OK
A few days ago we looked at a couple who made Space TV from their home.
Now, our friend Eric has turned us on to Pamplamoose, a couple who make music videos (and music) from their home.
Pomplamoose is an American indie music duo consisting of multi-instrumentalists Jack Conte and Natalie Dawn Knutsen (who performs under the name Nataly Dawn). The band was formed in the summer of 2008.[2][3] The duo sold approximately 100,000 songs online in 2009.
I just copied that from Wikipedia to make sure I got it right.
If you want to get a complete sense of what their lovely world is like, check out their youtube channel.
I love their intro video, which, alas, is not embeddable. (Note the interruption by the cat).
They are so real and so talented. It’s a classic example (I hope) of bypassing the conventional music industry and bringing their act direct to the world through both usic and video.
I revert back to Wiki:
Despite the group’s presence being mostly through video uploads to YouTube and MySpace with few live performances, the collaboration has garnered significant fan support, with over 205,000 subscribers on their YouTube channel as of December 2010. The group first gained widespread recognition when their video performance of Hail Mary was featured on the front page of YouTube. The duo recently produced the latest studio album of Julia Nunes.
Their videos mostly take the form of “VideoSongs”, a medium Jack Conte defines with two rules:
- What you see is what you hear. (No lip-syncing for instruments or voice)
- If you hear it, at some point you see it. (No hidden sounds)[7]
On April 11, 2010, the band was interviewed on NPR‘s All Things Considered. Conte discussed the “glitz-free” manner in which they record:
I guess I kinda don’t like how there’s such a pedestal for music culture and especially for band culture, it just feels fake; it feels like smoke and mirrors. I feel like music doesn’t have to be like that. It can be something that’s very normal and very accessible.—Jack Conte[4]
Also in April of 2010, their cover of The Chordettes‘ “Mr. Sandman” was used in a commercial for Toyota‘s Avalon series, set in an art-deco train station.[8][4]
In September 2010, Pomplamoose recorded a collaboration with Allee Willis entitled “Jungle Animal”. Willis contacted the duo after hearing their cover of “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire and offered to write the new song for them. Willis also provided the single art for the song. [9]
During the Christmas season of 2010, Pomplamoose performed in several ads in the style of their YouTube videos for Hyundai singing their versions of the Christmas classics such as “O Come All Ye Faithful“, “Jingle Bells“, “Up on the Housetop” and “Deck the Halls“.
As we like to say around here:Â So far, so good!
Congrats Pomplamoose Music and thanks Eric B!