Archive clip: Shelf Life - 'Stepping Razor'

I've been trying to upload a new video to my YouTube channel every two weeks this year, as a way of building audience, increasing the amount of personal output and keeping a hand in while my attention is held by the diploma I'm squeezing around the day job. So far, it's proved fairly manageable and has meant that I don't drop off the social radar of my own web networks for too long!

The latest video to go this weekend was another clip from the Shelf Life archive. This video was shot in 2005 and has the band performing a cover of Peter Tosh's signature tune 'Stepping Razor' as our show closer. As with most of these archive clips, the quality isn't great but it's enough to get a feeling.

I'd wanted to cover the song for many years, having first heard it in Brighton back in the mid-90s. Never quite had a band that would be willing or likely to take it on until Shelf Life. Keisuke, our guest guitarist for that show, does a pretty mean job on delivering some of the guitar anger of the original.

A fun song to sing too.

New York City in miniature (WN0028)

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

I stumbled across this little gem this morning, via a mailing list I'm on. The film depicts a day in the life of New York City, as seen in miniature, as was made by Sam O'Hare. I've come across the miniaturisation technique used in the film for photos before (known, I believe, as tilt shifting), but this is the first time I've seen it used for video. Nice work, Sam!

Ah, NYC, some day we shall make our acquaintance.

I was going to post a review of the previous decade on this blog, but the piece of writing has ended up being so long that I think it's better suited for the Collected Writings one. In editing stage at the moment, so hold tight - almost there.

Check out this site and this one to tilt shift (miniaturise) your own pictures. Go here for an interview with the filmmaker, who explains that this incredible technique was all done in post-production, and using time-lapsed stills.

Listen to the new Gil Scott-Heron album 'I'm New Here'

This is kind of blogging on the fly, but I stumbled across this gem earlier on today and although I've not heard it yet, was so excited to hear that there's a new Gil Scott-Heron album coming out and finding that it was possible to embed a preview of the album in blogs that I thought I'd throw this one up before I left the house today. Not sure how long the widget will stay active, but while it's here, it's got to be a good chance to hear what's likely to be an amazing piece of work.

I'll listen to it later, but if anyone catches this before me and likes it, do feel free to drop a comment and let me know what's good. Any particular favourite tracks? (came via The Guardian).

Archive clip: Shelf Life - 'All The Young Dudes'

I'm not really able to get my teeth into any major creative projects for much of this year, as I've got my head down while I focus on my studies (as best I can anyway). However, I still can't resist doing the odd thing every now and then, plus I've still got a backlog of ideas for doing and making stuff that has been clogging up my brain for several years. One such activity is digging through the archives every now and then, and throwing out the odd piece of content that hasn't yet seen the light of day.

Although unfortunately much of the Shelf Life live footage from our gigs at Rubber Soul is of fairly limited video quality, I still feel that the above clip manages to capture a little of what we were about. Our version of the old Mott The Hoople song (written by Bowie in 1972) was used to close a show from 2005. We had a guest guitarist join the line-up at the time, and only played the song that one time.

Hope you enjoy it - there's more from the Shelf Life archives on the way throughout the year.