Tag Archives: low

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!

Ten Years #25: Cracker

Posted on by necromoonyeti

Decade of last.fm scrobbling countdown:
25. Cracker (1,162 plays)
Top track (52 plays): Big Dipper, from The Golden Age (1996)
Featured track: One Fine Day live, originally from Forever (2002)

Most people my age have heard Cracker, but they might not remember the name. You know, Cracker, that two-hit wonder from the early 90s that wrote “Low” and “Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)”. Like most of you, I never bothered actually picking up a Cracker album while they were popular. They only stumbled into my discography through an impulse buy when I saw their first Best Of compilation, Garage D’Or (2000), near a checkout register in Best Buy. I thought, “Oh, greatest hits? I thought they only had two,” and I picked it up to see what I was missing. For a while afterwards I was convinced that they must have had a dozen radio singles that I was just a little too young to remember, but the truth of it sank in over time: One of the greatest rock bands of my generation had slipped through the cracks.

Well, my obsession with Cracker ran for a year or two before I eventually forgot about them, and they might have been lost to me forever if I hadn’t happened to find myself in San Antonio, Texas, with a car for the first time in two years and nothing better to do with it. I did a last.fm search on upcoming gigs in Austin, saw Cracker were playing that evening, and took off. Any band would have sufficed, but these guys blew me away. Their performance defied anything you might expect out of aging rock stars. With an intimate connection to the music and the audience, it was as if they had just recorded the material yesterday; They were overlooked American legends in their prime playing in a venue small enough to make eye contact. To top it off, they even offered a tip of the hat to a semi-local country legend. (They covered Ray Wylie Hubbard’s “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother”.) I’ve gone out of my way to catch Cracker live every time they’ve played near me since, and I’m never disappointed.

I will never know why Cracker were not as successful as Pearl Jam or Tom Petty or any of the other rock legends I grew up with, because I honestly think they’re on par. David Lowery’s lyrical whit and sardonic vocals pair up perfectly with Johnny Hickman’s tasteful blues rock guitar to create one of the most readily identifiable and creative duos in the business.