Three small strays

Here are Joanna Newsom and Bill Callahan, with... some other folks, covering Melanie's Ring The Living Bell (which has become much more captivating than I can remember any Melanie songs ever being for me).




I was recently introduced to this Tame Impala tune...




...and soon found this.

I just wanted some geeky 80's synth tunes

And then it turned into this whole thing.




There's a Part 2? Well, okay, sure -- let's give it a listen. Or pageview. Whatever.




Sticking with the New Traditionalists-era synths, but dialing down the visual complexity...




Bringing visual complexity levels back up to critical capacity...




I'm not a crazed fan of the animation in this one, but the music has a nice Lemon Jelly chill to it.  Turn your speakers down first -- the test pattern tone at the beginning is a bit insistent.

My dad introduced me to Tonio K.

Er, well, okay -- he didn't introduce me to the man, you understand. But he did introduce me to this album.




Weird Al has mentioned that Tonio K's one of his heroes. You can hear the influence here:



That's not the official video. But it's dead on message.


Here's a couple more peas in that particular pod.

A fistful of Devo

Here they are in concert in 1973 at Kent State. They aren't doing the kind of scumbag techno-blues in evidence on the "Hardcore Devo" albums, but they're getting close.




I keep meaning to get acquainted with the Jihad Jerry stuff, but it hasn't happened yet.




Here's Devo and Neil Young.





And, uh... the word "Devo" is in the title of this one.

Dream instructions

I woke one recent morning with the understanding that this video was of vital viewing importance. WHAT COULD IT MEAN?!!




Anyway. Har Mar Superstar. I found out about him via Sklarbro Country. Haven't checked out Nocturnal Emotions yet, but I like this and this and (heh heh) this.




Yeah! It's about time someone brought Eric Clapton down a peg or two.




I once heard this a long time ago on WNCW, and finally rediscovered it a few weeks ago. (Mind you, I could say the same thing about a particular Type O Negative song which I really rather enjoyed back then, but now it kinda just sounds like an under-enthusiastic X-Cops cover band led by a mildly-sedated vampire with Down syndrome.)




And here's this. What really sells it for me is the subtle caricaturistic inaccuracy that was a hallmark of the true Hostess fruit pie comics ads. For those of you wishing to see more of this guy's work, but would like to avoid typing, here's the link.