2010 in Music - Visual

Normally, I don't see many music videos. I've never had a TV with music channels (I don't have a TV at all these days), and I tend to listen to music when drawing / painting / reading / sleeping. So a visual element would be wasted on me.

However, the internet has changed all that. I still haven't really gone out of my way to search for any videos, but a few have made themselves known to me. I'll explain how as I go along, I suppose.

Be warned though, this is a very mixed bag of serious and stupid videos, both of which appeal to me. Trying to organise them into a sort of "top ten" isn't easy... but I'll give it a shot! Well, it became a top twelve during the writing process, but I can pretend it's deliberate... one for each month? Regardless, feast your eyes and ears:

12. Dressed In Wires - Let The World Be Wary.

I can't put this any higher, cos all the footage is nicked. But it works well with the track, suitably weird and dark. I had to include some DiW somewhere.

11. Kunt And The Gang - Use My Arsehole As A Cunt (The Nick Clegg Story)

I forgot to mention this fella in my live round-up, but I spent the whole gig grinning from ear to ear at the crude level of humour. This variation of Use My Arsehole... has a political edge, and got to number 66 in the UK singles chart at Christmas. Bravo Kunt!

10. Holy Fuck - Red Lights

OK so I've only just seen this, and will probably think it's very silly when I look back on this post, but I did thoroughly enjoy it on the first watch. I haven't even bought this album yet.

9. Triptykon - Shatter

If you ignore all the metal video clichés here, and just enjoy the long shadows and general grimness, I think it's quite good. I may well be biased due to how much I've been enjoying Triptykon this year. I didn't see this video until they were added to the Bloodstock 2011 line-up though. Tom G. Warrior looks a bit like the Emperor off of Star Wars here. Or the Pope.

8. We Are Knuckle Dragger - Explanations With Connotations

This video is all about smug faces. You'll see what I mean. It's also the best use of Penshaw Monument since it's original purpose as an altar of ritualistic goat sacrifice*. I saw this video as I've been keeping an eye on whatever these chaps do, just because I like their noises. I even went to a Halloween music video shoot for their next single Tom Ryder. The resulting film features my housemate Mark dressed as a Thwmop from Mario.

7. Dextro - Momentary

A simple idea, well executed. You can see a lot of time has been spent recording a lot of footage, then combined in the most visually appealing way. This was also my favourite track from 2009's Winded (which topped my end of year album list), so it's good to see a suitably hypnotic visual representation of it. There's also an excellent video for Ring Cycle from the same album (and a 12" released this year), but as I mentioned, this track is my favourite.

6. Mountains Became Machines - The Screening

I've just had to expand my list to make room for this gem I'd almost forgotten about (it seems older than it actually is to me, as I've listened to this single loads)! I like how the presentation of an old documentary or infomercial about television becomes quite sinister and imposing with the musical accompaniment, but still almost triumphant with the addition of vocals near the end of the track. It's a real shame these guys called it quits this year!

5. The Moscow Coup Attempt - The Travelers

Another prime example of a great visual representation of a piece of music. However, TMCA deliberately creates work in this manner, having made soundtrack pieces in the past. This album was released as a DVD, a full audio visual experience as opposed to an album with videos added later. But this track stands out to me, both musically and in film format.

4. That Fucking Tank - Mr Blood

I can't post a link to this as the première was only held last night. But it was a really professional and suitably bizarre piece of film. I'll update this when it's been added to Youtube.

3. Blockhead - The Music Scene

I can't say I'm a huge fan of Blockhead, and after picking up this album (promo copy, £1) I still only really like this track. Even then, it's probably because of how blown away I was by the video. Superb trippy animation and a great concept for a film piece (I enjoyed the comments by Youtube users, trying to figure out what was going on). It was really tough deciding if this should be higher in the list!

2. Amon Tobin - Esther's

This is more like a short film than a music video to me. The level of quality is astounding, and the idea is really cool. Amon Tobin's glitchy music has always featured robotic style album artwork, and it's great to see a full video to go with the theme. This must have taken ages, which you can tell not only by how great the video is, but the fact that this track was originally released in 2007. The video was released as part of the Ninja Tune 20th anniversary celebrations this year, much like the Blockhead one. This one just stole the glory for me as I'm a big Amon Tobin fan, and seeing this inspired me to have a good old back-catalogue binge. I do think the doorbell should ring at the end of the video though.

1. Grinderman - Heathen Child

The daftest, most ridiculous thing I've seen all year. Nick Cave and co. dressed as giant romans, firing lasers out of their eyes.

So there you have it. Did I miss any other treats this year?

*This may not be 100% true.

2010 in Music - Live

2010 has been a bloody good year for music, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve crossed some big names off my “to see” list, but added just as many to it by exploring new releases. No change there then. Before I attempt to go on about records, some live highlights this year have included:

Roadburn Festival, Tilburg, The Netherlands in April. Holy shit. This was the best collection of bands in one weekend I have ever known. Dream Of An Opium Eater, Goatsnake, Altar of Plagues, Triptykon, Yob, Enslaved, Thorr’s Hammer, Moss, Garcia Plays Kyuss, Nachtmystium, Church of Misery, Jarboe and of course our local doom heroes Bong. So many intense performances in such a short space of time. Incredible. Tickets for Roadburn 2011 have been purchased.

Mono & Glissando, The Brudenell Social Club, Leeds in March. The atmosphere was beyond words here. A sold out gig, remaining in complete silence for the two band performances. Both of which were incredibly stirring and powerful in their delicate sound construction.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor at the Barrowlands, Glasgow in December. My first venture to the Barrowlands, but definitely not my last. Godspeed played for a whopping 2 and a half hours, without any breaks. Background visuals were enthralling but not distracting, the sound was controlled and powerful as required. Purely mind-blowing.

King Creosote at Henry Boons Yard Bar, Wakefield in April. It’s not often that anyone good comes to my hometown. Henry Boons isn’t really a venue either. So I knew this was going to be something special. I’ve been a fan of KC since I saw him support and out-perform Arab Strap many years ago in Newcastle, and I’ve seen him a couple of times between then and this gig. But this was only my second time seeing him play solo. His skilful acoustic guitar and accordion playing fits perfectly with his beautiful and/or comedic song writing. Another lengthy set with a beer break in the middle, very good value for money. Decent sized crowd, and people knew all the words… unexpected!

Vessels, Quack Quack & Juffage at The Library, Leeds in January. Vessels are one of my favourite bands, and this gig was also my introduction to the incredible Juffage, who I have now seen a load of times and I even had him play a gig in Sunderland. As well as great sets from all the acts playing, there was a four-way drum battle between the two drummers from Quack Quack and the two drummers from Vessels, which was intense and bloody noisy! Also, I got wrecked with Tom Khuda, who can’t handle his booze.

Gold Panda at The Cut, Newcastle in November. You can’t beat going to see a musician and ending up drinking from the rider, having awesome banter with all the bands and just feeling very welcome around the people you’ve paid to go and see. It makes it all worth it.

That Fucking Tank. Four times in various places. The New Wave Of New Wave Of British Heavy Metal is a new song they’ve been blasting out, and I’m hooked to the point of chasing them down whenever possible. Not that I wasn’t already fanatical about them.

Taint and Manatees at Trillians, Newcastle in August. This almost didn’t happen. I’m so fucking glad I got in touch with the bands to make sure it did do though, and holy shit it was worth it. Manatees always blow my head off, they make exactly the sort of noises I want to hear. Taint played incredibly well too, and it sadly turned out to be their last tour.

Gentlemans Pistols and Trippy Wicked & The Cosmic Children of the Knight at The Borough, Sunderland in October. I helped to get this one sorted, and it was a roaring success. Trippy Wicked were excellent as ever, and I was blown away by Gentlemans Pistols who I hadn’t seen previously.

Scott Kelly at Trillians, Newcastle in December. Powerful vocals and song writing, slow guitar playing, intense silent atmosphere. Perfect.

Alcest at Damnation festival, Leeds in November. You had to be there.

Black Mountain and Wolf People at TJ’s Woodhouse Club, Leeds in September. Heavy psychedelic blues rock masters Black Mountain delivered exactly what I wanted to hear, at a suitably ridiculous volume. Wolf People were a late addition to the bill but were the ideal warm up.

Part Chimp at The British Wildlife Festival, The Brudenell in Leeds. My ears are still bleeding.

Throughout the year I also soaked up a load of performances by Lafaro, We Are Knuckle Dragger, Khuda, Alright The Captain, Future of The Left, Humanfly, These Monsters, Maybeshewill, The Pattern Theory, Dextro, Kong, worriedaboutsatan, and countless others.

I’ve spent over 90 days or evenings at musical events this year, so I could continue with this for quite a while, but I’ll round it off now.

It’s also been absolutely incredible to go on tour as a merch monkey for Wodensthrone, and be able to see some amazing performances by Wolves In The Throne Room, A Forest of Stars, The Axis of Perdition, Haar, Cloaca, and of course Wodensthrone themselves. All whilst getting messed up on Dr Thunder and having a bloody good time. …and we met The Hairy Bikers at Watford Gap services.

I wonder who I’ll see in 2011...