I actually turned on the television this evening. The shot heard 'round the world, I know. My one goal was not to watch anything related to America's assinine war on everyone. As I was scrolling through my 150 channels of shit I noticed that M2 has picked up Amp. Amp was a kickass show... one of the few good things to come from MTV since about 1990. I decided to see if it was still worth watching. What follows are notes taken on a napkin during my 40 minutes of viewing.
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The first video I saw was actually pretty good. The song was even better. Unfortunately I have no idea who or what it was... Jesus something or Christ something. I dunno.
Next up was Jondi and Spesh doing a tune called Sway or the Sway... something like that. The video was kinda neat and the song was pretty good. I enjoyed the stalker girl/normal guy theme and the electronica meets bigband presentation. Worth checking out.
At this point I begin to lose track of the order of the videos...
Murwais (or Mirwais... can't read my handwriting). The song is called I Can't Wait. The video kicked ass. There is something very very wrong with Stephane Sednaoui (I'm too lazy to look up the spelling). The song was even good. Watch this.
The Allies. Anarchist Movement. Ugly kids that can rock the turntables in an asylum. Super-lame video except for the few tiny shots of one or another of them scratching... those bits are nice. The song was kinda cool. May be worth checking out if you're in to that
Echoboy. Telstar Recovery. Great name, bad song, bad video. I'm pretty sure the rhythm guitarist actually dies of boredom... only shortly before the audience. Bad noise-rock. If the Cult was still around (God, are they?) this is prolly what they'd sound like now.
Underworld. Cowgirl. Electronica standard Underworld delivers more of the same. The guy from Underworld actually sings loops. I think he is nuts. Song has a good fat underbelly. At this point I kind of start enjoying it. The video is of a live show. Need cranes to pull audience from k hole. The only way to describe the guy's singing that I can come up with is "eurotexan". Ravers-&backwardsr;-us. The random epilepsy flashes of nature scenes from discovery are nice. I wish I danced like this guy. He can't yet he does?!?!
At this point there are lots of commercials. I am reminded (rightfully so) to check out Tori's new album. The title, "Strange Little Girls", bodes well. Mixmaster Mike is in the clutches of some bad 00's time-life ripoff. They've put together some album of his stuff called Spin Psycle. Be sure to mp3 this.
I guess MTV wants us to listen to and buy, of course, Sigur Ros. They showed two of their videos back to back with a comercialumentary between them. Here're my mixed up impressions:
The first tune was called Svefn-g-englar. Lithium angels. Very soothing. Reminds me of that Perfect Day song from the Trainspotting soundtrack. Video very equal oppportunity. Where are they from? Singing in Welsh? Video makes me happy, song makes me want to cry. Nice to see people with real inner-beauty that are genuinely happy on M2. I find this video and song vaguely disturbing. I kinda like these guys. Guitar w/bow very haunting. (Does Virgin own them?)
The second video had a very long name that I can't remember. Why does M2 want us to hear these guys? Video starts out creepy as hell ends up sad. Song very sad.
More commercials: Poor Mr. T. E! recycles dead stars.
Ack! When did they add MTV news to M2? I like the VJ kid, Ian something. They are talking to superstars about the recent terrorist attacks. Are these people from mars? Complete and utter mindfucks. What the hell is wrong with David Arquette? Fred Durst loves us. Courtney Love and Ben Stiller are the voices of sanity. Whoopie is just insane.
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I'm sorry it's such a mess. There you have my marginally editted impressions of 40 minutes of M2.
I like some electronic music, but I find it hard to discover music that excites me after I get over the whole "Ooooh! Wacky sounds!" phase. I've been meaning to get some To Roccoco Rot, to see if that will like turn me into a confirmed electronica fan. I got Pyschedelicate by Slumber Party this weekend, and I was thinking "With the White Stripes, Slumber Party makes me believe in Indie Rock again!"
MTV is about 6-9 months behind the Sigur Ros bandwagon, but I think that album finally got released stateside. Around Christmas time all the stores were selling out of the import, and I guess they got picked up by a label here. They played here Friday night, and I would have gone if I was in town. (I was in SoCal :P) I don't really get them or Godspeed You Black Emperor!, but I can see why some people would get into them.
I also picked up a Japanese bootleg of Viva by La Dusseldorf. I'd been looking for it for a long time, and I was very very happy with it. My second impression was, "I have to copy this for Jared. He'll think its milk-through- the-nose funny."