“Live the Dream.”
March 17, 2008
A tiny clip of vague inspiration from John DeLorean: worldwide hustler, bon vivant, automobile engineer and developer of the eponymous muscle car (and chariot to one Martin Seamus McFly), the De Lorean DMC-12; also, the man whose story is told through the context of Stainless Style, the new record by super-duo Neon Neon.
The collaboration between blip wiz Boom Bip and super furry singer Gruff Rhys brings its DeLorean-devoted sonics to the platform at Amoeba Music in West Hollywood tonight, playing a free in-store for what should be an early evening crowd filled in equal parts by fans of the Echo Park transplant’s local DJ sets, a number of SFA loyalists, and innocent Amoeba regulars whose hopes for a quiet Monday of shopping will be trampled by thumping party jams curved by Italo disco and the life of an undersung playboy.
As for the gentlemen playing said jams, their pulsing duet feels the warm gallery light of North American record stores tomorrow (though its international release actually occurred today). Nearly as thick in guest accompaniment as it is in strobelight-sharp synthesizer strikes, the album finds folks like Fat Lip, Spank Rock’s Naeem, and Har Mar Superstar all contributing in their own ways to a Cobrasnake-sponsored dance party that’s as kitschy as it is catchy. Although I’m still a bit mixed as to how I feel about the record as a whole, I’d like to share with you here two songs from Stainless Style that my ears have embraced pretty snugly.
Neon Neon: Belfast / LISTEN
Neon Neon: Luxury Pool, with Fat Lip / LISTEN
Big two-hearted river
March 13, 2008
I don’t watch American Idol,
March 7, 2008
but I overheard on an escalator that former Panamanian military dictator Manny Noriega was kicked off the show last night (just missing The Top 12 by the pock-marked skin of his teeth). I can only imagine how heated the competition must be this cycle.
PHOTOS: More from StVDW | Songs about photographs
March 6, 2008
Here is what I think is the last of the bunch, out of all of the photographs taken during our trek up north a couple of weeks ago on the trail of St. Vincent. Credit goes to Belle for all the swell flickery.
I’ve strung together a quick mixtape as well at the bottom of the post, comprised of songs written about photographs.
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Spoon: I Turn My Camera On / LISTEN
Margo Guryan: Take a Picture / LISTEN
Bishop Allen: Click, Click, Click, Click / LISTEN
Astrud Gilberto: Photograph / LISTEN
Elliott Smith: Pictures of Me / LISTEN
Inlets: Pictures of Trees / LISTEN
Steely Dan: Peg / LISTEN
Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem (The Muppets): Can You Picture That? / LISTEN
Paul Simon: Kodachrome / LISTEN
Ola Podrida: Photo Booth / LISTEN
The Faint: Some Incriminating Photographs / LISTEN
Braid: Killing a Camera / LISTEN
The Kinks: Picture Book / LISTEN
The Sea and Cake: All the Photos / LISTEN
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All of the original albums on which the songs above were featured can be purchased through Amazon.
“The bird just landed, so the hood gon’ rock.”
March 4, 2008
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*birdcall*
From ESPN:
“Chris Andersen is set to make his return from an NBA drug suspension after being reinstated by commissioner David Stern on Tuesday.
Andersen’s rights belong to the Hornets, provided they offer him a contract in the next 30 days, which they are expected to do. The team scheduled a news conference following practice Tuesday.
“We were always more concerned with Chris Andersen the person rather than Chris Andersen the player and are pleased that he has taken the appropriate measures to get himself reinstated by the NBA,” general manager Jeff Bower said in a statement.
“We will now begin the process of getting him back on the court and back in a Hornets uniform as quickly as possible.”
Andersen was dismissed and disqualified from the NBA on Jan. 27, 2006 for violating the league’s drug policy. He first became eligible to apply for reinstatement to the league late last month. Since he was “dismissed and disqualified” for a specific violation, he was forced to wait two years to apply for reinstatement.
According to the league’s collective bargaining agreement, a player can only be disqualified for a fourth positive test for performance-enhancing drugs, or a first positive test for “drugs of abuse.”
The drugs on that list are amphetamine and its analogs, which include methamphetamine; cocaine; LSD; opiates, including heroin, codeine and morphine; and PCP.
Andersen, 28, averaged 5.0 points and 4.8 rebounds in 32 games in 2006 before his suspension, his fifth season in the NBA. He played three seasons for the Nuggets before joining the Hornets.
Known as “Birdman” for his high-flying dunks, Andersen was a fan favorite among Hornets fans.
He is best known for his performance in the NBA’s dunk contest in 2005 when he needed eight tries to finish his first dunk.”
Welcome home, oh fine-feathered friend.
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Birdman, featuring Clipse: What Happened to That Boy / MP3 / $$$
Bruce v. Anson
March 4, 2008
And for the record, all the furniture in our living room was a shade of brown | Apostle of Hustle: Chances Are (Jim Eno remix)
March 3, 2008
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My parents loved the music of Johnny Mathis when I was younger. But it wasn’t just his music, really, as it seemed to small me that my mother and father also shared a genuine affection for the man; I truly believe that they saw in him a terrific human being. They weren’t only warmed by his voice and the way he carried a tune, but also admired the affable way in which he carried himself in television and radio interviews. My dad might also have been keen to the fact that a scholarly Johnny had broken future Celtic deity Bill Russell’s university high jump record while at SFSU. My mother, I am sure, saw some of my father’s features in Mathis (or vice versa).
I sometimes wonder if their adoration of the man has faltered in the time since, as over the years its become progressively rare to hear them play that same music that at one time seemed so ubiquitous in my parents’ household. These days there’s no more Johnny Mathis, no José Feliciano, no Bee Gees, Rondstadt or Diamond.
I was raised on feathery hairstyles. Soothing voices and helmet hair.
Maybe they’ve grown from all of it. But as far as I can tell, it’s not like they’re listening to anything different. In fact, I’m not sure that they’re really listening to anything at all.
It could be that they’ve worn themselves out on the records they’d once loved. It’s possible that they’d spun enough Mathis and Elton John in their decade-and-a-half of matrimony before I popped and I just so happened to catch the last days of their love affairs with these musicians. Still, it’s weird that nothing came after (though it’d be exceedingly shortsighted not to think that familial obligations intervened, rendering sentimental balladry not so much of a priority). At any rate, these memories stuck with me, as these things tend to when you’re so young, and as a result, songs like “Chances Are” and The Stone Poneys’ “Different Drum” and all of the ones Feliciano sang as he sightlessly strummed his guitar will almost certainly stick with me after I’ve worn out the stand-bys of my own youth.
They don’t play much music at all these days, my parents, save for the warm and lazy afternoons when they tune the TV to channel 951 and allow whatever sleepytime music is playing on the Time-Warner Easy Listening station to waft through the living room and into the kitchen, where my mom busies herself with some new concoction and my dad wearies his pupils over a string of bills.
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This work by Spoon drummer Jim Eno came down the pipeline earlier today, and is a remix of an Apostle of Hustle original; one that just so happens to share a title with the most famous of Mathis ballads. It continues what is hopefully a burgeoning line of Spoon remixes of Arts & Craftsmen songs, as it comes on the heels of Britt Daniel’s beautifully understated re-do of Feist’s “I Feel It All”.
Apostle of Hustle: Chances Are (Jim Eno remix) / MP3
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Purchase Apostle of Hustle’s National Anthem of Nowhere through GalleryAC and Spoon’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga from the hardworking elves at Insound. And be sure to pick up any one of the almost countless Johnny Mathis greatest hits comps from Amazon if the interest strikes you.
Who wants to be a hundredaire?
March 3, 2008
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Los Angeles’ UCB Theatre will be hosting its monthly go-round of Match Game, an updated version of the long-running fill-in-the-blank game show, known best perhaps for its ribald humor and the kook factor provided by its eccentric list of celebrity panelists. Guided by the prolific chin of host Jimmy Pardo, a lucky few contestants plucked from the audience will each have a crack at landing the grand pot (or Bucket of Truth?) of $100, the catch being that they must match as many of their answers to Pardo’s questions to the answers provided by the panelists. And zaniness ensues!
Scheduled guests for this weekend’s shows include Aimee Mann, Paul F. Tompkins, Oscar Nunez (The Office, Reno 911!), The Human Giant’s Rob Huebel, and UCB favorites Andy Daly and co-founder Matt Walsh.
Follow this curious internet teleportation device for dates, times and reservations.
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Aimee Mann: Save Me / MP3
“Save Me” was featured on the soundtrack to the 1999 film Magnolia, which can be purchased here, among many other places.
Aaahhhhh… C’mon, fuckin’ guy.
March 2, 2008
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