Most modern music videos have large budgets, catered food, back-up dancers, costume changes and a camera cut about once every .5 seconds. Some of them allegedly have plots, but they tend to be difficult to follow with all the distractions. This is a tribute to five videos that are ridiculously simple in premise, but are more memorable than most videos made in the last 10 years, that had much bigger budgets.
The Rolling Stones’ “Waiting on a Friend” has a pretty basic plot – Mick Jagger waits on some steps, Keith Richards meets him there, and they walk down the street to the corner bar where Ronnie Wood is waiting. That’s it.
In Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Looking Out my Back Door”, the band sit around and play the song…and smile….a lot. That’s it.
In the Beatles’ “Something,” the four lads goof around in a park with their respective ladies. That’s it.
In the Clash’s “Rock the Casbah,” the band sings and bounces around in an oil field while an Arab hitchhikes with a Jew and goes to a Burger King. There’s an armadillo in there for some reason too.
In Michael Jackson’s “Rock With You,” the lad dances in front of a couple cool lights in a ridiculous sequined suit. I’m guessing MJ’s wardrobe constituted 86 percent of the budget on this one.
4/8 of Outkast, Big Boi, announced today that his solo album, Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty, will come out in July. It’s nice to see Outkast are still makin stuff, because they seem to be the only rappers out there who get any sort of mainstream press that are willing to embrace goofiness. Just look at the name of that album – it looks like it could be the title of a Beck or Pavement album, and I mean that as a compliment. Compared with his Outkast brethren, Andre 3000, Big Boi, seems to be the conventional one, but you can tell even he has a bit of an experimental side. Can you imagine Jay-Z or 50 Cent naming their album Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty? No you couldn’t.
Word is that Andre’s solo album will be out later this year and a new Outkast album will come out in the beginning of 2009. Their last one, Idlewild, didn’t really excite critics or the sales charts. Perhaps on this next one they can return to their late-90’s peak form. But that’s probably expecting too much. Maybe they”ll re-emerge as Dust Bowl balladeerin’, acoustic guitar slingin’ folk artists who have the ability to talk really fast in rhyme-form. That’d be a nice change of pace.
Judd Apatow’s latest production, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, opens Friday. That 70’s Show alum Mila Kunis plays one of the main romantic interests in the movie. It’s nice to see that some of those alums are still getting offered some prominent roles.
It was a pretty good show for the most part and it always seemed like the cast would go onto bigger things, but this is yet to happen. Of course Ashton Kutcher was quite the star back in 2004 around the time of the Punk’d heyday, but it seems that just because audiences liked to watch him pull pranks on celebrities and then laugh obnoxiously in their faces, it doesn’t mean they’re going to rush out to see him do drama in The Butterfly Effect or The Guardian. His star never took off and now he’s probably most well known for being Demi Moore’s husband.
I always thought Topher Grace had the most talent of the group, so I saw him going on to bigger and better things. He did land one of the villain roles in Spiderman 3, which is a pretty big deal, but I haven’t seen him in anything else recently. Maybe he’ll have a later career resurgence.
I never thought Fez was funny and Wilmer Valdrerama always annoyed the B. Jesus outta me so I didn’t see him going anywhere besides home with whatever girl at the club was impressed with a guy who scored a gig on a long-running sitcom by saying stupid things in a funny accent.
As far as the rest of them, I don’t know. Laura Prepon has potential, but I haven’t seen her in anything recently. Danny Masterson is pretty good at playing a Zeppelin lovin, cocaine glasses wearin, stoner, but I’m not sure I can imagine him doing much else.
Kunis’ career might take off a little if Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a hit, which is a definite possibility. Of course she is also the voice of Meg Griffin on Family Guy, which should keep her working for quite a while.
They have the same initials. If you’re drunk enough, you’re likely to mistake which one was in Twister and which one was in Independence Day. In fact, some people think they are the same person. But lo and behold, they are two different people and the time has come to decide which one’s career would win in a death match.
They’ve both proven they’ve been able to land big blows. Paxton’s mid-90s four-punch, 47-percent damage-inducing combo of Tombstone, True Lies, Apollo 13 and Titanic would almost be enough to keep Pullman down for good. But later Paxton slipped on a banana peel, stubbed his toe on the couch and accidentally bumped his head while unloading the dishwasher in three bumbling moves known as Mighty Joe Young, Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams, and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, allowing Pullman to recover a little.
Pullman was able to land a few good punches back in his prime as well. Spaceballs, A League of Their Own, and Sleepless in Seattle should not be taken lightly. However, he has been known to participate in top-notch buffoonery as well, such as Mr. Wrong, Lake Placid and Scary Movie 4, just to name a few.
Both appeared in a major 90’s blockbuster – Independence Day for Pullman, and Twister for Paxton. Neither of those movies have aged well, so we’ll call that a draw.
But in the “What Have You Done for me Lately?” category, I’ve got to hand it to Paxton. He stars in HBO’s critically-acclaimed show, Big Love, where as Pullman’s latest role to reach the conventional radar was a guest spot on Law and Order: SVU. So there you have it – Paxton comes out the victor.
Coldplay has announced that the name of their new album, which will be out June 17, is Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends.
This makes Coldplay a new member of the Long Album Name Club, joining such renowned artists as:
The Kinks (Arthur Or The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, Lola vs. Powerman and the Money-go-Round Part 1),
Fiona Apple (When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He’ll Win the Whole Thing Fore He Enters the Ring There’s No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You’ll Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won’t Matter, Cuz You Know That You’re Right)
Modest Mouse (This is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank)
Word is that Viva la Vida will feature Chris Martin singing more in a deeper register than his typical falsetto. I’ll believe it when I hear it. It’s hard for any man to resist the falsetto. Lesser men than Martin have died trying.
Unlike music stalwarts such as O-Town and Da Band, apparently the girls who refer to themselves as Danity Kane still exist. Not only that, but they still have the backing from some label to record an album. Not only that, but the album they recorded, “Welcome to the Dollhouse” somehow debuted at the top of the charts last month.
Typically the creations Puff Daddy unleashes on an unsuspecting world through his “Making the Band” show have the shelf life of a bottle of French Vanilla CoffeeMate creamer, which of course seems like it’s going to last forever when you first open it, but then tastes pretty bad after a few mere weeks, if it’s not already gone by that time.
Of course, few pop groups are built to last. But it seems Puffy’s creations fall off the face of the earth before their season of “Making the Band” even makes it onto DVD. O-Town had a couple hit/terrible songs when their album “dropped” back in the day. Then their lead singer, Ashley Parker Angel, made another MTV show a few years later about how he once was on the top of the pop charts, and then his star fell rapidly and he was forced to work menial jobs. Then of course with his new show, “There and Back,” on the airwaves, he had another hit/terrible song – this one with more of a rock edge (in keeping with the tradition of former boy bandmembers’ “comeback songs.”) Now APA, as I’m sure all his homies call him, is back in obscurity.
Puffy’s second project, Da Band, didn’t really have a hit at all. They all seemed to be interested in having street cred within the hip-hop community, but needless to say did not find it using an MTV reality show as an avenue. Hard to figure when their show was probably preceded by episodes of “My Super Sweet Sixteen.” Going for street cred and missing, though, assures you will have no presence on the pop charts and that it is what happened to Da Band.
Which brings us to Danity Kane. These girls had moderate success two years ago when their first album was released following their season of “Making the Band.” But two years is an eternity for pop groups. By now I would have figured these gals would be trying to make it as contestants on “So You Think You Can Dance.” But lo and behold they release an album and it goes to the top of the charts. What can I say – kudos to you. It’s doubtful anyone will remember Danity Kane 20 years from now, but I wouldn’t have believed it in 2006 if you told me anyone would remember them 2 years from then. They’re still no Biggie, though. Puffy, that was your high point.
Judd Apatow’s latest production, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, opens Friday. That 70’s Show alum Mila Kunis plays one of the main romantic interests in the movie. It’s nice to see that some of those alums are still getting offered some prominent roles.
