Friday Night Videos

Mood.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Sixpence None the Richer.

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Friday Night Videos

Sixpence None The Richer's not a band I keep up with much. Sure, I recognize their biggest songs but they've never intrigued me enough to dive deeper into their catalog. So why am I featuring them on Friday Night Videos? Because their new single, "Rosemary Hill," has an accompanying video that was filmed in and around New Braunfels. Seriously, the whole thing. I recognize every intersection, every hill, every Gruene Hall... well, that last one's a given, as there's only one Gruene Hall and it's five minutes from my house. So if you'd like a glimpse of where I live (generally speaking) this video will scratch that itch.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Sergio Mendes.

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Friday Night Videos

Sergio Mendes died today. The man was a musical force, doing an amazing amount of work to popularize Bossa Nova, one of my favorite genres of music. Everyone's focused on his work with Brasil '66, specifically "Mas Que Nada," which is a fantastic song, but I want to showcase his talent with one of his later releases, "Funky Bahia," which he recorded with will.i.am and Siedah Garrett almost 15 years ago. Just watching him in the video, Sergio is so full of life and energy. I think it's safe to say he was having a ball.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... The Surfrajettes.

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Friday Night Videos

The Surfrajettes are back with a new surf guitar-driven single, "Easy As Pie," which heralds a new album coming soon. How cool is this? I've seen them live twice now and can't wait to catch them again the next time they swing through Texas. Maybe I'll luck out and they'll get a booking at legendary Gruene Hall--that way the afterparty could be held at the Lagoon of Mystery, our home tiki bar. Yeah, I can dream...

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Cyndi Lauper.

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Friday Night Videos

Last week's Riki Lindhome video sparked memories of my teenage years in the 1980s when Tipper Gore and her morality posse spent many a sleepless night worried that popular music might give me unwholesome thoughts about sex and women in general. I remember they even came out with a "Filthy 15" list of songs that were wholly inappropriate for young ears--which gave all or us teenagers a great starting place to find audio smut. I have to confess that I wasn't a huge fan of Cyndi Lauper at the time, but I found her song, "She Bop" somewhat catchy. Imagine my surprise to discover it was on the "Filty 15" list because it glorified masturbation! Really? I'd assumed it was about girls wanting to go dancing. Oh, sure, if you listen closely to the lyric you'd pick up references to Freud and going blind and such, but even today I find most of her lyrics in that song unintelligible and am only able to really make them out by reading the accompanying captions. Needless to say, once I found out what it was really about, I became a much bigger fan of Cyndi. So thanks for that, Tipper!

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Riki Lindhome.

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Friday Night Videos

Riki Lindhome, of Garfunkle & Oates fame, has released a new song called "Don't Google Mommy." If you're familiar with her subversive, satirical work from her collaborations with Kate Micucci then you know what to expect. If you're not already familiar with her work, well, you're in for a treat. Or a shock. Maybe both. I think we can agree that "Don't Google Mommy" is advice all children should heed.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Weird Al Yankovic.

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Friday Night Videos

"Weird Al" Yankovic is back with a new song. He's been mostly quiet on the new music front for a decade now, which is kinda hard to fathom considering how reliable his output has been since releasing "My Bologna" back in 1979. Fittingly, "Polkamania!" is one of his pop hit/polka mashups that have become highlights of his albums starting with "Polkas on 45" on In 3-D from 1984. I'm hardly an authority on all things Al, but I do believe this is the first time one of his polka medleys has come out as a single. If you're not familiar with the formula, Al takes a verse from a popular song then sets it to a polka arrangement--it's not unlike what Postmodern Jukebox does, albeit without the polka. The accompanying video itself is a masterpiece of surreal dada excess. Muppet Al dancing with muppet yetis is an image I'll not soon forget.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

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Friday Night Videos

I've seen complaints that modern music is too vulgar, that it's offensive and too many artists confuse crudeness for creativity. Shamefacedly, I realize I've contributed to the problem plenty of times in the past with my Friday Night Videos feature. I am sorry. So very, deeply sorry for any offense I may have caused. To make it up to everyone, today I'm sharing the sophisticated classical musical stylings of perhaps the greatest composer ever to live, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Here is his heartfelt vocal composition, "Leck mir den Arsch," as performed by the amazingly talented Johanna von der Deken, Yu Horiuchi and Hyung-ki Joo.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... R.E.M..

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Friday Night Videos

I remember very clearly hearing R.E.M.'s first hit single, "The One I Love," my senior year of high school. I wasn't that impressed. Yes, it was a decent enough song and I didn't dislike it, but nothing about it moved me to further investigate this R.E.M. band I'd that I'd heard was quite popular among college audiences. In the ensuing years I've become a fan of the band, and Document, which spawned "The One I Love," has some absolute gems on it that I think far surpass this particular song. But even though it's not my favorite of the group's, whenever I hear it I can't help but smile. Funny how that works, isn't it?

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Kinky Friedman.

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Friday Night Videos

Kinky Friedman died yesterday. Born out of the 1970s Outlaw Country/Cosmic Cowboy scene, the man forged his own path through life and was invariably provocative while doing so. Whenever he came upon a sacred cow he'd have a barbecue and invite his friend over to party. He even ran for governor a while back, which I remember with mixed feelings. To say he was a unique human being would be a gross understatment, and his music, while never a staple on commercial radio, isn't likely to be forgotten. Case in point: one of his signature songs, "They Ain't Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore."

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Crowded House.

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Friday Night Videos

I still remember the first time I ever heard Crowded House--it was late 1986, and I was in my room and the distinctive, elegiac guitar opening coming out of the clock radio beside my bed instantly grabbed my full attention. It absolutely sounded like something I'd heard long before but couldn't quite remember. I was convinced for many months thereafter that this was a great cover of some obscure song nobody else but me remembered. Considering the song's popularity despite being the fourth single from the album, I'd guess it had a similar impact on other folks as well. I followed the band until it broke up in 1996 and that was that. What I didn't know is that Crowded House subsequently reformed and released new music on multiple occasions since then. I now know this because the group just released "The Howl," which is a catchy, well-crafted song that sounds like it'd fit right in on any of the albums from the 80s and 90s. It's also got a trippy video featuring some first-class drone camera work. Definitely worth checking out.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Huey Lewis and the News.

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Friday Night Videos

I tend to forget how many songs about the Vietnam War were popular during the 1980s. That makes sense, as it took the passage of a decade before the U.S. had enough distance to begin to come to grips with the collective trauma. I have not seen similar with Iraq/Afghanistan, but that may be due to the fact that those conflicts were drawn out over a generation and/or not enough time has passed since their conclusion. Either way, it's pretty grim. On a less bleak note, I am always delightfully surprised at how many absolutely great songs were on Sports, the third album from Huey Lewis & the News and their absolute monster breakthrough. It's so chok-ful of hits that I'd completely forgotten about "Walking on a Thin Line" until just a few mintues ago. Crazy, right?

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Geoff Castelucci.

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Friday Night Videos

I recently was part of a conversation online about how The Hobbit films were a great disappointment in comparison to The Lord of the Rings. This is a contention I strongly agree with--I feel that in the 9-plus hours of Hobbit runtime there's probably a pretty good 3-hour film in there somewhere. That said, I found the music and song in the first film to be superior to the film itself. Case in point: Geoff Castelucci's cover of "Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold." I mean, this is a song I really liked way back when I first heard it in the Rankin-Bass animated Hobbit and Peter Jackson's film did it even better (for all Jackson's films' faults, when they get something right, they get it very, very right). Castelucci's cover is just spectacular. Singing bass is one thing, but singing all the parts? That's just nuts.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Pseudo Echo.

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Friday Night Videos

Warning: The following contains concentrated 1980s. Proceed with caution.

In 1979, the disco group Lipps Inc. released the album Mouth to Mouth. Some months later, after the calendar had flipped over to 1980, "Funkytown" came out as the second single from the album and became a monster hit around the world, spending four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. alone. In any sane decade, that should've been the end of it. But this is the 1980s we're talking about, where common sense and good taste sledom entered the picture. Enter the Australian New Wave band, Pseudo Echo, the members of which collectively decided that it'd be a good idea to cover a disco song from just five years prior. And history proves they were right: Pseudo Echo's cover of "Funkytown" was also a worldwide hit (although it only made it to No. 6 on Billboard). I was there. I witnessed cover bands at dances cover the hit cover of the original. As someone on YouTube so eloquently put it, "Only in the 80's could an 80's band do a cover of another 80's song and make it more 80's."

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Bruce Willis.

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Friday Night Videos

I'm not going to pretend Bruce Willis had the strongest voice or that his 1980s album The Return of Bruno was anything other than a vanity project. But the man had good taste in music and recorded (mostly) songs that suited his limited range. And there's no denying he looks like he's having a blast in the video for "Young Blood." I still own this album today and I'm not about to get rid of it.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Marcia Ball.

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Friday Night Videos

I probably became aware of Marcia Ball 30 years ago. While she played regular gigs around Texas and was a popular guest on Austin City Limits going back even further, I never saw her perform live. Until last night. Lisa and I scored tickets to see her at Jazz TX in San Antonio, and I'm happy to report that Ms. Ball gave an outstanding performance. My only regret is that I didn't catch her live 30 years ago--that's a lot of good music I have to play catch up with now. Here's one of her signature tunes, "That's Enough of That Stuff."

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine.

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Friday Night Videos

When I first heard "Conga" by Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine, my instantaeous first thought was "One hit wonder." That it would be a hit I had no doubt. It was infectious. But the whole song was an audio gimmick. Mind you, I had no idea of Miami Sound Machine's history and success on Spanish-language charts. But even if I'd known, how could I view this song as anything other than an outlier? Well, Ms. Estefan certainly had the last laugh on me, racking up a bunch of hits with her backing group before fully going solo to even greater English-language success.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66.

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Friday Night Videos

So it's almost two weeks ago now that I saw Herb Alpert and Lani Hall in concert. Last week I shared Halpert's cover of "Puttin' on the Ritz" but this week I'm going for the more low-hangning fruit with "Mas Que Nada" from Sergio Mendez and Brasil '66, which Lani Hall was lead singer with. It's a pretty cool video, and progressive for the time.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Herb Alpert.

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Friday Night Videos

I saw Herb Alpert perform in concert earlier this week. I wasn't sure what to expect since he's nearly 90, but I was utterly blown away. He engaged with the audience so easily that the crowd of 1,700 felt more like 17. It was crazy intimate and if Alpert has lost a step with age, I couldn't tell. His performance was top-notch. Seriously, this was one of the best live shows I've ever attended. He performed a cover of "Puttin' on the Ritz," which was cool in and of itself, but this trippy video played on the screens surrounding the stage. Naturally, I had to share.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... The Cardigans and Tom Jones .

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Friday Night Videos

Up until 24 hours ago I had no idea this existed. The Cardigans? Tom Jones? Performing together in this fever dream cover of the Taking Heads' "Burning Down the House"? I find it weirdly unsettling... but, I must confess, I am also fascinated by it. It's as if watching it amounts to participating in an involuntary cult initiation. You have been warned.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... The Smoke.

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