Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Geezers Rule
OldJewsTellingJokes.com is just old Jews. And they tell (old) jokes. With hilarious results.
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Breakfast at Sulimay's is a trio of old folks who deconstruct current indie rock hits.
This is them reviewing an MF Doom track and a Phoenix track.
Sometimes Joe falls asleep.
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Thanks Steve
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Get your own business cards made of MEAT AND LASERS
So these folks at Meatcards had a vision and a dream and (obviously) a business plan that one day the world will collapse in a fiery apocalypse and the only thing left to eat will be our business cards. Therefore they decided to start laser etching business cards into slabs of meat.

My God it's full of Meat and Win.
As if that wasn't genius enough, they had the foresight to run a contest asking regular joes to re-create classic Frank Frazetta paintings with some important rules to consider:
A couple of examples lifted from BoingBoing (since they did what I was going to do):

oh, and if you need a larger shot of "The Best Photo Evar" it can be found here:
I also gotta hand it to these bros for a lot of reasons:

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Thanks Brian

My God it's full of Meat and Win.
As if that wasn't genius enough, they had the foresight to run a contest asking regular joes to re-create classic Frank Frazetta paintings with some important rules to consider:
Do not halfass the photo. If there is a dinosaur in the painting, there had better be something awesomely dinosaur-y in your picture. Not a stuffed animal, or your cat. Unless your cat is six feet tall and has a wicked gleam in its eye. We will be judging on creativity, ingenuity, and attitude.
No photoshopping. No shooping whatsoever. We have shooped the whoop many times, and we will be able to tell.
Judging is gender-agnostic. That's a man in the bikini holding the knife? Fine! We will judge based on whether he's successfully achieving the Fierce Frazetta Stance. Gender and body morphology do not matter in the contest, but attitude, creativity, and costume do.
Pictures do not need to be work-safe, fully clothed, partially clothed, tasteful, appropriate, or attractive.
A couple of examples lifted from BoingBoing (since they did what I was going to do):

oh, and if you need a larger shot of "The Best Photo Evar" it can be found here:
I also gotta hand it to these bros for a lot of reasons:

Guitars are weapons.
They seem to own symphony conductor-style suitcoats with tails that may or may not have Buddy Guy tour dates silkscreened on the back.
They went through that entire case of Smirnoff Vodka just before this shoot.
Fishing Poles, An Oar, Crutches.
When they needed something huge and fierce to resemble a dinosaur, they obviously gravitated toward the drum kit with deer head attached.
Thanks Brian
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
To make the music play, you push the large play button. It engages with a satisfying clunk.
This 13-year-old kid explores the Sony Walkman (more than twice as old as he is):

"It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette."
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Thanks Steve

"It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette."
Thanks Steve
Monday, June 22, 2009
Seriously dudes, music is over.
This is the greatest worst thing ever.
Please watch the entire thinig if your internal system will allow it.
I spent the whole time trying to figure out if it is all the same dude...like Eddie Murphy in those fat/farty movies.
Also: Autotune
Euro/fruity club/dance
cookie monster vocals
cloning
classical etude thrown in
Jacob's Ladder movie effect
keyboard guy rocking out in the sun on his keyboards
YouTube comment: "I won expert mode."
And then there are all these comments about "Crabcore" which led me to this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crabcore
Crabcore is a contemporary offshoot from the emocore/screamo sub-genre of hard rock music.
Unlike almost all other genres and sub-genres of music, crabcore is defined not by aural motifs, tones, lyrical content, or specific instrument ensembles; but rather by physical gesticulations and contortions of the arms and legs of individual band members during live performances of their music. Sometimes, gesticulations are synchronized between two or more band members. This has the effect of exponentially multiplying the level of audience bewilderment.
Other moves available to crabcore players include:
* The "Richardson Richardson"
* "Krinking"
* The "Beaver Bounce"
* The "Krunkle Kick"
* The "Shrimp & White Wine"
* The "Dirty Hamper"
* The "Pestal Press"
Which led to this textbook example of Crabcore:

it all comes full circle
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Thanks Steve
Friday, June 19, 2009
My Weekly Top Artists
Monday, May 25, 2009
At this piano filled with souls
So a billion years ago Penny and I went to go see Wilco at the Majestic Theater in Detroit, and as they were playing, she pointed at a guy on the left who went from mandolin to violin to keyboards to guitar to melodica. She said "If you were ever in a band, I think you would be like that guy."
The guy was Jay Bennett and I always took that as a real compliment. While he made questionable dreadlock choices and was probably not a guy I would choose to drive cross-country with in a Hundai, the truth was that the orchestration and colors he added to Wilco's music led to the band's most amazing period (in my opinion) from "Being There" through three-quarters of "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and including "Summerteeth" which sits comfortably in my Top 5 Albums of All Time list.
Later in Porchsleeper's recording process, I was jokingly accused of "Jay Bennett-esque douchebaggery" (I'm paraphrasing here...it may have been "ass-hattery") when I wanted to add yet another layer of handclaps/Fender Rhodes/phone ringing/Tijuana Brass/String sections. I also took that as a compliment.
Below are a handful of songs that remind me of Jay Bennett who passed away in his sleep over the weekend.
"Why Would You Want to Live" - Wilco's "Being There"
"Airline to Heaven" - Billy Bragg & Wilco's "Mermaid Avenue II"
"When You Wake Up Feeling Old" - Wilco's "Summerteeth"
"Pieholden Suite" - Wilco's "Summerteeth"
Ashes of American Flags - Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"
Poor Places - Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"
"My Darlin'" - on Jay Bennett & Edward Burch's "The Palace at 4am"

Listen Here:
Chicago's Jim DeRogatis talks about Jay's life and death.
Jay Bennett's contributions to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot available here:
An interview
21 Reasons Why Jay Bennett Should Be Back In Wilco
The guy was Jay Bennett and I always took that as a real compliment. While he made questionable dreadlock choices and was probably not a guy I would choose to drive cross-country with in a Hundai, the truth was that the orchestration and colors he added to Wilco's music led to the band's most amazing period (in my opinion) from "Being There" through three-quarters of "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and including "Summerteeth" which sits comfortably in my Top 5 Albums of All Time list.
Later in Porchsleeper's recording process, I was jokingly accused of "Jay Bennett-esque douchebaggery" (I'm paraphrasing here...it may have been "ass-hattery") when I wanted to add yet another layer of handclaps/Fender Rhodes/phone ringing/Tijuana Brass/String sections. I also took that as a compliment.
Below are a handful of songs that remind me of Jay Bennett who passed away in his sleep over the weekend.
"Why Would You Want to Live" - Wilco's "Being There"
"Airline to Heaven" - Billy Bragg & Wilco's "Mermaid Avenue II"
"When You Wake Up Feeling Old" - Wilco's "Summerteeth"
"Pieholden Suite" - Wilco's "Summerteeth"
Ashes of American Flags - Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"
Poor Places - Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"
"My Darlin'" - on Jay Bennett & Edward Burch's "The Palace at 4am"

Listen Here:
Chicago's Jim DeRogatis talks about Jay's life and death.
Jay Bennett's contributions to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot available here:
An interview
21 Reasons Why Jay Bennett Should Be Back In Wilco
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Am I on candid camera?
Let me get this straight...
Scarlett Johansson is recording an entire album inspired by Brigitte Bardot?

OK, who's putting me on?
Is this my birthday present?
I did not in any way find her Tom Waits album interesting,
but I gotta say this first single is actually pretty good.
::
Thanks GoldenFiddle



