The Unblinking Ear Podcast 6/20/13

After six unbearable weeks (for you, I assume), the Unblinking Ear Podcast is back! On this edition, we bring you lots of new music, some old music newly reissued and my mealy mouthed explanations of both. In other words, business as usual! On with the sublunary!

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My Best Dave Kendall Impression

I'm sure you're all at least fleetingly familiar with the cable television network whose name is ostensibly a contraction of "Music Television." Their programming has mainly consisted of content other than music videos for so long that complaining this about seems as old fashioned as finding a station that plays nothing but videos to be novel in the first place.

And let's be honest, those who do pine for the days when MTV aired only* videos are likely coming from a purely nostalgic perspective**. During their time as the de facto national radio station, it's not as though MTV was in the habit of presenting its viewers with cultural flotsam any less reprehensible than Jersey Shore***.

Still, I'd be lying if I didn't admit MTV shaped my nascent taste on some level. I gravitated to their late Sunday night dumping ground for "alternative rock" just before that became a highly marketable term. For the short-term cost of being groggy and irritable in class on Monday morning, I was exposed to a lot of bands for the first time. The Pixies and Nirvana, sure, but also Bettie Serveert and Teenage Fanclub****.

So in that spirit*****, here are some music videos:

First up, we've got the new video from Ted Leo and Pharmacists, directed by Tom Scharpling and starring a bunch of Best Show regulars (though, sadly, not Spike or Fredricks from New Port Richey). As some of you may have deduced, this was the big announcement promised by Leo in a lengthy and mostly sincere blog post on Friday. I don't mind bragging that I got a special preview of this video nearly two months ago (and have the tweet to prove it).

Ted Leo And The Pharmacists - "Bottled In Cork" (Official Video) from John Hodgman

I'm sure you're going to want to watch the above a few more times. Once you're ready to move on, below are a pair of videos from Grass Widow and Super Wild Horses. They both have quite good albums being released tomorrow on Kill Rock Stars and HoZac, respectively. (They are also both comprised entirely of women, though that's hardly relevant, right?)

Next up, here's a video from Austin's Woven Bones. Their debut album, In and Out and Back Again, came out earlier this year on HoZac and is well worth hearing. Who knew HoZac's promo budget included video expenses?

We're going to wrap things up with a "cult classic" from Christmas. I nearly wrote a "Used Bin Ubiquitous Bargins" post about this song's parent album, In Excelsior Dayglo but then I saw this. As I'm not fan of redundancy, I decided to scrap it. Needless to say, even though you can download this out-of-print album for free, you would do yourself a favor if you pick it up the next time you see it in a used bin.

*Or, at least, mostly.

**Though it's possible they just have bad taste.

***In comparing Adam Curry to Snooki, you'll see that even hair height has remained remarkably consistent.

****And Jesus H. Jones, some embarrassing blind alleys I'd rather not discuss in a public forum.

*****Also in the spirt of easy content that allows me to post to this blog more than once a month/appeasing the publicists nice to enough to continue to send me zip files of new releases.

The Unblinking Ear Podcast: Saturday Morning Funnies

(This show has aged remarkably well.)

I'm not exactly sure what times and days of the week get the most web traffic, though I'd suspect Saturday mornings are pretty low. Hence, my strategy here. I figure since no other websites bother to update at this time, there's a vacuum to fill.

The timing works for every demographic. Those with children will be online desperately trying to find something to listen while their kids are blaring Kidd Video (that's still on, right?) on the TV. Single, childless people will be waking up hungover, going over to the computer and checking their Facebook to see if the pics from the party they went to (or weren't invited to) have been posted yet. And BAM! there's the link to my latest podcast.

Needless to say, I've got this whole internet marketing thing down.

Or, more likely, no one will see this and I'll have to repost on Monday afternoon when people are sitting at the office desperately looking for something to do besides work.


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