Friday Video – The Housemartins, “Happy Hour”

Click here to listen to the Housemartins’ London 0 Hull 4 on Spotify

Frankly, we’re surprised we didn’t feature this song in this column earlier. It’s upbeat, it’s catchy, and it’s about having a drink or three with your mates. What’s not to love? Oh, right, that whole misogynist subtext. (Sample lyric: “And then we ask all the questions, and you take all your clothes off, and go back to the kitchen sink.”) Yeah, sorry about that.

But hey, look, Norman “Fatboy Slim” Cook is on the right in the white cardigan sweater! That’s right, Fatboy Slim was the Housemartins’ bass player, and a damn good bass player at that. Funny that he decided to scrap instruments for turntables. Not that we’re complaining, because it led to this giagantic slice of awesomeness.

Sigh. we’re still stinging from the death of MCA last Friday. *pours out 40*

We saw Fatboy Slim open up for the Chemical Brothers in 1999. Cook threw out a ridiculous hodgepodge of tunes, from Prince to the Kinks, and it all worked remarkably well. When he played his own remix of the Beastie Boys’ “Body Movin’,” though, he blew the roof off the joint, and even the Chemicals had a hard time topping it. It was one of those ‘right place, right time’ moments. And we were there, man.

Happy Friday, everyone. May your weekend be one of those ‘right place, right time’ moments.

  

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Friday Video – Beastie Boys three-pack

We wanted to use their new single “Make Some Noise” in this slot, but the only version of the song on YouTube is sped up in order to avoid prosecution by the Web Sheriff, and it just sounds wonky. So we’re going with these instead. First up: “Body Movin,” which seems like a spoof of ’60s spy movies but then Mike D is wearing a Beethoven wig. The remix of the song here is arguably the best thing Fatboy Slim has ever done.

Next, we have “Ch-Ch-Check It Out,” performed live on “Late Night with David Letterman.” Shot with a fish-eye lens on the streets of New York City, the band performs the track while walking the streets and into the back door of Letterman’s studio and hits the stage in the second chorus. Sweeeeet.

And how about this for last-minute timing: the official video for “Make Some Noise” just dropped. Man, Elijah Wood does an uncanny Ad Rock.