Category Archives: Music Review

Music Video of the Day: Hey Juliet by LMNT (2001, dir by ????)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The year was 2000 and Lou Pearlman, the super creepy music producer who would later die in prison, was putting together a boy band called O-Town.  Because it was also the early days of reality TV, Pearlman was also producing a show called Making the Band, so that viewers could follow as Pearlman auditioned and selected the members of his new band.

In the end Pearlman selected five young men to be the members of the O-Town.  He announced that not only would they be stars but that he would also pretty much control every aspect of their lives and music.  Four members of the band were okay with that.  Ikaika Kahoano was not.  Declaring both Pearlman and O-Town to be “wack,” Kahoano left O-Town and instead, got together with two other musicians who auditioned for a spot with the boy band, Bryan Chan and Mike Miller.  They were signed by Atlantic Records, who promptly held a contest in the pages of Teen People to select a name for the new band.  The winner?  LMNT (as in Element).

Now, since every boy band has to have at least four members, Matthew Morrison was recruited to serve as the fourth member of LMNT.  If that name sounds familiar, that’s because he later went on to play Mr. Schuester on Glee.  Morrison was apparently as miserable in LMNT as Kahoana was in O-Town because he left the band before they recorded their first album.  Morrison was replaced by Jonas Persch.

With all the drama that went into forming the band, it can be easy to overlook their music.  It was pretty much standard 2001 boy band stuff.  In fact, there’s little distinguish LMNT from O-Town, except for the fact that LMNT didn’t have Lou Pearlman stalking around in the background.  Instead, they had Disney.  For instance, their song Hey Juliet first gained popularity when it was featured on an episode of Lizzie McGuire.

The video for Hey Juliet …. well, it’s all about doing laundry and having fantasies and, amazingly enough, there’s four members of the band and there’s four women in the laundromat so no one gets left out.  If you had any doubt that this song was from 2001, the Matrix homage will erase them.

Enjoy!

(As for LMNT, they broke up around 2003.)

Music Video of The Day: Low by Kelly Clarkson (2003, dir by Antti Jokinen)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

“Oh my God, is Kelly Clarkson on shrooms!?”

No, I don’t think that’s the case.  I think she just has a lot on her mind.  She’s just broken up with her boyfriend and now she’s stolen his jeep and she’s driving around South Texas.  She has a destination in mind….

“Okay, then why does she keep seeing weird stuff?”

Hell, have you ever driven around South Texas in a jeep?  You’re going to seem some stuff that’s going to make you doubt the existence of any sort of benevolent force in the universe….

Personally, I like to think of this video as being a sequel to From Justin to Kelly.  Like maybe Kelly’s stolen Justin’s jeep and now, she’s going to kick it off a cliff.  Maybe that’s why there was never a From Justin To Kelly Part 2.

Or, maybe, the jeep itself is possessed by the devil and Kelly’s visions are part of an effort to distract her from completing her mission.  Maybe Kelly is on a mission for God.  So, maybe this video belongs in the same genre as The Car, Christine, or The Wraith.

Well, whatever the case may be, let’s just be happy that Kelly got out before the jeep went over the cliff.  Still, you do have to wonder how she’s going to get home….

I have to say that, if I ever had to deal with demonic possession, Kelly Clarkson would probably be the first person who I would call to help me out because Kelly Clarkson just kicks ass.  She’s a Texas girl like me but her singing voice is like a 100 times better than mine.  I’ve actually got  lot of respect for Kelly because she’s one of the few American Idol winners to actually make a name for herself as an independent artist.  Like you can tell that she wasn’t going to let the show prepackage her as some sort of generic, safe performer.  She got what she needed out of the show and then she struck out on her own.  That’s one reason why this video works.  As you watch it, you have no doubt that, in real life, Kelly Clarkson would probably do the same thing that she’s doing here.  Like if some rich guy in El Paso ever cheated on Kelly Clarkson?  You better bet his car’s going right over the Franklin Mountains.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: 365 by Zedd, featuring Katy Perry (2019, dir by Warren Fu)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Ex Machina Part Two.

So, Katy Perry’s a robot now?  Actually, I’ve always liked Katy Perry, even though I still suffer from flashbacks whenever I remember how, during 2010, it was impossible to go anywhere or watch anything without hearing Firework.  I wouldn’t necessarily say that Katy’s in need of a comeback but it does seem like, between her feud with Taylor Swift and WITNESS, her popularity has faded a bit and she could definitely use an opportunity to remind the world that she’s more than just the latest judge on American Idol.  Hopefully, she’ll get those opportunities!

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Til I Forget About You (2010, dir by Isaac Rentz)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Remember Big Time Rush?

Right now, they’re on indefinite hiatus but, from 2009 to 2013, they were like the biggest boy band in the world.  They had their own show on Nickelodeon.  They did tours.  They released a lot of music, the majority of which kind of sounded the same but still had a fun, upbeat feel to it.  To be honest, I didn’t really know much about them other than the fact that their music videos always seemed to air between late night reruns of Degrassi.  If it wasn’t Victoria Justice singing about her best friend’s brother, it was Big Time Rush destroying Nick Cannon’s office.

One of those music videos was the one for Til I Forget About You, which is kind of a strange video.  It starts out with one of the Big Time Rush guys getting dumped via text and then, suddenly, the boys are being expected to perform at a snooty country club.  Luckily, they’re able to use the ROCK OUT app and make everyone totally rock out.  So all is right with the world, I suppose.

It’s a little bit frustrating that there aren’t more Degrassi-themed music videos.  I mean, there’s that video that Drake did, where they all burned down the school after killing one of Drake’s rivals.  And then there’s the video for Jake Epstein’s My Window, which is full of Degrassi clips.  And one of the really, really old episodes of Degrassi featured the Zit Remedy putting together a video but I’ve never been able to find a good copy of it.  Otherwise, there’s not much to choose from.  The show’s producers really missed an opportunity by not putting out any Downtown Sasquatch, Studz, or Whisperhug music videos.  I mean, seriously.  They should have taken a lesson from Big Time Rush.

Oh well.  Missed opportunities, what can you do about them?

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: All Time High, performed by Rita Coolidge (1983, dir by ????)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Today’s music video of the day is for the song that was, of course, the theme song for the 1983 James Bond film, Octopussy.  Apparently, the producers realized that there weren’t many words that comfortably rhymed with the movie’s title so they tasked John Barry and Tim Rice with coming up with a theme song that would still be radio friendly.  They came up with All Time High.

And I know that some people will tell you that this is a lesser Bond theme song and apparently, Rita Coolidge used to refuse to perform it in concert because she felt that it was an “unfinished” song but I don’t care.  I absolutely love this song.  Seriously, there are two Bond song that I simply cannot stop myself from singing along with and that’s Nobody Does It Better and All Time High.

Seriously, All Time High is a hundred times better than that song they ended up using for SPECTRE.

And it’s the perfect Valentine’s Day song!  I’ll be singing this song later tonight.  Actually, I’ll be singing a medly of James Bond theme songs tonight.  It’s kind of a Valentine’s Day tradition….

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: Friends by TWIN XL (2019, dir by ????)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Look, it’s good to have friends.

And if your friend is just someone dressed up like a big teddy bear …. well, to quote Degrassi’s Jay Hogart: “At least there’s a party.”

This video won me over.  When it started, the whole dancing teddy bear thing kind of scared me because I still have bad memories of Ted 2 and I was worried the bear was going to start speaking in Seth McFarlane’s voice.  Then, when the bear was in bed, I found myself worried that we were going to enter Shining territory.  (Remember the scene with the two ghosts, one of whom is dressed up like a dog?)  But, no, this video is actually very cute.  The members of the band are all adorable and the big teddy bear actually reminded me of this big bunny that I used to have when I was little.

To be honest, this video feels like it could be a companion piece to Saint Motel’s video for My Type.  Maybe it’s because they both take place in what appears to be a rather cheap hotel room.  Plus, there’s a lot of dancing in My Type as well.

As a final note, as far as Friends is concerned, I binged the whole thing last year and Rachel totally should have picked Joey.

Anyway, enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Stop This Train by Adi Ulmansky (2013, dir by Yonathan Weitzman)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, we have another music video from our queen, the amazing Adi Ulmansky.

As for what it’s all about …. well, I don’t know.  That’s the main reason I responded to the video.  The more surreal and dream-like the better has always been my philosophy and this video leaves me wondering if I should go to work tomorrow or if I should hide for a few days.  The sight of someone smiling while wearing clown make-up will do that to you.

Of course, it’s possible that J.W. Dunne was correct when he theorized that there is no such thing as “now” and all time may be happening all at once.  In which case, I’ve either already gone to work or I’m currently hiding in my house.  Of course, I may have misunderstood Dunne’s point.  To be honest, for the longest time, I thought John Gregory Dunne was the one with all the theories about how time worked but then I realized that I was confusing my Dunnes.  However, John Gregory Dunne did write a book called The Studio, which is the definitive portrait of Hollywood at the end of the studio system.  Dunne wrote a later book about Hollywood called Monster which is interesting just because it gives you all the details about went on behind the scenes during the production of one of the most forgettable films ever made.

Anyway, enjoy the video!

Music Video Of The Day: Cool Zombie by Adam Ant (2012, dir by Adam Ant and Adam Ross)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

So, what’s going on here?

I have to admit that my initial response to this video was to make a joke about how it was a look at a typical Thursday night at Johnny Depp’s place but I actually like this video too much to be snarky about it.  It may be an odd video but it’s a good kind of odd, I think  You have to earn the right to indulge in the surreal but I think this song and the video have done just that.

Watching this video, I get the feeling that I’m not so much looking at the end of the world as I’m looking at the day after the end of the world.  Society’s gone.  All the good clothes are gone.  You just have to wear whatever you can find.  But the music is still playing and the boats are still drifting and that’s a good thing.  It’s interesting that one thing that every post-apocalyptic vision seems to share in common is that people still desire entertainment.

Myself, I’ve already made my plans in case society collapses.  It mostly involves watching movies until the Earth plunges into the sun.  I’m thinking I’ll probably want to watch comedies.  I mean, if you know the world’s about to end, I think you would want to laugh as much as possible before the end comes.  Then again, I imagine some people would want to spend the end of the world watching movies about the end of the world just so they can brag about the irony of it all on twitter right before bursting into flame.

While the song is bluesy number about Tennessee, the title is a reference to how Adam Ant felt under the influence of his bipolar medication.  Speaking as someone who shares the struggle, Cool Zombie is the perfect way to put it.

Enjoy!