“Peter Pan” by Teenagers in Tokyo
“Upside Down” by Paloma Faith
“Something Good Can Work” by Two Door Cinema Club
Just caught this video on NewNowNext Music and nearly fast-forwarded through it but then it sucked me in. It’s a pretty well-done video for a new artist and the song itself isn’t all that bad, either. Goth-y people + piano = relatively okay!
But, wait a minute. That spinning around on your back while mid-air sure looks familiar, no? Nine Inch Nails much? Watch it again at 1:30 and then watch “Closer” at the 1:28 mark:
The entire distorted Victorian theme really reminded me, too, of my favorite NIN video, “The Perfect Drug.” All the way from 1997:
Assuming that Sasha Sacket wasn’t influenced by Trent Reznor and his band would be completely silly. And thinking that director Sean Morris wasn’t inspired by Mark Romanek is on another level of absurd entirely. It’s just funny seeing ideas from over a decade ago being trotted out as (convincingly) fresh.
Sometimes a creative endeavor falls entirely flat for me – all of the checkboxes for being something I’d like are filled in, but the end result just does not work. Oddly, nearly all of Radiohead’s work falls into this category. A more recent example is Tomorrow, In a Year.
This album, an opera based on Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, should be spectacular given that fact alone. Add to the list of things going for it the collaboration between The Knife and Planningtorock – both huge favorites – and I really did expect to be in love.
And then I listened once while in the bath and have never gone anywhere near it again. That being the case, it’s a bit of a stretch to remember exactly what the offensive aspects were but I’m pretty sure it was a shrieky, warbly mess of weirdness (in itself something I’d be just fine with on a good day.)
Thanks anyway, Tomorrow, In a Year.
Did you know that in 1984, the year of my birth into this strange world, Honda asked influential musicians to promote their line of scooters?
Neither did I. But I love scooters and the 80s, so you can only imagine the joy I had at discovering this ad featuring Grace Jones while revisiting her ad for the Citroën CX:
Seriously, what the hell? And Devo:
I can guarantee you that my grandfather, eccentric as he was, did not base his 1984 Honda scooter purchase on this ad campaign (but, oh, how I wish he had!)
Yes, that is me on the back.
The official video for this song features an artfully insane ancient Greek/sci fi aesthetic that is right up my alley.
Caught this track on Sirius XMU‘s Download 15 as I made my way down the last ten miles of MD-213 this past Sunday. It’s been pretty much lodged in my brain since then as it’s über catchy (as you’ll soon find out.)
“In Ruins” by Fol Chen
It’s the first release from an upcoming album by Fol Chen entitled Part II: The New December, which sounds a little bleak compared to the single. Anyway, I’m in love and can’t wait to hear more!
From Later…with Jools Holland