2009 VMA Roundup: Random Thoughts From This Year’s Show
on Sep 14, 2009 in Music Television beyonce kanye west kid cudi lady gaga mtv russell brand taylor swift video music awards vma Well, it’s been a minute. But, the VMAs were last night, so I’ve decided to take this blog momentarily off hiatus to hit the highlights. So, let’s go… Russell Brand As Host: I love Russell Brand. We’ve discussed this befo...

Why You Need to Stop Being So Cynical & Learn to Love Record Store Day
on Apr 16, 2009 in Music independent record store nme record store day Let me just start by saying this: I’m really quite fond of the NME. The UK music mag has been introducing me to some of my favorite bands since high school, and it’s still where I find a lot of great music. Sure, they’ve got an annoying tende...

Digital Love: Get Ready to Fall For the Daft Punk Video Game
on Apr 14, 2009 in Interweb Music Video Games Daft Punk initials justice I don’t like many video games. At least, not current ones. There was a time when I was a huge video game fanatic, but that time was about 20 years ago, when I was in 3rd grade, and Super Mario Brothers was the height of technological excellence.

Forgotten Gems: Dirty Vegas – S/T (2002)
on Apr 13, 2009 in Forgotten Gems Music dirty vegas Inspired by numerous CDs uncovered during a recent cleaning spree in my bedroom, “Forgotten Gems” spotlights some of our favorite albums from the past. Not necessarily those that are universally considered classics – this one’s for those ofte...

New Video: Tahiti 80 – “Unpredictable”
on Apr 9, 2009 in Music music video phoenix tahiti 80 Seriously, how many good bands does France need these days? As if it wasn’t enough to have the secret formula for good beats housed between Daft Punk and the crew at Ed Banger Records, now they’re starting to corner the market on charming pop ba...

DVD Pick: The IT Crowd (and why it’s your new favorite show)
on Apr 8, 2009 in Television IT Crowd noel fielding richard ayoade

Listen Up: Das Pop
on Apr 7, 2009 in Listen Up Music das pop Pop music is probably the most disrespected genre out there. No one wants to admit they like pop music, and bands often don’t want to admit that’s what they play. So, we get all these little subgenres – indie pop, synthpop, electropop, etc –...

Phoenix Uses SNL to Continue to Be Awesome
on Apr 6, 2009 in Music phoenix SNL I’ve got a lot of love for a lot of bands. But few make me ooh and ahh over every single thing they do quite like Phoenix. Which is really saying something, considering we’re talking about a band that’s on their fourth studio album and still...

Justice Lend U2 a Little Electro Magic…For Real
on Apr 6, 2009 in Music justice remix u2 Remember back in high school when you had to make those Venn diagrams? You know, those overlapping circle charts where you put things that are different about two subjects on the outside and things that are the same in the middle? Well, that’s pr...

New Video: Datarock – “Give It Up”
on Apr 3, 2009 in Music datarock music video It’s been a good week for music videos. Between the brilliant Kasabian vid and this new one from Datarock, it looks like some serious YouTube time is in order. I’ll be honest – much as I enjoyed Datarock’s first album, they weren’t one of...