I'm on a borrowed laptop, on a neighbor's unprotected wi-fi connection, somewhere in the south where it's 30 or 40 degrees (Celsius) warmer than home... just walking on sunshine, you might say:
And yes, we're back to the 80's yet again - I'm a creature of habit.
I'm fighting off a cold, and I'm stressed out. Perfect time for some loud electronica/industrial.
From 1992's Tactical Neural Implant, featuring footage from the Japanese sci-fi movie Gunhed, here's Front Line Assembly:
I'm on the road next week with limited internet access, so there probably won't be Music Video Thursday next week. See you in two weeks.
Angry. Angry angry angry angry angry. Grrrr. Stupid users. Stupid co-workers. Stupid passwords. Stupid co-worker gives stupid password to stupid user. Stupid password now needs to be changed on just about every stupid server and stupid application in the stupid company. Too many stupid co-workers know the stupid password. New password won't be so stupid. New password won't be known by stupid co-workers. Only smart ones. Not many of them.
Angry angry angry angry angry. Angry.
Angry. Grrrr. Angry.
And here we go yet again, back to the 80's...
I have no idea what it is about this song. By all rights, I should really hate this song. The lyrics make no sense. The title of the album has became one of my least favorite catch-phrases ever. The video is pure 80's cheese, with big hair, scantily clad dancers, white and nerdy guys desperately trying to look cool, a percussionist who only plays cowbell despite having a full complement of drums in front of her... and yet, the song (and video) is just so catchy, I just about can't stand it. From their 1988 hit album "What Up, Dog", here's Was (Not Was):
Boom, boom, ackalackalacka boom.
"Heartbreaker (At the End of Lonely Street)", a mash-up of Zeppelin's Heartbreaker and Elvis' Heartbreak Hotel, appeared on Dread Zeppelin's 1990 release Un-LED-ed. I remember seeing the video for it on MuchMusic at the time - in particular, one scene that attempts to explain the origins of the band, where a milk truck (driven by Tortelvis) collides with a Ford Pinto carrying a reggae band, resulting in Dread Zeppelin. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find that video online, but I did find a video of them performing it in concert. While the exploding automobile quotient isn't nearly as high in the concert video as in the MuchMusic one, it is a marvelous performance that showcases the band's showmanship:
If anyone manages to stumble across the other video for this song online, please let me know where to find it - I'd be ever so grateful, thank you, thank you very much...
I'm not sure if I really understand The White Stripes. There's just the two of them - Meg White on drums, and Jack White on just about everything else (but primarily guitars and lead vocals). They claim to be siblings, but they were actually married in 1996 and divorced in 2000. Jack is a very versatile and talented musician, but it seems sometimes that Meg is barely able to keep a steady beat. I'm just not sure I understand them.
But I guess I don't really need to understand them to enjoy their surprisingly catchy tunes or their eye-catching videos. "The Hardest Button to Button" is one of their most famous videos:
And you know that you've made it when the Simpsons decide to parody you.
Happy New Year everyone! It's 2007, but I feel like I'm stuck in the 80's again - I've got a brand new Apple computer (but a little more powerful than my old Apple ][+), I've been playing Time Pilot (but in MacMAME instead of a dimly lit arcade), and tonight's video has a sort of 80's vibe to it (even though the song is from 2002). Here is Norway's Apoptygma Berzerk, and "Until the End of the World":
It seems like just yesterday that I uttered (well, typed) the words "I haven't missed a Thursday yet". I should have known better. 11 days and 70+ work hours later, here I am, realizing that the "crazy, crazy, crazy week" that I mentioned was merely the warm-up act, and that the main event was still to come. So, with the crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, CRAZY week behind me now, I've decided that now would be a good time for a season finale to Music Video Thursday, and give myself a break over the holidays.
Music Video Thursday began on an unassuming Thursday in June, when I stumbled across a video of a past-his-prime heavy metal icon on Jay Leno, performing a classic song in a musical style it was probably never intended for. I found it amusing, and decided that since I wasn't doing much else on this blog at the time, I might as well post it here. Within a month, I got it into my head that I should do it as a regular feature, and started the official Music Video Thursday posts.
Six months of musical mayhem and magic have passed by, and by some strange twist of fate, I've stumbled across a video of another past-his-prime heavy metal icon on Jay Leno, performing a classic song in a musical style is was probably never intended for. Ladies and gentlemen, for your holiday musical pleasure, Cowboy_K's Music Video Thursday is proud to present Dee Snider and Twisted Sister's heartwarming performance of the classic Christmas carol, "Oh Come All Ye Faithful":
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you, and watch for the season premier of Music Video Thursday in 2007!
It's been a crazy, crazy, crazy week and all I want to do is go to sleep (but that'll have to wait for another post), but I haven't missed a Thursday yet, and I'm not going to drop the ball now.
I don't really know much about Faithless or this song, but apparently MTV refused to play the video. It's very powerful, almost hard to watch, and it makes you stop and think about what is happening in the world today. My wife says that it's no wonder MTV didn't show it - the last thing they seem to want their viewers to do is think for themselves. I think she's on to something there.
Maybe next week I'll find something a little lighter.
Tonight's video is from a young Norwegian who, although he claims to not play drums or piano, manages to put together a convincing performance via some very slick video editing. Here's Lasse Gjertsen's "Amateur":
Also of interest is his earlier "Hyperactive" beat-box performance. It'll be interesting to see what else Mr. Gjertsen comes up with in the future.
Surprise! We're not regressing back to the 80's yet again - this is genuine 21st-century music! And these are strange days indeed, where a music group may or may not really exist - depending on how you define existence, I suppose.
Gorillaz burst on to the music scene in 2001 with their self-titled debut album. The second single, 19-2000, is a quirky little tune with a video that's got it all - stunt driving, UFO death rays, a giant moose, and explosions. How can you go wrong?
Get the cool shoeshine indeed.
I'm feeling a little frustrated - I thought of the perfect song, and I know there's an official video for it out there somewhere, but I can't find it on YouTube, Google Video, or any of the other video sites searched by VDoogle. I may still have a copy of it on my workstation (I'm a digital packrat), but I won't be able to find it in time for tonight. Maybe next week...
But for now, the show must go on - here's the incomparable Barenaked Ladies and one of their earliest videos, "Lovers In A Dangerous Time":
See you all next week!
And we're going back to the 80s again - I had a heck of a time coming up with something for today's music video, but I finally found it in the form of Kim Mitchell's "Go For Soda":
The only question I have: what the heck was that guy (the guy in the video with the afro, not Kim Mitchell) supposed to be smoking anyhow? He takes a drag off it, next thing you know there's a little guy jumping out of the TV and a rock concert in the fridge. And at the end of the video, is it just me or does he sound a little... baked?
Methinks there's more than soda at work here...
UPDATE 2008-04-05: The YouTube copy of the video has been pulled, but it looks like Mr. Mitchell himself has posted it on MySpace, complete with full credits listing "Jacky Malbogat" as "Kid":
Thanks to "Anonymous" for pointing out that the original had been pulled, thanks to Kim Mitchell for being cool enough to post it himself, and thanks to Dr. Pepper for letting me go for soda right now myself.
We're in the middle of some "emergency renovations" tonight (discovered that a 25 1/2 inch geothermal heat exchange unit doesn't fit through a 25 1/4 inch doorway), so I'm not going into a lot of detail on tonight's video. Here's Bon Jovi, "Living on a Prayer":
Ahhh, the 80's - big hair, mascara, and keyboards in hard rock bands... and the hours I spent sitting at the piano, playing "Fantasy", "Jump", "Final Countdown", and "Here I Go Again", dreaming of being a rock star keyboard player. Then along came grunge, and keyboards suddenly weren't in. It's probably for the best - I shudder at the thought of me wearing leopard-print spandex.
OK Go does more than dance around on treadmills - they're also good at blowing stuff up:
The album is fantastic, by the way - I just got a copy... ummm... that is, a friend loaned me his CD. Yeah, that's it - from a friend. Ummmm... his name... Biff... yeah, Biff Torrance, that's his name, yeah...
I told my wife my choice for this week's posting, and her response was "Bad day at the office, huh?" Guess she knows me pretty well...
It's cheesy 80's fun today, with Twisted Sister, the world's ugliest band (lead singer Dee Snider is quoted as saying "We should be called 'Hid' [instead of 'Glam'] because we're hideous."). Ask yourself this - "What do you wanna do with your life?!?"
This week, we have a double shot of music videosity for you with Before and After - one song, two renditions. If this isn't a complete disaster, this will become a semi-regular feature of Music Video Thursday. If it's not so successful... well, you'll probably still be able to find the Google cache of this post.
"Land of Confusion" was originally written and performed by Genesis on their 1986 album Invisible Touch. The single reached #4 on the U.S. charts, but it became notorious for it's video, featuring puppets from Spitting Image - including puppets of the band specially commissioned by the band for the video. The song touched on the Cold War themes of the day, and the general distrust of those in power to make a change for the better...
While Genesis claimed that their generation would put it right, that turned out to be a promise that they couldn't keep, as the song still seems relevant a decade later. In 2005, heavy metal band Disturbed included a cover of the song on their Ten Thousand Fists album, and released it as a single in July 2006. The video (animated by Todd McFarlane) shows the band's nameless mascot leading a revolt against black-suited, gas-masked, jack-booted soldiers wearing dollar-sign swastikas - an interesting commentary on the blurring lines between capitalism and fascism, perhaps? In any case, it seems that we are still living in a land of confusion...
GEEK TRIVIA BONUS: In the original Genesis video, the voice of Ronald Reagan was provided by Chris Barrie, who also spent time in front of the cameras as Arnold Rimmer in the sci-fi comedy series Red Dwarf.
BLOGGER SPELL-CHECK BONUS WORD: The spell check puked on Google - considering that Google bought Blogger over three years ago, you'd think that maybe the spell check would at least recognize the name of their corporate master...
LOTTO 6/49 BONUS NUMBER: 47
Those crazy Scandinavians are at it again (and by "again", I'm actually referring to 2001, if you catch my transcendental chronometry). When they're not busy crashing Eurovision or being misleading about their origins, they're busy trashing apartments - musically, that is:
This short film is the product of Sweden's Kostr-film, and won a number of awards from various film festivals. Other than these basic facts, there's not a lot of information about it online - but there's a lot of people who seem to like it.
For more percussive furniture musical mayhem, check out Norway's Hurra Torpedo and their bold fashion sense.
"Weird Al" Yankovic has long been a favorite of nerds - from "The Saga Begins" (Don McLean meets Star Wars Episode I), to his geeky flamewar rap "All About the Pentiums" (my favorite line: "You're just about as useless as JPEGs to Helen Keller"), to his recent satiric take on the battle between the recording industry and P2P networks "Don't Download This Song", Al has shown that he understands the inner workings of the nerd mind. But with his latest video, Al has stood up and loudly proclaimed that he is, truly, "White and Nerdy":
One of us! One of us! One of us! (as if there were any doubt !)
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go play Minesweeper on my Palm Pilot...
P.S. What the heck is up with Blogger? The spell checker rejected all the following words: nerds, geeky, flamewar, Pentiums, JPEGs, P2P - what kind of nerd-wannabes managed to write a spell checker, but missed words like that??? Bunch of posers...
P.P.S. ROTFLMAO! Guess what other word the spell checker rejected? Blogger!!
P.P.P.S. The spell checker accepted ROTFLMAO. (Cowboy_K walks away slowly, muttering under his breath)
