New WOTT mix/POBAH/BFF update
September 9, 2009
Wow. Waaay too many abbrevs in that title.
Ok so there aren’t really any updates for BFF, I’m just shamelessly plugging it. And also pointing you over to Fan Fiction’s blog where he plugged it as well. Be sure to check out the mix he did for Justin Kase’s blog Blogging Is Serious Business. That’s just a taste of the goodness he has to offer for your dancing pleasure this Friday night. Also check out my (DJ Burgers) latest mix SUMMERMIXXXX09. It starts off a little more pop/rock-oriented than anything I’ll spin Friday, but the latter 1/2 should give you a good idea of what I have to offer. Remember- it’s totally FREE, 18+ and at Mad Donna’s (1313 Woodland St.) upstairs lounge. We promise to love you long time.
We Own This Town has just posted a new mix for your downloading/listening pleasure. Go grab it now. It features some great new tracks from the likes of Turbo Fruits, Kindergarten Circus, and The Nobility, plus many more.
Speaking of great local bands, The Protomen officially released their long-awaited new album Act II: The Father of Death on Amazon MP3 and iTunes yesterday. It’s been doing AMAZINGLY well on both. But it peaked at fucking #8 on the Amazon download charts, competing with the likes of Phish, Kings of Leon, etc… Mind. Blown. Be sure to come out to their official album release party on Sept. 25th at Mercy Lounge. It will likely be the most epic thing ever to happen at Mercy Lounge. We’re talking the band plus a full string section and choir, playing both their first album and Act II: The Father of Death, in their entirety. Not to be missed. Then head over to Little Hamilton afterwards to this other party I’m DJing with Kid Chicago. More on that when it gets closer.
They Might Be Giants have released DVD children’s album called Here Comes the Science. Naturally I’m quite happy about this since it involves the two things this very blog is about. i09 posted several videos of songs from the album and it’s absolutely delightful. These guys have a long-proven record of being absolutely masterful songwriters, and to combine that kind of skill with the mission of educating our children about reality just makes me ecstatic. If I ever have kids, their first gift will be a boxed-set of all the TMBG children’s albums. John and John, you are my HEROES!!!! Check out Science is Real below, and check out the i09 post for even more.
New Weezer song/Next Big Nashville
August 26, 2009
If you know me at all you know that I will always be a huge Weezer fan. Rivers Cuomo and Kurt Cobain shaped my childhood more than you can imagine. Hell, I practically learned to play guitar by learning almost every song on the “Blue album” and Pinkerton. It’s widely accepted that Weezer has been in a downward spiral post-Pinkerton. This has been a difficult pill for me to swallow, but I accept that they’ll never be what they used to be. All that being said, they have a new song streaming on their website and it doesn’t totally suck. But I said the same thing about the song “Pork & Beans” from their last effort the “Red album.” P&B is about as close as they’ll ever get to the Blue/Pinkerton-era sound, but the rest of that album was basically just as bad as Make Believe. I hope this is not the case with this next record, but at this point my philosophy for new Weezer material is “hope for the best, but expect the worst.” Seriously though, this new song “I Want You To” is worth a listen, at the very least. Stream it at their website.
Next Big Nashville is quickly approaching and it’s definitely time to buy your wristband or VIP badge. The pre-sale is already over, and ticket prices will only continue to rise as it gets closer. Go the website and order yours now! A partial lineup has been released and it includes some seriously heavy-hitters. Here are just a few:
Lucero
Jemina Pearl
David Vandervelde
Heypenny
The Protomen
American Bang
Madi Diaz
How I Became the Bomb
Howlies
Colour Revolt
The Non-Commissioned Officers
Mikky Ekko
Jeremy Lister
Phosphorescent
Cortney Tidwell
Caitlin Rose
Pico Vs Island Trees
The Clutters
The Scene had some glitches with their database, but they finally have the photobooth pics from the Nashville Cream party up. Check ’em out: Part 1 and Part 2.
It’s been a while since I mentioned Hipster Runoff. I highly recommend reading Carles’ take on the apparently resurgent trend of “sagging.”
Here’s an interesting chart showing the frequency of the most common elements/objects featured on the cover of fantasy books. Of course swords are in the lead, but I’m quite surprised that unicorns are dead last…. (Via Snarkmarket)
RIP Stacy Fleeman and Ted Kennedy.
Nashville Cream’s 3rd b-day/Avatar trailer/Stacy Fleeman
August 21, 2009
As I mentioned earlier this week, the biggest event you should be concerned about this weekend is the Nashville Cream’s 3rd birthday bash at Mercy Lounge. The Features are headlining and will be playing mostly, if not all, new songs. Also playing are Kindercastle and The Billy Goats. I’ll be doing a photobooth, there will be lots of prizes to be won, free screen-printed show posters, and there will be a limited amount of free food to be had. All this for a a measly $5? How could you possibly say no? The thing I’m most excited about is hearing new Features songs. Props to Boss Construction for the posters.
Speaking of the Scene, Tracy Moore has a cover story in this week’s issue on Caitlin Rose, Tristen, and Those Darlins. It’s a great read and I strongly suggest you pick up a copy if you haven’t.
This isn’t related to the rest of the items in this post, but definitely worth mentioning- James Cameron’s new 3D sci-fi/fantasy film Avatar will hit theaters this December, and the first trailer was released through Apple yesterday. Go watch it in HD at Apple website. Your eyes will thank you.
In some much more depressing news, I was extremely saddened Wednesday to find out that the End’s doorman Stacy Fleeman is in the hospital on life support. He was found unresponsive, then put into a medically-induced coma which he then came out of, but apparently has little to no brain activity. Stacy is one of the good ones. He’s one of the kindest people I’ve met in Nashville and is a tireless supporter of the music scene. His label Spat! Records is just now starting to become financially successful and now this… it’s absolutely tragic. Please keep his family and friends in your thoughts and prayers. We should hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
A picture is worth a thousand words
August 20, 2009
Between work at Vandy and the Scene being sold to South Comm, I simply don’t have the energy nor the willpower/brainpower to write here this week like I usually do. So I must thank Yewknee for linking to this amazing website called Them Thangs today, where I discovered this absolutely wonderful image. (Warning: some of that blog is NSFW.) A picture is truly worth a thousand words.
NASA’s options/Zooey Deschanel dances/vacation
August 6, 2009
This will be my last post for about a week or more. Tomorrow right after work Megan and I are heading westward to spend some time at Yellowstone and the surrounding areas, and possibly Portland as well. Having to make the 34 hour drive back from Portland is looking less and less appealing, however. That being said, posting will be virtually non-existent for a while.
Photo via USA Today
As I mentioned a few days ago, we saw 500 Days of Summer last weekend. Most people would agree that there’s no such thing as too much Zooey Deschanel, and thus I highly recommend watching this cute music video put together as a promotional piece for the movie. It’s for She & Him’s “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here” and features ZD dancing with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I have no idea how to embed USA Today videos on WordPress, so just go watch it here. (Via Stereogum)
I know I flooded you with science nerdiness yesterday, but I have to post this. I read an article this morning on Space.com containing details on the options for the future direction of NASA that Obama’s Augustine Commission are reviewing. Basically they’ve narrowed it down to 7 generalized options. They’ve been holding public hearings to get input from citizens (which is awesome) and plan to convene to make their final decisions and present them to President Obama at the end of this month. I’ve mentioned this many times on here before, but this is the first time I’ve seen the actual options that are under review. Personally, I’m torn between the “Directly Shuttle-Derived System” and relying on commercial spaceflight. It’s obvious that the current Ares I is having issues. It’s also obvious that many companies, the leader of them being Virgin Galactic, are really close to making commercial spaceflight a simple and easy solution. NASA could just buy flights from a private company to get astronauts to and from the ISS. I definitely think the US has invested way too much time and money into the ISS to end our involvement in 2015, just 4 years after it will be completed. It will still be useful and there’s no sense in abandoning it. Then NASA could possibly use the shuttle-derived plan, along with Ares V (which hasn’t had as many setbacks as Ares I because it’s not intended to carry humans; only cargo) to get to the moon and eventually Mars. Just my two cents.
See y’all in a week!
My 8 off 8th tonight/Moon & 500 Days of Summer/Beer
August 3, 2009
The most important thing for you to do/know about today is my 8 off 8th tonight. It’s the 3rd one I’ve done and I sincerely hope that if you’re in the Nashville area, you’ll come out tonight and check out these great bands. The flyer was designed by the awesome Cara Charlton. Click on each band to learn more about them. The Cream also gave me a shout-out.
Dixie Whiskey
Cody Blaine & the Whole Fam Damnly
The Comfies
Joel J. Dahl
Tristen
Pineapple Explode
Overzealous
Jug Huggers
While you’re at the Cream, please do checkout my photos from the Green Day show Friday. Those haven’t lost their touch and if the rest of the show was as awesome as the first 2 songs, then I’m really sad that I couldn’t stay for the whole thing. They made those 2 songs into a 20 minute spectacle that had me running around chasing BJA quite a bit, and I loved every minute of it.
In some other local news:
Nashvillest got voted best local blog in the Toast of Music City awards. Way to go!
Some local dudes started a beer review blog a year or so ago, and while they’ve been dormant for a few months, they’re back in business. Check out the Beer School Blog. They’ll try just about any beer and give it a score. They also talk about the bar itself sometimes, so if you like beer and want to find a new beer to check out, have a look through their archives.
Speaking of beer, I’m officially going to start brewing my own beer. After I get back from my vacation next week, I plan to hit up the two places I know of in town that sell brewing ingredients, and I’m gonna give it a try. I’ve found myself getting increasingly more interested in the multitude of beer styles so as I brew, I’m also going to expand my palette and try some of the more obscure styles out there, such as a Rauchbier, Biere de Garde, or Faro.
This past weekend we managed to see both Moon and 500 Days of Summer. I thoroughly enjoyed them both. Here’s a quick blurb on each-
500 Days of Summer: 6.5 out 0f 10. By all means go see this movie. I’m no film critic but here’s my two cents… It’s really just another one of those indie-cutesy-warm-fuzzy romantic movies, with a bittersweet twist. The acting is great- Zooey Deschanel is as beautiful as ever, and is the perfect fit for her character, as is Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I guess it’s a bit of guilty pleasure, because there have been many films of this variety to come out in the last few years and their target demographic is basically me. But as I said, there’s a bittersweet twist. They do a great job of really making you root for Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character throughout, and the tension is finally resolved, just not in the way most movies resolve it.
Moon: 7.5 our of 10. For a directorial debut, this is one heck of a film. And visually, it’s quite remarkable considering the budget. I never though a movie with so few characters could be so great. David Bowie’s son Duncan Jones deserves some sort of award for this one. The ending seemed a bit rushed to me, and it made me wish for more of a build-up somehow, but overall it came together well. Again, I am not by any means a film critic, so these are just my humble opinions.
Now, don’t forget to come to my 8 off 8th tonight! But before you do that, feast your eyes on this awesome poster by Monkey Ink Design for the upcoming Drive By Truckers/Glossary show at Cannery Ballroom.
First of all, please go check out the Nashville Cream review of last night’s Dead Weather show at War Memorial Auditorium. And look at my photos. I’m kinda proud of a few of them. Honestly, though, I did enjoy the show more than I thought I would. It was cool seeing 2/3 of Green Day walking around in the crowd. I may actually get the Dead Weather album now… I’d only heard “Treat Me Like Your Mother” up until the show. I think I just enjoyed the performance more than the songs though. Allison Mosshart is one of the best frontwomen I’ve ever seen and she really knows how to sell the show. Obviously she did a lot of limbo-ing when she was a kid, because she executed the steepest backbend of anyone I’ve ever seen. Go to the Cream review- they used the pic of her backbend to head up the post.
This is kind of old news now, but in case you’ve been away from the interwebs for a few days, Those Darlins are considered a “breaking band” by Rolling Stone. Way to go girls! If they keep going on their current track, they’ll be world-famous in another year or so.
Time Magazine is trying to define and pinpoint something that is undefinable and infinitely elusive: hipsterdom. When will people learn? (Via Brooklyn Vegan)
Local Honey owner Shea Steele has been kicking ass and doing all kinds of cool stuff lately, and she pretty much sums it all up in a blog post from yesterday. She and Amanda Valentine were both potential contestants on Project Runway, but they didn’t quite make the final cut to be on the show. Though when asked about it, they say they were just relieved to have the pressure off their chest. While it would have been really cool to see one or two Nashville local designers on the show, it would have probably consumed at least 6 months of their lives, and they have other things they’d probably rather be doing.
On the books for this weekend:
Photographing Green Day at Sommet Center tonight. Kinda wish I got to stay for the whole thing, but they don’t usually let photogs back in after shooting the first 2-3 songs. After that we’ll probaby just watch Eureka and chill for the rest of the night.
Saturday night I’m taking photos at the Annual Davidson County Democratic Party Honors Dinner, and after that I have no idea what to do.
The most important thing is that Monday is my 3rd 8 off 8th, and you should come. As always, it’s FREE, 21+, and starts at 9pm SHARP.
new 5 Spot website/10 most extreme places on earth
July 30, 2009
Everyone’s favorite East Nashville dive/hangout the 5 Spot suddenly has a new website! Who knew? It’s good, because they needed one. Myspace used to be the only place to find their listings (other than the Scene and MetroMix) and now that it’s going the way of the dinosaurs, they needed another online presence. (Via Out The Other on Twitter)
I was delighted to see that the trailer for The Fantastic Mr. Fox is now out. Visually it just looks wonderful (as all Wes Anderson films do), and with the voices of George Clooney, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, and Meryl Streep? YES all the way around. (Via Yewknee Twitter)
Oddee.com is hit or miss on their posts sometimes, but today they posted a blog about 10 extreme environments on Earth. Pretty interesting. They need to hire a copy editor.
Today’s a pretty slow news day, so that’s all I have for you. Weekend stuff coming tomorrow.
Last night’s 90’s cover night at Mercy Lounge was one of the funnest nights I’ve had in quite some time. It was every bit as awesome as the other decades cover nights, but a bit more nostalgic for me because most of my formative years occurred during the 90’s. Please go check out this Nashville Cream post for several video clips, and check out Simon’s youtube for a video of us playing Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping” to close out the night. Be sure to watch all the way to the end and catch Brandon’s epic stage dive right into the camera. The official Spin review with pics by Tanya Wright (I didn’t shoot since I was playing) can be found here.
io9 has a post with tons of great imagery from Tron: Legacy.
The official trailer for Disney/Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland is now out. If there was ever a story that screamed for Tim Burton to direct its inevitable trip to the live-action big screen, it’s Alice In Wonderland. And of course Johnny Depp is the Mad Hatter. Who else? Watch and get excited. Let’s hope it’s not a let-down. (Via Kottke)
The Colony/Apollo stuff
July 21, 2009
Discovery has a new series called “The Colony” that looks somewhat interesting. It debuts tonight at 10pm EDT/9pm CDT. It’s a twist on the reality TV genre, set on the outskirts of L.A. Ten people are put into an environment that simulates what it might be like right after a major world disaster. I’ve never been big on reality TV, but this could be interesting. Watch a scene here.
Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy posted a bunch of good links to various interviews related to the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. It’s great to see this getting so much media attention. As I’ve said before, it’s quite possibly mankind’s greatest achievement thus far. It deserves the attention.
The tiny island nation of Tuvalu is hoping to set an example for the world by aiming to have 100% renewable energy by 2020. Obviously this is easy for a nation comprised of only 9 islands. A big portion of their power will come from the sun, since they kind of have an abundance of it there in the pacific ocean. But I’m just glad someone is taking such a strong stance. Hey world! Follow their example! (Via EurekAlert)
steve cross loves music and science 