Three random songs stuck in my head.
"Ten Storey Love Song" - Stone Roses
I had forgotten about this song for a really long time, and then a few months ago when I was still in my old apartment which had satellite, I saw the video for this on VH1 Classic's "The Alternative" (now rightly called "120 Minutes").
Side note: upon looking up the new 120 Minutes, I read a lot of ranting about its return and that it should stay dead because it's somehow messing with the integrity of the old show, and it was just rehashing to "cash in" on nostalgia or something ridiculous like that. Ummm...I'd rather watch old Wonder Stuff and Love & Rockets videos than see a bunch of disgusting, orange-spraytan coeds have sex with each other and then get arrested for drunken behavior YET AGAIN. Also, it's on VH1 Classic, which is supposed to rehash old videos. Enough with this "back in my day" talk.
Anyway.
So I saw the video for this song on "The Alternative", and had forgotten how much of a gem this song was. It comes from their much-derided second-and-last album, "The Second Coming". You could tell by the name alone that the album was going to be pap. Okay, so it's not necessarily pap - I think it's gotten a bum rap over the years, although I do think it gets a little jam-band up in there, and if you know me, you know what I think of jam bands. So it's not at all bad, especially when "Ten Storey Love Song" comes along, which is one of their sweetest songs ever, aside from "Standing Here" from the first album. It's all very "I love you, take my hand and we'll fly away" kind of stuff, and the melody is so much lighter and more spritely than most of their back catalog. This is definitely not afraid of being a pop song, and it totally wins. Which is why it's so funny that the video is just chock full of insane British art cues, like Mani dressed up as the pope in homage to Lucien Freud.
"Something Kinda Ooh" - Girls Aloud
Girls Aloud are like if Danity Kane were actually entertaining and put out more than 2 songs. All their music is like crazy dancey helium balloon inhaling girly gay pop. I'm sure that made a ton of sense but that's the only way I can describe it. Obviously, this makes it an immediate guilty (or not-so-guilty) pleasure. The beat is pretty great, I love the manly "OH YEAH" shouting bits dispersed throughout the chorus, whoever is doctoring their voices did a great job because the girls don't ocmpletely sound like machines. The lyrics, however, leave me scratching my head: "something kinda ooh/jumping on my tutu", for example. Jumping on your tutu? Pardon me? I also thought at some point that they sang "I should've come with a body wrap/so I'd know whether or not he would take me". WHOAH. GROSS. But in reality, it's "I should've come with a party rap, so I'd know where the night would take me". So I guess that makes more sense, although who says "party rap"? And not party rap like the Fresh Prince, more like a party itinerary. In any case the song gets regularly lodged in my brain and this video was apparently made with a $5 budget. Also the redhead's utter plainness irritates me.
"Me Plus One" - Kasabian
This album definitely lost luster for me over time, but the songs on it that stand out kind of smack you in the face. I think this is one of them. The strings in this are pretty mesmerizing, especially at the end when they get all frantic. Also, the "I want love, love love" part of the chorus is catchy as hell and I find myself singing it a lot. I'm not entirely sure what guestlists have to do with doing it with ladies, as this song clearly is about (oh wait, me plus one...ahhhh), but whatevs. Also, the video is nice because Serge Pizzorno is a pretty, pretty man. Watch out, office workers, there are boobies in the video!
Monday, July 30, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Monsieur Gainsbourg
If you know me, you know I harbor some serious love and admiration for Serge Gainsbourg. I've been playing this song a lot recently.
"Requiem pour un con" - Serge Gainsbourg
I'm dying to know what movie that scene came from. It is really a fantastic groove, over which I'm sure many a dance and hip-hop record has been built. I like how sparse it is - just snappy drums, bass, and the occasional bow-chicka-bow guitar bit, and the fact that the melody doesn't stray very far from a certain set of notes makes it hookier for me. For a while, my dream DJ moment would be to play that, and then mix a segue into Beyonce's "Crazy In Love". Oooh, or Amerie's "One Thing". That might be better. Less is more in this case, no?
If you're unfamiliar with Gainsbourg I'd have a look here. I'm always conflicted about him - he's an absolute genius and provacateur on both a musical and personal level. However, he's also essentially a mess, with the kind of drinking problems and womanizing that would rival most contemporary celeb troublemakers (stand forward, most of young female Hollywood). He seemed so damaged esteem-wise, as well, having supposedly become an unapologetic, misogynistic, bing-drinking and chainsmoking playboy after getting his heart broken/blueballed by the daughter of Leo Tolstoy. This insecurity about women spurred his obsession with them, and his insecurity about his own notoriety and talent constantly made him want to be in the papers even more. But despite the a-hole womanizing, you can see that he also really worships and respects women as well. It's so weird, it teeters on exploitative but never quite gets there (with me). I highly recommend picking up Comic Strip and/or Couleur Cafe to sample my favorite Gainsbourg era, although it's all pretty interesting and entertaining. Avoid the 80's stuff if you're a newbie, and don't say I didn't warn you.
For fun, here's some old footage of ol' Serge telling a young Whitney Houston that they should bone:
Classic!
"Requiem pour un con" - Serge Gainsbourg
I'm dying to know what movie that scene came from. It is really a fantastic groove, over which I'm sure many a dance and hip-hop record has been built. I like how sparse it is - just snappy drums, bass, and the occasional bow-chicka-bow guitar bit, and the fact that the melody doesn't stray very far from a certain set of notes makes it hookier for me. For a while, my dream DJ moment would be to play that, and then mix a segue into Beyonce's "Crazy In Love". Oooh, or Amerie's "One Thing". That might be better. Less is more in this case, no?
If you're unfamiliar with Gainsbourg I'd have a look here. I'm always conflicted about him - he's an absolute genius and provacateur on both a musical and personal level. However, he's also essentially a mess, with the kind of drinking problems and womanizing that would rival most contemporary celeb troublemakers (stand forward, most of young female Hollywood). He seemed so damaged esteem-wise, as well, having supposedly become an unapologetic, misogynistic, bing-drinking and chainsmoking playboy after getting his heart broken/blueballed by the daughter of Leo Tolstoy. This insecurity about women spurred his obsession with them, and his insecurity about his own notoriety and talent constantly made him want to be in the papers even more. But despite the a-hole womanizing, you can see that he also really worships and respects women as well. It's so weird, it teeters on exploitative but never quite gets there (with me). I highly recommend picking up Comic Strip and/or Couleur Cafe to sample my favorite Gainsbourg era, although it's all pretty interesting and entertaining. Avoid the 80's stuff if you're a newbie, and don't say I didn't warn you.
For fun, here's some old footage of ol' Serge telling a young Whitney Houston that they should bone:
Classic!
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
youtube videos for the teenage soul
It's like chicken soup, only better, less sodium and more attractive.
"D.A.N.C.E." - Justice
Mmmm t-shirts. I'm obsessed with this song, especially the end where it goes "under the spotlight..." SO GOOD. I've been leaning towards a lot of DJ-friendly old school sounding stuff (hello small obsession with Mark Ronson, the Go! Team, etc) and mashup-y hipster glitchy crap, and this is a definite product of that. So it's been Justice and Girl Talk all weekend. It doesn't help that I'm also obsessed with their remix of JT's "LoveStoned", which isn't even that amazing but it's still slightly better than the original.
"Give It To Me" - Timbaland feat. Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake
Shut up. This is the worst video ever but the chorus is so catchy. Seriously, why did they even make a video? "Oh, I guess I'll grab the camera, hold on, okay stand there..." I also like the phrase "actin' real nice". Don't ask me why.
"Glamorous" - Fergie
Yeah it's Fergie. What? I DID say songs that were stuck in my head, not necessarily GOOD songs. Actually I don't know how I feel about this song, I veer towards hating it but I do listen to it on my iPod and look around cautiously to see if anyone's looking at the screen. Certain things about this song irk and confuse me. I do despise the patois/weird accent she puts on when she sings "urban" songs. She sounds normal on that awful "Big Girls Don't Cry" song (which isn't even guilty-pleasure good), but on this song she mangles her words with the "a" vowel to make her sound more ghetto or whatever, and that really irritates me. The way she says "flossy floss"! "Flawwus-eh flawwus". Excessive use of that hard long 'A' sound. "Raangs" for rings, "thangs", "haill" for hell, "skahh" for sky, "clayuss" for class, etc. We know you don't really talk or naturally sing like that, Fergie Ferg. Don't front. I'm also confused by what her daddy told her at the end of the song. Did he tell her "if you don't got no money take your broke ass home"? If so, that's a pretty random thing to tell a child. A definite attempt at making a really profound point about the fickleness of fame, but it just clangs. Despite all this, I do realize that I partly enjoy this song because I enjoy most songs that have a clap track on it. "Glamorous" has a pretty intense one going throughout the song, and it's like gold to my ears. It's why I love Sean Paul. Yep.
A tossup between "Golden Skans" and "It's Not Over Yet" by Klaxons
This kind of goes without saying. I love the insane, campy, the-Face-magazine-circa-1984 feel their big videos seem to have. I also love them because despite the chaotic, intense element to a lot of their songs, I love how accessible and melodic they are, and these songs demonstrate just that.
Lastly,
"Nan, You're a Windowshopper" - Lily Allen
This is just an mp3 rip put on YouTube, complete with lyrics. I fucking love it. It's a parody of 50 Cent's "Window Shopper" but instead it's about Lily's cheapskate grandma. I know, I know, the jokey schtick is a bit cutesy and lame, but it's quite clever and still manages to get a chuckle out of me every single time.
"D.A.N.C.E." - Justice
Mmmm t-shirts. I'm obsessed with this song, especially the end where it goes "under the spotlight..." SO GOOD. I've been leaning towards a lot of DJ-friendly old school sounding stuff (hello small obsession with Mark Ronson, the Go! Team, etc) and mashup-y hipster glitchy crap, and this is a definite product of that. So it's been Justice and Girl Talk all weekend. It doesn't help that I'm also obsessed with their remix of JT's "LoveStoned", which isn't even that amazing but it's still slightly better than the original.
"Give It To Me" - Timbaland feat. Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake
Shut up. This is the worst video ever but the chorus is so catchy. Seriously, why did they even make a video? "Oh, I guess I'll grab the camera, hold on, okay stand there..." I also like the phrase "actin' real nice". Don't ask me why.
"Glamorous" - Fergie
Yeah it's Fergie. What? I DID say songs that were stuck in my head, not necessarily GOOD songs. Actually I don't know how I feel about this song, I veer towards hating it but I do listen to it on my iPod and look around cautiously to see if anyone's looking at the screen. Certain things about this song irk and confuse me. I do despise the patois/weird accent she puts on when she sings "urban" songs. She sounds normal on that awful "Big Girls Don't Cry" song (which isn't even guilty-pleasure good), but on this song she mangles her words with the "a" vowel to make her sound more ghetto or whatever, and that really irritates me. The way she says "flossy floss"! "Flawwus-eh flawwus". Excessive use of that hard long 'A' sound. "Raangs" for rings, "thangs", "haill" for hell, "skahh" for sky, "clayuss" for class, etc. We know you don't really talk or naturally sing like that, Fergie Ferg. Don't front. I'm also confused by what her daddy told her at the end of the song. Did he tell her "if you don't got no money take your broke ass home"? If so, that's a pretty random thing to tell a child. A definite attempt at making a really profound point about the fickleness of fame, but it just clangs. Despite all this, I do realize that I partly enjoy this song because I enjoy most songs that have a clap track on it. "Glamorous" has a pretty intense one going throughout the song, and it's like gold to my ears. It's why I love Sean Paul. Yep.
A tossup between "Golden Skans" and "It's Not Over Yet" by Klaxons
This kind of goes without saying. I love the insane, campy, the-Face-magazine-circa-1984 feel their big videos seem to have. I also love them because despite the chaotic, intense element to a lot of their songs, I love how accessible and melodic they are, and these songs demonstrate just that.
Lastly,
"Nan, You're a Windowshopper" - Lily Allen
This is just an mp3 rip put on YouTube, complete with lyrics. I fucking love it. It's a parody of 50 Cent's "Window Shopper" but instead it's about Lily's cheapskate grandma. I know, I know, the jokey schtick is a bit cutesy and lame, but it's quite clever and still manages to get a chuckle out of me every single time.
If you could sing along I would be happier
I started this blog on the premise of discussing, ranting, and postulating about popular music, good and bad. I'm as bad as the rest of them - I read Pitchfork, I prefer small venues that make you stink of stale beer, the faint memory of vomit and tons of cigarette smoke, I read Skyscraper, I've been to a Vice party or seven. I went to art school, for god's sake. In New York. I know how to be snobby. However, within that lurks a secret (okay, now not-so-secret) lover of pop music, a recently-outed radio listener. And now? I have no shame. I love it all.
I suppose this part of me is why I've always been an Anglophile musically for most of my life. There, pop music really does mean "popular music", and not necessarily a genre to pass judgement on. Because of a smaller population and therefore a smaller buyers' market, music that would be considered "indie rock", or generally just under the radar in the US, makes the charts. People, even regular casual music fans, are somewhat more passionate and opinionated about music. People still buy singles. Sure, it's flash-in-the-pan and cynical with quick overturn, but at least it's exciting.
So I'm writing here to expose and discuss both sides of music - the muso, pretentious, analytical side, and just general, visceral enjoyment. I might talk about Grizzly Bear. I might talk about Fergie. I might talk about Justice. I might talk about Rhianna. I might talk about Engelbert Humperdink. You get the picture.
Hi.
I suppose this part of me is why I've always been an Anglophile musically for most of my life. There, pop music really does mean "popular music", and not necessarily a genre to pass judgement on. Because of a smaller population and therefore a smaller buyers' market, music that would be considered "indie rock", or generally just under the radar in the US, makes the charts. People, even regular casual music fans, are somewhat more passionate and opinionated about music. People still buy singles. Sure, it's flash-in-the-pan and cynical with quick overturn, but at least it's exciting.
So I'm writing here to expose and discuss both sides of music - the muso, pretentious, analytical side, and just general, visceral enjoyment. I might talk about Grizzly Bear. I might talk about Fergie. I might talk about Justice. I might talk about Rhianna. I might talk about Engelbert Humperdink. You get the picture.
Hi.
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