This one goes to zero!
Rock Town Hall has a long and honored tradition of rock video analysis, with Townspeople often incorporating the distinctive technique of commenting on videos with the sound off. In honor of alexmagic‘s legendary analysis of a video of Tom Jones performing with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, we are instituting a new feature, Sound Off!
The way a Sound Off! thread works is simple:
- A video is posted for us to view with the sound off.
- We comment on what we’re seeing with the sound off.
- We most likely share in the sense of wonder that there’s much to learn about music with the sound off.
You will be entrusted to view the following video with the sound off. If we could disable the video’s sound we would, but something tells me the copyright holder of the video might object to that. Trust us, for the purposes of this thread the sound will get in the way. Beside, you may be viewing this at work, in which case coworkers will only be distbured by your giggles; you won’t have to worry about the artist’s music leaking into their cube.
After the jump, why don’t you turn the sound off and watch the following video!
At 1:10 I spotted some footage from “Space 1999.”
The trails freaked me out, man.
I didn’t know Hugo Weaving (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y4NpnrQl4oo/T_Q5K0jixpI/AAAAAAAABNw/lCCtLoi3zzs/s1600/elrond.jpg) drummed for Kansas.
The flushing diarrhea shit-storm that follows his cymbal crashes at the 30-second mark REALLY freaked me out.
They seem to be a hodgepodge of leftover Looks from other bands: the Three Kimono Attack of 2112-era Rush; an afro’d and tuxedo’d homage to Duck Dunn’s turn as the bass player for Murph and the Magictones (http://timothyjones.typepad.com/photos/stuff/murph-and-the-magic-tones.jpg), and what appears to be Husker Du’s Greg Norton in a cat burglar suit. It’s all a bit disorienting.
“Three-Kimono Attack” may need to be a new Glossary term or something like that.
Yeah, the abundance of kimonos/karate gis and then the one guy in a tux is really confusing and jumped out at me right away, too. Was Tuxedo Guy their Dr. Fink? The whole thing reminds me of that Styx video where DeYoung is dressed as a mime, JY Young has on a kimono and still other guys are in a captain’s outfit and UPS delivery guy uniform.
I’m also kind of baffled – without sound for context – how the overall Master of Kung-Fu/Sax Rohmer/John Saxon in Enter the Dragon vibe fits in with the acid trails and the Tree of Life montage going on in the back.
Seth Rogan on bass.
D’oh, I mean guitar.
I reached the point of must return abound 2:05 when I realized there were 2 keyboards and one guitar (the Duck Dunn / Seth Rogan guy). Any more and I might lose my appreciation for the muttonhead classic, “Carry On Now Wayward Son”.
The kimono drummer is the freakiest to me.
Unfortunately, I’ve seen these guys — twice. The first was my initial arena rock show and the lead singer was dressed up in satin track shorts and a tight wifebeater t-shirt. The second time (15 years later) was at a county fair and I don’t recall the costumes that day — although I did see former VA senator Chuck Robb and Lynda (Byrd Johnson) Robb at the show scrounging for votes and looking extremely uncomfortable.
The drummer seems to be playing slower than everybody else, or maybe the kimono/mullet combination just makes him look more zenned out.
It’s not often you see the guitar and bass players in the background, while the keys and violin are upfront. I knew it wasn’t Greg Norton on bass because the guy wasn’t wearing sneakers and hopping around like a nut.
I’ve also seen them several times and admit to listening to their albums (frequently) as a teen. So kimonos or not, I will always have a soft spot for them.
It’s like the Country Bear Jamboree ditched the moonshine for weed, grew their hair out, moved to Omaha, and then hired Michael Bay to direct the background images for a conceptual art project.
Yes Big Steve…I too thought it looked like the drummer was playing at half the speed of everyone else.
“Hey wedding band guy, we need someone to stand here and play guitar. There’s 50 bucks in it for you…”
This video was so cheap to make. The video feedback trails and the the blue screen for explosions…geez we were so easily amused in the early days of MTV…
That shot of tux guy at the 55 second mark is freaking me out. Can’t help but think that there is some subliminal message there.
Well spotted! I’ve just got some of those to watch with our smallest, I loved that series when it was first on!