When Art Immitates Art

ever find an album that you just can't put down and over a course of 2 weeks listen to the damn thing about 37 times? i'm in one of those phases right now with the album "stars of cctv" by hard-fi.

i first heard hard-fi a year or so ago through my friends dave, jemma, and thea (thanks for the tip!). for those who are unfamiliar with the band, they are a rock group from staines, england (staines is also the neighborhood used as the setting for the movie "ali g in da house") who combine rock, punk, new wave, beats, and other good sounding stuff to create a really good, energetic mix.

the first track on "stars of cctv" is a song called "cash machine". i love albums that start with a good, upbeat number to get you into the album. cash machine does this perfectly. its a good, rocking number with an interesting message. its about some guy who, despite his best efforts, can't get his shit together. he is broke. he can't buy a train ticket home. he knocks his girlfriend up. but despite all this, you can tell that he still wants to do good. he wonders, like all of us do from time to time, whether or not he can realize his full potential. he wonders if he can overcome the obstacles in his life. he is trying to keep his head above water. i like this guy. sure, he has some shit going on, but don't we all?

this song is also interesting because after listening to it a few (dozen) times, i got a vision in my head that this song is the perfect guy ritchie movie condensed into a 4 minute pop tune. i think the english accent might have pushed the issue a long, but the same things he is singing about are the same things you see in a guy ritchie movie. think "snatch" and "lock stock and two smoking barrels". i could see guy ritchie directing the video in his post-modern style. it just works. so, you can imagine, to my surprise, that when i checked out the video on youtube it has a guy ritchie-like quality to it. the video doesn't have all the camera moves that i would have put into it, but i think the guy who speaks in the beginning is a direct tip of the hat to guy ritchie. check it out for yourself:



there is also another video for this song that presents a more literal interpretation of the song. you can check that out here (why there is russian or some other slavic language at the bottom of the screen i have no idea):