Summer Music Video Picks #2

More music videos, some current trenders, some flashbacks, summer only because it’s summer as I seek, find and post. I plan to provide further evidence, here on Versa Vice, that there is great music, and even music videos out there, often neglected, ignored, even shunned by the mediocre pop conglomerates. MTV has remained the underbelly of American society, even wallowing in its own ephemeral excrement…but that doesn’t mean we can’t have an art form survive and thrive. Enjoy.

Perfect starter vid, with a blast-off. Atlas Sound, takes us forward by looking back.


Speaking of a “look back,” the best live concert video ever made from any genre, or era, Stop Making Sense, as we all should…so take me home.


In spite of mixed feelings from song to song, I’m a Ladytron fan. A lot of great output over the years that allows me to look past the occasional cheese dud.


I’m new to Violens. But Hell be damned if they don’t rock and have, what should be, great melodic pop appeal. Where remain the deafened masses?


For those who can recall Portishead and the mood they could make sonically, this could be a considered a child of, or lasting echo. Great multi-period reconfiguring…or simply put, a great song.


Remaining my all time top video, it speaks for itself, Doves. Extracted from one of MTV2’s earlier and more legitimate carnations.

Summer Music Video Picks

New(ish) music, needing further attention...

This is Cloud Control, from Australia, not signed to a major yet(the original definition of "indie.")


A personal favorite for a while. Groovy, rock and roll as it was once meant to be, Wooden Shjips from Cali.


Fun, good mood, just got a phone number on the city bus music, Toro Y Moi.


More of the by-the-above-ground-pool music for my fans, as i ipoD Dj on Sundays. Love maybe, leisure first, lessons later, life always, Twin Shadow(s).


Same as Above, only Memory Tapes.


Crystal Castles, if the voice seems familiar, it's because it isn't. You would know if you knew.


Often ripped on as rip offs, but the music holds it's weight, sometimes one man's voice sounds like another, dead and/or alive. So be it, Cold Cave.


And, one of the weirdest vids ever...from "Cults." And be damned if it ain't, otherwise, as upbeat as a pig-tailed Laura Ingals runnin' down the hillside to Paw and the Little House.

(Nancy) Grace for Casey

When an attractive girl comes around the corner, and I’m hanging out with the guys, I’m the kind of person, rather than ogle and comply with what’s expected of me, I look to see their reactions. I don’t know why I do it. As well, I have sat near the front of the theater at a movie so I can look back and see everyone staring and reacting at the same thing, simultaneously. In particular, a movie I’ve already seen, and when I know what’s coming. For some reason this is more interesting to me. So, when I listened as the verdicts were read in the Anthony case I started thinking about…what people would say and think. I took a look at Facebook. No surprise. Reactionary emotional outrage fueled by an honest need for justice in the case of an apparently murdered and certainly dead little girl. The real fuel on our feelings came from other sources though.

For 3 years American’s have been listening to Nancy Grace spew her ignorant speculation like she’s in tight with the big guy upstairs and rewarded her with a career based on her rhetoric, and with no further merit. Who the hell is she? Where did she come from? Did anyone ever ask this? Over time the Nancy Grace clones have popped up and are just as bad.

Do I think Casey Anthony is Guilty? She is not innocent. It’s clear with every sound that comes out of her mouth. That’s not evidence though is it? She is guilty on some level, that’s clear in my gut. I’m also sure that the Salem Witch trials were driven by the same gut feelings, and I don’t doubt my feelings have been influenced by the perpetual media machine who have maintained their ratings by exploiting news instead of reporting it. We’ve gotten used to the megalopinionated (an intentional misspell) news folk who wear the hat of reporter and entertainer interchangeably as it suits the moment.

Casey will be around for some time. Her own show…or some sick bizarreness. And we’ll just eat it right up, or maybe we won’t. Maybe things will change. It will take a hard honest look at ourselves at least as much as we judge televised strangers. We do tend to celebrate narcissistic party animal celebrities though don’t we? I also think it’s a safe bet she’ll be back behind bars again someday. She’s myopic and at least a little nuts. Getting out of this jam will only embolden such pathological behaviors. The mood of her parents as they left seemed so much more appropriate than the joy of the accused and her "team" after the decision.

My real beef remains with Nancy Grace, her clones, and that whole cheesy exploitative mode that media has embraced. I can remember the old days when calm reporters delivering the news in a neutral format was all we had. I prefer that, and miss it I guess. I think Nancy should go back to wherever she came from. Just disappear for good. She’s just as bad as Casey or whoever killed her daughter. She has misused a sad horrible incident to her own gain. Guilty on some level too I think, and in an ironic twist it may just turn out her types emboldened the investigation and prosecutors with a false sense of confidence. Grace for Casey, imagine that.