Music Video of the Day: I Believe In A Thing Called Love by The Darkness (2003, dir. Alex Smith)

Posted on February 14, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

Happy Valentines Day!

That’s not enough? Okay, fine.

The video starts off with The Darkness onboard their version of the ZZ Top spaceship car.

Rough Boy by ZZ Top

Then Justin Hawkins emerges from a heart-shaped bath before something that reminds me of Grimace dries him off. That’s followed by Hawkins reminding us that he is a fan of Queen.

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

You can also see in the background that he either made a sculpture based on this…

I Want To Break Free by Queen

or borrowed some of the furniture from the Korova Milk Bar used last by Rob Zombie in 2002.

Never Gonna Stop by Rob Zombie

This was a few years before Zombie would get Alex DeLarge and Michael Myers to sit down and discuss masks.

Then it’s time to introduce the rest of the band, and play some guitar before Hawkins gets beamed down to a planet to fight a giant crab. I guess the Gorn were too good for this music video.

Star Trek: TOS — Arena

However, we do get a cameo appearance from the rock.

Star Trek: TOS — Arena

Of course Hawkins dodges the rock like Captain Kirk did, and with the power of a Bohemian Rhapsody reference…

he throws it right back. They’re working with a limited runtime. Hawkins doesn’t have the time to make a gun.

Then Hawkins runs through decontamination before turning to point down the corridor to show off their gigantic Marshall Stack.

I’m sure they were added later, but I’m still going to call this for The Animals and say that hot flames of fire were roaring at their feet. I have no idea if this one was a reference to Spill The Wine by The Animals, but it is the first thing I thought of when I saw the scene. Plus, out of the middle of the flames does comes this red-colored Orion girl.

Meanwhile, back on the bridge, the band prepares for their final reference.

A space creature latches itself onto the ship like in that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Star Trek: The Next Generation — Galaxy’s Child

Unlike Star Trek: The Next Generation, they turn on their instrument phasers and blast the thing to dust.

Then we get a thumbs up from Hawkins…

before their ship crash lands on a planet in the video for their song Friday Night, which picked up right after this one.

Again, Happy Valentine’s Day!

2016 In Review: Lisa Marie’s 14 Favorite Songs of 2016

Posted on January 10, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Every January, I list my fourteen favorite songs of the previous year and, every January, I include the same disclaimer. My fourteen favorite songs are not necessarily the fourteen favorite songs of any of the other writers here at the Shattered Lens. We are a large and diverse group of people and, as such, we all have our own individual tastes.

If you ever visited the TSL Bunker, you would be shocked by the different music coming out of each office. You would hear everything from opera to death metal to the best of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. And then, of course, you would reach my office and you would discover that my taste in music pretty much runs the gamut from EDM to More EDM.

Now, usually, I do try to listen to a variety of music. You can go to my Song of the Day site — Lisa Marie’s Song of the Day — and see that I do occasionally listen to other types of music. But, I have to be honest. 2016 was not a year that inspired me to really leave me comfort zone. If anything, music provided me with some much needed consistency in an otherwise chaotic year. 2016 was a year that made me want to dance until it was all over and, for the most part, my favorite songs of the year reflect that fact.

Before I list my 14 songs, I should make something else very clear. These are my 14 favorite songs of 2016. I’m not saying that they’re necessarily the best songs of 2016. I’ll leave that debate for others. Instead, there are the songs that I found myself listening to over and over again. These are the songs made me dance. These are the songs that made me sing. A few of these songs relaxed me when I needed to be relaxed. One of the songs made me cry but I’m not going to say which one.

It might make you cry too.

Or it might not.

That’s the beautiful thing about art. Everyone experiences it in their own individual way.

Here are my 14 favorite songs of 2016:

14) David Bowie — Lazarus

13) Afrojack & Hardwell — Hollywood

12) Cedric Gervais (ft. Juanes) — Este Amor

11) Matoma (ft. Becky Hall) — False Alarm

10) Radiohead — Burn the Witch

9) Gorgon City (feat Vaults) — All Four Walls

8) Penthox — Give It Away

7) Britney Spears — Clumsy

6) Martin Garrix (feat Mesto) — WIEE

5) Tiesto, Oliver Heldens (feat Natalie LaRose) — The Right Song

4) The Weekend (feat Daft Punk) — Starboy

3) Radiohead — Daydreaming

2) Coldplay — Up&Up

1) The Chemical Brothers — C-h-e-m-i-c-a-l

For my previous picks, check out 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015!

Tomorrow, I will be posting some of my favorite things that I saw on television in 2016!

Previous Entries In The Best of 2016:

A Movie A Day #1: Stop Making Sense (1984, directed by Jonathan Demme)

Posted on January 1, 2017 by Jedadiah Leland

A pair of immaculate white sneakers, being worn by the lead singer of The Talking Heads, David Byrne, walk out onto a bare stage while an unseen audience applauds. Byrne places a radio on the stage beside him and says, “I have a tape I want to play for you.” Accompanied only by a drum machine and an acoustic guitar, Byrne launches into a performance of Psycho Killer that ends with him lurching across the stage like a marionette that is losing its strings.

So begins the greatest concert film of all time, Stop Making Sense.

As Psycho Killer comes to an end, Byrne is joined on stage by bassist Tina Weymouth. While Byrne and Weymouth perform Heaven, the black-clad stage crew sets up a drum kit behind them. Drummer Chris Frantz comes out for the third song, Thank You For Sending Me An Angel. The fourth member of the Talking Heads, Jerry Harrison, appears on stage for Found A Job and is then followed by several touring members of the band, including legendary keyboardist Bernie Worrell, guitarist Alex Weir, percussionist Steve Scales, and backup singers, Lynn Mabry and Ednah Holt. It’s not until the concert’s sixth song, Burning Down The House, that the entire band is on stage.

Pieced together from three separate shows performed at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles, Stop Making Sense showcases one of the most important bands of the 80s at their absolute best. Eschewing any candid footage of the band backstage and only occasionally showing any shots of the audience, Jonathan Demme keeps the focus on the music and David Byrne’s amazing showmanship. Even more than the music, what really makes Stop Making Sense stand out is Byrne’s physicality. During one instrumental passage, Byrne even runs around the stage in circles before jumping back to his microphone without missing a beat.

Though the entire band is in great form, Byrne is almost always the focus of attention. The only time he’s not is when he goes backstage during a performance of Genius Of Love by Weymouth and Frantz’s side project, The Tom Tom Club. During that time, Byrne is changing into the “big suit,” the costume that continues to define the Talking Heads to this day.

Along with Burning Down The House, highlights include Life During Wartime,

Swamp,

Once in a Lifetime,

and Stop Making Sense‘s most famous moment, David Byrne performing Girlfriend is Better while wearing the iconic “big suit.”

Stop Making Sense is a fun, exhilarating, and sometimes exhausting concert film and, given all the bad feelings that exist between Byrne and the other three members of the band, it’s probably as close as any of us will ever get to experiencing The Talking Heads live.

For tomorrow’s movie a day, I’ll be explaining why Blue Chips always makes me think of England.

Song of the Day: Father Figure (by George Michael)

Posted on December 26, 2016 by Arleigh

The year of 2016 has taken many of the music scene’s greatest. Prince, David Bowie and Glenn Frey just to name a few taken too soon. Now, George Michael joins his musical brethren as news of his passing on Christmas Day was announced and confirmed.

There’s not much to say other than any kid growing up during the late 80’s knew and listened to George Michael in some capacity or another. While he became famous as part of the British boy band WHAM! it was when he branched out on his own as a solo act that he hit megastar status. His solo debut album, Faith, would reach multi-platinum levels and each single released from the album and each video that ran in circulation on MTV would become instant hits.

My favorite song of his and this goes to his many excellent post-modern videos, would be the third single released from his debut album, “Father Figure.”.

Father Figure

That’s all I wanted
Something special, something sacred
In your eyes

For just one moment
To be bold and naked
At your side

Sometimes I think that you’ll never
Understand me (understand me)
Maybe this time is forever
Say it can be, woah

That’s all you wanted
Something special, someone sacred
In your life

Just for one moment
To be warm and naked
At my side

Sometimes I think that you’ll never
Understand me (understand me)
But something tells me together
We’d be happy, woah baby

I will be your father figure (oh baby)
Put your tiny hand in mine (I’d love to)
I will be your preacher teacher (be your daddy)
Anything you have in mind (it would make me)

I will be your father figure (very happy)
I have had enough of crime (please let me)
I will be the one who loves you
Till the end of time

That’s all I wanted
But sometimes love can be mistaken
For a crime

That’s all I wanted
Just to see my baby’s
Blue-eyed shine

This time I think that my lover
Understands me (understands me)
If we have faith in each other
Then we can be strong, baby

I will be your father figure
Put your tiny hand in mine (my baby)
I will be your preacher teacher
Anything you have in mind

I will be your father figure
I have had enough of crime
I will be the one who loves you
Till the end of time

If you are the desert, I’ll be the sea
If you ever hunger, hunger for me
Whatever you ask for, that’s what I’ll be

So when you remember the ones who have lied
Who said that they cared
But then laughed as you cried

Beautiful darling
Don’t think of me
Because all I ever wanted
It’s in your eyes
Baby, baby
And love can’t lie, no

(Greet me with the eyes of a child)
My love is always telling me so
(Heaven is a kiss and a smile)
Just hold on, hold on
And won’t let you go, my baby

I will be your father figure
Put your tiny hand in mine
I will be your preacher teacher
Anything you have in mind

I will be your father figure
And I have had enough of crime
So I am gonna love you
Till the end of time

(I will be your father) I will be your
(I will be your preacher) Father
(I will be your father) I’ll be your daddy, whoa
I will be the one who loves you
Till the end of time

Hooray for Santa Claus! (And Hooray for Milton DeLugg and the Little Eskimos!)

Posted on December 25, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Did everyone have a good Christmas? Did everyone get everything that they wanted?

If the answer’s yes, you have one man to thank for that!

Hooray for Santy Claus!

(You might recognize this song from one of our favorite holiday classics, Santa Claus Conquers The Martians! Apparently, it was performed by Milton DeLugg and the Little Eskimos.)

(Be careful listening to this song. As TSL contributor and Late Night Movie Gang founder Patrick Smith can tell you, once this song gets stuck in your head, it’ll never leave.)

Guilty Pleasure No. 32: It’s So Cold In The D by T-Baby (a.k.a. My Excuse For Not Getting More Accomplished Today)

Posted on November 21, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I’m supposed to be writing right now but I can’t get this damn song out of my head…

Oh well — I’m going to try to get something of value written and posted tonight, even if I do have an 8 year-old meme stuck in my head…

WISH ME LUCK!

Previous Guilty Pleasures

Jimi Hendrix Plays The Star-Spangled Banner!

Posted on July 4, 2016 by Jedadiah Leland

On August 18, 1969, Jimi Hendrix performed the greatest version of The Star Spangled Banner on record. Jimi, who has been awake for three days when he performed his version of the National Anthem, later said, “We’re all Americans … it was like ‘Go America!’… We play it the way the air is in America today. The air is slightly static, see”

Congratulations! You survived Friday the 13th!

Posted on May 13, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Congratulations!

Depending on where you live, Friday the 13th is either over or nearly over! And, if you’re reading this, you survived!!!!!

Obviously, you listened to Crazy Ralph and you did not have sex, smoke weed, skinny dip, go out at night, take a boat trip to Manhattan, go into space, go to sleep, go out for firewood, ask any strange people if they needed help, go looking for your friends, strip down to your underwear so you could go run around in the rain, or have any fun whatsoever!

In other words, today was a boring day for you! But you survived!

In honor of your survival, here’s the end theme from Friday the 13th. This was composed by Harry Manfredini and, believe it or not, it’s actually a rather beautiful piece of music. So, celebrate your survival by listening.

And be prepared to make up for lost time on Saturday the 14th! Be bad…be very bad….

In Memory of David Bowie

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Jedadiah Leland

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Last night, when I heard that David Bowie had died, I immediately flashed back to the summer of 2003. I spent that summer hanging out with my friend Jay. I was an aspiring writer and he was the musician who got all the girls. Jay was also a David Bowie fanatic whose cover of The Man Who Sold The World was at least as good as Nirvana’s. When I think about that summer, I remember the all-night bull sessions, smoking in Jay’s backyard, watching reruns of Hawaii 5-0 and agreeing that McGarrett was one cool dude, and the weekly poker games where I always seemed to lose. But mostly, I remember David Bowie providing the greatest soundtrack anyone could want.

Over his 50 year career, David Bowie reinvented himself many times. When he released his first single in 1964, he did so under his real name. He was 17 years old when Davie Jones and the Queen Bees released Liza Jane.

By the time he released Space Oddity in 1969, Davie Jones had become David Bowie. Space Oddity would introduce the world to Major Tom, a character to whom Bowie would return in the future.

1970’s The Man Who Sold The World is often erroneously believed to be a retelling of Robert Heinlein’s novella, The Man Who Sold The Moon. In 1997, Bowie himself said that the song was about being young and feeling incomplete.

Life on Mars? was once described by BBC Radio 2 as being “a cross between a Broadway musical and a Salvador Dali painting.”

1975’s Golden Years, with its chorus of “run for the shadows,” is one of my personal favorites.

In 1977, David Bowie appeared on the final Bing Crosby Christmas Special. He and Bing performed Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy. At the time, Bing was quoted as saying about Bowie: “clean-cut kid and a real fine asset to the show. He sings well, has a great voice and reads lines well.”

In 1980, Major Tom returned in Ashes to Ashes.

Rather than grow stagnant as an artist, David Bowie was always reinventing himself. In 1997, he proved he was still a force to be reckoned with when he released I’m Afraid of Americans.

In November, David Bowie released Blackstar. In the song’s video, Major Tom made his final appearance.

Lazarus was the last single that David Bowie released during his lifetime. The video was released three days before he died and feels like it was his way of saying goodbye.

Rest in peace, good sir. And thank you for the music and the memories.

2015 in Review: Lisa Marie’s 10 Favorite Songs!

Posted on January 7, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Whenever we have visitors here at Shattered Lens HQ, the first thing that they always seem to notice is the wide variety of music being played. Considering the number of contributors that we have working here on any given day, it makes sense. After all, we all have our own individual tastes in music and we’re not afraid to play it loud.

Of course, I’m sure it can be somewhat jarring who is, for the first time, discovering the aural experience of walking down a hallway here at the TSL Building. As you walk by Necromoonyeti’s office, you hear the sounds of metal thunder. Across the hallway, Arleigh might very well be listening to The Phantom of the Opera soundtrack. Even further down the hallway, you might hear the blogger known as Jedadiah Leland listening to anything from Nine Inch Nails to Ornette Coleman or maybe you’ll even hear my sister singing along with Beyonce. Eventually, you’ll reach my office and, nine times out of ten, I will be blasting EDM (or occasionally Britney Spears) and dancing, only turning the music down if Leonard Wilson stops by my office to continue our debate as to whether or not Aaron Sorkin is an overrated misogynist.

(Occasionally, if I’m lucky, I can convince Valerie Troutman to come to my office and sing the Degrassi theme song with me. Whatever it takes, I know I can make it through….)

Anyway, my point is that every writer at the Shattered Lens is an individual with her or his own taste in music, movies, and … well, everything. So, when you look at my list of my 10 favorite songs of 2015, you should keep in mind that these are my ten favorite songs and they do not necessarily reflect the musical opinions or tastes of anyone here at the Shattered Lens but me! And, in fact, if you want to see just how eclectic a group we here at the Shattered Lens, be sure to check out Necromoonyeti’s list of his favorite metal albums of 2015!

Anyway, here are my favorite songs of 2015. Notice that I didn’t say “best.” Instead, these are some of the songs that I spent the previous 12 months obsessively listening to. When I make my autobiographical movie about my life in 2015, these are the songs that will appear on the soundtrack!

Honorable Mention: Elle King — Ex’s and Oh’s

Ex’s and Oh’s has pretty much been my song all through 2015. However, the song itself was originally released in 2014 and this is a list of the best songs released in 2015. That said, hardly a day in 2015 went by without my listening to and singing along with this song and there’s no way I can’t include it.

Special Bonus Track Included Because Otherwise There Would Be 11 Songs Listed And Lisa Has A Phobia About Odd Numbers: Ellie Goulding — Love Me Like You Do