A little break from the "Perfect Pop Song" awards, because today was one of these days where you reach the end of it and "I Wanna Be Sedated" just sums up how you feel.
Neat little video, too . . . The Ramones calmly sitting there while everything goes nuts around them. Would that I could've been the one sitting calmly while everything went haywire today. Maybe next time I'll be luckier.
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
YouTube Tuesday: The Perfect Pop Song (Tearjerker Division)
Tonight's entry is the Perfect Pop Song, Tearjerker Division: "The Last Worthless Evening" by Don Henley.
I can't listen to this song all the way through without crying . . . and a talented youtuber set the song to a collection of clips from Gilmore Girls, and it's well, perfect.
I can't listen to this song all the way through without crying . . . and a talented youtuber set the song to a collection of clips from Gilmore Girls, and it's well, perfect.
YouTube Tuesday: Bulls On Parade
Tonight's clip veers way off in the other direction -- "Bulls on Parade" by Rage Against The Machine.
I can't say I endorse Rage's politics, but their videos are some of the most evocative, effective four-minute propaganda films ever made. Taken simply as art (or as craft, if you must), Rage's videos represent some of the better examples of the art form in terms of images fusing with message.
"Weapons not food, not homes, not shoes
Not need, just feed tha war canibal animal
I walk tha corner to tha rubble that used to be a
Library
Line up to tha mind cemetery
What we dont know keeps tha contracts alive an
Movin
They dont gotta burn tha books they just remove em
While arms warehouses fill as quick as tha cells
Rally round tha family, pockets full of shells"
I can't say I endorse Rage's politics, but their videos are some of the most evocative, effective four-minute propaganda films ever made. Taken simply as art (or as craft, if you must), Rage's videos represent some of the better examples of the art form in terms of images fusing with message.
"Weapons not food, not homes, not shoes
Not need, just feed tha war canibal animal
I walk tha corner to tha rubble that used to be a
Library
Line up to tha mind cemetery
What we dont know keeps tha contracts alive an
Movin
They dont gotta burn tha books they just remove em
While arms warehouses fill as quick as tha cells
Rally round tha family, pockets full of shells"
YouTube Tuesday: Hesitation Blues
A little too much soul-searching in the YTT clips lately . . . I had intended to resume the search for the World's Greatest Pop Song but then this caught My eye.
Tonight's clip is Hot Tuna performing one of the many many recorded versions of "Hesitation Blues."
As simple as it gets. A guitar and a bass. A blues song that is as straightforward as they come. But what Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassidy are able to do with these simplest of ingredients really is magical.
Tonight's clip is Hot Tuna performing one of the many many recorded versions of "Hesitation Blues."
As simple as it gets. A guitar and a bass. A blues song that is as straightforward as they come. But what Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassidy are able to do with these simplest of ingredients really is magical.
YouTube Tuesday: A Case Of You
Tonight's video is a little slide show, but I chose it for the song.
"A Case Of You" by Joni Mitchell.
"A Case of You" is Joni at her mesmerizing best, showing why she's head and shoulders above any of her so-called singer/songwriter contemporaries. Listen to Mitchell's voice in this video and it's clear (no pun intended) she sings Judy Collins or Joan Baez or anyone else of that era (or this) under the table. Her songwriting is on a par with anyone's . . . "A Case Of You" is a perfect little bittersweet bullet of a song, pure -- one of the few pieces of music I'd ever consider applying the word "luminous" to.
"You are in my blood like holy wine
Taste so bitter and so sweet
Oh, I could drink a case of you
And still be on my feet . . .
I would still be on my feet"
"A Case Of You" by Joni Mitchell.
"A Case of You" is Joni at her mesmerizing best, showing why she's head and shoulders above any of her so-called singer/songwriter contemporaries. Listen to Mitchell's voice in this video and it's clear (no pun intended) she sings Judy Collins or Joan Baez or anyone else of that era (or this) under the table. Her songwriting is on a par with anyone's . . . "A Case Of You" is a perfect little bittersweet bullet of a song, pure -- one of the few pieces of music I'd ever consider applying the word "luminous" to.
"You are in my blood like holy wine
Taste so bitter and so sweet
Oh, I could drink a case of you
And still be on my feet . . .
I would still be on my feet"
YouTube Tuesday: The (Analog) Digital Music Video As Performace Art
Tonight's clip is a video of a vinyl record playing on a turntable.
That the song, "Blank Generation" by Richard Hell and the Voidoids, is a major favorite of Mine ends up being almost an afterthought.
Perhaps it's just Me, but I sat and watched that turntable spin for three minutes and it felt like thirty seconds. It was hypnotic -- watching (and listening) to the analog . . . digital . . . something about it carried Me away.
And the song, well . . . I love the song.
"I was sayin' let me outta here
Before I was even born
It's such a gamble when you get a face
It's fascinatin' to observe what the mirror does
But when I dine
It's to the wall that I set a place . . . "
That the song, "Blank Generation" by Richard Hell and the Voidoids, is a major favorite of Mine ends up being almost an afterthought.
Perhaps it's just Me, but I sat and watched that turntable spin for three minutes and it felt like thirty seconds. It was hypnotic -- watching (and listening) to the analog . . . digital . . . something about it carried Me away.
And the song, well . . . I love the song.
"I was sayin' let me outta here
Before I was even born
It's such a gamble when you get a face
It's fascinatin' to observe what the mirror does
But when I dine
It's to the wall that I set a place . . . "
YouTube Tuesday: Who Do You Love?
One of my favorite things about youtube and its ilk are the videos where someone just decides that X might go with Y, even though X and Y are so seemingly different.
Tonight's clip is a great example of that. Take clips from the movie adaptation of Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned and pair them George Thorogood's perfect, rollicking cover of the Bo Diddley classic, "Who Do You Love?" To call that non-obvious is an understatement.
It's hot, it's creepy, it's nutty, by turns. It works. Kudos to its creator.
Tonight's clip is a great example of that. Take clips from the movie adaptation of Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned and pair them George Thorogood's perfect, rollicking cover of the Bo Diddley classic, "Who Do You Love?" To call that non-obvious is an understatement.
It's hot, it's creepy, it's nutty, by turns. It works. Kudos to its creator.
YouTube Tuesday: Sabotage
Sometimes, it just has to be the Beastie Boys. They've been around a long time in a crushingly competitive, relentlessly forward-moving genre where acts come and go like fireflies.
They've done that by maintaining a unique sound while not coming off as inflexible. Their videos are far above the hip hop standard for creativity, and they can still write and still rhyme.
"Sabotage" takes 70s cop shows (particularly Starsky and Hutch, I get the feeling) as its inspiration. It's fun, ridiculously exaggerated, yet somehow reverent to that style at the time.
"I can't stand it I know you planned it
But I'm gonna set it straight, this Watergate
I can't stand rocking when I'm in here
Because your crystal ball ain't so crystal clear
So while you sit back and wonder why
I got this fucking thorn in my side
Oh my, it's a mirage
I'm tellin' y'all it's a sabotage"
They've done that by maintaining a unique sound while not coming off as inflexible. Their videos are far above the hip hop standard for creativity, and they can still write and still rhyme.
"Sabotage" takes 70s cop shows (particularly Starsky and Hutch, I get the feeling) as its inspiration. It's fun, ridiculously exaggerated, yet somehow reverent to that style at the time.
"I can't stand it I know you planned it
But I'm gonna set it straight, this Watergate
I can't stand rocking when I'm in here
Because your crystal ball ain't so crystal clear
So while you sit back and wonder why
I got this fucking thorn in my side
Oh my, it's a mirage
I'm tellin' y'all it's a sabotage"
YouTube Tuesday: Super Freak
Tonight's clip is "Super Freak" by the late Rick James.
There are things in life that one might describe as "compellingly hideous" (or "hideously compelling," I suppose), but few can match early 80s style in that category.
Rick James, with "Super Freak" takes it all to some other level. The girls. The clothes. The glitter in his hair. The song about sex, more or less, that is incredibly non-erotic.
This video takes the carbon of a time and style and presses it into a cheesetastic diamond of pure, wildly enjoyable, horribleness.
Enjoy. You will feel physically dirty after doing so. But at the same time, so right. I promise.
There are things in life that one might describe as "compellingly hideous" (or "hideously compelling," I suppose), but few can match early 80s style in that category.
Rick James, with "Super Freak" takes it all to some other level. The girls. The clothes. The glitter in his hair. The song about sex, more or less, that is incredibly non-erotic.
This video takes the carbon of a time and style and presses it into a cheesetastic diamond of pure, wildly enjoyable, horribleness.
Enjoy. You will feel physically dirty after doing so. But at the same time, so right. I promise.
YouTube Tuesday: Let Forever Be
Tonight's clip is the Chemical Brothers' "Let Forever Be."
I love this video . . . of course like most videos I like it went totally unnoticed (not sure it was ever played on MTV or VH-1), which is a real shame.
"Let Forever Be" so perfectly captures the dreams and daydreams we all have . . . the random thoughts and urges that come to us, waking and sleeping, the jumbled-up way things happen in dreams, and the way "reality" seems to often come on in bites too big to swallow.
"How does it feel like, to make it happening?
How does it feel like, to breathe with everything?
How does it feel like, to let forever be?"
I love this video . . . of course like most videos I like it went totally unnoticed (not sure it was ever played on MTV or VH-1), which is a real shame.
"Let Forever Be" so perfectly captures the dreams and daydreams we all have . . . the random thoughts and urges that come to us, waking and sleeping, the jumbled-up way things happen in dreams, and the way "reality" seems to often come on in bites too big to swallow.
"How does it feel like, to make it happening?
How does it feel like, to breathe with everything?
How does it feel like, to let forever be?"
YouTube Tuesday: Falling In Love Is . . .
Tonight's clip is "Falling In Love (Is So Hard On The Knees)" by Aerosmith.
Aerosmith, in many ways the Amercian rock band, have it all down perfectly. Just the right balance between songwriting, musicianship, and humor. (And not shy about funning themselves -- "Don't give me no lip / I got enough of my own" Tyler sings in this song.)
And a healthy dose of eroticism, also. I can't begin to make the "story line" of this video comprehensible but there a few D/s-y type sequences.
But that's just bonus. It's a great song.
Aerosmith, in many ways the Amercian rock band, have it all down perfectly. Just the right balance between songwriting, musicianship, and humor. (And not shy about funning themselves -- "Don't give me no lip / I got enough of my own" Tyler sings in this song.)
And a healthy dose of eroticism, also. I can't begin to make the "story line" of this video comprehensible but there a few D/s-y type sequences.
But that's just bonus. It's a great song.
YouTube Tuesday: Slither
I mentioned that week in introducing the Stone Temple Pilots' clip that STP lead singer is now singing for Velvet Revolver. VR is three former members of Guns N' Roses, Scott Weiland from the aforementioned STP, and a guy from Wasted Youth for a (very) little punk cred.
Regardless of ancestry, VR can rock when they put their minds to it. Slash still still play, Scott can still sing.
I like this song, "Slither" in part for the vaguely D/s lyrics, but decent lyrics never saved a bad song. Thankfully "Slither" is a good song.
P. S. engrailed: Still think Scott's hot? In this video, I'm leaning to the "not so much" answer. But your mileage may vary.
Regardless of ancestry, VR can rock when they put their minds to it. Slash still still play, Scott can still sing.
I like this song, "Slither" in part for the vaguely D/s lyrics, but decent lyrics never saved a bad song. Thankfully "Slither" is a good song.
P. S. engrailed: Still think Scott's hot? In this video, I'm leaning to the "not so much" answer. But your mileage may vary.
YouTube Tuesday: "1979"
I'm not the world's biggest Smashing Pumpkins fan, but to Me, their song 1979 is a bona fide masterpiece.
By turns funny, then heartrending, 1979 mashes the indestructibility of youth against the inevitability of mortality and the quietly terrifying thought lurking in the background that none of it really matters anyway.
Few songs actually make Me cry. 1979 can, on the right (wrong?) day.
"And we don't know just where our bones will rest
To dust I guess
Forgotten and absorbed into the earth below
The street heats the urgency of sound
As you can see theres no one around"
By turns funny, then heartrending, 1979 mashes the indestructibility of youth against the inevitability of mortality and the quietly terrifying thought lurking in the background that none of it really matters anyway.
Few songs actually make Me cry. 1979 can, on the right (wrong?) day.
"And we don't know just where our bones will rest
To dust I guess
Forgotten and absorbed into the earth below
The street heats the urgency of sound
As you can see theres no one around"
YouTube Tuesday: Here It Goes Again
I'm a sucker for a well-executed power pop song. Toss in a cute video and you've got the whole package.
"Here It Goes Again" by OK Go is a great power pop song, and the video features some very innovative choreography.
Profound? No. Thought-Provoking? No. Socially or politically significant? No.
Just good clean fun. We remember clean, don't we?
"Here It Goes Again" by OK Go is a great power pop song, and the video features some very innovative choreography.
Profound? No. Thought-Provoking? No. Socially or politically significant? No.
Just good clean fun. We remember clean, don't we?
YouTube Tuesday: IBlinds
Tonight's clip postulates a future household product based on the interface between your IPod and your window blinds.
Hey, it could happen . . . but don't forget . . .
IBlinds won't work with just any windows, or with just any house, for that matter. IBlinds can only work with IPortals (the word "Windows" was troublesome) as part of the IHouse Live Integration Environmental Design (LIED).
LIED, of course, is not compatible with standard electrical, water, furniture, carpeting, telephone, or broadband hookups. But all are available as add-on accessories. Due to licensing restrictions water and electricity are only authorized for use in one room at a time, although additional licenses are available for purchase on-line or at your nearest Apple Store.
LIED comes with a 6-month warranty, but for warranty service the entire IHouse must be packed up (a box will be provided) and returned to Apple. Note that occupants, pets, heirlooms, and photos of Christmas 2002 should not be sent as they will not be returned.
Enjoy the video, and enjoy the future.
Hey, it could happen . . . but don't forget . . .
IBlinds won't work with just any windows, or with just any house, for that matter. IBlinds can only work with IPortals (the word "Windows" was troublesome) as part of the IHouse Live Integration Environmental Design (LIED).
LIED, of course, is not compatible with standard electrical, water, furniture, carpeting, telephone, or broadband hookups. But all are available as add-on accessories. Due to licensing restrictions water and electricity are only authorized for use in one room at a time, although additional licenses are available for purchase on-line or at your nearest Apple Store.
LIED comes with a 6-month warranty, but for warranty service the entire IHouse must be packed up (a box will be provided) and returned to Apple. Note that occupants, pets, heirlooms, and photos of Christmas 2002 should not be sent as they will not be returned.
Enjoy the video, and enjoy the future.
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