Archive for the ‘Music’ Category

Mocca’s “I Would Never”: No Ironic Hipster Value Whatsoever

Sunday, March 28th, 2010

Ever now and then you stumble across something that, given your general tastes and outlook, you shouldn’t like, but you do anyway. “What, you like that?” asks your friends. “That is so not you.”

Take Mocca’s “I Would Never” as an example, a simple, charming pop song done in an easy-listening style that went out of fashion at least 40 years ago. I chanced across this a few years ago searching for something else, and every now and then get a yen to hear it again, which then necessitates trying to remember the name of the artist. And then I find it again, only to discover that, yes, it’s still not on iTunes.

So I’m embedding the video here as much as a blog sticky note to myself as sharing it with others…

Mocca seems to be a Indonesian pop band which has done several albums of material in this style: Poppy, upbeat, cheerful, and deeply un-ironic, which must be a crushing disappointment to jaded hipsters everywhere. It’s just well-done and…pleasant.

Sometimes that’s enough.

Avoiding the Obvious

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Every now and then I come across an article that, for whatever reason, defies my usual snarky, dry-humored approach. Such is this case with this five-year old article talking about how Huey Lewis and The News have a very significant following among the clinically retarded. In this case it defies that approach because: A.) Too easy, B.) I have no strong feelings (positive or negative) about Huey Lewis, who has always struck me as very competent craftsmen of a type of music I have no particular affinity or antipathy toward, C.) It’s actually a pretty interesting article, and D.) Making fun of the retarded just makes you look like a dick.

Peter Gabriel’s Scratch My Back May Suck…

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

…but Paul Simon’s cover of “Biko” is pretty good:

And Stephen Merritt (who Neil Gaiman is big on) at least makes a credible effort on “Not One of Us”:

Kirsten Dunst is Turning Japanese

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Something for Dwight’s “Art, Dammit, Art!” watch. Here’s Kirtsen Dunst dressed up as an anime character and signing The Vapor’s “Turning Japanese” in the middle of the Akihabara.

So, you think it’s a publicity stunt or she’s doing an album. But not, even though Dunst is singing and the video is directed by McG, this is actually a performance art piece called “Akihabara Majokko Princess” by Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami.

O….K…..

Anyway, though I think she looks better as a red-(rather than blue-)head, she is quite fetching in that outfit…

{Note: Video includes real shots from the Akihabara, some of which fall into the NSFW category.)

For comparison, here’s the original (embedding disabled, alas).

Updated: The YouTube video was pulled, so I’ve switched to one from eBaum’s World.

Peter Gabriel to Release an Album of Covers (And I’m Afraid It Might Suck)

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

The news on this has been out a while, but the release is less than a month away. The album is called Scratch My Back.

I have mixed feelings about this.

On the one hand, I’m a huge Peter Gabriel fan. (Hell, I even bought Ovo, which is largely an overpriced bag of suck with a few bright spots.) Peter Gabriel III still ranks among my favorite albums of all time.

On the other hand, when artists I like came out with similar albums (Fish’s Songs from the Mirror and Tori Amos’ Strange Little Girls), they sucked pretty hard. Plus I think the “orchestral versions, no drums or guitars” idea sounds more like a lame gimmick than a wisely-considered choice.

Anyway, for an advanced taste, here’s Gabriel covering David Bowie’s “Heroes”. The orchestration is actually more interesting than Gabriel’s vocals here. It reminds me somewhat of John Adams’ “Phrygian Gates”.

And here’s his cover of Radiohead’s “Street Spirit (Fade Out)”. Man, Gabriel’s voice sounds awful, much worse than Tom Waits, but without his pitch or power. I sure hope this isn’t the final version. And the original version of that song is great.

And those two (along with Paul Simon’s “Boy in the Bubble”) were the covers I was most interested in hearing.

I hate to say it, but if Gabriel’s voice is really that blown, maybe he should stick to soundtracks. (His soundtracks for Birdy, The Last Temptation Of Christ and Rabbit-Proof Fence were all excellent.)

Architect Frank Gehry Designs Hat for Lady Gaga

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

Like all his other work, it’s a complete and utter piece of crap.

On the other hand, I think her Dali piano is pretty cool:

Lady Gaga’s brand of vapid pop isn’t my particular cup of poison, but in the interest of filling out the rare Lady Gaga trifecta, here’s the music video for Paparazzi. (Skip to about 3 minutes in if you want to go straight to the music.) When it comes to attention-whoring pop stars, she doesn’t settle for half-measures. I mean, just look at the number of costume changes there…

Follow-up: There was something that video kept reminding me of, and I finally figured it out:

J. G. Ballard’s Crash