5/31/11- Estelle- "American Boy" (featuring Kanye West)

Memorial Day Weekend was a busy weekend for me, as I ran around hit up some awesome parties, and oh yeah. Bought a new car. My friends, of course, decided it was THEIR task to name my car, so, in an effort to make it sound like an old lady, they attempted to name it "Estelle" and tried to get it to stick.

In an effort to prove Estelle isn't an old lady name, let's dig up this black and white video (for effect, not because it's old.) Estelle in 2008 scored a top 10 hit in several countries, including the USA with her song "American Boy."

Enjoy! But you'll have to CLICK HERE to view it, because of Warner Brothers Records' idiotic policy of not letting you embed videos.

5/27/11- Bryan Adams- "Summer of '69"

Today is the unofficial kick off of summer 2011, and mother nature is making it feel like summer in Philly with temps hovering around 90. So let's start summer with a summer song.

Since I already used "Boys of Summer" for the start of baseball season, how about a different classic? Bryan Adams, reliving the Summer of '69?

5/26/11- POP UP VIDEO!

It was announced today that Pop-Up Video is coming back to VH1!

Now, the network barely plays music videos anymore, but bringing back Pop-Ups could be good. As long as they are as good as they were back in the 90s.

To celebrate, we dig up the quintessential Pop-Up video.

Rick Astley.

5/25/11- Josh Joplin Group- "Camera One"

Let's keep our attention focused on getting help and aid to Joplin, Missouri for another day, as they are still searching the rubble in the tornado ravaged city.

Josh Joplin Group has no connection to Joplin, other than the name. Josh Joplin was born outside of Washington DC, and grew up in Lancaster, PA and Columbia, MD. In 2001, via Artemis Records, they released "Useful Music" and spawned a minor hit with "Camera One."

As for the City of Joplin, you can donate blood, cash, food, supplies, and more. The website Help Joplin.com has all the info, including several numbers you can text to donate $10. Please, help Joplin rebuild after the devastation.


Josh Joplin Group - Camera One
Watch Music Videos at www.roxwel.com

5/24/11- NeverShoutNever- "I Love You 5"/Joplin Tornado Relief

I missed posting yesterday, as I've been busy car shopping and apartment shopping, but also, I've been glued to the internet following the news of the massive tornado in Joplin, Missouri. Usually, disasters like this get brief attention from me, but this one is different, because I used to work out there. I spent three years working for a radio cluster that covered Joplin, MO and Pittsburg, KS, and seeing on the news places that I used to shop, used to drive through, and more, it's surreal. Thankfully, everyone I know is accounted for and well, but I have heard stories of people from competing radio stations losing their homes in the tornado. Living in Philly again, I wish there was more I could do to help.

So for today, I've dug up a Joplin artist. NeverShoutNever is a solo project of Christofer Drew Ingle, and can best be described as "Indie Pop." He dropped out of Joplin High School to pursue his music career, and was briefly signed to Warner Brothers Records. The video for his song "I Love You 5" was shot in Joplin.

If you would like to donate to the Joplin Relief, or if you would like to find any information as to how you can help out, head over to Help Joplin.com and all the information you need is right there.

Enjoy "I Love You 5" by Joplin's NeverShoutNever. You'll have to click through to it though, since Warner Brothers Records decided to disable embedding, those jackasses.

CLICK HERE to view the video.

5/20/11- YOU Create the Video.

I've mentioned many times on this blog the band Black Lab. You might remember them from their 1998 Time Ago.

Well, they have a new album out called "Two Strangers," and they are giving YOU the opportunity to make the music video. Seriously. Lead singer Paul Durham posted a video of him lip-syncing to their song "This Ship Goes Down Deep" and has asked fans to make a video with it. Add in whatever you want and make it look cool.

The raw video is below, and click through onto the YouTube page of it, or go to www.blacklabworld.com for the full instructions and details on where you can download his part of the video.

Here's the raw video. And I'll post the finished version when it comes around!

5/19/11- Goo Goo Dolls- "Long Way Down"

Yesterday, a tornado touched down in Philadelphia. Seriously. It was a minor tornado and it caused minimal damage, but still.

In honor of Tornado season raging on across the United States, how about something from the Twister soundtrack?

The Goo Goo Dolls released "A Boy Named Goo" in 1995, and "Long Way Down" was on it. It reached #25 on the Modern Rock Charts, but was top 10 on the Mainstream Rock Charts. What helped was it being used on the soundtrack to Twister.

5/18/11- Third Eye Blind- "Bonfire"

When you write a song called "Bonfire" the music video is pretty much set from the get-go. It's easy, low budget, but still looks good.

That's what Third Eye Blind did with "Bonfire," the third single from 2009's "Ursa Major." Take a giant bonfire, add in an open field, and just for good measure, scantily clad females.

5/17/11- Two Videos, one Symbol...

One of my favorite videos of all time is the video for "Sic Transit Gloria...Glory Fades" by Brand New. It's a simple idea brought to perfection by the very last shot. But I noticed something that looked familiar to me in the video. At the beginning, when singer Jesse Lacey enters the bar, there is a white lamb on the door.

If you've seen the music video for "Ocean Avenue" by Yellowcard, you may have seen that very same lamb on the briefcase Yellowcard singer Ryan Key carries. Is this a coincidence? Is it a symbol that supposed to mean something?

Neither. Director Marc Web directed both music videos, and the white lamb apparently is his calling card.

But if you want it to symbolize something, like say, satan worship, feel free!

Spot the lambs in both videos. "Sic Transit Gloria...Glory Fades" by Brand New and "Ocean Avenue" by Yellowcard.

5/12/11- Ass Ponys-"Little Bastard"

Profanity week rolls on with a classic from 1994, and the movie Empire Records.

Not sure why this post disappeared. It originally was to be posted on 5/12 as part of profanity week

The Ass Ponys formed in 1988 and have released seven albums in their career, but the only song they will be remembered for was 1994's "Little Bastard," which was featured in Empire Recrods and made it to #26 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart.

5/16/11- Manchester Orchestra- "Simple Math"

Big props are going out to Paul Durham, lead singer of Black Lab (Twitter: @paulblacklab)for pointing out this video to me.

I had heard "Simple Math" by Manchester Orchestra before, but I never thought to look for their video. The tumbling car crash in the beginning reminds me much of the tumbling car crash that is in the video "Mr. Writer" by Stereophonics, and to a lesser extent, "The Science of Fear" by The Temper Trap, but the way Manchester Orchestra weaves the life story through the video is downright amazing.

Enjoy "Simple Math" by Manchester Orchestra!

5/15/11- Brandon Flowers- "Only The Young"

Ever forget about a song, only to have a friend remind you of it?

That's what happened to me with this song. A friend had mentioned she was listening to "Crossfire" by Brandon Flowers. I remembered how much better of a song "Only The Young" was, even though it never became a hit.

This song proves you don't need a big expensive music video for it to be good. The end credit says it was filmed at the Wynn in Brandon's hometown of Vegas. The performers around him, and Brandon himself make for this surreal visual that matches the song perfectly.

Enjoy "Only The Young" by Brandon Flowers!

5/14/11- Cold War Kids- "Skip the Charades"

I used to HATE Cold War Kids. Their first few songs I was introduced to, ("Hang Me Out To Dry" and "Something is Not Right With Me") sounded like utter crap to my ears. I think mostly because I was still working in Pop radio when they came out, and those two songs, especially "Something is Not Right With Me" were NOT pop.

When the alternative station I with now (Y-Not Radio) picked up Cold War Kids' single "Louder Than Ever," I didn't want to hear it. But I did. And surprisingly, it was good. When this single came around, I was interested, and again, I'm liking it!

Now, my original hatred for Cold War Kids didn't match the hatred I had for Vampire Weekend, but I wasn't going out of my way to listen to them at all.

Today, enjoy "Skip The Charades" by Cold War Kids!

5/13/11- Cee Lo Green- "Fuck You"

Really now. Would it be profanity week if I DIDN'T use THE example of profanity in music?

It started out as an internet murmur. Cee Lo Green recorded a song simply called "Fuck You." People heard it. And awesomely enough, it's a GOOD song too! Not just a song using an F-Bomb to get attention.

And so it took off. Radio waited patiently for a more um... playable version to come around, and it did with "Forget You." Ironically enough, most people laughed and enjoyed using "Forget" instead of "Fuck" and the radio edit took on a life of it's own.

Who ever would have thought that a song simply titled "Fuck You" wold become a #1 hit?

Well it did. And I'm not letting profanity week go by without using it on the blog!

5/11/11- Marilyn Manson- "Arma-God-Damn-Mother-FuckingGeddon"

Would it be profanity week without Marilyn Manson? The always controversial band's star had faded a bit in the 2000's... but in 2009, they released "Arma-God-Damn-Mother-Fucking-Geddon" much to the delight of the FCC censors.

5/10/11- Sophie B. Hawkins- "Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover"

In 1992, Pop and Adult Contemporary radio didn't know what to do with Sophie B. Hawkins at first. Her breakthrough single "Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover" had SOME radio programmers balking at playing it, just because of a simple "Damn" in the title. Remember back then your local "Lite Rock" outlet was probably still playing Barry Manilow and Barbara Streisand, so playing something with "Damn" in the title was a little taboo. Add in one hell of a hot music video, and you've got a controversy.

The song eventually took off and hit #5 on the Billboard chart. A second music video was filmed that was uh... less sexual.

I've dug up the original version. So enjoy on profanity week, "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover" by Sophie B. Hawkins

5/9/11- Pink- "Fucking Perfect"

Welcome to profanity week! It seems like recently, there has been a surge in songs with profanity in them, and even in their title, so I'm digging up 5 songs that need to be edited before getting a single spin on the radio.

I'm not the biggest pop music fan, but I appreciate Pink because she writes most of her own songs and even though she's a pop artist, she does seem anti-pop at times. And despite dropping an F-Bomb in the title of the song, it made it to #1 on the Pop and Hot AC charts.

So today, enjoy a pregnant Pink with "Fucking Perfect."

5/8/11- Tracy Bonham- "Mother Mother"

This one should be a given.

It's Mother's Day. And a very happy one to all the mothers out there. So why not go with the first "Mother" song to come to mind?

In 1996, Tracy Bonham broke onto the scene with her debut album "The Burdens of Being Upright." She pulled two Grammy nominations in 1997 for Best Alternative Music Performance and Best Female Solo Rock Performance for "Mother Mother" and spent 3 weeks at #1 on the Modern Rock Charts.

Happy Mother's Day! It's "Mother Mother" by Tracy Bonham. I never knew there were two version of this video too. The top one is the one I remember from MTV. The bottom one is a different one I never saw before.

5/6/11- Passion Pit- "Little Secrets"

Every so often, a band comes along with a sound that just catches me for a while. Passion Pit is one of those bands. I was first introduced to them with their song "The Reeling," and when I heard today's song "Little Secrets" it solidified them as one of my favorite current bands.

They formed in Massachusetts in 2007 while attending the Berklee College of Music. They quickly recorded an EP titled "Chunk of Change" and followed it up with their major label debut "Manners in 2009." It's manner's that includes today's song.

Hipsters, paper bags over heads, and lots of spastic dancing make up today's video. Enjoy "Little Secrets" by Passion Pit!

5/5/11- The Early November- "Hair"

Choreographed awesomeness is our video of the day. Take Pleasantville, and put it in music video form and you have "Hair" by The Early November. They released their triple album (YES, TRIPLE) "The Mother, the Mechanic, and the Path" in 2006, and had this gem on it.

Enjoy "Hair!"

5/4/11- Weird Al Yankovic- "Trapped in the Drive Thru"

Having worked in radio, I am a self-proclaimed radio nerd, and I'll always be flipping through stations listening to music, production, DJs, etc, critiquing, comparing, and learning. I forget where I was going, but driving down I-476 outside of Philly, I landed on 99.9 WHHS, a small high school radio station based out of Havertown, PA. The signal, is tiny. VERY tiny. So tiny, that as I got it in range, I heard the beginning of Weird Al's "Trapped in the Drive Thru", and the signal faded before I got to the end of it.

Looking online, I never realized a video was made for it. It's completely animated, and 11 minutes of win.

Enjoy "Trapped in the Drive Thru"

5/3/11- Fuel- "Bad Day"

Yesterday at 11:30am, my car crapped out as I drove it back from the mechanic. That was the start of a so-called day from hell that included the Flyers losing, and finding out I need a root canal. Awesome.

As 11:30am TODAY rolled around...I got a call from my mechanic that the car would take only $500 to fix... which I should just pull the plug on my car already, but it's still cheaper to fix and insure that old thing than buy something new.

So in hopes of my day from hell being over, I present Fuel's "Bad Day" as the music video of the day.

5/2/11- Tracy Chapman- "Fast Car"

Today, my car may have seen it's final drive. MAYBE.

I drive a 2002 Saturn... a very basic car, but a car I've beat the ever living shit out of over the past 9 years, and it kept running. And even today, the engine sounds fine, it's the rest of the car that fell apart. I THINK it may be a clutch or the transmission that went... it could be something more minor, but either way, I'm pretty close to the point of not putting any more money into it. It still gets great gas mileage and it's cheap to insure, but it might be time to move on.

So, in honor of what may possibly be my car's last legs, I present Tracy Champman, with "Fast Car."