Welcome to my blog and my first entry ever. I'm not a particularly good writer so bare with me while I figure out my blogging voice. I recently began looking at all the cool music videos available on YouTube and thought it might be good to start a blog to show them to my friends. I like all kinds of music and I think that over time it will show. What are we waiting for let's get started immediately! (Props to Coolboyman!)
I have been on an unfashionable New Wave kick for the past six months and so I think it might be just as well to not fight my uncontrollable urge and start there. I present to you Japan's Devo, Polysics. I remember the first time I saw one of their albums while browsing in my local video store, Tsutaya, to all you residents and alumni of Japan. They were all wearing matching jump suits and I thought, wow, these guys sure look like Devo! When I checked it out their sound it lived up to that guess.The funny thing about my encounter with this CD was that I had expected ALL Japanese music to sound like this. All computer synthy and devolved... Sad truth is only a handful of Japanese bands really try to push the envelope in any way. I guess the same can be said about bands the world over.A few years later I had a chance to see Polysics live in Osaka at the Otodama Festival last year. They were really energitic and loads of fun to watch so if you ever get a chance to see them perform I recommend you do!The first video features a lot of pronouns and some pretty ill pop and lockin' (I said ill...) from 11 year-old schoolgirl STRONG MACHINE 2 and yes, there is a STRONG MACHINE 1. The website for the um, STRONG MACHINES can be found here. There are two versions of "I My Me Mine", the original is well produced and much slicker than the one featured above but IMAO less cool. The Post-modernist (henceforth PO-MO) in me is a big fan of minimal, static, one take videos. Not high on production perhaps but (hopefully) big on whatever is left. Click here to see the slicker (and also very cool) version at YouTube.
Electric Surfin' Go Go, the second video and latest single, continues where the first video ends off and again features STRONG MACHINE 2 along with the other members of the band. Polysic's DEVO fandom is shown in this video with the lead singer actually sporting the "Bob 1 Devo guitar". Much of the video is beautifully roto-scoped making it fun to watch. I'm not sure the whole live action band verses rotoscoped characters makes a lot of sense but for a song that features a bunch of meowing I shouldn't be too picky.
I picked up the single for Electric Surfin' Go Go at Tower Records and was happily surprised to find out it came with it's own genuine Polysics whoopie cushion! Now THAT's what I call Po-mo!
The video is "Waht Happens Now?" by Vocoder, a Spanish New Wave/Technopop bit of weirdness from 1985. Finding information on this 'so crap it's good' band has been a bit of a challenge but I'll share waht I know with you all. According to sources on the Interwebs, only one EP called "Mindanao/Amor de Robot" was ever released (Neón Danza/DRO ES 1985 12SG). As a bonus, I have included the MP3's from that very release at the bottom of this entry.
grocery shopping!
