Nosing around Youtube this last week there’s been a few new videos of note popping up – in particular, Eels‘ latest, ‘Little Bird’. Taken from the new LP End Times (due in Jan, following hot on the heels of this year’s El Hombre Loco), it’s a glorious track of quiet and desparate sadness. The video’s a one-shot affair of E sitting on his porch – I have never wanted a porch so badly in my entire life.
Eels – ‘Little Bird’
Mumford & Sons – ‘Winter Winds’
Elsewhere, Mumford & Sons have put up the (hey, topical!) video for ‘Winter Winds’. Mumford & Sons are one of those bands for me that I really like, but in kind of a peripheral way. If it was a subject at school, I’d get told Must Do Better. Anyway, this track’s been all over the radio, and they seem to be getting a bit more traction, so fingers crossed it all keeps going in the right direction.
The Cribs – ‘We Share The Same Skies’
The Cribs seem to have the succession to Ash’s crown all sewn up these days, with their exuberant pop still fuzzy enough to recall a misspent youth, but getting more and more crafted as they start to get on a bit. The work with Johnny Marr’s clearly been a BIG influence (durrr – also, if you were in a band and Marr told you to do something different, would you say no?), but it’s still a quality product they’ve lashed together from essentially two very different places. This is the new single off of Ignore The Ignorant, and a bit of a pleasure it is too.
Hadouken – ‘Turn The Lights Out’
More enjoyably daft electro-metal nonsense from Hadouken. Let’s face it, you know what this is going to sound like without me pointing out the bleeding obvious, so I won’t dwell on it. I do, however, know a fair few people who absolutely despise Hadouken, but I can never really understand why. Sure, they’re basically Senser, and ok, it’s the Prodigy for people who don’t like computer music, but they’re so full of digital snot and bleepy chutzpah, it seems a little mean-hearted to beat them up just for that. I’ll never buy a record, but I’ll applaud their spirit, every time.
Animal Collective – ‘In The Flowers’
I’ve always been slightly meh about Animal Collective, if only because I’ve already got the Flaming Lips and I don’t need an even druggier version, ta. This is a good ‘un though, all ambient washing machine noise until halfway through when it goes fucking ballistic for a bit, before having a little sit down for the last part. You’ve got to be a truly committed Enemy of The Pop to really like this band though, let’s be honest.