Hoodoo Gurus were one of my favorite bands growing up. They never got super well-known in the States, but in their native Australia, this song, written by vocalist Dave Faulkner, was a Top 20 hit.
The travesty about this video is that it only has 157 views on YouTube as I write this. I'm hoping to at least triple that and get this classic band some attention!
The great thing about this band is that they're still performing. Here they are in 2008, playing for a crowd that knows all the words.
Sometimes, a song so absolutely ridiculous comes that captures the entire world. That's not a negative - those songs are usually remembered fondly.
This is not a post about a song like that.
Take "Dance Monkey", the 2019 single by Austrailian singer Toni Watson, who goes by the stage name Tones and I. This song hit #1 in over 30 counties, and was a top 5 hit in the US - despite being called "Dance Monkey" and having what one could say were absurd lyrics. The reality of the lyrics is that the inspiration came from Watson's time as a street dancer - where she would literally have to dance for money. So, the absurity is actually rooted in reality.
And here I am, talking about it three years later, because it's a darned catchy song.
I have to be honest - I thought this was going to be a quick little post with a viral video, given the song's short but strong chart showing.
But no. Tones and I absolutely performs this live. And it's kind of spectacular.
It's also a song that predates its fame. This performance is from four months before the single's release - before the record deal, before the hugeness, before everythung.
"So, I guess you're gonna want to post another song with that funny o-e combo woman today? I mean, gotta keep a streak going or something?"
"Nah, But you make a point. I should tie yesterday into today. Didn't Aly & AJ have some huge autotuned hit breakup song a few years back?"
"Oh, that's right! They did! Acutally, now that you mention it, they kinda disappeared after that."
"Well, as we said yesterday, iZombie and all that."
"You know AJ is on The Goldbergs, right?"
"Oh, really?"
"Sorry that didn't fit into your Aly fetish, but yeah, AJ Michalka is at least as accomplished an actress as her sister."
"To be fair, I didn't mention Hellcats. They both appeared on there."
"That really wouldn't have helped your case."
"Can we PLEASE get back to the music."
"Sure, I guess so."
"I need to write something actually pertaining to this song."
"I suppose you're gonna want to say something technical about the song, like how their other stuff was actually guitar-based rock and this was synth-filled Radio Disney-targeted pop stuff, right?"
"Yeah, that sounds like me."
"Hey, I know you love posting live stuff in a second video. Might I make a recommendation?"
"Sure, fire away."
"I seem to recall that Aly & AJ rerecorded the song with dirty words on some live performance on New Year's Eve in 2020. That would be cool, right?"
Let's keep up the shoegaze stuff with the band that literally defined the genre - Lush. I think Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson are literally gazing at their shoes in this video.
At 2:13. I don't just say stuff to be funny.
Written by Anderson, and produced by Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins, this song is one of the noisiest from their 1992 Spooky album - but even this noise doesn't cancel out the dreamlike music and beautiful harmonies of Anderson and Berenyi on dual lead vocal.
I know, I know. We've been AWOL for a while. It's been a busy summer. But we're back. And we aren't leaving for a long time.
The opening track to the 1991 debut album (God Fodder) by Ned's Atomic Dustbin originally started life as a song that had nothing to do with television.... until Alex Griffin saw a sticker in Mystic, Connecticut. Why he was in Mystic, I'm not sure - but that changed his album and his song for good.
The shoegaze genre, which was so damned popular among the kids whose parents just didn't understand them, was set on its ear with this album, which took the genre and turned up the amps. This song - and in fact the whole album - was somewhat groundbreaking.
By the way, they're still around, still touring, and still killing televisions.
