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.
There should be a warning label with this video, something along the lines of the “Happy Fun Ball” skit on “Saturday Night Live.”
– Those who are pregnant or may become pregnant should not watch “Alice”
– Those who suffer from vertigo should not watch “Alice”
– Do not consume excessive amounts of alcohol before watching “Alice”
– Do not taunt “Alice”
Simply put, this is not an easy video to digest. On the plus side, Mr. Melville seems to have gotten back in touch with his former self to create a dizzying hip-hop track that is equal parts Play and Everything is Wrong. Here’s hoping that the rest of the record lives up to that potential.
I usually reserve this slot for new songs by relatively new bands, but since the music industry shuts down for a good two months at year’s end, we have nothing to promote but Christmas records from guys like Keith Sweat and Christopher Cross, neither of which I want to inflict on an unsuspecting public.
Instead, I am going to take a cue from our local modern rock station, which has unveiled the top 2008 “most requested” songs in its history. The songs they’re playing are awesome, but the order of these songs, in all objectivity, is freaking ridiculous. Today they played Crowded House’s “Mean to Me,” which ranked somewhere around 1,200 or so. Now, I love, love, love Crowded House, but I don’t buy for a minute that the station has received that many requests for Crowded House, not for a station that began in 1990. For starters, they almost never play the band, and when they do, they play “Don’t Dream It’s Over” just like everybody else. If they actually received that many requests for “Mean to Me,” you’d think that they play the song more than once a year. Second, they played Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android” yesterday, and Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” the day before. Are they really telling us that they’ve received more requests for a Crowded House song, ANY Crowded House song, than they have for “Paranoid Android” and “You Oughta Know”? Not bloody likely.
Personally, I think they take the entire lineup from 101 to 2008 and shuffle them, and I’m perfectly fine with that. It makes the first week of the year the most enjoyable week of the year. Hell, I heard Shakepeare’s Sister’s “Stay,” the Lightning Seeds’ “Pure” and Elvis Costello’s “Beyond Belief” almost back to back. How the hell do you beat that? I can only imagine how awesome this station would be if they actually played those songs (or Robyn Hitchcock’s “So You Think You’re in Love,” which I heard yesterday afternoon) more frequently. But hey, they’re still pretty awesome as modern rock stations go (they don’t play Evanescence and they love Muse, Kaiser Chiefs and Hard-Fi), so take the good with the bad, I suppose.
But back to the video. The scene where Paul Hester points the trick gun to his head is more than a little disturbing now. Sigh.
“It’s Christmas Eve, babe / In the drunk tank.” Find me a better opening to a holiday song than that.
I usually use this segment to pimp new stuff, but ’tis the season, etc. (plus the labels don’t release anything of major importance after the middle of November), so I present to you my all time favorite Christmas song. Have we mentioned lately how awesome Kirsty MacColl was, and how much we miss her? We should just rename this site iheartkirstymaccoll.com. ‘Cause we do. Big whole bunches.
I’ve had the soundtrack to “Once” sitting on my desk since about May, but I refused to listen to it before I saw the movie. It’s not your typical soundtrack, and in fact some people (wrongly) consider it a musical. In truth, it’s somewhere in between a soundtrack and a musical. It’s really a movie about music. A couple scenes are shot in musical style, but that’s about it.
This, for those who don’t care if I totally spoil the movie’s finest moment, is the movie’s finest moment. Guy (not his name: the two leads don’t have names, they’re just Guy and Girl) finally gets into a studio with Girl and some fellow Thin Lizzy-loving buskers, and proceed to bang out a song that just builds and builds and builds until it explodes. How can someone with Glen Hansard’s talent go so long without anyone knowing his name? Dunno, but in an interesting side note, he was a guitar player in the Commitments as well. Gotta go and watch that again.
