Here is the first installment of what will hopefully be a Sunday tradition here on the SG Newswire, a host of odd tidbits and new music videos from the bottomless internet video pit known as YouTube.

1. First up we have a music video from Samuel L. Jackson. WTF, you say? Yep, Samuel L. "Muthafuckin' Snakes" Jackson. It's a promo clip for the soundtrack to Jackson's upcoming film with Christina Ricci, Black Snake Moan, out February 23rd. The plot has been explained like this:

Keep that synopsis in mind as you watch the clip of Jackson's take on the often covered "Stack-O-Lee" aka "Stagger Lee" ,"Stagolee", Stackerlee, "Stack O'Lee", and "Stack-a-Lee"

Samuel L. Jackson's "Stack-O-Lee"


2. Long before she collaborated with Britney Spears on an atrocity called Crossroads, Director Tamra Davis made a name for herself directing cool music videos for indie and "alternative" bands like Sonic Youth, Veruca Salt, Beastie Boys (she married Mike D.) and The Lemonheads. Here's a cool short film she did for the 1994 AIDS-benefit home video No Alternative. Try to not get too distracted by Kathleen Hanna's Ski mask.

Tamra Davis's 1994 documentary short, No Alternative Girls
featuring Kim Gordon, Yoshimi, Courtney Love, Kathleen Hanna, Luscious Jackson and Huggy Bear.


3. The brand new video from the ever under-rated Scottish band Idlewild. Their new album , Make Another World, is released on March 5th. Read the SG Newswire review here.

Idlewild's "No Emotion"


4. Bat For Lashes is the non-de plume for Brighton-based multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Natasha Khan (read more about her here). Here is an oddly "fun" live version of her recent single "Trophy."

Bat For Lashes Performing "Trophy"


5. This track here by London outfit Spektrum is a current dance floor favorite at respectable clubs everywhere. The video shows Spektrum's grooves inducing mad indulgence in several fetishes, which include the use of pastries and Post-It's. Read the SG Newswire review of their recent Fun At The Gymkhana Club album here.

Spektrum's "Don't Be Shy"


6. Most SG Newswire readers are well aware at this point of The Arcade Fire's soon-to-be-released sophomore album, Neon Bible. Here's a clip of the band performing the inspired and reworked version of "No Cars Go" that will be included on the forthcoming disc. The original version appears on the band's debut EP.

The Arcade Fire's "No Cars Go"


7. The recent and creepily cool video for "9 Crimes" by total-downer singer/ songwriter Damien Rice. The video features a severed singing head, played by Rice's frequent collaborator Lisa Hannigan. It reminded me of this Tori Amos video, which is even creepier.

Damien Rice's "9 Crimes"


This Week's YouTube Gold:
8. Sorting through YouTube videos can sometime be like digging through used record store bins and scoring your own brand of gold. I discovered the cira-1980's British all-female New Wave group, Fuzzbox, many moons ago and their 1986 debut album, We've got a Fuzzbox...And We're Going to Use It, still gets regular rotations from me all these years later. The awesome proto-grrrl single from that album, "Love is A Slug," makes nearly every mix CD I make and is a "must" for every party playlist. The video is so ridiculously "'80's," you can almost smell the hairspray fumes.

Fuzzbox "Love Is A Slug"

The genre-shattering quartet of Londoners, Spektrum, have been making underground waves since 2002. Having just dropped their second full-length platter of Political-Electro-Post Punk-Funk floorfillers, Fun at The Gymkhana Club, all is set to make those waves hit big. Spektrum (Lola Olafisoye, Gabriel Olegavich, Isaac Tucker, and Teia Williams) released their debut album, Enter The...Spektrum, to celebatory ears in 2004, blowing away nearly every music-lover and critic-in-the-know that got their hands on a copy. Meanwhile, Spektrum member Gabriel Olegavich (aka "Medasyn"), has recently been receiving many accolades for his production skills on Lady Soveregin's Public Warning album, which will hopefully lead listeners to Spektrum's new and very exciting slab.


While Enter was a joyfully bumpy ride of other-worldly freak-disco, Fun at The Gymkhana Club is an even more cohesive and thrill-filled affair. Pulling from the likes of ESG, Timbaland, Gang of Four, Depeche Mode, early Human League, and X-Ray Spex - the band are a pop music history blender yet serve up something surprisingly unique. Lead-off track, the protest-anthem "May Day", is a deep and dark organ-grinder where Frontwoman, Lola Olafisoye, firmly asserts herself as the new queen with her Nina Hagen-cum-Poly Styrene-cum-Grace Jones vocal prowess. Olafisoye forgos the braggart, material-trapped, and meaningless lyrical obsessions of many dance-oriented acts, in favor of those of a more spiritual and political nature (the album title itself refers partly to colonialism). There's the anti-bling ch-ching of "Horny Pony", and the peacenik call-to-arms "Oh Build an Army", the identity-examining "The Mirror Man", and the upfront female sexuality and Prince-esque sleaze of "Don't Be Shy". While Olafisoye waxes poetic, the boys in the band excel at making one shake one's rump furiously. The band get really sexy when they slow it down, like on the dubby and psychedelic "Moody Feels Good", the dreamy synth-pop of "Fit Together" and on the slinky "Sugar Bowl", Spektrum pull off what The Make-Up were always trying to. Fun is a magical rabbitt-hole and slide-down into the vast musical wonderlandscape that Spektrum create with their utter uniqueness. Welcome, and please shimmy, shake, swagger, and strut to the beat of the revolution coming.


Spektrum have a few European dates before heading off to New Zealand and Australia in December

11/22/2006 08:00 PM - Paradiso, Amsterdam

11/23/2006 08:00 PM - Rotown, Rotterdam

11/24/2006 08:00 AM - Great Eastern Hotel, London

11/25/2006 08:00 PM - Batofar, Paris

Recommended Listening:

Spektrum Fun at The Gymkhana Club
Buy Here
Download at iTunes
Listen to tracks from Fun at The Gymkhana Club at Spektrum's Myspace

Recommended Viewing:
Spektrum's "May Day" video available to view at YouTube.com