VIDDY THIS, DEAR DROOGS
ahoy hoy
Starlight and i are waiting for Six' end of year lists (hurry, ya lazy bastard) to pour it all into one megapost of megabliss.
for the time being i will start with my first installment of favourite video clips of 2008.
GNARLS BARKLEY - WHO'S GONNA SAVE MY SOUL
i decided not to rank the videos, but if i would have this just might've been the one shining at the top of the list. it's a good idea brilliantly executed. observations are made to which everyone can (or will be able to if you're a youngun) relate, displayed with sardonic humor which really is the best kind of humor. it looks good to my layman eyes, the special effects are not over the top but effective, the storyline is coherent yet somewhat surprising at the end, it's well-acted... it's just very, very good.
M83 - GRAVEYARD GIRL
i have a soft spot for the Dompe sisters. although she's not credited anywhere (i can find, anyway), i feel Lola Dompe did an ace job on this one. just as her slightly older sister Diva did in slightly older M83 video Don't Save Us From The Flames. actually Anthony Gonzalez has his director repeat most of the core elements of Don't Save Us From The Flames. the obvious John Hughes (and to a lesser extent Sophia Coppola's Virgin Suicides, i think) influence and the corny storyline (outcast girl craves popular boy and all ends well), but it's good so we can tolerate it, can't we? it's his choice of style and i can totally dig it. i just hope that next time some tricks won't be used in the exact same manner, but Lola may be cast again, pretty please. Lola Dompe if you happen to ego-google (which is fine!) i <3 u! marry me when i'm 35 and you're 30 or whatever and if we're both single so we can have cute venetian blonde-dyed hair babies! but seriously, you're an awesome drummer and i can't wait to get Blackblack to europe some day.
VAMPIRE WEEKEND
i love the sequence with the fishies and the ferocity with which Rostam and Chris pound the drums. it's a fun shoot and it's infectious both visually and musically. they're funny and smart in how they represent themselves and in person (at the first Oscillations party) they were pretty awesome, too. nothing but love for this band and its endeavours.
WEEZER - PORK & BEANS
if you're just a tiny bit of a geek you've seen a lot of the characters portrayed here already, nonetheless it's an amusing collection of internet memes and i'm just glad one of my favourite bands as a teenager (<3 the Blue album! <3 Pinkerton! h8 everything else!) made a song that is more than digestable, it's that good old Rivers Cuomo catchiness.
CHAD VANGAALEN - MOLTEN LIGHT
Wixel pointed this one out when i made a post about videos a couple of months ago. Chad Vangaalen crafts not only songs, he draws cartoons. insanely awesome cartoons to accompany the wonderful stories he sings to us.
alrighty, you all have a good time tonight and make sure to return home drunk but safe.
Starlight and i are waiting for Six' end of year lists (hurry, ya lazy bastard) to pour it all into one megapost of megabliss.
for the time being i will start with my first installment of favourite video clips of 2008.
GNARLS BARKLEY - WHO'S GONNA SAVE MY SOUL
i decided not to rank the videos, but if i would have this just might've been the one shining at the top of the list. it's a good idea brilliantly executed. observations are made to which everyone can (or will be able to if you're a youngun) relate, displayed with sardonic humor which really is the best kind of humor. it looks good to my layman eyes, the special effects are not over the top but effective, the storyline is coherent yet somewhat surprising at the end, it's well-acted... it's just very, very good.
M83 - GRAVEYARD GIRL
i have a soft spot for the Dompe sisters. although she's not credited anywhere (i can find, anyway), i feel Lola Dompe did an ace job on this one. just as her slightly older sister Diva did in slightly older M83 video Don't Save Us From The Flames. actually Anthony Gonzalez has his director repeat most of the core elements of Don't Save Us From The Flames. the obvious John Hughes (and to a lesser extent Sophia Coppola's Virgin Suicides, i think) influence and the corny storyline (outcast girl craves popular boy and all ends well), but it's good so we can tolerate it, can't we? it's his choice of style and i can totally dig it. i just hope that next time some tricks won't be used in the exact same manner, but Lola may be cast again, pretty please. Lola Dompe if you happen to ego-google (which is fine!) i <3 u! marry me when i'm 35 and you're 30 or whatever and if we're both single so we can have cute venetian blonde-dyed hair babies! but seriously, you're an awesome drummer and i can't wait to get Blackblack to europe some day.
VAMPIRE WEEKEND
i love the sequence with the fishies and the ferocity with which Rostam and Chris pound the drums. it's a fun shoot and it's infectious both visually and musically. they're funny and smart in how they represent themselves and in person (at the first Oscillations party) they were pretty awesome, too. nothing but love for this band and its endeavours.
WEEZER - PORK & BEANS
if you're just a tiny bit of a geek you've seen a lot of the characters portrayed here already, nonetheless it's an amusing collection of internet memes and i'm just glad one of my favourite bands as a teenager (<3 the Blue album! <3 Pinkerton! h8 everything else!) made a song that is more than digestable, it's that good old Rivers Cuomo catchiness.
CHAD VANGAALEN - MOLTEN LIGHT
Wixel pointed this one out when i made a post about videos a couple of months ago. Chad Vangaalen crafts not only songs, he draws cartoons. insanely awesome cartoons to accompany the wonderful stories he sings to us.
alrighty, you all have a good time tonight and make sure to return home drunk but safe.
THAT.THIS.IS.LOVE
Cheers to all the boys and girls that came out to Kavka last weekend for another night of Oscillations spazz! We heard an excellent set by local maestro Tomtomtom, saw a blistering show by swedish superstars Zeigeist and danced our asses off during a monstrous 4 hour set by our new BFF Nightmoves. Dancing on a table at 6:30 am to John Paul Young's "Love Is The Air," it doesn't get any better than this in our books...
Here's some physical proof from last week's happenings in case your memories have become a bit shady due to a total love overdose. Thanks to Joshua and Laurentiu for the live images! For more check our little Myspace or Facebook pages, whatever floats your boat.
Here's some physical proof from last week's happenings in case your memories have become a bit shady due to a total love overdose. Thanks to Joshua and Laurentiu for the live images! For more check our little Myspace or Facebook pages, whatever floats your boat.
WHY?
i've been obsessing over Carly Simon's "Why?" for long enough now for it to reach MUST!SHARE! status in my book. miss Simon - yeap, she's single again mmm yummie nice GILF - has written a fair amount of great songs, everybody knows the absolutely brilliant hit "You're So Vain", but "Why?" is actually written by my (and probably your) favourite songwriting team: Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. they began as The Boys which quickly changed its name to The Big Apple Band in the early 70's. which has nothing to do with Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band, by the way. it was an unhappy coincidence and Walter Murphy, the poor schmuck, didn't even want the addition of a band's name to his, the record company merely reasoned his "A Fifth of Beethoven" would sell better that way. they found out about Nile and Bernard's The Big Apple Band two days after the release and since then dropped the name, settling for just Walter Murphy. i'm gonna drift off just a liiiiittle bit more and mention how Walter Murphy was a proto-Pilooski or Jacques Renault, along with other disco greats, naturally. because "A Fifth of Beethoven" is in fact an edit of uhm... Beethoven's Fifth. yeah, just playing Captain Obvious here. funny thing is, Soulwax made an edit of his edit. now we're talking meta-edits... mmm, love that shit. not the Soulwax meta-edit of "A Fifth of Beethoven" though, it feels sterile to me. the whole Soulwax-Ed Banger IN YOUR FUCKING FACE (for the producers amongst you aka Compression = Life or maybe Compression Macht Frei!) sound has repeated itself for too long now. Boys Noize is a fairly notable exception (that Sebastien Tellier remix was awesome) and i must admit Ed Banger did something completely unexpected with the release of Mickey Moonlight's wonderful interpretation of Sun Ra's "Interplanetary Music". oh, and of course Robin Dick "created" a version of "A Fifth of Beethoven" and raked in the cash. urgh, totally hate pop stars cashing in on earlier creativity and effectively raping and then murdering the song in the process.
but uhm YEAH! back to Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. after they didn't really go places with The Big Apple Band they eventually formed Chic with drummer Tony Thompson and singer Norma Jean Wright. Chic needs no introduction and deserves more than just a mention in a blogpost, so i'll get back to them some other time. after a couple of years of Chic, Rodgers and Edwards began taking up production work for other artists. you better drop your jaws already. they worked with - or made the careers of - Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, Debbie Harry, David Bowie, Madonna, INXS, Duran Duran, Grace Jones and yes: Carly Simon. i think they only provided her with "Why?" which she wanted because she was going through a rough time personally and musically and sought refuge in the changing popular sound (crafted by Rodgers and Edwards, amongst others). it was written for the soundtrack of Soup for One, a 1982 film which i had never heard of until i looked up the origins of "Why?". the film fluked, so the song went down it. however, it resurfaced years later at the end of the 90's in UK charts due to its popularity in the Hacienda and ibiza and doing so, luckily never disappeared into merciless Time. you can most definitely expect it in my playlist saturday. oh yes, saturday mmm 's gonna be so yummie.
notice the difference in budget for video clips in the early 80's and now. no elaborate story, no special effects, nothing at all. only the music and some random silliness. gotta love that shit:
i sincerely recommend you listen to the mp3 or vinyl on a proper sound system or headphones so Rodgers and Edwards' production comes into its own.
but uhm YEAH! back to Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. after they didn't really go places with The Big Apple Band they eventually formed Chic with drummer Tony Thompson and singer Norma Jean Wright. Chic needs no introduction and deserves more than just a mention in a blogpost, so i'll get back to them some other time. after a couple of years of Chic, Rodgers and Edwards began taking up production work for other artists. you better drop your jaws already. they worked with - or made the careers of - Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, Debbie Harry, David Bowie, Madonna, INXS, Duran Duran, Grace Jones and yes: Carly Simon. i think they only provided her with "Why?" which she wanted because she was going through a rough time personally and musically and sought refuge in the changing popular sound (crafted by Rodgers and Edwards, amongst others). it was written for the soundtrack of Soup for One, a 1982 film which i had never heard of until i looked up the origins of "Why?". the film fluked, so the song went down it. however, it resurfaced years later at the end of the 90's in UK charts due to its popularity in the Hacienda and ibiza and doing so, luckily never disappeared into merciless Time. you can most definitely expect it in my playlist saturday. oh yes, saturday mmm 's gonna be so yummie.
notice the difference in budget for video clips in the early 80's and now. no elaborate story, no special effects, nothing at all. only the music and some random silliness. gotta love that shit:
i sincerely recommend you listen to the mp3 or vinyl on a proper sound system or headphones so Rodgers and Edwards' production comes into its own.
