Music Monday: Naive Song

French.
Electronica.
Strange.
Madonna producer.
Victoria's Secret.

All of these words or terms can be associated with today's featured artist & video. It is noneother than Mirwais. His music is definitely unique; so much so that Madonna recruited him to head the production on her albums "Music" and "American Life."

Mirwais's sound is most certainly electronica-driven, and very much European. I purchased his CD "Production", immediately after first hearing "Music," and one of my favorite tracks on the album is "Naive Song," the video for which is displayed below. While one of the most "mainstream" on the album, "Naive Song" is catch and easy to bop your head to.

Enjoy!

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Music Monday: I Feel It All

You may not know her name. You probably don't even know her face. But I'm willing to bet you know her music...at least one of her songs, that is. While Feist has been fairly well-known in her native land of Canada, she's only recently broken-thru stateside within the past year. Yes, with that "iPod" song. It's called "1234" and no matter how you may feel about this particular song it's unarguably different than anything that's been played on American radio in the past few years. (I wrote a post on my MySpace blog a while back, featuring one of her other videos.)

Feist is unique. Feist is different. Feist is...well, talented. And Canada's Juno awards seem to think so as well. In fact, Feist was honored with five of the evening's awards last night in Toronto, including Pop Album of the Year and Artist of the Year. Not too shabby!

Here is the song she performed at the awards ceremony:

But this song isn't the "Music Monday" feature. Actually, that goes to one of my favorite tracks off of Feist's monster album "The Reminder." The song is called "I Feel It All," and it's upbeat, entertaining...with a video to compliment it.

Check-it-out:


If you want to learn more about Feist visit her official website, or take a look at her MySpace page.

Music Monday: What Do You Want From Me?

There isn't really much to say about electronic group Monaco other than they put out one kickin' debut album...and that they were short-lived. I first heard the song, the video for which is featured here, at a place I worked during college. I was immediately "hook"ed.

To read more about Monaco--a side project of New Order bassist Peter Hook--check-out their Wikipedia page.

Music Monday: Fear (of the Unknown)

Siouxsie and the Banshees was one of the most intriguing bands of the 1990s...to me, anyway. I just thought they had an interesting sound, supported by an even more interesting image (particularly lead singer Janet Susan Ballion, aka Siouxie Sioux).

1991's "Superstition" was the album that originally caught my eye--thanks to the track "Kiss Them For Me"--and was probably their most mainstream. The video featured here, however, is a remixed, more radio-friendly version, of the song "Fear (of the Unknown), off of the aforementioned album "Superstition."

Music Monday: Walk This World

Heather Nova isn't well-known in America. In fact, I doubt any of her singles have ever received any [radio] airplay, and that's primarily where she would've received her exposure when she originally came out in the mid-90s. I think I somehow stumbled across one of her videos while watching MTV late one night. Said video was "Walk This World," which is featured here.

"Walk This World" is featured on Heather's first release, Oyster (1995). This release is eerie, haunting, and gorgeous. If you like "Walk This World" you should give the entire album a chance; however, be advised this song is the most "pop-y" track on the CD.

Heather's two must-have albums:

1. Oyster.
2. Siren.

Music Monday: I Need Love

Sam Phillips is an interesting artist. While an indie-underground sensation, she's never really hit "the big time." But she's been around for ages....

Sam started out as a Christian singer, but found herself limited by this genre...and unable to express her artistry the way she truly wanted to. So she--gasp--broke into the secular market. It's here she found mild success on radio and in film soundtracks (and even a little bit of acting, for which she received a backlash from the Christian community).

This video is for the single "I Need Love," which can be found on Phillips's Grammy-nominated "Martinis & Bikinis."

Here's a fun little fact: Sam Phillips is married to music producer T-Bone Burnett, who's been the mastermind behind albums for Counting Crows, The Wallflowers, and k.d. lang, as well as scored the music for the film "O Brother Where Art Thou?"

Music Monday: Not Ready To Make Nice

Since I "republished" one of my very first posts here on "Nifty Nation" yesterday, I thought it only appropriate that today's feature be a Dixie Chicks video.

Yes, it's controversial.

Yes, it's "the" song.

Yes, it swept the Grammy's last year, and deserved every single award it was given.

I'm talking about "Not Ready To Make Nice," the centerpiece of the "Taking the Long Way" album.

Dixie Chicks-Not ready to make nice
Uploaded by Coyote63000

You may not be a Dixie Chicks fan, you may not like this song, but at the end-of-the-day this is an incredibly powerful song. In fact, I personally feel it's such a powerful song it warrants highlighting the lyrics here:

Forgive, sounds good
Forget, I’m not sure I could
They say time heals everything
But I’m still waiting

I’m through with doubt
There’s nothing left for me to figure out
I’ve paid a price
And I’ll keep paying

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

I know you said
Can’t you just get over it
It turned my whole world around
And I kind of like it

I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’
It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

Forgive, sounds good
Forget, I’m not sure I could
They say time heals everything
But I’m still waiting

Music Monday: Good Fortune

PJ Harvey is ridiculously talented. Hands down. Her voice is powerful. It demands attention. It's dark. It's sexy. It's haunting like Portishead. It pulls you in like a riptide. Can you tell I like her?

PJ Harvey--while an underground artist with a faithful fanbase--is probably one of the most underrated artists of my generation. Seriously. But take a listen to "Good Fortune" from her Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea album and decide for yourself.

I'm all about the "X"

It's obviously well-known that I love music videos. Heck, I have a series here on this very blog called "Music Monday," in which I highlight music videos I think are cool or innovative. That being said, I don't want the series--or the fact that I feature so much music here--to be cheesy.

So I'm a huge fan of Kylie Minogue. I think she's a great performer, I enjoy the fact that she experiments with her sound on each record, and she just seems like a genuine person. A couple of weeks I bought her "X" album, which hasn't really received much press here in the United States. In fact, I had to actually purchase the CD as an import at a not-nearby music store. But I don't mind telling you it's a fantastic pop album. Yes, it is pop, but it's probably one of the slickest pop albums in the recent past. And off of that album comes two--yes, two--new releases, "In My Arms" and "WoW." "WoW" is supposed to be released in the US (although it probably won't get much airplay), and the former is the European and "rest of the world" release. So to promote, two distinct videos have been shot. That's a pretty cool concept, and both videos are really pretty sweet.

So if you're a Kylie fan I'm sure you'll enjoy these. If you're not, hopefully you can at least appreciate them for their artistic merit.

"WoW":

Kylie Minogue WOW
Uploaded by Kyliefan2008

"In My Arms:"

Kylie Minogue - In My Arms [clip]
Uploaded by divertissonsnous

P.S. My MySpace profile currently features "In My Arms" as its song.

Music Monday: Love

British band the Sundays has long been one of my favorites. I discovered their music during my mid-teens, when I myself was going through a period of discovery. I immediately identified with their moving lyrics, beautiful melodies, and lead singer Harriet Wheeler's chic style. Well, I obvioulsy didn't identify with her style, but I sure thought she was a fox! Anyway, while the Sundays haven't had much success here in the United States, they have been releasing sporadic records over the past 15 years or so. One of their best is their sophmore release, "Blind." It's from that album I'm selecting a song to feature today.

Here's "Love":

Music Monday: One Step Too Far

Today's feature comes from Faithless. They've churned out several mega-club hits over the past decade, their most well-known probably being "Insomnia." The video highlighted here is titled "One Step Too Far" and is joined by the angelic vocals of Dido. Now, most people may not know that Dido got her start with Faithless -- her brother, Rollo, is actually one of the founding members of the group, and is also a master remixer. Talk about a talented family!

This particular mix of "One Step Too Far" isn't my favorite -- it's a more mainstream version, but still good nonetheless.

Music Monday: Empires

Today's song/video is titled "Empires" and comes from Kenyan songstress Lamya. Interesting name, sure. Interesting looks. Even more interesting voice. I believe my first encounter with this video was on MTV, during the time they actually played music videos. I was doing something around the house and heard the intro to the song and was immediately captivated. At the time, it was different...unique...and like nothing else that was in mainstream music.

So I decided to sit down and watch the entire video (this was long before the days of YouTube). Lamya's rich voice and creamy vocal layering intrigued me, and I immediately had to go out and purchase her debut album, "Learning From Falling." It's actually a great album. I didn't realize until doing some research that Lamya had actually been with '90's soul group Soul II Soul for a while.

While the video featured here isn't necessarily the most creative or artistic in its concept, I think the lyrics are amazing...and actually if you listen closely this could be the perfect theme song for any of the current Presidential candidates.

For additional information on Lamya visit her MySpace profile.

Music Monday: Glory Box

Strange.
Haunting.
Creepy.
Depressing.
Romantic.
Moving.

These are only a handful of words that come to mind when I here the name Portishead. Hailing from England, Portishead was at the helm of the creation of trip-hop during the mid-1990s. They are undeniably unique, and can't really be compared to any other band around. Particularly none that exist today.

I first became aware of Portishead when I purchased the soundtrack to the 1996 Bernardo Bertolucci film, "Stealing Beauty." Odd film. Absolutely brilliant soundtrack. The Portishead song included on that album is titled "Glory Box," and I've included the accompanying video here:

Music Monday: Freedom '90

The early '90's were an interesting time in American music. The [painful] period of hairband rock was on its way out, mainstream grunge was on its way in, and europop acts started dominating the charts. In the midst of all of that came a song that captivated my attention the very first time I heard it. Actually, it was the video that captured my attention, and what's ironic about that is the artist behind the song was nowhere to be found.

''Freedom '90'' was a groundbreaking, beautifully shot video featuring some of the most famous supermodels of the time including Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, and Naomi Campbell. They could be seen lazing around a loft in anywhere, USA, lip-synching to the track off of George Michael's brilliant ''Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. I'' album. The interesting thing is Michael was in the middle of a brawl with his record label Sony because of the image they'd created for him during his ''Faith'' album, and he boycotted them by not appearing in any of his videos from the former album. And by choosing models to represent his song, it's the perfect concept -- what, really, better represents American culture than a supermodel? (This isn't necessarily my personal opinion, but certainly one that hangs around through the years.)

George Michael - Freedom '90
Uploaded by jpdc11

Music Monday: Beautiful

Moving song by a short-lived European band, Mandalay:

Music Monday: Must Be Dreaming

Today's music video comes from a fantastic group called Frou Frou. I discovered them a few years back, and purchased their debut album based solely on a magazine article I'd read about them. One half of the group--the non-singing half--is Guy Sigsworth, who's done quite a bit of production on both Madonna and Bjork albums; that was the determining factor for me. The second half of the group is Imogen Heap, who about two years ago released one of the best pop albums in recent history.

Given that, here is one of the standout tracks from Frou Frou's debut. The song is called "Must Be Dreaming."

Music Monday

As I mentioned in a previous post not too terribly long ago, it's been quite some time since I've blogged. I think much of this has to do with my job, and the nature of our industry. To be honest, it's bothered me for a while because I started this blog, think I have something to say, and I don't like the fact that I've allowed for it to be dormant as long as it has.

The thing is, I don't want to "write just for the sake of writing." I'd like to produce content my [very few] readers enjoy and find relevance in. Of course, this is ultimately the goal of every blogger, I think. Or at least I hope. Anyway, I started thinking about the things that are important to me, and decided if I stick with that I'll always have some interesting content. At least for me....

So I've decided to interject some theming with my blog. Music is extremely important to me; I think I was a musician in a past life. Even more, I love the artistry of music videos. Quality music videos -- not the crap they show on MTV these days. Now I'm sure many people would argue about what I find "artistic" and whay they find "artistic," but that's the fantastic thing about this being my blog -- I can say what I want! So every Monday I'm going to start posting a video I think is interesting, and has a certain artistic integrity to it. Hopefully you'll enjoy the videos I post...or at least be exposed to something new.

That being said, it's only appropo that I launch Music Video Monday with Madonna. If you have any awareness of music or pop culture then I need not say more.

VIDEO : HOLLYWOOD

While certainly not one of the best Madonna songs, I feel both the video and the album it on which it appeared were severely overlooked. Perhaps that was due to the political controversy surrounding the title track and its accompanying video (I'm sure that will show up here at a future date). Regardless, this video shows Madonna at her best...in the sense that she is a chameleon and always looks good no matter what. (Of course, there are also pop culture implications that come along with the song.)

Bonus:

A few years ago "Hollywood" was segment of the high-grossing "Re-Invention Tour." The backdrop to the scene was incredibly cool so I thought I'd include it here. I hope you enjoy it.