swede pop.

It's been well over a year since I first discovered and fell in love with Jens Lekman. At that time, I had never really noticed much music I liked coming out of Sweden. Shortly after being exposed to the music of Jens Lekman however, It suddenly seemed as though a lot of the new music I liked was all coming straight out of Sweden. Ranging from indie pop to post-punk to electro pop and eurocrunk, Sweden really seems to have its musical bases covered in recent years. Some of my favorite artists from the past year (LO-FI-FNK, Stacs of Stamina, Love is All, The Knife, and of course Jens Lekman) are coincidentally all Swedes.


Jens Lekman
There is another 'band' from Sweden that has also garnered much attention and praise, which I have ignored until recently. Suburban Kids With Biblical Names. I'm not sure why I avoided them. I'm sure I knew that they were supposed to be good. I'm sure I knew they were from Sweden. I don't know what I was expecting. For some reason, based on their name I'm almost certain I was expecting them to sound like Panic! at the Disco !? Which they don't. At all. Anyway, the other day I suddenly felt compelled to download some songs by these Swedes from an mp3 blog aggregator. I was shocked after hearing the first song, and immediately fell in love. Ironically, they sound very much like Jens Lekman. Both could be classified vaguely as 'indie pop' If you want to categorize. The singer actually has a very similar voice to Jens. It's uncanny at certain moments. I'm not sure how that happens. Maybe It's just a common occurrence in Sweden that male vocalists have super awesome voices.


Suburban Kids With Biblical Names

POLYSICS: In the spirit of Devo

When watching television, I never really pay attention to any of the commercials that come on. Even if they are interesting and "creative" commercials, they just never grab my attention. During commercial breaks I typically just zone out into another dimension where my thoughts are filled with images of finnish disco dancers and contemplation of whether to indulge in a seedless naval orange or a piece of toast.

Recently one commercial did succeed in catching my attention and dragged me away from my wandering thoughts within a nano-second. On my television screen I saw a group of 10-13 year old kids dressed up in Devo-esque costumes and singing clips of Devo songs. Turns out that this quintet, entitled Devo 2.0 (and also DEV2.0) auditioned for this gig. Their album of Devo covers (with many lyrics rearranged to be more kid friendly) and accompanying DVD of videos was put out by Walt Disney Records. It just seems like an absurd concept to me. Especially considering that the band's name stems from "de-evolution". Who knew that kids these days were so interested in de-evolution?

No, actually it might just make a little more sense that the age of parents who might buy these records and DVD's for their kids are around the perfect age to have listened to Devo back in the day in their own youth. Also, the musician kids in DEV2.0 apparently didn't record the tracks. Instead, original members of Devo did. I'm sure that the members of the band don't mind receiving some money for their efforts of selling their songs to Disney. Clearly, they had no problem letting Swiffer use "Whip It" a couple years back. I'm not offended that the members of Devo would stoop to such lows that are in fact, probably the exact antithesis of the principles they once held back in the mid 70's through the mid 80's. These guys are aging and probably need the cash. Let them have it. It's better than when Devo decided to re-unite a few years back. Who wants to pay to see aging, fatty, nerds dressing in silly costumes? That was just sad. I moreso just find it bizarre that many Devo songs are not child-appropriate, and many are filled with sexual innuendo. But that's cool. Go ahead and change a song entitled "Uncontrollable Urge" to being a song about snack food cravings. I suppose that could work...

Question: What's far more interesting than ten year olds dressed in Devo costumes? Answer: POLYSICS. I had first heard of Polysics a couple years back, when they had been described to me as "the Japanese Devo". Indeed, they are the perfect band for any nerd who loves Devo and has a fetish for anything Japanese. Despite the fact that I DO like Devo, and that I also like a lot of Japanese things, I sort of forgot about Polysics... until today. A friend of mine ordered that I watch the Polysics video for the track "I My Me Mine" off of their 2006 release Now is the Time! She advised that it would do me a lot of good to watch it, and that is honestly the best advice anyone has given me in probably three years. That video is fucking otherworldy, it's that good. Ten year olds dressed up in Devo costumes pretending to play instruments? No thanks. Even small children would probably benefit more from listening to a Japanese band that wears kooky costumes and plays music in the "spirit of Devo".

P.S. I love the baton twirler in this video.

You Gotta Beat the Clock

Every once in a while I happen upon an old music video that I've never seen before, and the experience can only be described as something close to life altering. Today I happened upon the amazing, classic, and timeless video for Sparks "Beat the Clock". I was actually searching for Giorgio Moroder related videos at the time, and was pretty confident that zero results would turn up. Surprisingly, the aforementioned Sparks video showed up. I wasn't sure how this related to Giorgio Moroder, if at all. But as It turns out, Moroder produced the Sparks 1979 release No 1. in Heaven, which boasts the track featured in the video.

I never really paid much attention to Sparks, but after viewing the video for 'Beat the Clock' I have to admit that I'm just a little bit hypnotized by them. The music is actually pretty good too (thanks to Moroder's production skills of course). I'm wondering though... How did that one guy get away with having that Hitler moustache? He should have been sporting a nice handlebar Moroder style moustache after all. I'm also curious as to how the singer got away with wearing that insanely low cut v-neck sweater. With bright orange pants nonetheless.

There is this wonderful instrumental Morodery interlude in the video, including a giant clock as seen from directly overhead with the classic Busby Berkeley bird's eye view camera angle. This section incorporates choreographed walking patterns and four girls sitting and laying on the clock in formation, executing mechanical arm movements. Both concepts pay homage yet again to the Busby Berkeley stylized movements and camera angles that can be seen in films such as 1933's 42nd Street. This section of 'Beat the Clock' also includes some giggle inducing high tech edits such as the band members being moved around, acting as the hands on the clock.

I also really like the woman wearing the shiny blue spandex unitard that keeps strutting past the band members from right to left across the screen, getting closer to the camera each time. That moment in the video reminds me a lot of this experimental short film by Maya Deren entitled A Study in Choreography for Camera, circa 1945. The film features modern dancer Talley Beatty and has a part in it where the camera continually traces the dancer from right to left and keeps finding him amongst a forest of birch trees. Each time, he appears closer to the camera until he is right in your face. The similarity between Talley Beatty in the forest and the strutting blue spandex lady on the clock is uncanny. If you want to analyze it even further, the band members could equal the stationary birch trees in the Maya Deren film. It probably sounds like a bizarre comparison, but I'm convinced that's where the director of the Sparks video got the idea from.

I'm really glad that I happened upon this video pretty much by accident. I really enjoy looking at those Sparks boys. Orange pants, hitler moustache, v-neck sweater and all. And of course my love for Moroder has once again been re-re-re-renewed. It is highly recommended that this video be watched at least five or six times consecutively.

All my girls stand in a circle and.....

Something weird happened the other day. I watched several hours of MTV. It's fair to say that ordinarily I NEVER watch MTV. I don't even watch The Real World, as many of my peers still devoutly watch. Even so, I have still somehow been accused of liking terrible music. This confuses me, as I'd like to think it true that I have a diverse sense of what is good music. Of course I like terrible music and would have no problem at all with calling it 'good'. However, I don't think this means that everything I like falls under the categories of bad pop or latest hipster buzz bands. Still, I don't think it's such a terrible idea to pay attention to what's going on in the realm of popular music.

While watching MTV the other day, my jaw dropped open as I witnessed the worst video I have ever seen on TRL. I take that back. It's not so much the actual video, but the song that is deplorable. Two words: Ashlee Simpson. Everyone already knew that her music sucks, but who knew it was possible for her to sound even worse than before? In the aforementioned video, Ashlee Simpson resembles Courtney Love and sings like an old drag queen with emphysema. Incredible. I never thought I'd see the day where I'd be hailing Hilary Duff's song that boasts a Duran Duran-esque bassline and about five lyrics total ("The beat of my heart, The beat of my heart, The beat of my heart", "Away Away, Away Awaaaaay" as genius in comparison to the bizarre off key notes that Ashlee Simpson attempts to sing in what I assume is her latest single. I'm sure it's been out for a while, but I'm a little out of the loop (seeing as I'm 22 going on 23 and therefore should be deemed too old to be watching MTV). Please give me my adult contemporary Patrick Swayze music. Anything that includes random saxophone mid-song is MY kind of music.

P.S. I swear sometimes I actually do listen to good music. Sometimes. The rest of the time: yah, I like some crap. Oh well. And be warned: If you tell me that Hilary Duff is hot, I'm likely to tell you that you're gross like my dad. But if you tell me that Hilary is hotter than Ashlee Simpson a.k.a. the munchkin parrot, then I will agree with you (this even includes when Hilary Duff was in the middle of her anorexic cokehead horseface phase). Wait, is that phase over now? Oh, and please watch this amazing Hilary Duff video. You might like it. Probably not. But watch it anyway, because she's hot and is always stumbling over herself.

dance so close to the fire

Tagline: It's five years later for Tony Manero. The fever still burns!

Last night I watched Staying Alive on ABC Family. It was one of the best Saturday nights I have had in a long time. How great is it that Saturday Night Fever's Tony Manero (John Travolta) decided he was so good at disco dancing that he would begin to train as an 80's jazz dancer and audition relentlessly for Broadway shows? I want to extend a personal thank you from the bottom of my heart to Sylvester Stallone for making this movie happen. Directed by Sylvester Stallone. Co-written by Sylvester Stallone. Produced by Stylvester Stallone. I love Sylvester Stallone.

This movie boasts some amazing dialogue; although since it's the alleged 'sequel' to Saturday Night Fever, who would expect anything less? Example A: Tony Manero says to the snobby dancer he has fallen for, something to the effect of "I give you my best pick up lines and you try to mangle my face". If that's not good enough for you, there is always the infamous final line of the film, "Do you know what I want to do? ....Strut". Despite this awesomeness, at times it is difficult to make a connection between the Tony Manero portrayed in Staying Alive and the Tony Manero we saw six years earlier in Saturday Night Fever. Although Travolta is supposed to be playing a character that is a total jerk still, in Staying Alive, he really doesn't seem to have the same Tony Manero attitude that exists in Saturday Night Fever. Perhaps the 1980's softened him a little bit? Who knows.

The best part of this movie might be that the choreography is absolutely terrible. Staying Alive is littered with about a billion high kicking grande battements with a layout of the back, slow motion grande jetes (leaps), 80's jazz runs, fast sweepings of jazz hands across the face (right left right) with intensity, hip swivels, shoulder shimmies, and rapid arm chopping motions in front of the face whilst doing lunges. In short, the choreography that was meant to be groundbreaking pictured in Staying Alive is now completely obsolete. Therefore, Staying Alive is incredibly awesome. Unfortunately I can't find any video clips of Travolta dancing in Staying Alive. It's really a shame because aside from the dancing, the music in the movie is also quite awesome. However, In case you are suddenly craving some classic(ridiculous) Travolta dancing, here you go.

I'm currently taking a class called Film Survey in Dance and I've been learning about the differences between choreography created for performance vs. for film. When created expressly for film, everything down to camera angles are mapped and plotted out that will manipulate the choreography and turn it into something completely different than if it were being created for performance purposes. Having learned this, I happened to notice that Staying Alive is chock full of amazing camera angles, edits, and entire dance sequences performed in slow motion. The slow motion proves to be especially effective when John Travolta is dancing in his loin cloth and headband. My theory as to why they chose to do so many segments in slow motion is because John Travolta can only pull off about 5 dance moves that make him look legitimately good enough to be starring in a crazy jazz dance show on Broadway in the 80's. Yeah, it totally works.

My favorite thing about Stayling Alive is that it came out in 1983, the very same year I was born. I feel so proud to have been brought into this planet in a year that gave so many great contributions to popular culture.

Andy Samberg: A Swedish Chef

It appears as though SNL newcomer Andy Samberg is rapidly winning over the hearts of people everywhere. What a hero. I'm sure he is enjoying his newfound popularity, but I'm actually beginning to feel a little bit badly for him. Andy Samberg's presence seemed barely notable the entirety of SNL's current season. That is, until the pop culture explosion known as "Lazy Sunday" (the chronicles of narnia rap) aired a few weeks ago, becoming an instant hit. As a result, the expectations for Andy Samberg are now quite high. Suddenly, not only is Samberg being revered as a hilarious hottie, but it is also expected of him that he will single handedly and perhaps magically make Saturday Night Live funny again.

Maybe I only find this so intriguing because I had already watched nearly everything on The Lonely Island website prior to Andy Samberg even making his debut on SNL this season. Of the three dudes (Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer), Andy certainly has the most commercial appeal, and his comedy style is quite accessible. While it's interesting that all three of them were hired on SNL, I can see why only Andy was hired to be featured on the show, whilst the other two were hired as writers. Still, I'm not sure if Andy Samberg deserves all the praise that he is garnering these days. Don't get me wrong.. I do find Samberg funny (at times). That's right, I said it. Andy Samberg isn't ALWAYS funny. In the 25 minute long Lonely Island episode Regarding Ardy which can be viewed on their website, it is actually painful at times to even watch Andy. The FACES he makes in it, yikes. It took me a while to realize that I only enjoy watching said video as a result of Akiva and Jorma being funny in it. Sure Andy Samberg can be funny, and I admittedly watch SNL mainly just to see what he's doing on it, but I find the recent praise surrounding him to be just a little bit overzealous. I wonder how the longtime fans of The Lonely Island feel about this subject. Are they all loving the Andy Samberg explosion? Or is there a slim chance that a few of them might believe Andy Samberg's next SNL moments should undergo a closer analysis before automatically being declared hilarious?

Then again, the twenty-three seconds featuring Andy Samberg's portrayal of the Swedish Chef may just have been the most paramount moment of this past week's episode of SNL. Maybe. It DID certainly stand out in the sketch it was featured in, shocking me out of the SNL induced coma I had fallen into. The sketch featured Seth Meyers and host Scarlett Johansson on a dull Scandinavian cooking show entitled 'Smorgasbord'. It's when they announced the fake word from their sponsor/commercial break, that I suddenly stopped falling asleep while drooling on myself and began to pay attention. The fake commercial consisted of Andy Samberg dresssed as the Swedish Chef from The Muppets Show, fully decked out with puppet hands, the moustache, and a rolling pin. Selling "Swedish Chef Ringtones", Andy Samberg bork bork bork-ed along to the tune of Herbie Hancock's 'Axel F'. It almost seems as though some sort of alliance must exist between SNL and the Muppets. I recall cast member Horatio Sanz performing his staple 'Christmas Song' alongside the Muppets a couple years ago after the rest of his Christmas Song crew had all left the cast. Anyway, I'm not saying that the Swedish Chef Ringtones bit wasn't funny. Samberg's impression of The Swedish Chef was certainly... interesting. I just want to make sure that people are finding it funny for the right reasons. Not just because it's Andy Samberg, thus making it automatically funny. Note: clips of the real Swedish Chef from the Muppets Show can be viewed here.

I'm actually a little bit concerned, as I saw people on a few different forums saying that Andy Samberg as 'A Swedish Chef' was hilarious. That's right... not THE Swedish Chef, but A Swedish Chef. Don't let fans of the Swedish Chef/The Muppets see that. It must be pure blasphemy to them. This leads me to believe that some people who watched the Swedish Chef ringtones bit and thought it was funny might not even know or be familiar with what it's a parody of. I'm sure that there are many folks out there who found this bit funny as a result of it involving the beloved Swedish Chef character, but I'm pretty sure it's also got to be true that there are others out there who thought it was great merely because they think "Andy Samberg is a GENIUS!!!", "Andy Samberg is the new Jimmy Fallon x 50", and "Andy Samberg is going to rescue SNL and make it at least slightly funny again." (I stole all of those quotes from things that people actually said under the clip's comments on youtube.com. No offense to those who wrote the preceding comments, they just happen to display pretty accurately what I keep seeing Andy Samberg fanatics saying non-stop these days).

The "Lazy Sunday" Chronicles of Narnia video became an instant pop culture phenomenon as soon as it aired on SNL. The irony of its success is perhaps that the Lonely Island guys had made many videos quite similar to it years ago as Incredibad. The number of people who appreciate the old videos is quite slim in comparison to the volumes who love "Lazy Sunday". Yet, the video for Stork Patrol is easily funnier and equally, if not more clever. People laugh at "Lazy Sunday" anyway, even if they are not aware that the recipe has already been done before. I'm also afraid that after its immense success, the Lonely Island guys will be pressured to produce more videos akin to "Lazy Sunday". While the first video was funny, the joke has already been killed to death by its fans. Many more videos similar to it would be overkill. Just go watch the old videos for Ka-blamo, Stork Patrol, and Just 2 Guyz. There is really no need to see ripoffs and remakes of Incredibad songs with Chris Parnell. Sure I like Andy Samberg, and he can be funny. But he's just not funny all the time, and I'm not going to believe everything he's in is funny just because he's Andy Samberg.

P.S. Akiva is my favorite member of The Lonely Island team.

Foreign Disco.

It's no secret that I tend to become entranced, mesmerized, and 100% spellbound by any concoction that contains the ingredients "foreign" and "disco". Many people have told me that "disco sucks" and that "disco wasn't so good the first time around", but I beg to differ (particularly in the case of it being foreign disco). Sure, various elements of disco have lingered on and found their way into both popular and independent music ever since the 1970's. I've noticed throughout my childhood, adolescence, and adulthood thus far, that although disco is no longer culturally popular, the influences of it heavily remain within electronic music, rock music, and any combination of the two. Whether the artists are extremely popular or extremely obscure, there is no denying the presence of disco.

I believe I first became entranced by "foreign disco" when my sister gave me the Giorgio Moroder record "From Here to Eternity" on vinyl when I was about 17 or 18 years old. Saying that makes me feel as though I was a teenager in 1977 when this album was released, but really it was given to me in about the year '00 or '01 most likely. Moroder was born in Italy, but relocated to Germany (thus making him foreign disco times two). This record was recorded in Munich, Germany and contains a statement on the back which reads "Only electronic keyboards were used on this recording". The album is also heavily laden with vocoder and the tracks flow continuously from one to the next. And take a look at the cover art. Could this German disco be any more amazing? I also own the Giorgio Moroder record "Munich Machine" on vinyl, as well as a German Super Hits record, er.. Die deutschen SUPER 20 from the early 80's.

I also have a love for O-zone, the Romanian/Moldavian eurodisco trio that had that hit "Dragostea Din Tei". Seeing as they are not from the 1970's but are indeed current, I won't focus on them, but I just wanted to take a moment to express my love for their white pants. You've probably seen video clips on the News of that fat guy singing along to "Dragostea Din Tei" and might recognize the song upon hearing it. I don't know, I fail to see what was even remotely funny about that stupid guy. The real video is an absolute must see however, as it contains jigs danced on the wings of a plane, open shirts, and white pants times three.

The next great piece of foreign disco that I became enamored with is a Finnish instructional disco dancing video from the 70's entitled "Learn Disco". The video is insane and includes some scary looking lady and old guy named Ake Blomqvist sliding his sneakered feet around in ways I've never seen possible, all the while with the posture of a duck. Just wait until the music comes in and he really starts to bust a move.

I was sure that the O-zone video "Dragostea din Tei" and Ake Blomqvist's "Learn Disco" video were some of the funniest and greatest videos I had ever seen. Until today, that is. These videos have been surpassed, by what I now consider to be the most amazing music video of all time. Forget Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze and any other notable music video director. The Finnish disco duo Danny & Armi's "I Wanna Love You Tender" is without a doubt the best music video ever. Forget about any and all of your favorite music videos. Because... first of all, the male singer resembles He-man. Second, they're in some weird room in the middle of outer space. Third, the dancing is incredible. I must say that as an individual who already had an Associate's degree in Dance, and is close to obtaining a Bachelor's degree in Dance, I honestly have never witnessed any work of choreography that is more amazing than what is seen in this video. I can also assure you that you will never ever see dance moves quite like this anywhere else ever again. I now leave you with some screen captures of the Danny & Armi video in effort to persuade you to watch it. You won't regret it.