Just yesterday, Jerry posted some rad homemade film clips. In case you were still under the impression that a big budget is required to make a good film clip, here are a couple of other new vids from two of Australia’s 2009 breakthrough artists. Check the references for the ’90s kids – Mortal Kombat and Where’s Wally? fans eat your heart out.

DZ – ‘Blue Blood’

Philadelphia Grand Jury – ‘Good News’

This isn’t the regular whothehell.net content I would post, but this video has somewhat blown up as an internet phenom so I might as well share it here. BANGS is a Sudanese born Melbourne based hip hopper. This video is so homemade it’s almost charming.

Recently Snobscrilla managed to find him in Melbourne and got him on stage, and he got on stage with popcorn for everyone. Check this guy out at 2:37 who helped himself to a serve!

On another note, someone else sent me this video of RAED a couple days ago. With lines like It’s erection time what is it with Melbourne hip hop this week??

Idle Cranes – ‘Two Horse Race’ (mp3)

“…I’m relieved to be moving on again. Every time we play the horizon moves, and I realise how far we’ve come, and how much further we have to go. We drag old songs like fallen comrades, bury them in live-to-tape mass graves.”

That’s Idle Cranes guitarist Jakeb Smith on a recording session held over weekend just passed. And It conjures up just the right images for the band – violent yet almost poetic, bold but considered. Featured above is ‘Two Horses,’ a track not borne from that recent session but pulled from their still-fresh debut EP-cum-whatever. At nine tracks and forty-plus minutes long, Fur Release was vying for perhaps the most substantial Australian EP of recent memory. Apparently it’s no longer considered an EP though, it just is.

Idle Cranes have been a respected force on the Brisbane music scene for a while, with regular live appearances showcasing their uncompromising love of volume and their knack for turning border-line drones into hooks. Some have mumbled that Fur Release is less intense than their live show. And that it is, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Their live shows are, and probably always will be, loud and intense, with the prettier parts of songs washed out by sheets of reverb and fuzz. The studio version of ‘Two Horse Race’ shows a more nuanced Idle Cranes, where multi-tracked vocals are given greater attention, and the different tones of the guitar are heard with greater clarity. It’s still aggressive, but it’s less thunderous and more (for lack of a better word) psychedelic.

I shouldn’t be surprised that the recorded versions offer something a bit different but no less exciting. I always had this image of Idle Cranes as mad scientists endlessly toiling away at demos. Their efforts have not been wasted. Revel in the joy of the above track, and check them out before their rumoured relocation OS.

www.myspace.com/idlecranes

Otouto – ‘Sushi’ (mp3)

“I mistook a man eating sushi / for a man putting on a fake moustache.” So goes the opening line to this song by Melbourne three-piece Otouto, which is equally quirky in sound as it is in lyrical content. There’s just a thin guitar line, some plonking piano, pots-and-pans percussion and an acrobatic vocal melody. It’s ‘art pop’ in the same way as Architecture in Helsinki, invoking a similarly playful atmosphere in its minimalist yet unrestrained arrangement.

I heard this track a while back and it didn’t exactly warm to it, but when it crossed my radar just recently I was caught by its charms. Maybe give it a few spins if at first its kitchen sink vibe doesn’t grab you – there’s something to love in this track, perhaps it won’t take others as long to latch on to.

www.myspace.com/hazelbrownmusic (yes, that is the correct Myspace)

Boy and Bear – ‘Mexican Mavis’ (mp3)

MEXICAN MAVIS on the loose! 4 Sydney lads with some seriously great harmonies, cheeky grins, and an unassuming confidence that can only come from knowing – you got it goin’ on. They’ve also just picked up a spot on the HOMEBAKE line up along with some high rotation Triple J support!

See them in all their harmonized glory on their upcoming ‘Slightly Mexican Tour’ –
6th Nov Troubadour, Brissy
12th Nov Brass Monkey, Sydney
After seeing their packed show at Spectrum last week, I assure you you’re in for a great night. Check the myspace for more dates.

www.myspace.com/boyandbearmusic

Van She – ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’ (Radio Rip) (mp3)

So I’ve never posted a radio rip before, but I found this track on Hype Machine this morning and it seems to be the only version around. I’d wait until an actual recording landed in our inbox, but then this post would be much less temporally appropriate.

I’m not much of a classic rock fan – nor even much of a Van She fan for that matter. Still, this is a pretty nifty take on Blue Oyster Cult’s ’70s hit and should make a splash on many a Halloween playlist tonight.

That’s me, though – Bruce Dickinson/Christopher Walker would likely be quite disappointed with this version.

Thanks, obviously, goes to Triple J. Happy Halloween to anyone else absorbing American culture today.

www.myspace.com/vanshe