My sis and I are making a short film this weekend – hopefully it will turn out as awesome as it is in our brains. In the meantime, on a semi-related kick, here are some new movie trailers I’ve recently seen that look appealing.
Just a few fun things (read: memes) I found on the Web:
Girl Talk provides the soundtrack to this video featuring ten minutes of animated gifs. A complete time-waster.
Cache Rules Everything Around Me from Evan Roth on Vimeo.
In Mad Men news: Pete Campbell’s Bitch Face
And also: Sad Don Draper.
This might be the funniest Between Two Ferns ever. Sorry Zach, Seth is way better.
Occasionally I browse the pop music world/charts/blogs and see what the kids are listening to. Sometimes I am pleased with what I find, most of the time I am not. This is a journal of my discoveries.
Continue reading
The title says it all, my autumn is getting sweeter all the time.
Pixies @Austin Music Hall 9/22
Today I continue my ongoing feature showcasing my personal picks for the best songs of the past decade, posting ten songs at a time.
180. Ok Go – Get Over It
Before they were Internet phenoms jumping around on treadmills, OK Go was a brilliant, quirky power pop group tearing up the mainstream rock radio airwaves. “Get Over It,” the band’s debut single, is quite possibly the loudest, brashest, angriest thing they’ve ever done. And while they’ve maintained their knack for punchy, catchy songs, this track is a raucous introduction from their best album.
Earlier this week, I gave accolades to Cleveland rocker Cloud Nothings. Turns out the fine folks at Bridgetown Records are releasing a split album with him and another up-and-coming solo artist, California’s Kevin Greenspon.
The two go hand in hand – Greenspon is a punchier, youthful accompaniment to Cloud Nothings’ sharp sing-along garage rock, though the latter tackles a poppier approach on this release. Bridgetown had this to say about the disc:
“The long-awaited split album between these 2 rising young solo artists opens with 5 new songs by Kevin Greenspon: California weirdo heartthrob pop punk about looking back on teenage years and losing it all. Cloud Nothings rounds out the disc with 5 more exclusive new songs: the Cleveland teenager takes his catchy brand of raw and distorted-beyond-the-red bedroom pop in a direction not seen in his “Turning On” album or subsequent tape/vinyl releases.”
The release is limited to 250 discs with full-color inserts and lyric sheets. They go on sale TODAY over at the label’s site, so get one while they’re still around. Sample a track from both artists below.
Pitchfork has called him “Dilla-esque,” and that certainly is apt, but UK beat-maker Darren aka Star Slinger has more in his repertoire than just hip-hop. The influences of shoegaze, soul, funk, 80’s dream pop, and occasionally chillwave creep up in his beat-skipping tracks. All in all, it’s hard to describe the sound of this Manchester resident, who began making music at the age of 14 after building his own computer specifically to produce beats.
Released in June, Volume 1, his first compilation, is a mix-and-match of all of the aforementioned styles – a wide, diverse serving of clipped, familiar samples, infectious melodies, and overpowering bass. You can grab it at his Bandcamp site for free, as well as other mashups, remixes, and singles he has incessantly churned out this summer, all of which are highly recommended and pretty phenomenal.
Listen to a sampling below for a taste. These are a few of my favorite Star Slinger tracks thus far.
So Katy Perry has a new song. And the only word I can come up with to accurately describe it is “atrocious.” I feel it’s apt. Let’s verify, shall we?
atrocious – adj. 1. shockingly bad or tasteless; dreadful; abominable
Yeah that sounds about right. But don’t take my word for it. Peep this, homie.
So let’s review:
“Are you brave enough to let me see your peacock?
Don’t be a chicken boy, stop acting like a beeotch
I’ma peace out if you don’t give me the pay off
Come on baby let me see
What you’re hiding underneath”
and of course:
“I wanna see your peacock, cock, cock
Your peacock, cock
Your peacock, cock, cock
Your peacock”
So yeah, atrocious. There was a time when sexuality was subtle, when camp was cute, when parents would turn the other cheek because their Top 40-loving kids probably wouldn’t understand the context of the double entendre until they turned 13 or 14.
I don’t remember that time.
But this is far from the worst thing the pop music world has given us, overtly sexual or otherwise. Here are nine other lyrically atrocious examples – and I haven’t even scratched the surface of what the CHR world likes to consider “poetry” in our modern times.
