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Video of the Day: Led Zeppelin: “Dazed and Confused” in 1969
[via kung fu grippe]
Led Zeppelin’s eponymous DVD set is the very definition of “memorable” for those who have experienced it. When it was released in the pre-YouTube days of 2003, the opportunity to see high-quality video footage of the band performing (beyond what was already on The Song Remains the Same) was a flabbergasting prospect for most of us. Even with the wide availability of Zeppelin footage online these days, the DVD’s contents are still totally incredible… go out and buy it already!
This particular performance, which was filmed for Supershow on March 25, 1969 at Staines Studio in London (and appears on the aforementioned DVD), features just this one song, “Dazed and Confused”, but holy hell is it great. If you have a hard time getting excited about Zeppelin after hearing them on the radio a million times, this video might do the trick.
More information on the DVD, and a link to another great Led Zeppelin video clip, after the jump…
Video of the Day: Steely Dan on The Midnight Special in 1973
The Midnight Special, a late-night NBC musical program that ran from 1973 to 1981, hosted Steely Dan on the show in 1973. Bill Cosby was the guest host that night, and the band played the two hits from their 1972 debut LP, Can’t Buy a Thrill: “Reelin’ in the Years” and “Do It Again.”
The Dan stopped performing live after 1974, so seeing early video footage like this is always special, especially because it features the band’s other lead vocalist, David Palmer, who only featured on Can’t Buy a Thrill and its subsequent tour. On “Do It Again”, Palmer takes on lead vocals, despite the fact that Donald Fagen sang it on the recording. Check out the video of that song after the jump!
Video of the Day: Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Black Randy and the Metrosquad
John Morris aka “Black Randy”, the satirical clown prince of the late ’70s punk scene in LA, released the only LP ever put out on the legendary Dangerhouse label, 1980’s Pass the Dust, I Think I’m Bowie, with his band, the Metrosquad. Great as the record is, Black Randy remains mostly overlooked, confined to cult status among collectors and punk enthusiasts.
The only known video footage of Black Randy and the Metrosquad appears in Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains, a 1982 film directed by longtime music producer Lou Adler. In this short scene, the band is vehemently rejected from a potential opening slot on a show that the Stains wish to open. The movie is not so good, but this clip is pretty entertaining, showing Randy in his confrontational frontman role.
Hear the entirety of the song that appears in the clip, “I Slept in an Arcade”, and learn how to get a 2LP reissue copy of Pass the Dust, by clicking “Read More.”
Video of the Day: Big Boi feat. Gucci Mane: “Shine Blockas”
[via snortthis.com]
We’re only a couple of days into 2010, so the videos that have popped up so far this calendar year are, naturally, for 2009 tracks. Luckily, some good ones have already surfaced, like this unadorned yet endearing clip for Big Boi’s “Shine Blockas”, which apparently began with a trip to Walmart.
This new track will supposedly appear on Big Boi’s long-awaited album, Sir Luscious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty. Gucci Mane, who guests on the track, is currently incarcerated in Atlanta for parole violation, hence the “Free Gucci” bits in the video.
The beat and overall feeling of the song are reminiscent of UGK’s “Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You)” from back in 2007, to which Big Boi and fellow Outkast-er André 3000 lent memorable verses. Flash back to “Players Anthem” with that song’s amazing video after the jump… read more
Michael Harkin’s Top 10
1. Bill Orcutt, A New Way to Pay Old Debts
This is, perhaps, the only album I heard this year that truly sounded like nothing else I had ever heard before. Orcutt, formerly the guitarist for Miami noise-rock band Harry Pussy, made this grinding, aggressive acoustic guitar record, reshaping the guitar sounds of John Fahey and the North Mississippi blues into a bizarre, enthralling sound all his own. Is this the new noise? Whatever it is, I’m sold.
Watch: Bill Orcutt [at youtube.com]
2. Grass Widow, Grass Widow
My favorite band in San Francisco released both this terrific LP and a 12-inch EP on Captured Tracks this year, and these releases deservedly have the band turning heads: Impassioned and impeccably played post-punk with gorgeous vocal harmonies and a gripping intensity.
Watch: Live at Brooklyn Museum [at youtube.com]
3. Mayyors, Deads
This was the first Mayyors vinyl release that I actually managed to acquire before it sold out, and boy howdy, it smokes. A four-song, 12-inch EP of blistering fury, featuring cover artwork smeared with actual dried mud. Although the record doesn’t totally capture the obliteration afforded by their live sets, it comes pretty damn close.
Listen: “Clicks” [at thetripwire.com]
The Biggest Earworms of 2009
Whether we wanted them to or not, for better or worse, these were the top 10 songs we really could not get out of our heads this year:
Black Eyed Peas, “I Gotta Feeling”
Telekinesis, “Coast of California”
Taylor Swift, “You Belong With Me”
(Hear the rest of our picks after the jump, or just use our handy earworms playlist at YouTube to hear ‘em all!)
Crawdaddy! Top Live Bands for 2009
Out of all the shows us Crawdaddy! editors have seen this past year, these are the Top 10, in no specific order!
Leonard Cohen at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland
Six rows back from the stage, 20 rows back… didn’t matter. Anyone who saw Cohen this past year sat squarely in the palm of his wise hand. He was incredibly dapper and humble and poetic. His musicians were of the highest degree. It was nothing short of a spiritual experience.
OM at the Independent in San Francisco
Featuring Al Cisneros of Sleep, OM thrives in the live capacity… so drone-y and metal-y and weirdly spiritual (as in lyrics sound almost like chanting) and just real fucking good. It put one of our editors in such a hypnotic state she passed out and hit her head, receiving a mild concussion. Seriously.
Wolves in the Throne Room at Emo’s Annex in Austin
This show was something else. Stage shrouded in darkness and flanked with candles, Wolves in the Throne Room played a gripping set, both mystical and stunning, that had the whole audience engaged, standing still, nodding heads in unison, but mostly standing there still with reverent awe.
Dead Weather at Outside Lands in San Francisco
To see the live show of Dead Weather is to witness rock’s reigning goddess, Alison Mosshart of the Kills takes rocker chick sex appeal to a new level. Sultry and sophisticated, she effortlessly commands the band of dudes behind her.
The Pixies at the Fox Theater in Oakland
Celebrating their 20-year anniversary of the release of Doolittle, the Pixies reunited to take the stage this fall and they aimed to please. Their harmonies and musical camaraderie made it seem like they never skipped a beat, and a killer video projection perfectly supplemented their live sound of treasured classics.
Video of the Day: Boredoms’ 77 & 88 Boadrum
Two of the most notable musical events this decade were the Boadrum concerts, staged in 2007 and 2008 by legendary Japanese noise-rockers Boredoms.
77 Boadrum was held at the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park in Brooklyn, featuring 77 drummers performing a 77-minute piece on July 7, 2007 (7/7/07) at 7:07pm. The 88-minute 88 Boadrum, meanwhile, was held on 8/8/08 at 8:08pm in two locations: The La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles and the Williamsburg waterfront in Brooklyn. You can watch part of 88 Boadrum in the terrific video above by (((unartig))).
Video of 77 Boadrum and more information on both drum-tastic events after the jump…
Lightning Bolt: Earthly Delights
Lightning Bolt
Earthly Delights
(Load, 2009)
Two guys named Brian from Providence, Rhode Island have been doing this thing called Lightning Bolt for years now. It’s a two-piece band, bass and drums, and the music they make is goddamn heavy, perfect for anyone in need of muscular, judgment-clouding noise-rock. Working at their own semi-leisurely pace—they only perform in occasional spurts these days, and Earthly Delights is their first new record in four years—they rock ever skyward, trends be damned. They’re arguably best known for their live performances, feverish, on-the-floor spectacles of crowd-enhanced pandemonium, documented most notably on their The Power of Salad DVD in 2003. That said, the duo of bass player Brian Gibson and drummer/vocalist Brian Chippendale are somehow consistently great at bottling their pummeling live energy into album form.
By now, Lightning Bolt don’t seem terribly concerned with switching up, let alone adulterating, their patented form of fury. Earthly Delights is not going to shock anyone familiar with their prior work, but it shouldn’t disappoint them either. The two of them clearly took enough time to ensure this new one is just as much a cold slap in the face as its predecessor, 2005’s Hypermagic Mountain. The songs are more structured this time out—while hardly less manic or frenetic than what’s come before, even the longer tunes feel like they’ve been worked into a tight attack, bass and drums particularly intertwined in their effort to hammer down the static-steeped grooves at hand.
Video of the Day: The Units: “Unit Training Film #1″ (NSFW)
by: Michael Harkin
(Warning: Video contains some nudity and may not be suitable to watch at work.)
The Units were a major force in the San Francisco music scene of the late ’70s and early ’80s, a pioneering synth-punk band (alongside the Screamers from Los Angeles) who also created film collages that they’d project during shows.
“Unit Training Film #1″ was produced by band members Scott Ryser and Rachel Webber in 1980 from instructional films, home videos and found footage, and an interview with the band by Fred Willard, and it’s set to their song “Warm Moving Bodies.”
Click “Read More” for more information about History of the Units, the newly issued compilation of the band’s music, and to listen to one of the band’s best songs, “High Pressure Days.”
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by: Michael Harkin
published: January 8, 2010
in column: What Goes On
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