Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Nitzer Ebb - Lightning Man
Another video that I recall being used for credits montage clips on Teletunes.
Les Rhythmes Digitales - Hey You What's That Sound?
well over a decade before hipsters plundered the 80s, this song's video came out.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
The Breeders - Cannonball
After the Pixies self destructed, Kim Deal formed this band with her sister Kelly. Their album "Last Splash" was great, but they faltered, I think due to drug problems. I saw them play Fort Collins a year or two before the Pixies reunion. It was good times.
Frank Black - Headache
off Mr. Black Francis' Teenager of the Year album. Did I commit an indie rock sin by buying this before Doolittle?
The Pixies - Velouria
A perennial favorite. I was so glad to see these guys at Red Rocks when they reunited.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Lush - Ladykillers
While America was drowning its sorrows post-grunge in flannel shirts and grandma sweaters, across the pond the English music scene emerged from a stir fried raver scene and hearkened back to the Beatles, filtered through a post-punk haze. I remember reading an interview with Liam Gallagher of Oasis talking about how he thought that Nirvana's attitude on their song "I Hate Myself and Wish I Was Dead" was "shite".
Now, hate Oasis all you want, but you gotta admit that there was a lot of good music in Brit Pop, certainly better than the crap that America was listening to at the time, like Seven Mary Three or Live.
Stone Roses - Love Spreads
Ahh, pretty much the prototype for Brit Pop was the Stone Roses, I remember really liking this song when it was new.
Oasis - Live Forever
Ahh, what a breath of fresh air. All the pessimism of grunge, gone! Too bad it'll all self destruct in a few short years. It was fun while it lasted though.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Rocket From the Crypt - UFO - Live in Denver, 1997
Rocket From The Crypt at 7 South (now The Hi-Dive), 9/29/1997.
Dink - Green Mind
Because of the breakthrough success of Nine Inch Nails, record labels signed up every piece of poop pseudo-industrial band they could find. While that lead to major label success for worthy acts like Ministry it also brought a huge ammount of crap into the mainstream. Crap like Dink. It's pretty funny to watch this now, though.
Vintage Blinky the Clown clip
Man, I miss Blinky. I wish I'd gotten a chance to visit his antiques store before he died. :(
Frontline Assembly - Mindphaser
Ahh yeah, one of my favorite videos from my teen years. Most of the footage is from a Japanese movie called Gunhed. I just love the cyberpunk visuals.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
South Park - The Casa Bonita Episode
http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/103925
Yet another Colorado Generation Xer favorite, Casa Bonita, featured in an episode of South Park. All my relatives from out of town thought Casa Bonita was made up for the show.
Yet another Colorado Generation Xer favorite, Casa Bonita, featured in an episode of South Park. All my relatives from out of town thought Casa Bonita was made up for the show.
Luscious Jackson - Naked Eye
Luscious Jackson - Naked Eye
Uploaded by hushhush112. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.
ahh, the Beastie Boys' Grand Royale label brought us a lot of crap, but these ladies were quite good. Featuring Kate Schellenbach their former drummer from the some old bullshit era.
Elastica - Stutter
Elastica actually paid royalties to Wire for the riffs they cribbed, no joke. I had the hugest crush on Justine Frischman for most of my High School years, too bad she got all drug addicted and crazy looking, much like Winona Rider.
Eve's Plum - Jesus Loves You (Not As Much As I Do)
Alright 1990s alternative pop, the girl from this band later went on to become that Vitamin C chick who had that stupid novelty song that got played at everyone's graduations.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
KMFDM - Vogue
Footage from this was used for the Teletunes credits, mainly the video of Sascha riding on the boat.
New Order - True Faith
This video will make you go "WTF kind of drugs were they on" then you listen to the lyrics and go "Oh, Ecstasy, DUH".
Depeche Mode - Strange Love '88
I remember Roman on Teletunes making a joke about how his shop teacher called these guys "Depp-ee-chee Mode" before introducing this video. I still think of that every time I hear this song.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Sisters of Mercy - Lucretia, My Reflection
I once worked with a girl named Lucretia, she'd never heard of this song. Sucks. Hear I am with a fuckin' Rick Springfield song with my name in the title that I loathe and she's clueless to the fucking awesome goth song with her name. Strange world.
Terminal Power Company - The Hunger, TheHeat
Yet more weird industrial videos that I never saw anywhere else but on Teletunes.
Monday, January 18, 2010
ABC - How to be a Millionaire
A Very Pressing Concern in the 80s. I remember this being part of the Alphabet of Teletunes Videos at A, for Animation.
The Cure - Friday I'm In Love
Remember the old skits 93.3 ran about some hayseed farmer reminiscing about the time the Cure came to his town? Fuck, those were hilarious. Too bad 93.3 doesn't exist anymore. Much like Teletunes.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
MC 900 Foot Jesus - If I Only Had a Brain
Pretty much, this guy's self depreciating lyrical style prefigured Eminem by years, too bad he never broke big. Video also by the one and only Spike Jonez.
ALL - Million Bucks
FC's own post-Descendents music project, ALL. Featuring the musical part of the Descendents with a vocalist who'd later go on to form Drag the River. Growing up in Fort Collins, I probably saw these guys perform, i dunno, 30 times? A LOT. Good stuff, today's shitty pop punk should take a lesson from them.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
16 Horsepower - Black Soul Choir
Denver's own 16 Horsepower with breakthrough track, Black Soul Choir. Some of these guys are in Slim Cessna's Auto Club now, I think.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Barnes & Barnes - Fishheads
I Remember watching this video a lot on Teletunes. It has the aesthetic certainly.
Fishbone - Party At Ground Zero
Probably one of the best Third Wave ska bands from the late 80s, this song is a very 80s affair, full 80s era zeitgeist anxiety about nuclear war.
The Timelords (The KLF) - Doctorin' The Tardis
My two favorite things on public television ever: Teletunes and Doctor Who. This song by noted electronic musicians/media tricksters/reality hackers The KLF is the novelty hit that made them millions of pounds, that they ended up burning in a bit of performance art.
Some Facebook Groups for You To Join
Fans of Teletunes - "For those who grew up watching the best music video show of the 1980s: Teletunes, on KBDI in Denver, CO."
Oldskool Denver - "Are you a Denver GenXer? A Tattooed Taxpayer? An Ex-Skater? A Grown-Up Goth? A Postpunk Parent? Did you hang out at Muddy's or Paris on the Platte, drinking espressos, vanilla cokes, and smoking cloves til 4:AM? Were you a small fry in the 70's, a teen in the 80's, and you miss the original Elitch's and Celebrity Fun Center? Did you celebrate your pre-adolescent Birthdays at Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor, or the Organ Grinder? Did you frequent Inxxs, Norman's, Rock Island, Club L.A. or Ground Zero, and shop at Imi Jimi and FashioNation? Then this group is for you!"
Oldskool Denver - "Are you a Denver GenXer? A Tattooed Taxpayer? An Ex-Skater? A Grown-Up Goth? A Postpunk Parent? Did you hang out at Muddy's or Paris on the Platte, drinking espressos, vanilla cokes, and smoking cloves til 4:AM? Were you a small fry in the 70's, a teen in the 80's, and you miss the original Elitch's and Celebrity Fun Center? Did you celebrate your pre-adolescent Birthdays at Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor, or the Organ Grinder? Did you frequent Inxxs, Norman's, Rock Island, Club L.A. or Ground Zero, and shop at Imi Jimi and FashioNation? Then this group is for you!"
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Sort of like Teletunes, if you have cable/sattelite
Now, I know you've got the jones for Teletunes, or you wouldn't be watching this blog. The slimy corporate masters at MTV have bequeathed that a "Classic 120 Minutes" (formerly The Alternative) show is to be aired on their VH1-Classic channel. It's basically a lot of the same content as Teletunes, but you know, lamer. It's like the methodone that alleviates the sickness of junk withdrawal but it doesn't really get you high. It doesn't help that they only show Classic 120 Minutes at crappy hours.
Peep this example playlist and see if it's not close to Teletunes.
Peep this example playlist and see if it's not close to Teletunes.
RIP Dannie Flesher, Co-Founder of Wax Trax Records
http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/turn_it_up/2010/01/wax-trax-cofounder-dannie-flesher-dies-at-57.html
Wax Trax Records was started in Denver in the 1970s by Dannie and his partner Jim, they later sold the store and moved to Chicago where they started up another store also called Wax Trax. They specialized in hard to find imports of early punk and electronic music, eventually starting their own label that epitomized the "disco industrial" sound Chicago was famous for in the late 80s early 90s. Bands signed to Wax Trax included Ministry, KMFDM, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, Coil, Underworld and others, most of which went onto great success after the label folded.
Definitely a man whom Teletunes owed a great debt to its musical selections and founding the Denver record store institution Wax Trax, which is still operational to this day.
(Laibach - Across the Universe)
Wax Trax Records was started in Denver in the 1970s by Dannie and his partner Jim, they later sold the store and moved to Chicago where they started up another store also called Wax Trax. They specialized in hard to find imports of early punk and electronic music, eventually starting their own label that epitomized the "disco industrial" sound Chicago was famous for in the late 80s early 90s. Bands signed to Wax Trax included Ministry, KMFDM, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, Coil, Underworld and others, most of which went onto great success after the label folded.
Definitely a man whom Teletunes owed a great debt to its musical selections and founding the Denver record store institution Wax Trax, which is still operational to this day.
(Laibach - Across the Universe)
The Stranglers - Golden Brown
Ahh, another video from the 80s school of making a weird little movie that had little to do with the lyrics of the song. Much like "Gold" by Spandau Ballet or "Hungry like the Wolf" by Duran Duran.
Duran Duran - Wild Boys
Okay, there's a bit of story for this one.
Years ago, William S. Burroughs wrote a book called The Wild Boys about a proto-cyberpunk homosexual pirate utopia of drugs and s&m. It was very William S. Burroughs. A director acquired the rights to the story, but unsurprisingly found it hard to sell to a studio (I mean, who doesn't want a big budget sci-fi spectacular about gay pirates?).
Anyway, he was friends with the band Duran Duran and with the help of what I assume was a mountain of cocaine, convinced them to 1, write a song based on the book and 2, make a long form music video of them in lieu of a feature film.
And that's the story behind the story.
KMFDM - A Drug Against War
KMFDM has everything a teenage boy wants: loud, thrashing music, ambiguous politics and awesome comic book style art. This video by them was never ever topped, mainly because they pretty much used all their cool album cover art in it.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Concrete Blonde - Caroline
Okay, at this point, you're just assuming that I've made up Teletunes and this actually a blog about my adolescent fixations on strippers and gogo dancers. No, I promise it's not. It's just that seriously, most videos I recall teletunes playing in the 90s seemed to feature burlesque of some degree.
I like the "dream" sequence in the middle where everyone is nicely dressed in this video. Concrete Blonde was such a great band, too bad no one really remembers them anymore. Most millenials probably haven't even heard of them. Go download "Bloodletting", it's their best album
Deelite - Groove is in the Heart
Christ, we're really seeing into where my adolescent libido was at with these videos, aren't we? Oh man, Lady Miss Kier... (it's a generation x thing, like winona ryder)
My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - Sex on Wheels
this video made me want to join a thrill kill kult. it also made me want to see Cool World, which was probably a worse life choice than the latter. Yet another video that made even me as a teenager question Channel 12's showing of Teletunes.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Romeo Void - Never Say Never
Great New Wave song but I was always disappointed that the girl singing it looked like Rosie O'Donnell. Kind of ominous how she says "never say never" to the idea of us sleeping together
Daisy Chainsaw - Love Your Money
Certainly a band that 1, I never would have known about without Teletunes and 2, have never seen since.
Ministry - Jesus Built My Hotrod
OH SHIT! MINISTRY + GIBBY HANES OF THE BUTTHOLE SURFERS!!! Holy shit!!!!!!! I was right, it's like Reese' Peanut Butter Cup!
The Butthole Surfers - Who Was in My Room Last Night?
A perfect companion piece to the previous video by RevCo, they both seem to be pretty close to the same idea. I wonder if these Butthole Surfers guys ever met the guys from Ministry?
Revolting Cocks - Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?
Oh man, this video was too awesome when I first saw it on Teletunes. It combined everything the teenage me loved: Ministry, crazy covers of shitty Rod Stewart songs, the promise of naked women, sleazy video and bizzaro antics. Gotta the deadpan delivery and the what-kind-of-drugs-were-they-on look.
Friday, January 8, 2010
The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds
The Orb made me stop and reconsider my "electronic music sucks" attitude I had for a long time. I saw them first on Teletunes, though I remember KTCL (back when they weren't some failure Clear Channel station) playing the long version of this song off and on in the summmer of 1993 while I worked construction for my dad's company. It was good times on the walkman when that came on.
Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party
the guy who makes all of tim burton's movies' music had this new wave band back in the day. dig the early stop motion preconfiguring the nightmare before christmas?
The Cure - Close to Me
I loved how the video synchs with the audio, in particular, the comb playing the keyboards.
Nitzer Ebb - Kick It
They seemed to play this video every week for a while. Good song, probably the only good one off that album. I loved the weird American Bandstand/Soul Train look of the video, but filled with the kind of dorky kids who liked industrial rock instead.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Bjork - Army of Me
Excellent video from Ms. Guðmundsdóttir's sophomore release, Post with early work from Michel Gondry. I used to listen to album on my walkman and pretended I was a spy.
Black Flag - TV Party
Another Teletunes favorite, I guess part of the irony was that I was usually having a TV party that night while I watched it.
Peter Murphy - Cuts You Up
Teletunes turned me onto Peter Murphy's music, I think I ended up buying two solo cds of his, plus a bunch of Bauhaus. Good stuff.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Westword's Teletunes Post Mortem from 1999
Google searching for Teletunes turned up this awesome in depth history of Teletunes, framed with the story of its final days. Seriously, KBDI 12, you should have kept Teletunes.
Ever wonder wtf the teletunes theme song was?
It's "I've Been Waiting for Tomorrow (All of My Life)" by The The, thanks to the technology of Shazam's iphone app I've solved this mystery that's bothered me for like 20 years.
Ministry - Just One Fix
MINISTRY - just one fix
Uploaded by punkakademy. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.
I remember the footage of William S. Buroughs and his freaky hand motions was used on the credits for Teletunes for a while. Great video and one of the most hard rockin', heaviest songs ever.
What was Teletunes?
Teletunes
KBDI Channel 12 | MySpace Video
Only the most awesome music video show ever! It ran on channel 12 in Denver for almost 20 years and started BEFORE MTV! It turned on thousands of disaffected Colorado youth all kinds of alternative rock! Everything from Peter Gabriel to Front 242 to Public Enemy.
This blog hopes to capture the thrills of watching teletunes back in the day with plenty of videos found off youtube and other hosting sites. Please feel free to contact us with anything you think should be on here!
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