19 April 2017

19 April 2017 - Kiesza - Hideaway

Visually, I am a fan of one-take videos, and this is one of them.  It's more impressive that Kiesza is doing all this dancing and moving and the manhandling she gets at 3:40... with a very recently broken rib. When she's hailing that cab at the end of the video, she is GENUINELY exhausted.

But this isn't strictly a video blog.  It's a blog about musical pleasure, and this song delivers.  It's a bright, emotional throwback to a sound not heard in 20 years - something not entirely out of place in a dance club in 1993.  A tribute to a simpler time, it doesn't have a letdown throughout.  Enjoy this treasure, because music like this isn't common anymore.

 

14 April 2017

14 April 2017 - Lone Justice - Ways To Be Wicked

This song popped up on a Spotify playlist of mine, and it had been a long, long time since I had heard it.

16 March 2017

16 March 2017 - Lush - De-Luxe

I wasn't sure how to handle this song.  It's damn near one of my favorite songs of all time.

So I thought I'd handle it in chronological order.

Lush released an EP called Mad Love in early 1990.  It was never released in the US, although this song was released to US radio, and its UK video was released and shown on MTV.  Note that it is a very low-fi affair, and that's just charming.



Fast forward to late 1990, which is the difference between high school Tony and college Tony.  4AD Records got smart, compiled all those British EPs by Lush into a full album, and released them to the US and Japan.  Called Gala, it wasn't a huge hit, but was well-received.

And with it came a re-release of De-Luxe and a much higher fidelity video.  Because, let's face it, you get a much better look at Miki Berenyi in this video, and US labels sell the pretty girl a lot more.  Still, it's a visually interesting video.


03 March 2017

3 March 2017 - Lorde - Green Light

Finally!



Lorde releases a new song!



Sorry.  I get a little excited about things like this.  I've literally been waiting for four years! But with such a thoughtful artist, who has also been hanging out with Taylor Swift (which, to be honest, shows in this video), doing music for the Hunger Games movies, and collaborating with many artists, it stands to reason that we'd be waiting.



And it's a thoughtful, emotional song - perhaps the most complex one of hers to date - co-written by her and Jack Antonoff (of fun.).  I'm not going to put any more glowing words around this.  Just listen and enjoy it.


23 December 2016

23 December 2016 - The Chainsmokers ft. ROZES - Roses

2016 was The Chainsmokers' year.  This was the first big hit of 2016 for this DJ duo.  It only seemed fitting that we'd feature them for our last post before Christmas.

Written by Elizabeth Roze Mencel, she also provided vocals to the song.  Yes, ROZES is actually a person.  She's also a pretty solid songwriter, and the pride of Mongomeryville, PA. Enjoy!

21 December 2016

21 December 2016 - The Amps - Pacer

This was supposed to be The Breeders.

But Kim Deal decided to do things a little differently.  She put The Breeders on hiatus for a year - mostly because her sister Kelley was in rehab and Jo Wiggs was off doing other things - and called herself Tammy Ampersand.

And made a brilliant album.

And then got tired of waiting and reformed the Breeders without her mates... or rather, renamed the Amps to the Breeders.

But we still have that one Amps album. 

07 December 2016

7 December 2016 - Liz Phair - Stratford-on-Guy & Stratford-on-Guy (Girlysound)

I've been on a bit of a Liz Phair binge lately.  But when I binge, I BINGE.  I listen to everything, end to end. Every live performance, every pretentious interview.  And there are a LOT of them.