saturday night video

Featuring a heavy dose of Nippon by way of Berlin, Germany, Mitsune brings their blend of traditional folk sounds with a proggy psychedelic flair to KEXP. The songs center around the shamisen playing of Shiomi Kawaguchi and Youka Snell but have the rhythm backing of bass and drums. Colorful traditional costumes enhance the power of the music in what is almost as much of a visual as audio delight.

I’ve been coming back to this video quite a bit. I’m not sure anything could be farther from the Byzantine chants that will accompany the Pascha celebration at my Orthodox Church tonight, but I’m enjoying the thought of the contrast.

Mitsune – Live on KEXP (YouTube)

For this Friday Night Video, we’re going back a way, to the mid-nineties. Smashing Pumpkins had released Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness a fittingly grandiose title for an ambitious and widely varied double-album. At the time, I heard the first single, the “rat in cage” song, and I thought this latest effort wasn’t for me. I actually went out and sold my Smashing Pumpkins CDs, which I had been collecting since shortly after the release of their debut, Gish.

It wasn’t until later that I found out there were some strong tracks on the third official record from the band. “1979” is a well-loved classic. Even Pavement covered the song, and they had their own song with the lyrics, “I don’t understand what they mean, and I could really give a f**k,” referring to SP.

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