Finally, the Slaytanic overtones of Sesame Street are revealed....
Monday, April 26, 2010
WHEN BAD VIDEOS HAPPEN TO GOOD BANDS VOL. II
The first and most obvious video. Should have been renamed How To Kill Your Career In Five Minutes. I'm still not entirely sure if Billy ever officially came out of the closet. He seems to be in that ambiguously gay grey area (AKA Kevin Spacey's Basement) but whoa, man, was this ever an awkward sight for hetero rocker dudes in 1984.
Call me crazy, but I still think Freddie Mercury came off straighter than Billy Squier in that last video. Regardless, this video (and the song) is just abominable. The album MIRACLE is actually pretty good in spite of this audio hemhorroid. I swear to God this song reminds me of the Ghostbusters theme....
I tend to have a love-hate thing with Journey. Some days I think I want to find Steve Perry and kill him with my bare hands. But on other days I remember my girlfriend's funny anecdotes about him babysitting her in Hawaii and I let him live. But, at the risk of sounding like an old queen on the red carpet, what the fuck is the deal with a tuxedo jacket and blue jeans??? And if that's not funny enough, get a good look at Randy Jackson on bass and Cameo Afro. I need to get my samurai sword autographed by him some day....
Call me crazy, but I still think Freddie Mercury came off straighter than Billy Squier in that last video. Regardless, this video (and the song) is just abominable. The album MIRACLE is actually pretty good in spite of this audio hemhorroid. I swear to God this song reminds me of the Ghostbusters theme....
I tend to have a love-hate thing with Journey. Some days I think I want to find Steve Perry and kill him with my bare hands. But on other days I remember my girlfriend's funny anecdotes about him babysitting her in Hawaii and I let him live. But, at the risk of sounding like an old queen on the red carpet, what the fuck is the deal with a tuxedo jacket and blue jeans??? And if that's not funny enough, get a good look at Randy Jackson on bass and Cameo Afro. I need to get my samurai sword autographed by him some day....
Sunday, April 25, 2010
WHAT YEAR IS IT ANYWAY?
Confessions of a music geek: I'm a longtime fan of 70s progressive rock. It started with Rush. They were my gateway band. It moved along to Pink Floyd, Genesis and Yes, who at the time were the most musically insane band I had ever heard. Ten and twenty minutes of spiraling guitar parts, thunderous bass lines, bizarre percussion rhythms intertwining with lightning-fast keyboards that sounded impossible to reproduce with human hands; It had to have been sped up on tape, I used to tell myself.
Then, my better half turned me on to Emerson, Lake And Palmer, arguably the Mothership of over the top excess and pretentiousness in the Prog pantheon. I was not that familiar with their music outside of the radio hits like Lucky man and From The Beginning. From those songs alone, I never thought they were as outrageous as I was led to believe.
Boy, was I wrong.
Every ounce of crazy and pomposity I used to embrace with Yes and Rush, ELP had it in spades. This music was off the charts on the wacky-meter. I had never heard the kind of noises that Keith Emerson got out of his synthesizer before. I was floored by this tension in the musical interplay between these three guys who seemed determined to outdo each other for the sake of musical superiority, subtlety be damned.
Well, I got slightly re-energize my fascination with ELP last night when Emerson and Lake did "An Intimate Evening With.." at The Las Vegas Hilton showroom, in the same room where Elvis and Liberace once celebrated their excesses. Remarkably, in 2010, there is still an enthusiastic crowd for this lost aspect of rock history. To be fair, the audience was probably happy to be outside at all. I sensed that most of these people hadn't seen a live rock show since the Carter Administration.
In lieu of a fill-in drummer for absentee Carl Palmer (on the road with ASIA, whom I have also forgotten are still together), drum machine tracks were provided but should have been dumped altogether as they sometimes gave it a lounge feel it didn't need. But when Greg and Keith rolled out such gargantuan warships as "Tarkus" and "Rondo", that atmosphere of excess was back in full glory and I could not have been happier. The spectacle of hearing these insane keyboard parts at surprisingly high volumes in what is probably the most revered showroom in Vegas with about 500 out-of-place tourists who just wanted a comp show after dinner was even crazier than the music itself.
I am glad I got that little time travel out of my system. Of course, it should work out that my prog-rock nerd needs to be watered again this summer when Rush hit the road.
Then, my better half turned me on to Emerson, Lake And Palmer, arguably the Mothership of over the top excess and pretentiousness in the Prog pantheon. I was not that familiar with their music outside of the radio hits like Lucky man and From The Beginning. From those songs alone, I never thought they were as outrageous as I was led to believe.
Boy, was I wrong.
Every ounce of crazy and pomposity I used to embrace with Yes and Rush, ELP had it in spades. This music was off the charts on the wacky-meter. I had never heard the kind of noises that Keith Emerson got out of his synthesizer before. I was floored by this tension in the musical interplay between these three guys who seemed determined to outdo each other for the sake of musical superiority, subtlety be damned.
Well, I got slightly re-energize my fascination with ELP last night when Emerson and Lake did "An Intimate Evening With.." at The Las Vegas Hilton showroom, in the same room where Elvis and Liberace once celebrated their excesses. Remarkably, in 2010, there is still an enthusiastic crowd for this lost aspect of rock history. To be fair, the audience was probably happy to be outside at all. I sensed that most of these people hadn't seen a live rock show since the Carter Administration.
In lieu of a fill-in drummer for absentee Carl Palmer (on the road with ASIA, whom I have also forgotten are still together), drum machine tracks were provided but should have been dumped altogether as they sometimes gave it a lounge feel it didn't need. But when Greg and Keith rolled out such gargantuan warships as "Tarkus" and "Rondo", that atmosphere of excess was back in full glory and I could not have been happier. The spectacle of hearing these insane keyboard parts at surprisingly high volumes in what is probably the most revered showroom in Vegas with about 500 out-of-place tourists who just wanted a comp show after dinner was even crazier than the music itself.
I am glad I got that little time travel out of my system. Of course, it should work out that my prog-rock nerd needs to be watered again this summer when Rush hit the road.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
WHEN BAD VIDEOS HAPPEN TO GREAT BANDS
Nowadays, MTV is nothing more than a wasteland of soul-crushing reality television, but as recently as the late Nineties, it was by and large the most powerful tool of promotion the music industry had.
Back when there was a thriving music industry.
There were some truly great artists who benefited tremendously from the constant exposure on MTV. Prince, The Police, Peter Gabriel and Talking Heads are among many that made the video art form a thing of wonder in the 80s and 90s.
And then there is the sad case of great bands who just made bad video after bad video for years, some altering their image forever, some only through the late 90s when the art form evaporated altogether.
It kills me to put his together because I LOOOOOVE a lot of these people and even the songs included here..but the visuals??.. OY!!!
Ladies and Gentlemen, for your viewing displeasure, I begin with the hottest band in the world (except maybe for Great White in Rhode Island) KISS!!!
You wanted the best, you got this band instead....
Where to begin? The dishwashing gloves? The clothes? Gene's hair (or lack of it)? The hand gestures? The shower head? I could dissect the problems with this one like I was cutting open the shark in JAWS.....
The second entry is just painful to me beyond words. It's one of the best bands of all time performing one of the worst songs they have ever written for one of the worst movies ever made. This is actually the first of several really bad videos they got sucked into doing during the 80s. Don't say I didn't warn you.
The Ramones were one of the most intense live bands of all time. I really wish they just shot concert footage and aired that instead of mistakes like this one.
Oh God, this one just hurts all over. This Judas Priest video is also a horrible song (at least this version, anyway) used to coincide with another horrible movie. I wish I knew what coked-out Columbia executive gave this the green light. This piece of shit was a career low for Uma Thurman and Robert Downey Jr. but also a career peak for Anthony Michael Hall.
Well, I am sure I will find more to post but to be honest, after having to sift through the shit stink left from these, I'm gonna need a shower and a high colonic first.
Stay tuned. You've been warned.
Back when there was a thriving music industry.
There were some truly great artists who benefited tremendously from the constant exposure on MTV. Prince, The Police, Peter Gabriel and Talking Heads are among many that made the video art form a thing of wonder in the 80s and 90s.
And then there is the sad case of great bands who just made bad video after bad video for years, some altering their image forever, some only through the late 90s when the art form evaporated altogether.
It kills me to put his together because I LOOOOOVE a lot of these people and even the songs included here..but the visuals??.. OY!!!
Ladies and Gentlemen, for your viewing displeasure, I begin with the hottest band in the world (except maybe for Great White in Rhode Island) KISS!!!
You wanted the best, you got this band instead....
Where to begin? The dishwashing gloves? The clothes? Gene's hair (or lack of it)? The hand gestures? The shower head? I could dissect the problems with this one like I was cutting open the shark in JAWS.....
The second entry is just painful to me beyond words. It's one of the best bands of all time performing one of the worst songs they have ever written for one of the worst movies ever made. This is actually the first of several really bad videos they got sucked into doing during the 80s. Don't say I didn't warn you.
The Ramones were one of the most intense live bands of all time. I really wish they just shot concert footage and aired that instead of mistakes like this one.
Oh God, this one just hurts all over. This Judas Priest video is also a horrible song (at least this version, anyway) used to coincide with another horrible movie. I wish I knew what coked-out Columbia executive gave this the green light. This piece of shit was a career low for Uma Thurman and Robert Downey Jr. but also a career peak for Anthony Michael Hall.
Well, I am sure I will find more to post but to be honest, after having to sift through the shit stink left from these, I'm gonna need a shower and a high colonic first.
Stay tuned. You've been warned.
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