Video Of The Week: Fergie

Unbeknownst to be, I've been following Fergie's career since I was six years old, as she starred in the long-syndicated in the U.S. (but hard to find in Canada beyond 1986) TV show Kids Incorporated as Stacy Ferguson, alongside Jennifer Love Hewitt, Eric Balfour (24), Martika (who sang the theme song, and the mega-hit Toy Soldiers a few years later), Mario Lopez, and Wendy Brainard (who went on to sing with Corey Hart and Donna Summer).

I fucking loved that show so much I'd get up at 5 AM to watch it on Saturday mornings in the second grade; my parents didn't understand what was up with me, but there was something about the five songs per episode (and maybe Hewitt, Ferguson and Martika singing them as well).

Then came the girl-group Wild Orchid, whose records I bought for the album covers (namely the self-titled debut and the Supernatural single) but seldom listened to.

In the mid-1990s (and pretty much my entire life, really), some pop music suited my ears, but rock and rap more so; The Black Eyed Peas' first two records were decent underground fare, but when they hired Fergie and turned pop for Elephunk, their career hit new heights of commercial success... and creative depths that represent pretty much everything that is wrong with modern pop music.

In 2006, she came out with her first solo record, The Dutchess, which was successful, but sounded like it should have been a Gwen Stefani album, what with the reggae-ska numbers, the semi-honest/touchy-feely numbers that hint at deeper turmoil but ultimately fail at being truly poignant. And the insipid pure-pop numbers just didn't make it for me - although they made my then-girlfriend dance and act wild.

Fergie has tremendous skill as a singer, in the upper echelons, but for most of her career, it has felt like she was either holding back or refused to exploit it correctly.

There are two ways to go when you have a voice like that: the Céline Dion/Frank Sinatra/Whitney Houston way, which is to have people write songs for you to belt out like no other, or to bare your fucking soul, which works whether your voice is great or unique (Tori Amos, Charlotte Martin, Joanna Newsom, Björk), "normal" (P.J. Harvey), or awful (Courtney Love, Yoko Ono).

Finally, at age 42, Fergie has chosen the latter, with A Little Work, from the album Double Dutchess, which is a tad cliché'd but still rings true. The long-form video (a.k.a. "short film") by Jonas Åkerlund brings the point home very well:

You may recall Akerlund's work - such as the 2002 indie film Spun, or his videos for Roxette, Prodigy (Smack My Bitch Up), Madonna (Ray of Light), Metallica (Turn The Page, Whiskey In The Jar), The Smashing Pumpkins, Blink-182's I Miss You, and countless others - is among the best in the business.

He was the perfect director to bring to life a story about drug addiction (be it Fergie's documented struggles with crystal meth or the current opioid crisis in America) and mental illness.

Video Of The Week: Rick Astley

Let's be honest here: I could have just Rickrolled the lot of you, and I didn't.

So, be thankful. And be happy to watch Never Gonna Give You Up for the thousandth time:



Now with over 122,000,000 views, so you're not the only idiot who pressed play knowingly, let alone those of us who have been getting caught once in a while since 2007.

You know what, though? I'm happy Rick Astley's getting paid to be the butt of a joke. You could argue who's the real victim here between those forcibly listening to the 1987 ''classic'' and he who performed the kitchiest earworm we still remember, but his getting paid royalties from his own YouTube/Vevo account probably mends the embarassment a bit. And I'm happy it happened to a person who seems nice, not an asswipe like Vanilla Ice.

Awesome Limited-Edition Hockey Jerseys

For people in their 30s and 40s, the late-1980s and early-1990s represent the golden age of Saturday Night Live, with Mike Myers, Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler,
 Julia Sweeney, Ellen Cleghorne, Kevin Nealon, Jon Lovitz, Victoria Jackson, Chris Farley, Rob Schneider, David Spade, Tim Meadows, Siobhan Fallon, Nora Dunn, Jan Hooks, Al Franken, and Robert Smigel.

SNL 40 was knee-deep in that specific era, and now the kind folks at Violent Gentlemen (George Parros and friends) also channeled Wayne's World for their new, limited-edition jerseys (feel free to buy me one):

A Tim Curry Time Warp

 The are ''cult movies'', then there is The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the longest-running (consecutive) theatrical feature of all time. And because of its cult following, all speaking parts in it (and some silent ones, including even a stuffed bird) are well-known and all actors recognized and worshiped, but none more so than Tim Curry, Frank-N-Furter himself in both the film and the stage show before it.

Here he is in a rare interview about the film, a topic he usually avoids nowadays. Notice how he looks like a humble Freddie Mercury in it (it's the mustache)!

Next Up On My Wall: 3 Autographed Samantha Fox Posters

Here is a post lifted from my Collectibles blog...

I received this cylinder in the mail two weeks ago and have been waiting to make good use of it ever since:

Yes, that's direct mail from Samantha Fox, my favourite lead singer of the 1980s, my favourite pop music queen, my childhood crush obsession, the lone ''non-rock'' patch on my teenage jean jacket...

I contemplated having its contents laminated, but because they are of ''unusual'' (read: British) dimensions (12x16.5 inches), I would have had to do so on larger-than-the-poster canvasses; it took me a long time to find ideal-sized and affordable frames... until last Sunday.

And so:

Oh, yes, these are going on my wall.

She sells unsigned versions of these at 10 pounds apiece ($20 U.S.), and signed ones for 30 each ($60 U.S.). I got them for much, much less than that - because I'm a musician, proved to be a true fan, did my best to attend every single one of her performances in my part of the world... and took advantage of a sale on her website. 1+1+1= oh yeah.

There are days where I regret some of the choices I've made in my life, like foregoing on a hockey career to pursue my education, or choosing the least faithful out of two possible ladies as a long-term companion, or leading a relatively unhealthy lifestyle without the trade-off of at least feeling like it was worth the damage done.

But there are days where I tell myself that every choice I've made has led me right here, and there is no way I could possibly want to trade that away. This is one of them:

There is a God - he just hasn't made me a photographer. BEST BLACK DRESS, EVER; ALL-TIME GREATEST USE OF WIND. I even noticed the shoes, and I'm neither gay nor a lady! Oh, and superb signature. I nominate this as the greatest piece of human history ever created.

There is also this sexy bustier shot, which I had a blown-up poster of (unsigned) earlier in my life:

And this one, showing a rather large tattoo I had never noticed on her before (let me reiterate that I've seen her perform live and state for the record that I've met her maybe 5 years ago when she came to town to play an outdoors show at out Gay Pride festival):

Another cool black dress, the like of could have been worn in a sexy, almost-goth fashionable wedding à la November Rain, the epic 1992 Guns N' Roses video. I volunteer to be the groom.

Video Of The Week: Corey Feldman

No, that's not a typo. No, it doesn't make any sense. Yes, it's beyond ridiculous.

In this video - apparently the second off his 1st Glimpse of Heaven EP - Corey Feldman (yes, that Corey Feldman) tries to channel Crispin Glover (his overall appearance and demeanor), Michael Jackson (Bad, Man In the Mirror, the song's melody) and the ''Winning-era'' Charlie Sheen (the angels/hookers), references I Love Lucy, pretend-raps and just brings out a general feeling of discomfort to any viewer with a pulse. (Therefore, Corey Haim might be a fan.)

The star of The Goonies, The Gremlins, Stand By Me, The Lost Boys and The 'Burbs needs to stop basing his public personae on 30-year-old work, and perhaps try to get serious about his art. Or not. But I really don't see this ending well.



The video was directed by actress Tanna Fredrick, who plays Feldman's wife throughout the 4 minutes you'll never get back yet may inexplicably want to go through again.

I apologize in advance.

Japan. Baby. Metal.

Yep, that's about right.

In Memoriam

It was a tough past week for high art, as the world lost both flamenco guitar superstar Paco De Lucia and one of the best filmmakers of all time, Alain Resnais.

De Lucia started touring and recording in the late 1960s, but it was in 1971 and 1972 that he truly started to break ground, innovating in playing style, adding new twists to classics (such as Mario Escudero's Ímpetu) and creating timeless songs himself (Entre Dos Aguas), fusing genres and cultural influences.

In 1979, he formed The Guitar Trio with John McLaughlin and Larry Coryell, which would remain as much a constant in his career as playing solo or with legends of other styles such as Al Di Meola,  Chick Corea and Eric Clapton. I saw The Guitar Trio with Di Meola replacing Coryell live at the end of the 1990s and was blown away.

He died of a heart attack at age 66.

Resnais was not only one of the best French directors, but in the world. His career spanned nine decades (keep in mind cinema was invented at the turn of the 20th century...), and his influential work started in 1955 with Nuit Et Brouillard (Night And Fog). With Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) and Last Year At Marienbad (1961), he concluded what was perhaps the most efficient, effective, high-quality 5 years of filmmaking ever (think of early 1990s Quentin Tarantino for scope, with the budget of late 1990s Kevin Smith for budget and means).

But he didn't stop there. Providence (1977) clearly influenced David Lynch's finest works, My American Uncle (1980) was nominated for an Oscar other than Best Foreign Language, I Want To Go Home (1989) was a precursor to American Splendor, Smoking/No Smoking (1993) would have been anyone else's best film, and he kept making award-winning films until the end, highlighted by Same Old Song (1997), Not On The Lips (2003) which contributed to revitalizing musicals, Private Fears In Public Places (2006), and Wild Grass (2009).

I have yet to see You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet (2012) and Life Of Riley (2013), who had just won an award at the Berlin Film Festival a few weeks ago. He died at age 91.

Video Of The Week: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Sometimes, simple is better. So is playing to your strengths, something Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds are experts at.

This song, Higgs Boson Blues, from their terrific (though not as catchy as previous releases) album Push The Sky Away is built around one simple groove, but layered and textured with multiple levels of restraint and taste captured brilliantly by directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, and cinematographer Lol Crawley.

The hirsute men comprising The Bad Seeds (currently Warren Ellis - not the comic book writer - Martin P. Casey, Conway Savage, Thomas Wylder and Jim Sclavunos) are capable of rocking out with the best of them - they are, in fact, among the best of them - but they are just as adept at holding back and letting Nick Cave unroll his storylines where they need to go.

In this case, from Robert Johnson's selling his soul to the Devil (for better guitar skills) through to current-day Geneva, home of CERN (The European Organization for Nuclear Research) where the so-called ''God-particle'' (Higgs-Boson) was discovered, he weaves a cautionary tale that the only certainty we have about the future is death, and we will get there anyhow, no matter the path taken, and that everything in between is at best a discovery, at worst trivial (death of a pop icon, hereby represented by Miley Cyrus, pre-VMAs/naked meltdown, ironically), and the middle just tragic (the fatal shooting of Martin Luther King at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis).

All told through a golden voice meant to lure nubile young females into dark places.

Chris Brown's Punk Fail

Chris Brown decided to be cool and dress up as a street punk, sporting a leather jacket with the markings of seminal bands he's never heard of, such as Corrosion Of Conformity, Suicidal Tendencies, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles (D.R.I.), Cro-Mags, The Exploited and the like:

Instead, the wife-beating R&B star ended up looking like a brat, which led to Municipal Waste posting a diss on their Twitter page...

R.I.P. Whitney Houston

Black History Month is being tough on the American music community. First Don Cornelius, now Whitney Houston... Prince, Hammer and Will Smith had better keep a low profile.

There's a fitting tribute on HelloGiggles.

See her last performance here.

So I've Always Liked Strong Women To Match My Own Character

As a kid, I watched a lot of TV: G.I. Joe, Transformers, He-Man, Thundercats, M.A.S.K., Go-Bots (a cheap Transformers knock-off), Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends, Goldorak, Astro Boy, Albator, Mazinger Z (the poor man's Goldorak), Voltron... lots of guys with big muscles and cars that turned into shit, and things that turned into giant communist (all the heroes in the same character) robots. And an anarchist pirate.

And, for a short while... She-Ra. I'd add ''in my defense, I was only watching it in case He-Man made one of his many cameos'', but even I'm not sure if that would make me admit I'm more or less manly. But the truth hurts, that idiom stays real.

In any event, I always like when pop culture catches up to She-Ra, proving I wasn't the only one who liked watching re-hashed stories involving He-Man's cuter little cousin - with smaller boobs.

As a matter of fact, someone on HelloGiggles - Zooey Deschanel's own blogosphere that she shares with her friends - made a list of 5 things they learned from She-Ra...

Video Of The (Past) Week: P!nk

It seems most of the popular songs these days are about drinking and partying... where is our youth headed?

William Burroughs and Charles Bukowski had it right: drinking isn't for partying, it's to drown your pain in tears and regretful sex with someone you wouldn't talk to in the daylight...

But among the party/drink songs, one stands a bit above the crop of fucking Ke$has and Rihannas - and that's P!nk, because her videos have humour, self-deprecation, and references to Pop Culture - it even starts with a tribute to a WWII poster, for crying out loud!

So, yeah. P!nk's my Video Of The Week:




As for me, winter's pretty much upon us, so, yeah, I'm drinking. To warm up.

Video Of The Week: Laura Branigan

Although many people know her mainly for 1982's Gloria, a cover of an Italian song by Umberto Tozzi (not the Patti Smith song) whose 36-week reign on the charts made it part of all best-of compilations for both 1982 and 1983, I strongly prefer Laura Branigan's Self Control, her 1984 smash.

She was also featured on the soundtracks of both Flashdance and Ghostbusters, sealing her fate as one of the 1980s' most popular solo artists, alongside Samantha Fox, Madonna, Prince and Michael Jackson. The 1990s, however, weren't kind to her, starting with her version of the song Unison, released the same year by Céline Dion as her English-language debut - guess who got more media exposure with it?

Branigan died in her home in 2004, the result of an untreated brain aneurysm.

What  I like about this song, perhaps even more than the fact that it's beyond catchy is its construction - take, for instance, the ''oh, oh, oh'' part, at first a bridge onto itself in the song, then incorporated into the backing part of the chorus, and perhaps the song's most memorable part to boot.

A Sad Day...

Video Of The Week: Haircut 100

Hey - it's one of those weeks, where anything that can make you smile, giggle or just laugh out loud is more than welcome. So with that in mind, for this week's Video, I went back to the early 1980s - a bottomless pit of the cheesiest music - to find British New Wave band Haircut 100 and one of their ''hit songs'' from their first album, Pelican West. The song is Love Plus One.

In this video, you will witness an old guy who looks like he's trying to either capture King Kong or start himself a Jurassic Park, Tarzan, cannibals, a shy frontman (weird, since he left to band to pursue a solo career between their first record and its follow-up), the happiest drummer on the planet, and a bass player who proves white men can't dance.

As far as clichés about Africa go, this one scores on many, many fronts. Not many of you will be able to tolerate this all the way through - you have been forewarned.

R.I.P. Greg Giraldo

What started as rumours became official, Wednesday night, as the death of comedian Greg Giraldo was announced, most likely from accidental prescription drug overdose.

First, as is now customary, TMZ announced it, then the rest of the media followed suit. I've had a busy week of barely sleeping and being out in the real world, so I wasn't online for most of the hours when the sun is shining, so I learned it from Jon Stewart's brief but heartfelt tribute at the end of his Daily Show.

Giraldo was a sure-shot: give him any slot (headliner, opener), any tribune (stand-up show, festival, TV show, roast) - and he will always get a laugh out of the audience. His comedic style was post-90s: sarcastic, witty, bound with almost as many cultural references as Dennis Miller but without the retarded politics forcing their way in the jokes and making them less funny.

To call him an insult comic would be right, I guess, but only describes maybe 20% of his comedic persona. The fact that he could retort in half a second's time to anyone else's comments in any setting using pop culture references if they were to be understood but without resorting to them for an audience for whom it would go unnoticed made him a good judge for such TV shows as Last Comic Standing.

Twice married, he leaves 3 children behind. He also used to be a lawyer - he graduated from Harvard Law. Which probably explains his natural ability for turn-on-a-dime comedy. He would have been 45 this December. He will be missed.

R.I.P. Green Room

On Sunday, The Green Room, part of the Mile End Cultural Centre in Montréal, caught fire because of en electrical problem, i.e. ''an electrical short of an extension cord'', according to my friend and venue manager, Dom Castelli.

It had taken me years to get to play there (mostly because of their high price to rent the venue), but it was one of the fine-sounding showrooms on St-Laurent.

Bummer.

Video Of The Week: Lene Alexandra

Here's a one-hit wonder from Europe (the continent, not the band), circa 2007: Lene Alexandra's ''My Boobs Are OK''.

The Norwegian singer and model first got the idea for the song, allegedly, when Alexandra was playing soccer; she hit one of her breasts, and after a few days someone asked her in Norwegian: "Is your boob okay?", to which she answered back, in English: "Yes, my boobs are okay".

The rest, as they say, is European pop culture history: #5 in Norway and Finland, #12 in Denmark, #20 in Sweden and cracking the top-100 in the Netherlands.

Not all Eurotrash is bad - just think of the Vengaboys!

And enjoy this harmless fun:

Video Of The Week: Forest For The Trees

This was originally intended to be my Video Of Last Week, since it's a song I sang at a benefit show on the 21st, but Desert Owls released their video, and I had to bump this one.

Forest For The Trees, essentially, is Karl Stephenson, the man who co-wrote Beck's ''Loser'' and co-produced his ''Mellow Gold'' record. He recorded his own album with the royalties from the Beck song and record, and put himself in an institution upon its release.

The whole record is great, look for it.