Looking for a song to listen to while nestled in a cozy sweater, dreamily staring out a frosty window? THE RAVEONETTES are here to keep you company with The Christmas Song!
Music Video
WE ARE LADY PARTS – Season One (2021-)
Way back in the early dark days of 2022, in my ‘Favorite TV of 2021’ post I very briefly wrote about the first season of the UK’s Channel 4 TV show WE ARE LADY PARTS, solely comprised of two lines from the show:
“A confused mix of hash anthems and sour girl power. […] It was kind of like therapy, but with a lot of screaming.”
“I’m the lamb, by the way.”
Obviously, that does a disservice to such a uniquely brash and singular punk show, so I’m here to right some wrongs and rave in more exacting ways about the show.
WE ARE LADY PARTS centers around LADY PARTS, a punk band comprised of three Muslim women musicians and Momtaz (their ever-vaping manager) and they are seeking a lead guitarist to bring their sound together. They find one in Amina, an microbiology PhD student who used to performing but her nerves caused her body to violently react against her. Regardless of Amina’s unsavory bodily expulsion, LADY PARTS’s lead singer Saira is insistent that Amina is the one who will musically complete the circle. What follows is a lot of doubt, a lot of insecurity, and yes, some bodily fluids.
While WE ARE LADY PARTS feels very modern in that it’s still a pleasant surprise to see such a varied collection of characters, but I feel it’d be at home on 80s network TV or even a film. Creator/writer/director Nida Manzoor has gone on record citing the anarchic cult 80s BBC show THE YOUNG ONES as an inspiration for WE ARE LADY PARTS. I also can’t help but see a bit of LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE FABULOUS STAINS! in it.
Given that this show is centered around a fictional band, you’d better hope that the songs are fucking appropriately punk and makes you want to throw fingers, and Manzoor delivers. She took on song duty along with siblings Shez and Sanya Manzoor and Benni Fregin, plus all of the performers actually play their instruments! (I’ll note that Nida has gone on record that it helps that they’re punk, so they can be a bit sloppy musically and lyrically.)
Here are just a few of their numbers:
Bashir With the Good Beard:
Ain’t No One Gonna Honour Kill My Sister But Me:
Voldemort Under My Headscarf:
In November 2021 — a handful of months after the first season aired — WE ARE LADY PARTS was renewed for a second season. Then 2022 rolled around, and no second season. 2023? No second season. I’d given up hope but here we are! It’s 2024, a tad over three years after the first season premiered, and the second season dropped on peacock on May 30th!
I haven’t been able to watch the second season yet but if you’re extremely online like I am, you have probably heard of a surprise appearance from a very exceptional person. (I will not spoil who it is, but I am very excited to see it unfold.)
”This is us, by us, for us.”
Season One trailer:
Season Two trailer:
AMANDA PALMER & THE GRAND THEFT ORCHESTRA – ‘Want It Back’ (2017)
CONTENT WARNING
The following video is not technically NSFW, but it’s as close as you can come so …viewer beware.
Calligraphy. This music video is all about fluid, dynamic, gorgeous and ornate text and I am absolutely here for it.
I cannot relay how many times I’ve watched and rewatched this.
My mind is blown by the amount of effort it must have taken to will this into the world. Words and stop-motion animation and so much skin and ink spatters? Fuck yeah. Reminds me of when as a youth I’d suck India ink in a straw and spit it out all over a page and revel in the black stains.
The fact that the song turns me into a whirlwind? Icing on the cake.
Also? If you were a svelte goth in the late 90s? You’ll certainly recognize the liquid latex utilized at the end. That sort of skin-tight nudity needs to be brought back in-fashion because I miss rocking that.
(Fun fact: Another song of hers will show up in the next Electroclature!)
Lastly? Note the use of BLOCKLETTERING for the chorus. Really, goddamn, the attention to detail here is astounding. Fucking amazing.
“It doesn’t matter if you want it back!
You’ve given it away!
You’ve given it away! Away! Away! Away! Away! Away! Away!”
TILLY AND THE WALL – The Freest Man [CSS Remix] (2019)
![TILLY AND THE WALL – The Freest Man [CSS Remix] (2019)](https://mediaclature.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/tilly-and-the-wall.jpg)
If you’ve read prior posts, it’s no surprise that I have …a lot of baggage. I have literally penned thousands and thousands of words here that touch on just how messed up I am. (Hopefully in the service of being entertaining, calling attention to undiscussed issues, but most importantly recommending awesome works, naturally!)
This boy I know, he is pure of soul.
He just gets lost some times in his chemicals.
It sucks! It really sucks. However, this song helps.
Just remember you called it all bullshit.
Well it isn’t if you stop giving into it.
TILLY AND THE WALL are — well, technically were, given that they’re no longer active — a band of born of sympathy, of seeing and feeling others’ hurt and wanting to help.
I don’t like how it feels when I think of him!
This song really helps! Music is often a fucking balm, but can also shed light.
I previously posted about TILLY AND THE WALL’s ’No Education’ remix, which is so enthralling, but The Freest Man?
As someone who has struggled more than I’d like, someone who has actively pushed support away, felt afraid of relying on others, this song is the other side of the coin; of hearing how others view you struggling.
It hits hard.
Being able to latch onto the work of others as a means of support and a type of realization is the beauty of art and effort.
This boy I know lives in a bell jar
It is balancing upon its pedestal
He tries not to upset the weight of conscience
Afraid it’s so far to fall if no one catches him
Is this a pretty basic remix? Sure, but it’s fucking engaging and bolstering four-on-the-floor electro.
It is no mistake that TILLY AND THE WALL have a background in education, because this track? The Freest Man? It’s about as sympathetic as it gets, and I am absolutely here for it and I love their generosity and I greatly miss them.
But I’ve been there too, and I swear to god
If I can help you, please, you’ve got to tell me how
I know you’ve been away, and it can break you down
And I don’t want you gone
If you haven’t heard the original? Here it is in all of its tap-dancing glory:
You can walk away The Freest Man.
BROKEN PEACH (2009-)
Did you have a house in your neighborhood that, whenever October 1st rolled around, it went from being what looked like a normal abode to a creepy funhouse?
That is BROKEN PEACH in music video form.
I’ve posted about BROKEN PEACH before and this was meant to be a repost, but I’d like to extoll them more. They’re a rock & soul band that has built up quite the following since forming in 2009.
When Halloween rolls around they get out their garb and spend a hell of a lot of time crafting some of the finest covers with the most engaging choreography to make the punkiest, gothy videos ever.
As someone who has a significant number of compilations solely dedicated to goth covers of pop songs, I can safely say that they put most of those covers to shame. BROKEN PEACH are endlessly inventive; they take twists and turns when they didn’t need to! I endlessly wonder how they find the time to plan and practice all of this out, while still putting out their own original work, as this feels like it’s on the level of drumcore work.
Granted, over the years I’m sure it has become somewhat easier as they have found their very signature look and uniforms — which I’ll note, they had pretty much out of the gate with their earlier videos — stance, choreography, personality (in a great sort of goth group way), and cadence. However, they’re always upping their game, and I’m always in awe of the results. They’re endlessly engaging, amazingly energetic but still tightly maneuvered, and their production and costume design is so finely tuned. Most importantly? The music always is fist-pumping, boundless fun.
They just released their latest Halloween work, their cover of BLONDIE’s One Way or Another. Please, click their YouTube links to check out their full song history. My personal favorites are Personal Jesus. Tainted Love and Don’t You Want Me and now, of course, One Way or Another, but they’re all great! Also, check out their non-spooky works, especially the soulful automaton-centric video for I Miss You!
TILLY AND THE WALL – “Bad Education [NO CONTENT]”
If you aren’t familiar with TILLY AND THE WALL, they were a brash Omaha, Nebraska band from the early naughts. Sadly, they dissolved about a decade ago (~2013) but goddamn they had a good run. They were the absolute perfection of idiosyncratic indie-pop, featuring a a number of tap dancers in a way that actually didn’t feel cloying but emphasized the backing work. Hell, they were even featured on SESAME STREET!
I think I faked it, oh did I fake it?
I managed to see them at Lincoln Hall — if you’re ever in Chicago, I can’t recommend the venue more as they’re so accustoming and their sound system will blow your mind — and it was beyond fantastic. It’s one thing to hear them tap, but it’s another thing to see them tap, and they even had pedestals for them!
I’m tugging at the seatbelt; I’m jumping out the saddle.
This is a remix, based off of their remix album ‘That Remix Sucks’ but obviously, none of them suck. This song is an endless parade of beats and echoes and awkward pauses and physicality and bodies and more, and I love it so much.
This is the original, not the NO CONTENT remix, but still great:
POSTSCRIPT
Similarly, from the same album, CSS’s remix of “The Freest Man” from the same EP endlessly floors me.
THOSE DARLINS – “The Whole Damn Thing” (2012)
THOSE DARLINS were two women who created the band they wanted to hear in the world. Then one died of cancer — Jerri, the front-person, on the far right — far too early, but before she died they released three amazing albums: a self-titled one, “Stick it In” and “Screws Get Loose” (with the helping hands of two others).
As you might expect, the band is done.
“The Whole Damn Thing” is a song about unapologetic appetites, all wrapped in under three amazing alt-country minutes, and — no pun intended — it is aural comfort food for me. I can never get enough of it.
I was lucky enough to see them at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall — a fucking amazing, but oddly endlessly pristine, venue — when they were touring their poppier album “Screws Get Loose” and goddamn it was so much fun.
I’m burying the lede here a bit, but if you have the chance to see a band perform? See them. Make the effort. Life is short and you never know what will happen and you never know how a performance will impact you. (Also, you can always just walk out if you don’t like it! That’s a thing you can do!)
“I’d like to let you I ate the whole damn thing!”
KEREN ANN – “101”
This is a desolate and desperate countdown that fucking floors me every time, from the original artist of “Strange Weather”.
SNOG – “Cheerful Hypocrisy” (2015)
While SNOG can compose devastating works — see “The Ballad” and “Old Atlantis” — “Cheerful Hypocrisy” from the album “Compliance” aurally bounces. It’s pure bubblegum until the lyrics pop.
While the songwriting is quite progressive, although it does contain satirical use of slurs that I’m not too keen on, I’m not sure I can say the same for the video, which seems like a bit too much fetish well-wishing.
I’ll be honest: Despite the obvious STARSHIP TROOPERS riffs, I don’t love some of the phrasing, and I hate some of the lazy ALICE IN WONDERLAND tropes, but it’s still one hell of a song. Just be glad I didn’t extoll the song where he’s basically being spanked for four minutes straight.
“WAR GOING GREAT!”
SNOG – HOORAY!! (1998)
What sounds like a peppy electro song is a surprisingly dour and nihilistic track, which is SNOG in a nutshell. Nonetheless, it’s immaculately constructed and perfect to sway to.
(I’ll note that there’s an entire remix EP of the song, which is how I’m justifying posting this as well as “The Ballad”, both of which are on “Buy Me… I’ll Change Your Life.”)
“Hurry on madness. Hurry on, disease. Hurry on insanity. Hurry on, please.”