After Weezer covered Toto's Rosanna (which may or may not have been inspired by Rosanna Arquette) the latter took up the challenge on their recent 40th anniversary tour and covered Hash Pipe (no, really). One thing, of course, leads to another and so Rivers Cuomo and chums have returned serve with a take on Toto's 1982 hit Africa, roping in Weird Al for the fun of it. Where will this madness end? Who knows, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it becomes a trend, perhaps then we''ll see QOTSA take on Rush's Tom Sawyer or Kylie singing Motörhead.
Showing posts with label Internet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Internet. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Friday, February 23, 2007
The Sweater & MuchMusic on late night TV
A long time ago, way before the internet had us in its grip, back when mobile phones were the size of house bricks, my local ITV franchise didn't really know what to do with its overnight strand of programming. It toyed with viewer's votes for dodgy b-movies, re-ran strange one-shot series from the sixties about ghostly detectives or indestructible super police-type people, then wrapped up before breakfast with Casey Kasem telling us what was on at the cinema across the pond.
In-between this random selection of shows some bright spark had decided to crowbar in a 60 minute music show. Of course, being late night tv and having a near non-existent budget they couldn't afford anything expensive. But they could afford something Canadian.
An off the shelf package of promos and interviews from MuchMusic (sort of like MTV, but Canadian) was snapped up. From an editing suite in Toronto came a weekly snapshot of the Canadian music scene ideal for the international market. Just what your average music geek insomniac could ask for. The show was full of bands and artists I'd never heard of and I was frankly surprised to discover that there was more to Canadian music than Bryan Adams or, well, one of his mates.
As much fun as it was staying up until silly AM though I soon decided to tape the programme, spending hungover Sunday mornings watching an odd and often inconsistent mix of artists. More often than not the content was nothing to write home about (there was a reason the show was on at three in the morning) but, once in awhile, an artist would pop up that I'd take notice of.
One such act was a bunch of wacky dudes called Barenaked Ladies (you may have heard of them, they had a hit or two awhile back), another was Meryn Cadell (who no-one seems to have heard of). She produced a bizarre yet catchy tribute to boy's sweaters, spoken word over a rolling beat, which had a fittingly bizarre and memorable video.
And the point of this nostalgic interlude? The album featuring the song is being re-released (after being out of print for ages). I know this because, it being a Friday, I spent the afternoon pootling around the interweb like I usually do and stumbled across the video for The Sweater on YouTube:
In-between this random selection of shows some bright spark had decided to crowbar in a 60 minute music show. Of course, being late night tv and having a near non-existent budget they couldn't afford anything expensive. But they could afford something Canadian.
An off the shelf package of promos and interviews from MuchMusic (sort of like MTV, but Canadian) was snapped up. From an editing suite in Toronto came a weekly snapshot of the Canadian music scene ideal for the international market. Just what your average music geek insomniac could ask for. The show was full of bands and artists I'd never heard of and I was frankly surprised to discover that there was more to Canadian music than Bryan Adams or, well, one of his mates.
As much fun as it was staying up until silly AM though I soon decided to tape the programme, spending hungover Sunday mornings watching an odd and often inconsistent mix of artists. More often than not the content was nothing to write home about (there was a reason the show was on at three in the morning) but, once in awhile, an artist would pop up that I'd take notice of.
One such act was a bunch of wacky dudes called Barenaked Ladies (you may have heard of them, they had a hit or two awhile back), another was Meryn Cadell (who no-one seems to have heard of). She produced a bizarre yet catchy tribute to boy's sweaters, spoken word over a rolling beat, which had a fittingly bizarre and memorable video.
And the point of this nostalgic interlude? The album featuring the song is being re-released (after being out of print for ages). I know this because, it being a Friday, I spent the afternoon pootling around the interweb like I usually do and stumbled across the video for The Sweater on YouTube:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)