The A/V Room: December

Video time, and no, don't worry - we're not going to inject your usual dose of quality music videos with some sort of Christmas related nonsense, just all the recent clips that are worth your peepers, and hey, they may just be some of the best this year.

Enjoy:

Fleet Foxes - The Shrine/An Argument (dir: Sean Pecknold)

One of the best tracks from one of the best albums of the year deserves not a good video, but one of the best. Sean (brother of band leader Robin) Pecknold delivers just that, in a beautifully rendered showcase of handcrafted animation with a mysterious, rustic atmosphere and rich, enigmatic characters. The visual matches to the soundtrack are brilliant and the lasting impact is that you've just beared witness to a stunning piece of art. Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps the most artsy video of the year. 

The A/V Room: August

The reason this comes so hot on the heels of the July edition of The A/V Room, is that most of these videos are clips I didn't have room to feature last time, so here they are with their own little feature. Also, if you happen to be on facebook (which is highly likely if you have an internet connection) then may i suggest you 'like' the brand-spanking new Al's Music Rant page? If you look just to the right you'll see the widget to do so, or through your usual social media conventions as well. Lovely.

The A/V Room: July

So I've decided to make The A/V Room a semi-regular thing now, sort of like Wrangling The Heard but with visuals, let's not make a big deal of it...

I mean, I've often grumbled about the frivolities of the music video (notably here and here AMR fans), and while I still maintain that 90% of the time they're dull and boring - like this awful promo for Bon Iver - Calgary, bleerrrggggh - but they're still a pretty powerful thing when done correctly.

The following are examples of, in this blogger's humble opinion, it being done correctly.

I Heard The News Today, Oh Boy

• Firstly, to AMR favourite Kimbra. Vows is still slated for later this year (did I mention I'm excited for that one?), but in the meantime we have her contribution to Gotyé's forthcoming Making Mirrors album in the form of Somebody That I Used To Know. Due to some (let's admit it - inevitable) internet leaks, Gotyé posted the excellent video for the track on YouTube sometime this morning. The simmering, borderline-spiteful duet soundtracks a video featuring stop-motion bodypaint and the resulting effect is visually captivating as well as emotionally felt. Enough words, have a view:

There's also a full album preview of Making Mirrors kicking around too, and it's set for release August 19.

• Kins, as metioned in our in-depth chat, are relocating to the UK to follow their musical career. Their last shows in Australia were to be as part of the Castle music festival in Castlemaine (go figure), but it turns out they've managed to squeeze in one absolute last headline show before they jet off. So book the 21 July into your diaries now, as they play The Order of Melbourne with support from Steering By Stars and The Removalists. At the moment, details are only available on their Facebook page, but you've already 'liked' them now haven't you?
• Fresh off news of a new 7'' single, Wilco unveiled the artwork and tracklist for what will be their eight studio album, entitled The Whole Love. It will be the first record released under the band's own newly-formed dBpm label and if that geometric artwork and the Summerteeth-ish vibe of I Might are anything to go by, it'll mark a new stylistic shift also.
• Remember when all you could read about in the blogosphere was Kanye West? Well he's been, Mama's Boyfriend controversy aside, comparitively quiet as of late. Maybe because he's been working hard on that Jay-Z co-album he'd been boasting about earlier in the year. Watch The Throne now has a preorder website and a fancy gilded cover. Noticeably, the tracklist is missing previously released single H.A.M., at least it may mean the ever-entaining Kanye twitter feed will pick up steam.
• Radiohead recently announced plans to release a four-part, vinyl-only remix project of The King of Limbs, but now we can actually hear some of the results. Namely, Caribou's take on Little By Little and the Jacques Green version of Lotus Flower. Stereogum also has details of the second installment of the remix project. (via Dead Air Space & Stereogum)
• In other 'head news, their sticksman Philip Selway is releasing a four-track follow-up EP to his Familial album of last year. Entitled Running Blind, it contains similarly Nick Drake-esque acoustic hymnals, this time with the assistance of a full backing band. Love-er-ly. (via Pitchfork) 
• To finish things off, is FasterLouder's excllent retropsective of Recovery. No need to say much more than that, just take a nostalgic read and meida-assisted watch at some of the Australian music and television industry's awkwardest moments collide. (via FasterLouder)

This is non-stop baby

Kimbra. Remember that name.

It's both a question and a demand.

Perhaps you recognise the name from previous posts (such as our first full interview) or any one of her amazing live shows. You might know her minor hit Settle Down, which scored a spot just outside triple j's Hottest 100 at the start of the year. Also winning the coveted 'Best Use of A Tampon' award in this blog's very own Good, Bad & James Blunt Awards 2010. Or perhaps her lending her vocal talents to Miami Horror's I Look To You.

However, if it's drawing a blank, not a name you find synonymous with neo-soul pop of the highest order or one you're paricularly familiar with. It soon will be.

That was a bit Yoda wasn't it? Look, the point is, Kimbra's got a new single out and you should really check it out before she postively explodes on the music scene. It's called Cameo Lover and it's available as a handy little EP right now on iTunes. There's also a brilliant accompanying video - which you probably saw last A/V Room post.

But it's so good that I'm just going to post it again:

Yeah, that just happened.

...aaaaaaaaaaaaand we're back

Two weeks. Ouch. Boy am I shite at updating my loyal fans (and capitalising on new ones). The more astute among you have probably already realised why this is. Two words: Comedy Festival.

Aside from a busy and dare I say successful season - actually yeah, it was successful and here's the proof - there was all those other brilliant shows to see and experience.

Aside from the scads of brilliantly funny shows from the likes of Sam Simmons, Tom Ballard, Steve Sheehan, Maria Bamford and Bo Burnham, here are some other MICF highlights - in no particular order or detail.

*Scatalogical humour with Paul Foot at a Hungry Jack's at 4am

*Secret Santoni Cabaretoni at The Tuxedo Cat

*Good friend/medical practitioner/living partner Dr. Professor Neal Portenza getting a special mention in the Golden Gibbo nominations.

*Dr. Brown's Clown Classes: tough, revealing and rewarding.

*Reggie Watts murdering the HiFi bar

*single-handedly starting a crowd singalong of Come On Eileen on the final night of Festival Club prior to Dave Callan's DJ set.

There's probably many more besides, but most importantly are all the wonderful people who came out and supported Al's Music Rant. If you were there, I thank you, I had brilliant audiences every night - no matter the size - and without a good audience, there is no point. Your laughter, support (and ticket revenue) are what keeps it all ticking along. So here's to the next show...

Now it's time to bring some life back to the pages that inspired the show to begin with.

The A/V Room

Remember that little collection of music video posts a while back?

No? ...really? it was quite memorable, got a lot of feedback about that one. I have a real love/hate relationship with music videos, as detailed by the lil' sorta-manifesto accompanying the original post. But collating the best videos scattered across the internet for my own nefarious purposes was a lot of fun. Plus in the intervening weeks there's been some more that have actually tickled my fancy, of course there's a million more that I hated, but let's stick to the good stuff shall we?

The A/V Room

I don't usually deal in music videos, sure there's been the ocassional embedded video to brighten up a band profile; and even that one rant about videos always being set in forests. But, as a general rule of thumb - music promos bore me.

I'd much rather hear the tunes and create visuals with my own imagination than have them prescribed to me. A good analogy would be movies that are adapted from your favourite book, they either fail to capture the spirit of the song or simply don't quite match up to the images you had in your head.

Don't get me wrong, I don't flat out hate music videos, there's still a lot of visionaries in the game that I love and respect. Such as the work of Hammer & Tongs, OK Go's inventive clips, Mark Romanek, Aton Corbjin, Michel Gondry, and by extension, Björk's entire videography - but these are rarities in a sea of dull, thoughtless promos. The industry seems content with a set of three endlessly repeating formulas that have become de riguer, your choice of a) the lifeless 'rock performance' video b) lifestyles of the bling and booty or c) a'quirky' narrative, with an option of having the band members 'act.' Cringe.

I understand there's plenty that try to break away from these set types, but it's often in vastly aimless directions with singular concepts repeated ad infinitum. You wouldn't think it'd be hard to sustain a person's attention for three minutes - but for many it's an uphill battle.

The point is, that good music videos take more than just a good song to soundtrack them. Lately, here's a bunch that actually carry through from their conceptual beginnings to successful execution.

Architecture In Helsinki - Contact High (Dir: Krozm)