And The Nominees Are: Best Video of The Year

Continuing on with The Soul Kitchen End of Year Awards, or as they've now been dubbed, 'The Soulies', we've reached the nominees for Best Video of The Year award. Sadly we live in an age where the  art of the music video is often neglected by many artists in exchange for tasteless advertising (Cough Lady Gaga Cough) or mundane live performance montages. Or, at the very worst, slut and jock ridden house parties.

Thankfully though, there are still some artists who hold dear the integrity of the music video and give us reason to tune into one of MTV's endless stream of sub genre channels. And here we were thinking the Followills chasing children around in 'Radioactive' had killed the music video forever.

Anyway, the nominees . . .

The Black Keys - Lonely Boy

There may not be a cooler duo in rock 'n' roll right now than The Black Keys. Want proof? Rather than sit on their hands after the success of last year's barnstorming Brothers, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney rock up at the 11th hour in December , just when every music writer and their mother is compiling their annual awards lists, and drop El Camino on us all. On top of that, they go ahead and deliver lead single 'Lonely Boy' accompanied by a video of the greatest dance routine since Fatboy Slim's 'Praise You'. Oh, and the vinyl release of the song plays from the inside out.

The Beastie Boys - Make Some Noise
From the above referenced, ground breaking 'Fight For Your Right' video, through cop show parody in 'Sabotage', Japanese Kaiju in 'Intergalactic' and Star Trek in 'Ch-Check It Out', The Beasties have always been top of the food chain when it comes to music videos. It's no surprise given they came along slap bang in the middle of the MTV boom in the mid to late 80's. Now, we see Ad-Rock, MCA and Mike D coming full circle in a video that has been dubbed 'Fight For Your Right. . . Revisited'. The above video is in fact five minutes of a half hour mini-epic, and so the big guns had to well and truly be brought out. Step forward Seth Rogen, Elijah Wood, Danny 'Kenny Fuckin Powers' McBride, Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Jack Black, Ted fucking Danson, Steve Buscemi and a glorious cameo from Will Arnett, channelling his inner Gob Bluth. COME ON!!!

Arctic Monkeys - Suck It and See

Luckily for the Arctics, despite the fact that both their music and live performances have stuttered to a simmer rather than the boiling hot to bubbling over days of 2006-2007, they still know how to turn a simple music video into an unmissable mini-movie. And, as Matt Helders leather pants prove, they've not lost their sense of humour either.

The Go! Team - T.O.R.N.A.D.O
Featured on our Jukebox a few weeks back, we described this tune as BOMBASTIC and well, it's got a BOMBASTIC video to match. Think The Avalanches meeting Daft Punk in the mind of an A.D.D sufferer in the 80's and you're sort of close to where this video is coming from.

DC Fontana - Abbesses

The Kingdom of Mercia's finest Mod octuplets are firm believers in 'Art and Soul' and nowhere is this more evident than in their series of promotional films. Taken from latest album La Contessa, the instrumental 'Abbesses' may not showcase lead singer Karla Milton's phenomenal singing talents, but it does showcase how well she and leading Parisian burlesque dancer Mimi De Montmarte can fill out a pair of catsuits while Kung Fu'ing everyone in their path. C'est fantastique.

Tomorrow we unveil the nominees for Newcomer of The Year and Film of The Year. Keep 'em peeled.

Until then,

Keep on Keepin' on,

Baia

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Soul Kitchen Jukebox 07/11/2011 - 13/11/2011

This week, we have mostly been listening to . . . 

James Brown - Down and Out In New York City

Following the releases of Shaft and Superfly in 1971 and ’72 respectively, Soul Brother Number One was feeling left out in the Blaxploitation soundtrack game. Never one to be outdone, Brown got together with long-time collaborator Fred Wesley to score Larry Cohen’s Black Caesar. The results may not have been as spectacular as the rest of Brown’s output in the 70’s, but the album was still littered with gems like this. Opening the soundtrack in a balls to the wall fashion that only The Godfather could manage, he shrieks, wails and hollers gloriously over the most funked up drums, horns and brass this side of Harlem. If you don’t move to this, call a doctor. Seriously.

The Rapture - It Takes Time To Be A Man

To say it’s been a difficult few years for The Rapture would be a horrific understatement. Since the New York quartet lit up dance floors with 2006’s sophomore effort Pieces of the People we Love, guitarist and lead singer Luke Jenner’s mother tragically committed suicide. Two years later and Jenner quit the band amid in-fighting over their musical direction. Jenner would return, however bassist Mattie Safer then quit the band permanently. 

Continuing as a trio and in a much more different frame of mind, The Rapture set about recording In The Grace of Your Love, a record that will ultimately go down in history as their ‘mature’ album. This piano led outro couldn’t be more sonically diverse from the likes of ‘House of Jealous Lovers’ or ‘Whoo! Alright – Yeah… Uh Huh’.  It’s beautifully minimal and focuses on Jenner’s poignant , brash vocals to nail it’s point home. The lyrics “There’s room at the mount top/ for everyone in God’s plan” are also powerfully uplifting on an album that could have easily been steeped in mournful melancholy.

 

The Go! Team - T.O.R.N.A.D.O

The word BOMBASTIC isn’t used enough in music nowadays, but here, it’s absolutely apt. What else could be used to describe the opener on The Go! Team’s newest offering Rolling Blackouts? ‘T.O.R.N.A.D.O’ is akin to The Beastie Boys remixing an 80’s cop show theme then shooting it directly into your brain through a boom box. Two minutes of BOMBASTIC brilliance.

 The Flaming Lips - She Don't Use Jelly

Nowadays, Wayne Coyne and co are more accustomed to recording day long songs, marrying fans at gigs and zorbing across audiences. But back in the early 90’s, before the euphoric likes of ‘Do You Realise??’ and before Yoshimi battled those dastardly pink robots, The Lips pumped out grungy garage rockers like this. Sounding more Nirvana than the amphetamine psych they’ve been producing over the past ten years or so, ‘She Don’t Use Jelly’ is still a brilliantly weird alt-pop nugget. All together now, “She don’t use butter and she don’t use cheese/ She don’t use jelly or any of these/ She uses Vaseline”.

 

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Beat The Devil's Tattoo

Ten years ago BRMC exploded from across the Atlantic with their self-titled debut LP and between them, The White Stripes and The Strokes, proved that America still had some great rock and roll to offer. A decade later and, despite the loss of drummer Nick Jago (ably replaced by The Raveonettes Leah Shapiro) BRMC continue to crank out classic bar room blues better than anyone (although The Black Keys could easily argue their case). Here, on the title track of last year’s Beat The Devil’s Tattoo, the Rebels add an Eastern landscape to some almost Grateful Dead like chanting and Robert Levon Been’s trademark distorted bass lines, which have thankfully remained dirtier than a bag of spanners.

Until next time,

Keep on Keepin' on,

Baia

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