VIDEO THRWBCK: The Smiths - Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before (1987)
Surprisingly, it's taken us this long to THRWBCK to the Smiths, who are categorically the band we refer to as "the best ever" when we are posed with such a ridiculous questions as "who is the best band ever?" Our favorite Smiths album varies from hourly, but lately it's been Strangeways Here We Come, their 1987 swan song, which is by far their most realized and complete LP (and Morrissey's favorite, legend has it). If you've ever not wanted to ride your bike through a foggy Manchester morning, this video will change that.
VIDEO THRWBCK: Elastica - Stutter (1993)
We're on a full-blown '90s kick at the moment--watching Party Girl and Unzipped, YouTubing old episodes of MTV's House of Style and of course, going through all of our old Britpop records. After Pulp and Blur, our favorite band from that era was Elastica, whose front woman Justine Frischmann embodied the spunk and style of the times. "Stutter" was their first single and it remains a classic.
VIDEO THRWBCK: Pulp - Party Hard (1998)
No '90s band matched the wit and pop appeal of Pulp and their charismatic frontman Jarvis Cocker. After This is Hardcore came out in 1997, Jarvis described it in the press as having almost destroyed his band, life, and sanity, but man, was it worth it. Almost as good as its predecessor, the modern classic Different Class, This is Hardcore and our favorite single off the record, "Party Hard", were Pulp to a "T": lines like "Can you show me a good time?/Do you know what one looks like?" cemented our beliefs that Jarvis is in fact Oscar Wilde reincarnated with a Bryan Ferry fetish.
VIDEO THRWBCK: Elbow - Fugitive Motel (2003)
We have yet to get into the supposedly brilliant new Elbow record The Seldom Seen Kid, but while we're waiting for it to fall into our laps, we've gotten reacquainted with their 2003 LP Cast of Thousands. "Fugitive Motel" is the first single from that album, and it's still a pretty arresting slice of uplifting Britpop.
VIDEO THRWBCK: The Wedding Present - Kennedy (1989)
So. We just came back from seeing The Pains of Being Pure at Heart play the L Magazine "New Music" party at the Music Hall of Williamsburg... and it was amazing. Twee all the way, very reminiscent of the Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine of course, but a lot of their new songs sounded much like C86 all-stars The Wedding Present. We hadn't listened to TWP in a good while, but we just put in their debut album George Best and it is KICKIN'. Enjoy "Kennedy" above!
VIDEO THRWBCK: Blur - There's No Other Way (UK version) (1991)
. SPRING. IS. FINALLY. HERE. Repressing our now very deep global warming fears for the time of a season, we invite you to romp through the fields of dew with us to one of the best spring-sounding songs ever: we are of course referring to "There's No Other Way" by Blur. Note, this is the UK version of the video featuring a gigantic mountain of Jell-o and not that frankly weird and decidedly inferior American version (featuring, well, not very much of anything). Enjoy, and join us again in November when it's still 90 degrees and we start flipping out for real.
VIDEO THRWBCK: The Verve - History (1995)
We're as excited as the next Anglophile about the whole Verve reunion thing, and we're sure the new songs are fine, but remember when they used to do truckloads of ecstasy, Richard Ashcroft refused to wear shoes, every song had approximately 16 string tracks on it, and the Answer to the Universe could be read in Nick McCabe's hair? Yeah, us too.
VIDEO: The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony (Live at Coachella 2008)
Well, it has finally come to an end, and while we're sure the speculation on next year's lineup has already begun, we can officially put Coachella 2008 to rest. By now, we all know that Prince covered "Creep" (that'll be Radiohead, not TLC, though the latter would have been so much more appealing) and Tegan and Sarah are downright comedians, but let's go out on a limb and say that the best moment of the festival HAD to be when the Verve busted out "Bitter Sweet Symphony". Yeah, it was totally expected but whatever, we get chills just by watching it from the middle of the crowd on a 4-inch YouTube screen. The Verve have always seemed a little dwarfed in comparison to their musical cousins Oasis, but as anyone who owns A Northern Soul and Urban Hymns can attest, they are legends in their own right. Let's hope that their next album will be up to snuff...
VIDEO: Make Model - The LSB
'90s Britpop ahoy! Make Model remind us of all of of favorite Verve, Suede and Blur songs all rolled into one. It's kind of generic, but weirdly in a good way. All we can say is that we're super into the loud, distorted pop guitars, especially during the solo. Check it out!
FEATURED: The Wombats
Full disclosure: we've had a rough weekend. And sometimes, the best remedy for the blues is a really good pop song, and luckily for us we've got The Wombats. We've been listening to their sugary Britpop record A Guide To Love, Loss and Desperation (OK, doesn't sound that uplifting but trust us) on repeat, especially the irony-as-anti-depressant "Let's Dance To Joy Division". Check them out at Get Big, Little Kid.
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