Ep. 112-Sour Times (Portishead)

Al, Louie & Ryan discuss the twists and turns of Portishead’s music video for “Sour Times” and its short film companion "To Kill A Dead Man" to find out if nobody loves us.

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
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Hello and welcome to episode one twelveThrowback Music Video Review Podcast, and

(00:28):
tonight we will be reviewing portois HeadsSour Times. Nobody Loves Me? You
held back there? Hello? Iknow right, it's not It wasn't in
key, r, in tune orin rhythm. Do you want me to
try again? All right? Okay. Sour Times is a nineteen ninety four

(00:54):
song by English trip hop group PortishHead from their debut album Dummy. It's
music video was directed by Alexander Hemmingand currently has one point three million views
on YouTube. So, guys,what is your history with Sour Times?
Well, first off, I'm kindof surprised that they're one of the progenitors

(01:17):
of trip hop music. For somereason, I don't know tripop. I
always thought was attle bit older thanthat, but mid nineties. I don't
know why, but I always thoughtit was like maybe like late eighties or
mid eighties even, but for themto be you know, that's first.
I never really it's weird. Inever really got into them very much.
I knew love them. I knowthis song for sure, they played at
the clubs, but it was nevera band that I got into it.

(01:38):
But they're always highly regarded, ohby a lot of other bands, are
a lot of people, and I'malways surprised, Oh yeah, I'm really
into it, like and I wouldalways hear people talk about them, But
nine it's weird. I never It'sone of the few bands that are huge,
like underground cult following, yeah,cult following Street Cred kind of band.
But I never really got into himfor some strangers. But this was
this song. I remember you thinkgoth club would play it? Yeah,

(02:00):
said they played this at Helter Skelter, Helter Skelter back in the day.
Yeah, I remember Stigmata days,correct, But yeah, not not so
much. And then I didn't reallyhear from them for a very very long
time. And I always hear peoplewould have like their their music, like
their tapes. Yeah dummy is Imean it's a spectacular album, right,
And I had to go kind ofgo back to it too. Yeah,
it's like if you listen to thewhole thing, it's just like, yeah,

(02:22):
it's just as it's a nice comfortalbum and it's not like I can
say I was a big fan oftrip hop, but then I realized,
Oh, there's a lot of bandsI listened to the sound exactly like that.
You know. I don't know ifyou guys ever heard of Bowery Electric,
No, I haven't. They're likea New York band. I used
to play it all the time inthe apartment, you know, and this
vibe you know, and and differentsinging, but they kind of got lumped

(02:42):
into like electronic shoegaze, but they'realso trip hop, like trip poppy,
using yeaples or Ye samples. It'salways the gretty, jazzy kind of Yeah.
Almost hip hop has got the hiphop kind of slowed down version of
it. But yeah, you guysknow, I remember this from being other
like playing on k rock and stufflike that. Oh did they Yeah,
Okay, yeah, they played thissong like on k rock stff with that,

(03:06):
and I remember I always liked it. I liked a lot of trip
hop stuff because I think it remindsme of a lot of like Daisy rap.
Stuff. It has a lot ofthe same kind of elements of the
sampling and stuff like that. Well, what is Daisy rap? Oh,
it's like tribe called quest It's sothere you go, Data Soul, leaders
of the New School, all thosethose rap groups from that kind of like

(03:27):
oh, I never knew it wascalled Daisy kind of like educational like educated
kind of rap slash but from thestreets and philosophical kind of like approaching.
It's not you know how we alwaysdifferentiated with the kangster rap, right or
like the excessive rap, but thisis really it's not that's it a little
more methodical Okay. Yeah, Sothat's that's what I always kind of associated

(03:51):
it with because it has that kindof like very like sample based analog sounding,
a lot of jazz, a lotof jazz samples and stuff like that.
Gigable planets then oh yeah, exactlyexactly, diggable planets all that,
and which you call it Tennessee,yeah, the rest of development. Yeah,

(04:11):
all those all those bands like that. So I think that was almost
like I think that I really thinkI don't know this is what I think,
but I really think that this isEngland's answer to that that Yeah,
Well it's a slower version and moremoody, I think, you know,
whereas the other one is more kindof like just whatever they can find really
from, you know whatever. It'salways that dirty beat right right right,

(04:34):
crunchy. A lot of the tribecalled quests beats are always they always sound
like that. Yeah, obviously alittle faster and tempo. Yeah, trip
clalll quest Love Movement album is veryslow. It reminds me a lot of
it's very like trip hop sounding,you know, it's very slow. It's
not so fast and dancy as much. You know, it's more kind of

(04:54):
chill, you know, and itkind of reminds me a lot of that
stuff. And it really has allthose jazz samples and stuff like that pot
beats. So when I was akid, I didn't couldn't really tell the
difference, so I kind of justlumped it in with that kind of stuff
because I was still listening to thateven like later, you know, by
the time I got into that,I was already probably already passed, right,
Yeah, I mean it was onthe radio, but then you still

(05:15):
keep listening to it, you know. And do you guys remember all those
Hollywood clubs a lot of the musickind of reminds me of this kind of
holid down tempo kind of like itbecause it's almost like after hours, yeah
yeah, you know what I mean. Like it's people like they move the
post rave, Yeah they're done right, or like they peak and then it's
time to kind of like it's aboutthree four, yeah exactly, some chill

(05:35):
out. I don't know, it'sa different drug, yeah, like like
chill on serious XM. You know, but it's related to this, you
know. It's I'm sure it takesa lot of yeah cues yah for excuse
from it, but yeah, yeah. As far as my history for with
Portishead and Sour Times, almost thesame as you guys. Basically. It's
like I remember hearing this at HelterGoth Club to prep the dance floor.

(05:59):
It wasn't like in the in thein the peak of the night, but
they would play it as like tenthirty where people are still kind of getting
cozy with their drinks and you know, getting ready for the rest of the
night. You know, the songwould play and I thought like, oh,
you know this, Like I rememberhearing this on k Rock as well
in the radio and thinking like,oh, that's cool they play this and
like I remember hearing the song andthinking like, wow, this song's amazing,

(06:20):
and it's always been in the backof my head. I used to
get the La Weeklies at my collegeand you know, to clip the discounts
to get into a club, right, because they would have ads in there,
and I would clip them to geta five bucks, you know,
to get into the to the clubsthat we normally would go to, right,
And they would have But the thingis, if you open Ellie Weeklies,

(06:42):
they would show like advertisements for CDsthat they're selling at the Virgin megastore
or whatever. And there's a hugeportous head ad in there about the Dummy
album. And I remember how unsettlingthat picture is of the of the the
cover of Dummy, which is BethGibbons strapped into that chair. It's just
like without any context really of what'shappening back then. I haven't seen the

(07:04):
music video. I didn't see themusic video of this song until in the
twenty first century. Really, yeah, So like to me, it's like
seeing that, it's like, wow, that's unselling and that alone. To
see the music video of the song, you have to be super lucky to
catch an MTV one hundred and twentyminutes even to get it. So yeah,
like I didn't really get seen thismusic video until then, but somehow

(07:27):
the melody and this this whole compositionof this song stuck with me through all
these years and then like finally,thanks to YouTube, we can watch it
at will. I think this songtoo also had like kind of a long
tail. It was played for likea long time because then also like B
York got big and she was havingkind of that kind of sound, and
then you start getting like sold tosoul and you start thinking of that kind
of stuff too. I think that'slike a little bit before. But it

(07:49):
all kind of blends in, youknow, and you know, when you
listen to it, you don't evenknow what kind of time it's from too,
because it doesn't sound modest, itdoesn't sound old, It sounds of
its own, So you could That'swhy I think you could easily think like,
oh, is this an older songfrom Trick called Quest Days or is
this like a newer B Yorky kindof song, or what's going on here?
You know, So I could seethe being confusing and just thinking like

(08:11):
it's just a song that's always beenaround, you know, right right right,
Well, I mean they did samplesongs from what was it, the
Mission Impossible soundtrack from nineteen sixty seven. Yeah, they heavily sampled from it,
though, but they added their owntwist of course, their contemporary guitar.
Well, the guitars kind of formedalong with the sample, and then
you got Beth Gibbons's haunting vocals rightto go with it. So, and

(08:35):
I guess that comprised the actual ideaof trip hop in the early nineties.
Yes, But to me, it'slike, yeah, I'm not too familiar
with the genre of trip hop,but I do know, like, you
know, a lot of bands thatsprung from it, which is like what
Massive Attack and Tricky and all that. Yeah, yeah, exactly did it
shares the same elements of the sound, right right, right, I mean
they shared the similar samples with Tricky, with the Glory Box, yeah yeah.

(09:00):
Yeah. When I also to mymy wife is really into this kind
of music too. So when westarted dating, she had albums like Vinyl
and stuff like that, and Istarted kind of getting into it. And
then she also her own music thatshe was writing was you know, had
a little touch of trip hop toit too, so sometimes play shows with
her and stuff like that too inher band. So then that was also
kind of like very influential too.So, I mean it's a natural thing

(09:22):
for someone who's into soul music andyou know early like that kind of what
do they call it, the Goldenearrow hip hop? You know that kind
of stuff, you know drive,it's very beat driven, so it's it's
really natural for me to like,oh yeah, this is fucking great.
Yeah, it's kind of like ittakes every box in my music genre.
You know, it has like goodbeats, you know, oh yeah,

(09:43):
yeah, you gotta see you guysstarted guitars the entire album of Dummy.
Yeah yeah, yeah, oh mygod, Like it's good. I'm surprised
that I don't own it, youknow, I don't have it on vinyl.
I should. That's like one ofmy missions right now is actually get
the full vinyl of Dummy. Youknow, I have it on digital form,
but it's just that you just gotto get the actual physical media of
that. Those albums are like thatthen the Sneaker Pimps, Messody, Massive

(10:09):
Attack, like those are the thingsyou need to have on vinyl. Yeah,
you just have to have them.Yeah, And to me back then,
you know, like I was kindof semi getting into like really diving
deep into the goss scene. Butit's it's a completely different scene from drip
Hopper or this side of modern subcultureof English music. To me, it's
like it's it's kind of neighboring intoit, but it's still like, you

(10:31):
know, like I know, I'mdiving into the early eighties and shit,
but this was like, yeah,current times, Like I really wish I
would have gotten more involved into thattoo, because that would have changed a
lot of my own tastes as well. But yeah, but the song,
though, it's always been the onethat's my anchor to that genre because Sour
Times. That's why I chose itfor this music video, because it's it's

(10:52):
an amazing song. You know,if you're gonna be a goth around the
nineties, the line nobody loves Me, it's like, of course you gotta
playing onto that, right. Ithink the thing that the thing that hurt
this kind of genre for people likemaybe like around our age is just like
the price of import czs, whichcomes up a lot on this podcast because

(11:15):
to buy the CD at that timewith no streaming services. It was you
know, you're gonna pay like thirtybucks, yeah for high school dollars.
Yeah, that's like what is thatdollar? I think it's a million dollars,
but it well bitcoins. If you'remaking three seventy five to four twenty
five an hour, that's a lotof money. That's like thirty five twenty

(11:35):
five cent cheesebers. So I thinkthat that's one of the things that kind
of you know, you were inaccessible, were you going to were you gonna
buy that? Are you going tobuy the Standing on the Peach cassette for
like nine sorry, Beach will haveto go with with all the hits that
you want, you know. Soit's like substance that's by joy division.

(11:58):
So it's like you were picking,you know, what CD you're gonna listen
to for the year, you knowthe year the rest of the of the
season, it falls apart. Yeah, unless you had like an older unless
you had a like a brother orsister that was in like high school at
that time, you know that wasprobably buying it. You know, you
got to copy something. I gotto copy somehow. We had no male

(12:20):
mentors that we'd like to have exactly. So it's like I think that's what
kind of like really held up alot of it from and we didn't know
any better really, you know,we chose what we want to choose,
and the thing is that we chosewith bands that had really established legacy or
you could buy them at the time. You could buy the Scenario tape for
dollar ninety nine, you know asingle, right quest Is it an offshoot

(12:46):
of hip hop you think or despitethe name, yeah, I mean it's
the idea. The concept of itis very hip hop samples using the samples,
yeah, the beat, yeah,break was that beat? No?
I think it's it's I think it'sEngland's answer to hip hop at that time,
right yeah. And the thing isthat, you know, hip the
thing was hip hop at that timedid not use freaking guitar guitar, right,

(13:09):
that's and with singing and some ofthem with that kind of with with
Beth Gibbons' vocals, definitely not You'renot gonna get a street credit out of
that one, but her voice though, like you know, she used to
do Janis Joplin covers before she gotinto the band, so kind of you
can kind of see a hint ofit with with her vocal deliveries, and

(13:31):
she's not like she she never reallyconsidered herself as a good singer. From
her words was that she doesn't likeif she has to sing, she'll need
vocal lessons, you know. Sheshe that's just her natural way of delivery.
To us, it's like amazing.To me, it's amazing, But
to her it's like no, no, I need actual singing lessons. But
to her, you know, butto us. But the thing is through
the flow of Porta said in themusic that her and and Jeff Barrow's composition,

(13:56):
you know, and and Udly's guitarsis it's like for motion, right.
But yeah, if she wants tobe like Adele, yeah, I
guess she wants to be different,right, It's still a different field.
But you know, the thing isthat, yeah, you're you're your own
worst critic, right. If youlisten to a song like Benita Applebong that
has like the bassline from the Louretsong, you know, it's very close

(14:16):
to this. You know, insteadof a guitar, it has the d
and it's really slow and it's reallychill, and I could see a direct
influence. But from like that,like even like that song to trip hop
sound, you know right right,and that's nineteen ninety so I mean around
that time, like late to mideighties to mid nineties, it was just

(14:37):
like a fucking it was sample heavenfor musical acts. So many acts from
industrial bands, even goth bands,you know, like trip hop for sure,
hip hop right, you know,even even top forty shit, Like
everything was just sampled because that wasjust the wild wild West of just like
getting all that shit and just likegetting the loops down and all that and

(14:58):
cupping out of music. And thenyou know, like there was a huge
clampdown in the in the twenty firstcentury. Well that's when James Brown started
freezing all his music, right,So it's you know, so back then
it was a wild wild West.But like to me, it's like it
was a huge boom of just likeamazing music though, you know, just
like very like out the way outthere, even though yeah, the back

(15:22):
beats are sampled, but it's justthat it just opened up this whole new
genres of many different genres. Yeah, of just like streams of consciousness.
I I don't know. To me, it's just like that era is just
I'm sure you know, there's amazingmusic now, but it's just like for
a forming mind of that time,that was just fucking supernova of ideas.
But it's mostly British acts for triphop trip yeah, but I mean right,

(15:48):
like industrial music was built on samplesand you know around that time too.
Also. It's kind of weird becauseI always related it to like DJ
music, you know, like specificallyseveral beats playing at the same time.
I maybe like being uh you know, I mean rave music. Yeah,
well, sample guys are like we'reDJs first, so like you could see
that. I mean like eventually we'lltalk about KLF in this podcast, you

(16:11):
know, somewhere down the line.And yeah, all that stuff. I
just watched a documentary, like Iwas really short documentary on Jay Dilla.
He's kind of like the master ofit and you know he worked with Tribe
and a bunch of those bands tooand stuff like that, you know,
and is she would show like hiswork process in his studio and it was
just like a turntable and an NPCbut then like a room full of records

(16:36):
and it was just like every sit was like Disney songs. Yeah,
and he can find and he beathe could find extract and he just had
that weird memory that he remembered alland he knew like, oh yeah,
that's good, to go good withthis, and he would just pull a
record and pull a sample and thengo for it right and and then he
just had this weird timing that heIt just that's the that's the that's the

(16:56):
talent, that's the gift right there, just knowing you know that, yeah
you can, you have all thisarchive of samples, but when to apply
it. That's that's where the talentfalls in, you know, or the
just the genius of painting, youknow, like right, well exactly when,
exactly when? How? Yeah,that's he talks about it. And
he talks about it like you're justusing you know, different colors of paint
to the layer layer. Yeah.Yeah, yeah. It's like to me,

(17:19):
it's like, you know, likethere's a you know, there's a
band, the industrial band called FrontlineAssembly, and then I heard at one
point they were like the band thatused the most samples in the history of
music or some I don't know ifthat's hyperbole or not, but like they
they apparently use the most samples ofat least within the in the industrial scene
around that time, and I'm thinking, like samples, how could they be
samples? Like, you know,they did use samples like voice samples,

(17:42):
but like a lot of their drumbeats as for samples, I'm like wait,
wait, oh, so I don'tknow, but like yeah, like
it's so like front Line Assembly,you know, formed around the mid eighties
and peaked around the mid nineties.So and they're still going on strong right
now. They're touring at the moment. Converse, they're the most band to

(18:03):
see a single fucking lawsuit though.It was surprising enough you can't find the
records anywhere. Yeah, they sampledFalling Down, you know, which is
a big movie back in the earlynineties. Michael, Yeah, Michael was
Falling Down. They sampled the hellout of that movie, even like km
FDM. It's like tons of samplestoo, and then a real electric guitar
over samples. Yeah. They didget in trouble though, for because they

(18:23):
sampled Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, theo Fortuna song. I think, yeah,
like they did get in trouble forthat, and they had to like
tune down their live tracks for it. They sampled a little bit of it
on a song called I Forgot leBi Slade right and but yeah, like
like when I saw them live,I was like, no, that's where

(18:45):
the O Fortuna kicks in and thenno, it's like all muted and just
okay, the suggestion of oh Fortunathe music version, Yeah, it was
the idea of it and the guysand you know you see the singer just
going, it's just pumping his fist. I'm like, it's the blue ball.
Yeah seriously. So yeah, thatthat happened. Run them with the

(19:06):
two thousands. So like when youknow, when everything everyone was cracking down
on the sampling. One of myfavorite bands of all time is Popularise and
they sampled everything and they thrived aroundthat time too, where Porter said was
happening, Like yeah, but anyways, getting back, Oh, before we
get back, it's time for somepop quiz. After these messages, I
tend to put on the glasses forsome pop quiz Google real quick, okay,

(19:32):
guys, first question for pop quizc D. Two of the Sour
Times single are remixes of the song, which one of these are not the
title of the remix? All right, okay, A Sour Sour Times,
B Dour Times, C Sheared Timesor d Airbus reconstruction. Right, going

(19:59):
dow Ryan says Dowur Times. Louis, do you want me to repeat the
question. No, I'm trying.I'm trying to think of sour Sour Times.
Is something that you would do that'sactually on there. I'm gonna say
sour Sour Times. Ryan is right, wrong, it's Dour Times. I
should have got that one. Okay. Second question, our Times Portishead was

(20:22):
named after a town in this Englishcounty. Do you guys know you're English?
You guys have britpop bands, right? Okay A Somerset, B Bristol,
C. Northamptonshire or d Worcestershire Bristol, Louis says Bristol. Right,
who is North hamps Sure it wasNorth Northamptonshire. That's what I'm thinking of.

(20:45):
Right, they're both Wrongrset it's Summerset. The biography say they're from Bristol,
but that's why I said Bristol.Knew they' from Bristol. Right,
they are from Bristol, but theybased the named Portishead from a place called
Somerset. I spent my winters insummer. Get that one. Okay.
It's third and last question is thelightning round? All right? It's a

(21:11):
little moisten air, it a littlethunder and lightning. It's a different Yeah,
Louis left some moisture and air earlier. Wins Man from the website onlyfoods
dot Net. True or false?When ripe? Which of these fruits are
sour when ripe? When ripe,when you're right, which of these fruits

(21:33):
are sour? You know in tributeup sour times sour at times? Are
always sour? Well? When right? Apparently, which of these fruits are
still sour? Okay? Ryan,passion fruit, I can't say I'm passion
fruit. I'm gonna go with yes, you're right, passion fruit is still
sour. Louis, Wait, haveyou had food? I've had that flavor,

(21:56):
but the actual fruit you've had it? I think i've had it.
I've had tocktail like frozen. It'sdelicious, all right, Louis. Jack
fruit true or false? It's sourwhen it's right. I don't remember jackfruit
tasting like nothing. I'll say true, you're right, fruit is sweet when
when it's right. Okay, soit's true. Yeah, oh, I'm

(22:17):
sorry when right, when he's throughsour, I'm sorry, yeah, I'm
sorry. Jackford is sweet, soit is a false but you did get
it right though. Okay, I'msorry. I'm sorry. The Hennessy got
me. Okay, Ryan, isGoji Berry sour? When right? I

(22:38):
think it's always sour? You're right, Yes, I had some Oh really
Okay, Louis is current sour whenit's right, I'm gonna say false,
you're wrong sour when ripe? Okay, Ryan cloud Berry it's a record label
looking sent there's gonna call it.I'm gonna say false, you're wrong.

(23:07):
Yeah, okay, Okay, LouisRumbutan. Is it sour? When right?
I'm gonna say, yes, you'rewrong. It is very sweet.
Ryan, you should know this auteis that that's a smelly one? Yeah?
No, no, it's not swelling. Which one is a smelly one?
I don't know. Is it likea grapefruit or something like that?
No, No, Rumbutan is likethis fuzzy red. I didn't think.

(23:30):
I was like it was almost likea light sheet kind of okay. I
was thinking it was like a likea citrusy kind of thing. Okay,
No, that's definitely that citrusy Okay, Ryan, you should know this zonis
Is it sour? When? Right? No, that's sweet. You're true.
Yep, you got it. It'svery sweet. Okay, louis star
fruity, think ruby starfru I'm gonnasay, yes, it's sour. No

(23:55):
it's oh yeah, you're right,yeah flour, So it's sour. How
you dried starfruit? I get thisfruit mix. It has a sure as
a brown start. Okay, Ryan, African cherry orange not the American cherry
orange. African African cherry orange,not the African American chair or nope,

(24:19):
let's go with fause you're wrong.Very sour. Cherries are sour, right
when they get African cherry orange issour? When I say, pauls aren't
right, it's not that it issour. You made this mistake several times.
I might have true false one.Right, are the free sour?

(24:41):
So you said it's sour? Yes, so it is. I'm blowing I'm
blowing this glasses. That is theworst one. Yeah, this is the
worst one. Time. We shoulddo more punk. You don't have your
glasses so we can get them allright at all? And finally, the

(25:03):
TAngelo. Yes, that's sour whenit's right, You're right? Is that
different from pamelos? It makes itis different, It is, it is
different. But they're both sour.Yeah, they're always ultimately yeah sour gray,
what is that called sour grape?That's sour grape? What's the pomegranate?
When you can buy sour? Look, it's good for your diet and

(25:29):
great fruit, great bro grafruit.Yeah, it's like in the Pomelo family.
Yeah, it's always sour, right, disgusting, even I love even
the room, even the ruby redones are still sour. Yeah, is
that better? I don't lie grayfor I mean, it's like super sour
times for me when I when Idrink those things. All right, pop
quiz, it's time for the musicvideo discussion. So it's originally a movie,

(25:53):
right, That's what they're trying tomake a full length and then then
they stopped at a short film.Is that they just wanted to make a
little short film because you know thekind of artsy kids, I mean,
like the stuff about the band firstreally because it's three members Beth Gibbons,
Jeff Barrow and Adrian Utley, andbasically the idea of the Constant band was
started by Jeff Barrow, and weknow he worked in a few studios getting

(26:15):
tea for other musicians, and helearned how to composing music works and production
ideas, and he finally caught abreak and yeah, you know, like
he had a huge data like notdatabase, but like collection of hip hop
beats or the beats that he canuse for for his DJing. He's kind
of like a DJ fisionado. Andhe's decided to like, you know,

(26:37):
the idea of trip hop, whichI don't know if it was actually been
they got manifested, they got necessarilywasn't trying to create a new genre.
It's just right. It was justthat was the thing, you know.
It's like sampling was. It wasa huge deal. And you know,
and he just employed Beth Gibbons whowas just like she was in previous band.
She was doing Janis job and coverband you know beforehand. And then

(26:57):
it's nothing major, nothing, nothingthat you know actually up right, and
he employed her and then she's likeyeah, sure, you know, and
then and then eventually yeah, likethey hired Adrian Utley was the guy who
would add the layer of atmosphere intheir music. It always it's always mentioned
like you know that spy kind oflike, yeah, Bondie Field the thing

(27:19):
I mean understandable because they used alot of Mission impossible, you know,
this very spaghetti Western style sampling intheir music, and his guitar tone is
like very Reverby exactly, sound fromthe sixties, fifties sound, some of
a broad on tremolos on it andstuff. Yeah, even surfy, you

(27:40):
know it had it been that thatRPM you know, yeah, yeah,
not RPM, but BPMS gets thatsixties sound of yeah. Yeah. But
so with that music, they usedthe backdrop of a short film that they
did called to Kill a Dead Man, and essentially, you know, they
shot this all. I'm sure theyshot it in color, but for the
purposes of To Kill a Dead Man, it got converted to black and white,

(28:02):
right, And it's basically about theidea of that short film is an
assassination of it's Adian and Utley playingas this somewhat diplomat kind of guy,
right right, And then you gotone of the band members, you know,
Jeff Barrow, playing as the assassin, and Beth Gibbons plays the wife
of the guy who got shot.You know, yeah, like So it
starts off with the guy shooting himwith this makeshift intricate rifle that came from

(28:29):
his you know, they had toassemble like a sniper rifle. Yeah,
a sniper rifle almost like from amovie from that came around the same time,
which was in the Line of Fire. You remember seeing that movie,
Clint, Yeah, Clint Eastwood andand John Malkovich remember and Macovich was assembling
his assassination weapon from Wood. Youknow, I don't know, I love
that movie. To me, it'slike a personal favorite. That's like I

(28:51):
have the Blu ray of that movietoo. I love that movie some nice
because Malcolm was just like an amazingI don't know, that's like my favorite
Malcolm his role was with him inthat one. But anyway, so like
yeah, like he you know,he assembled this little makeshift fucking assassin rifle
out of tubes and then he shootsthe guy. And then it was just
weird because you know, you seeBeth Gibbons coming out of a bank.

(29:14):
I don't know if it's a bankor an establishment or something hotel or something
hotel bodyguards. He seems like avery VIP kind of guy. And then
you know, like Yeah, he'swalking around and then the guy gets shot
and everyone scrambles where Beth Gibbons,the singer reporters head, gets separated.
That's Beth Gibbons at the beginning.Yeah. Yeah, she's wearing a wig.

(29:37):
She has very Chinese dress. Yeah, set up. Yeah, I
don't know what the story behind thatwas, Like why is she wearing that?
Because maybe just kind of disguise thefact that this guy's importantly together.
Right they come out together. Yeah, well she walks out first and then
yeah, and then he gets shotand then they get separated. One half

(29:59):
of the security guards takes Beth Givensaway to their car, and then the
Adrian Utley he gets shot and hegets taken to another car, so they
get separated. And then seeing youknow, she's being she's just like traumatized
about the moment. She's sitting onthis MK ultra chair. When I first
saw this, I'm like, whyshe in that chair? She was,

(30:21):
but she was just like traumatized andstuff, and she got like, I
don't know, nodes in her armsand yeah, she's always in the hospital,
but like dealing with this whole traumaof the event and reliving the trauma
of that event where I guess that'sher husband getting shot, but we don't
know, right, that's the thing, but we don't know exactly know what's
happening. Yeah, and then youknow, you would get scenes where the
guards are also just like playing doctors, right they come in No, well

(30:44):
not yet, not yet, butthey were in a separate room playing cars
in a chess of like an assassinationattempt or. I guess it's right,
kind of met all together in thesame room, right, yeah, But
then it flashes back to her beingon the hospital bed being visited in hers
her dreams, right yeah, yeah, So like you know, it's it's
a it's a mixture of the guardsand then waiting room just passing time with

(31:08):
the Ace of Spades keeps coming upall the time every time he shovels them
cards. But in the music videothough, they took scenes from that where
Beth Gibbons is not on that chair, she's just like hanging out with the
guards. Yeah. I took itthat she was thought she had a role
in it, and they were torturingher for questioning and then she went into
the hospital because of no. No, they were like fucking with her still.

(31:30):
I thought she was being tortured inacially, but no, like they're like
drugging her to keep her asleep orsomething. From from what I got ultimately
with the message of the short filmwas that she was so traumatized that to
keep her drugged. You know,that's what security guard doctors like. Yeah,
that's that's one thing. That's thething is don't you think she was
either drugged and then kind of havingthese hallucinations? Yeah, well you kind

(31:52):
of mix up the guards as thedoctors, and but she's not really sure.
And that's why part of the dreamssequence, at least I think that's
what I think it is, isthe Adrian Utley comes in and gives her
flowers, and then she smiling,and then he comes in again, but
this time around gun pointing right ather, and then the reverse shots of
the flower. Yeah, so youknow, she's kind of like in this

(32:13):
state of confusion of like who doI trust? And at least for the
viewer right righting the same ideas.And the thing is that it's hard to
grasp everything on the first watch.You have to watch it multiple trips to
actually start getting what the hell's goingon here? But at the end,
it seems like she had an agreementwith the assassin, right, yep,
Yeah, that's exactly what happened.That she was like them, yeah,

(32:34):
yeah, Like ultimately she figured outthat the assassin was hired to fake his
own assassination, to fuck her overin a way and to put her in
a traumatic way. So but thenI guess somewhere down the line, like
we didn't really see this in themusic video, where like she learned of
the plot to drive her crazy.Yeah, and so she had the same

(32:54):
assassin, you know, like screwover her husband because of what he did.
The fact that the assassin will killhim in the end. So like
in the end where the assassin drivesin the car, in that little car
that they were in, and thenshe pulls up and she looks at him,
and he looks at her like,oh, she knows what's going on,
and the Assassin's like, yeah,I'm gonna I'm gonna assassin, I'm

(33:19):
gonna off you, bro. Andthen she drives away and then and then
you know or not, he's like, oh man, I fucked up,
bro, bro b. But that'swhat ends up. Yeah, at the
end, that's what ends up.Happening. So, like, I mean,
you can't really get that from themusic video. You have to watch
Kill a dead Man, the tenand a half minute film by Porter said

(33:40):
that explains more. Yeah, butyou know what, the actual lyrics,
I don't really get that vibe.You're not gonna get. Yeah, it's
not it's not. But it's agood you know, it's just a good
it's great. I'm just saying,yeah, it has nothing to do with
the lyrics presentation. Well what didyou guys think though? Like what she's
saying about that nobody loves you,but not like you do. I mean

(34:05):
you can, you can apply toit. You can definitely apply to it,
you know, like, yeah,nobody loves you, like I faked
his own death. Yeah, ifyou come up with the background, yeah,
to get away from you. Soyeah, nobody loves really loves you.
So I've read several one one ofthe ones that stuck out was it's
about infidelity, which I can seealso with the short film. Right,
that's right, maybe they were together, maybe something happened, and so she

(34:25):
hired somebody to But then it's likea double it's like a double what do
you call those double crossing? Eachother, you know, like one of
those things throw them all from thetrain kind of stuff. Yeah, right,
I'm watch enough true crime to seehow married people would fund themselves over
to just one up each other orgain some sort of wealth from each other.
It's insane. She took out amillion pound insurance right, like that

(34:52):
Scotland sterling pounds. The thing is. One of the comments that I found
so funny was that, like,you know, someone tried to explain the
plot fiction serious, look, Imean someone he said that, Okay,
this is what happened. Basically,Oh, the man faked his assassination to
traumatize his wife so she can gocrazy. And then the wife found out
that that was this plot, soshe negotiated with the assassin to off her

(35:17):
husband. And then so a commentsays, like, what can you just
get a divorce like normal fucking people. But you know, in the guise
of a sixties spy assassination sexy plot, that's sexy. That's what you got
to go through, you know,you got to go through all these little
talented mister Ripley hoops. Right,it makes sense, like Ryan's explain,

(35:37):
That's what I kind of got outof it too. Is just like people
screwing each other over and cheating oneach other or something like that. You
know it kind of that's how thatcould take the assassination plot as that too.
I mean even the titles hour times. Yeah, there's like a decline
in their relationship or a decay ofsome sort. Something came up, and
you know that's what happened to youhire an assassine right now, but do
you think okay? So in theshort film in the end, he's like,

(36:00):
oh, she knows right, buthe's sitting next to the higher assassin.
Does that mean that he's been nowdouble cross that the assassin will kill
him? Yeah? Right, that'sthe other explanation. And she, you
know what, just drove off becauseshe's the one that drives off first,
which tells you that she's escaped,right quote unquote. And then he's kind
of stuck in this. Yes,I'm onto you. You know, I

(36:22):
know you're alive. We saw eachother idle eye, and then a guy
who killed you is right there andnow he's really and now he's really going
to kill you now and then boom. You know that was Jeff Barrow who
was playing the assassin, and hewas looking at him like, yeah,
you're next, bro, You're offthe band. I can hire another guitar
player, singer. And that's onething, man, Like, That's one

(36:44):
thing I love about certain music videosis that when the bands actually play as
actors too, and not just singing, you know. I mean, granted,
the music video for Sour Times,Beth Gibbons is performing and she is
singing that part. But like,but then in the short film she's just
playing as a straight up actress,not mouthing anything. And I don't know,
I don't. I have a hugeappreciation for band members without any acting

(37:07):
skills somehow pulling it off in thisform of media. So the director for
this, he hasn't He didn't doanything else right, I looked through it.
He's like an accountant now or something. I mean, Alexander Fleming maybe
he's related to related to Ian Flemingof the James Bond fame. Was he
either hot not Fleming? Never mindAlexander Hemming. Maybe stay name from Fleming.

(37:28):
He doesn't want to be it doesn'tbe involved with the nepotism of it.
Was hot vendor and was afel vendor. I don't know if he was
a hot dog it is England,so I don't think they have hot dogs
in England. Oh. He hasa couple of credits on IMDb. Did
he do Glory Box? No,he did it. He did The Streets

(37:49):
live in Glasgow, so like alive of the streets, you know,
the Streets is he's like a rapper, Gay Dad to Earth with Love.
It's like a band Gay Dad musicvideo, faith No More Ratchet video.
Oh he has nineteen credits. Herewe go. They're all music videos.
Oh, there you go. It'sa lot funny. Joy Division. Now
do you know Joy Division? No? I never heard of that band.
He's never he's never directed anything.No, it's all like a direct atmosphere.

(38:15):
Whoa, I'm sorry Elle Glory Box. Yeah he did direct Roller Box.
Same album, Yeah, same album. Great song to me personally,
like I love both songs equally.Okay, it's a movie. Right back
for some notable YouTube comments. Okay, it's time for some notable YouTube comments.

(38:35):
That's a good director at least forthis. Yeah, I mean,
seriously, to get to get allthat, just get the logistics going too.
Is He also credited for the SourTimes music video. Yeah, he
is, he is. He isdefinitely credit for him, because basically most
of it is the stuff he Yeah, for sure they would have filmed the
short video and the music video concurrently, because the just you know, when

(38:57):
she's the part when she's singing,they're just basically the same, right right,
So I'm sure, Okay, theshoot the short film. Okay,
Beth starts singing some of these partsof the song. He might use it
for the music video later. Youknow what's interesting too. At the end
then they play sometimes right right,and the only time they play it no
vocals, just they do part ofit right right. Okay, time for

(39:19):
the noble you do comments st Apocalypseseven to one oh four says God,
damn. I want to go backto the nineties, when you bought a
physical copy of music to also seethe artwork and read the lyrics. You
set aside sometime to just sit andlisten. Magazines were still important. We
had computers, but they weren't withus all the time. People read the

(39:43):
newspaper. We got our photos developed, then look with them. With friends,
you memorize their phone numbers. Ifyou couldn't find them, you went
looking at the usual spots. Butif you wanted to be alone, it
was possible to be disconnected. Iknow it makes me the old man now,
but I think the nice were thepeak of cool. This is good.

(40:04):
Do you guys feel that way.I love the nineties man, you
know me, I'm a big fan. I didn't like it then when I
was living in somewhird reason. Butlooking bad, I'm like, ah,
some good times. I mean,I mean, there is crappy music,
but there is really good stuff too. But I mean, but I think
that's like every time, you know, yeah, every every time has their
sour times. It's true, verygood, very good. Okay at Midwest

(40:27):
Farm says years ago, an freytornado ripped through Saint Peter, Minnesota,
destroying much of the city. Wedrove through the city and this song was
on the radio, and we spookyviewing the damage while listening to this song.
Wow, that's the association. AndI imagine that's like, yeah,
well that's the thing about England inwhat makes this video the cool too.

(40:50):
But then also when you look atlike clockwork Orange or oh Crash JG.
Ballard Crash movie not the Coroner.Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, I
mean the brutallest architecture in England,it just looks so cool on black and
white. Yeah, and black andwhite too. It just looks so fucking
cool. I mean, you justwatched twenty eight days later and you can

(41:14):
definitely relate with that. Just someof that concrete architecture is so cool looking.
Uh, Okay, my architecture's spartlight. But I mean, yeah,
you imagine you're looking through from wastelandand you got port said Sober Times playing
in the background. Yeah, thatwill stay with you. I mean,
I mean, to me, it'slike all it took was just a little

(41:35):
sitting on a light, listening onk rock for the sun to stay in
my head forever. I mean,you can only imagine if you look at
a net three Tornado left thirty yearsand nobody loves Saint Peter Minnesota. Okay.
At snake Witcher for one eight ninesays she appears to be going through
some kind of issue. I don'tfeel equipped judger. You think it's male

(41:58):
and female, it doesn't matter.I think I think genders it would be
an issue for judgment in there.But yeah, she looks like she's pretty
troubled though in this music video,even in the short too, and then
authentic Darren says, I don't knowif it's subbly put on purpose, but
we talk about the chessboard scenes there, remember, guys, you know there's

(42:19):
it starts to so, yeah,like a best's queen chess move was total
suicide. The position was already abominablefor white, and then she blunders the
game away in one move. Whoset that board up? I wonder,
But that's good. I didn't eventhink. I remember whining to watching it.
She did. She moved her whitequeen to a position. I'm like,
there's no one to protect your whitequeen. You're gonna get kill wherever

(42:42):
you put your position in, youknow, like because usually if you can
do a white queen's checkmate, youknow, if you're close to the king
or something. Yeah, but she'ssitting at sitting duck in that one.
And so someone replied to this comment, this is the final YouTube comment,
by the way, Verbotam replies,looks like she gets him in a check
No, not mate, but heneeds to block or move from the queen's

(43:04):
move. I think from the cards, shuffling always coming up aces is also
a reference to having the upper hand. Maybe okay, because yeah, every
time the guy shoffles the cards inthis music video comes up, right,
he has always come up so likealways the upper hand. It's got to
be part of the storytelling, right, I'm sure, I'm sure, But
pass through his name Fleming or havinghemmy or the queen going for it and

(43:29):
not being obvious to what's going on, you know, like her move was
you know, she didn't know.But the thing was that, like you
think for the kind of short video, how it concluded, the white Queen
knows what she's doing in the chest. But yeah, well that's why he
said then, but she put herselfin a very vulnerable position. You have
that position to do what you needto do, though sometimes you give a

(43:51):
little to take the game, youknow, I guess so, and I
guess you put herself as the baitand that's why she got all mk ultered
up in the in the music video. And you know, Chess is really
just one huge spy game, youknow, I mean I mean backwards,
Uh, yes, spy is likea chess game and basically just trying to
wig outsmart each other and then eventuallycapturing or assassinating in this case. Right,

(44:14):
but I mean, if I mean, unless the security guard went to
Harford. You know you yeah,that pond guy. You know, she
should have beat that guy. Comeon, she looks like she's about to
university or something. But he keepspulling up the Ace of Spades though,
right, speaking of Ace of spades, motorhead and then you got portus that
a lot of heads going on here, isn't your Kevin Bacon? Six degrees

(44:37):
seven degrees of separ A lot ofsymbolism has happened, and and like,
yeah, the Ace of Spades thatyeah, Like I mean I kind of
like the question this this YouTube commentsare left about you know, having a
space. Someone has the upper handall the time. He has the Ace
of Spades, you know, thebest card in the deck. So who
knows? But does he? Butit's a security guy. He's pulling it

(45:00):
up though, you know he isit a trick deck where he only just
asked periods right, like if youget it? Yeah, Like I think
all he's confident, right, allhe has is a space in that deck.
And I think Beth Gibbons was justlike she's got four queens. She
got four queens, Like, yeah, I'm trip hopping you, bro.
By the way, they I readthat they're not fond of the trip hop

(45:22):
moniker. Yeah, well it's likethe Shoegaatese thing too. It's like,
yeah, when you put it ina glory box, like just one label,
you know, especially with yeah,like how especially Jeffrow, you know,
he's pretty opinionated about his art.Porter said, as a band,
they made great music, and ofcourse he got a lot of attention for

(45:45):
it, but they did not welcomethe attention as well. That's why then,
were you guys as big as theyshould because they just they were just
you know, private people. It'sa true mar Yeah, they're just artists
basically, and they you know,when they started with the short film,
right right, yeah, and itis oh man, this is hard.
We're not doing this anymore right outof the games when at least ten ground

(46:05):
on a short film exactly dropping that, Yeah, they spent that on a
wedding in Mexico or something there,hiring bendor eighty pounds a day. Maybe
that car was making money to helpseriously, right, But I'm a feeling
I'm sure I don't know if howhe's talked about it lately, but especially
let's say, like the Shoegays guyslike they hated that Moniker when it first

(46:25):
came out, But now because ofthat name, it inspired a bunch and
their music inspired a bunch of bandsthat are considered that too. And now
they see it as like, oh, well, you know it was we
didn't like it that back then,but it made all this great music that's
coming out now because you know,kids are listening to it, so you
know, there is something good thatdoes come out of a name. Sometimes
I think as human beings, weneed to kind of categorize things, right,

(46:49):
So when you okay, this iswhat this is called, and it
gets more attention. Yeah, andthen it also creates like a brotherhood or
I don't want to be sexy,but you know, like a camaraderie with
people's like, hey, you likethat kind of stuff too. You know
I do too. Perhaps they canstart their own band or maybe. You
know, it's just like a kindof geek over a certain thing, right,
and it's an important thing. It'san important part of culture, I
think. Yeah, you know withoutthat tribe, Yeah, tribes, you

(47:12):
know, like everybody's kind of separating. We don't really know. You have
to give it, you know,meaning or name or something that we can
all I'll tell you this. Listento the theme song of Silent Hill and
tell me what you think about it, all right, and and tell me
if you think it was inspired bySour Times or no. Okay, it's
an Interstitial's third album. But seriously, like what Jeff Barrow in this whole

(47:36):
band port said did though, wasout there and it's stayed with a lot
of people, much the same here, you know, at least with Sour
Times has really stayed in me forthirty plus years now, and Porters that
is still around. You know,they never officially broken up, right,
And then I think they're gonna dosome They're gonna do some shows they're playing
maybe not, no, I don'tknow, are they but but but they're

(47:59):
never officially broken up as we speak, and I think they're coming up with
I don't know. I think Icould do some shows. They did do
some shows in the mid two thousandsor early two thousands or something. Well,
the video a lot of YouTube videosare like playing live with the whole
orchestra a lot of those. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Actually, I
think they're playing a falafel festival inwhat's the name of that Caleny summerset is

(48:23):
it summerset pun or summer times,summer summer time. Okay, guys,
summer I'm sorry, Summer times,summertimes, okay, guys, sommer times.
Would you keep it or would youthrow it back? Yes, I'll

(48:44):
keep it now. I'm a suckerfor those mystery No. I really love
the short film. Had it notbeen attached to it, I would have
been a little bit confused with whatwas happening. But because you get to
actually see the it's almost like theirversion of behind the scenes, right,
because in a way it explained meansa lot more than they lead you to
believe in the actual music video.But yeah, man, that's that's cool.

(49:05):
I love those ten minutes and andit's it felt like a movie,
right, It's good. I lovedit. But the song's awesome. Man,
it's great. But yeah, that'sthat's a key kind of Corbin too.
Like a lot of the right,right is black and white at everything,
and the music video it's all eventhe sing and and yeah, it
has a lot very similar to that. I guess that's the feel of this.

(49:25):
I think they stole the film stockand like, like I know she's
in the best mode videos later,what happened here? Where you go?
Where'd my camera go? Okay,bro, Hey, my name's Santin KORbin.
Where'd my camera go? Where's myfilm stock? You stole my cinematographer?

(49:50):
Where's my light meter? It's likeMartin Scarce, Hey, what are
you talking? Hell? You likemy mo I'm not gonna you didn't know?
You was like our podcast guest SummerTimes. Is this favorite song?

(50:12):
It's my first one. He's gota you know, an era feel like
Kirosa. You know he loves Whydoes he do that? Okay? So
who's next? Keeping your throwing back? Oh, I'm key. Oh I'm
sorry, I'm gonna keep it now, I'm keeping I'm totally keeping this.

(50:34):
That is great. I don't think. Yeah, I'm a sucker for the
genre too, but you know they'rean amazing band. Is a cool video.
You know, it's film at thistime was rad too, So yeah,
everything was It's working on every levelfor me. How about you?
You can keep it even without theshort video. I would have kept this
video anyway just because of this.How they designed the song about a spy

(50:58):
atmosphere and like the you know,they sampled the mission impossible attract from the
Mission Impossible, the Dan Nubbinson andto kind of build the backbone of this
song and then to apply that intowhat they shot for this music video.
I was like, wow, Iwas just going away. I haven't even
seen the short video until like waylater, you know, to me,
just I just took the music videoas is and just like Beth Gibbons is

(51:21):
the way she was acting while singingthe song, you know, and the
way the band members I said earlier, was like, I'm a huge sucker
for band members breaking out of justplaying music and actually playing characters in music
videos. You know, that's anautomatic keep for me. Oh we always
talk about the buy in. Yeah, when they all bought and you know
they all they were so bought in. I mean the basically the short film

(51:44):
was an extra on a on aDVD or something that they that they did
for, you know, a videocompilation. But yeah, yeah, like
I mean, definitely keep her.You know, the music video is amazing,
The band's amazing, just like theentire album is amazing. Just wow,
wow, did you read that onthe IMDV that they had the concept

(52:05):
for like the music in the forthe album. In Nina Cherry's kitchen.
That's where they talked it out.No, No, they talked about being
in being a band and then writingthis music and kind of the sound in
the field of the album. No, I didn't know that, but yeah,
because Jeff Barrow was a producer Rolesand yeah album, but not to
know Wow, thanks to Buffalo standsright, she's British, then your yeah,

(52:30):
yeah she is. Yeah. Whenyou hear her talk, I was
like, whoa, Yeah, Ididn't know that until like later. Yeah,
because she was in a rip Rigand Panic. You hear that band.
Those are always in the Encyclopedia ofRocky right right. The British is
the Big Book of British Encyclopedia,the Big Book. It's all teeth coming
out left and right from the pages. Okay, so that concludes triple keeps

(52:53):
for sour times, not very sourtimes. So I was like sweet times
for port said in this alment,Okay, Ryan, what you got next
for us? That's my turn?Alrighty, yep, it's only been four
months. Yeah, man, we'regonna do Glory Box. Who was this
ninety four? Nineteen ninety four tooka quick scooter ride up to ninety seven
and we're gonna do Yola Tango's SugarCube. Have you guys ever seen the

(53:15):
video? No, I have it. You'll you'll see Okay, you'll see
it. Oh cool, Yola Tango. Yeah, well you're killing me.
You like it because I'm sure I'veheard this song. Well, actually I'm
not familiar with the song, butthe music video, you guys, it
will out there. No, you'revery familiar with it. All right.
I don't want to ruin it foryou guys, but how interesting. Okay,

(53:37):
well, then thank you for listeningto Throwback Music Video Podcast. Listen
to us, subscribe and blah blahblah, and we'll see you next time.
Thank you for joining us at Teaand We Are podcast. Do you
hope you're enjoy show as much aswe you're recording it? You can subscribe
to us through your favorite podcast.I follow us at t NPR podcast on

(53:58):
Instagram. You can also comments,estes and go rate us a fine star
on Apple Podcast. Okay, then, hello, and welcome to episode one
one hundred and twelve. Oh no, my glasses just broke right in front
of me. Good. Oh no, Ryan, I think you gotta pay

(54:20):
for ship. That's not Right's fulk. Look at this fucking shattered and these
are just readers. It's some sourd, it's readers. It's so hour times
for me at the moment, andwe're starting off onime. Oh man,
hold on, give me a moment.