Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Videos - make them stop
I'm rather pleased that I've managed to wrangle tracks from two of the best young male singer songwriters around for the October Word CD. One's "Go To Hell" by David Ford. The other is "While You Were Sleeping" by Elvis Perkins (who, I obviously can't resist telling you, is the son of Anthony). Both these blokes have got genuine weight about them. I just looked them up on YouTube, which did make me wonder whether the promotional video is now actually the most moribund, pointless waste of money in the promotional armoury. Ford's video is just plain stupid, its plinking undergraduate literalness apt to put you off what is a terrific song. And who, apart from me, is going to show you it? Better to spend time watching Elvis Perkins on Letterman, where he has the simple stage sense to get the band to come on halfway through and looks as if he's connected to the material rather than standing behind it, making jokes at its expense. Still, two great songs.
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Here's a genuinely innovative video with a male singer-songwriter at the front of it (apologies to those of you who've already seen this on my blog, but it really is fantastic):
ReplyDeletehttp://juderogers.blogspot.com/2007/07/reganomics.html
Jude is on the money with that Fionn Regan video;
ReplyDeleteI'd add this one from Spoon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LenPKPqvdJA
generally speaking though, 'moribund and pointless' is too generous an assessment
The number of crass, derivative videos polluting the momories of otherwise great songs far exceeds the number of brilliant videos elevating otherwise dull songs. And I yearn for the day when my apparently music-obsessed son tries to sell me on his favourite bands' new songs by playing me the damned songs rather than urging me to see the "great" videos that accompany them. A pox on the music video and the employment it gives to talentless, tin-eared wannabe film-makers. Any chance you might actually be able to Make Them Stop? Thought not. Pah! (Nothing like a favourite rant to start the day, eh?).
ReplyDeleteShades of Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense concert, on the Perkins song, with the band members coming on one at a time - and no bad thing for that! Good song, too.
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