Stereogum’s 25 most anticipated albums of 2010
We haven’t even given this decade a proper send-off yet but 2010 promises new albums from MGMT, Four Tet, LCD Soundsystem, Interpol and Joanna Newsom. Stereogum counts them all.
Listen at Stereogum

Amazing photos from the Arctic
Paul Nicklen spent 15 years photographing wildlife in the coldest regions of the world. The results are stunning.
Photos of the Day

Nerd President
While Obama’s healthcare reform plan might not be going so well, this photo ensures the support of thousands of sci-fi geeks.
http://short.ie/nerdprez

Divorce Cakes
A collection of rarely-celebrated marriage breakups in cake form.
http://short.ie/divorcecakes

Sci Fi film countdown
Wired Magazine chronologically highlights the best sci-fi movies of all time.
http://short.ie/scififlicks

Top 50 Music Videos of the 2000s
As chosen by Pitchfork, the best music videos of the last ten years.
http://short.ie/mv50

Snatch Wars
A video mashup between Guy Richie’s East-End gangster film and Star Wars introduces us to a foul-mouthed Brick Vader, London’s Lord of the Sith. Play nice now or he’ll cut your f**kin’ jacobs off.

Marina and the Diamonds – I Am Not A Robot
If this Greek/Welsh popstress is not a huge star in the next six months, I will eat my hat. The magnificent ‘I Am Not a Robot’ is the new video taken from The Crown Jewels EP.

Hoarsebox – Rosey
Dublin’s Hoarsebox are the latest recipient of a video from the 99 Dollar Music Video site. The video was directed by Dave Jackson for the grand total of €31.
http://www.99dollarmusicvideos.com

• Californian indie band, Cold War Kids who released an interactive video for their new single “I’ve Seen Enough” which allows the viewer to select, mix, solo and mute each band member playing different four different versions of the song, picking and choosing from original, electronic, acoustic, and dub takes as well as the accompanying band member performance footage. The video has given the band a second buzz ahead of their forthcoming album.
• A Spanish band called Labuat has produced a linear interactive experience for their song “Soy Tu Aire” which features exploding patterns, butterflies, fish and mini-scenes along an inked thread across the screen controlled by the mouse. The ink gets thicker and more vibrant as the song’s dynamics reveal themselves. (Video here)
• Back on Youtube, the new annotations feature has allowed people to hack some elements of interactivity into the site. The video for Iggy Pop’s “King of Dogs” allows you to choose from three different dog characters to be your main character in the video with while taking the annotations feature to the max is the YouTube Mosaic Music Video which has a genetic video makeup of 1.4 million tiles and thousands of Youtube video stills and links to every video featured when a frame is clicked.
• Favouring a fully interactive experience, the absolute standout video for UK singer Julian Perretta’s “Ride By Star” has some serious out-of-the-box (and screen) interactivity. With the use of a webcam and a printout of a tracker provided, the viewer can watch the video project itself onto the tracker through the webcam using a technology called Papervision. See the awesome demo.

The Takeaway Show -Vincent Moon invites indie artists and bands to sing a few songs acoustically in the streets of Paris which he shoots and posts on the internet. The result has been some stunning performances from Bon Iver scaring tourists on the streets of the city, Arcade Fire playing in an elevator and Yeasayer playing on a train.

Kutiman – An Israeli musician has taken clips of people playing along to songs on Youtube and has mashed them up to the point where these disparate musicians are now a band playing along to one single song.

Chairlift’s Evident Utensil – Stunning use of a new technique known as pixel-morphing which apes poor internet video streams to brilliant effect.

Also used by Kanye West.

Fever Ray – Two stunning atmospheric videos for Swedish artist Karin Dreijer’s solo project
If I Had a Heart

Loads more in the read more.

When I Grow Up

Radiohead’s House of Cards – The world’s first music video made solely of 3D images of objects, shapes including the band. No cameras or lighting was used in the video.

Halfset Visual DVD – A specially commissioned DVD of visuals accompanied Halfset’s Choice-nominated album Another Way of Being There. Four of the videos are on the band’s MUZU channel.

Fleet Foxes’ White Winter Hymnal – Old school animation techniques make this video a winner.

It Hugs Back’s Now + Again – An intricate example of large-scale stop motion with walls of moving Tetris blocks.

Five great (and new) Irish music videos:

1. Fight Like Apes – Tie Me Up In Jackets by Eoghan Kidney

2. Grand Pocket Orchestra – Ballet Shoes by Luke Franklin and Deirdre O’Toole.

3. The Blizzards – The Reason by Wyld Stallions

4. Cap Pas Cap – We Are Men by Sam Boyd

5. Sarsparilla – The Count by Feargal Brennan