21 February 2012 - Natasha Bedingfield - These Words

First of all, welcome to all of you coming from elbo.ws.  So happy to have you in our little blog.

Ms. Bedingfield was living in the shadow of her less talented brother, Daniel.  He had a minor hit.  VH1 in the US, however, heard this little ditty, and picked it up, and it became a minor hit.  Of course, Natasha followed this song with the far bigger single "Unwritten", and this simple song that names its chord progression (D-E-F) and inspirations (Byron, Shelley, Keats) was forgotten.  By everyone except this blog!



The video for this song is charming, too.  The boomboxes are simply drawn to Natasha!  Oh, wait.  You mean this wasn't the video you saw for this song?  That's because it was released for the US only.  The rest of the world saw this video, which was equally clever in its use of table settings and multiple Natashas.

20 February 2012 - Jewel - Intuition

Again, I'd like to start a post with this qualifying statement: "While I'm a HUGE [insert artist] fan..." So, while I'm a HUGE Jewel fan, nothing frightened me more than seeing this video when it came out in 2003. What happened to that sweet sounding folkie from Alaska/San Diego that I saw touring for Pieces of You? WGP TANGENT No. 576: She opened for Neil Young...went to see her and Afghan Whigs and left after about 45 minutes of Neil and his "jams."

Anyway, I REFUSED to buy 0304 when it came out. Six years later, I decided to give it a shot, along with another "frightening" pop record by former indie goddess Liz Phair, and actually found both to be enjoyable. Times change. I blame Kelly Clarkson's My Life Would Suck Without You for softening me up to pop music.


BONUS...So in a show of solidarity, the tremendously good, handsome and modest folk at Your Forgotten Favorite 2000 (me) is paying tribute to Jewel with another video. So after you get your shame on here, go here.

19 February 2012 - Sunny Sweeney - If I Could / Kasey Chambers - Goin' Fishin'

Speed country!

This song, a cover of a country classic, is brilliantly covered by Ms. Sunny Sweeney.  This was an early single of hers, and she has gone onto a great career. Great singles, great albums, and it all started with this great single.

18 February 2012 - Fiona Feat. Kip Winger - Everything You Do (You're Sexing Me)

Thank (and blame) Lita Ford for this one.  Once she started becoming a hitmaker by sexing up her songs/videos a little bit, a lot of other "rocker chicks" popped up.  Fiona (Flannigan) had been around for years, making serious rock music, but her only hit - or, at least, near-MTV hit - came when she teamed up with cheese metal prince-of-the-week Kip Winger.  And tarted up her music a little bit.

The sad part? Kip Winger might look just as pretty as Fiona in this video.  However, to her credit, she really did have a powerful voice, and it shows in this song.

17 February 2012 - Ugly Kid Joe - Everything About You

I always thought these guys were kind of goofy. Regardless, this may be the best guilty pleasure video that has not one, but two blow-up dolls in it.

16 February 2012 - Kelis - Milkshake

Perhaps the most clever song ever written about boobs in the first person.  Kelis took a classic theme, and put an interesting spin on it, with a little help from The Neptunes. I thought it was an awful song when I first heard it.  It was sexist, even though a woman was singing it.   It was a cheap chuckle.  That's all it was.

But I changed my mind.  First of all, Kelis really sells the song with a clever analogy.  She has a very sultry voice. The song itself is really sparse, featuring her vocal abilities well.  And she does offer to teach her tricks, even if she has to charge.

What really sold me on the song was Kelis performing it on Saturday Night Live.  Truth be told, it showed me how serious a song this little ditty about Kelis's boob shaking really was.  She put on a terrific performance - one of the best SNL performances I have ever seen.  Because I care, I have brought this performance to you.  Enjoy! (Update: 18 December 2020) Replaced with a performance on Carson Daly's show that was just as good, if not better.

15 February 2012 - Fuel - Hemmorrhage (In My Hands)

In the late 90s/early 2000s I spent many a day listening to the DC area's legendary WHFS in my office. At this point, the station had strayed away from it's mostly free-form heyday years and "grew" into the template for pretty much all corporate modern rock stations (which likely led to the station's downfall in 2005...it returned last August and it's pretty good when I can get the signal in my town).

Anyway, my indie snob friends (I mean that in the nicest way, I kind of was one at the time, but cast a much wider net amongst music genres...it's obviously WAY bigger now as this blog has shown) used to mock many of the bands played on the radio. Fuel was one of those bands. I never quite got why as I enjoyed those first two records. So, here's one of my favorite tracks by this Tennessee band.