FATHER JOHN MISTY

Bored in the USA

(Live on Letterman)

There was an interesting piece on NPR recently about how bearded hipsters in Lebanon are frequently mistaken for Islamic fundamentalists and dragged off to the torture chambers for interrogation. For the first two minutes of this performance, I find myself rather wishing that practice was more widespread in the West. Yes, Josh Tillman may be the quintessential over- privileged Wasp, but boy, does he own it here, with a string section, canned laughter and a self-playing piano gag that is basically a “F-you” to the entire audience. “Save me President Jesus,” he wails for his grand finale, while all across TV land, jaws hang open in mute astonishment.

PENTATONIX

White Winter Hymnal

Sony

Speaking of Josh Tillman, one of his former band Fleet Foxes’ best known track gets the Billie Barry treatment here on this seasonally themed cover version. I’m not too sure who Pentatonix are. But if a Benetton ad ever needed a glee club, these would be their go-to guys.

TAYLOR SWIFT

Blank Space

Big Machine

The gist of this second video, from the former country singer’s humongously popular

1989

album, seems to be that Taylor Swift is a psycho girlfriend but she’s got a very spacious home. So you could probably hide out on her for hours when she got annoying.

DAVID BOWIE
Sue (Or In a Season of Crime)

Parlophone

“Sue, I’ve pushed you down beneath the weeds / Hopeless fate in hopeless deeds...” One of the weird perks of being a universally respected singer- songwriter like David Bowie (or Tom Waits or Nick Cave) is that you can write songs about murdering people and pretty much everyone – this writer included – will think you’re a genius for it. But if Bruno Mars tried it, we’d be like “What the hell is wrong with you, Bruno? We think you need professional help.”