Faev snogs DOUBLE: Suede, “So Young” & The Smiths + Derek Jarman, “The Queen Is Dead,” “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out,” & “Panic”

That video is so cribbing from Derek Jarman:

The Jarman video is much better, but I still like the Suede song.

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Faev snogs redux: Seu Jorge covering Kraftwerk’s “Das Model”

I only just learned about it a few weeks ago:

Related (duh): Faev snogs: Kraftwerk, “Das Model”

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Faev snogs: Tom Waits, “Hang Down Your Head”

I feel a little unclean linking to a VH1 Storytellers version, but it’s Waits so OK:

The album version is après le jump.

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Faev snogs: The Replacements, “Unsatisfied”

I may have already featured this one on faev snogs. No matter:

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Faev snogs: Nina Simone, “Fodder in Her Wings”

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Faev snogs: Kraftwerk, “Das Model”

English-language version after the jump (and it’s worth clicking just to see the adorable knit doll image of the band).

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Faev snogs: The Romantics, “Talking in Your Sleep”

Used to roller skate a lot to this one, at birthday parties. As it turns out, there are two versions—the original one by the Romantics:

… and a cover by Bucks Fizz:

Not sure now which one I heard at the roller rink. Both feature charmingly low-rent videos, though the Romantics one is kinkier.

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Faev snogs: Fantastic Everlasting Gobstopper, “Schoolgirl Psychedelia”

I first heard this song on a radio program my pal John Dixon taped for me, then spent a decade trying to identify it. I played it for employees at Reckless Records and everything. Jeremy M. Davies finally figured it out, as I documented over at HTMLGiant.

Fantastic Everlasting Gobstopper is also Angela Faye Tillett, aka Death By Chocolate. Wherever or whoever she is now—thanks for this song!

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Faev snogs: Gin Blossoms, “Until I Fall Away”

The Gin Blossoms were the first rock concert I saw, at the University of Scranton. Apparently this happened on 21 April 1994. My dad was given two tickets way in advance, and then “Hey Jealousy” became a huge hit and the show sold out. For a week or so, I was the coolest kid in my high school. I took my friend Chad and of course we wore ripped jeans and flannel shirts. The Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies opened and I was amazed by how tall and badass the lead guitarist looked. Chad and I befriended two cute girls from Allentown and danced with them all evening. I even got to mosh and crowd surf. Afterward, I couldn’t hear normally again for a few days. All in all, it was a pretty generic experience, but it was my generic experience.

I still like most of the songs on New Miserable Experience: “Lost Horizons,” “Hey Jealousy,” “Found Out About You,” “On Allison Road,” “29,” “Pieces of the Night”—and of course the above cut, which is surely the prettiest track on the album. Although Song Meanings tells me that it doesn’t in fact include what was until today my favorite line in the song—”I’m having a good enough time”—and that possibly changes things.

The official video version is after the jump. I’d not seen it until today, either, which goes to show there are always new experiences, miserable and otherwise, waiting out there for you. It’s sepia-toned and features long slow dissolves and flash-cuts and makes me want to reread Sandman, it’s so super-early-1990s. Enjoy!

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Faev snogs: New Order, “True Faith”

When I was a very small boy, MTV would talk to me, and “True Faith” had a true impact on me. Was it my first exposure to surrealism? It was definitely my first exposure to a choreographer using “non-dance” maneuvers (bounding, slapping, jumping in place, signing)—later on, I’d become a huge fan of Yvonne Rainer, Robert Wilson, and Michael Clark.

The Wikipedia tells me that one Philippe Decouflé directed and choreographed the video, and that his work here was influenced by Oskar Schlemmer, in particular Schlemmer’s Triadic Ballet:

Seems reasonable. I guess I have some new things to chase down.

Meanwhile, the song itself is ex-traor-di-nary.

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