Couple links to things wot I word-wrote this week that weren't so horrible via the Boston Globe, Interview Mag, and Bullett.
Discovery: Bearstronaut
No matter how much we grow to appreciate electronic dance music, it still doesn't change the fact that standing in a room watching someone fiddle with a laptop is kind of ridiculous. It's much more natural to watch someone fiddle with an actual keyboard, right? That's why the new prevalence of crossover bands that straddle the line between electronic and more traditional rock is such a welcome change. Bands like , who combine the euphoria of the club experience with the grounded humanity of a rock band. Read the rest.
Are These the Best 100 Opening Lines in Literature?
“What’s it going to be then, eh?” asked Luke O’Neil, handsome, clever, and not so rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad, who awoke one morning from uneasy dreams on a bright cold day in November when the clocks were striking thirteen, and decided that he would compose the blog himself today, saying, “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is that it’s a truth universally acknowledged that all good listicles are alike; each bad listicle is bad in its own way,” — as in, for example, this post on The Best 100 Openings Lines From Books in StylistUK, a magazine far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the West... Read the rest.
Suggested Jokes to Make Regarding Star-Studded Sandy Relief Concert Lineup
Normally I’d have a few low-hanging jokes to knock off the ripe tree of snark for a show like this, but it’s obviously an important cause, so I’ll refrain today. You, on the other hand, you aren’t as noble as I am, so here are a few modest suggestions for things you can complain and joke about on your personally branded social media outlets:
1) The ticket prices. How about those ticket prices? Who am I, Bruce Springsteen that I can afford these tickets? How much are tickets anyway?
2) How old everyone on the bill is. Old people are weird! Read the rest.
Our picks for the 25th Boston Music Awards
The 25th edition of the Boston Music Awards isn’t until Dec. 2, but voting is open on the website until Monday, so there’s ample time left to voice your opinion on the best bands to come out of the region in the past year. As usual, there’s an abundance of talent across a wide spectrum of genres — we really do live in one of the best musical cities in the world. So much so that even the savviest local scenester would have trouble keeping up with all of the music put out this year. Read the rest.
‘The Wire’ Creator David Simon Obliterates Media Hypocrisy In Petraeus Scandal
And you thought the most brutal takedown of the week arrived in the pages of the New York Times. That was small potatoes — small, impotent, moldy potatoes — compared to the pantsting Roger Simon of Politico received from The Wire and Treme creator, David Simon in this piece “Stray penises and politicos“, which serves as a reminder, in case the long list of institutions and colleagues who have aggrieved his fiery sense of justice over the years haven’t gotten the point across yet, that the country’s most insightful scold is not someone you want to cross. Read the rest.
Check Out Wild Belle’s Sexy (?) New Pedo-Wave Video ‘Keep You’
Apparently noticing how well that whole age play thing has worked for her, Chicago brother and sister duo Wild Belle are pulling a reverse Lana Del Rey in their new video for the song “Keep You.” The pining dancehall track, and its video, set in Kingston, Jamaica, is about “unrequited love,” director Melina Matsoukas told Rolling Stone, “and how with age, we don’t necessarily mature.” Read the rest.
No Fair, Rhye’s ‘The Fall’ Gets Another Heartbreaking Video Treatment
It’s rare that a song gets one halfway watchable video made these days, never mind two beautiful and heartbreaking ones. Last month we wrote about the official video for Rhye’s “The Fall”, one of the more memorable and distinctive cuts we’ve seen all year. A new version flips the original’s story of love gone stale and imagined infidelity into one of undying love. I think. It’s a testament to the track’s versatility, a live version of the song in this case, that it fits either end of the cynic/romantic spectrum so well depending on the accompanying visuals. Here the song is set to old found footage of smiling, frolicking couples from decades past. Read the rest.
