As many of you might have seen or heard, Phoenix did another round of the late night show talk scene appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live. If you add in Saturday Night Live (SNL – that we covered way back when, David Letterman and others the boys from France have really been making the rounds and showing that all those cool techno-pop sounds aren’t some kind of pre-recorded machine or keyboard, but a swath of talented musicians comprised of:
Thomas Mars (vocals)
Deck D’Arcy (bass)
Laurent Brancowitz (guitar)
Christian Mazzalai (guitar)
(See this as an example of their sound and certainly on my favorite songs by them)
“If I ever feel better” by Phoenix
Below is Phoenix’s performance from their appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel Live TV show on June 27, 2009. I felt the band played with a far greater sense of urgency and was much tighter and in charge, the way I expected them to be than they had during their SNL performance on April 4, 2009. On that night I felt they were timid and I was certainly disappointed, but hell who wouldn’t be a little nervous playing in another country for 40 million people for the first time on TV? But come on guys FFS, it was my birthday that night!
All is well, because everyone gets a mulligan, if you play golf with me you can take like 30 or at least I can and if you are a Phoenix fan or have never heard them before I think you will like these tunes…Enjoy!
Lisztomania – 6.27.2009 – Jimmy Kimmel Live – ABC
Phoenix also has a several music videos styles that are available directly from their MySpace page that are all pretty cool, very high resolution and quite well done from an artistically directed stand point as well. If you want to grab a copy, feel free to snag the ones here or from their page.
Also as their Summer Tour just finished mostly in the US (they have a show in Los Angeles, New York and Austin in September) they still have tour dates in Europe, Asia and down under in Australia as well extending on through November 21, 2009. See their homepage for a complete listing.
Please enjoy these videos and songs as well. They are all different and unique, I would have to say my personal favorite from a visual standpoint is Lisztomania with its European, “Je Pense Donc Je Suis”, relaxed attitude, and the (you can see it explode here) Hindenburg old Ottoman type Zepplin original style with a video reminding me of an Abbey Road/Sgt. Peppers Beatles era type filming, at least with regard to the direction of the video, not necessarily the sound of the music, which is good – just not Sgt. Peppers.
As far the music itself goes, of all the videos I am partial to Run, Run, Run (not the Velvet Underground song – so all you VU fans, can exhale and break something if it upsets you that much) that is seen below. I totally like easy chill groove, the non-screaming vocals that comes off like Gnarls Barkley meets Steely Dan if that makes sense at all.
On a side note about screaming I hear in Japan you can pay to go into a room and throw stuff and scream and break it. Then you can kick it down to the local disco, then for some late night Kareoke and rush off into the Tokyo night sipping vino straight from the bottle – or at least that is how my friend Shannon described it, who is my historical theologian on all things Japanese including dried out seaweed as a snack – NO THANK YOU SIR. I hope Japan finds Phoenix worthwhile without the need to munch seaweed and kick in ceramic vases.
I must say I am not immune to this kind of behavior as at the first Lollapalooza I attended in 1992 that included Red Hot Chili Peppers closed as you has Ministry, Ice Cube, Soundgarden, Front 242, Rage Against The Machine, Babes in Toyland, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Pearl Jam, Lush on the Main Stage and side stage that might have been even better with Ben Harper, Built to Spill, Pavement, Porno for Pyros, Basehead, Cyprus Hill, House of Pain, Seam, Sun Ra, Five-Eight, Jim Rose Circus Sideshow and others…exhale (this totally deserves it’s own write up before I digress further), there was this old car that just sat there all day in the hot sun, and when I say hot I mean it must have been like 95 degrees out. So you could pay like a dollar and get into the cage with the car and there were all kinds of tools, sledgehammers, sling blades, giant 15lbs wrenches, axes, you name it and for that dollar you could take those tools and just wail on the car for like 5-10 minutes. Most people tired out after a like 2 minutes, because it is hard damn work to bust up a car in that kind of head, but I admit I found it cathartic and fun, meaning – it kicked a**.
Anyhow I am getting sidetracked again and what I meant to say is that of these 6 videos in total of which 2 are on this site (the ones that I think are the most substantial) and the other 4 are available for viewing and downloading here. My favorite of them from a musical standpoint is Run, Run, Run and that is why I put it at the top, hoping it will pique your interest.
Also check out our new media of day side column video, photo, mixed media, oompa loompas singing bluegrass with a North Georgia Yeti or whatever we at Riddled Phantasms Magazine can think up.
I am curious which one is your favorite?
Please let us know and certainly, we hope you enjoy what we have here!
Phoenix – 1901 - Video produced by Dazed Digital.
Run Run Run - Directed by Mathieu Tonetti. 2004.
