just another journoblog » music

On music musings

Katie — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:20:26 +0000

OK, Justin Vernon. Like every other 20-something woman who gets her music from friends a year too late, I might be a little obsessed with you.

So. In honor of National Blog Posting Month (brought to my attention by my buddy, Diane), I’m trying to add something to this site every day. This means some of my posts are going to be totally uninteresting to you, but are going to be enjoyed by me at a much later date, probably when I am old and boring. Anyway, I could listen to my Top 25 iTunes picks every single day. Come to think of it, that’s pretty much what I do. So, without further ado:

- “Skinny Love” Bon Iver

- “Use Somebody” Kings of Leon

- “Flume” Bon Iver

- “For Emma” Bon Iver

- “Re: Stacks” Bon Iver

… sense a trend …?

- “Wisconsin” Bon Iver

- “Crimewave” Crystal Castles

- “The ’59 Sound” Gaslight Anthem

- “Electric Feel” MGMT

- “Lump Sum” Bon Iver

- “The Wolves (Act 1 & 2)” Bon Iver

- “Blindsided” Bon Iver

- “For Our Elegant Castle” Of Montreal

- “Creature Fear” Bon Iver

- “Team” Bon Iver

- “Can You Tell” Ra Ra Riot

- “Rebellion (Lies)” Arcade Fire

- “When the Night Comes” Dan Auerbach

- “Sex on Fire” Kings of Leon

- “It’ll Be a Breeze” Long Winters

- “Smile Like You Mean It” The Killers

-”Manhattan” Kings of Leon

- “Stupid” Long Winters

- “Charlie Darwin” The Low Anthem

Kings of Leon: At the point in their career where it's embarassing for me to enjoy them as much as I do.

[You probably didn't] notice that there are only 24 songs listed — that’s because “Sex on Fire” comes up twice. Yes, I am a 24-year-old teenybopper, and I needed a quick and easy way to add to NBPM while in the midst of working, studying and looking for jobs.

Lady Gaga … where do I begin?

Katie — Fri, 29 May 2009 05:47:40 +0000

Flickr.com/docjohnboy

In light of the recent Rolling Stone cover featuring Lady Gaga looking like the love child of Tom Petty and Bette Midler wearing nothing but bubbles and a bad peroxide perm, I find myself wondering: Am I the only one who just does not get it?

Let me be clear. LG has her place in the world. I think she lends something legitimately fun and refreshing to pop music. It’s like Britney’s bubblegum pop mixed with, oh, I don’t know, a hit of acid. She’s like Cindy Lauper with a slightly better voice and significantly less clothing.

But this fancying herself as a performance artist? A revolutionary? Come on. It’s going to take a lot more than Spoofing Warhol’s Factory videos and refusing to wear pants to get on that level.

Her newest video premiered tonight on a prominent blog to “rave” reviews (from the blogger himself, someone who, like LG, fancies himself to be this millennium’s great contributor to American culture). I watched all 7 minutes of the video, and all I could think about was how LG would’ve been great in Mr. Petty’s “Don’t Come Around Here No More” from the early 80′s, the time period the seems to have given her a lot of her inspiration.

In other words, it’s all been done before.

Well, maybe all of it except the hair-made-hairbow. That, I will readily admit, is pretty cool.

MTV gives old videos a new home.

Katie — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:29:21 +0000

Everyone knows MTV is nowhere near as entertaining as it used to be. I equate this to a lack of music videos and an increase in reality TV. If you were as disappointed at the scaling-back of music videos as I was, take heart: MTVMusic.com just launched, and is an archive home to pretty much any video your little heart — and big curiousity — desires. Toto’s "Africa," check. Coldplay, check. Rick Astley, David Bowie, Britney Spears … check, check, check. And, of course, you can also check out MTV’s inagural video from 1981, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles.

And if you need even more reasons to visit (not that you would), you can also browse artist interviews and glean album info from the site.

Dire Straits |MTV Music

Pop Bites for 9/26 – Get her new single, cuz Britney’s “Got Your Crazy”

Katie — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:18:58 +0000

1. I missed the Grey’s Anatomy premiere last night, basically because collective whiny-ness amongst the cast (in real life and in script) has taken its toll. If you missed/skipped it, too, here’s a rundown.

2. “Who is Rosh Hashana, anyway?” I wonder if the person who sent that question to a DreamWorks exec still has her job.

3. If you’re daring, rip Britney Spears’ new single, “Womanizer”, here. Some unforgettable lyrics? “What’s that I’m crazy? I got your crazy.”
You sure do, Britney.

4. Oh man, here we go: John McCain’s top economic adviser claims McCain invented the BlackBerry. Somewhere, Al Gore is wishing he’d thought of that.

5. Ed McMohan will be the new face of Freecreditreport.com — the 85-year-old will be rapping in viral videos. Hmm.

PB’s for 9/25: McCain Stands up Letterman. Dave proceeds to catch him in the act.

Katie — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:24:48 +0000

Johnny Depp is Willy Wonka and Sweeney Todd and Captain Jack and Mad Hatter.

1. Johnny Depp has signed on to do a fourth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean. Considering the considerable length of the third one, this makes me a little bit nervous. Depp will also play the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Perfect.

2. The Simpsons will embark on their 20th season this weekend. Guest stars include Seth Rogan and Jodie Foster.

3. John McCain canceled last night’s appearance on Letterman because he was “racing back to Washington” to take care of the financial crisis. But he actually put Washington on hold to interview with Katie Couric instead. That Maverick. Such a rascal.

4. Speaking of rascals … this man broke wind on a police officer and was subsequently charged with battery.

5. And lastly, MySpace has partnered with Amazon to launch an interactive music service:

Starting in a few hours, MySpace members will be able to create an infinite number of playlists, each containing up to 100 songs. In addition, any song in the entire catalog will be searchable by song, artist and album, as opposed to the current set-up that requires visits to band pages in order to add songs to playlists. Members will be able to follow their MySpace friends’ latest playlists through a simple news feed interface.

Pop Bites for 9/24

Katie — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:59:18 +0000

Clay Aiken is gay. But more importantly, his kid is adorable.

1. Clay Aiken will grace the cover of People magazine with his son, Parker Foster Aiken. Oh yeah, a huge headline proclaiming ““YES, I’M GAY“ will be there, too. Go on with your bad self, Aiken.

2. Just for fun, here is Christina Aguilera wearing some sort of helmet and sporting a pretty ill-conceived makeup palette. I just don’t get rich people.

3. Wilco promises to give away a cover of Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released.” However, you must promise to vote.

4. Want to know who hacked Sarah Palin’s e-mail account? Big surprise, it was a college student.

5. T-Mobile’s much-anticipated G1 Android “smartphone” made a pretty crappy debut Tuesday. All hail the iPhone?

Pop Bites for 9/23

Katie — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:59:18 +0000

The Weez is back. Again. And Again. And Probably Again.

1. The prolific musicians of Weezer will start working on a new album in November.

2. If you have the microblogging service Twitter, you can add Twitterkeys (basically Wingdings) to your feed here.

3. Looks like we can all sleep soundly tonight: No one is breaking up at the Playboy Mansion.

4. Supermodel Kate Moss painted a self portrait. In blood and lipstick. Celebrities, they’re just like us!

5. The intern who leaked Britney Spear’s new single, “Womanizer,” into cyberspace was fired.
Britney Spears has a new single?

This makes a strong case for Youtube …

Katie — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:00:49 +0000

(Watch Oasis’ TV debut on this best-o-Youtube list, if you’re into that sort of thing.)

The Guardian has this awesome list of “The 50 Greatest Arts Videos on Youtube.” To me, this is like a pop culture vault; I’m so excited to watch Jackson Pollock drip paint and Katharine Hepburn give a cranky (and rare!) interview on video. There’s also Nirvana practicing in a garage in 1988 and Jimi Hendrix and the Who smashing stuff on stage in ’78. Drool.

Daily Pop Bites for 9/8

Katie — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:10:22 +0000

A lot has happened since the last installment of Pop Bites on 8/22. Joe Biden and Sarah Palin are our veep nominees, football season is in full swing and hurricanes are ravaging the coast. It’s certainly turning out to be an unpredictable year. But anyway, on to today’s interesting headlines …

1. Britney Spears won big at the MTV Video Music Awards last night, taking home three silver Moonmen. She likes shiny things.

2. In case you needed yet another reason to zone out on a Monday, Rolling Stone posted “The 25 Funniest Web Videos.” You can thank me later.

3. After an explosive summer (and, really, what could top Dark Knight‘s hype?), the fall box office is off to a historically slow start.

4. Madonna, obviously a lapsed Catholic, dedicated a concert rendition of “Like a Virgin” to the Pope.

5. Stephen Colbert will send his DNA into space. And don’t worry, I’m sure he doesn’t really know why, either.

Pop Bites for 8/22

Katie — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:41:31 +0000

1. Gwen Stefani gave birth to a baby boy. She and rocker Gavin Rossdale named their son Zuma Nesta Rock Rossdale. It goes without saying that little Zuma joins rank with Apple Martin, Pilot Inspektor Lee and Sage Moonblood Stallone. Sounds like an alcoholic energy drink.

2. I don’t know how I missed this, but apparently Britney Spears gave an interview to OK! Magazine about how she’s shaped up since last year’s head shaving and public breakdown shenanigans. Bummer.

3. I understand the need to be original, but Rihanna’s boots really sort of irk me.

4. Do I really need to point out that buzz is dangerously heavy surrounding Obama veep watch. Since I am perhaps the only person who has not registered to receive a text alert of his pick, I’ll rest assured knowing the rest of the world will promptly let me know when the big news comes out.

P.S. … This guy has been sitting in Joe Biden’s driveway for the past two days.

5. Jerry Seinfield has been tapped to represent Microsoft — and battle it out with Apple — in a new ad campaign. Interesting pick, considering Seinfield peaked well before the 1990′s were over …