Music

6 indie videos you might have missed

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 selections are another mixed bag of coast-to-coast jangle-pop, experimental errata, and the stoner rock apocalypse from the prairies’ black hole Sunn O))). Without further ado…

 

The Courtneys – “Lost Boys”

The glampires in the Courtneys give a shout out to the Two Coreys on this awesome homage to the 1987 occult classic. Director Rose Gagnon and camera man Andrew Volk follow the Vancouver trio on some tricky shots of carnival swing rides before ending up at the best bloodsucker dance party since the opening of Blade.

 

Shooting Guns – “No Fans”

VHS visuals are quickly becoming an overused music video trope, but Saskatoon’s heaviest doom-psych posse annihilate the clichés on this eight-minute monster. Framed by a fake public access news report from the Crystal Ball Hour, the Guns blaze through an FX-laden in-studio performance of the earth-scorching closer from their 2013 LP, Brotherhood of the Ram.

 

Malaikat dan Singa – “I Feel The Quickening”

In recent years, K Records staple Arrington de Dionyso has switched his focus from Old Time Relijun to a new outfit dubbed Malaikat dan Singa. Beginning as a vehicle for the musical territories discovered during his travels of Indonesia, it has since become a catchall for the shamanic Beefheart/Sun City Girls stew synonymous with his name. This animated head-trip soundtracks a wriggling cut from last year’s overlooked Open The Crown.

 

Average Times – “Wasted On Wine”

Ottawa’s Average Times are also getting the 12-inch treatment with an upcoming co-release from Hosehead Records and the Canuck-punk lovers at Germany’s P-Trash. The video for “Wasted On Wine” mixes cranked-up live footage with images from Pac Man and Double Dragon, plus close-ups of the band’s toothy grins that’ll make you feel like you were in the front row.

 

Holly Herndon – “Chorus”

The sweetest love affair between a human and a laptop since Her comes courtesy of electronic pop futurist Holly Herndon. Using the all-too familiar sounds and visions of her daily browsing habits as source material, video artist Akihiko Taniguchi transforms Herndon’s workstation into a swirling wormhole

.

Freelove Fenner – “Lash + Brow”

Continuing with the arthouse-style shorts for their latest collection of painstaking pop songs, Montreal’s Freelove Fenner have now delivered a triptych. “Lash+ Brow” is the first of three videos from шпионаже на пустоте (Surveilling The Void), starring Fixture Records / Brave Radar honcho Tessa Smith as a blasé KGB spy with too much time to kill. Watch the other two parts over at Chart Attack.