Outstandingly crisp video of Otis Redding performing the following setlist in Paris on his birthday (parts II-IV after the break):

Part I: Introduction, Shake, Don’t Mess With Cupid
Part II: My Girl, I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (for me, the highlight of the set), Respect
Part III: My Lover’s Prayer, Can’t Turn You Loose, Satisfaction

In Part IV, a bunch of French folks in the audience sing “Happy Birthday” to Otis.  A thousand thanks to whomever posted this. For more live Otis, snatch In Person at the Whisky a Go Go.

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Want.

Holy shit! Watch this before it gets taken down. The sound and picture quality are totally whack, but this version of “Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)” is epic.

Prince and Wendy Melvoin are pretty front and center throughout, and you can kind of make out Matt Fink and Bobby Z. in the background. Brown Mark’s bass neck makes it into the left of the frame, and I guess Lisa Coleman has her keyboard rig set up on the other side of the drums.

[thx O.W.]
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The District may be buried under a modest amount of snow at the moment, but here’s hoping we’re not too far off from the warm environs of this post-apocalyptic, pseudo-futuristic, western music video. Lensed by James Cameron for Bill Paxton’s band Martini Ranch, “Reach” is a most bizarre reunion for the casts and crews of Aliens and Near Dark — including Kathryn Bigelow, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, and Jenette “LET’S ROCK” Goldstein.

The music gods certainly don’t look kindly upon the song itself, but sometimes you can’t help but enjoy something that sounds like a Stock Aitken Waterman production and includes Judge Reinhold getting credit for whistling. For the truly adventurous/masochistic, the song can be found on their 1988 album, “Holy Cow.”

[via My Life as a Mixtape]

GERMAN BOLD ITALIC — the one, and only, song about a typeface (which was included as a .ttf on the CD single!). Being a Kylie superfan, it is mildly perplexing how the video for this song eluded me until today. From Towa Tei’s 1998 album, Sound Museum. Video by Stéphane Sednaoui.

Towa Tei - Sound Museum (1998)

01. Sound Museum
02. Time After Time
03. Happy
04. B.M.T.
05. Higher
06. Corridor
07. GBI (German Bold Italic)
08. Tamilano
09. Private Eyes
10. Everything We Do Is Music

[via Music Heaven]

Hail young knaves, your new anthem for pillage and plunder is here! Prince’s extra special fight song for the Minnesota Vikings may be lacking in the musical department, however, considering he probably wrote, recorded and released it all in the span of about 15 minutes, it actually sounds pretty OK.

Trailer Trash Tracys - “Candy Girl”

Equal parts Twin Peaks and Jesus and Mary Chain. Exactly the kind of hissy, sludgy, recorded-from-another-room, shoegaze crap that I’m totally in the mood for right now. “Candy Girl” and two more tracks of the same ilk are up on their Myspace page.

[ thx to T.V. / via Seven Noises ]

Video by Ed Tannenbaum. Music by Mighty Dog (?), a group that has managed to escape being logged by the world wide interwebs. Dancing by Pons Maar, who likely has the coolest name on this, or any, planet. See the same effect in action on this National Geographic special, and this episode of Fame.

As if the baby making anthems “Choosey Lover” and “Between the Sheets” weren’t enough to carry The Isley Brothers’ 1983 LP Between the Sheets, the bros go and throw this house-ish number in towards the end for good measure. Good on you dudes.

The Isley Brothers - Between
the Sheets (1983)

01. Choosey Lover
02. Touch Me
03. I Need Your Body
04. Between the Sheets
05. Let’s Make Love Tonight
06. Ballad for the Fallen Soldier
07. Slow Down Children
08. Way Out Love
09. Gettin’ Over
10. Rock You Good

[via So Good Music]

Check those lucite guitars and Orange amps! Curved Air’s “Back Street Luv,” from their aptly titled second album, Second Album, hit number four on UK charts in August of 1971. The vocals on the album version have a groovy stereo effect going for them, though the rest of the LP is a bit middling. However, definitely scope the punchy, propulsive “Everdance.” I’d bet $10 that Stereolab has jonesed on it pretty hard at some point.

Curved Air - Second Album (1971)

01. Young Mother
02. Back Street Luv
03. Jumbo
04. You Know
05. Puppets
06. Everdance
07. Bright Summer’s Day ‘68
08. Piece of Mind

[album via Rock Revolt]