Music Videos

We've come to the conclusion that we'd quite like it if it was 4am forever; not only would you constantly feel the joy of knowing you've got a few more hours in bed, but there'd always be an interesting Open University show about Catalan cooking or particle physics on TV.

But the idea of it being 4am forever doesn't really appeal to Lostprophets. In fact, the gloomy old Lostprophets hate the idea of it being 4am forever so much that they've written a song about it, called 4am Forever. Judging by the video for 4am Forever, Lostprophets would most likely spent their perpetual pre-dawn sitting around on their front patio looking moody in the rain and complaining about their girlfriend leaving them in a way that makes them sound a bit like Nickelback. We're not kidding either - check out the video to 4am Forever by Lostprophets.

Watch the Lostprophets 4am Forever video now 

This is all we know about Loney, Dear. 1) Loney, Dear is the pseudonym of Emil Svanängen. 2) Emil Svanängen makes music. 3) On the basis of new single I Am John, Loney, Dear makes some of the most heart-bursting affirmative music we've heard in an age.

I Am John by Loney, Dear is a hard song to peg. For a start, giving yourself a name with the word 'Loney' in it is a bit off-putting, and I Am John's black and white cartoon video - though gorgeous - doesn't even begin to hint at the cosy freewheeling twinkling warmth of Loney, Dear's music. Think a slightly subdued Flaming Lips. Think The Concretes. Think Tobias Froberg. I Am John by Loney, Dear is all of this and more - it's the perfect soundtrack for these longer summer evenings, and we're going to spend the next hour of our lives pestering Loney, Dear's record label for a copy of his new album.

Watch The Loney, Dear I Am John video now 

Our telepathy machines are telling us you're in the mood for some obliquely political raw art-punk noise - which is a flipping good job, because that's exactly what we have right here in the form of Lazer Life by The Blood Brothers.

"The Blood Brothers?" you're silently asking yourself, "Aren't they that dirty bunch of screaming noisemakers responsible for Set Fire To The Face On Fire?" And you're right - they are. But new Blood Brothers single Lazer Life is an entirely different proposition. Where Set Fire To The Face On Fire sounded like - according to us - "a nursery school being electrocuted by a maniac with a ghetto blaster" Lazer Life sees The Blood Brothers in a more reflective mood. There's a Spoon-ish Rhodes groove, a whip-tight beat and some unusually !!!-style vocals. Why, Lazer Life by The Blood Brothers could almost be a radio hit. 

And then at 1:55 the universe explodes. You'll see what we mean.

Watch the Blood Brothers Lazer Light video now 

There's not a lot that we want in a music video - sexy girls dancing, dazzling choreography, expensive locations, that sort of thing. Failing that, though, we'd be just as happy to watch members of a band punching each other on the arm as hard as they can.

And that's pretty much what I Want A Better Life by The Shakes is. I Want A Better Life is The Shakes' rumination of megalomania and materialism - and it's catchy enough - but the I Want A Better Life is the real reason why we're telling you about this. It's just members of The Shakes standing around dealing cards and punching each other on the arm. For real. Jackass-style. We're putting this online because we want other bands to see The Shakes I Want A Better Life video and follow suit. OK, we'll come clean - we basically want to see The Feeling run vans over their arms in their next video, and if the video for I Want A Better Life by The Shakes will help us get there, then it's all we can do to sling it up here.

As far as you people need to know, there's only one album coming out in the whole of 2007. It's Version by Mark Ronson; 14 good - and considerably less good - songs turned into blazing Motown dancehall stompers by Tom Cruise's favourite DJ, Mark Ronson.

Version by Mark Ronson comes out in about a month, and we've got the DTs just thinking about up. But Mark Ronson, cruel overlord that he is, is throwing us tasters of the album in dribs and drabs. First was his cover version of Toxic by Britney Spears - magically transformed into a horn-drenched anthem featuring verses by Old Dirty Bastard… from beyond the grave. And now we're blessed with Mark Ronson's version of Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before by The Smiths. Retitled Stop Me and featuring the vocal talents of promising newcomer Daniel Merriweather, Mark Ronson has taken all the drama of the original and added strings, an Unfinished Sympathy beat and more splashes of genius than you could possibly wish for. Dislike this one at your peril. 

You know Simple Kid, right? You don't? Well you should, because Simple Kid is a bit bloody good. Anyway, Simple Kid is looking for people to sing on the video for his forthcoming single TwentySomething. How? Here's how:

Simple Kid's next single will be The TwentySomething, released this June. This time around, Simp wants you to get in touch with your inner karaoke star and film yourself doing own version of the track. The best efforts will be edited together to form the official The TwentySomething video. You need not be TwentySomething to participate, and no previous experience (or talent) is required.

What you DO need is:

- The TwentySomething backing track. You can download the MP3 (sans Simp's singing) from www.myspace.com/simplekidmusic.
- The TwentySomething lyrics. Get them from www.myspace.com/simplekidmusic
-  A video camera. Keep in mind that if your video is chosen, it might end up on TV, so make sure your recording format is of a decent spec. That means using a proper video camera such as one that uses Mini DV tapes. Webcams, mobile phone cameras, and stills cameras with video functions won't be high enough quality.  And it should record sound, obviously.
- A friend (or tripod) to hold the camera and film you busting your Simple Kid moves.

Once you've made your video and you're happy with it, upload it to the video section on your Myspace profile and post it in the comments on Simp's Myspace (add him as a friend if you haven't already) at www.myspace.com/simplekidmusic. Alternatively, you can upload your video to your YouTube account and post a link in the comments on the Simple Kid YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/simplekidstuff.

That's it. Videos will be judged using a highly sophisticated logarithm based on how much it makes Simp laugh, cry, cringe or swoon. The best ones will be edited together into one TwentySomething video. It'll be like the X Factor, The Gong Show and Opportunity Knocks rolled into one. Seriously.

Got that? Good - now go and do it. No doubt we'll have the finished TwentySomething video here before June, so not only will you possibly get on telly, but you might be on hecklerspray too. Yeah, we know…

In a couple of weeks you'll get to hear the new Maximo Park album Our Earthly Pleasures. We know this because we've already heard it, and it's quite good. But while you wait for our review, here's the Maximo Park video for new single Our Velocity.

Our Velocity by Maximo Park came out on Monday, so there's a pretty solid chance you've heard it already. If so, you'll be entirely familiar with Our Velocity's jerky verses, soaring chorus and pounding synths by now. We are, and we're steadily coming to the conclusion that Our Velocity is Maximo Park's best-ever single. But you might not have seen the video to Our Velocity by Maximo Park, in which case you're in for a treat. Imagine a room full of Maximo Parks - that's the video to Our Velocity. That's a good thing, by the way - it gives singer Paul Smith to do his thing several times over. And, incidentally, is there a better frontman in Britain today?

It's become quite fashionable for people to think that the 1980s were cool. They weren't cool. They were shit. No iPods, no internet, no computer games that didn't take eight weeks to load up off a poxy cassette tape. No sir, the 1980s were crap.

But hindsight's pretty genius, and it has allowed wizards like Calvin Harris make songs like Acceptable In The 80s. Acceptable In The 80s by Calvin Harris is a hulking great slab of electropop that grabs you by the ears and blows you out of the fluorescent socks that you wear ironically because you saw a picture of Nikki from Big Brother wearing them in Heat once. Released as a download on Monday, Acceptable In The 80s by Calvin Harris is full of so many robotic disco hooks that it won't let you go all weekend, and it's got a video that's more brightly-coloured than a Tweenie with a sinus infection. You'll like it.

Watch The Calvin Harris Acceptable In The 80s video now  

Lord alone knows how much we love Drone. We've tried to convince you to love Drone as much as we do in the past, but we've only had words at our disposal, and they only have a limited impact. Now, if we could somehow use sounds and moving images…

But wait! We can! Even though we went doolally over Drone's album colourformoney when it was released - banging on about its warm pastoral electrofolk and the way the tunes never quite leave you once you've heard them like a right bunch of daft idiots - we've never been able to show you what Drone's music is like. Until now. We've got hold of a video to Drone track Hopscotch for you, and it's a doozy. Hopscotch does Boards Of Canada better than Boards Of Canada have done for the last couple of albums. It's soothing. It's mesmerising. It features a Roman centurion playing schoolyard games on an Open University set. Click the big button above and enjoy Hopscotch by Drone in all its wonderful glory. 

For a cold overpriced boring country that produced Ulrika Jonsson, Sweden sure has a lot of bands for the rest of the world to be jealous of. Peter Bjorn And John, The Concretes… um, all the other ones. Abba.

And we're going to be adding Love Is All to that list now that we've heard Ageing Had Never Been His Friend. We have to plead ignorance where Love is All are concerned - apparently John Peel was a fan back in the days when he was alive. Having heard Ageing Had Never Been His Friend, we can see why - Love Is All have been described as The Wedding Present meets The Go Team, and that's a description so perfect that we're going to plagiarise it wholesale. Ageing Had Never Been His Friend is phenomenal - fans of mental indie yelp-jangle are going to go barmy for it, especially since it's got the loopiest video since the beginning of time. If we're quiet for the rest of the day it's because we're trying to claw the sound of Ageing Had Never Been His Friend by Love Is All from our brains with a garden rake.

Watch The Love Is All Ageing Had Never Been His Friend video now