Guadalcanal Diary plays Guadalcanal Diary

Yesterday's post included a video for a song of Guadalcanal Diary's, sung by Colin Meloy of the Decemberists. The song has rather dark imagery, so today I thought I'd post a couple of their videos with much brighter themes. 

It's a shame that bands like this and their song catalogs aren't more widely known. Guadalcanal Diary's lyrics touch upon a wide range of subjects, and their albums are well worth getting. 

This first one if from their album 2 X 4: 



This second one if from their album Flip Flop: 

Colin Meloy of the Decemberists plays Guadalcanal Diary

Note: Since I've mentioned the rest of Garbage by name, I should also mention Duke Erikson. 

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One of my favorite bands from the 1980s and 90s was Guadalcanal Diary. I first saw them open a concert for R.E.M. during the Reconstruction Tour in Santa Barbara, California. It was my first R.E.M. concert after driving up to Berkeley to see them play only to have that concert rained out. 

Although I was certainly familiar with R.E.M.'s music at the time, I wasn't familiar at all with Guadalcanal Diary. And from their first note, I was won over. They had music that was immediate - I didn't have to listen to an album over and over until I "got" it. 

The Decemberists are a contemporary band, and I'm not even all that familiar with them. I've seen them play Austin City Limits on television and like their sound. 

Here is a performance that I found since discovering Augustana playing the Bing Lounge in Portland, Oregon. The Bing Lounge has lots of gems: 

more Garbage (and Angelfish and Screaming Females)

Like I mentioned in yesterday's post, I've been enjoying looking around YouTube for things to watch, particularly with the band Garbage lately. 

Here is a video that shows what member Steve Marker saw one fateful day while watching MTV that changed the future of the band: 



Next is another live performance that is among my favorites of theirs, from French television: 




And finally, a cover of a Patti Smith classic: 



I've gotta remember to go out and get some sun and exercise... I could sit here all day! 

obsessed with Garbage

Lately, I've been spending lots of time surfing for videos by the band Garbage. I find their lead singer, Shirley Manson, mesmerizing. Not just striking and cute and sexy, but she just oozes charisma. And I'm not the only one who thinks so; she not too long ago played a role in the television show, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I didn't watch the show when it was on, though; she was one of, if not the, terminator(s). 

Garbage had an early hit, Stupid Girl, quite awhile ago and I bought their first album back then: 




Not that they need any sort of cred, but their drummer is Butch Vig, who produced Nirvana's Nevermind album. 

Here's another gem of a performance I found on YouTube: 



The name of the band is powerful and great... and gutsy too. Luckily they're good enough where their music won't be said to be reminiscent of their name. It's kind of flippant and rebellious, don't you think? There was one interview I saw, maybe with Craig Kilborn, where Shirley mentions another name the band was considering; believe me, Garbage is much tamer. 

Shirley is Scottish and she is a regular guest with late night talk show host, Craig Ferguson, who is also Scottish. It's fun to watch them interact, like old chums. I dig the accent, especially coming from her. This video is from one of her appearances on his show (if you're squeamish, cover your eyes for the clip at the beginning of her as the Terminator - it's a brief clip): 

Seal sings Bowie

How many of you remember the VH-1 show, Unplugged? It was perhaps my favorite way to see performances by my favorite bands. Sometimes I like to imagine particular bands performing in that format, even though it would never happen. 

Anyway, my very favorite Unplugged concert was by Seal. I have others that are up there: R.E.M. and the Church come to mind, but Seal's was almost perfect. I'm surprised the DVD of it isn't available... at least not as far as I know. 

Here's the audio of my very favorite song from that performance; I have a VHS of the concert on videotape, but it's nice to have access to the song on YouTube, even though it's just the sound. I even prefer this version to David Bowie's himself - maybe because I heard Seal's first. 

Boston by Augustana

Much better putting the video directly into the blog post, isn't it? I think all I've done in the past is include a text link to the videos I wanted to share. Apologies for the ad though; I'm not sure how to get rid of it. 

I remember years ago that for the longest time I thought: what's the big deal with YouTube? Are people really that interested in strangers' home movies? It took quite awhile for me to discover that YouTube is for more than just posting home movies.

I'm going to keep posting favorite videos for awhile and see how that goes. I've got a whole bunch of them bookmarked; I just love whiling away time looking at music videos on YouTube. And like Amazon, there are many, many suggestions that take me in all sorts of directions. 

Here's one that I started listening to weeks before the bombings during the Boston Marathon. The song is so beautiful in itself, and yet took on a particular sadness after the tragedy although the lyrics are totally unrelated. 

This version is my favorite. Like several other songs by other musicians, the live version is what does it for me - much more so than the studio version. I don't know much about the band Augustana, but here is the main guy, Dan Layus, accompanied by a couple of musicians whom I don't think are normally in the band. 

James Bond and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang... how are they related?

Let's see if I remember how to do this (blogging that is) - it's been awhile. 

Anyway, while watching Jeopardy last night, I learned something I had no idea of before: Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, also wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. 

After seeing that, I was so incredulous I had to look it up online. And sure enough, it's true! Mr. Fleming wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as a story for his child. 

I remember watching that movie as a kid and being quite terrified of that awful "child catcher" character. I even had a bit of a nightmare of a dream that included someone driving a big truck that looked like that "child catcher." I had this dream as an adult in my late-thirties. 

Yes, the movie made an impression on me; I can still hear Dick Van Dyke singing the title song, and can picture that shiny car. I'd watch it again except for, well, you can guess. He was terrifying, like those flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz. 

Here's the song though - what a blast to the past! I didn't remember the details, just the chorus: