Juno Trailer

FR*A » Future Rockstars of America

So my friend's roommate has started up a music mag/blog as an affiliate to his clothing company, FRA. And being the superstar blogger that I am, they asked if I would care to contribute to the site. So I'm thinking...for now...most of my music postings will go directly there rather than here. Not many posts these days floating around in my head so if anything pops up...I guess I'll throw it up over on FR*A.

Check it out: FR*A » EWALK

Oh how I miss my daytime music...

Thanks Jetblue!

Man...I used to listen to music on my ipod or my computer all day long when I was in grad school. Turns out that's a no-no here in the working world. So how do I get my fix? By getting put on hold and listening to Vivaldi (our DC office's music of choice) or Counting Crowes (Jetblue's selection). I'll take what I can get.

Heima means "At Home"

From the director of Lilo & Stitch (ha!) comes a documentary about Sigur Ros and their string of concerts in their beautiful home country of Iceland.

Live From Abbey Road: Muse

Stumbled upon a pretty good show on Sundance last night:

Sundance Channel : Series : Live From Abbey Road

Each episode features 2 or 3 bands playing a few songs in the Abbey Road studios of Beatles fame. The cinematography was well done and the sound was amazing (might have just been my roommates TV). Always cool to see the band do variations of their songs when they perform live. Also include some mini-interviews spliced in. Try to catch the real version (with better quality)...but for now, I found the videos for the 3 songs I saw last night by Muse. Enjoy. (And oh yeah, Matt Bellamy is god!)

Starlight

Map of the Problematique

Knights of Cydonia

Matrix Music School: Lucky Lil' Bastards

Matrix Music School & Arts Centre

Matrix students record with Radiohead March 2007
Bass guitarist Colin Greenwood and producer Nigel Godrich invited thirty Junior Extension children to help realise an idea for one of the tracks on Radiohead's forthcoming album. The whole experience was great fun - for parents as well! - and we're all looking forward to the release date.

Why wasn't my elementary school this badass? My closes brush with stardom was when I got to milk a cow on the local news.

Guarenteed they are recording the kids clapping for '15 Step'...or atleast teaching them how to clap to the semi-complex beat. Uber-RH snob that I am, I of course had to properly teach my friends how to do it before the two shows I saw last summer at the Greek (cuz I'm so cool that I memorize brand new RH songs before 1.5 yrs before they are even released). And yes, by making fun of my music snobbery it makes it okay to be a music snob.

NYC - early August

The week started off Monday with Muse at Madison Square Garden. I've seen them about 5 times now and they actually get better and better (and bigger and bigger) with each and every show. Even though there are just 3 of them, they definitely know how to put on a show. Highlights included 'Unintended' (one of my oldest favorites being played for the first time in the U.S.) and 'Invincible'. We had seats just above the floor on the side so had a pretty good view of the pit...ah those young kids and their moshing.

Upside of big concerts in NY: No post-concert traffic jam...just walk home.
Downside of big concerts in NY: No pre-concert tailgating.

Tuesday: Tornado

Thursday was Brooklyn and the Beastie Boys...I've already written about that...good show. I'd definitely go see them again.

Friday: Richard Serra exhibit at MoMA. Really great museum and an interesting exhibit of huge steel sculptures. Boring up close, but pretty amazing when you stand back and take a look and try to comprehend 'scuplting' such a piece. MoMA also has one of my favorite paitings, Van Gogh's 'Starry Nights' as well as a cool wing on Design and Architecture. It was also 60 and rainy that day which was cool (and cold). And Friday nights are free at MoMA courtesy of Target. Damn Target...you just make me love you more and more.

Saturday: My first sample sale. Quite an interesting environment...a loft full of racks of jeans and blaring techno music. Not sure why we needed techno music but it worked...I bought a pair of Lucky Brand jeans...probably the cheapest ones they had. Tried on some Seven jeans for the first time...pretty damn comfortable.

Saturday Night: Had Ethiopian food for the first time...not bad. Taking family style to the next level sorta as you share the one big plate they bring it all out on. No utensils of course so you just scoop it up with your hands or with the crepe like bread they give you. Very flavorful. Wet naps were definitely appreciated.

Tomorrow night...Shakespeare in the Park's Mid-Summer Night's Dream @ Central Park.

No Sleep 'till Brooklyn

Beastie Boys - McCarren Pool, Brooklyn NY - 08/07/09

Wow...first time New Yorker and I got to see the Beastie Boys very first show EVER in their hometown of Brooklyn....very cool. Other than waiting an hour in the beer line for NO BEER, the venue was pretty cool (old, empty community pool). The Beastie Boys put on a very good show that definitely took me back to my old school days. Great being outside on a great night in Brooklyn...despite there being more threats of "tornadoes" (we couldnt even bring in our umbrellas...had to ditch them at the entrance. thankfully i was able to find mine after the show). And of course they closed with "No Sleep 'til Brooklyn".

Polyethylene (stereogum: OKX)

One of my top 5 Radiohead songs as covered by Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie.

Thanks Stereogum!

Chris Walla - "Polyethelyne (Parts 1 & 2)" (MP3)

Rolling Stone : Global Warming: A Real Solution

Rolling Stone : Global Warming: A Real Solution

The global climate crisis is the result not of an orderly free market, but of a distorted market run amok. A truly free market is the planet's best friend. Free markets promote efficiency. "Efficiency," after all, means the elimination of waste ? and pollution is waste. The pollution that is catastrophically heating the Earth is the result of market failure; the incapacity of a poorly designed marketplace to place a proper value on an essential asset ? the atmosphere. That market failure has brought us to the brink of a planetwide environmental collapse.

Stereogum Presents... OKX: A Tribute To OK Computer

stereogum: Stereogum Presents... OKX: A Tribute To OK Computer

Happy 10th Birthday to the greatest album of all-time...

10 years ago today, Radiohead released my most favorite album of all-time...and I didn't even know it. I wasn't a huge Radiohead fan prior to the release of OK Computer...I enjoyed Creep and High & Dry just like everyone else that listened to KROQ but I just wasn't in awe of them as I am today. Actually, I even gave back Pablo Honey to friend that got me a free copy (he worked at Music Plus)...and I NEVER give up on free! I'm not sure exactly when it was, but my first transcendent moment with Radiohead and OK Computer was when I first caught the video for Paranoid Android late one night on MTV. The cartoonish video was definitely cool but I was more enthralled with the song itself, which over 6 min 23 sec had this multi-layered composition that I found mesmerizing for whatever reason. Once I bought the CD, I found out that I felt the way about pretty much every single track on the album (sorry FRED - the 'fitter-happier' computer voice of track 7. Ok...I guess I even like that 'song'.)

OK Computer was the band's 3rd LP but the first produced by Nigel Godrich (who coincidentally is now my all time favorite producer). Nigel, who is now considered Radiohead's "5th/6th Beatle", definitely added some very cool touches to the album without which the album would be just ONE OF the greatest albums of all time.

More on OK COMPUTER:
OK COMPUTER @ Wikipedia

OK Computer | ateaseweb.com

RH: A bit of tape from the studio

DEAD AIR SPACE

Nigel posted some chopped snippets from the recent studio sessions...so excited for LP7.




Some of the members of the ateaseweb messageboard have cut them up to separate them out:

http://www.citizeninsane.eu/audio/cuttingroomopenpick1.mp3
http://www.citizeninsane.eu/audio/cuttingroomopenpick2.mp3
http://www.citizeninsane.eu/audio/cuttingroomapigsear.mp3
http://www.citizeninsane.eu/audio/cuttingroomallineed.mp3
http://www.citizeninsane.eu/audio/cuttingroomditnu.mp3
http://www.citizeninsane.eu/audio/cuttingroomarpeggi.mp3

Crack...

Wow....I didn't think it would get much better than my iMate Jamin and some geeked up Windows Mobile, but I stand corrected. Blackberries (and specifically my 8800) kick ass! Very sleak and oh so handy. I guess it helps that my work bought it for me. Free is always better. Now I gets all of my emails pushed to me, I gets me some gTalk on the go and I gets the GPS (which I have yet to figure out how to start up).

Ah sweet Funnel Cake

Man...NYC has a ton of "street fairs" everywhere...EVERY weekend. Its kinda cool though...to be able to walk down the middle of normally busy streets...but other than that, it's nothing special...same old street vendors selling socks (???), $5 purses/sunglasses/belts and the assortment of food. My roommate's wife talked me into going to the 2nd "Spring Jubilee" outside of our apt. today and I got to enjoy the so-so chicken kabob, the $1 lemonade and...my favorite...funnel cake! Definitely the highlight of my weekend. Felt like I was back in SoCal at Magic Mountain getting sick off of the powder sugared present that is funnel cake. If only they had deep-fried oreos.

Maya also got me to admit my admiration for Robin Thicke. I find it hard to like any progeny of Alan Thicke (not sure why...what has he done to me??) but he's a mighty good singer. He's like the white Nate Dogg. Really likin' his Got 2 Be Down with Faith Evans.

[Sidenote: Back in the day, Pam got to be on Win, Lose or Draw with Alan Thicke...that's hot!]

SCHEDULE New York City Street Fairs and Festivals
Got 2 Be Down - Faith Evans w/ Robin Thicke (.mp3)



I was supposed to go to Brooklyn this afternoon/evening to catch a benefit show for Domino's Sugar Factory but it looks like its going to start raining any minute now (I love doppler). There are a handful of bands playing but I only really cared to see Nada Surf . Oh well....

New Nada Surf Album news and MP3's at Sonic Itch Music
Killian's Red - Nada Surf (.mp3)

Knocked Up

Saw Knocked Up tonight...good stuff from the people who brought you The 40 Year Old Virgin.
Read YS's review of the movie/soundtrack: The Yellow Stereo

Big Apple BBQ

I'm glad to be going home for a visit but bummed I'll be missing this:

Big Apple BBQ

UCLA First School To Win 100 NCAA Team Championships

UCLA Becomes First School To Win 100 NCAA Team Championships :: Women's Water Polo wins its third straight title, beating Stanford 5-4

Sea Wolf at Union Hall - May 11, 2007

Finally caught Sea Wolf live. Been wanting to see them for a bit now and luckily they came out to Brooklyn within my first month in nyc. I really liked Union Hall (in Brooklyn) too...very cool, intimate venue (felt like I was in some basement library at the Haunted Mansion from Disneyland). Sea Wolf was 1000 times better than I had anticipated. I'm sure they are picking up a ton of fans opening up for SilverSun Pickups. Their EP came out this week so i bought it from the Celloist and even got to shake hands with the Alex Brown Church.

Sea Wolf

Blonde Redhead & Fields at Webster Hall - May 8, 2007

Went to my first NYC concert and it was an amazing show...both bands were fantastic live. Looking forward to seeing Fields again next weekend at Union Hall and Blonde Redhead over the summer at Mcarron Pool.

Blonde Redhead
Fields