Bitter Fingers
A blog about popular song by Mark Higgins.
“David Austin, the biggest star of 1984″
9 Jan 2012There are a number of things about this video that are excellent. Let’s go through them, together, like we used to. Like a family.
- This video is taken from Cheggers Plays Pops. Never mind sodding Top Of The Pops, when are we going to get a complete re-run of all the tapes of that? Just think of the gold lying in wait.
- George Michael is referred to as “George from Wham!”, something that while entirely accurate sounds wonderfully basic today.
- “With Turn To Gold, please welcome Mr. David Austin, the biggest star of 1984″
- THE BIGGEST STAR OF 1984.
- CLAP CLAP. CLAP CLAP. CLAP, CLAP CLAP CLAP HEY.
- That shirt
- That HAIR
- Backing vocals by “George from Wham!”
- That sax solo
- “What’s your pleasure / Can you find the treasure?”
500% brilliant.
Incidentally, this track is available on the following commerical releases:
Greatest Hits Of The ’80s CD6
Non Stop Summer Party CD4
Original Best Of Sunshine CD2
GET ONE OF THEM BOUGHT
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- Tags: David Austin, George Michael, Wham!
The top five songs by Wham!
In: Music Video| Top Five
6 Jan 2012In a move that was as inevitable as it is unnecessary, I’ve decided that it’s about time I did a “blog post” featuring my five favourite songs by the popular beat combo that was Wham! and you can read it by running your eyeline across this sentence and all subsequent ones.
The thing about Wham! right, is that aside from knocking out more chartbangers than anyone could conceivably know what do with, was that they also made excellent use of an exclamation mark.
I suppose this is unrelated but if we had to rank bands that use exclamation marks it would probably go:
1. Wham!
2. Oh My!
3. Panic! At The Disco
4. Godspeed You! Black Emperor
5. !!!
Might do a top five of those at some point. Anyway here’s some massive songs by Wham! that I’ve put in an arbitrary list, seeing as they’re all 500% excellent.
5. Bad Boys
Just wrap your ears around the slap bass on this. Somewhere, probably in the eighties, Mark King was preparing a lawsuit with a well-callused thumb.
Imagine having a boogie down your local leisure centre/working men’s club to this rad jam. Go on, imagine it.
4. I’m Your Man
“If you’re going to do it right, right, do it with me” would look good as anyone’s epitaph. (Some excellent tambourine action from George in this one, as well.)
3. Young Guns (Go For It!)
The first (but by no means least) example of a well parenthesed song title from the boys from Wham! there. Even being called a sucker in the second word of the song (and then again in the ninth word) can’t offend the listener such is the wonder that is YG(GFI!) as literally no one has ever called it.
Also, it sounds a bit like Rapture by Blondie, v. good, would listen again.
2. Freedom
There are a number of big questions one can ask oneself these days regarding entropy, how long after going out of date it’s okay to drink UHT milk and who you ring to get more recycling bags at the council. None of these come anywhere close to the question of which is better – Freedom by Wham! or Freedom ‘90 by George Michael.
Well obviously it’s Freedom but some people just won’t be told. POP TRIVIA: the video for Freedom ‘90 was directed by popular film director David Fincher, but as far as I can tell he didn’t decapitate Gwyneth Paltrow for that one.
1. Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do?)
Hey everybody, take a look at me. I’ve got street credibility. And so does this song. There aren’t many chirpier songs about going on the dole, and there certainly aren’t any better. I wrote in slightly more detail about this track in that blog I did about this track a while ago, so you can go read that if, for some reason, you are in need of more reasons why it’s one of the best songs in the history of the universe.
Those were the top five songs by Wham! Please feel free to go about your business as you were.
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- Tags: Wham!
Azealia Banks – 212
In: Music Video| New Music
5 Jan 2012In news that may well shock you, I was slightly off the pace when it came to Azealia Banks (I think I was listening to some Human League b-sides), but after hearing a heavily – and I mean heavily – edited version of 212 on the wireless yesterday it has infected my head.
She’s come third in the annual BBC Sound of 2012 poll, and in doing so joins such luminaries as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Klaxons and Florence And The Machine. Out of those artists I think we can confidently put Banks down as the rudest of the lot.
If you’re one for clean language, this track is probably not for you. If, however you’re one for excellent beats and the potential for even more excellent animated GIFs –
– then you’re in luck.
There’s been a number of comparisons to Nicki Minaj – preseumably because they’ve both got sweary mouths and do some rap – but this is about eighty times better than anything Minaj has put out, that verse on Monster aside. It’s the most exciting pop track I”ve heard in a good while and if I wasn’t listening to whatever Phil Oakey decided was the best thing to back Keep Feeling Fascination, it would have been very high on my Quite Good Songs Of The Year show.
In short: rude, excellent, hyped, donks all over the shop.
YES I KNOW I SHOULD HAVE PUT THIS UP IN 2011 but I had some very important Christmas dinner to be eating/wine to be drinking/merry making to be making merrily. And it’s here now so don’t go getting shirty with me – there are more rad jams in here than any one person can really handle, so go easy with it.
Ignoring the fact that it’s 2012, here are what I consider to be some of the very best Quite Good Songs of 2011 in an easy to digest package (when I say digest I mean listen, just go with me on this). 2011 had hundreds of songs I enjoyed, so I’ve put them through the sieve and reduced them down into a delicious reduction of music. And now you can place it tenderly in your lugholes, if that’s not mixing metaphors to a frankly upsetting level.
GIVE IT A GO
LO, THESE ARE THE SONGS OF WHICH I SPEAK
1. The Death Set – We Are Going Anywhere Man
2. Marina & The Diamonds – Radioactive
3. Pete & The Pirates – United
4. SBTRKT – Pharoahs
5. The Sound Of Arrows – Into The Clouds
6. Summer Camp – Better Off Without You
7. Foster The People – Call It What You Want
8. Alice Gold – Orbiter
9. British Sea Power – Who’s In Control?
10. Kreayshawn – Bumpin’ Bumpin’
11. Big Black Delta – Huggin’ & Kissin’
12. AlunaGeorge – Analyser
13. Metronomy – The Bay
14. Joe Goddard featuring Valentina – Gabriel
15. M83 – Midnight City
16. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – Garden
17. Friendly Fires – Live Those Days Tonight
Lovely stuff and another fun time at the Wilton Way Cafe – they’re ‘pon the Twitter, don’t you know. And London Fields Radio have a fancy new website as well! It’s all going off, clearly.
More Bitter Fingers radio musings to come in 2012 – watch this and all subsequent spaces.
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- Tags: Alice Gold, AlunaGeorge, Big Black Delta, British Sea Power, Foster The People, friendly fires, Joe Goddard, Kreayshawn, London Fields Radio, M83, Marina & The Diamonds, Metronomy, Pete & The Pirates, SBTRKT, Summer Camp, The Death Set, The Sound Of Arrows, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Valentina, Wilton Way Café
I CAN’T STOP LISTENING TO SELENA GOMEZ
In: Music Video
31 Dec 2011It’s a bit of a shame that I didn’t discover this song until it appeared on every other bugger’s Best Of The Year list, but now I’ve found it’s all gone a bit mental as per my midi hifi. I can’t stop listening to the bloody thing.
CONGRATUWELLDONE, SEL
The top five music videos where they’re driving a car, for some reason
In: Uncategorized
10 Dec 2011Making a pop video! It’s a tricky old business. Not only have you got to look like you’re having a good time, or a thoroughly rotten time, or displaying some sort of emotion at any rate, but you also have to deal with “directors” and “producers” who seem to think that aside from miming your latest ditty you should also do some entertaining things as well.
For some reason, this often seems to take the format of pretending to drive a car. This is despite the fact that we know they’re not driving a car – they’re in a studio, after all, and there’s very little room for manoeuvring a dirty great automobile in those places. And yet, this baffling fake driving is a staple of promo shoots across the world.
Here, for some reason that I’ve yet to justify to myself, are the top five music videos where they’re driving a car.
5. Yelle – Je Veux Te Voir
In a video that doesn’t make a tremendous amount of sense anyway, this is the least of our worries but it makes the list based on the sheer gall of the director just to put Yelle and her chums into a large yellow vehicle and have them move about a bit. Astonishing.
You didn’t get any of that nonsense in the original (and wonderfully cheap) video.
4. Missy Elliott – Get Ur Freak On
Admittedly the car-based shenanigans don’t occur until the end of the video (and technically for another song), but when they do it’s a mindblower. Once again, it’s a yellow type large car. There must be a deal going somewhere.
At least they made it look like it was moving in this one, but I don’t see any seatbelts and that’s not the sort of message you should be sending to the youth of today really. Or getting your freak on, really. They’re both evils of modern society.
3. Stereophonics – Dakota
Presumably pitched to Kelly Jones on the basis that he wouldn’t look as short if he was sat down.
2. Queens Of The Stone Age – Go With The Flow
Now we’re getting somewhere. Whilst it’s an animated car, at least they’re doing something other than Travel Scrabble while they’re on it. Using the steering wheel as a drum kit is a novel if slightly dangerous innovation, as well.
1. The Cardigans – My Favourite Game
A 500% amazing pop song.
Not only is the car ACTUALLY MOVING, but Nina Persson is showing a shocking lack of respect for the Highway Code by placing a large rock on the accelerator (which will affect the warranty, I might add). Also, her tattoo is coming off. She might want to have that looked at.
NOTE TO POPSTARS: UNLESS YOU ARE THE CARDIGANS, STOP DRIVING CARS IN YOUR VIDEOS
We Show Up On Radar is the work of your man Andrew Wright, who in addition to being a stand up type of gentleman is also an excellent musician. When he’s not having tremendous fun on his own, you can also find him making noise in the pop band Swimming of whom I’m rather fond.
I’ll Be A Ghost is the sort of woozy acousti-pop so beloved of me when I’m either 1. just waking up and don’t understand the world or 2. a bit merry and understand the world slightly too well or 3. any time, really. The video is quite lovely as well – a combination of animation and beautifully shot bits involving woods, chaps in animal masks and a malevolent wasp. About all you need, really.
In a bid to give this website some sort of journalistic integrity, I decided to send Andrew some questions by email which he was then obliged to answer. I believe in the trade it’s known as “an interview”.
HERE ARE THOSE QUESTIONS AND SUBSEQUENT ANSWERS
Who are you and what sort of game are you trying to play?
I’m We Show Up On Radar. I’m not precisely sure if I’m playing a game, I suppose I’ll find out at the end of the next level.
This is a nice song. What is it about?
The song is about death, but it’s about the death of all the things that make you unhappy, whatever those things may be. It’s a positive death song! Can I have a “hallelujah”?
Yes (in moderation) – Ed
Where can we find out about other nice songs you might have written?
I’ve released a few bits and bobs through a label called Hello Thor, they’re wonderful people, you can see everything i’ve released at www.hellothor.com. My own website is www.wsuor.com. I’m releasing an album in the new year so it’s mega exciting times at the moment.
I’ve heard you’re in another pop band called Swimming who I quite like. What are that lot up to?
Yep yep, I’m in a band called Swimming, how did you know that? Have you been stalking me? Flippin’ pervert. Did you take a picture of me when I was on the toilet last wednesday night? Somebody did.
The video for this song is rather enjoyable. Did you enjoy making it?
We had a blast making the film, it was all shot in one very long day with the help of some very good friends. We’re all really pleased with it but I can’t help thinking that maybe if we’d have squeezed in a baby panda sneezing we’d have really been onto something.
Has this been upsetting for you?
This whole episode has been hugely upsetting, I think things started well between us but we’ve both said things we regret and now, I fear, it’s too late to say I’m sorry.
What is delicious?
Somewhere between a parsnip and lemon meringue.
Some excellent (and frankly quite concerning) answers there. He’s not wrong about the meringue, though.
Find out more about We Show Up On Radar at their actual website. Some of it at time of press is a delightful shade of lime green.
Well it bears repeating, at any rate.
Frankly their album Voyage is one of the better ones of the year, containing as it does synth-driven pop jams, of which Wonders (the video you can and should watch above) is just one.
ALL VERY SATISFACTORY
Fred Falke – Aurora
In: New Music
14 Nov 2011If you’re the sort of person who likes the odd massive tune or two, Fred Falke is a chap that’s almost certainly on your radar. I featured his really rather outstanding remix of Teenage Bad Girl’s latest jam X Girl on the most recent edition of Bitter Fingers Radio, he’s done some top stuff under the Vulture Music label with Alan Braxe and is generally a stand up gentleman.
What’s nice is that Fred’s got a new album out, which is staggeringly his first album as a solo artist. Part IV is literally filled with the sort of euphoric French electro tunes so beloved by me and other people with excellent taste.
The track what I have picked out for you to stick in your ears today is Aurora, which sets it’s stall out nice and early by going underwater about thirty seconds in. All the best songs should go underwater, in my opinion. If they don’t come out that’s the test of whether it’s good or not. I think they tried it on witches once.
Anyway, once it gets going – and get going it does – it’s rammed with hands in the air moments that it’s impossible not to smile while listening to. Given that it’s eight minutes long, you’re not half getting your money’s worth as well.
Highly recommended – you can buy the album now on Beatport (and you will, if you know what’s good for you). Well done that Fred.
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- Tags: Fred Falke
Jessica 6 – Prisoner Of Love
In: Music Video| New Music
26 Oct 2011Now here’s a jam that’s been kicking about a while – when I was working on the very lovely Lauren Laverne show at 6 Music back in May we gave it away as a lovely free download. Fortunately it’s as lovely now as it was then.
Things start well with a particularly healthy donk, setting the way for an extremely danceable five minutes. Things get even better when Antony Hegarty (of Antony and the Johnsons) pops up for son guest vocals – for a man with such a soulful and yet often underutilised voice, he blends nicely with the disco type leanings Jessica and her 6 are throwing forward. It is extremely enjoyable.
Video’s a load of old bobbins, mind.
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- Tags: Antony Hegarty, Jessica 6
Welcome to Bitter Fingers - a blog about popular song. Written by the hand of Mark Higgins, it serves up the very finest in new music, radio shows, spurious comment and #1 jams.
- Peter: My favourite is M.A.G.I.C. by The Sound of Arrow. Makes feel like a child again. http://www.youtube. [...]
- Grace: What about Nick Drake?? [...]
- Gareth: In fact there's so much magic involved I got the title a bit wrong. [...]
- Gareth: It's a Kind of Magic is the best song about magic. [...]
- The Internet Garbage: I like this! It's really good - definitely a "Saturday morning jam" as you say. And the video is fun [...]
- “David Austin, the biggest star of 1984″
- The top five songs by Wham!
- Azealia Banks – 212
- Bitter Fingers Radio Volume 18: Quite Good Songs Of The Year
- I CAN’T STOP LISTENING TO SELENA GOMEZ
- The top five music videos where they’re driving a car, for some reason
- I rather like We Show Up On Radar and here’s a song of his
- I’ve mentioned that I quite like The Sound Of Arrows before right
- Fred Falke – Aurora
- Jessica 6 – Prisoner Of Love
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