Tag: video

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Deep Blues Focus: Mississippi Gabe Carter, The Misery Jackals

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Going in to the homestretch with a gentlemen how embraces the sound of the bluesmen from Bentonia, Mississippi, (which was the birthplace of my favorite blues musician, Skip James) and the other Ohio band on Saturday’s ticket. (And if you can listen to Pearlene without wanting to sigh or writhe around on the floor or something to that effect, then… well, you’re clearly not having as much fun as I am.)

Deep Blues Festival, Beachland Ballroom, Saturday, July 16, doors at 4 PM.

 

Name: Mississippi Gabe Carter
Homebase: Chicago, Illinois
Related artists: Duck Holmes

 


Mississippi Gabe Carter – Leavin’ – DBF09

Mississippi Gabe Carter @ MySpace

Rick Saunders’ interview with Mississippi Gabe Carter

 

Name: The Misery Jackals
Homebase: Akron, Ohio
Related artists: The Goddamn Gallows

 


The Misery Jackals – Trapper Jack

The Misery Jackals Official Website

 

DBF Alumnus
Pearlene

 


Pearlene – All Fears (Have Faces) – DBF08

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July Video Challenge: Metallica, Unforgiven / NIN, Head Like A Hole

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Creepy black and white imagery: check. James Hetfield and co. with all of their hair and the occasional ridiculous moustache: check.  Reminder of why so many hard rock stations had “Mandatory Metallica” bits: also check.

This is not the song that caused me to become a Metallica fan – that was One – but it is certainly among my favorite tracks. They would go on to name two more songs “Unforgiven” but this one, from their fifth record, entitled Metallica, aka The Black Album, is the one that I think of as Original and Best. Also, The Black Album was the one I used to put on almost every night to listen to as I was winding down to sleep.

And now i have just discovered that, in what I can only call as CLASSIC METALLICA MOVE, I can’t embed the damned thing to share with you. I promise the click-through to YouTube will be worth it, though.

Or you can watch a classic video from a band on the other end of the sharing spectrum: Nine Inch Nails. I was in to them before I was in to Metallica, and, because MTV used to play them back to back, I often used to mute the video for One while waiting, impatiently, for Head Like a Hole to come on. So have some skinny, angry, dreadlock-flinging Trent Reznor:

 

Nine Inch Nails - Head Like A Hole

 

(And if you’d like to know why I caved to Metallica, well, you can blame that one on a boy. He sang Bon Jovi to me in science class and persuaded me to give James Hetfield and his not-so-merry crew a shot, so I stopped hitting the mute button and listened. Eventually I bought   . . . And Justice For All, and it was all downhill from there.

My other distinct Metallica memory is opening an issue of Circus magazine and flipping eagerly to their poster in the center only to find they had cut their hair. I think I made some sort of undignified noise and petted Kirk Hammett’s papery face with my finger tips. I still hung the poster up, though.)

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Deep Blues Focus: Ten Foot Polecats, Boom Chick

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Deep Blue Focus, part three, and halfway to showtime, folks. Check out Rick Saunders’ DBF11 profile for a little mo’ somethin’.

Deep Blues Festival, Beachland Ballroom, Saturday, July 16, doors at 4 PM.

 

Name: Ten Foot Polecats
Homebase: Boston, Massachusetts
Organizer

 


Ten Foot Polecats – Goin’ Crazy – DBF09

Ten Foot Polecats Official Website

 

Name: Boom Chick
Homebase: New York, New York

 


Boom Chick – The Ghost of Bo Diddley

Boom Chick Official Website

 

DBF Alumnus
Scott H. Biram

 


Scott H. Biram – Get Me Religion – DBF08

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July Video Challenge: Chris Gaines [Garth Brooks], Lost in You

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In 1999, Garth Brooks invented Chris Gaines from whole cloth, in order to explore genres outside of country. (There was also supposed to be a movie, but that didn’t quite work out.) One of the fruits of his labor was this video, a dreamy, melancholy piece, in which he is wholly unrecognizable as himself. The song did well, but faced with a baffled (and possibly somewhat concerned) public and a loss of momentum that came with the disintegration of the movie deal, Brooks let Gaines fade out of sight. The “real” Garth Brooks retired – temporarily – in 2000.

It is, if nothing else, an intriguing meditation on the idea of rock star as illusionist. As I was reading up on the affair to refresh my memory – all I had was the echo of baffled disbelief – any number of people have offered that his mistake was not in inventing a new persona but in revealing that the persona was, in fact, an invention.

 

http://youtu.be/n_zMEXOsNmU

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Deep Blues Focus: Scissormen, The Staving Chain, Molly Gene One Whoaman Band

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The second installment of our Deep Blues Focus series includes one of two Ohio bands on the bill and a one-woman band who has me pretty jacked up.

Remember: Deep Blues Festival, Beachland Ballroom, Saturday, July 16, doors at 4 PM.

 

Name: Molly Gene One Whoaman Band
Homebase: Kansas City, Missouri
Related artists: Bob Log III, The Reverend Deadeye, The Goddamn Gallows

 


Molly Gene One Whoaman Band – Bumble Bee

Molly Gene One Whoaman Band Official Website

 

Name: Scissormen
Homebase: Nashville, Tennessee
Organizer

 


Scissormen – Do Wrong Man – DBF08

Scissormen Official Website

 

Name: The Staving Chain
Homebase: Toledo, Ohio
Related artists: Henry & June, Johnny Walker (Soledad Brothers, Cut in the Hill Gang), Black Diamond Heavies, Mark Porkchop Holder

 


The Staving Chain – various

The Staving Chain @ Danger Limited Recording Company

The Staving Chain @ Facebook

 

DBF Alumnus
Patrick Sweany

 


The Patrick Sweany Band – After Awhile – DBF08

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Deep Blues Focus: Left Lane Cruiser, Mark Porkchop Holder, Javier & the Innocent Sons

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The Deep Blues Festival, an annual celebration of “outsider blues”, will be reborn this Saturday, July 16, at the Beachland Ballroom in beautiful Cleveland, Ohio. The original incarnation of DBF – which featured some NTSIB favorites like Patrick Sweany, the Black Diamond Heavies, Scott H. Biram and T-Model Ford with GravelRoad – saw it’s end with an announcement from founder Chris Johnson in February of 2010. (Check out this interview with Johnson for a brief history of the fest.)

Unwilling to let DBF die, Ted Drozdowski of Scissormen and Jim Chilson of the Ten Foot Polecats took over the name and the spirit – with Chris Johnson’s blessing – and moved the fest from Minnesota to Ohio. And we are freaking excited about it.

In this week leading up to DBF11, we’re going to spotlight a few of this year’s artists each day, along with some DBF alumni.

 

Name: Left Lane Cruiser
Homebase: Fort Wayne, Indiana
Related artists: The Black Diamond Heavies, James Leg, Scott H. Biram

 


Left Lane Cruiser – Set Me Down – DBF08

Left Lane Cruiser @ Alive Records

Left Lane Cruiser @ MySpace

 

Name: Mark Porkchop Holder
Homebase: Chattanooga, Tennessee
Related artists: The Black Diamond Heavies

 


Mark Porkchop Holder – My Black Name – DBF09

Mark Porkchop Holder @ MySpace

 

Name: Javier & the Innocent Sons
Homebase: Minneapolis, Minnesota

 


Javier & the Innocent Sons – Poor Boy Blues

Javier & the Innocent Sons @ MySpace

 

DBF Alumnus
The Black Diamond Heavies

 


The Black Diamond Heavies with Mark Porkchop Holder, Andy Jody and U.S. Justin – Nutbush City Limits – DBF09

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July Video Challenge: Mark Ronson and The Business, INTL, The Bike Song

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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.

 

Mark Ronson, The Business Intl. - The Bike Song

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July Video Challenge: Paula Abdul, Cold Hearted Snake

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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.

 

Paula Abdul Cold Hearted Snake - Full Version

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You, You Make Me Angry

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It was informal poll time again on the Twitter last weekend. Inspired by one of the tracks on the Southern Independent, Volume One compilation, “Road Bound” by Bob Wayne (“I hope you like the taste of dirt and that ring on my right hand”), I chose “Best Songs about Kicking Someone’s Ass” as the theme. I think this poll may have been even more popular than the “Songs about Fornicating” poll. Take from that what you will.

By far, the most popular choice was Loretta Lynn’s “Fist City”, submitted by @AdamSheets08, @TwangNation and @MarioEGarcia.

 

 

Judged on speed of vote, @ptgrw would win “The Angriest” title. He submitted “Someone’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight” by The Rezillos, “Take It Out On You” by Skafish and the top of “my Hate Paradeâ„¢”, Ministry’s “Flashback”.

 

 

Though angriest by virtue of most submissions would have to be @TwangNation whom, besides “Fist City”, submitted “The Fighting Side of Me” by Merle Haggard, “Five Minutes Alone” by Pantera, “Street Fighting Man” by the Rolling Stones, “Fight Song” by Marilyn Manson and “Punch Fight Fuck” by Hank Williams III.

 

 

@AdamSheets08, who also submitted “Saturday Night’s All Right for Fighting” by Elton John and “Fight, Smash, Win” by Street Sweeper Social Club, took things in a different direction with Phil Ochs’ “I Ain’t Marching Anymore”.

 

 

My favorite vote was from @popa2unes – who also put in a vote for “Street Fighting Man” – for the Stray Cats’ “Rumble in Brighton”.

 

 

The submission that made me laugh out loud was @MarioEGarcia’s vote for “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes.

 

 

Worst Song about Kicking Someone’s Ass was submitted by @maryoung (who also submitted “A Boy Named Sue” by Johnny Cash and “Kiss With a Fist” by Florence and the Machine in the not-worst category): “Break Stuff” by Limp Bizkit. And you can look that up yourself because I’m not posting it here.

And the rest:

@rufus_ – “Beat on the Brat” by the Ramones, “Knoxville Girl” by the Lemonheads and “Shady Grove” by Fairport Convention

@jesXsmith – “No Wow” by the Kills

@thevidalia – “Man U” by the Giraffes

@billysezvinyl – any song from Nick Cave’s Murder Ballads

@nowthissound – “Have to Get It On” by James Leg