While the international independent music industry is grappling with YouTube to pay fair royalties for their upcoming paid service, Central Coast band Little Earthquake are dealing with a far more trivial crisis.
YouTube have removed their latest video 'Brightside' due to the depiction of a dead fish. The clip tells the story of singer Matt Hyland (who is ironically a vegetarian) discovering his best friend the fish dead before hallucinating about taking the fish out for a drinking session. He then realises the reality of the situation before enacting a tearful burial. When you put it down in a sentence, it does sound pretty ridiculous, however the band are quick to dispute charges of animal cruelty.
“At no time did we harm a fish. For the filming we used an already deceased fish we acquired from a local aquarium,” said Matt Hyland. “In fact the clip is a celebration of the love between man and fish and a touching tribute to their relationship. We didn’t make an actual fish skol vodka and we treated the corpse with respect at all times.”
“There’s a fine line between clever and stupid,” said fellow band member (and brother) Justin Hyland. “John Butler had zombies in his clip earlier this year so depicting dead things in a clip didn’t seem to matter there. But I guess we used an actual fish. We apologise to all those in the aquaculture community whom we have offended, but that certainly wasn’t the intention.
The band will fight the ruling. An automated email from YouTube suggests they may receive a response at some point. Luckily the clearly heartless Vimeo have allowed the video to go unchecked and can be viewed here:
Little Earthquake - Brightside from GMRX Media on Vimeo.
We spoke with Little Earthquake a couple of weeks ago in this interview.
Little Earthquake - Brightside Tour
21st June Rics Bar, Brisbane QLD25th June Lass O’Gowrie Hotel, Newcastle NSW
27th June Armidale Club, Armidale NSW
4th July Beresford Hotel, Sydney NSW
20th July The Evelyn, Melbourne VIC
24th July The Globe, Brisbane QLD
31st July FBI Social, Sydney NSW
