Tuesday, March 30, 2010
The Cave Singers
This is a band out of Seattle. Pretty narly stuff.
They also have a great set on daytrotter if you like what you hear:)
They also have a great set on daytrotter if you like what you hear:)
Monday, March 29, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
New Black Keys
New single from their forthcoming album produced by Danger Mouse. That dude has been busy.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
By word of mouth, from SXSW
A friend of mine came back from the South x Southwest festival party last weekend very jazzed about this new band she found called Telegraph Canyon. With an awesome melody composed of banjo, fiddle, and electronic keyboard notes in harmony with emphatic vocals spilling out of a dude with an otherwise wicked beard, how can you resist?
Futurebirds
This is a group out of Athens, GA. Some really really really good back porch hanging out music. The best part...they are giving their ep away for free here I hope you all enjoy this as much as I am!
http://www.myspace.com/thefuturebirds
http://www.myspace.com/thefuturebirds
Monday, March 22, 2010
Doing the right thing
By now I'm sure everyone is familiar with the historic event that occurred yesterday. I just want to go on record as completely backing this move. I think it is a good step to show that the system is not completely broken and that the needs of the people can take precedence over the concerns of those in charge. When there is a gaping need, and you have the resources available to fill that need, it is a responsibility to fill that need. It will be surprising to find the Twins regretting their decision to sign Joe Mauer to a long-term contract.
But, some might say, this is going to be a yoke over the neck of the Twins organization. I'd say to those people that it would be far worse for the Twins organization to abdicate the responsibility it has to their supporters and to baseball in general to allow the face of their franchise, the player whose production drives the team, to drift away when the team needs him most. This isn't to say that there aren't risks involved, but what is the point of being in the league if you cannot protect your homegrown talent? The Twins will still scout out new talent to improve their overall performance and, hopefully, when Mauer begins to show signs of age they'll be able to integrate that talent in a way that substantially improves the foundation that they have signaled their commitment to build upon. No, the system is not broken, it just relies on the fortitude of those in charge to do what is right, and not to cower in fear of the Yankees and all they represent, who benefit the most when the people who are in charge of protecting their talent reject that responsibility and, consequently, contribute to the inequality that the Yankees feast upon. It may not be perfect, but until stricter regulations can be put into place to prevent continual Yankees dominance, the 2nd best thing to see is owners willing to protect the faith and hope fans invest in their teams.
But, some might say, this is going to be a yoke over the neck of the Twins organization. I'd say to those people that it would be far worse for the Twins organization to abdicate the responsibility it has to their supporters and to baseball in general to allow the face of their franchise, the player whose production drives the team, to drift away when the team needs him most. This isn't to say that there aren't risks involved, but what is the point of being in the league if you cannot protect your homegrown talent? The Twins will still scout out new talent to improve their overall performance and, hopefully, when Mauer begins to show signs of age they'll be able to integrate that talent in a way that substantially improves the foundation that they have signaled their commitment to build upon. No, the system is not broken, it just relies on the fortitude of those in charge to do what is right, and not to cower in fear of the Yankees and all they represent, who benefit the most when the people who are in charge of protecting their talent reject that responsibility and, consequently, contribute to the inequality that the Yankees feast upon. It may not be perfect, but until stricter regulations can be put into place to prevent continual Yankees dominance, the 2nd best thing to see is owners willing to protect the faith and hope fans invest in their teams.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
I never travel far without a little Big Star
Figure you all have heard by now that Alex Chilton died, but thought I'd throw up a post b/c one can never have too much Big Star.
If anyone isn't familiar with Alex Chilton, he had a no.1 hit with The Box Top's "The Letter" when he was 16, and then never really matched that success but maintained a cult following with Big Star that got bigger over the years. Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney wrote on NPR -
You might recognize some of Big Star's songs as "Thirteen" seems to be one of the most frequently covered songs and That 70's Show used a cover of their song "In The Street" for their theme song. The Replacements wrote an entire song about their love of Alex Chilton aptly titled "Alex Chilton".
I don't want to slow down the page by posting a bunch of videos so here's links to Thirteen and Alex Chilton.
If anyone isn't familiar with Alex Chilton, he had a no.1 hit with The Box Top's "The Letter" when he was 16, and then never really matched that success but maintained a cult following with Big Star that got bigger over the years. Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney wrote on NPR -
Alex Chilton's band Big Star changed lives. They changed lives because when you heard them, it unlocked an entire -- and utterly lovely -- world. Big Star's music filled a void you didn't even know had been there. With Big Star, music felt limitless, freer, but also more whole. How did they do that? By turning ears and hearts into stadiums and packing them until you felt like you were going to explode.
You might recognize some of Big Star's songs as "Thirteen" seems to be one of the most frequently covered songs and That 70's Show used a cover of their song "In The Street" for their theme song. The Replacements wrote an entire song about their love of Alex Chilton aptly titled "Alex Chilton".
I don't want to slow down the page by posting a bunch of videos so here's links to Thirteen and Alex Chilton.
Fang Island
They describe their sound as "everyone high-fiving everyone." Curious? The pitchfork link has a lala thingy with access to the album. Good shit.
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14011-fang-island/
http://www.myspace.com/fangisland
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14011-fang-island/
http://www.myspace.com/fangisland
Civil Twilight - Straight Outta South Africa
Not the most creative stuff you'll ever hear, but hey, Africa is still catching up to the West. I'd describe the first few songs as "South Africa's Answer to Radiohead," and the last few songs as "Straight People's Answer to Coldplay."
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
NPR's On The Media - They Say I Stole This
From NPR.org:
Twenty years ago a series of lawsuits criminalized the hip-hop sampling of artists like Hank Shocklee and Public Enemy. And yet, two decades later, artists like Girl Talk have found success breaking those same sampling laws. OTM producer Jamie York talks to Girl Talk, Shocklee and Duke Law professor James Boyle about two decades of sampling - on both sides of the law.
NPR's On The Media - Played Out
From NPR.org:
Recorded music might be easier than ever to get for free, but seeing live music is getting more and more expensive. Veteran concert promoter John Scher says this is due to a decade of consolidation. He says not only does it hurt fans who can’t afford tickets that ultimately it’s an unsustainable model.
Onion Undercover
The Onion AV Club is inviting 25 bands to cover 25 songs that they've picked out. Some of the covers will be songs by Neutral Milk Hotel, Archers of Loaf, Hall & Oates. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists are the first band and they chose to a pretty great cover of Everybody Rules The World by Tears for Fears.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
The Heart Is A Drum Machine
This one definitely deserves more time. From Wired:
"What is music? It’s a simple question, but it leads director Christopher Pomerenke in many complicated artistic and scientific directions in his documentary The Heart Is a Drum Machine, out Tuesday on DVD.
It’s an expansive, inviting film, which embraces everything from Voyager’s Golden Record and aboriginal funeral chants to brain-music therapy and pop music branding. Along the way, Pomerenke’s mostly unassuming movie is enhanced by interviews with artists, scientists and others deeply invested in charting the pathways of the heart, the prenatal vibration that establishes our musical universe, as well as the mind that modifies those vibrations into meaning."
Featuring The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne, Tool's Maynard James Keenan, Red Hot Chili Pepper's John Frusciante, actor and indie label mogul Elija Wood, funk doctor George Clinton and many others.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
on the tube this week
broken bells, allman bros, ben harper, pearl jam to name a few
http://www.jambase.com/Articles/21866/Music-on-the-Tube-3.8-3.14
http://www.jambase.com/Articles/21866/Music-on-the-Tube-3.8-3.14
Monday, March 8, 2010
Monopolizing this shizz
3 posts in a row pour moi? Feel a little uncomfortable about that, but my friend who reads my other blog (i.e. my only reader) got sick of reading baseball jokes all the time so I wrote some more on mash-ups. I got myself in the weeds on this issue, but Rusty might find it interesting.
The Rumpus reviewed Reality Hunger by David Shields today and it made me think more of what we were talking about earlier about mash-ups. This is how Shields structures his book -
I don't understand this fascination with not attributing quotes in writing. What is gained from this (besides avoiding looking like Bartlett's Famous Quotations, as the reviewer notes)? Maybe I'm missing the point, not having read Reality Hunger, but having thought about it, I've soured on Hegemann's argument for including paragraphs of other people's books into her own -
I never really bought the justification, but ignored it since the only included example in the article was a character who quoted from a blogpost and the book never mentioned that the character was quoting somebody, which I think is alright, although the utility of having a character quote somebody is only gained when the reader is aware that the character is using somebody else's words and then thinks, "This character is the type of person who memorizes quotes from (wherever) for use in conversation." It would make sense that a professor of Shakespeare might use quotes from Shakespeare in daily conversation without attribution, but nothing is gained for the reader if the reader is unaware of it or the reader will start wondering why this character speaks in iambic pentameter in the year 2010. Books don't need to change to stay modern. What is happening is that the remix culture of movies and music is giving movies and music stylistic choices and forms that books have always had. It's not just because of technological advances that allows mash-ups but also the accumulation of the language of film into our culture. Here is Julian Sanchez on remix culture using the brat-pack/Lisztomania mash-up that progressed to the kids in Brooklyn 'covering' the video to the San Francisco hipsters who make a similar video in response as an example of "how remix is becoming a platform for collective expression by—and conversations between—social groups" -
Or, a more filmic representation of the same argument, here is a scene from Swingers that is itself a comment on how the characters in Swingers wish to see themselves as cool as the characters in Reservoir Dogs -
Paraphrasing Sanchez, when we live in a world saturated with digital media, copyrights are no longer just about incentivizing the creation of new work, but about how much control we get to have over our social reality, and that's where the argument for the unattributed co-option of other people's words into books falls apart because the point of mash-ups or remixes is not to diminish the role of the original author, but to highlight how this art has succeeded in influencing and being subsumed into our culture and even our personalities. Books have always had the ability to convey that truth through stylistic voices, like if a kid in a book kept on using the word 'phony' we'd know that the kid probably sees himself as an heir-apparent to Holden Caulfield. Authors shouldn't be looking towards mash-ups as the future form of the novel, but towards how the people who make and relate to remixes and mash-ups see, identify, and communicate their world. The challenge is that so much of the vocabulary we use to place ourselves in the world is through images rather than language. It doesn't mean that the most truthful/honest way of representing our reality is through film or television, but that the words authors use to present character's inner lives need to identify back towards cultural images as opposed to words. James Joyce could use a "style that borrows from (and parodies) the prose of both moralizing, sentimental literature and consumer-oriented women’s magazines" to convey the inner life of a girl, Gerty MacDowell, in the Nausicaa section of Ulysses. The tv show, The Hills, might serve a similar use for a current author who wanted to define how a girl sees herself in the world today, but the author would have to create the vocabulary to communicate that reality to the world - there is no prose to borrow/parody in The Hills - but I think an author has the ability to communicate that view of the world in such a way that the reader is aware of what the author is doing without the author having to resort to explicitly referencing The Hills like, "Gerty sat in the restaurant discussing her crush on Brody to Angela with the intensity learned from hours studying Lauren Conrad." Going back to Hegemann, an author could show that a girl relates to Lauren Conrad by having her read her book and then blockquoting a passage of Conrad's book into the other book, but why would you not attribute the source of the quote if the whole point is to show that the girl relates to Lauren Conrad? I'm at a loss, maybe I need to read one of these books I think about all the time.
The Rumpus reviewed Reality Hunger by David Shields today and it made me think more of what we were talking about earlier about mash-ups. This is how Shields structures his book -
Reality Hunger is a 205-page compilation 618 numbered paragraphs, only a handful of which are written by Shields. The rest are quotes from a wide range of writers, entertainers and thinkers: everyone from Homer to Herzog. It may take a while to realize this, as the paragraphs lack attribution (although they are listed in the back by the order of “Random House lawyers”). Shields sums up his intent thusly: “My interest is to write the ars poetica for a burgeoning group of interrelated (but unconnected) artists in a multitude of forms and media (lyric essay, prose poem, collage novel, visual art, film, television, radio, performance art, rap, stand-up comedy) who are breaking larger and larger chunks of ‘reality’ into their work.”
I don't understand this fascination with not attributing quotes in writing. What is gained from this (besides avoiding looking like Bartlett's Famous Quotations, as the reviewer notes)? Maybe I'm missing the point, not having read Reality Hunger, but having thought about it, I've soured on Hegemann's argument for including paragraphs of other people's books into her own -
“There’s no such thing as originality anyway, just authenticity,” said Hegemann in response to accusations of plagiarism.
...
If a d.j. can thread together twenty different songs and package the end product as her own, why can’t a writer? This seems to be the question Hegemann is using as a defense.
I never really bought the justification, but ignored it since the only included example in the article was a character who quoted from a blogpost and the book never mentioned that the character was quoting somebody, which I think is alright, although the utility of having a character quote somebody is only gained when the reader is aware that the character is using somebody else's words and then thinks, "This character is the type of person who memorizes quotes from (wherever) for use in conversation." It would make sense that a professor of Shakespeare might use quotes from Shakespeare in daily conversation without attribution, but nothing is gained for the reader if the reader is unaware of it or the reader will start wondering why this character speaks in iambic pentameter in the year 2010. Books don't need to change to stay modern. What is happening is that the remix culture of movies and music is giving movies and music stylistic choices and forms that books have always had. It's not just because of technological advances that allows mash-ups but also the accumulation of the language of film into our culture. Here is Julian Sanchez on remix culture using the brat-pack/Lisztomania mash-up that progressed to the kids in Brooklyn 'covering' the video to the San Francisco hipsters who make a similar video in response as an example of "how remix is becoming a platform for collective expression by—and conversations between—social groups" -
Or, a more filmic representation of the same argument, here is a scene from Swingers that is itself a comment on how the characters in Swingers wish to see themselves as cool as the characters in Reservoir Dogs -
Paraphrasing Sanchez, when we live in a world saturated with digital media, copyrights are no longer just about incentivizing the creation of new work, but about how much control we get to have over our social reality, and that's where the argument for the unattributed co-option of other people's words into books falls apart because the point of mash-ups or remixes is not to diminish the role of the original author, but to highlight how this art has succeeded in influencing and being subsumed into our culture and even our personalities. Books have always had the ability to convey that truth through stylistic voices, like if a kid in a book kept on using the word 'phony' we'd know that the kid probably sees himself as an heir-apparent to Holden Caulfield. Authors shouldn't be looking towards mash-ups as the future form of the novel, but towards how the people who make and relate to remixes and mash-ups see, identify, and communicate their world. The challenge is that so much of the vocabulary we use to place ourselves in the world is through images rather than language. It doesn't mean that the most truthful/honest way of representing our reality is through film or television, but that the words authors use to present character's inner lives need to identify back towards cultural images as opposed to words. James Joyce could use a "style that borrows from (and parodies) the prose of both moralizing, sentimental literature and consumer-oriented women’s magazines" to convey the inner life of a girl, Gerty MacDowell, in the Nausicaa section of Ulysses. The tv show, The Hills, might serve a similar use for a current author who wanted to define how a girl sees herself in the world today, but the author would have to create the vocabulary to communicate that reality to the world - there is no prose to borrow/parody in The Hills - but I think an author has the ability to communicate that view of the world in such a way that the reader is aware of what the author is doing without the author having to resort to explicitly referencing The Hills like, "Gerty sat in the restaurant discussing her crush on Brody to Angela with the intensity learned from hours studying Lauren Conrad." Going back to Hegemann, an author could show that a girl relates to Lauren Conrad by having her read her book and then blockquoting a passage of Conrad's book into the other book, but why would you not attribute the source of the quote if the whole point is to show that the girl relates to Lauren Conrad? I'm at a loss, maybe I need to read one of these books I think about all the time.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Logorama
The Oscars are on tonight and, if you are like me, you take it VERY SERIOUSLY. And you'd have studied up on all the categories to give you that slight edge in the pool like figuring out what the difference is between Best in Sound Mixing and Best in Sound Editing. Or you'd have watched all the nominees for Best Animated Short. If you haven't, I suggest taking 15 minutes and watch Logorama. It's a sorta-Pulp Fiction, sorta-2012, sorta-The Dark Knight take on Los Angeles where everything in the world is represented by creatively used corporate logos like Ronald McDonald as a criminal being chased by the Michelin Men, etc. etc. I doubt it'll win because it's so strange, but you should watch it because it's, you know, really strange.
Kafka's Font
I know Buhrman gets a kick outta this font designing business. These guys created a font using Franz Kafka's handwriting that looks pretty cool.
It seems like it would lend itself particularly well to the sides of coffee cups and advertisements for scones and muffins at your area cafe.
It seems like it would lend itself particularly well to the sides of coffee cups and advertisements for scones and muffins at your area cafe.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Don't even reply ... ha ha ha
420 Friendly
Posted at: 2009-06-09 01:51:29
Original ad:
26 year old female who loves music looking for friendly male concert buddy.
i have tickets to see STS9 tomorrow night and am looking for someone to go with me to see them. you must be 420 friendly!
From Timmy Tucker to ***********@***********.org
Dear potential concert buddy,
I saw your ad and am very interested. I love music. About myself, I am a 25-year-old music loving male. I see all kinds of concerts and would love to check out STS9, I'm not quite sure what kind of music that is.
I am not sure what you mean by 420 friendly, however. Do you live near route 420? That isn't a problem for me, since it is kind of on the way to Philly anyway. Email me back if you want to go to the show with me.
Thank you,
Tim
From Stacey ***** to Me
hi tim. i wasn't talking about route 420...you have to be "cool" if you know what I mean.
stacey
From Timmy Tucker to Stacey *****
Stacey,
Glad to hear back from you! Unfortunately I am a little confused. I am cool, at least my mother and co-workers say so. So if you want someone who is cool, I am your guy!
Tim
From Stacey ***** to Me
no i dont think you get me. you need to be down with the chronic lol. ya get me?
From Timmy Tucker to Stacey *****
Stacey,
Are you talking about Dr. Dre's album The Chronic? I love hip hop! Is that what kind of music STS9 is? I assure you that I am "down" with that album. You can play it in the car on the way to the show if you like.
Tim
From Stacey ***** to Me
um no...ok i dont think you are the type person i want to go to the concert with no offense
From Timmy Tucker to Stacey *****
Stacey,
I'm not sure why you suddenly decided not to go to the concert with me. I am kind of disappointed, because I just bought an ounce of headies and was looking for someone else to smoke it with. My other friend has tickets to go see bisco in Baltimore so I guess I'll just go with him.
Sorry we couldn't be friends,
Tim
From Stacey ***** to Me
wtf are you fucking serious? why were you being so dense about the 420 thing! and wtf you are seeing bisco but you never heard of sts9?
From Timmy Tucker to Stacey *****
I'm not sure what you mean about the "420 thing." What are you talking about?
From Stacey ***** to Me
ugh nvm
Posted at: 2009-06-09 01:51:29
Original ad:
26 year old female who loves music looking for friendly male concert buddy.
i have tickets to see STS9 tomorrow night and am looking for someone to go with me to see them. you must be 420 friendly!
From Timmy Tucker to ***********@***********.org
Dear potential concert buddy,
I saw your ad and am very interested. I love music. About myself, I am a 25-year-old music loving male. I see all kinds of concerts and would love to check out STS9, I'm not quite sure what kind of music that is.
I am not sure what you mean by 420 friendly, however. Do you live near route 420? That isn't a problem for me, since it is kind of on the way to Philly anyway. Email me back if you want to go to the show with me.
Thank you,
Tim
From Stacey ***** to Me
hi tim. i wasn't talking about route 420...you have to be "cool" if you know what I mean.
stacey
From Timmy Tucker to Stacey *****
Stacey,
Glad to hear back from you! Unfortunately I am a little confused. I am cool, at least my mother and co-workers say so. So if you want someone who is cool, I am your guy!
Tim
From Stacey ***** to Me
no i dont think you get me. you need to be down with the chronic lol. ya get me?
From Timmy Tucker to Stacey *****
Stacey,
Are you talking about Dr. Dre's album The Chronic? I love hip hop! Is that what kind of music STS9 is? I assure you that I am "down" with that album. You can play it in the car on the way to the show if you like.
Tim
From Stacey ***** to Me
um no...ok i dont think you are the type person i want to go to the concert with no offense
From Timmy Tucker to Stacey *****
Stacey,
I'm not sure why you suddenly decided not to go to the concert with me. I am kind of disappointed, because I just bought an ounce of headies and was looking for someone else to smoke it with. My other friend has tickets to go see bisco in Baltimore so I guess I'll just go with him.
Sorry we couldn't be friends,
Tim
From Stacey ***** to Me
wtf are you fucking serious? why were you being so dense about the 420 thing! and wtf you are seeing bisco but you never heard of sts9?
From Timmy Tucker to Stacey *****
I'm not sure what you mean about the "420 thing." What are you talking about?
From Stacey ***** to Me
ugh nvm
Animal Collective: Transverse Temporal Gyrus
Pitchfork has some cool images of Animal Collective's art installation at the Guggenheim in Manhattan. Check em out here.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Happy Birthday Rusty & Dusty!
If they ever remake this commercial you guys should audition for the dudes running through the water at 0:12.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Pat Robertson: Chile Earthquake Result Of Pact With Chupacabra
Pat Robertson: Chile Earthquake Result Of Pact With Chupacabra
Atlanta- Pat Robertson, the conservative Christian televangelist and host of the 700 Club said that the 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile yesterday was the result of the nations pact with the Chupacabra, or goat-sucker, a devilish beast blamed for livestock deaths across Latin America.
“Something happened a long time ago in Chile, and people might not want to talk about it,” Robertson said. “They were under the heel of the democratically elected SOCIALIST regime of Salvador Allende …and they got together and swore a pact to the chupacabra. They said, ’We will serve you if you’ll get us free from the the man we elected president, and install a military dictatorship that will make thousands of ‘troublemakers disappear.’” ”True story,” he continued. “And the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’ Ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after another.”
Robertson went on to say to that it was no coincidence that the quake took place near the city of Concepción, and it was “obviously a part of god’s plan to eradicate the right of women worldwide to have access to reproductive facilities and medical procedures.”
The massive tsunami, or “devil waves” that spread across the pacific threatened massive damage as well, but according to Robertson, caused no deaths because “God spared all of the good Christian people in Polynesia and the coast of the orient.”
Robertson was unavailable for further comment.
Atlanta- Pat Robertson, the conservative Christian televangelist and host of the 700 Club said that the 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile yesterday was the result of the nations pact with the Chupacabra, or goat-sucker, a devilish beast blamed for livestock deaths across Latin America.
“Something happened a long time ago in Chile, and people might not want to talk about it,” Robertson said. “They were under the heel of the democratically elected SOCIALIST regime of Salvador Allende …and they got together and swore a pact to the chupacabra. They said, ’We will serve you if you’ll get us free from the the man we elected president, and install a military dictatorship that will make thousands of ‘troublemakers disappear.’” ”True story,” he continued. “And the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’ Ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after another.”
Robertson went on to say to that it was no coincidence that the quake took place near the city of Concepción, and it was “obviously a part of god’s plan to eradicate the right of women worldwide to have access to reproductive facilities and medical procedures.”
The massive tsunami, or “devil waves” that spread across the pacific threatened massive damage as well, but according to Robertson, caused no deaths because “God spared all of the good Christian people in Polynesia and the coast of the orient.”
Robertson was unavailable for further comment.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Happy Birthday La Poderosa!!!!
Hope you are having a good one buddy. How about some ridin' dirty (white dude style) for this special day?!
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