just some videos

i'm a bad blogger. here's something to improve your sunday afternoon..

fade out again

this is one of my favorite music videos of all time and also one of my favorite radiohead song. great combo there. both video and song are so incredibly beautiful. i get the urge to watch it every now and then, but it's been, i think, over a year now. my brain just went "hang on.. street spirit!" all of a sudden.

so, enjoy. the video is from '96 so, considering, the effects still work. good job there video making people.

throwing muses et. al.

there are three ladies that go together in the american indie musical landscape of the 90s; kristin hersh, tanya donelly and kim deal. all of them also go together with my favorite label, 4AD.

the first of them, kristin hersh, formed throwing muses in the early 80s (in her early teens). in the line-up were her stepsister, the second of the ladies, tanya donelly. they were signed by 4AD in '86. in '91 their 4th and pure fantastic album the real ramona was released, after which tanya donelly left the band. by then donelly had already started a side project with kim deal (of pixies) called the breeders. later that year, 1991, she also formed belly, one of my absolute favorite bands. more about them in a later post.

a few year later kristin hersh also started to release solo albums, something she's continued to do. she also formed 50 foot wave in 2003.

here's throwing muses "not too soon" off of the real ramona. love it!



also, here's "bright yellow gun" from album university from '95. (no real video)



also, "your ghost" from hersh's first solo album hips and makers. interesting note: michael stipe sings backgrund vocals here.

smashing fantastic

this is the fantastic song "today" by the smashing pumpkins, released as a single and on the album siamese dream from 93. i've loved this song since first i heard it, which was actually on mtv 120 minutes sometime in 95. i remember cos it was at my then boyfriend's house. my parents didn't want to pay for extra channels back then so i just had the ones that were for free, which was 3 and no music. thank god for video recorders!

the album, siamese dream, is on my list of the best albums of all time, a list that's been in the making for as long as i can remember, and doesn't seem to ever make the light of day. we'll see.

enjoy the 90s when it was at its best: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHUd896Sur0 (embedding disabled by request)

this is 2011

well, not really. at least not on this blog. rest assured, we're very much still in the 90s here. although i will lend an ear to 2003 with the second video here which is death cab for cutie's fantastic song "the new year". this first video is not a video, just a song, but the song is so good that it won't matter. it's the breeders' "new year" from my favorite album of theirs, last splash, from 93. you will hear more about the breeders later on on this blog.

for now, happy new year!

So this is the new year.
And I don't feel any different.
The clanking of crystal
Explosions off in the distance

So this is the new year
And I have no resolutions
For self assigned penance
For problems with easy solutions

So everybody put your best suit or dress on
Let's make believe that we are wealthy for just this once
Lighting firecrackers off on the front lawn
As thirty dialogs bleed into one

I wish the world was flat like the old days
Then I could travel just by folding a map
No more airplanes, or speed trains, or freeways
There'd be no distance that could hold us back.
death cab for cutie

the record collection mixtapes pt 1

this is a re-post of a blog post from my other blog, my own private alderaan. i'm re-posting it because i intend to continue posting this series here as well, since it fits pretty good.

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[originally posted here march 11, 2010]

so, i guess i feel like i don't have enough to do; between being a mother, writing my thesis, selling the apartment, moving to a house and all the rest of life's lovely assignments; that i need a new project of some sorts. well, here it is.

i'm going to go through my record collection, record by record, write a few lines about each one and, most importantly, pick one song off of every record to be collected in a sort of record collection mixtape.

what do you think of that?

my record collection is very dear to me but otherwise not particularly impressive; it's just a bunch of records i like. there are no rarities (i think), very few singles even by artists i really like and no complete discographies (except maybe if joy division's heart and soul box counts). if you want to take a look it's here on rateyourmusic.com. but impressive or not, it currently holds 625 titles (not counting the dvds, cos madonna's in bed with madonna isn't really a record now is it) so this project will take some time. if you're somewhat familiar with math you'll realize, as i just did, that even if i write about one record a day - which i, for the record, WON'T - it'll take a bit shy of two years to complete, and it's not like i won't buy more records during the process. so, phew.

Though, i've decided, the few singles i DO have won't be included unless they contain some really good song, cos seriously, what's the point in choosing one song out of two, or worse, three remixes of the same song?

so there are the ground rules. maybe if you're nice, you can get a copy of the mixtapes (on cd) along the way. i'll also probably start a playlist on spotify called my record collection mixtape and share with whoever wants it, but given the big gaps in spotify's selection, it will probably be far from complete.

now, for part 1 of this, the record collection mixtapes, the first title. Bigger, Better, Faster, More! by 4 Non Blondes.

look how pretty they are!

i bought this record used for 15 sek (that about $2 at the current rate), i know this cos it still has the price-tag left, and it's dusty too! mental note; need to clean or change plastic thing. so, i really didn't consider it before buying, more than that i really like their early 90s hit single "What's Up" (which is actually a clearly feminist song, something i didn't realize until years after the fact, but is really cool considering what a big hit it was), which in itself was worth the 15 sek. i really like linda perry too, the awesome singer who at the time wore ridiculously large hats. the 90's was a strange place. (what an awesome timing, too, since perry has co-written a lot of material to hole's coming album that i wrote about the other day.)

it's an okay record, some good songs and some not so good ones. the sound, albeit very early 90s sounding (think metal-grunge, red hot chili peppers funk and radio music like the spin doctors), varies a bit. there's the funky "No place like home", the bluesy "Pleasantly blue", the soundgardeny/alice in chainsy "Calling all the people" and lots of Perry's signature "What's Up?" yells. i can't help but pick the obvious song here, but i am sorry that i never really listened to the album until now. this is already turning out to be a great project. i think i'm gonna have to check out Perry's solo albums soon.

the chosen song, of course, being "What's Up?".

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EDIT: here's the video.

funstyle

so, the fantastic liz phair just released a new album. joy! it's called funstyle. the best thing about it is that it's something of a self-release. the tone of the album is personal and fun, almost goofy. closer to her early stuff than the last few produced albums. here is a review.

i ordered it the other day and got a t-shirt and the downloads with it. i love small scale independent!

if you've never heard or heard of liz phair i recommend you grab her debut exile in guyville from 93 and give it a few turns in the cd-player or put it on repeat. after that you should listen to whitechocolatespaceegg at least once. when you know what you're dealing with, come back for more. i hope you're not shy or prudish.

liz phair is fantasic.


never said (from exile in guyville)


whip-smart (from whip-smart)


polyester bride (from whitechocolatespaceegg)

make it home

hitting two 90s birds with one stone here with a clip from the fantastic 90s tv-series my so-called life starring young redhead clair danes. sadly it ended after only one season. i identified so much with the characters in this series back when i was a teenager, and it also had so much great music in it. in this clip juliana hatfield plays a small part and she plays and sings for a little bit.