Posts tagged so much this

Uh, the thing that gets the most media coverage is essentially the equivalent of a bar fight, right? It’s, uh, Kim Kardashian’s ass or Charlie Sheen’s crazy, or you know, name the celebrity…Demi Moore now is having trouble and the world becomes fixated on these people because, um, America thinks that being rich is actually the way to go, and they think that being famous is actually the way to go. That’s what we’re told and that’s what television does, and that’s what movies do. And it’s the idea that like, the self is not important—what’s important is trying to be someone that you’re not. And I think that it’s the exact opposite that’s important in life.

And you know everybody knows this too but its cloudy, fucking cloudy. Looking at magazines and seeing people be rich, and famous, and successful and thinking “I wanna be that person,” but I think what’s really important is the fucked up unique people that we are as individuals. And I think that society keeps telling us that that’s not it, that if you fix your nose or you lose weight or you do whatever the fuck, it’s better and that you need to be somebody that you’re not, when really I think that we all need to teach our kids and teach ourselves that actually being the person you are is actually the most important thing you can do. I don’t want my kid growing up thinking, fucking, that he or she is not the coolest person in the world, you know what I’m saying? That they’re not like—who they are in their weird, wacky—if they have a fucked up nose, or if they’re…like…not good at math, but they’re, you know—if they’re—that kind of unique shit. Playing music you see it more and more, right? I play music and every time I write a song I think, “I’m trying so hard to clear away the shit,” and it’s so hard to write what’s just actually in you.

So I’m not preaching in any way, I’m just saying like as people every day we have to get up and we have to try really hard to be our unique selves. And if people tell us that that’s not cool, then those are the people we don’t fucking hang out with. Seriously, cleaning up the plate a little bit. You don’t need that many friends. So I wrote this song in the hopes that—I wrote it for myself, for those days where you feel like being you is not enough and that’s actually not true at all.

Matt Nathanson, Before “All We Are” (1.29.2012)

Lee Jeffries is an accountant from Manchester by profession but for the past few years he’s traveled around the world photographing people he encounters on the streets, particularly the homeless.

He spends time getting to know each of his subjects before shooting them, which is evident in his work. The breath taking portraits seem to suggest details of each individuals life, taking a hard unflinching look at their personal condition.

Jeffries was just announced as the 2011 Digital Camera Photographer of the Year and you can read more about him at the Independent.

(Via powerofthebeard)

These are, simply put, fantastic.

I rarely post two mp3’s back to back but this is literally blowing my mind right now. I’d never heard of John Hearts Jackie before 30 minutes ago but they just earned a fan. This is an amazing Prince cover. Okay, going back to hit replay. That is all.

For about a week now I’ve had Fantasies by Canadian indie rockers Metric in heavy rotation. It’s crazy the way things—or maybe people—evolve; the way an album can resonate at a completely different frequency depending on what’s going on in your life. When I first got into this album back in ‘09 I couldn’t get enough of fast-paced, Emily Haines-going-hard over the clang of drums and guitars tracks like “Gold Guns Girls” and “Sick Muse,” but recently it’s been the more subdued offerings like “Gimme Sympathy” that have really struck a cord. The video happens to kick ass also with Emily Haines taking turns rotating out with various band members.

Get hot
Get too close to the flame; wild open space
Talk like an open book
Sign me up

Bonus: I was torn between posting two versions of this song, so here’s the epic acoustic version.

A friend of mine and I often discuss—usually after a few beers—how badass our fathers are. Yours probably is too. Think about it. He wasn’t always “dad.” At some point in the space-time continuum, he was just a guy; a guy who listened to rock music, played stick ball, loved Star Wars, drank shitty beer and wouldn’t hesitate to throw down in defense of his friends or his girl. Your dad didn’t listen to Clapton or The Stones because it was “classic” rock, he listened to it was rock and it kicked ass. He didn’t drink PBR , wear Chucks and ringer-tees because they were “vintage,” he did it because that’s just how he lived. That’s why I was psyched when I came across Dad’s Are The Original Hipsters a website dedicated to proving that anything awesome you’ve done, your old man has done already—and done with style. dadsaretheoriginalhipster:You hipsters couldn’t sip from the same mug as your father. Your coffee is sweetened with unrefined sugar from a fair trade farm in small town South America where the workers are paid a living wage. His was black. You top off your lattes with a non-fat, non-dairy, soy, vegan foam. Your dad doesn’t know what a fucking latte is, nor does he give a shit to find out. He drank coffee to wake up, not so he could have a free place to steal internet while bitching about all the political change that needs to happen. So hipsters, next time you want to be a perennial bad-ass, reach for some Folgers and harden the fuck up.  Some of my favorites things “Dad Did before You”Didn’t Give a FuckWore Chuck TaylorsHad Unkempt hairPlayed guitar

A friend of mine and I often discuss—usually after a few beers—how badass our fathers are. Yours probably is too. Think about it. He wasn’t always “dad.” At some point in the space-time continuum, he was just a guy; a guy who listened to rock music, played stick ball, loved Star Wars, drank shitty beer and wouldn’t hesitate to throw down in defense of his friends or his girl. Your dad didn’t listen to Clapton or The Stones because it was “classic” rock, he listened to it was rock and it kicked ass. He didn’t drink PBR , wear Chucks and ringer-tees because they were “vintage,” he did it because that’s just how he lived.

That’s why I was psyched when I came across Dad’s Are The Original Hipsters a website dedicated to proving that anything awesome you’ve done, your old man has done already—and done with style.

dadsaretheoriginalhipster:
You hipsters couldn’t sip from the same mug as your father. Your coffee is sweetened with unrefined sugar from a fair trade farm in small town South America where the workers are paid a living wage. His was black. You top off your lattes with a non-fat, non-dairy, soy, vegan foam. Your dad doesn’t know what a fucking latte is, nor does he give a shit to find out. He drank coffee to wake up, not so he could have a free place to steal internet while bitching about all the political change that needs to happen. So hipsters, next time you want to be a perennial bad-ass, reach for some Folgers and harden the fuck up. 

Some of my favorites things “Dad Did before You”
Didn’t Give a Fuck
Wore Chuck Taylors
Had Unkempt hair
Played guitar

I can believe things that are true and things that aren’t true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they’re true or not. I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen - I believe that people are perfectable, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkled lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women. I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone’s ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state. I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste. I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we’ll all be wiped out by the common cold like martians in War of the Worlds. I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman. I believe that mankind’s destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it’s aerodynamically impossible for a bumble bee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there’s a cat in a box somewhere who’s alive and dead at the same time (although if they don’t ever open the box to feed it it’ll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself. I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn’t even know that I’m alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck. I believe that anyone who says sex is overrated just hasn’t done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what’s going on will lie about the little things too. I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman’s right to choose, a baby’s right to live, that while all human life is sacred there’s nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system. I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you’re alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.” — Neil Gaiman American Gods

I can believe things that are true and things that aren’t true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they’re true or not.

I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen - I believe that people are perfectable, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkled lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women.

I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone’s ass.

I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state.

I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste.

I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we’ll all be wiped out by the common cold like martians in War of the Worlds.

I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman.

I believe that mankind’s destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it’s aerodynamically impossible for a bumble bee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there’s a cat in a box somewhere who’s alive and dead at the same time (although if they don’t ever open the box to feed it it’ll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself.

I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn’t even know that I’m alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck.

I believe that anyone who says sex is overrated just hasn’t done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what’s going on will lie about the little things too.

I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman’s right to choose, a baby’s right to live, that while all human life is sacred there’s nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system.

I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you’re alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.”

— Neil Gaiman American Gods

If you were to throw one part Mars Bar—the East Village’s dingiest and best dive bar—and one part “Internet Killed the Radio Star” by The Limousines into a blender and take a photograph of the result, it would be this picture. Sidenote: NYC-goers, get over to Mars Bar before it’s doors close for good.

If you were to throw one part Mars Bar—the East Village’s dingiest and best dive bar—and one part “Internet Killed the Radio Star” by The Limousines into a blender and take a photograph of the result, it would be this picture.

Sidenote: NYC-goers, get over to Mars Bar before it’s doors close for good.

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

51 plays

Matt Nathanson has just released “Faster,” first track off his upcoming album, Modern Love. As Matt put it in his email, it features “a little Bo Diddley in the beat, a little sexy time in the lyrics,and some horns thrown in for good measure—cause who doesn’t like horns?!” You can grab it free here by entering code: MNFASTER

Coming in at just under two minutes of awesomeness, “You Wouldn’t Have to Ask,” is the song that first turned me on to Bad Books. Beginning as a way to kill boredom for Brooklyn singer-songwriter Kevin Devine and Manchester Orchestra front-man Andy Hull, Bad Books has become a mini indie supergroup in it’s own right when Hull brought in his bandmates to help flesh out the songs.

The differences between Hull and Devine’s approaches to writing music—Hull runs more on instinct whereas Devine, a Fordham English major, has been known to linger for hours over a single word choice—appears to have pushed both writers to break new creative ground. Their self-titled debut album packs a more noticeable pop aesthetic and energy than either Devine or Hull have shown before and the fans seem to approve; the album currently has five stars on Amazon with 10/13 reviews being 5/5 and the remaining three being 4/5.

Oh, and the video itself is pretty classy, giving a nod to the 1964 Ed Sullivan performance by The Beatles.

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

1,252 plays

Lupe Fiaso, released two singles off of his much anticipated Lasers album this month—hear ‘em at PMA—which got me listening to his last album, The Cool. One of my favorite tracks off that album, “Superstar,” features Grammy nominated Matthew Santos on guitar and vocals. Here’s the live acoustic version they recorded for BBC’s Radio 1.