You can’t really have the true summer experience without listening to some new music from Luxembourg-based Sun Glitters, and hey, if the track you’re listening to just happens to also have the amazing vocal stylings of the fantastic Steffaloo, well, all the better. Even the name Sun Glitters evokes your most pleasant memories of summer. Don’t believe me? Put this song on, close your eyes and think of the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the words: “sun glitters”. I hate summer, and even I have a big smile on my face after I do that.
Hey, has anyone seen my 80’s nostalgia lying around anywhere? I could have swore that every fond memory I had of the 80’s was around here somewhere. Oh wait, here it is.
What happens when a girl from Sweden channels early 90’s hip-hop via Jamaican dancehall? You get Elliphant’s “Music Is Life”, that’s what. As I’ve mentioned here before having a Jamaican sound on your record is really hot right now, mainly because of Diplo’s influence, but Elliphant brings her own unique spin to the sound like everything else she touches to keep “Music Is Life” sounding fresh and fun and positive. This is some great summer barbecue music.
Now I’m not someone who normally pays Robin Thicke any mind, but somehow this song burrowed its way into my head and won’t get out. It all started with a simple RadioShack commercial for the Beats Pill speaker. Since I’ve gotten a DVR I rarely watch any commercials on TV anymore since I usually just fast-forward through them to get back to my shows, but this is one of those odd commercials that actually grabbed my attention. The song is a total earworm, simple and catchy and fun to sing/hum along to; the visuals of the video are eye-popping and really graphic with the bold splashes of red on the white backdrop; the editing and flow of the video is constantly pulling your eyes and attention in different directions; and–let’s not beat around the bush any longer–the models are really hot. I’ll admit it, my curiosity about them was what inspired me to Google the video in the first place.
Now imagine my surprise when I discovered that there’s actually a controversial unrated version of the official music video for “Blurred Lines”–the song that’s featured in this RadioShack commercial–that’s spreading virally across the internet featuring those very same models prancing around topless. OK, now you’ve got my attention. It goes without saying that this video is pretty NSFW.
That video was promptly taken off of YouTube, which doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense because as you can obviously see it’s been reposted a million times since. YouTube did the same thing with Justin Timberlake’s new video, also featuring lots of female nudity, which they then promptly unblocked a few days later after people protested. What’s the deal, YouTube? I get not wanting to be confused with PornHub or YouPorn but at the same time there’s nudity all over YouTube. I’ve posted plenty of videos from YouTube on this very blog featuring nudity so it would make a lot more sense if they came up with a more comprehensive rule set for these situations than just willy-nilly pulling any video that suddenly becomes popular.
If you want to see the official video sans nudity, check out the sfw version below:
Now, obviously it was the pretty ladies that got me watching these videos in the first place, but after hearing the same song over and over again after watching all of these various videos I started to come to the realization that “Blurred Lines” is actually a really, really good song. It’s super funky and like Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” it manages to sound retro and brand new and classic all at the same time, a rare feat. Both the song and all of these different videos are really fun. Even if your initial reaction is to protest the overtly sexist/sexual visuals take a closer look at how much fun everyone is having. The whole thing is rather tongue-in-cheek and cheeky; sexist, but sexist in a fun Benny Hill kind of way where everyone, the girls included, seem to be in on the joke. Maybe you disagree, but I think this song is a whole lot of fun.
Oh boy, HAERTS’ “All the Days” is a real stunner of a song. Its sound embodies everything that made pop music great in the late Eighties. Its soaring vocals and ethereal synth and guitar work relentlessly build and build with the epic drumbeat like waves crashing against a rocky shore. It has that perfect romantic end-of-the-world vibe that evokes images in your mind of pretty much every great 80’s movie you can think of. It really does not get much better than this, so enjoy. This is one of those rare songs where the more you listen to it, the more you want to keep listening to it.
LiveJournal doesn’t want to embed the video right now for some reason, so if you can’t see it, just click here.
Didn’t I just bitch about music videos that feature the lead singer(s) performing in the back of a car? These guys are lucky that this song is so dang good. I guess they get a few bonus points for actually fitting the whole band in the back of the van. And I guess it’s also saved by the fact that it’s suppose to be a tour video. OK, they do kind of get away with it in this video, I mean, “Empire of Light” is such a pretty song that seems tailor-made to be sung in the back of a van on a long road trip, but still, stop making videos in the back of your car, people!
Sometimes in life you need to experience art that challenges your preconceived notions of reality, that pushes you to delve deeper into a topic than you ever have before to get at its essential truths, to use art to look inside yourself and see things there that you didn’t even know you had inside of you…
…and sometimes you just need to listen to some good House music. Do yourself a favor and put this on and dance along and forget all your troubles. Because summer is the perfect time for House music and when House music is as good as this that really is all you need to put a smile on your face.
Tuesday I received a pleasant surprise in my email from blog favorite, TV Girl. They gave me a link to download for free their new EP ‘Lonely Women‘ for having donated to their Vanstravaganza (We Need a Van to Tour) Kickstarter. This is after having sent me a postcard (which you can see below) and a download of their exclusive and awesome ‘Blurry Girls (Demos, Unreleased Songs, and Other Ephemera)’ 13 track album. When I donated there was no mention of this EP, but they’re so awesome they decided to give it away for free to all their benefactors anyways. If these guys weren’t already one of my favorite bands they would be now, and they haven’t even used that van I helped pay for to come to Seattle yet!
This five track EP is filled with fantastic songs with relentlessly catchy melodies and clever lyrics about girls who probably don’t have it all together, probably aren’t even that good for the guy, but hey, he loves them anyways. “Laura” is about a girl with her head in the clouds that the narrator can’t help writing songs about, while “Melanie” is about that annoyingly popular girl who’s always at everything, who everyone knows but no one really likes. But he can’t help talking to her anyways because she’s just so easy to talk to. All these songs have this common theme running through them, like “My Girlfriend” which is about a girl who’s really depressed and lies around on the couch all day. She’s not that fun to be around now and TV Girl reminisce on the good ol’ days when the relationship was brand new and happy, but oddly he’s not mad that’s she’s changed. One of the lyrics goes: “But I’m not mad/ And sometimes we still laugh./ And when she’s just getting up and the sun hits her right she doesn’t even look half bad.” The whole album is filled with this relentlessly optimistic melancholy and it’s a joy to listen to. Do yourself a favor and pick up this amazing EP, and if you don’t already have all of their other stuff, pick that up too. Trust me when I say you won’t be disappointed.
On the back of the postcard was this personal message:
“Sup Ben. Brad from TV Girl here. We picked up these creepy postcards on our way from Knoxville to Athens at this crazy outdoor church called “Field in the Woods” with the world’s biggest Ten Commandments! Thanks for donating and stay safe.”
So far MØ has basically been killing it in the race for best new artist of 2013. “Waste of Time” is anything but, with go for broke soaring vocals and lots of hair flips. She’s definitely got her own signature sound, with those hand claps and “Oh!” drum machine samples featured prominently in every song she’s released so far, but without any of it feeling formulaic or played out. I can’t wait to hear what a full-length album from MØ is going to sound like.
Just as it should go without saying at this point that any new Die Antwoord video is going to be NSFW, it should also just be assumed at this point that every new video they put out is going to be worth watching, as f-ed up as they’re also wont to be. Yo-Landi has definitely become the breakout star of Die Antwoord and her verses in this song are mesmerizing, even if you can only understand about half of what she’s saying most of the time. That said, once you watch this video I don’t think you’ll have a hard time figuring out what the song’s really about…
C'est Non Un Blog 