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Wednesday, August 31, 2011

They Live Here / News / Video Footage Fight! Ryland Bouchard vs. Lana Del Rey, and One Really Good Song

Posted by Ned Lannamann on Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 4:09 PM

Portland artist/musician Ryland Bouchard attracted a fair amount of attention recently—not from his music, which he often releases under the moniker the Robot Ate Me, or from anything released on his label Swim Slowly Records, but for footage that was plundered (or "found") for use in the attention-grabbing video for LA singer Lana Del Rey's upcoming debut single "Video Games." Along with plenty of other sources, the Del Rey video apparently made liberal use of Bouchard's short film "Good Life #2." Bouchard sent a request to Del Rey's people to cease and desist; they didn't because (as some sources indicate) it would draw too much attention to the fact that the footage was stolen. The video has since been re-edited without Bouchard's footage, and the video's current YouTube page credits where all the remaining footage came from.

A few things: As you can hear above, Del Rey's "Video Games" is stunning. It's a remarkable debut for an unknown artist, and while she looks totally glammed-out to the point of artificiality (is that collagen? I'm just asking), that's never stopped a pop star before. "Video Games" is a dreamy, swooning song with real teeth to it, making the single's release date on October 10 eagerly anticipated. (I haven't found mention of any forthcoming album.) Time—and more songs—will prove if Del Rey has what it takes to stick around, but the other songs on her YouTube page are boring, pot-boiling pop, so it's probably best to enjoy "Video Games" for what it is before making any judgment calls.

 

Comments (2) RSS

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1
Del Rey. It even spells it out for you in the first few seconds of the video...
Posted by DLS 3.0 on August 31, 2011 at 4:23 PM · Report
2
Good catch. Fixed. You know, in preparation for writing this, I typed in the URL lanadelray.com to get more info, and I ended up at her site just fine--that's where that mistake came from, if you care at all. Thanks!
Posted by Ned on August 31, 2011 at 5:34 PM · Report

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