Dancing kids

There are very few moments in my life where I am impressed but kids. This is in part because they irritate me, but when a young girl can dance in ways that many women twice her age can never hope to learn, I am truly impressed. The girl in this video is probably the best thing I've seen since that little girl from the Missy Elliot video, before she starred in movies and the disney channel. 

It Sucks when Bands You Grew Up with Break Up...

(old school pic of the band)

Or go on 'hiatus'. Such is the case for me with the Matches. Growing up in the East Bay, in Northern California, I was around when the Matches were rising in the ranks of the East Bay punk scene. Back in the day they were a great pop-punk band, with very catchy songs and a phenomenally entertaining live show. They eventually signed with Epitaph Records, which in my mind was a bad idea. Epitaph didn't seem to really promote the band well, and as a result they kicked around for a few years until where they are now, about to go on an 'indefinite hiatus', which for any band not called Blink 182 or No Doubt basically means 'breaking up'.

I listened to the Matches throughout high school, when I first discovered them Sophomore year while seeing my friend's silly hardcore band at a Teen community center. After that, I went to every Matches show in the Bay. Before they got signed to Epitaph and went on national tours, the Matches played once a month (at a show called L3 - Live, Loud and Local) at this AWESOME venue called iMusicast. The place, in Oakland, was a really great venue which recorded each set for the bands and was an all-ages hangout for people to gather and watch concerts. The place was eventually forced to close down since any show not featuring the Matches sold horribly, and that was unfortunate, since there really wasn't any other place offering the same type of services in the Bay Area as iMusicast. Local bands played there all the time, and it was a great way to find out about bands you hadn't heard of yet that were from the area. Some national touring bands stopped by every now and then too (such as Rx Bandits and Zebrahead).

Its website is still running, so you can check it out and see how awesome it was (www.imusicast.com). The Matches also basically helped bring the place to popularity, since they played there so often back in the day and brought so many people in as word spread about the band through the Bay Area music scene. They also were incredibly nice guys who would routinely stick around after the shows, and sometimes hit up other concerts in the Bay Area with acoustic guitars and play on the street to whoever would pay attention. It was really cool how they did that.

Well, now they are going on a 'break', but I'm pretty sure this will be the end of the band. They've been pretty quiet for a few years now, and their last album (A Band in Hope) wasn't nearly as good as the previous two were. So, I'm kinda sad deep down inside, since I had such high expectations for them. Their pop punk songs were so good, but as they got older they veered into weird experimental stuff that while interesting, wasn't really the same type of stuff that got me into the band.

Anyway, here's a video of "Sick Little Suicide", one of my favorite songs of theirs off of the album E. Von Dahl Killed the Locals. They had self-released this album, but when Epitaph picked them up they remastered it and released it on that label.



After that album, they released Decomposer, which was a pretty eclectic album of a bunch of different styles. Epitaph somewhat ran a big promotional campaign for this album, as the band was on Warped Tour and a bunch of other tours and things. The album didn't do really well commercially, though, which wasn't a good sign. Here's the video for "Papercut Skin":



Not very pop-punk ish, but pretty good. They also released a video for this weird slow track called "Salty Eyes", that was also pretty good but definitely not pop punk.



The next album, A Band in Hope, wasn't really as good as the previous ones, and the general lack of excitement toward that is what I think caused the band to be where it is now. The songs became slowed down and Shawn (singer) started dressing like Johnny Depp. While it was a cool image for a while, I fear they were swallowed up by their own artistry, creating songs that were incredibly strange, extremely ambitious, and basically VERY different in style than what had made them the band they were.

(Band photo circa A Band in Hope era. Justin (bass), on the left, left the band shortly after it was released.)


The band probably isn't for everyone, as I've heardsome complaints about Shawn's voice and such, but to me and countless Bay Area kids who listened to them back in the 2002-2004 era, we didn't notice. We were having too much fun at the shows.

They're going on to different projects (Guitarist Jon DeVoto is going to do a solo band thing, and singer Shawn Harris is working with some band from Australia), and they're playing two "goodbye" shows, one in LA at the Troubadour on 8/22 and one at the Fillmore in San Francisco the next night. I have to go to the SF one, obviously.

I just hope it isn't the last time I see the band live. Here's hoping the 'hiatus' is just that.

Cool New Movie featuring Great Northern and Wallpaper. called "Etienne!"

A great-looking movie will be coming out sometime 2009....written and directed by Jeff Mizushima, "Etienne!" is the tale of a small dwarf hamster, Etienne and his owner, Richard. When Etienne is diagnosed with cancer, Richard takes him on one last adventure up and down California, to show him the world he hasn't seen yet in his short life. Check out the trailer:



Great Northern even has a few scenes in the movie, too. Rachel and Solon play themselves (as you see in the trailer at :51 and 1:54). The band plays a song for Etienne as well. The soundtrack for the movie includes Great Northern, Dan Deacon, Wallpaper., and Happy Hallows.

Here are some pictures from the movie, including a couple shots of Rachel and Solon from Great Northern:


Etienne himself!


Rachel from GN


Solon from GN


Richard and Etienne during their trip


This movie just premiered at the CineVegas International Film Festival, and is now making its rounds through the film festival circuit.

It will be screening tomorrow night in Los Angeles for $12 at the Silent Movie Theater. Get all the info here.

Wanna go? Buy tickets here.



For more information, and to keep up to date with what's going on with the movie, hit up its official site here.

Lun*na Menoh and her Incredible Art

Lun*na Menoh, formerly of Eenie Meenie band Seksu Roba, will be holding a private showing of her new paintings this coming Sunday, July 19. While this viewing is not open to the public, you can still see some of her amazing new works of art in this blog.

This collection is called "A Ring Around the Collar", and it contains Lun*na's portraits of some elaborate outfits worn by various famous musicians over the years, including the Beatles, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, David Bowie, Prince, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, and Kraftwerk, among others. Lun*na is greatly interested with clothes, in fact her website states that, "She not only makes dresses, but also makes objects out of clothing, lectures about clothing, writes about clothing, paints about clothing, makes money to design clothing and spends all her money on clothing." That passion for clothing inevitably sparked the concept of the "Ring Around the Collar" collection, and what resulted were some pretty neat paintings.

Here are some snapshots of the works:

The Beatles


Patti Smith



David Bowie


Prince


Sly Stone


Kraftwerk


Sparks


Bob Dylan


Kurt Cobain



As her biography states on her site, "Lun*na Menoh is a Japanese born Renaissance artist who lives in Los Angeles. Her work deals with fashion, clothing and exposing the invisible thread between performance and fabric by making sculpturisque dresses, paintings, and a series of fashion shows with her conceptual but wearable outfits."

Lun*na has moved on to a new exciting musical project, as well. As it is described on her site, "in 2006 Menoh started her own band called "Jean Paul Yamamoto" featuring her costumes with a combination of art performance, rock n' roll theatrics and intense sounds with the aid of fellow band members ex DEVO drummer Alan Myers and avant-guitarist Shin Kawasaki plus back-up singers/dancers Ayako and Moeko that flirts adventurously with the sound of Pop, Punk, Electro-Funk and Enka."

Check out the Myspace page for Jean Paul Yamamoto here.

Pretty interesting stuff, huh?

Cars are SO outdated.

Nobody uses cars anymore. It's all about mobile devices.

Duh.

http://www.nissanusa.com/cube/

Things You Must Experience on the Internet

So these are some of the wonders of the internet that I believe everyone should experience at some point...Sooner rather that later.

1. The Grape Stomp Lady



2. The Evil Eye Baby


3. Post Secret: http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

4. David After the Dentist



5. Frozen Grand Central



6.Susan Boyle



7. FML: http://www.fmylife.com/

8. Julia Dales Beatboxes



9. Chubby Cuppy Cake Boy



10. The T-Mobile Dance

Education Time!

Second semester senior year of high school one of my teachers gave the seniors an option to either take a test or do a project instead. I chose to take the test because his tests were possibly the easiest things ever, but some of my classmates chose to join forces and make a video of everything that was gonna be covered on the test. They came up with the following rap video. Needless to say, I think they all got As on this. 

Anyway, now that you're all educated in awesomeness I am going to share another fact with you. This kinda ruined my freshman year of college, but I feel like everyone needs to know. Finding Nemo is a lie. When a female clownfish dies, the male clownfish will change sex. This means that Marlin should be a girl in the movie. He clearly isn't. Don't get too depressed.

In other news, I have a video to make everything better.

Treat Me Like Your Mother

Okay, I swear my posts won't be about something Jack White-related every day....but this video is overflowing with bizarre-ness, so I just have to share it. It's the video for the Dead Weather's new single. check it:

The Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother


senseless/pointless violence shot in what looks like a field next to a little middle-class neighborhood. I get it. I think? oh who am I kidding, it's just random.

The Painful and Neon-Colored Death of Popular Music....

I'm not that old. I'm only 24, but I fear I'm already out of tune with the changing trends in what passes as "popular music" today. I steadfastly refuse to believe that this is just a case of "those damn kids and their music", and that I'm just out of sync with the changing trends and climate of what people enjoy listening to. I'm not some cranky old coot on my porch stuck in my ways. I'm not this guy:



What I'm referring to with this bloated diatribe is the craptacular new "genre" of music considered CRUNK CORE. I don't even know if this is the 'actual' name of the type of 'music' to which I am referring, but it's the name I commonly see on the Interwebz.

This type of music has garnered a troubling amount of attention in the past few months, both positive and negative. The main examples of "bands" that "play" this "music" (see my overuse of quotations to mock the genre even further) include such visionaries as:

brokeNCYDE. Half the name is upper case, the other half lower case because they're so tortured or cool or creative or something. I blogged about brokeNCYDE back when I first heard about them a few months ago, but now that I realize they're not the only group who plays this kind of garbage I felt inclined to mention them again.

Well, brokeNCYDE took it upon themselves, as upper-class white guys from New Mexico, to match up club-style rap songs with deplorable lyrics such as

"ONE! TWO! We’re coming for you. THREE! FOUR! Lock your door. FIVE! SIX! Suck on my d***. BROKENCYDE WILL NEVER DIE! "

So yeah, you get the picture. The worst thing about this group is that it's apparently not a joke. I saw them at Warped last week and they kept yelling at the 'haters' and acted all tough-guy in their skinny jeans and bandannas. It was pretty painful to witness on many levels, mostly about the kids who actually ate it all up and were enjoying themselves. I watched a 16 year old girl sing along with those above lyrics and I physically felt like I was beginning to die. But I digress.

Another proponent of this CrunkCore disease is



Millionaires. Three trashy teenage girls who dance choreographed routines to a DJ spinning repetitive and stupid beats of the lowest common denominator. They "sing" about the same stuff as brokeNCYDE, with songs such as the poignantly titled "Just got Paid, Let's Get Laid".

Why anyone gives these tramps the time of day (let alone a MAJOR LABEL RECORD CONTRACT) is beyond me. But wait - it gets worse!




Breathe Carolina. I don't know as much about them as the others, but they are the same type of crap. Stupid annoying neon shirts and faux-Kanye shades, with trite dance beats and insulting lyrics delivered by two goons hawking cliche Emo haircuts.




I'll also mention 3Oh!3 in this, mostly because they play dance/rap/emo and they just had the NUMBER ONE SONG IN AMERICA last week, with their 'jam' "Don't Trust Me". Unlike their cohorts mentioned above, 3Oh!3's song is catchy but also throwaway and stupid, concerning never trusting a ho.


The only thing that seems to make 3Oh!3 different from the rest is that it seems like they might actually know it's all a joke. Their songs seem self-aware and admittedly silly, which at least helps me think that they realize it's all a big joke. I could be wrong, and giving them too much credit, but for now I'll assume that's the case. Unlike some of the other groups mentioned here.


I also just stumbled upon this, which just might be the funniest music video I've ever seen:

I have often wondered how people determine what is important enough to be posted on youtube. This video makes it clear that it is the lessons and knowledge provided within the video that determines its value. 

So what have you learned after this video? That yes, there are people in this world that really have nothing better to do with their time, but least it's semi entertaining. Oh, and Burger KIng is better than McDonald's

Jack White Never Stops

Man, Jack White is EVERYWHERE. I haven't really been a huge White Stripes fan, but I dig their music.....well, everyone knows he also is in the Raconteurs, which is a pretty solid band itself. Now he's also in this weird new band The Dead Weather, in which he plays drums (I think)....well, in his quest to be the most tireless rock star not named Dave Grohl, Jack is going to be in a documentary soon, called "It Might Get Loud". I just saw a preview of this movie last week while seeing the movie "Moon", and it looks pretty neat.



Basically, "It Might Get Loud" is a documentary about the history and evolution of the electric guitar.....it focuses on Jack,

Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin and.......

The Edge from U2. I understand Jack and Jimmy being in the movie, since Jimmy Page was in LED ZEPPELIN and he's a legend and all that, and Jack White is pretty much one of the leading guitarists/rock innovators out today, but The Edge? He's made a 25-year career off of laying into the effects pedals, with the SAME FREAKIN GUITAR SOUND the entire time....pretty much the antithesis of evolution....I don't mean to diss him too much, but he isn't quite of the same pedigree as other "classic" guitarists..I guess it's okay if they're going to discuss The Edge in terms of his style of guitar, which is different from Jimmy Page and Jack White....so in that regard it makes some sense.

Regardless, I'm looking forward to "It Might Get Loud", but based on what I saw on the preview, I think they should have invested time in a different guitarist besides the Edge....but whatever.

And yeah, Jack White seems to be everywhere. That WAS the main point of this blog, until it devolved into shameless Edge-bashing. Oh well.

Go listen to the Raconteurs. I am right now.

yay 90s music!!!

As a shameless 90s' fan, I have always loved Third Eye Blind....well they have a new album Ursa Major due out next month, and the video for the first single "Don't Believe a Word" just came out....it's pretty cool. It's like stop-motion animation, but they used hundreds of still photos and edited it all together to make it look cool....which it does. Check it out:

Wurstküche

"A purveyor of exotic sausages"

One Friday evening when I was in downtown taking some photos of some friends for a project in the arts district, I stumbled across this magical place. We were driving back to the freeway when we noticed a huge line. When I saw the name of the place, Wurstküche, I realized it was this place my other friend had told me about a few weeks back. Except he was completely butchering the name and pronouncing it most inappropriately.

It being a Friday night in downtown, parking was impossible. It took us about 20 min to find a spot and it was about 4 blocks away. After finally arriving to the line, we waited about 30 min in line and then got to order. Being famous for their extensive menu of exotic sausages, I was still being plain old me and got the simplest thing on the menu; the bratwurst. So just to get an idea of how exotic their menu is, it ranges from rattlesnake & rabbit sausages to alligator & pork sausages. (Once I tasted the rattlesnake & rabbit sausage and it surprisingly wasn't so bad, just a bit spicy). Once we ordered, we got our order numbers and walked down a long hall to the back of the building where the seating area was.

This place, being of German roots, also carries a vast selection of draft and bottled beers. They even serve liters of beer just like at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich. It was definitely like a beergarden when we got inside except hipsterized Though the inside is pretty small, they still had the long tables with benches and a tiny outside seating area that could only fit about 15 people. It was really dark when we walked into the eating area and the DJ was blasting music. The place was packed. We stood and looked for a spot to sit for a while and then finally spotted a place where the four of us could squeeze in. We only waited about 10 min before they brought us our food. We were definitely pleased with our meals. The place is so good!! We definitely felt a little addicted afterwards. The whole vibe of the place was fun. It had good music, fun people, and great food and drinks!

I feel kinda weird for writing a blog about this one food place, but its so good! (and I'm sorry to all the vegetarians that read this!) Me being 50% German, this place was a great find. So I definitely recommend this place!

Here's the link; check it out!

http://www.wurstkucherestaurant.com/index.html