{"id":8273,"date":"2015-08-31T04:39:12","date_gmt":"2015-08-31T07:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/culturedarm.com\/?p=8273"},"modified":"2015-11-05T06:36:52","modified_gmt":"2015-11-05T09:36:52","slug":"cultureteca-30-08-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culturedarm.com\/staging\/5793\/cultureteca-30-08-15\/","title":{"rendered":"Cultureteca 30.08.15"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cultureteca<\/a><\/p>\n

This week’s Cultureteca looks at The Weeknd, Majical Cloudz, and the beef that never was, with appearances from Julee Cruise and Twin Peaks<\/em>, and Kanye West at the MTV Video Music Awards. Then on to the 45th anniversary edition of The Velvet Underground’s Loaded<\/em>; an apparent baseball mishap at Tropicana Field; an exhibition in Verona by the artist Jacob Hashimoto; and finally some noisy plastic ducks.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Bar Room Singers: The Weeknd, Majical Cloudz, and Twin Peaks<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The prospect of music beef tantalisingly suggested\u00a0itself this week, scenting\u00a0the nostrils and tingling almost tangible upon the taste buds. And some distance removed from the traditional rap locales, it proposed to set two of Canada’s brightest indie talents against one another, pitting Toronto against Montreal. Alas, it was less than a misunderstanding – there was nothing to it aside from the grasping of journalists – but it did provide one of the musical week’s more humorous interludes.<\/p>\n

Apparently a couple of years ago a director named Mitch Moore worked briefly on a video with Majical Cloudz which never came to fruition. Owing to creative differences, the project was scrapped. But then last month The Weeknd released his video for ‘Can’t Feel My Face’<\/a>, directed by Grant Singer, with the song the second single from The Weeknd’s just-released sophomore studio album Beauty Behind the Madness<\/i>\u00a0– and Mitch Moore was advised to take note. He spotted some similarities between his work on the aborted Majical Cloudz video and the completed video for ‘Can’t Feel My Face’, and asserting that he sent edits of his video out around the time to colleagues for feedback,\u00a0he took to Instagram to suggest a degree of appropriation. When Pitchfork got involved<\/a>, Moore edited his Instagram post to offer a fuller statement.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/instagram.com\/p\/6xxfBYS-Om\/<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Still Devon Welsh of Majical Cloudz found himself having to dispel the notion that he and his band were personally accusing Grant Singer or The Weeknd of copying.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/majicalcloudz\/status\/636229695202308096<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/majicalcloudz\/status\/636229826291060736<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/majicalcloudz\/status\/636230161545998336<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/majicalcloudz\/status\/636230427024429057<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/majicalcloudz\/status\/636230742486478848<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/majicalcloudz\/status\/636231080861913089<\/p>\n

Following 2013’s exceptional Impersonator<\/em><\/a>, Majical Cloudz have a new album on the way, with Are You Alone?<\/em> due out on 16 October. This month the audio for one of the album’s twelve tracks was released, the beautiful ‘Silver Car Crash’<\/a>. Devon took the opportunity presented by the Weeknd scandal to reveal that a video for ‘Silver Car Crash’ is imminent.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/majicalcloudz\/status\/636240194950307840<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/majicalcloudz\/status\/636240357517303808<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/majicalcloudz\/status\/636240542431641600<\/p>\n

Aside from Devon’s lighthearted series of tweets\u00a0– and even if there is a marked correspondence in terms of mise-en-sc\u00e8ne and cutting across a portion of Moore and Singer’s videos – the very fact that Majical Cloudz had to defuse a situation, and the highly generic concept behind both videos, were equal causes for amusement. Both videos show singers standing at the forefront of stages\u00a0with their microphones, ahead of plush backdrops, in bars with careful lighting.<\/p>\n

The scenario may recall any number of music videos, films, or television shows, but I was reminded of the scenes inside the Roadhouse at the end of the pivotal fourteenth episode of Twin Peaks<\/a><\/em>, otherwise known as ‘Lonely Souls’. With FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper, Sheriff Harry S. Truman, and The Log Lady, Donna Hayward and James Hurley, and Bobby Briggs all gathered in the Roadhouse, Julee Cruise, as the Roadhouse Singer, sings first ‘Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart’, then the devastating ‘The World Spins’ – the latter song interrupted ominously by The Giant.<\/p>\n