Discovering The Ditty Bops - and seeking other music videos

I am perpetually behind in blog-reading. The main reason is time: these days there are SO many interesting and well-written blogs, and if I didn't have anything else to do, I could easily spend hours and hours just reading those. But blog-reading can be a real time-sink, and I'm not about to give up cable tv just to find something else to spend way too much time on.

But from time to time I do try to catch up on my LJ Friends List. I usually never get past the first few pages, however, because I end up following someone's link or photo or video and then end up digging deeper as I get sucked into the Web.

Like today. This time I got as far as thechasingiamb's LJ (blogger in India) where she posted some tunes to start the day that included this Ditty Bops video:



Intrigued, I checked The Ditty Bops Web site...and then, of course, I was doomed, especially when I discovered their photo and video room. Like this Extra video/interview, where they talk about their 2006 bike tour. Sadly, it doesn't look as if they're coming to Toronto anytime soon. :-(

Photo: Kevin Abosch.

The Ditty Bops Web site is fun to explore; it's much more interesting than the usual standard band site. They even have their own comic strip! Anyway, of course I bought one of their albums from iTunes, which I'm listening to as I write this Blathering; my favourite so far is "Ohh La La."

YouTube and other free video sources have been a major boon for musicians wanting to promote themselves. Not only can people hear someone's music, but they can also get a sense of their personality and (if the video is of the artist) what they look like, making it that much more personal.

One challenge, though, is that (like blogs) there are just SO MANY videos out there.

So I'm inviting you all to post a link to one or two videos (just a LINK to the video, please, not the imbedded video) to an artist or a song you think some people may not know about and SHOULD know about. If you're the artist, feel free to post a link to your own video.

Please avoid linking to a page requiring users to register or download specific software. This is where a place like YouTube is especially handy -- I know I can just click to be able to see the video.

I'll post a selection in an upcoming Blathering. Hopefully this will be of benefit to both the artists and those of us open to discovering new music but not always sure where to look.



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