max abelson's super groovy music video spectacular

#648: joseph gordon-levitt - pop tarts commercial (1991) just...

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:12:21 -0400

#648: joseph gordon-levitt - pop tarts commercial (1991)

just before jane magazine folded in 2007, it featured zooey deschanel on the cover. “i’m always looking for school uniforms, trying to squeeze into kids’ clothing,” she said in her interview. “it’s sort of a party trick, the way i can get myself into tiny dresses.” just before domino was closed, ms. deschanel once again graced the front of one of its last issues. “bold happy colors,” her cover said, “chic storage for every room, smart makeovers & more!” and with yesterday’s announcement that paste will no longer continue, the person with the dubious honor of closing that magazine’s tenure on newsstands is joseph gordon-levitt, ms. deschanel’s would-be soulmate in the humerous and precious (500) days of summer.

these magazines have been felled by the curse of the twee.

the fact that mr. gordon-levitt and ms. deschanel graced three end-of-days covers is, of course, a coincidence. but a cynic would point out that the stars, like their parenthetically-titled romantic comedy last year, are downright fun and colorful and special and digestible and just as adorable as vintage tin lunchboxes, and are missing something. they are uncomplicated! they are gluten-avoiding vegans. hollywood’s great celebrities have always been scarier, or more mysterious, or just on the wrong side of unfathomable and arcane. like inception’s leonardo dicaprio, cillian murphy, ken watanabe and michael caine, but not mr. gordon-levitt, and not ellen page either, they are discomforting and itchy. ms. deschanel has sung in a cotton ad.

writing in these pages two years ago, tom mcgeveran penned a wonderful cover story about twee. his opening described the word: there’s twee “in the old british sense—twee was adorable baby talk for ‘sweet,’” and a newer american definition, “old-fashioned-looking wellingtons, fresh vegetables, t-strap mary janes, fringes or bangs, marmalade, anoraks and tea in a pretty teacup.”

twee is great, but maybe it can’t save magazines. [nyo].

#647: al green - tired of being alone (1971, soul...

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:36:00 -0400

#647: al green - tired of being alone (1971, soul train)

what’s out today? let me tell you: three dvds with five hours of soul train, one of the great institutions in american pop culture, hosted by don cornelius, the best-named man in show business. and as if that weren’t enough, there’s over three hours that time-life home entertainment is promising to be “fabulous bonus material.” but if it’s this video of blue al green looped over and over i’ll be satisfied.

the reverend green in white with the blues.

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:33:35 -0400

the reverend green in white with the blues.

#646: nina simone - four women (1965, antibes) hearing enter the...

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:16:51 -0400

#646: nina simone - four women (1965, antibes)

hearing enter the wu-tang live was the highlight of my month, but i’d trade it any day for reanimating nina simone to do wild is the wind. and maybe talib kweli would agree to come on afterwards to do his version of the album’s best song, four women? and not to compare apples to oranges, but i’d also take let it all out over midnight marauders, as fast as you can say “i intend to be independently blue.”

“rakim was unconvincing, and the crowd idled...

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 23:59:00 -0400

“rakim was unconvincing, and the crowd idled inattentively. a man who looked like gossip girl’s heartthrob ed westwick ordered a beer. he wore a straw hat with an enormous hole, big enough to stick a large hand through. for some reason, the hole was facing front, and the hat was tilted down and to the side. he wore a tattoo of an oversized feather on the back of his left arm: it was ed westwick. later, during the wu-tang’s wonderful show, boy jones stood in for his father ol’ dirty bastard, who died of a drug overdose in 2004 at 35. ‘just like his father,’ raekwon said, shaking his head after shimmy shimmy ya. ‘just like his father.’” - observer.com!

also: “there was a horribly long wait for lauryn hill, who sometimes doesn’t show at all. the sun was hot. first, her stage was set up: there were five keyboards, two electric guitarists, two bassists, and, for some reason, two drummers playing similar-looking drum sets, like in the grateful dead. a dj ate up minutes by playing music and calling out locales. when a lot of new jersey guys cheered for their state, this reporter booed half-jokingly, and a tall man in a homer simpson shirt said, ‘actually, lauryn hill’s from new jersey. she went to zach braff’s bar mitzvah.’”

#645 - ps22 chorus - beach house’s zebra (2010) there is...

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:40:28 -0400

#645 - ps22 chorus - beach house’s zebra (2010)

there is no reason to listen to anything besides beach house for the rest of august, except for choruses of new york city public school children singing beach house.

#644: radiohead - no surprises (1997) this may not be the...

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:37:00 -0400

#644: radiohead - no surprises (1997)

this may not be the official best video of the 90s, but, gosh, it’s my best video of my 1990s. i was a wee sleepaway camper at laurel south when i walked into a room of counselors watching a vhs of 7 television commercials, radiohead’s compilation of videos from the bends and ok computer, and even though i’d grown up in love with mtv, especially daisy fuentes, i’d never seen something so perfect. a head, singing about a heart filling up like a landfill, in a fishbowl filling up with water! slowly drowning? holding his breath for the final silence? opening his misshapen eyes for his final bellyache? and saved at the last moment by his chorus! i’ll take no surprises, please.

i don’t think napster has an important place in...

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:22:00 -0400

i don’t think napster has an important place in anyone’s heart any longer, but i’ll never forget the afternoon i found how i made my millions, the soft b-side on radiohead’s no surprises single. it eventually became the title to a cnbc series that featured the wealthy inventors of roomba, lovesac and 1-800-got-junk (good job, america!), but back before the turn of the century it was the soundtrack to some awfully hearty and outstandingly unrequited pubescent love in larchmont, ny, let me tell you.

what guy clark thinks about while exhaling smoke through his...

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 01:06:00 -0400

what guy clark thinks about while exhaling smoke through his nose is for guy clark to know and for you and me our tiny non-guy minds to never even begin to fathom.

(photo: daniel ransom)

#643: guy clark - texas cooking (live, c. 1989) no one could...

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:12:00 -0400

#643: guy clark - texas cooking (live, c. 1989)

no one could write a song this good about vegetables. it’s the stairway to heaven of beef.

#642: gram parsons and emmylou harris - streets of baltimore...

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:40:00 -0400

#642: gram parsons and emmylou harris - streets of baltimore (live, 1973)

first came a bookstore-bathroom run in with ultra rare hipster runoff graffiti. and this afternoon, in the middle of a very stressful observer deadline, i got to have an actual back and forth with pitchfork founder ryan schreiber, who, let’s face it, is a true indie-and-internet god. if you’re interested, and who could blame you if you’re not, it was a gentlemanly twitter disagreement over his site’s top-videos-of-the-90s list, which ends with aphex twin’s dementedly dark come to daddy.

not the decade’s single best video, i said.

agree to disagree, he proposed.

and what, he wanted to know, would i have chosen?

no surprises, wow and flutter, c.r.e.a.m., or even windowlicker, i said.

the finale came with his excellent point that anthony kiedis’ ocean rap should have been number one. and just like that our conversation had ended! the irony is that i started the day by spending 90 minutes compiling my list of the top 10 videos of grainy live versions of beautiful country rock songs about major maryland metropolitan areas. this one ended up on top, and it goes out to you-know-who.

#641: the everly brothers - walk right back (tennessee ernie...

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:11:00 -0400

#641: the everly brothers - walk right back (tennessee ernie ford show, 1961)

the modern lovers will cure what ails you on a sunday night, then monday morning brings its own troubles. but the everly brothers will put on their matching suits, sling their matching monochromatic guitars around their necks below perfectly coiffed hair, and sing about daily lonesomeness in a close harmony that’ll pull you a little bit closer to tuesday. and their semi-bowties are an inspiration to us all.

i just don’t know a single better cure for the sunday...

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 23:22:00 -0400

i just don’t know a single better cure for the sunday night blues than jonathan richman & the modern lovers, especially on a sunday evening with such mean skies and wet pavement, and especially following a nice week. most music that’s adorable, tender, elementary and un-sarcastic is also idiotic, but jonathan richman and the modern lovers are not idiotic. you won’t forgive yourself if you don’t click here and rock ‘n’ roll with love.

all i know about this version of jonathan richman & the...

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 23:21:00 -0400

all i know about this version of jonathan richman & the modern lovers’ fly into the mystery is that it came on a really good mix that my friend julia’s boyfriend scott made me, and that it’s not the version that’s on rock ‘n’ roll with the modern lovers. that one is terrifying, this one is terrific. both versions include the world’s saddest line about closing time at filene’s, but only this has a last verse with my favorite astrophysical insight: ”it’s so good to see all the stars/ i’m glad they’re there and we haven’t lost them/ and must end.”

being on vacation is like lounging around naked or eating grapes...

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:22:00 -0400

being on vacation is like lounging around naked or eating grapes from the vine—totally resplendent, and wildly relaxing, and without a doubt something one should do only very rarely. these are the albums i’ve been listening to with my family while slouching around this week in massachusetts. not only are they perfect, especially at certain parts of a mid-august day, but they’re available for semi-legal download thanks to glorious blogs like zamboni soundtracks, which, thank god, is back from a long hiatus.

10:35am: harry nilsson’s nilsson schmilsson - i’m sure it’s been said before, but the gotta get up/driving along/early in the morning triptych must be one of history’s great album openers. while you’re showering there’s the coconut/let the good times roll/jump into the fire trio to put even more pep into your already peppy stepping.

12:15pm: ry cooder’s paradise and lunch - over sandwiches you learn everything you need to know about melody, martinis, r&b harmonies, divorcees, tobacco, cornets, and coroners. as if the album needed more heart, ry’s wife painted the cover.

3:30pm: tom zé’s todos os olhos - the only early-70s brazilian album that sounds like the sun, looks like an eye, and turns out to be a marble in an ass.

6:00pm: yo la tengo’s fakebook - sad like dusk, happy like dusk.

8:05pm: caetano veloso’s jóia - good for digestion, great for creaky joints, perfect for easing that summer evening choleric yellow bile feeling in the old gall bladder.

10:55pm: the monkees’ pisces, aquarius, capricorn & jones ltd. - beer drinking music at its finest. was cuddly toy written by 10:35am’s harry nilsson? it was! is pleasant valley sunday 1967’s best song about the suburbs? of course. doesn’t drummer mickey dolenz’s face remind you of my college friend alex nemser? how could it not!

12:05am: blind willie johnson’s sweeter as the years go by - if you meet the special someone who considers this semi-appropriate music to make love to your special someone by, you will know for sure that you have met a very sweet special someone.

i’m on vacation this week with my parents (pictured) and...

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:45:21 -0400

i’m on vacation this week with my parents (pictured) and my little sister (who has been calling me names all day, thereby blowing it royally in a getting-her-picture-on-my-blog kind of way). back to videos in a week!

i’m not entirely sure i have the kidneys for it, but this...

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 23:36:00 -0400

i’m not entirely sure i have the kidneys for it, but this sudden influx of instant netflix john cassavetes films i’ve always been slightly scared to see—from shadows and faces to husbands and then a woman under the influence and opening night—may be one of the best things to happen to heavy, muggy, early-august emptiness in a very long time. i watched the killing of a chinese bookie tonight and think it’ll keep me away from gambling debts and the nightclub industry for a few years. ben gazzara’s grin should be in a museum.

#640: the jesus and mary chain - just like honey (1985) a...

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:13:00 -0400

#640: the jesus and mary chain - just like honey (1985)

a slow-mo, long-haired, sweet-toothed summertime classic for those who enjoy wearing black turtlenecks while toeing that fine line between fuzzy and scuzzy.

#639: celia cruz & the fania all-stars - guantanamera...

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:24:30 -0400

#639: celia cruz & the fania all-stars - guantanamera rehearsal (zaire, 1974)

james brown struggles and sweats, then celia cruz struts and sways. her effortlessness is something from a greek myth. it is inhuman.

and when an audience is actually in front of her, brains will whirl into the cosmos.

celia cruz ≥ celia cruz with wyclef john ≥ wyclef john (see more...

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:00:00 -0400

celia cruz ≥ celia cruz with wyclef john ≥ wyclef john

(see more inequalities here.)