20 June 2006

Victor Scott

When bands send me music there's a multitude of ways in which I end up listening to their stuff. Inevitably though, it all gets put into this massive playlist on my iPod called 'New Bands To Check Out'. Sometimes I go through in the order they're in, other times it's on shuffle. But each time I hear something that catches my attention I'm sure to look and see just who the artist is. A few days ago, I was listening to what I thought was a shuffled version of this playlist. First song, nah. Next. Second song...meh, next. Then came this ragtime guitar strumming. YES, I thought. Got me grooving right away with the ethereal backing bit...is that a guitar or keys? Whatever. Either way it's goo...oh, it's over. I hit the back button to listen again and see what it was. Victor Scott eh? "Whodat?" I wondered, and then calmly went on to the next song.

Turns out I had been sent Victor Scott's entire new album Happy Days and was just beginning to listen to the whole thing. I wasn't aware of it for some time though. That first song I heard is called "Chimp Farm" and when it gave way to the next track, "Gotta Go", I assumed shuffle had taken me to another artist. I liked what I was hearing in "Gotta Go" though, so I checked out who it was. Victor Scott again, interesting. Not unusual that shuffle wouldn't really shuffle though. Hmmm, next song. The next track began playing, "Oh cool" I thought, "this is nice Kinks kinda stuff, I like it". Then I checked the artist once again and, again, it was Victor Scott! I finally understood. The tiny jukebox was NOT on shuffle, I was just being a fool. What's that saying that Bush slaughtered about fooling me once/twice? Anyway, by the time I knew what was going on I was on to track number five and seemingly the fifth genre in five songs. Five really good songs. Hmm, must learn more about Victor Scott!

(below, a bit more about Victor Scott)

Victor Scott was born in London and then moved to Massachusetts and then Vancouver. The bio on his site is maybe a bit much to copy and place here, or even summarize. Let's just focus instead on the final line of that bio: "Like every other musician, Victor wishes he was in Deerhoof". Well put Victor. The music he makes isn't so much akin to Deerhoof (other than in spirit perhaps) but is rather a cornucopia of styles. There's surf-rock, sample based stuff, quiet folk-y pop-rock, guitar rock, Beck style jams, a song about underpants...the list goes on and on, just know that this is an album you need to hear. As each song carves a worthy sonic path through the thick brush of your mind remember that it's all the work of one guy - Scott, Victor Scott. No wait, let me try that again. A martini...shaken, not shuffled. No! Damn. Again. Happy Days straight up, not shuffled...check it out, it's fab. Scott, Victor Scott. Do it.

Listen:
"Gotta Go"
"Mareel"

Watch:
"Fortune Favours the Brave" (done by Mike from Nothing But Green Lights)

Visit Victor Scott on MySpace.

Go HERE to buy some of his stuff!

Other people talked about Victor Scott before me:

***also, if you find yourself dancing along to "Gotta Go" and feel like you'd like to be in the video for it, you're in luck! find out more info HERE***

3 comments:

Tim Young said...

I'm sending my video of myself dancing today! I need company though ....

Anonymous said...

count me in. video, dance.

mike said...

I sent my vid in today!