My feeling’s on jj’s sophomore LP are similar to those on Vampire Weekend’s — it’s just kind of more of the same. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s not really anything worthy of note.
Last year’s debut jj n° 2 (n° 1 was a two-track single that preceded n° 2 by three months) was a breath of fresh caribbean air, perfectly timed with its summer release to bring good vibrations and drinks with tiny umbrellas in them.
n° 3 certainly starts off strong. Opening piano ballad “my life” has singer Elin Kastlander reaching for a lower register in a brooding “Dear Lord, you took so many of my people, I’m just wondering why you haven’t taken my life? What the hell am I doing right?” This all-too-brief 1:58 hints that this jj release may become more intimate and introspective. And then you are swept up in the swirls or hand drums, strings, bells, and egg shakers that pine for wine coolers.
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05.03.2010
Music
The Olympics are over and it’s time for our misplaced patriotism to be shoved back into its shoebox in favor of original scripted television drama again. God bless America! While I’m of course psyched for tonight’s return of Chuck Meets The Cast Of Superman, I’m more interested in tomorrow night’s premiere of Parenthood, which is odd considering how little I’ve seen advance footage or reviews on the ‘net so far. But rest assured, there are good reasons to be excited for this show. Let’s go over my favorites:
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01.03.2010
Television
Those familiar with Xiu Xiu’s back catalogue will already expect a certain degree of bleak “we are all the world’s filthy disease” lyrics over electronic distortion and gentle acoustic instrumentation. Their seventh full-length, Dear God, I Hate Myself, will not break those expectations. As the title suggests, Xiu Xiu mastermind Jamie Stewart is still the sad sack he’s always been. Within the first fifteen seconds of hitting play, he’s already whimpered out “Beat-beat me to death. I said it. Beat-beat me to death.” Yes, the same themes of broken hearts and self-hatred are here again, but it seems Jamie is reveling in the fun of emotion rather than the despair of it this time.
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25.02.2010
Music
chuleta says no one is going to play joanna fucking newsom on her turntable and she will cancel the goddamn book club meeting if she has to
I was alerted earlier this week to the existence of Hipster Puppies. All are adorably dead-on in their portrayal of… well… my demographic, but the one at right seemed particularly lovable. It reminded me of one of my favorite lyrics during college, from Ninja High School’s “Shake It Off” (as heard in this terrible quality YouTube bootleg):
And who put on Devendra Banhart anyway? I thought someone here was interested in partying, we can’t do that now.
Aww, aren’t they adorable?
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24.02.2010
WTF
When Keita Takahashi’s Noby Noby Boy hit the Playstation3 last year, it immediately warmed my heart with just how much it encouraged the user to play, a word that most game developers seem to have forgotten. While most critics and gamers wrote it off as a failed experiment, I named Noby Noby Boy my fourth favorite game of 2009. Now it’s on the iPhone… sort of. I can hardly emphasize enough how COMPLETELY different the experience is. The portable version of Noby Noby Boy is less of a game and more of an alternate interface for the iPhone, with camera, mail, web browser, map, music player et cetera included, just with goofy characters floating around. The features of the app are somewhat brilliantly portrayed here in this series of videos from the Noby office wherein puppets, dolls, and toys have a board meeting to discuss what their app should do:
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23.02.2010
Videogames
Mary Huang is one of those “artist” types. You know the kind – comes up with some grand creative idea, produces it, no practical commercial application for it, winds up in galleries and presentations and award ceremonies, rinse and repeat. Her current project is called TYPEFACE and it’s flipping fantastic. Described as “custom software that translates facial dimensions into generative font design,” Mary has essentially created one type family with an infinite number of members, customized by whomever is using it and their face. Continue Reading..
22.02.2010
Art
ISO50's fourth volley from week twelve of spring 2009's Layer Tennis.
Shaun Inman's first volley in the spring '09 semifinals, sans-music.
With the Winter Olympics upon us, it’s an easy time to get swept up in the spirit of friendly competition. A little competition inspires us to be better than we usually are, and tends to inspire onlookers in the process. And so, while Shaun White and Apolo Ohno continue their press tours in Vancouver, designers and illustrators around the world will gather in front of their computers tomorrow afternoon for the opening bout in a brand new season of Coudal’s Layer Tennis.
The concept is simple. Two artists enter – they send “volleys” of graphic art back and forth, with fifteen minutes for each return – after ten rounds, the match is called and judges declare a winner. There is no prize outside of bragging rights and new friendships. We played a very similar game in college, but we called it Photoshop Street Fighter. We were punks, these guys are masters.
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18.02.2010
Art
Long before the VH1 series of the same name, I often announced how much I loved the ’80s. The audacious fashion, the experimental atmosphere, the dancing… I romanticized it all, frequently to the mockery of my classmates. Matthew Good was being facetious when he sang “I Miss New Wave,” but I found a good deal of sentiment to agree with in his lyrics ironically singing the praises of over-indulgence.
Back in 2002, when Interpol released Turn On The Bright Lights, likeminded pop music enthusiasts and I celebrated the return of new wave. There was more to the light-hearted, freewheeling mystique of 1980′s alternative rock than Joy Division, however, so the new wave revival was left incomplete. New York synth-pop duo Shy Child’s new album Liquid Love doesn’t fill in the rest of the potential ’80s revival, but it does at least plug up a Depeche Mode-sized hole.
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17.02.2010
Music
Peter Parker is living in a halfway home for teenage superheroes. He works the register at a mall food court burger joint. The police cheer him on as Spider-Man when six months ago they considered him one of the most wanted criminals in the city, a development that makes him uncomfortable. He’s had more girlfriends than any nerd in pop culture history outside of maybe Val Kilmer’s character in Real Genius. Everyone knows what high school Spider-Man goes to, yet he somehow still manages to keep his identity somewhat secret. Inexplicably, even with all the costume crimefighting, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man fills all the gaps that watching Glee leaves in feeling just like a teenager all over again.
Let’s back up a moment and explain how we got here…
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16.02.2010
Comics
I tend to lose interest in “reality tv” shows after a couple of seasons. The third seasons of Rock of Love was horrendous, sixth season of Project Runway was painfully boring and Last Comic Standing lost all its charm when they stopped making the comedians live together, but I loved everything that preceded those events on all three.
With VH1 playing in the background while working last week a commercial came on for the seventh season of Celebrity Fit Club. Seventh. Oh lord, this can’t be good. Casting former dancer and guy-who-finally-turned-Britney-Spears-into-straight-up-trailer-trash Kevin Federline against longtime sitcom actress and KFed’s baby momma Shar Jackson is clearly the hype magnet VH1 is banking on this season, completely ignoring the already-tired-on-the-reality-scene washed up music stars Bobby Brown and Sebastian Bach, but I was sold when I realized the sassy dude with glasses in the promo was none other than Project Runway winner Jay McCarroll. Apparently Jay isn’t famous enough to actually get namedropped in the promo, but he’s known to be as entertaining as two well-dressed koalas fighting over a pack of eucalyptus cigarettes with only interpretive dance as their weapons. Dammit, VH1, you’ve done it again (although that koala show would be pretty sweet). Alright, let’s give this a shot…
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15.02.2010
Television
