Music Video of the Day: Hell In A Bucket by Grateful Dead (1987, directed by Len DellAmico)

Posted on August 5, 2020 by Jedadiah Leland

I may be going to Hell in a bucket but at least I’m enjoying the ride

The members of the Grateful Dead didn’t do many music videos. I think Hell In A Bucket was their second video, following the surprise hit that they had with A Touch of Grey. From what I’ve read, it was the band’s record label that insisted that the band make some videos to help promote their 12th studio album, In the Dark. Some members of the band were concerned that agreeing to do music videos would mean that they were “selling out.”

The video for Hell In A Bucket feels like it could be a parody of the type of videos that were popular on MTV. With his Miami Vice-Style outfit and the way he mugs for the camera, Bob Weir almost seems like he could be Huey Lewis’s coked-out older brother. The video opens in a biker bar, populated with the type of rough characters who most bands would never dream of featuring in a video. While Jerry Garcia keeps his distance, Bob Weir sings a song of rock and roll decadence that seems to be saying, “This is what it’s all really about.”

No, I don’t know why there’s a duck at the bar. It’s just there. Jerry daughter’s Trixie is also in the video. She plays one of the dancing devils.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: 3 A.M. Eternal by The KLF (1991, directed by ????)

Posted on August 1, 2020 by Jedadiah Leland

There are so many stories about the careers of British musicians Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty that it would probably take several posts to tell them all.

Drummond’s musical career began in 1977 when he formed a punk band called Big in Japan. After Big In Japan broke up, Drummond was one of the co-founders of Zoo Records and he worked as a manger and producer for several post-punk bands, including Echo and the Bunnymen. He also worked with a band called Brilliant, which had been formed by former Killing Joke bassist, Jimmy Cauty.

Drummond and Cauty must have hit it off because they went on to start their own musical project. Originally known as the The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs), the project also recorded under the name The Time Lords and, eventually, the KLF. Among their first hits (as The Time Lords) was Doctorin’ The Tardis. After Doctorin’ The Tardis hit number one despite being intentionally designed to have no musical value whatsoever, Drummond published a book called The Manual (How To Have A Number One The Easy Way), a semi-satirical how-to book about how to write a song vapid enough to become a hit. Drummond promised that anyone who read the book would have a hit song or they would get their money book. Drummond later admitted that some readers did subsequently contact him, asking for a refund.

As the KLF, their biggest hit was 3 A.M. Eternal. 3 A.M. Eternal was originally recorded in 1988 and was subsequently re-recorded in 1991, this time with the addition of rapper Ricardo Da Force and vocalist Maxine Harvey. This video feature Da Force rapping while playing with a very big phone while Maxine Harvey sings in what appears to be a pyramid. Meanwhile, the members of the KLF drive around at three in the morning. The car from the driving scenes also appeared in the video for Doctorin’ The Tardis.

When the KLF performed this song at the 1992 Brit Awards, they fired machine guns at the audience. Though the machine guns were full of blanks, no one had informed the audience of that fact and there was quite a panic as a result. After the show, the KLF announced that they were retiring from the music business and then deleted their back catalog. They also had a dead sheep sent to the after party.

Enjoy!

Song of the Day: Piume di Cristallo by Ennio Morricone

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s song of the day comes from the soundtrack of Dario Argento’s 1970 film, The Bird With The Crystal Plumage. Not only was this film Argento’s first as a director but it was also his first collaboration with the great Ennio Morricone.

From Ennio Morricone, here is a piece of music that perfectly matches the creepy and twisty feel of Argento’s first film. Here is Piume di Cristallo:

Previous Entries In Our Tribute To Morricone:

Music Video Of The Day: Unemployment Line by Creed Bratton (2013, dir by Zach Mann)

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yes, this is the same Creed who we all know and love from playing a version of himself on The Office. While everyone knows that Creed was a musician before he became an actor, it seems to be less well-known that he continued to record music while appearing on the show and after the final episode.

This is a heartfelt song and, if you go over to YouTube, you can read Creed’s story about what inspired this song and why he recorded it. As Creed writes in the video’s description: See the GOOD in people, the value of our connection to one another, and realize that the ailments of an unemployed society are not a result of laziness, they are a product of loneliness.

So, from Creed Bratton, here is Unemployment Line.

Music Video of the Day: Crazy Inside by TAKIA (2020, dir by Jonathan Guttmann)

Posted on July 14, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This is an especially relevant song and video for our day and age. I think almost everyone has gone a little bit crazy inside, whether it’s from rage or just feeling a little bit stir-crazy at being shut up inside.

Of course, some people handle the craziness by going online and acting like a jackass. Other people handle it by creating. In this video, Keka Martin handles it by dancing. That, by the way, is how I’ve also been handling it all. Ever since I realized that this lockdown isn’t going to be ending anytime soon, not a day has gone by that I haven’t found time to dance a little. It helps to keep me calm and centered and, even more importantly, it takes my mind off of the craziness all around.

“But, Lisa,” you’re saying, “I don’t dance!”

Well, that’s okay. You don’t have to dance. Maybe you should write. Maybe you should watch an old movie. Maybe you should just listen to music or tell yourself an old joke. The important thing is to remember that there’s more to life than just worry and anxiety. There’s creativity and movement and joy. None of those things have to end just because the world kind of sucks right now. In fact, it’s important that they don’t end. Keeping creativity alive is the only thing that stand between us and authoritarianism.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: All Fired Up by Drastic (2020, dir by ????)

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Would you prove your love for me by jumping out of an airplane?

Well, fear not. I would never ask you or anyone else to do so. What I can also tell you is that there are absolutely no circumstances in which I would jump out of an airplane. I wouldn’t do it prove my love. I wouldn’t do it for a million dollars. I certainly wouldn’t do it for just the experience. I’ve been told that skydiving is an amazing feeling but, as we all know, I don’t do heights. Seriously, I have a hard enough time standing at the top of my staircase at home. (Of course, I should point out that it’s a very steep staircase.)

What would I do to prove my love? I would stand up in the back of a moving pickup truck. That may not sound like much but seriously, it is. It’s at least as dangerous as sky diving. When I was growing up, all of my aunts and all of my uncles told me stories about people who had made the mistake of standing up in the back of a moving pickup truck and it never seemed to end well for them. In fact, it kind of left me with a phobia about pickup trucks in general. Whenever I’m stuck behind one in traffic, I’m worried that someone’s going to suddenly stand up in the back of it and accidentally fall out and crash through my windshield or something. That would suck. New windshields are not cheap.

Anyway, enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: The Steps by HAIM (2020, dir by Paul Thomas Anderson)

Posted on July 9, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I’m the youngest of four sisters and everyday, I’m thankful for that because I would seriously be so lost without them in my life. I think that’s one reason why I like HAIM. The Haim sisters remind me of my older sisters and that’s especially true in the video for The Steps.

The song, of course, is about a relationship that, if it hasn’t ended yet, is coming to an end. The messiness of Haim’s morning routine perfectly mirrors the lyrics of the song, in which the narrator says that every time she tries to move forward, her lover gets mad at her for “making a mess.” There’s something very liberating about HAIM’s messiness in this video. It’s not just the fact that they’re throwing stuff all over the apartment and stumbling out of bed (which is the way I think most of us wake up but it’s something you rarely see in movies or music videos, where everyone wakes up refreshed and ready for a photo shoot) but it’s also the fact that there’s none of the fake glamour that you might expect to see in a music video like this. It’s a song about freedom and being yourself and if that means making a mess then make a mess. It’s a liberating song and a liberating video. It’s not a video where HAIM tries to live up to some pop princess archetype. This is a video that says, “This is who we are and fuck you if you can’t handle it.”

That said, I have to admit that I’m a compulsive cleaner and my natural instinct is to usually tidy up so my room has never looked as messy as my life. I guess I should be happy about that because otherwise, I don’t think I’d ever be able to find anything. And that’s okay. It’s okay to be messy. It’s okay to be neat. What matters is that you’re being yourself and not allowing anyone to force you to try to be someone else.

This video, like most of HAIM’s recent videos, was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The film critic Armond White has argued that Anderson’s work with HAIM is actually superior to most of his recent films and I think White might have a point. (Before anyone starts yelling at me, I don’t care whether or not you like Armond White. He’s a consistently interesting writer and someone has to be willing to be a contrarian.) There’s a definitely naturalness to Anderson’s videos with HAIM, as if anything could happen at any moment.

Enjoy!

Song of the Day: Come Un Mardigale by Ennio Morricone

Posted on July 8, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, we continue our tribute to Ennio Morricone with Come Un Madrigale, which he composed for Dario Arengto’s 1971 giallo, Four Flies on Grey Velvet! Morricone scored Argento’s first three films and his atmospheric music was as important to their success as Goblin would be to the success of later Argento films like Suspiria and Deep Red.

Previous Entries In Our Tribute To Morricone:

Music Video of the Day: Try by Michael Penn (1997, dir by Paul Thomas Anderson)

Posted on July 8, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I was going to do one of the videos that Paul Thomas Anderson directed for Haim today but I changed my mind at the last minute. That’s nothing against Haim or the video. Haim’s great and their videos — particularly the ones directed by Anderson — are frequently brilliant. It’s just, for whatever reason, I knew that today was not the day to write about their video for The Steps. That day will come soon.

Instead, I wrote about the video for Michael Penn’s Try.

Try was the very first music video to be directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. He directed it while he was editing Boogie Nights. Michael Penn, of course, did the score for both Boogie Nights and Anderson’s earlier Hard Eight. He can also be spotted in Boogie Nights, playing Nick in the recording studio and incredulously reacting to the efforts of Dirk Diggler and Reed Rothschild to record their own album.

When watching this video, pay attention to the blonde gentleman wearing the Planet of the Apes t-shirt. He shows up twice and, at one point, holds the microphone into which Penn is singing. If he looks familiar, that’s because he’s actor Philip Seymour Hoffman! When I first saw the video, I honestly didn’t recognize him. I just thought he was some random crew person who got the job because he could run fast enough to keep up with Penn. Of course, once I learned that Hoffman was in the video and I rewatched it, I immediately spotted him. I think it says something about what a good actor Hoffman was that, even in something like this, he could be so convincing that, despite being one of the most recognizable actors in the world, he still became somewhat anonymous. He disappeared into the role.

Thomas Jane and Melora Waters (who played Todd and Jessie St. Vincent in Boogie Nights) are also in this video, standing at the end of a a long line of exhausted dancers. (This was meant to be a reference to the film, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?) There’s one other Boogie Nights reference, which is kind of interesting considering the fact that he and Anderson supposedly didn’t get along during filming. Keep an eye out for door with a purple 9 on it. That’s a reference to Burt Reynolds, who wore the number 9 when he played college football.

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: For Those About To Rock (We Salute You) by AC/DC (1982, directed by Derek Burbridge)

Posted on June 29, 2020 by Jedadiah Leland

AC/DC was always a no frills/no bullshit/hard-rocking band and the same is true of their music videos. While other bands of the period were using elaborate videos to covers for their deficiencies as musicians, AC/DC used videos to show off what they could do on stage. AC/DC always respected their fans enough to let the music speak for itself and that’s what they did in the video for For Those About To Rock (We Salute You).

Enjoy!