Just in case you were wondering, if a pair of patent buckle shoes ever magically appear on a pedestal in your living room DO NOT try them on. Nothing good ever comes from that. (The same can probably be said about drinking milk after drinking an entire bottle of 40% ABV liquor called “Banana Juice”. That’s never a good choice.)
Grimes was recently on Seattle’s own KEXP February 20th, and here’s the full live performance and interview. It’s really fun watching her create the music by her lonesome. Even though she does screw up a little bit on “Be A Body” and I’ve already posted a different live performance of her doing “Genesis” on here before, it’s worth watching this video if just for “Symphonia IX”. It’s so pretty sounding.
Orbital, the grandfather of modern electronic dance music, are back with a new album called ‘Wonky’, their first new album since 2004’s supposedly final farewell, ‘Blue Album’. I’m always excited for new Orbital and this new stuff doesn’t disappoint. The video for “New France” is a sort of cautionary tale about growing up too fast, involving a little girl’s stuffed animal who goes out partying one night with some so called “friends” who turn out to be real dicks. On it’s own the song is great example of pure British electronic dance music, but with Zola Jesus’s epic vocals it takes the song up to a whole other level.
I’ve got another new video from Niki & The Dove with the same sort of epic, mystic, Kate Bush-in-space sound as “DJ, Ease My Mind”. I like “DJ, Ease My Mind” a little better, but this is still some damn fine listenin’.
For those who didn’t see it here’s the clip from Mad Men that got everyone in a tizzy Sunday night:
The mop monster saga continues!
Like the others, this video takes place right after the last one, although something seems to have happened in between the two that they didn’t quite explain, because there seems to be a reversal of fortunes for iamamiwhoami since the last video. It’s a little confusing and disconcerting at first, but all of those feelings disappear as soon as the song actually starts. There needs to be some sort of award given to her for creating so many songs that can almost instantly give me goosebumps, while at the same time having all the songs in the series so far sound so different from each other. It’s fantastic.
I’m pretty sure with each new video I’m saying that this is my favorite song yet, and in each case it really is true. This song is just so damn good. “play” has this relaxed, lackadaisical, rolling beat to it that is so incredibly sexy. You can almost imagine a Superfly-esque pimp strutting down the street to this (an image you’ll have in your head too after you see her with her mop coat and pimp stick, aka golf club).
[Note: I went back through and added a “mop monster” tag to each post in the series so you can now watch them all back to back on one page if you want.]
I’m pretty sure that everyone who watched last night’s Mad Men premiere has had this song stuck in their head ever since. Took me a little while to find the original song that Megan sang for Don’s 40th birthday but I finally tracked it down and have been humming along to it all day long. I’m not really sure what it is about French pop songs from the 60’s, (OK, it’s the French thing) but this is totally hot. Love it.
I actually found Sophia Loren’s English cover of the song first, which I’ll share here, but I think it just sounds so much better in French.
I’m beginning to wonder if Charli XCX and Marina of Marina & The Diamonds aren’t related. They both look kind of similar, they sound eerily similar and sing in the same style, and they’ve both recently put out killer “acoustic” videos of their latest songs on the web. Seriously, I thought acoustic meant playing without anything that used electricity, although if it just means playing unplugged I guess batteries technically don’t count.
Best comment on YouTube: I used to have a boombox in my band, but it quit the group to go on tour with Charli XCX 😦
The only thing better than Hall & Oats’ “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)” is hearing cute girls with pretty voices cover it on a Monday morning. (See also: The Bird & The Bee)
Bonus: Kazoo solo!
Seriously, it’s like the bestest song ever.
OK, I’ve got a little buried treasure for ya’ll before I go to bed. It should be no surprise to you by now that I’ve gotten a taste for Italo-disco lately, mainly from discovering old Giorgio Moroder records and the modern homage stuff from the Italians Do It Better label. But I haven’t shared any of the original stuff until now and for a first taste Kano’s “Another Life” is about as good as it gets. Combining the most Italian-sounding synths you’ve ever heard with some Rick Astley-style R&B vocals and some of the worst dancing you’ve ever seen coming from a black man, this video is truly a treat to behold. Even if you don’t think you like Italo-disco, this track is pretty much guaranteed to ingrain itself into your brain.
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