Category: YouTubery

Hot ‘n Nasty

It’s Wednesday, hump-day, and you are no doubt in need of something special to get you through those mid-week doldrums (perhaps brought on by a certain vaultmeister’s recent non answer). So, here’s Jim Dandy to the rescue, so to speak, with Black Oak Arkansas‘ “Hot ‘n Nasty” followed by “Lord Have Mercy On My Soul (Halls of Karma)”. I don’t think anyone can possibly view these two videos, the first especially, without realizing where Van Halen got much of its stage act.

Bat Chain Puller

Barry and I had a very interesting discussion the other day concerning why some Zappa fans also become big Captain Beefheart fans, while some do not. The crux of the biscuit, so to speak, comes down to Beefheart’s appeal, lyrically, since both Frank Zappa and Don Van Vliet are appealing musically. For example, I offer the following live version of Bat Chain Puller from the French Chorus TV show in 1980 (I suggest you turn it up loud, too):

Je Suis Dans Ta Vie! (Todeloo Doot)

We interrupt this program for a bit of nostalgia for the old European folk (preferably of the French persuasion).

Over the weekend Sharl and I watched Podium — wait, let me rephrase that. Over the weekend I gently persuaded Sharl to join me in watching Podium. Now before you get any weird ideas, Podium is a comedy about a Claude François imitator whose main character is played by Benoît Poelvoorde of Man Bites Dog fame.

Now who is this Claude François character, I hear you ask. Well, behold:

That’s CloClo performing the classic Alexandrie/Alexandra for you, somewhere back in the late 70s. Pretty shocking for those Young Sophisticates among you, I imagine. Yet I need only hear the beginning notes of that tune and BOOM — there I am: barely 10 years old, fresh out of the bath, hair neatly combed, gushing over those background dansers also known as Les Claudettes. Everything, needless to say, was much better in the seventies. Yes? (No? Discuss.)

Anyway, back on topic: imagine our surprise when during the end credits of Podium, this pops up:

To be fair, it was Sharl who spotted this. It was I who freeze-framed the screen and took the picture. But hey, see that? In their “thank you” list, they actually include Frank Zappa! One can’t but wonder why…

Moving on, here’s another tune that you may actually be familiar with:

Pfeh, a My Way cover, you shrug? Quite the opposite.

The Dresden Dolls — Post-War Trade

In a comment in a previous post I alluded to a new revolution in how new bands, their labels, and their fans are making music, selling said music, as well as interacting regarding individual merchandising. In this regard, The Dresden Dolls have developed a unique relationship with their fan base called Post-War Trade:

…so here it is, the age of over-inter-connectedness and the internet and it’s time to change the world. I want to create an internet exchange forum in which really talented artists and artisans can directly reach out fans instead of posting photos their wares to the internet to get feedback. this is awesome but i would really like to see these artists making MONEY and doing BUSINESS with our fans. so it was that after years and years of discussion, the concept of Post-War Trade was born.

my good friend and fellow artist Katie Kay has agreed to take on the job of trying to organize this conceptual nightmare into a daydream reality, but we obviously can’t do it without YOU. the main idea is to get as many artists and artisans as possible to submit their work, we will pick the stuff we think is amazing enough to be reproduced en masse, and the featured items will be sold on the net with the majority of the profit going back to the artist.

it’s the DEMOCRATIC FUTURE OF MERCHANDISING! how AWESOME!!!!

no artist is too professional or amateur to get involved. ANYTHING GOES.

The Dresden Dolls are an American musical duo from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 2001, consisting of Amanda Palmer (vocals, piano, harmonica, ukelele) and Brian Viglione (drums, percussion, guitar, vocals). They describe their style as “Brechtian punk cabaret”.

Does their 2004 video, “Coin-Operated Boy” from their self titled debut record remind anyone of a late 1970s FZ song?

Aphex Twin – Windowlicker

Aphex Twin (aka Richard David James) was born on August 18, 1971 in Limerick, Ireland and is an English electronic music artist. He has been described as “the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music.

While not to everyone’s taste, this particular video is both a hilarious and excellent example of Aphex Twin’s subversive and sardonic view of contemporary music culture (in plain English, rap videos).

Warning/Promise: the full uncut version of this video contains explicit language (lots of four letter words and words that people with a certain skin color are never suppose to use).