Video Of The Week: Disturbed

After their version of Genesis' Land Of Confusion, it seems like Disturbed wants to steal the title of ''best cover band'' away from Marilyn Manson, and despite my finding them generic, cheap and unauthentic, they do pull these covers off better than expected.

Here, they tackle Simon And Garfunkle's The Sound Of Silence, in a video directed by Matt Mahurin (effects-ridden, though, and it looks like they ran out of budget near the end):



There's too much autotune in the voice for me to take it seriously, though.

Video Of The Week: Soundgarden

Soundgarden had good songs from start to finish. Well, they're still going at it after a decade-long hiatus, but they've still got decent tracks - just not as many as average ones.

But the one I listen to the most (and cover the most live) has to be Outshined, from their seminal 1991 album Badmotorfinger, so I figured I'd feature the video this week, directed by Matt Mahurin (which the band despised, assessing he had phoned it in while concentrating on the simultaneous editing of Metallica's The Unforgiven):

The ladies used to love singer Chris Cornell's long curly hair and often-bare chest, very heavy metal-like. Then again, Soundgarden were the Seattle grunge scene's heaviest act, in that they were the most obviously influenced by actual metal, whereas Alice In Chains were inspired by hair metal first and foremost, Pearl Jam by classic rock, and Nirvana by punk and The Pixies.

I've been listening to Soundgarden a lot lately. Not enough to forget about my encounter with them in 1994, and not enough to forget Cornell's solo output, but enough to remember I really liked them.

Video Of The Week: Tom Waits

Tom Waits is a singular songwriter. One of the best poets and lyricists in pop/rock, he's also the king of exploring beats, as this song demonstrates. After recording most of his albums with guest-star drummers, his recent opus, Bad As Me, mostly features his son Casey Waits manning the beat machine, and doing a great job at it.

Hell Broke Luce has a military-esque beat pattern and tells the tale of a soldier who is tired of his President's bullshit (''give 'em all a beautiful parade instead'', a direct jab at George W. Bush), doesn't understand why he's at war, and being homesick.

The video itself, directed by Matt Mahurin (Alice In Chains' Angry Chair, Cowboy Junkies' Sweet Jane, Hole's Gold Dust Woman), utilizes imagery worthy of 1920s-1930s experimental films (those of René Clair and Luis Bunuel in particular) and is worthy of being called a short film.

After being my favourite song off Waits' most recent album, this video is almost sure to make it in my end-of-the-year top-5.