Tag Archives: alternative
Music Video Reviews
The Ivy Walls “Getaway Driver” Review By Samantha Ponoroff
Newcomer, The Ivy Walls’ music video for their single “Getaway Driver” is unoriginal. The video employs the done-over and boring format of juxtaposing the safe and calmness of a band playing on a rooftop with a dangerously dramatic world, located a mere twenty stories below, on the ground. As the video continues, and the real world characters lead us from a robbery to the desert, the audience cannot help but cringe: haven’t we seen videos like this a million times?
Despite The Ivy Walls’ good sound, the “Getaway Driver” video is tedious and boring; once the audience sees the girls running away incognito with suspicious black bags they know what will inevitably occur, an escape to a place (in this case, the desert) where they think no one will find them. And even worse, The Ivy Walls, in thinking they made an artistic break-through, covered the entire end of their video with successively darker stages of the color yellow: no, the color yellow did not make me think of the girls’ final state of complacency as they reach their personal nirvana, it made me think that the director did not know his way around Final Cut Pro.
The Futureheads “Heartbeat Song” Review By Samantha Ponoroff
Finally, something I can listen to without cringing. Although their lyrics may not be of the highest quality, The Futureheads have a very unique sound—a sound that intrigues their listeners. The video accompanying “Heartbeat Song,” again not stellar, definitely has its moments: their retro-inspired game show is very cute-sey. All in all, The Futureheads have potential, but definitely need work: their lyrics need major retouching and their videos need to have more of a story life. But, needless to say, The Futureheads are much closer to fame than many of the other struggling bands and artists out there.
Blowing Trees “Goblins” Review By Samantha Ponoroff
After watching this video a few times, I have come to the conclusion that the star is not the lead singer, Chris Madden; the star of this video is its director, Ryan Scheer. While the band delivers music reminiscent of a bad high school sponsored concert, Scheer makes use of stunning visuals through his manipulation of light, televisions and angles. Because of his artful manipulation of the camera and light, Ryan Scheer is who should be remembered when one watches this video: he is the strongest artist in association with this lackluster band and their lackluster song, “Goblins,”
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Arctic Monkeys
Arctic Monkeys by Morgan Catanzaro
My Propeller
The British alt-rock band Arctic Monkeys have finally released their third album since 2007, titled Humbug, in July of 2009. The first single of off the album, Crying Lightning, debuted at number 12 on the UK singles Chart; far better than the bands last album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, which had two singles debut in the Top 74 respectively, although all twelve songs from that album landed on the Top 200 Charts.
Humbug takes on a new sound entirely, especially compared to Favourite Worst Nightmare, which was more of a fast-pace record. Humbug demonstrates a slower, almost soulful sound that is Brit-Indie Rock in its entirety. Arctic Monkeys have already been celebrated as an extremely accomplished and talented group, even though they have only created three full albums and one EP, and have already taken on a risk in their second album by changing around their “sound,” it’s really no wonder that the band would go in such a different direction. And it’s that re-invention and success that got them many compliments (such as being considered equivalent or even better than Oasis and The Strokes by the UK media) and almost as much criticism. There is no doubt, however, that this album will get the band many award nominations and chart hits.
I was pretty disappointed in the music video for their second single, My Propeller. It did live up to their new Indie-Rock sound, but it was extremely boring to watch. The whole video consists of two-toned colors of cream and a dark teal, so the band members were not extremely distinguishable unless you know what instrument they play. The other half of the video, the parts that were not of the band members, are just random things like a girls eyes, lips, random hands, an eagle, etc., but all in that same boring, two-tone color. I wouldn’t recommend wasting time watching the video, but the album itself is definitely worth listening to.
Introducing Jaiko
by Morgan Catanzaro
If you were to imagine the major cities of America by a genre of music, I’m fairly sure you would generally see New York City as being a hub for underground music of all genres; Los Angeles as the hang out for the ska and punk rockers; Nashville as, obviously, the country music haven; Atlanta’s infamous hip hop and rap scene; and Miami as, well, a large mixing pot of culturally influenced music. If you want a good pop song with a Latin beat, or maybe a Bob Marley inspired reggae band, Miami is the place to be. Many popular artists like Nelly Furtado, Akon, Sean Kingston, Shakira, and Rihanna thrive in this area because of their cultural backgrounds and music.
Jaiko, an up and coming artist from the Barbados, is a musician I could possibly see becoming quite popular in the Miami area, as well as with the rest of the US. Caribbean beats are infused with a poppy hip-hop beat and laced with catchy lyrics to create something that ultimately reminds me of the early music of Rihanna, along with Sean Kingston, Akon, and even Chris Brown. Although some of the beats and lyrics are somewhat cheesy and almost juvenile in a sense, reminding me of something that would be on the Disney channel or Kids Bop, he does seem to have some redeeming qualities in his debut album entitled “Can I.” Jaiko has a good voice, perfect for the genre of music he’s getting into. And I can tell from many of his songs that he has radio potential, which is extremely important as it is one of the hardest methods of advertising music now a days. I would recommend this album to those who only listen to music on Y100, or love anything on MTV.
Diana’s In the Van Interview with Tim Barry
This interview was done in his van with flashlights hence the low light and video quality.