Olympia 36 08

As expected: the show was simply amazing. But I have the tendency to be easily distracted by flying people, fireworks, gaudy colours and mass-scenes.

Thanks to Künstlertreu for the update of the uptdated official Olympia logo.

The Man-Eating Machine

So this is the new Grace Jones teaser-video! It was the opening for her recent show in London, and appeared multiple times as a filmed-from-screen-vid on ytube. Watch those for great crowd reactions. Actually I would recommend to watch those "bootlegs" instead of the proper version because the song is such a disappointment!
It sounds like post "Mezzanine"-Massive Attack with a bit of dull Rammstein thrown in for the mainstream crowd.

But still: It is absolutely amazing! Despite using a cheap video by not-exactly-fresh-director Nick Hooker, who is doing this distorted mirror-thing for quite some time now. It all fits into the Grace-Image and it´s pretty freaky and in fact a bit scary.

As a teaser it is a wonderfully minimal attention grabber. But for the full album, which should be out sometime, I personally wish that Grace would deliver the most abstract, artificial-pop! Not something that sounds like a leftover from somebody else.

But I am probably missing the corporate point...

Gnarls Barkley: Run, dance, twitch, collapse, foam, etc.

So this is the new Gnarls Barkley video "Run"! The one that is currently banned from broadcasting because the crazy op-art-trickery in the second half can alledgedly trigger epileptic seizures!

Oh, PLEASE! Who tested this and who actually collapsed?


Twenty years ago, when promo-clips were actually still being shown on TV, there were bans because of simulated orgies or a male navel in a Marc Almond video. But this is either a lame attempt at causing a stir (in which I am a useful toy right now) or people really foamed at the mouth because of yet another unnecessary appearance of Justin Timberlake.
Or maybe it was the sight of a Kid´n Play hairdo or the sheer impact of the song, which is actually a real stomper.

So, again: Will anybody comment on the song?
With all the white-girl-retro-soul happening at the moment, "Run" takes the dirty back road, kicks ass, and takes names. Its far from the gospel coziness of "Crazy" and its even more supercharged than some of the faster tracks on their debut album.

So lets play along with this helpless seizure-inducing-hype! But first a WARNING: Test yourself before you watch it! Stare at this picture for five seconds. If you see something weird: Call a doctor, hide under your desk or RUN!

Gnarls Barkley: Run!

Still here? Want more?
Thanks to cryptic hint from Malorama I learned that the "Run"-Video is a spoof of the "Graffiti Rock"-show that was only shown once in 1984. Read more at the New Yorker and see a op-art-free excerpt here.