Blogs They Are A-Changin'

Last night, I finally decided to get off my ass and start making those changes I was telling you guys about. The most obvious change is the brand new Flash header at the top of the screen. I decided to retire the old header photo (which you can still view here) and replace it with this new image I found on Flickr by jsee. You can view the full image by clicking on his name in the bottom right-hand-corner of the header.

As for the other changes, they are as follows:

• Short Films on YouTube: I have eight short films posted on YouTube that I either created or worked on in some way. I'm still working on putting some of the old works up onto YouTube, so keep your eyes peeled for those in the next couple of days.
  
• Mixtapes: I've retired the "Don't Come Knocking" summer mixtape, but a new one, entitled "Airwave Rebellion," is on the way.
  
• Original Music: My first release, Bagel for President EP, is now available for free download. It features three original tracks and three covers: "Papa Was a Rodeo" by The Magnetic Fields, "Happy Together" by The Turtles, and "Teardrop" by Massive Attack. Some of these I have released in the past, but the versions presented here have been remastered and all the vocals have been rerecorded, so give it a listen!

That's all I've got so far. Let me know what you think of the changes by leaving a comment or sending me an e-mail!

CD-Swapping Service Featured in UNCW Newspaper

The campus newspaper here at UNCW, The Seahawk, has just printed an article on La La, the CD-swapping service I keep plugging on here (because it's awesome!) If you have a lot of actual CDs lying around your place (like I do), and would rather trade 'em for other used CDs instead of a measly buck-fifty at the used music store, give La La a shot.

October 3: International Music Awareness Day

Not really, but you'd think it from all the new releases coming out that day. I've included a couple MP3s from each release. Enjoy!

Akron/Family, Meek Warrior

• "Gone Beyond"
  Thanks to Stereogum

Beck, The Information

• "Strange Apparition"
  
• "1000 BPM"
  Thanks to Noise for Toaster

The Decemberists, The Crane Wife

• "Summersong"
  
• "Sons and Daughters"
  Thanks to Punkrawkmusicblog and Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

Jet, Shine On

• "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is" (SpeedyShare file, can't right-click)
  
• "Come On Come On"
  Thanks Berg Loves Pizza and Stereogum

The Killers, Sam's Town

• "Bones" (Ripped from BBC Radio 1)
  
• "When You Were Young"
  Thanks to Zappin' It To Ya and Can You See the Sunset From the Southside?

Sean Lennon, Friendly Fire

• "Dead Meat"
  
• "Parachute"
  Thanks to I Guess I'm Floating and Musecology

Notes On Shadow

I am happy to announce that, despite my initial speculation, the new DJ Shadow album The Outsider is pretty sweet. Opener and leaked track "This Time (I'm Gonna Try It My Way)" is hands-down the best song on here, and while the first half of the album is exactly the kind of glossy, mainstream-sounding rap Shadow's been avoiding on his past albums, they are still pretty solid tracks. Everything comes to a head on the seven-minute "Backstage Girl," with raps provided by Phonte Coleman, has Shadow pulling all the stops out of his vinyl collection to deliver a solid production, while Coleman delivers some hilarious lines about a hookup gone wrong (best line on the album: "I gotta stop fuckin' wit these ho's offa MySpace, dawg.") I could've done without the proliferation of tracks that start out with shout-outs like "DJ Shadow on this bitch!!" or "DJ Shadow up on this mothafucka!" Um...yeah, I know who the DJ is on this album. You don't need to remind me.

I see that iTunes and Amazon.com customers have already given The Outsider an average rating of 2 stars, which leads me to believe they didn't know anything about this album before they bought it. Listen to a couple of the hip-hop tracks like "Enuff" and "3 Freaks" first, then read the All Music Guide review that explains what Shadow's trying to accomplish, then decide if you still want to buy it.

We Are The Spinto Bruts

On Monday night, I was witness to four hours of the most energetic rock-n-roll ever to hit the small town of Carrboro, North Carolina. The Cat's Cradle was already abuzz with the sounds of The Spinto Band when my friends and I entered the venue. Yeah, we were a little late. Sorry, Spinto Band! But we did show up just in time to hear them piledrive through their debut album, Nice and Nicely Done, including an exceptionally rocking live version of their hit song, "Oh Mandy," whose brilliant Jon Watts-directed video can be viewed here.

Then it was time for Art Brut, the muthafuckin' band I muthafuckin' came to see! They were in fine form, too. Blasting onto the stage with a brief cover of "Back in Black" before jumping right into their ubiquitous hit single, "Formed a Band." It didn't take long for their energy to reach its breaking point, as lead singer Eddie Argos finally gave into crowd demand and jumped into the audience during a particularly ear-bleeding version of "Modern Art." The antics continued as Argos started jumping-rope with the microphone chord, all the while guitarist Jasper Future is shredding away to the tune of "These Animal Menswe@r." Other highlights included the four new songs, my fav being the surprisingly melodic "Nag Nag Nag Nag"; Argos' monologue in the middle of "Emily Kane" (my fav Art Brut song), in which he says "If Jay-Z were here, he would be telling me, 'Eddie, you got 99 problems. Don't make the bitch one of 'em.' And I would say, 'Jay-Z, I don't appreciate your misogynistic attitude towards women'"; and finally, a madcap call-and-response in the middle of their final song, "Good Weekend," that went as follows...

Eddie: Art Brut!
Audience: TOP OF THE POPS!
Eddie: The Spinto Band!
Audience: TOP OF THE POPS!
Eddie: We Are Scientists!
Audience: TOP OF THE POPS!

While I am not well-versed in the catalogue of the night's main course, We Are Scientists, I had heard their latest LP, With Love and Squalor, so I at least knew a couple songs. However, at no point during WAS's hour-long set did I feel left out of the action. The band was so into it and the audience happily followed as WAS pummeled their way through Love and Squalor highlights like "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt," "The Scene is Dead," and "Cash Cow." Their banter was hilarious, too, which is rare for most of the bands I've seen this year (with the exception of the eels' set, but theirs was most-certainly planned out). Stories ranged from why Chris Cain's bass is wireless and lead singer Keith Murray's guitar is not (answer: Keith "didn't qualify" for a wireless), when Keith expected Chris to fall off the stage 'cause he forgot to tie his shoelaces (answer: three-and-a-half minutes), and a shameless plug for their new "What Would We Are Scientists Do?" wristbands (WWWASD?, of course). The absolute highlight of their set, as well as the highlight of the evening, was when they performed the sole cover of the night, a heart-stopping rendition of The Ronettes' "Be My Baby."

Another interesting thing of note was that Art Brut leader Eddie Argos was standing in the audience for the majority of WAS's set, and jumped onto the stage, along with Jasper Future, to join in on "The Great Escape," the last song of the evening. All in all, a kickass night of damn straight indie rock. And in the end, isn't it all that matters?

I had a photograph of Art Brut's setlist, but my cameraphone refuses to let me upload it to my computer. So, here's the lo-fi, text only version:

• Intro (AC/DC - "Back in Black")
  
• Formed a Band
  
• Bang Bang Rock & Roll
  
• These Animal Menswe@r
  
• Bad Weekend
  
• Blame it on the Trains (new song)
  
• Moving to L.A.
  
• Rusted Guns of Milan
  
• Modern Art
  
• St. Pauli (new song)
  
• Post Soothing Out (new song)
  
• Emily Kane
  
• Nag Nag Nag Nag (new song)
  
• 18,000 Lira
  
• My Little Brother
  
• Good Weekend

Weird Al's New Polka Mix

Thanks, Stereogum. You just made my day.

"Weird Al" Yankovic - "Polkarama"


My favorite tracks on Weird Al albums have always been the polka medleys. No matter how many food or TV jokes he throws into his full-length parodies, nothing gets me chuckling uncontrollably more than brief polka-ized versions of Top 40 tracks. He even picks some really good ones this time through, including Coldplay, Gorillaz, Modest Mouse, and Franz Ferdinand. Straight Outta Lynwood drops 9/29.

My mega-post about the We Are Scientists/Art Brut concert last night is on the way! Stay tuned!

Lots of Watts

There are some pretty sweet music videos out there right now. The Spinto Band's "Oh Mandy," TV on the Radio's "Wolf Like Me," as well as some past videos by Death Cab For Cutie and The Thrills. Little did I know that they were all directed by the same person!

Meet Jon Watts. The director of ten music videos and three television commercials, each piece he works on looks and feels so different from his past works that he almost takes the form of a creative chameleon. With a body of work as exceptional as this, Watts may be poised to become the next Michel Gondry. Take a look:

The Spinto Band - "Oh Mandy"


The Thrills - "The Irish Keep Gate-Crashing"


All of his videos can be viewed in QuickTime format at the link above. I also recommend Death Cab for Cutie's "Soul Meets Body" video as well as the Frosted Flakes and NY Times commercials, the latter of which uses one of my favorite songs, "Me and My Arrow" by Harry Nilsson.

Facebook Drama

While I have personally swore never to create a MySpace page (still hasn't happened, bitches!), I am an avid user of Facebook. And now, it seems the craze has reached an apex, what with the News Feed controversy and all.

But it was this group that freaked me out the most. The "If this group reaches 100,000 my girlfriend will have a threesome" group is one of the sickest, yet utterly compelling, ideas ever created on Facebook. I haven't stooped to the point of actually joining said group, but to tell you the truth, I admire the creator's courage for creating a group with such a single-minded intention. If only he didn't look like such a dick.

Oh well. There you have it folks. All it took was a Harvard student's complex social networking experiment to help a sex-craved Atlanta, GA resident achieve male fantasy heaven. Hooray for Web 2.0.

UPDATE: So, it turned out the whole thing was a scam. Big surprise.

Trying New Things

Sorry if some of you caught a weird post on your RSS feeds (if any of you are doing that kinda thing). I'm testing a new Dashboard widget from Google that let's me post directly to my blog from the Dashboard. So far, it's working alright, though it's still in extreme beta mode (and I don't mean the "beta" mode Blogger and Flickr have been in for ages).

If you wanna see for yourself and give these beta widgets a shot, you can download 'em here.

Vandervelde Invites You to Make His Album Cover

Just got an e-mail from Chicago musician David Vandervelde, inviting people to submit sexy photographs of themselves (no porn, please) for a chance to adorn the cover of his debut album. Send your pics to imhot@davidvandervelde.com.

Here's a couple of his tracks to get you in the mood:

David Vandervelde - "Jacket" (mp3)

David Vandervelde - "Feet of a Liar" (mp3)

Hear more at his myspace page.

Ask Good Questions

For a little over a decade, there's been a disturbing trend in the advertising world that I like to call "Try Again Later" advertising. This is the practice of putting on, in public, a notice that is cryptic and vague as to what is being sold, and no further information is revealed until later in the marketing scheme. Example: When the Swiffer came out, it was preceded by a slew of commercials promising a "new breakthrough in cleaning technology." The commercials never told you what the product was, or even what it looked like. It just said it was "coming soon." You would have to return to that channel at a later time (usually, a couple weeks later) to see a follow-up commercial explaining what, exactly, the first commercial was all about. Thus, the phrase "Try Again Later."

The most recent victim of "Try Again Later" advertising (from here on in, referred to as "TAL advertising") is Cartoon Network, a channel I grew up with and now adore for its Adult Swim block of shows (most specifically, Venture Bros.). Their regular programming has undergone a new marketing campaign where commercial breaks are bookended by clips of the most obscure jokes from their respective TV shows, usually followed by a split-second flash of the Cartoon Network logo and the slogan "Yes." (which is such a overtly ridiculous and irrelevant slogan that if you think about it too long, your head might explode). Anyway, the network tried a similar campaign on billboards, where they would simply show the obscure quote from the cartoon and not show who said it or even what the billboard was advertising. This led to a ridiculous amount of confusion on all sides and gave me the unfortunate fate of having to drive by a solid red billboard with the words "I pooted." in bright yellow text every time I had to drive back to college. Eventually, the network sent the billboard guys back out to finish the ads, by adding a drawing of the character who said the line (in my example, Cheese from "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends") and the Cartoon Network logo.

Those last two paragraphs are merely a preface for my main argument and that is this: COLLEGE STUDENTS, STOP TRYING TO EMULATE THIS ADVERTISING PRACTICE. It's not a very good practice for the professionals to be doing anyway, and college students have proven time and time again that they're even worse at it. TAL advertising consists of two phases: (1) the cryptic, vague and confusing initial advertisements, usually posted in a place where everyone can see them repeatedly and where they can be easily replaced by the ads in phase (2) which are the ads that explain what the first ads were all about in addition to plugging whatever product/service/TV show/etc. they intended.

For some reason, when college students attempt TAL advertising, they seem to leave out phase two of their marketing plan, obviously the most important phase. Or they put the explanatory ads in such an obscure place that no one reads them and no one ever figures out what the phase one ads were all about. This happened last year when a bunch of sidewalk chalk ads spread out all over campus proposed the following piece of advice: "Ask her." That's it. Just those two words. "Ask her?" Who's her? Ask her about what, in particular? Should I ask her in passing or be upfront about it? It racked my brain for weeks at a time as I tried to figure out what on earth I should be asking, and to what unfortunate female I should be querying. No further information was provided as to the nature of these ads (big surprise), and it wasn't until much later in the semester that I overheard that the campaign was part of my campus' Health Services department's effort to get people tested for STDs. At least, that was the rumor. I will never know for certain what "Ask her" meant, but I am almost certain it was a failed attempt at emulating TAL advertising.

This year, the same thing is cropping up again. Hundreds of bumper sticker-sized signs have appeared all over campus with the simple plea to "Ask good questions." They've also appeared in really annoying places, too, like inside the elevator of my apartment building and in the stairwells of various campus buildings, so you can't avoid them. What do they mean? Who should I be asking good questions to? What defines a "good question"? I'll probably never know as yet another incompetent campus organization neglects phase two of their TAL marketing operation. Meanwhile, all that paper and all that sidewalk chalk was spent for naught. What a waste.

Here's a good question: Why don't advertisements simply be upfront about what it is, exactly, that they are advertising so people will be more likely to follow the ads instructions and use/buy/watch whatever product/service/TV show they are advertising?