Super video for “Squeeze Me” from the brilliantly named Dutch act Kraak & Smaak. Found at Swiss Miss.

Keith Richards is a legend. He may be less than coherent as a result of years of “recreation” but what he says is still pretty interesting to anyone into music and rock ’n’ roll culture. Louis Vuitton have realised this and included a piece about him in their “Journeys” project, a series of travel themed films and photo essays featuring icons such as Richards, Mikhail Gorbechev and Catherine Deneuve.

The piece is a good watch with film-maker Annie Lebowitz making the most of her less than “focussed” interviewee through good edits and handycam style footage of Richards’ London. The real reason I’m talking about this here, though, is that this is a great example of branded content. Many of the musicians in our industry are interesting people with great tales to tell. With physical music sales declining and digital yet to catch up, artists are having to look at other ways to make money. Brands like Louis Vuitton benefit immeasurably from “aligning” themselves with characters such as Keith Richards. Pieces like this don’t tend to ram the brand down the user’s throat but instead focus on the content, so the deal’s not too bad for the punter either. I reckon we can expect to see more of this type of brand “enabled” music content in the future.

If you haven't seen this by now you’ve obviously discovered the Lost City Of Atlantis, snapped up a bargain two bed flat and are still waiting for the underwater telco to hook up your broadband.

I’m posting it anyway because it’s brilliant. The ten years of internet “memes” featured in this three and a bit minute vid, such as Daft Hands, Chocolate Rain, Diet Coke & Mentos etc. represent a notoriously difficult thing to harness for the purposes of marketing. The brilliant thing about this video is that it does just that, and ruins it for everyone else in the process. The very fact that the video’s director (Mathew Cullen of Motion Theory) managed to get all these crazies to take part is a herculean feat in itself. Nearly 5 million views in a week says it all – hats off and wish I’d thought of it myself.

Pogo (Nick Bertke) has made an EP of tracks which are 90% constructed from samples of Disney’s Alice In Wonderland. Check the video above – this really is remix culture at it's most brilliant.

Discovered at BySoAndSo

Tom Waits puts his phenomenal bullshitting skills to work, promoting his latest tour with this hilarious fake press conference. This is a great example of clever, cost effective online promotion. The artist’s popularity and personality combine to create a piece of content which is more effective than anything most marketing types would typically create. For more info and a full list of dates, check out the original article at Wired Listening Post.

I'm eagerly awaiting the release of Portishead’s “Third”, an album which has been a long time coming.



The limited edition box set looks pretty sweet too. For £40.00 you get a usb stick shaped like the band's logo, a double vinyl album, an etched vinyl 12" of the frightening Machine Gun single and a limited edition print by Nick Uff.

The box set looks enticing but unfortunately there’s very little info on the band’s shop about what you get. I've no idea who Nick Uff is (turns out with a little research that he's an animator), and no info is given about the 5 “films” which come loaded on the USB drive.

The band have obviously put a lot of effort into the production of the box set, which looks beautiful, but at £40 a pop they need to try harder with their online shop.

If you can't wait three weeks to hear the album you can catch an exclusive preview on Current TV at 10pm GMT tomorrow evening. I’ll be tuning in for sure.

Great video for Goldfrapp’s “Happiness” by Colonel Blimp. I also urge you to read the copy on their biog page. Best analogy ever.

Video originally picked up at the CR Blog.

The 80s–tastic “Video Killed The Radio Star” by Buggles.

Great motion graphics in this video for DVNO by french electro types Justice.

I had intended to write a post about interactive music videos – but guess what? There are hardly any. In fact I managed to find around five, of which “Black Mirror” by Arcade Fire was the clear winner. This and Rektor's Princess (2003) were the only ones which kept me engaged throughout the length of the track. Arcade Fire's other contribution to the world's smallest genre had a certain charm but ultimately became very dull very fast.

While searching through a thread of comments on Digg I found this quote from a user called “bitcloud”:

“I'm pretty sure there's a reason the rift between interactive and passive media exists - too passive to be interesting, and too active to be passive...”

Is this true or have we just not cracked the interactive music promo yet?

Once upon a time, if you were working for the British Antarctic Survey you'd be pretty isolated from the rest of the world. Now we have the interweb, you can create a piece of eerily appropriate music to your setting, (largely based on objects you found lying around the place) and upload it for all the world to hear and see. Now that's progress.

Picked up at Listening Post.

Genius video for the 2008 remix of Utah Saints’ Something Good. Expect to see the running man on a dancefloor near you from this weekend onwards.

A funny and well made guide to the art of Sleevefacing TM. Found at Word Magazine.