Although it does have to be said that there is a fairly major difference between Bill Bailey and the subject of this blog. Namely that B.B. is a classically trained musician, skilled in the use of various instruments. Beardyman, on the other hand is, on the whole, his own instrument.

With the exception of a keyboard, Beardyman is a beatboxer par excellance, using electronic trickery to loop, combine and warp his vocal acrobatics. Not only that, but he’s also possessed of a fine, dry wit.

Take a look at this film, although be warned on two counts: First, it’s long. At just a minute or so under an hour, yer best advised to set this up in a window of its own while it loads. Secondly, he – and the audience – are Scottish. Hence, much of what’s said may not be clear – apart from the frequent f-bombs…
So yeah.. NSFW, methinks.

Many thanks to Stuart fer finding this one. I think I’ll be subscribing to this guy’s Youtube channel.

I posted the latest OK Go clip the other day (internal link!). You’re probably a little tired of their slick-as-fu…hell videos, but try and think back to their very first clip…
“A Million Ways” had the guys dancing/mucking about in the back garden. Thought up, choreographed and produced by themselves, it was fun, but about as slick and smooth as a teenager’s face.

Getting back to that level, may I present to ye a couple of guys going by the name of French Horn Rebellion. I know, I know; the name’s a bit WTF, but bear in mind that they can’t be what yer thinking if they’re supporting Hot Chip on tour.*
Listening to their music, it’s almost as if the 1970s were disco’d-up by white kids with computers. Insistent beats and a great guitar/vocal line work well, and they do like the synth…
Take a look and enjoy yerself if Hot Chip and MGMT are your thing.
Oh… btw… major WTF alert…

Heh – gotta love the creepy fanboy.
Cheers to Matty fer pointing these guys out.

*Having said that, one of them is an accomplished French horn player…

Heath Robinson fer the Brits, Rube Goldberg fer the Americans – it’s all kinetic art where massively complex (yet entertaining) machines are created to carry out the simplest of tasks by a series of physical reactions. Of course, the better class of machine also has chemical and electro-magnetic elements too…

OK Go. You know them (ye should do – Chris posted about them a couple of weeks back). You may even like their music. I like it a lot, but it’s in danger of being swamped by the glorious nature of their videos.
You just cannot beat this clip though…

Thanks to Jules fer bringing it to my attention.

A fun, informative motion graphic piece about our home away from reality.

by Jess3

The Average user watches 182 videos online a month? Oh man, no wonder why I am single. I am such an overachiever.

I’ll be honest, I was only going to post an excellent clip of an excellent tune (from an admittedly patchy album, sadly).
When I first chance upon the collective known as The Imagined Village, I thought it was a great idea; folk music did need updating in the general subconscious and mashing together refreshed classic folk lyrics with dub beats flicked all my switches: see ‘Tam Lyn Retold‘ fer a superb example – having beat poet Bejamin Zephaniah ’sing’ it was utterly inspired.
Here, however, is ‘Space Girl’ from their latest album, ‘Empire and Love’.

Now, the thing with Youtube is you have the opportunity to look at what they refer to as ‘related videos’. It’s a loose definition, I think…

I know Chris posted this before, but I think it was my turn to make folks’ eyes bleed, so here it is again.

If yer of a certain age, then there is no way you don’t know The Knack’s ‘My Sharona’. Just to make sure of a wider audience, it was also used in the more recent film Reality Bites.

Sadly, Doug Fieger, lead singer and songwriter for the band, died on Sunday following a long battle with cancer.
With that in mind, I thought I’d post a clip from their back catalogue as a tribute. You know what, it turns out they were pretty obsessed with sex: The lyrics of My Sharona were fairly transparent, but then you also have tracks like ‘Baby Talks Dirty’, ‘Good Girls Don’t’ and the following offering, ‘Frustrated’.

I’m actually a little surprised they weren’t all blind by the time they reached 30…
Read more about Doug’s illness HERE.

This could be a tricky one fer many folks, as it deals with a touchy subject: death. The matter of keeping terminally ill patients alive against their will has been in the press for quite a while now (at least, it has in Britain), a fact predominantly down to the Discworld author Terry Pratchett.
As you probably know, the great man has a form of Alzheimer’s and has been lobbying strongly for the right to die with dignity. As you would expect from the man who includes Death as a compassionate character in pretty much everything he writes.

With that in mind, here’s another Oscar nominee I’ve discovered: The Lady And The Reaper.