Frilly Military: a homemade pop video

[imomus]

Well, after telling you yesterday that some of my new stuff is "hits in a parallel universe", I thought I'd show you. Here's a homemade pop video I shot yesterday in Kyoto, cycling through a shopping arcade on the west side of the city. It's for "Frilly Military", one of the songs that'll be on the new album. Click the picture to see it. It's 15.7MB.



The song (a big hit in a parallel shopping arcade, for sure) is a reworking of one I wrote for Kahimi Karie back in 2001. I recorded and produced it in Osaka this month, and John Fashion Flesh Talaga reworked it (especially the skippy buildy bit at the end) in Bay City, Michigan. And now it's everywhere at once (there's even a blocky-dizzy low-res version of it on YouTube).

Oh, "Frilly Military" is published by Sony Music Japan. And the video was made with iMovie. Love those cheap and cheerful effects! My "Ocky Milk" album is due out this summer.

Comments

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Ah, Josef K videos (http://www.youtube.com/results?search=josef+k&search_type=search_videos&search=Search) on YouTube!

[dzima.livejournal.com]

Nice song.

One thing that your video makes very clear is the human way that you can ride a push bike in Japan. You don't have to compete with mad cars, wear useless jock's helmets and cope with random people yell/throw things at you like in, we all know your favourite enemy, The West/America.

[silenceinspades.livejournal.com]

that's sort of brilliant.
i've made some pop videos with imovie also
http://www.vimeo.com/clip=46992.
though i could not lip sync as professionaly as you.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Yes. Sometimes it even seems like the pendulum has swung to much in the bicycle's favour in Japan, when you can't change directly quickly on a sidewalk for fear of gettin hit by the bicycle that's inevitably coming up fast behind you. But I think it's totally worth it. I love the Japanese bicycle culture. That mall was such a joy to ride through. Riding on a bike on a warmish day (yesterday in Kyoto it touched 15C) through a Japanese city is just the most brilliant thing you can do.

[geeveecatullus.livejournal.com]

That's quite sweet, both the song and the video.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Nice, that had a sort of Devil Robots (http://www.devilrobots.com/) in hell feel to it! The scene with the frying poodle reminded me of when I was in a restaurant in Paris with Ariel Wizman and Julien Baer once, and they were petting someone's white poodle, and suddely they grabbed it, formed an Ubuesque procession, and trotted towards the kitchen singing "Aux micro-ondes! To the microwave!" Everyone in the restaurant tittered nervously, not knowing whether they quite meant it or not.

[cutup.livejournal.com]

That should be the recruitment video for an alternate universe military that only children can join. I think I'll watch that again now. See you in the acid bath!!!!

[646388.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed that a lot :)

[cheapsurrealist.livejournal.com]

Who was the camera operator? Another cyclist? Nice tracking.

Thanks for the free preview! I loved it.

[kojapan.livejournal.com]

I didn't get to see your new video yet but the name sparked an interest for other reasons, I think a 'frilly military' look should be my fashion goal for the next few months.

[tassellrealm.livejournal.com]

Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag and chante, danse babypop.

Very nice.

[(Anonymous)]

Fantastic song, Momus!

The guitar at the begining reminds me of 'Travels with a donkey'.

I was wondering if you totally scrapped the Rusty sessions, or if not, how much Rusty is on your new album?

Daniel

[(Anonymous)]

Its gimmicky, but here is something that reminded me of parallel univereses
http://cacazan.com/sarubun/terra060112.html

[fishwithissues.livejournal.com]

awesome great song and video. the subtle vocodering is really pleasing to the ear, which is unsual for vocoding. my favorite part is the end of the musical breakdown when the the screen brightens to white for a moment (was that added in imovie or a happy accident of auto-exposure?). it fits really well with the music.
looking forward to hearing the whole frilly, friendly album.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

That's a filter called white flash in iMovie, and it took a while to get it in time with John Talaga's big synth crash drum sound!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Six out of the 14 tracks were recorded by Rusty. I like what he did (especially a radical reworking he made of a song called "Ex-Erotomane"), it's just that my songwriting wasn't really focused while he was in Berlin.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

It's mostly just me doing handheld filming as I ride along. But the scenes where you see me on the bike are by Hisae.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Given the choice I'd prefer the scenario where the people massively adopt bicycles and the government spurns them to the scenario where the government advocates bicycles and the people spurn them.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Oh, by the way, thanks for the Cafe Sarasa advice. Great place!

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Bicycles and videos go well together.

What does ocky milk taste like? Is it good with cereal?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Fingers crossed for Marxy-style demographically-powered termial decline, then!

[jasongtokyo.livejournal.com]

Nice one. The break in the middle of the song reminds me of pre-Parklife Blur, which is a good thing. You may have a real hit.

For those interested, here's a link to a downloadable copy (http://www.savefile.com/projects/445752) of the video for Morrissey's new single "You Have Killed Me," which first aired last night on UK TV. It spoofs an old Eurovision broadcast. The tune is a bit "Morrissey-lite," but definitely a grower. I love that he namedrops directors Pasolini and Visconti.

[stanleylieber.livejournal.com]

It sounds like something that might be produced by a squid or octopus -- patron saints of the Internet -- were they mammals.

[cityramica.livejournal.com]

....hmm.
????[characters cannot be translated]

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Listening to Gladys Knight at the moment. She may not be ocky, but damn if she ain't milky.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm very much with you on the bicycles issue. Of course I'd like to see popular support and government support for the bicycle. It's just that a theme I've been circling around quite a lot recently is that virtue is neither the result of freedom of individual choice nor of government legislation. Virtues like bicycle-riding, high-density living, communal living, bloat-free software, a bloat-free body-shape, organic food, slow life, ecologically-sustainable lifestyles, low-to-no emissions... these are better achieved by -- I won't say poverty, but by people finding their material affluence capped at a certain level, and adopting austerity measures. Some have suggested that the most virtuous income level is around $20,000 a year, and I tend to agree. That's exactly the right figure to make car ownership prohibitive, for instance.

Momus becomes parallel universe Pet Shop Boys again

[ambiguboi.livejournal.com]

The auto-tune, military references and camcorder street footage make this your return to parallel universe Pet Shop Boys, in the style of their 2003? song and video for London.

Re: Momus becomes parallel universe Pet Shop Boys again

[ambiguboi.livejournal.com]

Except did I mention that this is far better?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Bicycle friendliness is some complex function of population density, environmental surroundings, and urban design.

I'm sure Whimsy would like to join me in adding to that list aesthetics, morality and culture!

Wow

[dominik500.livejournal.com]

I can't even believe how much I love this song. If this is a taste of what's to come, summer can't come soon enough. Great job!!!

[jemly.livejournal.com]

hi thanks for sharing this,
i was just now able to see it .

cheap effects done right = 10000x more affective than expensive effects done wrong .......

and i watched it a few times in a row in order to soothe the ear worm the song created.
very catchy.

lovely.

[reflejos.livejournal.com]

Me encantó.

[bartkolounger.livejournal.com]

I love it!

Do you guys really like virtual Sex and Porn?!

[(Anonymous)]

Came back after 3-day trip with my boyfriend Jack, opened mail, and got about 46 letters with porn, porn, and once more porn. Links to any kind of porn, even something disgusting.
Huh, and that was really smth out of my mind:
how could that girl tolerate all that??
http://lesbian-sex.sex-movies-xxx.info
any comments, guys?

poodle

[nlgordaz.livejournal.com]

Hey, what kind of Poodle (http://poodlepower.net) was it? A standard poodle, toy, or miniature poodle (http://www.aaapets.com/pet_lovers/breeds/poodle.php)?
Best,
Lane

Frilly Military

[(Anonymous)]

I love this song, Momus. Great video too. Found you via Flasher for the first time. Great work. I will follow.
-Scupper