Road to Bonnaroo tonight/New Mew/Pregnant Mythbuster
May 18, 2009
The last “Road to Bonnaroo” 8 off 8th is happening tonight at Mercy Lounge. I definitely think this one will be tough to call, and could be a very close race, much like the first one in which The Features won by 1 fan vote. So be sure to come out to Mercy tonight and cast your vote. You never know, it could be the deciding vote! Nashville Cream has more on the lineup/order, etc…
Speaking of local music, the Magic Wands got another mention on RCRD LBL, this time for a Crystal Fighters remix of their breakthrough single “Black Magic.”
Remember that epic Danish band Mew from 2006? Well, they’re back in action, and I’m anxiously awaiting the release of their next album on August 25th. Leave it to them to use a whole effin’ poem as their album title… You ready? Here it is:
No more stories
Are told today
I’m sorry
They washed awayNo more stories
The world is grey
I’m tired
Let’s wash away
Yep, that’s it. A whole poem. More deets at Stereogum.
Credit: NASA
The astronauts of STS-125 have been hard at work repairing/upgrading the Hubble Space Telescope, doing a spacewalk every day since Thursday, and today was their last. Click the image or here to see more eye candy from the mission at Universe Today.
Speaking of great photography, the New York Times started a new photography & video blog called LENS. It has a great interface and allows you browse through several photo essays and great video clips.
I did a short preview of Wolfram:Alpha on here once before, and now it’s actually here. Head on over to check it out, but be sure to read about how to phrase your input before you just start typing in questions. We’re not quite to the point of a computer simply being able to correctly answer any question regardless of phrasing/syntax. But this is a damn good start… Is it better than Google? You tell me.
It should be no secret that I’m a HUGE Mythbusters fan. (In fact, the only good thing about LOST being over with is the fact that I now get to watch new episodes of Mythbusters.) Apparently I’m the last one to know this but Kari Byron, the red-headed geek-girl of the cast, is pregnant! It should also be no secret that I have a huge celebrity-crush on her (as does just about every male fan of the show). I didn’t even know she was married! What’s really cool about the whole thing is that she’s taking this opportunity to bust some common pregancy myths. She did an interview with Pregnancy Magazine in which she busts the top 5. Go Kari! Via Bad Astronomy. Also- watch this unedited clip on Discovery.com of her subtly announcing the news.
Awkward family photos/LOST/Empire Records tribute
May 13, 2009
The White Stripes. Via Awkward Family Photos. Seriously, go to this blog and thank me later.
So everyone knows that tonight is the season finale of LOST. I came across this post on io9 today with an excerpt from an interview with co-creator Damon Lindelof. He hints that the island will continue to exist after the series ends. This leaves open the possibility of a movie, or resurrection of the series somewhere on down the road. This leads to my next mention: the Empire Records tribute/cover night tonight at Mercy Lounge. Several bands (including Nite Nite, Armed Forces, Plex Plex, and my own, playing as “Damn the Man”) will be covering songs from the soundtrack. Mercy will also be screening the LOST season finale on a big screen/projector right before the show. (Which means the show will start just after 10pm.) I already had a LOST shindig planned with some friends at my place, so I will not be attending the screening, but will hop on over directly after it ends.
Hipster Runoff examines Sean Penn’s current and past relationships. Who is his soulmate?
The Bad Astronomer lists ten things you probably didn’t know about the Hubble Space Telescope.
Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus. Sold.
I noticed this post on Largehearted Boy today. It contains an mp3 from the Features’ latest album Some Kind of Salvation. What’s odd is it says the album is being released June 9, 2009. It also links to this Amazon.com page which says the same thing about the release. I’m confused. This album came out last fall… Did it get picked up by a label for a larger re-release? Anyone?
Here are a couple more mp3s from bands on my 8 off 8th this coming Monday. First up is The Nobility. I’ve loved this band ever since they started out as Jetpack, and they’ve evolved quite a bit since then. The Mezzanine, their debut album under the new name “The Nobility,” is my favorite of their’s to date. The songwriting and production is impeccable and lands somewhere between Elvis Costello and The Kinks. Here’s the title track from that album.
Here’s a track by Kelly Kerr & the Distractions. Kelly is an old friend and has been playing around Murfreesboro for at least 5 years now. He played in a Cure tribute band called the Lovecats… and used to have a band called Ghostflower. Then he played some solo shows as Kinky Briefcase… then it becamer Kerrific, and now it’s Kelly Kerr & the Distractions. The latest incarnation just released Whimsical In Reverse, a somewhat lo-fi approach to his quirky and intelligent songs. Here’s a fun track called “Alone (On the Makeout Couch).”
Kelly Kerr & the Distractions- Alone (On the Makeout Couch)
Not much else today, except that in his relentless effort to get his name permanently etched into history, Stephen Colbert has somehow gotten a new beetle named after him. Agaporomorphus colberti was named by Quentin Wheeler at Arizona State University and Kelly Miller at the University of New Mexico. These are the same people responsible for naming other beetles after Darth Vader and Roy Orbison. I’ll try to forget about the fact that they also named beetles after George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld. Via Science Daily.
Image: Arizona State University
Cinco de Drunko/DJ party friday/Apple tablet
May 5, 2009
Cinco De Drunko is today. Ryan Bruce has put together a fun show at La Paz Mexican restaurant in Green Hills for tonight’s festivities, including performances by How I Became the Bomb, Jensen Sportag, Coral Castles (from Chattanooga), Mean Tambourines, Heypenny, and many more. Word on the street is that bands start at 4pm, have 35 minute sets, and 20 min. breaks between. Janet from Out the Other has a good preview of the show, and will have HIBTB on her show tonight.
Speaking of La Paz, they’re also having a late-night dance party this Friday night, for which I’m DJing as DJ Burgers. From what I’ve been told, it’s me and DJ Hippopotamus (who doesn’t seem to have a myspace…). But there could be others. I’d post a flier but I don’t have one yet, and that’s probably because Mr. Bruce is understandably consumed with tonight’s festivities. I’ll post more info as soon as I have it. But please do come out Friday night. It’s a later gig, supposedly not starting till 11 and going till at least 2am.
Speaking of DJ’s, Ultimo & Disco is bringing the legendary Steve Aoki of Dim Mak to Play Dance Bar on June 10th. Check out Blogging Is Serious Business for more info/flier. It’s amazing that they’re getting Aoki here. Who would’ve ever thought a big-name L.A. DJ would play in Nashville? Kudos to U&D for putting this together.
Don’t forget- my 2nd 8 off 8th is happening next Monday May 11th, and it will feature The Nobility, Mean Tambourines, Codaphonic, Kelly Kerr & the Distractions, Carter Administration, Paper Navy, Cuttlefish, and the Only Sons. I will be posting mp3s from each band over the next few posts.
Remember back when Wayne Coyne dissed the Arcade Fire? Well now he’s apologizing… kinda.
You’ve probably already seen this website by now, but if you haven’t, go see it now. Texts From Last Night. Endlessly entertaining.
There have been increasing rumors floating around about a possible new product line to be unveiled by Apple this fall. Supposedly they will be releasing a new tablet computer that runs full OS X but the input is entirely touchscreen-based. Basically it’s going to be a huge iPhone that runs OS X…. but isn’t a phone. Read more about it at this ZDnet article. I have a feeling it will be pretty pricey, though, as is most Apple stuff. I really look forward to playing with one at the Apple Store, though….
While reading this article on Universe Today, I realized that I don’t post enough space/science-related stuff on here about he European Space Agency and what they’re up to. So for more info on that just check out ESA’s website. Probably the biggest thing on their horizon is the ExoMars rover, which is tentatively scheduled for launch in 2016. Let’s hope this lander doesn’t suffer the same fate as the Beagle lander, ESA’s last attempt at a Martian landing.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart totally rocked me Saturday night. Click the image to go the Scene slideshow with my pics. The opening band Zaza were a little too spacey/snoozy for me… I just kinda found myself bored with them after a while. It was basically one big long song for the whole set. But POBPAH totally killed and I loved every minute of it. The singer was super cool when I chatted with him for a minute at the merch booth. I should’ve bought something. Maybe they are a tiny bit over-hyped, but I stick with my previous assertion that they will have at least some staying power beyond their blog hype-wave. OK… I’ll shut up about them now.
I’ll be at the Death Cab for Cutie show tonight taking photos. They’ll also be up on the Scene website tomorrow.
Some links for today-
Oddee lists the 10 scariest/most dangerous roads in the world. I’d kinda like to drive on one of those mountain roads just once. Just for the thrill…. Yes I’m crazy.
John Harrington at Photo Business News & Forum explains the device that Google is using to digitize all of the books in the world. It uses 2 cameras and has an automatic page changer. According to this article, we’re about halfway finished with digitizing all the world’s books! I had no idea… but it’s pretty damn cool.
Some very rare video footage of Virgin Galactic’s White Knight 2 aircraft has been posted at Wired.com. This odd looking plane is the “mothership” for their SpaceShip 2 aircraft, which will soon be taking tourists to the edge of space. The empty space in between the two fuselages is where SpaceShip 2 will hang. Ground-breaking is scheduled to begin on the Spaceport America facility very soon. It won’t be long before Virgin will be launching wealthy citizens into space for fun. Via Daily Galaxy.
A recent survey on the opinions of Americans on the use of torture to get information from suspected terrorists reveals the true nature of many Christians. These results are terrifying, though not at all surprising in my opinion. Most Christians are absurdly hypocritical and choose to ignore certain teachings of the Bible when it doesn’t suit their political agenda. Torture is utterly inhumane/barbaric and there is NEVER an excuse to use it on someone who is only suspected of terrorism. If a person has been put before a court of law and properly convicted of terrorism that involves the murder of 100’s or 1,000’s of people, then maybe it could be justified only if it is necessary to gain information which will save 100’s or 1,000’s of lives. Via Clusterflock.
Evan Voytas=jam of the summer/Eureka finally returns/Asteroid may not have killed dinos
April 27, 2009
It’s pretty rare for me to instantly fall in love with a band/artist these days. I’ve just become so “Nashville” about everything- jaded/oversaturated/desensitized/insert-apathetic-synonym-here. But RCRD LBL posted some mp3’s from this dude named Evan Voytas on Friday, and I was instantly blown away. It feels good to be totally into something new. This guy’s stuff is a little bit of everything- the tracks I’ve gotten my hands on so far range from a shoegazy, fuzzed out slow pop jam to electro-driven rock with a touch of twee to a full on summery disco-pop groove. That last track I’m describing is called “Getting Higher,” and I have hereby proclaimed it to be the official jam of the summer 2009. Please, PLEASE go to RCRD LBL and download it now! Then go to the Hype Machine and you’ll be able to find several other great tracks. But “Getting Higher” is where it’s at. It’s an instantly love-able dancey track, complete with a 70’s funk bass groove, and straight-up disco beat, and uplifting sunny guitars and syths bathed in a healthy but tasteful dose of reverb.
In local news- Makeout With Violence, the locally made feature-length film starring several members of our music scene, pretty much owned the Nashville Film Festival, taking the best feature-length narrative film and best music awards, along with a few other smaller awards. It’s good to see these guys finally getting the recognition they deserve for their 3 years of hard work on this thing.
My love of science fiction is no secret. That’s why I’m quite pleased to know that one of my favorite TV series Eureka, has finally been scheduled to return to action on July 10th on the SyFy channel. (Yes, the SciFi channel is now SyFy…. go figure.) I read about this on io9, and I agree with their sentiment that moving the show to Battlestar Galactica’s old slot of Fridays at 10pm/9 central was a bad idea. That means I’ll end up watching most of it online because I’m normally out & about by that time on a Friday night…
So we all know that the dinosaurs were killed because of a giant asteriod hitting just off the Yucatan Penninsula in Mexico, right? That’s what they taught us in middle school science class, afterall…. Not so fast. As more and more new evidence is uncovered, that theory is starting to look more and more… extinct. Universe Today posted this morning about some new discoveries that date the actual impact at least 300,000 years prior to the mass extinction. At the same time comes the discovery of a supervolcano eruption (or even a series of supervolcano eruptions) called the Deccan Traps in India. Such an eruption could easily have thrown enough dust and ash into the air to block out the sun and cause a sudden massive cooling. My personal hunch is that the asteroid surely did have some degree of impact on the global climate, (pun fully intended) and obviously would’ve killed a ton of dinos in the immediate area, but ultimately it may have been the volcanic activity that dealt the lethal blow to our bird-like ancestors.
I’ll leave you today with this great image of the next space shuttle crew… I must say NASA has been doing a great job of marketing lately. First the whole C.O.L.B.E.R.T. thing, and now this:
Click to enlarge
Autotuned babies/Flaming Lips’ “Do you Realize?” to be OK rock song/Girl Talk makes real songs
April 24, 2009
So I read on Billboard that Girl Talk is exprimenting with actual songs of his own. Wow. That’s a big move for him, really… I’m intrigued as to what it will sound like. It’s hard to gauge what the perception of this will be. Something makes me think that even if it’s good, it may be perceived as a flop because he’s so established in what he does now. A band is always “known for something” and Girl Talk is known for mashups. He’s a remixer/mashup artist… and arguably the most successful of his genre/niche. That’s different that being a musician who creates/writes their own music. We’ll see what happens. Can’t wait to see him at Bonnaroo this year. I feel like in a festival setting, it’ll be even more off-the-chain than at the Cannery.
The Oklahoma Governor signed an executive order declaring the Flaming Lips’ “Do You Realize?” the official state rock song. The public overwhelmingly voted in favor of the song, but it fell just short of passing in the state congress. The executive order overruled, however, and the song is now official. Awesome! Pitchfork has the full story.
Apparently Yahoo’s GeoCities is closing down this year… GeoCities still exists? Does Angelfire still exist? Does AOL still exist?
Ok I have to put these videos relatively high in the post. I found these via this post on Kottke.org this morning. It’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen. I almost fell out of my chair. AUTOTUNED BABIES!!!!!
Ok now that’s over with… KITTEHZ IN BOXEZ!!!!
Cuteness over…. now for what’s going down this weekend. I’ll probably be attending the final Friday version of Coach Vs. Kase at 12th & Porter. I’ve yet to experience one of these events, and for the first time in months I don’t have something else to shoot/attend.
Also on Friday- Shoot the Mountain w/ Umbrella Tree and Brenn @ Mercy Lounge.
For Saturday- Megan will be joining me and we may end up at the free outdoor show @ Bobbie’s Dairy Dip featuring Vermicious K’nids and Danger & the Steelcut Oats. Never heard of the latter, like the former.
On Sunday I’ll be attending/shooting the Cursive/Man Man show @ Mercy Lounge. Megan is a big Cursive fan and I’ve heard Man Man is quite an experience live, so I look forward to photographing them.
Just one interesting tidbit from the technology world… apparently a guy has figured out a way to send his thoughts directly to Twitter. I don’t know if this is utterly amazing or utterly terrifying. It could be a life-saver for people with severe neural injuries who are unable to communicate, that’s for certain….
Have a great weekend!
Thomas Bangalter
For all those who seriously hoped Daft Punk were real robots, I guess you’ll just have to cry now. Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter was spotted doing a quick DJ set at L.A. club Cinespace for the birthday party of Ed Banger owner Busy P…. sans the robot costume. That’s him behind the shades. Pitchfork has the full story. Twitter obviously went bonkers. Oddly, though, there’s no mention of the apparent brawl that went down afterwards… Hipster Runoff posted several photos of an apparent clash between the bouncers and the Ed Banger crew. The Pitchfork article posted some video clips but those have since been made private and un-embeddable. Robot Drama!
In other music-related news, Record Store Day was a big success. Billboard reports on the various statistics. Check it out if you’re really interested in all the numbers, but in summary there was a small but substantial increase in indie records store sales compared to last year’s RSD. Vinyl sales are way up compared to last year. A big part of it is the fact that so many artists/bands did special limited-edition releases specifically for that day. If this kind of thing keeps happening, I’d say record stores aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Kudos Record Store Day!
The Scene has a great story on the “band that almost was,” The Remains. They came out of Boston, appeared on the Ed Sullivan show, and opened for the Beatles on all 19 shows of their 1966 tour. Then they broke up. They’re playing tonight at the Cannery. I may be there, hopefully taking photos…
Short post today.
Ice Cream/Ray Kurzweil/NASA embarks on biggest delay ever
April 21, 2009
Today is the annual free cone day at Ben & Jerry’s. From what I’ve heard, they’ve gotten the issue of long-line-management down to a science, and it shouldn’t take as long as you think it will to get through. Good luck! I honestly don’t know if I’ll do it or not…
The Protomen won last night’s Road to Bonnaroo 8 off 8th. They join The Features, who won the first installment of this 3-part series. The final one happens Mon. May 18th.
The 2009 Lollapalooza official lineup has been announced. Headliners are: Depeche Mode, Tool, the Killers, Jane’s Addition, Beastie Boys, and Kings of Leon. It takes place August 7-9 in Grant Park, as always.
Diplo and Switch have a new Jamiacan dancehall-inspired project called Major Lazer. It’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect when you mention those two and dancehall in the same sentence. Stereogum has 2 free mp3’s.
The new Zooey Deschanel film 5oo Days of Summer screened at the Nashville Film Festival this past weekend. Not exactly sure of the Nashville connection to this film, but Nashvillest has a nice guest blog review by Winston Hearn.
A documentary film on renowned inventor and thinker Ray Kurzweil has been made. It’s called Transcendent Man. According to my NetFlix, a release date has not been announced, but it’s in the Tribeca Film Festival. Kurzweil theorizes that humanity will reach a technological singularity in the next 30 years, and that the only way for us to survive is to learn how to become literal cyborgs- meld our minds with computers. Here’s the trailer.
Space.com reports that the lightest exoplanet thus far has been discovered in the famous Gliese 581 system. This latest planet is called Gliese 581 E and is the 5th planet found in this system. It’s only 1.9 times the mass of earth, but unfortunately it’s VERY close to its host star, orbiting it in a mere 3.15 days. That means it’s way too hot to support life. The only planet (that we’ve discovered) in this particular star’s habitable zone is Gliese 581 D, but it’s 7 times the mass of Earth, and though it’s thought to have a rocky core, it’s probably completely covered by a vast deep ocean. In other words, it’s a waterworld. So that would preclude any land-based life forms, but there certainly could be life in those oceans!
Finally, the Onion reports that NASA has officially embarked on the biggest, most epic delay in history. Indeed.
Zooey Deschanel’s cotton ad/Rites of Spring/The Rentals
April 16, 2009
It’s been far too long since I mentioned Zooey Deschanel on this blog. Thus I bring to you a new cotton advertisement featuring the beloved actress/songstress, via Videogum:
One of the bands that literally shaped my formative years was Weezer. Subsequently, I am also a fan of former Weezer bassist Matt Sharp’s project The Rentals. They formed in 1994 and released two albums, but had a large gap in activity until about 2 years ago when they came out with a new EP and did a couple of tours with a revamped lineup. It wasn’t anything to write home about, but getting to see them live twice was totally rad. I saw them in Atlanta with Ozma, and again here in Nashville at City Hall (now Urban Outfitters). See more pics from that show on my flickr here. RCRD LBL features a download from the first installment of their new multi-media project called Songs About Time. The project also includes a photo series by Matt and a bunch of short films.
Speaking of RCRD LBL, I noticed that they also have a download/blurb about local star-tangled indie rock lady Cortney Tidwell. It’s a track called “17 Horses” from her upcoming album Boys. (The download page incorrectly states that the track is from her previous album.)
SNAKES ON A PLANE! IN REAL LIFE! Thanks Kelly.
Nashvillest posted a bunch of great links/ways to help victims of the Murfreesboro tornado that struck last Friday. Check it out.
This is both terrifying and fascinating. The stats for “since you started watching” really hit home. I’ve had the tab open for a good hour or so now- ~28,000 people born and ~11,500 people died. Population control will soon happen everywhere. It’s only a matter of time.
Vanderbilt’s Rites of Spring festival is happening this weekend. I’ll be there both days taking photos. Here’s the lineup/times:
Friday:
Battle of the Bands: 3:20-3:40pm
Battle of the Bands: 4:00-4:20pm
Run With Bulls: 4:40-5:10pm
Blueskyreality: 5:30-6:00pm
K’NAAN: 6:20-7:05pm
Okkervil River: 7:25-8:10pm
Santigold: 8:30-9:10pm
Q-Tip: 9:30-10:30pm
T.I.: 11:00-12:00am
Saturday:
Pico vs. Island Trees: 3:20-3:50pm
Stardeath and White Dwarfs: 4:05-4:35pm
Erick Baker: 4:50-5:20pm
Sara Watkins: 5:40-6:10pm
Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears: 6:30-7:10pm
Grand Ole Party: 7:30-8:10pm
N.E.R.D.: 8:40-9:55pm
The Flaming Lips: 10:30-12:00am
steve cross loves music and science 