RIP Alex Chilton

I'd never explicitly heard of the Box Tops, but this song has been wending its way through my brain for the last couple of days:



I think as a rock n' roll pop song it's kind of perfect: 2 minutes. Catchy melody. Straightforward lyrics about some girl. Badass vocals.

Well, anyway. I think a bonus is that everyone looks pretty damn cool in the above video. GO 60s

Femme fatale

I think one of my favorite things about this Age of the Internets that we live in--and YouTube in particular--are all the covers of songs by amateurs sitting around in their living room. Even songs I've listened to a million times seem to come out fresh and new. I could watch 'em all day.

Anyway, here's Femme Fatale, sung by a beeyootiful lady:

The Beatles are the universal solvent of mashups

This one has Wu-Tang--very nice.

EDIT: Via my friend Laura.

Worst cover ever

Via Sullivan.

And while we're at it, why not an ad hoc appreciation for Bill Withers?

John Lennon, sonofabitch

Stumbled across this snippet of the John Lennon interviews, which must have been in like 1970 or so when he and Paul were at the height of their schoolyard taunting phase. It's pretty great.

Leslie Gore

I Twittered about this the other day, but it's worth saying a few things about:

I love everything about this video. Gore, looking very staid and pre-sexual revolution, steps up unusually close to the camera, which looks like it has Vasoline smothered all over it (maybe an inept attempt to create a soft focus effect). Usually with these old videos of a live musical performance on TV, the camera shoots things pretty wide and the singer stands there awkwardly in the middle of the stage (probably under strict instructions not to stray from his or her mark) splitting time between singing to the audience and singing to the camera. But this footage comes off as strangely low-fi, amaturish, and so therefore realistic. Gore basically ignores the camera and sings to the audience, even craning her neck way up to connect with the screaming girls in the nosebleed seats--breaking even more with the TV performance conventions and lending to the gritty feel of the footage (and also allowing us some wicked angles of her expressive face--lots of eyebrow action, lots of lopsided smiles...her facial expressions are doing a lot of work in this performance).

The song itself is great, too, sounding like something Nancy Sinatra would sing in a Tarantino movie--I like that the same person who is known for the inanity of "sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows" also belted out "don't tell me what to do / and don't tell me what to say / and please when i go out with you / don't put me on display". The contrast is awesome.

Also, performance-wise, she kills this thing. I like the way she builds in intensity all the way through, and the way she alternates between moody/sultry and I'm-not-taking-this-to-seriously playfulness. I even approve of the minor-y refrain that the song ends on.

Well, anyway. I guess one more thing I will add is that, of all social movements, feminism has to have one of the worst image problems--I mean, when someone mentions "badass feminist" or "cool feminist", it's difficult to say if an iconic image comes to mind besides maybe Rosie the Riveter. But I think feminism really does have a cool aesthetic when it's taking place just before all the actual progress got made in the 60s, when it was 50s housewives in perfect hairdos chain smoking and calling bullshit on society, or, as in this case, some teeny-bopper coming out of left field with a rage-filled anthem for freedom and equality, thinly disguised as a diatribe against an overbearing steady.

Getting old

A must-read post from Kottke. Actually it reminds me of a realization that Chris D'Anna and I once had, which is that when we are elderly and passing time in some old folk's home many years from now, the "old man" activities will include playing lots of video games. So, picture 80 year old me playing Mega Man II (and perhaps operating under the dimensia-induced delusion that I am at Raja's house circa 1990). Weird.

By the way everyone: let's all kick it at the same old folks home when we get old! That way we can all play video games with each other.

EDIT: Raja didn't have Nintendo, come to think back on it. So maybe amend "Mega Man II" to "NHLPA 94", and "circa 1990" to "circa 1994".

The modern Republican platform

Pet Sounds, a capella

Apparently someone got a hold of the masters for Pet Sounds, and put a bunch of the vocal tracks on the YouTubes, e.g.:



God Only Knows is worth a listen, too.