John Gushue . . . Dot Dot Dot

(Sw)eat to the beat

Keith Moon may have been bloated and horribly out of shape when he died after years of excessive drug and alcohol intake, but the fellow was as fit as a fiddle in his prime. No wonder, according to some new research, which found that an hour of drumming is as good a workout as you'll get anywhere. This is far from an exhaustive, double-blind study; the subject of study was Blondie's Clem Burke (above). Click here to see a BBC report on the findings. Click below to see Clem Burke in action, with the propulsive drumming behind Dreaming, Blondie's 1979 single.

Feist counts to four on Sesame Street

Who better to sing about the wonders of counting - to four, at that - that Feist herself? Click below to see Feist adapt 1 2 3 4 with monsters, penguins and more. And, "it's one less than five, and one more than three." (The expression on Feist's face at the end, incidentally, is priceless.)

The Specials, A Message to You, Rudy

I've seen the promo video for A Message to You, Rudy many times (you can see it here), but I hadn't seen this live performance for the Old Grey Whistle Test before. The Specials - with an exceptionally young-looking Terry Hall - are joined by Rico Rodriguez and Dick Cuthell here.

Public Image Ltd., Rise

From the album sometimes named Album (or CD or Cassette, if that's the format you picked), Rise is about as good as John Lydon got, post-Sex Pistols, although it still seems producer Bill Laswell's fingerprints are the more obvious on the tune.

Leonard Cohen, Sonny Rollins, Who By Fire

Leonard Cohen performs Who By Fire, with a monster turn by Sonny Rollins on sax.

Jaymay plays Royal Albert Hall (or at least near it)

I picked up Jaymay's You Are The Only One I Love on a compilation CD issued a couple of months ago with The Word magazine; out of curiosity, I looked for a companion video and found this anti-production, showing Jaymay - she's from Long Island, and also goes by Jamie Seerman - playing on the sidewalk by Royal Albert Hall. The brilliant addition: the hands holding up the speaker for her electric guitar. The album version is more lush, but this works, too.

Ray Charles, America the Beautiful

A happy fourth of July to friends and relations on the other side of the border. Here's Ray Charles, who reinvented America the Beautiful.

Amy Winehouse & Jerry Dammers, Free Nelson Mandela

Jerry Dammers - the gap-toothed brains behind the Specials/ Special AKA - was joined by Amy Winehouse, of all people, to sing lead on Free Nelson Mandela for Friday's concert in Hyde Park to celebrate Nelson Mandela's forthcoming 90th birthday. Half of London appears to have joined them on stage, including some other well-known faces. (Dammers is, admittedly, not that well known; that's him on organ.)

Lest we forget how potent the original single was in 1984, when Nelson Mandela's name was far from a household word and the video itself was banned from some TV stations, here's the original version - featuring a sparkling horn arrangement and some of Elvis Costello's best production work.

Kathleen Edwards: I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory

Kathleen Edwards is a treasure, and the video for her new single is as Canadian as it gets. (Jim Cuddy, and a redeemed Marty McSorley, who's namechecked in the lyrics, to boot.)

Sing along with Star Trek

The Toronto Star rounds up what it calls the Star Trek mixtape, consisting of performances (most found lacking) by Star Trek actors. No. 1 on the list is William Shatner's cover of Pulp's Common People, which I'll agree was quite a bit of fun. Below is a 2006 performance (you'll note that Shatner has a stand to hold the lyrics that evidently he doesn't know by heart) that lacks Jarvis Cocker but boasts Joe Jackson and Ben Folds; Folds produced Shatner's curiously-worth-getting Has Been.