Posted by Stephen on February 20th, 2008 at 9:57 AM
I’ve been meaning to post about this for days — days, I tell you — but was too lazy to do so. But now I have gumption running out the ears!
Some time ago, Brian, Crispy and I (in our guise as the robot PODTRON) saw Jonathan Coulton play in Atlanta. Brian and Crispy shot footage of the event for Yahoo News’s People of the Web. They’ve gone and used that footage in their article about Jonathan Coulton, and even included clips of the Re Your Brains music video we did last year.
Posted by Stephen on January 30th, 2008 at 12:46 PM
I’m a few days behind the power curve here, but when a good friend showed me the link to 3 hours of 1983-era MTV, I knew I had to share it with all of you.
Part the first:
Part the second:
I’m rather retro-nostalgic for this: while I recognize the music, I never really saw MTV until the 1990s. But c’mon, Night Ranger! The Thompson Twins! Quarterflash! There are other, lesser-known bands like The Who and The Police in there, but we know who the real stars are. Besides Mark Goodman’s hair, I mean.
Thank goodness there’s a writer’s strike on so I can watch this tonight.
Posted by Stephen on January 29th, 2008 at 9:25 AM
Yesterday I claimed that the 1990s were terrible years for pop songs about love. Then I wondered, was I being too hard on the decade?
I tell you what: you judge.
Bryan Adams: (Everything I Do) I Do It for You (1991)
In 1991 you could not escape this song. Even if you avoided the radio and didn’t turn on your TV, A&M Records would send men into your house to duct tape a Walkman and its earphones to your head. “I can’t help it,” Adams croons as the song swells gently to a crescendo worthy of a bad sex scene in a low-rent romance novel.
Aerosmith: I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing (1998)
“I could stay awake just to hear you breathing/Watch you smile while you are sleeping”. Imagine, if you will, that you had a rough day and were asleep moments after you crawled in bed. Then you’re waking up, feeling relaxed and refreshed, ready to face a new day. You open your eyes and your bedroom comes into focus and suddenly in front of you is
And he tells you he’s been staring at you all night long. I also note that Diane Warren, who wrote the song, has said that she originally wrote it for Celine Dion.
Backstreet Boys: All I Have to Give (1997)
Jonathan Coulton’s song Soft Rocked By Me contains the lyrics, “I’ll listen to the things you say about the way you feel / I’ll smile an understanding smile when your boyfriend calls / And you’ll go, but you’ll think of me”. All I Have to Give is that passive “but I could love you if you’d let me!” approach taken seriously and somehow going quadruple platinum. This song is the anthem of Nice Guys(tm) everywhere.
Celine Dion: I Want You to Need Me (1999)
Celine Dion should hook up with the Backstreet Boys.
Kenny Loggins: For the First Time (1997)
A decade after Footloose and Danger Zone, Kenny Loggins inexplicably reappeared on the charts with this Oscar-nominated song. Eyes, smiles, hands holding hands — there is no cliché safe from Loggins’s muse.
Mariah Carey: Emotions (1991)
Everything about this song feels carefully and soullessly assembled, despite the number of times she says the word “feel”. And “I feel good, I feel nice”? Her singing may be full of high notes, but the emotions her lover inspires in her are barely two inches off of the floor.
Extreme: More Than Words (1990)
If you really loved me, you’d sleep with me.
Richard Marx: Now and Forever (1994)
You’re holding a fortune heaven has given to you, huh? I wish you had kept holding it quietly. If you’re low on your RDA of love ballad string sections, this song should help.
You know, I’ve been hard on the 1990s, but at least it didn’t give us this:
Posted by Stephen on January 28th, 2008 at 3:40 PM
And I said, “What about ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’?”
She said, “I think I remember the film,
And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it.”
And I said, “Well, that’s the one thing we’ve got.”
–Deep Blue Something, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”
Truly, that is the song of a committed couple whose love will stand the test of time.
I’d embed the video here, since it’s like a bowl of shredded Wonder Bread in milk, but Universal Music Group doesn’t believe in allowing embedding, so I’ll just link to it instead.
Man, the 1990s were a terrible time for pop songs about love.
I doubt this will surprise many of you, but we here at the Granade household like to rock out as much as the next Granade household. And nothing helps us rock out like Guitar Hero.
Harmonix and MTV are now working on Rock Band, which expands the concept of Guitar Hero to include bass, drums, and vocals. Four people can rock out together. It’s like being in a band, only you don’t have to tell the drummer how much his original compositions suck.
We now know what some of the songs will be, from classics like The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and the Rolling Stones’s “Gimme Shelter” to more recent songs like OK Go’s “Here It Goes Again”. The current list is just fine, I’m sure, but it doesn’t really have everything I’m looking for in a truly rocking game.
In fact, here are three songs that need to be included in Rock Band, in increasing order of rockingness.
3. Swingin’, by John Anderson (covered by The Johnston Brothers)
2. My Pal Foot Foot, by The Shaggs
1. If, by Bread
Harmonix has a whole forum for suggesting songs to be included in Rock Band. What are you waiting for? Get over there and let’s put John “Not the One From Yes” Anderson, The Shaggs, and Bread over the top!
Yes, I suppose you could suggest other songs as well. If you must.
When I think about how music videos changed between the 1980s and the 1990s, this one plays prominently in my little mental timeline. Its imagery and subject matter is very striking, and how Jeremy’s parents and his classmates are represented intrigues me. The effect is blunted somewhat by this tiny pixellated version, but VH1 and MTV haven’t really aired this video since the shootings at Columbine.
Arctic Monkeys: Leave Before the Lights Come On (2006)
This is less about suicide and more about how we have trouble connecting to other people. Which, really, is one of the underlying causes of most suicides. It’s also bleakly funny, and has less blood than the previous video.
David Lee Roth: Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody (1985)
I swear, people used to think David Lee Roth was cool. I mean, he got all the girls, and guys thought he was something else. I still think he’s something else, only now it’s in a “holy cow he’s a goof” kind of way. Here he smirks his way through sub-Weird-Al-style parodies of videos from Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Poison, Billy Idol, Richard Simmons (!) and more. He also spends some time terrifying the “Censorship Bored” with his fringed chaps. This, kids, is what music videos used to look like. Oh, and don’t miss “Eddie Van Halen” cleaning the floor at the very beginning.
Van Halen: Right Now (1991)
I don’t think I can improve on Beavis’s take on this video: “Huh, huh, right now David Lee Roth wants his old job back.”
Yes, yes, Mika doesn’t like the comparisons to Queen. Perhaps if you sang fewer lyrics like “I tried a little Freddy” and used your clear falsetto less. Anyway, the video is fun in a goofy kind of way, though I don’t know what’s up with the women bringing over cakes.
McFly: Transylvania (2007)
Aah! Scary floating Queen-like heads! Actually, come to think of it, aping silent films will give you the chance for the kind of histrionic over-acting that goes well with the Queen vibe. My main complaint is that the video uses some of the tropes of silent films — dialogue cards, women tied to train tracks, flickering light — but then undermines the conceit by showing the band singing.
And for all of you wondering: day three. Still not a new dad.
Hey, remember The Del Fuegos? “Don’t Run Wild”? “I Still Want You?” Yeah, them. Their frontman, Dan Zanes, does kids’ music now, and it’s on heavy rotation on the Disney Channel. Anyway, this video is fun and all, but it’s more fun to invent a story to go with it. “Hey, I was just out walking my upright bass and heard you guys playing. He loves to join in impromptu street performances!”
They Might Be Giants: Flying V (2005)
Goodness knows They Might Be Giants’ songs, with their loopy wordplay and odd instrumentation, work well for kids. Eli’s a big fan of “Particle Man,” for instance. But their songs aimed at kids are even better, as this example from their alphabet-propaganda album “Here Come the ABCs” shows.
Hey, let’s have some bonus videos!
Zelda Zii, a live-action recreation of Nintendo’s venerable videogame series. Sadly they countersink a number of the jokes, but the fight scenes are fun. And time on YouTube has made me appreciate people who edit their short films intelligently.
Since I didn’t do a bonus video last week, let me make up for it this week by giving you all three Die Hard movies (plus the upcoming one!) turned into a rock song by Guyz Nite. In the future, instead of watching the actual movies, people will just watch this video. Be warned: cursing, gunplay, and totally awesome explosions abound.
This reminds me that I have yet to explain why the original Die Hard is such a well-constructed action movie.
