Slice
A Perfect Prescription
Buy Ted Leo/Pharmacists CDs from Amazon.
An interview with Mr. Leo from Gothamist.
Gawker interview with Leo
TedLeo.com
The "Me & Mia" video at the Lookout Records website.
More Leo links at Cheesedip.com
And the award for Best Supporting Location in a Music Video goes to World Famous Ray's Pizza in Ted Leo/Pharmacist's "Me & Mia." [Watch the video here.] Though the pizzeria's on-screen time is brief, it steals all the scenes it appears in and transforms an otherwise straightforward montage of band practice into an almost-narrative video.
World Famous Ray's, located at 595 Sixth Avenue, sneaks into the picture 22 seconds in, though only sharp-eyed viewers will note it, as the shot's focus is a walk–don't walk sign in the foreground. After a minute of footage that shows the band in what appears to be a large, ample-windowed practice loft, the camera quickly cuts back and shows that Mr. Leo and company are playing directly above World Famous Ray's. This is followed by some more band-action footage and then by a scene in which a taxi pulls up next to Ray's, drops off Mr. Leo (but wait! He's upstairs practicing!), who heads in to order some food.
We see Mr. Leo yell something to an employee there, and not long after, he's sitting at a table eating what appears to be, sadly, pasta—not pizza.
The song itself is catchy power-pop and reminds me that I should probably pick up Mr. Leo's latest record, Shake the Sheets, seeing as how I enjoyed his previous two, Tyranny of Distance and Hearts of Oak.
For more info on Ted Leo/Pharmacists, see the box above.
[Video via The Real Janelle and her Weekly Wrap-Up.]