One thing I love about the demise of the major record labels and the explosion of indy releases over the last decade is that just when I think I’m caught up on things, I run across some bizarre pop treasure that leads me on the YouTube equivalent of Wikiphilia. You know, when some quirky video or song by some under-recognized artist leads to discovering an entire new world, i.e., the world of bands with 307 video views. This happened the other day when someone sent me a link to the creepy but clever Sexy Results video (NSFW, if breasts with mouths aren’t safe where you work) by Death From Above 1979. Although Die Antwoord’s Yolandi Vi$$er had eyes for nipples in the video for Evil Boy , and Lady Gaga had zippers in Born This Way, that Death From Above “mouths for nipples” video pre-dates both by more than a year. So they have that going for them. But what they also have going for them is a fairly unique sound that’s surprisingly full, in spite of basically being driven only by a heavily-effected bass, drums, and vocals. The band’s playlist is hard to sort out since they seem to mix various projects’ material when performing live, but comparisons to Daft Punk are inevitable in the case of material from their project MSTRKRFT. Though frankly, I find DFA and MSTRKRFT’s tunes in possession of the soul that a lot of Daft Punk’s material seems to lack. And the DFA material itself is a little harder to categorize, since it meanders from tunes that sound like a more martial, less poppy White Stripes to almost sounding like early Wire. Death From Above 1979 is apparently reuniting this year after a 2006 breakup, so it will be interesting to see what they put together. Although they were touring much of this year, there has been no news of a new release, and unless you’re in Brazil on December 3, you’re not likely to catch them live any time soon. But what you CAN do in the meantime is check out the extensive back-catalogs of their various members’ projects. That’s how I discovered the slightly Daft Punky MSTRKRFT, as well as the quirkily charming Girlsareshort, whose CD Earlynorthamerican has fun tunes like the title track and Ex Degenerate (those are both YouTube links). More vids below.
Death From Above 1979′s Sexy Results is NSFW, if breasts with mouths aren’t safe where you work:
MSTRKRFT’s Easy Love video is in the same vein of non-erotic erotica:
This is probably the best fan video ever made. By Jaque Fisher, for DFA’s “Turn It Out”
Death From Above 1979′s “Black History Month” almost sounds like old Wire
Death from above’s mouths as nipples pre-date Yolandi Vi$$er and Lady Gaga by about a couple of years:
One thing I love about the demise of the major record labels and the explosion of indy releases over the last decade is that just when I think I’m caught up on things, I run across some bizarre pop treasure that leads me on the YouTube equivalent of Wikiphilia. You know, when some quirky video or song by some under-recognized artist leads to discovering an entire new world, i.e., the world of bands with 307 video views. This happened the other day when someone sent me a link to the creepy but clever Sexy Results video (NSFW, if breasts with mouths aren’t safe where you work) by Death From Above 1979. Although Die Antwoord’s Yolandi Vi$$er had eyes for nipples in the video for Evil Boy
