So, Uh...

I was going to stack up this blog with lots more singles reviews over the next few weeks, but somehow none of them got finished, and I forgot to take account of the fact that I'm now on holiday in Wales, and don't have any singles with me, or a record player.

Hmm...

What's that you say, internet?

An absolutely astounding video of the late Rob Tyner of the MC5 rocking the fuck out on an electric autoharp...?

Testify!

Labels: awesomeness, lameness, MC5, Rob Tyner, things of interest, videos

Rock N' Roll Girl.

It's 1980, and The (Paul Collins) Beat are chasin' the dream:



2008 and they're still hot on the trail:



Glorious failures..?

LIFERS. : D

Labels: awesomeness, Paul Collins Beat, power pop, videos

Placeholding Video Awesomeness

Apologies as usual for the recent lack of blogging action – I got back from Copenhagen a few days ago (had a smashing time), and now I’m down in Wales preparing for a weekend’s camping, whilst the USB stick with all my half-finished bits of writing on it remains in London.

So as much as I hate to do another placeholding post comprising some videos blatantly picked up from other blogs, here it is, and damn, do I ever love the videos.

First, via WFMU, here’s The Bendaly Family; awesome Kuwaiti pop from 1978. I don’t know *what* to make of these guys – they look like the kind of mixed up family unit that Wes Anderson would probably make a film about, with the single-minded patriarch/singer coercing his children and loved ones into joining his quest for pop stardom, his relentless optimism blinding him to the strange effects this lifestyle may be having on them all, etc. etc. Or maybe not. I dunno. I mean, it’s not like I’ve actually bothered to do any research into who they are or how their career progressed. I also like how they somehow manage to rock a contemporary ‘indie pop’ kinda visual style, twenty plus years too early on the wrong side of the planet. Go figure.

I love how the song sort of opens with a darkly mournful, vaguely political lament, then veers into a kinda cheesy Middle Eastern radio hit ballad bit, and hits a huge ‘altogether now’ DIY pop chorus at about the two minute mark. It makes me sad to note that most of the comments following this video, both on Youtube and WFMU, lean toward mockery – I think it’s just ace. Totally beautiful.



Next, courtesy of Honey is Funny, here’s John Lee Hooker playing on the BBC in 1964, backed by an early line-up of The Groundhogs. Man, I LOVE John Lee Hooker – his stuff’s so minimal, so razorsharp, so… punk, like a big fuck-you to anyone who’d wish to reduce the blues to some morass of sloppy, meandering crap that you can’t dance to. And he is ON here. Wonderful footage of the early ‘60s BBC’s idea of a hip crowd getting their groove on too – dig the chef! (More of the good stuff, with the band really giving it some on 'Boom Boom Boom', to be found here.)



Los Shakers were Uruguay’s answer to The Beatles – and WHAT an answer! This promo clip for their (totally bloody fantastic) hit song “Break It All” was posted on WFMU a while back as “the greatest pop video of all-time”, and having tried my best to watch it at least once a day since then, I’m not going to disagree. The editing alone marks it out as a work of genius, the “let’s just film as much cool stuff as we possibly can and cram it all into two minutes” conceit even more so. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ and Richard Lester, but Los Shakers WIN. You’ll be aware that I often stand in awe of ill-defined ‘awesomeness’ on this blog – so, in case you were wondering, this is two minutes and twenty seconds of pure, unadulterated awesomeness for you to refer back to at any point: “and when the music starts, don’t stand there like a fool..”



Oh, and finally, here’s a brief movie from The Sock Puppets set last Friday. A great band, righteous people, tons of killer three chord songs - here’s hoping we get the chance to see them playing more gigs, releasing great records etc. in the near future!

Labels: awesomeness, John Lee Hooker, lameness, Los Shakers, The Bendaly Family, The Sock Puppets, videos

This Post is Brought to you by the Gods of Awesomeness.

I'm moving house in a couple of days, and as such, haven't had time to write anything.

That means another lame video post, but thankfully we have three of the flat-out AWESOMEST pop videos I've seen in all my days, all of them of a power-pop/bubblegum/punk persuasion, and all of them hailing from that golden year for such things, 1981.

First, The Modernettes (not to be confused with UK post-punk band The Mo-dettes, who are also ace), doing 'Barbra'. What can I possibly say.... I think about half the youtube playcount on this one is me.



The B-Girls - 'High School Dance'. Again, just The Greatest. Great tune, fantastic lyrics, big guitar riff, killer backbeat - I so want to cover this song. Sadly, I don't think the B-Girls ever actually recorded it in this form - or at least, the only version of it on the retrospective CD of theirs I ordered immediately after watching this video is an acoustic muck-around, retitled "Boys Are Drinking". Even sadder, most of their other material isn't half as rocking as this clip, with most of their studio recordings serving to reinforce the worst women-in-rock cliches by just sounding really weedy and... 'candy-assed', I believe is the term, whilst the sleevenotes seem to imply that they were more notable at their day for the amount of time they spent hanging out with Johnny Thunders, Stiv Baters, The Clash etc. than for their own achievements. It's particularly galling to discover that their version of "Who Says Girls Can't Rock?" (as memorably covered by The Riff Randells) just plain... doesn't. Oh well. Such is life. For these three minutes on Canadian TV at least, they RULED SUPREME. Dennis The Menace jerseys, white cowboy boots, Rickenbacker - now there's a look you can't fuck with.



A dead cert for "best ever power-pop band from Milwaukee", here's the oddly-named SHIVVERS, with "Please Stand By"! (I can only assume there must have been another local group called Shivers or something.) I know I'm only restating what I said at the top of the post, but man this video is awesome. What a singer! It's like if Lydia Lunch had packed it in and joined Blondie instead! Look at her eyes in the close-ups! Amazing! And what a song! Number one w/ a bullet! And say what you like about the guy with the hangglider collar and the red stratocaster, he can't hear you, he's too busy livin' the dream.



CREDIT WHERE IT'S DUE: I first saw the Modernettes video over at Last Days Of Man On Earth, as part of a fucking fantastic Canadian punk video post. (There's a similarly great round-up of Japanese punk on the front page at the moment too - check out Friction and The SS - wowza.) Also, my friend Pete sent me links to the B Girls and Shivvers videos, thus meaning nothing in this post is actually the result of my own scholarly pop-culture type investigations.

Labels: 1980s, awesomeness, lameness, power pop, punk, Shivvers, the B Girls, the Modernettes, videos