WFMU's Beware of the Blog

A Batch of Great Current Music Videos

Head over to Colonel Blimp, a London-based video house which is producing some of the more interesting current  music videos you'll find these days. Besides a great one from WFMU's own Donna Summer, you'll also find a Cheesy Euro-Disco anthem featuring power tools, plus videos from Dizzee Rascal, The Streets, Interpol, Chicks on Speed, Bjork, Basement Jaxx and others.

My favorite has to be Donna Summer's (aka Jason Forrest) video for Stepping Off, directed by the boy wonder Waverly. Structured as a rock tour travelogue, Stepping Off touches on dozens of Seventies rock cliches - wizards, dwarves with fake beards, coke and girls. And refreshingly, Donna Summer never appears in his own video. Click for the video here (Streaming Quicktime 6, but can also be downloaded from the site).

Bringing Cheesy Euro Disco into the 21st century, we have Benny Benassi's Satisfaction, directed by Dougal Wilson, featuring scantily clad babes in safety glasses operating two-speed power drills, Belt Sanders (110 or 220 volts!), Dual Actions Saws and Orbital Sanders. Video link here.

Another winner is Dizzee Rascal's video for Dream, also directed by Dougal Wilson. Dizzee covers the song Happy Talk from South Pacific while cavorting on top of a grand piano with criminal puppets and marionettes. Video link here.

Be sure to also check out Klonherz' Three Girl Rhumba (video link here), and FC Kahuna's Hayling (video link here).

Gunther and His Ding Dong

OK, I submit. I will create a separate category for Cheesy Euro-Disco.

I received my DVD with the video of Baccara's Yes Sir I Can Boogie a few days ago, and it was terrible. But then, as if The Disco Gods heard my disappointment and wanted to make it up to me, Listener Jon notified me about 2004's huge Euro-disco hit, Ding Dong Song, aka Oh, You Touch My Tra La La, by Gunther and The Sunshine Girls. Watch the video here (streaming wmv file from jengajam). Baccara may dance around suggestively, but Gunther delivers. (Not safe for work due to soft core lesbianism and frothy champagne bottles.)

And check out the GI Joe remix of the same (right click to download wmv file, via ebaum).

Afraid to admit that you like Cheesy Euro Disco? Be not alone.

Stop Me Before I Euro-Disco Again

Question: What do you call a batch of Danish hippies cavorting in a field with a trio of gyrating Indian maidens?

Answer: I dont know, but watch it here and don't avert your eyes.  (right click to download mpg)

More importantly, does this mean I have to create a separate category for cheesy Euro-Disco even before my Baccara video arrives in the mail? Actually this is a video of Danish singer Tommy Seebach covering The Shadows song Apache. And if you liked Tommy, you're sure to enjoy Vitalic and Dschinghis Khan. Thanks Carrie from Stay Free for the link.

Monica's Disco Panel

My own personal disco mentor and WFMU DJ Monica hosted a panel discussion on Disco April 28th at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts. Interesting article by David Hinckley in The Daily news here. And while you consider radio's non-role in Disco, download another Baccara track "Koochie-Koo" or this classic seven inch by The Funktionaries "Deutschland Uber Disco" (MP3s).

State of the Art Cheesy Euro Disco

Is Vitalic the current incarnation of Baccara and Dschinghis Khan or am I just a sucker for rotating engine blocks, silver go-go boots and air guitar? Watch the video for his song My Friend Dario and judge for yourself (edited Quicktime movie). At first I thought that this video was one of those new-fangled fake viral movies put out by some net-slumming corporation to hawk its wares (in this case, some new kind of car engine). But no, it appears that Vitalic is really a Frenchman named Pascal Arbez who is committed to carrying the mantle of ridiculous European disco into the 21st century, his football helmet held high.

Cheesy Euro-Disco and Dschinghis Khan

For several years, I've had an LP cover by the 1970's German disco band Dschinghis Khan gracing the cover of my DJ locker at WFMU. So imagine my surprise when Bryce mailed me this music video (mpeg video file) of the band doing a fantastic cheesy cossack disco dance number! And then when Nachum Segal saw my Dschinghis Khan LP this morning, he screams, "Dschinghis Khan, they're huge in Israel!" And then Nachum send me even more Dschinghis Khan videos. Why does Israel go crazy for bands like Dschinghis Khan, Baccara and t.A.T.u.? (MP3s) Why do I?

Don't answer that.