Category: videos

tunes you need Tuesday: OK Go

At least two months ago, when Of the Colour of the Blue Sky came out, I promised an OK Go Tunes You Need Tuesday and here it is.  You know OK Go from their video a couple of years ago with the treadmills, but they're more than fun videos, they're a very talented band and this is a superb album.  You should get it.

The End.

Not really.  But I could end it there, that's how much I like this album.  It's supergood and hard to describe.  OK Go calls it a dance album, but it's a mix of rock and pop and fun.  The songs are catchy and funky, the band's sound is fantastic, and well, maybe I should let the first track, "WTF?" speak to what OK Go sounds like.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7166047&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1

So, that's good stuff.  OK Go is great at doing good stuff.  They're a phenomenal band.  This is from their bio on their website:

 

Some of the other cool shit they’ve made lately: a record accompanied only by trombones, a play, an essay in the best-selling collection Things I’ve Learned From Women Who Dumped Me, op-eds in the New York Times and Huffington Post. They’ve testified before Congress and played in the Senate chambers. I repeat: they played music in the chambers of the United States Senate. They’ve been commentators on All Things Considered. They interviewed a member of N’Sync in the bathroom of Radio City Music Hall. They have a project where they walk the streets with fans handing out burritos to the homeless. They raised most of the money to buy a house for soul legend Al Johnson, so he could move home to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

And they make music too, like "Needing/Getting."  

04 Needing_Getting

I mentioned the OK Go website, but it's worth more than a mention.  It is what a band website should be.  OK Go goes beyond what most bands do and posts video of performances on tv shows, embeddable official videos, and streams live performances.  It's because they care about their fans and about making cool stuff, lead singer Damian Kulash said it on The Colbert Report last night.  

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
OK Go
www.colbertnation.com
http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:308103

Back to the music.  I'll leave you with my two favorite songs from Of the Colour of the Blue Sky, "Back From Kathmandu" and "Louisiana Land."  Enjoy.

11 Back from Kathmandu

14 Louisiana Land

sunday rewind: michael penn’s march

This '80s Sunday Rewind has been a long time coming, but as usual the trouble was finding enough quality videos to make a complete post.  I've been a fan of Michael Penn since March and think he's as incredibly talented a songwriter/musician as he is under-appreciated.  March was Penn's 1989 debut and with "No Myth," it seemed like he would be the new darling of the 1990s, but that wasn't to be.  Many people think of him as a one-hit wonder, but listen to the other songs in this post and I think you'll agree Penn is quite fantastic. Hit up the iTunes Store for all his stuff.  

EDIT: I hit up the iTunes Store because I can't find my cd of Penn's Free For All (great album) and the mixed tape a friend made of the album back in the day is still stuck in the cassette deck of my mini-van — yes, you needed all of that information.  So, I found out that now on March and Free For All have been combined in a 2001 re-issue of March, minus one of my faves, "Now We're Even," which if I recall correctly was the closing track on Free For All.  So, lucky you — you get two albums for the price of one!  Fantastic.

Here's the song you'll remember, "No Myth."

I wish I had this whole episode of Unplugged.  Here is "Brave New World."  The acoustic version is sublime.

What did I tell you?  "This may not be my best day, but this ain't no golden age."


There isn't a real video for "Half Harvest," but I really like the song, so here you go.

My favorite line has always been "What makes you think that just 'cause you dress bright means that you shine?"  Penn has such great insight.  


Love him.

sunday rewind: more favorites

So, I was all set to do a Vonda Shepard '80s Sunday Rewind (you know Vonda – she was the bar singer in Ally McBeal), then after a little research, realized the song she's known for, "Don't Cry Ilene" came out in 1990. Not the '80s.  I've been planning a Vonda post all week, but maybe that will be a Tunes Tuesday post instead.  

Today you're getting more personal '80s favorites because it's my blog and I feel like it.

Up first is the lovely "Life in a Northern Town" by Dream Academy.

 Marshall Crenshaw's "Someday Someway" is a great little pop song.  Love the guitars on this one.

This clip of R.E.M. doing "Don't Go Back to Rockville" needs to be saved for future generations.  This is one of my favorite songs.  

And finally, with one of my favorite first lines of any song, "Such a drag to want something sometime," it's The Pretenders with "Talk of the Town."  Fantastic song.  

 "Maybe tomorrow, maybe someday."  Love that song.  And just for fun, "Brass in Pocket," which is pretty fantastic as well.  

Enjoy your Sunday.

Hanson’s all growed up, y’all

When you weren't looking, Hanson grew up and made a new album due out June 8th.  Here is their new video "Thinking 'Bout Somethin'" — the video is a Blues Brothers tribute and I believe that's Weird Al on tambourine.  You know that  makes it awesome.


Thinking 'Bout Somethin'
http://mediaservices.myspace.com/services/media/embed.aspx/m=104317949,t=1,mt=video
HANSON | MySpace Music Videos

I like that.  Mmm bop.

Dixie Carter, you will be missed

Dixie Carter passed away Saturday.  She was a wonderful actress, best known for her role as Julia Sugarbaker on Designing Women.  I loved Dixie and Julia.  Both were strong, intelligent, outspoken southern women. Julia was never afraid to speak her mind and was a role model of mine in my adolescence.  Dixie was a Republican playing a Democrat, so that shows you how talented of an actress she really was.  

I've found a few favorite Julia moments for you.  

This is a speech I should memorize — it would come in handy, although I'm a moderate:

Julia on crazy people:

Julia gets mad (not unlike when I get mad):

Also, once someone has seen me angry they usually say "I didn't know Kerry had that in her," as Charlene did.

Speaking of angry, here's a clip from when Bernice (the crazy person talked about from the Crazy People in the South Clip) had a talk show and Julia tried to straighten poor Bernice out.  Hilarious.

Thanks for the memories, Dixie.  

sunday rewind: personal favorites

I thought I'd take a break from the usual today and not focus on one particular band and do something which allows me to show you videos from bands who may have only had one hit or songs I just love and want to show you again.  There are bunches that fit in the latter category.  These are the songs that no matter what – when they come on my '80s iTunes playlist make me extremely happy.  Some of the songs you will know, some may be knew to you.  Enjoy my favorite beautiful '80s tunes.

First up, Joe Jackson's "Steppin' Out."  Lovely.  

10,000 Maniac's "Like the Weather" has been one of my all-time favorites since 1987.  I played this record OUT.  Yes, I said record, as in vinyl.  

Flock of Seagulls.  Oh my God, shut up.  "Space Age Love Song" is just beautiful.  Perfect song.

I love The Thompson Twins.  "If You Were Here" simply makes me melt.  That's what I said.  

The Rave-Ups' "Positively Lost Me" is brilliant.  Nothing less than brilliant.  I've written about this song before — probably write about it again, but to me — this list of miscellaneous items she lost when she left, then the line "you lost my face, you lost my laugh, and then you lost my confidence" is fantastic.  

Another song that was in Pretty in Pink, "Bring On the Dancing Horses" by Echo and the Bunnymen.  Fab.

Here is "Pictures of You," my favorite song by The Cure.  It's hauntingly beautiful, a song of lost love and heartbreak.  

And for your '80s leftover, barely missing the cut by being released in January 1990, it's The Sundays with "Here's Where the Story Ends."  This is such a beautiful song.  Harriet's voice is unlike any other and I do not understand why her band did not take off like gangbusters.  They were wonderful.  If you've ever heard their cover of the Rolling Stones "Wild Horses," you know what I mean.

where my crush on alec baldwin began

Grey's is a repeat tonight, kittens, so Aunt ReeRee has a story for y'all.  Gather 'round.

Way back in the day, there was a nighttime soap called Knots Landing.  It was the bomb.  Knots Landing was a spinoff of Dallas – you know, the show about the Ewing family.  

Well, Gary Ewing was J.R.'s black sheep-of-the-family alcoholic brother.  He married Valene (Val) and his mom, Miss Ellie, bought them a house on a cul-de-sac in California, which became the setting for — you guessed it — Knots Landing.  No apostrophe.  

Knots Landing was the best.  It had everything a nighttime soap could ask for — alcoholism, mobsters, lots of affairs, faked deaths, drug addiction, assassins, amnesia, kidnapping, abuse, and my favorite storyline EVER — a murder where the body was buried beneath soil where cement was going to be poured the very next day.   Of course, when the cement cracked BECAUSE THERE WAS A DEAD BODY BENEATH IT —  the cement had to be repoured and the body was found. TO THIS DAY, when I see a crack in cement I think, "well, it's only a matter of time before they find the body."  I'm not kidding.

But my second favorite storyline concerns my boyfriend, Alec Baldwin, in which is what I believe to be the first role I recall seeing him in.  He played Val's crazy evangelist brother, Joshua, for a short time on the show.  For some reason, he decided he was going to throw his wife, Cathy, off of a building in front of a billboard with her name on it!  Does it get better than that?!  Yes, it does!  His mama, Lilly Mae is there and disowns him, then he falls to his death!  I saw this clip on a link from Go Fug Yourself the other day and it brought back such memories, I was in Alec Baldwin heaven.  So good and so bad.

Kittens, I give you Alec Baldwin playing a southern evangelist and saying "mama."  And playing Cathy is the one and only Lisa Hartman before she was Lisa Hartman Black and she totally has Rod Stewart hair.   

You are welcome.  

tunes you need Tuesday: the bird and the bee

Every once in a while a band comes along and does something so genius that I feel is worth sharing with you people.  The Bird and The Bee have done that.  

Last week The Bird and The Bee released Interpreting The Masters Volume 1 (A Tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates).  Genius.  I can only hope they cover all of the bands I love from the '80s because this album is simply fantastic.  It's good times.  

Here are are a few songs for your listening pleasure.  Enjoy.

06 Maneater

03 Rich Girl

07 She's Gone

Here they are doing "I Can't Go for That" on Ellen last week.  Love it.

This is from The BIrd and The Bee's Wikipedia page:

The Bird and the Bee is an indie/Synthpop/alternative musical duo from Los Angeles, consisting of musicians Inara George ("the bird") and Greg Kurstin ("the bee"). Kurstin, a producer and keyboardist who has worked with Lily Allen, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Beck, The Flaming Lips, Kylie Minogue and Red Hot Chili Peppers, is also a member of the band Geggy Tah. George and Kurstin met while the two were working on her debut album and they decided to collaborate on a jazz-influenced electro pop project. Their debut EP, Again and Again and Again and Again, was released on October 2006 and their debut album was released on January 23, 2007 on Blue Note Records.

So, you're going to download the album on iTunes, right?  Good.

sunday rewind: Hall and Oates

Hall and Oates is a departure from the usual post punk/new wave I usually feature here on the Sunday Rewind, but there is a method to my madness – come back for the return of Tunes Tuesday and all will be revealed.  Truth be told, I love the Hall and Oates.  Love the blue eyed soul.  

As usual, I saved the best for last.  Get a load of this f*ckery I found.  I mean, gem.

Okay, wtf was that?  Chippendales Oates, Hall refused to sing, strappy sandals, the devil, the weird jacket the chick helps Oates into with the sleeves, and I'm pretty sure Hall was stoned.  The '70s were bad, people.  Just say no to time machines.