Music

6 awesome past and present videos you might’ve missed, with Dog Day, Magik Markers and more

by Jesse Locke

Living on Video is a weekly column that unearths forgotten VHS gems, Vimeo obscurities, and YouTube oddities from the musical ether—all obsessively curated by Weird Canada music editor Jesse Locke.

This week’s picks can mostly be gripped from the new release rack, but you can blame it on the onslaught of great records angling for inclusion on year-end lists. From the blitzkrieg barrage of Strange Attractor and the Soupcans, to Magik Markers’ sideways sprawl, and the dreamy slacker-rock of Dog Day’s upcoming LP, there’s a lot to cram in before 2013 comes to a close. Each of these releases feature a music video or two (or three), so check out these selections below.

 

Dog Day – A Preview Of Fade Out

Halifax’s Dog Day are an East Coast institution. The proof’s in the pudding with the amount of times I’ve seen this video shared by Maritime friends in the last few days, and it’s got me pretty psyched for their upcoming album too. As the mastermind behind the head-trip horror flick Lowlife, Dog Day’s Seth Smith is no stranger to surrealism, and this montage includes everything from spooky masks to a sinister chicken to an in-guitar POV. With any luck, we’ll get separate videos for every song on the album like my old friend Goo.

 

Strange Attractor – “Real Dark Place”

Sudbury’s Strange Attractor dropped a bomb this week with Back To The Cruel World, one of the year’s most badass albums. (ED: The LP also made AUX’s top 10 this month.) They’ve already delivered a few spacey and shit-talking clips, but “Real Dark Place” is my personal fave, with creepy cutouts of the band bouncing around like a punk rock Terrance and Philip.

 

The Soupcans – “I Don’t Wanna Be A Soupcan”

This week also saw the release of the Soups’ latest offering, the Parasite Brain 7-inch EP. In their words, it’s “six more tunes about mental problems, dental hygiene, futuristic dystopias and altered consciousnesses.” To my ears, it’s 10 more minutes of pure pigfuck. No video for this one yet, but I’ll take any excuse to share the stop-motion clip for their eponymous anthem (filmed at London, ON’s late, great Hot Dog Records).

 

Magik Markers – “Mirrorless”

Speaking of stop-motion, here’s another masterpiece from thee almighty Magik Markers. Yeah, I shared the first video from their latest album, Surrender to the Fantasy, a few columns back, but I can do what I want! This one finds the trio in sweet ‘n’ lowdown slow-jam mode, as heard on previous songs like “Empty Bottles”, and set against a zine-style collage of tarot cards, smoking ghosts and Spuds MacKenzie, the original party animal.

 

Jozef Van Wissem and Jim Jarmusch – “Etimasia”

Switching gears, here’s a stunning new video from director Jim Jarmusch and lute player Jozef Van Wissem. If you’re worried that it might sound like Sting’s recent trips to the ren faire, don’t fret. This comes a lot closer to the soundtrack of The Limits of Control, with Sunn O)))-style scorch offset with delicate plucks. For my money, this duo beats the other director-turned-musician released by Sacred Bones.

 

Ostrich Tuning – “Floor”

Ending things off an equally cinematic note, this video from Toronto dreamweavers Ostrich Tuning is a real thing of beauty. Layering an unreleased version of their song over scenes from the 1972 arthouse classic La cicatrice intérieure results in some serious sound/vision hypnosis. As you may have noted, the film stars Nico and the band take their name from a tuning technique of the late Lou Reed, so it all comes full circle.