songs so he can banter on a bit and hype up the audience for the climax of the song. Later in their set, he mentioned his appallingly patchy excuse for a beard, which I had noticed earlier, giggling to myself. “It looks like cockroach legs, growing out of my face,” he quipped, “I feel like I'm in Iron & Wine, but I'm no better than Justin Bieber!”

My favourite part of going to concerts is watching a band with fantastic showmanship. Steel Train did a great job of that, but Fun really takes the cake. They were wild, crazy and entertaining, joking with each other between songs and timing all the breaks and pauses in their songs perfectly to keep the audience in rapt attention. Nate addressed their almost overuse of unexpected interludes near the end of the show, saying, “I'm the king of anticlimaxes.” An audience member quickly said something back, and Nate laughed and replied, “Yes, that is what she said.”

When Fun left the stage, the crowd was almost too exhausted to continue cheering, but we managed to earn a one-song encore, the teasingly dramatic opening song off their album, “Be Calm”. As already mentioned, Fun still has 18 North American dates with Steel Train and 11 UK dates left, so don't miss them! It's the most fun you could possibly hope to have with a band called Fun!

fun. - All the Pretty Girls (YSI)
Steel Train - Turnpike Ghost (YSI)



Previously on Silence Killer
Fun - Walking the Dog
Fun - At Least I'm Not As Sad (As I Used to Be)

Little Comets - The Isles

“In the B.R.I.T., I say British Isles! The streets are bleak, the kids are running wild.” Everything about this song and its video, good or bad, is a steadfast tribute to Great Britain. The video is remarkable in its ability to make every scene, even if it's just a melancholy face, look like it could have only come from Britain.

Little Comets are on tour in the UK right now, accompanying Darwin Deez, and “The Isles” single is out now on iTunes.



Little Comets - The Isles (Orchestral Version) (YSI)

Barbra Streisand Can Do It Anyway That You Want It

Duck Sauce, better known as Armand Van Helden and A-Trak, are back with a brilliant followup to “aNYway”, one of the biggest club hits of 2009. Van Helden and A-Trak prove their pop prowess with their uncanny ability to turn anything into a catchy hook. Another tribute to New York, here's “Barbra Streisand”.

Duck Sauce - Barbra Streisand (YSI)

There's a ton of official and unofficial remixes of this already. This is the only one that tops the original.

Duck Sauce - Barbra Streisand (Manila Killa Edit) (YSI)

And here's the video, complete with a Streisand impersonator and some real celebs including Kanye West, Chromeo, Questlove and Pharrell. Watch this without getting it stuck in your head.

One eskimO at Venue (Vancouver)

The stage is looking lonely. A set of motorcycle headlights are mounted on the bass drum, its beam piercing the fog. An assortment of cymbals are mounted on a rack behind the drum kits, like a memoir to drummers long forgotten.

Meet One eskimO. In early 2009, we discovered their now hit song “Kandi”, making me an instant fan. My love for them grew exponentially as I fell for song after song while they released various demo and previews of their (finally!) debut album, One eskimO.

I suppose they fall under the genre of shoegaze, which shows in the beauty and emotion of their songs, but it's at the mellow extreme of the genre. The archetypal electric guitar is changed for the wondrous sound of a shimmering acoustic. That, together with the unusual drum kit and Kristian Leontiou's stunning voice makes One eskimO exceptional.

They started with a triple punch of three favourites: “Hometime”—one of their first success, “Astronauts”—newer song and “Givin' Up”—popularised among clubgoers by Don Diablo. The crowd was small, especially with Broken Social Scene playing across the street, and the set was intimate. A few danced, while most of the audience just stared in awe, singing along with a surprising number of songs. Throughout the set, one guy kept yelling “Amazing!!!”, which got a bit annoying; I could see “Amazing” on the set list—last song. Nearing the end of their set, they played “Kandi”, extending the song so we could all sing it longer with them. They finished with “Amazing”, which honoured its title, then left the stage, only to return for the obligatory two-song encore. The encore was great, except for Miss Inappropriate Clapping and Screaming, who showed up for the encore to interrupt every 15 seconds. Lucky she didn't find her way to the front any sooner.

One eskimO's self-titled debut is out now on Shangri-La. They still have 20 more North American tour dates in the next several weeks. DO NOT MISS. Here are some MP3s and music vids, if you aren't already convinced.





One eskimO - Hometime (YSI)
BONUS: One eskimO - Givin' Up (Don Diablo Remix) (YSI)

La Roux's 2nd 'In For The Kill' Video, Kanye West Remix

Welcome to La Roux's second “In For The Kill” video, featuring more velvet vanity and less 80s driving down the highway at night with bad-ass sunglasses.

It's been 20 months since the first “In For The Kill” video dropped, so to add more buzz, the new video comes together with a brand new remix featuring Kanye West. The video and the Kanye West remix both feature brand new vocals by La Roux's Elly Jackson.

In For The Kill Video #2


In For The Kill Video #1


La Roux - In For The Kill (Remix) (feat. Kanye West) (YSI)

VIDEO: DJ Fresh vs Sigma - Lassitude

From DJ Fresh's new album Kryptonite, here's a drum and bass collaboration with Sigma, fused with house vocals. The music video is pretty sick, but the song definitely stands on its own.



And here's a bonus MP3 of Jakwob's dubstep remix.

DJ Fresh vs Sigma - Lassitude (Jakwob Remix) (zshare) (YSI)

VIDEO: Burns & Fred Falke - Y.S.L.M. (You Stopped Loving Me)

Burns and Fred Falke present the most adorable music video of 2010. This catchy club track is from Burns new mix album, This Is Burns 001: European Sex Music.

VIDEO: Le retour de Yelle

The French electro popstar returns, backed by a thousand celebrities in her new video. The Hiltons (Paris & Perez) appear, as does Jacko and his monkey. Cats everywhere!



The single is out now on the numéro un French electro label, Kitsuné, and features this funky remix.

Yelle - La Musique (Lorenz Rhode Remix) (zshare) (YSI)