Get What You Need.

It's Friday afternoon. Why not get yourself geared up for the weekend with a music video.

OK Go are at it again. Their videos are always worth a watch but this one really stands out due to the amount of work that must have gone into it. In a change of pace, the video is actually a live performance. In a car, hurtling through a stretch of Californian desert, with none of the band holding an instrument. Instead, the car is doing all the playing.

It's probably best if you just watch it:

Yep, they've done it again.

Have a nice weekend!

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 23!

Crikey, it's Christmas Eve Eve! How exciting.

Remember the flying robots that built a shed from earlier in the month? I think they may have noticed me geting a bit histrionic about their eventual takeover of the planet so they've teamed up to show us their lighter side.

So here we have a scanner and a robotic arm playing the Christmas classic 'Little Drummer Boy' for our enjoyment. Enjoy it, but don't let your guard down, for god's sake.



See you tomorrow for the last vidvent treat!

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 3!

In a hurry today so not much of a preamble. This video uses one of the oldest tricks in the internet book. Take footage of one thing and add the soundtrack of something else. In this case, a grainy old video of some dudes doing the Charleston dance set to the music of Daft Punk.

Simple, yet brilliant. Watch.

I'm Appealing.

Hello, this post may trigger a feeling of deja vu for you long-time plinx visitors.
Remember when I asked you to help Thomas Truax get his album released? Well guess what? He's at it again!



If none of this is ringing any bells, all you need to know is that Truax tours the country with a boot full of instruments he invented himself playing truly compelling songs. I've met him a couple of times and he's a thoroughly nice chap. In fact last time I saw him live he played the birthday song for me on that instrument you see in the picture above (it's called the Hornicator. Oh yes.) But yeah, he has a new album and needs all of our help.

This one is a concept album of sorts, a 12 track opus that is being written and recorded one track a month with each track referencing the month it was recorded in! Still with me? Good.

So this album is due for release in January but ONLY IF enough people pledge to buy it. Otherwise it won't be released and the world will be a worse place as a result. That may sound hyperbolic but I honestly think that what ol' TT is doing is important. He makes music unlike anything else that exists. Like last time, the album is part of a PledgeMusic drive which means you have several pledging options. If you just want an electronic copy of the album, it'll only set you back a measly £6 but you can opt to pay a little bit more to get some funky extras. Check out the page HERE.

I've put together a short Spotify playlist to give you a few reasons to get behind this musical endeavour. So Check It Out. (If you don't have spotify; firstly, what's wrong with you, go download it now and secondly, you can find a lot of his tracks on youtube.)

Anyway, stop reading this and go and change the course of music history if you wouldn't mind! Don't dilly-dally too much, there's only 12 days to go before it's too late.

Thanks, you won't regret this.

On The 21st Day Of PlinXmas!

So, it's the shortest day of the year. It's already completely dark outside but at least we can rely on it getting brighter from now on.



Today, you should spend some time watching the Christmas special of Edd Egg, which is an excellent webtoon by my pal Edd. Also, the end credits music is by my other pal/dangerous lunatic 'Baldmonkey'

It's called Mistletoe and Mine and could be referred to as 'loosely topical'.

Why did Frosty go to live in the middle of the ocean?

Because snow man is an island!

On The 2nd Day Of PlinXmas!

Hello again, hope you're enjoying the snow if you have any.



Today's lesson is that this year, it doesn't have to be a Christmas-themed link to make it into the advent calendar, but rest assured it DOES have to be great.

Do you happen to remember when I linked to a song called 'Cup Of Brown Joy' by a Professor Elemental? Hit the link there if you need your memory jogged.
Well it turns out he isn't the only purveyor of what has come to be known as 'chap-hop'. No, a new challenger has appeared. Enter... Mr. B, the Gentleman Rhymer:



Obviously, as with all walks of thug life, this can only be solved in one way. Rap battle! Here is Prof. Elemental's shot across the bow. He put on his Fighting Trousers! It can only escalate from here:



What do you call a cow in the snow?

An EskiMOO!

Shocking.

Hello. Another mini-update today. Our Internet returns tomorrow but that's the day I'm going to End Of The Road festival so this will be the last one until next week.

I went to see a band last night. I knew of them by reputation and was expecting something a bit unhinged, but they were even more batshit mental than I expected.

They're called Electric Eel Shock and are a 3-piece garage metal band from Japan.

This is what they're like live:



It's great fun and I urge you to try and catch them while they're on tour. Dates and other lunacy can be found on their Myspace Page.

This post is sponsored by my chronic tinnitus.

Latitude Festival 2010.

Hey!
So, that first line of the last post has been hanging there for too long now. Relentlessly prodding me in the ribs saying "I thought you were going to write about Latitude, you big, hairy, internet liar". It's super annoying because he has this really sneery unpleasant voice and bony fingers.

So I said ENOUGH!

Latitude Festival 2010 - A retrospective.



Yeah, it was great. It always is, of course. It's just a top-quality festival. If you've never been, you should go at your earliest convenience. This year was my 4th time in a row. As I said in my End Of The Road post last year, it may be due to me getting old, but I really appreciate a smaller, more relaxed festival with a greater variety of things to do. Seriously, while walking around, in addiction to the requisite bands you'd expect (more on them in a minute) I also saw multicoloured sheep, a travelling insect circus, ballerinas dancing on water, comedians being upstaged by a 10 year old in the front row, a short film about a talking dog and a bunch of weirdos dressed as various animals.



Ah yes, that was us. Yeah, someone had the idea of everybody bringing an animal costume. Now, thanks to my good friend Charlotte of Dinohoodie.com, I was already well equipped to be a bear. However we also had an Elephant, a Lion and a Tiger, a Wolf and oh yes... another BEAR! At first this surplus of bears lead to Strife but soon after we Joined Forces to better terrorise our fellow festival goers.

But enough animal tomfoolery, what of the bands?! Well, I'm glad you asked.

Amongst the ranks were the ones I knew I would enjoy: The National, Jim Jones Revue, The Kissaway Trail, Belle And Sebastian, Black Mountain. Then there were the ones I wanted to check out: The Horrors, Wild Beasts, Yeasayer, Richard Hawley, The Antlers. Lastly there were the ones I'd never heard of who turned out to be amazing: Grizzly Bear, Jónsi, Race Horses, John Grant.

Oh yeah, and then there was Tom Jones (or ToJo as all the cool kids call him):



Yeah.

So, I don't know how many of those videos you watched but I hope it was all of them because they're all fantastic. That was my weekend. It was amazing. Which is even more incredible since it started so badly on the first night. First, I got chocolate sauce dripped on my head, which made my hair all sticky. This made me sad. Observe:



Then, perhaps more alarmingly than my hair being soiled, I lost my wallet with all my cash for the weekend in it. Gutted doesn't even come close. But it is testament to Latitude that I still had such a great time and hey, I got my wallet back at the end of the festival. All the money was gone but at least I got my 51p coin and my finnish trivial pursuit card back! Oh and my credit cards and driver's license.

Oh, one last thing. I met someone who reads this blog who isn't doing so because I nag them! I have spread to the friends of friends layer. My meteoric rise to fame begins!

Anyway, that is my review of Latitude 2010. I strongly recommend you check it out for yourself next year.

This post is brought to you by boxed red wine. Lovely, lovely wine.



All the pics in this post were taken by Kat (elephant costume), by the by. Team Latitude '10 comprised her, Andy, Chris, Chris, Kelly, Steve and Me!

It's All Happening Now.

Hello, remember a while ago when I plinked about Thomas Truax's Album Launch Campaign? Well it worked! The album has been released and I have the warm glow of satisfaction that comes with making a tangible difference, albeit a small one. It's really good by the way, I advise you to get hold of it if you haven't already.

Anyway, now it's time for phase two. Here's the plan as laid out by the man himself:

"We're going to upload 'It's All Happening Now' to Youtube on TUESDAY,and we're hoping you'll watch it! We're also going to try and get all our friends, supporters, dogs, kittens, goldfish and, of course, zombies to go on youtube to watch it and comment on it and try to boost it into a 'most viewed' category on that day. With a little luck and some concentrated effort, we hope it will take flight and find a larger audience. Aside from my own selfish agenda, Keith and all the talented people he brought in for the project really deserve to get noticed. Loads of time and energy went into making this little film, and it was all done for love...(and, of course, BRAIIINNNNS!!!)"

If you're wondering about the 'brains' comment, it relates to the presence of zombies in the video. A while back, when it was being made there was an open casting call for people to be in the video dressed as a zombie and as much as I'd like to tell you I was there, I wasn't able to make it.

However, it's still a truly excellent video for a truly excellent song. Check it out, click on 'like', help me to help him. Again!



Thank you.

Full Moon Over Wowtown.

Hey there.
I know you're accustomed to me just heaping free entertainment in your laps every couple of days but today is different. Like with the Indie Love Bundle, today's episode of plinx calls on you to dig deep in those pockets. As always, however, I don't do this without good reason. Today is no exception.

Thomas Truax is a man who deserves to be on your radar. He is a songwriter, a performer and an inventor and he puts on a heck of a live show involving instruments that he has designed and built himself. His music sounds like nothing else and he is starting to see some success. It's impossible to capture the spirit of a live show in any useful form but there are some tracks on His Myspace and you can watch a video of Thomas introducing his 'band' of fantastical instruments right here:



Now, he has a new album that, to quote the man himself "sits smoking on the pad, ready for launch, yet sadly just short of the fuel it needs for a proper lift-off" and is asking for help from the music community. If you have any interest at all in the man or his music, you can take part in a program called 'pledgemusic' which allows fans to directly influence the release of the music they love, enabling them to be a part of the process and in this case, get rewarded for it!

Y'see, all you have to do is 'pledge' to buy the album (for 8 measly pounds!) and, should it get enough supporters to reach the amount required, you get the album. However, if you wish to help even more, you can pay slightly (or not so slightly, depending on your inclination) more and get a 'reward'. Anything from a signed limited edition poster, to a private gig in your house!

Anyway, I think this is a great idea and am very much looking forward to receiving my album and poster, as well as the feeling that I have played a part in the release of something amazing. If you want in, have a look at the pledge site Here.

Plinx Quickie.

While I'm here, I might as well pour a forty on the curb for my missed opportunity. I was planning to go to London tonight to see Ok Go. Sadly, circumstance dictates that I can't be there. So here's their latest video. It's typically overblown in the usual heart-warming way, but for me, it is bittersweet. However, it does feature a stealth woodwind section. Not something I get to say often.

Ok Go - This Too Shall Pass.

OK GO - WTF. TTFN.

Howdy. Not much to say this time. just want to report that the wonderful band OK Go have a new album coming out next year and have released the first single from it.

They seem to be making a habit of bringing out great music videos with each new single. Exhibit A. Exhibit B.

This time is no exception. The video for new single 'WTF' is the most visually interesting I have seen yet and is destined to be ripped off by a bank advert just like last time.

See for yourself: OK Go - WTF.

Max And Relax.

I've been to a beer festival today. As a result, I've got a mini headache and am in need of some soothing music and relaxing imagery. Shame I've got to go through the rigamarole of finding and plinking something for you guys. If only I could kill both birds with one stone. If only I was THAT DAMN GOOD at the internet.

Oh wait, I totally am.

Ever heard of Spanish band 'Labuat'? Yeah me neither, but this website will change all that. It's an interactive music video for one of their songs. Just move the mouse cursor around and enjoy the lovely, floaty results. Ahhhhhh. That's much better.

Labuat.

Hey You, Look Here!

If your eyes have alighted on this sentence, even for a second; Stop what you're doing and watch this.

Frankly, it's amazing. A collaborative effort featuring dozens of people and their webcams. It uses so many clever tricks, it'll make your head spin.

Ostensibly a music video, this is one of the greatest videos I have seen in ages. Enough blurb, just watch:


YouTube Link.

Bloody Hell.

Centre Folds.

Hello, I'm on my second late shift of the week and need cheering up. Or at least I did, until I watched this. It's a fan-made video for a song called 'Zak and Sara' by Ben Folds and it uses a technique called kinetic typography which is really simple in principle but can be super effective.

Hmm, i just wrote a paragraph explaining what it is but then realised there was really no need. You'll see for yourselves!


Youtube Link

Pretty sweet, huh? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Happy Happy Joy Joy.

Frankly, I would be failing to do my job as a link-finder if I didn't use this as the first one of the year. Stirring stuff!

What's in a Name?

Many of you will have a name that has at some point been immortalised in song. "Jolene", "Kevin Carter", "Black Betty", "Jeremy", "Annie, Let's Not Wait", "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?", "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine", "Making Plans for Nigel", "Molly's Chambers", "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"... I could go on and on. But I won't. The point is, there are no songs with Paul in them and I tend to moan about this occasionally. Well, today I got an email that shut me up. A scottish band called Attic Lights have named a song after me. And you. And you and you aaand Ba Ba Baaah! (ahem, sorry) But yes, it's true. They have songs with my name and yours*. Pretty cool, eh? Eh?!
Yes, of course it's an advertising gimmick. They really just have a song called Wendy and have recorded versions with lots of different names to try and sucker people in. Well guess what? It worked! I'm passing it on. Here!

*Possibly

Oh, and as a footnote. While writing this post I found out that there are several songs with my name in. Also, I had forgotten that there is an entire Beastie Boys album with my name in it. But shush, I'm trying to make a point here!

My Debut Album.

Yes, that's right. My debut album. Bit of a surprise, eh? I'd wager that most of you didn't even know I was in a band. Call yourselves friends? You should be ashamed. Makes me sick.
However! I should lay off the insults, I guess. Otherwise you'll be less inclined to buy my album and I may never achieve the levels of fame and fortune that I long for. So, my wonderful friends who I have always loved... without further ado, I give you: My Debut Album!



In stores now. Buy a copy. No, wait. Buy 2 copies!

...

I'm not fooling you, am I?
You all know I'm not in a band. I have no musical talent whatsoever and could kill small animals with my singing. So, what's with the album cover, man?

It's part of this forum thread Here. The rules are as follows:

Band Name: The first result of a 'Random Article Search' on Wikipedia.
Album Title: The last 4 words of the last quote on This Quotations Page.
Cover Art: The third result in Flickr's 'Last 7 Days' page.

Then, a bit of copying, pasting and editing in some expensive piece of artistic software like... MS Paint and you're done. Get to it and *puts hopelessly-optimistic hat on* show me what you get in the comments section!

Music3

How much attention have you been paying over the last 3 decades? It's probably more than you think. Especially where music is concerned. Largely because it is something that can't be ignored. Whatever you do, you are bound to hear some at some point in your day. Also, you pick up artist names, song and album titles etc without even realising it. But could you translate a bunch of picture clues representing artists, albums & songs from the 80s, 90s and 00s? Well, why not find out by playing Music Cube (the nerdy title of this post suddenly makes sense) and see how you get on.