You Tube Videos

[mcq]

A superb recent version of Strange Mercy at a show in Taiwan in February.  Clark has been performing this song solo at her indoor shows over the past year and it benefits greatly from this more intimate treatment.  One of her finest and most haunting songs, it recalls Dylan's great Ballad of Hollis Brown in its frightening depiction of a mind warped by loss, unable to rationalise a way out of its terrible predicament.  This is more than a lament for a child's lost innocence or a mother's impotent rage at a corrupt policemen.  Just like Hollis Brown, whose unhinged mind is so ravaged by the utter bleakness of his extreme poverty that his eye falls on his shotgun as the only way out for himself as well as his family, Clark's single mother yearns for a redemptive and merciful release for herself and her child from their tormented existence to a hereafter "where the shivers can't find [them]".  Nothing is stated clearly here but there is a strong suggestion, not least in the song title itself, that she is planning to take the life of her child as well as herself.   Performing the song in a solo context intensifies the helpless, suffocating anguish of the mother's deranged solitude which is beautifully expressed by Clark's breathless, tortured, exhausted vocal.  Worth noting as well is the subtlety and delicacy and  understated nature of her guitar playing which befits the subdued nature of the song and which highlights the dramatic horror and impotent rage of the song's key lines, "If I ever meet that dirty policeman that roughed you up, that fucked you up, I ... I don't know what".  A very intense and deeply moving version of one of her greatest songs.




I posted this link before but it's worth a re-post because it is simply a superb cover of a great song.  This is St. Vincent at a Rain Dogs tribute show in London in 2011 singing Big Black Mariah with an incredible ferocity.  Filmed in an awkward looking aspect ratio and the sound is less than ideal, but the emotional force of the performance burns through.  Undoubtedly the most chilling part is the repetition of the line, "This boy ain't never coming home", which she seems to end up singing to herself in a near-whisper,  eyes closed, fist thumping her guitar like a heartbeat, before the song re-ignites with its primal percussive stomp and squawking saxophone riffs.  Very, very powerful and one of the finest Tom Waits covers that I've heard.

[Ivor]

[DaveF]

The standmount version of the SF's that Steve has. Surely one of the most stunning looking standmounts out there. Comes in three wooden crates. Price ~14,000 Euro
I wonder if the sound matches the looks.

[Rocker]

Apologies if this was posted earlier;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_8mdH20qTQ

[k99_64]

I am stuck in work for 12 hours today and tomorrow. Brain turning to fuzz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93S_l0qZrXA

[markof]

Chilling.

[JAW]

This one's for Ivor - your neck of the woods.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7uTiPnGy40

[jkeny]

Fascinating video showing how a lump of quartz rock is transformed into a wafer of crystal that go into the oscillators we all use in digital audio. Nice 1940's wartime manufacturing on display
https://archive.org/details/6101_Crysta ... 1_20_16_21

[Friendlyfire]

Dream Team, Nils Frahm and Olafer Arnalds, get together to make unique music.
You may need a quiet room and a quiet hour for this one but well worth the indulgence

http://arnaldsfrahm.com/

[cybot]

Dream Team, Nils Frahm and Olafer Arnalds, get together to make unique music.
You may need a quiet room and a quiet hour for this one but well worth the indulgence

http://arnaldsfrahm.com/

I discovered them when they were complete unknowns and now they're everywhere :)

Thanks for the link though....