I like this video, largely because — as our longtime readers should know by now — I have a thing for motels. I find them to be fascinating. Whenever I see a motel, I wonder what drama is going on in each and every room. Seriously, the roadside motel is one of the greatest things that America has given the world.
This is a gorgeous, well-directed video, full of atmosphere. It’s like Wes Anderson’s Psycho.
Enjoy!
I danced for like an hour after I watched this video.
This video pays homage to Nancy Sinatra’s video for These Boots Are Made For Walkin and was choreographed by Kayla Kalbfleisch.
Enjoy!
Jessie Frye is a singer from my hometown and personally, I think she definitely deserves to be better known. So, as a part of my humble attempt to spread the word, here is her just released video for No Sleep. This video has a new retro feel (it’s deliberately filmed to make it look like something you might stumble across on an old VHS tape) and it has a lot of nice shots of the Dallas skyline, which is something that I really appreciated. You can always tell that a video’s been shot in Dallas when the Bank of America Plaza appears in all of its neon green glory.
Getting no sleep in Dallas? That’s something to which I can relate.
Enjoy!
Tom Waits recorded this version of Cole Porter’s It’s Alright With Me for Red Hot + Blue, a compilation album that was put together to benefit the Red Hot Organization, a non-profit organization that raises money for AIDS relief and education.
Probably the best known of the songs to come off of Red Hot + Blue was U2’s version of Night and Day. However, Waits also brought his own unique style to Porter’s lyrics. This video was directed by filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, who has also featured Waits in several of his films.
Enjoy!
In this song from her 1992 album, 99.9F°, Suzanne Vega sings about a lost relationship. Apparently, this song was inspired by a relationship that Vega actually had with someone who from Liverpool. He and Vega met in America when she was 18 and they fell in love, just for their relationship to end when he had to return to his home.
Today, this song makes me think of my friends and family in the UK and how I look forward to someday getting to see them again.
This video was directed by Howard Greenhaigh. Greenhaigh has several videos to his name but the one he’s probably best known for is Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun.
Enjoy!
Tesla did not come up with this song on their own. Instead, Signs was written by Les Emmerson in the late 60s and it was a hit for Five Man Electrical Band in 1970. The song was inspired by a trip Emmerson took down Route 66. While driving, Emmerson noticed that there were a lot of … you guessed it … signs! Embraced by the “long-haired freaky” people mentioned in the opening lyrics, Signs became a surprise hit.
Twenty years later, the song was revived when Tesla performed an acoustic version of the song. At the time, Tesla was the opening act for Motley Crue’s Dr. Feelgood tour but, because they had an off-day, the band booked an acoustic show. Each member of the band picked a different song to perform. Signs was selected by lead singer Jeff Keith, who grew up in Oklahoma and, as you can see in the video, had some definite thoughts when it came to signs blocking out the scenery (or “fucking up the scenery” as the band put it in the uncensored version of the song).
Signs is a good example of song that probably would have been forgotten if not for MTV. When the song was originally released, it didn’t get much attention but the subsequent video proved to be popular and the song eventually became a hit. The success of Signs led to other bands do acoustic shows and eventually MTV launching Unplugged.
Enjoy!
This is probably one of the best songs ever written about a 16 year-old buying condoms before heading to a brothel (that would be the House of Fun referred to in the title). Only Madness could have pulled it off.
This video was filmed at a Camden joke shop, a Kilburn chemist (or pharmacy), and a roller coaster in Great Yarmouth. Reportedly, the band had to ride the roller coaster 54 times before director Dave Robinson was happy with the footage.
Enjoy!
Blood Makes Noise was the 2nd single to be released from Suzanne Vega’s underrated 1992 album, 99.9F°. Vega is a performer that deserved to be a bigger star than she was. If you’re the right age, you remember Tom’s Diner but otherwise, I don’t feel like she ever got the type of success and recognition that she really deserved.
This video was directed by Nico Beyer, a German director who has worked extensively in advertising and who also directed music videos for The Verve, The Pet Shop Boys, They Might Be Giants, and others.
Enjoy!
I’m sharing this video in memory of Avicii, who would have been 31 years old today and whose talent was taken from us far too early.
This video tells the story of two sisters, outsiders in their village who find a new and better home. The older sister is played by Kristina Romanova while the younger sister is played by Laneya Grace. It’s a song and a video that epitomizes everything that made Avicii such a special talent. In the end, the sisters find a better life. They wake up, as hopefully everyone will have a chance to do at some point in their existence.
Rest in peace, Tim Bergling.
This song was supposedly written on a train ride from Philadelphia to New York City. Having played a killer show in Philly, the band was riding the train back home when they noticed some members of the crew were starting to fall asleep. To keep everyone awake, the Beastie Boys started to chant, “No sleep till Brooklyn!”
(The name of the song is also a play on the title of Motörhead’s No Sleep ’til Hammersmith.)
The song is one of the band’s signature tunes and the video features the Beastie Boys when they were young, rebellious, and didn’t care who they pissed off. The video parodied that type of glam rock (think Poison, for example) that was popular in 1987.
The video was directed by Adam Dubin and Ric Menello, who previously directed the video for (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party). Menello also plays the club owner who rejects the band at the start of the video.
Enjoy!
Through the Shattered Lens 