Watching the Kristoffer Borgli footage this morning made me start to think about how music videos really became a huge part of my vernacular in the early nineties, WITHOUT the help of Youtube. I know it happened for a lot of reasons- I was a tween and the music being produced was insane, blah blah blah, perhaps mainstream culture was recognizing just how influential Generation X and Y were… whatev I’m no scholar on the matter. However if you are familiar with the terms X-Girl, Milkfed, or Lick the Star we need to be friends! Needless to say, Spike Jonze was king of the effing hill- bringing a sense of wonderment and whimsy with an underlying current of DIY-can-do-anything attitude, and the songs were SOMUCH better for it. Granted the budgets got bigger and special effects more elaborate, but it was totally validated. Seriously would Weezer’s “Buddy Holly” have done so well without the Happy Days video?
Ok, so beginnings. 1992 seems to be when the skateboarding films cross over into music video directing. Sonic Youth’s “100%” is a composite of the band throwing down at a house party while he wanders on camera throughout the scene, coupled with raw black and white footage he shot himself (sometimes from a skateboard) w/ friends, including Jason Lee. A little known fact: Kim Gordon’s yellow Fender bass used in the video was on loan from Keanu Reeves. The video itself alludes to the shooting death of JOE COLE and the song is dedicated in his memory on Dirty. Sonic Youth also have a track entitled “JC” which was inspired by the same event. This was a collaboration with director Tamra Davis (Tammy D getting biz on the crop!) which must have dropped right before CB4.
There’s a reason I’ve held off posting about Michael Jackson. My grandfather passed away last week, so out of respect I’ve restrained myself from bringing up MJ to my mom who is the first person I wanted to turn to. Secondly, I simply didn’t know where to start.
Something I’ve never really talked about on here is how verboten pop music was in my household growing up. Chalk it up to a strict father with an incredibly uptight WASPy pedigree. I mean, Wagner bordered on too modern for him. However Ella Sings Gershwin was allowed, and Cole Porter. But you get the picture, there was a lot of shame directed at most contemporary stuff.
On our weekly family trips to Tower Records my dad would head straight to the back to the glassed in classical music section (where patrons could blast the 1812 Overture at will). I would stick like glue to my mom’s side. My angel, my heroine, and the best dressed aerobics instructor of all time - would siphon popular music into our house with the excuse that it was for her exercise class, knowing full well that I craved every sweet note of pop music that pumped out of our speakers. Because of her standing up for us, our wall system that held the stereo equipment was pretty schizo - think stacks of Lyona Boyd classical guitar right next to a giant ghetto blaster.
So at Tower I’d get to stand on my tip toes flipping through 45s in the bin every week, and thanks to her I would always get to leave with something inexplicably awesome. I specifically remember the likes of Cyndi Lauper, Men at Work, El Debarge, Devo, Lionel Richie or Kim Carnes. My mom would walk out with a full length- the soundtrack to Flashdance, Beverly Hills Cop and Running Scared, all the early Madonna releases, I in turn would get to take the LPs to show and tell at school. For some reason I never valued my 45s enough to bring them in. What I wouldn’t give to get back my Madonna “True Blue” single on electric blue transparent plastic. Damn.
*Anyway* one of my mother’s curatorial choices was Thriller, and it was one of my proudest moments when i turned up at school to share it during Show and Tell. Actually I wasn’t the only one bring that particular record that day, but luckily since my name starts with an ‘A’ I beat that bitch to the front of the class. As a result I got to bask in the glory of displaying the gatefold sleeve on my lap while the sounds of “Thriller” flooded the two classrooms. Life was never the same, and I drifted off at nap time hugging the record.
Here is the aforementioned original record (first pressing!), which my mom was kind enough to let me keep. As you can see she did the mom thing and tagged it w/ our last name with a big fat Marksalot. Sighs, at least it was on his lapel. I should mention that with pre-Thriller MJ music (”Rock with You”), I pictured him in my head as Japanese. That’s what growing up in Hawaii will do to your preconceptions. I think we got MTV a bit later than the mainland too. Anyway that made the first time I saw the album sleeve even more incredible- this guy reclining in a white suit, WITH A TIGER CUB, just glowing. Hair sparkling. No one looked like him. So yeah, as a product of the 80s (not to give away my age entirely, let’s just say that Calvin Harris has no love for me) AND a music blogger, Michael Jackson passing was huge.
I’m not gonna front. I have been taking his persona w/ a grain of salt ever since the crotch grabbing and the windshield smashing at the end of the “Black and White” video. I remember just being like “Eww is that entirely necessary?” (Please see ridiculous uptight WASPy upbringing above. Obvs something got through). But for heavensake, the morphing in that video. Tyra Banks. Peggy Lipton. Plus what appears to be the Simone from “Head of the Class.” If I recall it was the first time the technology was utilized. You can’t say that Michael Jackson’s vision of world wide harmony ever faltered.
Thank HEAVENS to CEC from Disconap for the clarity: Michael Jackson was, is, and always will be the King of Pop. If someone had simply released only ONE of the songs off of Thriller, they would go down in history for birthing one of the greatest songs of all time. For me that album contains no less than 6 bonafide home run hits. If “P.Y.T.” doesn’t merit an episode of Behind the Music I don’t know what does. Or for that matter “Beat It,” “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” “Human Nature,” “Billie Jean,” and of course “Thriller.” Yes, this is a desert island album for me.
Like him or not, Michael Jackson was groundbreaking on several levels. On a musical platform, he matters. In choreography, he matters. In epic music video making with actual movie directors, he matters (Francis Ford Coppola directing Captain Eo, Martin Scorsese, Brian de Palma, the list goes on). In persona reinvention, he matters. In race relations, he matters. Seriously. He was the first African American to be accepted with heavy airplay on MTV. If not for Michael who would it have been and how much longer would it have taken? Michael was magic. See, even his Youtube videos are tagged with that, along with ‘magikal’ and ‘ilusion’ (PS Remember kids tricks are for prostitutes).
But yeah, I admit, it “got weird.” I choose to remember the good times. Real Talk. Check out this clip of the Jackson 5 on the Cher Show. MJ starts to bust out around 4:32. You can totes see the beginnings of the moonwalk, and Cher tries to keep up but just resorts to the robot. Shout out to Papakilatube for the tip- if you’re not a subscriber of his channel, I recommend you do so now *HERE*
As ABBA would say, thank you for the music. And to wacked out showbiz parents around the world, let this be a lesson.
MSN has a nice slideshow of their fave incarnations *HERE*
‘Sup Magazine alum Jean Grae’s beautiful op-ed in the Village Voice is *HERE* &
Download your fave Michael Jackson from fellow bloggers via a Hype Machine search.
Luckily enough, thanks to Zach and TJ and the Tux from EVR we got into the Apollo Theater through the backstage entrance and into the memorial service, passing Spike and the Rev. Al Sharpton on our way in. See the rest of the photos *HERE*
One thing about growing up in the middle of the Pacific ocean- it’ll give ya perspective. It’s a small island and everyone was related to sommmmmeone, be it Don Ho, the mayor, I mean heck I just found out yesterday Obama used to work at the Baskin Robbins down the street. However my favorite case of seperation has to be THE JETS. Someone in my 4th grade class was indeed related to this group, who were in fact from Tonga before busting out of the Minneapolis, Minnesota family band scene. There were always whispers about if and when cousins would be allowed to join them on tour, but considering that the original band had 9 additional younger siblings on top of the band’s oldest 8, who knows. I got shipped off to boarding school in New England, the Jets recorded the themesong to Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers, and the rest is history. Holy crap, what an awesome feel good vibe- and this totally helped me decide what outfit to wear today. Aloha!
It’s been a fascinating project, and I have to bend over backwards and thank Dev, Dan, Anthony, Taylor, Zoya, Scott, and Will for making it happen! Having mega corporate people call the Zeitgeist ‘the future of music as we know it’ etc etc etc is kinda amazing- at the end of the day it’s a matter of finger on the pulse data crunching. The Hype Machine compiled the numbers of what was blogged about the most over the past year for the tighest “We the People” 2008 wrap up around. Now I had the inside track to see the votes as they rolled in- so for a blissful few days I was running around thinking how great it was that Hercules and Love Affair, The Presets, Friendly Fires and Metronomy made the list. Alas they did not… But if you listen closely we feature some of the bands that shoulda made the final cut in a perfect world. Enjoy!
Please see the below post regarding all things ’sexy’ in the music biz and why I usually avoid it. Whatever, we’ve got the archives and might as well put ‘em to use- although I have yet to grace the photopits for Girl Aloud and Sugarbabes. Vote for the NME Shockwave ‘Sexiest’ Musician Awards *HERE* and enjoy a song to kick it off, thanks to Earfarm.
Katie White - The Ting Tings : When will someone sit this lovely girl down and tell her she doesn’t need makeup? She could get like, an hours more sleep a night, and then she wouldn’t look like a footballer’s wife in training. Stop the insanity!
Alice Glass of Crystal Castles has already walked off with the NME Cool List title. Sexy? Maybe if you’re into DANGER. She does have that certain Je ne sais quoi- Ms. Glass could claw or spit in audience members faces and they’d still lap it up.
Speaking of scratching, I bet in a back alley smackdown Ms. Jemina Pearl (formerly of Be Your Own Pet) would totes be the victor. Look up the lyrics of Becky if you need, or simply watch the raw thrashing of ‘Bicycle’ after the jump. (Click title for rest of entry)
Ugh. Voting for anything ‘most sexy’ usually makes me do a 180, probably because keeping a professional facade in this industry is something I really try and maintain. Hence no booze during festivals etc etc and no starf*ckery behavior backstage allowed. However, in flipping through the nominations (go *HERE* to cast your ballot) for the NME Shockwave Awards for ‘Sexiest Male’ this year I realized that splitting open the concert archives might offer some help to decide the verdict. Please note there are no photos relating to the Strokes or Interpol- there are facking enough floating around. Will I vote? Probs not, but knock yourselves out. Ergo I give you the skinniest (mostly) white boys alive - aka some of the top nominees:
WAIT someone made me promise to post these songs to accompany the slideshow. We have NO SHAME anymore obvs.
At #1 we have Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood aka the band’s effing backbone. J’adore. PS His hair is full of secrets shhh!
Currently #2 :
Dirty Pretty Things’s Carl Barat smoulders in general. Former bandmate Pete Doherty is on hot on his tail in the ranking…
At #3 is Pete Doherty, aka Dreamboat around these parts. I don’t have any live shots of him, I do however have a photo of a collage found in the garbage waiting to be picked up on St. Marks Place & Ave A. Dreamy! On with the rest of the noms:
Both mop-topped doppelgangers Miles Kane and Alex Turner of the Last Shadow Puppets (and the Rascals + the Arctic Monkeys respectively) made the top 20. Of course. There would have been a kray-kray high pitched statutory riot if not.
It’s time to pretend that I didn’t call ‘Electric Feel’ ‘Electric Eel’ in front of MGMT’s Andrew VanWyngarden this summer backstage at Lolla. Whatever, he was wearing like, mom sunglasses + a chick shirt ergo = incredibly laidback about it all.
The Late of the Pier kiddettes are here and they’re *TINY* (they make MGMT look like pedos) but their sound is HUUUGE:
True to our roots, we like to support emerging talent, but as you can see we are also suckers for the hits. No one’s dissing any hits because good music is good music. Our top albums and singles are as diverse as our staff – black, white, Chinese, Australian, mixed, gay, straight, bi, androgynous – and our tastes – chocolate, strawberry, butterscotch, vanilla, neopolitan … We’re never big on genres and journalistic jargon, but give you can give us a Chinese mixed race (two scoop neopolitan) bisexual hot fudge sundae any day. With a cherry on top please. And some whipped cream. Mmmm delicious!
Yes, *THE* one and only Like a Virgin video. The one where she glides across the East River only to navigate the Grand Canals of Venice. I totally remembered something, too! The lion itself wasn’t allowed onto the main clump of islands- that segment was filmed on Giudecca Island, across the canal. That lil’ fact was quite comforting as we had to trudge through those very columns and into a musty monastic library to do research during grad school. That, and the fact that stage right was a deli where you could bring your own empty liter bottles to fill from tapped vats of wine. Which in turn might have had us recreating the lion’s steps after hours, or perhaps the un-immaculate one’sown choreography. See, it’s the circle of life! and we wonder why American exchange students get a bad rap!
PS if you ever live in Venice don’t drink to the point of incapacitation, because there really is no way to get a cab home. We’re talking miles of back alleys and foot bridges. No room for cars, and boats will only get you so far. It’s an incredibly romantic notion but a bit challenging to navigate if you are, you know, carrying another person.
Um, wow. Please welcome this 2 disc CD/DVD release to the world. It’s all brand spankin’ digitally remastered, and sure to replace our scratched up copy of ‘Billy Idol: Greatest Hits.’ Truth be told, that puppy is probably the best investment to come out of our epic Columbia House contract. What’s new about this one aside from the 16 classic re-masters? His cover of ‘Don’t You Forget About Me’ is blissfully absent from this compilation, and there are 2 new tunes to boot. Before you go all eye roll-y, I ask you this question: When was the last time you heard ‘Dancing With Myself’ or ‘Eyes Without A Face’ ? I got so excited today I totally had to go to the bathroom when the music started. Like 1984 all over again…..
