2012-03-14
post/19277423705
The Square Root Of Sex, by Ted Mark. (via)
(I was a bit surprised at the popularity of the cover of I Was A Teeny-Bopper For The CIA, so when I ran across this I thought I’d give it a repost. Sadly, the cover of The Man From O.R.G.Y. isn’t quite in the same style.)
2011-06-27
Babies & This Is Hardcore
I can’t remember who mentioned it, but a few months ago I saw someone mention Pulp’s This Is Hardcore music video, and I dug it out and watched it. Recently I think I’ve seen it every week or two. It’s fantastic.
It dates from a time when bands were more free not to perform in videos, but instead to just go a little crazy. So you get Cocker in a minute-long Busby Berkeley inspired reverie, amongst five minutes of fractured behind-the-scenes of a… noir? gangster? movie from Hollywood’s heyday.
I’m mentioning it partly because you can almost see in the earlier, much lower budget, video for Babies the seeds of the later work. Did Jarvis ever study film? It seems as if he must have. Both of them play around, although in Babies it’s a little more… obvious.
Anyway, assuming the links work for you (is Vevo US only? It gets hard to tell) then both videos are well worth a watch. I’d also recommend reading Owen Hatherley’s piece for the Guardian about how Pulp matter more than ever.
2011-03-03
post/3626707947
Here is a complete scan of Yanks Go Home, an article from the defunct British music magazine Select that arguably first defined the Britpop movement. Be sure to check out the interview with Jarvis Cocker in which he says that he does not care for Americans corrupting the Queen’s language and grammar.
This is a defining moment in my musical life. I’m looking forward to more pages from Select being added to the collection of scans.
