Pink Floyd did not become world famous as a progressive rock band until 1974’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, but they were experimenting with new sounds long before then, and ‘One of These Days’ from the 1971 album ‘Meddle’ is a great example.
The focus of the video, and arguable the focus of the song, is Nick Mason’s drumming. The track is an instrumental, with the only vocals being a modified recording of Nick Mason stating ‘One of These days I’m Going to Chop You Into Little Pieces.’
David Gilmour and Roger Waters both played the bass on this song and Richard Wright’s keyboards really create a unique atmosphere of sound.
As far as I know, this Isis song from their 2004 ‘Panopticon’ album is the only music video they have ever done. In Fiction does a good job of exemplifying the Isis sound; it’s basically like someone told these guys “I want you to recorded the heaviest fucking songs of all time . . . and I want to be able to put my kids to sleep with them.” Isis shows us that there can be extremely heavy music that can also be mellow and melodic as well. Interesting concept for a video; haven’t figured out if there is any narrative or just some interesting visuals here.
When I introduced Canadian band Black Mountain to my co-worker Jake, his first response was ‘holy blackpinksabbathfloyd batman!’ That about sums it up, Black Mountain does a really good job of rehashing classic rock sounds. Not to say that they don’t have a unique sound, but the influence from bands like Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Leaf Hound and Led Zeppelin are very prominent.
The band is on Jagjaguwar records and this song is from their first self-titled album. The song title ‘Druganaut’ is most likely a reference to the classic Sleep song ‘Dragonaut’ (click back a few pages to see the video for Dragonaut!) I think their newer album, In The Future, is even better. I can’t wait for them to make a video for Stormy High, Angels or Tyrant.
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.
Recently my friend Brian was telling me about an article he read on song addiction. A group of neurologists and psychiatrists did a study, and it turns out that sometimes songs you really like can create an itch in your brain and hearing the song is the only way to satisfy that itch. Well lately my brain has been itching for Snowblind. This is a live version from the Never Say Die tour in 1978 (although the song is from Black Sabbath: Volume IV). Highlights include awesome clothing and a drugged-out Ozzy screaming ‘COCAINE!’ at the end of every verse; I believe this was in the same era in which Ozzy Osbourne and drummer Bill Ward supposedly took one hit of acid every day for over a year. Good times.
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.
This video, directed by Gary Smithson, is the first track from High On Fire’s 2005 album, Blessed Black Wings. Like most of their music there is a lot of retro sound, but unlike their other songs, this one is pretty fast, nodding more towards Motorhead and less towards Sabbath. The little story being told in the video is kind of interesting, seems to be some kind of Skull and Bones society deal going on. Brutal.
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.
This is the video for the Sleep song ‘Dragonaut’. It’s from the ‘Holy Mountain’ album which is considered a classic by many. It’s mainly just a video of them jamming and at times it looks like it could be a commercial for Laney Amps or Rickenbacker, but I really like the grainy black and white look and the weird shots. I also really just like this song a lot, especially the bass outro. Sleep has broken up but they consisted of Matt Pike (who now plays for High On Fire)on guitar and Chris Hakius and Al Cisneros (now in OM) on bass and drums, respectively.
Powered by FireStats