mr smyth at christmas

There's not much to say really, other than we did have to twist his arm a little after the last time... but he's always game to parody himself, the political situation, and in this case, Christmas messages. ("Parody"... hmmm. But I have to write that in case his boss is reading.) That, and the original - with "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas" over the start - got pulled immediately from d'Tube. So congrats to them for their apparently now automated detection.



For more on the GSFTW Campaign, click to the facebook Page.

Well done, sir.

the drums, the drums...

Whilst numbed of mind and lacking any motivation, I've stumbled across some I lost the link for in April (and despite my best googling efforts, I couldn't recall.) Jimmy Eat World's twitter gave us Ron Winter's Electro Drum Kit and I'm posting it here merely so that (a) you too can have this much fun, and (b) it's saved in as many places as possible.

Enjoy!

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Shoeboxes and Stripes

The videos from a week ago are starting to make their way up to t'interwebs, and can be found over on their own Vimeo channel, loosely entitled "Shoeboxes and Stripes". If you've no idea what I'm referring to (and you may not, and that's fine!) then head that way to check out some great wee tunes; don't let the one-camera capture put you off some fantastic (and award winning) musicians. If you are familiar with it all, or even were there, then I hope the stuff put up over the next few weeks will go some way to faithfully record the stories and songs shared - all feedback appreciated.

Anyway, in the meantime, here's my favourite so far.

Shoeboxes and Stripes - Part 11 - Pete MacDonald - Yellow Raincoat from Peter Huey on Vimeo.

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low rising

Good week for music videos I guess; on the downside, it contains 100% less people from Bangor than the previous post. However, on the upside, I can't remember seeing a non-performance Frames/Swell Season video (if we disregard everything lifted straight from Once since 'People Get Ready' - which seems a lifetime ago. Good to see them back in action; is there something wistful in their ultimate embrace? Or do we just want there to be? (Or do we still even care...)



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movements

For a couple of years, it seems like half the country has been waiting with baited breath to see what would become of Rend Collective Experiment. There's never been any doubting the talents involved; as a teen I was in in awe of Gareth Gilk's drumming, for example (and made a right arse of myself the first time this came out when we were supporting Numinous back in the bad old (read: MNC) days!) There was just too much quality shining out of the first two ORGANic Family Hymnal EPs. (In fact, for two years consecutively we somehow managed to get them to keep donating their wares to the church 21 promo videos. Add to the fact that they're some of the nicest folks in the industry, and it meant there was basically automatic euphoria whenever the news came out last year that they had finally been snapped up by a label. And not just any label, but Survivor Records, best known as one leg of the behemoth that is Kingsway Music. (Kingsway has many legs; if it were a minibeast, it would probably be a short centipede. But anyway.

The album seems epic already; take, for example, the revamp of original Rend track "Faithful". How to make it a full-throated reworking? A genius bit of inter-label management and the pulling in of a guy who's sure to shift a few thousand copies: Mr David Crowder (check it out on their myspace.) You'll remember that we love the Crowder around here so much that we think nothing of insulting his whole band to their megastar faces. So that call works for us.

Anyway, all this is merely a HUGE build-up to the highlighting of their first biggish budget video for (the single?) "Movements" off the new record (released in the New Year, which is, I believe, quite soon.) The pretty colours. HD loves well turned out girls and boys, eh?



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