On the way to Boston on the Bolt Bus (which is pretty awesome usually, but today the wireles internet isn’t working so I’m trying to do this on my phone, so it’s got to be short). Enjoy the weekend!
Pretty much everyone has already seen this video from Andy Samberg and the rest of the Lonely Planet crew, but joint is amazing so why not watch it again? We’re on a bus and, we’re making posts and..
Lonely Planet – I’m on a Boat (ft. T-Pain):
-ev2bk
Filed under Jam of the Day
Sadly, it looks like someone has finally Kill[ed] Bill in real life too. The actor David Carradine, who had many movie roles throughout a long career but was arguably most famous for being the star of the 1970’s show Kung Fu, has been found dead (hanged) in his hotel room in Bangkok. Although it hasn’t been “officially” confirmed as a suicide, I’m relatively certain that no one really has any serious doubts given that “there was no sign that he had been assaulted.” ***SEE UPDATES TO THIS POST IN COMMENTS***
I never really watched the Kung Fu series or it’s reincarnation as Kung Fu: The Legend Continues in the 80s and 90s, but I was a huge fan of the Kill Bill movies, and it’s always sad to hear about someone taking their own life. Pour a sip on the concrete.
As a tribute to the late actor’s most recent box office triumph as Bill, today’s Jam of the Day is one of my favorite tracks from Kill Bill, “About Her.” The song grabs a portion of Bessie Smith’s “St. Louis Blues” and also happens to sample one of my favorite songs of all time, “She’s Not There” by the Zombies. Quentin Tarantino picked up this trip-hop gem from Malcolm McLaren, who is more well-known as the former manager of both the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls than as a solo artist. But hey, he’s doing something special on this record.
Malcolm McLaren – About Her:
-Drew
Filed under Jam of the Day
This afternoon, President Obama made his first trip to Saudi Arabia. This trip marks the beginning of his five-day visit to the Middle East, where he hopes to talk to the powers that be about improving relations between the Muslim world and the United States. He also hopes to have discussions that will lead to real progress towards diffusing the ticking-time-bomb that surrounds the strained relationship between the Arab world and Israel. This visit to Saudi Arabia comes on the eve of President Obama’s highly anticipated speech to the Muslim world in Cairo. Many are optimistic about the visit and have high hopes for what the Obama administration will accomplish. From the Times: “Officials in Saudi Arabia and Egypt said that Mr. Obama had already made progress on his Middle East agenda, having restored some confidence that the United States is interested in and serious about pushing for a Middle East settlement.” It’s been one crisis after another for Obama since January, it seems, so let’s hope that things go smoothly.
The Dave Matthews Band has also had a tough year so far. One of their founding members, saxophonist LeRoi Moore, died last August from complications from an ATV accident at his farm. The title of their latest album, just released this week, “Big Whisky and the GrooGrux King,” is in memoriam of LeRoi’s nickname, Grux. Since their formation in 1991, the jam band has released 7 studio albums, 9 live albums and 3 independent albums, including “The Lillywhite Sessions,” which, in my opinion, is one of their best. This latest album has fittingly dark undertones, and sounds much gloomier than the Dave Matthews Band that I remember from my high school days of concert party buses and happy open-ended jams.
The album release coincided with a concert on Monday at the Beacon Theater here in NYC, a much smaller venue than the stadiums that they most often play on their long summer tours. Their international tour kicked off with a concert at Fenway Park in Boston in May and won’t end until October at the Austin City Limits Festival.
You can listen to “Big Whisky and the GrooGrux King” in it’s entirety here.
The brand new album doesn’t have any fun videos to go with it yet but this haunting song, Time Bomb, is worth a listen.
Dave Matthews Band – Time Bomb:
-Melissa
Filed under Jam of the Day
As you may have seen or heard by now, probably the most talked-about moment of Sunday night’s 2009 MTV Movie Awards was when Sasha Baron Cohen’s character Bruno landed on top of Eminem with his ass-crack right smack in dude’s grill. Since Youtube wants to make you sign in in order to prove you’re over 18 to view it, and other sites seem to keep taking it down, here’s a link to the clip via Gawker.
Watching live, at first I thought that maybe Em has really toned it down and was thinking that a walk-out seemed like a mild reaction to Bruno’s “poopnsack” being thrust inches from your mouth, as opposed to, say, punching Bruno in the face. But then, as Gawker was quick to point out today, you might notice that Eminem has been miked so that his reaction can be heard by the audience, and also that the camera’s had already panned to Eminem even before Bruno started to “fall.”
Indeed, last night one of the writers of the show, Scott Aukerman, revealed on his Tumblr page that the entire stunt was staged, and that Eminem had even participated in a practice run-through prior to the actual performance with Cohen.
So, duh, Cohen’s Bruno is slated to premiere in July, and Eminem’s Relapse came out last month. They both are looking to generate some buzz. And of course, Eminem’s first single from the record, “Crack a Bottle,” is all about generating a “buzz” of a different breed. But what of the new implications with the “crack”??? And did you notice Dr. Dre spitting something ’bout “I’m an itch they can’t scratch” in the second verse? I’m just saying.
Also, this video is mad creepy and weird, so I’m just posting the audio over some fan video.
Eminem – Crack a Bottle (ft. Dr. Dre and 50 Cent):
Oh, and in case you haven’t seen the Bruno trailer yet, do yourself a favor:
-Drew
Filed under Jam of the Day
Sometimes, it’s got to be a sad JOTD. A flight leaving from Rio de Janeiro and heading to Paris apparently has disappeared over the Atlantic after running into a severe electric storm, and all passengers aboard are feared dead at this time. Air France’s website has a link to more information on its homepage. The plane went missing in an area known as the “horse latitudes.” This “‘area of intertropical convergence close to the Equator [is] particularly susceptible to storms and violent wind changes’ said Julien Gourguechon, who has been an Air France pilot for a decade.” (from The New York Times article).
Not many comments from me except to say that this is really sad and deserves a fitting “jam,” so here’s a song from Beirut’s Elephant Gun EP (2007). God speed.
Beirut – Transatlantique:
-Drew
Filed under Jam of the Day
There are all KINDS of things that strike me as silly about this article about “how rapidly the ritual [of hugging] is spreading” among teenagers as the new basic form of greeting, among friends, acquantances, or even (gasp!) “people you don’t even know.” Seriously?
Well, yes, the article does take itself very seriously, thank you. This new prevelance of hugging-as-greeting is described variously as “a grass-roots phenomenon,” “the ‘hello’ of their generation,” and “a rapidly spreading “ritual.” Some elders, like Dona Eichner, provide a sense of perspective: “I hug people I’m close to. But now you’re hugging people you don’t even know. Hugging used to mean something.” And some others, such as junior high Principal Noreen Hajinlian, think it has gone so far as to necessitate a school-wide ban: “It was needless hugging — they are in the hallways before they go to class. It wasn’t a greeting. It was happening all day.” NEEDLESS HUGGING – The Crack of the Aughts.
Apparently, the writer Sarah Kershaw – along with some of these other hug-haters – has never heard of R. Kelly and his timeless masterpiece from 1994, “Bump N Grind,” which provides a strong counter-argument to the idea that there can be something wrong with a little bumping and grinding, let alone hugging your homegirl in the hallway. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t see nothing wrong with it either Kells. Nothing wrong at all.
R. Kelly – Bump N Grind:
-Drew
Filed under Jam of the Day
East Village to Brooklyn 