We conclude this day and month with this final video. Don't worry, there are some plans for daily content for August. It won't be about music videos but it'll still be great. Today's video is Bowie's In Space. It is by the Flight of the Concords and is 3 minutes long. Try to control yourself as you watch it.
Huh. The earlier Flight of the Concords song was one of the best songs of the month, yet this one was disappoining. I had a hard time understanding the band members and the song didn't pick up till half way through.
This song is like the end of the trilogy of space themed music videos we did this month. This song is all about poking fun at David Bowie's Space Oddity by making Bowie the object of the song.
We start with some glowing green anime figure going into warp or something. But who cares? We see the glasses guy through a cylinder. The other guy shows up and they start singing about Bowie being in space. I just realized that they were mocking Bowie with the way they sing the song. I guess it's funnier if you're more familiar with Bowie and Space Oddity, but it went over my head. It's still a little annoying. Glasses guy asks if Bowie if it's cold. They're joking that Bowie is lost in space, just like the Major Tom character. While we see the two float around in a spaceship they ask Bowie if his nipples are hard from the cold and if they act as antennae. Hopefully Bowie wrote a song called "Nunya!"
They ask him if he has several space suits, mocking his Changes song. They ask him if he smokes grass or astroturf. I'm not sure what that refers to but they probably just zinged him. I have to poin out that glasses guy looks a bit like Austin Powers, especially from the awful second movie.
Suddenly the song picks up and gets more cheerful. This is an odd shift, but I did complain that Space Oddity shifted gears for no apparent reason. We see multi-colored astronauts play instruments as our protagonists wear dumb silver costumes. Glasses guy calls up the other guy whose floating alone in space and they have a "Bowie to Bowie" conversation. They chat and other guy says he's hanging out with Mick Jagger-nauts. We get to the tragedy part and the other guy describes it as a lsd trip. Oops, the dirty secret of Major Tom is out now. The spaceship, which looks Enterprise-ish, goes off in the distance.
This song is a little better than I first thought, but I still find the way they sing annoying. It's like they're trying to hard at the fake accents. The second part of the song is definitely stronger than the first part. The video is ok, except for all those tight suits. Bleh.
The awesome part is the keyboard controls for the ship. It's impractically but it's cool, especially under the old space controls.
Thanks for reading my entries. See you next time!
4 comments:
I can't believe you didn't get that line (Do you smoke grass out in space or do you smoke astroturf?). It's my favorite line in the song, and indeed is the Awesome thing. If that line weren't in there, I probably wouldn't have liked this song enough to include it.
I know it's a bit weird and not really a song you can dance to, but I like it ok. It also wraps up the mini David Bowie/Major Tom theme that kind of developed over the course of the month.
And these guys are from New Zealand, remember. I don't think those accents are as put-on as you do.
While I love this song, I don't think that line was as awesome as Lita declares it to be. It's just alright.
This is probably my favorite Flight of the Conchords song because when I first saw it on HBO I laughed my ass off over it. Jemaine (Glasses Guy to you, Torrk) had just done a scene where he appeared as David Bowie in Bret's dream, and the impersonation cracked me up so hard. So I was all set up to think this song was awesome, based on Jemaine's hilarious impression of David Bowie.
I don't know why you'd think the accents were fake, either. You're crazy.
That said, I am extremely saddened to see the end of Music Video July. It, along with Black History Month, is one of my favorite things about your blog. I guess I have the bit in August to look forward to, but I have a feeling it won't hold the same fun factor for me. :o(
Thank you, Lita and Torrk, for teaching us to laugh and love... again!
You should wrap up your video project with one of those One Shining Moment videos like the NCAAs. That'd be awesome.
Not having seen the entire episode this line came from, I didn't have the buildup of awesome David Bowie impressions. I had to choose the awesome thing as I saw it.
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