OK, a bit too obvious, sure, but I know I'm not the only one who automatically thinks of this song every January 1. This clip is from the 1983 US Festival (I believe the day that was branded as "New Wave Day") near San Bernardino, on the site that years later would become the Blockbuster/Hyundai/San Manuel Pavilion, capturing U2 before the fatal infection of pretense set in . . .

 

This is pretty good: Some guy left his cameras running and pointed them out his office window during what I assume was last year's New Year's Eve extravaganza in Times Square, then did some time-lapse trickery and laced it all together with a Ween song. It tracks the whole big deal, too, from the prep work to the cleanup to the re-appearance of traffic the morning after.

Of course, if you've never been in Times Square on New Year's Eve and always wondered what it's like, you could also read this piece I wrote about the body-fluid-heavy experience back in 2001 . . .

 

Tomorrow night, of course, being New Year's Eve.

But what better band to ring in any year with? Delta Nove have been playing around in assorted Long Beach and OC clubs for at least a good decade. I caught them once when they were playing a party on the rooftop patio of some condo high-rise during the Long Beach Grand Prix, which would be something like 1998 or 1999, and they certainly made the forced huffing of racing fuel fumes much more tolerable. Then again, they were probably running on some fumes of their own, which just may be why I remember their jam-heavy, Dead-inspired, should-be-playing-Bonnaroo brand of psychedelia so fondly.

So catch them on Pine Avenue tomorrow night whilst smooching 2008 away. Meanwhile, check out this herky-jerky video clip from a Blue Cafe gig last month (the tune is called "Big Sky," incidentally) . . .

Much has been written about the sad state of contemporary hip-hop. But here's some solace -- as this, at long last, is what appears to finally be rock-bottom . . .

 

 

The Indian "Thriller" clip from two days ago should've warned you -- every year about this time, for reasons I'm unsure of myself, I go on a rather severe Bollywood binge.

So please enjoy (or suffer) the following:

 

 

No explanation needed . . .

Saw Slumdog Millionaire last night. Meh -- a bit overrated and over-hyped for my tastes. Here's all you need to know: Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl, boy loses girl again, boy finds girl for good this time, let's have a celebratory Bollywood dance sequence as the end credits roll.

So I was disappointed. The music is the best part, naturally. Unfortunately, the Indian "Thriller" video plays no part in it.

You've probably come across this, seeing that it's got something like 15 million views. But if you haven't, it's new to you! This one with hilarious bad English translations:

Last Thursday I wrote this post talking about the Saturday all-star extravaganza at the Gypsy Lounge, and I wondered why the esteemed Chris Hanlin wasn't on the bill. Well, here's your chance -- the extremely talented Mr. Hanlin is playing tonight at the Gypsy Lounge's Tuesday acoustic night, sharing the stage tonight with his brothers-in-sound Jay Buchanan, Chris Karn (of the incomparable Deccatree) and AJ Degrasse.

Here's a clip of Hanlin rocking the 12-string on "Tall Trees," probably my favorite song of his, either when Hanlin does it solo or when he's with his band the Dibs.

From the vast research I've just completed, I found out that this clip is from a show called Open Mic TV that's been running on Time Warner cable systems in OC for about a year now, as well as DirecTV and the Dish Network. They've featured a ton of OC bands and musicians on it -- performance segments have apparently been shot at the Plush Lounge in downtown Fullerton -- but I have no idea if it's still being produced. The web site hasn't been updated in a year, and no one has logged into its MySpace page since July.

Still -- Chris Hanlin!

On this first day of Hanukkah (tonight after sundown, anyway), the iconic video momemt from the greatest Jewish rock & roller ever: from the DA Pennebaker doc Don't Look Back.

 

Does 1996 qualify as "old-school?"

If not, let's just say it does, with the classic cut "Tha Crossroads" from Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. At the time, I believe this was the most expensive hip-hop video ever made -- one that's surprisingly bling-free. No one ever said re-animating Eazy-E with a ghostly CGI aura shimmering around him was gonna be cheap.

Also: Bone Thugs play the Grove this coming Monday, with all five original members slated to appear (that's Flesh N Bone, recently sprung from a 10-year prison term; Krayzie; Layzie; Wish; and Bizzy). See you at tha crossroads of Katella and . . . well, there really isn't much of a crossroads there, but Katella between State College and the 57 freeway, where Angel Stadium is, but that isn't very lyrical . . .