Just sayin', again

If you listen to the beginnings of these three songs by Type O Negative, Siouxsie & The Banshees and Lykke Li, you might notice something. 30 seconds of each is enough, I promise.







And while you're at it, you might also want to check out the previous case of just sayin': [link].

EDIT: Oops. I've just been informed by Youtube that the video Green Fingers I've uploaded isn't available in the following countries because it contains material from UMG:

Afghanistan, Aland Islands, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antarctica, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Bouvet Island, Brazil, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Congo - Democratic Republic of, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, French Southern Territories, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Holy See (Vatican City State), Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Micronesia - Federated States of, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norfolk Island, North Korea, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Pitcairn, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Reunion, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, United States Minor Outlying Islands, United States Virgin Islands, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Wallis and Futuna, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

The kind folks at Youtube have also given me this following advice:
"No action is required on your part. Your video is still available everywhere not listed above."

So yay, if you're in Mars I believe you should see the video just fine!

For the rest of you out there: buy the original Siouxsie album A Kiss In The Dreamhouse. It's a great album and definitely worth it. Plus it's probably the only way to hear the original track with the cool intro. Unless you're in Mars, of course.

Dave Grohl - godlike and genius or an idiot?

Godlike and genius, if you ask NME. Grohl will pick up the honour in NME's award ceremony later this spring but seems to have somewhat mixed feelings about it since he considers himself rather an idiot most of the time:



Although I agree Grohl's an excellent musician I have a sneaking suspicion that NME was going to give the award to Lemmy Kilmister but some teen-aged trainee of theirs e-mailed Grohl's management by mistake. After all, both seem to share the same taste when it comes to facial hair which could be a bit misleading. See what I mean?

Photo by Wes Orshonski

I'm happy for Dave anyway and since he seems to be a cheeky monkey I'm sure he'll use every opportunity he gets to make fun of it.

Luckily Grohl's got loads of more interesting things coming to his way in 2011 than the NME Award. For instance, he will appear in the new Muppets movie which I find way more wicked than the NME Award. Naturally, Grohl will be filling in for Animal, who's forced to undergo anger management counseling.

But most importantly, there will be a new Foo Fighters record. Not much has been reported of it yet but as they say, good things come to those who wait.

Best of 2010 - kind of, or not

Once again it's that time of the year when every music mag and blog out there seems to be listing their favourite albums, singles, videos and what-nots of the year. I fell for it recently myself too, a couple of posts ago when I called Alain Johannes' "Spark" one of the best albums in 2010. But it is kinda silly to compare records to one another only because they were released in the same year, isn't it? Besides those lists always ignore the fact people discover old music all the time, too, and it's just as important as finding new artists.

So, instead of making a traditional top 10, I decided to make a different list. It consists of artists who've been around but which I discovered or fell in love with in 2010. To spice it up I decided to add another criteria: they all had to have strange video material available online. So here's my top 5 of the wackiest videos by artists/bands I've discovered in 2010.

Alex Harvey
I kept bumping into his name constantly this year (his songs have been covered by Nick Cave, Gemma Ray and Recoil, for instance), finally decided to check out his albums and haven't stopped smirking since. Here the crazy Scotsman doing his thing on stage back in the 70's. In this footage Alex uses beer as hair gel, stuffs stockings into his cheeks and enjoyes the goofed-up faces of the Norwegian audience.



Captain Beefheart
Another case of finally checking out someone I'd constantly heard being referenced to. After listening to Beefheart fairly intensely for about 9 months now I'm convinced he was a mad genius and it truly was heart-breaking and slightly eerie as well to hear about Don Van Vliet's passing - only a few weeks after I'd written a blog text about him and his legacy. Here's one of Captain Beefheart's last musical efforts, a video that was apparently banned from MTV for "being too weird".



Charlotte Gainsbourg
It's hardly surprising that the daughter of Serge Gainsbourg is kinda eccentric, yet very chic. I can't remember why I started listening to her albums but once I did, I got stuck. Charlotte rocks, here with Beck and a group of people engaged in the weirdest activities.



Creature With The Atom Brain
Top quality psychedelia band, hailing from Belgium. This video always makes me slightly nauseous but I love the track. It's trippy and hypnotic.



Archie Bronson Outfit
I have no idea how to decribe this band because their sound is such an eclectic mix of various styles and influences. Not sure what this video is about either. To be a disco dancer or a deep sea diver, that is the question, apparently.

In 1967, Hendrix had 10 fans in Stockholm

You can count them too if you like.

Treehouses are dangerous

Joan Baez fell down from a treehouse! And no, this is not a joke. Rolling Stone reported the unfortunate incident and who am I to question the almighty Rolling Stone. Apparently Baez is still a hippy girl at heart and likes to spend her nights in a treehouse. However, Rolling Stone doesn't give any reason as to why she had now had fell down. As usual, my imagination got ahead of me and hey,  let's face it: how likely is it for such an experienced treehugger to fall down from a treehouse? So, being the weirdo that I am I got to thinking that maybe there's something sinister behind this. Perhaps something like this:

This wonderful picture is from John Kenn's blog, http://johnkenn.blogspot.com/. He draws monsters on post-it notes! Isn't that the coolest idea ever?

PS. Please note that the term treehugger with used here with utmost respect.