Videos of the Week

Here are a few videos that struck my eye/ear this past week. Some are new, and some are blasts from the past.



This is the new video from The Killers for their song "Spaceman," which was one of my favorite songs from last year. Sorry for the odd video with lyrics, every other version on Youtube had the embedding disabled so this was all I could come up with. I hate just putting a link on here. The song has a great melody and is a lot of fun. The video...hmmm. Can't really say I have any idea what the heck is going on in it. It reminds me of the set from Fellini's 8 1/2. All of the background actors appear to be doing whatever the heck they want. Makes no sense, but is at least interesting to look at.



Next up is the new song from The Horrors. They came out a couple of years ago with a very goth look and a proto-punk sound reminiscent of The Cramps. If they had continued in that vein I would have lost interest immediately. Refreshing to see them expanding their sound. This is a very long song, but changes directions multiple times, going from Krautrock to Joy Division to synth pop. I am really excited about hearing the full album.



Metric are poised to be a really huge band. They straddle the line between indie and pop. I really like this song a lot and it has really grown on me.



I despise Britney Spears, but at the same time I always want her to do well. I actually liked her Blackout cd, though you could tell she was barely there while making it. Her latest, Circus, is just more of the same Britney. When I was going out to the clubs here in Atlanta, whenever they played "Womanizer" I used to hate it because it was such a horrible song. Very odd syncopations and the beat was hard to follow. That's why I think it is brilliant that Franz Ferdinand take the song and it fits perfectly with their angular guitars. The song just makes more sense as a rock song.



David Sylvian is one of my favorite artists. His voice is so rich and textured. He could sing the phone book and I would be entranced. A couple of years ago he and his wife divorced and he put out one of the most painfully intimate cds ever released called Blemish. Most of the time, the songs were just his naked voice and some backing electronics. Although the cd is fairly brutal to listen to, the last song, "Fire in the Forest," offered a ray of hope. It is modernized version of "Over the Rainbow." This is a lovely video of him performing the song on tour. His voice is phenomenal.



Everything But The Girl were in a rut. They had released several lovely albums, but they were all starting to sound the same. After a DJ remixed "Missing" and it became a world-wide club hit, EBTG decided to switch gears and put out a drum and bass cd. The result was Walking Wounded, which is now a classic of the genre. Here is a video of them performing "Before Today" live.

To round out this week, here are some favorite songs and videos from the 80s that I always enjoy looking at. I hope you enjoy them too.