You'd be surprised how hummable "You can stone your wife and sell your daughter into slavery!" is.
And in Kathmandu they do things differently.
I have listened to the whole album but I still think this is Elbow's most compelling song so far.
Fujiya & Miyagi, Knickerbocker glory
Do you really need a reason to love Beth Gibbons?
Glory-Box
Sour Times
Apparently LGBT groups are mad at Katy Perry for the lyrics of her hit song I kissed a girl. Given that her earlier song was the sterling You're so Gay (splutter) who could blame them? But Katy's persona is intriguing. She is like a lovely composite of a dozen irritating women I know. This song is guaranteed to unhinge your jaw with its naka-ness. Katy's never heard of metaphors so the song is just swimming with infant-like candour. A twitty infant but an infant.
Shana Halligan and Kiran Shahani distill James Bond and fuck music into fun-sized nuggets. No videos yet but you can gaze upon the gorgeous face of Shana. Listen to Dirty Laundry and The Bomb.
I still love them.
Laid by James
and That was a crazy game of poker by OAR
Prabhu Deva and Kamal Hasan in Kaadhala Kaadhala
The Andrews Sisters, Don't Sit under the apple tree
Now go and watch Christina Aguilera's Candyman
Violent Femmes, 1982
As cool as the Gnarls Barkley cover
What are people doing when they respond to music? I had reconciled myself to being something akin to tone-deaf. But now I like to say that I only have a physical response to music. What does that mean? I suppose I really only like music that I can dance to or stalk the footpath to. I am told there are people studying the brains of people who have an 'intellectual' response to music. There was even some theories floating about that men have an intellectual response to music and women an emotional one. I wish they had met a certain two-year-old boy who used to burst into tears when any Brahms was played.
Paddy and I had a bit of a nostalgia trip over the weekend looking up videos of all the songs we listened to the year she was 14 and I was 12. I used to just listen to things she listened to. Seeing the videos now (many for the first time) cracked us up. Heart, T'Pau, Wilson Philips, Martika, Lisa Stansfield, Bangles, Tina Turner, and my favourites George Michael and Prince. The last two should have tipped me off that the rest of my life was going to be run amuck in the company of gay men.
But I defy you to not have a physical reaction to the shamisen players in either of these videos.
Yoshida Brothers, The Rising
And something Bent insisted on making me watch. The opening sequence of Takeshi Kitano's Dolls
We used to be friends, Dandy Warhols
Tuesdays. Insane Tuesdays. But L is right, hateful little wretch that she is, I do love Mika.
Mika, Grace Kelly
Once a boy I was seeing told his mother about me. She looked up from whatever she was doing and said, "Virginia Woolf once said,"....when this was recounted to me by the slightly bewildered boy I laughed the whole morning. She said," Virginia Woolf once said, 'Man must look at woman and see a mirror in which he sees himself twice his size to go and make war or business."
This week I feel the need for a mirror which will let me go and make war and business. I have been playing music to this end. The twice my size thing I seem to managing on my own. This morning even the old surefire remedy Joan Osborne's St. Teresa is not working very much. Perhaps seeing the video is the problem. The apron is meant to be ironic but driving me nuts with its naka-ness. This other one seems better.
Norah Jones, Sinking Soon
The Ditty Bops. I prefer Ooh La La but can't find a video for it. Here's one for Wishful Thinking.
And my favourite pick-me-up. Jack Johnson's Banana Pancakes
