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It's All So Temporary
The Hospitals "Rich People" - My favorite kind of noise-punk is all about a contagious enthusiasm for weird sounds rather than some macho, puerile need to be obnoxious and difficult. There's so much raw energy and excitement in this track, it's pretty much everything that I want from a DIY art punk record. By the time the big guitar riff (which sounds just like this one song a lot of marching bands play at football games) kicks in , it sounds like singer is surfing on an enormous tidal wave of delay. It's impossible to imagine that these guys didn't have an incredible amount of fun recording this session. (Click here to buy it from Midheaven.)
Kidz Bop "Since U Been Gone" (VIDEO - Click/save, please do not stream or direct link from elsewhere!) (mirror) - Wormseye Films' video for the Kidz Bop version of Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" might be the most joycore thing that I've ever seen. I can barely contain my enthusiasm for this video. It's beautiful, clever, cute, inspiring and joyous. It's the most satisfying piece of cinematic art that I've seen this year aside from Arrested Development. Here is a list of twenty things that I love about the clip. (Thank you to Scott Stereogum!)
01 The way that the directors seem to have no shame about what they are doing. I think that a lot of people wouldn't fully commit to making a good video for a recording like this, but they seem to genuinely appreciate the song, and this completely ridiculous version of it. For those of you who aren't familiar with Kidz Bop, this is a very faithful cover version recorded by session players, but with a whole bunch of little kids belting out the chorus along with the lead singer. The directors foreground the subtext of the Kidz Bop enterprise and strike gold with a clip about little kids pretending to be pop stars.
02 It's such an earnest celebration of the creativity and imagination of children, not to mention their ability to make their own fun out of whatever is around them.
03 The way that the "let's make our own video" aesthetic is maintained throughout all of the non-fantasy framing sequences up until the end, when it cuts to some random home video of a school event that they were taping over.
04 The way the animated drawings of the kid brother are super cute, but not really flashy. They look like actual kid drawings come to life.
05 The design of the animal costumes, especially the ZZ Top walrus. They get the right combination of cuteness and radness.
06 The chemistry between the kids playing the brother and sister. The little bits of bickering seem very real to me.
07 The kids in the audience are about half the age of the tween singer on stage, which totally makes sense with kid logic. Little kids expect pop stars to be older than them.
08 Shark microphone!
09 The face the girl makes when she mimes along to "I even fell for that stupid love song." It's like she knows everything and nothing about adult relationships. I remember being that age and aspiring to pop drama and relating to lyrics about things I've never experienced. Lucky for her she didn't grow up with whiny alt-rock.
10 If only I could see just one show in my life where the audience is as uniformly enthusiastic and passionate as this bunch of kindergarteners.
11 The little brother gives the nod of approval from the sidelines - he's a big shot manager!
12 I stop noticing that it's not the Kelly Clarkson version of the song by the time the first chorus hits. Every single time!
13 The way that one little girl with the white collar looks like she's having some kind of religious experience after the tween singer kicks her hair back after the "again and again and again" part.
14 The walrus clicking his sticks in the air during the "Maps" riff.
15 The tiger jumping up and doing a split!
16 The way that crazy Asian kid in the yellow shirt looks like he's about to turn into the Incredible Hulk.
17 The way the dancing tiger seems clumsy, triumphant, and vaguely menacing all at the same time.
18 That solemn look the tween singer gives the camera before the end of the song. This was a lot of fun, but she's serious!
19 The way that the singing zebra seems to come out of nowhere.
20 The gator is the archetypal rock bass player - lanky, unassuming, slightly goofy, prone to hopping. He's Krist Novoselic in green felt.
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