Google Geek Out Revisited

Remember this? Here's the Bus Stop theme with snow ...

Catchy Friday

Anybody remember this? It's "Working Girl" by The Members, and I can't begin to tell you how many times this song has gotten stuck in my head over the years.

The 13-year-old me always wondered what the big deal was about being in love with a businesswoman. The video didn't exactly help.

Shit

Complicated Life

So Jay's post reminded me of the New Orleans version of Daniel, Clint Madegen, a brilliant songwriter, bandleader, performance artist, and all around cool dude. The above video is a cover of an obscure Kinks tune played with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The one take, continuous video is not only amazing, but it is a great travelogue for New Orleans. Enjoy.

Memphis Jones

All you bastards (with the exception of Andy) may remember him as daniel (sic) from the band days. I'm not bullshitting in the least when I say he is easily the most charismatic person I have ever met. The dude is a star.

Anyway, check out Backbeat. It's how Memphis does Memphis, after all.

A previous post about Mr. Jones can be found here.

Bastard Birthday!

Welcome to Oldsville, Jay!

Fap Fap Fappity Fap

Where do the bastards come down on this one? I'm curious.

By the way, remember this?

Oh Dave ...

Jim and Greg are joined by Black Francis of the Pixies for a Classic Album Dissection of the band’s 1989 landmark release Doolittle.

Download the podcast here. You won't be disappointed.

A LOST primer and refresher

I've been following LOST since the first episode. A pretty fantastic piece of storytelling, but impossible to follow if you missed the first season or so. This video does an excellent job of distilling five seasons into five minutes in a very creative way. See you on the island next Tuesday.

I Think I Understand

Meet Karin Andersson, lead vocalist of the Swedish band The Knife and solo artist as Fever Ray. She may have just topped Russell Brand's acceptance speech.

Over the rafter, off the scoreboard . . .

A couple of years ago, some website played a prank on a student at a University of Maryland basketball game by giving him a chance to hit a half-court shot blindfolded for $500,000. The prank was that the crowd was instructed to go nuts even if (as happened) he missed the shot, so he would think . . . . Ha ha ha.

Here, a high school tried to re-create the same prank on a teacher, although this time the fake prize was tickets to the final four:



Here, a local reporter doing an on location TV spot about the last video, has a go himself, to illustrate how hard it is to make a shot like that.

 

Who Dat Nation Erupts

Jay, you can disregard this post because it's about sports. For the rest of you men, here's what shedding off forty years of disappointment looks like. Joe, you've picked just about the best time ever to visit New Orleans.

Johnny Says ...

"Have a good weekend!"

It's Friday!

Make your own haggis!

The winter months are the ideal time to delve into Scottish cuisine. The Guardian, glossy packager of Brit culture disguised as a news site, provides a mouth-watering look at preparing haggis. "If you cut into the haggis while it's still piping hot, the casing will retract and the stuffing will ooze out appealingly."

Andy, Can You Help a Brother Out?

If anyone listened to Jarvis' BBC show last week, they might remember that he asked listeners which Dead songs he should listen to, as he never really could get into them. This week, he's evidently doing the same with our (well, some of our) beloved Ryan Adams. From his site:

Are They Any Good? Each week Jarvis will be exploring a band or artist that divides opinion. This week: Ryan Adams Email Jarvis on jarvis.6music@bbc.co.uk and tell him which track will get him into Ryan Adams and why - also, please feel free to suggest artists that you just don't 'get' - and maybe we can help you out.

Nice!

Bob Boilen rules! All Songs Considered recently spoke with Britt Daniel and Jim Eno about the new album, Transfat. Definitely worth a listen.

The link is right about ... here.

Can you pick out the future punk rocker?

These kill me, for some reason.

I Say Ha, You Say Hunh

Assuming this is a genuine, non-Photochopped image, that took balls.

It's True What They Say

If you're going to Frequent Trendy, Pretentious restaurants, don't forget your Spoon.

Happy ... Tuesday?

Not a huge fan of Werner Herzog's films, but this is worth a look.

The Majesty Of ... Lamar!

Meet our soon-to-be new family member, Lamar. He's a five-year-old retired racing greyhound that we're going to pick up tomorrow morning. It's a common misconception that retired greyhounds need lots of exercise. In fact, a walk or two a day is all they require.

If you want, you can check out Lamar's (aka Jacobi) racing stats here. Out of 79 races, he had 22 wins and 14 seconds.

Wish us luck.

Stewart Lee

Never heard of this guy until yesterday. Very funny.

Definitely street art

Ouch

Um...

Catchy Friday

I don't think these guys will be as big as Hurts (not much love for them last week), but they've got what it takes when it comes to general all-round catchiness. If they're not Swedish, they should be.

Jimmy Kimmel Gets Some, Too

Leno is everybody's bitch these days ...

Shit!

Perhaps we should put a black armband on our beloved blargh here. Teddy Pendergrass dead at 59. Love TKO indeed...

And I'm just a fountain of good news today...

Apparently Doug Fieger, of the recently mentioned Knack, is battling brain cancer.

Shit. Jay Reatard dead at 29.

Very sorry to hear this news. Memphis can't afford to lose any more musicians.

2010 Is Already a Better Music Year Than 2009!

I fell in love with Roky Erikson after watching a documentary about him, "You're Gonna Miss Me." He performed with Okkervil River at SXSW the last couple of years, and evidently is now ready to release an album with them as back-up and Will Scheff producing.

From Bitchfork:

The album features songs written by Erickson throughout his life, as well as "found-sound and archival recordings culled from Erickson's home videos and recordings made in the Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane," according to a press release. (Erickson spent several years in the hospital in the early 70s, after a drug possession arrest.)

I'm going to use this as an excuse to get back on acid!

Guilty Pleasure

This video was my first introduction to OK Go several years ago. My initial impression was that it was a good song from what appeared to be a clever bunch of guys who don't take themselves too seriously.


They've got a new one out, called Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky, inspired LARGELY by Purple Rain. Embedding is disabled, but check out the video here for what I assume is the first single, "WTF?"

As the title of this post subtly hints, OK Go is a guilty pleasure of mine, but I should say that I only enjoy them in short bursts. I probably can't explain this phenomena in a way that makes sense, but typically, I start an OK Go disc thinking, "Wow, this is better than I remembered!"

As I make my way through the album, however, eventually arriving at the back-loaded weaker tracks, OK Go begins to sound not so much like a power-pop juggernaut, but a group of disingenuous chameleons cranking out disposable music that only sounds like power-pop. "Shit, you almost got me! Nice try, OK Go."

Then, a few months will pass, I'll give the same album a spin and think, "Wow, this is better than I remembered!"

Weird.

Manic Street Preachers

As long as we're playing "What I Got for Christmas," here's the MSP's '09 release Journal for Plague Lovers. It made Metacritic's best of the year list. It's been compared, inevitably, to The Holy Bible (the album, not the holy writ), since it features lyrics of the late(?) Richey James Edwards. I don't hear anything in it that's nearly as dark, but there are some nice hooks in the middle tracks.

Transference

Spoon has a new album out next week. Can't wait that long? Check out the exclusive first listen at NPR.

All Jarvis, all the time

Touted as the next John Peel (until he gets bored), Jarvis Cocker has a new radio show Sundays on BBC 6. Elvis, Shirley Bassey, Judy Nylon, and, of course, Sir John Betjeman. Available via BBC i-player here.

Special Delivery!

Fuck The Pandas, we've got honeybears!

I got a Barnes & Noble gift card for Xmas and naturally spent it on music. Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears are new R&B revivalists, but that description sells them short. I saw them in NC and at ACL and they're great.

Monsters of Folk is Jim James (MMJ), Connor Oberst (Bright Eyes), M. Ward (solo and She & Him), and Mike Mogis (I don't know who he is). It's um...folky, but not in a bad way.

Finally, because I needed to spend another $3 to get free shipping, there's 'Toys In the Attic.' You could do worse.

Happy Birthday, E

The King would be 75 today! A moment of silence, if you please.

Priscilla was on the Today Show this morning, in fact. Matt Lauer asked her what Elvis would be doing if he were alive. Come on, everybody knows the answer to that question. He'd be scratching frantically at the inside of his coffin.

Catchy Friday

Move over Lady Gaga; you're done.

Shit

Willie Mitchell, Al Green's producer. Kinda old news, but still ...

Just Because

More here.

Did I Really See That?

I never caught Back To The Future III, but this is funny. Watch the kid on the right (Verne). Yes, this is actually in the movie ...

A God Among Men

Courtesy of Schoolism, here's a sneak peek from their Masters Series, profiling the astounding talent of Mort Drucker. I can't tell you how many hours I spent enjoying Mr. Drucker's work in MAD Magazine.

A Wii bit thinner...

So back in August Caroline decided to invest in Wii Fit. I was glad as I've gained a pretty decent amount of weight in the last four or five years. Since August 10, I've dropped almost 25 pounds. The Wii fit workouts in and of themselves don't do too much in terms of major calorie burning, but they do help with flexibility and can provide a decent aerobic workout. The key thing that helped me was the ability to set goals and weigh in every day. I ride a stationary bike most mornings and do a short Wii workout when I can in the afternoons.

I didn't change what I eat or drink, I just modified the amounts and tried to be smarter about processed foods. I don't really eat fast food or snack much, and I usually avoid soft drinks, so that part was easy. It feels great to be having to buy smaller pants. And while I'm not down to my Memphis era fighting weight, it feels good to be a whole lot thinner.

The other fun thing has been getting into some of the other Wii games. I just got Tomb Raider, which is going to challenge my ability to wear those smaller pants.

Ugh

Since I have been working my bastard ass off lately (except, of course, for our very enjoyable ten day Christmas trip to England and Amsterdam, ahem), and therefore listening non-stop to my favorite play-as-you-work CDs, I thought I would share a couple with you in case you ever find yourselves in a similarly unfortunate predicament. Maybe not your cup of tea, but, hey, neither is being at the office at midnight. Fourtet is straight-up electronica. Higamos Hogamos is more like a more ambient take on Spiritualized. Fire that procrastinator!

Great video

If one of you bastards hasn't posted this already, you should have.