In Iceland, 6 January is known as Thretándinn, the last day of Christmas, when, according to folklore, supernatural beings come out from their hidden world to walk among the humans. And so it (sort of) proved last Thursday, when Björk emerged from a period of relative obscurity to kick off a three-day karaoke marathon, organised as part of the singer's ongoing campaign to protect her home country's natural resources. Happily, onlookers were on hand to film the two performances and upload them to YouTube. At bit.ly/bjorkwagon you can see Björk and journalist Omar Ragnarsson delivering a perky, Icelandic-language version of Three Wheels on My Wagon. As if to balance out that song's cheeriness, the singer followed it up with an impressive solo rendition of Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart (bit.ly/bjorklove). The recording quality isn't amazing on either, but it's certainly enough to whet the appetite for Bjork's likely return this year. Until then – and staying vaguely on the Björk karaoke theme – check out the marvellous cover of the Carpenters' Top of the World she sang for a Sugarcubes B-side in 1992, at bit.ly/bjorktop.
Echo and the Bunnymen also celebrated Thretándinn – intentionally or otherwise – by choosing 6 January as the date to begin their own three-day marathon. Over 72 hours, the band uploaded a vast archive of old gig footage, TV performances and interviews to youtube.com/BunnymenTourBlog. In all, 91 videos were posted, featuring such gems as a reluctant interview with Canadian TV around the 1984 release of The Killing Moon, a shaky mid-80s live recording of Seven Seas filmed for Brazilian TV, and some hugely evocative footage from a 1982 hometown gig at Liverpool's Sefton Park. Fans of the veteran post-punkers can expect to write off many happy hours trawling through this video treasure trove, which was presumably gathered from the band's own collection of dusty VHS cassettes.
Another act making great use of YouTube is Cambridge drum'n'bass artist Nu:Tone. Ahead of the February release of his new album, Words & Pictures, his label, Hospital records, wanted people to be able to hear the record, but also to get the artwork into their heads. To that end, they've managed to create a version of the cover art at nutone.org that has YouTube embeds of all 12 tracks seamlessly integrated into it (ie each video features one detail of the artwork). It's a simple but extremely effective trick, which has spread interest in the album around the social sites in a way that a standard player wouldn't have. Turns out the record is rather good, too, particularly the four tracks featuring R&B singer Natalie Williams.
