Archive for category Music Videos
Presenting the very talented and beautiful Alicia Keys
Posted by Kim in Foreign, Mainstream, Music, Music Videos on December 16th, 2009
I am no authority but I knew the moment I heard Alicia Keys‘ first hit that hers was a voice and talent that would fill our ears and minds for the years to come. Owe it only to Clive Davis, legendary music executive also known for the discovery of legendary artists like Lou Reed and Whitney Houston (to name a few), to be the person who would single out from the bunch one of the best female talents to emerge in the last decade. Keys, who was 17 and just came out of high school by the time she single-handedly composed, arranged and performed the song Fallin’, had conquered the Billboards with her singles from the album Songs in A Minor. From then on, she was quickly thrust into the music elite especially after her (eventual) victory at the Grammys. An accomplished pianist and an excellent singer, distinguishable by her soaring and occasionally vulnerable vibratos, her career took on both pop fanfare and critical acclaim.
She was certainly the most talented solo soul act that came out since, dare I say, Aretha Franklin. The reason I brought up the comparison is because of Franklin herself, who at one point refused to perform with Alicia Keys at a MusiCares event in Los Angeles because she had apprehensions at the prospect of being upstaged by Alicia Keys and co-performer Mary J. Blige. Why the diva, Aretha should be worried is indeed a mystery, but she must have her reasons. And they may seem evident to you once you’ve seen Alicia Keys perform.
Her latest single “Empire State of Mind” which features Jay-Z was used as an anthem for this year’s New York Yankees victory. When stripped of all its mainstream hype, the song is actually a poignant recollection of Key’s domicile, New York, that makes one wonder what her memories must have been. Although it gets cheesy toward the end, the emotion is still there and is especially crystallized in this stripped down version of the song:
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Alicia Keys - Empire State Of Mind Pt. 2 (Broken Down) [Download] [Lyrics]
Faux pas at the VMAs and an outburst on the US Open
Posted by Kim in Events, Foreign, Mainstream, Media, Music, Music Videos on September 14th, 2009
The title pretty much says it: the legendary temper of some bigshot Americans.
The MTV Video Music Awards 2009 is probably the weirdest to date. Supposedly, the highlight of the show was the much-awaited tribute to the late Micheal Jackson by his sister Janet and the queen Madonna herself. But there have been numerous scores that really eclipsed the opening number in memory of Jackson. For one, you get a very interesting medieval rendering from Lady GaGa which shocked audiences (as usual) and then another asshole stunt from (the guy who I thought was scratched off the guest list after the last fiasco), Kanye West took place. Again, acting like a complete hillbilly, he grabs the mic from Taylor Swift as the 19-year-old accepts her Best Female video award to tell audiences that Beyonce’s video was the best of that year. Of course, Beyonce looks shellshocked by this unexpected turn of events and West is booed off the stage, the works.
Kanye the douche
Way to crush a teenager’s self-esteem. West was reportedly scolded by Swift’s mother to which he later apologized on his blog.
In other news, the US Open semifinals concluded with an ugly unsportsmanlike display from Serena Williams, a disruption that caused her a crucial point to the game.
Here’s the report that ran on Yahoo Sports news:
Animal Collective – Bluish
Posted by Kim in Foreign, Indie, Music, Music Videos on July 29th, 2009
Hey, listen to this. My current sound trip.
Interview with The Dawn
Posted by Kim in Dailies, Events, Mainstream, Movies, Music, Music Videos on May 13th, 2009
(L-R) Me, Jett Pangan, JB Leonor, Kenneth Ilagan (Truefaith), Ricci Gurango (Hungry Young Poets, Mojofly)
New wave has got to be my unconscious genre. I was born in the late eighties, so most of the music I remember from my earliest living memory is a combination of new wave radio hits and clumsily spurned grunge.
Growing up, I never knew The Dawn but when I did my homework prior to my interview I immediately recognised their songs. Most probably, the only reason I would ever get the chance to hear their music is if someone older than myself had been picking the tunes on the radio and I just happened to be in the same room at that time. The night before the interview, I sent everyone on my phonebook ages 30 up to see if any of them knew the band. I get an urgent reply from my lawyer, our veterenarian, an engineer, so on. People of considerable stature. This is the generation the band sung to. And so as someone who was barely born at the cusp of their prime, my Filipino music history was enriched and had a brush up last friday with The Dawn.
Unfortunately, my record of the said interview was of such poor quality I wouldn’t dare upload it to grate your ears. Instead, I wrote a transcript of the higlights of the interview that fans might appreciate. Viola.
Starting anew
Posted by Kim in Foreign, Music, Music Videos on December 1st, 2007
I have a new laptop! And that means that a very arduous migration of gigabytes worth of Music was in order. Unfortunately, my brother had no plans of keeping any of my music in the old laptop (enacting turnover rights, etc). And more unfortunately, when I descended upon him to collect my files, he claims to have “accidentally” deleted some of my songs already. One of them including this very serious collection of Rock anthologies and The Knife! Gah. Ate must grab everything all over again. I figured, since people do check out my music every time they get my hands on my laptop, I might as well have the satisfaction of not letting them listen to what they want to hear but instead let them listen to a more selective collection of music. Nya-ha-ha! Read the rest of this entry »
ALAVET!
Posted by Kim in Dailies, Foreign, Mainstream, Music, Music Videos on April 24th, 2007
Here’s a video of Alanis Morisette’s cover of The Black Eyed Peas‘ song “My humps”. I’m shunning comments about how much a lot of people dislike this song. I just think it’s ridiculously brilliant. It’s a parody of how insipid songs, videos and pop culture can get. And the touch that Alanis put in to it just underscored feminist undertones. ALAVET!
I should probably be embarrassed.
I should probably be embarrassed but I actually am not. I love Marit Larsen’s new single, Don’t save me. It doesn’t sound M2M-ish at all, plus maybe I’d count it as poppier Mazzy Star or maybe not Mazzy Star, but something that’s Sixpence non the richer-ish. I love pop! Wow. Well, I guess what sets her apart is the fact that she doesn’t sound like her former counterpart, that Marion somene, who I by the way think is a ditz.
So I guess this is high time to make some confessions about some other things I like that a lot of people might find surprising. For example, I happen to like Hanson, that even Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins/Zwan would agree with me. I love Nelly Furtado because she’s lovely especially in her commercially “discreet” 2nd album Folklore wherein most of the songs sounded Folk-ish. Kudos to her single Força which some of you might want to check out if you’re a Belle and Sebastian fan. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE Janet Jackson. Surprise much? I used to imagine myself being able to wear what she wore in the music videos of Together again, Deep and Someone to call my lover (You may notice that for this last bit she borrowed the riff from one of the songs of Counting Crows, I forgot which one though). Which reminds me, she’s a genius otherwise she wouldn’t be the top selling female artist in terms of album sales.
Here’s the clincher: I adore Benny Benassi and I don’t know why. He’s house and his music sounds absolutely gay but I get a kick out of it. His music is what I would call m “MRT Music”, y’know just to keep me awake and pumping in my head while I watch out for pickpockets and pervs. I think he’s playing in Manila this December, for Big Phish. Ticket’s 800? Hmm… Man, too bad I’ll miss that. Staying here in Davao to spend a quiet new year, maybe. Or maybe Cagayan. (Sigh.) Let me tell you, when you’re mom’s not around and nobody can cook as great as she can, you’re Christmas options are kind of glum. Any suggestions?
Daring videos
Posted by Kim in Dailies, Local, Music, Music Videos on August 11th, 2006
New stuff. Some Daring Vids I noticed: One by Sarah McLachlan. This $150,000 budget video, which incidentally cost $15 only. (Whereas the rest of the money went to charity.) Another by Alanis Morissette, a music video of her single “Crazy”, illustrating the neurotic nature of female same-sex relationships. (Ahem. Wow, I can only say kudos to what Brokeback Mountain did for the world.) Daring vids for today’s kids.
For the OPM scene, on the other hand, you have Barbie Almalbis and Kitchie Nadal on the same screen singing together. This could mean either a boost or a desication of their careers, my darlings. I used to be a big fan of the two and now that they’ve gone mainstream (not that there’s anything wrong with it, as long as you don’t purposefully alter what’s already good about your music), I think I’m slowly but surely losing my musical respect for them. Yes, I know they still have water tight arrangements but it all seems so contrived. You’ll see what I’m talking about if you’ll compare their songs back then and now. When Barbie was still with Hungry Young Poets and the earlier years of Barbie’s Cradle, she composed superb songs like Firewoman, Deep, Goodnight, Money for food, Dark and I’m lonely, Sleep…ack! So much more. Now what do you have? You have that smile, smile thing and that other song for Nescafe. See! I don’t even remember their friggin titles. As for Kitchie, she was so much better with Mojofly. Memorable tracks like Another day will never come out on another day seeing as how she runs the shows. Kitchie, can you make more songs like Run, pretty please? Please?
If you ask me what I think, I don’t like how the 2000 mainstream music scene is going. But we have got to mark this decade with something distinct aside from the dawn of such daring videos. One may have noticed that each decade had its own innovation. 70’s for funk and retro, 80’s for New wave, and then 90’s for pop as we know it, to name a few. Now we ought to ask: What is so different about the musical age of 2000? Is it a hodgepodge of musical genres evolved? Or is it a deconstruction of all of it? Worse: Could it be a desication of these genres? The way I see it, I’m more inclined to indie and older tunes since they’re more loyal to making music out of integrity not for popularity. As Gabriel Marcel would put it, we have to fear the day when opinions (especially those concerning the “palace of art”, and music in this sense) are easily swayed by popular vote.
I don’t know with you, reader. Do you ever see this happening?
www.kim.southisms.com
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