Riches You Could Never See: Sarah Slean’s “Society Song” (Music Video)

In early January, 2012, Pop Heaven’s own Sarah Slean posed a question to her fans on Twitter:

I, being a vessel placed on this earth solely to spread the good word of the Pop Gods, immediately received a divine communication that despite each and every track on the brilliant two-disc opus “Land & Sea” truly being worthy of a video treatment, their divine will was that her next visual masterpiece should be the sassy stomper “Society Song.” (Whoa, tongue twister!)

As is my duty, I immediately passed this information on to Slean via Twitter. To my delight, she responded – rather appropriately with:

“SWEET HEAVEN” indeed! Pop Heaven! Based on her enthusiasm it was nearly a certainty that I was about to become the hot new commodity in Canadian music video art direction. As such, I patiently awaited a phone call from Sarah, or from her people.

HOLY F**K!: How I Stumbled Upon The Most Thrilling New Act of 2012!

(Please note: If you’re currently directing your cursor to the little “X” in the top, right-hand corner of this window, I assure you that it’s not what it looks like!)

Dear Reader, I would like to share with you all how a moment of curiosity can lead to the most wonderful discoveries. Today, as I sat at my laptop for the fiftieth time to check out Twitter, I caught a tweet by electo-hip-pop duo: Karmin. It declared their eligibility for the cover-race in this September’s “Women Who Rock” edition of Rolling Stone.

Truthfully, I’m on the fence about Karmin! For those of you not in the know, Karmin are former YouTube stars who had a viral hit with a Chris Brown cover posted on the social networking site which led to them being signed to a major label in 2011. Their hit single “Brokenhearted” has been in pretty heavy rotation on pop radio. I enjoy the single, but I’m not in love with their recent EP: “Hello” and when I was first introduced to them when they performed as musical guests on SNL, I wasn’t immediately won over. (Apols, Karmin!)

My personal uncertainty about Karmin aside, the tweet made me interested in the idea of them getting a Rolling Stone cover so I clicked on the link for more details. now I have them to thank for indirectly introducing me to a new obsession!

Popologist Panel: Justin Bieber, Fiona Apple, Diplo, Katy Perry (July 2012)

Check out the all-new second installment of the Popologist Panel on Vertigo Shtick, of which I am honored to be a part of!

This month, we tackle the latest releases from Justin Bieber, Fiona Apple & Diplo, music videos by Katy Perry & Sky Ferreira and singles by Alexandra Stan, Esthero, NERVO and Carly Rae Jepsen!

READ MORE…

Wise Men Learn to Love: Sarah Slean’s “The Devil & The Dove”

Shot in Pouch Cove, Newfoundland, The Devil & The Dove is the latest single/video released from Slean’s 2011 masterpiece Land & Sea. The double-disc set found Slean exploring the two most prominent aspects of her material to date: a delightful pop sensibility and lush, gorgeous and theatrical compositions. The second of the two discs: Sea is a collection of orchestral arrangements which focus on life, love and quantum physics. exploring the magic that can be found in merely contemplating our existence as we experience the varying pleasures and pains of daily life.

Pop Gospel: Mandy Moore – Cry

“Cry” was taken from the love-it or hate-it cheese fest that was the film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks novel “A Walk to Remember.” (I love it!) The video, doomed to the soundtrack single curse of having to include clips from the film, is completely terrible. Mandy, however, looks gorgeous as she dons dark brown hair for one of the first times in her career and starts to mature her image. The thing about a great fucking song is that when it’s this pretty and heartfelt, the terribly shoddiness of the accompanying music video doesn’t always matter.

This is just one of many songs in the Pop Gospel hymn books by the one late 90’s pop starlet who grew out of bubblegum and always took the high road while her peers were getting dirrty. I’m choosing to disregard the perviness factor in early Moore videos like “Candy,” the creepiness of which was only recently brought to my attention as I read a discussion between two fellow Pop enthusiasts on Twitter! *Shudder*

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