Culture Greyhound

Deftones – “Sextape” (Official)

Deftones | MySpace Music Videos

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.

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I’ve posted about Cloud Nothings before – the Cleveland-based crew is easily one of my favorite emerging groups of 2010, and their “Didn’t You/Even If It Worked Out” 7-inch has been on repeat on the turntable here at home (that’s the cover above).

A couple of my dear friends, the Brooklyn-based Nervous Room Service, have been churning out some pretty excellent, albeit trippy, fan-made music videos for their musical projects and Cloud Nothings.  Their latest is a rapid-fire spliced collage for “You Are Opening.”

Cloud Nothings // You Are Opening from NervousRoomService on Vimeo.

But by far my favorite is the video for the upbeat “Even If It Worked Out.”

Cloud Nothings // Even if it Worked Out from NervousRoomService on Vimeo.

Check out all of Nervous Room Service‘s videos and be on the lookout for Turning On, the full-length from Cloud Nothings, on October 12.

For the most part, when browsing Pitchfork’s recently-posted Top 50 Music Videos of the 90’s, four names dominate: Chris Cunningham, Hype Williams, Michel Gondry, and Spike Jonze.  And all four of these men completely deserve their recognition – they all, in their own way, directed only the finest of what is considered to be the best decade for music videos.  MTV was still influential and watchable, and the medium of video promotion was still powerful in the music biz.

This burgeoning new phenomenon had transformed into a well-produced, highly-financed, ultra-creative artistic landscape that the 80’s products couldn’t touch.  By the time of the 2000’s, however, the luster was lost – the best videos were buried in the over-saturation of the Web, and the “music” cable channels ceased music programming.  Still, we have the 90’s – the golden age of the music video, and Pitchfork, more or less, covered the highlights.

There are many personal favorites of mine that didn’t make the cut – perhaps one day I will compile my own list of top videos from the 90’s.  While video lists usually lean towards either ranking in terms of influence or innovative spectacle, Pitchfork teeter-tottered between the two, leaning toward the latter.  With this in mind, it’s a decent list – like most lists, it has some glaring omissions, which are recognized after the jump.

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Reddit users have been posting their picks for the funniest things they’ve ever seen on the Web, and if anyone knows what’s funny on the Internet, it’s these people.  Huffington Post rounded up their favorites.  I urge you to spend hours upon hours of your life going through these links.  Because life is just too damn short.

Today my sis is coming to visit me! I love my sis. More than my fleeting indie cred. So this post is for her.  These are a few of her favorite videos.

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Today I continue my ongoing feature showcasing my personal picks for the best songs of the past decade, posting ten songs at a time.

190. Pete Yorn – For Nancy

There’s no getting around it: musicforthemorningafter is a masterpiece and by far Yorn’s finest hour.  And “For Nancy,” the breakthrough single for the Jersey-born musician, is the finest song off that disc.  A tale of love lost that’s parts optimistic, parts well-wishing, and parts purely bitter, every confusing emotion associated with a breakup is laid out plain here.  That’s always been a specialty of Yorn’s – no confusion, no abstraction, just a straightforward, “it is what it is” approach, musically and lyrically.  Here, when wishing the best/worst for an ex, it reminds me of another great American songwriter.  Don’t think twice, it’s alright, indeed.

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Last night my ripe old age of 24 caught up with my youthful antics; while attempting to “bust a move” and “get my freak on” at Barbarella, I hyper-extended my knee.

Pause for laughter….

Needless to say, today’s activities have  consisted of popping ibuprofen, elevating my leg, alternating between ice packs and hot towels, and limping around like a drunken homeless man.  Hopefully I can lick this thing before the One Wolf show on Sunday, but until then, I have created a small but suitable playlist dedicated to my left knee, which at the moment is swollen to the size of a grapefruit.

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Janelle Monae – Cold War

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