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you got it.
I found this video on YouTube and had to share it with you.
This was my favorite song in 1989 (you can ask my mom if you don’t believe me), and I still love it now, but I am sharing it because of the hilariously bad style. A-MAZ-ing!
I mean, across the board, it just keeps getting more ridiculous, perms and spikes and rat pony tails and banging timpani sticks together, absurdly amusing.
Yet, for all the absurdity, while they probably trained Roy how to make that dreamy face when he hits the high notes back in the 60’s, I’m still a sucker for it. It like, makes it metaphysically impossible for me to keep from singing along.
/ one look, from you / i driiift, awaaaaaay /
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menomena and kexp.
For the uninformed, Seattle is awesome for many reasons. One of those reasons is that we have KEXP, the greatest radio station in the world.
When you bring KEXP together with Menonema, who is one of my favorite live acts, you get a whole shit ton of fantastic. Especially when Menomena is performing the song TAOS off their new CD, which I love after one listen.
Don’t believe me? Well, the proof is in the pudding:
Like what you see? Go here for more.
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trouble with 'the.'
Last night, my wife and I were at The Capitol Hill Block Party here in Seattle. It was a great time, but that’s not the reason I’m writing this post.
I’m writing because, in more proof that you shouldn’t pretend to love a band just because you are introducing them, the Washington Congressman who introduced Yeasayer as “the greatest band coming out of New York City ” called them, The Yeasayers. Granted, this is most probably the first and only time that anyone has referred to Yeasayer as The Yeasayers, but it got me thinking about all the other bands who regularly get a ‘THE’ added to their name that shouldn’t be there.
There are bands for whom it happens all the time, like:
Pixies, Doves, Foo Fighters, Arcade Fire, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Talking Heads, Dirty Projectors, etc.
There are also bands for whom it never happens, but it would be awesome if it did, like:
Cary Brothers becomes multiple people when he becomes The Cary Brothers.
Andrew Bird changes species when he transforms into The Andrew Bird.
M. Ward sounds like part of a mental institution when you call him The M. Ward.
And if it weren’t for that pesky second ‘b,’ Derek Webb would turn into a conspiracy thriller for the fall film season when you change him into The Derek Webb.
What say you? What band annoys you the most when people add a ‘The’ that shouldn’t be there, or who has a name that changes in wonderful ways when you add a ‘The’ to the front of it?
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how i got over. [the bandwagon.]
Oh, The Roots. Why doesn’t the world seem to understand what they have in you?
You can’t nail The Roots down in any way. Stylistically, artistically, content-wise. Led by the remarkable ?uestlove, they are always changing, always growing, always experimenting. Their newest album, How I Got Over, is no exception.
Whether they are sampling/collaborating with Monsters of Folk (Dear God 2.0), or at once making fun of auto-tune while also using it to its fullest potential by using the much maligned (and rightly so) effect to create the melody for a beat out of a baby crying (Hustla), The Roots are up to their old tricks again.
Lyrically, spearheaded by the amazing skill of their emcee Black Thought, their work always cuts to the heart of the cultural milieu, or, to use Black Thought’s own words, they / talk sharp like a razor blade under the tongue /
Black Thought always seems to see the world as it actually is, and pulls no punches in commenting on it, whether the subject is something huge like racism, something commonplace like romantic relationships, or something potentially touchy, like calling out their counterparts in world of Hip Hop.
It is more of the same on How I Got Over. However, there does seem to be a major difference this time around. The album is enormously hopeful. Not that their music was hopeless before, far from it, but this time it’s the primary theme I come away with after listening to the CD.
The album lives up to its name, it really feels like a document of how to get over whatever is in your way. The title track, featuring Dice Raw, chronicles how desire can survive inner-city life, where everything truly is against you. Everything seems to / teach us not to give a fuck / Yet, somehow these guys survived, and it seems like holding fast to hope is what did it.
Like U2’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, which were both creative ways of saying ‘Love,’ for me this CD uses the same titular device to say ‘Hope.’
How they got over, was ‘Hope.’
Not just the evangelical, pop-mart, bullshit sort of hope. Real hope. Hope in the face of hopelessness is how we get over. Hope against reason. Foolish, irrational hope. And in the context of this CD, hope rooted in honest and uncertain faith. It’s hope by a group of men who continue to see the world as it is, who are still struggling to understand why we suffer so much, and why the world can be so ugly if it was created in God’s image.
Talent wasn’t enough to get The Roots over (although they have it in spades). It was enough to get them out of the setting described in the title track, but as the antics of 50Cent and Lil Wayne make clear, you can get out of the economic hardship and smothering systemic injustice created by poverty and racism and still not truly ‘get over.’
The Roots really did get over, never leaving behind the context they grew up in, but offering something beautiful out of it.
Personally, I tend toward cynicism and pessimism. I have trouble believing the world can get better. It’s painful to hope, to desire a better world, and pessimism is easier, safer. With this CD, The Roots have offered me a reminder that, / that type of thinking can’t get you nowhere / someone has to care /
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new muse!!
It doesn’t matter how much dislike the Twilight series, when it comes to Muse, to quote the song, “my love will live forever.” If you’re a Twilight fan, the video contains fun new clips from the upcoming film, Eclipse, if you’re like me, you can just ignore those parts and watch the Muse footage and listen to a great new song.
Viva la Muse!!
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janelle monáe, will you marry me?
There are always those bands and artists you hear about constantly, but never get around to checking out. There is only so much time, and if you love music there is far too much to experience and far too little time in the day.
That’s why it has taken me so long to finally listen to Janelle Monáe. She’s been on the cover of Paste, she’s been raved about by just about everyone, and normally something along the lines of “Future of Soul” or “Future of Hip Hop” is attached to her name.
Usually, when people are praised as ‘the future of music,’ it doesn’t work out. That’s because bands described that way are normally good, and the stuff that sets the trends is normally garbage. Listen to radio rock from the late 90’s, then listen to radio rock from right now. That’s right, sounds pretty much like the same thing.
However, as the music industry continues to decentralize, then perhaps someone like Janelle Monáe can be the future. If that’s true, the future is bright.
She is amazing. I waited far too long listen to her, but after discussing her the other day with Brian, I got her first CD as soon as my eMusic downloads renewed.
I’m pretty sure I’m in love with her.
Folks, you should be listening to this.
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"Sometimes the Spanish teenagers frighten me a little bit …"
This is the kind of art I would like to be a part of …
La Blogotheque is a French based music video/blog project of independent film maker Vincent Moon. He records bands on the streets of Paris, in cafes, in moving vehicles, in people’s living rooms. There are similar things out there, but I knew of Mr. Moon’s work first. These performances are called Take Away Shows or Les Concerts à Emporter. It is really awesome. Really awesome guerrilla-style art. The Shins, Andrew Bird, St. Vincent, Beirut, Of Montreal, Sufjan Stevens (covering the Innocence Mission!), Bon Iver, Arcade Fire, Sigur Ros, Phoenix, Essie Jain, Cold War Kids, My Brightest Diamond, Islands, Grizzly Bear, Vampire Weekend, Okkervil River, Menomena, and Jens Lekman are some of the artists featured. Read that list again. Read it again, and get going. Most, if not all of the videos can be found on youtube. Go. Now.
La Blogotheque’s Youtube Channel
If you’ve stuck around, shame on you … but here are three of my favorites:
I can’t imagine how cool it would be if I was walking down the street and heard one of my favorite bands playing a song, turning a corner, and seeing one of my favorite bands performing on the street. How awesome would that be?
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