Saw this on MTV earlier and it’s so bad. Normally, we keep it positive about the musics, but this song and video are ridiculous. Will.i.am is like junk food for music. Think about all the reasons you wouldn’t eat junk food then think about this song and how weak sauce it is. Will.i.am was working on a business deal with Universal Music Group and we heard he’s a fairly opinionated dude. Not just like strong convictions, but opinionated in a pretentious way. Don’t ask how we know that.

Will.i.am shouldn’t have to tell us how hard the beat is, really. The beat should just speak for itself. Come on buddy!

Then there’s the whole involvement of Mick Jagger. Seriously? Jagger should be thanking Ke$ha right now because since she and Maroon 5 wrote tracks playing on the words “swagger” and “Jagger,” which seems to have created an unfortunate ripple-effect. Now we have to listen to and more horribly see Mick Jagger still performing. Yes, the Rolling Stones made awesome music, but that was years ago, and unfortunately their time has passed. In the entertainment business, sometimes retirement really isn’t such a bad thing. Rather than going hard, Jagger should just go home!

We’ve got that crisis like Jagger, because this song reeks of an older dude trying to be cool for Jagger. You’ve got to know when to fold them, just like if you’re on a casino online. It’s so tempting to go hard though and try to win big when you’ve got money to burn, isn’t it? Call us what you will, but when we gamble, we like to get our video poker on. When we can’t make it to Vegas we hit up: http://www.casinotop10.net/video-poker.shtml, keeping it legal, of course. Unfortunately, much like Mick Jagger, we don’t always know when to fold ‘em. Two words: human nature.

Admittedly, I haven’t been paying attention to Arcade Fire for a long time. The last time I listened to them was in 2006, and it seemed their only reasonably decent song then was “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels).” Yet, even that song is kind of boring. Not into the whole Modest Mouse pitchy voice thing either. In 2006, when “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)” was released, I knew two people who talked about how awesome the band was. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, always, but those same two people also enjoyed bands like Rascal Flatts, Pete Yorn and Lifehouse, which doesn’t really need further explanation.

The more recent Arcade Fire song “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” is actually surprisingly good. What happened in five or six years? Now Arcade Fire is actually good? Wow. Stop paying attention to a band and they get better? That’s somewhat unusual. So, kudos to Arcade Fire for stepping their game up, whenever that happened.

*Begin tangential story*

I will say this though: back in ’06 I actually purchased a Lifehouse song per the request of a girl who also raved about Arcade Fire. Can’t remember what song it was, but yes, I actually personally supported the band with a $.99 contribution. This was back when iTunes still sucked and had exclusively 128kbps mp3s (low quality) available for download. How dare Apple? Selling compressed-ass, lossy quality music at $.99 a song. This dude over at TweakHound breaks down audio quality differences in a pretty straightforward way… if you’re interested. Yes, iTunes was terrible for audiophiles, or anyone who prefers CD quality sound, even a full five years after its launch in January 2001!

Anyway, I couldn’t believe this girl liked Lifehouse and asked, “Ha! Is this song for you?” She tried to cover it up by saying “It’s for my roommate.” Mmmmhmmm. Sure gurl. Didn’t mean to make her feel insecure about her taste in music there, but these things happen. At least she was smart enough to have no iTunes account at the time. Maybe she was an audiophile too! Needless to say, the song was promptly deleted from my music library after burning it to disc for her.

More background: in the brief one and a half months I hung out with this girl, she kept talking about some guy she was clearly hung-up on. The story went something like: “We met at a party and had sex eight times in one night. How does that happen? Who does that?” I didn’t care so much that she slept with some random guy from a party but instead kept wondering what would cause a couple to bone eight times in one night. Of course, her obsession about the dude continued to resurface in our chats–even though she insisted she was over him–and she eventually told me his explanation for rejecting the idea of dating her. His reasoning? He “couldn’t date [her] because dating as an official couple is so conventional and overrated and why do people always have to put a label on things anyway?”

I responded to that by saying, “This guy is basically telling you ‘Thanks for the fuck. It’s been real!’” Enough time had passed for that conclusion to be a fair one. Oh, that phone call ended nice and cordially, but that didn’t stop her from calling me up a few days later while drunk only to scream about what an insensitive bastard I was for making such an inconsiderate statement about a guy she’d had relations with. In that entire call I think I only got to say two things: “I thought you were over him?” and “Sorry about that!” The rest was me getting chewed-out. That was the last I heard from her. Give someone a little taste of reality and they get all mad about it. Oblivion might be blissful, but delusion isn’t.

*End tangential story*

Something different. Feeling it though.

Music Video for Alex Winston

Directed by That Go (Noel Paul & Stefan Moore)
Producer: Rich Hutchins
DoP: Michael Ragen
Art Director / Puppets: Thu Tran

Gaffer: Mike Prevette
Style: Shibon Kennedy
HMU: Shawn Lovejoy
Art: Peter Van Hyning, Christopher Duffy
AC: Shane Duckworth
Grip: Nick Montalvo
Grade: Mike Prevette

Additional Editing: James Slater
VFX, Additional Grade: Helge Kiehl

PA: Dave Melendez, Yussuf, Johnathan Fafulo, Red Burrell, Dave Rodreg

Commissioner: Ailsa Robertson
Label: Island-Universal
Production Company: Rokkit
Service Company: Broucek

Happy, uptempo, commercial, pop music that works and does what its design intended. Good song. Sounds like The Killers at times, but that’s fine because it’s made up for by the beautiful Coldplay sound at other points.

Also, they’ve got a show coming up next month–February 12–at The Wiltern in LA with Young the Giant. Click here for more information and tickets.

Up-and-coming pop artist Jess Penner. Check out her Facebook page here.

This is arguably what good rock music has become.

Impressive.

Radio Personality & Philanthropist Robin Quivers & 15 Foundation Give Gift Of $75K Towards Nutrition Education & $22K Towards Music Education Programs For Children

(New York, NY – December 12, 2011) – Just in time for the holidays, radio personality and philanthropist Robin Quivers and her 15 Foundation presented a gift of $75,000.00 to two formidable youth charities in California: The Edible Schoolyard Project and The Connolly Ranch in Napa Valley. Both organizations are dedicated to teaching children about proper food nutrition and establishing proper eating habits early in life to help set a pattern for success.

Robin founded her philanthropic initiative in 2010 with a mission to target organizations that are tackling some of the most pressing issues in our communities. 15 Foundation is taking an aim at improving academics, nutrition and arts education in K-­-12 schools by combining three elements that speak to the mind (academics), the body (nutrition), and creative soul (art).

15 Foundation’s gift of $50,000 to The Edible Schoolyard will give the organization an opportunity to develop a multimedia curriculum which will be shared with schools, school gardens and kitchens around the country in order to further the best practices and facilitate program development for Edible Education initiatives nationwide.

“We are so grateful to the 15 Foundation for their generous support,” explains Alice Waters, Founder of The Edible Schoolyard Project. “By documenting and sharing the best-practices from our flagship program, the Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, we are able to reach many more children across the United States and give them the opportunity to experience the transformative power of Edible Education”

15 Foundation’s gift of $25,000 to the Connolly Ranch will help support the organization’s “Eco-Intervention” Field Trip program that targets elementary school children who live in low-income households as well as the organization’s Summer Camp program which bridges farming, gardening and cooking experiences in a dynamic, hands-on, youth-driven environment. “I am overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support that the foundation has been the recipient of in it’s short life. I am very proud of the work that this support has enabled us to do and humbled by the dedication the Edible Schoolyard and the Connolly Ranch,” Quivers states. Robin has worked tirelessly over the past two years for the 15 Foundation – to support every child’s right to a high-quality education. As part of this comprehensive program Robin also sponsored MIMA Music with a grant of $22,000 to work with the kids from both organization and provide musical improvisation. The students from Berkeley wrote and recorded the music performed in the video in just 8 hours with many of them having never played an instrument before.

For more information, please visit 15foundation.org.

“its just a cigarette”

Princess Chelsea – The Cigarette Duet

Via Blowing or Blowing Up.

gold plated tinfoil

Via Blowing or Blowing Up.

Pop version of Nick Cave lyrics.

Via Blowing or Blowing Up.

Music to sleep to.

Via Blowing or Blowing Up.

Very white L.A. club music. Sounds like it’s from ’02. Nothing changes…

Via Blowing or Blowing Up.

“The good old days where wearing the swastika was just to shock the Establishment.”

Via Blowing or Blowing Up.

Burn It Down!

Via Blowing or Blowing Up.

Boot lickin, piss drinkin, fingerfriggin, tit tweakin,

love bitin, arse lickin, shit stabbin, mother fuckin,

spunk lovin, ball bustin, cock suckin, fist fuckin,

lipsmackin, thirst quenchin, cool livin, ever givin

USELESS MAN.

Via Blowing or Blowing Up.

Via Blowing or Blowing Up.