• Ashley Simpson's lip syncing on Saturday Night Live and avoiding an awkward moment by doing a jig
• Madonna adopts an orphan that wasn't really orphaned
• A bald Britney Spears attacks a papa-paparazzi car with an umbrella-ella-ella
• Brett Michaels gets nailed by part of the stage set during a performance at the Tonys. I'm wondering why he'd be so upset and embarrassed by that after Rock of Love one AND two.
• Metallica sues Napster
• Mariah Carey pops in on TRL and goes a little nuts with an ice cream truck.
• Madonna and Brittney girl-on-girl and Adam Lambert's boy-on-boy award show performances
• And of course, the Kanye vs. Taylor incident. He appeared on the Jay Leno Show afterward, where Leno asks him what his mother would think if she were with us - a little harsh, even for Kanye.
Speaking of trippy videos, check out the new music video by Islands for the song "No You Don't" featuring Michael Cera. They start the video off by text labeling it as a "zero tolerance production" for a "high school academic anti-drug supplementary." Then, we get to follow Cera as he pops some pills and wanders around tripping out for a bit. Smart move on their part, recruiting Cera for the project, which will likely bring a lot more buzz to the Canadian group's video, as well as more attention to their music.
To segue from my last post, "Who needs to buy a guitar?"
After several months of being pommeled by the advertising industry telling me what I "need" this past holiday season, I seriously contemplated becoming more of a Luddite than I already am, until I came across this little set-up that transported me back to the techno-fantasy world that often prevails.
These are speakers that fit into any standard light sockets. Not only will they play music remotely from your PC, stereo or iPod, they are equipped with 5 and 6-inch light fixtures that you can even dim for a little ambiance to match the musical mood. Do I need these?...uh, ya...about as much as I need this significantly less tangible, but ever the more magical music making machine...
This is a far cry from trying to take apart my old "Speak & Spell" or is it?
All too often people, whether serious about making music or just want to have some fun with sound, are deterred by the price tags on equipment or the idea that they lack the talent to play. One of my favorite musical memories came from just that- play. A friend and I were wasting away the early morning hours eating pancakes at some suburbia hole-in-the wall, when he whipped out a pocket knife and started carving holes into and beveling the end of a straw: "Straw flute!" he declares. A few notes and we were decisively extricated from our seats. So, away we went to the nearest 24/7 convenient store, purchased a box of 100 drinking straws and proceeded until daylight with every permutation of hole configuration, length and bevel angle we could conjure. Were we making music? That's debatable. Playing? Definitely! If you've never watched a toddler get down with a set of pans and plastic bowls, do yourself a favor...or just do it yourself. You can bet there's some great, greasy grooves amidst all that clatter. Is musical success dependent on the recipe, whether or not you care that anyone likes the flavor, or with what kind of pots you're cooking...or playing, as it were?
Some of the most sublime sound has come from manipulating or simply reinventing for what a thing is "supposed" to be used. A recent "iPhone Symphony" post is a perfect illustration of how something that has become part of our everyday experience can transport us into an entirely different atmosphere of sound if we allow ourselves the creative license to transpose the thing. I have also had the joy of witnessing some of Minneapolis' finest talent brandish everything from screwdrivers to toilet-bowl scrubbers and successfully pass them off as instrumental accoutrement. I caught one of my favorite local jazz drummers, Jay Epstein (Firebell, The Dan Musselman Quartet) at a gig this summer; cooler than cool, without missing a beat, he pulled out a pair of plastic handled, nylon bristled toilet-bowl scrubbers. I was astounded! The sound was a little heavier than traditional "brushes" and perfect for the piece. Similarly simple in presence and just as innovative in thought, was guitarist Jeremy Ylvisaker's (Alpha Consumer, Andrew Bird) performance at the Modern Guitar Fest, held a few weeks ago. He began by precisely finessing a screwdriver behind his strings, then after looping and building upon this beautifully humble beginning and filtering through layers of distortion, he arrived at the simple static of an out of tune radio held up to an amp.
Ylvisaker's radio became a quite echo of his masterful guitar work and a reminder that what we have may not be as important as what we do with what we have. Actually, the performance, with it's use of simple artifacts juxtaposing a modern instrument, seemed to bring full circle the ideological conflict between manual and technological manipulation, which may not be a conflict at all, but a question of how do we find harmony within that space. As for me, I don't yet have an iPhone and I'm still waiting for my "Reactable" to come in the mail, but until then I'll just keep delighting in repeatedly pressing the "on" and "say-it" buttons on my "Speak & Spell".
When I first saw this clip I thought it was really Neil Young singing it and I thought it was genius, but when I watched it again it was Fallon. He not only looks like Neil Young, but he sounds ridiculously similar to him. I’ve never watched Fallon’s show, but if this is what his show entails I might be intrigued to watch it more often. I loved Fallon on SNL and it looks like he’s carrying some of his antics over to his own talk show.
This is hilarious! Carrie Prejean dropped her claims of libel, slander, and religious discrimination against Miss USA only after lawyers informed her they had a copy of the sex tape she made when she was 17 years-old. And when Larry King simply asks about the case she freezes and just says he is being “inappropriate.” The best part is that she even fails to leave the stage! She just sits there!
This is even better: King: What are you going to do next?
Prejean: Oh, my gosh. I’m just so excited to be, you know, promoting this book. I’m so excited to be an author now.
Settle down there Carrie, I wouldn’t call yourself an author just yet. Did you even write this? Then she references her sex tape by saying that there is a message to spread to young women to never do anything you would never want your biggest fans to see. Wow, way to try to make your sex tape positive. I’m sorry, but there is no way to put a positive spin on a sex tape when your supposed to be involved in volunteering and saving the world. Paris Hilton can get away with this, but this is just an utter disappointment Carrie. Seriously, why is there always a sex tape involved?
THIS IS ONE REASON WHY I LOVE KINGS OF LEON! Being a lover of classic southern rock, Kings gives me the grittiness and sexiness I expect, but with a modern edge. The new single “Sex on Fire” is the epitome of what I mean, (and not just because the words “sex” and “fire” are in the title). I wish I could say I understand the meaning of the song, but I’ll admit I don’t really get it. In my defense, though, when I play it I need to be armed with Kleenex to wipe the drool off my face. Yesterday for example, “Sex on Fire” came on the radio in the office and my body went all rigor mortis and I felt like my eyes were spinning around in cartoon-y circles. When the song faded out and my body melted back to real-time I remember thinking, “what the fuck just happened?” Same goes for the video, it will knock your socks right off.
White Light Riot has a had a slew of video content for the fans recently. First, there was the absurdly funny video for "Out of Sight". Then, the indepth new video blog posted last week. And now, a brand new video for the song "Charlatan" which follows the guys for a day in their lives.
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