10,000 YOUTUBE USERS MIGHT ACTUALLY BE RIGHT//
JULIAN NUNES

I was really late to jump on the Say Anything train. A friend of mine, maybe a couple of them, put “Alive With the Glory of Love” up on their MySpazz profiles back in the spring of ‘06, and I couldn’t get past the first 30 seconds of it. I thought, A band called “Say Anything” and a song about the glory of love, and an opening that screams of Bowie’s “Let’s Dance.”* 80’s pop culture reference, much? I was pretty turned off, even more so at the over the top second single “Wow, I Can Get Sexual, Too” which, I know, is supposed to be over the top, but it did nothing to change my mind. When, in fall of ‘07, Dave finally came across “Alive With the Glory of Love” and made me listen to all of it, I realized it’s a pretty good song, but left it at that for a few months.

Then, yesterday, I was walking home from work, listening to the Notwist (which, if you don’t know, is German lo-fi with little electronic bits, pretty far removed from Say Anything’s bombastic emo-pop swagger) and it struck me: I haven’t seen the music video for “Alive With the Glory of Love” yet. It’s probably pretty good, right? Maybe YouTube has some good live versions and stuff. So it’s strange that, when I did hit the YouTubes, I didn’t go straight to the official vid. Or a fan-made video, or a live performance, even. The first video I watched was Julia Nunes (pronounced ‘noons’) doing an acoustic cover of it for Valentine’s Day. That’s right, a girl with an acoustic guitar covering the song I wanted to hear. Good gracious it was good. So good, in fact, that I listened to her sing it again. And then checked out a few more of her videos before actually watching the Say Anything video. Then I went back to Julia’s for a while.

[youtube 3VS--sZ6zJM]

Her rendition of the songs was excellent because she seemed so in tune with the vibe of it. It could be read as a really depressing song, somber at best, as it’s about how a romance is affected by the holocaust (based on Max Bemis’ grandparents, who were holocaust survivors). But it’s not a downer, it’s about devotion even in the face of dire circumstances, and love actually prevails! Strange and refreshing from a genre that can be so cynical (more on Say Anything defending their genre later). Julia hits the song with an excited, positive energy that’s perfect for it.

So now I’m slightly hooked on Julia Nunes. She also writes her own songs and plays ukulele. And is capable of using editing software so as to not only keep her videos interesting, but also harmonize with herself, which makes the singing of a song like “Alive With the Glory of Love” much more effective. If you are also smitten with her, she’s got a CD available, too. It’s entirely possible I’ll post about her again.

*I know the opening of “Let’s Dance” is a reference to “Twist and Shout” but the Ferris Beuller’s Day Off reference to keep with the 80’s theme was more of a stretch.

- Love the Music (Jun 4, 2008)

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