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."

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July 27

#629: the beach boys - disney girls (1971)

this might be all the rich lipton tea i’ve had this afternoon talking, but my favorite beach boys song wasn’t written by brian wilson (although good vibrations is the most terrific pop hit of the century, and sloop john b is a maritime classic, and surfer girl is awfully tender). it wasn’t even written by al jardine or that grinch mike love, though they did don’t go near the water. it’s disney girls, written by backup singer bruce johnston of peoria, illinois, and it’s so unimaginably dark and lonely that it looks feathery and light and cute. the bridge is about late-50s television and will make you cry. if it doesn’t, try brian wilson and van dyke parks’ take on similar subject matter.

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the beach boys ozzie and harriet lyric that melts all but the coldest hearts: “hi rick, hi dave, hi pop, well good morning mom! get up, guess what, i’m in love with a girl i found. she’s really swell, cause she likes church bingo chances and old time dances.”

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May 10

#583: beach boys - surfer girl (live, 1964)

brian wilson always gets his due, because he writes songs that are pure and sweet and true and perfect. and just look at the way he holds his bass! but it’s important to remember his underappreciated band mates. “i love my carl, i love my brian, my dennis, and my al,” belle and sebastian once said, “i could even find it in my heart to love mike love.”

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May 8

#582: brian wilson and van dyke parks - orange crate art (1995)

and the works progress administration poster archives also have a section of fruit crate labels, which is not only a splendid thing in and of itself, but it also happens to be on the same exact subject as brian wilson’s sweetest song. so it’s a win-win.

update: van dyke parks is coming to brooklyn! v.d.p. in bk.!

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March 25

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

the lilys - tennis system (and its stars)

dave davies was taking high tea with his friend brian wilson when a hidden hydrogen bomb went off in the biscuits and they floated up to heaven, and while they floated the clouds sang melodious lines like, “dixey hangs with a tricky lot of cowards,” and “your weak spine can’t handle all my ways of soft destruction.” and just then, voila, dave and brian realized they were in a lilys song about tennis and constellations. this very song! do you know the lilys? i hadn’t until recently, and i’m glad i do. and once again i give thanks to kat.

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September 15

#444: the beach boys - don’t go near the water (1971)

the other night i dreamed i met van dyke parks at a black-tie gala. i corned him by a red staircase and told him how much i worshiped discover america, and his album with joanna newsom, and especially his chewy, loony, post-pop (i’m not sure if that’s a real phrase, but still) music with the beach boys, especially surfs up, which begins with this song and ends eponymously. he was sort of awkward but really appreciative! and then i dreamed that i could grow a beard like early-70s mike love, not just the wispy whiskers of a bar mitzvah boy. so this is the song of my dreams.

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the beach boys in 1973: keeping it classy.

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August 3

#422: beach boys - good vibrations (1968)

this isn’t the world’s peppiest performance of good vibrations, but what the band lacks in pep they make up for here in uber-gonzo visuals that are really far out, man. the white suites are nice, too! this must be what spiders see when spiders watch late-60s drug-addled californian pop.

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“my mother used to tell me about vibrations. i really didn’t understand too much what that meant when i was a boy. it scared me, the word vibrations. to think that invisible feelings, invisible vibrations existed, scared me to death.” - brian wilson

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July 22

#415: the shivvers - teen line (live on wmtv, wisconsin) (1980)

from now on i’m only listening to milwaukee’s early-80s power pop, where the pianos bopped and the guitarists tried not to smile and the wouldn’t it be nice-referencing lyrics were sung by women with teased-hair who chewed chiclets tiny size flavor-coated gum and knew what it was like to be lovestruck and 14 years old.

(even though this tv clip is nearly perfect, download the supreme version here.)

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April 19

one of the great tragedies of pop music is that god only knows, the sistine chapel of love songs, was given a cover that looks like an outtake from 1971’s orvis catalogue.

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April 17

#355: brian wilson - that lucky old sun and california girls (2008)

when someone asks what kind of music you like, saying “everything but a capella” is pretty much acceptable (people who say “everything but country” are liars or silly and should be made to bow at doc’s feet and porter’s grave). yet because of this clip you now have to say, “i like everything but a capella—though there’s this one terrifyingly, emetically good video where brian wilson is in the back of a cab messing around with his bandmates, and after their main performance they do a minute of a beach boys song mostly a capella and it’s like sitting in a car with jesus while he whistles his favorite beatles ditties and the car starts levitating.”

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July 21

image #39: “surf? i never surfed. no. too scary for me.” - brian wilson 2002

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February 2

#17: beach boys - sloop john b (1966)

i wanted to find a song co-written by brian wilson and van dyke parks (joanna newsom’s producer), but this isn’t one one of them. instead, it’s from pet sounds, the single prettiest rock & roll album ever made.

watch the beach boys as they engage in beatles-like shenanigans: they push each other into the pool repeatedly and then wrestle on a float. but also they’re singing a song about their boat? those beach boys!

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