The art-pop band 10cc started off as rock and roll parodists in the early 70s, goofing on the high drama of doo-wop with clever lyrics and genuinely great melodies, but the band that would become most famous for “I’m Not In Love” also did their fair share of social commentary. This one came out in 1974, but actually sounded more relevant ten years later, or, in fact (sadly) 36 years later. Although instead of needing a yen to make a mark, you might be better off with a yuan for now. “Oh, Howard Hughes… did your money make you better?”
Ah, late night tweeting at its best. Sometimes, you have to be up late to catch all the good stuff.
On Thursday evening, Mr. West tweeted out a link to the remix to his latest single, Power. It was being sent around earlier in the day, but this was the official tweet.
Kanye West: OFFICIAL POWER REMIX http://www.kanyeuniversecity.com/blog/
That link is fine and dandy, but use this one instead. It’s a bit more direct.
It’s available to check out or download for free. Get it before it’s gone.
Oh yeah. Yello. If you’ve heard of Yello at all, those are the first words that will pop into your head: Oo-oo-oo-ooh yeah. And then: Chick. Chicka-chickaaah. But the signature hit by the Zurich, Switzerland-based studio duo of Boris Blank and Dieter Meier – the one you hear as Ferris Bueller frantically scrambles to get home to bed before either of his parents or the school principal realize he was ever gone – was really sort of the beginning of the end of Yello’s awesomeness. They’d put out three ridiculously inventive electronic dance records, often satirizing the culture of consumption and celebrity with both the oversold charm and the unabashed cynicism of an election year politician, but with later records like One Second (1986), Flag (1988), and Zebra (1991), their music started to compliment the culture of excess more than critique it, sort of internalizing the expensive emptiness they had always represented the opposite of.
No longer satire, Yello’s music became the soundtrack – literally – for late 80s trash culture, showing up in movies like She Devil (the Rosanne Barr vs. Meryl Streep divorce-revenge dark comedy, which I actually love), Nuns on the Run, and – oh gawd, no – The Adventures of Ford Fairlane. No question their later records are stylish and they sound really good (I actually like Flag a lot), but they’re missing a lot of the impish fun of their early singles, like this one from their third full-length You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess: “I Love You”. (I know.)