Here’s a sexy music video from Brooklyn rapper Theophilus London. “Wine and Chocolates” is fantastic cut from London’s recently-released Timez Are Weird These Days. The concept for this clip is pretty simple: Theophilus + ladies. Oh, and a zebra. Not a life-changer, but the song is DOPE.

If you’re interested, here’s a very favourable review of Timez Are Weird from AbsolutePunk.net. (Evidently, they’re not too strict about being absolutely punk.)

I recently gushed about Twin Sister’s latest record In Heaven, and after seeing this fantastic video I am absolutely sticking to my words. The spooky clip for “Kimmi In A Ricefield” was co-directed by the band’s drummer, Bryan Ujueta, and based on on a ghost story penned by the band’s frontwoman Andrea Estella (who also acts – she’s the beady-eyed one). Terrifying and beautiful.

Now in its sixth year, the Polaris Music Prize honours the best Canadian album of the year, “regardless of artistic merit.” Part of that honour is a whopping $30,000 cheque. I caught up with a handful of the nominees at the Polaris gala, including electro buzz band Austra, avant-pop outfit Braids, East-coast favourites Hey Rosetta!, and Canadian pop veteran Ron Sexsmith. Below is a list of the ten nominated albums, and as for who won? Well, you’ll just have to watch. READ MORE »

Spank Rock doesn’t tend to take themselves too seriously – album titles like YoYoYoYoYo and the forthcoming Everything is Boring and Everyone is a Fucking Liar would support that assertion. The music video for “#1 Hit”, the second single from Everything is Boring tells a story about a white nerd looking into the mirror and seeing himself as a black rapper. Then he gains magical powers magical, goes insane, and becomes addicted to hard drugs. Can you blame him?

If you like this, be sure to check out the music video for DTF DADT, the first single off the new record.

Two hyper-extended thumbs up go to Mount Kimbie for this song and video. “Carbonated” is an outstanding clicky post-dubstep track from the British duo’s acclaimed 2010 full-length Crooks and Lovers. The song’s coy minimalism contrasts the shots of sleepy clubbers walking home in the early daylight hours, and even more dramatically contrasts the in-da-club scenes that make up the latter half of this clip. Tyrone Lebon directs.

Fun fact: James Blake used to be a touring member of Mount Kimbie.

Yesterday was a big day for indie album releases, one of those being Neon Indian’s Era Extraña. If you haven’t gotten a chance to hear it yet, expect an amazing mix of strange synthesized sounds, catchy dance melodies, and an overall ‘chillwave’ vibe (as they say). It’s a strong follow-up to their 2009 debut Psychic Chasms, and an arguably better album overall.

Here, we have the music video for “Polish Girl,” the second single off of Era Extraña. It features shots of the man behind the band, Alan Polomo, looking really fuckin’ cool, woven into a futuristic love story between a cyborg and a human who can’t be together because DUH cyborgs and humans can’t be together. The clip is by established director Tim Nakashi and produced by The Creators Project, Neon Indian, and Mom + Pop Music.

On a side note, Polomo is only 23, and you are now feeling ashamed of your complete lack of success. (Sorry.)

New York based band Yellow Ostrich recently got signed to Barsuk Records and subsequently re-released their debut LP, The Mistress. Since initially self-recording and self-releasing the record pre-Barsuk, composer Alex Schaaf has enlisted the help of Jon Natchez (bass, horns, vocals) and Michael Tapper (drums, vocals) to fill out YO’s sound (which, as you can tell by the “oh oh”s in WHALE, is heavily based on vocal loops). One of the perks of signing to a record label is getting a little dough to create a music video, and they’ve done just that. Here’s the clip for “WHALE”, which follows Schaaf as he’s running away from torch holding predators through a forest and a body of water. Directed by Eric Gross, the gorgeously shot video is full of rich colours and goes perfectly to the beat and dynamics of the song.

If you haven’t watched our Feedback interview with Yellow Ostrich, watch it here. And if you have seen it, why not watch it again?

Experimental saxophone virtuoso and multi-instrumentalist Colin Stetson has worked with a number of acclaimed artists – Tom Waits, for one – but it’s with his new album New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges that Colin puts himself in the spotlight. The record is a mind-blowing forty-four minutes, mostly showcasing Colin creating unearthly sounds with his bass sax. No surprise that it’s on the short list for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize. Stetson spoke to Side B about Judges and more.

Above is the hilarious music video for “Santa Fe”, a bouncy single from Beirut’s recently-released record The Rip Tide. The video starts out very dark, but then BAM next thing you know there’s a dog eating pizza! I wish I was that dog. Or maybe I wish I was that pizza. Most of all I wish I was Beirut frontman Zach Condon, who was in fact born in Santa Fe.

Here’s a fun clip of Chelsea Handler interviewing Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl on her show Chelsea Lately. Conversation topics include eighty-five year old actress Cloris Leachman, the demise of rock and roll, turning down Glee, and the Foo’s amazing “Hot Buns” tour promo video (which is in fact inspired by Grohl’s first-hand experience).