WEEKENDER: Real Estate play Bottletree Sunday night

If you’ve kept up at all with indie music during the past 8-10 years you know it’s changing rapidly. There’s not a particular sound you can pinpoint and call “indie” anymore. So many new indie acts have adapted and recycled sounds from the past and pushed the limits into more of a pop sound. But there are, of course, the bands that have stuck around over the years with minimal change to their sound. Bands like Modest Mouse, Spoon, Wilco, and Arcade Fire and more recently Vampire Weekend are examples. Those bands have found a niche market, so to speak, and have grown into adult-friendly music. Or maybe their listeners have just grown into adults. Either way, those bands are still, for all intents and purposes, “indie rock” bands.

In the past five years, one band has stuck out amongst its peers as a true American “indie rock” band. That band consists of guys who grew up in the suburbs of northeastern America in New Jersey. That band is Real Estate.

Their first self-titled album came out in 2009 and featured “Beach Comber” a track that propelled them into the music atmosphere as a hazy, beachy, (also pinned as “lo-fi) surf-rock style band. Also on that debut, a song that absolutely floored me, “Suburban Dogs.” With the snare drum on the up beat and bass drum on the down keeping time throughout the song, and the phase shifting guitar noodling, “Suburban Dogs” sets the stage for a summer evening riding your skateboard home from your friend’s house as the sun sets on the paved road in front of you and you feel absolutely carefree. Let’s get this right, this album is perfect for summer weather.

In 2011, they released their second album Days on a bigger indie label, Domino Recording Company. This record had a bit more polish and sheen but still they stuck with their formula for writing and composing music. Still keeping with the theme of the previous record and the underlying idea of nostalgia, they turned out songs like “Green Aisles,” which is one of the prettiest songs I’ve ever heard, and “Out of Tune.” But this time, the band notched up the BPMs on tracks like “Easy” and the now crowd-pleasing “It’s Real,” the song everyone sings along with at shows. The band even had some minor chart success, reaching number 52. With this record, Real Estate was beginning to carve out a space in indie rock and get comfortable for the long term.

This year they’ve released yet another critically acclaimed record Atlas, again on Domino. They are embarking on another major tour, more promotional marketing, and even had a spot on “The Late Show with David Letterman” back in April. “Atlas” could be their most successful album to date, this time reaching number 34 on the charts, so far. By now you’ve probably read that they used Wilco’s studio space in Chicago with lots of instruments at their disposal to record “Atlas,” also garnering comparisons to Wilco. “Talking Backwards,” “Had to Hear” and “Crime” stick out as the most popular and catchiest songs on the album, and this time main songwriter and singer Martin Courtney tackles more recent topics and focuses on the future rather than reflecting on the past as he did so often on the previous albums’ songs.

On this record you begin to recognize songs as “Real Estate” songs. Not so much because they are on the album, but because of the instantly recognizable guitar stylings of one Matt Mondanile and the vocals of Martin Courtney you’ve grown accustomed to. You pick up pretty quickly on Matt’s style particularly on “Crime” in the same way you would pick out Britt’s voice on a Spoon song, or the instrumentation of a Vampire Weekend song. You don’t have to know it’s a Real Estate song to know that it’s a Real Estate song. This is a sure sign of a band making an impact in music.

Real Estate is quickly becoming a mainstay in American indie rock like the bands I mentioned above. They will be one of the bands that will hopefully have a long career and grow a larger and larger fanbase. I’ve met the lead singer, Martin twice now: once in Nashville a few years ago and earlier this year in Austin, and I can tell you that he is a driven and professional musician, not a guy looking to make noise on social media or soak up the hype or fame. The guys in Real Estate just want to make great guitar music. This is a great band, so pay attention!

When I heard they were finally coming to Birmingham, I was totally excited. Hopefully, you were able to pick up tickets for the now SOLD OUT show at Bottletree THIS WEEKEND,  but if you weren’t able to get tickets please make sure you find a tour date near by you and go see Real Estate. If you do have a ticket to Sunday’s show, I’ll see you there.

WEEKENDER ROAD TRIP: Squallfest in Lexington

“A squall is a sudden, violent, gust of wind usually associated with active weather or thunderstorms.”

“A squall line is a line of thunderstorms that have a common lifting mechanism. Lifting mechanisms tend to occur in bands“.

By the definition of “squall” and “squall line”, it’s safe to assume that the definition for “Squallfest” would be: A sudden, violent, gust of rawk that tends to occur within the bands on this line-up.

Now, what the hell is “Squallfest”?

Squallfest is a two-day music festival, held in Lexington, Kentucky with a portion of all tickets($18-$20) sales going to the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund. The festival, which will have two stages, will be held at the massive, 11,000sqft, live music venue Buster’s Billiard’s & Backroom in the Lexington Distillery District.(Fun Fact: the building that Buster’s now calls home was built in 1860 and was part of the first registered distillery in Lexington.)

That being said, if you love music or historical buildings or music held in historical buildings, you need to make the trip to Squallfest.

Now, let’s talk about the important things, the music. This line-up really does perfectly accompany the festival title (and made-up definition), all these bands pack a heavy punch of rawk fused with punk, metal, and rocknroll with one common factor running rampant through most of these bands; southern roots. Headlined by Nine Pound Hammer and The Dopamines, check out the schedule below, make your plans, “grab the ticket and take the ride”; all the cool kids are doing it!

Friday September 19th 2014

8:00 – Doc Feldman and the Infernal Method

8:45 – Christian Lee Music

9:30 – The Past

10:00 – Sonic Deville

11:00 – Those Crosstown Rivals

*Doors at 7:00 PM music starts at 8:00 PM sharp!*

Saturday September 20th 2014

(frontroom)

5:00 – Vibrolas

6:00 – Arlo McKinley & The Lonesome Sound

7:00 – Josh Nolan

8:00 – Jeremy Porter and the Tucos

9:00 – Bad People

10:00 – The Dopamines

(backroom)
4:30 – Alcatraz Shakedown

5:30 – Todd Farrell Jr. & the Dirty Birds

6:30 – Paper Bridges

7:30 – Bohannons

8:30 – Alone At 3AM

9:30 – Ned Van Go

10:30 – Those Crosstown Rivals

11:15 – Nine Pound Hammer

Doors at 3:00 pm music starts at 4:30 PM sharp!*

Tickets: $10 day of show / $18 pre-sale – http://www.ticketfly.com/event/656321-squallfest-2014-lexington/

Playlist: Squallfest 2014 Playlist<

FLASHBACK FRIDAY! WHISTLE EDITION!

I’m really psyched about this week’s video because it’s such a fun song. Back in 2006, a little group from Sweden called Peter, Bjorn, and John released one of the catchiest songs ever called “Young Folks”. The band has released other music heard in commercials and elsewhere but this song is probably their most popular. In fact, it was so popular that even Mr. Kanye West sampled and used the song for himself! You can listen to that here.

Here’s the amazing video:

 

MEGA POPULAR BAND GIVES AWAY THEIR NEW ALBUM, EVEN IF NO ONE WANTS IT.

Unless you are totally off the grid you’ve probably heard about Apple’s announcement regarding the latest piece of technology that they are releasing in the coming months and that you are supposed to buy. Yes, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will be released soon, AND the latest in wearable technology, the Apple Watch will also be here next year. Two fantastic opportunities to further sever true human interaction (kind of a cynical statement but think about it).

Now, I’m not one of those blowhard Apple haters who shares hilarious memes on Facebook about Apple finally catching up to Samsung. I don’t care about that. I’ve been an iPhone user since the first one hit the shelves back in ‘07, but like probably a lot of other people, I JUST got an iPhone 5S recently, and low and behold, my technology is now outdated. But, I don’t really care about that part either. I’m here to talk about another part of that announcement- the release of a piece of music that coincided with the announcement of these new Apple products. I guess you could say, the release of a product to help announce the release of another product. I’m talking about that U2 album.

A bajillion dollar company teamed up with a bajillion dollar mega-star band sharing their music in order to make that bajillion dollar company seem hip and cool. U2 shocked the world by releasing their album via cloud technology to iTunes, iTunes Radio, and Beats users for, get this, FREE. Everyday internet users around the world scour the web for opportunities to get free music. In an unparalleled, totally original move, U2 gave their album away for free to Apple, a company that other artists and bands have been struggling with regarding receiving the money they deserve for their album sales. Then, Apple turned around and gave U2’s album to all of their customers for free. That’s only part of it though. Music is a form of art and artistic expression. Art can be sold or can be given away, and it’s up to the recipient to truly determine the worth and value of the art, we all know that. But, I have questions about the integrity and authenticity of this band, and whether they are still attempting to create art or are they just attempting to grow their brand and popularity by churning out product after product? It’s hard to figure that part out since they are already one of the most popular bands of all time. So my question is, why do this? What’s the gain?

For the past few days, I’ve been pondering if this move was ludicrous and slightly offensive to real music lovers or totally brilliant. I’m leaning towards the former part of that statement because I don’t think it’s cool to force your art, music, or even opinions on other people, particularly in such a creepy, Big Brother way, and I am not alone. The social media universe exploded with anger and frustration about U2 secretly sliding their piece of music into 500 million people’s iPhones, causing Apple to create a website with instructions on how to delete the album from your library. Here’s what I’m saying, people actually don’t want a FREE piece of music when forced on them.

Is U2 a bad band? I’m not a huge fan, but I don’t think so. Also, please forgive this statement but, like everyone with ears, I really dig their older stuff much more. Did I even listen to this album? Nope. This isn’t an album review, it’s a conversation-starting blog post. Did U2 need to do this? No, they did not. Did Apple need to do this? No, THEY did not.

But, like Bono put it in a recent quote to the media, “The blood, sweat and tears of some Irish guys are in your junk mail” and you got this music anyway. Too many times bands and artists partner with major corporations in giant marketing campaigns to force their music on people instead of letting us make up our own minds. Jay Z did it last year with Samsung, and now U2 has done it. Now, I don’t have any problem with bands making money and gaining exposure through commercial licensing. Honestly, if you talk to any up and coming band, they will tell you licensing is one of the very few ways to make money as a struggling musician these days because companies like Apple don’t want to pay fair amounts to bands and artists. But, when you’ve forced your music onto the masses the music becomes, not a piece of creative artwork, it becomes a product. And I don’t know about you, but free or not, I ain’t buyin’ it.

Album Review: Caleb Caudle – Paint Another Layer on My Heart

Caleb Caudle‘s “Paint Another Layer On My Heart” does what I believe to be Caleb‘s best quality as a songwriter; tells a story. Each track on this album vividly “paints” a picture of the meaning behind the songs and the lyrics leave little room for questions or second-guessing. The only thing this album really leaves room for is a place to insert your own life experiences and emotions and watch how every song can relate to each one of us; it’s amazing, sad, beautiful, and heart-breaking.

The 10-track, sophomore album from Caudle, has a glaring underlying theme that rattles true within the state of touring musicians today: The hardships of life on the road. Caudle doesn’t leave room for guessing. These songs are full of lyrics about missing your loved ones, not being home for the holidays and frankly, having to face your own demons and misery on your own, without anyone else to blame or make excuses. It’s not all puppies and rainbows, it’s real life music but somehow Caudle has figured out how to make it sound beautiful.

Caudle was able to corral some other great musicians within the “alt country family” to assist in the instrumentation and backing vocals on “Paint Another Layer on Heart”; Whit Wright of American Aquarium (pedal steel) and Lydia Loveless (vocals). Loveless wastes no time in making her presence known and solidifies her spot on the album with her harmonies on the very first track “How’d You Learn”. On the track “Another Night”, which is a personal favorite of mine, Wright’s pedal steel screams through the shadows while Caudle‘s bellows lines such as “I make up excuses, and I feel less useless, try not to scratch on the 8.” Woah. I’ll give you a second to let the goose bumps subside and your eyes to dry up… Although I had a really tough time choosing my favorite track on the album, it was between “Come on October” and “Trade All The Lights”, I had to go with the latter; it’s full of emotion, desire, want, despair and it also perfectly blends the backing vocals of Loveless and the sweet, soft riffs of Wright’s pedal steel with Caudle‘s descriptive lyrics to create a beautiful song that will remain one of my favorites of 2014.

Paint Another Layer on My Heart, which was released by This is American Music (T.I.A.M), is a great nod to the more classic country/singer-songwriters of our times. Caleb‘s Caudle approach of painting glowing pictures through each song, writing honest, real, relatable lyrics is refreshing and inspiring; I can’t recommend this album enough. Do yourself a favor; get the album, catch a live show (he tours like a man running from the law), and see why “Paint Another Layer On My Heart” has received a spot on my “best of 2014” list.

You can find the record on iTunes or at thisisamericanmusic.com.

There goes FLASHBACK FRIDAY again!

This Friday we take it back to 1988 with the song “There She Goes” by jangle-pop band, The La’s. You might remember the cover by the band Six Pence None the Richer from 1999 but I prefer the original. This is a quality pop song by a very short lived and underrated band from the 80s and 90s. The video is nothing special but the song is super catchy and easy to play on guitar if one is so inclined.

Have a good weekend!

 

Everyone loves Freedom

You may have heard this before, but there’s a new football team and a new league setting  up shop in Birmingham. Maybe you are jaded about such an event. Maybe you remember all the failed attempts at establishing a competitor to the NFL in a meaningful way. Did you go to Stallions games like I did? Birmingham Fire (the CFL)? The infamous Birmingham Blast (changed to Bolts)? Steeldawgs? Americans? AAFL team that never actually played a game?

I was down with all of them, except Americans because I wasn’t alive. I’m all for football in my city. I don’t care. You want to go in motion before the snap? Great. A league run by Vince McMahon? I guess. Some weird abomination in the BJCC with nets? Uh. Kinda hate it, but I will allow it.

I remember, quite clearly sitting next to my father seeing Joe Cribbs run for the Stallions when I was very young. I love football. I would like more of it.

Today, I see some people mentioning the new team on Twitter.

The Birmingham Freedom.

According to the NAFL website, this name was chosen to reflect Birmingham’s rich history in the civil rights movement. That’s an unassailable stance (which al.com commenters will probably assail and bum me out).

But what bothers me is the language. “First Down, Freedom!” “Freedom’s backfield is deep this year”. “Freedom comes out ahead of the Sentinels, 21-7.”

I hate things that are vague concepts as team mascots, like the Jazz or Heat. It’s just unwieldy and very, very unSouthern. We have Tigers, Blazers and uhh Crimson Tide. Hm, maybe this is because I’m an Auburn fan. Anyways, it’s a terrible name. A well done logo, for sure. All of the NAFL graphics are pretty good, for what it is. Some of the logos have some janky text on them, but it’s clear they actually hired a graphic designer.

So the name makes me cringe a little. I was ready to be mad about it, but then I saw this.

That’s a bird wearing a hat.

I repeat, that’s a bird wearing a hat.

BIRD. HAT.

I can’t stop looking at it. It’s mesmerizing. I joked, sort of, that I wanted a hat with a bird wearing a hat on it. But I kind of do. I want to go to these games. I want to celebrate the fact that we are the most American of all teams, and that everyone else we play, whether it be the Memphis Kings or the North Carolina Red Wolves,  hates Freedom. Dirty Communists, how dare you even lift one finger to stop Freedom.

If they have any sense, they’ll have Auburn bring up an eagle for the pregame festivities. Everyone loves it when the eagle flies. But with one addition. Can you guess what it would be?

THAT EAGLE WILL DON A HAT BEFORE IT FLIES.

To satiate Alabama fans, I am perfectly OK with an elephant wearing a Ben Franklin costume.

To those wondering what I would choose for a mascot, it would be a Yellow Hammer. The Alabama Yellow Hammers. It would not be a bird. It would be a yellow hammer. Everyone in attendance would have hammers and every night is dollar beer night.

If that’s not freedom, I don’t know what is.

In lieu of that, I’ll take some Freedom please. I declare our rival to be Memphis, and we will destroy them.

Southern Rock Resurgence: What is Old is New

Southern rock didn’t die when Skynyrd did; it just needed sometime to grieve and regroup.

The genre “southern rock” has kind of disappeared over the years and it’s time to be revived. Beards, long hair, whiskey, cigarettes, denim, American flags and Muscle Shoals are still intact so why is southern rock not? Lack of bands fitting the criteria for the genre? Did the evolution of music quietly push the southern rock genre out of the picture? Maybe it really did just fall to the way-side when the 80’s came along and after Van Zandt died? I’m not entirely sure as to why it went away but it’s time that it came back home; I’ve missed it.

Wikipedia defines Southern Rock as: “A subgenre of rock music and a genre of Americana. It was developed in the Southern United States from rocknroll, country music, and blues and is focused generally on electric guitar and vocals.”

I don’t know about you, but I personally know musicians whose bands fit this description EXACTLY. So what the hell wiki music gods? If that’s the checklist, then what are you waiting on!? It’s already hard enough for bands to find a place to fit in, not to mention find a radio station that will even play their tunes but yet these stations have no problem playing Statesboro Blues 9 times a day… How about throwing some new southern rock in the mix, hoss? Is it classic rock? No, not yet; however, listening to Tuesday’s Gone for the 300th time in a week doesn’t make the song any more classic than if you played it once….sorry back on topic now…

I think over the years that southern rock has unfairly gotten associated with the term “redneck” and confederate flags (which is an entirely separate discussion in itself) and that’s completely unfair. It would take a lot less time to just copy and paste the DBT lyrics from “The Southern Thing” to hammer this point home and frankly, Hood can get the point across better than I but he’s not here is he!? 😉 Now, the word southern already embraces “rednecks” and “country livin” so it’s not as if we don’t have our work cutout for us but if you look back at the origins of southern rock: blues and soul and gospel, these three styling’s are very important developing factors for this genre of rock music and are historically dominated by black musicians so throw the redneck BS out of this equation; it’s about the music not color of skin.

Ain’t about no hatred better raise a glass / It’s a little about some rebels but it ain’t about the past / Ain’t about no foolish pride, ain’t about no flag / Hate’s the only thing that my truck would want to drag…You think I’m dumb, maybe not too bright / You wonder how I sleep at night / Proud of the glory, stare down the shame / Duality of the southern thing.

There are a lot of good bands out here that can easily carry the torch for southern rock’s building comeback; I even think Duane Allman would approve. Many of these musicians/bands just happen to be from the south and play rocknroll; put two and two together genius, what else would you call their style of music? Check out the associated playlists for some great bands who are sticking to their guns. It’s a little bit country, it’s a little bit rocknroll and a lot of bit great music. It’s Southern Rock and it’s time for a resurgence.

Playlist:

• Dirt Track – Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires (AL)
• Devil’s in the Details – Glossary (TN)
• Never Gonna Change – Jason Isbell/Drive By Truckers (AL/GA)
• 1000 Dollar Car – Ned Van Go (TN)
• Benjamin – Arliss Nancy (CO)
• If My Heart Don’t Fail Me – Efren (GA)
• I Can’t Stand This – Kentucky Knife Fight (KY)
• The Grant – Lauderdale (AL)
• Choke – The Black Cadillacs (TN)
• Look at Me – Those Crosstown Rivals (KY)
• Campaign Song ’93 – Jon Snodgrass (MO/CO)
• Super 8 – Jason Isbell (AL)
• Do The Crawl – Dexateens (AL)
• 8 AM Blues – Natural Child (TN)
• Coming Through the Pines – Blackfoot Gypsies (TN)
• Tim Tim – Bohannons (TN)
• Don’t Owe You a Thang – Gary Clark Jr (TX)
• Clark Ave – American Aquarium (NC)
• Rebel Man – The Pollies (AL)
• Rock and Roll Forever – The Whigs (GA)
• Chippewa – Benjamin Booker (LA)
• Tears Don’t Matter Much – Lucero (TN)
• Radar Gun – The Bottle Rockets (MO)
• Fourth of July – Porter and The Pollies (TX/AL)
• Alphabet City – Todd May (OH)
• Zip City – Drive By Truckers (AL)
• When I’m Gone – The White Buffalo (LA)
• Missouri Boy – The Hooten Hallers (MO)
• The Prettiest Waitress in Memphis – Cory Branan (MS/TN)
• The Southern Thing – Drive By Truckers (AL/GA)
• Heartbroken, in Disrepair – Dan Auerbach (OH)

Click here to listen on Spotify.

So, looking forward, out of all 30 tracks ONLY 3 bands/artists listed above are beyond the Mason-Dixon Line. Furthermore, Todd May is always playing in the south with Lydia Loveless, Dan Auerbach has lived in Nashville for a while now (too long if you as Jack White), and Arliss Nancy may as well be from the south, just ask them. They love boiled peanuts, whiskey, the Allman Brothers, and “pulling buckets,” so they get a special pass and I’ve adopted them as Alabama residents; deal with it.

It Came From MTV[‘s Video Channels]: VH1

A long while ago in god’s age of 2013, I did a brief review of MTV channels I watched. It was sort of enlightening to see what videos the premium video channels would play but it didn’t really answer what exactly MTV et al. were selling. (I was also really fucking wrong about HAIM. So wrong.) Obviously the main MTV channel couldn’t give a shit about music videos, which you already know. (They do run music videos in the very early morning, in case you needed to see Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” on a television channel at 5am.) That said, the channel they famously founded in the late 80s for the purpose of airing music videos while MTV expanded their content still runs videos at more reasonable times in the morning. This is the examination of VH1 + Music. (Oh god that music block name.)

Bleachers — “I Wanna Get Better”

I watched VH1 for about an hour plus and this video played three times. Someone must be putting some dough in VH1’s coffers. (It’s RCA.) Unfortunately, the most I learned about Bleachers, the less I felt the happy response I do have to this song. Pop songs about the struggle with depression should be a new norm. Pop songs are about idealized delusion anyway, so at least have an anthem for the post-Robin Williams set. The video directed by Lena Dunham doesn’t really present this all that well.

Nico & Vinz — “Am I Wrong”

so beaches
very sunlight
much african desert imagery

band was founded in norway

 

Stopwatch: Neon Trees – “Sleeping With A Friend”

To explain, Stopwatch is a regular segment VH1 does where a band performs 60 seconds of one of their songs. Now to Neon Trees, I fucking hated “Animal.” This is better. Maybe I won’t get told by the lead singer to go back to bed.

 

OneRepublic – “Love Runs Out”

Here’s the thing, OneRepublic is awful. But for some reason, their new songs at least figure out that a back beat is more fun than maudlin bullshit. This is still not good as the lead dude oversings like hell and ruins a good thing, basically. The video is nice green screen, I guess.

 

Charli XCX – “Boom Clap”

I have a massive crush on Charli XCX. This song is no good. So I could talk about Charli’s lovely hair, which is crazy good. Unf.

 

Pharrell feat. Miley Cyrus — “Come Get It Bae”

You remember how you watched the video for John Legend’s “You and I” and started weeping because it was a well done portrayal genuinely inclusive of all types of women? Well, this is if that video was just traditionally attractive women (and Miley Cyrus) were dancing for Pharrell. It’s like peppy dancing version of Exterminating Angels. Kind of gross. Oh, the song’s not terrible. Finally someone is figuring out limited Miley is generally pretty great.

 

American Authors — “Believer”

The indie pop movement in mainstream pop is so fucking tiring and actually makes me actively hate the artists that led us down this path. Every song is four shitty white guys with a song obsessed about a hook and nothing else. Which I guess is just integration with some of the more poppy of the independent set. This isn’t THAT much different than Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. but was Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. actually good? I’m starting to doubt that. Oh, the video? Looks like if Bridge to Terabithia was a piece of cowdung.

 

Meghan Trainor — “All About That Bass”

Look, this song is great and it’s cute as hell. It’s fantastic that we’re actually talking about weight in pop music and that Meghan Trainor could be a legitimate star. I also like that the song admits that skinny women have as much of a problem with body dysmorphia as others do. But here’s my question. What is the difference in bass and treble? Is it the rumble? The movement? What is bad about the treble? Most people hear the treble and like the treble. Still a good song, though.

 

Clean Bandit feat. Jess Glynne — “Rather Be”

I kind of hate appropriation of other cultures in music videos. It usually ends in an alarming fashion that doesn’t really help the party being appropriated. In this case, it is a British electronica group appropriating Japanese culture. And yet? This isn’t bad. The use of the Japanese here is in the context of a modern society. This reads a bit like Avicii’s “Wake Me Up” video in the basic theme of normal life being wrecked by dreams of a super house concert extravaganza. But unlike the “Wake Me Up” video, it doesn’t use conventionally attractive white people as “the ones suffering from normal life.” Song’s a little stronger, too.

 

Kongos – “Come With Me Now”

I heard this song through the most surprising of places: as the “theme song” to the WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view event. You see, WWE takes a random song that seems like it would be popular and that I guess “fits” with the fictionalized violence the best. Sometimes they are way off, like when they choose any Kid Rock song past 2005. But apparently they were right on the money here as far as a song that became a hit on the pop charts and that they probably got at a good price at the time. Oh, you wanted to know about the song/video? It’s alright, I guess.

 

(Stopwatch: Chvrches — “The Mother We Share”)

Not quite as well polished as the video version I got super obsessed with for a short time last time we talked about videos.

 

Ed Sheeran – “Don’t”

Please explain Ed Sheeran. Is his appeal that he talks about shitty subjects with ridiculous singer-songwriter earnestness? Did we need another Jason Mraz when the current one’s trying to stay relevant? Either way, this song is a massive departure. For one thing, it sounds like a pop song circa 2002 and not an easy listening song circa 1991. And then Ed is sort of rap-singing? Ah fuck everything.

 

John Legend – “You & I”

This video makes me cry so much that I’m going to ignore the incorrect grammar in John’s song title. Also, he had this exchange about Ferguson, Missouri. You are all forgiven for “All of Me.” Because holy shit. Also LAVERNE FUCKING COX. And when everyone smiles, I lose it. You’re a good dude, John Legend. Stay in all of the lanes. We need you in pop music.

 

Kiesza — “Hideaway”

80s ballad with electronic trappings and an attractive redhead in suggestive suspenders. I mean, it’s pop music in 2014. So whatever. And this is her album cover. Apparently the label is just a New York independent. Not bad. I get the appeal.

 

Magic! — “Rude”

lol. nope. Never needed a Max Landis expy to suddenly go all Bob Marley with a rebel boyfriend song.

 

Colbie Caillat – “Try”

So the new trend is to do that John Legend video over and over again with diminishing returns. John Legend’s video is effective in that in as the video goes on, the images of womanhood fit incredibly with the message. And to Colbie’s credit, her song is simply about liking yourself as opposed to a nebulous narrator having to like you. But it’s Colbie Caillat so it doesn’t work the way it should. Colbie shows women taking off their makeup/extensions/et al. and the obvious realization is that these women are all still beautiful. This is strong. But I also kind of think it doesn’t hit home the message if we’re seeing an obviously attractive Colbie Caillat taking off her makeup to reveal a normal looking (but still conventionally attractive) lady. I mean, it’s a good effort and if the “dude singing about women” vibes throw you off of John Legend’s work, then this might be your speed.

 

Childish Gambino — “3005”

I like this song a good bit. I wish Donald Glover would not be obsessed with the rap career path and most of his songs feel like he is trying far too hard to shed his comedic image. But “3005” is an interesting effort. I will say that it is curious that a video that essentially ends with Donald Glover’s character’s (assumed) suicide to air so soon after the raw nerve of Robin Williams’ passing and I don’t really know if Donald Glover looking dead eyed is a thing we needed. But, you know, that’s the world, man.