Punk rockers at the asylum, digital addiction as a FUN CARTOON!, and dancing past the anger: some vids to set you flying

Welcome to our occasional audio-visual soul refresher, dipping our cup into the creative commons of the Internet.

Above is an embed of We Were There To Be There - the amazing story below from Aeon:

Born in the New York City punk explosion of the 1970s, the music of the influential band the Cramps was built on guttural yells, dissonant electric guitar clangs and a not-insignificant amount of LSD. While the Cramps were regulars at the iconic Manhattan venue CBGB, their most famous show was held in Napa, California alongside the San Francisco-based band the Mutants – and played, for free, to an audience of psychiatric patients at the Napa State Hospital.

Featuring archival footage of the Cramps’ 1978 performance captured by the San Francisco-based production company Target Video, the short documentary We Were There to Be There recalls how the unique gig came together and generated a chaotic and joyful musical moment – for band members and audience alike.

From the Cramps’ performance at the film’s centre, the US directors Mike Plante and Jason Willis craft a broader exploration of San Francisco’s explosive 1970s art scene, as well as the lasting negative impact of US government efforts to defund and privatise mental healthcare over the past several decades.

From the Vimeo link:

Blip is a short 2D animation that explores the topic of digital addiction, an issue increasing year by year and especially during the pandemic lockdown. In an exaggerated style, the animation portrays the experience of isolation and distraction many people share today with frequent use of digital technology.

Made by Hannah Sun

As reported by Creative Review, above is one of the videos from Jungle’s new album, Loving In Stereo, “a feel good record that follows a journey of spiritual growth”. Each album track has a video with these same dancers in a kind of dance-off soap-opera:

Almost like a reality TV show, we follow a group of (exquisitely styled) dancers who have taken over a seemingly abandoned building, where they exist for the duration of the videos.

Every single track on the album has a video attached to it, which together forms a continuous narrative expressed through infectious dance routines, each shot in one take. Unsurprisingly, creating them was an intensive experience – the team performed and shot an album’s worth of videos in just five days.

Here’s a playlist of all the videos for Loving In Stereo.