Blogisthenewblog

for jess

a little piece of goodness

here’s the back story to this little piece of goodness:

My parents are Jehovah’s Witnesses and so I had a very strict Christian upbringing. There was a suspicion of rock and pop music, and some music, Led Zeppelin in particular, was branded downright evil. The rumor was that if you played Stairway to Heaven in reverse you could hear messages that would urge you to follow the devil’s path. Supposedly even if you listened to the music in a normal manner you would subconsciously pick up these messages and act accordingly. In my early teens, I destroyed some music that I thought I shouldn’t listen to or have at home. Stairway to Heaven was a difficult one for my friends and me. We thought the song and the lyrics were so utterly beautiful and yet we couldn’t listen to it out of fear of what could happen to us if we did. That’s the tension I felt by listening to this record: a teenage attraction to something dangerously beautiful. I am still intrigued how these myths are created and the effect they can have. So I started to learn to sing the song and its lyrics in reverse. After three months the job was done. I went up to the steps outside Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London and performed it for an audience of confused passers-by, pigeons, and a video camera. Back home I reversed the tape and put a karaoke track underneath.

The Best Gay Europop Ever

Prepare to be dazzled.  I don’t know if Army of Lovers was ever known to North America, but I will do my best to spread the word.  Enjoy the sounds of the shameful era of music that was the early 90s:

Don’t be frightened.  Admit you love it.  I’m going to have these songs in my head all day.  Noooooooooooo!

Must See Stevie

I found yet another YouTube pleasure.  Beat Stevie.  Mike Skinner (The Streets) heads it up and sometimes his friends take over.  This one is my favorite, especially when Example takes over and gets laughing and talking nonsense about Twixes in the eyes.  It makes me giddy.  You’ll see what I mean:

Now go waste some time on YouTube and watch them all.  And if you like The Streets you might want to check out Example’s stuff too- www.myspace.com/leadingbyexample

don’t make fun of me, it was a really good song when i was drunk!

way back when i lived in ireland i became obsessed with this random romanian song that, for whatever reason (probably related to the country’s massive alcohol consumption), was very popular. every now and then i search for the song with no luck . . . until today. the song is called “dragostea din tei” and it’s by a brilliant band called ozone.  jackpot:

although the video displays mass amounts of early nineties stylings (which i should know since i’ve been watching a lot of season one 90210 lately) i assure you it was made only a couple of years ago. my main highlights are the sunglasses and the plane wing action. i’m confident that the video will offer you many things to love.

if you’re interested in discovering what the dazzling lyrics mean in english click here. if you feel like starting an ozone fan club let me know cause i’m totally interested!

I want to prance around naked with Britney Spears!

No, not really.

what the fuck’s up ticketmaster?

it’s been a while since i’ve purchased tickets to a show via ticketmaster, i’m totally starting to remember why i avoid them like the plauge. recently i bought tickets to see animal collective. the actual show tickets were around $16 but there was a $4.75 convenience charge tacked on to each ticket, what the hell is the deal with that? i want to go see patrick wolf soon but i can’t justify the “convenience charge”, but i really want to go. i’m leaning towards not buying tickets from them in future but what should i do about the shows i want to go to? is there a way around ticketmaster purchases? where’s pearl jam when you need them?

Britney Obsession Peaks at VMA Performance

Who does not want to talk about this shit? I couldn’t believe that performance. I was awestruck, maybe not so much in a good way, but awestruck. Here are the theories on why it was so painful to watch:

1/ She was drugged up

2/ She had spent the last few nights partying and was all hungover and beat

3/ One of her heels broke

4/ She just hadn’t rehearsed enough

5/ She saw herself on the screens and thought she looked fat and had a self-esteem related meltdown right then and there

6/ She had a mini nervous breakdown from the pressure of her comeback moment

I am going to go with all 6 personally. I don’t know about the heel thing though, but it is possible. It didn’t break right off, but I have had boots like hers where the heel cracked loose at the back and would wobble and sometimes kick forward if you were dancing. Hmmm. So maybe. What’s your guess?

By the way, if you want to see the video, head to mtv.com in the States and mtv.ca in the great white north.

Music Review: Would the Real Ronald Jenkees Please Stand Up?

“Hey Youtubes!”

If you haven’t heard of him, he is Ronald Jenkees.  He makes musical beats with his keyboard and posts them on his video blog at  YouTube (http://youtube.com/ronaldjenkees). ESPN uses some of his stuff in their podcast intros. And he really likes Timbaland.

Sarah and I don’t really know what to make of him. Is he an art student with a crazy styck? Is he an uber-geek? Or is he the real deal? What I do know is I’m buying his CD, check out the track samples on his website, they are quite good.

Peace out!

Update: Ronald is an alter ego, according to this comment. If it is true, I am still a big fan of you, Ben “Ronald Jenkees” Feltes!

Update #2: Not alone in the alter ego theory. Here is a metafilter thread:

This is great. Love the way he throws off the geek and lets out the funk at the keyboard, and especially love what he says about YouTube commenters at the end of the “awesome” video:

There’s about one percent - half a percent - that are actually haters, and uh, those don’t really bother me. At all, really. Most of them make me laugh, cuz, you know, *they* don’t know.

[laughs]

But, *you* know.

[laughs louder]

Let’s Play…

Here’s a little game, like “He loves me, he loves me not” only this is more like “Is it Britney, or is it not.” Right now there are tons of tracks on YouTube claiming to be leaks from Britney’s up and coming new album. I think it is pretty obvious which ones are Britney and which ones aren’t, but you judge for yourself. Here is my opinion:

Britney:

Not Britney:

Either way they are all pretty bad…