Back to Basics

Lots to talk about in the coming days, hopefully, but in the meantime, a couple of cover songs:





I felt it most prudent to ease back into this blogging thing. Besides, it's what we do best here.

One Regret

The only thing for which I'd truly kick myself over skipping Coachella:



Otherwise, Monday begins the most masochistically fun part of the festival for me: bootlegs!!!

WEAK.

The four fellas running torrent site The Pirate Bay have been convicted of breaking copyright law and are gonna be in jail for one year.

Read the fucking ridiculous details here.

Live Jigga

When Jay-Z performed at Glastonbury last year, one of my favorite segments was his little smooth operator threesome in which he performed "Excuse Me Miss," "Song Cry," and "Girls, Girls, Girls." It would've been a foursome if it weren't for his horrible freestyle over Estelle's "American Boy," but whatever. Combine that with the soundboard quality of the recording I've got, and the fact that sharing is caring, and here you go:

Excuse Me Miss (Glastonbury live)

Song Cry (Glastonbury live)

Girls, Girls, Girls (Glastonbury live)

Youtube Mashup

(via boingboing)

Siiiiick mashup artist, Kutiman, takes his samples from youtube clips. Be sure to check out the other vids in his "Through You" series.

RE: The Fat Man with the Bone

A couple of months ago, I stumbled onto a British show called Never Mind the Buzzcocks, which is a hilarious panel game much like Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!, except it's televised and focuses on pop music rather than politics. A great majority of the show's charm comes from its very particular dynamic, which consists of pairing wittily sardonic comedians with flavor-of-the-week indie artists.

I was very lucky in that I was able to catch all the Simon Amstell-era episodes before the BBC started removing episodes here and there. I highly recommend the series, and if you enjoy the same stupid-in-a-smart-way (or smart-in-a-stupid-way; I'm still trying to figure which one is right) kind of humor I do, expect to blow an entire weekend on the series. Here's a little taste, courtesy of the candyman:


Guests: Nicholas Hoult, Midge Ure (from Ultravox), Romeo Stodart (from The Magic Numbers) & Russell Howard. Context for some of the jokes: In the episode prior, one of the guests, Samuel Preston of The Ordinary Boys, walked off in the middle of the show because Amstell kept clowning on his wife's autobiography.


Bonus: Best "guess who" round ever.

Again, the BBC is removing episodes on YouTube periodically, so if you enjoy these, watch them as soon as you can.

Valentine Fallout

Rather than try to remember everything I tried to convey from the Valentine post that was subsequently murdered and covered up by the popo, I'll just relink the three songs that inspired what I mistakenly thought reflected Valentine's Day, you know, the spirit of giving. Here they are:

Oliver Future - Stranger Than a Stranger (KCRW live)

Friendly Fires - Paris (KCRW live)

The Magic Numbers - This is a Song (KCRW live)

No Words to Do It Justice

Post explaining how I came across this semi-retarded fat man singing into a bone and a multitude of other pop music lost gems very soon.

And in Other News

1. The Pirate Bay trial in Stockholm just gets better and better. On day 2, half the prosecution's charges were dropped, and on day 3, the defense introduced something called "The King Kong defense." Tickets for the trial available outside the courthouse, via scalpers.

2. Blink-182 are back together. Guitarist Tom DeLonge reached out to his estranged ex-bandmates after drummer Travis Barker's plane crash. We can expect fart jokes and full frontal nudity this summer.

3. Dr. Dre's Detox, aka hip-hop's Chinese Democracy, looks like it'll be coming out later this year. However, it'll be after the good doctor's proteges, 50 Cent & Eminem, release their respective albums, Before I Self Destruct (due 3/24) and Relapse (due sometime after 3/24). According to 50, "It's a story actually, the three-headed monster returns. Before I Self Destruct, I'll Relapse, then Detox." Clever.

As a little bonus, DJ Quik provides some fun facts about the Detox sessions. Highlights: 1. Dre's got 400 tracks to choose from. 2. He's been taking piano lessons from Burt Bacharach.

4. U2 have a new album coming out at the end of the month. This is particularly newsworthy for me personally because it's probably the least amount of promoting the band has done for an album since the late '80s. Remember when they held a press conference at KMart for Pop? Nonetheless, this album won't be completely devoid of promotional whoring. The boys will be the first to hold a week-long residency on the Late Show with Dave Letterman.

You're welcome.

How to Bring the Fat Kids Together

For the astute readers out there who've noticed a certain missing Valentine entry, here's the deal:

Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that certain content in your blog infringes upon the copyrights of others. The URL(s) of the allegedly infringing post(s) may be found at the end of this message.

The notice that we received from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the record companies it represents, with any personally identifying information removed, will be posted online by a service called Chilling Effects at http://www.chillingeffects.org. We do this in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Please note that it may take Chilling Effects up to several weeks to post the notice online at the link provided.

The IFPI is a trade association that represents over 1,400 major and independent record companies in the US and internationally who create, manufacture and distribute sound recordings (the "IFPI Represented Companies").

The DMCA is a United States copyright law that provides guidelines for online service provider liability in case of copyright infringement. We are in the process of removing from our servers the links that allegedly infringe upon the copyrights of others. If we did not do so, we would be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, regardless of its merits. See http://www.educause.edu/Browse/645?PARENT_ID=254 for more information about the DMCA, and see http://www.google.com/dmca.html for the process that Blogger requires in order to make a DMCA complaint.

Blogger can reinstate these posts upon receipt of a counter notification pursuant to sections 512(g)(2) and 3) of the DMCA. For more information about the requirements of a counter notification and a link to a sample counter notification, see http://www.google.com/dmca.html#counter.

Please note that repeated violations to our Terms of Service may result in further remedial action taken against your Blogger account. If you have legal questions about this notification, you should retain your own legal counsel. If you have any other questions about this notification, please let us know.

Sincerely,

The Blogger Team

Affected URLs:

http://soulwhatisitworth.blogspot.com/2009/02/valentine-becomes-eclectic.html

And the family's reactions:

Me: The music popo got us!

Jerome: Congrats to all... We've made it!

Connie: Bitch muthafuckas.*

Bobby: Oh snap. Valentine Becomes Eclectic not kosher?

Me: I'm gonna print two copies of this notice. One to frame, and the other with which to wipe my ass.

Juliet: This is exactly why I need to quit my shitty job.

Zully: This is the way the IFPI shows love on Valentine's.

Connie: Fuck 'em bitchas.*

And an update:

I finally checked my hotmail after a couple of days, and it turns out the offending track was Spiritualized's "Soul on Fire." It has been automatically deleted from my box.net account, but the process to get the repost looks fucking scary, so I think I'm just gonna do a new post without the offending track, because, and I think you'll agree with me here, that artwork was TITS.

*Connie didn't actually say anything about the matter, but I'm sure this is what she was thinking.