“Soundtrack features performances by The Dan Band and Mike Tyson.” Dear person who wrote the ad copy for the soundtrack to The Hangover: Why must you remind me that we live in a world where Danzig gets lower billing than a comedy act best known for “its covers of originally female-performed pop songs, with added obscenities and swearing”? Blech. [Amazon]
Dinosaur Jr’s’ video for “Over It,” shot during some downtime on their tour this spring, is a sweet spin on the old-school “skateboard wipeout” video, one in which lead Dinosaur J Mascis even gets to show off one of the skateboard decks crafted in his band’s honor. (The matching kicks are a nice touch, too.) Somehow I missed this song, which appears on the band’s forthcoming album Farm, until this morning, and I am pretty annoyed with myself for doing so, as it has provided me a nice little bit of Adidas in my proverbial ass, thanks in large part to the heroic drumming of the band’s skinsman, Murph. [Pitchfork via MBV]
That’s not to say that “Falling” is all that good, mind you: Take away the rap by her boyfriend (which makes references to K-Fed and Chelsea Lately within the space of one verse–when was this recorded, November 2007?) and ignore the video’s throwing up of endlessly recursive beaches that Hogan and her army of bikinied clones are awkwardly lounging on, and you have a nearly unobjectionable ballad on which the voice of Hulk Hogan’s daughter has been engineered to resemble a Janet Jackson-like coo. I’ll even go a step further and say that it’s better than anything on Janet’s last record–sure, it’s not the highest bar, but you can’t say it isn’t a step up from assless-washed jeans. [YouTube; HT (?) Jess]
I know that I’m far outside of their target demo–as evidenced by the title of their forthcoming album I’m Not A Fan… But The Kids Like It!–but I can’t help but be a little more than disappointed by the new single by the hilariously awfulsome crunk-core outfit Brokencyde. “Booty Call” is maybe the ultimate letdown, since it reveals the band as the second coming of Linkin Park, only with a dude making screamo noises instead of rapping and dimestore synths swapped in for awkward DJ scratches. I mean, slightly misogynist songs with lyrics about dropping panties to the floor and asses being stuffed with “chocolate milk” should not sound like they’re meant to soundtrack some kid staring at a ceiling while wishing that it would be set afire by the sheer power of hatred for his suburban upbringing! [MySpace; HT Chris S.]
Smooth synth outfit MGMT have finally premiered their video for “Kids,” which was initially released in 2005 and was the source of a nice chunk of change thanks to its unauthorized use by French president Nicolas Sarkozy. The clip follows the adventures of a bawling baby who sees monsters everywhere he looks, while his mother (played by Joanna Newsom) hauls him around like a particularly unwieldy handbag–even going so far as to dump him off at one point, which leads to him being placated by the band’s aluminum-foil-plated members long enough to be outfitted with a piece of their merch. Synergy! Clip after the jump.
The animation at the end is very reminiscent of “The Origin Of Love,” although the band’s official statement on the clip is unsurprisingly oblique about it:
Ladies and Gentlemens -
*†ƒ√ MGMT is pleased to announce (finally), from an undisclosed tropical paradise, the bona fide release of the O-fficial video for the authoritative song known succinctly as: “Kids.” This is the first song we ever wrote, on a cold day in February way back in 2003. Yes, “Kids” is an Aquarius, but shows many traits of an Aries. The idea for the video was born about a year ago, at a mock-Italian cafe on Ninth Avenue in bustling Manhattan. We are both animated and stoked to reveal at this time that we once again worked with director Ray Tintori, someone who’s known this song since it’s inception. “Kids” has proven to be some kind of monster with a life of its own, both an albatross and a plate of mac and cheese with fake bacon (Annie’s), and the process of creating this video was nearly as convoluted and veiny as the general style of this here letter of introduction. As Jerry Garcia once rudely remarked about the eventual and unavoidable filling in (with sand) of the historic United States Grand Canyon, “What a long strange rip it’s been.” Without further ado, we give you:
“KIDS”
- MGMT
* Thanks to Thesaurus.com for words of alikeness and interchangeability.
† yes, we are aware that Mark Twain was a satirist
ƒ yes, that is Joanna Newsom
√ no children were harmed in the making of this video
The final version of Kanye West’s video for “Paranoid” is out, as evidenced by the protective MC posting the clip to his blog. Rihanna is still done up in a duct-tape garter in the clip, although the crazy dream she’s having is a bit more fleshed-out in this version. Much of the dancing in the video that leaked last week has been swapped out for lyrics shooting down a darkened ravine’s twisty roads and Kanye-as-werewolf allusions; the mix also sounds more robust, and may just very well put the track in the pole position of the ever-ensuing Summer Jam Contest that music obsessives like to hold until about mid-July or so. [Vimeo via kanYe West: Blog]
He’s a bit iffy on the lipsyncing, and his heel-aided flailing around does remind one of, as my friend put it, “that ‘Wayne’s World’ sketch where Wayne makes out with Madonna and Garth is the guy in the leotard with the package,” but Joe “The Hot One” Jonas certainly fits his form-fitting bodysuit well in the video where he dances to Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It).” (Hey, promoting a new album is work these days, everybody.) The clip that will no doubt launch a thousand pieces of fan fiction after the jump.
Unlike some people, Chris Daughtry has a laid-back attitude when it comes to the video for his comeback single “No Surprise” leaking before its scheduled premiere on VH1 tomorrow: “So apparently…No Surprise video leaked out on YouTube. Oh the joys of the Internet…oh well, enjoy:),” he said-slash-emoticoned on his Twitter an hour ago. Of course, one might argue that the difference between West’s reaction and Daughtry’s is based at least a bit in the difference between a Roy Lichtenstein original and a black-velvet painting of Nickelback, but it’s nice to see that the latter’s blasé attitude has at least resulted in a relatively rapid response from his label, who’ll be breaking the VH1 embargo “shortly,” apparently. [MJ]
Mica Levi’s musical alter ego Micachu has produced one of my favorite albums of the year, Jewellery, and “Golden Phone” exemplifies why: On the surface, it’s a slightly off-kilter pop song, but dive a little deeper and you’ll pick out small details–warped synthesizers, hand claps, rudimentary attempts at beatboxing. The video’s a pretty lo-fi affair as well, with Micachu and her two bandmates in the Shapes playing with the notion of “professionalism” and having an even more fast-and-loose attitude toward the notion of coordinated dance moves. [Pitchfork via MBV]
The video for Bat For Lashes’ disco-ish “Pearl’s Dream” is a charmingly ramshackle affair, with Natasha Khan recreating the alternate solar system she normally inhabits on the stage of a small auditorium. She’s confronted by a blonde, shoulder-feather-free version of herself sitting in the audience, but manages to prevail over her less plumaged persona thanks to a very irritable wolf–and a pyro budget that was just big enough. [MySpace via ONTD]
