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Videos of your favorite pop hits played in abandoned malls are unexpectedly mesmerizing
02.12.2018
09:48 am
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Resonant pop songs have a way of making a direct appeal to our hearts and emotions in a way little else can. It’s for this very reason that so many movies, and especially movie trailers, use pop songs so aggressively; they’re looking to forge a fast connection and only a song like “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” can do that to a wide audience of purchasing Boomers or slackers.

But that power has a double edge. That very potency, when placed in a desolate or otherwise off-kilter setting, can be doubly or triply off-putting, precisely because the stated mode is so explicitly one of uplift and/or pleasure.

This is the insight that a clever YouTuber named Cecil seems to have figured out sometime in the last year. He has put together a brilliant run of videos that simply present the songs as they would sound in certain depopulated settings.
 

 
Cecil’s videos come in a few different forms. The main ones, and the best ones, play a song in a public setting that has been abandoned or is otherwise empty. So you’ve got “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” by Tears For Fears playing forlornly to an empty shopping mall, A-ha’s “Take On Me” to a different depopulated shopping mall, the Clash’s “Lost in the Supermarket” playing to—guess what—an empty supermarket aisle, and so forth.

Others present songs as heard “playing from another room.” These variants make use of a bit of disembodied footage on a loop, and also are pretty good but the mall ones are better.

I want Cecil to try the trick at empty airports. That’s the move.

The videos have been making the rounds over the weekend, because human beings respond to poignancy. We’ve selected a few for you below but it’s just a portion of the whole. Enjoy.

Echo & the Bunnymen, “The Killing Moon” (playing in an empty shopping centre):

 
Queen and David Bowie, “Under Pressure” (playing in an empty shopping centre)

 
More videos after the jump…...
 

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Posted by Martin Schneider
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02.12.2018
09:48 am
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Hysterically funny, deeply sad song about shitty YouTube comments (NSFW)
03.04.2015
01:15 pm
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Comedian and actor Trevor Moore—known as the founding member of The Whitest Kids U’ Know—wrote and performs this brilliant song called “The Ballad of Billy John.”

The song is about YouTube comments, but I don’t want to give too much away about this clever piece. It really speaks for itself. The “The Ballad of Billy John” starts out slow, but give it a minute, and then… BOOM.

The ending kind of gets you, too. You’ll laugh until you cry for two very different reasons. The human race is fucked.

 
Via reddit

Posted by Tara McGinley
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03.04.2015
01:15 pm
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‘Danger 5’: a groovy new Nazi dinosaur espionage spoof serial
10.28.2011
01:26 pm
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Well, this certainly looks interesting. It’s a trailer for the forthcoming serial Danger 5, which follows the adventures of an elite espionage unit formed to do battle with Hitler and his gold-munching dinosaur robots. Or something. Even though the setting is World War 2 by way of the swinging 60s, Danger 5 has more than a hint of Garth Merenghi’s Darkplace about it - in fact, is that Matt Berry doing the voiceover?
 

 
Danger 5 debuts on YouTube on November 21st. For more info(including a peak at the Danger 5 Monthly magazine) visit www.danger5.tv.

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Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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10.28.2011
01:26 pm
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Is this the future of advertising?
07.14.2011
02:00 pm
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The British company PHD Worldwide would like you to think so. Here’s what they have to say:

We Are The Future is our stab at how the next generation could engage with brands. We made projections on what the media landscape could be like in ten years (based on what we are seeing now) and thought it may be interesting to get the next generation to voice it. So the viewer is confronted by children in their early teens telling today’s marketing community what they will need to do to up their game. It is a provocation and an invitation to the marketing industry to comment (and hopefully debate).

Betraying the adage that “any publicity is good publicity,” and bringing to mind the famous Bill Hicks quote (which I don’t necessarily agree with) “if you’re in advertising or marketing, kill yourself,” it’s fair to say that the reaction to this clip has been overwhelmingly negative. But is it a sign of things to come? Judge for yourself… 
 

 
Originally posted on 02/26/11.

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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07.14.2011
02:00 pm
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For the love of the ‘Common People’: Fans cover Pulp

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Following on from Bob Dylan’s suggestion we should write his autobiography, Pulp are currently running a competition to find the best cover version of one of their tracks:

During the process of learning to play the old songs again we have been consulting the cover versions posted on-line… Vote for your favorites by ‘liking’ them - or upload your own rendition if you think you can do better.

There’s even “a musical prize” for the winner.

As “Common People” is Pulp’s best known song and the one that appears to encourage most cover versions (will anyone surpass William Shatner’s version?) here are 8 covers of “Common People” - just a small selection of the many videos so far uploaded onto the site. If you want to see more, vote for your favorite, or think you can do better check here.
 

William Shatner’s cover of ‘Common People’ as a Lego animation by niblickthe3rd 
 
More Pulped versions after the jump…
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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05.16.2011
05:13 pm
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Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra sing Death Metal
03.23.2011
09:21 pm
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Another excellent death metal redub by YouTube user Andy Rehfeldt, with a little help from someone called Bördi. Wait for Louis to sing - why wasn’t the connection between Louis Armstrong and death metal more obvious before now?
 

 
Previously on DM:
Louis Armstrong sings Death Metal version of ‘What A Wonderful World’

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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03.23.2011
09:21 pm
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More late 80s Sonic Youth interviews
03.02.2011
01:46 pm
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Here’s some great footage of Sonic Youth being interviewed in the late 80’s - before grunge, before Nirvana, just on the cusp of signing with Geffen and the release of the Goo and Dirty albums. My God, how different things were then. The MTV interview piece makes this abundantly clear, with its declaration of Sonic Youth being “the biggest underground band in the whole country”. This was in 1989, and oh how different things would be just two years later.

Thanks to my older brother having purchased a copy of Goo on cassette when it was released, I was exposed to Sonic Youth at a young age, and before Nirvana became the de facto coolest band in the universe. I also had the utterly mind blowing “Teenage Riot” taped onto the end of one side of a C90 (remember them?) by one of the cool older kids at school.Thanks Simon Doyle!
 
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Although Daydream Nation is generally regarded as their opus (and it is fantastic), Goo has really stood the test of time. Despite the band coming in for a lot of flack for signing to a major and for daring to write *gasp* songs. The sleeve is now one of the most popular t-shirt designs on the planet, even appearing as a tattoo on the arm of an America’s Next Top Model contestant. “Kool Thing”, with its famous Kim Gordon and Chuck D monologue, has become one of the band’s best known singles.

Of course, the musical landscape has changed massively since these clips were filmed, but time captured here was one of massive change itself. The underground punk and hardcore ethics of the 80’s were mutating into something much more corporate and accessible to the mainstream. Punk rock was losing it’s sheen as the coolest, edgiest music with the growing popularity of hip-hop and the advent of acid house. For a while it seemed like Sonic Youth might be left behind by these changes. But the truth is that, despite their bevy of famous friends, tourmates and collaborators, Sonic Youth are a scene all unto themselves. They may not have become the biggest underground band in the world, but they didn’t need to. Their legacy is assured.

Here’s that MTV clip:
 

 
More Sonic Youth interviews after the jump…

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Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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03.02.2011
01:46 pm
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Jiz and the Mammograms vs Christianity
02.21.2011
10:28 am
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Jiz and The Mammograms is a re-dubbed parody of the classic 80s cartoon Jem and The Holograms. It’s performed by the drag artist Sienna D’Enema, who wishes to remain anonymous so that s/he doesn’t have to tell hir parents about it - which is completely understandable. If it was me I wouldn’t want to tell them either. The subject matter of Jiz! covers teen pregnancy, prostitution, people trafficking, crack addiction, abortion and oriental skat fetishes. Jem is no longer a world-famous rock star doing her best to help the local youth, she’s now a drug pushing pimp who gleefully encourages her teen fans to get pregnant so they can have abortions. Her mansion is now a giant brothel full of underage hookers (and a few kidnap victims), and Synergy, the super-computer that communicates to Jem, and styles her through her special earrings, has been rechristened “Electronic Drug Dealer”. Yes, it’s tasteless (REALLY tasteless), but it’s also very, very funny.

The latest episode of Jiz! has been released onto Youtube, and could possibly be the most controversial yet. It concerns a young girl (Laura, aka Shitty Panties) who is sent by an extremist Christian group to convert Jiz to the word of the Lord, but who has her own struggles to face along the way. Not least of which is her excessive flatulence. I never saw much Jem and the Holograms the first time round, but this has made me REALLY curious about the original episode.

If you have never seen Jiz! before, I recommend you start with the episodes after the jump, as “Laura” contains a few in-jokes (including The Golden Shower Girls). If you have seen Jiz! then you know what to expect. Brace yourselves:

Laura - Taking It Up The Chocolate Yahweh (obviously this is NSFW)
 

 
More Jiz! after the jump… (smirk)

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Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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02.21.2011
10:28 am
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