tim and eric really nailed my life post-spring break

GOATs

officially hyped on new N.E.R.D. music

N.E.R.D. Live At The Levi's/Fader Fort from The FADER on Vimeo.

Fader dudes give you a sufficient breakdown of the N.E.R.D. stage antics, but I'd like to add that their band sounds real next level, all spazzed out and shit. I love it. Wasn't feeling "Everyone Nose" at first but it's grown on me and now I actually think it's kinda awesome. I love that Pharrell is really into just rocking out but at the same time getting real weird...makes Gnarls Barkley look like a couple of pussies.

Side note: the third guy, Shay, does he just go into hibernation and come out for new N.E.R.D. albums?? what's his deal?

check out my Muxtape yo

here is my Muxtape. listen to it and be blown away, or maybe have it on really quiet while you do something else, or maybe gather round the computer with your family like it's an old fireside chat with Fdr.

and here is a Maxell XLII, the greatest cassette tape on which I ever recorded countless hours of Grateful Dead live shows:

barack obama X baltimore club

boomp3.com

probably the most amazing thing I've ever heard. Apparently chopped up samples of some nut job preacher from Harlem named Pastor Manning who's got a big thing for hating on Barry, Bmore-ified by DJ Excel... So Dope! If I can find I a link I'll drop this every night until November (or the convention...)!!

apparently this guy RONDO is pretty good...

COLD

poured over the head of a male model

I haven't been that into the Colbert Report lately (and by lately I mean probably the last year or so). When the show first came out I was convinced it was the greatest thing to happen to television since the "info" bar first showed up on my cable channels. and if you don't remember that moment then you're like 13 years old. I remember I called my friend Gustavo (GOOSE THIS IS WHERE THE LINK TO YOUR BLOG WILL GO) for the first episode because I was so excited for this show to premiere. The first year was amazing, and his address to the White House Press Correspondents was one of the funniest moments of the decade. Anyway, it's been a while since I've really LOVED something on the show, but I'm glad I got to see this sketch because it's fucking hilarious and exactly the type of comedy I want to see more of from everybody. This reminds me of classic SNL fake ads from the 90s, and Colbert is definitely a Phil Hartman-worthy successor to the fake-serious throne.

5 years, 4,000 bodies, more bullshit

This mosaic of 4,000 fallen faces by Nico Pitney of the Huffington Post is one of the most sobering, depressing and visceral images I've seen in a while. I think a lot of people like John McCain but are not realizing exactly what he stands for (including myself). Sure, he seems like less of a nut than Cheney and smarter than Bush, but this guy may be a complete warmonger. It's fucking scary to think that because of complete apathy, the competitive dissolution of the once-formidable Democratic force in '08 and the seemingly harmlessness of McCain we could be looking at four more years of Iraq.

Hillary, I love you, but give it up or get the fuck out of the way.

mission of burma gets their shine

Mission of Burma is one of my favorite bands of all time and not just because they're probably THE greatest Boston band ever. When looking back on the progression of my musical tastes over the past few years, something I think I do a little too often, I can trace a pretty significant split to the moment I heard MoB. When I was in high school, my boss and all the dudes that worked at Ace Ticket with me would talk about this band that I had never heard of like they were the lost key to Boston's coolness. I remember thinking from the name that they were some cheesy 80s new wave. Then one day my freshman year in Madison I was in the late great The Den on State St. browsing the CDs and stumbled upon the best of collection A Gun To The Head. My whole listening world basically exploded. They still hold a special place for me even if I don't listen to their Ace of Hearts years that much any more (The Obliterati is the only one I still play), but that's gonna change today when I buy the complete set of reissues.

I honestly don't think I've been this excited to buy a new record in a long time, and it's partly because I'm in LA right now and am going to get my hands on these at my favorite record store in the world, Amoeba. But really, I'm excited because Matador just did this right for so many reasons, and it's great to see a label do something like this for a band that I really love. It feels like an event. Idolator shared a similar enthusiasm for these reissues, but this is more like an event to me. The discs were even remastered by Rick Harte, a pioneer of indie music and one of Boston's most important underground figures, the dude who signed Burma to his label and put out their legendary singles in the early 80s. Even though the band has had one of the most remarkable comebacks ever, it feels good to know that their original material is going to be appreciated all at once like this.

thugged out orthopedic

just a friendly reminder that everyone involved in "Banned From T.V." is the shit...including Swizzy!

the world before "Lollipop"

As I type this, we are dangerously close to finally hearing the first single from The Carter III, Lil Wayne's long-awaited, frequently leaked and delayed sixth album. The first single is a curiously auto-tuned club joint called "Lollipop," the video for which is supposed to premiere on Wednesday on BET. A one-minute snippet has leaked and the track is even more intriguing and off-putting than I had previously thought.

Obviously an attempt to capitalize on the current vocoder and synth craze in hip-pop that has taken over the charts and the clubs, the song is also an effort to reposition Wayne as a solo pop star rather than a sensational mixtape rapper and charismatic guest on other artists' singles. He stands right now on the verge of absolute pop superstardom, a sort of perfect storm of months of hype, hit songs, popular appeal and critical acclaim from the right (white) places: The New Yorker, the New York Times, Pitchfork. Wayne has been notorious for never having really secured a hit single as a solo artist (his biggest hit to date is "Go DJ"), despite declaring himself and willing himself into becoming the "Greatest Rapper Alive." So, in other words, the first single from the new album could make or break it, either sending it to the upper reaches of the pop charts or condemning it to internet acclaim with real world obscurity.

It's truly incredible how risky this move is that Wayne and his people have decided to take with "Lollipop." The song is seemingly contradictory to the persona Weezy created with his Dedication mixtapes and their predecessors, a series of seething, hallucinogenic, ravenously hungry runs of lyricism and lunacy. There is no denying that he could have created a lyrical masterpiece to leak to the streets, release as his first single or whatever (and I'm sure he made many), but this is a curious move, perhaps even a brilliant one.

What Wayne needs is a hit. Plain and simple. If he got too fancy his album would flop, but if he gets too "pop" his die-hard fans (and the rap community) would discredit him. While I haven't heard the whole thing, "Lollipop" seems like it may tread some bizarre line between chick-friendly club pop and weird sonic experimentation with enough RnB flavor to keep enough music heads on board. I mean, the thing is a smash hit, let's face it. Right now, Weezy can almost do no wrong, that is unless he released something like "Gossip" as his first single. "Lollipop" is perfectly timed, coming right off the heels of "Sensual Seduction" and "Low," occupying the same sonic template and popular territory. We'll see if he can keep his dignity after the full thing leaks, depending on how embarrassing a song called "Lollipop" actually gets. But knowing Wayne, it will have some sort of edge of competitiveness, irony, or self-consciousness.

It's also worth noting this summary of the song from Lil Wayne himself: "Dudes are gonna hate this one...Ugly dudes, that is."

I love Will Arnett...and am kinda down for some more Human Giant

This preview of Human Giant's second season is MAD funny. I remember some of the first season being pretty good, but I just don't like Aziz that much. He's not as funny as the other two and I think he may just be funnier as a stand-up. Makes me miss shows like Kids in the Hall...I'll be watching though, I'm sure, so we'll see about Season 2.

Anyway, Will Arnett is the shit and since he played the immortal character G.O.B. he's tried to bring his profile up a little bit, I'm just not so sure how well it's going...

Justice - "DVNO" video...So Me est Dieu.

I have a long, troubled history with Justice. After discovering their remixes (and a bunch more by Sebastian, MSTRKRFT) on a blog called To Here Knows When that I think is now defunct (if you're out there, holler) back in the fall of '05, I followed them pretty closely. I bought the "Waters of Nazareth 12" at MC Audio, then the "Never Be Alone" 12 at TTL in NYC. I had every single leaked track, loved em all. I knew the whole movement was popping off on the internet, but couldn't have guessed what would happen in '07. Then when D.A.N.C.E. came out, it blew up, and I had to backtrack and constantly remind the new jacks that I was up on that shit first! blah blah blah, didn't matter.

So Me never crossed that line, though. Even after directing a video for Kanye West and T-Pain, dude is still holding that spot of dope underground designer who gets crazy attention in magazines and online but hasn't fallen off a bit. Maybe that's because designers don't really blow up ever. Nonetheless, if I could pay him to design my whole life I would (walls, clothes, pills that make me see everything as So Me-animated, EVERYTHING). The videos for "D.A.N.C.E." and "Good Life" were whole new levels of dopeness, even after he dropped ill art for Ed Banger single after single. Now here's a new video for fav. album cut-turned new single(??) "DVNO."

I can't stress enough how incredible I think this shit is. I've spent the past six weeks in a design class realizing how lame my own vision is, trying to come up with logos for myself and site designs. If I could design ONE logo as fresh as any of the fake ones in this video I would be tremendously proud and consider myself a pretty competent designer. This dude killed the retro logo schtick here so hard!!! At first I was skeptical like "More of the same." Nope. Ed Banger and France aren't going anywhere.

Oh yeah. Add this to the list of great So Me sleeves:

hillary will steal the nomination

I'm calling it right now but have been thinking it since before last night's double victory in Ohio and Texas. According to the email that Obama campaign manager David Plouffe sent out today, Clinton only won "a net gain of 4 delegates out of more than 370 delegates available from all the states that voted." So, basically, last night meant nothing. Yet here we are, on March 5, and Clinton is curiously poised for a big comeback, even though we still have almost exactly the same race as we did on Monday.

It doesn't matter how many primaries Obama will win in the next three months(!), Hillary will take the nomination. Superdelegates, legal wrangling, second counts, Michigan and Florida re-primaries, whatever, she will somehow take this nomination away from Obama. I can feel it. This isn't some "too good to be true" shit either. McCain will be president because the Democrats will suck all the air out of this tremendously exciting and invigorating race.

the night I deejayed a music video

On Saturday afternoon, as I nursed my hangover and incredibly bruised left foot after a night with Black Lips, I got a call from someone from the KK. I don't even know who it was. I don't know most of their names. Anyway, the guy told me some rap group was going to film a video that night and I was supposed to play the song three times for them. I obliged and didn't really think much of it. As the night grew closer and I realized that I was actually going to have to DJ and play some song a bunch of times, I worried that this group was gonna suck and the whole night was gonna be even lamer than a normal Beckies-and-Bros Saturday night hoedown at Kollege Klub.

I was wrong. The dudes in Reigny Day Productions were mad cool and more importantly made a dope song. These guys really came off like musicians (especially the dude Reign) as opposed to "rappers" with some wack-ass demo. I was skeptical when I found out the name of the song was "Broadband Love" but shit went off like crazy in KK. I was stunned. And, frankly, I had a great time.

I told them they could do whatever they wanted as long as they put me in the video. I think I was half-joking and half-wasted but they did it anyway!! Look for your boy Mush Kid at around 1:27!!



Gotta give them respect for their hustle, as well. Got a text message from Reign himself alerting me of the video (three-day turnaround!) and telling me to post it on my facebook. That's grinding. Keep making moves!!

notes from a former TVT Records intern, or TVT AIN'T DEAD!

Two summers ago, I was the New Media intern at TVT Records, an independent label with a big, poster-riddled loft office in NoHo on Lafeyette and 4th St. that has been the home for a bizarre collection of artists, some great and some very forgettable. Yesterday, news broke that the company has filed for Chapter 11, which isn't that surprising and really not very tragic. The real news, for me, is that supposedly most of the employees were laid off. The experience was pretty great and I actually really liked the people that worked there, especially compared to the people I met at my previous label internship the summer before at Island/Def Jam. Looking back the internship at TVT could have ] been a lot more beneficial for me if I had taken more advantage of both the actual hands-on experience and the people that worked there. I never really talked to anyone and just sat in the closet-turned-office that I shared with a guy (whose name I forget, but he was chill) who was like some sort of NYC drum'n'bass promoter/expert. If it had been the summer of '07 instead of '06 I probably would have made a lot more friends. But then again, they all would have been fired a few months later!















In a new post he made today, Tom Breihan (I swear I'm not a stan) goes through some of the better albums that TVT has put out over the years and in the process gives a pretty thorough history of the lamented label, one that it probably doesn't even deserve because, like he says, the label never really had a clear identity and thus never offered the music world any defining artistic contribution. They didn't pioneer either industrial or crunk music, they just put it out after both movements had gone through their indie infancies in their respective regions. What he doesn't mention though, and what stuck out most to me while I was there, was the amount of purely laughable products this company put out. While I was there, the big push was behind a Ying Yang Twins side project called Da Muzicians that was made up of one of the dudes from YYT and his brothers or cousins or something like that. Truly embarrassing and unlistenable garbage with retarded singles that never had even a whisper of buzz. There were crappy alt-metal bands like Bobaflex, lame pitchfork-indie bandwagoneers like The Cinematics and The Holloways, some weird danish '60s revivalists called The Blue Van and, of course, The Towers of London, who really took the cake. I can't even begin to describe how shitty this band was, but they had this kind of strange affability and I actually liked them, even though I knew they were the worst Sex Pistols/Motley Crue make-up rock mashup in the world. They had a big following of mostly English girls and supposedly put on a crazy live show. I just uploaded ridiculous videos of them fucking around with little kids and getting in fights with drunk soccer hooligans to YouTube.

Around the same time, TVT put out an album by their Memphis rapper Yo Gotti, who's actuallly a pretty good rapper who has never made it out of the underground despite being on TVT and having appearances from Bun B, 8Ball, Jazze Pha and even Lil Wayne and Birdman (!) on his album Back 2 Da Basics. I have a feeling he was a victim of the same fate that Pitbull complained about, that is, never being cleared for any guest spots or features, which can kill a dude like that who basically only had a Gangsta Grillz and hometown following to build his buzz on. Also at the same time, Lil Jon came out with a new single called "Snap Yo Fingers," a track that was not only ubiquitous in the office all summer but became something of a smash club hit. I spent the summer updating these artists' myspace pages and sending out innocuous bulletins like "Check Out New Pictures of Pitbull!!" and "The Cinematics Live Footage added to indieshows.com!!!"

While the focus of the label definitely was all over the place, and some of the bands sucked really bad, I have no evidence or really any knowledge of their business practices. A lot has been said of owner Steve Gottlieb's shadiness, but I only shared an elevator ride once with the guy. What I do know, though, is that the New Media department did some pretty incredible work. While I was there we were absolutely killing the myspace game at the very height of the site's influence. Lil Jon, especially, was a phenomenon on there, and the guy actually was very involved with updating his pages and promoting "Snap Yo Fingers." He used to send dozens and dozens of photos every week to be uploaded onto his Web site and myspace page while he was out in Vegas working on his album Crunk Rock, WHICH STILL HASN'T COME OUT!!! By the way, the Drum'n'Bass dude whose office I sat in the whole summer is responsible for those artists' sites linked above, and every single page he constructed while I was there was truly dope. Myspace pages that were so much iller than anyone else's, crazy home pages with all sorts of interactivity and cool shit on them. What I'm saying is, I don't know what happened with this label, but it definitely was not the internet promotion.

I do have to call Breihan out on his eulogy of a post, though. Saying "1985-2008" is going a little too far. They might have fired everyone but I'd be willing to bet that the label is NOT dead and gone. Maybe Steve should get a "TVT AIN'T DEAD" chain.

biggest hit of '08?

One of my favorite music writers just did a really great piece on a few tracks from pop megastars' forthcoming albums, a few records that face a drastically different landscape than the last time time people like Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson prepped new projects. One of these stars is Usher, whose last album was a colossal but whose recent leaked track "Dat Girl" was not well-received. I have a feeling that his newest one will be a little different. I'm gonna have to go with Breihan here and predict that this song will be HUGE, and I hope it is. Shit's great. I am not mad at this new synth thing we've got going on in the second half of this decade, and Polow absolutely kills the epic synth cathedral vibe here. This is a white girl panty-dropper in about 2 months, maybe less. Move over "Flashing Lights"/"Good Life," "Sensual Seduction" and "Boots with the fur!!" or "Apple Bottom Jeans!!!!!!!!!" or "Do you have that one by Flow Rider called get lowowowwww?!?" Actually, just move over T-Pain in general! Although, that may be wishful thinking (see "Who The Fuck Is That")... This new Usher's got this end-of-the-night, blissful feeling to it, and I can see it just soaking the club with happiness and sing-a-longs...Mmmmmmm...

I have to wonder whether this could have been ever better with someone like Ludacris on it, or maybe Big Boi? Jeezy does hold his own though.

Usher - "In This Club" ft. Young Jeezy

what better way to kick things off?

Damn. One of the things I love about Kanye is the conviction he puts into every single piece of art that he makes. He treats every release like it's a world event, and most of the time it is. He'll never just let something sneak it's way onto the blogs or the radio. He releases snippets of songs ("Can't Tell Me Nothing," "Stronger") with cover art (!), when he finishes a video he posts a screen shot, and now, before any tour dates have been announced, he hits us with this ill tour poster. No one has figured out this brave new world of Web hype like Kanye West. Maybe it's because everything he does is just so fresh. 

The look is consistent with his newfound adoration for Daft Punk, but this time with a Star Wars theme. It could have come off mad corny, but the dude pulls it off like the pro he is. (I wonder whose design this is? Murakami?) There's a fine line between ripping stuff off and using it as a jump-off point for your aesthetic and Ye has managed thus far to walk it like a tight rope, but let's just hope he can stay away from the pyramid for his stage show. 

Now, I wouldn't normally even bother with thinking about some new big-name, pop superstar tour. I don't think I've ever even been to a show like this. But this one is serious! Rihanna at this point could probably headline her own tour, and she's quickly becoming that one teen pop star who's cool to like. Her songs are actually good and she's gorgeous. Not to mention the return of N*E*R*D* which is both crazy exciting and kind of mind-boggling. Pharrell, who is not only both Kanye's production predecessor and homie but also his equal in the stadium-sized ego division, gets equal billing with Lupe. This tour is gonna be massive and awesome. Has there ever been a more hipster-friendly teenie bopper show???

a new beginning

So I've finally decided to begin blogging again. I had a short run with it a while back, but this time it will be much different. I'm keeping the blatant ineptitude moniker, but I'm gonna publish through this site rather than the one Dan and I set up in order to keep it low-key, more personal. I don't plan on publicizing this among my real-life friends, which would very easily be accomplished with a simple link on my facebook page. Maybe I'll switch it over if anyone actually ever reads this... 

For months, blogging has been one of those "t0-do" things for me, like  joining a gym or something like that. I've been needing some kind of therapeutic intellectual release, and it's pretty silly that I haven't just done it already. I spend all day on the internet, obsessively checking message boards and music blogs. At the same time, I'm constantly kicking myself because I feel I don't write enough, or that I don't have a well-rounded portfolio of published clips. The internet has become both my most time-consuming hobby and the bane of my existence, so I figured maybe if I channeled all the energy I put into traversing the Web into writing I may be able to relieve some of this pent up nervousness I have over finding a job in four short months, etc.

Since this blog is going to be my very own confessional, it's important to know a little bit about me. I'm a senior graduating in May, I'm a journalism major and I tend to write about music mostly, although I have not been doing it as much as I should be lately. I'm also a DJ, so much of what ends up on here will most likely be about the music that saves me from obscurity/insanity/killing myself or everybody else. I'm hoping to become a writer, or at least be involved in some sort of media, whether it is online news, traditional newspaper or magazine or even television writing. I would really love to work for a music culture/lifestyle magazine in NYC, so we'll see over the coming months how that works out. 

Take out your Beretta on 11/1

Billboard reports that R. Kelly will be releasing his TRAPPED IN THE CLOSET mini-opera on DVD on Nov. 1st. Not only will the first five volumes be on the disc, but the next seven, too! I'm fucking excited. Now Max Robbins won't be the most ridiculous thing for us to watch.

Steve-O trashed Derek-style on TV

Steve-O went on the Adam Carolla show, which at press time had not been cancelled, last week. They got the video right here, just click watch now.

Or here.

Weil vs. Sussi

These kids beat the shit out of each other for like half an hour at 4 am on Saturday night...

Michigan

So yeah, we beat Michigan.















This kid is THE biggest duschbag I've ever met in my life. He told me I am going to be working for him in 10 years, then Danny spit in his face.

And then we won.















Sussi and Snyder, post-win.

Quote of the Day

"If you're in a war, instead of throwing a hand grenade at the enemy, throw one of those small pumpkins. Maybe it'll make everyone think how stupid war is, and while they are thinking, you can throw a real grenade at them. "

-Jack Handy

Glazer with with funny hair and Grant at the game

it's an inauguration bitches

Hello. Today is a very special day. We now have a blog. Check here often, especially if you go to UW Madison, and know myself (Matt) and/or Dan. We will most likely mention you and probably make fun of you, too.

A lot of crazy shit goes on in our lives (maybe Danny will share some of his experiences from last night). We're gonna share it with you bastards, cause we love (hate) you all.



The Badgers won today, 5-0....peace

Blatant Ineptitude

Today is only day one!