dimmer

June 17, 2007 7:44 PM

Gary Sullivan's spookily beautiful video for new Zealand band Dimmer gets my vote for video of the year, and is one of the best videos I have seen in ages.
posted by vronsky (38 comments total)

One of the comments:

"If mefites post another stupid Something Awful link they'll lose all credibility."
posted by ORthey at 8:03 PM on June 17, 2007

"If mefites post another stupid Something Awful link they'll lose all credibility."

Meaning what, exactly? What's the connection?
posted by hifiparasol at 8:06 PM on June 17, 2007

Yeah, that's crazy - that comment ORThey references is on the YouTube page for the video vronsky links. It's a mystery.
posted by jonson at 8:08 PM on June 17, 2007

weird.
posted by vronsky at 8:08 PM on June 17, 2007

Wasn't me I swear!

* flags jonson's jonson.
posted by vronsky at 8:10 PM on June 17, 2007

reminds me of this awesome qotsa
video
posted by andywolf at 8:14 PM on June 17, 2007

That thing's been flagged beyond recognition.
posted by jonson at 8:21 PM on June 17, 2007

lucky i've got my greasemonkey deleted-posts script. i'll be able to watch the video (YouTube blocked) & look up the band (MySpace ditto) when i get home.
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:25 PM on June 17, 2007

Don't start humming - Another One Bites The Dust just yet UbuRoivas. Not yet.
posted by vronsky at 8:35 PM on June 17, 2007

fuzzy = spookily beautiful?
posted by bpm140 at 8:40 PM on June 17, 2007

I, for one, found it both spooky...and beautiful.
And at the precise moment I thought " heh...any orbiting sugar cube passing that close to a cosmic ball o' fire would burst into flame!", well, it did!

oh, dear...should I have marked this with a "spoiler alert!"?
posted by squasha at 9:09 PM on June 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

I vote WANT, for what that's worth. And also [this is good], as well as "Jonathan Carroll would probably like this, so I'll send him the link."

Thanks, vronsky.
posted by cgc373 at 9:14 PM on June 17, 2007

Pretty good video and nice song, but the song on their myspace page Crystalator is a fucking blast.
posted by Skygazer at 9:19 PM on June 17, 2007

"So I don't listen to much WWG, but when I do, I'm fiercely loyal about it. I was quite sweet on the NZ rock band Straitjacket Fits in the early 90s, and ever since have kept tabs on its former frontman, Shayne Carter. Sometime in the very late 90s, Carter had Sony deliver some sort of studio recording pod to his New Zealand farm, like a plastic Pro Tools yurt, and he shut himself away, alone, for months, and immersed himself monastically in its circuits. As a musical experiment, it was akin to that movie Altered States, except with more purpose and less full-frontal nudity. He emerged with a brand new sound, something that achieved some kind of vivid electro-stupor. That sound became I Believe You Are A Star, the debut album by Carter's band Dimmer. It holds some pretty godlike activities. Especially "Under The Light" [download] and "Smoke" [download]. These songs move like the blood of a man who is 10 years into his career as an MTA night-shift train operator, and 15 years into his heroin addiction."
via
posted by vronsky at 9:31 PM on June 17, 2007

I flag the NZ flag as crap too.
posted by Samuel Farrow at 10:07 PM on June 17, 2007

Oblique comments, oblique video, oblique song. Kiwi music is so beautifully slanted and idiosyncratic and off the wall. Love it all. Thanks for the great post.
posted by blucevalo at 10:18 PM on June 17, 2007

Sorry Sam Farrow, no flag flagging, we're only flagging penises. We're not flagging flags.

* flags Samuel Farrow's penis.
posted by vronsky at 10:18 PM on June 17, 2007

vronsky, the penis flagging is elsewhere, buddy. Don't mix and match unless you've got a very good reason. Gray vs. Blue? Come on. We're trying to talk about something oblique, here.
posted by cgc373 at 10:20 PM on June 17, 2007

Straitjacket Fits! Almost the most awesome band in recorded history, no less!

I've been trying for years to find out what became of Shayne Carter, once he freed himself from that dickhead in the Futz why tried to take them too far down the syrupy, jangly path. Shayne was all psychotic angst, blood, sinew & balls.

Now, wheres that "Best. Post. Evah!" flag...?

*cues She Speeds*
posted by UbuRoivas at 10:32 PM on June 17, 2007

I want my 3:54 back.
posted by greensweater at 10:34 PM on June 17, 2007

What if I gave you 2:32 back and kept the rest?
posted by vronsky at 10:42 PM on June 17, 2007

@#%$!!! no futz here! !@$#%!@#!!! ok, dirty three: sad & dangerous. that's close enough to the mood, so perfect for a dreary sydney winter's day...
posted by UbuRoivas at 10:42 PM on June 17, 2007

* flags Bea Arthur's penis.
posted by vronsky at 10:48 PM on June 17, 2007

vronsky: do you have any of that acid left over, to share with the rest of us?
posted by UbuRoivas at 10:55 PM on June 17, 2007

I have something better than acid UbuRoivas.
posted by vronsky at 11:11 PM on June 17, 2007

!@%$@%!^$!!!

* searches for non-blocked external proxy to get youtube for me

ah, whatever. dirty three are doing it for me fine enough right now.
posted by UbuRoivas at 11:20 PM on June 17, 2007

Almost the most awesome band in recorded history, no less!

Sigh. I had a long post keyed up about going to the Fits reunion gig in Auckland in 2005, but I deleted it because I couldn't really convey how weird it felt. Such great music—such a crushing sense of the inexorable goneness of the recent past and the fleetingness of all things.

Shayne's cheekbones still looked great, though.
posted by Sonny Jim at 11:45 PM on June 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

Sonny Jim - history isn't over yet, so I can't definitively rule out the possibility that a better band will emerge sometime in the future.

then again, they've only got about ten years max to appear on the stage before the whole shebang blows, so that's what's meant by "almost".
posted by UbuRoivas at 11:51 PM on June 17, 2007

UbuRoivas, you're giving civilization as we know it "about ten years max" for its foreseeable lifetime? Or am I misreading you?
posted by cgc373 at 12:03 AM on June 18, 2007

egad, browser momentarily froze when Larry appeared and I ended up with "Crystalator" and "Gentle On My Mind" playing simultaneously in two different windows.

It was only for a moment, but there was something so wrong about it as to make it right. More meth than acid, though.
posted by squasha at 12:11 AM on June 18, 2007

unfortunately, cgc373, doomsday devices can't be built overnight...
posted by UbuRoivas at 12:17 AM on June 18, 2007

Sonny Jim - history isn't over yet, so I can't definitively rule out the possibility that a better band will emerge sometime in the future.

Excellent point. Dimmer isn't that band though, unfortunately. I know I'm not the only one thinking Shayne, for God's sakes, just reform that other band, you know, the good one.

Oh, and ...
posted by Sonny Jim at 12:21 AM on June 18, 2007

Although I completely disagree, I like the way Sonny Jim expressed: such great music—such a crushing sense of the inexorable goneness of the recent past and the fleetingness of all things.

It sounds like you missing more than just the music.

When I hear a particular piece of music I can close my eyes and feel that one moment, the point that everyone and everything came together - I guess it is just I feel the past hasn't gone, it is still here, ready to join again, whenever we choose.
posted by Samuel Farrow at 1:03 AM on June 18, 2007

It sounds like you're missing more than just the music.

Oh, yeah.

I have to say you've got a lot more optimistic and healthy a take on musical memory than I have.

My stereo just broke in the middle of my Hail marathon. Seriously. This is all your fault, Vronsky!
posted by Sonny Jim at 2:45 AM on June 18, 2007

Ah, I used to occasionally stalk Shayne Carter through the streets of Dunedin.

/creepy fangirl.

While I like what he's doing with the Dimmer project, oh gods how I miss Straitjacket Fits. Their albums were college for me. Also, man can construct a beautiful feedback coda like nobody else.
posted by gaspode at 4:04 AM on June 18, 2007

finally got to hear & see it. hm, nice. reminds me of something, tho. maybe these immortal souls. maybe bits of crime & the city solution, or simon bonney's solo album, ravenswood...?

now, to watch the entire mark e smith / fall doco from the following thread, or pursue this one...?

* tosses coin - only way to choose, sometimes.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:39 AM on June 18, 2007

Well it's certainly no Glen Campbell video, that's for sure.
posted by Dave Faris at 5:05 AM on June 18, 2007

What does it mean when YouTube just shows a spinny circly thing spinning instead of a movie? That the movie was taken down? Or just that my net connection sucks?
posted by sidereal at 5:19 AM on June 18, 2007