Monday, April 30, 2012

Kitty Pryde is my new favorite Tumblr-wave adderall-core teenage girl rapper


Sometimes when you discover an exciting new musician you want to learn everything you can about her right now, find out where she's from, what she vibes to, her favorite foods and her birthday (via Pinkerton). Other time you're probably much, much better off not knowing at all. Like if she's 13-16 and singing songs about Justin Bieber, albeit ironically (?). Enter Kitty Pryde, about whom I know nothing except that that is such an amazing name for a white Tumblr-wave adderall-core teenage girl rapper I can't believe no one's ever used it before. 

Granted I can't think of many other people who fit that awesome genre I just invented, so maybe it's just as well. So, yeah, what else do we actually know about this person? Well, she's already a better rapper than Kreayshawn, for one. Plus she's rocking the bedroom laptop beat / iMovie chopped-up collage vibe that our homegirl Bunny Holliday did so well, but somehow, even though the music here is objectively worse, less polished, more, well, high school, it somehow is all the more 'meaningful' and 'authentic' for it. Plus there's the merciful fact that Kitty isn't dealing in the Lolita-wave vibes that we fall for get nervous about. 

Owah baseball fans get theyah asses kicked hahdah than youahs


At first I thought this video of a Red Sox fan getting dropkicked over a few rows of seats at Yankee Stadium was a clip from the new Avengers film coming out this week, but then I realized this is like every night at every sports-ball game anywhere, so it didn't seem all that fantastical anymore. Still though, goes to prove two things: OWAH SPAHTS FANS GET THEYAH ASSES KICKED HAHDAH THAN YOWAHS. And that New York fans are all scumbags.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Begging people to listen to your music in an age of free downloading

Courtesy of local music scene satirist . Used without
his damn permission. Try and stop me!

Boston musician Michael J. Epstein, of the Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library and Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, says bands need to rethink the concept of free when it comes to their recordings. The following originally appeared on his blog. I liked it, but, you know, not enough to pay for it, so I asked him if I could steal it. It's quite a good read, and a thoughtful look at the type of concerns indie musicians need to consider in an age of piracy and free downloads. 
 
Side note: The layout of the post is a little different than we'd put up here design-wise, but copy and pasting it just seemed a lot easier than putting any effort in. Kind of the point of this debate in a way isn't it?
 

Friday, April 27, 2012

Wait maybe this is the worst guy in the world



Not sure how many times we need to go over this gang, but ejaculating on a woman isn't hot/sexy/not-rape unless she wants you to do it. And since she probably never actually wants you to, that should say unless she does a convincing job of pretending that she wants you to. Also, a reminder that ejaculating into a woman's drink doesn't mean she gave you a blowjob.  Someone update dude here from this Somerville Patch story:

The best/worst dude in the world? USA USA USA


Evan Kenney met the best/worst dude in the world last night. Here he is.
Ok, let me tell you a little about this guy right here. This guy just came home from Afghanistan, where he claimed to have "wasted 60 dudes." The reason he is shirtless is because he was wearing a shirt that said "Pobody's Nerfect" and I wanted it, so this guy, without hesitation, took it off, gave it to me, and continued to talk about how many "dudes" he "wasted"...sans shirt. Soon after this, he would walk up to the bar, order a pitcher of sangria, and dump it on his face like Michael Jordan after a Bulls Championship. I still haven't decided if I love or hate this dude, but I know that I should wash the shirt he gave me, because it could be soiled with the blood of 60 Afghan militants that he "wasted."
I should add that there was one gay guy by himself drinking sangria alone and that guy went up to him and was all like "Are you a faggot?" And then he took off his kerchief and gave it to my friend and was all "I took this of a raghead that I killed."

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

It's a pizza with cheeseburgers for crust. Fuck you




The American Empire at work here. First we invade, then we introduce a hot beef and cheese injection of freedom up your ass, ???, corporate profit.

You know, I usually balk when I read an argument from a libertarian about how maybe exporting Western values into other countries isn't such a great idea, that we end up robbing other countries of what makes them unique and we end up with a homogenized global culture. With things like this, an ad for Pizza Hut (via Buzzfeed) airing somewhere in the Middle East (unless it's fake, which is always a possibility), I start to see the point.

In the meanwhile maybe we could get to work on helping to install some meager semblance of a sense of humor over there. That request for a cheeseburger really played way better in that room than it should have. He gets even more of a kick setting it up in . Someone bomb that whole area with a payload of Louis CK videos stat.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Updates on my TV show, plus recent music links

via

LINKS! Here's a reminder from the good folks over at Grub Street that I'm shooting the pilot for my sure to be a huge success TV show Carousel tonight and tomorrow. 
For his maiden taping, O'Neil visits Davis Square's Saloon with Storyville's feline-hatin' Louis DiBicarri and Bridgestreet commando Will Gilson on the chef side, with cocktails from Saloon's Dennis Cargil. Tomorrow, the show will film at the Davis Square Theatre, which is conveniently adjacent to Saloon. Bands You Can Be A Wesley, Wheat, and Field Effect are slated to perform (free). Taping starts at 6 p.m. sharp.
UPDATES: A bunch of more press mentions for the taping tonight and tomorrow. 

From the Phoenix:
Luke O'Neil is that dude you can most definitely trust to call bullshit on just about anything: SXSW, St. Patrick's Day, anything. When it comes to craft cocktails and bars in general, this is always what you want--yes, a modicum of interest and general knowledge about what you're drinking is a plus, but at the end of the day, it's all booze, so don't be an asshole about it. Since he's got this strangely genius palate paired with an acid wit, we will absolutely follow him into the murky underworld of mixology, every time.  

From Eater Boston 

And From Boston Band Crush 
Boston-based StarPilot Productions will be filming the pilot episode of their new arts and lifestyle show “Carousel” at the beginning of the week. Hosted by Hayley Thompson-King of Banditas and Luke O’Neil of Put That Shit On The List / journalisming about bars, restaurants, and music all over town / / The Good North at one point; the show aims to showcase the coolest in Boston music, art, humor, film, dining and more in a sort of talk show, sort of variety show setting, only with the hosts in a bar instead of behind a desk. We think this is a great idea and hopefully it will take off; we support anything that shines a light on Boston music, and people sure do watch a lot of television, so it’s kind of crazy that we haven’t seen a show like this ’round these parts yet.
<3<3 THANKS YOU GUYS. <3<3

Our friends at Leisure, aka the best British blog in the world, gave a nice shout out to me today, plus I got them turned on to Boston's metal asskickers Motherboar. Check it out here. Those dudes all believe in ghosts over in London too, by the way. See here and here and here

Speaking of Motherboar, they faired well in my review of the Boston Rock & Roll Rumble, our annual battle of the bands type thing, which I reviewed in today's Globe

'The thing I've learned is what people will do for a few moments of attention.' My interview with Hunter Moore of Is Anyone Up?

via

I interviewed Hunter Moore, aka Joe Francis with a scene sleeve, of the infamous "revenge" n00dz and tattooed-tits site Is Anyone Up? for Alternative Press' today about his decision to abruptly shut the site down. 

Something strange typically happens at the end of a bender, whether it's real life one, which the infamously hard-charging Moore has likely seen his share of, or just a whirlwind internet enterprise that spiraled out of control. One day you wake up, look at yourself in the mirror (snap a few cell phone pics of your junk, probably, knowing people these days), and you decide you don't like what you see.

Here's a short excerpt below. Go read the rest.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

"We're Not Young' is the funniest video I've seen all month


Saddest I mean. The saddest video I've seen in a long time in fact. Fair warning to aging hipsters, so, you know, everyone I know, you may experience sharp pangs of existential shame as a result of watching this parody of the Fun. song "We Are Young" recast for thirty-somethings. Who directed this thing, Sarte? Jesus, I'm having a panic attack watching it, especially after having just read this piece on Salon today No sympathy for the creative class. (I highly recommend reading it.)

It's about how no one seems to give a shit that the "creative class" is struggling. And unlike, say, when a steel worker loses his job, when a musician is out of work, people tend to react more harshly. In fairness though, that dude's band probably sucked. [RELATED POST: Ten of my favorite songs from my 20s I have to retire now that I'm old].

"For those who made their living playing on records and movie soundtracks, “All of a sudden, they’re making about 60 percent of what they did. What I see is a lot of people looking for things outside music — a lot of people have gotten real estate licenses. I know people who’ve added massage therapist.” LIKE IN THE VIDEO! Maybe they should consider a career in the field of mildly amusing internet parody videos? Doesn't seem to be any shortage of demand for those at the moment.

Video below. Don't watch it while old.

State Home for Manic Pixie Dream Girls


I normally find most comedy videos made for the internet to be, what's the word, fucking awful and obvious. This one about the State Home for Manic Pixie Dream Girls (made by The Natural Disastronauts via the Av Club) is pretty spot on, however.

Couple highlights: 

"But she listens to the Smiths!" "They all listen to the Smiths."

"The cause of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl condition is still only dimly understood. Although my own theory is sever retardation of the brain."

Video below.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Music Dump: Soul Clap + Jacques Greene + Jason Mraz + more



I profiled Soul Clap, Boston's biggest edm export on the international scene, in today's Boston Globe.They've got a new album out this week "EFUNK", singles from which you can check out below on their SoundCloud page.
When Boston is mentioned to people around the world, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? A city full of fictional Affleckian rogues? Tom Brady’s haircut? Our uniquely enthused sports fans? Possibly.
But if you bring the focus in a little closer to the world of electronic music, and start asking around the beaches of Ibiza or Miami, or in the clubs in Berlin and London, for example, the answer will most likely be the DJ and producer duo Soul Clap.
More reviews and music below. 

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Music dump: Modeselektor tonight + new music from Lucero, Penguin Prison + more



Everyone's favorite Berlin-based avant-garde, glitchy-tech experimental duo Modeselektor are in Boston tonight for a show presented by my homeboys Mmmmaven.  If you don't go you won't be able to post a shitty phone shot from the back of the crowd so people knew you were there now will you?

Alt-country mindie favorites Lucero are at the Paradise tonight. That's nice. This type of neo-authentic Americana bar rock is literally my least favorite type of music. Pop-country ballads? No problem. Russian polka folk? Death rattle of my friends and neighbors collapsing into the void en masse? Sure, why not. But this sounds like the musical equivalent of hiring a baby sitter and making a reservation at a casual theme restaurant on a Friday night to me.  I have the gnarled soul of a malformed bridge troll though, so what do I know. Listen to tracks from their new "Women and Work" here. But don't actually.

Fenway Park is 100, here are my fondest memories

via

Fenway Park, the storied home of the Boston Red Sox, those loveable losers, turns 100 years old this year, and in a nice bit of thematic synchronicity the team is playing like they're about 100 themselves. Check out a bit of lore from the official Fenway Corporo-history machine.

With that in mind, and with the big celebration this week at the park when the Yankees come to town, I thought I'd share some of my favorite memories of Fenway over the years. What are yours? 

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Breaking news: baby shits pants, local news reports


I'm not sure if this is more emblematic of the ridiculousness of what passes for "news" these days, or of the trend of parents exercising their right to be outraged when it comes to anything regarding their children -- it's probably a little of both. I'm just glad we didn't have idiot news programs like this one on whatever idiot station in whatever idiot city it comes from back when I was a kid, because I would've kicked off the night's top stories every other week or so. They would've needed to assign a dedicated reporter to the little Luke shits his pants in class beat. 

"Dead Kennedy's" feat. Slaine by Moe Pope is Boston in a nutshell

 


This new 'joint' from one of my favorite Boston hip hop acts, Moe Pope, featuring the most Bostony of Boston rappers Slaine, just landed on my face today and I wanted to share it with you guys who are always asking me about what Boston is like, because this is it pretty much. Everyone walks around Fenway Park staring at their scratch tickets, dudes in shorts bump into you, something about the Kennedy's, someone is always running down a street of triple deckers with a sack of cash in one hand, next thing you get hit by a car or shot in the dome and you're dead. Then you complain about the Red Sox. BOSTON. I wouldn't really know though, because I live in Watertown now. Baby thighs and shit out here. Hot track though, no question.

derp?

The only thing there is more of on the internet than stupid people and criminals is stupid people who like to read about other stupid people and criminals doing stupid and criminal things. So here's today's red meat, you savages, in this news story from CBS Cleveland caleld so we can feel better about ourselves.

Come watch me make a TV show

exactly like this
Hi there. I'm filming a pilot for a TV talk show called Carousel, which, at the very least, will be entertaining for watching me act like a normal goddamn person for once in my life. Pretty sure "meh, this blows" doesn't play well on camera. 

The point is, you guys should come down and ! It's going to be like a talk show, but it's set in a bar instead of a studio. We'll be doing interviews with Boston's best musicians, chefs, bartenders, authors, fashion people, and, I dunno, jugglers probably. Do people still juggle? That's on Monday, April 23rd , the super cool and handsome old-timey bar in Davis Square. The next night, Tuesday, April 24th we're filming the live music component in the adjacent Davis Square Theatre with three super cool Boston bands You Can Be a Wesley, Gentlemen Hall, and Wheat. . Probably need more heads on the music night to fill out the crowd if you're trying to pick one. It's free, and kind of early, and I'll probably buy you a beer if you're not weird about it. If you're a person who does something interesting and want to get involved down the line, or, more importantly, someone with money who wants to talk business, please "do not hesitate" to "get in touch" with "any questions." Thanks in advance.

Check out the bands below.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

My not-crazy friend has a ghost in his house

different ghost, but, you know, same idea


A New Jersey couple is in the news today because they're suing to get out of their lease. The house, they claim, is haunted. The landlord, perhaps unsurprisingly, is calling bullshit. They've hired a paranormal team to investigate, and apparently . Yo, if you wanted footage of a paranormal incident I could've filmed the post-chicken wings struggle with a demonic force in my bathroom just now.  

I bring this up because I've been talking to a friend of mine lately about his own haunted house, and was planning on interviewing him about it for a while. Kind of an eery coincidence. Maybe my blog is haunted? 

I asked my friends, Zack and Julia, to explain what's going on with their ghost. For science. What follows is the 100% true account of their ordeal. I haven't heard from them since they sent these last transmissions. It was only a couple hours ago, but still.  

Monday, April 16, 2012

Tupac hologram performs at Coachella, looks good!


No way I'm actually watching this whole thing because I'm literally blushing from having just watched the first 30 seconds, so I'm going to need someone to tell me how this one ends. Badly, I'm guessing. 

How much ass is Peter Dinklage getting?



As readers of A Song and Ice and Fire will surely remember, our man Tyrion Lannister is no stranger to what, I think they call, "Medieval-ass pussy." Oddly, on the HBO version, a show where the directors seem to think there's no scene that won't be improved upon by tit meat, there's been comparatively little onscreen fucking between Tyrion and his (awfully portrayed) mistress Shae. "I'm kind of surprised that they haven't showed Tyrion fucking her yet," my friend said. "They fuck every few pages in the second book. I don't get it."

Maybe Peter Dinklage, aka THE DINK, isn't comfortable faux-fucking on film, I said. 

"You gonna tell me that dude doesn't want to pretend he's fucking a normal sized porn whore?"

Well, no, I don't think he wants to do that. I'm sure that homeboy has had more than his fair share of chances to do just that IRL.  That lead to a debate about just how much action dude has gotten over the course of his career, because that's a reasonable topic for discussion. 

Heartbreaking video! Brave dog stands by hurt dog friend hit by car!



There's a reason why videos like this one above of a brave black lab who refused to abandon her wounded doggie friend in Los Angeles are so popular and emotionally effecting. Anthropomorphizing animals -- when we see, say, a dog showing off human-like characteristics such as empathy, or bravery, or friendship -- paradoxically reinforces our humanity while reminding us of our animalistic nature. Shorter: that dog thinks he's people like us! 

Humans are something much worse than animals though, aren't we? We're content creators. If this dog was really going to be fully anthropomorphized accurately she probably would've pulled out her camera and filmed her dead buddy in the road for the clicks. Or posted about it on her blog. (More details: via via via)


Tell you what though, as of this writing that video only has about 24 thousand views. Grace the dog is really going to have to step up her PR offensive if she hopes to get anywhere near the 11 million + the loyal Japanese tsunami dog piled up. 


At the time I called it the saddest thing I had ever seen

Saturday, April 14, 2012

I admire your internetting sir. Tr00 blogging



Back in my day people were in bands and then you booked shows with the bands that you were 'mates' with and you had a 'vital scene.' Bands are fucking dumb. Now that I'm ten hundred times more famous for writing jokes underneath news stories on the internet than I ever was for writing lyrics about my feelings underneath a drum beat the closest thing to that sense of community is when you link to the internet words of your imaginary pen pals, which is a lot easier for old dudes because you don't have to drive anywhere in a van (via bad backs) to go 'crash' in someone's cat shit apartment all for negative $0/indie cred.

That said, thanks to one of the funniest bloggers IN THE WORLD Sergeant D of Stuff You Will Hate for the shout out today, and for the eerily accurate assessment:
Now this is what I call blogging: think of PTSOTL as Maxim if it was written by a 30 year old who stills listens to Taking Back Sunday and Poison The Well. Rly should get more comments than it does, very underrated- don’t sleep on this site!
This was 'meaningful' to me. Sarge wrote some stuff for us here a few times/ allowed me to steal his content from his site. That's the greatest gift one invisible man on the internet can give another invisible man on the internet that doesn't involve #dickpics. Check out some of them: 

Friday, April 13, 2012

It is "come" or "cum"? Copy-editing porn, just as boring as it sounds



The 16th National Conference of the American Copy Editors Society is going on at the moment, and that sounds like a good time I don't mind telling you. One of the highlights of the schedule, aka the only one with a clickable headline, came from former Hustler editor Eric Althoff who explained that magazines like his of style guides just like any other vagina-less word pile. I know it seems hard to believe, especially considering the sub-5th grade boner-fisted syntax you see on most internet porn sites now. It's like some worm hole shit where the laws of time and space are suspended.  SEXED JIZZED TEEN IS BEGGING TO HAVE GOTTEN THE STIFF MANMEAT OF THEIR EAGER FACES.  Apparently there's such a thing as a style guide when it comes to the sober field of tits journalism. 

Thursday, April 12, 2012

America's Best Cities for Hipsters article surprisingly un-hip

I was winning championships before it became a thing in Boston


Hipsters are the media equivalent of pork belly or fernet -- toss "hipster" haphazardly into your word recipe and the kids will suck it down.  No surprise then that Travel and Leisure chased this compelling new trend of human young people congregating together in urban areas with a linkbait listicle America's Best Cities for Hipsters. Also no surprise at how oddly clueless it is. "They sport vintage bowling shoes and the latest tech gear—but they also know all the best places to eat and drink." 

Vintage bowling shoes. 

How to go to a summer music festival [Coachella is here re-post!]

best day evar you guys

Coachella is this weekend YOU GUYS. Here's a reminder on how to deal with the approaching summer music festival from last year.

Summer music festival season is here, with the Pitchfork Festival, and Lollapalooza and probably some other bullshit on the horizon, and that means it's time to pack a cooler, hit the road with 17 of your tightest broz for life, and go get baked in the sun all day in the general proximity of live music you have a passing interest in. With that in mind we've compiled a list of the ways to make the most of your summer music festival experience. Step one:

  • Don't go. 

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

I just met you, and this is crazy, but here's my number. Call me maybe?



Oh fuck it, I submit. There's a reason Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" has 20.5 million views on YouTube, and it's not because kids are stupid. Not just that anyway. I like the one part where the hired gun band dudes she just met ten minutes before the shoot play the shit out of a sick guitar solo that doesn't exist. Also the twist at the end! HE WAS GAY THE WHOLE TIME. No way to tell going in. 

"Here's my number. Call me maybe?" Uh, I guess so. What if I just email you first like a normal person, is that ok? 

Video after the thing. Watch it at your own risk.

What's it like to live in rural New Jersey?



More like fart it here. As I mentioned yesterday in the post about living in Canada, learning about the weird places people live is surprisingly interesting. Let me know if you live in a place and want strangers on the internet to know about it!  Let's keep this rolling with a slice of life from rural New Jersey thanks to Steph Koyfman.  Check out her blog here.  

A photographic essay of the town I’ll never stop making fun of
Before I say anything else, I’ll just get it out of the way. Flemington sounds like Phlegmington. I was nervous about moving here in 5th grade, and mainly for that reason. Anyway, moving on, I thought I’d bring your attention first to this nice photo of the property line my parents share with the farmer across the way.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Lil' Debbie's "Squirt" video somehow even worse/better than Kreayshawn



Big news this week you guys. Lil' Debbie, aka the Kreayshawn of Kreayshawn, dropped her new, timely hashtag rap joint "Squirt" featuring human-human papilloma virus Riff Raff. Much like the first time any of us ever got a piece of Kreayshawn caught in our brain teeth I honestly have no idea if I like this or hate it. She is, no surprise, an objectively, maybe even superlatively, untalented music person, and yet like every other sentence anyone has ever thought about Kreayshawn and her gang, this one also ends with the words and yet...

video after the thing

Racism, narcissism, the loneliness of the smart phone user + other links



All of things that were on my internet this week.

Do you feel more lonely after using your smart phone?
Pre-internet we were lonely because we didn't think there was anyone else quite like us out there. Now we're even more lonely because we've realized how many there actually are.  
Turkle wants to make a point that is even stronger than the one about our phones being fantasies. She goes on to argue that they're changing human identity by replacing the intimacy of face-to-face conversation with online connectedness. To somewhat simplify her argument, she says that social media have reversed the traditional flow chart of communication. In the past, people had feelings or ideas, and then shared them. Today, she believes that people "have feelings in order to share them." Her point seems to be that people used to have feelings in solitude, held onto them, and then talked about them. But today people have feelings and communicate them at the same time. There is no moment to take a breather in between the feeling or idea and the conversation about it.

The end of white guilt
Daily Caller took one look at all that shine racist Taki Mag was getting over the racist John Derbyshire racism piece and thought to themselves, racistly, "Yeah, we want a piece of that action." Derbyshire, I should point out, is only saying what millions of white Americans think already and are just ashamed to say out loud: "I no longer have a job."

Subway fight is a squandered viral marketing opportunity


Is it weird that my first instinct in watching this dude casually defuse a subway fight by eating chips in the middle of it like he DGAF is some sort of viral marketing thing for Pringles? Because if it's not, someone in creative at Proctor & Gamble is getting a dressing down today. These shits are so snackable you won't notice the chaos going on around you. Like, a dude finishing the last few chips while his house burns down. Plane crashing, everyone freaking out, dude just casually chomping on his tube of fried potato product. Work with that. I'll bill you later. (via)


What's it like to live in Canada?


Everyone enjoyed the post we did about , so I thought I'd ask some other PTSOTL readers to tell me about whatever weird city it is that they live in (via generating free content.) In all honestly, I am always fascinated about hearing about places I've never been and likely never will from someone who lives there. Does that make me some kind of geography pervert? Probably. So this will be a thing now. I've got a few lined up, but if you want to tell me about where you live and take some pictures, get in touch. 

Tiffy Thompson from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario was super nice enough to get us rolling with this post about the vibes in her particular scene. Side note, thanks to my time at Street Carnage, (I'm guessing) a surprising number of Canadians read this blog. Surprising number of racists too, but whatever.

Everything you never wanted to know about Sault Ste. Marie

Sault Ste. Marie is a small city in Northern Ontario with about 75,000 people. It’s where Lake Superior meets the lower Great Lakes on the St. Mary’s River. Across the river, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan houses the busiest channel in the North America, allowing thousands of tonnage of cargo (that’s what she said) to pass through the locks each year.

Acid volcanoes exist. I am never going to complain again

Photos: Bertrand Claude

Acid volcanoes exist. I am never going to complain again. Or sleep soundly. The world is a fucking video game level isn't it? Acid volcanoes and monsters and weird puzzles you have to unlock every time you go into a room by running upside down on a wall. 

The point here is, whenever I complain about my perfect, downright fucking ideal life or job (relatively speaking) in front of someone else, I try to pull it back a little by saying, well, at least it's not digging a ditch. You know what those dude say? At least it's not harvesting sulfur from an acid volcano in Indonesia, because yiiiiikkkkkes, this job, this is not a good job.  


Sunday, April 8, 2012

New music from Cut Copy, Star Slinger, The Gossip, The Cribs, Kimbra, Conduits, Gemma Ray, and more

Gemma Ray drinking a soda I think


Lots of new music materialized in the old duder's inbox this week, and now it's my duty to click all the way over to the HTML tab on this blogging template and copy and paste the embed codes from the websites where that music lives. Legendary journalist Mike Wallace of "60 Minutes" fame died today at the age of 93 incidentally. I'd like to think that every time I reblog an indie rock publicist's press release for the rest of my life he'll be smiling down on me from journalism heaven. 

New music from Cut Copy, Star Slinger, The Gossip, The Cribs, Kimbra, Conduits, Gemma Ray, and more below. 


Friday, April 6, 2012

'Supermodels without photoshop' absolves us of our grossness

LOL @ YR GROSS REGULAR FACE photos via

In the newspaper and politics biz they used to say that every single letter to the editor or voter letter was an indication that roughly ten thousand (ish) times as many other people shared the same opinion. Now we all have our own electronic newspapers, and are each the governor of our own sad little constituencies of nothing, so that means whenever I see like four to seven people share a link on Facebook I assume everyone is talking about it

That's been the case this week with this Supermodels Without Photoshop: Absolutely Gorgeous Or Just Plain Average? [PHOTOS] link. (The [PHOTOS] part is what makes you click on it, perv.)  

TOP STORY! I'm as sensitive as the next guy who cries in the gym shower every day on my never-ending quest to physical mediocrity to the ways unattainable standards of beauty are pushed on us BY THE MEDIA, but something about these type of reactionary responses to beauty have always bothered me. It's the "eat a sandwich" metaphor writ large. I guess the point here is sometimes beautiful women look less beautiful, so we are hereby absolved of our collective humanly sins of grossness? BEAUTY IS A MYTH, DEAR FRIENDS. EAT ON.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Wait, maybe KISS does belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame after all


My post the other day Worst popular band in history of rock is mad no one likes them was so surprisingly popular, I did the honorable bloggy thing and decided to go right back to the well. My friend and colleague at the Boston Phoenix Daniel Brockman, aka the Chuck Klosterman of Boston if Klosterman didn't like sports, is a big KISS fan. He might've convinced me with this argument for KISS' place in the official rock canon.


I’ve been to the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame once. It’s a weird experience that I somewhat recommend if you ever find yourself in Cleveland with nothing to do, if only to see that Jimi Hendrix and Mick Jagger both wore amazingly tiny little pants onstage, like Mickey-Mouse-pants tiny.

It’s also a strange place because of the curatorial decisions that go into deciding what is worthy of a portion of a gallery in the Hall of Fame. For instance, it made sense that there is an entire floor dedicated to John Lennon ephemera, but it seemed perverse for an entire room to be given over to a shrine to drowned 90s wunderkind Jeff Buckley. His supporters would of course retort that the man had amassed an impressive collection of tunes that would have certainly led to super-enormo-star status had he not been taken from us at such a young age. But the truth of the matter is that his shrine in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame exists there because the powers that be decided that they needed more of a Jeff Buckley audience there... 

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Unfortunately, pedo-wave songs are kind of awesome


In the discussion about the Is Lana Del Rey pro-pedophila? piece we posted earlier today, both here in the comments and , a sort of depressing point came up: a lot of pedophile songs are pretty fucking awesome. "Into the Night"? Sketchiest video ever, but it's a fucking jam. Now what?

Abby Taylor takes a closer look at the history of skeevy undertones, or overtones as the case may be, in the history of popular music.This stuff has been with us a long time, and it's probably not going away.

Ped-wave Rocku 
Art has always been a mirror of society, reflecting the desires and conflicts of the time it is created in, especially with regards to the creation of popular music. Pedophilic undertones in music are yet another example of the influence of our society’s obsession with innocence and perfection. If there wasn't a demand for it, surely it wouldn't keep being created. Can we blame artists for catering to this obsession? 

Boston's Together electronic music festival + party photos

all photos by Mick Murray courtesy Together

Boston's Together electronic music festival is happening all this week. IT'S A TOTAL THING. I wrote about it in today's Metro.  

I also  went to the opening party the other night at Naga, the new nightclub venue in Central Square, and everyone KILLED IT. WE WERE ALL FUCKING DEAD BY THE END OF IT BECAUSE WE KILLED IT SO HARD. I tried taking party photos, but they all sucked, so I turned to our man Mick Murray for some of his shots. Check them out yo. People standing in a club is a popular internet thing.  Photos and music and words below.

Is Lana Del Rey pro-pedophilia?


My friend called out Lana Del Ray for her pro-pedophilia aesthetic on Twitter the other day. And then the internet happened.

 
Fuck that Lolita Shit: Why Lana Del Rey Re-Tweeted me and Got Lots of People Confused 

I was listening to the preview for the new KickDrums song featuring A$AP Rocky and Lana del Rey song, “Riding” when I finally lost it.

“Pick me up after school, you can be my baby,” she coos. “You say that I am flawless, true perfection…so give me all your drugs.”

I’ll admit, singing about getting picked up after school by a rich powerful man who gives her attention and drugs, isn’t the most blatant example of, what I’m now calling, “pro-pedophilia,” in Del Rey’s work. Del Rey could arguably be singing from the voice of an 18+ college student here.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Don't give a bunny or a baby chicken as a gift on Easter you monster

The site of the Easter egg hunt didn't seem so cheerful three days later

Don't give a bunny or a baby chicken as a gift on Easter you monster. Because that is something that occurred to you to do I guess? Yo, who are all these perverts giving bunnies as Easter gifts that I've never heard of until now that necessitate all these internet PSAs I'm seeing people share on my feed?  THERE'S A FUCKING BUNNY HOLOCAUST IN THE WORKS. I never even realized.

The best song about b00bz ever



PTSOTL Awful Music Reporter Evan Kenney reaches elbows-deep into the shitty music toilet for us to uncover the secrets of fortune and fame in the entertainment biz. Never mind KISS, these dudes needs to be inducted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame fast.

Ok, all you ladies and ghouls who are looking to start your own "next biggest thing" musical group, you can now put away the facepaint, the throwback tacky clothing, the Jason Newsted shaved-head and the songs about "partying in the bathroom" because a band out of Malibu, California called Surf Punks have already discovered the true elements of success. 

Worst popular band in history of rock is mad no one likes them


So many questions about this NEWS ITEM that showed up in my inbox just now. What's Showbiz Tonight? What's the NCAA Big Dance Concert Series? Is it too late to cancel this boring blog post I haven't figured out a punchline for yet? 

"In an exclusive interview with Showbiz Tonight, members of the band KISS slam the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. KISS, who performed at the NCAA Big Dance Concert Series this weekend, has been eligible to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 1999, but has never received the honor. Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley critique the organization, saying that the voting process is an insult to artists." 

Centipedes are proof that god doesn't exist



No way a benevolent, omniscient being would suffer his beautiful children to share the earth with crawling demons such as this one that attacked me at the gym. last night, asking if I should pardon it for its sins against decency, or smash it back to the hell from whence it came. The overwhelming majority voted for a swift, but merciful, execution.

I couldn't do it. As one friend pointed out, "killing them is almost worse than knowing they're still on the loose... I squished one of those fuckers in my bathroom and its bazillion nasty legs kept wiggling for a solid minute after it was dead. :("

Monday, April 2, 2012

Every single person you know is a basically an alcoholic



Or at least on the way to becoming one. Isn't that like being sort of pregnant? I guess maybe I'm an alcoholic, I just haven't been inseminated yet?

That's the premise of this piece in the Atlantic today co-authored by a clinical psychologist and psychiatry instructor  Are You Almost Alcoholic? Taking a New Look at an Old Problem. I do happen to agree with the set up of the piece, in theory, which argues that maybe alcoholism isn't such a black or white dichotomy. There are shades of gray on a broader spectrum of sobriety to alcoholism. The problem is that the middle part of the spectrum just so happens to include every single person I know or who has ever existed. 

Game of Thrones theme cover shredding is metal as Valyrian steel



Game of Thrones is back, which means people want attention for doing something tangentially related to it, even if that thing is just making a blog post linking to other things other people with real talent actually did. Like this new video from a fellow named 331Erock who SHREDS THE EFF OUT OF THE GAME OF THRONES THEME SONG. More or less. Nice job bro. YOU CHOPPED THAT SONGS HEAD OFF. Sounds like something you'd take your Boomer tourist parents to go see on Broadway over Christmas holiday innit?

This self-orchestra violin cover is pretty rad too:

Sunday, April 1, 2012

The Hunger Games is real


As a big fan of science fiction, particularly of the dystopian stripe, and an even bigger fan of making fun of dumb teenagers, I finally sat down to start reading The Hunger Games book the other day. I made it six pages in before tossing it aside. Here's the passage that did me in:
In the fall, a few brave souls sneak into the woods to harvest apples. But always in sight of the Meadow. Always close enough to run back to the safety of District 12 if trouble arises. "District Twelve. Where you can starve to death in safety," I mutter. Then I glance over my shoulder. Even here, even in the middle of nowhere, you worry someone might overhear you."

That "I mutter" was like an ejector button that tossed me right out of the book's cockpit. The writing doesn't get better, most of my friends who made it to the end warned me. The story, however, is compelling and you do end up caring about the characters. 

Misgivings aside, I did end up going to see the movie, because I'm much more willing to swallow cheese in visual form. My friends were right. It was a tense, downright brutal story, and surprisingly so, given its youthful target audience. Granted, much of the horror needs to be smuggled in through your own imagination, but the circumstances of the narrative are such that it's not a difficult burden. 

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