boy bands in space: the sci-fi obsession

Backstreet Boys - Larger than Life (1999) and g.o.d - Observation (2000)
(Note: Youtube doesn't have the music video for Larger Than Life; wonder why?)
What was up with the sci-fi theme? Was it an overgrown post-obsession from the 80s in which the world was fascinated with galaxy adventure and universe expansion discovery? Or was it just the ideal staple for all things laughable, crazy, and unexplainable?

Take Korean boy band, g.o.d's video (acronym for Groove Over Dose) for Observation, which is definitely a low-cost production. It starts with all of the boys hopping and bopping in space with a mission to take down some anonymous villain who may or may not be after a beautiful anonymous woman. They pop into the Earth's ozone and hop and bop around to save beautiful anonymous woman (includes a great mannequin scene that reminded me of N'SYNC in It's Gotta Be Me...) After some stalking and obtuse spying, the boys discover that the anonymous villain was just a crossdresser! Oh my! Devastated, the boys return to their spaceship, which promptly runs into Santa Claus and his host of reindeers and explodes, leaving their wiggly bodies floating in the wide expanse.

Larger than Life in comparison, was more of a high-cost production with all of the insanely intricate yet ugly robot suits, huge spaceship model, detailed tech gadgets imitating an early protocol of Tony Spark's work interface, and hover boards. Everybody in the group starts out in their little sleep pods and then float around in their own sphere (Ken in the control pod, Nick with his army of dancing robots, Brian playing racquet ball with a virtual person on the hover board, AJ in a dark room connected to pipes, and Howie, the only one not in a spacesuit of some sort) until the dance ensemble. In which AJ rocks out the tiniest midriff cut-off. Then Kevin is fighting off missiles that is coming from a woman invader but all are successfully avoided and the boys all return to their sleep pods.

It's not about the possibility of comprehension and belief in any of these videos--only and purely all-out crazy fun shenanigans, super catchy music, great funky dance moves, and the excuse to 'be' in the wide expanse of the universe, the unknown frontier, the unmarked territory, doing whatever you want with hardly any consequences. Unless you happen to run into Santa Claus that is. :)

If anybody has any other space/sci-fi music video with another boy or girl band, please let me know. Britney Spears not including.

"Go Away" Live Performance (2010): must be great to land this gig

2NE1 - Go Away, Live on SBS Popular Music, 9/12/2010

I couldn't give a rat's end tail about this song (yeah I know, artistic merit at zero) and whether or not it is a celebration of the triumph of the free female over the oppressive male or just about having a whole lot of head-banging fun. Because this is what the live performance of this song says to me exactly: a giant part rave on stage. It must be grand to be a back up dancer on this gig: basically being part of an awesome choreography of slow-mo and jumping up and down like a little kid. Not to mention, the whole effect altogether looks pretty awesome!

OK Go's 'Last Leaf' [MV] by Geoff McFetridge

When I saw this video on Kitsune Noir, the first thought that came to my head bounced back to the theme of my experimental cinema course: the exploration of film and landscape. For OK Go, director Geoff McFetridge explores moving images on hundreds of toasts to create an amazing stop-motion video. I love the fact that he utilized bread as a canvas for moving images as well as replacing the eye of the camera to the pieces of bread instead.

"Comforting Sounds" (2003): To the Outer Realm

When I first sat down to listen to Danish band, Mew's, "Comforting Sounds" (as recommended by the brilliant brilliantinemortality!), I was situated at a 27 inch IMac with huge Sony headphones plastered to my head at my university's ever-so providing media labs before class. It was one of the best musical experiences I have had for a while, ever since rediscovering the famed Ziggy Stardust album of our ever sparkly companion, David Bowie.

The last track, as helpfully described to be a 'magnum opus', of Frengers follows a similar structure as Death Cab's "Transatlanticism" but in an even further ethereal motion and emotive expanse. Its deceiving simplicity takes one from physical and corporeal, sending the mind to the fringes of another reality, otherworldly universe of dreams and the intangible. There is something about this track that for me, automatically connects to the image of laying in sprawling meadows under a deep, deep midnight blue sky with stars that never seem to fade. In regards to orchestration, the accompaniment of its slow, swelling contrast to the drums and guitars but still making a delightful duet with the vocals of Jonas Bjerre, occupies an intriguing space within the song; it plays with the psychological and affects the interior in such a way that you just don't want the last few minutes to ever end. To me, there is something eerily beautiful about it all; creepy dolls and animals in the background and all.

Mew performing "Comforting Sounds" live in Copenhagen, 2005:

thirty days of sharing: day sixteen

16. a song that makes you cry (or nearly)


"Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's Turandot, sung by Luciano Pavarotti

I've listened to Nessun Dorma countless times, ever since I was seven on a road trip with my parents up to Vancouver to the time I went to Opera in the Park the year Pavarotti died just days before and teared up none so elegantly when they broadcast this song across the field. Every time, this very performance makes me goosebump over; Zubin Mehta orchestrating the Orchestra from the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma (which I have the great honour of listening to twice this past year), accompany Pavarotti's truly unique tenor tones. There's never a time when I'm listening to this recording and not wish I was there to see him perform this. The video above cuts out at the end but you can still here the audience clap before he ends and then erupt after the music ends....it's really quite something.

thirty days of sharing: day one

01. your favourite song

The Murmaids - Popsicles and Icicles
I had to change my favourite song.

Lizst's Piano Sonata in B Minor moves me to tears; Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.2 leaves me in an incomparably nostalgic mood; and Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Minor encapsulates an epic-ness that can only be associated to the grandness of Russia. But The Murmaids' Popsicles and Icicles holds a place special in my heart. I first heard it on Kitsune Noir's Swedish Fish mixtape and initially, there was nothing going for the song except for a lovely, summer-esque tune that floated lightly out from my speakers. A few months ago, while listening to the entirety of it all, I decided to send it to Jon, based off the fact that at that particular time, I really liked the wholesome feel of it all.

Then recently, while talking to Jon, I re-listened to it and started paying particular attention to Popsicles and Icicles. He informed me that another track on Swedish Fish (Aphex Twin, 'Avril 14') held unspeakable importance to him; so much in fact that he can't just listen to it regularly because of several reasons. I smiled to myself and said to him, well, Popsicles and Icicles has just took on another meaning for me; sentimental yes but nevertheless, quaintly special. At that moment, Swedish Fish became our mix.

I'm going to try to do thirty days of sharing but when it's asked of your favorite _______, it's going to be pretty failtastic most of the time.