Most people don’t know or don’t remember that for about a year in the early 70s the Osmonds attempted to become hard rock/psychedelic. And incredibly they didn’t do too bad a job, there’s definitely some good Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin influence here mixed with some wild psychedelic sounds, the solo is just ridiculous.
The video itself is just wacky; the ridiculous dancing of the Osmonds doesn’t fit the music at all but makes for a good piece of entertainment.
The Afghan Whigs are one of the often overlooked and underrated bands of the 90s alternative/grunge explosion. Although they never really had a big hit, the Cincinnati quarter had a very unique sound as a result of injecting a heavy soul/R&B influence into the punk/classic rock mixture that defined other popular 90s grunge bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Bush, etc.
‘Debonair’ is from their 1993 album ‘Gentlemen’ and although you can easily tell that the song and the video are from the early 90s, I think their music has stood the test of time a lot better than many of their contemporaries. They broke up in the late 90s and singer/guitarist Greg Dulli went on to sing for the Twilight Singers.
This song is from the album Songs For The Deaf, which many consider to be the Queens’ masterpiece as it was the last album to feature bass player Nick Olivieri (of Kyuss fame) and the only Queens album to feature Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana) on drums and Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees) on vocals. Combined with the Queens’ only constant member, Josh Homme on guitar and vocals, this line-up was something of a rock supergroup. I really like this video; like many of their videos it involves cars and the desert, but it looks amazing. I’m not sure if they filmed at all or if it’s entirely animated, but I love the way the colors fit the music.
Boston’s Converge are one of the original pioneers of chaotic, mathy hardcore punk. Countless bands followed in their footsteps: Coalesce, Dillinger Escape Plan, Daughters, Unless, Curl Up And Die, All Else Failed, etc. This song is from Converge’s 2004 album, ‘You Fail Me’, which was recorded shortly after the loss of their second guitarist and showcases a newer sound for them. This video is basically the story of my life.
Battles are sort of a math-rock supergroup with ex-members of Helmet, Don Caballero and Lynx. They don’t sound as rockin’ or as technically as you might expect at first, favoring subtlety and wacky sounds, but their songs build up in a really interesting way. You’ll notice this song, Atlas, get really interesting towards the end. The video is an interesting concept as well, shot on what looks like some kind of floating sound stage, it looks like the band is playing inside of a rotating cube. The album, Mirrored, is full of quirky songs like this, I was listening to it recently while walking through Golden Gate park and it felt appropriate.
Boris - Korosu
Boris is a band from Japan that has been an international cult favorite for years. They are pretty popular in the US thanks in part to being signed by Los Angeles-based label Southern Lord, and they are helping to usher in an entire wave of Japanese doom/stoner/sludge/drone/70s-style rock bands such as Church of Misery, Mono and Sonic Flower. This song is from what many consider to be their best album, Heavy Rocks which came out in 2002. The sound is definitely rooted in 70s rock; lot’s of Led Zeppelin worship going on here, but there’s also elements of 90s American stoner rock, particularly the Melvins and Kyuss. The video itself is pretty interesting, some great camera tricks going on here as well as interesting visuals. The double-necked guitar their singer plays is interesting as well, allowing him to play bass or lead guitar when that extra jammage is required.
I thought this video was pretty cool, Radiohead has been putting out a lot of interesting videos lately. There are a few versions of some of these videos, I thought the ‘Scotch mist’ versions looked the best. Speaking of Radiohead, I recently saw ‘There Will Be Blood’, which has a score composed by Radiohead’s lead guitarist, Johnny Greenwood. Personally I thought the score was pretty disappointing, it was more or less one uncomfortably tense violin note ringing out through the entire film. Ah well.
Fu Manchu grew out of the same ‘Desert Rock’ scene as Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, Nebula, Mondo Generator, etc. This is one of their newer songs, they do a pretty good job of combining a heavy, bassy, sound with great riffs and some hooks. Think of the Foo Fighters getting high and jamming with 70s era Sabbath. Radical.
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