Hey girl, let's listen to spooky tunes and eat candy corn
Let's talk spooky music. Around this time of year I tolerate endless replays of The Monster Mash and Thriller, but my favorite spooky record has got to be Dead Man's Bones by Dead Man's Bones.
Who are Dead Man's Bones? Well, Ryan Gosling is involved.
Wait! Come back!
I swear this isn't the kind of music you'd expect from a former Mickey Mouse Club member. It reminds me of the Langley Schools Music Project, which featured a 1970's school choir doing pop songs, and which, if you've listened to that record, is itself a little creepy. But this time the youth choir is singing about zombies, ghosts, and graves.
Sadly, their 2010 album is, so far, their only one and I doubt there will be another; it kind of feels like a lightning in a bottle sort of thing.
You can listen to the whole record on this playlist, and below is my favorite song.
I went to the Lady Gaga show, AKA, the Monster Ball, on Monday, and wrote a review, which you can read over on the SF Appeal. Read it! DO IT!
A few things not mentioned in the review:
* I totally missed my exit once I got to San Jose, but was able to drive directly to the Pavilion, despite a total lack of signs leading the way, and despite the fact that I have only driven there once before. Do not doubt my sense of direction, yo!
* I took my 17-year-old cousin to the show, and she couldn't get over how many old people were in the audience. Aside from me.
* There were lots of girls wearing yellow CAUTION tape (ala the Telephone video) wrapped around their bodies, but there was also one girl wearing yellow CAUTION WET PAINT tape, which is either really sad, or totally awesome.
* One of the most memorable aspects of the show, to me, was hearing Gaga's heavy breathing during rare moments of quiet in between songs. Hearing the amplified sound of someone catching their breathe in an arena filled with thousands was a new for me. You'll never hear Madonna trying to catch her breathe during her shows, (since she's superhuman), or Britney at hers (since she doesn't actually sing). It was oddly humanizing....
* I left the parking lot at the HP Pavilion in San Jose at 11:45pm and arrived in San Francisco at 12:20am. That's driving, son! (Also, it was a sad reminder of the horrors of rush hour traffic, as sometimes my shuttle ride home from Sunnyvale, which is not too far from San Jose, can take two hours.)
Last January, I posted an awesome mash-up of the top 25 pop songs of 2008, as put together by DJ Earworm. Well, he's back with this year's mash-up, which he's dubbed "Blame It on the Pop."
It's a little too heavy on the Blackeyed Peas for my taste, but it's still pretty great...Here's the video version.
Last year, I bemoaned the fact that I could not find video of Cher's version of "O Holy Night," which has become infamous due to Paul Shaffer's yearly rendition on "Late Show With David Letterman."
Well, my prayers have been answered. Watch the song, among others, in the medley below. Indeed, she does have her hands in a muff, but she is not alone under a street lamp, as Shaffer often describes. Instead, she is surrounded by extras similarly dressed in awful 70s versions of Victorian garb. Which is, of course, AWESOME.
I went to the Lady Gaga show in San Francisco last night. It was, as you would imagine, pretty spectacular. I think this was probably my favorite moment, as it is just so wonderfully ridiculous. Kind of crappy video, but I think you see enough to get the point...
Not to turn this blog into a Lady Gaga fansite or anything, (although, WHY THE HELL NOT?), but I just wanted to post these clips from her appearance on "The Jay Leno Show" last night. (And by the way, have you watched that shite recently? OMFG, but it is some awful stuff. I mean, fine, his interviews with celebs are OK. But his attempt at comedy and sketches? PAINFUL.)
First is her performance of "Bad Romance," in which she wears a jacket that reminds me of an old SCTV sketch that parodied Joan Crawford's heavily shoulder-padded heyday.
This is her sit-down with Leno. I love her answer to the question about what rumor about herself most upsets her.
Also, a realization I came to last night: She's younger than Britney Spears. By 5 years. That really kind of floored me, especially after seeing this interview on Fuse. Now, it's a long one, and probably only of interest to big fans, but I think it's pretty great. Sure, she comes off as pretentious at times, but I just appreciate that she has the intelligence to even aspire to pretentiousness. Can you imagine someone like Britney talking about her music with such self-awareness? Or even rationally discussing gay rights?
Understand, I still love me some mindless pop trash. I just really appreciate Lady Gaga bringing a little thought to the whole process. And some damned catchy hooks.
...fucking love Lady Gaga. I make no apologies. Combine the batshit insanity of someone like Nina Hagen with music that is actually listenable--and insanely catchy--and it's a pop culture win. Her VMA performance just sealed the deal.
The actual video for the song "Paparazzi" is just as nuts, if a little less bloody. And speaking of blood, it co-stars Alexander Skarsgard, Eric from "True Blood."
And finally, one of the things I most appreciate about Lady Gaga is the fact that she can actually sing. And play the piano. Check out this acoustic version of the song.
I wasn't really aware of her when she last came to the Bay Area to perform, which kills me, because it looks like her next appearance is going to be a co-concert with Kanye West. WHHYYYYYYY?????
Yeah, I know. It's been a little quiet around here. It's just that I've been swamped with other Internet bloggy Web site newspapers, and stuff like work and life, is all. (But mainly other Internet bloggy Web site newspapers.)
So, go over to the San Francisco Appeal to check out some movie reviews and the start of a new TV column by moi. And don't forget that you can see my daily TV picks over on the SFGate Culture Blog every day at noon!
Oh, and the other thing I've been doing is watching "Soul Train" videos on YouTube. Can't get enough. Here's one featuring the O'Jays doing one of my all-time fave soul classics, "Backstabbers." Watch the dancer in the front, wearing the vest. I love the hand movement he does whenever the line "they're smiling in your face" is sung. Classic.
Neko Case's new album is out next Tuesday, March 3rd. It's called "Middle Cyclone." This is good news to me, but bad news to my neighbors, as I have only recently stopped singing along--quite loudly and quite badly--to her last album.
And here's a treat: you can listen to streaming audio of the entire album over on NPR from now until the third.
Here's what I did while trying to get over a cold tonight.
About a month ago, I was reading Rich Juzwiak's blog, fourfour and he had a post about a remix of the song "Goodbye Horses" and how the remix was awesome but the mix itself was really bad and would someone fix it and send it to him and someone did and yadda yadda. (Go to the post and download the song!)
Anyway, I downloaded the song, and the entire collection of remixes it came from. But that song, "Goodbye Horses," was the best because it's awesome and also because it was the song Buffalo Bill is listening to when he does his infamous penis tuck dance in "Silence of the Lambs." Here's a lame video of the original song, along with the lyrics, just because.
So, tonight it popped up again as I was listening to music on my laptop, and I once again realized how awesome it is, and thought I'd investigate a little about it. It turns out it's a one hit wonder by "Q Lazzarus," which was fronted by a woman. Or maybe the woman was named Q Lazzarus? Whatever the case, it originally appeared on the soundtrack of an earlier Jonathan Demme movie, "Married to the Mob," a movie I loved at the time of its release. I also have the soundtrack, albeit on vinyl, but decided to dig it out to listen to the original version of the song. But, alas, to my disappointment I discovered the record is cracked in half. Doh! And a brief investigation into finding a replacement (because there are some other good songs on it, and just because) finds that copies are going for about 30 bucks on ebay and Amazon. Oh well.
But it doesn't end there! A little later I watched the Elvis Presley movie "King Creole," which begins with the amazing song "Crawfish."
Elvis singing about one of my favorite foods? Of course I needed to download that! Luckily iTunes had a DRM-free version of the song, which was quickly purchased. And when I went to my library to select the song and play it, I realized I already had a remixed version of the song which was from the same collection the "Goodbye Horses" remix was from!
Weird, right?!
Well, it seemed spooky in my sickness-induced haze. Maybe I should just call it a night.
I don't know much from "mash-ups," mainly because when it comes to what the kids are listening to these days, I'm way out of the loop. But I'm thinking my lack of awareness actually helps me appreciate this mash-up of the top 25 songs of 2008 even more; for the most part, I don't really know which parts are coming from different songs, so it all sounds amazingly cohesive to me.
Well done, DJ Earworm...if that is your real name.
Elvis Costello has a new show on the Sundance Channel called "Spectacle." Each week he'll interview a guest, and in the cases of the musically inclined, perform with them. This week is Elton John. It premieres at 9pm (and will be repeated on Thursday at 11pm). Here's a clip.
I'm not a Faith Hill fan, but this rendition of "Little Drummer Boy" is so good, it brings tears to my eyes, thanks in large part to the Morgan State University Choir that's backing her...
And a word to Morrissey--because when do I not feel like sharing with Morrissey?--I think you'll either have to stop performing this song, or at least give it a bit of a re-write. W00T!
God, "Mad Men" is just...so....good. It gives me chills every week. But that said, if you watched yesterday's show and thought to yourself at the beginning of the episode, "Say, that doesn't sound like a song from the '60s," you're quite right. It wasn't. It was "Infanta" by The Decemberists. I have mixed feelings about them using it. On the one hand, it's a great song, and it does sound a bit like a British Invasion band, right down to the singer's fake English accent. But on the other hand, it's a bit jarring, and does take you out of the show's time frame. And I'm not quite sure how the song's lyrics really play into the episode's themes...
Judge for yourself. Here are the lyrics, followed by a live version of the song. You tell me what it has to do with the show...
Here she comes in her palanquin on the back of an elephant on a bed made of linen and sequins and silk all astride on her father's line with the king and his concubines and her nurse with her pitchers of liquors and milk and we'll all come praise the infanta and we'll all come praise the infanta
Among five score pachyderm each canopied and passengered sit the duke and the duchess' luscious young girls within sight of the baroness seething spite for this lithe largesse by her side sits the baron her barrenness barbs her and we'll all come praise the infanta and we'll all come praise the infanta
A phalanx on camelback thirty ranks on a forward tack followed close, their shiny bright standards a-waving while behind in their coach-and-fours ride the wives of the king of Moors And the veiled young virgin, the prince's betrothed and we'll all come praise the infanta and we'll all come praise the infanta
And as she sits upon her place her innocence laid on her face from all atop the parapets blow a multitude of coronets melodies rhapsodical and fair and all our hearts afire the sky ablaze with cannon fire we all raise our voices to the air to the air...
And above all this folderol on a bed made of chaparral she is laid, a coronal placed on her brow and the babe, all in slumber dreams of a place filled with quiet streams and the lake where her cradle was pulled from the water and we'll all come praise the infanta and we'll all come praise the infanta
Now, after watching this bit of behind-the-scenes "Mad Men" video, I can kind of see the relationship between the song and the episode's themes, but it still seems like a bit of a stretch to me...BTW, DON'T watch this clip until you've watched the episode...
