As I've mentioned before, I stash videos away in my YouTube "Watch Later" list that I plan to blog about when the right time comes around. Except the right time never comes along, "watch later" becomes "watch never" and the list just gets longer and longer.
You know what's coming, don't you?
It's time to prune the list, so here's a YouTube smörgåsbord.
First up, a song from REM's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, for which they were reunited with drummer Bill Berry. No monster hit performance for them, oh no - they went right back to their roots instead.
How to follow such excellence? How about some peak Pulp, doing The Fear live on Later? I'll be seeing them live in July and can only hope they are this good.
So what next? How about a mini "new to NA" post-ette, with Scratchcard Lanyard by Dry Cleaning? As well as rather liking the track and its slightly 80s lo-fi wobbliness, the video is very satisfying too - I love that someone had that idea.
Talking of the 80s, here's a track I very nearly made a Clandestine Classic once, only prevented by the fact that it chartly very highly and so can hardly be considered clandestine. It's easy to dismiss Haircut 100 with a lazy "disposal 80s pop" tag but close your eyes, crank the volume and really listen to Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl). It's properly funky. Forget the ill-advised cable-knit sweater and plus-fours ensemble, and the fact that Nick was a bit of a teen idol to the young girls of 1981, there's real musicianship on display here. This grooves.... and if you don't agree, you're wrong. Play loud, remember...
How to reclaim my serious-man-of-indie cool after that? Well, not with this. These songs are two of Amusement Minor's current favourites... but the video interpretations are my choice. Some people have too much time on their hands...
Right, that's it. Expect another one of these "watch later" posts next time I run out of blogworthy material.
Fantastic stuff Martin. Favourite Shirts always cheers me up as I can place exactly in my head when I heard it first. My granny knitted me a cream arran sweater just like their ones - loved it (but so hard to knit so respect to Dolly).
ReplyDeleteMy dad used to wear a jumper like this around that time - he was briefly on-trend!
DeleteNever seen that REM clip before and wow. Not too bothered about eh rock n Roll Hall of Fame but maybe the whole thing is worth it to get them back together with Bill playing Gardening at Night.
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree. REM with Bill is a better REM, in my book. That clip is quite old now, though - doubt we'll ever see them play together again, more's the pity.
DeleteA fine collection of tunes, especially The Fear, which is one of my all time favourites... though I don't remember Jarvis ever being that young.
ReplyDeleteThe real highlight of this post for me was the Muppets clips though. There was a guy in the paper at the weekend who suggested that any TV show could be improved by putting muppets in it. It appears the same is true about music videos. I'm going to watch the bit in the Eminem track where Kermit takes on the Dr Dre role, on repeat, for the rest of the night.
It was quite hard to limit myself to two Muppet videos, to be honest.
Delete