Muppets!

This seems to be making the rounds of the internet lately - and I must say that I love it.

Earworm: Heartbreak Beat

Cat woke me up too early. In process of clearing out my bedroom to make room for a new bigger bed.
Not sure why this is pounding in my head this morning as I sit around and sift through papers but this is it... Luckily it is a great song.

The video is classic 80s. Crank it up.

Sing me Spanish techno

The New Pornographers - great, playful videos (made all the better because of consistently great songs). I think they are criminally under-recognized. Also I think ginger lead AC Newman is hot (Gingery and songs! And a solid, nice shaped head. Come. On.). Thank you, Canada.




"Moves" - their latest; making it a movie trailer is a great idea, cause you can add exposition + allows for lots of cameos. This is charmingly cheesy. Adorable.






"Use It" - Charmingly creepy.






"Mutiny, I Promise You" - Not entirely sure what's going on in this one, but one of them slaps an owl. Plus, spoiler:  unicorn on bear violence (which redeems almost anything).






"Sing Me Spanish Techno" - to quote one of the YT comments: you'd think he'd make a prettier woman.

I'm a robot, I'm a robot, I don't have any feeling in my heart.

Every year I make a limited number of Weezer Day cards for my friends. Because they are a lot of work to make and I am lazy, I even make people sign up for them so that only the reallllly interested get one, LOL. This year I was suffering from lack of inspiration right up until the very last possible day to make them so that I could send them off in time for the auspicious day (2-14)... But I think it was worth it to wait until it finally struck. Hope everyone had a rockin' Weezer Day, and celebrated with appropriate aplomb! Here's what they turned out like - everyone's was a smidge different and has it's own flaws and etc cause they are hand painted (ink, marker and watercolor).

But long live hugs!

Here are a few songs from their most recent 2 albums, Hurley and Death to False Metal:


Memories - I am actually not a huge fan of the song. I think some of their newer stuff comes off as too contrived, and there's something annoying about his screaming. But not horrible. Just not a winner for me. Seems like it's made to be played for graduation montages or something.





Unbreak My Heart (cover, LOL) - I love whoever put the weezer version to the original vid.




I'm A Robot - I really like this song. So happy. A real video for this could be amazing (make it so, guys!)




Hope you do something exciting with your Presidents' Day! I am cleaning (and procrastinating).

Radiohead, of course

Since King of Limbs came out a day early:

"Lotus Flower"




I have not listened to the whole album yet, so I will not dare pontificate about it. I do like this song, but I don't love it yet. I don't know. I generally have doubts at first listen and then wait for an album to win me over. Based on this first song, IDK, it seems kinda more jazzy than usual. But beautiful in it's own way. I have great hopes for the album. I will have to listen to it for a few days and let it all sink in. That is in fact one of the things I love most about Radiohead, it's always very atmospheric. Like one could just be blissfully enveloped in it. I look forward to getting wrapped up in it.

As for the video? Well, hopefully by now you know my love for dorky dancing. I really rather like it. Not overdone, not distracting from the song - just some classic shaking about. The facial expressions alone are pure gold. It comes off as both spazzy and smooth, both personal and removed. I say thumbs up. Dance on.

(I also like that if you just saw Thom Yorke doing that on the street, you might not guess he is in one of the greatest and most influential bands ever... the voice of a generation or whatnot, LOL. You would just giggle.)

Let's Not Belong Together

Since I celebrate Weezer Day (commemorating their start on February 14, 1992), this should probably be a post dedicated to Weezer. But I don't really feel like doing that tonight, as that's not the mood I am in. I will save that maybe for later this week? Maybe you will even get a snap of the cards I handcraft every year for the occasion. (They turned out extra good this year.)

Instead today has been feeling a little more Paul Westerberg.

Whether you know him more from The Replacements, or his solo stuff (and as Grandpaboy), either way he is extremely talented. Focusing more on his solo work, I like that his lyrics tend to be very wistful - hopeful but sad, and more about love lost or never blossomed

I pride myself on being a realist (read: cynic) so I enjoy the mix of romantic songs with a heavy dose of good old fashioned loss (also why I enjoy country music, but not the newish country pop crap). But they still tend to come off with hope/the chance of better - all in all very sincere but not treacly. I appreciate that kind of acceptance of one's lot in life - "well, the night is for vampires and failures" (here is someone's random pic montage set to it) and and acceptance of the idea of perpetually not quite making love and/or life work  - "What kind of fool am I? // Who never fell in love? // It seems that I’m the only one that I’ve been thinking of".

Sadly most of these do not have music videos, so this post will be just link-heavy to YT where you can at least hear the song. Some performances too.


It's A Wonderful Lie - 



Between Love and Like -
"In between love and like
You and me are alike
You and me
In between love and like"




Eyes Like Sparks - 
"Stay where you are
Baby, stay away from me
With your eyes like sparks
And my heart like gasoline"


Even the songs he did for a kids movie are great - I Love You In The Fall: (Can we also talk about how people put up videos like this of a record playing? It cracks me up! I do prefer this to the idea of a random montage or just the still of the album cover, I guess. The thought of someone videotaping their record player is a kind of wonderful small joy.)

Dyslexic Heart - the only one I could find that has an actual video - mainly because it was from the classic movie Singles. LOL.

Love Untold - 

And possibly my favorite of his, and even one of my favorites of all time -
As Far as I Know - YT below of cover art or follow link to: a TV performance where he gets the words wrong




In closing, since some of us will have to ignore the trappings of V-day tomorrow - from Let's Not Belong:


"We don't belong to different worlds
There's nothing wrong with us whatsoever
Let's not belong together"




Happy Weezer and/or Valentine's Day (or other holiday of your choosing, hopefully involving the drinking of wine) to you all!

Butterfly

(Thanks to Miss Michael for the tip - I do read NPR Music fairly regularly, but I did not see this until she sent me the link.)


Confession: I do not usually listen to all that much strictly instrumental stuff (other than some classical), because I really like words. And off-the-top of my tired head I can't think of many (any?) music videos for pop-ish music. I actually really like the mix here - the song carries one through quite strongly, and there's a lot going on visually which helps keep my attention and my interest (without words I sometimes get bored; I know, it's a failing). 


I also like how the video starts in close, pulls back to reveal the myriad performances, and then closes back in - simple and free-form but still has an almost-story structure. Reallllly reallly like the whole thing. Fun, quirky, and different, but without crossing the line into twee or ridiculous trying-too-hard = total win. That is a delicate line; even though it has some elements that could otherwise be circusy, like a ventriloquist and all sorts of stuff which could veer off into creepycrazypants territory - it actually comes off rather sweetly earnest (but not overly so).

You can see the video and read the full post (a little more info on the artist and some quotes from the artist and the video's director) on the NPR Music All Songs Considered blog.

I craved, I ate hearts of sharks

February just started and yet I feel like it has been winter forever. Trying to hang on until March, but it's already feeling like a drag. Thus, today felt like a good Neko Case day... need a little dark country to warm up, keep off the chill.  I really love her voice, it's hard not to be drawn in by it. 

"People Got a Lotta Nerve" - A great song, and a fantastic use of animation, sweet and wistful and quirky without getting too twee. Kind of looks like the illustrations of a lovely storybook. Gorgeous.

"Maybe Sparrow" - Again with the use of animation, but this time mixed with some of her. Still a good video and a great song, but I think not quite as enthralling as the first one.