My front porch is currently being repaired, and that means there is currently (as in, at this very moment) a lot of hammering going on right outside the door. It doesn’t actually bother me, but it did give me an idea for a theme this week. Sometimes inspiration strikes in the strangest places, and sometimes that strike comes from an actual, literal hammer tool.
Well, generally speaking, it appears to be an excruciatingly slow news day. But that doesn't mean we can't scrape together some bits from around the Net with which to wile away the rest of our Monday!
* You may know that Taylor Swift practically annihilated last night's Billboard Music Awards, taking home eight of the 11 trophies for which she was nominated and telling fans, "You are the longest and best relationship I've had." Aww. Well, Babygirl Tay-Tay also happened to catch a glimpse of Justin "I Should Be Taken Seriously" Bieber getting his kissy-face on with Spring Breakers star and on-again-off-again boo Selena Gomez. The moment was immortalized in GIF form, and you can see that over there on the left. Hardly worth mentioning, but here we are!
* Locals Diarrhea Planet just debuted their song "Separations" via Pitchfork. It's a brief, breezy and guitarmony-laden punk-pop number that sounds to me reminiscent of DP cohorts Fucked Up — smitten P4k writer Jayson Greene notes that "three of [the guitarists] seem to be playing the same power chords while the fourth finger-taps 'Muppet Babies' versions of Van Halen solos." "Separations" will be featured on DP's forthcoming LP I'm Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams.
* Plastic Visions just debuted their brand-new eponymous EP via Consequence of Sound. The Visions of course dropped their "Kamikaze" video on Friday, and I called the tune "a snotty, blown-out, three-minute fuzz-pop burner that lands somewhere in the vicinity of Flaming Lips' psychedelic art rock" for the second time. The rest of the EP follows suit, redlining and buzzing through punky arrangements and bratty lyrics.
Did you guys check out any of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield’s videos from outer space? He did a cover version of “Space Oddity” while floating around and that was pretty neat, but I spent hours the other night watching him do mundane yet fascinating tasks like brush his teeth, cry and wring out a washcloth (best one).
Speaking of crying, I did a lot of it, because it’s easy to forget just how freaking cool, and simultaneously close and distant, space travel is. If I can’t time travel, I’d like to at least space travel: spend a day puking amongst the stars, terrified that I’ll die at any moment. I may not “work hard” or “be good at science” or necessarily “deserve” it, but I want it. And — fake out! That’s the theme. Not space (which I concede is very cool), but an even more human desire that can be found over and over in children’s entertainment because kids are just little balls of cuteness sand WANTING: really really yearning for something.
Remember when I whined about moving a few weeks ago? Well, that was nothing compared to the whining I did during and after the Great Move of 2013. I coped with the pain and bodily stress the way normal humans do: by somehow forgetting to eat all day long, calling up Comcast and (deservedly) taking it out on them, and quoting songs. Which songs?
A little over a year ago, I wrote about moving. Well, I'm doing it again. It sucks. It's the worst thing in the world, with the exception of all major human tragedies. I try to be responsible and pare down my belongings to a bare minimum, truly. I don't own that many DVDs or records, though I'm still a little overrun with books, the heaviest of all life's little pleasures. I just bought a new vacuum because I wanted to give the place a very good once-over before I'm gone forever, but it just occurred to me: I now have to pack this thing up and take it with me.
Kids today grow up so fast, except for when they don't. You should embrace your childhood for as long as you can, but also take responsibility as it comes at you. Youth is wasted on the young! Did you know kids born in 2007 are in Kindergarten already? Is this a long-winded way of saying I want to talk about Teen Mom? No, but in retrospect it should have been. Feel free to talk about Teen Mom in the comments, or talk about any of the below songs about that #awkward age between childhood and adulthood.
There are plenty of significant dates in the ol' rock 'n' roll calendar. January 8. March 20. October 9. October 18. February 3, aka The Day the Music Died. But let's focus for a minute on April 9. Yes, 4/09, the day I spent trying to ignore how awesome it was outside until I could peace out and go, y'know, fly a kite and stuff.
Before it was an area code in southeast Texas, before it was a kitchen cleaner, "409" was a huge hunk of metal, a 409-cubic-inch Chevrolet Big-Block engine that dominated stock car racing and the hot rod market in the early 1960s. I could point out how the proliferation of said engines might have an impact on today's balmy weather, but I'd rather focus on its impact on pop music. Feast your ears on The Beach Boys' tribute to the Chevy's mean machine, aptly titled "409." This sunny li'l nugget of pop 'n' roll, drenched in classic doo-wop-inspired harmonies, was the B-side to their first smash hit, "Surfin' Safari," in 1962. As an ode to a fast car, it's nowhere near as complex as their later work (forgoing the easy target, Pet Sounds, just skip a couple tracks down the Surfin' Safari LP to "Heads You Win"), but daydreams of summer were made for these expressions of teenage exuberance. Most contemporary "teenager" songs have to do with another kind of lust, and that's all well and good, but there's a special power in the longing for independence portrayed in this song.
Find a couple of additional "409"-related gems after the jump.
Posted
by Sean Maloney
on Wed, Apr 3, 2013 at 4:27 PM
Gluttony: way more fun than it ought to be! And today we once again gorge ourselves on the about-to-be-broken dreams of the lonely denizens of Craigslist. I ain't gonna lie: I'm not above laughing at the misfortunes, bad pictures and grammatical abominations of people who are willing to post these sorts of things for all to see. Cruel? Maybe. But what is music about besides putting your life, your hopes and your soul on display for the world to see? If you didn't want anybody to know about your failings, misgivings and irreparable personality flaws, why would you post these things on Craiglist? Fucked if I know. And yes, I get it, I'm going to hell for this. C'est la vie.
Now join us as we ask ourselves what the fuck exactly is happening in the Craigslist "Musicians" Community.
“Write what you know” is the adage, and it's one bands tend to follow. That’s why there are so many songs about universals: love, heartache, heartache from love, and doin’ it. It doesn’t hurt to get super-specific though, and tell stories about real events from your life.
The '70s were a great time for that. But the over-the-top bombast or sheer weird earnestness of '70s music tended to overshadow the actual mundane facts at hand. Like what? Like this:
Well, when they're not fending off surprise attacks from ceiling-roving possums, local power-punk sextet Diarrhea Planet is wandering the streets of Austin, spelling out their lyrics for blogs with names like Do Less Meth. See frontman Jordan "Hodan Dickie" Smith clarify the shout-along gang vocals of the DP songs "Raft Nasty" and "Warm Ridin'" in the Do Less video above. "Street rip," eh? I actually thought it was "street rat." Shrug.