Bjork - I Miss You

 #Bjork #art rock #avant-garde #experimental #electronica #alternative rock #glitch pop #psychedelia #trip-hop #neo-classical #singer-songwriter #ex-Sugarcubes #Icelandic #1990s #animated music video #Spumco #John K

Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi has made his first music video for Icelandic beauty Björk, who is an equally outrageous and innovative artist. Illustrating the song "I Miss You," the video features John K's stupid yet loveable character Jimmy the Idiot Boy cavorting with a bubbly animated version of the singer. A variety of techniques are used, including traditional 2-D cel animation by Kricfalusi's own Spumco Productions and Colorkey Productions, 3-D computer animation supervised by Charlie Gibson at Rhythm & Hues, real-time motion-capture animation by House of Moves, plus blue screen mattes bringing in live-action into the mix. (The live-action sequences with Björk were shot in a Los Angeles studio in just one day.) Björk, a long-time fan of Kricfalusi's work, insisted that he do a video for her when they met at one of her concerts. She was so pleased when she first saw John's storyboard that she apparently proclaimed, "It's just like Christmas!" and did not ask for any changes. The video is becoming something of a novelty, since MTV edited the director's cut to remove an end sequence featuring the animated Jimmy and Björk dancing underneath what look like a cross between rubber nipples and condoms on top of her actual (live-action) chest. It is ironic that the network cut that sequence while keeping shots of Björk violently ripping up a chicken, and even Jimmy himself. But fret not, devoted fans; the director's cut can be seen in rotation on that other music channel, The Box, as well as on MTV's new alternative sister network M2. The video is also included in promotions of the new RealVideo technology, which enables full-motion video to be displayed over the Internet.  From: https://www.awn.com/mag/issue1.12/articles/jacksoncapsule1.12.html

Björk Guðmundsdóttir was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, in 1965. Technically she recorded her first album as an 11-year-old; she sings the Beatles’ “The Fool on the Hill” in Icelandic. A decade or so later, she joined the Sugarcubes, Iceland’s premiere art-rock band. They sounded like Twilight Zone Roxette. The first and best Sugarcubes record, Life’s Too Good - it’s got “Motorcrash” on it - came out in 1988, the year they played Saturday Night Live. The Sugarcubes put out two more records and had a beguiling junk-drawer chemistry to them, but anytime Björk’s voice pulled into anything past second gear, it was obvious where she was headed - or, let’s say it was obvious that only she knew where she was headed. And thus, in 1993, did her real first solo album arrive. She called it Debut. In her first music video as a solo artist, for her first single, “Human Behavior,” she is eaten by a bear. Debut’s genre, if you gotta assign a genre to it, is Björk. Björk makes Björk music. There’s a needle to thread here though, as her star ascends in 1993, and as we gird ourselves for the decades of Björk excellence and flamboyance to come. A quick summary of the last 25, 30 years of Björk. The truly extraordinary run of mind-bending music videos. “Bachelorette” especially, shout-out Michel Gondry. The increasingly avant-garde album covers. Utopia especially. The titanic avant-pop influence of the albums themselves, Post and 1997’s Homeogenic especially. The Timbaland album. The beatboxing album. The phone-app album. The starring role in Dancer in the Dark. The Oscars swan dress. The coffee-table book. The other book. The other other book. Like 400 box sets and compilations and so forth. Lotta box sets. The MOMA exhibit nobody liked. The multimedia magical-realist universe that revolves around her. The needle to thread here, the challenge to accept here, is to marvel at the inimitable Björk-ness of Björk without infantilizing her or merely caricaturing her. There’s a tendency to reduce her to a woodland-fairy-type late-night-comedy routine. Remember when Winona Ryder did a Björk impression on Saturday Night Live, in a Celebrity Jeopardy! skit, in 2002? That’s the exact moment the ’90s truly ended, just FYI.  From: https://www.theringer.com/2021/4/21/22395193/bjork-hyperballad-post-history

Psychedelic Porn Crumpets - Acid Dent

 #Psychedelic Porn Crumpets #psychedelic rock #progressive rock #garage rock #alternative rock #hard rock #stoner rock #Australian #animated music video #claymation

Psychedelic Porn Crumpets is an Australian psychedelic rock band formed in 2014 in Perth. The band has been cited saying that some of the inspiration for their music comes in part from classic rock of the 1960s and 1970s, such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and the Beatles. However, they have been influenced by more than just the rock genre, getting inspiration also from experimental electronic jazz. Jack McEwan, the band's vocalist, has also mentioned that their style "is pretty much identical" to that of Pond and Tame Impala, bands that are often viewed to be in the same sphere. McEwan has also stated that he believes Australia, and his hometown of Perth specifically, to be a hotspot for rock music, and attributes the growth of the band partially to the live music scene in the city. Besides the Porn Crumpets, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and Tame Impala, two of the band's influences, also hail from Australia. Some have given credit to King Gizzard and Tame Impala for creating the current Australian psychedelic rock scene. Many consider psychedelic rock to be Australia's main musical export in modern times, also citing bands such as Pond, Orb, Gum and more as evidence for this claim.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychedelic_Porn_Crumpets

Gentle Giant - Just the Same

 #Gentle Giant #Shulman brothers #progressive rock #British prog #eclectic prog #classic prog #hard rock #experimental rock #jazz rock #neoclassical #medieval  #1970s #animated music video

Cool stuff in Gentle Giant songs

This is a listing of interesting musical and lyrical tricks and devices that Gentle Giant used on their albums. Some of them are obvious, while others require careful listening. These sorts of things make Gentle Giant's music so interesting to analyze.

Free Hand

During the verses of Just The Same, the bass and drums are playing in 6/4 while the piano, voice, and guitar are playing in 7/4.

The first section of On Reflection is a four-part vocal fugue. The last section is the same fugue played on instruments. In On Reflection, the last entrance of the band is accompanied by a springy wavering of the pitch (most noticeable in the electric guitar), which is likely the sound of the 24 track tape machine being dropped into "Vari Speed" mode, and the entire end section is transposed (sped up really) by a half step. Both the Studer and the Ampex tape machines, which were popular at the time of Free Hand, make this distinctive noise when you drop them into varispeed.

The bass part at the very beginning of Free Hand is repeated, in a different rhythm and tempo, when the "waltz" section begins (3:55 into the song). In fact, the whole waltz section contains various themes from earlier in the song.

The opening melody of On Reflection and the middle ballad section have almost identical melodies. Compare "In my way did I use you, do you think I really abused you" to "I remember the good things how can you forget."

The opening melody of Talybont is a heavily disguised reworking of the vocal melody of Just The Same. Talybont is a small hamlet in Wales near to where John Weathers lived. Talybont was recorded as the theme song for a movie about Robin Hood. The movie was never released, but it reportedly had "quite well known players in the movie business." If the movie had gone ahead, Gentle Giant would have recorded more material for it. Actually, some of that music did get recorded and appears on Under Construction.

The electronic sounds at the beginning of Time To Kill are from the old videogame, "Pong." And if you listen closely, you can hear one of the guys whisper "go" just before the loud buzz which indicates a goal scored.

The middle of His Last Voyage is a three-part vocal canon. The bass riff in the introduction of His Last Voyage fits over the very classic rock chord progression: I, bVII, bVI, V.

From: https://gentlegiantmusic.com/GG/Cool_stuff_in_Gentle_Giant_songs#Free_Hand

Gentle Giant were a British progressive rock band active between 1970 and 1980. The band were known for the complexity and sophistication of their music and for the varied musical skills of their members. All of the band members were multi-instrumentalists. Although not commercially successful, they did achieve a cult following. The band stated that their aim was to "expand the frontiers of contemporary popular music at the risk of becoming very unpopular” although this stance was to alter significantly with time. Gentle Giant's music was considered complex even by progressive rock standards, drawing on a broad swathe of music including folk, soul, jazz, and classical music. Unlike many of their progressive rock contemporaries, their "classical" influences ranged beyond the Romantic and incorporated medieval, baroque, and modernist chamber music elements. The band also had a taste for broad themes for their lyrics, drawing inspiration not only from personal experiences but from philosophy and the works of Francois Rabelais and R. D. Laing.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentle_Giant

Royal Coda - The Innocence Of

 #Royal Coda #post-hardcore #experimental rock #progressive rock #psychedelic rock #post-rock #math rock #animated music video

Royal Coda is an American rock band based in Sacramento, California, founded by lead guitarist Sergio Medina. They are known for their amalgamation of progressive rock, psychedelic rock, and post-hardcore. The band currently consists of lead vocalist Kurt Travis, guitarists Sergio Medina and Will Swan, and bass guitarist Steffen Gotsch.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Coda

Royal Coda – Compassion
Will Swan is a guitarist that has contributed to Dance Gavin Dance, Sianvar, and Secret Band. He has also run his own record label, Blue Swan Records, since 2013. He is so infused in the genre of post-hardcore that fans have dubbed his style of guitar playing as “Swancore”. Bands such as Hail the Sun, Eidola, Stolas, etc. draw heavy influence from Swan’s groovy, chaotic playing, which is a mish-mash of metal, psychedelia, and math rock. In the aforementioned Dance Gavin Dance, Will was bandmates with vocalist Kurt Travis for the albums Dance Gavin Dance and Happiness. Kurt would sing in several related bands over the years, such as A Lot Like Birds, Eternity Forever, and Push-Over, before forming Royal Coda in 2017. This act also features Sergio Medina (of aforementioned Stolas), Joseph Arrington (A Lot Like Birds), and Steffen Gotsch. It is fair to say that Royal Coda is a Swancore supergroup.
Compassion is a nod to Will/Kurt’s Dance Gavin Dance record, Happiness. Many intricacies prevalent in that now ten-year-old album are even more fleshed-out and take a front row seat in this succinct second album from the band. Where Royal Coda’s self-titled debut album had some novel concepts from some serious star-power in the genre, it was clear that the blending of ideas from each member weren’t coming together as cohesively as an artist that has had time to acclimate. This new effort is proof that these musicians took the time to concoct a fully-realized, unique record.
Announcing Will Swan would be in the band was barely a surprise, and more of a welcome addition. Not to discredit the rest of the musicianship of the band, but anything Will touches turns to gold. He is one of the most hard-working people in the genre, at one point being in three bands at the same time he was running a record label. One would think this would lead to neglecting one band or another, but he regularly records and tours with each band, sometimes playing twice a night for Sianvar and Dance Gavin Dance (and soon to play in Royal Coda and DGD on the upcoming spring tour). Swan is natural in Royal Coda; there are moments in this record that never took place in their first album. For example, the breakdown in “All in Question” is a melodic romp, and a departure from the dreamy environment established by the tranquil backdrop of guitars and soft percussion used throughout the song. The riff in the intro of “Becoming the Memory” is vintage Swan, with a meticulous minor-key run that is pleasant to the ears and is familiar territory for long-time Swancore listeners. Compassion‘s tendency to go from frenetic to relaxed is a treat, and creates an unpredictability factor for first-time listeners.
While Will’s work on the record stands out, the rest of the act deserves their due diligence. Kurt shines bright, as he employs vocal techniques in this album that I have never heard from him before. This is evident in him reaching a low octave in the track “Don’t Stay Long”, as well as his aggressiveness in most of the choruses on the album. The rest of the instrumentation complements the act, with a compelling rhythm melody from Sergio in every song, as well as drumming that rounds it out with notable performances in the chorus of “Numbing Agent” and the verse of “Arms Race for God’s Grace”. Bassist Steffen Gotsch recently replaced Jason Ellis, the bassist on Happiness and Royal Coda, and does a bang-up job considering he’s much newer to the genre than his bandmates.
From: https://phenixxgaming.com/2019/11/18/royal-coda-compassion-review/

Smashing Pumpkins - Tonight, Tonight

 #Smashing Pumpkins #Billy Corgan #alternative rock #progressive rock #heavy metal #gothic rock #psychedelia #dream pop #electronica #1990s #animated music video

The fourth single from their sprawling double decker dreamscape, Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, “Tonight, Tonight” is epic in scope, driven by Billy Corgan’s urgently romantic lyrics, Jimmy Chamberlain’s speed-freak drumroll, and a thirty piece string section pulled from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Being only the second track on the album, it marked a drastic change for the Pumpkins, whose first two discs, Gish and Siamese Dream, although stellar, were more rooted in distortion, solos, and shoegaze. “Tonight, Tonight” was a cornerstone of the band’s expansion, showing off all of Corgan’s newfound, diverse musical tendencies.
And to think its enchanting music video almost never came to be. Directed by the husband-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (who went on to helm Little Miss Sunshine), the original concept was a Busby Berkeley-esque musical, characterized by blankly smiling women in bathing caps performing elaborate swimming patterns and acrobatics. But when the Red Hot Chili Peppers released a nearly identical video for “Aeroplane”, Dayton and Faris had to revisit the drawing board.  After abandoning a third concept involving audience P.O.V., they decided to pay homage to another classic filmmaker, French visionary Georges Melies, and his milestone silent sci-fi film, 1902’s A Trip To The Moon. Most famous for its iconic image of a bullet-shaped rocket ship plunging into the eye of the Man On The Moon, A Trip To The Moon tells the story of a group of astronomers on a lunar voyage. Once on the giant rock, they encounter several insectoid extra terrestrials who capture them for unknown reasons. Luckily for our heroes, they discover that they can destroy the creatures by hitting them with blunt force, using their umbrellas to explode them. They eventually escape and plunge into the sea, thankfully rescued by an ocean steamer.
Although watching the revolutionary film nowadays is a cinematic treat, one can’t help but wish the details were more vivid. Filmmaking was still in its primitive stages, and its surreal nature is often bogged down by the cloudy cinematography. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a masterpiece, but the video for “Tonight, Tonight” brought it to a more fully realized form, bringing all the black and white dreariness into technicolor tints mixed with sepia. Most of the actors remain aesthetically drab while the environment around them glows with fluorescent beauty and a colored cardboard, children’s theatre aesthetic, making for a piece of art that looks fittingly archaic but wonderfully hallucinatory at the same time. It manages to capture the album artwork of Mellon Collie, something that was an inspiration for the directors as it “looked like a silent movie.”
The video follows the same basic skeleton of a storyline. However there are slight artistic changes: the astronomers are replaced with two young lovers (played by SpongeBob Squarepants voice actors Tom Kenny and Jill Talley), the rocketship is substituted with a steampunk blimp, and the humanoid stars are traded in for the Pumpkins themselves, decked out in Victorian evening wear and classical instruments. But the point of the video isn’t accuracy. It isn’t a remake. It simply uses the images and concept of the original film as a springboard for the Pumpkins’ more romantic form of storytelling. During each of the song’s sunbursting string crescendoes, we see the young couple persevere in some shape or form, the most emotional one being when they break free of the ropes that the aliens have used to ensnare them. The fight that ensues isn’t a triumph of scientific achievement as in the original film, but a triumph of our heroes’ relationship.
With the Pumpkins’ combination of both baroque and adolescent rock ‘n roll yearning swirling around you, it’s hard not to get a little teary eyed watching the young couple stick together, even if it is against a horde of extra terrestrials. The fact that Kenny and Talley were married in real life (and still are to this day) only three years before the video was made makes it all the more romantically compelling. As in the original film, they escape to the ocean, only here, they meet a merman who wards off a predatory fish. The merman enlists the help of his mermaid friends and a large octopus to put on an underwater show for the young couple before sending them to the surface in a gigantic bubble.
From: https://consequence.net/2008/11/ridiculously-awesome-music-videos-the-pumpkins-tonight-tonight/ 

Formed in 1988, The Smashing Pumpkins are an alternative rock band from the Windy City consisting of singer/songwriter/dictator Billy Corgan and usually three or four other band members. Corgan is the songwriter, lead vocalist and the only member who's been present throughout the band's entire lifespan. The band is known for a number of things: angsty lyrics, heavy guitars, dense production, epic scope (perhaps best displayed by the music video for "Tonight, Tonight"), and Corgan's nasal singing voice. While their sound began life as hard/alternative rock with experimental influences, they've also worked with elements from grunge, folk, electronica, shoegaze, and gothic rock.  From: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/TheSmashingPumpkins

Atlas Volt - Dreamweaver of the Dreamscape

 #Atlas Volt #avant-garde #alternative rock #progressive rock #indie rock #post-metal #art rock #eclectic #surrealism #animated music video #stop motion #Jan Svankmajer 

Philippe Longchamps and Adam Hansen-Chambers met in Malmo, Sweden in 2012. After discovering that they shared a similar taste in music, as well as shared political and philosophical ideas, they started working together on a music project named Atlas Volt. Both Adam and Philippe already had music they were working on individually, so they exchanged ideas with each other and while capitalizing on their new creative chemistry, they collaborated to make what was to become their first release: Atlas Volt’s debut EP “Eventualities.” The EP featured 5 tracks ranging from indie pop and prog rock, to post-metal and alternative rock. The very fact that Atlas Volt exists is a real “tour de force” since Adam and Philippe rarely meet in person. Adam lived in Sweden for four years before moving back to England in 2012, while Philippe still lives and works as a teacher in Sweden, since he moved there from Canada in 2002. Adam and Philippe meet on special occasions in Malmo or London in order to write, record and produce their songs. Because of the distance separating them, they complete everything else by sharing audio files over the Internet. Furthermore, Adam and Philippe completed their latest record while working full-time and completing studies in their respective countries. Atlas Volt is proud to be a virtual band.  From: https://atlasvolt.com/about-us