Video Of The Week: Kwabs

I didn't have my mind set up on a specific track to feature this week, but when I fell on British R&B singer Kwabs' Walk recently after months of not hearing it, it just made sense to me. It reflects parts of my current life, parts of my recent past, and parts of life in general where you've got to keep your chin up, and move on to bigger and greater things.

In a ''very post-millennial music world'' turn of events, I just realized today that while the song was released in September 2014, the album it will be on is only set for release in September... 2015. Singles: the way of the 1950s, and the way of the present.

I'm sure it must have cost a shitload of money, but the special effects used in the video are both subtle and impressive, and they blend with the beat and picture seamlessly - a fine piece of direction and editing by David Mould, I really like how they increase in intensity all the way through:

Video Of The Week: Alabama Shakes

A month and a half since it was released, Alabama Shakes' second record, Sound & Color, is having a similar effect on me as last year's Transgendered Dysphoria Blues by Against Me! in the sense that I've been listening to it non--stop, on repeat, in order or randomly, ever since.

Leader Brittany Howard penned most of the tracks herself, and because I'm still waiting for official videos for some of the standout tracks, I decided to feature the title song this week, in a video directed by James Frost (Norah Jones' Come Away With Me, Radiohead's House Of Cards, OK Go's This Too Shall Pass), featuring a gripping performance by actor Kenneth Morgan:



I'm not the ideal target audience for anything that remotely seems like it could become 2001: A Space Odyssey, because I do not have another 3 hours of my life to waste on feeling 5 years older by the time I'm done with it, but this wasn't half bad.

Video Of The Week: Alabama Shakes

So many choices this week (Nick Cave, Mindy McCready), but the one act that I just had to feature was Alabama Shakes. Up until a week ago, I had no idea they even existed, but thanks to lead singer-guitarist Brittany Howard and bassist Zac Cockrell playing in the Levon Helm tribute (singing ''The Weight'') at the Grammys two Sundays ago - Howard out-piped Mavis Staples, a very rare feat indeed - they are now a household name.

And this past Saturday, they rocked the hell out of Saturday Night Live performing two songs, including this one, which is a simple, repetitive groove, simple lyrics, but a gut-wrenching performance to bring it all home.

R.I.P. Don Cornelius

February starts off on a sad note, s the creator of TV's Soul Train, Don Cornelius, shot himself to death this morning.

He was 75.

Video Of The Week: Cee-Lo Green

Yes, him. You know him from his rapping days in Goodie Mob, from his singing in the electro-pop duo Gnarls Barkley, and now he's gone solo again with his album The Lady Killer and the the web-video of the Fall season, Fuck You!

Sure, the video is very similar to Sean Kingston's Beautiful Girls, both in colours, images and theme - but it's assumed. And, of course, features the four-letter word that will both ensure he can never perform it on network TV in the U.S. but will also get him enough notoriety to actually make it onto those shows. Catch-22? More like ''catch all you can''. Kudos, Cee-Lo Green.