Sunday, March 25, 2007

The Sunday Night Music Club

I don't know if I'll make this a regular feature, but I guess I'll give it a go and see what happens.

Sundays are generally slow news days, and it's the day of the week that everyone sort of catches up on their rest and regroups for the coming week. So it seems to me like the evening is the perfect time to post obscure, overlooked, or forgotten yet much-loved music videos. I'll try it for a month or so, and decide whether or not to continue it based on your comments.

So, I'd like to kick this thing off with a brilliant little video that played on MTV back in 1994, but for some reason was never given the recognition it deserved, and it subsequently disappeared from rotation without much notice. I think I've only seen this video once, but it stuck with me, and when I came across it recently I was overjoyed.

"Lucas With the Lid Off" is the creation of Lucas, a fairly obscure rapper, and director Michel Gondry, who later helmed "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". The song is a fusion of rap, early jazz, and ragtime that blend into a unique sound.

But the video is what's outstanding here. Gondry uses a single camera and one continuous shot to capture the entire nearly 4-minute video. The camera's motion, along with the adjoining sets and use of Lucas and the actors rushing from scene to scene are at first a little disorienting, but then the rhythm of the visuals starts to make sense and enhances the experience.

Watch it and enjoy it; then watch it again and take note of the amazing production that went into this video.

And if you enjoyed the visual style of the video, go out and get the DVD of Gondry's odd 2006 film "The Science of Sleep" although it should be "Dreams" ("La Science des rĂªves").

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really like it, truly unique. Thanks for sharing it.blog.

vagabondblogger said...

Hey, I liked it so much, I just bought the song off of iTunes. I love Apple. You're the second blogger who's turned me on to some new music.
Thanks, Bob.

CT Bob said...

Colin, my pleasure; I've already got one for next Sunday picked out.

VB, cool! That's the value of Youtube for pushing music and stuff, people see/hear it and like it, then they often buy it. Viacom obviously doesn't get it.

Anonymous said...

That's why he's singing "Whatever bubbles, bubbles UP".

But hey, don't limit yourself to Sundays. Do a tune whenever and whyever you can. Remember: You can tune a guitar, but you can't tuna fish. Followed by something about picking your friends and picking you nose but I fergit ...

And kudos to you for the proper translation from the French.

CT Bob said...

Yeah, I don't know why they changed it to "sleep" from "dreams"; I think maybe they were going for some alliteration in the title.