Music Video Thursday: "Tears In Heaven"

It's been a hard week, so I'm going to keep it simple tonight. This one is for Dag, Eric, all those who have left too soon, and those of us left behind to remember:

Music Video Thursday: "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

A little something to flush the Eurovision out of our system - here's Nirvana, with the now-classic "Smells Like Teen Spirit":



And here's Weird Al, with the not-quite-classic-but-still-good "Smells Like Nirvana":



And here's Tori Amos, with her heartbreaking down-tempo piano version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit":



And here's... ummm... Paul Anka...



And... what the heck?



Ummm....



Okay, I think that's enough of that. Next week: something completely different. I hope.

Music Video Thursday: Eurovision 2007: "Molitva"

Well, that was disappointing. The crazy Ukrainian cross-dresser placed second (WTF!?), Bulgaria placed 5th, Hungary 9th, Georgia 12th, and Switzerland and Israel didn't survive the semi-final. As for the winner - imagine the voice of Celine Dion, trapped in the body of Saturday Night Live's Pat, and you've got Serbia's Marija Serifovic, winner of the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest:



That's it for Eurovision 2007 for me - I've got an idea for another theme for Music Video Thursday, but I'll put in a few weeks of more-or-less random stuff.

Music Video Thursday: Eurovision 2007: "Visionary Dream"

The semi-final is complete, and 10 countries have qualified to join the 14 automatic qualifiers on Saturday's final. A lot of strong entries, including some previously profiled here, but one that I especially liked was the Georgian entry. Note that this is the "promo" video - I guess it's still too early for the semi-final performance to show up on YouTube:

Next week - the winner!

Music Video Thursday: Eurovision 2007: "Unsubstantial Blues"

There's an old joke that goes something like this:

What do you get when you play a country song backwards?

You get your wife back, you get your truck back, you get your dog back...

Tonight's video, Hungary's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, makes me think of this joke, only it's not meant to be funny - Magdi Rúzsa's powerful voice underscores the moody video, run in reverse, for a very moving effect:

Looks like happy endings are only for backwards country songs, though...

Next Thursday (May 10) is the semi-finals in the Eurovision Song Contest, followed by the finals on Saturday (May 12). Catch all the action at eurovision.tv!

Music Video Thursday: Eurovision 2007: "Dancing Lasha Tumbai"

Tonight has been a manly night. I have been in the garage. I have fixed the rear wiper on my minivan using a socket set. I have replaced the front wiper blades. I have fixed a headlight mount using a wrench and styrofoam. I have topped up my washer fluid. I have grease on my hands. I am man. Hear me grunt. [insert Tim Allen grunt here]

And now for tonight's featured Eurovision entry. Here's Verka Serduchka, from the Ukraine:

Truly, a glorious, manly night.

Music Video Thursday: Eurovision 2007: "Vampires Are Alive"

Eurovision 2007 coverage continues this week with a look at the Swiss entry. Ah, Switzerland, stately home of diplomacy, banking, Toblerone chocolate, and horror-themed dance music. DJ BoBo was chosen to represent Switzerland for the 2007 song contest, and was allowed to write his own song. In February, DJ BoBo unveiled his creation to the world - a dance number called "Vampires Are Alive", with a music video that appeared to be a cross between Thriller and Underworld. As with Lordi's entry in the 2006 contest, controversy sprung up, with one political party collecting a petition to withdraw the song from the competition, but the entry has prevailed, and will compete in the semi-final in early May:

At least they didn't send Celine Dion again - that would have been truly scary.

Music Video Thursday: Eurovision 2007: "Push The Button"

Our coverage of Eurovision 2007 continues tonight with the Israeli entry.

While many of the countries participating in Eurovision Song Contest choose their representative artists via popular vote, the Teapacks (warning: MySpace) were chosen to represent Israel by a committee of the Israeli Broadcasting Authority - the only thing up for vote was which song they would perform. The winning song, "Push The Button", immediately caused controversy, with it's direct references to nuclear war and apparent indirect references to Iran and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Some said it was too political, and called for a ban on the song, but it was eventually approved.

As for the song itself? It's a great mix of folk/polka/rock/rap, with lyrics in English, French, and Hebrew, including some truly funny lines like "And I don't want to die / I want to see the flowers bloom / Don't wanna go kaput, kaboom" - sit back and enjoy the melodic musical madness that is the Teapacks:

Eurovision 2007 coverage continues next week - we've got lots of weirdness to come yet, so stay tuned!

Music Video Thursday: Eurovision 2007: "Voda"

It's that most wonderful time of year - the Eurovision song contest is underway again! Last year's contest provided some wonderfully weird musical moments for Music Video Thursday last year (see Lordi and Silvia Night), and while there are a number of bizarre entries this year, I'm going to start off our 2007 Eurovision coverage with a fantastic video from Bulgaria.

Folklore singer Elitsa Todorova and percussionist Stoyan Yankoulov combine their talents in the song song "Voda" (water), which won the national vote in Bulgaria. It takes Stoyan's wild percussion, Elitsa's incredible vocal style, and a driving beat, resulting in a powerful musical experience:

Out of all the Eurovision entries I've seen so far (admittedly only a small portion), Bulgaria is the best. Here's hoping that their live performance is up to the task of matching the energy of the video.

Music Video Thursday: "Hurt"

I'm in a dark mood tonight. It's been a rough day - I'm angry, I'm depressed, I'm worn out. I'm just going to let this song speak for itself:

Music Video Thursday: "Peaches"

Well, I had full intentions of setting up tonight's video with a "proof" that The Presidents Of The United States are in favor of copyright infringement, going into the whole "pirates and ninjas are natural enemies" silliness, and then pointing out that in the "Peaches" video, the Presidents kick some ninja butt, so therefore (by the "enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend" way of thinking) they must be pro-pirate, and therefore have no problem with their video being posted to YouTube:

...but in the end, it seemed like so much work, with little payoff, and I'm tired, and so instead I just threw this together, which actually isn't too bad, except that I'm not entirely sure how to end it without it being awkward. Like this.

Music Video Thursday: "Vehicle"

I'm late, I'm late!

Thursday was the Ides of March (March 15th), and someone on Metafilter posted a link to this video. I'd never heard of the band The Ides of March before, but the song is great, the video is a beautiful mix of funky 70s fashion and space-race NASA footage, and it was the perfect day for it. Pity that I couldn't quite make it in time, but here it is, better late than never:

The vocalist, Jim Peterik, later went on to form the group Survivor, and wrote "Eye Of The Tiger" for Rocky III.

Music Video Thursday: "Institutionalized"

So I missed last week's Music Video Thursday, even though I managed to get one in while traveling even though I didn't think I was going to, because I had such a hard time getting back into my weekly routine, and was forgetting things all the time, and then tonight I was going to start early on my blog posting, but then my son threw up while I was putting the kids to bed, and I had to clean up, and then when they were all in bed and asleep, I wanted to put a Loverboy video from the '80s on for the Music Video Thursday tonight, but when I found it there was a big "Viacom has requested that this video be removed for copyright infringement", and it just seems like sometimes I try to do things, and it just don't turn out the way I wanted to and I get real frustrated, it's like, I take my time and I try real hard, but no matter what I do and no matter what I try it never works out, it's like I concentrate on it real hard, but it never works out...

...and all I wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi... (lyrics, on the off chance that you couldn't make out every single clearly enunciated syllable)

Music Video Thursday: "Walking on Sunshine"

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.

Music Video Thursday: "Mindphaser"

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.

Music Video Thursday: "Bring The Noise"

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.

Music Video Thursday: "Walk The Dinosaur"

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.

Music Video Thursday: "Heartbreaker"

Dread Zeppelin is quite possibly the world's greatest reggae band doing Led Zeppelin covers with an Elvis impersonator. Actually, they're quite possibly the world's only reggae band doing Led Zeppelin covers with an Elvis impersonator, but that's not really important right now.

"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...

Music Video Thursday: "The Hardest Button to Button"

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.

Music Video Thursday Returns! "Until the End of the World"

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":