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May 31, 2006
Retrohump Day - Disappointments
Back at work after a short vacation, and in no shape to wax euphoric. No, today we dwell on the flip side of YouTube's pleasure chest, into the clips that once tracked down, were revealed as pretty lousy. Now, these aren't the absolute worst things I could find. With a mindset of seeking out history's rock bottom, I could have found vids to inspire Oedipal eye-gouging, surely. Just a set of anticipated footage, that once seated with laptop on lap top, left me surprisingly unsatisfied. Let's spread the bad cheer, shall we?
the Cure - "Killing an Arab"
(Live in Paris @ the Theatre de, 08.12.1979)
Early Cure footage has been a consistent search item since the onset of the YouTube era. A chance to get Robert Smith in his pre-pancake make up and women's blouses prime (and far, far removed from his stack of pancakes and hockey jersey present) is very appealing in theory. In this, the only clip from the Three Imaginary Boys era available on the Tube, the desire proves to be pretty misguided. Naked on stage with no theatrics and a bland v- neck sweater, Rob is drained of his weird goth charisma. The music is kind of sloppy and noodling as well, with none of the Camus inspired existential dread coming through. It's still got sort of an appealing minimal charm I suppose, but it's not very sharp at all. With the Cure's gift for pop thrills, the dull edge doesn't suit them.
the Slits - "Typical Girls"
I know I'm not supposed to, but I totally identify with the look on the face of appalled old Brit at the beginning of this video. Ewwwww. On record I try my best to ignore the reggae influence on the Slits music, and the manic enthusiasm and pre-Bjork vocal ticks of Ari Upp mostly make the task worthwhile, but here there's no way around it. That hat is bad enough, but the dance is unforgivable. The whole video makes me want to run to park security. "Hi, we reserved this space for our family reunion, and I think some kids slept there over night. If you could just ask them to leave..."
the Chills - "Pink Frost"
The New Zealand rock scene of the early eighties is still a rich source of discovery for most nascent trainspotters, as most of the significant material is still out of print or available only via internet mailorder (at least until ten minutes after a new blog sensation band starts cribbing from them overtly. This could happen at any time). The Clean, Tall Dwarfs, the Verlaines, the Jean Paul Sartre Experience, and their like were making great, unassuming indie rock long before the term was a badge of honor or a scarlet letter. Sad then, that this is You Tube's only current document of the vital scene. The song is great, unspeakably sad and pretty, definitely the Chills best. But the video is atrocious. A guy walks alone in his forest of pain, or whatever, for the whole video. Sometimes, we get a floating head. Then, when you are so bored that you want to share the fate of the song narrator's girlfriend, the scarecrow of ultimate sorrow comes in for no reason, and looks terrible. Apparently, obscurity fit them like a wool sweater that they never wanted removed.
the Cramps - "Human Fly"
(Live, 1980)
The coolest song in the Cramps' book is entirely ruined for me here by Lux Interior's annoyingly affected perfomance. The music is still pretty tough, but he looks like he just came out of workshopping some facial expressions in drama class as opposed to crawling out of some post apocalyptic biker bar. To amp up his skeeze cred he decides mid song to drink some beer from his shoe. Proving what? It's just gross, and stupid, and pointlessly over the top in a way that makes me want to disregard these garbage pail kids entirely.
But I might just be in a bad mood...
Tags: the Cure, the Slits, the Chills, the Cramps
Posted by Jeff Klingman at May 31, 2006 11:10 AM
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