Video hits!
Forget Sam Taylor and her ’80s hair — here are the best 50 videos of 2006
Anthony Augustine

Top 50 Music Videos—tinyurl.com/ymgw7a — Unless watching one or two entire programs to see a single decent video is your idea of a good time, you probably abandoned MuchMusic a long time ago. If you want to see the cutting-edge videos you missed in 2006, this busy blogger has put together a list of 50 favourites that are all available on YouTube. Obvious selections such as Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy and Thom Yorke’s Harrowdown Hill head up the list, but the author has also included a few surprises, such as The Knife’s We Share Our Mother’s Heath and Jenny Wilson’s Let My Shoes Lead Me Forward. A handy download tool on lifehacker.com will liberate the videos from your computer and allow you to transfer them to a portable device.

Slam Podcast— tinyurl.com/y63nvo — Richie Hawtin first hit the ’Peg in 1996, Ed Rush dropped a devastating set of drum ’n’ bass dub plates at the Pyramid in 1999, and Positive Education played the Duncan Arena in 1998 with Scotland’s Slam — many people consider these to be the landmark events of the second wave of electronic music culture in Winnipeg. Back in ’98, under a constant cloud of cigarette smoke, PE’s Stuart McMillan and Orde Meikle unleashed two-and-a-half hours of white-label techno that embraced the future without abandoning the past. Few DJ duos can pull off what these guys did in that old sweaty arena as they dropped tracks laced with spaced-out computer squeals, cryptic samples and ecstatic breakdowns, all layered across a foundation of four-to-the-floor techno. The slick Scots will probably never play Winnipeg again, so download their latest live set from their club night Pressure and see what they’re up to in 2006.

Streaming Movies— tinyurl.com/yclvep — This site may well have been shut down by the Motion Picture Association of America by the time you read this. If not, this collection of streaming videos probably won’t be around for long. With new full-length movies such as Clerks 2, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ and Jackass 2 on the menu, you can bet the MPAA will be sending the suits in pronto. The site claims only to be providing links to videos already on the web, but what they’ve actually done is given the MPAA a pretty good list of places that are hosting the files and streaming the movies. Enjoy it while it lasts.

The Evaporators vs. Franz Ferdinand vs. The Cribs— tinyurl.com/vjnfw — Mint’s Ridiculously Early Christmas party was a reunion show for Winnipeg’s Duotang, but it also featured a special appearance by Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand and the Jarman brothers from The Cribs, all of whom took the stage with Nardwuar to perform Take Me Out. Apparently Kapranos was in Vancouver recording the new Cribs album and stepped out to take in the whole Mint showcase.

Anthony Augustine is a freelance music and pop culture writer who spends way too much time in front of the computer. He also hosts a weekly two-hour electronic music program on CKUW 95.9 FM Got a site you think he should see? E-mail him at anthony.alloneword@gmail.com.