I Want My Music Television: 5/26/13

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.


I Could’ve Been Your Girl – She and Him


I was less than impressed with the third She and Him album, but at least they created an entertaining music video even if it is very reminiscent of the Saturday Night Live French café dance sequence skit which I a pretty sure Zooey Deshanel was in once (are I am just assuming she hosted around that time because of Abby Elliot’s Zooey impression).


Love Somebody – Maroon 5


This looks like the type of video that some weird alternative band would have made that only got played during 120 Minutes during the nineties not something a boring pop band like Maroon 5 has become would release.


Red Hands – Walk Off the Earth


We have seen plenty of one take videos in the history of the medium, but this is the first one I can think of where the video was show out of order in one take and then edited in order post production. To see the Walk Off the Earth video without the edits, check out the Unedited Version of the video.


Fixurlifeup – 3rdeyegirl featuring Prince


What is Prince doing being “featured” in this video? Everyone knows this is a Prince song and 3rdeyegirl is the backing band. Maybe he knows that this garage band version just does not stack up with his previous catalogue and using the backing band to already distance himself from it.

Musings from the Back 9: Music Edition XIV

I have never been much of a fan of traditional country music, but I do have a soft spot for the angry white chick sub-genre that popped up in the middle of the last decade. One of the best songs of the genre was Pistol Annies Hell on Heels (lead Annie Miranda Lambert may be the angriest of the angry white chicks), I do not even care if it was an ode to maneating. Their follow up album Annie Up starts off promising; you know just by the title alone you know I Feel a Sin Comin’ On is going to be good. And though it is not in the angry white girl vein, the laid back, front porch sing-a-long does not disappoint. The rest of Annie Up does disappoint, filled with songs that would not be good enough to appear on their first album. I was hoping the alleged marital strife between Lambert and husbandBlake Shelton, even if was unfounded, would produce better music.

Annie Up gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.


The Dixie Chicks pretty much swept the 2007 Grammy Awards taking three of the top four awards (naturally they were ineligible for Best New Artist) and promptly took an extended brake. The two sisters in the group released an album under the moniker Court Yard Hounds in 2010 as they waited for lead singer Natalie Maines got the writing itch again. Seven years after releasing Taking the Long Way, Maines may not be ready to write with the Chicks just yet (though supposable something is “in the works”), but she is ready to record some music, as she just released a cover album Mother with songs from Eddie Vedder, Jeff Buckley, and Semisonic. There is one Dixie Chick song, Come Cryin’ to Me which was from the Taking the Long Way sessions which sounds about as good as a song that did not make that album would be. But the best of the set is the haunting title track version of the Pink Floyd classic and the new Ben Harper penned Trained where Natalie duets with the songwriter on a barn burner of a song. Though it is hard not to listen to the album and hope a proper Dixie Chicks album will not be far behind.

Mother gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.


It is really apropos that She & Him named their third album Volume 3 (the first two naturally were entitled Volume One and Volume Two; do not ask me why they spelled out the numbers on the earlier albums but opted for the numerical styling now) because their most recent outing sounds exactly like its predecessor to the point I was suspicious that it was just the same songs with different titles just to throw people off. Except it could not have been a complete rehash because there is nothing as catchy as In the Sun on the new album. It does not help that I went to look how much longer the album was the first time I listened to it and was shocked that I was not even half way through the forty minute album yet. Really the only song that stands out in this set is Together which features Zooey Deschanel singing in French (I think, I did not do very well in the subject back in high school).

Volume 3 gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Want My Music Television - 1/27/11

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.

Don’t Look Back – She & Him



For those wondering what MTV would have looked back in the sixties, this looks like She & Him asked Don Draper to create a music video for them.


Electric Love – Dirty Vegas



Supposedly this video by Dirty Vegas is the first of three videos that serve as a primer to Jena Malone’s upcoming film Sucker Punch coming out in March. Though I am not entirely sure what Malone’s, um, interesting dance technique have to do with the movie but color me excited.


Cameras – Matt and Kim



Matt & Kim sure like to go all out for their video be it graphic nudity of the previous clip or the graphic violence here.

She’s Got Nothing On (But the Radio) – Roxette



Holy Roxette sighting!

It's Okay, We All Get the Slip Sometimes Everyday

Though decent enough, the union of actress Zooey Deshanel and indie hipster may have set a bad precedent. Not too long after they released joined together to form She and Him we were forced to witness the cringeworthy duo of Scarlett Johansson and Pete Yorn. What is next, Natalie Portman singing alongside Connor Oberst? Could this lead to a fractious Deshanel family reunion when her sister Emily of Bones fame decides she wants to start a band with Zooey’s husband, Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie? The possibilities are more frightening than watching 2012. Let us not forget Mandy Moore is still married to Ryan Adams and could start recording together at any time.

And now She and Him are back for their second album and are just as creative in their branding calling the sophomore outing Volume Two (after their debut was the aptly entitled Volume One). Not much has changed in the two years since their last album. Zooey is still crooning over music that harkens back to middle of the twentieth century folk with new millennium sheen added by the inclusion of two covers from that era by NRBQ and Skeeter Davis.

Added to that, the album opener Thieves could well have been a cover of a long lost Roy Orbison song. But much like their first album, Volume Two is slogged by a lack of diversity. The only two stand out songs are the overly-perky first single In the Sun which is accompanied by an even peppier Bye Bye Birdie style music video. The other is the album closer If You Can’t Sleep which dumps the instruments and just has Zooey joined by a humming chorus.

Song to Download – In the Sun

Volume Two gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Want My Music Television vol. LXXVI

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.


Do Wah Doo – Kate Nash



Just days after Barney Stinson mentioned that stewardess was the hottest profession of the 50’s, here comes a video from Kate Nash where she starts as a 50’s stewardess. Flight Suit Up.


In the Sun – She and Him



From the first single it sounds like Volume 2 from She and Him is going to sound much like Volume 1: kind of bland. But at least the music video is fun with Zooey Deschanel looking her Winnie Cooperest.


Wavin’ Flag – K’Naan



For all the soccer fans out there (or football to all you foreigners) prepare yourself to be hearing this song from K’Naan a lot this summer at is the official song of the upcoming World Cup.


I Wish it Would Rain - Mayer Hawthorne



Pretty cool concept for a video for the latest from Mayer Hawthorne, too bad The Swell Season came up with pretty much the same idea last year.

Change Is Hard, I Should Know

The years are littered with actors who have tried to sing from Joey Lawrence to Jennifer Love Hewitt (is it too early to say Scarlett Johansson singing career is a failure). The few with even a little success were smart enough to team up with actual musician like Eddie Murphy with Rick James or Jennifer Lopez getting whatever rapper of the month to spit a few bars in her songs and remixes.

This is why Emily Deschanel (Scooter's Note: yeah I totally ment Zooey here, check comments for explaination) could have some staying power teaming up with indie guitarist M Ward and keeping her name off the marquee going with the band name She & Him. It doesn’t hurt the general public will probably mix her up with her sister Emily or even name one of her movies off the top of their head (she was Dorothy in the Sci-Fi Channel’s Tin Man).

The result of the two coming together is the equally descriptive album title, Volume One. The album turns out to be the best early seventies singer-songwriter album that was never actually released. Deschanal typically sings her song, most of which she wrote, over mostly sparse music with the occasional song that is reminiscent of the girl groups like I Was Made for You.

Of the old songs she gives a stab at, there is the super slow version of Smokey Robinson’s You Really Got a Hold on Me which is just an occasional strumming of the acoustic guitar and some harmonizing with Ward. The duo then turns The Beatles I Should Have Known Better into a Hawaiian luau and actually sounds better than it looks on paper. Yeah, the starlet can’t quite pull off Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, but that is the rare misstep on an otherwise decent debut.

Song to Download - I Should Have Known Better

Volume One gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Want My Music Television vol. XXXI

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I though I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form so here they are courtesy of YouTube. I advise you to watch them before you read my reviews if you don’t want me to spoil things. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available, if not the link goes to YouTube where you can watch the video in full screen). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.


Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? - She & Him



Well that was disturbing. Granted Zooey (half of She & Him, M Ward being the other half) was always the darker Deschanel sister. Creepy videos aside, at least the song is catchy. And if you like the song, I have been given permission to let you, my loyal readers, download the song for free for a limited time. And by I, I mean Border.com, so head over there for the free mp3.


My Sweet Love - John Mellencamp



John Mellencamp made two videos for this song, this being my favorite if only for the replay value and the George Bush cameo. Wait, why is George given the “believe” frame exactly.


Come on Over - Jessica Simpson



So let me get this straight, a bunch of Wisconsin country fans booed Jessica Simpson, born and raised in Texas, for not being country enough. Um, alright. Of course it may have been residual booing from the unwatchable Dukes of Hazard remake (a brunette Daisy Duke is blasphemy). And this song isn’t bad for a country song which, granted, doesn’t mean much.


Hope - Jack Johnson



Like most Jack Johnson videos not involving Ben Stiller, Hope is not that interesting. But it is a great song.