wst... note: we began drafting this post tuesday (04 october 2011) morning and added to it as more information became available; so, if this post appears even more disjointed than usual that's probably why.
as brer rabbit can attest, bloggers never know what to expect to show up in our email from one day to the next.
early tuesday morning we received an email from michael barry: "email from blog - request to use 4 seconds of speckled kingsnake in our video clip" the subject line read.
he wrote that his m8's were working on the music video clip to support their single "swamp monster" and was looking to use a brief glimpse of our louisiana speckled king snake footage in it.
we have a few speckled king snake clips up and although he didnt specify by a url which one in his request, we had a good idea which clip mr. barry was on about --
with everything so far sight unseen we just assumed that they were kids in a garage band and that their single might possibly have been inspired somewhat by the history channel reality tee vee show called "swamp people," no episode of which we've ever seen but have heard of from the local media from time to time because its filmed in louisiana.
most of our clips are donated to the public domain anyway, but we could appreciate mr. barry's being careful, so we replied right away with a permission.
later we visited the bands bio page from the link in the email.
as you can see from their website they are a well established and popular band with many music videos of their original material;====
their single 'swamp monster' is on the album "nuevo retro,"
[pronounced: N-way-vo]
released 30 march 2010 ~ source: nuevo retro blog‘Nuevo Retro’ (#1 on Australian Roots Chart) has received wide airplay, including ABC Radio, SBS Radio, , Channel 9’s Today Show (which featured the videoclip for ‘Dont Get Around Much’) and their unique, self produced videoclips are in regular rotation on Channel 31, TVS and Foxtel.
it looked like they had never heard of "swamp people;"
Nuevo Retro has recently entered the US National Blues Chart in April 2011 receiving airplay on more than 160 stations across the states. ~ source stormcellar.com.au
the internet movie data base says that the 1st episode of "swamp people" big head bites it, didnt air until 22 august 2010.
in the meantime we found a blog post on their website with which they let their fans know that the 'swamp monster' video clip is completed but not ready for show.
not long afterwards mr. barry, (who plays harmonica and provides vocals) emailed us the unlisted youtube link to his preliminary version to check out.
the vid is in black and white and sort of reminds us of the work of director, wayne isham, particularly the music video 'wanted dead or alive' he directed in 1987 for bon jovi. wdoa was a hella music video back in the day and remains a classic.
we've kinda been interested in learning how to edit digital video since back in march when our cousin, who's coincidentally also australian, (on his mum's side) inspired us by his winning the 83rd best director oscar.
we mentioned to mr. barry that we liked his choice of black and white and he wrote back to explain that his band creates their own clips and the "[swamp monster] clip [is] based mostly on public domain old horror movies."
and that he used a "threshold filter for the B&W effect" mostly "because it gave it a modern graphic novel/pen and ink feel." and because "it felt natural to try and keep the vibe consistent."
the irony is that our speakers have been on the fritz lately so we can see the vid but cant hear it. so we had to phone up some friends and to ask them to play it to us down the phone line.
we can make out from our phone recording what sounds like solid slide and lead guitar work in a catchy riff and accompanied with a strong harmonica. it sounds great.
in answer to our question about whether 'swamp monster' was somehow inspired by the "swamp people" tee vee program, mr. barry wrote:no. Not related.
so you can tell that we've had quite the fascinating, informative and entertaining couple of days.
This was from an album we released in 2010, its just taken me a while to get the videoclip done.
Paul [read], our slide player, wrote this after borrowing some CCR and Pink Floyd albums to listen to for the weekend.
The lyrical content was my version of a Gothic Horror format: Part A, there is a monster, Part B: About the monster, Part C: I AM the monster (lol).
However...if the reality show wanted to use the song that'd be kind of interesting. I've always wanted to be a theme song :-)
we've gotten an authentic louisiana speckled king snake, probably, before its over with, in sight of several million australian and south pacific eyes + an open invitation that if we're ever in sydney to hang-out and party with "one of australias hardest working original roots bands." what more can any blogger ask for?
actually we would like to see the gulf coast casinos bring stormcellar over for a tour.
earlier today, (wednesday) they released their 'swamp monster' music video:
several other louisiana related clips are also used including 'la swamp hunting cabins' by frank daum - photographer: www.franciscodaum.com and another called 'louisiana story.'====
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