My Brain Is Melting

Found out about Yooouuutuuube from Alex. Here's a few I came up with.

The first thing that came to mind.

Even more beautiful than the original video.

It's like a magic eye painting!

Not for the easily seasick.

Hell.

Eminem, "3 AM"

You know what would have been really scary, Eminem? If you were wearing clown make-up.

RIP Ricardo

This remains awesome.



Did you know he was married to the same woman, Georgiana Young, for 63 years, until her death in '07? I would kill to read their love letters. You know they're florid.

Holidays are over, and hopefully so's my cold, so expect regular posting to resume.

"Run" Fun

Two visual interpretations of Gnarls Barkley's "Run" I prefer to the actual video. One from the band, and one from a fan.




(The 2nd chorus is clumsily lengthened to no positive effect in this clip, but I still enjoy it a lot)

AC/DC Shreds

Thought all of these had been chased off YouTube. Happy to say I was wrong.

WHOOPS

Earlier today, I accidentally posted one of Andy's letters onto this blog. Apologies to anyone confused or frightened. Apologies to Andy, too - I didn't mean to take credit for his work.

This Was #12 On The Pazz & Jop Singles Poll

And yet I can't believe anyone enjoyed listening to it.



Eminem, if that 3% possibility happens, I'm going to blame the lack of a "Mosh '08."

You Kids Don't Know PM Dawn?

Boston Arts Academy students (more here) paying homage to videos at least a decade old. I'm assuming their teacher must have shown them a bunch taped in the '90s---how else would kids today know about Kris Kross?

It was the "Jump" homage (starts at 2:20) made me realize that, to a 17-year-old today, videos from my youth must be as hilarious as, oh, Flock Of Seagulls was to me at that age. "LOL! THESE KIDS ARE FIERCE!!! WHY ARE THEIR CLOTHES ON BACKWARDS?!?!?! OMGWTF!!!!" As a kid, I always wondered how people could earnestly be into '70s and early '80s fashions. Now a new generation gets to laugh in bewilderment. I wonder if I'll tell my hypothetical child about the day I tried to play basketball after school with my clothes totally krossed out.

Separated At Birth?

Built To Spill, "Twin Falls" (1994)



Biz Markie, "Let Me Turn You On" (1993)



Did Doug steal Biz's failed high note, or did they both stumble onto this great off-key hook?

Think LCD Soundsystem Would Let McCain Play This At Rallies?

MCCAIN 2008: I WAS THERE!

If I was a film professor, I would assign students to make Electric Six videos.

Neil Young, "Love/Art Blues (live in Amsterdam, 2008)"

Love Theme From "Web 2.0"

I was hoping to spend today thinking about anything other then the internet, but Emily Gould's "Exposed" and Weezer's "Pork And Beans" video put the kibosh on that. Both kind of feel like tail-eating themselves moments, and naturally I prefer the one under three minutes thirty with great editing and overdrive pedals more than the one ten webpages long and written like a college admissions essay. But while there was plenty to prune, I'd rather read "Exposed" than a piece by or about Gould extrapolating insights into "the blogging generation" from her experience. The newsworthiness of it (at least to those actively participating in Web 2.0) is obvious by the number of people who've read it all the way through, whether or not they were bored the final product*. While, thankfully, she didn't trump up the piece by claiming so herself, many of her observations could be seen as common among folks with an online social life, even universal.

Knowing that the worst of my online oversharing is still publicly accessible doesn’t thrill me, but it doesn’t scare me anymore either. I might hate my former self, but I don’t want to destroy her, and in a way, I want to respect her decision to show the world her vulnerability. I’m willing to let that blog exist now as a sort of memorial to a time in my life when I thought my discoveries about myself and what I loved were special enough to merit sharing with the world immediately.

That this penultimate paragraph is followed by one repping her current blog is annoying, but "Exposed" gives a definitive look at where personal blogging can take someone, emotionally and occupationally. An article "about" bloggers would be written to the uninitiated, and the debate would be over whether the piece "got it right." Having a livejournal post on the cover of the NYT magazine doesn't suggest how things have changed, it proves it.

"Pork And Beans" is nowhere as self-revealing, but the way Weezer exploits, legitimizes, celebrates and identifies with the subjects of viral internet humor is equally an acknowledgment that things have changed; its such an overt surrender to web culture at its most potentially humiliating that it might as well be titled "Youtube Killed The Video Star." The clip is oddly moving for me, providing a context for the song that takes my attention away from the overly specific whiny meta of the verses and puts it on the defiant, unapologetic chorus: One look in the mirror, and I'm tickled pink. Where most entertainers are looking for a way to maintain some dignity and distance, Weezer soaks in it.

The information industry is being sucked into a new marketplace, and will be whether or not it can find a way to turn public attention into enough loot to maintain its current size and structure. I appreciate Emily Gould and Weezer speaking up for the people caught up in it, whether or not that was their intent.


==
*I don't usually claim that attention proves merit, but people aren't angry because she's wrong, they're angry because they think she's overpaid.

Despite worshipping Big Star's Third since high school, my admittedly diminshed antipathy for their first two albums (described in a review that actually inspired someone to post my address and phone number on Hipinion, promising to kick my ass) kept me from bothering to check out the Box Tops, the genuinely successful band Alex Chilton led in his youth. Despite reading plenty about his change in vocal style, I still wasn't prepared for just how gritty his baritone was at 18. Even you know "Cry Like A Baby" by heart, you need to check out his dancing.

In the hustle and bustle of the last month, it appears I missed the release of a new Electric Six video. It's probably their finest since "Dance Commander," and definitely the finest of those with no apparent budget. Four albums in, I cannot fathom a finer band this decade than Electric Six. No one comes closer to capturing the giggly sense of apocalypse, the sound of hearts learning to live in an ironic hell of their own devising. Someday I hope to debate this lack of fathoming with someone who has actually heard all four albums. Thing is, I'm afraid of other hardcore Electric Six fans. They must be some sick puppies. Everyone I see at an E6 show is dressed pretty square (no Warhol superstars) even though they're inherently disco-metal nihilists taking part in a secret revolution, bathing in an invisible bonfire of crafted uncool. Sadly, it's likely they don't realize they're taking part in this secret revolution, which doesn't say much for their cognitive abilities. I don't know if I ever want to spot an Electric Six shirt on the street - it just couldn't bode well for the world.

A 60's singer, an '80s song, a '90s video. Guaranteed ironic fascination for 2008.

A few weeks ago, before moving, I used a decade old copy of Billboard's Top 40 Hits as a guide and downloaded dozens of songs by pop stars underrepresented in my music collection. Now I have more CD-Rs with names like "'80s Cars/Wang Chung/Paula Abdul mix" and "Animals 1964-1969" and life is better for it. While debating whether to keep Cyndi Lauper's "I Drove All Night" (bite me, I'm unemployed), I remembered Roy Orbison's version and checked youtube to see if the video really did feature Jason Priestly and Jennifer Connelly (back when their respective hair and chest inspired awe and disbelief) canoodling in the desert on various modes of transportation. My memory was correct, but what surprised me was the bumpada-bumpada bass sequencer underneath Roy's past-prime warble and "uh-huh, yeaaaah"'s. Thanks to American Recordings, MTV Unplugged and the niche market they spawned, its unlikely we'll ever see a pop fogey brought back in such a garishly "modern" context again; Santana's the only such success of late that wasn't merely crassy class, and that was almost a decade ago.

An example of why this sucks? Aerosmith's Big Ones, which I also recently downloaded. Rocks is the godhead, but I've got a lot of love for the second commercial heyday of these decrepit transvestites. Along with the power ballads and dramatic descriptions of molestations consensual and otherwise, they had a tremendous, nasty, FIERCELY rocking track about fucking in an elevator...and it went top 20! The song even ends with a trumpet and a capella harmonies! Now, if they want to get some attention without calling Diane Warren, they have to make an album of "classic blues" tracks. Zzzzz. I already have classic blues tracks, I want Aerosmith to take me to the other side! Take me to the other side, where Desmond Child, John Kalodner and a synth-horn section wait patiently. Even a band named Velvet Revolver, a band with SLASH in it, can't reach these heights today, thanks to their choice of Weiland as a singer. He got the clothes right (love that Night Porter vibe) but he's so 90s-glummy a vocalist that I keep hoping Ian Astbury will bash him over the head and the lead them into "Fire Woman." But that schmuck's too busy with the 21st Century Doors. Christ.

Ignoring extremely awesome yet too-self-aware-for-prime-time bands like Eagles Of Death Metal and Electric Six, two acts on this planet give me hope for the future of gaudy 80s feel-good rock. One is AC/DC, who've claimed that their next album will be a DOUBLE CD. They can't fill all that with just Brian Johnston's incomprehensible gargling, so why not some RAP CAMEOS?! I'm down! Did somebody play the band that remix of Nelly's "Work It"? Don't get Rick Rubin on this, though, he had his chance.

My other hope against hope is Taylor Hicks. While this detested American Idol winner can't really rawk, his success should have made Clive Davis realize that AMERICA WANTS BAR-ROCK BACK! Down with soul patch, up with soul patrol! Give this man's man some "Simply Irresistible" jam and watch it skyrocket to the toppermost of the poppermost, where hopefully it will inspire other aging men of song to loosen up and give us the kind of Spuds McKenzie trash that can dignify a decade like this. Seth Rogen knows what time it is! Why doesn't anyone else?

We have internet! Finally! Did you know its been two weeks since I've watched a youtube?



Feels so good! Regular programming returns Monday. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, more than ever.

Apartment hunting in the big apple! Back next week.

The song is underrated enough (guitars the glossy cousin of "Pretty Persuasion," released the same year, and the singer's anger makes the off-rhyme of "love" and "up" in the second pre-chorus sound not so much forced as evidence that he's too pre-occupied to deal with niceties), but NOBODY ever told me how crazy the video is. The band isn't seen performing the chorus until the last minute. Instead, we get footage of wild horses. And why pause the woman-scorned drama for thirty seconds of slo-mo ponies anyway? Metaphor? Why do we hear the gunshot? Why is the tramp pawing the wedding singer? Is he the cheater? Is that why the bride steps on the burning guitar? All this as well as the cars, fireballs and ugly beardos you expect from early '80s AOR videos (I love when you catch the singer looking down at his guitar, like it matters if his hand is at the right fret). Now that video budgets have been dramatically slashed, it's time for this kind of unrefined pretension to make a comeback.

Two things that music nerds who don't read ILX would actually regret not knowing about.

Bone Thugs'n'Harmony feat. Phil Collins - "Home" (from 2002!)


Shred videos by StSanders

(much more where that came from, folks)


The next post will be a bunch of blurbs about DVDs, I swear!