Splish Splash

It feels like it's about 100 degrees out today -- too hot to do anything but think cool:



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Girls Talk (about Girl Talk)

Everyone knows that the drunken, rollicking late '70s hit "Girls Talk" (Elvis Costello by way of Dave Edmunds) is totally awesome:



It was only natural therefore, in the twisted world of My Brain's Associations, that P-burgh hipster/ laptop-electronica god Girl Talk (real name: Gregg Gillis) should be equally raucous and pop-tastic.

And he is.

Now, "Girls Talk" and Girl Talk are really completely different entities - the "s" not withstanding -- and Girl Talk was inspired by "Girls Talk" probably about as much as The Mountain Goats were inspired by actual mountain goats (i.e., maybe a little). Even so, there's something to be said for the extremely warm and humorous brand of pop inspired by both, and which makes the latter Girl Talk (no "s") such a incredible, nostalgic indulgence.

Consider:



I have a couple of friends -- mostly of the graphic-tee and dance party variety -- who've been into GT for a couple of years now, and I'd always just assumed Gillis to be your regular brand of beatific Crystal Castles / SMD-type new wave electronica. How wrong I was! (Cue "that's what happens when you assume" joke here.)

Listening to Girl Talk for one hour is like listening to your entire record collection on shuffle, by which I mean, 3 seconds of Boston laid over 2 seconds of Public Enemy, 4 seconds of Tears for Fears mixed with some Eminem, Genesis and Paual Abdul, dalloped with a pinch of Nirvana and the Smashing Pumpkins and finished off with some George Michael.

(Actually, I totally just made this up, but you get the idea.)

Gillis, looking innocent

The transitions are executed perfectly, the sound is flawless, and the whole thing makes you want to jump up, dance and click your heels together with glee. I listened to GT's newest release Feed the Animals on my way to work today and made the journey from Center City to Old City in 15 minutes. This stuff will get you pumping.

DOWNLOAD at Libble

It's my Mother-Fucking Birthday!

(click to enlarge)

Tall, Iced, Mocha Grande Daydream Nation, with Skim Milk

My sophomore year of college, Sonic Youth played Spring Fling. (The whimsical and ethereal Cat Power opened.) The show was booked by the renegade indie kid on the Events Planning Committee, who must have had magical powers (or free drugs!) in order to swing this. Not surprisingly, the line-up was wildly unpopular with the student population, many of whom had never heard of Sonic Youth, and thought "good music" meant hooking up Jimmy Buffet to play from their ipods as they "chilled out, man" on a couch on the lawn.

Classy living - photo from RyRy80

The next year, the horrifically atrocious and embarrassing O.A.R. was chosen to headline, sold out in a manner of minutes, and spurred such awful reporting from Penn's egotrap of a newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, as the following "humor" piece:

Sonic Youth to return for second Fling show

(aka, the wonders of an Ivy League education.)

At the end of the day however, Thurston Moore ended up getting the last laugh. Only a couple hundred people attended the ill-fated concert (most of us out of our minds and loving it); the band still got paid; Penn lost money in the endeavor, and if scamming an Ivy League University doesn't count as sticking it to the man, I don't know what does.

Rachel and I contemplate life, excessive feedback and shoegaze at the SY SF show

This, of course, leads me to the real point of this blog post: Sonic Youth's new cd for Starbucks.

This exclusive album, aptly titled Hits are for Squares, is available only at Charbucks in NYC, LA, Chicago, San Fran, Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia and D.C., is supposedly hand-picked by a bunch of random musicians/artists/fashionistas in some sort of bizarre marketing deal.

No one, it seems, is really sure why this is happening, but Moore released the following statement to Billboard:

• "I guess, for some, Sonic Youth represents something that they don't really equate with Starbucks. But I kind of like the absurdity of it. Sonic Youth has always, in a way, made itself available to the super mainstream."

Nothing says accessible like gold lamé :
Kim Gordon and Moore rocking out at NYC's Hiro Ballroom - Photo by Rahav Segev for The New York Times

My question is: Are these two incidents (Penn Spring Fling, Starbucks album) related? Does Sonic Youth just get off on mocking prepsters, or is this all an elaborate plan to trick unsuspecting yuppies and girls in J. Crew (the most frequent Penn stereotypes/victims of the $5 latte) into spending money on music which they will most likely not only dislike but which may lead them to run screaming for the Jimmy Buffet-enveloped couch shown above? And if so... is there anything wrong with this?


Here is the track list:

• "Bull in the Heather," selected by Catherine Keener
• "Sugar Kane," selected by Beck
• "100%," selected by Mike D
• "Kool Thing," selected by Radiohead
• Disappearer," selected by Portia De Rossi
• "Superstar," selected by Diablo Cody
• "Stones," selected by Allison Anders (apparently, an indie film maker)
• "Tuff Gnarl," selected by Dave Eggers and Mike Watt
• "Teenage Riot," selected by Eddie Vedder
• "Shadow of a Doubt," selected by Michelle Williams
• "Rain on Tin," selected by Flea
• "Tom Violence," selected by Gus Van Sant
• "Mary-Christ," selected by David Cross
• "World Looks Red," selected by Chloe Sevigny
• "Expressway to Yr Skull," selected by Flaming Lips
• "Slow Revolution," exclusive new Sonic Youth recording

Not bad!

Luckily for all those of us too embarrassed/broke/scruffy-looking to venture into a Starbucks, the album is also available for download through Libble.

Check it.

Mosquito(e)s

Are there mosquitoes in the city? I woke up this morning with three giant mosquito bites, one on my face (ouch!), one on my shoulder, and one just below my elbow. Where do these little fuckers come from?

I'd much prefer my days to be filled with this brand of Mosquitos:



Glorious.

Ting Ting Ting Go See NOW

The Ting Tings are a kicky British indie rock duo known for their brash, irreverent tunes and formidable stage presence. (Think of them as the punk-rock version of the Pipettes.) Their debut album We Started Nothing is already a top hit in the UK, and I can see why:



Best of all, these fiery Brits are playing the Popped festival along with Vampire Weekend, Mates of State, Crystal Castles, and all those other bands you don't want to admit you love. If I wasn't out of town this weekend, I would be there. You should be too.

LISTEN at Last.Fm
DOWNLOAD at Libble

One for the Little Ones

The Little Ones are one of those bands I probably should have checked out a long time ago, if for no reason other than I'm often referred to as "little one" myself, by those older, wiser (so they think!) and taller than I.

I actually saw this band once for about 35 seconds, at the First Unitarian Church back in October. They were opening for Voxtrot and the 1990s and Rachel and I arrived late and caught the tail end of their set. I remember thinking: Damn, this whole band is LITTLE. Probably, there are actually taller than I am, but they all seemed excessively short and skinny -- wide-eyed, bespectacled, bike-riding indie kids who still shop at the boy's section of the Salvation Army, and that's alright with me.

The Little Ones: Small in size only!

Their music is appropriately light, delicate, sweet, and melodic, like a caramelized sugar garnish. It's one part chamber pop (Belle & Sebastian, Bishop Allen), one part sunshine (the Beach Boys, the Zombies) and all parts delicious summer soundtrack. Sounds best when paired with summer Sundays, sundresses, kitschy cocktails, and frolicking outdoors. Avoid exposure to angry folk, frat boys and super scene late-night partiers - they just won't appreciate L.O.'s mellow charm.

What's up with emo kids these days?

Everywhere you turn, they're in the news:

Emo Kids: We're Not Suicidal, Just Have Questionable Taste in Music
Emo Kids are Under Attack: Are They Scapegoats or Sinners?
The Big Hurt: Pied-pipers lead innocent teens to emo cult Valhalla

.....and my personal favorite:

Mexico Declares War on Emo

My question is: since when did being "emo" become such a big deal? Why are people hating on emo kids? And finally: when did emo become suicidal?

I guess a lot has changed since I was a kid. I still remember this article from Seventeen magazine when I was probably about 15:

(click to enlarge)

Maybe I was wrong, but at that point, emo seemed, well, cool. My friends and I bought converse sneakers and Buddy Holly glasses and messenger bags not because we were trying to access our deepest emotions (we were in the drama club, so we already did this) but because we thought they looked neat. Our music of choice (Saves the Day, the Get-Up Kids, the Starting Line, Weezer) was mostly poppy and fun, with poetic lyrics that we could write in white out on our text book covers and upbeat melodies that sounded best blasted from the stereos of our parents' vans. There was certainly some emotion involved- I have vivid memories of untouchable exuberance skipping down the boardwalk at Seaside Heights after senior year prom, singing All American Rejects with my buddies - but mostly, we gravitated towards emo because it was a welcome change from all the crap on MTV at the time (Britney Spears, N Sync, Limp Bizkit, Korn) and was ridiculously listenable in comparison.

Scarier than emo: Korn

We were the mix-tape generation, the staying-out-late-hanging-out-at-diners generation, the anti-Dave Matthews, anti-sport, straight-edge generation, and emo was our music of choice. We are all very innocent back then, and the music seemed innocent too. So between now and then...what happened?

Me, age 18, looking angst-y

Really, I'm not sure. And rather than try to investigate, I decided to go straight the source: my 15-year-old brother.

Now Tim is a hockey player and a lifeguard, and probably the farthest thing from an emo kid (although he does have his fair share of adolescent angst) but as a high school freshman, he is also keenly aware of stereotypes and labels.

Our conversation went something like this:

Kate: What does emo stand for?
Tim: I think it stands for "emotional" or something, but really it seems like it means "I'm depressed, and I'm suicidal"
Kate: Are all emo kids cutters?
Tim: Probably not really, but there is an association between emo kids and cutters
Kate: Do you think that kids that are already depressed find emo, or does emo make kids depressed?
Tim: I think emo makes kids depressed. I mean, most of the emo people seem normal until they start listening to the music.
Kate: Do you think it's just because they like the image?
Tim: Oh yeah definitely, for a lot of kids they just like the image.
Kate: Are all emo guys gay?
Tim: I'd say most of them are probably gay.

"I'd say most of them are probably gay"

Kate: What exactly is emo these days?
Tim: It seems like now emo is really more Screamo. It's generic music, none of the bands have any talent, and they just complain about how they hate life.
Kate: What is one of the more popular emo bands these days?
Tim: Maybe...Under Oath
Kate: I've never heard of them.
Tim: They're not very good.

--

Clearly Tim is not the genre's biggest endorser, but he also claims that he wouldn't not be friends with someone just because they're emo. (A look at his Myspace page, which is filled with girls with black eyeliner, confirms this.)

So what's up with emo these days?

I'll leave you with these tidbits from the WikiHow Page on "How to Be Emo":

• Consider taking up an instrument such as the bass, guitar, drums or even the violin. If you invest enough time into it, the violin can sound incredibly emo.
  
• Try writing poetry and turning it into songs. It will help your mind, body, and spirit metamorph into being a true emo.

and finally:

• Don't be emo just because its "in" right now. Most emos deny they're emo at all! You have to feel the groove of being emo. Don't be a poser!
• Don't run around saying "I'm Emo!" If you are emo, it will show, you don't need to announce it.
  

Advice for us all to live by.

It's 3 a.m., and the party is STILL going...

This has been out for a while now, but I only recently discovered it...

VIMBY - Party Philadelphia

Somehow, myself and the great M.F. managed to finagle our way into this documentary on Paperstreet, if only to give the video the only really memorable line in the whole thing. (Skip to 2:43 to catch our cameo.)