video #79: The Beatles - Here Comes the Sun

Keeping this dead blog afloat can be a chore. Auto-loading it full of AMVs every week would be an easy way to prop it up while sticking to the animated videos theme that I decided to try out more than 2 years ago, but that's cheating so it won't happen. Now and then, something unofficial might creep on (as it has in the past) and such is the case again today.

This gorgeous clip was lovingly put together by Mr. Daniel Chang, though I don't think it was his decision to have it uploaded to Youtube. "rayofash" never takes credit for making it but that doesn't stop him from getting the credit throughout the 500+ comments for it. I watched this at a public screening 5 years ago with a few hundred other people and it was a big hit. I guess another 167,156 views in the meantime can't be a bad thing, even if most of those viewers are leaving these kind of comments:



"Take Flight" was another good fan-made video in this vein but apparently it's been taken down from Youtube, the creator having never uploaded it to "The Org" and somehow failing to preserve a backup copy of their own. I'm not sure I'm buying the creator's reasoning behind its removal. Very difficult to feel sorry for someone who doesn't even bother to save their own work.

U2 - The Wanderer

U2 - "The Wanderer"

I have no strong opinions about this band, who've written a few songs I've enjoyed at one point or another. I have no memories of how big they were at the peak of their popularity, or any real attachment to any of their albums. I get the impression that a lot of fans felt confused by the turns they took on Zooropa and utterly betrayed by the electronic sounds of Pop. As these were the first two (and as it would turn out, the only) U2 albums that I would encounter, interact with, and enjoy in any kind of non-nostalgic way, my chances of agreeing with the "real" U2 fans over just about anything are about as likely as Bono joining Dave Grohl on a charity album for AIDS denialists.

I'd like to think that even the most traditional fans -- the ones who remember all the words from The Joshua Tree and fondly remember the first time they saw "New Year's Day" or "Where the Streets Have No Name" on MTV -- didn't take "The Wanderer" for granted. The final song on Zooropa, it features no shimmery guitars, no vocals from Bono, none of the epic trademarks of the band's sound. Of course, it does have Johnny Cash on vocals, years before he'd assume his place as an honorary alt. rock hero. That's how we remember him now, thanks to the albums he recorded with Rick Rubin and released between 1994 and 2002. But before his rejuvenation and subsequent generational rediscovery, there was this song, giving the man a chance to lay it all down over the kind of refreshingly bare arrangement that the Nashville hitmakers wanted nothing to do with.

If you still buy CDs but hate U2, you can also get the song on The Essential Johnny Cash, where I heard it for the first time shortly after his death in 2003. A sad day for everyone, that was, losing a figure that everyone in music -- country, gospel, punk, probably even hip-hop -- respected, looked to for inspiration, and wanted to claim as their own. But at least he didn't live to hear this, right?

video #78: Tim Exile - Family Galaxy

Warp Records has always championed a progressive visual aesthetic when it comes to their sleeves or videos. This clip for Tim Exile (one of their newest artists, but hardly a newcomer to the world of electronic music) won't give you nightmaes like any of Chris Cunningham's works for Aphex Twin, but it's a trip on par with any videos from Luke Vibert's "I Love Acid" or Autechre's "Gantz Graf."

If you're going to watch this on Youtube, it's probably best to view it directly on the site itself, in High Quality and on fullscreen mode. Directed by Howard Kingston.

Original Rockers - Sexy Selector

Original Rockers - "Sexy Selector"

From the ambiguously titled Ambient Dub compilation released in 1992 -- a collection sure to be the object of awe or revulsion for many, simply based on the name alone -- comes this track from the original incarnation of the somewhat better-known Rockers Hi-Fi. It's not really ambient, or dub, or even trip-hop, but something from the murky depths in between. The rest of the CD kind of sucks but you'll want to turn down the lights and light up to the sounds of this early 90s slow burner. Really gotta find more stuff like this.

video #77: Scratch Pet Land - Escargot Couleurs!

A solid entry in the French/German bleeps & bloops alliance, Scratch Pet Land carried on the Nuno Canavarro aesthetic as best they could with some help from "artistic collective" Qubo Gas for the video. Released years after MTV's retreat from music programming (perhaps it could have run on "AMP," as the show was apparently still on air as of 2000) but years before the Internet was in any shape to properly host and show such clips, it's unclear where this video was supposed to be seen at the time it was made. Looking not unlike the animations we made on Paintshop (?) during computer class in 3rd grade probably didn't speed it to the front of any program director's queue, either.

Scratch Pet Land's first album was to be their last but they've since gone on to a longer and possibly more visible career as Fan Club Orchestra. And that's about all I have to say about this. There was a time that I really loved this kind of stuff but that quickly came to an end after I purchased DAT Politics CDs in 2004 and quickly realized that I'd just wasted $15. This occasion prompted a gradual reevaluation of my standards for spending time and money on such immaterial products, something we've all thought twice about by now, I'm sure. What was the straw that broke your camel's back?

Luna - Dear Diary

Luna - "Dear Diary"

"We made an album called The Days of Our Nights. Our fifth studio album, it is possibly the worst of the seven that Luna made...

Of course, my least favorite song, 'Dear Diary,' was picked as the single. I came to hate singing "Dear Diary." The stupid "baa-baa" section. The bad lyric -- 'then you blew my mind.' I hated that lyric. It was one of those things that comes out of your mouth when you're singing gibberish, before you've written the lyrics proper. But then you find it's a phrase that you are incapable of replacing. You're stuck with it." -- Dean Wareham in Black Postcards

The Days of Our Nights was the first Luna album I heard, and remains my favorite of theirs today. "Dear Diary" is the opening song, sounding at once tossed-off but undeniably seductive and just too cool to care what you might think of it. That opening guitar lick, Dean Wareham's nasally Wellington-via-New York vocals, the instantly-repeatable chorus... it's a laid-back and class(y/ic) tune that already sounds like it's from another world, so unconcerned with placating our cravings for the yelpy, juvenile egoism that passes for indie rock profundity in 2009.

Front-to-back, this is a very good album, and to me it feels like the point where Luna really pulled it all together. Why then is it almost universally dismissed as the worst album of the band's career? A few reviews I was able to find online absolutely trash it as irredeemable and worthless. That's not to say that it didn't receive positive reviews as well, though those seem to range from offering backhanded praise to indifferent approval at best.

I'd say that I normally wouldn't care about this at all but when it comes to artists I'm particularly fond of, my tastes usually fall in step with whatever the masses agree on. OK Computer is my favorite Radiohead album. Trans-Europe Express is the Kraftwerk CD I usually go for. Isn't Anything isn't the the best album from My Bloody Valentine; not for most and not for me. And so forth. So when I happen to like something so much that so many other reasonable people think is crap (including the artists themselves), it gives me pause to wonder if maybe I'm really a horrible judge of what goes into a good song.

The Days of Our Nights remains out of print following the merger of Sire Records into London-Sire in 2000. Despite being an album they could conceivably still earn royalties from (any proceeds made from their releases on Elektra Records will go straight back into label pockets until past advances are paid in full -- read Dean's book and it'll make sense), Luna seems content to let it wither and die in the vaults. Finding a used copy was one of the best discoveries I've made in the past two years, and the album's helped get me through some strange times in ways a little too personal for me to want to air out in a place like this. And perhaps falling out of circulation wasn't so bad for this album after all. After an unpleasant introduction to the world that ultimately left it commercially and artistically disowned, it now lies between the cracks waiting for the right ears to hear it at the right time, hopefully belonging to the kind of people who'll love whatever songs on it they feel like without worrying about the consequences.

video #76: Kid 606 - Mr. Wobble's Nightmare

The latest single from Kid 606, with a video from Joel Trussell. I was licking my chops when I first heard about another collaboration from them, hoping for another video like "The Illness", and certainly not expecting anything with stop motion. But this is another winner.

Do you need to know the background of this song to appreciate it? Probably not but if you haven't heard "Mr. Cook's Nightmare" then you're missing out on a 90's classic. The original source is bound to blow a few minds too.

a pretty big day for this guy

I don't think I can possibly imagine the kind of happiness or excitement that he's feeling right now, much less hope to know it for myself one day.

Brad Fuller & Hal Canon - Marble Madness

Brad Fuller & Hal Canon - "Marble Madness"

I always thought of Marble Madness as a classic NES game, but its origins date back years earlier to arcades as well as various computer platforms (Amiga, ZX Spectrum,etc.). I played it a few times as a young child and never got far, but imagined that once you got the hang of it that it would reveal itself as a lengthy, deep and immensely replayable game. It wasn't until this year that I had a chance to play it again and finally find out for myself. Turns out there are only five levels, all of which can be passed in less than five minutes. Then that's it. No more levels, no hidden stages. That's just the end.

Most people who initially bought Marble Madness unaware of its brevity were probably justified in whatever sense of disappointment they may have felt. Playing it in 2009 on a (probably) illegal disc full of classic Nintendo titles (none of which I paid a cent for), it's hard to justifiably feel cheated by the experience, no matter how unexpectedly short it is. Maybe that's partly because of the instantly addictive and unforgettable music. When you have a game with simple courses to run and few enemies to dodge, your attention will inevitably drift to other parts that would normally be filtered into the background of your experience, like the themes for the different stages. Fortunately the music is so original, fun, and befitting to the strange and wonderful polygonal world within the game.

I recorded all of these clips off of Youtube. They're of varying quality and perhaps from different ports of the game, but at least now you can enjoy them in the car, on the bus, or during your afternoon workout. Can't get enough? Go buy the game!

video #75: Amadou & Mariam – Masiteladi

Amadou Et Mariam & -M- - Masiteladi [NEW]

Here's an enjoyable song and video from Amadou & Mariam, probably the best-known Afropop band in America right now thanks to lots of good press and touring. Too bad they'll never actually get to watch this video. They're blind, but they can probably see the music and that's what really matters. Right?

Is it wrong that I enjoy this while not really bothering to check out most other African pop music? Do I only like this because it's indie-approved and touches on all the right kinds of western music that I feel the most? Not that I listen to Vampire Weekend or anything. But would I if they were from Mali? Haunting questions.

I've also been getting into Omar Souleyman, but is that okay if I don't have any intention of "getting into" any other Syrian music? If I don't, can I still like his music for the right reasons? Not even a half-decade of M.I.A. are we prepared to deal with these dilemmas.

Free Kitten - Never Gonna Sleep

Free Kitten - "Never Gonna Sleep"

1997 was a pretty good year for music. So many great albums! Here's one that's always been lost in the shuffle and commonly dismissed as a fun but inconsequential side project, but that's a mistake. This was way ahead of its time. Sentimental Education was all over the place as an album (which people hold against it for some reason) but this is one of its best tracks. Give this jam a chance and you won't be let down!

Kill Rock Stars was never the same after they started courting shit bands like Numbers and The Decemberists. I miss their old sound and their passionately feminist and gay (not fey and prissy and whiney, but homosexual!) and creative attitude. This same "old sound" turned out to be the sound of tomorrow. Too bad no one gives a shit today! Too busy blogging and listening to "quirky" (but serious!) bands dressed in their best steampunk outfits, I guess. RIP KRS (Grand Royal, too). Indie rock suuuuucks.

video #74: Miracle Fortress - Have You Seen Your Dreams

This was going to be one of the longest entries I'd ever published on this blog but after a month of fussing over it and considering what it is about it that bothers me and what I think it all means within some bigger context or something, I was unable to form any real opinion about it or say anything truly interesting at all. My brain is rotting into a useless mass I'll be flipping burgers when I'm 40.