Tag Archive for Music Video Weekend

Music Video Weekend: Red House Painters, “Have You Forgotten?”

“When we were kids, we hated things our parents did.”

Or this:

“Have you forgotten how to love yourself”

——-

Obviously, I love Youtube. One of the reasons is for the creativity that abounds there, so much from unknown places, ordinary people — not celebrities that we’ve been spoon-fed — who decide, simply, to make something. And then dare to put it out there. Thank God for people like that.

In this case, somebody picks a song, grab a camera, a couple of friends, and works some understated magic.

In our early days as a couple, my wife Lisa and I played this song a lot. The band is the Red House Painters, a group out of San Francisco led by singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek. A few years back, Kozelek started a new band, Sun Kil Moon, largely as a way to revive interest in his music, which had not met much commercial success. In every meaningful way, Sun Kil Moon is an extension of Red House Painters. Their disk, “Ghosts on the Great Highway,” is his great triumph. Highly recommended.

And for my money, Kozelek has one of the best voices in music today — haunting, atmospheric, full of melancholy. I’ve heard that some folks find Kozelek’s work depressing, too sad. I never know what those people are talking about.

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Music Video Weekend: Rosanne Cash, “500 Miles”

“Lord I’m one, Lord I’m two, Lord I’m three, Lord I’m four, Lord I’m five hundred miles away from home.”

When Rosanne Cash was in high school, her father, Johnny, handed her a list of “100 Essential Country Songs.” More than thirty years later, she recorded twelve of those songs for the 2009 album titled, “The List.”

You can read more about it here, where it is also streaming live.

Johnny was right. This is a great song, and Rosanne makes it her own. I think you should own it!

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Music Video Weekend: Ryan Adams, “When the Stars Go Blue”

“Where do you go when you’re lonely? Where do you go when you’re blue?”

I think about music all the time. Always have. Listen to it, read about it, close my eyes and feel it. I hate to say this, but I think I care about music the way Lewis Buzbee cares about books. And yet I’m not too clear on how that relates to this blog. It always feels a little self-indulgent whenever I talk about music and show clips. I think: There’s some reader out there who gets really annoyed whenever I do this.

But I.

Can’t.

Stop.

Myself.

By way of throwing a bone to that angry, hostile reader, I’ve moved “Music Video Friday” to “Music Video Weekend,” because somehow that fits better.

Anyway: I’ve listened to this song a lot over the past month or two. A truly sublime melody, deeply beautiful. For those new to Ryan Adams, please don’t confuse him with Bryan Adams (yuck). He’s done a lot of great work over the years, but I think his recent disk, “Easy Tiger,” would be a good place to start. The track below is from his 2001 disk, “Gold.”

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