max abelson's super groovy music video spectacular

fine videos daily:
1960s on mon
1970s on tues
1980s on wed
1990s on thurs
2000s on fri


feat. the beatles, aretha franklin, neil young, dr. dre, will oldham, serge gainsbourg, the kinks, harry nilsson, dusty springfield, the clash, the smiths, al green, rolling stones, cat power, yo la tengo, stevie wonder, antony, wilco, elvis, talking heads, elliott smith, jimi hendrix, r.e.m., ray charles, velvet underground, the monochrome set, randy newman, cure & queen


i write for the nyo, live in nyc, am 25, please email here


"mtv makes me want to smoke crack." -beck


see the archives & a random post


"i just happen to be here, and it's okay." -caetano veloso


"sing a simple song but keep the swing strong." -de la soul


"it took me about three or four weeks to toilet train my cat, nightlife. most of the time is spent moving the box very gradually to the bathroom. do it very slowly and don't confuse him." -charles mingus


"she had a chihuahua named carlos that had some kind of skin disease and was totally blind." -tom waits


"hey there, hey now, well, you can make a pacemaker blink, yeah, easy thing, make a man's heart go bibbity bom like a gentle drum. -john cale


"i’ve still got things inside me, sad things, happy things, that people don’t know about." -loretta lynn


"after cheesecake with all of your friends and family, who's gonna front the bill? me... say you want to take first-class trips, well i want to work those first-class hips. yes i do." -r. kelly


"i'm going to boogie my scruples away." -lowell george


"i drive a rolls-royce, cause it's good for my voice." -t.rex


gotta think straight, keep a clean plate." -joanna newsom


"keep a clean nose, watch the plain-clothes." -bob dylan


"my mother used to tell me about vibrations. to think that invisible feelings, invisible vibrations existed scared me to death." -brian wilson


"i could even find it in my heart to love mike love." -belle & sebastian


"think about something else. was art tatum talented?" - shoot the piano player


"i mean every letter in the words in the sentences of my quotes." -lil' wayne


"lyrics choochoo from my mouth like locomotion." - pato banton


"i'm dealing in rock and roll. i'm not a bonafide human being." -phil spector


"at a certain point phil approached me with a bottle of kosher red wine in one hand and a .45 in the other, put his arm around my shoulder and shoved the revolver into my neck and said, 'leonard, i love you.' i said, 'i hope you do, phil.'" -leonard cohen


"they’d whisper at each other and look at phil and whisper at each other. finally this lady, tanked, comes over to phil and says, 'alright, sonny, what’s your problem?' and he said, 'premature ejaculation, what’s yours?'" -tom wolfe


"he's got a mind like a sewer, and a heart like a fridge" -elvis costello


"i bite my nails and if that fails i go get myself stoned, but when i do i think of you and head myself back home." -gram parsons


"i would say groucho marx, to name one thing, and willie mays, and the second movement of the jupiter symphony, and louis armstrong’s recording of potatohead blues, swedish movies, naturally. sentimental education by flaubert, marlon brando, frank sinatra, those incredible apples and pears by cézanne, the crabs at sam wo’s, tracy’s face." -woody allen

"where have you been all my life?" -emmylou harris


"the first time i got stoned on grass was with john paul jones of led zeppelin. we'd been talking to ramblin' jack elliott somewhere and jonesy said to me, 'come over and i'll turn you on to grass.' he had a huge room with nothing in it except this huge vast hammond organ, right next door to the police." -david bowie


brian eno songs that will make good book titles for my 10-volume memoir, in order: here he comes, baby's on fire, golden hours, brutal ardour, taking tiger mountain, events in dense fog, through hollow lands, some of them are old, everything merges with the night, dead finks don’t talk


ry cooder albums that every man should own: into the purple valley, boomer's story, paradise and lunch


#1 song on the white album (tie): long long long, happiness is a warm gun


"the only word is love." -john lennon


thelonious monk's middle name: sphere


"really, we don't want people twiddling their goatees over our stuff." -radiohead


"i love songs about horses, railroads, land, judgment day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation, home, salvation, death, pride, humor, piety, rebellion, patriotism, larceny, determination, tragedy, rowdiness, heartbreak and love. and mother. and god." -johnny cash


"the moon is clear, the sky is bright, i'm happy as the horse's shite." -the pogues


"i hope that you all out there, young, old, tall, short, fat or thin, quick or slow, no matter what kind or color or shape or person you are, if you like to make music, why, go ahead.” -pete seeger


"but chuck berry isn't merely the greatest of the rock and rollers, or rather, there's nothing mere about it. say rather that unless we can somehow recycle the concept of the great artist so that it supports chuck berry as well as it does marcel proust, we might as well trash it altogether." -robert christgau


mashable.com says about us: "you can expect the unexpected with this awesome gem. groovy." and 33 1/3 says: "it's nice to have someone steer me in a more worthwhile direction."


download albums, see album covers, photos, posters, quotes & 'staches


the olden days: 08 j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d. 09 j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d. 10 j. f. m. a. m. j. j.


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August 29
“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.’”

“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.’”

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August 27

#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.

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August 6

#637: of montreal - requiem for o.m.m.2 (2005)

lately i’ve had some needlessly harsh things to say about of montreal. but after listening to the sundlandic twins for the first time in ages, i regret every word.

some bands are like the pixies, and you never forget you love them. some bands are like styx, and you’ll never forget your hatred. but some bands are pixy stix, and after the years tick by you forget how sweet they are—until one day you happen to sample them again, and they turn out to be delicious.

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July 30
well what a funny coincidence: the young gents in anamanaguchi, who make music for spending sunny afternoons in mansions made out of gumballs, just released a free track called r4inbow in the d4rk, a remix of my favorite das racist hit. it’s so giggly!

well what a funny coincidence: the young gents in anamanaguchi, who make music for spending sunny afternoons in mansions made out of gumballs, just released a free track called r4inbow in the d4rk, a remix of my favorite das racist hit. it’s so giggly!

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+

#632: das racist - rainbow in the dark (2010)

first of all, this video is murder. second, the beat is delicious. thirdly, the cave-aged gruyère reference? fourth, and most importance by far, das racist has the couplet of the year so far: “catch me at the crib getting light to jeff mangum/ it’s fun to do bad things like rhyme about handguns.”

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July 23

#627: annie - chewing gum (2004)

all the rainbow-colored candy canes, ice cream cones, oversized cupcakes, chocolate syrup mountains, pink cotton candy and stacked chipwiches that fill up the video for katy perry’s catchy but immediately annoying california gurls were the natural birthright of annie’s chewing gum, that wonderful mid-decade norwegian pop hit. its video deserved skyscrapers of watermelon bubilicious, but instead all it got were some annie doppelgangers in rolled-up jeans, which, annie being annie, is not all that bad.

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July 16

#622: fiona apple - not about love (2005)

there’s a balletic pose here, in the ocean towards the end, that might be one of my favorite moments in contemporary music video history. it’s at 3:51, but you should watch the whole thing—and the paper bag video, too.

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June 11

#602: belle and sebastian - your cover’s blown (2004)

in honor of the fine folks at free williamsburg, who figured out a way to get tickets to belle and sebastian’s upcoming new york outdoor extravaganza without lining the pockets of those nefarious gigglers at ticketmaster, here are the nine songs i’m most excited to hear when stuart murdoch and his scottish lads show up in a few months. a song for each dollar you’ll save! and with corresponding lyrical gems!

1. your cover’s blown: “hey lady, meet my mum and dad”

2. jonathan david: “there’s room on my wooden horse for two”

3. lazy line painter jane: ”being a rebel is fine, but you go all the way to being brutal.”

4. take your carriage clock and shove it: “he paused in the silence to pull down his tie and observe the melee” 

5. step into my office, baby: “she gave me some dictation, but my strength is in administration, i took down all she said”

6. the model: “i’m not too proud to say that i’m okay with the girl next door who’s famous for showing her chest”

7. judy and the dream of horses:  ”you will fall asleep with ants in your pants”

8. the loneliness of the middle distance runner: “the future’s looking colorful, it’s the color of blood, chaos and corruption of a happy soul”

9. the boy with the arab strap: “i compare notes with your older sister, i am a lazy gett, she is as pure as the cold driven snow”

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June 4

#597: jim o’rourke & glenn kotche - pictures of adolf again (2003)

songs about fascists are only okay when they’ve got a xylophone interlude, a hammock-friendly guitar solo, a former member of sonic youth, a current member of wilco, some early-70s elton john ivory tickling, and a homemade video that uses charlie chaplin’s  inflatable globe scene.

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May 21

#591: clap your hands say yeah - is this love? (2005)

my former colleague doree shafrir recently shared a very nice memory of going to see the national and clap your hands say yeah play at warsaw back in the glory days of 2005. those were innocent times! a young woman named m.i.a. released a debut called arular, belle and sebastian came out with a b-sides compilation that introduced take your carriage clock and shove it to a new generation of doe-eyed romantics, sufjan stevens’ 50 states project was still a thing, and the question “who is mike jones?” was asked without irony.

anyway, doree was more excited to hear the national, because she had just seen clap your hands say yeah play in philadelphia—her then-boyfriend was a drummer in a dub band that had opened for them, of course. and yet, as contemporaneous reports confirm, half the audience left when the national came on. clap your hands say yeah was just that cool! they were so of-the-moment, in fact, that they even apparently turned down this adorable anthropomorphic vacuum cleaner video for is this love.

“so,” doree writes, “i have to say i find it sort of hilarious that everyone is all creaming their pants about the national now.” i agree: it’s not that they don’t deserve it, it’s just that time makes fools of us all. and it especially makes fools of brooklyn indie rock, temporary soda flavors, and millinery.

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May 14

#586: new pornographers - letter from an occupant (2000)

the summer after freshman year of college i was a proud and happy breezemont camp counselor, probably because i started every single work day with the new pornographers’ debut album mass romantic. those charming anthems! those honeyed hooks! carl “a.c.” newman sang about beer and salvation, neko case belted lines like “where’ve all sensations gone,” and my left arm hung out the car window.

when electric version and twin cinema came out later i thought they were delightful, too, although for all the globe-sized songs about bleeding hearts and spanish discotheques, there were a few clunkers. but i still got challengers when it came out in 2007, a year after college. the music had gotten smaller and sweeter, which isn’t a bad thing at all. but, still.

and now this month the new pornographers have a new album out and i’m not sure i’m even interested in hearing it. come to think of it, i’m not all that worried about the new broken social scene album either. what is going on? is this what aging looks like? surely this is the sad ennui of a listener halfway through his 20s. disgusting. maybe i should go buy the cd! except there are no cd stores left.

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May 7

#581: jay-z - 99 problems (2003)

i’m not saying that betty white and jay-z have the fate of the developed world’s economies riding on their shoulders, i’m just pointing out that there’s nothing else that thrilling going on this weekend besides their duties on saturday night live, and so the markets are clearly going to reopen on monday morning exactly as they closed this afternoon unless they stage a live scene-by-scene homage to the 99 problems video with ms. white as producer rick rubin, or at least some sort of  special appearance from the roots (jimmy fallon can come, too) to recreate mtv unplugged.

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April 30

#575: sufjan stevens - the lord god bird (2006)

too bad that sufjan stevens has more or less disappeared. i’m sure wherever he is he’s very happy—probably in brooklyn stirring homemade cold cocoa in the sun this very moment, thinking about milton and william blake. i hope he gets back to making sprawling masterpieces of twee americana sometime soon. this morning’s alec soth video about a 114 year old, parakeet, and hypnotist should get the juices flowing.

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April 23

#571: phish - wilson (2004, outside of the late show)

“fuck the previews! fuck the previews! let’s hit this!” a man in the front row of the ancient-looking pavilion theater on prospect park west said this week. “you can do it!” someone else said. “you can do it!” a third person shouted. “never!” someone added, but not in a mean way. everyone was just excited.

it was april 20, and the theater was full for a debut screening of phish 3d.

it’s not hip to love phish. last month, vanity fair executive online editor michael hogan wrote an item called the top five most tolerable phish songs, and he only listed three. mr. hogan twice used the phrase “white-boy reggae rhythms,” which isn’t completely unfair. the band spends a lot of time easing in and out of jolly, expressive, stretched-out grooves, but if you happen to be too sober to dance along, the music can sound awfully pale and freckled.

so spending two hours with a three-dimensional jam band concert movie and the people who were thrilled to see its debut might not sound like fun. but it was…

read more at a new york observer website near you!

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April 16

#568: radiohead - motion picture soundtrack (2001, live at canal+)

the radiohead lyric that goes “the whole building is about to collapse anytime now” isn’t actually a radiohead lyric, it’s a line from an email that a goldman sachs banker named fabrice tourre sent as he was putting together a purposefully rotten multibillion-dollar investment for goldman’s own clients. “only potential survivor,” he continues, “the fabulous fab, standing in the middle of all these complex, highly leveraged, exotic trades he created without necessarily understanding all of the implications of those monstruosities!!!”

one nice thing about today’s two extraordinary chunks of goldman sachs news—the more important one is about the s.e.c.’s astounding allegations of fraud, the more charming is about its bankers’ dissatisfaction with goldman’s $2.1 billion new tower—is that it proves that the world is exactly how radiohead has always said it was. back in high school, when i listened to amnesiac more than any other album on earth except for kid a, but adored ok computer more than both combined, radiohead’s lesson was that the world is filled with ugly fraud, vulgar ambition and manipulative ruthlessness. which more or less turns out to be true.

referring to a new yorker article about the beautiful mural in the new goldman tower, a letter to the magazine quoted meridel le sueur’s thoughts on corporate-sponsored art: “they just want you to perfume the sewers. they need artists to bring perfume to the terrible stench of their death.” ms. le sueur died the year before ok computer came out.

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