Category Archives: Music Review

Music Video of the Day: Drugs by UPSAHL (2019, dir by ????)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I just came here to the party for the drugs….

Truer words have never been heard.

I always appreciate a song that’s about exactly what it says it is.  Even more so, I always like it when a video is about exactly what you think the song is about.  The song is called Drugs.  The song is about drugs.  There’s a lot of drugs to be found in the video.

(And honestly, who has never gone to a party just for the drugs?

Seriously, watching this video made me feel like it was 2007 all over again.)

Of course, neither the song nor the video are just about drugs.  They’re also about the empty banalities that most people use to get through life.  It’s about being so bored with our society and our culture that you turn to something that offers up an easy escape from all the bullshit of people at parties, dropping names and searching for fame.  It’s a song and a video about alienation and I absolutely love it and I’ll probably be singing it for the next few days.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Got To Keep On by The Chemical Brothers (2019, dir by Michel Gondry and Olivier Gondry)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

A new music video from The Chemical Brothers?

One that’s directed by Michel Gondry?

One that features a lot of dancing?

Of course, I love it!

That said, the video starts out so exuberantly but then it takes a bit off a strange turn about halfway through, which really shouldn’t be a shock considering that we’re talking about Gondry and The Chemical Brothers here.  While I wouldn’t go as far as to call it body horror (because no one appears to be particularly horrified), it still definitely feels as if our dancers taken a trip into the world of David Cronenberg.  Fortunately, things work out in the end.  They always do.

As I stated above, this video was directed by Michel Gondry, who will always have a place in the hearts of most cineastes for directing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Swallow My Gum by Lorena B (2011, dir by Ido Shor)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Before Adi Ulmansky went solo, she was a member of the Israeli experiment electronic group, Lorena B.  Along with creating a dream-like soundscape, Lorena B were known for their visceral and challenging music videos, the best of which were like surreal visual poems.

Take Swallow My Gum, for instance.  Swallow My Gum was both Lorena B’s first single and their first video.  (It was also the first track on their debut album, the self-produced Siblings.)  The video starts out as just another drive through the Israeli desert, just to get progressively stranger and stranger.  Is Adi just along for the ride or is she being held prisoner in the back of that car?  Is she traveling or is she being taken somewhere?  Are the answers even present in the video or is it more important that we decide for ourselves?  What are we to make of the child who continually flickers in out and existence?  Whenever I see her atop the power lines, I’m reminded of the scene in Twin Peaks: The Return, where Harry Dean Stanton watched a dead child’s soul disappear into a traffic light.

It’s a video that plays out like a dream of dark and disturbing things.

As for the song itself …. well, gum could be taken all sorts of way, couldn’t it?

Anyway, enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Work It by Adi Ulmansky (2013, dir by Diana Grace Windsor)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s Adi Ulmansky in space!

I should probably say some more about this video.  Adi Ulmansky is an Israeli rapper and producer and a former member of Lorena B.  I was introduced to her music by my best friend, Evelyn and what can I say other than we absolutely love Adi Ulmansky.  In this video, we get both Adi in space and some appropriately metaphorical animation.  What does it all mean?  I don’t know and it doesn’t really matter.  It’s a good song.  It’s a good video.  In the end, that’s the most important analysis that’s needed.

(I’ve seen Adi described as being “the Israeli Drake,” which is not a totally off description.  Of course, ultimately, Adi is uniquely Adi.)

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: Animal by Aurora (2019, dir by Tim Mattia)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

So, this video starts out with Aurora stuck in a cage in a back of a truck and your natural reaction is to say, “Get her out of that cage!”  Of course, as soon as she gets out, she kills a man, starts to spit up eggs, and eventually finds herself in one of those dystopian clubs that everyone goes to in the future.  (I mean, even Britney Spears found herself stuck at one.)  

So, maybe things were actually better in the cage.  Perhaps that’s what the future  holds for us all — a cage of our own on the back of a truck.  Hopefully, there will be some variety as far as the cages are concerned.  Myself, I’d prefer a big cage that has room for a bad and a couch and nice TV.  It would appear that Aurora got suck in one of the cheaper cages, which just doesn’t seem right.

I believe that the point of this video is that everyone’s an animal, driven by animalistic desires.  I have to agree with that and it certainly does explain a lot about what’s been happening on twitter lately.  That said, I like the video mostly because I have a weakness for shadowy cityscapes.  There’s literally not a single song that can’t be improved by a music video taking place in a dark alley.

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: Football Is Our Religion by Rednex (2008, dir by ????)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

“Actually, in the rest of the world, soccer is known as football….”

Yes, this song isn’t actually about American football but who cares?  Rednex loves soccer.  Rednecks love football.  It all works out.

Myself, I don’t particularly care for either but I will be watching the Super Bowl for the commercials and the halftime show.  With Maroon 5 headlining, this should be the best halftime show of 2010.  So, here’s hoping whichever team you like wins and hopefully, there won’t be any serious injuries during the game, nor will any riots break out afterwards.  People take sports very seriously, for some reason.

Did you know that today is also American Painters Day?  Maybe when you’re celebrating sportsball, take a moment to appreciate something that doesn’t cause concussions and compound fractures.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Out of Control by The Chemical Brothers (1999, dir by W.I.Z.)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The revolution, as they used to say, will be televised.

Of course, those who used to say that were being rather short-sighted.  Today, we know that the revolution will be streamed, live tweeted, and it will probably trend until Beyonce knocks it off the list.  Revolution, itself, is a term that gets tossed around a lot.  Everyone tends to claim that their revolution is the one “true” revolution.  It takes a little bit of concentration to keep track of which revolution we’re supposed to support and which one we’re supposed to find horrifying.

With all that in mind, revolution has always been good for sales.  The commercialization of rebellion has been around forever.  The music video above was released in 1999 but it feels like it could have been released yesterday.  When Pepsi thought it would be a good idea to have Kendall Jenner change the world with a can of soda, did they realize they were essentially copying this music video?

Of course, that’s Rosario Dawson, playing the spokesrebel.  Rumor has it that Rosario Dawson is currently dating Sen. Cory Booker, who might be our next President.  Senator Booker got some attention for himself last year when he announced that he was having an “I am Spartacus” moment, a reminder that even sitting U.S. senators like to fancy themselves as being revolutionaries.  Being a rebel pays.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: America The Beautiful, performed by Ray Charles (1972, dir by ????)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Happy National Freedom Day!

Now, you may think that I’m making up a holiday but I’m not.  National Freedom Day has been observed annually on February 1st ever since 1949.  That’s because February 1st is also the anniversary of the day, in 1865, that Abraham Lincoln signed the joint Senate and House resolution calling for a 13th amendment, one that would abolish slavery.  Lincoln did not live to see that amendment ratified on December 6th and officially adopted to the Constitution on December 18th of the same year.

So, in honor of National Freedom Day, here’s Ray Charles singing America The Beautiful on a 1972 episode of the Dick Cavett Show.  Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Wake Up by Hilary Duff (2005, dir by Marc Webb)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

When I think back to 2005, it sometimes seems as if every single song released that year was about how difficult it was to be a rich former Disney star.  I know that, technically, that’s just a trick of my memory and there was a wide variety of songs released that year.  But, if you mention 2005 to me, my automatic reaction is going to be to start singing, “People talking …. talking about me …. they think they know me …. they don’t know me….”  Again, that’s not from any specific song.  It just seems that 2005 was the year when everyone was singing about people talking about them.

Then again, I might just be thinking about Hilary Duff’s Wake Up.  Wake Up was promoted as showcasing a totally new sound for the former Lizzie McGuire.  Of course, it really didn’t but I still like the song.  It’s almost a guilty pleasure, to be honest.  I know it’s not exactly a great song but it certainly gets stuck in your head and the lyrics are shallow enough that it’s easy to relate to them.

The video features Hilary going to parties around the world and having a good time.  Basically, the video is shouting, “She’s not just Lizzie McGuire anymore!”  The video was directed by Marc Webb, who later went on to direct the two Spider-Man films that nobody remembers.  He also directed Gifted, which is a film that left me cold but which is loved by a lot of other people.

One fun thing to do with this video is to turn down Hilary’s vocals and replace them with Rebecca Black singing Friday.  Seriously, it works!

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Chlorine by twenty one pilots (2019, dir by Reel Bear Media)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I like this video.

When it starts you think it’s just going to be another suburban sprawl video, with the ennui-stricken kids and the empty swimming pools and the workaholic father and the pill-popping moms.  And I’ve got nothing against existential dread but, when the video started, I wasn’t expecting this to be anything that I hadn’t seen before.

And then Ned showed up.

Ned is the little alien thing who is watching Tyler and Josh while they’re cleaning the pool.  It’s really impossible not to love Ned.  I mean, Ned is adorable!  And the way that Ned comes out of hiding and then quickly ducks back into hiding reminds me of the way Doc acts whenever he’s playing with me or Erin.  Of course, Doc doesn’t like water so he probably wouldn’t be near a pool.  Doc’s thing is to get underneath the couch and then try to grab you whenever you walk by.  I cannot begin to tell you how many times I’ve fallen asleep on the floor, just to wake up with Doc trying to pull my hair out of my head.

Anyway, Ned is obviously pretty picky about what type of water it’ll dive into and that’s probably a good thing.  A friend of mine once swam in a pool that hadn’t been properly cleaned and her eyes were so bloodshot afterward that I basically had to stop being her friend until they cleared up.  They were like seriously freaking me out.

I love the closing shot of this video.  Ned and Tyler, hanging out in the swimming pool.

Enjoy!