Newton’s Third Law of Action states that “To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

On the music front, we are currently experiencing an “equal and opposite reaction” as we wave farewell to the era of Britney Spears and embrace our uprising counter-culture of lo-fi viral videos.

VINCENT MOON is a favorite of mine. The Parisian Filmmaker made his mark on
LA BLOGOTHEQUE shooting TAKE AWAY SHOWS in which he filmed single-shot videos of on-the-rise musicians playing acoustic versions of their own songs resulting in a personal home-made quality music video. The videos cover everything from ARCADE FIRE to FLEET FOXES.


image from ARCADE FIRE “Take Away SHow”

image from FLEET FOXES “Take-Away-Show”

It seems that as all of us grew out of what MTV had to offer, Vincent Moon was no different- In fact, when Moon was asked in a recent NYLON interview why he started filmmaking he responded with:

“I just hate, hate music videos. I just think it’s a terrible way to represent music, it’s not even about the music anymore. I really tried to do something much more cutting edge with musicians. I approached all the bands I loved and didn’t really ask them what they wanted to do. I would just start shooting. So it would be before or after a show, when they were all in a rush. It’s more exciting to keep things improvised. We were like, “Let’s do it over there. Let’s see what will happen, if someone in the background is going to scream or start dancing!”

image from DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE “Black Cab Session”
Similarly, The Black Cab Sessions who’s motto, “ONE SONG. ONE TAKE. ONE CAB” defines its existence, also captures musicians and poets delivering their performance to an online audience except this time, they must adapt to the back of a cab on the city streets of London. The site features an intimate meeting with artists acquainting themselves with the “unusual venue.”
As it goes, the machine will try to convince you that art will only be received if it has a large budget and a pretty package but just like nature, ART FINDS A WAY.

Here are a few STRONG RECOMMENDATIONS to get you started:

LA BLOGOTHEQUE TAKE-AWAY-SHOWS:

ARCADE FIRE
BEIRUT

BLACK CAB SESSIONS:
DAWN LANDES
ST. VINCENT