Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers "Shady Esperanto"

How old were you when MTV came to your town?

Me, I was probably just the right age. I was a 7th grader when I watched the cable guys hook up a box to our TV, and flip on Quarterflash singing “Harden My Heart.”

It’s hardly a new thought for me to note that you don’t see videos on MTV these days. Music seems to be such a tiny, inconsequential part of their programming.

But it can’t be underplayed, at least in my life, how influential MTV was in the early-to-mid-80s.

While memory sends you back to the One-Hit-Wonder anomalies like Flock Of Seagulls, The Buggles and Dexy’s Midnight Runners, MTV was also my first glimpse of more than a few important artists.

Elvis Costello’s “Oliver’s Army,” Nick Lowe’s “Cruel To Be Kind” and U2’s “Gloria” were just a few of the songs and videos that had profound effects on my future listening (and hey, my vocation, too).

You go back and look at these videos, and yes, they are pretty chintzy-looking, especially compared to the high-gloss videos of MTV’s 90s heyday.

But these videos and the song in them, won me over with their charm. There’s a sincerity in there ineptness.

All this to say that I can’t tell you the last time I was won over to a song’s charms, with the aid of a music video. Certainly, it’s been more than a decade.

But it happened last week.

Stephen Kellogg’s “Shady Esperanto And The Young Hearts” song is something that’s been on the bubble of songs mvyradio is likely to add. I thought it was a fun song, something right up my alley. But every week, we’d add into rotation something that was a little more “mvy-sounding.”

I got sent the link to the “Shady Esperanto” video last Friday, and I’ve been humming the song ever since, and laughing at the video.

It’s by no means the funniest viral video I’ve ever been sent (hello Dramatic Groundhog), or even the funniest music video I’ve seen. But I can not deny it’s low-budget charm. It’s just so exuberantly goofy.

And for full disclosure, I went to UMass, so I have a soft spot for the video’s location and extras.

I loved the song before I saw the video, but after seeing the video I said to myself, “What are you waiting for? Spread this joy on the radio.”

Hear Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers "Shady Esperanto And The Young Hearts"

See the low budget video, a buoyant live performance, the old school MTV music videos for “Oliver’s Army,” “Cruel To Be Kind” and “Gloria,” and behold the mesmerizing power of the Dramatic Groundhog.