Cooler

Sometimes I just don’t understand music videos. Rather, oftentimes I don’t understand music videos. This affliction is so consistent that I’ve almost entirely given up trying to understand them. Instead, I watch them, enjoy them, and move on.

Usually.

What throws me off is when a band passes up a cooler video in favor of… Another one. I’m not entirely sure about the chronology of these videos, but it seems that the band Grizzly Bear has done just that.

Grizzly Bear’s song “Two Weeks” is kind of their hit. It’s an awesome song, it’s catchy, it’s the whole deal. The band knows it’s their big song, too, because they made a video for it, and let’s face it: bands don’t make videos for b-sides. Here’s the official one:

Like usual for music videos, it’s cool, I guess. I don’t get it entirely, and it gets a little boring at the end, but hey, it’s not my video, right?

Artist Gabe Askew, however, has an alternative (as found courtesy of Mr. West):

Vodpod videos no longer available.

I can’t say I understand this one, either, but look at it! Whereas the official video makes do with a bit of CGI over some fairly static camerawork, Askew’s version is a craft-masterpiece. I don’t have to reiterate my love affair with cardboard and papercraft, and this obviously wins points there, but the creative drive behind it is almost overwhelming. Both videos crescendo in a similar fashion, but Askew’s completely swept me away, while the official video merely interested me.

Maybe I’m too picky, but maybe the band should have considered other options. Considering how cool their album artwork is, I think it would have fit right in with their style. Maybe next time.

I should really offer Grizzly Bear-themed mashups today… OK, sold.

This first track even incorporates “Two Weeks!” Lil’ Wayne is an interesting addition, however.

This second track has the same idea, but it uses Dead Prez. I have to say that I like this vocal track better.

The final track uses Grizzly Bear’s song “Knife” instead, against Ghostface Killa.

Three-Dee

As promised, I’m sharing the source of the header photo for my last post. I found this artist via Kanye’s blog, and couldn’t help but pass it along. I’m not entirely sure what she uses to make her pieces, but they’re all brilliant.

The artist’s name is Meredith Dittmar, and she has a portfolio of her work here. I particularly like her dioramas, like this one:

Particularly, I like how she uses the balance of vivid colors with the greyscale backgrounds. If I had the money, I would definitely buy one of these things to hang wherever I go.

In my US Experience class last week, my teacher (an art professor) gave us a big speech about how Americans don’t buy and hang original art. If anything, we’ll have a poster or a print, but never the original thing. I mentally protested, as we have quite a bit of original art hanging in my parents’ homes, but half of that is either my mothers work or my own. So maybe he has a point. Regardless, buying  original art has made it onto my list of things to do, when I’m rich.

Since I shared a whole album of mashups the other day, I’m going to leave you with this video, courtesy of A-Trak. If you haven’t heard of him, I’ll share something that I love dearly that he’s worked on, soon. That’s a bad sentence, I know. Anyway, here’s the video:

Enjoy!

The Cat Returns

The school year has resumed, so I’ve decided to resume the blog, as well. I thought about restarting this with some kind of look back into what I’ve been up to in the months that I’ve been away from this, but I decided that’s stupid. I do, after all, try to keep myself out of this process as much as possible. However, I can sum it up in a couple of words:

I was in the woods.

Good? Good. To start things off, I have a couple of stop-motion videos (found through Boingboing, of course) to restore the aesthetic that I like to explore:

I’m not going to write too much right now, since I have a job interview tomorrow morning, but a post wouldn’t be the same without mashups. I shared Super Mash Bros.’ first album last year, but they’ve come out with a new one in the meantime, All About the Scrillions. This album became the soundtrack to the second half of my summer, and I dare say I could have done worse. Check it out.

Here’s one of the tracks.

Here’s another one.

And here’s the link to the album download.

PS– Curious about the header photo? Check back tomorrow to find out what it’s all about!