Soft Moon - Circles

SF FTW! This song and video are awesome.

Baths - Lovely Bloodflow

Everybody should make at least one video like this.

Little Scream - The Lamb

She kind of looks like a kooky soccer mom.

Legião Urbana - Tempo Perdido

This is a great song. This guy was heavily influenced by the good post-punk of the late 70s. He was one of the earliest AIDS casualties in Brazil. Click the close caption (cc) button for a line-by-line translation.

Memory Tapes - Yes I Know

Memory Tapes "Yes I Know" from Najork on Vimeo.

Gil Scott Heron - Me and the Devil

NYC FTW! I love how they are able to make NYC look so foreboding.

Edith Piaf - La Foule

I imagine she acted like a whiny brat and smelled like booze poured into an ashtray, but there is no denying that she is amazing.

Arcade Fire covering Guns of Brixton

The Coathangers - Hurricane

Awesome!

Yelawolf

Salem - Sick

Karaoke Beasts 7: Mindless Self Indulgent - Bring the Pain

This is a Method Man cover, of course, but it rocks. I imagine it would bring the house down if anyone ever had it on a karaoke system.

Karaoke Beasts 6: Nine Inch Nails - Wish

I first saw this when I was 15. It blew me away. It still does. Trent is kind of a whiner, but god damn this song is insane.

Karaoke Beasts 5: Sex Machineguns - Aijin 28

Sex Machineguns (セックスマシンガンズ in Japanese) are a visual kei / thrash band. If you can sing this, you should.

Karaoke Beasts 4: Queen - Stone Cold Crazy

This is an absolutely amazing video. Queen is off the chain. Even with a dead singer, they are cooler than most other bands alive. If you can sing this, you are a rock star. Period.

Karaoke Beasts 3: Busta Rhymes - Don't Touch Me

I wish the music had the same intensity as the vocal delivery, but it is still an amazing jam.

Karaoke Beasts 2: Judas Priest - Painkiller

This is incredibly hard to sing, but totally worth it. The energy and the tempo are insane!

Karaoke Beasts 1: Rhinoserose - Cubicle

A karaoke beast is a crazy, energetic song that would blow away an audience when you get it right. It should have a ridiculous amount of energy, crazy lyrics, something.

The Bronx: They Will Kill Us All (Without Mercy)

They aren't really from the Bronx. I think they are from Oakland, but this video is LA. So, Kansas is from Kansas; Boston from Boston; but the Bronx is from Oakland. Got it. It's like a big fuck off to arena rock. Oh, and they are all white. They just hired the black guy to lip synch.

Brazilian Pop: Ana Carolina

This is an awesome song. It is a little slower and happier than what I usually like, but it is worth the exception :). Apparently, it is a translation and re-interpretation of a Damien Rice song.

Florence and the Machine

Florence and the Machine are huge these days, but this is an awesome video. Her voice reminds me a lot of Johnette Napolitano, the lead singer of Concrete Blonde.

Esben and the Witch

I am not sure why they keep walking off camera to fight. I am also not sure why bill gates is hanging out with Jennifer Garner and some hippie, but at least they sing a cool song.

Meth Teeth - Unemployment Forever

Since I am on the theme of noisy roots-based stuff today, I should add this little gem.

O' Death - Lowtide

I wonder if anyone sells masks like these on Etsy. Could be a business opportunity there.

The Word (The Dwarves - Motherfucker)

This is a classic

This is one good reason why Sonic Youth is one of the best bands ever.

Exhibit A

Awesome R&B: How to Dress Well

This guy (HTDW) is incredibly prolific. This video sounds like crap, but there are much better versions of the song available, like the one below.

How To Dress Well - "Ready For The World" by OctopusWindmill

Suuns - Pie IX

I guess I missed Pi day, but here is my late entry. Amazing video, amazing song. I have to catch these guys live.

The Magick Theme

Wild Beasts - All the King's Men
There have been several cool songs coming from the indie rock world that use visual and lyrical imagery straight from Crowley and Hermetic tradition. Here are a few of my favorites.

This one starts out slow and tame, but gets pretty odd near the end. It isn't as dark as some of the others, but more introspective.

The Klaxons - Magick
This one is directly based on Crowley's writing. It is a cool electronic interpretation.

Apparently these limey douchebags don't like having their video embedded...

!!! - Must Be the Moon
What starts out as a hipster house party soon devolves into some sort of ritual with knives, chalices, and sexual frustration. The un-idealized Crowley :)

Old School: Shriekback - Nemesis
This is a great video from an underrated band.This was 1985, so you have to forgive the melodramatic poses pointing offscreen. This was during Madonna's Material Girl tour, 13 years before she dyed her hair black and hired Chris Cunningham to turn her into a flock of crows.

Cocorosie - Lemonade

I love the way the music shifts back and forth from the foreboding piano pieces to the faux-forties sound. The video reminds me of something from the Gormenghast stories too, which is awesome.

Kuduro

Welcome to Angola! Kuduro is originally Angolan, but some of the pop twats in the Latin music world (yeah you, Don Omar) are trying to get famous with it too. My Portuguese isn't good enough to get more than a few words here and there, but I am going to guess that it is pretty filthy. Comboio means train. I don't know if they mean the fact that it sounds like a moving train, or if they mean something like running a train, or if it has some special Angolan Portuguese meaning. I guess they could also be the president of the model train society of Luanda (headquartered here).

Motohiko Odani

I saw this guy's work on my friend Jesse's blog. It is amazing!

The Kids These Days: OFWGKTA

These guys are creative as hell! This whole OFWGKTA (Odd Family Wolf Gang Kill Them All, I think) clique just has a whole new take on rap. I would like it better if they could have walked away from the sexist mess, but what can you say when a 17 year old kid comes up with a line like: "Earl put the ass in assassin, and puts the pieces of the decomposed bodies in plastic"

These guys produce their own beats, write their own music, shoot their own videos, and did all of their own marketing until a few months ago.

This is the kind of stuff they have done since:

Old School - The Locust: Twenty-Three Lubed-Up Schitzophrenics with Delusions of Granduer

This fan video rocks! Of course The Locust already sounds like two starving alley cats and one fish carcass in a blender, if you hooked it up to a guitar amp. Mix that with Fraggle Rock and you have a video to remember.

O Children: Dead Disco Dancer

I love this! This is about the best bit of goth cheese since the Cramps!

Marina and the Diamonds - Obsessions (oOoOO Remix)

Marina & The Diamonds - Obsessions (oOoOO Remix)

This is an amazing remix: far better than the original song.

Fever Ray

These are two of the most amazing videos ever. The imagery is fantastic! That said, I am torn about Fever Ray's music, just like with The Knife (the previous band of the singer, Karin Andersson). I just can't tell if I am listening to an amazing band, or if Dracula has me trapped in Castlevania in 1986. I think when they run out of creative ideas, they turn to low-fi computer kitsch. Check out their other songs (from either project) if you don't believe me.

SALEM - King Night (Fan Video)

I love this! It fits the music perfectly. This has been one of my favorite songs lately, and the video kind of sums it all up.

Introduction

I would like to improve my writing skills and engage a little more with friends and acquaintances spread all over the world. This is my little kingdom of music, design, the future, and anything else I think is worth talking about.

If it gets more fun, I will invite some guest authors and turn it into a regular salon (in the French sense), or maybe just a saloon :)