Friday Video - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, 'Gold Lion'

This is the trial of a new feature on Hardcore For Nerds, where every Friday I post up a music video. When I say "trial", I mean this is just an idea that I had a couple of days ago... so we'll see how it works out. The video is at the end of the post, by the way...

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Yesterday I made my first ever vinyl purchase, courtesy of Tower Records, Wicklow Street. The Yeah Yeah Yeah's Show Your Bones was something I had my eye on for a while; I had a burnt copy already, but I thought since I did really like the album I should support the band (and Universal Music Group, yay!). Anyway, 'Gold Lion', the opener, is definitely the reason I like this album so much. Moreover, I don't remember hearing the song on the radio (which I wasn't listening to at all under the latter of '06, when Phantom came back on the air) as much as I do recall seeing this video on mid-morning television (ah, the college lifestyle...) Either way, 'Gold Lion' is pretty much synonymous with the YYY's for me.

As for the video itself, I'm not sure which it has more of, pyrotechnics or theatrics. It's not quite as awesome as it I remembered it the first time; but then I was newer to the song, and thus more distracted by it; and further, I think what I mostly remember was the wheel of fire scene at the end. It's still entertaining, though. As for my current taste in twilight desert videos goes, I would prefer Battles' 'Tonto'. That song doesn't rock as hard as 'Gold Lion', however.

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I don't have a record player quite yet, so for the most part I'm just looking at the cover art of Show Your Bones. Which, as covers go, is pretty great. This also makes a nice follow-on from my previous post on homemade covers, which led into a discussion about the aesthetics of music releases. Blend77 revealed that:

"even when i was first buying records i often picked out things on a visual level. now thats pretty much the only time i buy music, when i love the whole package (or i just absolutely cant live without it.)"

I'm sure there's plenty more people out there who feel that way (or, have been spending too long in the art/design business!). Recently I came across an interesting site, Sleevage.com, "a blog all about music cover art". They do little reviews about all the best album covers since the 60s - continually adding new ones, too - and this is what they say about Show Your Bones:

"There is something very satisfying about an object that is tactile and, although this piece of art is not worth touching, the appearance of tactility is rich enough for me to need to reach out and grab the CD. (I imagine if this were hanging on a wall, I would standing way too close to it.)

The artist, Julian Gross, who might be the bloke in The Liars, but don’t take my word for it, has created something that appeals to my penchant for branding by creating that vertical “YYY” out of rough-hewn fabric. Perhaps being a little slow on the uptake, it took me some time to notice that he had “branded” and that, to me, is also very positive - that the cover art is not screaming “look at me, I’m a Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ CD”. Predictably, record executive types felt we consumers would not be able to connect the dots and the cover we see is emblazoned with a not unattractive script."

Kane

(sleevage.com/yeah-yeah-yeahs)

Here's the CD cover art. It might be worth noting that the LP covers has no text, which is one of two significant advantages of that version (the other being that it's only 11 tracks long, omitting 'Déja Vu', which is a good song, but kinda jars at the end for me):

(Over the weekend, I might try photographing the vinyl cover, which looks a good deal more interesting without the 'record-executive-type' script. It also has a big sticker saying "Pressed on Extra Weight Vinyl" and how good MOJO thought the album was, which I haven't decided whether to take off or not yet)

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