A new garbage video

No, not Shirley Manson & co - but the Magnetic Fields. Because, you see, the video for their new single Quick! is a love story between two dustbins.

It's a lot better than it sounds.

Magnetic Fields - Quick!

Quick! - which features vocals from longtime Stephen Merrit collaborator Shirley Simms - is from the Magnetic Fields latest album, Love At The Bottom Of The Sea.

It was in no way inspired by the following track.

Grover The Grouch - I Love Trash

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Someone told Bruno Mars how to get to Sesame Street

This little video of Bruno Mars and the stars of Sesame Street exists in the same universe as Olly Murs' X Factor performance with the Muppets - but is precisely 9,074 times less irritating.

Bruno Mars - Don't Give Up


Doesn't that make you feel a whole lot better?

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The Muppets meet The Mad Men

As previously reported, Sesame Street has created a parody of Mad Men in which a group of male advertising executives get really, really upset (they are mad men, you see).

Sesame Street: Mad Men


Excellent though that is, the new video from Frenchy Folk Duo Herman Dune goes one better.

Do you want to see Jon 'Don Draper' Hamm taking a roadtrip with a blue furry monster? Of course you blinking do. It's the thing the internet was made for (after banking scams and pictures of cats).

Herman Dune - Tell Me Something I Don't Know

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A disturbing fact about Willow Smith

Willow Smith, the nine-year-old singing sensation and movie star offspring, has finally got around to releasing her debut video - Whip It. Embedding is disabled but if it wasn't it would look like this:

Willow Smith - Whip It

Clearly, this song is IMMENSE. A crunkified, attitudinal corker, laser targetted at number one. And when it gets there, Willow Smith will be the first ever chart star to be born in the 21st Century.

Stop for a moment and think about that.

I am off to lie in a darkened room and contemplate my impending mortality. In the meantime, and in order to skew the demographic even further towards toddlers, here's a video mash-up of the Willow track and a Sesame Street song called "I Love My Hair".

Whip It - Fraggle Roc Nation mix

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Hello, here is some vandalism

Today's morally reprehensible video comes courtesy of Crookers ft Miike Snow. Naughty boys.

Crookers fr Miike Snow - Remedy


For some reason, it reminds me of the "Mad Painter" sketches they used to show on Sesame Street.





Er... that's all.

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Merry Crimbo!

Right, this'll be the last post before I return from my Christmas hols in the magical Winter Wonderland that is Rochdale. Hope Santa brings you everything you asked for, particularly if you asked for the Ladyhawke album or a brand new Domino Rally set.

In the meantime, here's some Christmassy and not-so-Christmassy reading material to tide you over.

:: The writers behind Mistletoe & Wine, Fairytale Of New York and I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day reveal how the songs came about - and how much they get paid in royalties every year.

:: Meanwhile, The Guardian interviews a bunch of people who are mentioned in pop songs - including the man/woman who inspired Walk On The Wild Side and the record company executive namechecked in Enya's Orinoco Flow (?!)

:: Just because The Killers film all of their videos in a desert, and Alexandra Burke's budget only stretches as far as buying 50 candles from Poundstore, it doesn't mean the music video is a creatively bankrupt medium. Here's Spin Magazine's list of the year's best ones, which skillfully includes Bert and Ernie's Ante Up lipdub.



:: Speaking of Alexandra Burke, her recording of Hallelujah is approximately the 1,298,388,515th version of the song. Test your knowledge of the others in a quiz I wrote last week.

:: Best bit telly from the last week - Tom Chambers and Camilla "dial her up" Dallerup performing a showdance to If My Friends Could See me Now, from the musical Sweet Charity, in the grand final of Strictly Come Dancing



:: Worst bit of telly from the last week - Girls Aloud slaughter The Loving Kind live on GMTV. Particularly noteworthy is Sarah's bum note at 3:50. Even Cheryl cringes.



:: The Onion lists its worst films of 2008. Bizarrely, it doesn't include The Love Guru.

:: Goldfrapp say they're starting work on a new album. Best. News. Ever.

:: Pedants unite - here's a Wikipedia list of common misconceptions, which debunks so-called facts like "your hair and fingernails continue to grow after you die", and "Gordon Brown says he's a fan of the Arctic Monkeys" (he actually prefers Last Shadow Puppets, fact fans).

:: And, finally, the now-customary silly pet videos.

Number one: Christmas cats



Number two: Dog going mental


Happy bloody Christmas to you all.

Love and mince pies,
mrdiscopop

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Teaching kids their DMCs

The recent run of amazing Sesame Street clips has dried up, so here's the next best thing: Rap demigods Run DMC on 1980s teach-kids-about-books TV show, Reading Rainbow.

"Oh yes, indeed I like to read / 'cause reading's fun
Not only me (I'm DMC) / but also Run"

Wasn't it great when it wasn't only Kanye West who was brave enough to set a positive example rap fans?

Run DMC on Reading Rainbow

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LL Cool J ruins childhood for everyone

Now, this is simply not on.

While every other guest star on Sesame Street uses their performance to spread good will, basic maths, triangle recognition and, er, footwear to the masses, LL Cool J goes and spoils it all with needless profanity.



All Elmo wanted him to do was add one and one together.

Oh, wait...

Watch the clip on Youtube (youtube)

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This week's Sesame Street clip

You know, that muppet blog idea I had last week is seeming better and better as the Sesame Street posts stack up...

This week, Neil "Doogie Howser MD" Patrick Harris pops up on the puppet show playing a singing, dancing shoe fairy. (Yes, you read that right.)

The clip's on Youtube (youtube) - but embedding has been disabled, so you'll actually have to click on a link to watch it. The horror.

For those of you who can't bear to leave the site (we understand), here's an equally brilliant clip of Harris on US chat show Regis and Kelly:

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More muppety goodness

I'm beginning to think I should start a separate Muppet blog, but for now here is the latest instalment of "things that become better with fuzzy puppets in them".

This week, Feist does 1-2-3-4 on Sesame Street. It's so appropriate, you begin to wonder whether she wrote the song specifically to meet Big Bird.

Feist - 1-2-3-4

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Bert & Ernie throw down

What is it with muppet mash-ups at the minute? After last week's unecessarily censored Sesame Street, here's Bert and Ernie crunking it up, gangsta rap-stylee.

Bert and Ernie - Hip-Hoppotamus and Rhymenocerous


The soundtrack is Ante Up by MOP, fact fans.

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Sesame Street censored

I can't think of anything in advance of this video that wouldn't dilute and ultimately spoil the comedy. Except that last sentence, of course.

And that one.

Jimmy Kimmel - Unnecessary Censorship on Sesame Street

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Can You Tell Me How To Get To...

Why is it that you can't see Sesame Street on UK television any more? How will future generations cope with the real world if they haven't been taught how to count by a large yellow bird and a man who lives in a bin?

Also, Sesame Street introduces children to future life-skills such as sending back cold soup in a restaurant, sharing an apartment with a man shaped like a banana, and distracting vampires by encouraging them to count the number of flowers in a vase (works every time, that one).

Most importantly of all, Sesame Street features some of the funkiest goddamn music in the history of the planet. Witness below Stevie Wonder's appearance on the show from the mid-70s (episode 514, according to Youtube). You just wouldn't get this on Balamory.

Stevie Wonder - Superstition (Sesame Street live)


Stevie teaches Grover to sing


Stevie Wonder - Sesame Street jam

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James Blunt is a muppet

In this clip of Sesame Street one of the performers is a lifeless puppet with no soul. The other is Telly Monster.

The song is, however, brilliant.



PS: This wikipedia list of Sesame Street characters is one of the most diverting six minutes available on the internet. (Except for the porn, of course)

PPS OH MY GOD!!!! I have just discovered an entire Muppet Wikipedia!
I am now going to change the entry for "ma nah ma nah" so that it simply says:
Ma nah Ma Na (n.)
Doo Doo de-doooo doo

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