Music Video of the Day: Go Away by Jakalope (2005, dir by Lisa Mann)

Posted on February 6, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi, everyone!

Normally, this is Val’s feature but she’s currently in recovery after overdosing on Abba-related videos and attempting to watch Rob Zombie’s Halloween, all in the same night. So, I’m going to take this opportunity to toss in a music video from my favorite Canadian band, Jakalope!

(Jakalope was not only heavily featured on Degrassi but they even did a version of that show’s timeless theme song.)

From their debut album, It Dreams, here is Go Away!

The video for Go Away continues the story that was started in the video for Feel It. Both videos were directed by Lisa Mann.

It Dreams was produced by Trent Reznor and his also one of the five writers credited for this song. His influence certainly is felt, in both the song and the video!

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: En Stilla Flirt by Agnetha & ??? (1969, dir. ???) + 8 Hootenanny Singers Videos From 1966

Posted on February 5, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

This is the last of the pre-ABBA music videos. There are a couple more with Agnetha and one with Björn, but they don’t sing, so I am excluding them for the sake of my own sanity.

Phew! There is one last thing to bring up. While Benny was in The Hep Stars, before going on to ABBA, Björn was in a group called Hootenanny Singers. I found a video that you could technically break-up into separate music videos, but this is a whole special with narration between the songs. To me this crosses into A Hard Day’s Night (1964) territory. Nevertheless, I have embedded the video below if you want to hear some of their songs. Yes, it does have the song Baby Those Are The Rules, which I am sure Björn would rather you forget was ever a thing. But, it does give you some nice shots of Björn circa 1966.

Enjoy!

ABBA retrospective:

Music Video of the Day: Beate-Christine by Björn (1969, dir. ???)

Posted on February 4, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

Enjoy!

ABBA retrospective:

Music Video of the Day: Cosmic Slop by Funkadelic (1973, dir. ???)

Posted on February 3, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

Well, we can add Funkadelic to the list of groups that made groundbreaking music videos in 1970s. We’ve had numerous ones from ABBA doing all sorts of stuff. We had AC/DC taking what would otherwise be a simple stage performance and making it feeling intimate. We had Hall & Oates making the anti-video. We had Alice Cooper foreshadowing all kinds of things that would become staples of music videos, but most notably, the quick editing. Now we have Funkadelic, before becoming part of Parliament-Funkadelic, also doing location shooting and integrating the filmmaking into the song the way Elected by Alice Cooper did. Whereas that one called for a lot of quick cuts, this song lends itself to more laid back long takes. Also like Elected, they aren’t performing the song. You do see a couple of them with instruments, but it doesn’t seem into tie to the song you are hearing. The instruments are just there. The focus is on the trippy visuals. I can’t help but look at it and think: “Funkadelic Takes NYC”. I have to imagine this was fun to film.

Sit back and enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: I Got You Babe by Cher with Beavis and Butt-Head (1994, dir. Tamra Davis & Yvette Kaplan)

Posted on February 2, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

It sure is Groundhog Day. I won’t make the joke that I am sure you’ll hear all day.

As for this video, I had a different one planned originally. I was going to go with another duet that Cher did for a love song. Then I thought it would be worth checking to see if she had ever done a music video for this song before I started writing. Yep! This exists. Why does this exist? Apparently Cher did this for the album The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience. I think I may be traumatized for life now that I’ve heard Cher ask Butt-Head if he feels lucky. Why did she do this? I don’t know. Maybe it was for a comeback after the 1980s were over.

This was co-directed by Tamra Davis and Yvette Kaplan. Davis directed around 40 music videos. She’s also directed numerous films and episodes of TV Shows. Kaplan has mainly worked in animation. She’s done work on other things, but the majority was as a supervising director for the run of Beavis and Butt-Head. She also worked on the movie Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996).

Enjoy this bizarre trip down memory lane. I swear I didn’t pick this out in advance. It fell into my lap at the last minute.

Music Video of the Day: Det Kommer En Vår by Agnetha (1969, dir. ???)

Posted on January 31, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

According to Google Translate, the title of this song is “There Will Be A Spring”. I guess that explains the water and flowers. I have no idea how that explains the super low-angle though. Maybe they were trying to show the sky? Your guess is as good as mine.

Unless I am forgetting one, there are two more pre-ABBA videos before I can finally get back on track.

Enjoy!

ABBA retrospective:

Music Video of the Day: Nu Ska Vi Opp, Opp, Opp by Agnetha (1969, dir. ???)

Posted on January 30, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

This time we have Agnetha joining the Swedish Air Force I guess. To my knowledge, Agentha today is afraid of such travel, which has been one of the big stumbling blocks to an ABBA reunion. That makes it a little weird to watch this video.

Enjoy!

ABBA retrospective:

Music Video of the Day: Söderhavets Sång by Frida (1970, dir. ???)

Posted on January 29, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

There’s still a couple of pre-ABBA videos to knock off. This time Frida appears to have traveled to Hawaii to rehearse for the sailboat version of Knowing Me, Knowing You.

I love how one of the comments on this video says, “that was wierd”. No, it doesn’t truly get weird till you see Frida boxing with herself. That, and when you find out that One Night In Bangkok was written by Benny and Björn, along with Tim Rice.

Enjoy!

ABBA retrospective:

Music Video of the Day: Stuck With You by Huey Lewis & The News (1986, dir. Edd Griles)

Posted on January 28, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

I did Friday Night by The Darkness yesterday, so here’s the music video that I have no doubt they had in mind when making Friday Night.

If you recognize the director, then it is probably from Cyndi Lauper videos like Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

If you recognize the woman who gets stranded with Huey, then you probably know her because she is married to Pierce Brosnan. That’s Keely Shaye Brosnan or Keely Shaye Smith depending on how she gets credited on something. She was also a correspondent on Unsolved Mysteries back in the 1990s.

If you recognize the name Susan R. Feldott, the production manager, then you must have been in the business.

If you recognize the shark, then these posts are useless. Yes, Edd Griles also directed the video for If This Is It by Huey Lewis & The News. That’s the music video where a Sand Shark goes after a family at the end. They were obviously making fun of that here.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Friday Night by The Darkness (200x, dir. ???)

Posted on January 27, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

I was sick most of yesterday. I needed a video at the last minute. Nothing fails to cheer me up like The Darkness. This one picks up after the video for I Believe In A Thing Called Love when their ZZ Top spaceship crash lands on every island of woman from every exploitation movie ever made–complete with a giant skull to reference Iron Maiden. I also wouldn’t be surprised if the shark is a reference to the one that stranded Huey Lewis on an island in the video for Stuck With You.

Enjoy!