Best video to least effort award

I’ve never hidden my admiration for most things Hall & Oates.  Long time fan over here, not some bandwagon jumper.  I will go and pull out my Big Bam Boom album that i bought when I was 10 if you want.

So you can imagine my surprise when I finally stumble upon the most jaw dropping video by hitmakers Hall and Oates.  Behold the most amazing clip put to videotape (and you can tell it’s videotape because whoever upped the video to youtube obviously doesnt know how to adjust their tracking): She’s Gone.

While on first look it seems like they rolled in Daryl and John for one take and sent them on their way, something tells me that there was serious planning involved here.  It just didn’t turn out exactly as planned.

Here are the wtfs that I can see:

00:05 - green screen shot of abandoned house and camera pulls out.  Perhaps the empty house is a metaphor to tell us that “She’s Gone”????

00:25 - Hall has his Bowie look and Oates is costumed as the future Ted “Million Dollar Man” Dibiase.  They are on the set of some local cable talk show.

1:00 - 1st guest appearance with amazing strut.

1:05- 2nd guest appearance.  What does Hall toss in the air?  I cant tell either.  Oates forgets to do this and can’t grab his paper off the table quick enough so just heads into verse 2.

1:35 - Hall is so cool that he decides to blow off his lines and just looked cool with his cigarette.  Huh?

1:58 - Close up of table to show us what they’ve been throwing in the air.  Oh, monopoly money.

2:45 - Oates makes his move.  PENGUIN GUITAR SOLO.

3:10 -Hall forgets his lines again.

3:28 - Zoom in to devil who hasn’t replaced her like the song said but has replaced Hall in his chair.  and SCENE.

Obviously a high concept video that predates most high concept video.  You have characters in costume, props, and performers who don’t really even perform the song.  Amazing.

 

Your skin is so boring.

Watch this amazing footage of undersea footage presented by David Gallo where he shows “jaw dropping footage of amazing sea creatures.” It is pretty amazing to see the bioluminescent fish with glowing eyeballs and the awesome camouflaged octopus. Wait for it, its at the end of the clip.

link

or you can download it in high resolution mp4

 

Lions is Jonquil’s second record but the first one we’ve ever heard around here. It’s a beautiful collection of folk/ experimental/ add another genre here music that rolls along beautifully. If you can’t get excited about this collection of instruments used on the album then you have little soul:

double bass, electric guitar, trumpet, flugelhorn, piano, voice, accordian, bassoon, glockenspiel, computer, drums, percussion, bowed kit, violin, melodica, organ, acoustic guitar, bouzouki, ukulele, whistles, flute

I’ll be honest and say I had to google bouzouki .

“Sudden Sun” sets into Animal Collectivesque campfire sing a long territory. “Lions” uses a Parisian waltzy accordian to step us into the second half of the record. First single “Whistle Low” is a tight little ditty propelled by adorable keyboards.

All in all it is an excellent late night album that clatters and wheezes and swoons all at once.

Lions it out now on Try Harder records.

Test it out here.

 

The Best Thing That the Internet Has Done For Me Lately

I always kind of knew that anything is possible in Russia but it certainly is gratifying to see photographic evidence posted on the internet. Please follow THIS LINK HERE to see the best thing to come out of Russia since those wooden dolls that fit inside of each other. Here is a small sample of the best link the internet has to offer:

Scrolling down that page was more euphoric than my first porno mag.

 

My Soul Mix Can Beat Up Your Soul Mix

First of all, sorry for the lack of posts lately. But really, it’s summertime and everyone should be outside in the sun.

In honor of summer we present the funnest, summeriest soul mix we could come up with. Ladies and gentlemen My Blog Can Beat Up Your Blog presents:

My Soul Mix Can Beat Up Your Soul Mix

 

VA - 01 -Glasshouse - Crumbs Off the Table.mp3
VA - 02 - Betty Wright - Clean Up Woman.mp3
VA - 03 - Otis Redding - You’ve Made A Man Out Of Me.mp3
VA - 04 -The 8th Day - She’s Not Just Another Woman.mp3
VA - 05 - jo-jo & the fugitives - chips-chicken-banana split.mp3
VA - 06 - Lee Dorsey - O Me-O, My-O.mp3
VA - 07 - Charles Wright and the watts 103rd street rhythm band - love land.mp3
VA - 08 - The Impressions - Woman’s Got Soul.mp3
VA - 09 - David Ruffin - I’ve Lost Everything I Loved.mp3
VA - 10 - Clarence Carter - Snatching It Back.mp3
VA - 11 - Sly & the Family Stone - Hot Fun In The Summertime.mp3
VA - 12 - The Meters - hey pocky a-way.mp3
VA - 13 - The Dramatics - watcha see is watcha get.mp3
VA - 14 - Bob Dorough - Three Is The Magic Number.mp3
VA - 15 -Rufus Thomas - The Memphis Train.mp3
VA - 16 - Tony Alvon & The Belairs - Sexy Coffee Pot.mp3
VA - 17 - Lulu - Feelin’ Alright.mp3
VA - 18 - Margo Thunders - Expressway To Your Heart .mp3
VA - 19 - Bill Moss - Sock It to ‘Em Soul Brother.mp3
VA - 20 - Jean Knight - Mr. Big Stuff.mp3
VA - 21 - Sly & The Family Stone - M’Lady.mp3
VA - 22 - Kool Blues - I’m Gonna Keep on Loving You.mp3
VA - 23 - Elvin Spencer - Lift This Hurt.mp3

 

A collection of 70’s soul classics. Some are popular favourites and some are dug up from rarer soul compilations. All are great. Download it, burn it, play it outside in the summer.

 

Link - My Soul Mix Can Beat Up Your Soul Mix

 

 

New one from an old favourite.

Okkervil River, a longtime favourite round here, will be releasing their fourth full length album on Aug. 7th via Jagjaguwar (one of the most consistent labels around). The Stage Names trundles along the trail that the Texans started building on previous records.

The record contains a variety of melancholy folk and upbeat hand-clap-a-longs that leader & songwriter Will Sheff has been getting pretty darn good at. Album opener Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe builds up with Sheff’s voice and tick tick tick guitar and comes crashing in with awesome woo woos a couple of minutes in. Lengthy in title only You Can’t Hold The Hand of A Rock And Roll Man punches up the twang with the aforementioned hand claps.

This album contains no overall literary theme like Black Sheep Boy but it does seem to contain a little bit more sheen that we’ve seen from the boys. It was great how raw (sorry) previous work was. Shudders still arrive when listening to the line in For Real (from Black Sheep Boy) when you can actually hear Sheff spit the ‘F’ in the line ‘cause I like this way just fine.‘ Those little unpolished anomalies seem absent on Stage Names. However with lyrics like this from album highlight John Allyn Smith Sails Okkervil River are hardly aiming for a John Mayer level of smooth fm adult contemporary are they :

He’s breaking in a case of suds at the Brass Rail fall down drunk,

with his tongue torn out and his balls removed.

Album comes out Aug 7th from Jagjaguwar. You can preorder from the website now. I already did.

Link - Okkervil River - The Stage Names

 

How to spend your time in a Filipino prison.

I can say without a shred of doubt that this is the most amazing thing I have seen since I woke up this morning.

1500 + inmates at a prison on Cebu island in the Phillipines perform, in its entirety, the Michael Jackson ‘Thriller’ video. If you only watch one thing in the next week please please please make it this.

The lady boy who ‘plays’ the girlfriend is both horrifying and mesmerizing, don’t you think?

 

The halcyon days of alt. country.

Back in the day alternative was big and so was country so they put them together and made alternative country. Remember those times? The late 90’s early 00’s? Those were good times when I loved bands like Whiskeytown, Uncle Tupelo, The Jayhawks etc etc. I think my love rubbed off a little, not much but a little, on a few friends.

I have this friend. For privacy’s sake, lets call him Kenny B…Wait that’s to obvious. How about K Britton. One day he walked into a record store and started chatting up the girl behind the counter. He was asking about just this type of music but for some reason he decided to ask her “so whats new in the alt cunt scene”. I think we may have jokingly, to ourselves shortened alternative country to alt cunt but he blew it out in the open.

That takes us to The Roadside Graves. A band that is pretty happy where it is now but reminds me of those halcyon days of alt cunt. Musical nods go back to Springsteen, Dylan and others that led the revitalization. It’s great road music full of harmonized vocals, rollicking guitars and piano.

This year they’ve released their second album called No One Will Know Where You’ve Been and it’s been a favourite around here all year long. Here’s what’s new and great in the alt cunt scene.

Head on over to Kill Buffalo, their label’s website, for a sample .mp3 of the song West Coast.

Link

 

This is what the scroll wheel was invented for.

 

What’s a polite way to call someone creepy?

Guys and Dolls is a 46 minute documentary about men and their dolls. Specifically their Real Dolls. If you don’t know about the world of Real Dolls already then you’re in for some amazing watching. Even if you do know about them it is interesting.

The easy road here is to paint the owners of the dolls as creepy dudes. So I give the documenters some credit for attempting to humanize them and introduce us to the lives of a Real Doll owner. However, I just can’t get over the hump on this one and find the whole thing jaw droppingly creepy.

I think it would’ve been better to send Louis Theroux in there instead.

Check it out at google video. Link .

Edit - Link now works!