Video: The White Stripes - City Lights

Film director Michel Gondry was responsible for The White Stripes' most memorable videos - the Lego-tastic Fell In Love With A Girl, and the insane stop motion collage of Hardest Button To Button.

His latest collaboration with Jack White is more nuanced, but no less mesmerising. He uses a shower window as a sort of impromptu etch-a-sketch, creating an ever-evolving illustration of City Lights' lyrics in the steam. According to Rolling Stone, the filmmaker shot on the video on his own, without notifying White until it was completed.

The track is off White's recent album, Jack White: Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016, a collection of B-sides and rarities from The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and White's solo career. It was originally written for The White Stripes' 2005 album, Get Behind Me Satan, but never made the cut.

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Some distractions to last you the weekend...

:: Tina Fey lampoons Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live… And while it's brilliant, it's neither as funny nor as terrifying as the real thing


:: Here's a free download of Annie's superfantastic cover of Stacey Q's Two Hearts - Click here. Annie's album, Don't Stop, is due out this week, next week, sometime or never.

:: How popular is your name? Check out this site that tracks the popularity of first names (in the US) since 1880.

:: "When you hear a rhythm that is being played by an instrument you can’t identify but wish you owned, you are hearing Timbaland". A great profile of the super-producer, courtesy of the New Yorker

:: I was recently on a plane that was struck by lightning, and I'd have felt just a little bit safer if I'd had this guide to how land a jumbo jet handy.

:: Brad Walsh has remixified Britney's Womanizer and made it available for download. It takes a song that sounds like it was written by a computer program and makes it sound like the computer has had a psychological "episode". Full marks all round, particularly for (muso alert) "breaking it down in the middle 8" .

:: 10 People From Your Past Who Will Haunt You On Facebook.

:: The video for Alicia Keys and Jack White's Bond theme misses out on the one thing that would make it tolerable - footage from Quantum Of Solace.



:: Fans of Ferris Beuller are planning to recreate the film's iconic carnival scene at New York's Hallowe'en Parade on 31st October. If you're going along, get in touch - I'd love to get your photos on the blog at the end of the month!

:: Amazon's computers have begun phase two of their plan for global domination.

[via Photobasement]

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Quantum of Solace - the musical

While I was away, a colleague sent me the lyrics to the Jack White / Alicia Keys Bond theme. I took one look and thought "fake".

Turns out I was wrong, and this terrifically incompetent bag of balls is the genuine article.


JW: Another blinger with a slick trigger finger for Her Majesty
AK: Another one with the golden tongue poisoning your fantasy
JW: Another pill from a killer turn a thriller to a tragedy
AK/JW: Yeah, a door never open, a woman walking by, a drop in the water, a look in the eye, a phone on the table, a man on your side, someone that you think that you can trust is just another way to die.

(snip...)

To fade: Just another, just another, bang bang bang bang.

To be fair, the words work a lot better in the context of the down and dirty bombast of the song - which you can buy now on iTunes. But I still prefer the two spoof themes performed by Adam and Joe of… er, Adam and Joe fame. Here's a sample of Adam Buxton's chorus:

I'd like a quantum of solace, but no more than a quantum
I know they do big bags of solace... but I don't want'em
I only want a teeny, tiny slice of solace
Before I shoot you

Much, much better, I'm sure you'll agree.

Adam Buxton - Quantum of Solace


Joe Cornish - Quantum of Solace


Perhaps we could collect together all these themes, and the ditched Amy Winehouse one, and put on a show, Kids of Fame-style, right here, right now.

I'll call Bruno. Can you text LeRoy?

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Month old flop single news

It's been a relatively quiet day today, and still I haven't managed to track down any new music worth writing about.

I'm quite excited about the new Bond theme - from the combined genius of Jack White and Alicia Keys - but I can't find a decent Keys / White Stripes mash-up to iluustrate what it might sound like. My own attempt at making a No-One vs My Doorbell montage was a KFC family bucket of wrong.

I had more luck writing a quiz on previous Bond themes for my real job(yes, they actually pay me for this stuff). You can test your knowledge over here.

In the meantime, I stumbled across a new blog by the name of Hard Candy Music and while drilling down through their old posts, I came across a story that made my 80s cheese antenna prick up.

It concerns Denise Lopez, a floptastic US singer with Paula Abdul aspirations signed to A&M Records in the latter half of the Thatcher decade. She had precisely no hits, but one of her tracks - Don't You Wanna Be Mine - is regarded as a classic of the vocal house scene (think Ce Ce Peniston with Finally or Clivilles and Coles with A Deeper Love).

The song is still a staple of many DJ sets (Sasha is a big fan) and it's been given a fresh workover by the likes of Bimbo Jones and Soul Avengerz for the 2008 Ibiza crowds. It came out a month ago to complete indifference, but it's worth downloading the iTunes EP simply to get hold of the original C&C Music Factory remix which, in the parlance of the time, is "dope, yo".

Denise Jones - Don't You Wanna Be Mine (Bimbo Jones mix)


Denise Lopez - Don't You Wanna Be Mine (original single)


If anyone has some up-to-date tips, for the love of god let me know in the comments box.

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White Stripe bull fight

It's possibly their oddest record to date, but there's a lot to love about the White Stripes barmy, mariachi-themed single Conquest. Not least of which is the video, in which Jack White becomes a matador. Completely bonkers.

White Stripes - Conquest


But is it just me, or is the song "inspired" by the following clip?

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Nail hit on head

A superb review of the White Stripes new album points out why musicians who try to 'keep it real' are selling themselves short - because reality isn't as important as melody, arrangement and songcraft.

Which is the main reason why pop will always be better than indie, even though we quite like "Get Behind Me Satan," really.

Sample quote:

"Blue Orchid" was recorded only two weeks before it was released. These constraints are evidence that White thinks and reflects on his craft, and they certainly create a distinct White Stripes 'brand,' but how much of this hokum helps the band make music or exploit White's gifts? Is working fast necessarily a good thing? Is it as good for us as it is for him?"

The New Yorker: Jack White's vexing brilliance

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