Video Time: American Sharks & The Ghost of Cliff Burton & The Lotus Effect (& Bonus Featherface/Buxton!)

Meant to get these up over the holidays, y’all, but things just slipped away, I’m afraid, as they always-always do. But what the hell — better late than never, right? A handful of cool, cool H-town folks have released videos lately, and three, in particular, have flattened me outright:

American Sharks – “Indian Man”
Whoa, How the hell did I freaking forget about {American Sharks}? I guess the Sharks just kinda got overshadowed by all the crazy awesomeness surrounding singer/guitarist Mike Hardin‘s “other” band, Roky Moon & BOLT!, and I’d feared/guessed they had been backburnered somewhat.

Happily, that ain’t the case. In fact, they’re releasing the much-beloved track “Indian Man” as Side B of their upcoming (next month, supposedly) WEEDWIZARD 7″. And to celebrate, they’ve released a nicely roughed-up, ’70s-/vintage cartoon-tinged video for the track. Holy fuck yeah, is it a badass song — BOLT fans, think that band but with bandannas and beer taking the place of all the glam-y stuff.

Oh, and they’re currently out on the road westward right freaking now, currently heading towards beautiful Flagstaff, AZ; if you live out west, check out the tour dates on their Facebook page.

The Ghost of Cliff Burton – “The Annexation of Puerto Rico”
And then there’s those odd, odd guys Jef With One F and Bill “Gorilla Bill” Curtner, who these days are making strange, tongue-in-cheek electro-/synth-pop under the name {The Ghost of Cliff Burton}. “The Annexation of Puerto Rico” comes off like a weirdball tone poem, almost, albeit crossed with some kind of a pseudo-sexual Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom (with Jef as “The Intrepid Explorer”).

What does it mean? Honestly, I have no freaking idea, and I’m not entirely sure I want to know. But it’s goofy and odd and fun, and I’m happy as hell to see these two ex(?)-members of {The Black Math Experiment} continuing to follow their admittedly quirky muse.

The Lotus Effect – “Blackwoods”
The last of the three — and definitely the most effecting of the bunch — this one’s actually not prog-rock dudes {The Lotus Effect} all playing together, but rather guitarist Rick Marquez sitting alone in a room playing a beautiful, murky, somewhat foreboding acoustic instrumental, “Blackwoods,” which he apparently wrote in memory of his recently-passed father Charles Marquez, Sr.

Like I said, it’s an instrumental, so there’re no words, but really, they’re not needed; the music itself and the video, which includes footage of Marquez playing, head down and intent on the guitar and nothing else, interspersed with spooky film of a misty wooded area or water flowing across stones, works remarkably well all on its own.

And hey, as an added bonus, here’re two of my favorite bands ever (from here or anywhere), {Featherface} and {Buxton}, showing their love for ABBA and Tom Petty, respectively. Hot damn.