How funny to see this video a couple of days after that clip of Elvis Costello in full elder statesman mode playing folk ballads alongside Mumford & Sons.
The pigeon-toed dancing and fuck-the-world sneer seem to belong to another artist than the man we’ve come to know in the 35 years since. Forget Springsteen and Dylan, perhaps Elvis Costello has had the most extraordinary career.
Here’s one of those cases — so often unearthed on Random Weekends — of an artist who wound up in my music collection under circumstances I have long since forgotten.
I don’t know who Mindy Smith is or why I own her debut album, One Moment More. I don’t know if I’ve heard any or all of it. I vaguely remember liking her cover of Dolly Parton’s ‘Jolene,’ the final track on this record, but I can’t imagine I bought the record as a result.
I’ve written a couple of times this week about how the internet has changed the way we experience music — big newsflash there, I know.
Today’s clip is another wonderful example.
As a promotion for Bono’s ONE campaign, Elvis Costello teamed up with Mumford & Sons to perform a mash-up of Bruce Springsteen and Woody Guthrie. This may well have happened in a pre-YouTube era, but would I have seen it?
The latest issue of Rolling Stone has a sidebar in which a member of Explosions in the Sky names a handful of songs that inspire him.
Explosions in the Sky is a Texas band that plays instrumental music on guitars and drums. I know them only because of their association with Friday Night Lights (they wrote the film’s soundtrack and scored much of the TV show).
Here’s a fitting follow-up to Monday’s post about viral videos.
I don’t recall exactly how I came across ‘Sail’ by the Los Angeles band AWOLNATION — I assume it was mentioned in a magazine or on a website — but when I looked for it, this is the video I found.
I assumed it was the song’s official video because, well, why wouldn’t it be?
