Having always been a fan of Implant, the new music video and single “c.c.c.p.c.c.t.v.” didn’t strike me as much as I hoped it would. Perhaps I was expecting something a bit more fun. The social political nature of the video footage used in the music video for ”c.c.c.p.c.c.t.v.” gives the track a darker tone. But with lyrics like, “oh baby I’m on,” and the kidnapping sequences, there is some good old Implant playfulness in there. Implant release their new album The Productive Citizen this week on May 17th!
This week’s video is a new music video from Shiv-r, Australian industrial artist and Auxiliary Magazine cover model, who never fail to understand the importance of the aesthetic and visuals of a band and presenting a full, carefully crafted package. The new video is for “Devil’s Night” from their EP Shadow Between Worlds reviewed in the February/March 2013 Issue. The cheese factor is a little high on this video, I think because the premise of the performers performing for a music video is obvious. The highlight is the scene of the aerial silk acrobat performing in darkness as the viewer can more easily forget that this exists in the context of a music video.
Team Ghost, the five piece band founded by ex-M83 co-founder Nicolas Fromageau (who was on the M83 and Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts albums), recently released the music video for “Curtains” off their forthcoming album Rituals due out April 16th. What starts out as a high fashion model dancing around the band turns into tons of weird hair imagery.
IAMX has a new music video out for “I Come With Knives” off his upcoming album The Unified Field. I say a big “yes” to Chris Corner dressed in the fashion of Nick Cave and Fields of the Nephilim dancing around at dusk or dawn in Joshua Tree National Park!
More new music from The Knife! The new music video for “A Tooth For An Eye” is from their forthcoming album Shaking The Habitual. Always aiming to present more than just an eye candy music video, the description for this video goes… “A Tooth For An Eye” deconstructs images of maleness, power, and leadership. Who are the people we trust as our leaders and why? What do we have to learn from those we consider inferior? In a sport setting where one would traditionally consider a group of men as powerful and in charge, an unexpected leader emerges. A child enters and allows the men to let go of their hierarchies, machismo and fear of intimacy, as they follow her into a dance. Their lack of expertise and vulnerability shines through as they perform the choreography. Amateurs and skilled dancers alike express joy and a sense of freedom; there is no prestige in their performance. The child is powerful, tough and sweet all at once, roaring “I’m telling you stories, trust me” (a quote borrowed from Jeanette Winterson’s novel The Passion). There is no shame in her girliness, rather she possesses knowledge that the men lost a long time ago.
Feeling a bit down after a long night of looking for salvation in the arms of sin and rooms by the minute? Good news! Nick Cave is here to offer a sermon on the subject of love, loss, rapture, and redemption with arms wide open. “Jubilee Street”, featuring Ray Winstone and directed by John Hillcoat (who also teamed up with Cave on his screenplay for the Western The Proposition), is available in both censored (scenes missing) and uncensored versions. Probably not suitable at work or around the kids either way, but may help to ease the burden of Catholic guilt experienced during the quietest hours of lent.
It’s late February and I am getting restless and I can tell that because I have been in the mood for some sloppy raw punk music. Lucky for me the band from Copenhagen, Iceage just released their sophomore album this week on Matador Records titled You’re Nothing. This album has an old school punk feeling to it. The raw emotions and rough edges remain in tact which is often lost in recording and post production. They’re also headed over to North America soon to do some touring!
You’re Nothing is available for purchase at Matador’s Store and can be listened to online on Spotify.
This week’s video is another music video from Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra’s album Theatre Is Evil. When asked how she and the director captured the raw emotion of the song in such an elegantly powerful visual story, Amanda Palmer has this to say, “When I wrote the script for ‘The Bed Song’ video, I knew it could either turn out looking like a heartbreaking piece of filmed theater or a bad soap opera. I think we achieved the former, but only due to the lucky, lucky alchemy of people and resources that collided to make it happen. The director, the designer, the location, the impossibly talented range of actors… all of them came together with the kind of unlikely timing that happens once in a lifetime. If I never make another music video, I’ll die happy knowing I made this one.”
I had actually never seen Peter Murphy live until a couple years ago. But when I finally did, I was blown away by how much charisma and swagger he has on stage and how good his voice still sounds live, all these years after Bauhaus. Even though he has been releasing new music, he still performed a handful of Bauhaus tracks, which shows he understands and respects his fans. Since I can’t teleport back in time to see Bauhaus live in their heyday, it was nice to get a little glimpse. “Velocity Bird” is off Peter Murphy’s latest 2011 album Ninth. The new music video for the track shows off his live performance talents.
I haven’t seen a music video spread so rapidly around the internet and world of social networking. At least in my group of friends, associates, and contacts who I imagine would all be very excited about a new track from Depeche Mode. (Except for our music editor of course who has an odd dislike of the band, I think it stems from listening to that KMFDM lyric so much in his youth.) But you should be excited about it! A captivating song and video, with captivating visuals and a captivating live performance. The church, galaxy, dark, and occult elements are very in line with current trends, but in no way cheap and trendy. “Heaven” is the teaser single for Depeche Mode’s upcoming release Delta Machine due out March 26th.
