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.


make a tumblr!



Creative Commons License
June 10

#601: willie nelson, emmylou harris, and daniel lanois - the maker (1998)

after daniel lanois was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident this week, he called up a pal and said calmly, “look, i got a lot of broken bones.” god bless that man. for me, what makes the music daniel lanois produces so special is that it’s sooty, smoky, crunched and chewed, and yet every note is perfect and clean. it’s easy to light songs on fire, but not easy to make them smell like charcoal, which is what he does on bob dylan’s time out of mind, brian eno’s apollo atmospheres & soundtracks, u2’s joshua tree, emmylou harris’ wrecking ball (her best album, if you ask me), and willie nelson’s teatro, which the above is from.

besides producing, he also happens to have written songs that are as good as anything those bands have done. the maker is one of them! it’s a religious song that’s heavenly because it’s black and blue. speaking of angels, wim wenders directed the video, and this one, too.

Comments (View)
March 14
the reason that john cale’s 1974 album fear sounds like jumpsuits, fistfights at the lions club, ex-wives, fish, lou reed’s aftershave, coal mines in wales, patti smith’s perspiration, police station basements and 23rd street at nighttime is that it is really, really good. his holiness richard thompson from fairport convention plays guitar, and so does phil manzanera, whose roxy music companion sir brian eno is credited as playing “eno.” and the backup singing on thigh-slapper the man who couldn’t afford to orgy is credited to certain girls named “i & d chantler and l strike,” about whom very little seems to be known. but to be fair, vintage violence is almost as perfect for a late-winter sunday afternoon, and so is looking at pictures of john cale.

the reason that john cale’s 1974 album fear sounds like jumpsuits, fistfights at the lions club, ex-wives, fish, lou reed’s aftershave, coal mines in wales, patti smith’s perspiration, police station basements and 23rd street at nighttime is that it is really, really good. his holiness richard thompson from fairport convention plays guitar, and so does phil manzanera, whose roxy music companion sir brian eno is credited as playing “eno.” and the backup singing on thigh-slapper the man who couldn’t afford to orgy is credited to certain girls named “i & d chantler and l strike,” about whom very little seems to be known. but to be fair, vintage violence is almost as perfect for a late-winter sunday afternoon, and so is looking at pictures of john cale.

Comments (View)
January 6

#507: u2 - i still haven’t found what i’m looking for (1987)

there are only two standouts in the short and indecorous history of dance circles in non-rap music videos: spike jonze and the torrance community group in fatboy slim’s praise you (a torrence public film production) and u2’s nevada-based i still haven’t found what i’m looking for, in which bono does some impressive jigs, twirls, and pre-pulp fiction twisting while the edge looks genuinely unamused.

Comments (View)
December 30

#503: orchestral manoeuvres in the dark - genetic engineering (1983)

surely if radiohead made the best album of the 1990s and the best album of the 2000s (ok computer and kid a) then radiohead’s probably going to make the best album of the 2010s. and i predict, based on a close study of the victorian fin de siecle, brian eno’s oblique strategies, rhett davies’ discography, the genealogical history of the greenwood brothers, and phrenological curvature of phil selway’s skull, that it will sound like the more danceable songs on orchestral manoeuvres in the dark’s underrated album dazzle ships. it’s available here—see for yourself.

Comments (View)
December 13
you’re making a terribly grave error if on this damp and cold december sunday you’re not listening to brian eno’s first four ambient albums, especially on land. a sad winter weekend afternoon without them is like a happy summer evening without roxy music.

you’re making a terribly grave error if on this damp and cold december sunday you’re not listening to brian eno’s first four ambient albums, especially on land. a sad winter weekend afternoon without them is like a happy summer evening without roxy music.

Comments (View)
January 31

#15: roxy music - ladytron (1972)

62-year-old bryan ferry now dates a 27-year-old dancer, which means she’s currently exactly the same age mr. ferry was during this performance (from the same top of the pops show as below). very sexy.

i love when he closes his eyes to croon. and has a high-collared oboe solo ever looked better? and can the guitarist see out of his glasses? and isn’t brian eno’s gold-gloved knob-twiddling thrilling? he looks like he’s piloting a private glam jet through the sunny glam skies.

Comments (View)
+

#14: roxy music - virginia plain (1972)

in 1972, bryan ferry got behind a microphone on top of the pops wearing a sparkly sequented blouse, backed by brian eno in leopard print and gold gloves. just like that, glam became cool.

and then 49 seconds into roxy music’s debut, the band thwacks to a halt. “baby jane’s in acapulco,” mr. ferry squeeks, “and we are flying down to rio.” (be sure to catch the little jazz-hand wiggle there.) that would be the hippest line in roxy music history, if it weren’t for: “midnight blue casino floors/ dance the cha-cha through till sunrise/ open up exclusive doors. oh wow!”

and did you know the critic robert christgau once called brian eno “a balding, long-haired eunuch lookalike”? i like when he looks up here and smiles at the saxophone/oboe player in the green alien suit. it’s so touching.

Comments (View)