Just what a video needs

Back in 2000 a surprisingly enjoyable cheerleading movie came out.

Bring It On: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0204946/combined

In one scene, the main character's mood is lifted after a bad day by a tape that a guy way better than her boyfriend made. She rocks out to the song, and uses that energy to rally her team and get her self-respect back.

The song was "Just What I Need", also often referred to as "Cliff's Song" by Rufus King. It took a long time to be able to find out anything about Rufus King.

Some of that is disambiguation. There was a Rufus King person, and a high school, and then the band. Also, now that the band has a Wikipedia entry, it says they broke up in 2000, about the time that the movie came out. The song engendered a lot of loyalty, but it was hard to find where to put that loyalty, so people made fan videos.

I have seen videos for "Just What I Need" using crude computer animation, cheerleading slideshows, and clips from Bring It On, but also using clips from High School Musical, "Stargate: Atlantis", and my personal favorite, this one from "Veronica Mars":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gMx77wyE9k

Since then, and it took a while, there has been some activity on the Rufus King front. They joined Facebook in 2009, their music is on Spotify and iTunes now, and in 2012 a video was uploaded for "Just What I Need". It should be great news, and it was really disappointing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9WfM4I3_fQ

I think there are three things that work against the video, so these can be things to keep in mind for new bands.

The first problem, and it may just be me here, is that the band members are kind of a turnoff. I know part of it is the giant bird flipped at the camera, and then the trading around beer bottles.

Those aren't things that I am going to love, but I may not be the target audience. I can think of musicians who give the finger a lot, but some of them do it with big grins, and it feels different. Some of them may want to come off as crude and hostile, and if that is the best representation of who you are as a band, that's a reasonable thing to do, but is that the best representation.

The attitude might not matter as much, but the video overall is kind of flat and boring. It shouldn't be. There is performing, surfing, and a girlfriend, so that should feel more fun, but it doesn't. This is probably a result of the filming not being focused enough. The standing around is awkward, and too obviously filling up time, which often appears uncomfortable for the band. More pre-planning and stronger direction could have helped.

Finally there is the technology issue. The fan videos were edited by fans, but for the most part were using professional footage of professional actors, so you would expect there to be a contrast. That being said, there is still some great editing. Also, the sound quality on the band's video is not as good as the sound quality on the fan videos.

If the band footage is from 2000, there have been huge leaps in technology since then. It wouldn't resolve the direction issue, but that goes back to how you present yourself. Those are two separate areas, but they feed into each other and they both have a huge impact on the final video. So, the next two posts will be one about technology, and one about presentation.

Band Review: Before Cars

I added Before Cars to my list of possible bands to review a few weeks ago, reading about Rock and Roll Hall of Fame things. What really cemented the idea has been some of my recent reading and listening where I am starting to appreciate how a local music scene can grow, and influence and be influenced by its bands, and I am very interested in the Northwest regarding that. So, when I ended up not being able to cover one musician I was planning on, it just felt right to listen to them, and I'm glad I did.

Based in Washington, Before Cars consists of Chad Canning, Paul Burback, Andy Miller, and Justine Jeanotte, with Canning composing, singing, and on strings.

They much lower key than you might expect, unless you consider that Jeanotte is listed as both keyboards and violins. There are strong rock undertones in "Listen To Me" and a fairly lively track in "Everything I Do", but the album overall has a quiet feel. "Trip to Mars" borders on anemic, though it conveys the right mood.

Normally what you notice is that the songs are extraordinarily beautiful, and I think a lot of that is the willingness to be quiet, and introspective, and maybe also the regular presence of a violinist, instead of just bringing one in periodically.

"Words" starts out like the scent of a dream carried back on a breeze, so it changes the way you listen to the song. "Green to Brown" also starts as if it could be a completely instrumental, but then there are words. It's an interesting feeling. It's not exactly folk, but there could be some influences from the '60s. Vocally they remind me somewhat of The Byrds, though I think the similarities stop there.

It also occurs to me that this review may sound similar to yesterday's review of The Slow Readers Club. There are similarities between the bands. For what it's worth, I would describe The Slow Readers Club as more eerie, and Before Cars as more ethereal. If that sounds like hair-splitting, talking about music can get like that.

Music for Before Cars is available via iTunes and the band's web site.

http://beforecars.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Before-Cars/108320485542?fref=ts

https://twitter.com/BeforeCars

Band Review: The Slow Readers Club

The Slow Readers Club is an unsigned four-man band from Manchester.

While I was watching their music videos, I was struck by how with the backgrounds and the lighting and the other footage that there was a sense of isolation. This was more with "Block Out The Sun" and "Sirens", but even with some really cute aspects in how the video for "Feet on Fire" is executed (it is must-see), there still remains this feeling of modern alienation.

There is an angst to the music that this serves well. In the band's own description, they say their "output ranges from insanely catchy upbeat indie to angry, introspective downbeat ballads." I guess it was the angry introspective ones that jumped out on me.

The other thought that struck me was "minimalist". I'm not sure that is accurate. There are some gorgeous uses of orchestra on "Frozen", and it is not really a stripped down sound in general, but still, it feels like excesses have been taken away. Maybe it is the loss of illusion.

That being said, the music is beautiful, even if it may rend your heart. This includes strong performances on "Block Out The Sun" which shows the skill of the band. Vocals are good, instruments are good, and everything works together in balance. These are pros here.

Their self-titled debut album is available through iTunes and Amazon.

http://www.theslowreadersclub.co.uk/main-page.html

https://www.facebook.com/theslowreadersclub

https://www.youtube.com/user/theslowreadersclub

https://twitter.com/slowreadersclub

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-slow-readers-club/id470944667

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Slow-Readers-Club-Explicit/dp/B00606M7RW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333966132&sr=8-1

Fan-sourced videos

In the case of "The Kids From Yesterday", in the process of making their own compilation, the band found an existing compilation, and the collaboration was born that way. Sometimes this is the idea right from the start. So here are three bands I love, using different methods and getting different results.

Chantal Claret, "Real Girls":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJAT5a1b5I0

One option is to have different groups choreograph moves to your song, and blend footage of their numbers together.

Why it works: With deep sympathy for those who get criticized for being flat-chested or underweight, it is nonetheless even more constant for society to tell you that any padding at all is bad and ugly and gross despite (or possibly because) it being very common. Beauty becomes a very tight standard that no one feels like they can fit.

So there is something very empowering about watching these women, with different hair, races, and body types, some dressed more for comfort, some more dressed up, but all owning their bodies, freely being seductive, and simply being beautiful.

The photography is not great, which is not surprising under the circumstances, but is noticeable. Also, that's a lot of butt shots from the Ecdysiast Studio crew; it may be butt overkill. That being said, I think it conveys the message it wants to convey, and if you have ever been unsure how to dance to this song, this should resolve your issues.

Reggie and the Full Effect, "Revenge is a Dish Best Served at Park Chan-Wook's House":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anjg68QFkKg

James Dewees sent out a notification to fans asking for footage of themselves dancing to the song, or if not dancing, celebrating the song in whatever manner seems best.

(I got the original invitation but I can't find it. And, no, I did not submit anything because I wanted to enjoy watching the video and I'm still struggling with the issues pertaining to the first video.

Why it works: With the album No Country For Old Musicians having been funded via a Kickstarter campaign, it seems very appropriate to have this collaboration. Hey, you all got behind the record, now let's all get behind the video. And there is some amazing creativity and cuteness between the fan submissions.

I also need to say that the editing is amazing. Despite these being amateur videos, with some of them clearly from phones, it looks really good. I am impressed.

I do want to note, and this is the song, not the video, but this title never fully displays due to length, and at the concert even he could not correctly say the full title, so if you think of it as "Korean Revenge" that's pretty normal, but I think it's important to add the "Film".

Man On Earth, "All We Want":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcW3Lf0JDYw

Fans sent in videos of them expressing what they want. Usually it is a fairly simple shot of the fan with a short hand-written message, but some are more elaborate, and it is interspersed with footage of the band performing.

Why it works: I've watched this video a lot, and it still gets me teary-eyed. Their wants range from the mundane, to fairly common aspirations, to wishes that hint at deep hurts, and there are even a couple that seem a little bit creepy (power and Pamela Anderson, specifically), but there is an overarching humanity to it, and as you feel those tugs of connection to these people, who are really not that different from you, the video starts and ends with pictures of the earth, filled with points of light. It makes the video effective, and it goes well with the song and the band.

The other two work without the musicians being included, but I think for this video it was necessary, for connecting to the music as the musicians, and for establishing their identity. Those are probably some themes we are going to explore next week, but for now, previous band reviews:

Chantal Claret: http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/02/band-review-chantal-claret.html

Reggie and the Full Effect: http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2014/02/concert-review-reggie-and-full-effect.html

Man On Earth: http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/03/band-review-man-on-earth.html

One band, one album, three video concepts

If The All-American Rejects got a screenplay out of me, My Chemical Romance got the equivalent of three and a half screenplays that I still intend to draw someday, and those were specifically from a video:

http://ficwad.com/story/207019

The writing mainly came from "Sing", and my reaction to the ending, but "Sing" goes with "Na Na Na"; they are a pair.

Na Na Na: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egG7fiE89IU

Sing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTgnDLWeeaM

There were initially supposed to be three Killjoys videos, but despite hiring friends for the shoot, using the same costumes, and there being a lot of merchandising potential, they could not afford the third. There are nonetheless four videos from Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys.

First of all, we have that old standby, the performance video. That sounds like it could be a lame thing, but they did it better than that. While they had just been touring, getting great footage from a full concert hall can be difficult. Either the cameras are in the way, or things are too remote, or something can go wrong. You can set up a special performance in a smaller space, but then you can lose the energy of a concert.

The band got around that by inviting fans in London to a special show, and basically giving them a concert. There is incredible energy, and there is some creative editing too, but mainly it looks great and captures the feel of the song.

Planetary (GO!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvfNmXbVHi4

There is also a good article about it at http://indulge-sound.com/2011/03/01/review-my-chemical-romance-planetary-go-video-shoot/.

There is another option when you are trying to assemble a video at a low cost, and that is assembling clips. Where this gets really amazing is that they found a fan compilation from Emily Eisemann that they liked, and worked with her. For that story, visit http://www.mychemicalromance.com/blog/frank/kids-yesterday-music-video.

The Kids From Yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXiLHIYqb_Y

The song itself has a reflective, nostalgic, looking back feel, so clips covering them from their early days to now is very fitting, and then with it being their last video before breaking up, it is poignant and perfect.

There are a lot of ways to do videos right, and My Chemical Romance is a very reasonable band to study for that, but I like that they ended by collaborating with a fan. Tomorrow I want to focus more on where you can go with that.

Two videos, The All-American Rejects version

Before starting, I want to make it absolutely clear that I love the Rejects. They are one of my favorite bands, writing up their show was where the music reviews really started, and they've even inspired a screenplay.

I also really love the song "I Wanna". There was a time when it was on almost constant replay in my head, and there is somewhere a bad recording of me singing it at my birthday party. But I don't watch the video very much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwm7crkV124

I don't know why it's always phones with the product placement. You would think there would be all sorts of things that you could feature in a music video, but somehow it's always phones, and it is common for the placement to be egregious:

http://www.soundspike.com/story/3082/seven-cases-of-egregious-product-placement-in-music-videos/

In this case, I think they tried to get really clever with it. Okay, we need to show the phone, and that is lame, so we will be really over the top with it, and turn it into art. They do cool things, and somehow it is still not cool. Perhaps a better question is whether the video effectively sells LG phones.

Our contrast video is "Walk Over Me":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsz-XFO-skA

Basically, they filmed some very basic performance footage and then copied the film and the band hand-animated it.

I admit, I don't actually know that this was done as a cost saver. That was what I first thought, and I guess part of my thinking that is because it was the band doing the drawing, rather than professionals, but maybe they just wanted to try doing something cool. They did a good job.

The interview where I saw Tyson Ritter talking about this was with Clevver Music, and the other thing I remember him saying there is that he did two of the videos. I don't know that there wasn't some other director working with him, but he had at least some creative control. Maybe a big part of that is financial, but there can be good opportunities with it too. There can be chances to branch out, and experiment with new technologies, and to really find the heart in the bare bones.

Which reminds me, that this can really be about three videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_w6j3sDn5U

There was a time when many fans were asking when they were going to get the real "Heartbeat Slowing Down" video; why can't this be real? The tracking is really well done, it's personal, and I think it's pretty effective emotionally. What would spending more money prove?

Band Review: Holychild

I came to Holychild via Colleen Allison, whom I think of as a photographer, but actually I've seen her in quite a few music videos, and that includes three for Holychild.

Holychild is a brat pop duo from LA with a debut EP Mindspeak out now. The previously mentioned videos are for three of the four tracks, and consist of parts I, II, and III of what is essentially a short film.

I have not been able to find a good description of "brat pop", but after listening to the music and watching the videos, I think I've seen clips from other bands that would probably relate.

As far as "pop" goes, Holychild's tunes are definitely catchy. I'm not sure that they are up-tempo enough to be club-ready, but that's what remixes are for. They definitely work well for listening, driving, or hanging out. The "brat" side may go a little deeper.

In the video trilogy, it seems to be about several men and women attempting to pair off, but the way it is happening is that the women are performing, and competing, for the men. While it only sometimes breaks into open hostility between the women, it still looks soul-killing, degrading, and not at all fun.

The other track, "Playboy Girl" has a video that is separate, but may still relate as it again focuses on appearance and indulgence over a track that struggles with the expectations between a couple. It doesn't feel so much like gender wars as a frustration with the patterns that we fall into along gender lines.

(While it's not on the EP, the group has also recorded and made a video for a song called "Best Friends", which must have been a nice break with lighter subject matter.)

Holychild has upcoming shows on both coasts listed, including six with Fitz & The Tantrums. They will be in Portland at the Roseland on June 23rd.

http://www.holychildmusic.com/

https://www.facebook.com/holychildmusic

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL688ch0m8QOVtVhwrXs7iA

https://twitter.com/HOLYCHILD

Band Review: Fast Fox

I have only been able to listen to two songs for Fast Fox. Well, I guess it's actually two and a half. They have a lot more videos than that, as you can notice on their Youtube channel. Many of these videos are about "Drunky" or reference "puke".

This doesn't necessarily mean that they don't have more music. They have played gigs, which usually requires more of a repertoire, though a lot of it could be covers. Regardless, in terms of what they provide, the focus seems to be on getting drunk and barfing, possibly explaining their about statement on Facebook:

"Fast Fox: Humiliating our families since 2006"

I guess what I am getting at is that this band will not be for everyone. It seems like kind of a shame. The half song I referenced earlier was a musical clip called "Dreamscape" that was uploaded to Youtube two years ago. It is lovely, and indicates that they could do other things. Based on their upload from three months ago -- the music video for "Action" --- that's not the direction they're going.

I do hear some Blink-182 influence, a la "Feeling This" on "Action", and that's certainly a band that has gone to the immature side more than once.

https://www.facebook.com/FastFoxband

http://www.reverbnation.com/fastfox

https://www.youtube.com/user/FastFoxband

https://twitter.com/FastFoxband

When videos go wrong

Decades as we remember them tend not to coincide with the calendar. There are things that we think of as belonging to the '50s that are really the early '60s. 1980 was definitely more like 1979 than it was like 1985, but was 1980 more like 1975 than 1985 as well? I don't know; I'm only thinking of it because of Billy Squier.

There were three main things that I learned from Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum's I Want My MTV that I had never heard of before. One is that the playing of black artists started mainly because CBS forced the issue. I'm sorry it had to be that way, but I am glad for CBS's efforts. Another was that the reason that everyone referred to Michael Jackson as "the King of Pop" is that he made them. I was pretty disgusted by that. Also, Kurt Loder probably leaked it, so it should have been possible to know, but I didn't. Finally, somehow, I had never seen or heard about "Rock Me Tonight":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR0j7sModCI

I did despise Billy Squier, so I can't rule out that maybe there were times when I could have watched it and chose not to. I feel bad about that. First of all, many people who are quoted on the topic describe him as a really nice guy, so it was probably wrong of me to find him so repulsive. But also, somehow, I missed out on something legendary. Video Gaga called it one of the worst videos of all time. Wikipedia, in director Kenny Ortega's article, says "often cited as the worst music promo clip ever made". This is a bad video, and I missed it.

Watching it years later deadens the impact, but it's still pretty bad. As is my wont, I started performing an autopsy.

Yesterday we talked about not being overly literal in the message of the song, and I forgot to mention being overly literal to the lyrics. Here, as Squier sings "We go down in the shadows and crawl between", it is a little dimly lit, not necessarily shadowy, but yes, he does go down and crawl and it is hideously cheesy.

The other thing I noticed is that while everyone makes a big deal about the pink tank top, there is also aqua, and pastels, and art that isn't exactly Nagel, but reminds me of that style. I thought maybe they were trying to bring a guy from the '70s into the '80s, where he did not belong, but technically, Billy Squier is from the '80s. He was a professional musician in the '70s, but going solo and signing with Capitol happened in 1980. His big hits were in 1982. I just say those were actually still the '70s.

The song is moving toward the newer sound with more synthesizer, so updating the look of the video (with his previous videos being very concert performance-oriented) may have made sense, but not this way.

Squier's initial idea, according to the book, was to show him getting ready for a show, and the fans getting ready individually, culminating with everyone at the show. That works well with the message of "Rock Me Tonight". The song seems to be more about two people planning on having sex, but it doesn't contradict the general feeling, and if every song that was about that had a video about that, there would be a sad loss of creativity.

I don't know if that would have been a good video or not, but I know Squier prancing around a bedroom does not make a good video. It's kind of train-wrecky, but also boring.

Ortega choreographed Dirty Dancing, so I know he can do a good job, but it is really easy for just one person dancing for an extended period of time to be boring. The only similar video that I can think of that works is Janet Jackson's "Pleasure Principle, but she has a more interesting dance environment and also, she is a better dancer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-gu1KETjVY

Even the video for Michael Sembello's "Maniac" was inter-cut with other things. If you just watch that final scene in the movie, it's not as exciting. (Plus, she had a dance double, reminding us that not every actor or singer can do an amazing dance sequence.)

So it was a boring video, but it did not feel true to the musician, which was the real problem. In this case that meant people wondering if he was gay or on drugs. Oddly, both had a bigger stigma back then.

Ortega claims he tried to toughen it up, and it was Squier's fault, but I don't believe Squier came up with those moves on his own. If I recall, Squier said he expressed concerns and Ortega kept saying to trust him and that it would all look right at the end, which does sound like something directors say, but I think ultimately that they never really met up artistically on their vision for the song.

Having someone who has made other successful videos can be great, but it's no guarantee. Looking over Steve Barron's video credits, no matter how much I love "Take On Me", I see a lot of titles that I hate. For A-ha specifically, the video for "The Sun Always Shines On TV" worked pretty well, but after that they just kept getting weirder.

My favorite collaboration was between My Chemical Romance and Samuel Bayer. He was hired for "Welcome to the Black Parade" and did a video that fits the theme and echoes the album artwork and is kind of amazing, but he wanted to do one for "Famous Last Words", before they had even titled it. And he made it work budget-wise too, where they just burned the set from the previous video to create a new set.

Technically this is an example of video shoots going wrong too, kind of, with Bob Bryar getting burns that got infected, Gerard Way getting hospitalized with leg and foot injuries, and a canceled show based on doctors orders, but still, you do have a successful video that is an interesting companion for the other, and hey, art for art's sake. The point is the band found someone who spoke their language.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDWgsQhbaqU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bbTtPL1jRs

Music videos - not so literal

While the songs of the day were coming from the Women Rock play list, one of the songs I considered using was Pink's "Please Don't Leave Me". I decided against it because of the video.

I like the song -- which covers fairly normal dysfunctional relationship issues -- a lot. The video is a little garish for me, so I hesitated to put it out there, but I probably still would have if the video represented the song better. The relationship in the video is abnormally dysfunctional, and seems to have pulled a lot of its inspiration from the movie Misery.

It's not intended to be taken seriously, but on the off chance that someone new to Pink was going to click on it, I went "Who Knew", which is not only a softer introduction, but also fits the mood of the song better.

Please Don't Leave Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eocCPDxKq1o

Who Knew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJWIbIe0N90

Yesterday I wrote about how perfectly the video for "Della May" works for the song, but that does not mean that it is the only possible vision that could have worked. A good song has room for a lot of inspiration, and not taking the most obvious path can free you. There is an ache for a girl in "Take On Me", but nothing that automatically says that ache will pull the girl from out of a cafe and into a comic book.

I remember reading in the forum for "Dancing With The Stars" in its very first season. Someone was complaining because one couple had been criticized for trying to follow this story in their routine, and another couple was praised for the story behind theirs. The poster felt like it was a double standard, but even without looking at the two numbers it was so obvious what the judges meant.

Telling a story with a beginning, middle, and ending is one thing, and it is very common in books and movies and short fiction. With poetry and music the emotion is more important than a plot. If the song has a normal structure, with multiple verses separated by a chorus, it may be impossible for the images to fit the music and tell a strictly linear story. It doesn't mean that there's not a story, and having a story doesn't mean that you see all of it.

There's some freedom in realizing that. It can take you interesting places. Looking at My Chemical Romance, and the videos off of Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, each one works perfectly in its own way. "Helena" is the most literal, where setting it at a funeral totally makes sense. The song "I'm Not Okay" is feels like it's more about a specific romantic relationship than alienation at school, but it works so well for alienation at school. The video for "The Ghost of You" is the furthest from what you would think hearing the song, but it's poignant, and the sense of loss is there.

Helena: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCCyoocDxBA

I'm Not Okay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhZTNgAs4Fc

The Ghost of You: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCUpvTMis-Y

I'm going to be referring to My Chemical Romance a lot in this series, but I am also going to be referring more than you might expect to Reggie and the Full Effect. I learned a lot from watching this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGW1ceFeNfE

"Get Well Soon" is off of Songs Not To Get Married To, the album inspired by James Dewees' divorce. Divorce is a downer of a subject, and I hear a lot of raw pain just listening to the song.

In the video, though, it's the Loch Ness Monster. That may relieve some emotional pressure just by being unexpected, but it doesn't remove it. Nessie is devastated and losing it. The excessive drinking, the aimless stumbling around, and the tears are all things that people do, but that it would be very uncomfortable to watch a person do, and it would be very hard to get the acting right. Having it be something not human allows us to understand the extent of the suffering without bearing the full brunt, and having it be an iconic monster like Nessie means that when he loses the lake, that means something to us.

Pretty good for a puppet.

Two videos

I said I had been thinking about writing on music videos since June, and the reason I knew that was because it was related to the Fall Out Boy concert, but there were a couple of other things.

I reviewed Snow White's Poison Bite the week before Fall Out Boy, and Turrentine Jones the week after. Those two bands had videos that stuck in my mind as the opposite of each other, and there was so much going on with the Fall Out Boy videos, that all of those being on my mind so close together is a big part of why we are getting into this segment. I just had to write about a lot of other things first.

Meet Me in the Graveyard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulxrw6bBABM

Della May: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXdsDqBuqtM

When I first saw "Meet Me in the Graveyard" I thought it was a total mess with way too much going on. I think some of that was the initial jolt, because on subsequent viewings it doesn't seem as jarring.

There is still a lot going on, from a murder scene, the victim's trip to the graveyard, the band playing both with and without makeup, tiny animated skeletons, and cheerleaders. With all of that, it's kind of hard to focus.

One thing that I find interesting is that you do see the band both with and without makeup. Most bands seem to stick with one or the other. They may go through different phases, but within the phases they are consistent. If you had seen the band only without makeup before the arrival at the graveyard, and then only with the skull faces after, that would cover both, but with greater consistency and an apparent meaning.

Also, the murder victim's struggles inside the coffin seem to indicate that being taken to the graveyard is not desirable, but the song calls it "a better place", and then there are cheerleaders, so overall it just seems very scattered, and not of a firm mind. From what I have seen, their other videos are more focused, but I think the one that works best is "There's a New Creep on the Block", which is essentially a performance video.

On the other hand, "Della May" is the beautiful in its simplicity. Well, it is more beautiful from a cinematography level too. It does seem to be easier to make things look good in black and white, but in this case it is also very compatible with the lack of complication.

Starting with an overhead shot of a bright-eyed baby in a crib, we see a progression from little girl, to young woman, to adult. There is a gradual wearing down, seeing less enthusiasm, and less joy, but as the older woman returns to the playground, she remembers and rediscovers, and we go backwards closing out on the infant again.

The idea of a circle is reinforced through images like a mobile rotating above the crib, merry-go-rounds on the playground, and even a circular picture as we focus on the adult, and as adult and child both she partakes of the back and forth of the swings. It all work together, in my mind, to say that life does have its ups and downs but happiness comes from not forgetting the simple (there's that work again) pleasures. I could be misinterpreting, but it seems to work perfectly, both for and with the song.

There are reasons for not always having the video be so synchronized with the song, and reflecting the song can mean different things anyway - I know that, and will be writing more about that. Snow White's Poison Bite has a completely different feel from Turrentine Jones, so it would not even make sense for them to have a video like "Della May".

I still think this video is a little slice of perfection.

Band Review: We Are Forever

There are two previously reviewed bands that I have been thinking about while listening to We Are Forever. They remind me of Sunderland because I am very aware of their youthfulness. There is an plaintive earnestness that especially comes through in Aren Andersen's vocals.

At the same time, there is a kind of a punk feeling to their riffs, reminding me of Atlantic Aftermath. So, perhaps this is earnest, bright-eyed punk. Technically, though, they list themselves as pop/rock.

A good example of how the different elements work together can be found on "Half Awake", probably my favorite track off of 2013 release To Be Alive.

Some other tracks are more downbeat, like "Forget the Sun" or "Goodbye My Hero", making it seem like the band has grown more serious since making a wrestling video for "Take My Hand", off of Lights. Still, there's that intro on "Say My Name." They'll work out the right balance.

https://www.facebook.com/weareforeverband

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgcEzxfzVAF_RIOMMXeZvzQ

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/seasons/id530904541

http://weareforever.bigcartel.com/

https://twitter.com/WeAreForeverr

Band Review: Andrew Joslyn and Passenger String Quartet

I can't make this a typical review.

When Andrew Joslyn first followed me on Twitter, I wrote down Passenger String Quartet for the band to review, but with his name. (That's my normal procedure for when I am followed by a band member rather than by the band itself.)

The tricky thing is that so much of what is done, both by Andrew on his own and by the Passenger String Quartet, is supportive in nature, that characterization becomes pretty difficult.

Just searching for the music to listen to is its own trick. For example, on Spotify under artists there is Lerin Herzer and Andrew Joslyn together, and Passenger String Quartet. However, under Kris Orlowski you also find Joslyn and the Quartet in album titles.

Under Portfolio on his site, Joslyn does a good job of listing different projects, but there is so much to listen to, and so varied, that it defies normal review attempts.

So instead I will just provide some appreciation, and direct you to a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRd-JQCUr9c

I responded most to the collaborations with Kris Orlowski, perhaps because of previously being immersed in that music for a different review:

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/08/band-review-kris-orlowski.html

In this case, I think "Waltz of Petunia" is a really good example of how the supporting instruments add to the song. The song could have been recorded without, but would it be as charming?

I also think there is a good argument for why exposure to classical music is important, because it provides a foundation that enriches contemporary music. As instinctive as music can be, knowing more, and having more to work with, helps.

These musicians can make your song better.

http://www.andrewjoslynmusic.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Andrew-Joslyn/331046755544

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Passenger-String-Quartet/275954675780225

https://twitter.com/JoslynMusic/

https://twitter.com/PassengerString

Take On Me

"Take On Me" by A-ha, has been enjoying a bit of a resurgence lately. In 2012 it became a battle cry for the Washington Nationals baseball team, in 2013 it was sampled by Pitbull and Christina Aguilera for "Feel This Moment" (featured prominently in The Lego Movie trailer), and it was also featured in a Volkswagen commercial that also mimicked the video.

That has led to more various articles talking to the former band members. One with singer Morten Harket made me think, when he said what the video did was allow people to pay attention to the song. It was a good song, but people didn't latch on to it on one listen.

I thought of it differently then. I knew the song had been released twice previously without gaining any traction, and that it was the release with the classic video that made the difference, but I hadn't really thought about why.

I am much more aware now that some songs require multiple listenings before you appreciate them, but I would not have expected "Take On Me" to be one. That one segment should work as a pop hook. Maybe timing was an issue too, but the video worked.

For me, I know it was not just the video, based on the number of times we went through Hunting High and Low and Scoundrel Days. (After that they did not focus on the US as much, and I did still get some of their later albums, but it was different.) That being said, the video had a huge effect on me.

I could not even tell you if the local radio stations were playing A-ha before. My first glimpse of them was the video, but it was just a clip in a commercial. I wanted to see it so badly, just based on that glimpse, but it never came on when I needed it. Suddenly I caught it one night while babysitting, and the parents came home before it ended. So yes, I totally appreciate how the internet allows me to call up things instantly now.

I do think the rotoscoping aspect was something that drew attention. The live photography was attractive, as was the band, and simple storyline worked. The drama followed the music nicely. You can try and analyze all these points, and you do learn things by doing it, but also sometimes there is just magic. It captured a moment, and it worked for the band.

The music landscape is different now, and things don't always work the same way, from what is necessary to reach your audience to what budget you will have to do it, so we'll spend some time on that over the next week or so. For now, it's good enough just to appreciate a classic video from a magical time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djV11Xbc914

http://www.autoblog.com/2013/09/18/vw-passat-riffs-on-aha-take-on-me-music-video/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/take-on-me-becomes-a-nationals-battle-cry/2012/10/09/aa2b1b46-124b-11e2-be82-c3411b7680a9_story.html

Videos that I don't like

The three videos that I mentioned loving yesterday ("Take Me Home Please", "My Own Worst Enemy", and "I'm Not Okay") were not just videos that I have liked over the course of a long life of watching music videos, but they were also three that I used to play together. I played them along with a fourth video, except I didn't like that video that much, and was only playing it to hear the song. That song was Alkaline Trio's "Mercy Me":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FljNILAozts

I love this song, but I don't really care for the video. It is inventive and visually interesting, and the images don't really take away from the song. Obviously the favorites mentioned had strong humorous elements, but there is some humor here too. I don't have any clear reason for not liking the video; it just doesn't do it for me.

There may be a tone mismatch. While I say the images don't really distract from the sounds, at the same time, the images don't have the same energy. Also, there may be kind of an "uncanny valley" effect going on, where they look almost natural, but not quite. That mismatch can repel people. (This may also be my some people find clowns off-putting.)

I'm leaning more toward the aesthetic issue, because as I look back on the various videos that I hated, and would refuse to watch, with a lot of them it was that there was something ugly or gross about them. This included George Thorogood ripping off his face to reveal robot parts in "Bad to the Bone", the Spitting Image puppets in "Land of Confusion" by Genesis, squished hands and residual tentacle slime in Greg Kihn's "Jeopardy", and the clay forming images on and around Peter Gabriel's head in "Sledgehammer".

It may also include the faces morphing in Godley & Creme's "Cry". I'm not sure that it does, because morphing has been used in a lot of other videos and not bothered me. I think maybe the problem was that I didn't like the song that much, which kind of leads to one of my most hated videos of all time, "Ebony & Ivory", by Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney.

I did not start out hating "Ebony & Ivory", but then it started stalking me. The climax was when I came home from school one day and turned on the television. It was on MTV, so I switched to VH1, and it was there too. I turned off the television and switched on the radio, and it was there too. Obviously with all of that switching I had already started hating the song, but that was the clearest sign of its level of infiltration.

Just two years earlier I remembered not minding that songs got overplayed, because they were songs I liked. Why did I hate this one so much? I think the issue is that it's not a very good song.

I hate saying that, because I'm in favor of racial harmony, but if we are going to address such an important topic, can we do a little better lyrically?

We all know that people are the same wherrrrre EVer you go

Side by side on my pi-an-o keeeeey-board, oh Lord why don't weeeeee?

Cake gets away with having the lyrics mismatch the tempo, but they're edgier. I think it's a bad song, and in small doses you can overlook it, but over and over again it could actually increase racism and desires for segregation. And Stevie Wonder, I know you can and have done better.

I have been re-watching these videos before writing, and one thing I remember from some kind of "I Love the '80s" special was them talking about music video cliches, and that if you didn't know what to do there were a few standbys like curtains blowing in the wind. Guess how "Ebony & Ivory" starts?

So maybe it's easier to make a lazy video for a lazy song, but there's one other video that really bugs me. This is the one where everyone will know my judgment can't be trusted, so I guess it's good that I saved it for last. I'm not a big fan of "Thriller".

I never got into Michael Jackson. I tried, because it sure felt like everyone else loved him, but eventually I just accepted it. Because I did not really like his music, I never grew to love any of his videos, but I would still watch them, except for "Thriller".

Part of this is the ugly/gross thing, which keeps me from enjoying zombies. Beyond that, looking back at it now, I feel like the song does not serve the video. The length is monstrous, but very little of the footage actually has the song playing, and playing the song over those segments would not feel right.

There are things that are interesting about it. The opening segment does definitely hit some points for harking back to the '50s creature features, and we use some of the dolly tracking shots that we associate with the '70s - it hits some of the right notes - it just takes too long, and it feels like with too little purpose. Whether that is more of a John Landis issue or a Michael Jackson issue, or just an issue of them collaborating, I don't know.

Most likely their goal was to make something really cool, rather than thinking specifically about what the music video would do for that song. The song did end up being very popular, and Michael Jackson made a lot of money, so it's hard to argue with success. I still don't like it.

Nonetheless, tomorrow we will spend some time on the purpose of music videos.

Cry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxtPRF6NG7I

Jeopardy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkS4s_8YjqU

Sledgehammer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJWJE0x7T4Q

Land of Confusion - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pkVLqSaahk

Ebony & Ivory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmALA8miQY8

Thriller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA

Three favorite music videos

To start off this segment on music videos, I decided to start with open gushing. I am not necessarily saying that these are the three greatest music videos of all time, or that they are my top three favorite videos ever, but I love them a lot. As we get into why I love them, that will launch the broader discussion, but today will be only praise.

"My Own Worst Enemy", performed by Lit. From their album A Place in the Sun, the video was directed by Gavin Bowden and released in June 1999.

There are several strong points here. You do get a sense of the band as they are, watching them perform in the lounge. You also get to see them as - I guess the issue is really that they are retro, but the initial thought is that they are nerds - nerds who are great bowlers. That gives them an underdog plot, because they enter the alley to people giving them the side-eye, but their amazing skills win them acceptance and admiration, and then they get to go party.

This classic storyline builds in a manner congruent to the buildup of the song, with the bridge coinciding with the most impressive bowling footage, climaxing with a ball joke that would be funny anyway, but is more so because some band members are clearly so much more comfortable with/skilled at it than others.

It's bittersweet too, because Allen Shellenberger is gone, and I can never not remember that when watching, but part of that is that coverage of the band is pretty well balanced too. You get to see everyone doing their thing, and not just the lead singer.

(To be fair, A. Jay Popoff in this video is where the term "bedroom eyes" suddenly clicked for me; so THAT's what it means.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc5iTNVEOAg

"Take Me Home Please" by Reggie and the Full Effect. I don't know the director, but it was the second release off of Songs Not to Get Married To, from 2005.

It was easy for me to just listen to the song without watching the video, which I do fairly often, but I kept coming back to watch the video because of the break-dancing. If it was something that I could do at all, I might be less impressed, but even the moves that Reggie does, which are clearly intended to be more comedic than impressive, are beyond me. I am especially impressed by that little scissor and dip thing the antagonist does around 2:20, but also a lot of it is just gravity defying.

(For convenience I am going to refer to James Dewees at the keyboard in the blue tracksuit as Reggie, and James Dewees in the long black wig at the dance-off as Paco.)

So, I would watch the dancing, but then I would start noticing the individuals. There is one blonde girl (not the pig-tailed one) who does not really seem to be watching in one shot, so I noticed that and thought she was not really into the dancing, but then on a different viewing, she is doing the dancing too. Maybe she was just thinking of something else right then.

So then I started thinking about the individual people and realized that even though you could theoretically just gather a bunch of people who are good at dancing and let them use their own personalities, they are taking on characters, because at times you can see some of them break character.

For example, Paco seems to have two closer friends in this, and since they both wear headbands I will have to refer to them as the cooler one and the nerdier one. The cooler one at one point looks like he is about to crack up, but the nerdy one is consistently nerdy. Is he a more focused actor, not acting, or did the camera just never catch him?

Ultimately the video concept is pretty simple, but the video ended up being one that I find endlessly intriguing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtRkpk67wG4

"I'm Not Okay" by My Chemical Romance, off of Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. Directed by Marc Webb, filmed in August 2004.

Let me say that I am very fond of the original video, for its glimpses of Matt, and Gerard brandishing Sting, and Ray doing the same head bouncing that he does in the updated video, which is my signature move when I do it for karaoke. The first video is good, but the second is a masterpiece.

Yes, it has more oral jokes than I would normally go for, but it builds up and follows a path that is appropriate to the song while being something the audience can relate to. In the opening, where you get to hear the voices of Ray and Gerard, and that dialogue is totally real. It's not even "making it" that he wants, but he can't articulate what he does want, only he does know there is something that he wants. That is adolescence.

Again we cut between performance and underdogs. I will say that Frank in the chemistry lab reminds me a little of the Ramones' "Rock N Roll High School", in that my first thought was "Don't let them have unsupervised access to chemicals!" but that is a very small part of this video. It builds an idea of what school is like for the parties involved, and the final sequence is full of great images: Frank's weary look of resignation as Gerard is tackled, Gerard wind-milling on the way to his own sadly ineffective retaliation, and then Ray and Frank making the tackle happen, with Mikey getting in a last shot. Teamwork!

There have been things I have wondered about. For example, in that 2-man tackle, does it make sense to have the fairly short one go for the top of the target, and the kind of tall guy go for the base? The mascot goes down, so I guess it works. Was Mikey really heading to the final confrontation with only a croquet ball? No, he has a mallet later. Okay, that makes more sense. And then for that confrontation, I would generally expect lacrosse players to be tougher than croquet players, but croquet equipment seems like it could do more damage. Seems dangerous.

I actually didn't get into a lot of scuffles when I was in school. It may be obvious. I just know that this video rocks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhZTNgAs4Fc