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October 31, 2008

Studs Terkel, RIP

Studs Terkel was a journalist's journalist, though he considered the term "journalist" to be far less blue-collar than the job. A personal hero of many writers, he died today the way most of us would like to: Home in bed, at the age of 96, with a copy of his latest forthcoming book on the nightstand.

In 1995, Mother Jones interviewed the master of the interview. Read it here.

Economic Troubles Trickling Down to DJs, Up to U2

This is what I get for gloating. I was just reassuring my family that my work area, DJing and various audio production gigs, is so specialized that it's generally immune from economic ups and downs. Plus, holidays can be good for DJs, and I typically pick up a couple well-paying gigs for company holiday shindigs. I'd already booked a few, but I just got this e-mail:

To: partyben@yahoo.com

From: [person at event planning company]

Subject: URGENT: [company] Holiday Party

It is with regret we advise you that [company] has cancelled their holiday event scheduled for [date]. We were really looking forward to it, but due to the current economic conditions, it couldn't be helped.

Things are so bad out there that our workplaces' annual celebrations of Jesus are being scrubbed, putting our nation's, uh, guys who are willing to throw on "Play That Funky Music White Boy" when the trashed sales exec demands you play it, out of work? Wow, this is a real recession!

After the jump: Bono feels my pain!

It turns out, though, that I'm not alone in my suffering: a group of investors including the band U2 has been forced to shelve their plans for a 350-foot skyscraper in central Dublin. The mixed-use building would have been Ireland's tallest, and was to house a new recording studio for Bono in some sort of ridiculous, egg-shaped construction perched on top.

The Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) said on Friday it had suspended negotiations over the tower for up to 12 months due to uncertainty in the property and financial markets. "The objective is to see this landmark project completed," the DDDA said in a statement. "However, given the current unfavourable economic environment, more time is needed at this juncture."

Okay, this all looks pretty bad, but you'll know things have really gotten scary when Kanye suspends recording his new album to focus on the economy.

October 30, 2008

Totally Mandatory First Impressions of Best American Non-Required Reading 2008

Cover looks like: African Q*Bert

One word to describe the reactions of Judy Blume to the sometimes non-sequitous interview questions in the introduction: Baffled

Three words to describe the reactions of Judy Blume to the sometimes non-sequitous interview questions in the introduction: Kind of dull

Number of high schoolers who helped edit the book: 18

How much do I wish I had been able to help edit a book when I was a kid: A lot

Terrible comic vs. tolerably cute comic ratio: 1-1

How surprised I am when year-end collections somehow manage to pick New Yorker articles that, despite my diligent attempts to read every issue, I apparently missed: Pretty, but getting less so

Band names they got wrong in the section on "Best American New Band Names": "Crystle Castles" (I guess they mean Crystal Castles), "J.U.S.T.I.C.E." (Justice have a song called "D.A.N.C.E."), "Lights Down Low" (I think they must mean the club night)

Best way to look at Dave Eggers-associated publications' attempts to discuss music: with a gentle, bemused chuckle

Stories about the end of the world within the first 120 pages: 2

How many times better the Nonrequired Reading books are than the rest of the Best American series, especially these days since the short story collections seem to be filled with weepy, self-consciously international mini-movies-of-the-week: at least 7

O's For Obama: Because Change Is Coming

Last Friday evening Sami Saud, an exchange student from Jordan who had been in the US for about three months, stood smoking a cigarette outside of the doors at 1015 Folsom, a dance club in San Francisco's SoMa neighborhood. "I want to see how people come together for this guy," Saud explained.

"This guy," was Barack Obama. The event Saud waited to attend? An all-night fundraiser, the highlight of which was a "guided breath-gasm experience" put on by O' s for Obama. Tagline: "Because change is coming."

O's was the creation of San Francisco-based Obama supporter and "certified somatic sexologist" Destin Gerek. The 30-year-old Gerek, who calls himself the Erotic Rockstar, said that the goal of the event was "to lead the world through a large scale orgasmic breathing experience culminating in a simultaneous group energetic breath-gasm."

Deep techno music played in the main room while guests bought drinks at the bar. At the tables next to the bathrooms, one group sold Obama paraphernalia (proceeds went to the Obama campaign) while another group distributed Proposition K literature (the women at the second table hastened to explain that the junior senator from Illinois was unaffiliated with their group). The techno was occasionally interspersed with taped clips from Obama's speeches. The cue for 200 people to enter the largest room of the club for a simulated orgasm guided by Gerek was this Obama phrase:

"We are the change we seek."

Gerek, shirtless and otherwise dressed in leather, started the guided three-part sensual breathing exercise by explaining that he was once a self-described anarchist who came to identify with the potential of Obama. Participants were told to focus on the warmth and tingling they felt and yell as loudly as they could while experiencing the "group simultaneous breath orgasm," not to be confused with an actual orgasm. After the exercise, there was a vaguely post-coital feeling in the room. "Now imagine election night," Gerek said. "Imagine him winning in a landslide.

Sonia Van Meter, visiting from Austin, Texas, was blasé about the affair. "Um, I think all women already know how to do that," she said of simulating an orgasm.

Gerek explained later that the goal of the event was to help people access and raise their erotic energy, not get off (though apparently there is an Obama-based way to do that, too). Yes, the connection between the group imitation of an orgasm in a San Francisco club, and Obama winning the majority of the votes in the Electoral College, may seem a bit thin. But as Gerek points out, Obama asks his supporters only to give what they can. "And well, this is what I do," Gerek said.

—Daniel Luzer

Image by flickr user PhantomX

October 29, 2008

Digital Trainwreck

It seems the recession is spreading in the art world, too. Yesterday, "worry-free" photo storage provider Digital Railroad sent a notice telling its subscribers they had 24 hours to get their images off the DRR server, or lose them. Then they pulled the plug.

Photographers flooded DRR's servers as they tried to salvage their archives, but not everyone was able to download their work in time. Even photographers with back-ups in other locations stand to lose big from DRR's shutting down: Re-archiving images and setting up shop somewhere else takes time. And as we all know, time is money.

Hit just as hard (if not harder) by DRR's closure are powerhouse photo agencies like VII, Noor and Redux, which lost the interface from which they do business.

If this reliable business for photo agencies and stock photographers can fold, who's next?

Your Future Dream is A Shopping Scheme: Christie's to Auction Punk Memorabilia

As the Sex Pistols once snarled, if you don't know what you want but you know how to get it, then you'll want to head to an upcoming sale in New York to be held by venerable auction house Christie's featuring tons of rock and punk stuff. From the AP:

The event, announced Tuesday, includes more than 120 records, photos and promotional pieces for such punk, garage rock and new wave legends as the Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, the Ramones, David Bowie, Blondie, the Cure and the Smiths. The auction is Christie's first to focus on punk mementos, signaling the collectible status of a brash, anti-authoritarian rock movement that largely thumbed its nose at posterity. "We understand that tastes change, tastes mature," said Christie's pop-culture chief Simeon Lipman. "Ten years ago, punk memorabilia probably wouldn't be something we'd be auctioning here. But now, people of a certain age have a certain ability to splurge on this material."

A certain age? Are you saying I'm old? Well, whatever my age, my ability to afford any of this stuff is very uncertain: a signed Ramones test pressing is estimated at $5,000-$7,000, and a Sears bass guitar used by Kurt Cobain on early demos is estimated to fetch up to $80,000. For those of us living a more, er, punk rock lifestyle, $200 might get you a set of Sex Pistols buttons. That's right: buttons. Jeez, why haven't I been saving those?!

It's not really "punk," per se, but if anybody wants a hint for an early Christmas gift for your dopily-named DJ and blogger, this New Order poster would look great on my wall. Thanks in advance.

Thanks, Wal-Mart: AC/DC Scores First #1 Debut

Well shut my mouth. A couple months ago, news emerged that AC/DC's new album, Black Ice, would be a Wal-Mart exclusive, and I, being a cynical sort, mocked the idea as forcing fans to "jump through hoops." It turns out that people like hoops, since the album (also available at Sam's Club and through the band's web site) debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts this week, selling 784,000 copies. That's second only to Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III for best opening-week sales all year. AC/DC topped the U.S. album charts once before back in 1982 with For Those About to Rock We Salute You, but this is their first #1 debut.

Elsewhere in the Top Ten Albums this week, High School Musical, Kid Rock, and other things that make me hope that suicide barrier at the Golden Gate Bridge will get installed soon prevail. But there are a few glimmers of hope further down the list. Georgia avant-popsters in crazy costumes Of Montreal landed at #38 with their 9th full-length, Skeletal Lamping, an album that critical consensus says isn't quite as spectacular as last year's Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer, but is still pretty good. Recent Riff feature Brett Dennen's Hope For the Hopeless debuted at #41, although he may just be riding some hope coattails. Hopetails?

The iTunes Top Ten is worse than ever, with Beyonce's baffling "If I Were a Boy" at #1. Oh, for the days of "Crazy In Love." Perhaps inspired by M.I.A., triple-time seems to be the cool thing right now, and both Britney Spears and Pink have top 5 hits that feature the same stomping, swinging rhythm. (Plus, don't get me started on Hillary Duff's new take on Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" that replaces the line "reach out and touch faith" with "reach out and touch me." Take that, Jesus!) They're all terrible, but Pink's in particular is produced so loudly it hurts your ears even at low volumes. Back off, studio guys!

Over in the UK, better-than-average pop combo Girls Aloud smashed into the top spot on the singles chart with "The Promise," a charming, if forgettable, retro-tinged ditty that's at least a welcome break from the screeching blasts of noise in the US top ten. And if you needed any more proof that rave is back, glowsticks and all, look no further than #3, where the 2008 remix of Guru Josh's ecstasy-fueled classic "Infinity" debuted this week. As UK chart historian James Masterson notes, Guru Josh hurt his career after "Infinity's" original chart run in 1990 by expressing sympathy for conservative politics, but apparently people have forgotten all about that. Plus, this is basically Kenny G with a beat. Oh, trance, you're like corn syrup for the ears: any primate with a beating heart can sense the sweetness, but too much will give you diabetes.

Errol Morris Walks the Thin Blue Line With Ads for Obama

Back in 2004, filmmaker Errol Morris made a series of brilliantly simple political ads for MoveOn. Modeled after the Apple "Switch" ads, they featured Republicans explaining why they wouldn't be voting for George W. Bush again. A couple of the ads aired, but otherwise the campaign fizzled, and the rest is history. Morris described the experience as "horrible" when I spoke with him a few months ago.

But now he's back, lending his Interrotron to the cause. His new "People in the Middle" ads star moderate voters who plan to vote for Obama. Not surprisingly, the ads are subtle and effective. And the real people in them are a refreshing break from the increasingly unreal real people like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder. Over at his New York Times blog, Morris explains how this campaign is not just a reprise of Kerry Switch:

This time &mdash as opposed to 2004 &mdash the content of the interviews has been qualitatively different. The people I interviewed have embraced Obama. They are voting for a candidate, not against a candidate. Lissa Lucas, for example, tells the story of voting for someone for the first time in her life. There is a feeling of hopefulness. There is this optimism, even though the situation in the country is arguably much worse than four years ago.

But are these spots actually going to air wherever the last bastions of undecideds and would-be Obamacans are holed up? I've put in a call to People for the American Way, which is sponsoring the ads. If you're in a swing-state and see one of them on TV, leave a comment.

Update: PFAW says the ads are Internet-only.

October 28, 2008

New Music Out Today: The Cure, Deerhunter, Snow Patrol, Kaiser Chiefs

While actual album release dates are even less relevant now that nobody has any money to spend on CDs, it's a good excuse to check out some new music. "New" is a relative term, though, when you're dealing with 30-plus-year-old combo The Cure, whose 13th studio album, 4.13 Dream, sounds kind of old. Nothing against old Cure, of course, and there are a few moments on the album that echo the dreamy landscape of Disintegration, for instance, like 6-minute album opener "Underneath the Stars," and jaunty single "The Only One." But as the UK Sunday Times put it, there are too many moments here that are "wearyingly over the top, and scary, too." Just in time for Halloween!

Atlanta's Deerhunter are only a few years into their noise-rock career, but their new album Microcastle has the assured edginess of Sonic Youth. Single "Nothing Ever Happened" plays with fire: a vocal harmony in the chorus whose notes are only one step apart. It could be grating, but instead it's hypnotic. Pitchfork gives it one of its best reviews of the year, with a 9.2 out of 10 score on the Forkometer and comparisons to Radiohead and My Bloody Valentine. They even say the album may be "a reason not to slit our throats before President Palin decides to nuke the world in 2017." Erp.

Snow Patrol may not like me much, but I've always kinda liked them; putting aside the annoying "Chasing Cars," the band makes driving powerpop that seems to owe a lot to the underappreciated Folk Implosion. I heard "Take Back the City" from their new album A Hundred Million Songs on the radio, and it seemed okay, nice harmonies in the chorus and a cute nod to classic rock in the verses. But a quick listen to the rest of the album reveals ballad after terrible, treacly ballad. NME gives the album 4/10 and says the band are "wolfing down Coldplay's leftovers like it's their last supper." Ouch.

Happier news for Brits may be the new Kaiser Chiefs album, Off With Their Heads, the Leeds five-piece's third album. While the Chiefs make fun, anthemic poppish punk that wouldn't be out of place in your local pub, they're also cognizant enough of music history to get a Mercury Prize nomination, which they did for their debut. Last year's single "Ruby" signaled a more thoughtful, melodic turn for the band, but they head right back to the bar for most of this album, and single "Never Miss a Beat" doesn't disappoint with silly call-and-response lyrics like "What do you want for tea?/I want crisps." Of course it turns out the hidden message is an indictment of ignorance. The band's quintessential Britishness means they will never be for Stateside listeners the mainstream, million-selling group they are in the U.K., but even Rolling Stone gives Heads 4 out of 5 stars, calling it "great British pop in the dynamic lethal-irony tradition of the mid-Sixties Kinks."

Obama Poster Parodies Proliferate

It's poster parody pandemonium! We've already remarked here on the Riff about the cool design both coming from and being produced for the Obama campaign; one of the most iconic images so far is Shepard Fairey's red-and-blue "Hope" poster, whose graphic simplicity references classic propaganda just enough to be cool. The poster's design has become enough of a touchstone that parodies have been popping up, but I didn't realize quite how many: via BoingBoing comes this link to a page featuring a whole slew (89, in fact) of takes on the red-on-one-side-blue-on-the-other design. Some of these are obviously made by angry Republicans, who did nothing but change the "Hope" to a "Nope" and call it good. But my favorites are so nonsensical, they're oddly inspired: The Soup Nazi, over "Soup," of course; Amy Winehouse over "Dope"; the Pope over, uh, "Pope." However, this page did seem to miss a version that appeared during San Francisco's recent leather-themed Folsom Street Fair, whose cheeky reference to the "Obey" posters that made Fairey famous was suddenly appropriate in a whole new way. Yes, Mr. President, I've been very naughty. See that one after the jump.

October 24, 2008

Morrissey Recording New Album, Writing Autobiography, Holding Baby

Via Towleroad comes word that 49-year-old singer Morrissey will release his 9th solo album, to be called Year of Refusal (or maybe Years of Refusal?), early next year, calling it his "strongest" album yet in an interview with BBC Radio 1's Janice Long. (That's apparently the cover art to the right.) Perhaps more intriguingly, the outspoken lyricist is writing his autobiography, partially to clear up some of the "silly and really extreme" misquotes attributed to him over the years. What could he mean? As the Guardian points out:

Like when Morrissey allegedly announced that he wished George W Bush dead? Or when he allegedly wrote that he "[understood] why fur-farmers and so-called laboratory scientists are repaid with violence"? Or when he allegedly told NME that "the higher the influx [of immigrants] into England the more the British identity disappears"?

Oh yeah, maybe those. The Guardian also observes that Mozza's Wikipedia page is more than one-quarter controversy, including such topics as "Music Industry Feuds," "Accusations of Racism," and "Arguments with Political Leaders." God bless him.

After the jump: videos, videos, videos.

There are two kinds of people in this world: Smiths fans and Morrissey fans, and your humble blogger with the terrible DJ name is adamantly the former, but sympathetic to the latter. The Smiths were a lifeline to me in my isolated Nebraska hometown, their four studio albums coinciding almost exactly with my high school career. While Morrissey's angst-ridden, sexually ambiguous lyrics provided endless hours of entertainment, it was Johnny Marr's chiming, hypnotic guitar work that kept me glued to my Walkman, and thus, as Morrissey's solo work moved further away from that sound, I got less and less interested. But I've still got a place in my heart for the old kook. Here are a couple videos from his solo career.

"Every Day is Like Sunday" (from Viva Hate, 1988)

A glorious, string-led hymn to Armageddon from a lazy seaside town "they forgot to burn down," "Sunday" surpasses even some of The Smiths' later work, and seems to function almost as a mournful elegy to the band's dissolution.

"Sing Your Life" (from Kill Uncle, 1991)

Here is the first inkling of the retro-rock sound that Morrissey would move towards over the next 10 years. There's barely any guitar melody here at all, and a kind of rockabilly swing; plus, his pompadour is about 100 feet high.

"Tomorrow" (from Your Arsenal, 1992)

After Uncle's poor critical reception, Mozzer returned to the melodic, romantic Smiths sound and lyrical themes: "would you put your arms around me/I won't tell anybody," he sings. In the video, he's followed around the alleys of Paris by a crew of toughs in rolled-up-jeans: is it menacing, erotic, or both? Well, at the end they just shake hands, cause he's the famous Morrissey.

"The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get" (from Vauxhall and I, 1995)

This song has its simple charms, but somehow rhyming "I will be in the bar" with the line "with my head on the bar" has always bugged me. But even Morrissey in lazy mode has more personality than 800 Brandon Flowers.

"The First of the Gang to Die" (from You Are the Quarry, 2004)

Quarry is Morrissey's biggest-selling album, either solo or with The Smiths, and with the straightforward rock production, it's easy to see why. The video is an almost surreal depiction of late-career Morrissey as superstar, playing stadiums in front of his name in neon lights.

"You Have Killed Me" (from Ringleader of the Tormenters, 2006)

Taking his retro-crooner in the twilight of his career image and running with it, this video imagines Morrissey on what appears to be a '60s Italian TV show. The song is unsubtle but still endearing, and heartbreaking: "there is no point in saying this again," he sings, "but I forgive you, always do I forgive you." Sigh. We forgive you too, Moz.

Friday YouTube Roundup: Silliest Political Videos of the Week

Is it just me, or has a kind of eye-of-the-hurricane feeling descended over the presidential campaigns? While waves of economic chaos build around us, the competing teams at the center seem almost in a sort of stasis, with Obama holding his position and McCain unable to break out of his. Inside this calm oasis, the colorful flowers of ridiculous YouTube videos may flourish, and indeed, this week has seen quite a bloom.

Vlad and Friend Boris – "Song for Sarah"

If you've wondered what it's like to be on the receiving end of the Palin Gaze from across the Bering Strait, well, a couple of Russians are here to tell us all about it, and it turns out they're gazing right back. Longingly. Could this video be a Borat-style hoax? The Russian words in the title seem to be straight from a phrasebook: "Very nice. Excellent. And you? Not bad." Plus the misspellings in the subtitles ("teliscop"?) are a bit farfetched, although I do remember the now-demolished Hotel Rossia on Red Square had a large permanent metal sign in English in its lobby that spelled "is" with a "z" in every instance, so who knows.

Oh so many more after the jump.

"Unbelievable McCain vs. Obama Dance-Off"

Yes, this is at the level of those Jib Jab eCard things you can send to your friends where you put your face on a breakdancer, or whatever, but it's still pretty cute. Sure, seeing Obama get jiggy is pretty amusing, especially compared to his embarrassingly stiff shimmy on Ellen, but it's McCain's wide-eyed grimace pasted on some dancer guy that's really funny.

Ron Howard's Call to Action

The well-connected folks over at Funny or Die got Ron Howard to revisit his earlier days of television stardom in this cute video supporting Obama. Howard spends about 3/4 of the video trying to disavow the ridiculousness of what he's doing, which is kind of annoying, but hey look: it's the Fonz!!!

Sarah Palin Disney Trailer (watch at CollegeHumor.com)
This high-budget fake preview for a jokesy Disney movie that Sarah Palin could star in may have been inspired by a Matt Damon quote, but it seems all too real--you just know that when McCain called her up, there was a loud record scratch sound effect.

CNNBC's "McCain Win is Your Fault" Video

One of my friends totally got me with this; she sent me a link with the note, "hey, you're in this video," and I, thinking myself to be marginally famous, fell for it. "Hmm," I thought, "maybe footage of a DJ gig or that random interview I did last year turned up somewhere?" No, no it did not. It's actually the video equivalent of that book my parents got me as a kid that had my name as the protagonist all the way through, except in this story, I forgot to vote and ruined America for everyone. Sorry!

October 23, 2008

If Wes Anderson Directed a McCain Attack Ad

From The Landline comes this quick trio of potential attack ads in the style of famous directors that the McCain campaign might be interested in trying out. There's your standard John Woo action thriller parody, which is cute, and a quick Kevin Smith bit, which is like ten years out of date, but they saved the best for last: a brief take on Wes Anderson's directorial style. Futura titles, quirky old soundtrack, and, well, a penguin: gotta love it. (The Anderson part starts at about 2:20.)

The Other O in Ohio

Barack Obama has gotten a lot of grief about his campaign's vaguely presidential seal. But shortly after he attended an event in Toledo, Obama was accused of taking his enthusiasm for heraldry too far.

On the October 15 broadcast of his radio show, conservative personality Bob Grant complained that there was something funny about one of the flags on Obama's stage:

What is that flag that Obama's been standing in front of that looks like an American flag, but instead of having the field of 50 stars representing the 50 states, there's a circle? Is the circle the 'O' for Obama? Is that what it is? Did you notice Obama is not content with just having several American flags, plain old American flags with the 50 states represented by 50 stars? He has the 'O' flag. And that's what that 'O' is. Just like he did with the plane he was using. He had the flag painted over, and the 'O' for Obama.

Oh, the hubris. Not content with his already dubious demipresidential seal, Obama has now designed his own standard. Will no one stop this egomaniac? Or, as Grant said: "Now, these are symptom—these things are symptomatic of a person who would like to be a potentate—a dictator."

The gravel-voiced Grant, a pioneer of the angry talk radio format, had a point. All of these O doodads seem vaguely Napoleonic. But Grant, who once referred to New York Mayor David Dinkins as "the men's room attendant at the 21 Club," is famous for sharing his first impressions with listeners before checking for offensiveness or, well, accuracy.

Wrong again, Grant; it turns out the offending banner ruffling behind the junior senator from Illinois was, in fact, the state flag of Ohio.

—Daniel Luzer

October 22, 2008

Top 5, October 22: New Music

In this edition, Japanese dream-pop, dubstep new wave, Icelandic drum festivals, stoopid fresh Baltimore rave jams, and a tribute to Michael Jackson. No, I'm not making any of that up.

1. Shugo Tokumaru – "Parachute" (from the album Exit on Sony BMG)

This Japanese singer-songwriter has apparently been making his delicate, '60s-influenced ditties for a while now, but his work is finally starting to be available in the US. "Parachute" evokes psychedelia without getting too crazy, even though it sounds like there are about 100 different instruments being played here.

2. Version Big-Fi – "Blue Monday" (New Order cover)
Dubstep's synthetic take on the traditional reggae rhythm creates menacing, apocalyptic sounds perfect for our anxious times; oddly enough, "Blue Monday's" abject grief is a perfect counterpoint. While versions of the omnipresent "Monday" are a dime a dozen, this is something special, although not without precedent: New Order's own brooding cover of Keith Hudson's "Turn the Heater On" for a John Peel session proved the band had a reggae streak themselves. (mp3 download at versionbigfi.com)

3. Björk & Thom Yorke – "Nattura" (single)
Shouldn't they just have called themselves, er, "Byörke"? Anyway, somebody let these crazy kids loose in the drum closet, and not surprisingly, the resulting tracks makes Radiohead's recent output sound like High School Musical. I can't even discern a time signature: 2/4 alternating with 7/8, maybe? But the song's purpose as a charity single for the environment echoes its weirdly compelling urgency: in Björk's world, Nature is not cuddly seals and pretty flowers, but a rumbling wave of unfathomable forces that will overwhelm us if we don't step lightly. (purchase on iTunes or listen while watching vintage Björk footage here)

4. Armand Van Helden – "Shake That Ass" (single)
Such a conundrum—do I dare embed a video that consists entirely of imitation YouTube footage of scantily-clad ladies engaging in ass-shaking here on the esteemed web pages of the Mother Jones? I just can't do it, even if it is innocent silliness. And in fact, it's the track that has me intrigued: a weird convergence of Baltimore beats and a retro-rave synth line, it's a sound I predict will be the hot new thing for the next two weeks. (mp3 and video at FiftyOneFiftyOne)

5. Q-Tip – "Move" (from the upcoming album The Renaissance on Universal)

How much do I love the video for Michael Jackson's "Rock With You"? So much. In this scene-for-scene remake, the swirling green light and fedora were so hypnotizing I had to turn away to realize this isn't actually a bad song either. It combines Q-Tip's propulsive lyrics and a funky dance beat with a warbly, J Dilla-style sample loop, and the result is both warmly retro and completely modern.

Stream the New Guns N' Roses Track If You Dare to Face Its Super Rocking Thunderosity

Was that convincing? Because it was a lie. Sure, there have already been enough leaks of this to flood a low-lying country, so this whole "official release" thing is a bit anticlimactic, but yes, the new G N' R song, the title track from the album Chinese Democracy, will be delivered to radio tomorrow. It's also been posted on the band's Imeem page, which means I can do this:

The album's wicker basket-y cover art is already getting mocked, although so far you can only see it in thumbnail form at Best Buy's web site. The retailer will, by the way, be the exclusive provider of the physical CD (and, it seems, vinyl) to potential buyers, whoever they may be.

Wired's Listening Post blog has a little poll going about the track, and the verdict seems to be "weak sauce," which is pretty much on target: the song's rawk-by-numbers three-chord pattern is dumbfoundingly boring, and the strutting vocal and guitar noodling overcompensate hilariously for the track's weaknesses without ever providing, you know, a hook. I do kind of like when it goes "all I got/is precious time," even though that doesn't really make any sense: if you've got a lot of time, then it's not really precious, is it? Oh, Axl.

October 21, 2008

Breaking: Eminem's Endorsement in the 2008 Race Is…

Bob Barr! Just kidding, it's Obama. Okay, for you youngsters out there, Eminem is the name of a rapper who had some very famous songs back in, uh, a 3-year period between 1999 and 2002. Since then, he's been like the Axl Rose of hip-hop, lost in the wilderness, emerging from hibernation only to toss out an album featuring a political protest song, "Mosh," that was compelling if a little too angry, and did nothing to help out that Kerry guy back in 2004. Watch it after the jump. Apparently he's working on a new album, to be called Relapse, produced by Dr. Dre and set for an early 2009 release, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Em was over in the U.K. chatting with BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe when he mentioned he's voting for Obama; he admitted that he "can't get too political because I don't know enough," but offered that "Barack would be a breath of fresh air, to get in there and actually get what's left of the Bush administration out the door." Seriously, did anybody think he'd be all about Sarah Palin?

Eminem - "Mosh"

Metacritic Needs to Revise their "Best Albums of 2008" Logarithm

Metacritic is a pretty cool service, tracking down and averaging reviews of all sorts of pop culture output for our convenience. Movies, DVDs, games, TV shows, and music, Metacritic logs 'em all, grabbing reviews from all corners of the press and converting grades or ratings to a 100-point scale. For the busy culture afficionado, it allows for straightforward, easy inspection of critical reaction. For instance, Wall-E and Man on Wire currently top their movie list for 2008, and that makes sense: one's a popular hit, and one's a critical favorite. In 2007, their "Best-Reviewed Albums of the Year" served as a good jumping-off point in analyzing the year in music, but this year, their list has kind of gone off the deep end. After the jump, the Metacritic Top 20 (with score averages in parenthesis) and why it's a little weird.

1. Steinski - What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective (90)
2. The Bug - London Zoo (90)
3. Plush - Fed (89)
4. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (89)
5. TV On The Radio - Dear Science, (88)
6. Fleet Foxes – S/T (87)
7. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! (87)
8. Robyn – S/T (86)
9. Hercules And Love Affair – S/T (86)
10. Protest The Hero – Fortress (86)
11. Shearwater - Rook (85)
12. Harvey Milk - Life...The Best Game In Town (85)
13. Portishead - Third (85)
14. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive (85)
15. Paavoharju - Laulu Laakson Kukista (85)
16. Randy Newman - Harps And Angels (85)
17. Kasai Allstars - In The 7th Moon, The Chief Turned Into A Swimming Fish And Ate The Head Of His Enemy By Magic(84)
18. The Music Tapes - Music Tapes for Clouds & Tornadoes (84)
19. Fucked Up - Chemistry Of Common Life (84)
20. Teddy Thompson - A Piece Of What You Need (84)

Where do I start? At the top, 'nuff respect to Steinski, whose cut-and-paste creations influenced everything from Girl Talk to The Avalanches. But jeez, I'm a musical collage artist (er, a wannabe artist) myself, and even I think this stuff has more intellectual appeal than "listenability." It's really just acid house, which had a brief flash of popular ascendance in the mid-to-late-'80s, and its fast-paced collage of musical and non-musical vocal samples (see M.A.R.R.S. "Pump Up the Volume") sounded fresh and exciting for about 3 years. Then came Prince's "Batdance." Shudder. Of course, it's vital to for critics to support musical collage as valid art, but album of the year?

At #2, The Bug have made an interesting album that distills a lot of the current reggae-inflected U.K. sounds under the aegis of "dubstep," although some of the tracks on Zoo are really reggaeton or dancehall. The Bug's version of dubstep, a sludgy, glacially-paced genre at the bleeding edge of musical trends, is accurate enough, but the album suffers from a typical problem with dance music edge-cutters: it sounds great when anonymous singles are mixed by a DJ in a dark club, but can get a little tiring on an album.

Plush's Fed is a bafflingly self-indulgent Beatles-meets-Jackson-Browne jam session, Bon Iver makes strong but not exactly boundary-pushing acoustic folk, and only at #5 do we find, well, an album I love. What's the problem here? Well, first of all, Metacritic only requires seven reviews before an album can qualify for their list, and in this day and age, that's not too hard. The Steinski album counts Sputnikmusic, The Wire and cokemachineglow in its top reviews, and The Bug only has ten reviews total, half of them from the U.K. press. Plus, a single, random 100-point review can bring an album's average way up. I don't mean to be undemocratic here, Metacritic, but maybe bringing the minimum review count up wouldn't be a bad idea, and perhaps throwing out the highest and lowest scores might help bring things back down to earth. Of course, readers interested in what the actual best albums of the year are need only pay attention to the Riff, where the definitive list will be posted in late December.

October 20, 2008

Barack Obama: Marketer of the Year

Sure, Apple's done a good job advertising the ubiqituous iPhone. But according to Advertising Age, Barack Obama's done a better job advertising…Barack Obama.

At this year's annual National Advertisers' conference, hundreds of marketers, agency heads and marketing-service vendors chose Obama as Marketer of the Year, besting Apple, Zappos, Coors, and Nike. The presidential hopeful was honored for his hugely successful web-based campaign, which has utilized Facebook , MySpace, and outreach sites such as voteforchange.com.

Said Advertising Age:

Just weeks before he demonstrates whether his campaign's blend of grass-roots appeal and big media-budget know-how has converted the American electorate, Sen. Barack Obama has shown he's already won over the nation's brand builders.

Obama garnered an impressive 36.1 percent of the vote, compared to second-place Apple's 27.3 percent. As for McCain? He walked away with just 4.5 percent of the vote.

—Nikki Gloudeman