Video Hangover: Marcy Playground - "Saint Joe On The Schoolbus"
Every week, we dig in the archives for videos that we find noteworthy, memorable, or just unbelievably stupid. And then, Jon McMillan breaks 'em down for you. Why Video Hangover? Because when you watch as many videos as we do, you're going to feel it afterwards.
"Saint Joe On The Schoolbus"
Marcy Playground, 1998
I smell sex and candy canine endoscopy.
An unexpected (happy) surprise: The first 71 seconds of "Saint Joe" play like a lost Spike Jonze gem. The incongruous setting of the veterinary hospital. The deliberate pacing. The graphic intensity of the doggy upper-GI scope that goes on just long enough to get uncomfortable. The transcendent weirdness and unexpected humor of the boy (Kuato?) giving a thumbs-up at the long end of the tube -- it's creepy and fantastic, one-third of an all-time classic. Unfortunately, the last 130 seconds play like a Marcy Playground song: tedious, derivative, steeped in banality and cliché. The Boy Who Cried Wolf? Seriously? That's how the boy got inside the wolf? That makes no sense, and not in a whimsical, suspend-your-disbelief kind of way. That little douche-in-training (DIT?) deserved to be mauled, not swallowed. And what was the point of telling the story backwards, except to unwind the appealing weirdness of the opening scene? Expectations being what they are (low), I didn't think it would be possible to be disappointed by Marcy Playground. But there you go.
Got a candidate for Video Hangover? Email tips at stereogum dot com.
Posted at 12:27 PM by Jon in Video, Video Hangover
Im not embarrassed to say that I actually like this song.
Score = 10
Me neither. I think Marcy Playground are rather underrated.
Score = 2
agreed, b.
Score = 8
Sex and Candy is the worst song ever. Our shitty local radio station STILL PLAYS IT AT LEAST TWICE A DAY! (But I stopped listening a while ago, so it may have changed) but still...... Fuck that song.
Score = -9
That was a great CD.
Score = 9
Yep. I love this song too. Swing and a miss, video hangover.
Score = 5
Man, Cobain looks weird in this video. Oh wait, this isn't "Come As You Are".
(I know CAYA rips Killing Joke's "Eighties", but "Saint Joe's" rip of CAYA is even more egregious, down to the watery guitar sound during the chorus.)
Score = -2
really??
Score = 0
here we go again, another Nirvana reference. Who doesn't sound like them. Talk about tedious, Nirvana is king of tedious music. Dead to me!!
Score = 0
marcy's playground built a career on the word 'eyeah'
Score = 0
I thought that was Collective Soul...
Score = 0
I'm always amazed when people my age display tolerance & even favor for this kind of alterna-90s rock. Boring as hell & derivative all the way.
The 90s can go to the Devil.
Score = -4
you mean Marcy Playground had another song besides Sex and Candy? *gasp*
Score = 0
i also like the one where he sings, "see spot run/'cause he pissed in the hallway.." i forgot what that one was called.
Score = 4
If you people haven't heard Marcy Playground's "Shapeshifter," your loss.
Score = 0
Heh, the ol' "Shapeshifter" routine, eh? :)
Score = 2
Marcy Playground rocks!
Score = 1
heeeyyy, I actually like this song. 'Sex and Candy" can't possibly the worst song ever, that honor belongs to so many more people. Marcy Playground ain't that great, but honestly, give them some credit, they were doing the "seattle post-grunge" thing in 1999...you know, back when Papa Roach, Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Disturbed were making a killing and selling out shows.
Score = 2
This song is awesome. This album was awesome as a whole, IMO. My favorite song on it was (and is) "Sherry Fraser,' but this is like number three on my list. That said, I saw them live at this awful radio concert with Gravity Kills and Reel Big Fish in '99, and, yeah, they sucked live.
Score = 4
I used to love Marcy Playground. They were pretty awesome. Man, I miss the 90s, such great music.
Score = 3
you should still listen to them, the STILL make great music
Score = 0
i know this is about the video i actually really dig this song and ALL of the self-titled Marcy Playground LP. There other stuff as shit. So everyone that calls them a one hit wonder, I call them a one album wonder. Have a listen. It's pretty great!
Score = 0
Remember when Stereogum used to update this column? *sigh*
Score = 0
two months later....and nothing.
you pain me.
Score = 0
the best columns are left to rot while we get shit news about death cab for cutie getting bit by a scorpion and fake coachella lineups.
Score = 1
Bad article. Great band. Open your ears. If you wish to write an artical bashing people and bands like some sort of moronic crusader (hell yeah ... i'm writing a song about YOU called "Moronic Crusader" ... sweet) please learn to spell first.
Score = 0
...said the person who spelled 'article' incorrectly in their post. nice.
Score = 1
Everywhere you go, Nirvana references. I don't know why, the music to me is so different from one another. MP is so much better and Kurt Cobain couldn't hold John Wozniak's jock strap when it comes to songwriting.
Score = 0