9/30/10

Tonight: Local Natives & The Love Language

In case you didn't know, Local Natives and The Love Language will be performing at 9pm tonight at The Waiting Room lounge right here in Omaha.


The opener, The Love Language is a five-piece indie rock band from Raleigh, North Carolina. ""The Love Language"" began as the recording project of Stuart McLamb. They have two studio albums out, The Love Language (2009) and Libraries(July of 2010).



The headlining band will be Local Natives, who was formerly known as Cavil at Rest, is from Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA. Their debut album, Gorilla Manor, was first released in the UK in November 2009, and later released in the US on February 16, 2010. It has received very positive reviews and the band is touted as one of this year's best new acts. Their sound has been described as "afropop-influenced guitars with hyperactive drumming and hooky three-part harmonies".



Everything the band creates comes from a complete collaboration between their members, from songwriting to artwork. Gorilla Manor, was named after the house they all shared in Orange County, where most of the album was written. “It was insanely messy and there were always friends over knocking around on guitars or our thrift store piano,” said Hahn. “It was an incredible experience and I’ll never forget that time.”

Guaranteed to be a great show, Local Natives are recognized as one of the better live groups touring right now. Hope to see you there.

The Love Language : Heart To Tell

The Love Language : Lalita

Local Natives : World News

Local Natives : Airplanes

Local Natives : Wide Eyes (Teen Daze Remix)

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9/29/10

I Saw a Movie This Weekend

Ben Affleck was really mad at Matt Damon for not letting him be in The Departed.


He was all like, "Seriously, man, you were in The Departed without me?"
Damon was like, "Sorry, dude."


Then Affleck was like, "We totally could have won another Oscar together, Matt. You totally screwed me over, buddy."


Affleck kind of let himself go because he was all bummed out and stuff. Then, one day, he had a glorious moment of clarity. He decided he was going to make his own kickass movie about crooks in Boston. He'd show Damon a thing or two.


He decided to call it The Town.


At first, Affleck thought that having huge eyebrows made you a great director. I mean, think about how Scorsese handled The Departed then look at those caterpillars peeking out from behind his glasses. There has to be some corollary.


Following this train of thought, Affleck went out and hired this guy.


As it is, this guy didn't know dick about movies, so Affleck took over directing responsibilities unto himself. This way, there'd be no excuses for Damon to fall back on once he was crushed!
Now, it was time to get some actors.

Matt Damon had Leo DiCaprio, famous for his roles in Titanic, The Beach, Blood Diamond, and What's Eating Gilbert Grape? (That's the name of the movie, not a real question.)


Affleck really wanted action megastar Keanu Reeves, but Keanu was too busy being totally awesome. So Affleck took out his contact lenses and went looking for the first guy who looked like a blurry Jack Traven.


So Affleck hired Jon Hamm, famous for looking nice in a suit (and kinda like Keanu Reeves) while pretending to bang gals that aren't his wife.


Kinda gross looking old guy?



Affleck says, "Check!"



There was some random lady in The Departed.


So of course Affleck had to find a random lady for his movie.
It wasn't hard; there are random ladies EVERYWHERE.
Affleck picked this one!



Affleck pondered aloud, "Who really needs Mark Wahlberg..."


"...when you can have The Hurt Locker?"


Alright, so Affleck assembled his sensational star-studded cast, put together a script with lots of Boston slang, and ran with it. And you know what? We all ended up with a pretty darn good movie.
This guy liked it!


In the end, though, I really had to sit back and think, "Ben Affleck was feeling overshadowed, underappreciated and overlooked for someone that is no more talented or handsome than he. And he made the #1 movie in America because of that. That must be how Casey Affleck feels everyday, why hasn't he made anything extremely amazing and fantastic?"


Then I remembered, "Oh yeah, he just hangs out with Joaquin Phoenix all the time." If I was hanging out with Joaquin Phoenix, I'd never get anything done either.


Joaquin Phoenix rules.
I seriously forgot what we were just talking about.

9/28/10

Impossible Soul


This is the final track from Sufjan's upcoming album, The Age of Adz, which comes out October 12 via Asthmatic Kitty.

Quite honestly, this will be the best 25 minutes you spend in your day. The moments that follow after the 10 minute mark....In a word, epic.

Sufjan Stevens - Impossible Soul by alexknust

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9/24/10

Classics.



Here's a song that is awesome.


The song "Escape" by Rupert Holmes is definitely one of the greatest songs I have ever heard in my entire life. I remember hearing this song on commercials for those "50 Great Love Songs" compilations they sell during Maury and thinking, "Man, everyone loves this song because it is so incredible and that is why they are putting it on television." In reality, though, this song has a couple things going against it. First, it's from the late '70s/early '80s, and those are times that didn't give America much as a whole. Second, it is a quintessential "one-hit wonder" meaning that after homeboy Rupert Holmes wrote it, he didn't really have any more songs. I take offense that some people think this is a bad thing. I mean Sylvia Plath only wrote one book and it's a masterpiece.


Rupert Holmes put so much into this song, he fried his creative potential, but, for his sacrifice, he left us with a glorious masterwork. He's pretty much a modern day Vince van Gogh.


Ok, so pretty much this song is about a guy who gets a little fed up with his old lady and starts creeping around looking for a new gal. He checks out the personal ads and runs across some broad that is just crazy for the frosty, tropical beverage pina coladas.


However, due to Holmes' amazing vocal bending ability, it sounds like the personal ad is seeking someone that likes "peeing in the closet."



There is also an appeal for people with a preference for "making love...on the dunes by the cape"



But, once again, Holmes slurs his words (he parties) and it sounds like an appeal to "making love...with a dude in a cape." Like this guy. Bow-wow.


At the end of this song, ol' Rupe goes to meet his new, foxy gal and it turns out to be his old old lady. Whoa. Pretty much, this song is about cheating on your old lady with your own old lady and getting caught and nothing bad happening.

Adultery, that's what it's about.


If this song had taken place in the 2000's, it probably would have moved the story away from the personal ads (newspapers are lame) and to the world wide web. Rupert would have been searching for a new lover on Craigslist.


And you know what happens on Craigslist. Weird stuff.


Alright, so that's an awesome song for you. Best part about it? Rupert Holmes looks like Al from Tool Time.


Be excellent to each other.

9/23/10

El Guincho : "Bombay" Video




Wow. This video for El Guincho's new single "Bombay" is NSFW unless maybe your job is screening fetish films. Lots of painted breasts, breasts with sparklers, breasts with guns, foot sucking -- I think there might be a sex act with some kind of vacuum cleaner too. Hard to say, sadly it's over my head. Are these all things that make it awesome? In a word, yup.

El Guincho is the recording alias of Spanish musician Pablo Díaz-Reixa. Apparently he grew up on the Canary Isles and is just a chill bro that really enjoys some hella 80's electro-pop. I dig the vibes he's throwing in his latest album release, Pop Negro. Prepare yourself for the astonishment that is this video. It's zany.



El Guincho : Bombay

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The Bulleted List, September 23

Total Bummer Things That Happened Today

  • 1821. Tripolitsa falls and 30,000 Turks are massacred.
  • 1641. The Merchant Royal, carrying a treasure worth over a billion USD, is lost at sea off Land's End.
  • 1942. The first gas chamber experiments are conducted at Auschwitz.
  • 1973. Juan Peron returns to power in Argentina.
  • 1983. Gulf Air Flight 771 is bombed, killing all 117 people on board.
  • 1985. Brian Brohm's birthday.
  • 2010. This blog continues on its decline.

9/13/10

This post is about Panda Bear.


If you didn't know that I'm talking about Noah Lennox, a musician who currently resides in Lisbon, Portugal and not those furry bamboo devouring, masked beasts then let it be known now. Panda Bear is a member of Animal Collective but I'm not going to talk much of AnCo in this post. This post is about Panda Bear.

For roughly the past 18 months, there have been rumblings about Panda Bear's follow-up to March of 2007's beautiful and highly acclaimed Person Pitch. Anticipations have been high (to say the least) in waiting for new material from Panda Bear. A year ago this month, Panda Bear gave us our first little taste of new tunes at ATP (All Tomorrow's Parties). Since then he has been debuting new material at his few and infrequent live shows across the globe.

Back in July, Panda Bear officially released his first taste of new material in a 7 inch single for "Tomboy" which also featured the little trip-hop jam, "Slow Motion". Last week Noah announced plans for a new single, You Can Count On Me 7″ with b-side "Alastian Darn", coming out October 19 via Domino. Artwork for it below.


So with these new singles coming out lately it had been generally assumed and even mentioned by Panda Bear himself that the plan was to have a new album out some time in the fall of 2010. Unfortunately, Noah made it sound like in a recent interview with BV and according to his website, that Tomboy is slated for release "near the end of 2010."[2] Lennox has mentioned Tomboy will be a departure from his signature sound on Person Pitch and Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion. About the new direction, Lennox said: "I got tired of the severe parameters of using samplers. Thinking about Nirvana and the White Stripes got me into the idea of doing something with a heavy focus on guitar and rhythm".

The update on the album's release date being pushed back is some what disheartening news as we are all anxious after listening to his wonderful new singles and b-sides as well as some of his new material that he has debuted live. So in a way to try and keep morale high for fellow Panda Bear lovers out there, I have included some new material including this video below via BAL from an emotional show he played at Governor's Island this past Saturday, September 11. The entire set can be downloaded here.


Guys Eyes (Song For Ariel) (live at Governor's Island) : Panda Bear

You Can Count On Me (live at Governor's Island) : Panda Bear

Alastian Darn (live at Pitchfork Fest 2010) : Panda Bear

Slow Motion : Panda Bear

Tomboy : Panda Bear

Bros : Panda Bear

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9/11/10

Special College Football Bulleted List, September 11

Stadiums That Sound Like (Weird) Adult Film Entertainers
  • Jordan-Hare
  • The Big House
  • Milan Puskar
  • The Horseshoe
  • The Swamp
  • Strawberry Canyon
  • Beaver Stadium in Happy Valley (tagteam)
  • The Golden Dome
  • Between the Hedges

The Bulleted List, September 11

Things I'm Proud to Be
  • an American

Never forget.

9/8/10

Powerful Science: "Embrace The Bomb"


Powerful Science is preparing to drop their debut LP this fall. A title for the album has yet to be determined, but "Embrace The Bomb" is likely to be in the track listing. The video for the song was shot here in Omaha, NE last weekend.

We spoke with band member John Freidel and here is what he had to say about it: "Pretty weird days in omaha over the weekend. This is one of two videos we've made thus far for Powerful Science. We recorded it and shot it (obviously) live. Pretty legit in that regard and super goofy/mocking of 90's videos. Not sure when we'll release the next one, pretty soon I'm thinking. As far as the album goes, we haven't decided on a title and we are still in the process of recording but it should drop some time this fall."

We're looking forward to it.


Powerful Science (Lincoln, NE) performs "Embrace the Bomb."

www.myspace.com/powerfulscience

shot/edited/recorded/mixed
by django greenblatt-seay

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9/7/10

Beer Can Conspiracy Theory.

A dollar bill is a lot like a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon: there's a lot going on if you take the time to look at it.



Check it out: the dollar bill has a pyramid with an all seeing eye and an eagle holding an array of arrows and branches. The symbolism here is rich and unfathomable. It alludes to war, peace, and ancient mystic orders.


PBR has a wreath of barley, which alludes to its hoppy goodness.


The symbols on the back of the one dollar bill are associated with the Freemasons, an ancient fraternal organization who are often associated with mumblings of a dark and loathsome nature concerning a new world order and domination of conventional governments. In America, they have deified the man imaged below, as he manifests their most idealized qualities.


In America, PBR is associated with whitebread, bluecollar Midwest males whose steady diet of cabbage and ground beef leaves their tummies with rumblings of a dark and loathsome nature. The qualities glorified by these men are embodied by this guy.


Maybe there's something wild going on with other beers cans.

Perhaps that tiny, intricate cursive script is, in fact, a secret incantation dating back centuries to a dark and magical time when the King of Beers ruled a kingdom of sturm und drang through draconian severity and heavy-handedness. When read aloud, this incantation will lift the King from his resting place to lay waste to the cities of man with fire and malted grain.


Did you know you have to take an oath before you can drink a Rolling Rock?


Chew on this: if you take the mountains from the Coors Light can...


...and use them to find the waterfall from the Coors Original can...


...is that the final resting place of the Holy Grail?


Holy Schlitz! Look at this logo! Schlitz, the tasty, honest man's beer is really the scheming, evildoer bent on world domination beer! Look as their label clearly displays their desires to "tighten the belt" on the entire earth.



Miller High Life wants you to believe that you will, in fact, live the high life--and your mere beer will be transformed to lavish champagne--if you worship the moon goddess. Pagans.


The intricate pattern of swirls, spirals and eddies on this label tell you that the beer inside is no good.


If any of this is true, these guys might hold infinite knowledge about the universe and its most intricate and baroque workings.


Bob and Doug McKenzie rule the world.