Toktok Vs Soffy O - Missy Queen's Gonna Die

Back in the nineties, the German satelite channels were pervceived as just a treasure trove of Benny Hill porn and badly dubbed episodes of Beverly Hills Bordello. But there was more. Honestly. They also hosted a couple of great music networks, notably Viva 1 and 2, which showcased pan-european tunes that you would never have heard way over this side of europe. This was before Ryanair so transporting bangers like Missy Queen's Gonna Die across boarders was costly as they had to have their own seat booked on the plane. It's a classic chunk of teutonic electro complete with nonsense ephemeral video and a huffy aryan ice madien on vocals.

The Secret History of Hall and Oates

Daryl Hall (no tache) and John Oates (tache) met in primary school and were drawn together through their shared passion for Top Trumps. The duo cemented this bond by playing music, starting a group in their early teens called The Unidentical Twins which evolved into The Schrodinger's Hepcats, then Weak At Denise and then Oates and Hall, before finally settling on Hall and Oates. An early sitpulation in their first contract with Sony/BMG was that Hall would always stand to the right of Oates, and must enter every room first. John Oates bitterly contested this obligation and finally won the right to position himself wherever he felt comfortable but only after after a long court battle. This was not before he was left to endure an arduous twelve day wait outside the pair's bungalow mansion as Hall had gone on holidays. The strain of the court battle took it's toll on the duo who split arcimoniously. Daryl Hall retained the rights to the full band name Hall and Oates and continued to record and perform under that moniker. As a result John Oates was forced to drop his own surname and simply called himself 'John'.

This video for their breakout hit 'I Can't Go For That' was acclaimed in its day for its high-tech special effects. The duo, and their sax man, were replaced with animatronic droids made entirely from tinfoil. The shininess on their tinfoil skin and hair can be noticed throughout the vid.

Hall And Oates - I Can't Go For That
Uploaded by manon42

silver medalist

Johnny Burnette Trio - Lonesome Train

Johnny Burnette was the outsider Elvis; the Coconut Cream to Elvis's Mikado, the Mortal Combat to his Street Fighter, the Oink comic to his Beano. Burnette rocked hard and true but was just a little too feral, and had too many frayed edges, for white bread america. He also had a tendancy to yelp out a primal scream in the middle of his tunes which further blotted his copybook. Here he is looking manic in a suit that's a little too big for him and grinning inanely like a pint-sized rockabilly Max Cady. Hail hail Johnny Burnette.



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Gnarls Barkley - Who's Gonna Save My Soul?

The anatomy of a break up. The song here is secondary to a clever video. In one sense it's reminsent of that richard ashcroft promo where he's walking about a hotel room and then goes for a piss at the end, but in another sense it's not because both the song and the video were steaming piles of solo-poo for that one. Here it's a neat tune and a searing vid, and a chathartic watch for anyone who's been kicked to the kerb around a lifetime too soon and who's heart still stings like it's resting in a pile of nettles with ne'er a doc leaf in sight. sniff.



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OP8 feat. Lisa Germano

In one of the great largely forgotten collaborations of the late nineties, smokey larynxed chanteuse Lisa Germano hooked up with Giant Sand - Howie Gelb and some other dudes who moonlight in Calexico - for an album of dustbowl country noir. The record was called Lush and was subsequently deleted but later some music exec dude pressed crtl+Z and undeleted it, before it quickly disappeared again. Thankfully the magic of the interweb has enabled this sultry union to be preserved for the foreseeable future in a couple of live concert vids that someone has only recently stuck on youtube. Cock a glance.

Sand



Crackling Water



Silver Medalist

The Blue Nile - The Downtown Lights

The Blue Nile are deadly, but some folks reckon they're a bit naff because of their slick 80s synths and pored-over production. Tommyrot; their sound is the apogee of that decade's sophisticated pop sheen, with smart, heartfelt lyrics and lush adult- contemporary sonics. I think the eighties remain the most misunderstood musical decade - lots of it's swaggering pop dynamos like Prefab Sprout, Tears For Fears, Scritti Politti etc, had a marked uniqueness, in contrast with the generic guitar muck that plagues our ears these days. Anyways the Blue Nile get bonus points because their singer, Paul Buchanan, looks like Andy Townsend. In this vid Andy is forced to sit in a golden triangle while recording a song amidst a wet, meloncholy urban dystopia.



Silver Medalist

She and Him - Why Don't You Let Me Stay Here?

Everyone's favourite indie actress slash singing poppet, Zooey Deschanel (pronounced "Zooey Deschanel") has further embellished her claim to be the Pitchfork readers' pin-up du jour by hooking up with gravelly americana merchant M. Ward and releasing a record of refreshingly gloopy love songs, heartbreakers and doo-wop ditties. The She and Him record Volume One is unpretentious, sentimental and a bit lovely. So Zooey doesn't have a great voice, but she sings with personality which is more than most identikit automatons can manage these days. There's lots of spry wordplay on offer too for sadsacks to whimper over. I not sure if M.Ward is tackling her but he's probably trying to.

Here is the video for Why Don't You Let Me Stay Here?



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The Whitest Boy Alive - Burning

This tune and this band have been about for a while but there's something oddly captivating about this video. It's not the official vid, just something a randomer put together and stuck on the net i think. It neatly captures that vibe of dancing about your bedroom in front of a giant portrait of an amazonzian lady while listening to the whitest boy alive, which is something so common it's pretty unremarkable. 'dis is chill' as one sagely you tube contributor described the video. Thank you oh wise oracle of the internet.



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Folk Week - Paul Brady

Paul Brady is a much maligned artist because as he got older he produced lots of uncool MOR muck. It's a shame because some of his early solo work is some of the best Irish folk ever recorded. His album with Planxty bazouki whiz Andy Irvine is a must have in any muso's collection, and there's a few tasty bootlegs from the same era lurking about the web that are also off the chain. Here's a few vids of old school Brady in action, the second with his wing man Irvine double-teaming on a barnburner. This post is sponsored by the ongoing and ultimately fruitless campaign to bring Paul Brady to the kids.

Arthur McBride



The Plains of Kildare



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Folk Week - Alela Diane

I saw this lass playing support to the afforementioned Michael Hurley and they seemed very happy to be sharing in a folkie reverie where he was passing on the trade to the next generation or something. They sang a few songs together and it was very sweet. she's reminiscent of early cat power but without the melodramatics and the live show histrionics. She's from the same part of the US as Joanna Newsom and aparantly they used to play Fashion Wheel together. Having seen her in the flesh i can confirm that she is pretty in a kind of non threatening way.

Below is the video for 'Pieces of String'



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Folk Week - Vashti Bunyan

Ms Bunyan was a bit of a mad bint back in her day and played a seminal role in the development of all those fey folkie female artists that are de rigueur these days. She made one record and then rambled off all over the place in a wanderly wagon with a few of her urchins. she even ended up in galway at one point. then years later these plan b reading nerds were over in a gaf after a fourtet gig talking about nu-folk wyrdness, and one of these musos pulled out her old record and they all started drooling over it and made a geeky pact to find vashti and ressurrect her career. the discoved her in the yellow pages and set about introducing her to animal collective and other folkie wierdos, and now she's famous again. Thank goodness for hipsters. Here's a strange video of her from the sixties when she looks like shes feeling a bit sad about having to sit on a tall stool.



Silver Medalist

Folk Week - Haley Bonar

You may not have heard of her and neither had i until recently. Shes from a place called minersota which i think is in west County Mayo. Her sound reminds me of Amy Milan's solo album, theres this constant melancholic thread even in upbeat tracks. On her website you can listen to pretty much her whole new album, heres a link to a video and her website. Happy folk week!

Website address

http://www.haleybonar.com/index.html

Video for Devilish Man


McClow

Folk Week - Michael Hurley

August is a month which is definetly suited to folksy music, langurous sunny evenings, drowsy drunk lying in the shade - if only i lived in a country where this was possible instead of flash floods and constant drizzly rain. To get the folk going heres Michael Hurley, he's also a great cartoonist and has the coolest album covers that he draws himself.

Roots Manuva Day

Today is officially Roots Manuva Day and to celebrate i have a link to a video for his new track Again and Again which is crickety and also an old favourite. But u must see the video for Toddla T who i think produced the new Roots M album.

Sound Tape Killian Dem Bwoy Agwaan Seh We Forget Where We Come From WHA?! i think

Again & Again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRxYNTH-5Go

Witness

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3waF0o9rt3w&NR=1

Toddla T - Sound Tape Killian

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyiLbBw2Riw

I defo think he's saying killian as opposed to killin

EZ NAH!!!

McClow

Cat Power - The Greatest!

Cat Power - one of her best songs - and a bonus video with just bowling from one angle so you have to imagine the scores - thats a strike at 3.13 methinks.

http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDsxkQk6DWw

Clinic

I had planned to put just the link for a recent clinic song called harvest but then i saw there is a video for distortions - theres not much to the video for distortions but the song is so good it really doesnt even need a video.

so its harvest with the pastoral psychedelia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfZBm-ZF7DU

and distortions with glitchy monochrome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEhPVhSG7X4

Diissstooortiooooonnnnssssss

McClow

Nathan Fake - The Sky Was Pink (James Holden Mix)

I actually know some music nerds who maintain that this mix is better than the original. Well its not but it is a remarkable track. Heres a video of the remix thats like a condensed version of the film 5*2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-MXz98LFHA

Madlib & MF Doom - All Caps

MF Doom has a cool mask and it only occasionally gets in the way of his rhyming . This song is called all caps and its about the time Madlib lost his cap. That true.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NFzkbY7NbU&feature=related

Miracle Fortress - Maybe Lately

There' a new reissue of Denis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue album and it really is something. His and their sound is heard all the time and is perfectly used in this track by Miracle Fortress. And its the best use of animal costumes since Dj Formats - We Know somethin'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8cmRdpcePc

White Denim - Let's Talk About It!!!!

I know next to nothin' about White Denim but they seem to be a band on the cusp. Chances are they'll disappear into that frightening place of indie oblivion or will be bigger than Alphabeat, Battles and Aslan all added together. Paddy Power will actually give of odds on that but they're not that good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oPvyUHX3DE