E-A-T that B-E-A-T

Playdoe - Pop Like This

South African electro-dance rap, super old school style, definitely worth checking out.

BANNED FROM YOUTUBE!

Flying Lotus - Dance Floor Dale

Directed by Eric Wareheim of Tim and Eric fame, this has to be one of the weirdest, most disgusting music videos I've ever seen. I can't get enough of it!

BUFFALO SOULJA

Nenah Cherry - Buffalo Stance

So I've been sick and stuck in bed for almost a week now (worst timing ever, I know) and have had a lot of time on my hands and not quite enough brain capacity to study, so my attention turned to youtube. Luckily, I found this lil gem.

What do they say? Every Rose has its Thorn? Every cloud has a silver lining? A penny saved is a penny earned? I can't remember, I'm still delirious.

HOUSE SHOW

This dude played at my house the other night, and here is a video of it that I filmed on my camera phone. DISFRUTALO

ITS IN MY FACE

OMC - How Bizarre

Probably the only Maori fronted band in the history of popular music.

THE LUVS OF MY LYFE

Kill and Eat - I've Seen Glory (Ypsilanti, MI)


Kill and Eat - I've Seen Glory (Brooklyn, NY)

http://www.killandeat.com/

SARA KRAZY CHYLD

Tyrannosaurus Rex - Sara Crazy Child (1967)

IM HIGH AS A MOTHERFUCKER RIGHT NOW, MANG

Yellow Magic Orchestra - Tong Poo (Live 1979)

This song sounds sooooo much better slowed down.

COMPUTER GAME

Yellow Magic Orchestra - Computer Game "Theme from The Circus"

POSE POSE POSE

Daddy Yankee - Pose

Daddy Yankee may be one of the biggest musicians in the world right now, and deservedly so. When I was in Capulalpam, a town in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico this past summer, I met a Zapotec boy who was wearing a Daddy Yankee T-shirt. Everywhere I went in Oaxaca city, I heard Impacto. This track is the single from the recently released soundtrack from "Talento De Barrio," a movie that Daddy Yankee stars in. Unfortunately the film isn't showing anywhere in Indiana, so I'll have to wait until its out on DVD to catch it, but it looks pretty intense.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/talentodebarrio/

FADE TO GREY

Visage - Fade to Grey

So much of this whole 80's revival fashion bullshit is just wrong. I've always been attracted to the aesthetic of early 80s synth rock. The creepy, emotionless vocals, the atmospheric, airy synth lines... it all just gives me one massive musical hard-on. Fuck my favorite song when I was a kid was "Dance Hall Days" by Wang Chung. To see the 80s dragged through the hipster mud like what's going on now just makes me shed a single glittery, mauve tear.

DAMNATION

Bird Names - Damnation (Live at South Union Arts, Chicago)

I had the pleasure to play a show with these guys the other night and they did some things with their guitars and keyboard and drums that tickled my insides just the right way. I picked up a few of their albums and they may be even better than the live performance was. If you love mutated, lo-fi pop rock, check out their newest album Open Relationship, it'll BLOW YA MYND!

WE HOOD WE VOTIN AND THROWIN IT UP

TI$A - Imma Vote Obama Way

The only foreseeable downside to Barack Obama winning the election is that there won't be any more awesome campaign music videos like this.

This video is pretty fun as well. Por los hispanohablantes:

FAC 321

New Order - Perfect Kiss

In a time where music videos were becoming more and more elaborate and ridiculous, New Order decide to skip all of the bullshit and release the best performance video I think I've ever seen.

VOLLMAR

Vollmar - Live at the Cinemat (8/11/08)

I'm a big fan of the local music scene in Bloomington, where I live. I catch as many performances as I can, in the past week I managed to make it to five shows! Justin Vollmar is definitely one of my favorite musicians in town. I think the darkness and focusing problems in this video really add a sort of ethereal quality to this performance that just fits so well with this video. The speculation is that this song is on Justin's new album (I haven't heard it yet,) which is supposedly amazing.

YOU CAN BE MY LONG LOST PAL

Paul Simon - You Can Call Me Al

There was a week or two when I was a senior in high school where I thought Graceland was the most amazing recording ever made.

THE ULTIMATE DISCOVERY

Orchestral Manoeuvres in The Dark - Electricity

piss

THE LITTLE SPARROW

Edith Piaf - La Vie En Rose

Listening to Edith Piaf makes me want to stop studying Spanish and move to France.

SATURDAY ITS SATURDAY

De La Soul - Roller Skating Jam (feat. Q-Tip)

Some videos just catch the mood of the song perfectly. This video really manages to represent the fun, care-free nature of "Roller Skating Jam".

Its an interesting foil to the classic hip hop party video. Take "Gin and Juice" for example. Replace the lowriders with roller skates and you've got this De La Soul video.

ARTHUR BROWN - THE GODFATHER OF BLACK METAL

Arthur Brown - Fire (1968)

Without Arthur Brown there would have been no Alice Cooper and therefore no KISS, no Misfits, no Slipknot, and most importantly, no Black Metal. Funny how little corpse paint has changed in 40 years.



Anyway, Arthur Brown was extremely cool. Unfortunately the music doesn't really reflect his bizarre stage persona too much.


Arthur Brown - Nightmare (1968)

What a cool dude.

I CRAWLED UP YR BUTT SOMEHOW

Limp Bizkit - Boiler

This is the most out of control, big budget, mess of a music video I've ever seen. There are explosions, girls that throw up grenades, animated sequences, hamburgers made of worms, hot alien babes, random car accidents, and painted dudes crawling on the walls. Fred Durst directed all of Limp Bizkit's music videos. I have to wonder if when he handed in this idea, the guy who was going to pay for this laughed in his face or not. Is this Mr. Durst's attempt at being "artistic"? If so, I believe he certainly achieved his goal.

Highlights: Fred Durst jumping through a glass door, animated Fred Durst giving the finger to a bunch of midgets, Wes Borland's head falling off for no reason, Fred Durst.

YOU'RE JUST STONED

Geneva Jacuzzi - Love Caboose

I'm in love with Geneva Jacuzzi.

Here's another reason why:


Bubonic Plague - Blood

ARAB ON RADAR

Arab On Radar - Live In Louisville (2002)

I remember when I heard Arab On Radar for the first time, when I was in High School. I had never heard anything like it. At the time I was probably fifteen years old and first becoming interested in "weird" music. I was sifting through the threeoneg records back catalog and heard these guys. Compared to the Locust and the Blood Brothers and other "crazy" bands I was in to at the time, these guys were on a whole different level of weird. It took me a while to "get" these guys, but the payoff was worth it.

This band has stuck with me for a few years now and I keep coming back and listening to "Soak The Saddle" and getting my brain melted. I have to say they, more than any of the other bands I listened to in high school, really showed me that it was possible to take something like punk rock and twist it and shape it until it was something almost entirely different. They showed me what it's like to truly innovate within a genre of music. I never got to see them unfortunately, I was a little to young and a little too late. They broke up some time in 2002, a year before I was introduced to them. Threeoneg records thankfully has just release a dvd about the band "Sunshine for Shady People" I'll probably try to pick up a copy soon.

I DREAM OF PEDRINI

Clay Pedrini - New Dream

This guy is fuckin' elusive, I haven't really been able to track any of his recordings down. If you like italo disco, mustaches and awkward dance moves, this video is for you.

If you have any information regarding Clay Pedrini or his whereabouts, please contact us. Our telephone lines are open 24 hours a day.

I AM THE KING

The Birthday Party - Junkyard Live on Gotterdamerung (1982)

...and you thought Marvin Gaye made sexy musics, DAMN

MY LOVELY ELIZABETH

S.E. Rogie - My Lovely Elizabeth

SO, I decided to stay focused on African music for another post.

S.E. Rogie, was a Palm Wine guitarist from Sierra Leone in West Africa. Palm Wine music, native to Western Africa is heavily influenced by Calypso. It is named after the fermented palm oil drink that the guitarists would drink when they would play together.

This is a pretty heavy performance. The guitar playing is absolutely beautiful. The vocal performance is equally stunning, Rogie's voice is very expressive and his delivery really helps to tell the story behind this song. It seems like while playing this song, he experiences the events he recounts in the introduction all over again. Rogie wrote and sang in four languages. I can't tell what language he is singing in for this performance, but that section of the song impresses me the most. I really love S.E. Rogie, Its a shame recordings of his music are so hard to come by.

BEST MUSIC EVER

I know nothing about these videos. I don't know who the performer is, I don't know what style of music this is. I don't speak Arabic, so I can't really search for any more information. All I know is that the performance in these videos completely blows my mind.

The keyboard player is a very engaging performer. At times he plays the keyboard more like a drum than a key instrument. The melodies are repetitive and almost trance-like. Occasionally there is a little bouncy keyboard part that jumps in at times and its absolutely perfect. I'm not sure if the vocals are run through effects or if it is just the echo from the PA, but the singing in the first video is spacey and delayed. It almost sounds like a transmission from another planet.

The whole crowd dynamic is also really fascinating. There really is no barrier between audience and performer. In the second video, you can hear people in the audience singing along with the keyboardist. They effectively become part of the band. This type of relationship to the audience is something we in the United States aren't very accustomed to. Call and response vocals are typical to many types of African music performances. It isn't unusual to hear performers and the audience trade off lines all the time.


This sharply dressed keyboardist plays like a coked out, Sudanese Stevie Wonder. Incredible.

I wish the shows I went to here in the US were half this energetic.

DADDY KEWL

Boney M - Daddy Cool.

Man, I can't decide where to start with this one. Boney M are a German disco group that became pretty popular in the early 70s. I'm going to guess it had something to do with their album art.
The dancing in this video is absolutely manic. I've never seen anything like it. Also, I've heard women fake orgasms in songs before but I've never seen it done live. The effect is quite... unsettling. The song is quite catchy. The lyrics are simple weird, but definitely infectious as far as E.S.L. lyrics go. Its a fun song. I wish more musicians made music like this today. Not necessarily disco pop songs, but songs that are meant to be fun. GOOD songs that, although vapid, are a little weird, well written, fun and make you wanna shake your culo.

Uh, they have a myspace, too?
http://www.myspace.com/boneyboney

TO PARTER

I love the Butthole Surfers.



Butthole Surfers were notorious for two things; their energetic, chaotic live show and the copious amounts of psychedelic drugs they ingested. This 1984 performance on a New York city public access station successfully showcases the band's acid drenched, manic performance style. The music is surprisingly coherent, despite Gibby and Paul both clearly being completely out of it. Paul's facial expressions are the highlight of this performance for me. His mannerisms remind me of a rabid animal lurching around or a hobo trying to dance at the peak of a six month long binge.







Butthole Surfers - Live on the Scott and Gary Show

After this performance, the band is interviewed by Scott (of the Scott and Gary Show,) but its hardly an interview at all. Paul repeatedly gets up, goes to his guitar, plays a note, sets it down and then returns to his seat next to Scott, putting his arm around him affectionately while the whole time, Gibby is slowly but surely disrobing. This "interview" really sums up the Butthole Surfers' unparalleled depravity. These guys (and girl) were making truly unique music in a truly unique manner in the early and mid 80s. Unfortunately, like all train wrecks, the rubble is eventually cleared away and the spectacle dissapates. Everyone knows the 1996 hit single "Pepper," it doesn't hold a candle to the unbridled creative insanity that the band exhibited in the early-mid 1980s.

Addendum: Eyeball Studies does not support or condone drug use.

BATMAN KISSES A SEAL

Kiss From a Rose by Seal

I don't know who the guy was that decided that Batman Forever needed a heartfelt ballad for a theme song, but dear lord, I hope he got a promotion. I guess during the 90s it was a trend for big blockbuster movies to have a hit song associated with them. If we look back there are a few glaring examples, Will Smith's dance video for Men in Black, Aerosmith and Armageddon, Puff Daddy butchering Led Zeppelin in Godzilla, Celine Dion's vomit inducing song for Titanic, you get the picture.

Now, I was pretty young when Batman Forever was released, but I distinctly remember listening to this song on the radio with my parents and telling them that it was my favorite song. What was it about this song that made me adore it so much as a child? Probably the same things that keep me coming back to this video today! Could the appeal lie in Seal in all his ebony, mysterious glory singing in front of the bat signal? Maybe its the juxtaposition of Seal's austere, emotive delivery and clips from Joel Schumacher's giant shit-stain on the Batman franchise. Maybe I'm just attracted to Seal, who knows.

OBEY YAHWEH

This is one of the most bizarre and most mysterious video clips I have ever come across. It also happens to be my favorite. The only information known about this woman is her name: Reverend Alicia. This has been blogged about plenty of times before, its a pretty popular video but I just want to step back and take a look at this one more time from a different perspective. Let's try to figure out what exactly is going on here.

Clearly this video has some sort of religious motivation, but who is the audience? What is the purpose of this quirky, psychedelic song and dance (if you can even call it a dance) number. Is Reverend Alicia trying to proselytize on a public access TV channel? Is this some type of televised church service? Where did this video even come from initially? It appears to be ripped from a slightly warped VHS tape, but who was the first person to upload this video to the internet? Is there anyone out there who can reveal the TRUTH behind this song and Reverend Alicia? The video seems to get more confusing and frustrating the more you think about it. Maybe this clip is one of those things that we are just not meant to understand at all. Maybe we should just OBEY and TRUST Yahweh and not ask so many questions.

BLOGPOST

I decided to start a blog today. While I was on my way to work this morning, I started thinking about youtube and all of the strange, bizarre, unexplained and out-of-context videos that people have uploaded over the past few years. I've recently found myself wasting far too much time sifting through these weird videos and enjoying myself far too much. I decided that it may make my weird video obsession less of a waste of time if I shared these videos with other people.

SO HERE'S THE CONCEPT:

For each post, I'm going to embed ONE music video from youtube and then post a paragraph or so about why I find it to be so intriguing. The videos may be WEIRD, they may be AWESOME or they may just be so terrible they're irrestible, the only criteria is that they be fascinating in some way or another. If you come across something that you think I may enjoy, send it my way. Hopefully this blog will work two ways. PEACE.