So the MJ thing has been at full tilt the last few days. Everywhere you go on the net is something or other on Michael Jackson. Maybe it’s just a video or an awesome still. I’ve actually stumbled across some pretty original stuff on the guy over the past few days. But this is something different. Thanks to Eternal Sunshine of the logical Mind, my friend Bob turned us on to this little video which gives us a glimpse at some of the inspiration of Michael’s awesome dance moves. So watch this. It is fine-tastic and works well in sync with what is obviously the sound of the crowd cheering to the dearly departed.

Check the chef at 2:47.

.

I recently installed Songbird in my newly revamped home PC and inadvertently used up my free trial subscription to Last.fm Radio. I loved it so much I thought to subscribe for a month and see how much use I get out of it and so far, it’s nothing short of awesome. Like Pandora, you pick your musician, style or even just a keyword, hit play and the site creates a radio station specific to whatever your criteria was. Pretty awesome.

But the story doesn’t end there, it only starts there. I was listening to Xandria and clicking through from one thing to another, Twittering the entire time of course, when a friend (thanks TheWeeJenny!) recommended I check out this band called Korpiklaani. Let me tell you, I was in shock when I noticed that they’re listed as “Viking Folk Metal”. I know what you’re thinking: what on earth does Viking Folk Metal sound like? Well, it sounds like these guys. I think of it as Celtic music on heavy drugs and I can’t stop listening. And seriously, with songs titled “Beer Beer”, “Happy Little Boozer” and “Let’s Drink” how could you NOT love it? Seriously, I listen to this and I want to run down to the local pub, buy a pint, pop these guys in and jump around.

I dare you to put either of these tunes on at the next party. It’s bound to bring down the house. These are what I call drinking songs done right!

Welcome to Twos-day.

.

While I just sort of feel obligated, this is still pretty awesome from the King of Pop…

The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.

-from A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

I never would have thought that going into a concert for Spoon and The Walkmen that the show would just about be stolen by the little relatively unknown opening act, White Rabbits. The six-piece dual vocalist indie rock band took the stage, knowing that most people were there for the two acts following them and that they were going to have to put on a hell of a show to win the crowd over – and win the crowd over they did. They had an insane amount of energy on stage, pounding away some piano-infused rock in their button-ups and blazers, switching instruments mid-song, and the best part? Two drummers. Oh yeah!

Their second album, It’s Frightening, was just released and it is absolutely addicting (and not surprisingly if you listen to it, produced by Spoon frontman Brit Daniels) and I have a feeling that come the end of the year, you’ll be seeing it make plenty of “best album” lists.

Check out their video for “Percussion Gun” below. It’s incredible. You can listen to the rest of their album on their MySpace.

Keep it cool this weekend…

.

It’s no secret that I adore Jenny Lewis (and her other band Rilo Kiley) to a nearly unhealthy degree, so every time she puts out a new record or music video I get ultra-excited. She’s gone pretty low-fi on her current album Acid Tongue, and the recently-appearing videos have matched that aesthetic. The only other video for the album out is “Black Sand”, but I wasn’t honestly a big fan of it (it’s here). This one, though, is a different story.

“Carpetbaggers” is one of the more upbeat, purely fun tracks on the album, and the video is a low-key recording studio-type video, with Jenny and Elvis Costello and members of both their bands jamming it up. They all just look like they’re enjoying themselves and each other so much, and doing exactly what they want to be doing. Extra points for Zooey Deschanel sighting (she sings back-up on this song and a couple of others on Acid Tongue).

(via Pitchfork TV)

Serious photoshop skillz here…

more under the seats…
Read More

[The MP3s available here are for sampling purposes only. Please support the artists by buying their albums and going to their shows. If you are the artist or label rep and don't want an MP3 featured, please email me]

Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums is a grinning fool of a book, partially autobiographical, spewing forth like a wine-induced poetry reading, all mirth and chaos, and yet, fighting through the adolescence and restless spontaneity of the piece is the aspiration for a mature spiritual enlightenment of a Buddhist nature, a clamor in pursuit of calm. Throughout the loosely strung events of the book, a gaggle of beatniks (Zen Lunatics) traverse America, climb mountains, sleep in boxcars, quibble over dogma, screw and meditate. As escpaist literature goes this entry really hits the spot, calling out to that teenager in me who still longs for the satori Suzuki talked about. One feels the joy of at least Kerouac’s kind of buddhism through his tumbling diction, that cascade of words which become descriptive/poetic/paintstrokes creating a fiery mosaic of what is in reality a fairly non-eventful series of events. He of course wrote this novel in a flow without editing as a disciplined act of spontaneity hoping to capture some of the instilled truth of his experiences through it. The effect is awesome and awe-inspiring.

In the same spirit I have cobbled together a playlist which shares the same pleasure of creation and spiritual themes of the novel. Finally I get to give some love to Cat Stevens.

01 Through a Hole – Whispertown 2000
01 Through a Hole – Whispertown 2000

02 Miles from Nowhere – Cat Stevens
02 Miles from Nowhere – Cat Stevens

03 Our Friends Appear Like the Dawn – Bodies of Water
03 Our Friends Appear Like the Dawn – Bodies of Water

04 Rickshaw – Damian Weber
04 Rickshaw – Damian Weber

05 The Biggest Thing Man Has Ever Done – Woody Guthrie
05 The Biggest Thing Man Has Ever Done – Woody Guthrie

06 Daisies – Royal City
06 Daisies – Royal City

07 Sunday Just Keeps on Rolling – Mum
07 Sunday Just Keeps on Rolling – Mum

08 Will is My Friend – Devendra Banhart
08 Will is My Friend – Devendra Banhart

-Edward Steichen, The Pond-Moonlight, 1904

For just the right utensil for that exotic dish, refer to appendix vii…

.

When I first saw the cover to Christian A. Dumais’s Empty Rooms, Lonely Countries, I was intrigued. A black gate, slightly open, providing a blurred glimpse of a stone alley and some buildings, perhaps homes or apartments, in a place that seems both so foreign yet so strangely familiar. On the back of the book, a summary explaining that this is a collection of “a decade’s worth of short stories, wandering through two continents, five countries and multiple universes to explore love, loss and redemption in the 21st century.” Universal themes, as everyone has loved and lost in an attempt to figure out the thing we call life – and it is here that we get thrust into another man’s world that is both as humorous and heartbreaking as it is strange. The writing is very readable, the stories easy to relate to if you’ve ever loved, traveled, and drank hard. As you make your way through his stories, you’ll feel as though you know Christian as well as any of your friends.

You can expect a full review of this collection of stories in the next week or so. In the meantime, head on over to Amazon and give it a purchase. If you go over to Dumais’s official website, you have a chance to win $1000 if you take a photo of yourself with the book – not a bad deal.

Really!

Not exactly safe for work, so to see the image, click the link…
show

.

From a video and graphics design point. I’m digging this little video, I can even get by the hamfisted narration. Scratch that, it is kind of endearing.