Take a look at this comic from Nothing Nice to Say:

As you can see, there is no underestimating the power of rock. For example, Song 2 by Blur:

This video shows a group of men who rock so hard they blow themselves away. At the end, their faces are intact, but they are knocked down. Do they get up again? Can you ever keep them down?

The video starts calmly enough.

As Dorothy Parker said, “Either this wallpaper goes or I kill Oscar Wilde.”

Then things start to happen. Woo…

Hoo.

The band is rocking out as hard as they can. Not the whole band, though. The bass player tries so hard to be cool that he almost is.

“Like, I don’t even care, man. Like, you know? Whatever.”

The band uses some pointlessly strange lighting.

It’s like there’s a ghost story in his eye.

The band starts getting knocked back by the rock. The cool is knocked right out of the bass player as he hits the wall.

The singer tries to jump over the rock, but is still knocked back.

The drummer gets knocked right off his throne.

The verse comes back around and the bass player tries to go back to being cool.

It’s not working, dude. We know who you really are. We saw you eating ice cream.

That ice cream eating motherfucker gives up on the cool and starts to rock out. Smoke starts coming from somewhere, it’s not clear where.

It gets extremely windy in there, Mabbus.

One time my cat, Mabbus, was sitting in a window. There was a gust of wind and he got frightened. I realized that he does not like the wind. Now if he is sitting somewhere he shouldn’t be I blow on him and say, “It’s windy in here, Mabbus.” All of my comments related to wind are forever directed at that cat.

It’s also smoky in there, Mabbus.

The guitars are literally blown out of their hands and the singer is knocked over.

There’s just too much rock. I love that they are playing the rock, but are also effected by it as if it is an outside force. The video lasts two minutes and is a delightful little blast.

Join me tomorrow when we return to the world of normal wall coverings.

-PTD

In 1492, Christopher Columbus was the first human ever to set foot on the Americas. He saw vast unspoiled lands that would be perfect for fencing off into farms, small towns, and strip malls. For centuries afterward, everyone thought the entire world had been explored. One day, though, a member of Toto noticed a continent on the globe that no one had noticed before. It was called Africa. No man has ever braved this dark continent. This seemed like a prime opportunity for a young explorer to make a name for himself. As Toto sings in the song, “Hurry boy! It’s waiting there for you.”

Before going to Africa, though, it is important to do some research. To the library!

This song has some of the worst lyrics ever. “I blessed the rains down in Africa. Gonna take some time to do the things we never have.” Is there any way to interpret those lines other than as a non sequitor? Is Toto the pope, that they can bless things? Is one of the pope’s main activities trying new experiences? That explains those pictures of the pope bungee jumping, but I’m going to assume that the lyrics of Africa were just whatever popped into the singer’s head, unedited.

Most of the “action” in this video takes place in a library.

The singer is there with the librarian. Notice the librarian’s glasses. These glasses are very important.

He is researching Africa. This is Africa on a globe.

What are those different colored globs on the African nation? States or something? Provinces? Topographical indicators?

We get to see the whole group of musicians. They are playing on top of a huge pile of books! Or are they tiny? Maybe the band has been shrunk down and the only cure for their condition is located in the mysterious country of Africa.

Note that, due to strict world music laws, Toto has three percussionists on this song.

Turns out that the singer isn’t doing research at all. He has a scrap of paper that his kid stole from the library and he is trying to put it back in the correct book before the librarian notices. She is really good at noticing partially missing pages because of her glasses.

Not this book. Damn! My suggestion? Look in the children’s books because they have pictures.

After the first chorus one of the three percussionists hits a gong.

This is a serious world music faux pas. Gongs are for vaguely eastern/oriental world music songs. Stick with the congas, Toto.

Enraged by the eurocentric attitudes of Toto, an actual African man shows up.

See his ominous dark skin? Hurry boy! They’re waiting there for you!

The singer finds a promising book.

Title: Africa. It’s an English translation of Kafka’s book, Afrika. In Afrika, a young man travels from Prague to visit relatives in Africa and start a new life. When he arrives all his possessions are stolen, he is thrown into prison, and a shaman causes his flesh to wither away. Ultimately he starves to death in the desert when all his food is requisitioned by government officials. It’s a comedy.

Look out! He’s got a spear!

He throws it at a mask for some reason.

And misses.

The force of the spear causes a stack of books to topple into an old timey lamp.

Here are the librarian’s glasses. See how important they are?

I want to stress that there is no more explanation in the video than what I’m providing here. They provide multiple close-ups of the librarian’s broken glasses on the ground, but we have no idea why or what broke them. We assume it has something to do with the African man, but we don’t know the significance. Perhaps we are all blind to the issues of African people. From Morocco to Mozambique, all Africans have the same problem but we have no idea what it is. If only the pope would bless their rains.

A book in that pile that toppled was the book the singer’s kid ruined!

Naturally the book promptly catches fire, ruining it further.

Figuring that it doesn’t matter, the singer throws his piece of paper on the fire. The librarian will never find out now, and she wouldn’t be able to see anyway. Glasses.

At this point in the video the narrative is over. I am using the word narrative facetiously. The director of the video has a problem, though. The song isn’t over! He has a great idea. What if, during the video, some of the people watching had to go to the bathroom? What if someone walked in from another room and missed a section from the beginning of the video? The director decides to do a quick recap of the whole video in that last few seconds. He is now working in reality TV.

Singer finds book.

Man throws spear.

Books fall.

Fire.

And there you go. I wonder if Toto ever toured in Africa and how they felt when they discovered that there are many people already living there. That these people live in cities and are just as smart as they are.

Who knows? All the members of the band probably died in the fire anyways. If only there was some blessed rain to save them.

Wait! I almost forgot. There is a line in the song that is so wonderful. I always thought it was as follows: “I know that I must do what’s right. As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like an empress above the Serengeti.” Apparently the line is “rises like Olympus” which is significantly worse. Also, he pronounces it “Kilimanjero” which is very weird. I spend a lot of time thinking about that line. It’s wordy. It doesn’t fit well in the rhythm and requires stressing the wrong syllables in “Serengeti”. It makes no damn sense. It’s perfect.

-PTD

Aha.

Some bands have a different view of the world. They don’t fit neatly into categories or genres. Trio is such a band. They are minimalist, but without the seriousness you might think should go along with that. They use synths without being electronic. They avoid singing without rapping. They are a trio without the power.

Check out this weird and wonderful video for Da Da Da by Trio.

Nothing happens in this video and the scene does not change. Only three people appear in the video and all they do is play the song. I don’t get bored, though. Just like the song the video is simple and mesmerizing.

Everything is white except the band’s clothing and the umbrella.

The one guy in the back doesn’t even play at all until the chorus, so he just sits there. I love that the band is committed to showing how the song is made. The only part of the song you don’t see performed is the background vocals.

This guy sings. He is wearing a suit with a t-shirt. He also seems to have a button of some sort on his coat, but there is no information on it. That is minimalism. He has a keyboard in his pocket.

Yes, he is also happy to see you.

The drummer is very dedicated to never breaking character.

You have to admire that. Most people would be tempted to show off. This guy just keeps stone faced and plays the exact same thing over and over again.

Once the chorus starts we see that the other guy plays guitar.

Is that a lampshade on his head?

The whole trio is now rocking out. Notice that the singer never moves his feet the whole video.

Also, is he wearing sandals with socks? Or are those saddle shoes?

To keep us from excessive questioning he whips out his keyboard for a wicked solo.

They say he studied with Franz Liszt, pianist, Hungarian, ladies man, and unabashed Lisztomaniac.

The fact that Liszt died in 1886 is irrelevant.

After the chorus the band just listens to the sound of drumming and Casio keyboard beats.

Aha.

Aha. This is awesome! What other band would do that? U2? No, they would use this part to place Bono on a cross, or put a crown of thorns on his head. Motley Crue? They’d fill the whole time with Tommy Lee twirling his drumsticks while looking straight into the camera menacingly. Trio find the perfect way to keep us interested during the song’s downtime before the second verse.

During the pre-chorus section the drums stop and it is just Casio beats. During this time the drummer also sits down next to the guitar player.

Sometimes you need a rest.

The final chorus starts and everyone springs back into action.

The song is minimalist, the video is minimalist, and the singer’s hair is minimalist. Even the keyboard size is at the minimal level. I’ve never seen or heard a band do so much with so little. They really let their freak flag fly with flapping, flowing fronds. They leave layering for laymen and let lyrics lay low. The elements of the song exist all at the same level. The drums, keyboard, guitar, and vocals are on the same plane in the same white room. None of them come to the forefront.

And the song is so fun!

Aha.

-PTD