Music Video of the Day: Fox On The Run by Girlschool (1988, dir. Jean Pellerin)

Posted on July 18, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

I can’t believe it took till the 369th post to do a Girlschool music video. I would have gone with I’m The Leader Of The Gang, but…Gary Glitter and all. Plus, while that one may have a scorpion in it, this one has a random dog in the background. That, and since I did The Ballroom Blitz by Sweet for other reasons, I figured I’d do their version of Fox On The Run, and then do the Girlschool cover.

Girlschool is a second wave British heavy metal band that is all-female. If you aren’t familiar with them, but do know who Motörhead is, then they are along similar lines, but women. They are friends. They collaborated. They had a similar opinion towards music that wasn’t heavy metal. They did covers of songs that weren’t heavy metal. Sadly, they now share something else in common–both of their lead singers are no longer with us. Kelly Johnson passed away from cancer in 2007. Lemmy passed away from cancer, congestive heart failure, and cardiac arrhythmia in 2015. Assuming it is still up, you can see them perform Please Don’t Touch below as Headgirl on Top Of The Pops.

If you don’t know Motörhead, then you should, and Girlschool is heavy metal, but with leanings towards punk rock and new wave. I even remember hearing an interview one time where Girlschool referred to themselves as a new wave band even though they play heavy metal.

In 1988, when this video came out, Kelly Johnson wasn’t with the group as she is in the performance above. Rhythm guitarist Kim McAuliffe sings lead vocals. She is an original member of the band.

The video…well this video is exactly what it looks like. It’s Girlschool doing a version of that kind of music video that made Bon Jovi’s career, which I’ve seen credited to the video for Home Sweet Home by Mötley Crüe. It’s that mixture of the band onstage, but also behind-the-scenes stuff that frequently includes a tour bus. The difference between this and those videos, is that this one screams that the 80s are about to die, whereas Home Sweet Home and Livin’ On A Prayer don’t.

Edge Of A Broken Heart by Vixen ages a bit better because of the glam, but it also came out in 1988. You can tell it was starting to wear thin even if the quality of the music wasn’t. I’ll do Edge Of A Broken Heart soon because while I don’t know if they had any formal connections with Poison, the first thing that came to mind when I watched that video was Poison. Then just in case you didn’t think that, they have someone with a Poison jacket on in the video.

I’ll get to other Girlschool videos, like the one where they transform from cats into humans. It’s weird to look at that video if your first introduction to them is this video. Or you discover them in the late 2000s while in college, and the greatest hits album you buy has a cover with them in leather and denim looking like they are ready to kill the photographer if they don’t leave soon. That would be how I found them.

I’ll get to their covers of Tush and 20th Century Boy as well. Of course they covered T-Rex and ZZ Top. In the meantime, enjoy their take on Sweet’s Fox On The Run even if the video is nothing particularly special.

The video was directed by Jean Pellerin who did about 20 videos, and has done some feature films.

Bart Devaney was the executive producer.

Jean Richardson was the producer.

Sarah Bayliss was the production manager.

The one who seems to have the most credits is the runner, Bill Payn, who did that on at least 32 videos. He also did some 1st and 2nd assistant directing work on a couple of music videos. He appears to still be doing work in those areas–music and otherwise.

Music Video of the Day: Scream! by Misfits (1999, dir. George Romero)

Posted on July 17, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

Depending on where you go, this was either directed solely by Romero, or by both him and Richard Donner. Considering I can’t find any credits for the two of them working together elsewhere, and Donner appears to have only directed two unrelated music-videos, I am going with just Romero. There is also an explanation on Wikipedia about how this video came into existence that seals the deal for me:

The music video was directed by George A. Romero, famous for his Living Dead film series. Bassist Jerry Only has expressed admiration for Romero, calling Night of the Living Dead “still to this day one of the scariest movies ever made.” At the time Romero was in Toronto filming Bruiser and needed a band to perform during the film’s final murder scene. The Misfits agreed to perform in the film and to record two songs for the soundtrack in exchange for Romero directing their “Scream” video. According to Only, “It was an even trade, we shook hands and the deal was done. Business complications soon followed and I became very unhappy with my record label and my publishing company.” No soundtrack was issued for Bruiser. The Misfits’ two songs, “Fiend Without a Face” and “Bruiser”, along with the demo version of “Scream”, were released in 2001 on the compilation album Cuts from the Crypt.

The “Scream” music video consists of black-and-white footage of the band members as zombies terrorizing a hospital along with a number of Misfits fans, interspersed with color footage of the band performing live. A promotional VHS version of the video was included for free with the purchase of a set of Misfits action figures from 21st Century toys in 1999 and 2000. The video was also included in an enhanced CD-ROM portion of Cuts from the Crypt in 2001.

With Romero’s passing yesterday, I thought I’d see if he ever did a music video. He apparently did for the legendary punk rock band, Misfits. With a little search, I can see why they would ultimately end up doing a video with Romero. They did a song called Night Of The Living Dead in 1979 and are a horror based punk rock band. They would later do songs called Land Of The Dead and Twilight Of The Dead. Their history as a horror band is chronicled over on Wikipedia.

From what I can tell, this was rather late in the game for The Misfits in the sense that they were having band overhauls including not having original lead-singer Glenn Danzig. That’s as far as I’ll go talking about the band because my knowledge about them until I did some reading right now consistened of the following:

Oh, yeah. I know of the Misfits. Much like Meat Puppets, Mudhoney, Green River and others, their names always come up when they talk about bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden. The bands that didn’t get enough attention, but if you want to know where the grunge explosion came from, then these are groups you are supposed to look at.

So, with no joke intended, rest in peace Romero. Enjoy the music video.

I didn’t find out that Martin Landau also passed away yesterday till after having written this post. Amazingly, this connects to him as well. The Misfits used to have their own record label called Blank Records. Then Mercury Records wanted the trademark to it, and exchanged studio time with the band for it. The band renamed the label, Plan 9 Records, after Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959). Rest in peace, Martin Landau.

Music Video of the Day: Sunday Morning by The Velvet Underground & Nico (2017, dir. James Eads)

Posted on July 16, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

I’ve been dying to do this on an actual Sunday morning.

I have no special info on this video other than a couple things below and the usual YouTube comment section nonsense. It amounts to people complaining that the video is too hippie, and that the group made fun of hippies in songs like Sweet Jane–a song that starts out trippy. If anything, the only problem I see is that if the quote over on Wikipedia from Andy Warhol is correct, then the song is supposed to be about paranoia. I’m not sure the images get that across.

I don’t care. I love the song. It has always felt warm, comforting, and like an out-of-body experience. This video reflects that for me.

It was directed by James Eads, who also did the art.

The animation was done by Chris McDaniel.

The only other credit for either of them that I can find is that James Eads designed the poster for the film What Would Bear Do? (2013). You can visit his website here, which has some of his artwork.

You can read a little about how the two met to take Eads artwork and turn it into animation here.

There are numerous videos and other pages of their animated images.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Fox On The Run by Sweet (1975, dir. ???)

Posted on July 15, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

Q: Didn’t you just feature a Sweet video yesterday?
A: No, Lisa did yesterday’s post.

Q: You know what I mean! The day before last-the last time you posted.
A: That’s true.

Q: Wait a second…did you and Lisa collude to do a Warren Fu video because you plan on doing…
A: I’ll stop you right there. Of course I will get to that video. How could I avoid it?

Q: So why are you doing this video? Because it was in the trailer for Guardians Of The Galaxy, Vol. 2? You want to point out that Marvel can also play the pick-a-song-that-ties-in-with-our-rival’s-movie game?
A: No, but since you mention it, that is a good tie-in.

Q: Then why are you doing this video? They all stand as stiff as Arthur Kane of New York Dolls. But at least that was something he was known for doing onstage.
A: Yes. That’s one of the reasons I am doing it. I want people to appreciate the difference between this, and the video for The Ballroom Blitz–made two years prior.

Q: Then what’s the other reason? Stop jerking me around.
A: The answer to that is easy.

Q: That’s not an answer.
A: Yes, it is. I just found out they’re gonna stick some tubes down my throat at the beginning of August. I’m so sorry it’s too cryptic for you.

Q: At least include those “Song Of The Month” things Andy Scott did about their songs. You forgot that when you did The Ballroom Blitz.
A: Good point. I did forget those. So, here they are for Fox On The Run and The Ballroom Blitz.

Q: Okay, I’m satisfied. Just say your stupid catchphrase, and end this conversation with yourself.
A: Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: Instant Crush by Daft Punk featuring Julian Casablancas (2013, dir by Warren Fu)

Posted on July 14, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi, everyone! Lisa here with today’s music video of the day!

July 14th is Bastille Day in France so it only seems appropriate to share a video from my two favorite French musical artistes, Daft Punk. That’s right — the robots are French!

Instant Crush was the fourth single to be released off of Daft Punk’s Grammy-winning fourth album, Random Access Memories. It’s a collaboration between the robots and Julian Casablancas. The video was directed by veteran music video director Warren Fu and it brings tears to my eyes every time.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: The Ballroom Blitz by Sweet (1973, dir. ???)

Posted on July 13, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

I am a few years behind when it comes to recent films. I’m still working through 2015 at the moment. As a result, I only watched Suicide Squad (2016) recently. I don’t like to watch short films made with footage edited from a feature film–trailers. Therefore, when I watched the movie, I was expecting this song to be in it since I had at least heard of a connection between the two. No such luck. Instead I got what felt like random musical choices with the exception of Paranoid by Black Sabbath since it was on the same album as Iron Man. That’s something that I doubt many people picked up on or cared if they did.

Anyhow, I was guessing at the date for this video because while it did get a European release in 1973, it didn’t get a release in the US till 1975–according to Wikipedia. Then I found the video again, also on Sweet’s official channel, but as it was played on the German show Disco on October, 27th 1973. That’s why I went with 1973 for the video.

It’s a stage performance video. It is one of the better ones I’ve seen. I think they did a good job editing it to match the fast-pace of the song. That’s all I can say about the video itself.

As for the song, it was inspired by an incident in January of 1973 in Kilmarnock, Scotland at Grand Hall where the band had to flee the stage under a barrage of bottles being thrown at them by the audience.

As for where you know it from, it’s probably either the Suicide Squad trailer, Dancing With The Stars, or Wayne’s World (1992). Wayne’s World is what introduced me to this song. It wasn’t until around 2007 that I found out they did other songs too. I’ll get to some of those another day.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: In Another Life by EMIN (2013, dir. ???)

Posted on July 12, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

In another life, I wouldn’t have to spotlight this music video. But I might as well since it has made it all the way to the mass media. Plus, Jimmy Kimmel already beat me to a video that not only fits, but also ties in with the new Planet Of The Apes movie.

Land Of Confusion by Genesis (1986)

I’m sure you’ve all read or seen talk about EMIN’s involvement in the current controversy, the Miss Universe pageant, and Trump, Jr. However, the New York Times articles I read fail to talk about the music video itself. That’s disappointing. I guess that’s why I need to write this post.

EMIN is a Russian artist who was born in Azerbaijan as Emin Agalarov. He moved to Moscow as a kid, went to high school in New Jersey, and graduated from Marymount Manhattan College–according to Wikipedia. He said in an interview with The Irish Times back in 2015 that he went to college in Jersey–close enough. He says in that same interview that he started off singing at open-mic nights in bars. He would translate Elvis Presley songs into Russian so that he could sing them at home. Kinda like the kid in the Taiwanese film A Brighter Summer Day (1991) whose sister would translate Elvis songs for him.

After graduating with a Business degree, he went back to Russia and in 2005 started taking vocal lessons from a well-known Azerbaijani singer named Muslim Magomayev. Magomayev was famous enough that a few years before he died, he was given the Order Of Honour by Putin. Because of course that kind of connection would be there. After that, Wikipedia simply states facts about the success of his albums.

While he says otherwise, music does appear to be a hobby that he happens to take seriously. He works in the family business, because again, of course he does. According to that same interview with The Irish Times, he used to have an eBay store back in college where he sold Russian memorabilia. He also opened his own shoe store because of the success of the eBay store.

At least as of the date of The Irish Times interview, he identifies as Muslim. However, the most interesting part of the interview is as follows:

[Q:] Musically, you’d be on the Michael Bublé/ Enrique Iglesias end of the spectrum. Who were your heroes growing up?
[A:] My heroes were Elvis, Elvis and Elvis! One of my favourite Elvis songs is My Boy, and now that you’ve told me it was written by an Irishman [Phil Coulter] I love it even more.

With that background out of the way, let’s look at the video.

The video starts off in a boardroom where EMIN is being shown pictures of Miss Universe contestants because business connections. According to Wikipedia, Miss USA (2013)–Erin Brady–said that her and other contestants were not paid for their appearance in this video. Yet, if you go to the New York Times article it says that they weren’t paid for their appearance in EMIN’s video for Amor. But that same article also says that Trump made an appearance in that video. He doesn’t. I’m not sure what to make of that. I think the article has the two videos confused since Amor just has 2012 Miss Universe winner Olivia Culpo in it. Or the article was trying to say they were shot at the same time. That’s my best guess.

We see that it’s one of his co-workers who is showing him these photos.

EMIN isn’t interested…

but it is making this guy sweat.

EMIN falls asleep and wakes up back home.

For whatever reason, the video jump cuts to his head tilted to our left. He gets some coffee and spots a pretty woman in his kitchen.

Surprised, EMIN spills coffee on himself. Since he can’t go about his day with a metaphor, he goes and changes. Then he proceeds to leap on his couch…

and do a handstand like everyone does in the morning.

EMIN goes to brush his teeth when another woman appears.

He goes around and sings a bit before settling down at the piano where Miss Russia appears next to him.

She disappears too, which leaves EMIN confused. Luckily Miss USA straightens him out by hitting him in the head with a pillow.

This appears to turn him on when he realizes it was her.

Then EMIN realizes there are people behind him. That would be Miss Puerto Rico, Miss Poland, and Miss Switzerland. That means America attacked him, and behind him are people representative of a US territory acquired in the Spanish-American War, a country taken by Hitler during WWII, and one that is traditionally associated with remaining neutral in conflicts–particularly WWII.

They disappear on him as well, so he goes to look under the bed? Do women normally hide under there in his dreams?

After sitting in a chair, he is suddenly walking down some steps with Miss Spain, Miss Philippines, Miss Ukraine, Miss Turkey, and Miss Japan. We have a Russian singer walking in front of a country that once colonized the one behind it, that is followed by one that was part of the Soviet Union. Behind Miss Ukraine, we have Miss Japan representing a country who took the Philippines. To the side of Miss Ukraine, we have Miss Turkey. Interesting combination.

Now EMIN goes into his pool room and sees Miss Philippines and Miss Puerto Rico hanging out together. Makes sense, a former territory of the US with a current territory of the US.

We also see Miss Spain talking with Miss Switzerland. Two countries that were largely neutral during WWII.

Miss Turkey is walking on the other side of the pool while…

Miss Ukraine is poolside. Turkey having been one of the first countries to recognize Ukraine’s independence from the USSR. They still do as recently as January of this year as it pertains to Russia.

That’s when the co-worker from earlier jumps into the pool since she has the opposite body-type from the rest of the ladies.

EMIN wakes up and Donald Trump makes his cameo appearance to of course fire EMIN for showing up late and falling asleep at work.

That’s not bad. I still prefer claymation Trump firing Donner.

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer by Regis Philbin (2006)

There you go! That’s the video that is currently in the news. It’s not a particularly good song. It wouldn’t be a noteworthy video beyond the inclusion of Trump but for the seemingly intentional choices of which ladies to use depending on the countries they represent, and their relations over the years.

Music Video of the Day: Computer Games by Mi-Sex (1979, dir. ???)

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

I wasn’t kidding yesterday. Here is the music video where a band breaks into a data center to sing about games. To be more specific, they break into the then Control Data Corporation’s North Sydney center. Once inside, we see the games Speed Freak, Basketball, and Star Fire, along with code, a printout of the Mona Lisa, lots of paper, and tape storage.

I don’t think I’ve played any of the games. Although, while Star Fire looks familiar, I think I am confusing it for the Star Wars vector graphics game that a college near me had in its arcade when I did computer camp there one summer in the early 90s.

The band, Mi-Sex, is from New Zealand, and according to Wikipedia, started up just a year prior to this song. Aside from a history of the band, all I can find out about this song and video is that the song was a last-minute addition to the album, and what I already wrote above about the video.

There is one thing to mention about the band since it happened recently. On May 17th of this year, their guitarist and songwriter Kevin Stanton passed away.

If you want to take a trip back in time to late-70s computers and computer games, then this is the music video for you. It certainly makes me nostalgic. I also can’t get the song out of my head. It’s so catchy.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Big On Love by Models (1984, dir. ???)

Posted on July 10, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

Yesterday I noticed that an old review I wrote on Hot To Trot (1989) was suddenly getting hits from a German website. Naturally I went there to find out what the deal was. Apparently they reposted the horse sex doll from the movie. I would tell you what they said about it, but despite having taken four years of German between middle school and high school, trying to read it is like trying to watch a movie through foggy glasses. Even Google Translate couldn’t piece it together. I have no idea what they said. Speaking of which, it’s been awhile since I watched that movie, what did I say about it?

Hot To Trot (1989, dir. Michael Dinner)

That’s right. I let Dabney Coleman review the film for me from within the film itself. I was pretty angry about that movie back in 2015 when I had just started writing here. I understand why as well. That was before things like Shannon Ethridge telling me that not having sex between being a teenager and getting married in my 20s would give me a life of “great sex that I could enjoy with my husband, without guilt, without remorse, without regret, without STDs, without unplanned pregnancies, without infertility.”

Every Young Woman’s Battle (2014)

There have been funny moments too that have kept me going–like watching Ex Machina (2014).

Ex Machina (2014, dir. Alex Garland)

Oh, Garland, you jokester. The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing people a movie that opens with an even worse version of the plot-hole that starts I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) is one of the greatest films of a century. Brasília is the capital of Brazil (not Rio), and the Turing Test requires at least three human beings to perform. That means in both films the character would know right from the start that they were being lied to and it is counting on the audience’s ignorance in order to surprise them. It’s even worse in Ex Machina since he’s a graduate in Computer Science, so he’s supposed to know this stuff. They even bothered to have some of the code in the movie spit out an ISBN number for a popular textbook called Embodiment And The Inner Life: Cognition And Consciousness In The Space Of Possible Minds if you were to actually run it. I love movies! Even if I have to slog through propaganda such as Every Young Woman’s Battle.

Anyways, in honor of being recognized for a review of a juvenile update of one of the Francis’ movies, I decided I should spotlight the music video by the Australian band Models which features a moonwalking horse.

I don’t know anything about Models except that they have gone through quite a few members over the years, have had some tragic ends, and were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association Hall Of Fame (ARIA Hall Of Fame). If this song is any indication, then I can understand why.

Aside from the use of black-and-white, and the comedy, I like when it pulls out of the black-and-white area…

to an eyeball…

before running us down a pier.

That’s some 120 Minutes stuff going on there. Not as good as the bit from Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order with the dialog, “I don’t believe in reincarnation because I refuse to come back as a bug or as a rabbit,” which receives the response to the person saying it, “you know, you’re a real up-person.” But I still appreciate the artsy touches this video has by switching the kinds of footage on us.

I wish I could find information on this video. There’s a Wikipedia article about the band. That’s it though.

I’m glad I came across this video. I hope you enjoy it. I need to be off to find a music video where a band breaks into a data center to sing about games in order to make up for going on another rant about computer science in movies.

Music Video of the Day: Red Guitar by David Sylvian (1984, dir. Anton Corbijn)

Posted on July 9, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

Corbijn himself sums up this video in the booklet included with a DVD collection of his work. You can find it here.

David saw the Propaganda video on TV & subsequently approached me for this song, his first solo single since leaving the group Japan. I had photographed him a few times in that setting, he was often seen as a teenage-pinup, poster boy, very striking and introvert appearance. For him to ask me to direct this video was making a statement I think. Anyway, it is again a challenge for me to come up with ideas and I spent a couple of days in Bruxelles in a hotel room to concentrate on that. I found it so difficult to come up with anything worthwhile – I am glad that that part of the process is less of a chore these days. What I came up with was basically lots of images that have no connection to each other and the main image is based on a photo by Angus McBean. Angus was retired by this time but was a great surrealist and I called him up to get his permission to use the photo and we ended up with him in the video. He loved it, he was a great man to spend time with but I recall he couldn’t believe he was on Top Of The Pops at age 80 and David’s voice came out of his open mouth. I did one more video with David the same year and only photographs after that. The little boy in the video I found at the Lycie Frangais in London. Can’t remember the name.

Of course there are things that would be reused later: the leaves in front of the camera, the old man, the steps, and young and old. The only other common thing I can see are the flowers. There are numerous Corbijn videos with them. There are other things too if you really want to break this video down, but I don’t want to.

Below, you can see the picture that Corbijn is speaking of, the reproduction from this video, as well as similar photos that McBean did.