Nothing did more to further the cause of Alternative Nation-building than 120 Minutes, MTV’s Sunday-night video showcase of non-mainstream acts. For nearly two decades, the program spanned musical eras from ’80s college rock to ’00s indie, with grunge, Britpop, punk, industrial, electronica and more in between. MAGNET raids the vaults to resurrect our 120 favorite and unjustly forgotten videos from the show’s classic era.
#12: The Fall “New Big Prinz”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utjyI3WpGNg
We’re not here to explain the Fall to you—that would be torture for all involved. But we can offer some insight into “New Big Prinz,” an excellent Fall track whose video seems to mock the handi-capable, ballet dancing and diction. (Well, Fall frontman Mark E. Smith has been antagonizing enunciation for decades now.) Anyway, “New Big Prinz” belongs to a 1988 album titled I Am Kurious, Oranj, written as a companion piece to a contemporary dance performance called I Am Curious, Orange, concerning English monarch William of Orange. So that explains the dancers in the video. Good luck with the rest of it.
In honor of the World Cup, here’s Mark E. Smith reading football scores.
2 replies on “120 Reasons To Live: The Fall”
C’mon, man. This aint London.
I was intrigued by the Fall after seeing their video for “Victoria” on 120 Mins. Not knowing it was a cover, I thought they trafficked in big alt-pop numbers so I rushed out and scored The Frenz Experiment. Hit or miss, that one. Still love some Fall, but much of their output was unintelligible garbage.