Mothra likes a moving picture

This week I rediscovered music videos. Up until this past Wednesday, I though new bands releasing new videos was pretty much a dead art form. I've lived without cable television for about ten years and the likes of MTV and VH1 gave up on their mission statement years ago anyway. I'd also given up on the internet as a source for watching bands' music videos since searching around their myspace pages always annoyed me and felt like a waste of time.
But Wednesday night I was reading a review of the new Al Green album on Pitchfork and noticed a sidebar ad for Pitchfork.tv. I clicked away from the review to find a whole bunch of music videos by bands I generally find interesting. Now, please don't think I'm a shill for Pitchfork or one of those bloggers who gets cash for plugging shit. I just get excited some times when I discover new things, like the time I discovered volume control buttons on the side of my cell phone; ask anybody - I couldn't stop talking about them. Anyway, since my ignorance of music videos lasted roughly a decade, there have been some pretty cool things happening it seems. My favorites are animated videos. Check out this Justice video that totally floors me everytime I watch it. See if you can spot all the corporate logos referenced.


Architecture in Helsinki's video is an embroidery breakthrough:


Also check out a new Hot Chip video. Those boys can dance!


Do yourself a favor and also check out Gamera's post from a while back with Vampire Weekend's A-Punk vid.

The Peacock Shows the Way

I love love love pop radio. Or at least the idea of pop radio. I was raised on mix stations before I discovered the glories of WHFS (R.I.P.) and always liked the way the sets vacillated between saccharine slow jams, mild rock songs and bumpin fresh beats. It's probably the cause of my voracious appetite for all genres of music and the occasional lack of quality control when it comes to MOR pop and other hits meant for kids 18 years my junior.

These days I don't listen to as much Top 40 radio as I did in my middle school days and without access to MTV or Hot Topic or other bastions of teen and tween culture, I am at sea without a Justin Timberlake-endorsed life jacket. I really do miss having my finger on the pulse of today's youth so I try to at least have some idea of what's out there but reading the top 20 charts always proves to me how out of it I am. Of the top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 right now, I know 6 of the artists but that's only because there are dinosaurs like Madonna, Frank Sinatra and inexplicably, Neil Diamond on there. Looking further down the list, I drift further away from my comfort zone, stuck in a crowd of unfamiliar faces. Who the hell are the Flobots? Seriously are we out of band names?

Occasionally, a band and/or track will be so hot that I can't avoid it and I once again fall in love with a slick radio gem. Oftentimes, I have Saturday Night Live to credit with the assist. They book musical guests that I rarely pursue in my own life but I give the benefit of the doubt when awake at 12:30 am. In the past I've had my mind completely blown by performances by Kelly Clarkson and Avril Lavigne whose angst-filled rendition of slow burn "I'm With You" changed my opinion of her before the first chorus.

Kelly Clarkson - "Since U Been Gone"
Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone (Saturday Night Live 12 February 2005) -

Avril Lavigne - "I'm With You/Complicated"


I also renewed my interest in Radiohead when I saw Johnny Greenwood twiddling knobs and pulling plugs during "Idioteque," a song so strange & beautiful it nearly gave me heart palpitations.

Radiohead - "Idioteque"


Recently I've fallen in love with Gnarls Barkley after witnessing their breakneck attack on the single "Run." It was like a punk rock soul song performed by a Pentecostal Southern Baptist preacher. Most times, even the sucky bands put on a good performance so I try to catch the show each week and while there have been some interesting choices this year, nothing has hit me as hard as Usher's recent run through of his smash "Love in This Club." I had just read about the song that same day in Entertainment Weekly (my source) and was intrigued by the sound of it, mostly because it's a song about getting busy in a club and not caring who is watching. It's like the unofficial theme song for Swinger Nation. The song did not disappoint, it's a modern soul masterpiece and well deserved it's top spot on the singles chart, plus the dancing was insanely choreographed and included a pop and lock drum breakdown which seemed to defy physics. NBC seems to scour online video posting sites, especially YouTube, to remove all videos of SNL performances but they don't post them on their site either so it's very hard to rewatch your favorites and it's incredibly frustrating. Thankfully, other sites have stepped up to fill the gaps. Enjoy these videos while you can before NBC's brain police find and eliminate them.

Usher - "Love in This Club"
[LIVE] Love In This Club Feat. Young Jeezy / Usher -On SNL- -

Rat-a-tat-tat

As far as instrumental bands go, Ratatat is one of my favorites. Mothra's too, I suspect. What's not to like? Crunchy guitar riffs, awesome programmed beats and heavenly synth lines form a holy union to rock your pants right off.

Their first album kicked off with the absolutely perfect "Seventeen Years" and didn't let up from there. The first time I heard that song switch from electro-funk to a soft bed of ethereal genius halfway through, I was hooked. My son also fell hard for them and this cd is probably high on the most listened to albums in our house. 5 years later, the pleasures still haven't dulled.

For their second album Classics the duo stuck to the formula and produced another magical masterpiece. As they themselves said, highlighting the nearly Xerox-like qualities of the new batch of songs, Classics sounds like the first lp played backwards. Good enough for me. Plus there's a bad ass wildcat on the cover. Rowr!

LP3 is due out in July and they just posted the first video on YouTube. The song seems more electronic based than the earlier guitar heavy tunes but it's still got those slinky, intertwining lines and booty rockin beats. This one's for all the Predator fans out there, you know who you are.

Our Version of Good Times

In honor of the great sitcoms, we offer you a night of spinoffs and side projects.

The Gothic Archies - City of the Damned

The Rentals - Waiting
John Linnell - Michigan

Matthew Friedburger - Wisconsin River Blues
Thurston Moore - Silver > Blue
Loose Fur - Apostolic

Sentridoh - Cause For Celebration
Latin Playboys - Chinese Surprize
Golden Smog - Jennifer Save Me

The New Year - Alter Ego
Crooked Fingers - You Can Never Leave
Tortoise and Bonnie Prince Billy - Thunder Road

The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldier
Desaparecidos - The Happiest Place on Earth
Foo Fighters - Big Me

Temple Of The Dog - Hunger Strike
The New Pornographers - Star Bodies
Ugly Casanova - Barnacles

The Breeders - Oh!
A Silver Mt Zion - The Triumph of Our Tired Eyes

Stars - Reunion
Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew - Backed Out Of The Cause
The Halo Benders - On A Tip

Tobin Sprout - Whose Adolescence
Carl & the Passions - Marcella
The Postal Service - Sleeping In

Barry Black - Tropical Fish Revival

The Mix Tape is Still King

When I was in high school, I was in a band called Mitten that prided itself on two things: our unrelenting amateurism and the commitment to play anywhere we were invited, no matter how silly or lame. This led to us playing at a library to senior citizens, on the Mall in DC on a plank of wood for an Amnesty International event, at the summer camp where I was a counselor for 8-12 year olds and in an empty coffee shop on the Jersey Shore.

One time my brother, who was also a guitarist in the band, was having a house party in his college home 'The Planetarium' and invited his own band to play at the affair. The rest of us lived over 2 hours away but jumped at the chance to play another gig, packed up our gear and were on our way. The show was an intense mess. We were crammed into a tiny space in a tiny basement competing with the understandably inattentive crowd. At one point, the sound proof wall fell down on the drummer's head midsong and had to be held up by the head of the bass player's instrument. It must have looked pretty pitiful. At one point, one of the guests came downstairs and said to his friend, "What is up with this Post-Polvo Snooze Fest." It was surely the best one sentence assessment of a band since the infamous "shit sandwich" review. It was also the perfect name for a fanzine.

The following summer, 3/4 of the band and Listmaker worked diligently to put together our first fanzine. It was made the old fashioned way with glue sticks, tape and the help of a friend at Kinko's who promised to look the other way as we used their services at no charge. Post Polvo Snooze Fest was dedicated the art of the mixtape and we were so proud of it. Looking back on it now I can see that it was insanely low budget and slapped together but it's still chock full of good advice. Years later we made Volume 2 but this one was all digital - no more paper cuts. They're the perfect way to waste time on this slow spring day so check them out and relive the old days before iPods and MP3s, when cassettes still ruled the world. Or at least my world.

Crayola Missed the Boat

So Polvo week kind of fizzled and died. My brother is a very busy boy and so the emails dried up but don't fear, more Polvo missives will come in time. For all those waiting desperately to hear our thoughts on Cor-Crane Secret, you'll just have to wait a little bit longer.

Even though we don't have news of the recent Polvo reformation show we can still party like it's 1994 - the year indie rock and ringer tees ruled the land. It was also the year of the greatest color to ever descend on the music world. That color is Indie Rock Orange. I don't know if this is a color we invented due to the overabundance of bright orange band t shirts sold by drummers after shows or if it was a nationally recognized occurrence but it was the shade of choice for New Balance wearing indie kids who could be found at tiny clubs dotting the Northeast doing the dance that the Dismemberment Plan so aptly called "The Standing Still." It was a time when bands listed the members by first name only in the album credits and sloppy artwork and amateur musicianship were the norm.

I searched Google and Wikipedia and all over the internet but couldn't find any mention of Indie Rock Orange so it must have been a term common only to my circle of friends but it lives on to this day. I also couldn't find any images of old Polvo T shirts so check out the shirt on the left here and imagine that the P stand for Polvo.

Alfabet City

A to Z fun!

American Analog Set - First of Four
The Breeders - Mad Lucas
The Constantines - Soon Enough

Dressy Bessy - Lookaround
The Exploding Hearts - Sleeping Aids & Razor Blades
Franz Ferdinand - Cheating On You

Guided By Voices - Mincer Ray
Hazel - Push to Close
Islands - Rough Gem

The Jayhawks - The Man Who Loved Life
The Kinks - Arthur
The Lucksmiths - Broken Bones

Mr. Bungle - Chemical Marriage
Nation of Ulysses - Last Train to Cool
Of Montreal - Du Og Meg

Prine, John - Far From Me
Q and Not U - Soft Pyramids
Roxy Music - If There is Something

Silver Jews - New Orleans
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - Noble Experiment
The Undertones - Teenage Kicks

The Vaselines - You Think You're a Man
Wreckless Eric - Wreckless Eric
XTC - Dear Madam Barnum

Yeasayer - 2080
The Zombies - The Way I Feel Inside