Day 435 – This was nice

I made a mistake the other evening. Right before I went to sleep, I read a bit of Reddit. Nothing hugely unusual in that, except for one of the last posts I saw there, which did me no good whatsoever.

Here’s the featured video therein:

(sorry – not sure why it’s SOOO BIIGG)

Now, I don’t scare easily, but the end of this little video weirdly took me back to a recurring nightmare I had in my childhood. This might seem a bit weird, but then dreams are weird, aren’t they? The unpleasant dream in question (and I can see it very clearly in my mind’s eye, right now), featured large, slow-moving humans and (ok, here comes the weird bit) Liverpool Cathedral.

I know that many kids have nightmare experiences with the Catholic church, but, for the purists out there, it’s the Anglican Cathedral I’m talking about. This one:

The eye-popping Liverpool Cathedral design that never happened - Liverpool  Echo

Magnificent*. And a bit scary to me as a child.

The end of the video above wasn’t enough to scare me per se, but it was enough to induce some very disturbing memories of having my Liverpool Cathedral nightmare – but not the actual nightmare itself.

There’s scope for some very deep psychoanalytic research here, but I think the alternative – just continuing with my life as if the big face at the end of the video wasn’t actually there and Liverpool Cathedral was never anything more to me than a place where people went to sing and pray on a Sunday morning – is probably easier to do and a whole lot easier to deal with.

Anyway… sweet dreams.

* annoying, distracting building on the horizon on the right. I would have done something about that
(in the photo or in post, not like with TNT or anything).

Everything Else Has Gone Wrong

Not another lament on the current state of South Africa.

No, the latest single (and title track of the new album) from London band Bombay Bicycle Club:

Interesting single take video featuring the speedy demise of lead singer Jack Steadman.

Apparently, music is our only salvation. But I’m not going to try to analyse the deeper meanings hidden in here; I just like the track.

 

Go find it – and a lot of other great stuff – on my Inspired By 6 Spotify playlist.

Everything now!

Gosh. I’m very demanding, aren’t I?

But no, this is the new Arcade Fire song. So:
Gosh. They’re very demanding, aren’t they?

Included here, because:
a) It’s a catchy, fun, poppy song with some piano involvement, and
b) Part (most) of the video was shot just up the road in deepest, hottest South Africa.

It’s the title track from their forthcoming album, which is out next week.
I’m quite looking forward to it.

Other international bands with videos filmed in South Africa and which we have featured include:

Coldplay’s Paradise
Kasabian’s Fire
Snow Patrol’s The Planets Bend Between Us, and
Passenger’s Setting Suns

New Muse Song!

There’s new stuff from Muse? So why would I blog anything else today?

It’s called Dig Down, and the video is – once again – set in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic, digital world full of cyborgs and flickering monitors.

Remember Madness from their last album? Well, this is basically exactly the same song. The trouser-wobbling electronic bass is there, the Queen-esque theatrical guitars and vocals are there, Matt Bellamy’s imploring voice soaring over the lot of it. Not much progression here, to be honest.

Hmm. Jury’s out.

Kingdom of Rust

Stuff would rust here in Cape Town if it ever got wet.
Which it doesn’t.

Herewith the video for Doves Kingdom of Rust:

A bit of Wild West, a hint of country, a touch of folk all topped off with plenty of Indie. They were Kasabian before Kasabian were Kasabian.

I heard this on the radio yesterday morning and had to share it. I didn’t realise quite how poignant the video was, but… well.. it is. Looking or waiting for some confirmation that some of it was filmed close to Sheffield, although that doesn’t fit with the M6/Blackpool narrative.

Great song.