Bush- Letting the Cables Sleep
This song is from Bush’s 1999 album, The Science of Things. Bush disbanded in 2002, reformed in 2010, and have since released two albums, The Sea of Memories in 2010 and Man on the Run in 2014. The video for Letting the Cables Sleep was directed by Joel Schumacher, who also directed many feature films including The Lost Boys and St. Elmo’s Fire.
Bush is currently on tour and playing the Wiltern on Saturday (1/31).
Spandau Ballet- True
This song, from the album of the same name, was a number one hit on the UK singles chart for four weeks in 1983. The band’s name, according to Martin Kemp’s autobiography, came from graffiti of the slang term seen by friend Robert Elms in a bar in Berlin. The term is a reference to the Spandau Prison in Germany where prisoners were often hanged by the drop method which caused them to twitch and “dance”.
Lead singer Gary Kemp and his brother Martin, who plays bass guitar for the band, are both actors, and are perhaps most famous for playing twin English gangsters in The Krays.
Spandau Ballet are playing two shows in Los Angeles this weekend (1/24 and 1/25) at The Wiltern
The (English) Beat- Mirror in the Bathroom
This song is from The Beat’s (The English Beat in America) 1980 album, I Just Can’t Stop It. The band is now split into two touring bands- the US version led by Dave Wakeling and the UK version led by Ranking Roger, both members of the original 80’s group.
The US band are playing at The Roxy on Saturday 1/17.
Stevie Wonder- Superstition live on Sesame Street
This live-in-the studio version of Superstition was performed on Sesame Street in 1973.
Wonder will be playing at the Forum theater this Saturday, December 20th, for the 19th Annual House Full of Toys Benefit Concert.
The Smashing Pumpkins- Tonight, Tonight
This song is from The Smashing Pumpkins 1996 album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. The video was directed by husband and wife team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who also created the feature film Little Miss Sunshine. It was inspired by A Trip to The Moon, Georges Méliès’ famous silent movie. The couple in the video are also a couple in real life and are both voices for animated characters. Tom Kenny is the voice of Spongebob Squarepants (among many others) and Jill Talley is the voice of Karen, Plankton’s computer wife, on the same show.
The Smashing Pumpkins are touring with a new album (although not the other original members) and Billy Corgan has been getting a lot of press recently for his candid remarks about other bands and singers in an interview in The Independent and on the Howard Stern show.
The Smashing Pumpkins are one of the bands playing at the Forum Sunday (12/14) for KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas, which also features alt-J, Imagine Dragons, Interpol, Modest Mouse, Tears for Fears, Vance Joy, and Weezer.
For more work by Moncho 1929, check out their website.