If you are still grieving over the year's biggest tragedy thus far, here is some news that might briefly blot out the pain: you can catch the remaining episodes of "Don't Trust the B—- in Apt. 23" on Hulu and ABC.com and some other computer-related places.
Does the world need another cover of this David Bowie classic? Sure, why the hell not. [Via]
There's been plenty written about how great Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar's album, good kid, m.A.A.d. city is. So much that I'm left with feeling like I have little of value to add to any conversation about it. But the video for "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe," came out today and it inspired in me a thought(!) First of all, it's really good. Watch it. Secondly, jumping back and forth in tone as it does, it makes a nice point about how complex everything is—death, religion, fashion, mourning, partying, solitude, unity, nature, all this stuff. All sorts of paradox. Which starts to come as close to truth, I think, [...]
If you're like me, you've been waiting 26 years to find out what happens next in Lou Gramm's "Midnight Blue" video. What becomes of our hero, the oily gearhead bohunk in the black leather jacket, and his sexy paramour, the restless one who did not care that he was just a troubled boy looking for a double-dare? What of the next day? After they ride off under the moon in that gorgeous cherry-red convertible? What does this world have in store for them once the sun has risen and shined its light on their midnight fling with romantic fate? Well, fellow very old idiots dreamers, our prayers have been [...]
If I could go back in time to 1993 and tell the me of that era that this song would somehow sound even more wistful and melancholy two decades hence he would find it almost impossible to believe. But when I warned him that the future mostly involved a lot of time spent trimming nosehairs and living in a constant state of distraction because "it's like you're chained to a computer all day and letters keep coming in for you to open," he would feel too much sorrow and revulsion for me to make fun of how fat we got. [Via]
"Demons in horror movies can target people or be summoned. If it’s a targeting demon, you are likely to have much higher opening-weekend sales than if it’s summoned."
This being the day on which Erik Satie was born way back in 1866, let's take a couple moments to listen to a few of his compositions. If you're at work put on some headphones, and wherever you are free yourself of all distractions, and let these wash over you for a short while. You will feel calmed, refreshed and ready to face the rest of the day. And then? Weekend! Everybody wins.
Solid power pop, nice build to the finish, and a happy ending? I'm there. [Via]
I still can't figure out what this reminds me of, but whatever it is, I like it. [Via]
Here's the new video from one of our favorite young artists, Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire. In it, the Brooklyn rapper raps two new songs, "Noble Drew Ali" and "The Cauldron." I don't know why he called the video "Nightfall at the Thames." But then, I went to school in New London, Connecticut, and there's a river there called the Thames. But it's pronounced with the "Th" sound like "the," and "ames" like it rhymes with "James." So who knows why anyone does anything the way they do it? Not me.
Here is a new video from the hardest working man in showbiz and his two bandmates. Besides an album coming in June, a newly released book about heavy metal and a newly relaunched magazine, Awl pal, ego trip founder, Mass Appeal editorial director and White Mandingo Sacha Jenkins has just signed on to co-write a forthcoming Beastie Boys memoir—one that will deviate from the standard memoir format into what the Times' Ben Sisario describes as, "a pastiche of voices, images, irreverent humor and pop-culture reference points" modelled after the magazine the group published in '90s, Grand Royal. In other Beastie news, gather a deep sigh in [...]
Once when I was driving on Route 80 in Pennsylvania, I passed a car being driven by a man holding a book open between his two hands on the steering wheel. It was a thick book, like a big novel, and he was reading it while driving 65 miles per hour on the highway. This seemed like one of the more dangerous things I had ever seen. So I hope Gunplay doesn't try to, like, look up any particular passages of scripture while he's rolling. But this is a great song.
They have been live for one day and already the people at Previously.tv are making this a better world.
At this point we are pretty much all keeping our head out of the stove until the return of "Arrested Development," right? I am going to watch all those episodes so hard! In fact, I am not even watching this trailer, that is how fresh I would like to come to the show. But you may have a different way of doing things, in which case you should enjoy the trailer on your own time. In related "Arrested Development" news, did you know that Awl pal Will Leitch is the designated media expert on the show? Here are some other things you probably missed. See you [...]
I had started to post the new video from stately Brooklyn art rockers The National here a moment ago. But then Pitchfork alerted me to the fact that the video was a remake of the one above—from '80s Russian band Zvuki Mu. And the original is better. So we'll go with that. The National have a new album, Trouble Will Find Me, coming out on the 20th, and this past weekend they played a single song for six hours straight at the MOMA PS1 museum in Queens. Here's the set list from that show.
"Honey Locust Honky Tonk is supposed to be a mock country album even though it's not country, although it is a little more straightforward than albums I typically make. I was going to use a pseudonym – Cash Rivers." —Robert Pollard, you don't need to try to convince us that there's something different about your songs. We like you just the way you are!
Mike Leigh's Life Is Sweet finally gets the Criterion Collection treatment, and if, like me, you are one of those people who is still buying physical objects for your library in a world where everything will soon be streaming you should absolutely put this purchase at the top of your list. I haven't seen the entire movie in years, but just looking through the clips available online was enough to remind me of just how visceral, trying and true the thing is. Discussing the release, the New York Times talks about "a scene whose pain and beauty you recognize you must live with from the moment [...]
