#67: "Leave Before the Lights Come On" - Arctic Monkeys Release Date: 2006 Director: John Hardwick Fun Fact: The actress is Kate Ashfield, and the actor is Paddy Considine; Kate was in "Shaun of the Dead" and Paddy is in "Hot Fuzz" and "The World's End", so between the both of them they've appeared in the entire Simon Pegg/Edgar Wright film trilogy!
This song and video was/is easy to miss out of the entire Arctic Monkeys discography because it was a stand-alone single released between the first and second albums. But I've never forgotten it and I never will. It's just an incredible video that highlights some of the issues with suicide. Are people who commit suicide doing it for attention or are they simply doing it to end a tragic life? It's a sensitive topic and I don't mean to step on any toes. What I will say is that each case is different and you can't say all people do it for attention, but at the same time you can't say each person is ending a truly tragic life. This video demonstrates to great effect, a suicide attempt, and shows you the perspective of the person attempting the suicide, and someone trying to save a life. You can judge this case for yourself, bu either way, it's a fascinating video and the song is great too.
Here's the video for your enjoyment!
Click here to see #66 on the list or here for #68!
#78: "Psychosis Safari" - The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster Release Date: 2003 Director: Edgar Wright Fun Fact:
The video was directed by Edgar Wright, the director behind Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World's End and the TV show Spaced!
By the way, if you get the new album by The Prodigy, check out "Rise of the Eagles" - it's a cover version of this band!! Anyways, yeah. I don't know if you've heard this band, but for me, this was the most underrated British band of the Noughties. Unfortunately, they've disbanded now but I loved them so much. Such a firecracker of a band. This video, directed by the awesome Edgar Wright, plays on the old 3D glasses trick really well. When there's no wearing of the 3D glasses, the band look as "normal" as they can. Put the glasses on and you see massive skulls everywhere, beams coming out of the band member's eyes, lots of green screening and much more. In the end it gets so bad that their (amazing) car catches fire and turns into a phoenix! It's just a great video, one you really should see if you haven't before. And if you like the song, I beg of you, check out their other stuff!
Here's the video for your enjoyment!
Click here to see #77 on the list or here for #79!
So welcome to Part 2 of 4, counting down what I think the best 20 music videos of the last decade were. Let's just get straight in there, from #15 to #11!
15. "There There" - Radiohead (2003)
This video brings me to a time where I was so happy, I always maintain my favourite year in my life, personally, was 2003. But this video, regardless, is fantastic. It's my favourite Radiohead video, and I just love the message, the imagery, and the moral of the story thieves never prosper (apparently). Thom Yorke's facial expressions are fantastic, and his legs whilst running are just hilarious. I love all the forest animals too, especially the owls getting married. It's just a brilliant work of art.
14. "Links 2-3-4" - Rammstein (2001)
This video is just epic. I mean, ants in a disco is awesome enough, especially DJ Ant. Then the beetles just starting a war on the ants is awful. But the ants marching to start a war on the beetles is just fantastic. The video goes so well with Rammstein's brilliant marching industrial beat. The only snag in the video is the human hand at the end, suggesting the ants took over the world. If Bill Bailey says it isn't happening, it isn't happening!
13. "Seven Nation Army" - The White Stripes (2003)
This isn't that special a video when you strip it down, it's a very simple concept. Yet you just stare at this video when you watch it, all the triangles, all the red, black and white visuals, the seeing Jack, Meg, Jack, Meg, skull soliders, Jack, Meg, Jack, Meg, over and over again. It's just such a simple yet effective concept, it's just visually obsessive to watch.
12. "Here it Goes Again" - OK Go (2006)
The Treadmill video! It sucks that this video is labelled that because OK Go are a better band than that. I haven't heard a great amount by this band but I like what I've heard. Anyway, this video is self explanitory, it really shot them into superstardom really, otherwise they were just like any other indie band. The dance routine is brilliant, and it was done in one shot too, so kudos to them for that. The one question I always ask though, is how come it took until 2006 for someone to actually think of a dance routine on treadmills? I don't know...
11. "Psychosis Safari" - The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster (2003)
Edgar Wright, director of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, is a huge TEMBLD fan, and directed this video. It's a stunning piece of work, intentionally looking like a video made in the early eighties. Man, you'd have thought it was The Cramps that was on the telly when you saw this video back in '03. And the band look so cool, the 3-D glasses requests are fantastic, the TEMBLD car (RIP) turning into a flying firebird, it's just such a cool video. I love it.
Part three is found here. Part four is found here.
Part 2 done and dusted. Part 3 will be posted tomorrow, where we enter the Top 10 and count from #10 to #5. Take care.
Fancy listening to something new? Get this album; it’s worth
the risk.
The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster (abbreviated now to
TEMBLD) returned this summer after a 6-year album hiatus with Blood and Fire.
One again this band has failed to captivate a wide audience, sales weren’t
great, they’ve barely been on the telly, and there’s been no advertisement. But
hey, TEMBLD never make it easy for themselves do they!
Before I get into the meat of this review let me give you a
quick biography of this band, if you have never heard of them. TEMBLD are a
gothabilly band, it’s probably the best bracket to place them in. They’re like
a fusion of The Birthday Party and The Cramps, revved up and spat out into
today’s indie music scene. They are a breath of fresh air, mixing roaring
vocals, chainsaw guitars and almost indecipherable lyrics. This band kicks
fucking ass. But unfortunately for them, their influences are coming up to
thirty years old (jeez it’s really been that long…) so they aren’t popular. It
also doesn’t help that they really publicise their great music talents and
inspirations, and love their hometown of Brighton too much and gig there very
often.
They have had a few chances to make the big time, they have
toured with some damn good bands, being System of a Down and The Queens of the
Stone Age (TQotSA). Hell, The Royal Society (their second album, released 2004)
was produced by a fine producer named Chris Goss, who has produced great albums
by TQotSA as mentioned before, Kyuss, Auf der Maur, The Cult, and U.N.K.L.E..
“Shaun of the Dead” actor Simon Pegg’s a big fan, and has “Mister Mental” in
said film. They are also on the Gran Turismo 4 soundtrack, a very popular video
game at the time, with “Psychosis Safari”.
Yet is hasn’t happened. It’s a double whammy of
disappointment, they don’t try hard enough to get their name out there, and not
enough people are interested in seeking them out. Shucks. But for the people
who are interested, they have now released attempt #3 at “making it”.
Unfortunately it seems this attempt isn’t third time lucky, but once again,
it’s a solid outing. That’s three in three in terms of great albums, but three
in three in terms of commercial failures. Some bands just don’t get their
break!
We start the album off with “Love Turns to Hate”, a song I
was quite familiar with beforehand, as I heard their demo of the track a good
four or five years ago. This is a crisper, more complete version of that demo,
and is also their staple single. If you have heard their material before, quite
simply, you will like this, the familiar sounding buzz guitars are evident
whilst singer Guy McKnight howls the chorus. It’s a great opener that sucks you
into the album straight away.
It’s only when we get to “Monsieur Cutts” when we get this
band’s old sound back. And what a song it is. If you have ever heard “Horse of
the Dog”, their first effort, and loved it, you’ll feel right at home with this
track. Guy screams the lyrics to a frenetic baseline; it’s a fantastic homage
to their old self. But then the album reverts back to the new sound. It doesn’t
take long until we get to “Man for All Seasons” which a bizarre way of
describing is a like a combination high school disco and moshing. It’s just a
sweet track, definitely my favourite on the album, it’s hard not to move to it,
which is something you don’t get often with this band. The album finishes with
“Are You Living”, which is another slower (I wouldn’t ever say the word slow
for any of their songs!) track by the band, which brings the album full circle
with their new style.
TEMBLD’s third effort is not like their second, or their
first. They have made three very different albums, each with a slight diverse
feel, but all as great as each other. You could argue that this is their most
polished album yet, it’s the closest the band have got to an album that should
please a casual audience, but this audience just don’t want to know them, which
is a shame. “Blood and Fire” is definitely worth a listen; all the tracks are
currently on Youtube for free (they might get taken down in the future), so
give a few songs a go. If you have never heard this band and fancy listening to
something new, please, support this band; they’re more than worth a punt. I’d
recommend this band to anyone who likes rockabilly, psychobilly, goth,
industrial, punk, indie, new wave, and the obscure 1980’s sounding bands. They
really do mix all the above genres brilliantly. Below is the video for the
video for the first single, “Love Turns to Hate” (please excuse Guy McKnight’s
Nick Cave moustache!) to start you off. Support this band!
Rating: ****1/4
Stand out tracks: Man for All Seasons, So Long Goodnight,
Monsieur Cutts
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