Author: David Medsker (Page 46 of 96)

Seen Your Video: White Rabbits, “Percussion Gun”

May 6, 2009 /

Ladies and gentlemen, the line for Single of the Year starts here.

I’m frankly shocked that these guys are from New York. American bands, particularly young ones, don’t write songs like this anymore, and they certainly don’t use arrangements like this. I had these guys pegged for a UK act all the way, with the Adam & the Ants-style percussion, hand claps and old-fashioned piano. Maybe the arrangement was producer Britt Daniel’s idea, who knows. His band Spoon isn’t exactly playing the American game, either. No matter who’s responsible for putting it together, it’s damn good, and had me racing for the band’s MySpace page. How about that, the other tunes are good, too. Time to hit up the publicist for a review copy. (The band’s album, It’s Frightening, comes out May 19.)

So the tune is definitely a keeper. Now about about the video? Tastefully simple, a rarity these days. The camera spins around – and sometimes above – a circular display of white lights that surrounds the band. That’s it. I bet they shot it in an afternoon, then hit the pub, while the director popped a couple Dramamines and went to bed. Nicely done, lads.

Alternative, Artists, Rock, Seen Your Video, Videos

Patrick Pleau: Hype-Moi

May 1, 2009 /

The power pop community is still abuzz over Catnip Dynamite, the second proper solo album from Jellyfish co-founder Roger Joseph Manning Jr., which makes one wonder what they will do when they hear Hype-Moi, the new album by Montreal multi-instrumentalist (and Manning sound-alike) Patrick Pleau. Our guess is that more than a few heads will explode, because Hype-Moi is the French equivalent of Catnip Dynamite, only…better? An argument could certainly be made in Pleau’s favor, considering his tendency to let the music do the talking and to know when enough is enough. The songs are huge, mind you – swirling, psychedelic jangle guitars, triple-decker harmonies, hyper-treated keyboard effects and Moogs abound – but compared to the absurdly over-the-topness of Catnip, Pleau is the model of restraint. The irony of ironies is that Hype-Moi sounds like a long-lost collaboration between Manning and French ambient synth popsters Air (particularly “L’écran Bleu De La Mort”), who have worked together on multiple occasions but have never put a meeting of the minds to tape quite like the one Pleau does on their behalf. You don’t need to speak French to appreciate the beauty of this record. (Orange Music 2009)

Writer’s Note: I don’t speak a word of French, so I cannot comment on Pleau’s lyrical prowess. Based on the complexity of these melodies and arrangements, though, I am pretty sure that he is not a moon/June guy, nor is he talking about date rape, incest or murder. At least I hope he isn’t.

Patrick Pleau MySpace page

Ambient, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Electronica, Pop, Power Pop

Super 700: Lovebites

May 1, 2009 /

You’d be hard pressed to find another album released this year that embraces the idea of melodramatic pop quite like German septet Super 700’s Lovebites. Fronted by the siren-like Ibadet Ramadani, who has a Liz Fraser beautiful-but-unintelligible thing going with her vocals, Lovebites sounds like the unofficial soundtrack to a love story between a vampire and the Portuguese princess who loves him. It’s haunting and Gothic, but also grounded in rock dynamics, calling to mind the late, great Boston band Tribe unleashing their inner Siouxsie Sioux. “Second in Line” is the album’s showstopping moment, a hypnotic mini-epic that someone needs to send to Motels singer Martha Davis, stat. The strange thing about Lovebites, however, is that as captivating as the songs are while they’re playing, several of them are forgotten almost as soon as they’re over, as if they’re equipped with a memory charm. Undeniably beautiful stuff, but we just wish the moment would linger a little bit longer. (Motor Music 2009)

Super 700 MySpace page

Alternative, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Gothic, Melodramatic, Pop

Seen Your Video: Green Day, “Know Your Enemy”

April 24, 2009 /

We proles can’t possibly fathom the kind of pressure that Green Day must have felt when they were putting the finishing touches on 21st Century Breakdown, their first album since the multi-platinum – and game-changing – American Idiot. Perhaps that is why they played around with side projects like the Foxboro Hot Tubs (which was a damn good record, by the way), because it enabled them to get their yeah yeahs out without having to worry about commercial expectations.

Ah, but they could only put the world on hold for so long, and at last, they give us “Know Your Enemy,” the debut single from Breakdown. Does it raise the stakes of American Idiot? No, but that appears to be the point. There was no sense in even trying, so instead, they deliver something more akin to their “unplugged” album Warning, which is one of my favorites of theirs. Big choruses, hand clap-ready snare drums, and a no-nonsense performance video to promote it. It’s as if they’re asking us to forget that American Idiot ever happened, and while that makes sense, it’s just not gonna happen. Still, this definitely has me excited to hear the rest of the album. Only a couple more weeks…

Alternative, Power Pop, Rock, Seen Your Video, Songs, Videos

Michel Gondry 2: More Videos Before and After DVD 1

April 23, 2009 /

Better than the 2003 collection that bears his name, this michelgondry.com-exclusive set of music videos is simply staggering. The beauty of Gondry’s work is that his methods are surprisingly low-tech (Beck’s “Cellphone’s Dead” being this set’s exception). He uses reflective glass to create the ghosts that haunt Paul McCartney’s house in “Dance Tonight,” and Steriogram’s “Walkie Talkie Man” is a brilliant stop-motion clip, using both real people and their string equivalents. Gondry assembles a couple of clever yet completely unique one-take videos with Michael Andrews and Gary Jules’ cover of “Mad World” and the White Stripes’ “The Denial Twist,” and his videos from the pre-CGI early ’90s, namely Thomas Dolby’s “Close but No Cigar” and Sananda Maitreya’s “She Kissed Me” (otherwise known as Terence Trend D’Arby to your older brothers and sisters), look as good as any video made today. The set comes with a bunch of behind-the-scenes footage, a couple films featuring Gondry solving a Rubik’s Cube with various parts of his body (feet and nose, to be precise), and they also added the parody of Gondry’s video of the White Stripes’ “The Hardest Button to Button” that appeared on a 2006 episode of “The Simpsons.” Genius stuff, across the board. If only he could replicate this consistency in the feature film arena.(ElektroFilm)

Click here to buy “Michel Gondry 2: More Videos Before and After DVD 1

DVD Quicktakes, External Music, Songs, Videos

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