Mark Ronson and The Business INTL, or at least the current iteration of the band, are set to have their last London show in a couple of weeks, when they play a Greenwich Summer Session. I’ve been flipping through some of the snippets of video – outtakes of recording sessions, and so on – that are floating around the Internet, and it’s reminded me how much I enjoy their music.
The video below is for The Bike Song, and is an excellent example of the way they combine feather-light synth-pop with hip-hop. Also, there are semi-sentient bicycles, which I believe adds some joy to any music video.
Cold Hearted Snake was one of the singles from Paula Abdul‘s first record, Forever Your Girl, in 1988. The video she made for it, which you are about to watch below, was the one that got MTV banned in my house. That didn’t stop me watching MTV, of course, it just meant I had to be more strategic about it. By which I mean, I watched a lot of Headbanger’s Ball while I was babysitting.
Other reasons the video is notable: it was inspired by Bob Fosse’s choreography from All That Jazz and directed by David Fincher, who would later go on to make Fight Club; there’s a rap interlude; and there is also a live string section. And the expressions on the “record label executives” faces as the dancers do their thing are just priceless.
While less in the spotlight now, she’s still active on the musical scene. Her next offering, to be called Home, is scheduled to be released in early 2012.
In honor of it being a very damp evening here in New York, I give you this dark, trippy video from Garbage. I had totally forgotten all about the people in the weird fuzzy alien-animal outfits.
The last time I saw Girl in a Coma was two years ago, at the (new) Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. About halfway through, I thought to myself Does Joan Jett know about these ladies? I consulted the internet on the subject as soon as I got home, and it turned out she certainly did, because they are signed to her label.
Robert Rodriguez, director of Sin City is also a fan, so much so that he made the video below for them as a present. It’s a mixture of footage from two different shows, one at SXSW and one in their hometown of San Antonio, Texas, and while they have many beautiful videos, I thought this one really captured the essence of who they are, and the energy of their live show.
Also, New Yorkers and adjacent folks, they’ll be playing a free show with Joan Jett and the Blackhearts at Coney Island on July 14. Get down there if you can.
Girl In a Coma, "As the World Falls Down." (directed by Robert Rodriguez)
Is That You in the Blue?, the second studio long player from the Dex Romweber Duo, plays like a fever dream of the 1950s with guitars doubling as ethereal, reverberating angels and fire-tongued devils. And you’re never quite sure if Romweber himself is an archangel or the lead demon.
Romweber is a man haunted, and his playing can feel like an exorcism in reverse. As you listen, you begin to understand the motivations of those square parents of the first rock ‘n’ roll generation who wanted to keep this devil music from their children. It’s easy to believe that Dex Romweber is not of this world, and if those leg-wiggling, pompadoured boys of early rock sounded as frenzied and deeply agitated to those parents then as Romweber sounds now, maybe locking up their sons and daughters wasn’t such a bad idea.
Listen, I don’t mean to be hyperbolic, but even among the down-dirtiest musicians you’ve ever heard, you rarely hear someone play as rawly and primitively – and when I say “primitively”, I don’t mean simple or uneduated; I mean from the very core of emotion – as the Dex Romweber Duo. Sister Sara anchors everything with her heavy beats, but you sometimes feel that even she is one good rage from becoming unhinged. And, in case it’s unclear, I mean these all as good things. This is rock ‘n’ roll as it began and should, in its essence, always be. Fun, yes. Danceable, hell yeah. But even more than that, expressing the dark, passionate, ravenous id of the soul.
Here are Dex and Sara working out their ripped up take on a song from Dex’s old band, the Flat Duo Jets, called “Jungle Drums” – which kicks off Is That You in the Blue?
And now for something completely different: Lita Ford. She was played lead guitar for The Runaways, but I missed that memo, somehow, as a teenage glam-metal fan in the late ’80s. Instead I knew her as the only girl on the scene, who flipped everyone’s world upside down and inside out when she did a duet with Ozzy Osbourne. I didn’t want to be her, exactly, but I was proud of her for going toe-to-toe with the boys.
This past Saturday night I ventured out to Sycamore, in Brooklyn, which in the finest New York City multi-tasking tradition is a flower shop by day and a bar / live music venue by night. They have shows in the basement, which is tiny, but on the plus side, it is air-conditioned. (It is not, however, very well lit, as you will see.)
I was there to see You Won’t, and they were well worth the trip. You Won’t are Josh Arnoudse (guitar, vocals) and Raky Sastri (drums / keyboards) and they divide their time between Massachusetts and New York. Their sound alternates between delicate piano-supported indie pop and slow-stompy fuzzy-thrummy guitars and surging drums.
Their new record is called Skeptic Goodbye and you can listen to the entire thing at Bandcamp. (If there are any Drivin’n’Cryin’ fans lurking in the audience: click that link, you’ll be glad you did.) Here, as an example, is my favorite song from it, which is called “Dance Moves”, and is a relatively new addition to their live repertoire, and which they very graciously wedged into their set for me at literally the absolute last minute:
They are playing a bunch more shows in both Boston and Brooklyn in the next couple of months, so check out their calendar if you like what you hear. Also, please, y’all, get up front and dance for them. It is dancing music! There should be swaying! The “got your dance moves down” is the perfect lyrical cue to lazily spin your partner while taking a gulp of a beverage!
Meanwhile, to give you an idea of how dark it was, I took these pictures with the flash on:
It occurred to me this morning that when I was meditating on whom I might most like to participate in a remake of Wildflowers, I forgot a very important voice: Vienna Teng. Here she is with Gravity, from her first record, Waking Hour. The video itself is very The Piano-esque, though I promise there’s no naked Harvey Keitel awaiting you here, just good music.
I always struggle when trying to explain Explosions in the Sky‘s genre. Modern classical, I’ll offer first, followed by electric guitar orchestra? In some ways, I think they pick up where Lou Reed left off after Metal Machine Music, in the way they play with the capabilities of the instruments to make noises.
But unlike Lou Reed, who built a spiky industrial cathedral of noise, Explosions in the Sky are gentler on the ears. Think morning light glimmering through rose windows and soaring Gothic arches instead of a cold bucket of water to the face amid Romanesque gloom. I don’t mean that in a bad way -Â I find that cold bucket of water refreshing and gloomy shadows do have an appeal – but rather to underscore the difference in tone between the two artists.
Recently they made their first music video ever, after over a decade as a band, and it is exquisite:
Directed by Ptarmak
Illustration: Sissy Emmons
Animation: David Hobizal
Addt’l Artistry: JR Crosby, Luke Miller, Zach Ferguson
Ben Hansen, Christy Carroll, Annie Mayfield
Addt’l 3D: Josh Johnson
