Filed under: lists, music | Tags: best of 2012, Cher Lloyd, Chisu, drake, Javiera Mena, ke$ha, Nely Furtado, rihanna, solange, taylor swift, The Oh Sees, The Wanted
10. Ke$ha, “Die Young”
The first, I don’t know, twenty times I heard this song on the radio I expected it to be Flo Rida. Which is to be expected, since the opening of this Dr. Luke/Benny Blanco song is pretty much the exactly the same thing they used for “Good Feeling” a few months earlier. But maybe that shouldn’t be surprising. We first heard Ke$ha, after all, when she and Flo crucified a Dead Or Alive song together.
This is the first song of Ke$ha’s that I’ve actually liked—well, okay, “Blow” grew on me after a few months but not like this—and I’m hesitant to buy into the promotional angling for her new album (which involves a soul-seeking journey to the Galapogos Islands, and The Atlantic calling her new tie-in memoir the new Feminine Mystique.)
The fifth co-writer of “Die Young” is that whiny singer from fun., and if his own dumb band’s songs were remotely this fun maybe I wouldn’t turn the radio off every fucking time “Some Nights” comes on.
Filed under: music, tv | Tags: air, christina aguilera, david bowie, electric six, gruff rhys, in-grid, missy elliott, music, pitchfork, solange, the knife, the last shadow puppers, videos, yeah yeah yeahs
Pitchfork recently published their list of the Top 50 Music Videos of the 2000s. There’s some old favorites (Bat For Lashes’ What’s A Girl To Do, #7; The Avalanches’ Frontier Psychiatrist at #19; Vitalic’s Poney Pt. 1 at #36), some really good ones I hadn’t seen before (like #49, Escort’s Muppet-y All Through The Night), and some whose appeal is completely lost on me (that stupid video for Gnarls Barkley’s Who’s Gonna Save My Soul, #43, Justice’s completely irritating DANCE and Weezer’s Pork and Beans both in the top 10).
But, of course, they neglected to include some of my favorites. So, just off the top of my head, eleven really great videos from the past 10 years, starting with the Electric Six’s manically silly Danger! High Voltage! from 2004.
Filed under: music | Tags: bloc party, depeche mode, fever ray, lily allen, pj harvey, solange, videos
MTV announced its Video Music Awards nominees this morning, and they are duller than dull. I”m hoping Beyonce sweeps, though, because she’s just about the Single Ladies video really was remarkable in many ways, not the least of which is that a lot of people saw it, and watched it enough times to learn the choreography.
But anyway, there was a lot more than one great video to come out last year. After the jump, here’s some hastily-screengrabbed stills from a dozen of my favorites:
Filed under: gay, heterosexuals, movies, music, porn | Tags: automats, billboard, bruno, buying music in a store, casey kasem, comics, condoms, levi johnston, porn, sex, shakira, shaving, solange, south africa, swimmers, the dalai lama
[ed. note: Today is the end of SoundSession, Providence’s biggest music festival. There’s music all day and into the night, and a parade, and basically I’m pre-booking tomorrow as a hangover day. So you’re getting your news delivered early, you lucky so-and-sos!]
Levi Johnston gave his thoughts about Sarah Palin’s resignation, which, whatever, but whoever decided to place him in an enormous swivel chair in front of a million books deserves three raises.
Americans aren’t so sure what sex is.
Casey Kasem, who I’d probably call my hero if anybody ever asked me who my hero was, is stepping down from the mic (again).
Choire Sicha’s thoughts about Bruno almost make me kind of want to see it. Even though Dreamy David Rakoff thinks it’s bad for the gays.
Carnal Nation reports on condoms and porn.
There’s only one thing I read more than blog posts about why sex work isn’t necessarily a sign of desperation. And that’s blog posts about the relative merits of people buying v. sharing their music.
Male swimmers shaving each other is fine, I guess, for practical reasons, but the massive push for men to shave everything is really bringing me down. (See also.)
Louisiana’s Southern University is feeling the Solange.
There’s more to South African music than you might know.
The Dalai Lama made a surprise appearance in Apartment 3-G yesterday. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the strip (we don’t have it in Providence) but it’s the only strip I’ve enjoyed for the past, oh, decade or so. (Occasional individual Get Fuzzy and Rex Morgan strips aside.)
A big trend this week is people who know nothing about the Billboard album chart complaining about the Billboard album chart.
Finally, National Geographic offers tips on how to make homemade food that tastes like it was the opposite of homemade.
Filed under: books, gay, hookers, hot, music, people from rhode island, personal | Tags: a newfound interest in massachusetts, art, bearapalooza, chuck barris, flickr, kate bush, michael jackson, pride, rhode island, solange, stonewall, the coup
Two years after a hatchet-and-gun attack in a gay bar, New Bedford, Massachusetts, had its first-ever gay pride event last Saturday. New Bedford used to be one of the world’s major whaling ports, and it’s still a very surly, very Portuguese Catholic, city. (If you’re curious, it’s also the city where I bought the cutest pants ever, as it’s also become kind of an antique/vintage haven.) Here’s a tedious photo montage thing of last weekend’s events. I don’t mean that in a mean way, and I’m glad they’re doing it. But really, what a tedious photo montage thing.
San Francisco Pride, happening tomorrow, is bound to be infinitely more exciting, though.
Speaking of festivals, in the unlikely event that you happen to be near Longfork, West Virginia, next weekend, it’s Bearapalooza. (And, if you do get there, I’d like to see pictures!)
Joe.My.God reports on the fortieth anniversary of Stonewall riots and incudes a really condescending Daily News article from 1969.
With so many people rushing to their blogs to broadcast their love of all things Michael Jackson, I’m glad that somebody remembered to mention “Lisa, It’s Your Birthday.” [via Art Fag City]
As I’ve noted before, both anti-prostitution bills in Rhode Island might stall, with the legislature wrapping up before its summer break and spending some of its last hours debating whether or not we should be allowed to have Yankees license plates. (On a brighter note, they might finally legalize MMA fighting in Rhode Island.)
Irish Kate Bush fans attempt to co-opt James Joyce’s holiday, for some reason. (Okay, that happened two weeks ago, but still, why?)
For some reason this song, which appeared on a mixtape someone made me about ten years ago, started running through my head the other day.
Chuck Barris, former game show host, alleged former CIA agent, and inspiration for the wonderful, wonderful Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind, has a new mystery novel out.
Check out the Nudie Blues, as pictured above. I’m not sure who made them; the Flickr profile just says it’s a male in Berlin who is taken. I’m assuming his name is Alain, but I don’t know anything beyond that.
Filed under: gay, music, people from rhode island | Tags: fred phelps, kylie minogue, rhode island, sam adams, solange, westboro baptist church
*Gay marriage is now legal in Maine. Rhode Island’s definitely behind the curve, especially considering the fact that half the state (including the mayor of the capital) is gay. But, you know, we also have a governor who has anti-abortion rallies inside the State House and a first lady who thinks that Cambodian teenagers are all terrorists.
*Fred Phelps and his hatemobile will be coming to Rhode Island at the end of the month. Even if you sympathize with all the fag-hating, I think he should be counter-protested for his stance on the country that brought us Ace of Base.
*Speaking of that country, Roxette are getting dressed for success again, re-uniting for the first time since Marie Fredkrickson had some kind of horrible-sounding brain tumor a few years ago.
*The Sam Adams thing still isn’t over. I am actually considering a lengthy essay on Beau Breedlove, Zac Efron, sexting, and why our society thinks it’s okay to sexualize seventeen-year olds but forbids anyone to go near them until their eighteenth birthday. But, you know, I never write the lengthy essays I say I’m going to write.
*Solange just gets continually awesomer.
*Oh, and Kylie Minogue is doing six North American dates soon. Chicago tickets go on sale tomorrow, I’m not sure about New York.
This is seriously the best thing that’s happened to me in a while. I mean, my cousin posting my grandmother’s Ricotta Pie recipe on the internet was a good thing*, but this is better.
As you know, I’ve been iffy on Twitter, the internet craze that my mother signed up for before I did. And, you know, I’ll sign up for anything. On the one hand, it’s really silly that, for instance, shoe companies decide to “follow” me every time I post something about the awesome new shoes I got in Chicago. As though their following me means anything besides “we did a keyword search and you mentioned shoes, so we hope that our following you doesn’t seem like an overly desperate plea for you to follow us back.” On the other hand I like it, because I don’t really get paid to write anywhere anymore and the character limit seriously does make me think about things like word choice in a practical way that I haven’t since college.
But blowing both of those factors out of the water, I just got a Twitter reply from SOLANGE freaking KNOWLES. See:
I had Twittered my friend Kate Schatz–former Providence resident, author of one of those infernal 33 1/3 books, and soon-to-be mother of a real live child–and casually mentioned that @solangeknowles and @kristinhersh (both awesome musicians and mom-types themselves) were basically the only reasons to join Twitter. And lo and behold, Solange wrote back. It’s like a dream come true, albeit a really brief dream that only takes place on the internet.
And so to celebrate, for possibly the last time, here is the video for Solange’s so-amazing-it-hurts-yet-no-longer-embeddable T.O.N.Y. This clip, amazing though it is, is now gone from Youtube except in some odd double-speed fashion, and the Dailymotion video for it has noticeable gaps as well. What’s the deal?
[*It’s something my people–the Italian-Americans–make for Easter, and my mother refuses to give me the recipe. But I made one (actually two) and holy crap did it taste wonderful. Not that you can go wrong with a nine-egg pie, but still.]
