YouTube Rodeo: Alex Kemp's "Shadows On The Square"

We don't know if we follow the symbolism of punching the text of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" into a cell phone, and we are creeped out by the ghouls that are following him, but all the same we really like Alex Kemp's new song and video "Shadows On The Square." The texting, public transportation and ghouls sort of strike us as a bit Haruki Murakami-ish, and that always warrants a thumbs up from us. Anyway, like most good things, there is a surprise at the end of the song. The surprise is that suddenly there's more rock transpiring than we've heard from Mr. Kemp since his old, old band Small Factory's final record For If You Cannot Fly. Or, more accurately, since a particularly ripping live rendition of Versus' "Crazy" we saw Kemp's former band The Godrays lay down in 1996. You can hear more of Kemp's recent jams at his MySpace hacienda here. Longtime readers may recall we (figuratively) tracked Kemp down last fall via the Internets and learned he was playing with the Chicago synthpop outfit Assassins, before actually hearing more straight from the proverbial horse's mouth. If you don't remember, refresh here and here. We're hoping "Shadows On The Square" is a harbinger of more rock-oriented material to come from Kemp.