Video jams: of Montreal, Bear Hands, Twin Sister, No Joy, Lower Dens, The Greenhornes, Wye Oak

I have a list of posts that I've been meaning to write and it's been growing quickly as of late, so I thought I'd share a slew of videos all at once. Most of these are quite new, and they're all from within the last few months (except for The Greenhornes one, which is a couple years old). Enjoy!

of Montreal / "Coquet Coquette" / False Priest [Polyvinyl] (2010)
One of the standout singles from this year's album, and it sounds like it could have easily been on an older album, like Satanic Panic In The Attic, instead of amongst all of the neo-Prince funk/rock of False Priest. I ain't complaining though; it's a rockin' little number chock full of Kevin Barnes' odd yet witty lyrics and a correspondingly bizarre video that seems like the visual interpretation of a short story that could have been written by a hybrid of Robert Louis Stevenson and George Orwell and George Romero, on Ecstasy. You'll see what I mean. I think.

Director: Jason Miller

of Montreal / "Famine Affair" / False Priest [Polyvinyl] (2010)
Another great song from this album and an interesting concept for the video: what if you were the only guy at an all-girl party? Sounds fun, right guys? Not if that party is life and you're an outcast, nobody feeding you strawberries, the door shut in your face when the "adults are playing", no one will dance with you, everyone wants you out and punches you in the face, and yet when you try to run away, they just chase you down and bring you back. Crazy. And never mind that whole thing with the yellow cup . . .

Directors: Nina Barnes & Jason Miller

Bear Hands / "Crime Pays" / Burning Bush Supper Club [Cantora] (2010)
I've been a Bear Hands fan since seeing them live back in February 2010. "What A Drag" is a great single, and their debut album finally came out in October and it's solid. This is the opening track and really captures their sound stylings. The video itself is a slowish-motion montage of various criminal acts, of sorts, kinda artsy and such but it's fun to watch. Plus, keep your eye out for a quick shot of Mike Tyson (WTF!?) and the album title on a soon-to-be-smashed window.


Twin Sister / "All Around And Away We Go" / Color Your Life EP [Infinite Best] (2010)
This band made a pretty big splash on the blogosphere this year and have a bunch of cred to their name considering they've only officially released a couple of EPs. They're both solid, though, and all the buzz is deserved, I say. They also put a bunch of demos and unreleased versions on their website, including a series of ringtones. This video is pretty cheeky, with cheesy dance moves and animation and swirling, colored lights and a camera panning across the band members with totally serious looks on their faces just barely hiding outright laughter at their own silliness.

Director: ?

Twin Sister / "Daniel"
Here's the band playing a live version of an unreleased (I think) track for the LaundroMatinee series. Look at how young (and attractive) they are!

Twin Sister - Daniel from LaundroMatinee on Vimeo.

Twin Sister / "Ginger" / Vampires With Dreaming Kids [Infinite Best] (2008)
Okay, last one from them, I swear :-) I just like this song and I only came across this video because it was made and posted by Pitchfork Reviews Reviews, one of the funniest and most interesting music blogs out there. I can't seem to find the link anywhere, but I remember reading somewhere that he was thinking of how this song reminds you of when you've been away from New York City (or whatever your home town/city is) for a while and then you're coming back and you're driving in and you see the skyline again and it reminds you of all of your memories there. Yeah, that's a nice thought.

No Joy / "Hawaii" / Ghost Blonde [Mexican Summer] (2010)
Ah the good old days, when we used to hop in the back of our friend's pickup truck, drive out to the woods, make out with each other, smear berry goop and dirt all over our naked bodies, and . . . wait, you didn't do that? Hmm, me neither. Must be some hazy drug memory that we're vicariously experiencing through this video. It's hard to imagine anything else happening during this skittery, fuzzy, psychedelic, thumping and guitar-heavy track, though, yeah? And can you feel the whole trip melting away at the end when they bathe in the river and the guitars fade out? Pretty cool.

No Joy - Hawaii from Mexican Summer on Vimeo.

Director: SALAZAR
(Note at 2:20 mark: if only my teeth could stay that white while I roll around in the mud!)

The Greenhornes [feat. Holly Golightly] / "There Is An End" / Dual Mono [Telstar] (2002)
I'm glad I found this band on eMusic earlier this year, because I've played this album so often on my walk to and from campus that I've probably worn out the mp3 files. (You'll notice that the playlist I posted last week has 2 songs from them, too, including this one.) There's not too much going on in this video, aside from the outstanding song and some slow-moving, colored lines and shapes and faded images, but it really fits, somehow. One of the top comments on YouTube for this video is "one of the greatest songs to get pissed to". Yes sir, yes it is. (Pissed = drunk, ICYDK.)


Lower Dens / "Batman" / "Batman" b/w "Dear Betty Baby" 7" single [Gnomonsong] (2011)
This song doesn't appear on Lower Dens' outstanding debut album Twin Hand Movement, but it did appear on a demo CD they sold on their tour this past spring and it will be out on a 7" single b/w "" in a month or so (order that here from Gnomonsong). It's a live show staple, though, and this is a lovely version put together in the studio for Yours Truly in San Francisco. Jana's voice is sweet as always, and Will's guitar work is super tight. This band is so good please love them now thank you very much.

Yours Truly Presents: Lower Dens "Batman" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

(Thanks to Baltimore Musically Informed for the link.)

Wye Oak / "My Neighbor" / My Neighbor, My Creator EP [Merge] (2010)
This one is from much earlier this year, but I just found it myself, so I had to share. It's fascinating to watch Andy Stack's simultaneous drumming/keyboarding, and this is one of the better tracks from this year's EP. It's got a wonderfully rough, jagged sound to it here, compared to the album version, too. This band is so good please love them now thank you very much.

Wye Oak - My Neighbor - Luxury Wafers Sessions from Luxury Wafers on Vimeo.

Concert review: Wye Oak, Lower Dens

Wye Oak, Lower Dens (with Jana Hunter)
Saturday March 13, 2010 at Brillobox
with Spencer, Lisa, Brittany

I am so glad Wye Oak passed through Pittsburgh. I've been thinking about how good their music would be to see live, and I distinctly remember checking their website for tour dates only a day or two before it was announced that they were coming to the Brillobox. I didn't recognize the name of the opener (Jana Hunter) and it was even changed (to Lower Dens) later on, and I thought it strange that only one opener was listed, so I didn't feel bad running a little late to the show. However, Brittany was already there waiting on Lisa and me since we had the tickets on reserve (oops!), so I'm glad we happened to catch the 54C after waiting at the stop for five minutes and then deciding to just start walking in the right direction anyway. Spencer met us there later on.

I had a strange experience on the walk to the bus stop. While walking past the driveway entrance to the bank on the corner of Morewood and Centre, there was a car turning right into the bank parking lot. I looked quickly to my left and saw that it pulled up beside us and was waiting for us to walk by, but it still seemed awfully close. I looked forward and kept walking, but then I suddenly felt something hit my “back” leg as the car rumbled into the lot. My first thoughts, upon turning abruptly around, were that someone tossed a bottle or something solid out of the window, or else the car kicked up a rock; but I didn't hear any bouncing rock or broken glass, and I didn't see anything on my pants in the area where I felt a dull pain. What happened? I couldn't think of what else it could be. I must have been “hit” by a car. They were in such a rush to pull into the bank (that was closed, at that time of night, even) that they couldn't even wait for a pedestrian to get fully out of the way! To be honest, I'm still not 100% sure this is truly what happened, but I can't think of any alternatives . . .

Anyhow, after getting to the bar, meeting Brittany downstairs, and venturing upstairs, we came upon a mostly empty room with a DJ playing some “dance” music with the lights fairly bright. It was a little awkward for a while, with people standing around. The only people really dancing were at the front-right area of the stage, and they were Andy and Jenn from Wye Oak!



After a while, Lower Dens took the stage. I had no idea what to expect, and I was blown away. As a hardcore Velvet Underground fan, this is probably the closest I've come to experiencing what it must have been like to see them in their early, noisy days. The drumming was throbbing and metronomic, the guitars reverb-laden and forcefully melodic, and the singer had a Mo Tucker-like alluring androgyny and a soft voice that somehow still perfectly cut through the wall of sound. I was enthralled throughout their entire set, lulled into a strangely soothing and meditative state by their droning sound, despite how fucking loud it really was. I spoke with the guitarist after the show, and they have an album coming out sometime in the summer, ideally; their current tour is preparation for the recording process later in the spring. I bought a CD with 4 demo versions of songs they played and it sounds pretty good; I'm quite excited to see what they come up with in the studio, and I really hope it lives up to their live experience. I definitely want to see this band again.

Wye Oak took the stage around 11:30. After listening to their two albums, I was curious about how they achieved such a full sound, with guitar and drums and bass and (sometimes) strings, despite having only two members. Why did I never think to watch live clips on the interwebs? Well, it turns out that the drummer Andy plays drums with his right hand and keyboards with his left, generating all of the other sounds. He even played while blowing into a tube in his mouth for one song, which I assume is some sort of way to affect the sound of the keyboards. (Update: I learned from this NPR story that it's a melodica. And I watched his feet for a little while, and they never even touched the ground! They were constantly raised and poised to pound a cymbal/drum. Check out this video of him playing the drum and bass parts for their song “Warning” and be prepared to be amazed.



Janna's voice is so haunting and poignant, and I don't know anyone else who can rock out a swirling, reverb-drenched guitar solo and then subtly tap a foot pedal and suddenly switch back into the soft and slow melody from before. It's mighty impressive and fascinating to watch. I really like their sound, and am also looking forward to their next album. They had a 5 song EP for sale (info and a free download of one song here) but I had already spent my cash (and some borrowed cash) on the Lower Dens demo CD and an album of Jana Hunter's.

Oh right, so I did some Googling and reading the next day and learned that Lower Dens is a recently-formed band, and the lead singer is Jana Hunter, a singer/songwriter from Baltimore-via-Texas who has a couple of solo albums out, and seems to be mostly known as a friend of/collaborator with Devendra Banhart. I bought one of those solo albums at the show, thinking (I guess, rather naively) that it would be similar to the band's sound. It sounds quite different, in fact, but is equally good in its own way. I also figured out she was in a band in Austin, TX in the late 1990s called Matty & Mossy and they had one album and that link is the ONLY one I could find with any possible way of obtaining it. Is it really that rare? Is my internet-search ability that poor? I've posted some videos below of her performing solo. Do check them out and be amazed by how they are so different from (and yet somehow similar to?) the Lower Dens songs here.

Overall, this was a truly awesome show. The kind of music that these two bands play is fascinating to see and listen to live, and I really hope to see both of them again in the future.

Thanks to Brittany for taking and sending me the pictures of Wye Oak you see here!

Lower Dens – blog
They, unfortunately, don't really have anything else available/findable on the web.

Wye Oak – For Prayer live
Wye Oak – Live on NPR
Wyea Oak – official video for “Please Concrete”
Wye Oak – Daytrotter session

Jana Hunter – “Palms” live
Jana Hunter – live in Houston (2 parts, full concert)
Jana Hunter – Daytrotter session