The Opening Acts

Not much video love to spread today, as a change in work schedule and a total re-arrangement of my house has left me too busy to focus on moving musical images. Also, most of the new videos I’ve seen this past week have been fairly lousy. It seems that every music video lately is obligated to feature one of two things (or a combination of both): (a) attempts at being creepy, and (b) nudity .  And while I’m all about the nudity, artsy indie-rock nudity is just boring.

Last week’s remixing of The Notwist by Grizzly Bear served as a reminder that I totally forgot about their last album, The Devil, You + Me. Watching this clip of “Gloomy Planets” – in which the band is joined by the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra – had made me realize that that’s a mistake I need to rectify soon.

Via NME, here’s the trailer to the upcoming documentary about Blur’s reunion shows this past summer. It looks absolutely beautiful.

And that’s all for today.  It’s also all for a busy November that saw our traffic double from the previous month.  Thanks for that.

Enjoy what remains of your Monday.  Here’s to December.

Blur – Theme From An Imaginary Film

“Enough already, you’re starting to remind me of Chris Martin.”

Earlier today I went to the library and picked up a dozen CDs of bands I’d never heard of before. Simply put, if I liked the band’s name and artwork, I grabbed the CD. You see, I’ve been living under a rock (called Las Vegas) and have been playing catch-up with bands I should have known about years ago.

Case in point: The Good, The Bad & The Queen. I found the CD between the Gin Blossoms and David Gray.

The Good, The Bad & The Queen isn’t so much the name of the band but rather the concept of the album they recorded. And just who are they? Well, Blur frontman Damon Albarn, Paul Simonon from The Clash, Simon Tong from the Verve and afrobeat drummer Tony Allen. I can’t believe this band has been around since 2006 and I’ve been aloof to their existence. Actually, I can believe that. I need to renew my Mojo subscription.

The album is a lyrical and musical montage about the west side of London. It makes me yearn for tea and scones. More British music should feature pianos.

The self-titled music video is about two minutes too long but is fascinating to watch. Maybe because I haven’t seen Slumdog Millionaire.

Of the twelve CDs I picked up today, five of them (so far) suck. The Good, The Bad & The Queen isn’t one of them.

The Good, The Bad & The Queen – Herculean [Play]

The Good, The Bad & The Queen – Back In The Day [Play]
(B-side to “Herculean” single, which Carl has added to the post just for the heck of it)

Tyge blogs at The Neon Lounge. Carl, a massive fan of just about everything Damon Albarn has ever done, just shakes his head in disbelief. But that’s OK because he probably hasn’t heard of a lot of the bands that Tyge enjoys, like Jet Black Factory and whatever-the-hell a Cheap Trick is.

The French blog, R5 Turbo 2 has this lovely nugget:

Blur – Glastonbury 2009

I’m just sayin’.

Sigh.

More here.

about two hours before puking

Some friends and I went to Cincinnati this weekend to hang out with a friend and catch a baseball game. We hit the towns (the towns being Bellevue and Newport in Kentucky, just across the river from downtown Cincy) shortly after arriving, taking advantage of my friend’s primo location by walking from one bar to the next to the next to the next.

I’ve been hungover ever since.

Here’s a song I think about frequently when I’m in this condition:

Blur – Miss America

I think it perfectly captures the wooziness and general malaise of the morning after. In the case of this weekend, that feeling has carried over into a second morning after.