Posts Tagged ‘Pepper’
April 11th, 2009
Photo: Caballero/WireImage
a-ha, “Take on Me” [The Twelves Remix]
Shouldn’t there be a million and a half remixes of this song? Wasn’t everyone born after 1986 played this in the womb? We’re fairly sure this is now Rhode Island’s state song. What gives, Internet? All we’ve been able to find is this revved up Twelves remix and >this endlessly watchable video.
Keri Hilson, “Since U Been Gone” [Kelly Clarkson Cover]
We’re tiptoeing slowly back toward being OK with “Gone” covers. For a while there, every new version of this song seemed about as witty and original as your co-worker who’s still showing off his Borat impression. If you’re
an indie rock band, you should not ever cover this song. If you’re Keri Hilson, and you’re going for a slipper R&B version, we’ll let it slide.
Bjrk, “Nattura” [Switch Remix]
Superproducer Switch has accomplished the impossible: he’s managed to make Björk even weirder. This song sounds like it’s set in some Pixar version of Jamaica, and Bjork is reduced to a jabbering phantom who shows up for a few minutes to speak her mind before vanishing into the local greenery. In other words, this remix is a mind-blower.
Easy Star All Stars ft. Frankie Paul, “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” [Beatles Cover]
The Easy Star All-Stars song-by-song reggae cover of Sgt. Pepper finds the Fab Four’s weird rasta center, and recontextualizes every song in such a way that there can finally no be debate — this time, every song is indeed about drugs.
We Are the World, “Why Can’t I Be You?” [Cure Cover]
We wish this cover was by the group of musicians who recorded the original “We Are the World,” because we’d really love to hear Dan Aykroyd get his pipes around this one.
April 10th, 2009
Photo: Caballero/WireImage
a-ha, “Take on Me” [The Twelves Remix]
Shouldn’t there be a million and a half remixes of this song? Wasn’t everyone born after 1986 played this in the womb? We’re fairly sure this is now Rhode Island’s state song. What gives, Internet? All we’ve been able to find is this revved up Twelves remix and >this endlessly watchable video.
Keri Hilson, “Since U Been Gone” [Kelly Clarkson Cover]
We’re tiptoeing slowly back toward being OK with “Gone” covers. For a while there, every new version of this song seemed about as witty and original as your co-worker who’s still showing off his Borat impression. If you’re
an indie rock band, you should not ever cover this song. If you’re Keri Hilson, and you’re going for a slipper R&B version, we’ll let it slide.
Bjrk, “Nattura” [Switch Remix]
Superproducer Switch has accomplished the impossible: he’s managed to make Björk even weirder. This song sounds like it’s set in some Pixar version of Jamaica, and Bjork is reduced to a jabbering phantom who shows up for a few minutes to speak her mind before vanishing into the local greenery. In other words, this remix is a mind-blower.
Easy Star All Stars ft. Frankie Paul, “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” [Beatles Cover]
The Easy Star All-Stars song-by-song reggae cover of Sgt. Pepper finds the Fab Four’s weird rasta center, and recontextualizes every song in such a way that there can finally no be debate — this time, every song is indeed about drugs.
We Are the World, “Why Can’t I Be You?” [Cure Cover]
We wish this cover was by the group of musicians who recorded the original “We Are the World,” because we’d really love to hear Dan Aykroyd get his pipes around this one.
January 9th, 2009
If you’ve ever heard Of Montreal’s music, seen their album covers or survived that schizophrenic rave they call a concert, you know what to expect out from the band’s music video: Neo-psychedelia with the visuals of a fractured kaleidoscope. Here, we exclusively present the premiere of the band’s Jesse Ewles-directed video for “An Eluardian Instance,” a stand-out from the band’s 2008 LP Skeletal Lamping that hits on everything we love about the Kevin Barnes-fronted band, but adds stop motion animation and kick-ass origami to the equation.
We’d venture a guess about what this video is about, but unfortunately they don’t let us drop acid at work so we’ll try to describe it to the best of our abilities: Girl relaxing and reading a book by some seaside cliff also somehow holds the entire papier-mache university on orbit thanks to some kite string. She’s terrorized by some crazy lamb with horns, forcing her to take refuge in the cliffs, but manages to escape him after he rams his own head into the rocks. She goes back to her book, but unfortunately a passing airplane severs her kite string and the universe is set into chaos. The video — along with the poppy, multi-suite song — make for a pretty awesome audio-visual experience.
Enjoy the days of carefree Of Montreal videos while you can, as Barnes recently told Rock Daily the band’s music might take a different turn on their next album. “What I want to do now is slightly noisier. It’s sort of abstract in my mind, but right now what I’ll create will be mesmeric and kind of physical music,” Barnes said, adding that he wants to make music that makes you “feel queasy but in a totally different level.” So expect less Sgt. Pepper and more Roman Polanski in the band’s next batch of videos.
Related Stories:
• The Surreal Life: Meet Rock’s Newest Damaged Genius
• Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes Talks Next Album, Live DVD, MGMT Side Project
• Album Review: Skeletal Lamping
November 30th, 2008
Guns n’ Roses are threatening Dr Pepper with legal action over what the band calls “a complete fiasco” of a publicity stunt. Dr Pepper promised every person in America a free can of soda if Guns n’ Roses released Chinese Democracy this year; on November 23rd, the day Democracy was released, fans were told they could get a coupon for a free can at its Website. According to Axl Rose’s lawyer, Alan S. Gutman, things went terribly wrong: Yesterday he sent a letter to Dr Pepper CEO Larry Young saying that the soda company’s Website crashed and that “the redemption scheme your company clumsily implemented for this offer was an unmitigated disaster which defrauded consumers and, in the eyes of vocal fans, ‘ruined’ the day of Chinese Democracy’s release”.
The band is seeking a public apology via ads in newspapers, plus more time for people to claim their free soda and monetary damages. In the words of the letter: “Now it’s time to clean up the mess.” The letter continues, “As we all now know, Dr Pepper created an expansive and highly-publicized advertising campaign based solely on the exploitation of my clients’ legendary reputation. In and of itself this campaign brazenly violated our clients’ rights in numerous respects. Unfortunately, Dr Pepper has now magnified the damage this campaign has caused through its appalling failure to make good on a promise it made to the American public.”
Other highlights from the letter: “Our clients are outrated at your treatment of their fans and the American public in general. After it became clear that Chinese Democracy would be released in 2008, Dr Pepper executive Tony Jacobs proudly proclaimed that Dr. Pepper would make good on its promise to give a free soda to everyone in America. It turned out that Dr Pepper did not define ‘everyone in America’ the same way as ‘everyone in America’ defined ‘everyone in America.’” It concludes, “Had you wished to engage in a commercial tie-in with our clients, you should have negotiated a legitimate arrangement instead of hijacking their rights without payment. Rest assured, this misappropriation will not be free.”
Related Stories:
• Album Review: Guns N’ Roses, Chinese Democracy