Chatroulette.com is one of the latest in an endless series of internet phenomena that seemingly come from no where and blow up overnight, like a seagull with Alka-seltzer.  A 17 yr old, high-school kid from Moscow named, Andrey Ternovskiy only created the site in November and it’s already HUUUGE!  It was at least a couple of months ago when I first heard about the website, but have still never actually used it.  My immediate understanding was that it was a live chat site with video that randomly generates connections to strangers of which to communicate.  That is basically correct… basically.  The concept behind the site never compelled me to use that service and so I never have.  Since my first knowledge of Chatroulette, I gradually became aware of 2 things relating to the site.  The first was that is was more than a little start-up concept, it was already a household name.  More and more, I noticed that everybody I knew had heard of and/or used it.  Through the many comments from those of them who had tried the service, I discovered my second piece truth of the burgeoning movement: a large percentage of the patronage is made up of men cold-stroking their shafts on web cam.  A recent episode of South Park reinforced all of these ideas behind Chatroulette: it’s become a huge worldwide trend, it’s full of grimy-ass fools jacking off on display and, consequently, I still have no real desire to use their “service”.  I only recently got my first glimpse of what really goes down on the site in a non-animated format, when the Portland, Oregon-based band, NURSES decided to broadcast a live performance over on the site via webcam.  Unfortunately or otherwise, their footage does nothing to suppress the idea that’s it’s a forum for public masturbation.

Here’s the rundown of the information regarding the performance and following video which chronicles it:

“On February 23rd, Nurses played a one-of-a-kind show, performing via webcam on ChatRoulette, the latest cyber-craze. For the uninitiated, ChatRoulette randomly pairs up participants for a one-on-one video chat, meaning that to find Nurses on the site, you had to venture through some uncharted (and very NSFW) waters. Using 15 computers to stream the show via ChatRoulette, the band played a wild set for some unsuspecting internet surfers. The band has since edited a version of new and unreleased song “So Sweet” into a music video, documenting the fun that went down on the internet that night.“

As stated above, this shit is probably not “safe” for work, depending on where you work, of course.  I’m gonna break down a little bit of what you can expect in this video, so please ignore the information and/or corresponding blue time stamps if you really enjoy surprises (it is “roulette”, after all!).  First off, there are some giant, unattractive crazy boobs (1:51), a Chubby dude getting his stroke on (at 2:20), a young girl masturbating, with rap mini-posters in the background (2:32), and some other blurry erotic shit going down (3:34).  The two most surprising things in the video may be that someone is touching a dog’s weiner (3:52) and that there is a brief glimpse of the goth internet porn teen queen, Liz Vicious (3:06) who, ironically, is one of the people who appear fully clothed.  There’s an Obama mask and a girl who’s face mutates into that of an illustrated werewolf.  Most of all, NURSES performance of “So Sweet” on Chatroulette can be best accurately expressed by the words of one man who appears at the 3:34 mark of the video, “Not a dick, finally.”

http://vimeo.com/10195759

Clearly that’s enough to fill a post on the internet, and way more than enough for most sites, but, since I don’t think that many people are very familar with NURSES yet and because we already have your attention, I want to dump some more NURSES related media and info your way.  The trio, who is now signed to the amazing Dead Oceans label, began as a duo of Aaron Chapman and John Bowers.  The two, who have been a pair of nomads devoted to self, musical exploration over the last half-decade, have now settled themselves in Portland and recruited  percussionist/visual artist James Mitchell to round them out as a trio.  Most of 2009′s Apple’s Acre, was recorded in the attic of an old Victorian that they call home… for now.  The more I hear from the them, the more that they grow on me, even faster than this strange lump in my left bicep.

The following video is for the song “Winter“, which appears on that album.  It is their latest video.  Enjoy.

Based on the vocals from that you video, it may not surprise you to discover that Dead Oceans is a sister label of Secretly Canadian, of whom acts like Danielson have released works.

Now you’ve seen a live Chatroulette performance with endless no-name cameos and have watched a produced videos with no human beings in sight, so I think it’s fair to present one more video for your viewing that should be able to provide a little bit more of an idea about this trios range and abilities.  The following, my friends, is that video of which I speak and it comes from the San Francisco based site LEFT | RIGHT HAND.

[vimeo width=”600″ height=”486″]http://vimeo.com/5222119[/vimeo]

If you you liked the songs that the band was performing on the sea green piano, you can find them both on Apple’s Acre, as well.  The first track is titled, “Technicolor” and the last one is “Caterpillar Playground“.

If you’d like to see them live, NURSES are currently on a nationwide tour, which ends with them performing at the Sasquatch! Music Festival on May, 29th.  Check the tour dates below.

TOUR DATES:

04/14/10 Buffalo, NY – The Ninth Ward  w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/15/10 Winooski, VT – The Monkey House  w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/16/10 Montreal, QC – Petit Campus  w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/17/10 Toronto, ON – El Mocambo  w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/20/10 New York, NY – Highline Ballroom  w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/21/10 Cambridge, MA – Middle East Downstairs  w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/22/10 Philadelphia, PA – World Cafe Live Upstairs  w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/23/10 Washington, DC – Black Cat  w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/24/10 Greensboro, NC – Guilford College  w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/26/10 Chapel Hill, NC – Gerrard Hall  w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/27/10 Asheville, NC – Forsythia Hall   w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/28/10 Atlanta, GA – The Earl  w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/29/10 Birmingham, AL – The Bottletree  w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
05/02/10 Austin, TX – Stubb’s BBBQ  w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
05/04/10 Phoenix, AZ – Rhythm Room  w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
05/05/10 La Jolla, CA – UCSD – The Loft  w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
05/06/10 Los Angeles, CA – The Echo  w/ Spindrift
05/08/10 Brookdale, CA – Historic Brookdale Lodge  w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
05/09/10 San Francisco, CA – The Independent  w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
05/11/10 Portland, OR – The Mission Theater  w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
05/12/10 Vancouver, BC – St. James Hall  w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
05/14/10 Edmonton, AB – Brixx  w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
05/15/10 Calgary, AB – Local 522   w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
05/29/10 George, WA – Sasquatch Music Festival, Yeti Stage