This is all over the internet already, but what the hell. The latest from OK Go: the same level of inventiveness as their previous videos, only this time with a budget. I think they sneak one edit in, but who cares? Wonder how long it took to get it right?
Archive for the ‘video’ Category
OMG
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010Leave me alone, Avril
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010An answer record to Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” from Art Brut’s Eddie Argos (under the name Everybody Was In the French Resistance…Now!). Playing both sides, Argos also provides a more positive reply in the form of a sort-of cover on the band’s MySpace page. The album, which I haven’t had a chance to hear yet, is apparently all answer records, a genre sadly in need of revival.
Think of it as the practical application of this idea:
Go get ‘em, Eddie!
tilt this shift
Friday, February 26th, 2010I would like to say just for the record that I am already sick to death of tilt-shift photography and movies (the latest offender to catch my eye is here). Like everybody else, I thought it was cool at first, but there’s too much of it now, and to my way of thinking, by making the world look like a toy or a Lego village or the set of an episode of Thunderbirds, it folds in too neatly with the cutesy, infantile attitude that infects much of current pop culture. It’s a neat technique, and I’m sure somebody somewhere is making art with it, but if they are I haven’t seen it.
R.I.P. Kate McGarrigle
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010Old school
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009“Bad Romance” may be the best song on The Fame Monster, but the hottest jam is one of the few tracks not produced by Redone: “Teeth”.
Teddy Riley, ladies and gentleman, Teddy Riley.
All she needs is a copy of Dusty In Memphis
Monday, November 23rd, 2009I don’t know if Kelly Clarkson is the best singer of her generation, but she certainly has the best voice. Comparisons to Beyonce are ridiculous—Beyonce can’t touch her. I think her only real competition may be another American Idol winner: Carrie Underwood. Underwood, though, really wants to be a country-pop star and chooses cliched, easy material. After over seven years in the limelight it’s obvious that Clarkson doesn’t much care about pop stardom; she wants to sing, and that’s all. You have to appreciate the fact that she just gets up there and belts. She still oversings at times, and she tends to be melodramatic on record, but I become more impressed with “Already Gone” every time I hear it:
And while I’m at it, a word of praise for Reba McEntire, who has obviously been one hell of a mentor.
OK, OK, I believe
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009Maybe Lady GaGa is the new queen of pop:
Get on the Train
Thursday, July 9th, 2009Coming soon: Soul Train DVDs.
Indie Pop–So Easy Even the French Can Do It
Friday, May 15th, 2009I’m finding it difficult to understand all the blog fuss over Phoenix. The singles are catchy enough, but they’re also limp and twee, and the album drags. To me they sound like Spoon without the brashness, as if Britt Daniel had decided to ape The Cowsills instead of Motown. I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, though, until the Rhapsody blog posted this tracklist of a mixtape the band put together. Has there ever been a more cliched indie mix? You’ve got your ironic pop-metal band (Kiss) leading off, followed by all the usual suspects: your mid-sixties punk, your ’60s soul (The Impressions sure, but no Motown at all?), your glam, your ambient electronic, your new wave (but, really, Costello’s version of “Shipbuilding” over Robert Wyatt’s?), punk uncles Iggy and Lou, some power-pop, your semi-pop avant-gardests like Red Crayola and Dirty Projectors, and the newest entry in the indie pantheon, early ’70s Brazilian psychedelic. Plus the required Dusty Springfield and Beach Boys related stuff (I love them both, but the indie genuflection has been too much to take for a while now). The closest thing to modern R&B or hip-hop is D’Angelo. All that’s missing is Bollywood and lounge. Well, besides African, rap, J-Pop, and any form of techno or synth-pop (and no, Tangerine Dream doesn’t count). Great records all, I suppose, but in indie terms safe and predictable. Indie may still not be mainstream, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a mainstream of it’s own, and Phoenix sails right down the middle of it. Even Disney pop is wilder than this.
Just as a postscript, the thought of French artists imitating British and American pop music made me think of one of my favorite French pop records: Michel Polnareff’s “Tout, Tout Pour Ma Cherie” (at least Polnareff had the good taste to sing in French–which reminds me, why isn’t there any Abba on that mixtape?). The video, which unfortunately isn’t embeddable, is actually a TV performance of France Gall’s “Les sucettes” (the original is here) with Polnareff’s track laid over it, but its oral suggestiveness fits perfectly with Polnareff’s catchy little ditty. If nothing else, I’d like to thank Phoenix for leading me to this bizarre gem (and lots of others). So merci beaucoups, guys, I could be lost for hours watching stuff like this:
Times Change
Thursday, May 14th, 2009Remember when everybody was so shocked by Madonna performing “Like a Virgin” in a wedding dress? These days, Lady Gaga can croon soulfully about rough sex on an afternoon talk show in an outfit that mixes cleavage baring ’70s disco denim with…uh, whatever that thing is on her head, and no one bats an eye (at least she kept her pants on). Anyone who buys into GaGa’s arty talk should catch the intro here–it’s the most egregious kind of pure pop ego flexing. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing; flagrant displays of ego are part of what people turn to pop for, but this is obviously designed to prove that she really can sing without a lot of studio effects helping her along. I still hate the song, and I’m still not sure she knows what she’s doing, but the recognizably human traits she demonstrates here almost make me respect her. Cool set, too (and I mean that literally).
