Archive for the 'Music' Category
The Muppets sing “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Foundations – Kate Nash
Elizabeth November 11th, 2009
I nearly committed sins against the NaBloPoMo gods by not writing a post in time today, but I’ll manage to scrape in 15 minutes before midnight!
I blame this awful Melbourne heatwave, the packed tram that I had to ride home, and the stench of B.O. in the air that I was utterly unable to get away from. By the time I got home I was really nauseous and needed to sleep it off.
(That sleep lasted a little longer than planned…)
I wish I was a Summer person, but I’m just not. I am really dreading the next few months.
Anyway, I’m lucky to have come across this Kate Nash song tonight, via Naturally Nina’s lovely blog, so that I have something to write about! In her post Nina compared Kate Nash to Regina Spektor, maybe because of her choice of instrumentation, but when I listened to this song it instantly made me think of Lily Allen. The accent makes that an easy comparison, but there’s something about her looks and attitude that makes me think that Lily has been a big influence.
The lyrics are pretty fantastic, and I love that the video managed to convey their suffocating relationship so cleverly using everyday domestic objects. It has certainly made me want to check out the rest of her stuff to see if it’s as good as this song.
Enjoy the tune, I’m off to resume my sleep!
Priscilla Ahn – Dream
Elizabeth October 16th, 2009
Finally, I’m heading towards the pointy end of an extremely busy work week. I have so many half-written posts that I haven’t been able to finish this week, so instead I’d like to share this spectacular music video with everyone.
I like to listen to this song when my mind needs some serenity…
Enjoy, and have a happy Friday!
Literal videos
Elizabeth June 6th, 2009
Today I discovered literal music videos, which probably makes me the last one to the party. And now I’m hooked!
As one YouTube commenter said, if I could double-favourite this I would!
At about the 2-minute mark I remember having to actively choose between watching and breathing, as I seemed to be unable to do both with all the laughter getting in the way. Other videos are less cleverly-written, but I did enjoy White Wedding and Take On Me.
If you know of any other brilliant ones, tell me!
#22 – List 101 things that make me happy
Elizabeth May 31st, 2009
Part of my 101 Things in 1001 Days challenge.
I completed this task some time ago, but never wrote about it here to let you guys know. In fact, there have been a number of items that I’ve quietly completed over the past year and never reported here in my blog. I’m sad that I didn’t always force myself to write, because some of the details are lost forever. I know that my next 101 list will operate a little differently to this one; I guess I’m learning all the time.
Anyway, I was reminded of my own happy list recently while reading Rockstar Diaries – one of my new all-time favourite reads from the blogosphere. Taza (and husband) run this beautiful little blog about their lives and love, and every post brings a smile to my face. In particular, I’ve really been enjoying Taza’s recent here’s to happiness category, in which readers submit ten things that make them happy.
So here is my own happy list.
If I was to begin another list of 101 things that make me happy, this video might be on it. Just another little gem that Taza has introduced me to!
- 101 in 1001 , External Sites , Life , Music , Videos
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Best wedding ever!
Elizabeth May 21st, 2009
Brian & Eileen’s Wedding Music Video. from LOCKDOWN projects on Vimeo.
Now that I have watched this twice I am experiencing some localised aches – possibly recurrant singstarsepticemia. It’s a nasty condition that can only be alleviated with a red or blue microphone.
Excuse me.
- Art , Cool stuff , Funny Stuff , Music , Videos
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Lior at The Spiegeltent
Elizabeth November 9th, 2008
Last night Tim and I saw the incredible Lior at The Spiegeltent. The whole thing was pretty much a dream come true, with Lior’s incredible live vocal performance and the spectacular surrounds of the famous travelling venue. I came down with a serious case of goosebumps on more than one occasion last night.
The Spiegeltent was the perfect, intimate venue. There was general seating in the centre of the tent, and wooden booths in a semi-circle around the perimeter. We were silly enough to hang out in the bar before the show, so we missed out on the best seats. The sound and atmosphere didn’t suffer for this, but next time I’ll be more careful to avoid sitting backwards.
I did a quick search on flickr for photos of the tent, since I didn’t take a camera myself. Here are a couple from previous Melbourne seasons.
The Spiegeltent in Melbourne, in 2006. Photo by Trimba.
The interior of the Spiegeltent in daylight. Photo by clogwog.
Following Lior was a cabaret show, which would have been perfect in this venue. They often house circus acts as well as live music, and I imagine it would be very impressive. No seat would be more than 15 metres away from the action – probably less when they bring the stage to the middle of the tent. Can you imagine?
Anyway, one of the other highlights of the show was a shadow puppet screen hanging to the left of the stage. I was only able to see part of the screen from where I sat (honestly, 99% of the seats would have been perfect – I was just unlucky) but had the rare advantage of being able to watch what happened behind the scenes. Most of it was done using an overhead projector and transparencies, and it took four hands to coordinate each scene. The preparation must have been really intense for this aspect of the show, but it was beautifully executed. I got the impression that it was a one-night-only thing.
The finished product looked very much like the film clip for Lior’s I’ll Forget You. The people credited for that clip are not the same names that were mentioned last night, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they were all part of the same art direction team.
So special, especially live.
And Lior. Who could have imagined that the purity and richness of his voice could be just as incredible live? Even after an hour on stage he was capable of the sweetest, most delicate notes – and was beautifully supported by an upright bass player and string quartet. There was even one special number where he was backed by a horn section who had ducked out from the opera next door.
I had about five “favourites” last night, but if I had to choose one it would be This Old Love. I’ve literally taken this song everywhere with me for the past few years, and I love it now as much as I did the first time I heard it.
This morning I tracked down a live version from an Australia Day concert in 2006. Enjoy!
Busy busy.
Elizabeth November 3rd, 2008
It’s been a really big 24 hours, but lots of fun. Here in Melbourne we have the day off for The Melbourne Cup tomorrow, and many employers seem to give people the Monday off as well. Tim and I were both lucky enough to have a four day weekend, and it has been complete and utter bliss. As a result, I’ve been in Saturday mode all day!
Last night we headed to The Corner to see one of Tim’s all-time favourite bands, Streetlight Manifesto. I’ve been listening to them for a couple of years as well, ever since he included a bunch of their tracks on some mix cds he made me. Last night’s show was incredible, mainly due to the energy and the speed and the accuracy of the notes from the horn section. Awesome stuff.
They told the audience that their music is hard to find here, because their record label hates them and they hate them right back. So they suggested that everybody get on bittorrent and give their album to all their friends.
In the spirit of that, I thought I’d share a couple of tracks. It’s fun and fast ska, with the odd mellow moment. The lead singer has an awesome voice, the trumpet player is dead on each note, and the lyrics are clever. Locals who like The Cat Empire will probably like Streetlight Manifesto too.
(My connection keeps resetting this as I write, so check back here for these tracks. Update: I’ll be trying this again tomorrow as my piece of shit modem is a massive piece of shit today.)
Streetlight Manifesto – Point / Counterpoint
Streetlight Manifesto – A Moment of Silence
The icing on the cake was the Dan Potthast, whose songs were introduced to me around the same time as Streetlight’s. He’s pretty much the most fun you can have with a man and an acoustic guitar. He rocked the stage as though he was a band of five people, won the admiration of his hecklers, and blew us all away with his awesomeness. His backstories were 3 times as long as his songs, and that was cool too. I am now an enormous fan.
Dan Potthast – KKK Hiway (mp3 to come soon, see above re piece-of-shit modem.)
We stumbled home around midnight, and woke up with a grin when we realised that today was Monday and we didn’t have to go to work! After a leisurely breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast, we bummed around the house a little and headed into the city. My brother is in town for a few days and so we spent the afternoon shopping and walking around.
We stopped at one of our favourite places to eat, Shanghai Dumpling House, and ordered a ridiculous amount of food for three people. We didn’t get through it all, but the bill still only came to $15. If the price isn’t enough to get you excited, maybe you should just come for the Asian covers of golden oldie tracks. If you’re lucky the cd will skip several times throughout your meal and it will sound like a remix.
God, I love that place.
After a little more shopping we headed to Laurent, an incredible patisserie that my brother discovered before I did! We were stuffed from lunch, but managed to fit in room for coffee and a dessert.
Afterwards we went on a mission to find a new bar that my brother had heard of – Silk Road on Collins St. It is the most tastefully opulent bars you could ever hope to see, and the wine list is spectacular. One of the staff gave us a tour of the place (including the cognac room, the sake bar and the wine room) and pointed out the oil reproductions of famous Italian artworks on the ceiling. The chandeliers gracefully changed colour in synchronisation with the other lighting in the venue, the couches were divine and we found ourselves unable to stop at just the one cocktail. In fact, I counted three each before we decided to depart!
We’re bringing our parents back to this place on Christmas Eve, on the occasion of us all being in town together at the same time. Can’t wait, and I intend to sample some of their food next time as well.
Today’s link: 10 Ways to Eat More Bacon. Would anyone think less of me if I confessed that I would totally try bacon & egg icecream? (Better keep that to myself just in case.)
Baby Engrish!
Elizabeth February 26th, 2008
Shamelessly stolen from Jus.
This has got to be the cutest video on YouTube. Bet you can’t resist retting her into your heart!
If you’re not into babies singing Beatles tunes, maybe hotchickswithdouchebags.com is more your style?
Marina is on fire (uhh)
Elizabeth November 10th, 2007
In this house, conversation comes to a screeching halt when the latest Bonds underwear ad comes on TV. Conversation resumes mid-sentence 30 seconds later. I can’t explain it – I consider myself to be a healthy heterosexual girl. but there’s something completely mesmerising about this ad. If I think about it too much I might creep myself out.
Tim doesn’t have any conflicting feelings about the ad whatsoever.
I’m trying to find the original on Youtube to share with my international readers, but having no luck so far. In fact I suspect that there is some sort of issue with the song they chose – I notice that for the past few days they have been playing a lyric-less remix of the song. And while the song was apparently available for download on the Bonds website, there’s now no sign of it at all. In fact, the ad itself isn’t even on their Recent Ads page.
I figured the changes to the ad must have had something to do with the lyrics of the song, which I couldn’t really decipher. My google-fu turned this up:
GASOLINA – Bonde do Role
Marina anfetamina
Marina gasolina (oooooo orra)
Marina caipirinha
Bum tchá tchá tchi tchi tcháMeet me after school and i’ll beat you like gorilla
Bite you like piranha, vem brigar com a minha aranha
Oooooo orraEgüinha pocotó
Marina is on fire
Etc, etc. If the English lyrics are the problem, I’d be pretty surprised. And I have no idea what the rest means. It’s far more likely that the mention of “meet me after school” suggested that the girls in the ad were school-aged, and some cranky viewers thought they were sexualising little girls. It’s a stretch, but that’s the only thing I can come up with.
All I know is that the song is EMBEDDED IN MY BRAIN when I am trying to sleep and if I don’t find an mp3 of it sometime soon it might actually explode from frustration.
Meanwhile, I found out that Tim & I aren’t the only fans. This is a video made by the seniors of some school called McKinnon Secondary, in which they recreated the Bonds Kaleidoscope commercial (which uses the same music).
How they roped their teacher into doing this is beyond me – my teachers never displayed this level of commitment to our ideas. Maybe that’s because our best idea involved an elaborate plot to put the school up for sale.
If anybody has this song as an mp3, they should really let me know. Until then, at least I have the lyrics so that I can sing them over the remix every 15 mins on Ten!
EDIT: I found the mp3! Uploaded it to my little music player on the sidebar, if you want to have a listen.
The “Leave Britney Alone!” trance remix
Elizabeth September 19th, 2007
I am not kidding when I say that I will be ripping this to mp3 and putting it on my ipod.
Why Tori Amos is my hero – “I’m not stupid”
Elizabeth September 7th, 2007
I will finally share a room with her on Monday night, but until then I have YouTube. And this little gem is one of the cutest songs she’s ever written 
When I was 21 do you think I had a bag of cocaine in my car?
If I did, if I did
You’d never know it, no
You’d never know it because it would have been hidden.
‘Coz I’m not stupid.But why are so many 21-year-old millionaires so stupid?
Stupid and cute,
But stupid? I don’t know…Let’s just say when i was 26, or 7, or 8
And if i was a millionairess, what would i have done?
Many naughty things,
Many many many naughty things,
But i would have had a driver.‘Coz i’m not stupid, no
I’m not stupid, no
Not that stupid, anyway…‘Coz if i had been naughty
(I like being naughty)
But I haven’t been caught so far
And I am almost forty-four
Forty-four,
And I have done many many many many bad things.
But they are hidden inside my mmm-mmm,
Inside my mmm-mmm
So there’s no record or no fingerprints on it‘Coz I’m not stupid,
‘Coz I’m not stupid
No, not stupid.
Tori for President.
Christina Aguilera & Herbie Hancock
Elizabeth August 27th, 2007
Presenting: Reason #579348 Why I Adore Christina Aguilera Even Though I Don’t Listen to Pop.
Anybody who can hold their own against a master like Herbie Hancock (and not get lipstick on their teeth) is okay by me.
Also, my boy Herbie totally has a crush on Miss A.
