A child cult, dusty oscilloscopes, and an extremely lecherous dinosaur puppet all make an appearance in our roundup of the best music videos of the past week, all of which have absolutely nothing to do with the actual musical or lyrical content of their videos. Still, if Mew want to disappear into some spinning dream machine, The Black Heart Procession want to be pursued by massive rats with red glowing eyes, and the Black Keys want to throw a pool party populated by prehistorics, then who are we to argue with artistic intent?
Meet the winners of our Open for Mew contest: Brooklyn-based psych-pop quartet Bear In Heaven won our hearts with their gorgeous melodies and spacious tales of teenage martyrs. If you live in New York, check them out when they open for Mew at Webster Hall this Friday night.
Bear In Heaven seem to have hit their stride lately: their sophomore release, Beast Rest Forth Mouth, dropped in October, snagging a coveted Best New Music nod from Pitchfork. Not that we’re surprised. Bear In Heaven’s music is marvelous: warm, expansive, and rich in texture, it sounds like we just opened the door to a secret wonderland — and we’re ready to get lost inside.
It’s old news that Coldplay’s Chris Martin totally loves ’80s pop band A-Ha — he’s claimed them as his first favorite band and credited them for “incredible songwriting.” Okay, we guess. “Take On Me” was a good one, and we admit that the video is a winner. But now, Martin’s bandmate, bassist Guy Berryman, is the one blessed with the honor of teaming up with A-Ha’s Magne Furuholmen (keyboardist) and producer Martin Terefe as well as Mew’s frontman Jonas Bjerre to create a new musical (and multimedia?) project they call Apparatjik. We admit, we kind of assumed that the guys from A-Ha were dead. But it makes sense that they’re not — it was only the ’80s, after all.
Danish mood-rockers Mew are returning Stateside on tour, and this time they’re helping to raise the profiles of other bands, as well. In each of eight selected US cities, Mew are holding competitions for local musical artists to submit themselves as the opening act for that night’s show. Better yet, submissions for the December 4th New York City show at Webster Hall are being handled exclusively by Flavorpill.
To enter for your chance to open for Mew at Webster Hall, just leave a comment after the jump with a link to your MySpace page or somewhere we can stream your music. Be sure to use a valid email address when leaving your comment, so we can contact you if you’re selected. Our editorial staff will be reviewing all of the entries and sending our top five picks over to the band, who will select the winner.
The latest Viva Radio broadcast featured psych-folk freak outs, mixtape mash-ups marrying the L.E.S. to the Dirty South, and a danceable take on Swedish domestic life. Culling our favorite cuts from the show, Viva la Mix is back again to hook you up with 11 of the best new tracks you’ll find online. Click through for downloads from our last Viva Radio playlist, and be sure to check back and listen to the show itself — we update every week. Read More »
. “But what do you know, folks? We just couldn’t do it,” Bjerre confesses sheepishly. 
