I’ve known about this great band from the Bay area for a while now. I found them while checking out electro-harmonix pedals; member Jack Conte does all the official demo videos for EHX. Here are few thoughts to ponder while checking out these insanely catchy covers of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” and Earth, Wind, and Fire’s classic “September“:

Arrangements. They make use of everything in their arsenal, including toy pianos and running the vocals through guitar pedals, to make sounds and arrangements that are very unique. Are you using all the tools at your disposal?

Creativity. One of my favorite sections in “September” is when Jack uses his cheeks as the drum fill, brilliant! Even though you don’t own every instrument known to man, you can still use what you have creatively. I’d never considered using a flanger pedal before, but these videos have inspired me to investigate how to use one on my songs.

Limitations. They don’t have a great studio and I don’t know that Jack even really plays drums (notice all his drum parts are done one hit at a time). Creativity is enhanced by limits. Something I’ve been debating for my next recording: use a particular sound no more than five times on the entire recording. While this will be a pain in the butt, it will force me to be more creative and use sounds that I wouldn’t have tried without that limitation.

Video. Jack and Nataly videotape everything they do while they’re doing it. This gives them piles of material to use to promote their work and they create amazing music videos from all of it, on a budget that fits any ramen-crunching band’s income.

“Single Ladies”:

“September”:

This seems to be the week for finding great artists.  I’ll be sharing a few more videos and links this week cause I keep finding such great stuff!  This first one is from Kseniya Simonova, a Russian sand artist who lives in the Ukraine and who won the 2009 Ukraine’s Got Talent competition; the Ukrainian version of America’s Got Talent.  It’s a representation of the German invasion of the Ukraine during World War II.  Absolutely amazing.

Are you doing anything with your art that’s amazing?  If not, it’s time to step it up a notch…

I love watching someone who knows their instrument use it to do something cool.  Chet Atkins said Evan Marshall is one of the few great musicians of our time.  You can see for yourself why:

Ok, I’m  a sucker for a hook.  There’s this group of kids, the Chartjackers, from the UK who are trying to get their cheesy YouTube-crowdsourced song onto the UK charts.  The song is called “I’ve Got Nothing” and the lyrics, melody, band, and producer were all chosen via Youtube, then compiled into a song and the video clips are from the fans also.  I think this group does an admirable job showing how to engage an audience and create something everyone can enjoy, all the while helping a charity.  Check it out.

I saw this video on TwoGrooves.com and had to share it. Bobby McFerrin, yes the “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” guy demonstrates how the audience at the World Science Festival just *knows* the pentatonic scale. This is fun and amazing to watch. Check this out:

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

If you didn’t hear, 11:11 was featured on blocSonic’s 23rd Compilation, titled “netBloc 23: We Invented the Compilation“. Check it out and keep watching blocSonic for more great independent music.  Here’s my live version from the Common Grounds show in Lexington.

I just watched this amazing video.  The aquarium is the Kuroshio Sea in Okinawa.  It’s the 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world.  I’m totally digging the song too.  That haunting melody is just gorgeous and I love the chord changes in the chorus.  Check out the video:

What makes this really cool (and big news this week), is the song under the video, which is “Please Don’t Go” by the band Barcelona.  They found out about the video from friends and family and have seen a major increase in their iTunes sales due to the aquarium video’s viral success.  Check out this message from the band:

We had a small crowd at this show, but we had fun anyway!  The sound guy at Capalanos, Steve, plays a mean harmonica, so I invited him to take the solo on “About Last Night”.

When you’re getting people’s attention at a show, sometimes you have to play other people’s stuff.  I recently discovered this version of AC/DC’s “Back in Black” by Irish artist, Foy Vance, and it’s pretty amazing!

But it still isn’t my favorite.  That has to go to one of my all-time favorite artists, Matt Mahaffey, doing a one-man-band version in LA:

Check out this video of me doing an unreleased song, Alle, at Common Grounds in Lexington, KY.  What do you think of my hat?