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My head tells me that I shouldn’t like Kerli. One listen to her voice tells me that she worships at the altar of Amy Lee – the song is smothered with Evanescence-style melodrama as well – and the lyric is straight from Alanis Morrisette’s notebook (“I know that you think of me when you’re beside her / Inside her”). But I find myself irresistibly drawn to the Estonian beauty. I feel like Oz in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” when the band fronted by the female wolf comes to Sunnydale and plays the Bronze. He’s dating Alyson Hannigan, Alyson freaking Hannigan, but damned if he could resist the singer’s siren song. I’m Oz, Kerli’s the wolf. The wolf also made an appropriately creepy video for her brooding lead single “Love is Dead.” It starts with her horribly aged, standing in front of a CGI background that shows, well, death. As the video goes on, she gets younger, and everything behind her does, too. We get stuff from 20-year-old girls pitched to us all the time. None of it sounds like this. She’s not reinventing the wheel or anything, but you have to love a young girl with some depth. She covers Bauhaus’ “She’s in Parties,” for crying out loud. Hopefully the full-length album, which drops April 22, will follow up on the promise of this single. Embedding, sadly, is disabled, but I highly recommend checking her out. And in case you still need more convincing, here’s a picture of her.
See what I mean? You’re drawn to her too, aren’t you? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to lock myself up in my cage, so I don’t accidentally eat anyone when the full moon hits. Filed under: Pop and Rock Babes and Songs and Artists and Videos and External Music and Seen Your Video Comments: 1 Comment |
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We see them outside our office, angry people carrying pitchforks, torches, and signs that say “Limey Go Home.” Someone from Votefortheworst.com is at the front. People are jumping on the “American Idol”-bashing bandwagon left and right. And frankly, we’re tempted to join them. But not quite yet. Yes, we’re still mad as hell that “the public” chose Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks over the clearly superior Melinda Doolittle. I, for one, have stopped watching the show after last season’s finale, and I’m pretty sure that if Mike Farley didn’t have to blog it for us, he would have stopped watching too after Mindy Doo’s ouster. Not good timing, then, for Randy Jackson’s Music Club Vol. I, where the onetime Journey bassist plays Clive Davis for a day and assembles a compilation album filled with the top of the pops. His leadoff single – whether he wanted it to be or not – is fellow “AI” judge Paula Abdul and her song “Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow.” It’s her first single in 12 years. Things have, um, changed a little since then. How will she adapt? Much to my surprise, rather well. Adbul only had a couple of really killer singles – “Knocked Out,” “The Way That You Love Me” and “Cold Hearted” were my personal favorites – so to compare this to the rest of her work is pointless; most of that stuff just wasn’t very good. This song isn’t great either, but it’s also not exactly terrible, which Paula should take as a major victory. Even more surprising is the video, which features some of the neatest choreography I’ve ever seen. The whole singer/backing dancer stuff has been done to death, but Paula does something different here. Most of the time, they move like a single organism. It’s pretty damn cool. The other two set pieces, however, do not fare so well. The shots of her with the band look laughably inauthentic. They’re clearly here so Randy can pluck a little bass, but there is just no way those musicians are making the sound we’re hearing (especially that ridiculous drummer). The other set piece is a close-up of Paula in what appears to be a wind tunnel with red drapes. She’s always looking to the left and right of the camera, as if she’s forgotten the lyrics and she’s trying to find the teleprompter. Not her best money shot. But still, we had every reason to expect something as god-awful as that Gwen Stefani yodeling song, and Paula delivered something that, if not genre-busting, is better than it has a right to be. So good for her. I’m still not watching “American Idol,” though. Filed under: Pop and Radio and Rock Babes and Songs and Artists and Videos and American Idol and Seen Your Video Comments: None |
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Note to Gwen Stefani: This is what your solo records should sound like. Kylie Minogue has gone to Number One in every major country in the world…except for the US. Here, she has two Top Ten singles (which are also her only two Top 20 singles). In England, she has seven Number One singles, 30 Top Tens, and 40 Top 20 singles. Forty. Here, two. Jesus. We really want to think that she notches her third Top 20 hit with “Wow,” from her upcoming album X. This is catchy as all hell, and Idolator summed it up perfectly when they described the style as stormtrooper chic. Was Daft Punk involved with this song? That EQ fade-out at the end certainly sounds like something from their Alive 2007 set. Give it to me, baby. Uh huh, uh huh. Filed under: Pop and Electronica and Rock Babes and Songs and Artists and Videos and External Music and Seen Your Video Comments: 1 Comment |
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All kinds of Lily Allen-type buzz surrounds Made of Bricks, the debut album from the latest UK pop tart Kate Nash. “Foundations” certainly holds up to the lofty praise, though consumers should know that Nash and Allen, musically, have very little in common. In terms of their attitude, not to mention their tendency to curse like drunken sailors, they’re peas in a pod, but where Allen’s music is closer to Madness, Nash appears to be a bigger fan of the Dresden Dolls, if her song “Mariella” is any indication. But if any song is going to draw comparisons to Allen, “Foundations” is the one, particularly the line about her sucking lemons because she’s so bitter, and her responding that she’d rather do her boyfriend’s friends because they’re much fitter. Oh, snap.
Filed under: Pop and Alternative and Rock Babes and Songs and Artists and Videos and External Music and Seen Your Video Comments: None |
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It’s the middle of January, and we already have a contender for Video of the Year. The beginning looks like a Sarah McLachlan cliché gone horribly wrong, with Alison Goldfrapp dressed in white lying on the ground in a forest, magic-hour light cascading down on her. Then she stands up, and you see that she’s wearing a white top, and nothing else. Suddenly, two leaf men sprout out of the ground, and the silliness begins. Even better is Dave Gregory’s appearance at the very end. The money shot comes at the 1:26 mark, when Alison lifts her arms Scott Stapp-style, and you’re pretty sure you’re about to see something you’re not supposed to. Of course, you don’t, but hot damn, is it a fabulous tease. Filed under: Pop and Electronica and Rock Babes and Songs and Artists and Videos and External Music and Seen Your Video Comments: None |
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I am surely dating myself by saying this, but I miss the days when bands like Minipop ruled modern rock radio. Shimmering, hypnotic dream-pop guitars supporting a female lead that didn’t have the strongest voice but had an alluring voice and something to say…ah, good times. I know very little about Minipop other than this fabulous, “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight”-style video, but the record is on its way to me, and I can’t wait to hear it.
Filed under: Rock and Pop and Alternative and Rock Babes and Songs and Artists and Videos and External Music and Seen Your Video Comments: None |
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When I first heard Bis, I was pretty sure I hated them. I mean, it was on a tribute album to the Smiths, fer crissakes. What on earth were they doing there? I still don’t have a good answer to that question. Bis, after all, were the ‘90s equivalent of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, which means they were the ‘80s equivalent of Berlin and the Human League. Do any of those bands have a single thing in common with the Smiths? No, which is what made their version of “The Boy with a Thorn in His Side” both fascinating and maddening. On the plus side, they gave the song the danceable beat that it begged for all along. On the other hand, they also stripped Johnny Marr’s lovely chord progression out, effectively turning the song into a dub mix. Not what this Smiths fan was looking for. Fast forward three years, and Bis releases their second album Social Dancing. Somehow, it catches my ear – I’m guessing they landed a track on a CMJ compilation, as I was a subscriber at the time – and I find a promo copy cheap…and in the process discover a song that still pops up on Medsker mix discs. Short, fast, funny and insanely catchy, “I’m a Slut” gleefully pokes fun at gender roles – “Have I done something to upset you / Was my dress a bit too see-through” – but had a Shirley Manson badass-ness to it as well. In a musical climate that was still suffering a hangover from what Alanis Morissette hath wrought, it was a most welcome breath of fresh air. The band’s 2001 EP, Music from a Stranger World, was even better than Social Dancing, but it wasn’t good enough to stop them from breaking up two years later. Wikipedia says that they recently reunited for a few gigs in England. You have to think that they’re watching this whole ‘80s retro thing and thinking, “WTF?” Filed under: Rock and Pop and Alternative and Rock Babes and Songs and External Music and Ruby Tuesday Comments: None |
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If you’re anything like us – though with any luck, you’re less cynical – you heard the news about the Spice Girls reforming and your first thought, after the obligatory “Why?”, was something along the lines of “Hey, I’d reform too if the price was right.” And the price is most definitely right, with each Girl bringing home $20 million for participating. That seemed a rather exorbitant paycheck for: a) a band like the Spice Girls, and b) what was at the time only a seven-city tour. The tour promoters, however, clearly knew what they were doing, because several dates on the band’s tour, which is now headed for Australia, South Africa, Argentina and China, sold out in 18 minutes. Eighteen minutes? Really? Are we missing something? Clearly, we were. The video. The Girls are releasing a hits album November 20, and the video for the first single, “Headlines (Friendship Never Ends),” is, um, very revealing. For example, it reveals that the Girls are actually hotter now than they were at their peak, and that Ginger Spice is ripped, baby! It doesn’t reveal much in the way of poignant songwriting, but the song isn’t what we would call terrible, either. To be honest, we weren’t paying much attention to the song. We were more interested in when Posh’s eyes flash red and she beats Sporty to death, mistaking her for Sarah Connor. And speaking of Sporty, is it just us, or does she look completely different, like ‘secretly replaced’ different? Must be the teeth. Oh, and we haven’t even gotten to the best part about the Spice Girls tour: they’re going to get naked onstage. Now that is something with a definite awesomeness problem. Quicktime Windows Media |
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It only took a year and change, but We Are the Pipettes, the debut from the sassy UK girl group trio, has finally arrived on these here shores. They turned some heads earlier in the year as Amy Winehouse’s opening act, and if you see them, you’ll know why. Holy smokes, are they hot. Hot, hot, hot. Gwenno (the tall blonde) is a Posh Spice in the making, let me tell you. The girls have a ton of videos on YouTube – the animated “ABC” is tons of fun – but I chose “Pull Shapes” so you can see for yourself just how hot the non-animated Pipettes are. Wear a bib, and dance your ass off. Filed under: Pop and Rock Babes and Songs and Artists and Videos and External Music and Seen Your Video Comments: None |
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…let’s not forget that a couple of them actually managed to pull together some pretty enjoyable solo singles. Melanie C (with Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes), “Never Be The Same Again”: Emma Bunton, “What Took You So Long” Geri Halliwell, “Look At Me” (I’d love to also post videos from Victoria Beckham and Melanie Brown, but, frankly, I’m just not a very big fan of their material.) |
 They doth call him the Pope of Mope, and it’s a title he’s earned a hundred times over…and then some. Whilst fronting the Smiths in the mid-1980s, Morrissey quickly became known as the poster child for all those lonely teenagers who craved love and acceptance but were finding it hard to come by, and when the Manchester four-piece broke up in 1987, the majority of those morose music fans followed Mozzer to his solo career, where he further trumpeted his woe-is-me mentality. (C’mon, now: it’s such a hallmark of his work that even he makes fun of it sometimes!) Morrissey’s recording career has spanned almost 25 years, and although he’s been a staple of the UK charts – and of US college radio – for the majority of that time, there are plenty of his songs, both solo and with the Smiths, that can be readily classified as Deep Cuts. A few samples… “Work is a Four Letter Word,” The Smiths – Just Say Yes: Sire’s Winter CD Music Sampler
Does anyone else remember these great compilations that Sire Records used to release? They were awesome, particularly this first volume, which is as good a one-stop lesson on modern rock circa 1987 as you’re likely to find. In addition to tracks by Depeche Mode, Echo & the Bunnymen, the Ramones, and the Replacements, you’ll find the Smiths covering Cilla Black. Johnny Marr declared the recording of the song to be “the last straw” — and given that it was recorded during what would prove to be the Smiths’ final session, that’s apparently exactly what it was. “Get Off the Stage,” Morrissey – Piccadilly Palare single
While it’s not exactly the albatross about Morrissey’s neck that the line “hope I die before I get old” is for the Who, you can understand why this goofy but fun diatribe aimed at aging rockers with limited musical palates isn’t pulled out more often. It’s a little risky for a man which such a recognizable sound to be crooning, “And the song that you just sang / It sounds exactly like the last one / And the next one / I bet you it will sound / Like this one.” “Sorrow Will Come in the End,” Morrissey – Maladjusted
Yikes, dude! Bitter much? Essentially a spoken word piece, with Mozzer launching into a tirade against the results of a royalties battle with his former Smiths bandmate, Mike Joyce. “A man who slits throats has time on his hands,” sneers Moz, “and I’m gonna get you!” It’s so over the top that it’s a laugh — but not as funny as Joyce’s scoffing response to the lyrical threatening: “If Lemmy had written it, I might be concerned.” Ouch! Check out the whole piece here, then stop back by and offer your opinions and / or alternate suggestions for the list! Filed under: Pop and Alternative and Deep Cuts and Rock Babes and Songs and Artists and External Music Comments: 2 Comments |
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What can we possibly say as a preface that would do it justice? Happy Friday, everyone…! P.S. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Head over here for more…if you dare!!! |
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I really wanted to include the actual video for this song, since it was right next to Berlin’s “The Metro” in terms of the sexual awakening of this particular writer, but it appears that Tracey’s former label is playing hardball with YouTube and will not let them show any of her videos. I could go on for hours about how ridiculous that is, but people far more eloquent than I am have already done so. Read them instead, then come back to me when you’re jonesing for ’60s girl pop done ’80s style. For anyone who wasn’t of a certain age when this album broke, you might be shocked to learn that Tracey Ullman was a smokin’ babe when her record You Broke My Heart in Seventeen Places came out. But a smokin’ babe she was, and you’ll have to “settle” for her with teased hair in a leather mini-skirt than in ’60s go-go gear. Call it a win-win. Warning: this link may be dead seconds from now. Tracey’s label seems to be extra-vigilant about a record that’s been out of print for over two decades. Go figure.
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…Britney’s out of rehab again. Okay, fine, I admit it: I’m feeling sorry for her. She’s clearly got some problems. In all honesty, I hope she successfully vanishes into seclusion for awhile to get her head straight; I’d hate to see her go the Anna Nicole Smith route. |
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…that Britney Spears shaved her head to audition for a role in the new “Star Trek” movie…despite this picture. |
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