music blog

Deep from the depths of the retroblog music vault comes today’s featured song: video killed the radio star. it’s hard to believe the song is nearly 30 years old!! as a testament to the songwriting (Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley) and the performance (the Buggles), the song still gets a fair amount of airplay and is still beloved by fans worldwide. You really have to give Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes credit b/c the recording skillfully balances musicianship, humor and sci-fi without becoming overly campy which the song easily could have fallen into.

VKTRS by The Buggles - according to wikipedia, the Buggles’ version isn’t the original. co-writer Bruce Woolley released the very first version of VKTRS on his album English Garden by Woolley & the Camera Club (with Thomas Dolby on keyboards). the Horn/Downes version is still my all time favorite. classic!

VKTRS by Geoff Downes (instrumental version) - often performed by Geoff Downes as a solo piece in concert, here’s a studio version performed by Geoff Downes on piano. another favorite of mine.

VKTRS by Geoff Downes with Glenn Hughes - for some reason, Downes decided to add Glenn Hughes on top of his solo piano version. not the best of decisions in my opinion. the instrumental version is the better of the two.

VKTRS by Ben Folds Five - a faithful cover by Ben Folds. lots of energy and a bit sloppy. it’s a fun listen.

VKTRS by Asia (live) - here’s John Wetton, Geoff Downes, Steve Howe and Carl Palmer performing their version of this classic tune. surprisingly Asia’s version is pretty crappy IMO. Palmer plays it a bit too fast with absolutely no groove and Howe just noodles on top of everything. blah.

The long sought after episodes of the short-lived Dana Carvey Show are now available on Hulu!! long time fans have been clamoring for a DVD release but this will probably have to do for now. originally airing on ABC in 1996, the risk-taking series never had a chance to find an audience and was canceled after seven episodes. an already taped eighth episode never aired but is now available for viewing online. Carvey had some great talent involved with the show including Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Robert Smigel and even writer Charlie Kaufman. there are a ton of memorable comedy sketches from the show including one of my all time favorites called “the Waiters who are nauseated by food” which features Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert.

I don’t know about you but I can barely make plans a week in advance so obviously purchasing tickets to concerts MONTHS in advance can be hit or miss on my end of things. life is in a constant state of change so thoroughly detailed plans can be disrupted at a moments notice. it can be difficult but that’s life for ya. so what can you do with concert tickets you can’t use? well, there’s a great Free Ticket Exchange website where people can auction off tickets with no high fees involved in the transactions.

It is set up like an online social network so that fans of similar artists and tastes in music can find each other and interact with one another. with online profiles on the site, you’ll know exactly who you’re buying tickets from and by simply browsing through their transaction history, you can get a good sense of their reputation as a seller/buyer. with available tickets divided into categories like sports, concerts, theater and community, you can quickly and easily find a show of interest. so, go ahead and sign up, it’s free. once you’ve set up a profile and build a good network of folks with similar interests, buying/selling tickets on the site will be a snap.