Category Archives: Video

A post containing a video

Three New Bands (New to me) in 2021: (1) Wet Leg

Last year I wrote a series of posts about bands I discovered that year, they were The Mysterines, Dream Wife and The Big Moon. I quite enjoyed writing that series, so I decided to repeat this for 2021 (and if I discover three good bands again next year I’ll aim to have one in 2022 as well). The first one for this year was new to pretty much everyone, as they had their breakthrough this year: Wet Leg. They burst on the scene this summer with this song with a famous movie quote and more:

Wet Leg – Chaise Longue (Official Video)

This was followed up by another song with a video filmed at the same location and weird lyrics and references:

Wet Leg – Wet Dream (Official Video)

It doesn’t come with a full fledged video (yet?), but I also quite like this recently released song:

Oh No

And finally, they also perform brilliantly live, as shown in this Tiny Desk (Home) Concert for NPR:

Wet Leg: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

I hope you’ve enjoyed Wet Leg, for the next band we’ll travel across the Atlantic to Chicago and something beach related (kind of). Planning to publish that post on Friday.

What I’ve been listening to recently

Having been moved from Google Play Music (now shut down) to YouTube Music by Google a few months ago I’ve been playing around with playlists a bit. It seems I can share them, so here’s one I’m using a lot at the moment:

My “Bad Mood Blaster” playlist, showing the first song on it. Not ideal but that’s what it does. Open it in YouTube to shuffle, view the full list etc

I’ve called it “Bad Mood Blaster”, partially because it came to my mind first and after that I couldn’t think of anything better, partially because that’s what it helps me with, picking me up and cheering me up both when I need it and just generally. I’ve described it as this:

Loud songs to blast any bad mood away. Guitar, bass and drum focused. Max 2 songs per artist. From the 1980s to the 2020s

That’s about it. It will continue to grow and change as I add artists and in some cases possibly switch out songs (as I want to stick to the max 2 songs per artist “rule”). Some well known songs/hits you will probably know, some lesser known songs you might not know.

Obviously includes six songs from the three bands I discovered for me last year, The Mysterines, Dream Wife and The Big Moon. I wonder which bands new to me I will add this year, if any?

Space & Time x2

Two versions of a song I had on heavy rotation today. First the loud and pounding studio version with the drums driving it on:

Wolf Alice – Space & Time

Second the “unplugged” version with the drummer switching to vocals and Ellie’s beautiful lead vocals:

Wolf Alice – Space & Time (Live on KEXP)

I love both versions.

Three new bands (New to me) in 2020: (3) The Big Moon

That went quickly, the third and final entry of this short series is already here. After The Mysterines, Dream Wife we last but by no means least come to The Big Moon (Wikipedia entry) from London. Of these three bands I believe they’ve been around the longest, so I’m rather late to the party. They certainly make brilliant videos. Let’s start with one where they play every single role, Sucker:

The Big Moon – Sucker

They get rather colourful in Cupid, must have been fun making that, despite the mess:

The Big Moon – Cupid

Silent Movie Susie is a beautiful stop motion video with dolls taking on all roles. There’s also a cameo of the band, both as dolls and real people. Can you spot the previous video they are quoting?

The Big Moon – Silent Movie Susie

From their second album is Your Light. With lots of cycling. And puppets. What more could you want?

The Big Moon – Your Light

To close a cover version. I discovered The Regrettes via their appearance on The A.V. Club, interesting to see that The Big Moon also played a cover at The A.V. Club, Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler from 1983:

The Big Moon serves up a stellar rendition of “Total Eclipse Of The Heart”

I hope you enjoyed this little series and maybe even found a band or two you’ll like. Maybe let me know via the comments?

Three new bands (New to me) in 2020: (2) Dream Wife

Having started this introduction of bands I discovered for me this year with The Mysterines I’m now moving on to the second band I found: Dream Wife (Wikipedia entry). Formed while at university in Brighton they have since moved to London. Let’s start with Hey Heartbreaker from their debut album:

Dream Wife – Hey Heartbreaker

Also from their debut album is Somebody (with a very memorable chorus line):

Dream Wife – Somebody

Moving on to their second album, released in 2020, with Hasta La Vista:

Dream Wife – Hasta La Vista

Another one from the second album is So When You Gonna…. with a quite interesting video:

Dream Wife – So When You Gonna…

To close a live performance mixed with an interview on KEXP:

Dream Wife – Full Performance (Live on KEXP)

Again I hope you enjoyed the music, I love the variety in Rakel’s singing and Alice’s guitar play, brilliantly supported by Bella’s bass. The third and last band in this series to follow tomorrow.