Thursday, December 3, 2009

Video Hits:: Brian Borcherdt, Steven Bowers, The Wheat Pool, Ox, Louwop

It's Thursday, it's raining cats & dogs here in Halifax (and perhaps wherever you are) and so you're trapped inside. That means one thing here at the hill: videos. We've been having some jumbo editions of Video Hits over the last few weeks, and that continues un-abated today, with some fine Canadian musical fair committed to metaphorical video tape.

We have a bit of a loose theme with these videos, as we're gonna start things out rather slow & moody, and steadily work our way up into a happier frame of mind. As many of you might know, Yarmouth ex-pat Brian Borcherdt released a new, free album recently, but he also released a new video from his previous release, Coyotes, as well. This clip for While I was Asleep finds Borcherdt at his morose best - the word haunting comes to mind. Somewhat less morose is the clip for Steven Bowers' Comfortably Sweet, which is a duet off his recent EP Circadian Anthem, that features the always-excellent Christina Martin. The video is morose, in that it's about a lost loved one, but the Bowers turns into a zombie, and zombies always bring the fun. The video for The Wheat Pool's This Is It also brings the fun, well, if you're idea of fun is calmly destroying everything in your boyfriend's house, then it's a blast. Just as an aside, The Wheat Pool's Hauntario is really great, I know the Ack told us all this a couple months ago, but I'm late to the party and I just thought I'd mention it in case some of you are also in that boat. Another album the Ack enjoyed: Burnout from Sudbury roots rockers Ox. I myself love their video for Prom Queen, which is a white trash-tastic slice of fun.

Ok, that's a lot of heavy packed into four videos right there. So I need to go Son Of Bazerk on you kids and change the style. I could find nothing better for that then the new video from hill favorite Louwop. One Two Check/Get Up is a live mashup of two songs from Lou's last release, The Great Escape (which is available as a free download this month I should mention), and features Shad and Zaki Ibrahim. Good stuff.

Brian Borcherdt - While I was Asleep