Listen:“It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me” by Billy Joel from Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II
View: Image search results for It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me - above image is from the 2nd page of results (and was originally from HERE).
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EAR FARM’s Hit-or-miss is a weekly feature (every Tuesday) wherein the EF music library is put on shuffle, the song that plays is then searched (using the song title) on Google images and a resulting photo (plus an MP3 of the song) is posted. You can see all of EAR FARM’s Hit-or-miss posts thus far right HERE.
Let’s face it, after trekking from Cleveland to New York in a single afternoon - only to be greeted by several hours of rush hour gridlock nastiness - the last thing the gypsy gents of Bombadil probably wanted on Friday evening was to be stuck in EAR FARM’s inquisitive crosshairs. And lucky for them, the traffic jam actually saved them; the original plan was for all of us to meet up early and commence a friendly Q&A over a few drinks. The traffic gods had other plans though, mercifully spitting them out of the Holland Tunnel and onwards to the Living Room with no time for interrogation and only moments to spare before delivering another blisteringly awe-inspiring set. Yes, they had momentarily dodged our questions, but for how long?
About 24 hours….Bryan Rahija - guitar, vocals, dapper suit - was good enough to answer our 10 burning questions via email the following day (as well as show us a clip of their tour documentary, see below) just in time to add a little Bombadil to your Monday. Enjoy! Read more…
This week has seen the passing of a friend as we’ve all had to come to grips with Muxtape being shut down indefinitely by the RIAA. The statement on Muxtape’s site reads: “Muxtape will be unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA.”
While we all knew it was likely coming, it’s not like we were prepared for it. The end of the good times, the Muxtape times. OH MUXTAPE I HARDLY KNEW YOU.
In honor of Muxtape we’ve put together a twelve song mix of 100% free and legal songs that (hopefully) express our sadness, our grief, and our ennui now that we’ve no longer got Muxtape to keep us company. You can click on each song below to listen or download, you’ll have to import each song into your own audio player to listen to the full mix in its entirety. What does the future hold for Muxtape, for EAR FARM’s weekly mixes now that there is no Muxtape? It remains to be seen. For now, all we’ve got is the mix below and our memories.
Join EAR FARM’s Community for a link to download the entire mix as a ZIP.
EAR FARM’s Muxtape #22: In Memoriam - Muxtape
1. “This Is Goodbye” by The Monolators
2. “Eraser” by No Age
3. “Where Do You Run To?” by Vivian Girls
4. “Disarm” (Smashing Pumpkins cover) by Amy Miriello
5. “Nothing Can Come Between Us” by Obi Best
6. “Broken Machine” by The New Up
7. “Wait A While” by The Mojomatics
8. “Will You Return?” by The Avett Brothers
9. “Are We All Forgotten?” by Paper Route
10. “Crying” (Roy Orbison cover) by The Morning Benders
11. “Why Do These Parties Always End The Same Way?” by Benji Hughes
12. “See Ya When We See Ya” by Patrick Bower
*above picture from HERE
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A Muxtape was a simple way to create and share mixtapes. We create and share a brand new mix each week on Friday morning, regardless of whether or not Muxtape is alive and working. Check out all of the EAR FARM Weekly Mixes HERE.
“Echelon” by Erik Syntax which clocks in at 8:20.
What is this? It seems I’ve unwittingly come across a secret society….a secret society of over two million people apparently, but a clandestine order nonetheless.
Are you ready for this? What if I were to tell you this society was accruing influence and disseminating propaganda via the following potent cocktail: a popular “music” cable television station whose demographic is, say, ages 12-21, a hunky actor cum emo musician, and a sloppily applied Latin catchphrase/slogan. You wouldn’t believe me, would you? I know, I wouldn’t have believed it either, until I fell down the rabbit hole a few days ago….
You see, it all started this past Sunday afternoon when I came across one of the many news pieces about the absurd $30 million lawsuit Virgin had brought against 30 Seconds To Mars – quick catchup for those who don’t know: 30 Seconds To Mars = the crappy, pompous band fronted by Jared Leto - for allegedly failing to deliver a new record on time. Sure, the sheer lunacy of a giant record company suing a band for such an astounding sum of money is fodder for endless analysis, speculation, and commentary, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about. What captured my attention was the lead photograph in this particular piece:
That my friend is 30 Seconds To Mars’ logo staring you in the face; a bit “involved”, yes? But lest the crop circle symbols orbiting the phoenix’s (or whatever winged creature that may be there) armpits distract you, take a gander at the Latin phrase on the underside of the logo.
Provehito In Altum.
Whoa. I found Leto’s arrogance in ascribing his vanity project its own Latin catchphrase captivating. I needed to know more and raced to find a translation to such pomposity. A quick Google search yielded the following: “reach for the heights,” or “launch forth into the deep.”
Meh. It seemed like a fairly hackneyed inspirational slogan, the kind you might find in your guidance counselor’s office hanging next to another poster of a cat hanging off the branch amidst the superimposed text “Hang in there!” Boring, right? I checked again to see if there were any alternate translations. And this is when I stumbled upon a conversational thread within the official 30 Seconds To Mars Forum (the “Pantheon” is what it’s haughtily called). A user named “Wake Up (!)” posted this message:
okay, so im getting a tattoo w/ “provehito in altum” on it and so i talked to a latin teacher today. he said that altum was correct and all, ya know to move foward (either heaven or hell/ up or down). anyways, he said that he didnt recognize “provehito”. it is a latin word, but it isnt the right ending
all in all, the meaning is correct, but the question is whther it is latin or not or if its either correct or not
Now, I’m not one to judge; in fact, I initially applauded “Wake Up (!)” for doing his/her research before eternally committing ink to skin. But then, after another user wrote back and said it must be okay since it’s the motto for “some university”, “Wake Up (!)” responded…
thanks. but i know what it means, i just thought it was weird that he said it wasn’t the right ending and that it was a command, not just a sentence.
but iehter way im getting it tomorrow at 1pm
Whaaa? Either (iehter) way you’re getting it? Meaning if it’s the correct translation you’re getting it, and if it means “Jared Leto sack gargle” you’re still going to get it? What’s going on here? These people were….committed. To Leto. To the Pantheon. To garbled Latin phrases.
Surely, there was some explanation. Delving further into the unwinding mystery, I found an MTV video interview with the dark sorceror himself, Jared Leto. If you have seven minutes to kill and have a high threshold for bullshit, watch below (if not, just skip over and keep reading):
Jesus he talks a lot, doesn’t he? I mean, he barely lets his bandmates get in a single word. Amidst all the grandiose self-love spewing from his eyeliner’d visage, did you catch that part in there around the 1:20 mark in which he spoke about the band’s fanbase? About how they’re a close-knit family who skulks across the country like Grateful Dead fans of yore? What was that name he just used for this “family”?
ECHELON.
Creepy. Nice try using benevolent associations with Jerry Garcia, but to me Echelon seemed less dancing bears and more MindHead from Bowfinger.
Want more proof? Hell, the internet’s full of proof. How about the YouTube video of another Echelon member (Echelonian? Echelonite?) getting the Provehito logo on her wrist?
Or what about this fiery response to a post on Best Week Ever comparing Clay Aiken fans (“Claymaniacs”) to Jared Leto fans (“Letotics”):
don’t bash the echelon…fuckfaces…. says:
August 11th, 2006 at 12:22 am
i am soooooooooo with the “letotics” as you put it. which is extremely lame by the way. i agree with anyone and everyone who says that clay aiken’s a homo. he can deny it all he wants…i think everyone knows he is but him. The Echelon, which i am proudly a member of, is not a bunch of “pseudo-goth” kids…if you saw me you probably wouldn’t even think that i went to their concerts and rocked out as hard as i fucking could.you shouldn’t be talking shit unless you go to a show and see how dedicated we really are. And don’t start talking shit on the Echelon because we are not crazy people who speak their own language. provehito in altum means march forth into the deep and maybe it means nothing to you, but it means something to me and the rest of the echelon. We are a family and we know that..we will support them as much as we possibly can whether you dumbshits like it or not.
PROVEHITO IN ALTUM [ECHELON]
Hey, this is serious. 30 Seconds to Mars has sold over two million albums! Do you know how many potential Echelonianites that translates to (hint: over two million)? And it gets worse; it appears that 30 Seconds From Mars has just been nominated for a Video Music Award, which means that come September 7th, Leto’s going to have access to the master tweenage pulpit (MTV) from which to address his minions. Don’t be surprised when the audio broadcast cuts out and you hear the very Norwegian dance song contained within this 8+ pump through your television and brainwash you into becoming one of them. Echelon Echelon Echelon, say it fast and it even starts to sound like a techno beat.
So let me offer a bit of cautious advice to the folks at Virgin Records….back off, man! Stop that lawsuit now! If you keep it up, Leto is going to unleash the entire Echelon army upon you. In Fight Club, the secret society members had mangled faces and visible injuries that gave their identity away fairly obviously; in Echelon, it’s a bit more subtle. Look closely for the Provehito In Altum tattoo. And when you see it, run for the hills. Echelon Provehito In Altum!
Buy Prima Norsk 2: Groovy Norwegian House Music HERE
*above photo from HERE
EAR FARM’s 8+ is a weekly feature that showcases songs longer than 8 minutes. Click HERE to see the songs recently featured in EF’s 8+.
Below you will find a list of some of our favorite music-focused sites on the web, one for each letter of the alphabet. Though this can not be viewed as a complete list (some letters are bigger (and better) than others, which means many quality sites have been left off), this list does in fact feature twenty six of the best music sites in the world, covering a variety of styles, formats, and genres. Please leave suggestions of your own favorites, or ones that should’ve been included here, in the comments.
Allmusic.com - though it’s often one of the slowest loading sites on the web, it’s also one of the most comprehensive. An essential visit for information about nearly any musician/music industry type who has ever be involved in making a record.
BrooklynVegan - if you can refrain from getting sucked into the mindless vortex of the comment section, BrooklynVegan is worthy of multiple daily visits to find out who is/has played New York area shows and to find out other pertinent musical (with an indie slant) news and events. Consistently solid photos and mini-features that are getting better and better.
Contrast Podcast - The Contrast Podcast started in March 2006 and has seen the production of one episode each week since then, usually published on Tuesdays. The podcast works like this: a theme is chosen and then a variety of contributors choose songs based on that theme and record witty and interesting spoken introductions which they send to Tim Young who compiles them into a lovely podcast.
Daytrotter - slowly becoming today’s version of the Peel Sessions, this site compiles fantastic live sessions with artists at Futureappletree Studio One in downtown Rock Island, Ill. The Session Archive should keep you happily busy for a month or so.
Elbo.ws - this music blog aggregator tracks the posts on thousands of sites and reproduces them as snippets with tagged MP3s. If you’re looking for a song online, start here. It’s well designed and essential.
Fluxblog - the Godfather of music blogging, Matthew Perpetua posts about songs and the occasional live show with equal parts personality and nerdy insight. Great taste to boot.
Gorilla vs. Bear - want to keep up with all of the in-the-know middle America Joneses and see a few backstage Polaroids of musicians too? Then this is your site. It’s got a great taste filter that continually assures quality music is being posted.
Heartonastick - not always strictly about music, and not updated as often as I’d like… but still, J from Heartonastick is one of the best writers out there when he’s on. Also, a refreshingly competent researcher and scourer of the internets. Good times.
Idolator - some of the posts feel as though the staff is being whipped by a slave master who is forcing them to pump out post after post after post. SOME. However, the rest of the articles make up for the drivel as they feature breaking news, lists, links, and (often) seriously well thought out essays.
John Peel Everyday - currently undergoing some technical difficulties but “back soon”, this site posts recordings of old John Peel radio shows because, as the author puts it, “I miss John Peel every day and I know I’m not alone in this”.
KEXP - one of the top radio stations on the planet that lets you listen live online. Their programming is top notch.
Largehearted Boy - daily news bits, daily (legal) MP3s, the best new release tracker online, and frequent features on books and reading make this one of my very most favorites sites. Once you start reading you’re sure to go back every day.
Merry Swankster - great writing from a staff that’s spread out across the country… in a world of alllooksames this site stands out.
NYC Taper - records New York area shows and posts them as FLACs and MP3s for users to download. Top notch bootleg sound. If you go to a show in NYC check in here to see if they’ve attended as well - it makes for a great way to relive that amazing concert.
Oh My Rockness - New York, LA, and Chicago music fans should be checking this site for continually updated concert listings. If you like indie rock, they’ve got you covered.
Pitchfork TV - forget about the other Pitchfork, this one’s where the good shit is happening. Goodbye MTV. Hello Pitchfork TV!
Quiet Color - it’s a new one, but Quiet Color is showing promise with good taste, tons of updates, and some rather well put together words, stills, and videos.
RollingStone - inching towards irrelevance, this deity of music journalism is still worth visiting in online form, at the very least, because of their searchable archives.
Said the Gramophone - good writing is often hard to find when it comes to music sites. When it comes to Said the Gramophone, you’ll find good writing and great music posted nearly every day.
Tiny Mix Tapes - swell design, good writing, articles, reviews, features, and the old trusty Automatic Mix Tape Generator keep this site ranking very high on my list of favorites.
Uncensored Interview - is “a broadband video platform for indie music artists and fans to be seen and heard in their truest form - uncensored and real.” Basically, it rules.
Vulture - NY Magazine’s entertainment blog covers music news, live shows, rumors, lists, celebrity sightings, and leaks. Worth a visit once a week.
WOXY - “the future of rock and roll” is still alive and well online. Easily the best radio station that I’ve ever heard.
XLR8R - reviews, news, features, MP3s, videos… this site has it all. Plus, it’s also published as a magazine. Hot.
You Ain’t No Picasso - ever want to know what your average college aged Midwestern American male music nerd is listening to? Check out You Ain’t No Picasso.
ZME Music - comprehensive blog covering a very wide variety of genres and styles but focusing on the more popular bands out there, ZME Music is well-designed and has a few features worth keeping an eye on (such as the apparently deceased Wednesday Smiler Jerker).
*front image from HERE.
Listen:“Cataloguing Candy’s Demise” by Hallelujah The Hills from Prepare To Qualify EP
View: Image search results for Cataloguing Candy’s Demise - above image is from the 1st page of results (and was originally from HERE).
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EAR FARM’s Hit-or-miss is a weekly feature (every Tuesday) wherein the EF music library is put on shuffle, the song that plays is then searched (using the song title) on Google images and a resulting photo (plus an MP3 of the song) is posted. You can see all of EAR FARM’s Hit-or-miss posts thus far right HERE.
Madonna turned the big 5-0 this past Saturday and while EAR FARM did nothing “official” to mark the occasion, you better believe much of the weekend was dedicated to an appreciation of her music, video, and fashion skills. The main focus: her entire catalog.
While perusing Rolling Stone’s Top 50 Albums of All Time and listening to her fifth studio album, Erotica, something occurred to me. Read more…
Watch even the slightest bit of 2008 Olympics coverage on TV and you’re bound to be inundated by him. Michael Phelps: champion of champions. Read more…
“Kissing the Beehive” by Wolf Parade which clocks in at 10:53.
The Schmidt Sting Pain Index is a pain scale rating the relative pain caused by different Hymenopteran stings (wasps, bees, ants, etc.). The index starts from 0 for stings that are completely ineffective against humans and finishes at 4 for the most painful stings. In the original study, some descriptions of the most painful examples were given, e.g.: “Paraponera clavata stings induced immediate, excruciating pain and numbness to pencil-point pressure, as well as trembling in the form of a totally uncontrollable urge to shake the affected part.”
Subsequently, the scale has been refined. In 1990 a new study was published that classifies the stings of 78 species and 41 genera of Hymenoptera. Notably, Schmidt described some of the experiences in vivid and colorful detail:
1.2 Fire ant: Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet & reaching for the light switch.
2.0 Bald-faced hornet: Rich, hearty, slightly crunchy. Similar to getting your hand mashed in a revolving door.
2.x Honey bee and European hornet: Like a matchhead that flips off and burns on your skin.
2.0 Yellowjacket: Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine W. C. Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue.
The silly comparisons go on, but we’ll stop there. For it is that final stinging Hymenoptera with which we’re most concerned today: the Yellowjacket. More specifically, those Vespula maculifrons (the Eastern Yellowjacket) which build concealed nests, usually underground.
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Summer. August even, likely 1987. Yes, definitely. August 1987, hot as SHIT. It seemed hotter then than it does now. Not over extended periods of time, but just in spikes. Like, most days were probably in the low 90s, but this one day the temperature was around 140. That’s what it felt like at least. I remember, my friend Jay and I (name not changed, he deserves to be outed for what he did) were doing some work for his uncle to earn money. The job: move massive amounts of firewood from waaay over on one side of the house to waaay over on the complete, opposite, side. Seemed like busy work, prison work, even then. But hey, the pay was phenomenal. Fifty bucks! Fifty dollars each! An entire treasure chest full of loot to the two of us. Money that we were planning to use to go to Carowinds (and by “go” I mean have one of our moms drive us there) and/or buy some more Oakley sunglasses. Or, money that we’d find a way to spend on some manner of self-indulgently carefree material reward. Really, though we were working, we had no need for extra cash.
We also had no need to go fishing after our work was done. It wasn’t as if we needed to catch food for our families, or wasn’t as though we’d know what to do with the fish if/when we caught one. We’d struggle to grab a hold of it, take some rusty pair of pliers, and wrangle the hook out of its cheek before sending it off to be caught again by us the following week. The circle of life in a small suburban lake.
Okay. So, we also had no business jumping into that hidden little lake we were about to fish -it was a small adventure reaching it, down a path not traveled in years and through some thick brush- no business at all swimming there. It was still very pure and natural, not the kind of place one wants to swim. And Jay’s house, about a quarter of a mile down the road, had a swimming pool. An obvious target for two overworked sweaty youths. But no. We were hot and exhausted and ready for an adventure -always ready for an adventure- and jumping into that lake for the first time ever was the best thing we could come up with. In the past we’d stood on the edge and looked into the murky shallows but we never jumped in. All of that was going to change on this day.
So there we were, adventuring into the known wilderness. Towards Mount Lakemanjaro…fishing poles, swim trunks, tackle boxes and bait in hand. Come to think of it, I’m not certain we thought much of the impact that our swimming might have on the environment. Specifically, that it might’ve severely hindered our chances to catch any fish if we, say, jumped into the lake and splashed around a bit before trying to fish there. But, that’s what we did. We had to, because it was there; and, had never been done before. At least not by any kids we knew who’d lived to tell of it. The jumping into the lake was the daring part of our adventure, the bit that caused that day to go down in history as legendary was accidental. But, no less, legendary.
After an extremely quick dip into the water we setup a spot on the other side for the fishing part of our adventure (it’s worth noting that this might’ve actually been a pond…it was pretty small and unkempt…but there were fish there, and, to us, it was a lake). Not many fish had been caught in this spot, but word was that there were a few bigguns in there to be had, so we decided to use Jay’s lucky frog lure. The thing was magic, worked every time. And believe it or not, it worked almost as soon as it landed in the water this time.
“I got one! Shit! It’s huuuge!” Jay exclaimed. He reeled it in with difficulty but then realized it wasn’t coming out of the water without a net. “Here, you take the pole and hold it there. I’ll run home and grab a net.”
No problem. I stood with the beast as Jay’s fishing pole bent severely under its weight. It was BIG. But it wasn’t going anywhere, and by the time Jay returned it had little to no fight left in it.
“What the…?!” I questioned when he showed up with the net.
“It’s all I could find, watch out,” he said, moving me out of the way and taking the fishing pole. The net he’d returned with wasn’t just any net, it was a net with a ten foot long pole attached to it. The net that his dad used to clean the swimming pool. We both laughed at the incongruous nature of the situation as he struggled to get the fish into the net.
“You want some help?”
“No, I think I got…” he didn’t even finish what he was saying. Mid-sentence the awkward swimming pool net dropped like a seesaw with only one kid on it, the end of the pole landing right at my feet. In under a second I was covered, swarmed, attacked by a nest full of yellowjackets. Remember: Eastern Yellowjackets build concealed nests, usually underground; or, right next to where I was standing.
“Bees!!! Aaaaargh!!!” I screamed. Loudly, as loud as I ever have. I probably said a swear word or three before I took off running towards Jay’s house. The stings were happening in rapid-fire fashion. I could tell that some of the bees were stinging me over and over again. It felt like I was getting shot by a miniature .50 caliber machine gun as they attacked my chest, my face, my ears…everywhere. There were some caught in my bathing suit stinging away and some flying next to me as I ran, darting in for stings like kamikazes dive-bombing a battleship. Though I was in some form of mild shock, and probably not fully feeling what was happening to me, the pain was still outrageous. I couldn’t outrun them but I kept running, swatting in the air as I ran. Jay was right behind me screaming. We both were. That quarter mile to Jay’s house suddenly felt like five hundred miles.
What a sight it must’ve been for his mom when we finally reached home. She was already outside as we ran up screaming and crying and trying to tell her what had happened. Quickly she ushered us over to the garden hose and had us strip down. Bees fell off of us as we removed our clothes. Some hung there on our bodies, dead. Stinger in place: nest successfully defended. An honorable death.
The water from the hose felt like fire. Or our wounds did, something. All I remember thinking was “it’s not stopping, it HURTS!”
Once we got hosed down and put some dry clothes on we did the only thing we could. Sitting there, shocked, moaning and groaning, we tallied up our individual scores. Who was stung more?? An important question that needed answering. I secretly wished for my own mother to take a little extra time in arriving to pick me up so that we might finish counting. I had a feeling I was going to come out on top. The “winner”?
Jay: “21, 22… 25, I think. I have 25.”
Me: “42? No. 45, 46, 47? Is that…no, that’s just one big sting. So that’s 46? I have 46!”
Forty-six. That day, back in the summer of 1987, I was stung forty-six times by yellowjackets and lived to tell the tale. Ever since then I’ve felt a connection with bees and wasps. Closer to them. They no longer frighten me at all, and back when it happened I secretly hoped the experience would turn me into some kind of superhero. Shoot, Spider-Man was only bitten once. Me? There were stings everywhere. I figured I deserved some powers or something as a result, but ultimately, I was probably very lucky to come out of it as relatively unscathed as I did. I mean, I stood there right over a massive yellowjacket nest when it had a huge metal pole come smashing down upon it and the entire hive attacked ME, the intruder. Fair enough. Can’t go kissing a beehive and not expect to get stung.
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For the record, in regards to that Schmidt Sting Pain Index, I was in fact stung in my mouth. And I’d rather have W. C. Fields extinguish a cigar on my tongue than to experience the horrendous feeling of getting stung on the roof of my mouth again; all the while fearing I’d inhale or swallow the insect before consciously gathering it in my mouth to spit it out as I ran. Awful. And yes, that yellowjacket stung me on the way out too… twice.
Buy At Mount Zoomer on Amazon.
*above photo from HERE, front thumbnail from HERE.
EAR FARM’s 8+ is a weekly feature that showcases songs longer than 8 minutes. Click HERE to see the songs recently featured in EF’s 8+.
Listen:“Comfy In Nautica” by Panda Bear from Person Pitch
View: Image search results for Comfy In Nautica - above image is from the 14th page of results (and was originally from HERE).
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EAR FARM’s Hit-or-miss is a weekly feature (every Tuesday) wherein the EF music library is put on shuffle, the song that plays is then searched (using the song title) on Google images and a resulting photo (plus an MP3 of the song) is posted. You can see all of EAR FARM’s Hit-or-miss posts thus far right HERE.
A recent article over on the Townhall Blog portrays John McCain’s usage of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears in a campaign ad as a tactical maneuever based not on any nefarious political precedents but rather on a model established in the 90s…..by Aerosmith. Come again?
Well it actually makes a lot of sense, especially when considering the following:
“Heading into the early 90s, they (Aerosmith) had to be wondering how they could possibly compete in the MTV video age with up-and-coming stars like Eddie Vedder and Kirk Kurt Cobain — guys who were half their age. Their answer was to cast two beautiful young actresses, Alicia Silverstone and Liv Tyler to star in the videos. Meanwhile, Steve Tyler, Joe Perry — and the other Aerosmith guys — were, more or less, in the background of these videos. It worked; the videos for Cryin’, Amazing, and Crazy were huge hits on MTV — and Aerosmith successfully launched a second (or was it their third) career comeback. By teaming their music with younger images, Aerosmith successfully marketed their music to a new generation who otherwise might have viewed them as old fogies.”
The truth is, if McCain truly did look to Aerosmith for inspiration on how to remain eternally relevant, he honestly could not have picked a better source. They are the undisputed masters of this dark art, hands down. The triple-headed monster of “Cryin’”, “Amazing”, and “Crazy” - and their cousins Doc, Dopey, and Grumpy - was a force of nature; it felt like Aerosmith OWNED MTV during that period. And yet, it only comprises one chapter in their never-ending odyssey towards immortality. In this week’s Countdown, we give you five other trailblazing master strokes of cultural relevancy from the pioneers of public relations, Aerosmith: Read more…
Breakthru Radio got in touch with me last week and asked me to be their Blogger of the Week this week, a title that involves them featuring a few of EAR FARM posts on their site and the recording of a Blogger of the Week radio show. For the radio show they asked me to select some songs from their cleared list of record labels to feature in-between interview segments with me. In doing so, rather than look into the past, I decided to select some favorite songs from the great year that’s been 2008 thus far. Because of the constraints of having to select from their list of cleared music I ended up looking to quite a few (great) albums and bands I haven’t yet had a chance to feature on EAR FARM. So… hopefully the mix below will offer a bit of a different look at some of 2008’s top music (in my opinion). They didn’t end up using the same order, or all of the same songs, you’ll find below, so this should be a fresh experience for anyone who’s already heard the Anatomy of a Blogger show.
For those who haven’t yet, be sure to head over to Breakthru Radio and check out DJ DoseU’s Anatomy of a Blogger show to listen to the interview segment with me and to hear me recite (yikes) that favorite quote from The Goonies that featured so prominently on the old site.
***Listen to my version of the mix (aka this week’s muxtape) HERE***
Join EAR FARM’s Community for a link to download the entire extended mix as a ZIP. It’s twenty songs long and includes tracks from Man Man, Billy Bragg, No Age, She & Him, and more, in addition to what you’ll hear over on EAR FARM’s muxtape.
EAR FARM’s Muxtape #20: Top Songs from 2008 for Breakthru Radio
1. “No Lucifer” by British Sea Power
2. “From” by Dr. Dog
3. “Your Protector” by Fleet Foxes
4. “Fatalist Palmistry” by Why?
5. “Bang Your Drum” by Wolf Parade
6. “Liferz” by Blood on the Walls
7. “Barnacle Goose” by Born Ruffians
8. “Far Away” by Cut Copy
9. “Aloyisius Bluegrass Drummer” by Silver Jews
10. “Burnout Babies” by Sybris
11. “Inside a Boy” by My Brightest Diamond
12. “We Swim” by Islands
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A Muxtape is a simple way to create and share mixtapes. We create and share a brand new one each week on Friday morning. That’s all there is to it. Feel free to share your own mix in the comments. Check out all of the EAR FARM Weekly Mixes HERE.
“Six Days At The Bottom Of The Ocean” by Explosions In The Sky which clocks in at 8:43.
If Olympic subplots of human rights violations and superhuman quests for eight gold medals haven’t really been doing it for you, perhaps you’d rather peruse the torrent of self-reflexive, media-focused stories polluting newswires like smog on the Beijing skyline. Welcome to the “Metalympics.”
Here you’ll find some of the following topics of varying urgency and importance: NBC is doing an admirable job in expanding its Olympic coverage, NBC will undoubtedly do a terrible job in its coverage, NBC’s viewers should boycott the Olympics and send a message to China, McCain is outspending Obama on advertisements aired on NBC during the Olympics, and oh right, of course, NBC’s viewers should be careful of coming across spoilers when watching the Olympics.
Lost in all of these tangential stories and pseudo-stories about NBC’s broadcast and online coverage is an honest assessment over one of THE most important aspects of watching the Olympics on television: MUSIC (what did you think it was going to be? We’re a music site, remember?)
The most applicable Olympic-music article I’ve come across came nearly three months ago in the June issue of Fast Company. This piece, “Strike Up The Band”, profiles the duo behind Audiobrain, a New York-based “sound-branding” firm entrusted with the enviable task of providing the soundtrack to the Beijing Games.
Their jobs sound amazing. Basically, they are the puppet masters manipulating and yanking at your heartstrings at precisely the right moment with precisely the right song. Matching moments like Muhammad Ali’s lighting of the torch in 1996’s opening ceremonies to an applicable bed of music may not sound like rocket science (more “Chariots of Fire”, less “Nookie” duh), but its impact on the overall viewing experience cannot be underestimated, at least according to the Fast Company piece:
No matter how immune consumers may believe they are to these kind of audio cues, they’re not made out of wood: Positive sounds have a 65% chance of changing listeners’ moods, according to sensory branding expert Martin Lindstrom.
Turns out we are all slaves to the music. Now, here are some more facts. Fact: The days of NBC embedding every human-interest story, athlete profile, daily recap, and medal ceremony throughout the Olympics with maudlin and dramatic musical swells are far from over. And though the network is making the move to expand its coverage online (which will hopefully mean we can bypass and avoid some of the more drawn-out human-interest pieces that regularly dominate the games), NBC’s primetime coverage will still dictate storylines and tell us how to feel, all of which will be delivered against sappy strains of music. So congratulations Audiobrain, your jobs are safe.
Fact: NBC and all of its affiliate networks and websites will be airing 3,600 hours of Olympic-related programming this month, which means that Audiobrain and NBC have to compile over 30,000 musical tracks to accompany every possible moment, emotion, victory, upset or defeat that could transpire over this period of time.
Fact: That’s a lot of work.
EAR FARM wants to make things easy on NBC, easy on Audiobrain, and most importantly, easy on the viewers. That’s why we propose that Explosions In The Sky be considered as NBC’s house band for the Olympics. It’s oh so simple; get them on the next plane out to Beijing, clear a corner of NBC’s Olympic Studios, set them up and let them play! Just like Max Weinberg, Kevin Eubanks and Paul Shaffer manage to puncture every flailing joke and awkward moment of late-night programming with a perfectly placed musical stinger, so will Explosions bring the inherent drama of the Games to the forefront by playing LIVE and in studio. Couple these live performances with the band’s entire pre-existing back catalog - which NBC could license in its entirety and use whenever appropriate - and we’ve got ourselves an instant Olympics soundtrack.
Not surprisingly, there’s a longstanding synergy that exists among the band, NBC, and televised athletics. As most are aware, Explosions’ music figures heavily into NBC’s critically adored series Friday Night Lights, adding just as much depth and texture to the show as the actors’ performances and authentic locations. Of course, the show is based on the 2004 film Friday Night Lights - in turn based on the Buzz Bissinger book of the same name – which Explosions not only scored but also contributed a few pre-existing tracks (including “Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean”). “Six Days” was also used by HBO in an episode of the documentary series Mayweather-Hatton 24/7 (more sports programming) while NBC has used brief pieces of other Explosions songs in several of its NFL broadcasts (more sports, more NBC).
So it’s really a no-brainer; they’re the perfect fit. Oh, but one last thing NBC, it may be best to save “Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean” as musical accompaniment for those moments in Beijing that occur outside of the pool. Consider guitarist Mark Smith’s explanation of the song’s meaning to the Austin Chronicle and you’ll see what I mean:
“It was written around the story of the Kursk, the Russian sub that sank to the bottom of the ocean. We were imagining what it was like to be those men at the bottom of the sea, trapped and desperate, running out of oxygen. [The song] gallops, getting faster and more intense until it just stops, and you breathe your last breath.”
Good to know, right? Opening ceremonies commence tomorrow evening. Let’s get them over there already. USA! USA! Explosions In The Sky! Explosions In The Sky!
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*above photo from HERE
EAR FARM’s 8+ is a weekly feature that showcases songs longer than 8 minutes. Click HERE to see the songs recently featured in EF’s 8+.
Sexuality: perhaps the last frontier in the neuroscientific field of Things Deep In Our Hearts That Confuse And Scare Us That We Have To Confront Someday But Not Just Yet. “Sexuality is not simply an attribute one has or a disposition or a patterned set of inclinations. It is a mode of being disposed toward others, including in the mode of fantasy, and sometimes only in the mode of fantasy.” So says Judith Butler in Undoing Gender, arguing that sexuality and even gender itself are big, fat lies, performances not grounded in anatomical reality—and not just in Bangkok, right here in God’s America. To which I say, where do you draw the line between performed and real, Judith Butler? Date My Mom? Ohio State v. Michigan? Rock Band??
These are questions we in Music Video Studies now must grapple with, like it or not, thanks to Katy Perry. With the June release of “I Kissed a Girl” to the YouTubed masses, Ms. Perry seemingly flaunts her “disposition” in a gold lamé muffin-wrapper dress. In the video, as you see, she’s able to “try on” her newfound mode of being in an environment safe from men, dark colors, and normative sexual constructs. “It’s just human nature,” she coos, unconvincingly. Sounding like an ebullient, beautiful songbird trapped inside a talkbox, Perry prances across two whole sets with a cadre of carefully-selected-to-include-all-the-races women. The camera cuts, at intervals, to close-ups of breasts, bare legs, and the like, helpfully reminding the viewer that there are appealing aspects of women. At 2:08, a pillow fight develops. Pretty anodyne lipstick (or indeed, cherry chapstick) lesbian fare, but that’s all right—we eagerly anticipate the song title’s all-but-promised money shot…er, resolution of the discourse of sexual subject reification.
Spoiler alert: I am about to disclose the details of the titular girl-kissing. 2:49, alllllll right, here we go. 2:52, she’s in bed, should be any second now… 2:58, she’s…wait, is that…is that a man in bed with her? 3:05, it’s over. Tee-hee, it was all a dream! No girls were kissed in the filming of this music video! Are you serious? Are you truly serious, Katy Perry? Not a split-second of mouth-to-mouth? Like you, dear reader, I approached this video with just one modest but resolute expectation: the kissing of a girl (and at least a simulation of liking it would have been an added bonus, certainly). This foulest of deceptions is like buying an ice cream cake, but when you cut it open, it’s filled with bees instead. Or, maybe not bees, but it’s filled with regular old cake filling, which in some ways is almost worse, since no one’s going to care about your stupid mislabeled-ice-cream-cake story unless there are bees involved. “I Kissed a Girl” is a video that delivers neither bees nor delicious ice cream filling.
Back in the warm and comforting bosom of heteronormativity, Ms. Perry, we find in the end, was simply in the mode of fantasy, as J-But herself might have predicted.
But this isn’t the first time Perry has interrogated our performances of sexuality. Another winner of a Katy Perry original “Ur [sic] So Gay,” set against a backdrop of blue sky and Super Mario World smiley-face clouds, gives mellifluous voice to thousands of mute Facebook wall posts; indeed, the more cumbersome working title was “OMG Ur So Gay.”
The casting choice in this stop-action gem is an apt one. The gay in question is a soy-loving Ken doll who drives a hybrid (why? Try a word association: hybrid > electric transportation > trolleys > San Francisco > Treaty of San Francisco officially ending World War II > gay). He primps, he pouts, he posts pensive self-portraits on his MySpace. He gives cupped-hand high-fives to dudes, which is the gay terrorist fist jab. Meanwhile his would-be Barbie cuts and dyes her hair, to no avail, for in the dramatic final scene, all is revealed, Ken-wise: below the belt, there is a void. Barbie is thrown for a loop of course, but just beyond the scene sits Judith Butler, looking all smug.
Where “I Kissed a Girl” is frustratingly murky on the subject of how gay one should or should not be (”felt so wrong,” but then consider: “felt so right”) and the extent to which one should like that, “Ur So Gay” is refreshingly unequivocal. Girls, forget these dickless, shiraz-guzzling, environment-caring-about homos, Ms. Perry advises. A real man greets his girl with a heart full of Pepe Lopez and a head full of I’ll stay out however the fuck late I want and you know there should be a bowl of cookie dough waiting for me when I get home, woman.