Stop Okay Go

Go Ahead, Take It

I was watching some news show today and I don't know what it is... every time I see former congressman Bob Barr he makes me think of the time Eddie Murphy donned whiteface to pretend he was a white man.

Utan Spar

Another midyear list! This time its the best, overrated, most surprising, most disappointing and worst movies so far. The lesson  here for any execs listening, is not to make movies with Grey's Anatomy stars. (Though both were hits?) (-TB)

A Set of Forks

I know this is old, but this bit that comedian Sebastian Maniscalco does on Ross cracks me up every time:

-H was telling me that the song I posted by Laibach the other day, Rossiya, was actually the Soviet National Anthem. And while I'm always in favor of finding him wrong, I think he's sort of right. Some may not hear it, its very subtle, much like Jakob Dylan's song hints at Dixie. Also, after a commenter mentioned how hardcore Laibach is I found this performance that was indeed pretty dang intense. Especially towards the end when he raises his arms.  Honestly, I think all the man really needs is a lozenge. Then maybe he'd calm down. 

-Eternal flame.

-Read an article in the L.A. Times that Doris Day doesn't call herself Doris Day any more, but refers to herself as "Clara." I added that factoid to the mounds of trash in my brain that I'll be able to remember in 20 seconds if needed. As opposed to the 10 minute-long brain failure that occurs when I'm asked for my own cel phone number.

-Guerilla Gardening!!

-Yay! Taylor from Music for Ants has posted up his fave songs w/ individual mp3s, a format that works for moi, aka Choosy McSamplerpants. Do check those out!

See Morph, Dan and Tod Doing Things

Probably one of my favorite songs over the past year or so has been the song Let's Dance to Joy Division by The Wombats.

Their songs are pure Kooks-y abandon, adrenaline, forward-motion and screaming. Its not rocket science or molecular biology, its not even molecular gastronomy, but definitely good enough for a holiday weekend.

The Wombatseses album Kill the Director comes out on Monday the 7th. PLUS as a bonus, we'll throw in at no additional cost, music by spawn of Jason & Maggie Seaver Alan Thicke and Gloria Loring, Robin Thicke, who has mostly flown under my iPod's radar (my thinking being, do we really need more of this?). After having taken a few listens I have to say that while he's still not my cup of falsetto tea, I'm not pushing the stop button just yet. He has an album called Something Else coming out in September. And some Erykah Badu. All for $99.99, from the makers of FoodSaver.

The Wombats: Moving To New York.mp3

The Wombats: Kill the Director.mp3

Erykah Badu: Soldier.mp3

Robin Seaver Thicke: Lost Without You.mp3

Paging Ed Westwick

 
-Oh man, Volver on a tee shirt! Now we're talking prints, people.  Via Tokion, Visionaireworld and Lacoste are teaming to create tee shirts. Scroll down on the Tokion page to look at the (Grand?) canyon tee. So OP, so Thelma and Louise!

-20 Questions with Mike Patton: "Noooo! That dude is soooo not hot." (lol)

A Wizard of Earthsea

Ohmigosh: Laibach. If you've never heard of them, really, watch this video and listen to this song. I hope I'm not the last person in the world to discover them.

They (Eber, Saliger, Dachauer & Keller!) are from Slovenia, and coming upon their myspace page is like stepping into ponds of White Gold awesome. Their music makes me want to yell out "WE ARE SPARTANS!" and play Worlds of Warcraft for days...and offer the guy a throat lozenge. Great stuff.

Laibach :Fiat.mp3

Laibach: Rossiya.mp3

LaMontagne and Mountains

The brilliant Ray "frequent soundtrack contributor" LaMontagne, whose last name I always want to pronounce the way The Continental pronounces Shamm-pag-nyuh (Champagne) is set to release his third album titled Gossip in the Grain on September 30th.
While his previous albums were mostly solo endeavors, this one will include producer Elton John Ethan Johns playing multiple instruments. Also along for the ride: Leona Naess, who's claim to fame in my mind is that she was once engaged to Ryan Adams...because I tend to amass tons and tons of this type useless celebrity information.

AnyHuellHowsers, here's the tracklist for the upcoming disc and my favorite song of his:
  Tracklisting:

1. Henry Nearly Killed Me (It's A Shame)
2. Hey Me, Hey Mamma
3. Sarah
4. I Still Care For You
5. Winter Birds
6. Meg White (Ed Note: Is it about *the* Meg White, I wonder? That should be fun.)
   
7. Achin' All The Time
8. Let It Be Me
9. A Falling Through
10. Gossip In The Grain

Ray LaMontagne: Trouble.mp3

Lady Bug

Gotta give Aerosmith's Steven Tyler credit, he's created some beautiful daughters. That's 19-year-old Chelsea Tallarico,  his daughter with designer Teresa Barrick and sister Liv, of course. Chelsea looks more like Dad than Liv does. (Love Liv's dress, though the cut makes the skirt look like pantaloons.)

"Lacoste"

Clicksky.

Adorable Vanity Fair Bright Young Hollywood pics!

Bumpin'

Another playlist of songs for the car ride, feat. more Black Ghosts, Grace Jones (excellent Chic-like guitar work on "Bumper") and a song by Sunny Day Sets Fire, (not to be confused with Sunny Day Real Estate) called Strangers, that is tres good. Their album Summer Palace is out now on iTunes and on the 8th in CD form if you want to get a good close look at that album cover..with its splashes of red that reminds me of the map that shows where Ludacris has hoes.(Via heck's kitchen.)

The Black Ghosts: Any Way You Choose To Give It_(radio_edit).mp3

Sunny Day Sets Fire: Stranger.mp3

Grace Jones: Pull Up To the Bumper.mp3

Grace Jones: Night Clubbing.mp3

The Black Ghosts: Face (Switch Remix).mp3

Electronic Games

I know I've posting a ton of You Tube-age lately but this is too cool to pass up, its the Air Piano:

Its yet another link from the frequently updated site Listenerd who brings the weird and wonderful (yeah, I guess that one's weird too) news faster than anyone.

-"Save brightly colored or provocative styles for club-hopping.": July is shaping up to be a crazy month for me, two weddings and sadly, a funeral.  I never know how to act at funerals. I'm not making fun of the article at all...when I was much younger I once went to a mass where everyone had arrived ahead of me and I'd planned my day poorly and didn't want to miss the thing and arrived having no choice but to wear a bright red raincoat and red shirt. (You can't "make-up" or reschedule funerals). When I opened the back church doors the whole congregation, all dressed in black, turned around to look at me and my red jacket. Believe me, its not as glamorous as Panasonic would have you believe.

-Grace Jones is making a comeback!

Just look at her move. Sure its a little scary, more so now than back in the day. But she still owns it. She was one of the original divas. This will be exciting news for a lot of my friends who love Jones and all her flamboyance. Not so much for H who when told he said "Uhh, ok, great. Was she ever in?" (Clearly not a fan.)

Grace Jones: Warm Leatherette.mp3

Videogroans

-Hey how bout that: A Trak is the brother of Dave 1 from Chromeo, Kanye "aka MacBook Air  spokesperson" West's DJ and the owner of the Fools Gold record label. (As a sidenote: How cute is this? A still from Chromeo's upcoming appearance on Yo Gabba Gabba!)

-Idolator (hilarious caption) and Idolator's commenters are confused by No Age.The video is like a Halloween/Arts and Crafts store exploding. Remember last week when everyone still hearted them? Fickle fickle internets.

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

Speaking of Oasis...

Video of continual SOG target, Jay-Z doing Wonderwall at Glastonbury. Its as horrible and entertaining as you might imagine. Don't say I didn't warn ya. LOL, he's fun. (source)

Melodramatic Popular Song

Swoon.. I'm loving the music of a Washington D.C. band that I discovered over the weekend: Nethers. Quite coincidentally (no payola here), they had an album that came out out on the 17th (or 18th?) called  What The Wind Will Never Tell.  The song Migratory Birds builds slowly; give it some time to reach its tilt-a-whirlin' peak. A lil bit Mazzy Star, a lil bit of the bluegrass-y goodness of Fruit Bats. Its worth the wait to hear them go off...aaand then it slows down again. Why must you tease us like this, Nethers?! WHY!

Green Jean Jamboree on the other hand is ripping, torn amp fun, beginning to end.

Nethers is composed of former members of The Carlsonics, who miss their violent past and wish they weren't still temping.

They were recently featured on NPR's All Songs Considered:

"Nethers crafts its own brand of stripped-down psychedelia, taking acoustic freak-folk and distilling it down to a minimalist sound that pairs feedback and white noise with vibrant indie pop. It's no surprise, then, that the band brought on Los Angeles producer Thom Monahan (Devendra Banhart, Dinosaur Jr., Silver Jews) to record its new album."

Nethers: Migratory Birds.mp3

Nethers: Green Jean Jamboree.mp3

Nethers: O The Deed.mp3

Star Lounge

More Gish News. Apparently Corgan is pulling the Liz Phair-ian rerelease of the old Smashing Pumpkins album without bandmates D'Arcy and Iha. Like the new Exile in Guyville (which still holds up fantastically), Gish will include "pre-Gish material from the late-’80s, not only to give the public a sense that 1991 is actually pretty "futuristic," but also so that fans can finally hear the awkward, growing stages of your brain-child and finally understand just how large and imposing of a shadow you actually cast over Alternative/Rock!" 

What Corgan should do (and what Phair should have done) is to tack on 3 or 4 new songs, maybe along with the filler tracks, to introduce fans to a different sound (assuming they've experienced any kind of musical evolution in the past 10 years.) It would also silence any haters who think they're just doing it to make a payment on the Escalade and an easy way to segue into a new album, should the demand be there.

At least both Phair and Corgan waited a few years unlike Rihanna who re-released Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded(!) (A title that bugs me and sounds like a Mel Gibson sequel and I will have no choice but to make fun of at a later date...) only a few months after it first met with success.

Smashing Pumpkins: I Am the One.mp3

Liz Phair: Divorce Song.mp3