How’s this for a mash-up of past and present? Some soul has uploaded three whole hours of gen-u-ine MTV from 1983 for your enjoyment / amusement / boredom onto Google Video. This is from the days when MTV had actual presenters (or “VJs”), and showed actual music videos rather than The Hills 24/7. Kansas! Huey Lewis! Awkward links! Lousy commercials! It’s all right here.
Anyway, if you have an hour and a half to spare - and who doesn’t? - check out the first half below. You can see the second half here, if the novelty hasn’t worn off after ninety minutes.
There seem to be a lot of quality musical performances coming from the talkshows across the pond these days. A by-product of the writers’ strike, perhaps?
Well anyway, I couldn’t choose between these two, so I’m posting them both. Nash’s “Foundations” seems a lot warmer when she performs it live, as you can see on The Late Late Show over the page - the sass is softened by the heart when she’s sat there at her keyboard, I think. Her album has just gone Top 40 Stateside, which is no mean feat for an artist so heavy on Brit-slang.
Meanwhile NYC band MGMT made their debut on Letterman last week in a fetching collection of capes. But don’t let that put you off - “Time To Pretend” is a laidback but uplifting psychedelic pop-rock number not a million miles from The Flaming Lips.
Watch both performances after the jump.
I’m a fan of the whole Judd Apatow axis of humour, and John C.Reilly is usually good value, so I’ve got high hopes for Walk Hard. I’ve read decidedly mixed reviews since it came out Stateside though, so I wonder if people are getting bored of frat pack-style japes - or is it just that music-based comedies have been done to death? Walk Hard seems to be some kind of spoof of Walk The Line, but I’m guessing most folk aren’t going to be overly bothered about the plot of this particular piece… You can see the film nationwide from Friday. Check out the trailer below.
Posted by
Stuart Waterman on
Wednesday January 16th, 2008 at
9:30 am
I’m sure you’ll be very aware of the TV writers’ strike across the pond. I certainly am. It’s the reason I haven’t been able to “acquire” new episodes of The US Office since mid-frickin’ November. I MISS IT. Anyway, as TV Scoop have noted recently, the various late-night talk shows have been among the worst hit, depending as they do on funny writer folk to come up with, well, pretty much everything.
The result is that, returning to work in part to safeguard the non-writing jobs of their other staff, the presenters are needing to come up with a lot more of their own material than they’ve probably needed to since they last did stand-up.
BBC Four’s latest themed season, Pop Britannia, has been going great guns so far, with a mixture of decent docs and cheesy Britsploitation movies (like Espresso Bongo). Well, this week is going to be even better with a couple of ace documentaries of the mechanics of the pop song (see here) and the showing of the super rare and once controversial Beat Girl movie (complete with ace John Barry soundtrack). The (B) movie is on at 7:40pm on Friday 11th January on BBC4. [video: absolutnut] [Via ElectricRoulette]
Posted by
Stuart Waterman on
Monday January 7th, 2008 at
1:53 pm
So it looks like Sony/ATV, who hold the copyrights to the majority of Lennon & McCartney songs, are gradually allowing more and more “interpolations” of Beatles songs in other artists’ recordings and - gasp - advertising. This very thorough Reuters article cites Wu Tang Clan’s recent use of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and Luvs Diapers’ current ad campaign which declares (steel yourself), “All You Need Is Luvs”.
Unsurprisingly, Sony/ATV head Martin Bandier, who decides where the Beatles’ back catalogue can / can’t be used, isn’t averse to licensing (i.e. “cashing in on”) Beatles tracks to artists and ad agencies. Most of the useage so far has been in the States where, one would imagine, the bucks are much bigger than here in the Beatles’ homeland.
But, as they say, what happens over there happens over here eventually - plus, with record sales falling record companies are bound to look at an increasing number of alternative sources of revenue. Which means you can probably expect Beatles songs to feature more prominently in the Corrie ad break over the next few years
OK, so let’s think - what UK ad campaigns could benefit from a little Beatles boost? “Strawberry Fields Forever” - I’m seeing Nesquik, I’m seeing fields, I’m seeing fields made of Nesquik. Forever. “Twist and Shout” - I’d say the fact this song may be available begs someone to come up with “Extreme Twister”. “Come Together” - Would go nicely in a spot for those Durex vibrating rings and things, I reckon. “When I’m 64″ - Viagra, obviously. “Help!” - The Samaritans, obviously.
Click over for more…
Of course, since you’re such a hip young thing, you were out and about on New Year’s Eve drinking and partying and trying to fight off the creeping sense of anti-climax.
Which means you’ll have missed Jools Holland’s Hootenanny thing (because you can’t work the video / dvd / hard disc recorder either, remember?), where everyone gathers and pretends it’s NYE even though it’s recorded in July or something.
Anyway, here are the Kaiser Chiefs with some bushy-headed Irish Guards doing “The Angry Mob”. To be honest it’s not that amazing, and therefore fits in with the NYE vibe perfectly. Hurrah!
1994’s The Day Today was, and shall forever be, one of the greatest comedy series ever ever ever. Ever. It took the piss out of pretty much every aspect of TV news, and music didn’t escape.
The Fur Q sketch was only a minute and a half long, but anybody who sees it instantly feels the need to share it with their mates - so it’s fortunate that there are kindly souls around to nick it and put it on ver Tube.
From the Phil Collins sample (sounded ridiculous at the time - then this happened), to the none-more-macho lyrics (”Uzi like a metal dick in my hand, magazine like a big testicle gland”), to the music critic defending onstage murders as “ironic”, the segment nailed gangsta rap perfectly. This chap really was a naughty rapper.
This will brighten your day. Check it out after the click.
I suspect I may be the only person in Christendom who didn’t see any of the Electric Proms stuff on TV. I’m just soooo busy, yah? Anyway, if you’ve seen this video a billion times already, feel free to proceed to the next item. If you haven’t - it is very very good and you should watch it. If that wasn’t obvious enough already by the fact that I’ve posted it here. I am babbling. Enough.
When it comes to regular music shows on TV, we’re down to severely slim pickings at the moment. There are some great one-off documentaries and series - such as the Folk/Jazz Britannia strand on BBC Four, and Seven Ages Of Rock - but in terms of tuning in every single week to see live performances, there’s very little to choose from. Top Of The Pops was flagging for months if not years before it finally came off our screens, but nothing has really filled the gap.
Later… with Jools Holland has its good weeks, but there seem to be more and more bad weeks these days, to be honest. Sound, on BBC Three, is probably the nearest thing we have to a proper music show - live performances from all sorts of genres, as well as interviews and footage from Jo Whiley’s Live Lounge - but it suffers from trying to be too ‘yoof’. If you just want to see amazing bands rocking out, then this new show, “Centre Stage: From The Basement”, on Sky Arts will be for you.
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There seem to be a lot of quality musical performances coming from the talkshows across the pond these days. A by-product of the writers’ strike, perhaps?
I’m sure you’ll be very aware of the TV writers’ strike across the pond. I certainly am. It’s the reason I haven’t been able to “acquire” new episodes of The US Office since mid-frickin’ November. I MISS IT. Anyway, 
1994’s The Day Today was, and shall forever be, one of the greatest comedy series ever ever ever. Ever. It took the piss out of pretty much every aspect of TV news, and music didn’t escape.
When it comes to regular 
