Music videos that feature Thunderbirds

[Dave W]

In that video it's not living up to its potential. The tone in their videos is never that good but it must be good enough to sell the items to people with enough money.

[Alanko]

I find those videos can sometimes be a bit self-congratulatory and the guy is sometimes pretty reckless in waving instruments around in close proximity to those shelves.

The audio is clearly the weak link in those videos as we are only hearing whatever the built in mic on the video camera is picking up. At times it sort of works better than a dry DI signal, but in the case of the T-bird II I feel we are missing out. I don't think Youtube's compression is the major limiting factor here.

[bassilisk]

True American hit monsters (besides the Beach Boys), live in the mid 60's. Love 'em or hate 'em, these dudes were a hit machine well into the British Invasion. We cover a couple of their tunes (Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You/December '63) and they never fail to fill the dance floor. Nick Massi, the bass player, played some pretty busy bass lines on some of their tunes, especially for the time.

[Alanko]

Julian Cope, with possibly Donald 'Ross' Skinner playing a non-reverse T-bird with covers intact. It clearly isn't Julian's bizarre double neck T-bird, F-bird mashup.

[uwe]

Alexander Hacke from Einstürzende Neubauten started out with an Epi Non-Rev (stolen in Italy), moved on to an Epiphone Elitist Rev (headstock brocken off by, no, not United, but rather Finnair) and is now happy with a Gibson Rev with TB+ soapies. He tunes it D A D A (I'm sure there must be an artsy inside joke in that tuning), which opens endless possibilities of doing two power chords with just one finger  , most Einstürzende Neubauten songs are played with that bass tuning.

[Highlander]

Could posting that be described as schadenfreude...? It meets all the criteria, mind you...

You mentioned an earlier incarnation, so with my OCD in full force...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qY3Xh3bM6Y

Some of their earlier material is somewhat more er... industrial...?

[uwe]

Their early stuff is demanding to say the least.  Ever since the Millenium and the Silence is Sexy album from which both above tracks stem, they have become this pleasantly artsy band which I much prefer. Blixa Bargeld - their frontman and singer - has charisma. I sometimes think that if the Nazis hadn't taken over in the 30ies and destroyed much of modern German art, then a lot more German bands would sound like Einstürzende Neubauten today.

Here is Sabrina with a Gibson Rev:



And here is the original vid, it's a cracker of an intense song:

[veebass]

Not a video, rather a pic from a movie.
American Satan- soon to be released.

TBird, skirt, long legs, plays with a pick, stockings and boots................ who does that remind me of?

[Alanko]

Einsturzende Neubauten was one the bands I was into in college. I had (where is it now?) the DVD of Halber Mensch. A sort of menacing art video of the band playing in a disused factory in Japan. From memory the bassist there was using a black '70s Jazz with block inlays, into an SVT. Blixa Bargeld was playing some sort of beaten up Hofner solid body. The other guys are playing lengths of pipe, shopping trolleys... cool elements of kabuki dance blended into the mix as well, and some cool jump-cut editing for the track 'ZNS'. My favourite is still the opening track Armenia, with Blixa Bargeld looking and sounding almost more like an injured dope-sick insect or dog-man than a human. This dangerously pale, thin man with clumps of hair missing.

As metalhead students we were totally into how brutal and abrasive the band was. I think there was a bonus clip or something on there, called 'Autobahn' or similar. The band are outdoors at a set of roadworks, and one guy is actually shoveling dirt and sand while Blixa sings through pitch-shifting delays and things. I wouldn't imagine a T-bird holding up very long in that sort of environment. There is footage of them playing in a small club somewhere and actually digging up the stage. It makes Pete Townshend, bouncing a Strat off the bottom strap button a few times, look positively childish and tame.

Odd to see Blixa these days as he looks so plump and comfortable; like some sort of rich German producer.

[TBird1958]

Not a video, rather a pic from a movie.
American Satan- soon to be released.

TBird, skirt, long legs, plays with a pick, stockings and boots................ who does that remind me of?

Hollywood can't come up with anything original! I feel so violated!

[Highlander]

You haven't been sleeping around again have you...?

[Granny Gremlin]

Never noticed this before, because, as much as I love The Cult, this album was the start of the end.  Definately a TBird, but only in momentary snippets vs Duff trying to pull a Slash the rest of the time. Bonus:  Slothead EB about 3 times  for a litterally second each starting at 2:16.  I doubt either of them were the actual bass played on the record (Jamie Stewart was still with them for that record and tour and he was always a P bass man, but I think the vid came a lot later - like 3rd single, and the bassist in the vid doesn't look like him but could be - hard to tell, no real good shots.... the drummer looks like Matt Sorum)

[uwe]

Not a video, rather a pic from a movie.
American Satan- soon to be released.

TBird, skirt, long legs, plays with a pick, stockings and boots................ who does that remind me of?

That's an Epi Gothbird.

[uwe]

Einsturzende Neubauten was one the bands I was into in college. I had (where is it now?) the DVD of Halber Mensch. A sort of menacing art video of the band playing in a disused factory in Japan. From memory the bassist there was using a black '70s Jazz with block inlays, into an SVT. Blixa Bargeld was playing some sort of beaten up Hofner solid body. The other guys are playing lengths of pipe, shopping trolleys... cool elements of kabuki dance blended into the mix as well, and some cool jump-cut editing for the track 'ZNS'. My favourite is still the opening track Armenia, with Blixa Bargeld looking and sounding almost more like an injured dope-sick insect or dog-man than a human. This dangerously pale, thin man with clumps of hair missing.

As metalhead students we were totally into how brutal and abrasive the band was. I think there was a bonus clip or something on there, called 'Autobahn' or similar. The band are outdoors at a set of roadworks, and one guy is actually shoveling dirt and sand while Blixa sings through pitch-shifting delays and things. I wouldn't imagine a T-bird holding up very long in that sort of environment. There is footage of them playing in a small club somewhere and actually digging up the stage. It makes Pete Townshend, bouncing a Strat off the bottom strap button a few times, look positively childish and tame.

Odd to see Blixa these days as he looks so plump and comfortable; like some sort of rich German producer.

Wow, Alan, you digging Einstürzende Neubaten, now I feel like Jake being amazed that anybody outside of Canada remembers and digs Max Webster!

Blixa has certainly fleshed out, but he still has a fascinating charisma. Doubtful that he is still the angry young man he once was (who is?), Einstürzende Neubauten's Sturm & Drang times are over, these days they inhabit their own avant garde universe of what we in Germany call Kleinkunst. He is a non-singer in a way that Leonard Cohen was a non-singer, but I like the way he uses his voice.

[Denis]

These guys have great sounding music and the bass player seems to favor Thunderbirds.