Arcade Fire "We Used to Wait"

Here is the first great music video I've seen that utilizes HTML 5 - The Wilderness Downtown. You will need either the latest Safari or Chrome Browser to view this beautiful film by Chris Milk featuring Arcade Fire's "We Used to Wait." Click HERE to be transported to The Wilderness Downtown.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds "From Her to Eternity"

I'm spending my summer living in an apartment building. It's unsettling having so many "neighbors," and I consider my self to be a neighborly sort of guy.

My first day in the building I was coming up the elevator with another tenant, a woman who was leaning against one of those thin metal, shopping carts. As I reached for my floor button I heard her mutter under her breath, "I'm a force to be reckoned with!" She got off on her floor, and as the door was closing I heard her yell back at me, "Get a job!" Welcome to the neighborhood!

There's a lot going on here...it all puts me in mind of this dark, dark Nick Cave tune...

I wanna tell you 'bout a girl

You know, she lives in room 29
Why...Why...that's the one right up top a mine
I start to cry, I start to cry

O I hear her walkin'
Walkin' barefoot cross the floorboards
All through this lonesome night
I hear her crying too
Hot tears come splashin' on down
Leaking through the cracks,
Down upon my face, I catch them in my mouth!
I catch them in my mouth!
I catch them in my mouth!
Walk'n'cry, Walk'n'cry

From her to eternity!
From her to eternity!
From her to eternity!

I read her diary on her sheets
Scrutinizing every little bit of dirt
Tore out a page and stuffed it inside my shirt
Fled out the window,
And shinning it down the vine
Out of her nightmare, and back into mine
Mine! Mine!

From her to eternity!
From her to eternity!
From her to eternity!
Cry! Cry! I wanna cry!
- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds



My apartment has to be a lot nicer than the one I imagine Nick is living in when he wrote that song. Sometimes I do hear people walking above me which is strange since I'm on the top floor, but tears have definitely NOT fallen through any cracks in the ceiling.

I'm really hoping that I can go the entire summer in the apartment without a Suzanne Vega moment...



          

Thanks to thesoulbreath for the upload to YouTube.

Madonna "Like A Prayer"

The other day my twelve year old daughter asked me if I had an opinion as to who was a better singer:  Lady Gaga or Madonna? We concluded that they were both great in their own way, however, I realized that she knew very little about Madonna.  After listening to a few songs she asked me if Madonna's videos were as much fun as Lady Gaga's.  We scoured YouTube and watched bits and pieces from several videos spanning Madonna's career. We finally settled on "Like A Prayer." I told my daughter that this video was considered extremely controversial when it came out.  Madonna pushed a lot of buttons, and got a pretty negative response when she released this video back in 1989. Pepsi pulled their sponsorship from her world tour when various religious groups threatened to boycott the soda.  Everyone was in an uproar because Madonna is seen in the video kissing a black saint, dancing seductively in a church, watching a rape/murder and the subsequent human form of the saint getting framed for the crime, dancing amongst burning crosses and...get this...displaying the stigmata on her pop star hands!  Madonna was looking for some attention, and boy did she get it.

What pleased me most about viewing this with my kid is that she saw nothing really all that outrageous about the imagery. She also thought it was horrible that people objected to a video of Madonna making out with the black saint. It made me wonder about how the public would react today if a similar video was released by a huge pop star.  Let's face it, Lady Gaga is one of the world's biggest stars right now, and her videos are way beyond anything Madonna every filmed yet it feels like after a brief noting on the internet the public simply forgets about what they just saw, and lets it fade into the fabric of our everyday lives.  Where is the uproar and anger? Are we beyond being shocked anymore?  Has the internet and the modern cinema desensitized us?  Or have we simply become more accepting of those things that used to offend and disturb us? Maybe we have other things to worry about today. Perhaps two never-ending wars, families losing their homes and an economy in the toilet are enough to distract people from what we used to consider outrageous entertainment. I guess it could just be the little part of the world that I live in, and the people and entertainment that I surround myself with, but really? What's it take these days to get people's panties in a bunch?

Anyway, Madonna was brilliant back in the day, and I was happy to spend a little bit of time sharing those moments, outrageous or not, with my child.



Madonna - Like A Prayer [Video]
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Frankie Goes to Hollywood "Two Tribes"

It's certainly a rough night when you can't get Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Two Tribes" out of your head. As with most songs that seem to get lodged in there I'm hoping that blogging them here will slay the dragon so I can simply move on.

Are we living in a land where sex and horror are the new gods?
When two tribes go to war, a point is all that you can score.
-Frankie Goes to Hollywood

FRANKIE SAY

WAR!

HIDE YOURSELF!

Leave me out of it...Let the politicians box it out...

Thanks to kiyoshi2 for the upload to YouTube.

Local Natives "Airplanes"

In this incredible video Silver Lake, California's Local Natives not only perform a beautiful acoustic version of "Airplanes" on some train tracks in a rough Chicago neighborhood - they also have a front row seat to a mugging! I won't spoil the ending for you, but you'll want to watch this one.












From Pitchfork TV:



Listen to Local Native's "Gorilla Manor"...

  

Or Purchase it from Amazon...

Bombay Bicycle Club "Dust On The Ground"

Watch, Listen & Tell Episode:  North London boys Bombay Bicycle Club hanging out in a park and strumming up a storm for "Dust On The Ground" from their new album "Flaws." They might just be too cool for school...but that's alright with me!


Directed by Dave Tree.

Follow Watch, Listen & Tell on Twitter and YouTube.



Thanks to watchlistentell for the upload to YouTube.

Pulled Apart By Horses "Back To The Fuck Yeah"

Pulled Apart by Horses should probably win some sort of award for the best song title of the year for this little ditty. Besides having a kick-ass title the band also shows by the end of the video that they might just be the new "hardest working band in show business." I would expect nothing less from a band who features a guitarist named James Brown!

I love how they wear their love for Refused on their shirtsleeves!

You know I just love any music video filmed in the forest - See for yourself!

Thanks to pulledapartbyhorses for the upload to YouTube.

Iron Maiden "The Final Frontier"

Iron Maiden are truly out of this world in this new video for "The Final Frontier." The new album releases August 16. Whether it's the end of the day or the end of the universe you can be sure Eddie will rise again and again. It's hard to keep a good metal cliche down! I recommend going full screen for this one...

The Final Frontier - Director's Cut

Iron Maiden | MySpace Music Videos

Jonathan Richman "You're Crazy For Taking The Bus"

Not sure who took this great photo but I got it from The Daily Nugget

Jonathan is right - something as sad as child abuse on a bus certainly deserves a minor chord - and he is clearly crazy for taking the bus!  Here's Jonathan Richman from an appearance on the Late Night with Conan O'Brien show.





Thanks to garageshock for the upload to YouTube.