Stop Okay Go

The Blue Notebooks

Just wanted to post this video because it's purrrrrrrrrrdy. Music by Max Richter.

Mashup

++Riverside's own The New Division play Santa Monica's Central Aid and Social Club on December 9th. Never been, but based on the name I assume that if I ever need an embassy providing emergency munitions or traveller's cheques, that would be the place to go.

Hallo Secure World

If Sting got his signature sound from shouting/selling newspapers I imagine Albarn got his from singing lullabies.

DRC.

Extreme Version

 

++You and me both, man.

++LIES! I waited out this whole video until the very end and the singer does, in fact, stop. Feeling let down. Want my money back.

++News from the inbox: Moby will be exhibiting his photography and album Destroyed at Art Basel Miami Beach on December 2nd. (Don't know how he can leave that house!) His new single The Right Thing featuring Inyang Bassey comes out December 13th.

++J-Lo's new career direction puzzles me. Seriously though, this is kind of my jam?? (Not sure if this is the same guy, but it is equally jam-able.)

++Not to get all NPR profile piece up in here, but I was reading about Tristan Shone in the latest Wired Magazine and it was muy interesting. During the day, he's an electron microscope engineer who has, oh y'know, a doom metal band on the side called Author & Punisher. He does it all himself with machines like the ones above; a one-man band. The result isn't exactly easy on the ears, but you know that Lucasfilm and Orville Redenbacher will be checking him out when it's time to add a little sumpin' (gussy up as some people might say) to the ol' bass test. Also, he's totally gonna get the stinkeye from Trent Reznor at parties.

Safekeeper

Well I guess it's acoustic guitar week and here are some beautiful lyrics and a simply scenic video from Ed Sheeran. At first, I was going to say that it was destined to be used in many amateur maternity ward videos until I listened to the ending of the song. I think the baby dies at the end? Oof.  A pretty convincingly executed performance on a heavy topic from a such a young guy.

Quickies

++Jai Paul's tracks are "a lurid dream of Madlib reworking Hot Chip’s falsetto swoon, the psychedelic lurch of HEALTH and the wonk of Dabrye."

 ++Raines!

++Soooo many staches and iPhone accessories. What about a 'stache for my iPhone? (The first comment on this product by 'Palmita' makes me wonder if the "ex"-boyfriend broke up with her in favor of spending more time with his rainbow. More backstory, PLS!)

++Bring it on home, Mt. Eerie... (reminds me of The Dan, for some reason). Choppy but original.:

++I'll drop this whole thing shortly, but that's a painting they're standing in front of, right? Gorgeous.

++I've said it before... give it up, Greyson Chance, your name is no Chord Overstreet.

++From the inbox: Here's a tight, semi-ska(?) track by Brooklyn trio Old Monk, whose album Birds of Belize comes out on January 17th.

 

 

 

 

 

Theater Tech

++Mitt Romney fave BFlowhs dedicates one to all the Chopped chefs running to the pantry and trying not to bump into their competition.*

++Does anyone else see the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? No, just me??

++Michael Caine gets very emotional.

++This article needs a "Watch the Throne" joke in it somewhere. Loosen up, Grey Lady!

++Save for a few of the baggy underwear shots, I'm mostly enjoying this whimsical video by Strange Boys from a few months ago.  Have always thought that pianists harbor a jealousy towards guitarists and singers because they can never achieve the same type of mobility or do gyrations and crotch slides with their cumbersome instrument.**  So you always see guys like Chris Martin and Elton John standing and shimmying to try to bring some movement to the piano, with varying success. But this guy goes whole next level, like, piano parkour level.

Time of the Season

++Come to LA, Everything Everything!!

++Love this picture and that archway.

++Oprah and Steve Tyler pick up on the scent of some birds, apparently...

++So all of the weeks of holiday marketing (great to see googly-eyed Maria Bamford back on the Teevee) have finally sunk into my skull making everything sounds like a Christmas carol. This Radiation City song from the inbox jams pretty hard in the most natividadinal (not a word) way, with a touch of 60s Martha and Vandellaness that I also associate with Xmas. There might be some french horns in there, too. Radiation City are associated with the Tender Loving Empire label/family, who brought us Typhoon last year, spin at your leisure:

 

 

Folding A Map

Skeetshooting Sonia Sotomayors! The following post is really geeky even by my standards. Read the longwindedness after the cut...

Today's Hottest Fashions

++Am pretty certain there's no danger of Jenny Owen Young's Clean Break being used in Soft Scrub commercials. No need to worry about her selling out.. hakuna matata, homies.

++Damn, Fantano's got an alter-ego? Couldn't love this series any more.*

++Compare and Contrast. "We make a little history, every time you come around." Ugh, that's biutiful.

++Oh eighties, you and your coke-fueled storyboard video conceptualizations.

++From the inbox: South Carolina's The Rejectioneers are touching a warm, earthy synapse that hasn't been stimulated in a while... last tickled by one of my favorite songs (until f-ing Jason Reitman got a hold of it for Up In the Air!) Eyes, by Rogue Wave.

Go to their Bandcamp page to download the Rejectioneers new EP.

 

 

Gets Away With It

++Coolness, Park...Another Anthony Fantano review, this time of The Field: Looping State of Mind. Really this is the only way I can absorb a review. I'm intrigued by his jerky editing style and would probably watch a show by him, say, on Current. (Such great metaphors like the one about the copy machine.)  

Here's a popular track off the album, It's Up There. Hit play and ask the copy machine for a dance.

++Let's Active, working Blue.

++There's something charmingly off-kilter and out of whack about this song by Dumbo Gets Mad. It feels like watching a movie where the audio isn't synched up right? But it works somehow...

 

Quickies

++This seems fun, Duck Sauce will be one of the acts at Oak Canyon Park in Orange County for the Together As One NYE Party. Maybe there'll be an outbreak of hiking. Prolly no Jolly Jumps like in the pictures, though.

++Note to self: Bob Forster and Bob Forrest are two totally different people.

++Wonder if Train was singing about (4th paragraph) the Queen on the Scene in Meet Virginia.

++An assortment of Damon Albarn tumblrs for all your Damon Albarn tumblring needs.

++Blood Orange plays Mondrian Skybar on Friday night. Orange you glad...never mind...

Standard Transmission

++Jonathan Coulton's every artificial heartbeat bears your artificial name.

++I don't think that this intro is a good way to cozy up to your interview subject...

++Selena (Gomez) Hair Tricks.

++Most everyone I know has a crush on Gail Simmons.

++King Tuff has a refreshing attitude about what he does. Much like the Skybox party/bar song from the other day, dude just wants to make music that people want to "listen to over and over and makes you feel good." Hail, what's wrong with that?

Mad.ly

++I don't know if it's just this one song or if Brooklyn's Caveman has an S-ton of drummers on a regular basis. This is like trying-to-set-a-world-record number of drummers.  And I don't hate it!

++Redroom.

++Not to be outdone, Channel Cairo have two keyboards *and* they look like they could model for Edwardian fashion catalogs, if those exist.:

Cyberbodies

Gonna be lazy here and lean hard on the research over at Altered Zones and their various articles on Featureless Ghost, who are generating some novel, robotic, Herbie Hancock-esque sounds. The duo, Matt Weiner and Elise Tippins, sometimes scale the mountains of North Carolina to beat on old houses for samples.

Autopia

 

++I LOLed.

++Yo, I updated the Stop Okay Go You Tube Page with a few recent faves. The creams of the crops! If you have a few minutes, check them out.: Dominant Legs Hoop of Love, Dirty Beaches Lord Knows Best, Friends I'm His Girl,  (Cobain endorsed) Marine Girls In Love/Honey, Long Winters Honest, Battles and Kazu Sweetie & Shag and Nick Kroll/El Chupacabra.*

++More Kimbra! This time,with Miami Horror.

++I like this cleanly presented Wikigraphoeic of the various tenures of the members of Los Straitjackets. I s'pose this could be done for any workplace that's been around for a long time. Lifers vs. Occupational swallows of Capistrano. It's like a visual representation of Chuck Klosterman's analysis of the characters' realistic comings and goings on Saved by the Bell.

Whether or not this arrangement is based on Telstar is a matter of debate.

Feminine Touch-a

Was reading Marathon Packs' Like A Killer November mix and here's the one I liked...Sweetie & Shag by Battles featuring Kazu Machino. There are two music video delivery systems/info absorption options here. The first, (which is my preference because I love when amateur You Tubers form an association between a feeling from a song and a scene from the attic of their mind)takes a clip from Jim Jarmusch's Permanent Vacation.*

And the second is Battles and Kazu doing the song live in concert. They are sorta the sons of Devo, yes?

Having a female voice makes the band less math-y and gives Battles a new wave 80s LA flavor.

Litelitelite

Unph! This song sounds like something from 2005ish, when music had more 'sneer' and seemed to waft up from smoky sweaty city clubs. I don't know if this bio is real, I mean what's real anymore...Idle Hands' brothers Ciaran and Criostoir are from Minneapolis by way of Ireland. The name of their latest album is Life Is Beautiful, a phrase they clearly did not run through Javier Bardem's spellcheck.

(via KEXP)

 

 

 

 

Quickies

++Would love to see Tony Bennett mix it up with the duets, maybe with Cranky Morrissey or Nicki "Wing (and Thigh) woman" Minaj. 

++Trendwatch: First Yelle, and now Gabe Dixon diving into sand holes.

++Martin Scorsese wants to try his luck with Holograms.

++When Nicolas Jaar whispers sweet nuthins in your ear "there might be a problem."

++If lyrics are any indication, a relationship with Tom Verlaine would probably be pretty intense*. (Excellent guitar-itry.)

 ++This Mom's guidance is great and all, but wouldn't the better advice be to never date a comedian? That's what I've heard.... 

Special Delivery

Kydd, my brother, you gotta increase the font size of your bio 'cuz some of us bloggers is gettin' old!

David Escamilla, Jr. put together that beat.