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  • Awesong Song Alert! Four Year Strong “Tonight We Feel Alive (On a Saturday)”

    The triumphant (or rather triumphalist) return of the tri-cornered hat may go down as the most dubious – certainly the most strident – fashion (err- political?) trend of 2010. But who knew it would trickle down to the unwashed masses of New England’s indie punk scenes so quickly. Already this year, we’ve seen Titus Andronicus go all Revolutionary (while quoting pre-Presidential Abraham Lincoln) with their video for “A More Perfect Union”. Now, from Worcester, Massachusetts, we have the band Four Year Strong paying earnest tribute to the soldiers of the American Revolution in their video for “Tonight We Feel Alive (On a Saturday)”.

    It’s a near-perfect video for both the song and the band in that the beautifully shot battle scenes match the song’s urgency, while the story highlights and is strengthened by the vocal interplay between the group’s three vocalists. It’s one of those rare feats where the video and the song are each better because of the other. It’s also a nice showcase for the band’s bounty of facial hair (including singer Dan O’Connor’s “expressive eyebrows”).

    You get a sense from the video that the band is pretty politically engaged, but at the same time, it’s pretty impossible to discern where there political sympathies lie; and the truth is the video itself isn’t at all political. It’s just a good, simply told story set to a song that, however confrontational in tempo and delivery, is maddeningly vague. My favorite couplet:

    You asked, What would I stand for?
    The truth is: I STAND FOR THIS!

    I have to say, that hits pretty close to home in a state (Wisconsin) that just un-elected one of the country’s most diligent, principled Senators in favor of a self-funded cypher. Check out the video:

    A couple weeks ago, the band, who outed themselves as unabashed 90s nostalgists with their 2009 covers album Explains It All, posted a new, “pop-up” version of the video. Enjoy:

  • Old Faces, New Music: The Return of Ace of Base and Jenny Berggren Gone Solo

    Ace of Base ”All For You”
    There are college freshmen right now who have no idea that all that she wants is another baby; who don’t know what it’s like to see the sign and have it open up their eyes; who don’t know that it’s a beautiful life – oh – oh oh oh. But it’s also true that whether they’ve heard of Ace of Base or not, anyone who’s heard Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro” has heard what Ace of Base were all about – lightly Latinized, boldly synthesized, Eurodisco singalongs that sound fantastic on both the radio and the dance floor. Songs that are easy to love even though we know that each spin we give them reduces our IQ by at least a quarter of a point. To hear “Alejandro” dominate the airwaves this summer, it certainly seemed like the right time for an Ace of Base reunion, or at least an Ace of Base reconstitution.

    It’s been more than a decade since Ace of Base have had a hit song here in the U.S. and 8 years since the Swedish pop quartet formed around songwriter-producers Ulf “Buddha” Ekberg and Jonas “Joker” Berggren released their last studio album. 2002’s Da Capo, recorded as a trio, following the departure of Malin Berggren, wasn’t released here. Since then, the other original vocalist Jenny Berggren also left the group to pursue a solo career, while Ekberg served as the head judge for Sweden’s Idol 2009 competition and “Joker” Berggren… got really fat. Recruiting Idol 2009 finalist Clara Hagman and Julia Williamson to fill the girl’s roles in the group, Ekberg and Berggren re-convened as Ace of Base in the studio and released the group’s fifth studio album The Golden Ratio internationally this past summer (no U.S. release is planned). Here’s the album’s lead single, “All For You”, which, y’know, sounds like a possible Lady Gaga song.

    Ace of Base “All For You”

    Last month, Jenny Berggren released her debut solo album My Story. Here’s that album’s much more forward-looking lead single “Here I Am”.

    Jenny Berggren “Here I Am”

  • First Look: OneRepublic’s “Good Life”

    OneRepublic ”The Good Life”
    OneRepublic have released a video for the fourth single from their sophomore album Waking Up. The song’s called “Good Life”, and like the band’s previous singles, it’s been slightly remixed from the album version, giving lead singer Ryan Tedder a little more room to ad lib on the chorus, and punching up the great, live-drum rhythm track. As its title would suggest, it’s a strummy celebration of life as a newly minted jet-setter. But as this ingratiatingly wide-eyed song catalogs the band’s more glamorous travels (including a shout-out to their home state of Colorado), the video finds them with all feet on the ground, singing (and whistling) their nice little song in a lovely, simple country setting. Like the band’s previous singles “Secrets” (which turns up in the trailer for the new movie Love & Other Drugs) and “Marchin’ On” (which was used in ads for the Lifetime TV series Army Wives), I expect that “Good Life” will be around for awhile, not so much as a radio staple, but one of those sleeper pop hits that finds its audience through persistent licensing.

    OneRepublic “Good Life”

    OneRepublic – Good Life (Official Music Video)
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