22 May 2023 - Art of Noise - Close (To The Edit)

I remember the first time I saw this video on MTV and wondered to myself "what the hell am I watching?"

The answer is, I was watching an avant-garde group remix their previous single, "Beat Box", and throw some various Yes and Andrews Sisters samples in there.   What came out the other side was a interesting piece of music unlike anything anyone had ever seen prior.  I can honestly say this song and this video shaped a lot of my musical tastes for decades to come.

That unusual metallic sound you hear repeatedly in the song is the sound of a Volkswagen Golf, restarting.  That's not a joke or a typo.  It's really a car restarting, and poorly.  

This was the first of three videos made of the song, and has been described as a young girl in punk garb hanging out with Huey Lewis and the News in an abandoned train yard destroying musical instruments.  

So, this isn't the type of song you expect to see performed live.   And, yet, it has been.  Many times.  This particular performance was from a 2004 benefit concert in tribute to musician, producer and songwriter (who was credited on this track because of the Yes samples) Trevor Horn - and was performed by Anne Dudley (credited as Art of Noise, even though her bandmates did not perform), Trevor Horn and members of his band, The Buggles.  It is fantastic.

Here's a more contemporary performance featuring the full band actually showing their faces (something they did not tend to do) for the most part.  This performance is from 1986..

19 May 2023 - Rêve - CTRL + ALT + DEL

An artist from Montreal with a non-English letter in her first name, which is really a stage name?  With whom we've passed into the "overposting" area?

No, not that one.  This is only the 3rd Rêve post we've pulled out here.  And the first one outside of March.  Mostly, this is because we didn't have anything written for today and we stole a post from next March - but also, this song is in our heavy rotation right now.   

This one.  Without listening to the song, I would think this was a tribute to the classic three-finger salute used to restart a PC.  The song, co-written by Rêve with Banx & Ranx, uses that as a metaphor for ignoring the drama that can come with going to the club. On the surface, it might sound a little like a mean girl song, but the reality is, it's about having fun and keeping the negativity away.

It may have been more mean girl-y if not for the great delivery of the 2023 Juno Award winning Rêve, who combines a pretty great repetitive bass with a beat that the kids love to dance to with a shockingly huge voice.

18 May 2023 - Owl City - Vitamin Sea

I just wanted to remind you that Owl City has released music since "Good Time" and "Fireflies".   

And, in fact, on March 24th of this year, he released an 11-song album, called Coco Moon, which he announced on Instagram on February 9th.

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I don't really need to post anything more than that, do I?  Adam Young said it way better than I ever could.

He also released this, the first single from that album, that day.  It's very much an Owl City song, painting a beautiful picture and including a keytar solo.  The female vocalist you hear is frequent collaborator and Carly Rae Jepsen live stand-in Breanne Düren, a fabulous musician in her own right.   

17 May 2023 - almost monday - broken people

What happens when three high school friends from San Diego form a band?

You get indie rock gold, that's what happens.  And this single, their 2020 debut, was a bellwether to bigger and better things - including a lot of investment by Hollywood Records, who have been advertising the hell out of them on their streaming media platforms of late. 

This song was a minor alternative radio hit in 2019, and they've only gotten bigger from there.  Their look is a little different than you might expect from big rock stars, but I think that's the point - they're making music that resonates with regular people, and not just aesthetes.   

The indie emotion shines even brighter when they perform the song live.

16 May 2023 - Awkwafina - My Vag

Yes.   THAT Awkafina.

What other Awkafina is there?  Geez, we're not talking about water here.  No, we're talking about the Golden Globe Best Supporting Vag Actress winner.

No, we're talking about Awkafina's vagina today.  You know, her vagina is fifty times better than a penis.

You will be laughing straight through this incredibly politically incorrect song, which, believe it or not, put Nora Lum from Queens on the map - you can draw a straight line from this song right to her voice role in The Little Mermaid - but at the same time, you're going to be hearing this beat in your head all day.  

Oh yes.  She does it live.

15 May 2023 - Steve Earle - Back To The Wall

This was the second single off Earle's 1988 breakthrough Copperhead Road album - and, as a country-rock album, it was outside my wheelhouse from a musical taste standpoint.  However, off the strength of "Copperhead Road", the single, I purchased this album.  

The standout for me wasn't the title song (which I liked for a while but grew tired of), but, rather, this gritty song about homelessness.  The video supports it - directed by Meiert Evis and featuring homeless people.  Written by Earle, the entire album and this song in particular cemented his legacy as a great storyteller.

Yes, Earle still performs this song live.  Here he is in 2018, 30 years after the song's initial release (yes, this song is 35 years old this year), performing it as gritty as ever in New York City.

12 May 2023 - Mckenna Grace - Self Dysmorphia

We were watching The Handmaid's Tale on Hulu the other day and we noticed that there was a young actress who was playing a character that was mature beyond her years.   The character was Esther Keyes, and the actress was 16-year-old Emmy nomineee Mckenna Grace - and she is the youngest-ever Emmy nominee in any of the Best Guest Actor categories (and 10th youngest nominee in ANY category).  We know that 2nd part because we had to do a little research on this young actress.

Turns out she's an actress who sings - and has released several singles.  According to her website, she started this as a creative outlet during the pandemic, which, of course, did limit acting opportunities.  Music allowed her to get her emotions out.  

This single was released in November 2022 and was co-written by Grace.   The song itself was in the pop-rock genre that she's gravitated towards at this point in her young career.  The video was filmed after the actress's surgery to correct a scoliosis-casued 45 degree curvature to her spine (which she SHOWS you at the 2:00 minute mark of the video - yeah, that's her back).  It was directed, written, and edited by her, as she was pretty much confined to a chair in the weeks following her surgery (a doctor's directive she ignores at the 0:48 mark of the video).  

I exprect great things in the future, both in acting and music.  

Very soon after this video was performed, she seemed to be walking just fine - and she shows off the scar as she performed the song live.