It’s Friday, so here’s the video for “Can U Dig It?” by Pop Will Eat Itself
I normally don’t like linking to music videos on the web, because you never know how long they’re going to be around for. Inevitably, you’ll click on a link and discover that a video is no longer available because a record company kicked up some dust and got it pulled from the web. I’ve always thought that to be a weirdly protective attitude about what’s essentially a commercial for a product they sell, but those are the rules and there you go.
When I heard about Vevo, the new streaming site that’s now hosting a bunch of content from Universal, Sony and EMI, I was intrigued. Theoretically, this could be a site where the average video would have a more permanent home, because the only people with a case for pulling it would be the people who put it up there in the first place.
But the problem with Vevo, at least in these early days, is that you won’t find a lot of what you’re looking for. And the problem with YouTube, as always, is that you can’t really trust the quality of anything that’s actually managed to escape the attention of the record companies. I wanted to bring you the video for “Can U Dig It?” by Pop Will Eat Itself this morning, but the only options available were a clip with a really choppy frame rate and a version where the audio was way out of sync.
So here it is, courtesy of Yahoo! Video. Hopefully it will still be available by the time you click this link. Also, I’m sorry about all the ads.
What do you say we put all this nonsense behind us and take a moment to enjoy the simple pleasure of sharing something cool with people on the web? “Can U Dig It?” is a great way to go, not only because it’s a pretty cool song with a cartoonishly fun video, but also because it’s a song about a bunch of stuff that the band was into at the time. It works on so many levels!
By the way, the guy in the turtleneck is Clint Mansell. He’s the guy who composed the score for Requiem for a Dream about a decade after this video was shot. “Lux Aeterna,” the score’s recurring theme, went on to be featured in every single film, trailer or television commercial that ever needed a little dramatic tension. I guarantee you’ve heard it many, many times.
So basically, that lanky nerd who told the world that he liked Alan Moore in 1989 is probably set for life now. And you know what? Good for him.
Posted in It's Friday
I didn’t even know that song HAD a video. I’m a little teary-eyed after that.
Tears of joy, I hope.
Incidentally, for those who haven’t checked it out. Mansell also did the “Pi” soundtrack. He backed that one up with a brief cameo in the film; he’s the photographer who shouted “I’m just a student! I’m doing an assignment for class!” The voice was a bit of a giveaway.