I went to film school, so I know where most of the cuts in this video come from.
In the 1980s I was in my 20s, mostly, so I know where most of this New Wave/Disco hybrid comes from.
As a band name Juveniles seems pretty great, no matter what age.
And I bumped into this while listening to the new Belle and Sebastian single, which explores similar sonic ground. Belle and Sebastian’s tune is richer, but it doesn’t have these gals, the director’s playful prudity, and the sex-role play (or disambiguation, if you prefer) of this video.
Nicely done, Juveniles. But next time we want newer music. (Or as Steve might say, music that doesn’t suck.)
My buddy Moe moved to Germany to get married. He was one of the Warren Street All Starz, our stickball team, which convened every Sunday in a parking lot on Warren Street and Greenwich Street back in the days when nobody lived down there near the World Trade Center.
We all had nicknames. Moe’s was the Name Changer. If you had a nickname and wanted a different one, or if someone thought someone should have a different nickname, Moe had to approve.
Moe sold books and spent a good part of his time traveling around the world, going to book trade events. Moe worked for a book company, Schocken, that had the rights to Franz Kafka’s novels, and we called our parking lot ballfield Kafka Park. When Moe wasn’t in New York on a Sunday he would phone in to the pay phone across the street from Kafka Park. Collect. We always accepted the charges.
Moe fell for a German woman named Julie, and they married. Moe moved to Hamburg, where he learned German by watching TV and going out to eat with Julie’s friends. At some point he sent me a 45 of a record by a group called Trio. It was a goofy bit of catchy electronica, in German, that was utterly lightweight and internationally jaded (read: louche) at the same time.
The chorus translates as I love you not and you don’t love me. Too sexy for my turntable.
A few years later the song popped up in an ad for the Volkswagen Golf.
The video starts and you can see immediately where it’s going, and that’s crazy. It takes a while for the tune to kick in, and it’s too bad it isn’t better. Or even any good. But the video is crazy fun and doesn’t go on too long.
Wading back into the Sonic Youth songbook, all the popular Sonic Youth songs actually do sound a little like Wilco, though Sonic Youth got there first.
A band that lasts the better part of 30 years has it’s different phases, so there’s more to explore than just another catchy tune that didn’t chart. This one is quintessential SY, however, from the 90s, and is not only a little rifftastic, but danged listenable.
Sometimes things happen that make you want to lay down and listen to sad music. I have a few playlists for such occasions. I thought I’d share a few of my most comforting sad time songs.
Even though you are verbose and some of your music sucks.
In your absence, I’ll post one of my all-time favorite vids. Not actually the cherished Turbonegro Ass Cobra version, this is a cover by The Real McKenzies (with bagpipes). I dare you to watch just once.
This morning’s Crowded House blue-eyed soul reminded me of this homoerotic video and shirts-off performance by Paul Weller.
It’s hard to imagine exactly what scenario the lads are acting out here, or how hot Weller’s bony torso is supposed to fire us up, but whatever your persuasion the message is a jumble.
Speaking of Crowded House, founded by Neil Finn in Australia, there is this excellent blue-eyed soul, with a decidedly gendermorphic and inexplicable video. What exactly is going on here? I like it.
Tim Finn and Phil Judd formed Split Enz in New Zealand in the early 70s, but turned progressively prog. The band met Roxy Music in 1976, opening for them on their Australian tour, which led to a move to England and being produced by Phil Manzanera.
After that Judd left the band, Neil Finn joined, and Split Enz became more of a New Wave band.
Eventually the Finns were awarded the OBE from Quenn Elizabeth, tribute to their role in the musical culture of New Zealand.
I know, I know, I know, this song is a joke, I get that. But it raises all kinds of questions.
Let me set the scene. I spent 4+ hours in the car today, and I listened to the radio. I’m in New York City, I could listen to scores of radio stations, but some of the college stations fade in and out. The one that doesn’t is WFUV, the station of Fordham University.
WFUV has been a decent enough radio station, even though it doesn’t sound like a college station. The DJs aren’t learning their craft. Some of the top DJs from WNEW in the 1960s and 70s heyday still work at the station. So, in spite of the collegiate affiliation this is a professional non-commercial station.
Until recently they played the format known as Americana, mostly, which meant trudging through the dull dirt waiting for the occasional gems. Those days were mostly inoffensive and sometimes good, and since I don’t spend that much time riding in the car in NYC, not a problem. WFUV was reliable if often dull.
Now, it seems, WFUV has changed to something you could call a discovery format. From my experience today they play a mixture of old and new, aiming for the older listener who may recall the AOR (Album Oriented Radio) days fondly.
So, on my drive, I heard Devo and the Dolls, Big Star and Crowded House. Chuck Berry, the Coasters and the new album from Stars. Good, right? You can read today’s list here. But I also heard Nigel Hawthorne and Weezer, the Dave Matthews Band and this.
I knew it wasn’t the B-52s, because it obviously sucked, but it also caught my ear because in a way it seemed in some way to be talking back to the effete socialists in the Delta 5 and Gang of Four and the Mekons. It was saying, us ‘Merkins love our crackers and our surf rock and don’t go messing it up with your jangly angular allusions and arch lyrics. Eat my drool, lick my lil Debbies, suck ass.
Which doesn’t, on the face of it, seem like a losing strategy to me, necessarily, and maybe SCOTS have done better, but this song? I can imagine why it might have been made, it probably seemed funny at the time, and someone clearly paid, but why is someone playing it on the radio today?
The professor of my Latin American culture class has us listen to a song or two before every class so that we can dissect them as a group. Today’s song was featured in the motion picture The Motorcycle Diaries. I just like it, and I thought some of you might enjoy it as well.
