Sunday, August 19, 2007

In and Out of YouTube

A few weeks ago the Observer published a list of choice picks from YouTube charting some of the history of pop;

Want to see Iggy's 'crowd walk'? A teenage Van Morrison? Since the creation of YouTube, rare footage of your pop idols is just a click away...On YouTube pop is not a neat and tidy form that can be arranged into historical segments but a gloriously random, fragmented, elusive entity. And it is all the more exciting for that.


Cool. Now I'd like to add my own list...


Big Black - "jordan, minnesota" (live)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=l_gfuN_Llqs
A band that blew me away when I first heard them. At that point I thought Ned's Atomic Dustbin was radical music. Big Black was a wake-up call to a wider, more experimental, darker, more subversive and exciting world. One of the comments on the page says it all, “Today's rock music has no relevance once you listen to this.”


Mudhoney - In 'N' Out Of Grace (live)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jFE159q6GWg
While Nirvana were the band from the grunge scene that really made it, I was – for my sins – a grunge kid before the scene broke into the mainstream and the anthem then was Mudhoney's 'Touch Me I'm Sick' – but for my money, this is their best track and it's best heard live with the distortion and noise that defined grunge.

Dead Kennedys - Holiday in Cambodia
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0R9_ZLxsmmg
An amazing punk band that made catchy, almost poppy, punk-rock without compromising the message one inch. Video show Jello's mad-ball green gloves. Love DK.


Berlin Riot 1999 (Atari Teenage Riot LIVE)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_ab7Dksqfnw
ATR were the band that introduced me to breakcore and I would suggest, a hugely influential band on lots of producers of breakcore. This video is a real punk-rock ironic moment – ATR on a float bashing out tracks like 'Revolution Action' and 'Start the Riot' when a riot starts! It's less 'I predict a riot' and more 'I'm in the middle of a fucking riot!' The German riot cops wear green overalls, so they look for like the military attempting a coup than protect and serve.

Venetian Snares - Szamar Madar
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8rjyVF6a4xo
I love this video and I love this track. The best representation of breakcore in a music video I have scene, it captures the music perfecly and IMHO its a million miles better that 99% of the pop-video dross that the industry churns out day-after-day.

What's yours?

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