Radiohead - '15 Step'

The latest instalment in the ongoing carnival of user-generated videos that Thom Yorke and co has been unveiling of late is Kota Totori's manga-styled take on ‘15 Step’. This amusing video stars a chubby champion frantically running down a dream while huge figurines collapse all around him.

Glasvegas ‘Please Come Back Home’

The Scotsman prove that Christmas songs aren’t all necessarily cheery in their new video to ‘Please Come Back Home’ that features dead autumn leaves and a choir. Though, to be fair, it’s not all doom and gloom - as there are some colourful Xmas lights featured in the background you should look out for. The is the first single from the band’s forthcoming “mini album”, ‘A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss)’, out today (December 1).

The Hold Steady – ‘Stay Positive’

The Brooklyn rockers find themselves singing out on what appears to be wheat-paste and some bricks and concrete in this nostalgic album title track.

Portishead – ‘Magic Doors’

This one will take a fair few viewings before you are able to piece together the narrative. Its blend of flashing imagery and text is hard to follow. Singer Beth Gibbons is pictured over looking troubled while the words ‘desire’ and ‘wrong’ are highlighted from the song’s lyrics.

The Submarines - 'You, Me, and the Bourgeoisie'

This one is guaranteed to put a smile on your face as the electro-indie duo star in this eye-catching cartoon style video you may recognise from the iPhone 3G ads. This animation is packed with daisy flowers, pictures of sunshine, TV sets that introduce the boy-girl pair, hot air balloons and funfair rides and is taken from The Submarines' sophomore album ‘Honeysuckle Weeks’, out now.

If you've had your ear to the ground and your finger on the pulse, you'll have noticed that something loud this way comes.

Take Lovvers, for example - recently featured in the magazine's Radar section and now back with a new single, 'No Romantics', and accompanying animated video:

It seems that recently we can't step into a venue without an amped up assault upon our eardrums from some wonderfully noisy newcomers. For those of you in doubt, check out fellow Radar stars Sky Larkin and Dinosaur Pile-Up for more evidence.

Few bands have grasped the potential of Web 2.0 technology and user-generated content as eagerly as Radiohead.

Ever since pioneering the 'pay-what-you-like' album download with 'In Rainbows', they have been inviting fans to remix and reinterpret their music, artwork and videos.

Anyone who caught James Houston's amazing remix of 'Big Ideas (Don't Get Any)', made entirely with old-school computer hardware, will be aware of the success the band have had with this approach.

The latest adventure in the world of Radiohead 2.0 is a competition to create a video for 'In Rainbows' opener '15 Step'. It seems that an early favourite in the competition is one Kota Totori. His manga mash-up is a skillfully made, entirely mental, trip into a world of dreams and huge shattering statues. Pretty cool, then.

Elsewhere, Jan Svankmajer has created a video collage to accompany the song. Again, it's pretty impressive.

My favourite variation on this theme, however, has to be the crazy fan who has synced up In Rainbows (in its entirety) with 'The Truman Show'. You know - the film in which Jim Carrey attempts to stop gurning for two hours. And almost succeeds.

The mysteriously named 'MP' tells us: "I believe this audio/visual combination was very carefully orchestrated by Radiohead and, moreover, that it serves to enrich one's appreciation of their already critically-acclaimed and fan-adored album."

Hmmm... Anyway, here's his attempt to reunite these formerly disparate pieces of art.

News that this year's winner of 'X Factor' will release (and almost certainly score a Christmas Number One with) a cover of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' has already generated much pre-emptive gnashing of teeth among music purists.

To compound the misery, the single may be competing for the top spot with another ill-advised cover, Leona Lewis' hysterical demolition of Snow Patrol's 'Run', which boats the kind of epic production – replete with full gospel choir - that even Axl Rose might think a touch overblown.

It's hard not to conclude Lewis has rather missed the point of the original which, whatever you think of Snow Patrol, did at least exhibit a measure of hushed, slow-burn restraint.

Here are 10 more examples of cover versions gone wrong. Add your own suggestions - although bear in mind I'm not looking for deliberately silly covers (eg Arctic Monkeys doing 'Love Machine'). I'm only interested in wrong-headed reinventions that try, and signally fail, to match the power of the original.

Read more...

Given that it stars Sienna Miller - a woman who once described drug-taking as "fuck loads of fun" - and accompanies the new single from a band whose frontman Antony Genn once necked "14 Es, two tabs of LSD, three grams of heroin, a lot of cocaine, vodka and a hell of a lot of cider" before running onstage stark naked during Elastica's set at Glastonbury 1995, it's no surprise there's an edge of drug-induced mania to The Hours' new video, 'See The Light'.

Miller stars as a psychiatric patient who spends a lot of time weeping, writing around on the floor and, at one point, smearing the blood of a dead cow over the wall. It's all very Damien Hirst - which should come as no surprise, since he was responsible for art direction. Tony Kaye ('American History X') directs.

When exactly did The Hours become the best-connected band in Britain?

The Raconteurs 'Old Enough'
Jack White and his outfit head out into the woods to play the travelling hobo bards, as seen on the album cover for 'Consolers Of The Lonely'. This isn't your average forest though - look out for the woman in an animated dress.

Beck - 'Youthless'
Lots of amusing arts and crafts scarecrows sing along to Beck's new tune - and for the finish, they're tastefully mounted on rods. Bizarre.

Secret Machines - 'Atomic Heels'
This video should be watched with caution purely because of its use of excess strobe lighting. 'Atomic Heels' is the first single taken from Secret Machines' eponymous new album.

Amazing Baby - 'Pump Your Brakes'
'Pump Your Brakes' hosts a confusing yet brilliant blend of images featuring New York City basketball courts, hippie torso wear and Egyptian imagery - it's different, we'll give it that.

Alessi's Ark - 'The Horse'
Featuring lots of kite flying, running horses and general whimsy, 'The Horse' is a fine introduction to the otherworldly songwriter from west London, Alessi's Ark. Think Laura Marling and you’re on the right track. This single is scheduled for release on December 8.