Some Bizarre Songs/Music Videos And A Temporary Farewell

Hello my little sandwich toasters left precariously on the edge of the kitchen counter, I’m afraid I have to bid you a temporary goodbye. My current book is taking up all my energy, and I need what’s left to annoy my friend Steve and fiance Bill.

Please come and find me on YouTube and the Twitters, however, and we can frolic in the spotlight of Big Brother’s baleful gaze.

I usually avoid music because it’s so divisive, but I figured, what the hell. As a child brought up on my sister’s tastes of Massive Attack, Portishead and Bjork, I’ve kept my love of electro oddity, and here are a few of my favourite songs.

Flying Lotus: Zodiac Shit

Flying Lotus, aka Steven Ellison, is a producer, music maker, owner of Brainfeeder records and a filmmaker (Kuso, along with David Firth; both psychedelically brain tickling and stomach churningly gross).

CLOUDdead (Boards of Canada remix): Dead Dogs Two

Boards of Canada are so calming and pretty, and made this ‘experimental’ hip hop song even better. Plus this fan video is amazing.

Tobacco: Super Gum

As well as having their music featured on Silicon Valley, Tobacco made a weird B movie VHS video out of bits and pieces for their album F-d Up Friends. Please be aware, the following video contains ET porn. E…T…Porn…

Sza: Crack Dreams

I never expected to hear such a beautifully dreamy song about doing crack. Her others are great summer listening too.

FKA Twigs: Water Me

I love this weird lady. My favourite song so far is Two Weeks, but this video is wonderfully odd.

Anneka/Milanese: Reading You

I’ve followed Anneka’s (at one point known as Anneka Snip, not sure if that’s her real name) for a few years now. Her EP, Life Force, was recently released with Anti-Ghost Moon Ray. Here’s a song she did with Planet Mu person Milanese.

5 Bizarre, Freakish And Surreal Animation YouTube Channels (And One Trailer)

It’s probably no secret by now that I love YouTube, I watch it more than TV. So many artistic and weird things can be found that would never previously have seen the light of day outside of a few old tapes passed from hand to hand.

So I thought I’d share with you some channels entirely devoted to bizarre, freakish or otherwise surreal animations, the kind that shows you the real odd side of YouTube. I’m guessing most people know of Cyriak, David Firth and Rachel Maclean so I picked the smaller ones lurking below the surface.

Also, last night, my boyfriend Bill uploaded the trailer to an upcoming animation of his. It’s brilliantly absurdist and dark, I’m very proud of him, and I can’t wait for you to see the whole thing.

Door – Trailer by Bill Purnell.

OK, first up is Colin Raff. All his animations are roughly a minute long and they’re a little Max Ernst, a little Monty Python, and very peculiar.

Supercriminal Pregnant Pink Surprise Eggs Fun in Real Life by Colin Raff

Next up is someone whose blog I’ve been visiting on and off for a few months, and recently discovered their YouTube channel. They’re videos are mainly surreal landscapes with jolly music, or a clip of a road or beach with some kind of animated layer on the top.

Pestle Ham by Megaeggz

Gmcfosho hasn’t uploaded anything for a few years but his parody rap videos make me chuckle. With lyrics like “Fresh up out the water like a amphibian, I’m so fresh that I got a Aunt Vivian,” and rudimentary animations he’s entertainingly daft.

COMEUPOUTDAWAHTA by gmcfosho

ProudNothing sometimes likes to throw a bit of humour and social commentary into his mind melting weirdness.

Snapchat Simulator by ProudNothing

Wendy Vainity, or madcatlady, says “I am just a hobby animation software user using ready made content, just having fun on my computer and sharing.” Thanks, Wendy!

Viral Vacuum by madcatlady

4 Short Weird And Experimental Short Films To Make You Go All Disturbed

Merry Wednesday my little stuffed toys in a jar disguised to look like pickled conjoined goat twins. I’ve some news: my surreal, bizarro, weird fiction (and whatever else) comedy novella 4 Rooms In A Semi Detached House has been accepted by StrangeHouse Books (thanks, StrangeHouse Books!) and to celebrate here are 4 short experimental and possibly disturbing films.

The Cat With Hands was made by Robert Morgan, whose short animation Deloused featured in The ABCs of Death 2 (which I much preferred to the toilet fixated original). He makes cool and grotesque things, you should have a look. The Cat With Hands is his most famous work.

As well as being an amazing music man with his own record label, Flying Lotus has now set up Brainfeeder Films. With his own feature length production making people sick and a short by David Firth (of Salad Fingers) on the way, I’m looking forward to what else will be released.

The charmingly titled FuckkkYouuu is by Eddie Alcazar, with soundtrack by Flying Lotus.

I’m sure you all remember Alan Tutorials, the youtube channel featuring daft tutorials such as how to pick up a chair, which slowly grew more and more disturbing (but always funny). The mind behind it was Alan Resnick, digital and visual artist and filmmaker. He’s done several things for Adult Swim, including the absurdist This House Has People In It.

Written and directed by Peter Capaldi (aka Malcolm Tucker, aka Dr Who), Franz Kafka’s It’s A Wonderful Life was written in 1993 for BBC Scotland and won a Bafta and Academy Award. Starring Richard E Grant (Withnail, of course, like you didn’t know), it tells the humorous story of Franz Kafka’s attempt to write The Metamorphosis despite numerous interruptions.

Enjoy!

Episode 1 of Animation Cosmic Pup

Episode 1 of my friend Stephen Waring’s silly space adventure animation Cosmic Pup is finally ready. Have a little look at his artist’s website here

His animation website here

And episode 1 (Oh, P.S. if you ever see him, call him Weeven. He likes that):

Robin Cooper and David Firth, the sweet and dark side of surreal comedy

Two surreal creative forces are popular amongst the groovy kids on the internet (Dig what I’m saying, daddio?). I think they’re both brilliant but be the judges for yourself.

Robert Popper is a writer and producer for TV. On particularly silly days he evokes the character Robin Cooper and writes letters to companies (read book The Timewaster Letters) or makes daft phone calls. What I love about him is his flights of fancy without being mean. If Robin Cooper existed, you’d want to give him a big cuddle and a cup of tea.

Below is one of my favourite clips from his youtube channel (I urge you to visit). Even though Robert Popper has been in the writer’s room for South Park in the past, he still thought it was worth Robin giving them a call:

The flip side of this is David Firth. Not all of his occasionally disturbing animations are strictly comedy, but often surrealness and down-to-earth Northerness collide to make us chuckle. Have a look at episode 2 of one of my favourite characters from his website (and probably the silliest), superhero Burnt Face Man:

*warning, it’s a bit sweary and stuff

Valentine’s Day and murder

So I heard that St Valentine was actually a murderer and didn’t like children, and when he opened a bag of crisps he didn’t even offer the packet to anyone else, and if he walked through a muddy field he couldn’t even be bothered to wipe his feet when he went round someone’s house.

Today I shall be going on a date with my friend Rachel to see Woman in Black. I love the book so Daniel Radcliffe had better have taken some acting lessons. I’m sure he will be very good.

If myself or Rachel overhear any couples even thinking about talking near us we’re going to stand, point and scream a la Invasion of the Body Snatchers (70s version).

So just to get everyone in the mood, here’s a festive animation from David Firth of fat-pie.com.

Warning: please do not watch if you’re easily offended.

Jolly website of art by Devo singer

As you may know (or soon will) I like to share discoveries of artisticness in their various forms so I was pleased when my friend Steve – who’s busy getting his own art site finished – showed me this website by Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo.

Some bits remind me a little of Robert Crumb and others of David Firth, but its all definately unique. Have a look!

For anyone interested Devo did a film by Neil Young with Dennis Hopper called Human Highway.

Here are three videos of them doing songs of theirs from the seventies. They were silly and didn’t take themselves seriously, which is a good habit to get into. The first clip includes a rather annoying lady from the show ‘Fridays,’ which sometimes featured Andy Kaufman:

David Firth’s Drillbithead