The Blurbs
If you thought Cee-Lo’s “Fuck You” lyric video was good…
…and I know you did from all the love it got here and on Facebook (just use those buttons at the bottom of every post to throw these things up on your Facebook page or Twitter feed), then you are going to love the actual video for the song.
It’s a veritable time-line of one dude’s experiences of saying…well, “Fuck You” to the trifling women in his life (gotta love young Cee-Lo):
-Sam
If you are at all familiar with the snippet of the quote that’s in the title to this post, you know it comes from Mario Savio’s famous oratory from the Sproul Hall Steps of UC-Berkeley as part of the Free Speech Movement in 1964.
The Free Speech Movement was aimed at the leaders of the university in an attempt to get them to remove the ban on on-campus political activities, and Savio’s wise, impassioned words have been remembered and recalled ever since. He said,
“There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.”
Now that is a quote.
For their upcoming album, A Thousand Suns, Linkin Park has made no mystery of the fact that they are thinking big. The title itself comes from a speech by J. Robert Oppenheimer, quoting the Bhagavad Gita, in reference to the atomic bomb. And now we see that they’ve nabbed Savio’s genius as well, using his speech as the intro and outro to their new song “Wretches and Kings.” This song has all the elements that you associate with Linkin Park – serrated-knife guitars, hip-hop rhyming mixed with angsty screams, and DJ scratch flourishes – but it’s put together like never before (does Chester have a reggae tinge to his voice?). Throw in the fiery context of Savio’s words and this song is nothing if not exciting – I can see it going over really well live. Check it out:
-Sam
I’m feeling pretty lukewarm in regards to Serj Tankian’s upcoming sophomore solo album, Imperfect Harmonies (out Sept. 21). It just seems like he’s reached the point in his career where he’s not satisfied with any one sound so he throws everything together into some sort of murky goulash.
We get it. You like metal and orchestral and jazz and electronic music. Doesn’t mean they all need to get squished together.
But whatever, I’ll still give the album a fair chance. And it doesn’t hurt that the new video for his song “Left of Center” kicks a bunch of ass. That diamond Eye of Sauron thing is a total dick though.
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=106291822-Sam
You’d think that a band named after a Korean boxer would have a bit of an edge to it.
Well, you’d be wrong.
Sun Kil Moon, the solo project of singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek (formerly of Red House Painters), has as much edge as a tennis ball.
Admiral Fell Promises, the third album of original material from Kozelek under the Sun Kil Moon moniker, sees him continuing his tradition of taking a nylon-stringed guitar and little else and turning out gorgeously bare tunes that drip with loneliness and melancholy.
Ready to step into a time machine and get whisked back to the late Sixties/early Seventies period when energetic soul music ruled the day?
Well if so, then Eli “Paperboy” Reed has the solution – his major label debut album, Come And Get It!
If you were to listen to this album without any idea of who the artist was, you would certainly be forgiven if you thought it came straight out of Chicago in the Seventies. Actually, you’d probably be expected to think that given the relative paucity of new, young soul singers keeping the tradition alive amongst today’s listeners.
Beware all ye who despise the art of the pinch harmonics.
If you are at all familiar with Zakk Wylde’s work as the frontman for Black Label Society, you know exactly what I’m talking about – those shrieking, bent guitar notes that are slipped into every conceivable nook and cranny of the song. That’s just how Zakk rolls; it’s his signature style. Personally, I don’t have a problem with it at all, but those who simply can’t stand it should be warned up front that on BLS’ eighth studio album, nothing has changed in that regard.
In fact, Order Of The Black lacks almost any semblance of exploration from a band that is so deeply entrenched in its own sound. But, honestly, does BLS seem all that much like a band that wants to push the boundaries of its sound? They do a few things really well, and that’s no different here.
Linkin Park’s first single, “The Catalyst,” off their much anticipated new album A Thousand Suns (in stores Sept. 14) is easily one of the longest songs the band has written, coming in at 5:47, which, for a band that pretty much stuck to a strict diet of three and a half minute blasts for most of its first three records, is definitely a sign of changes.
Unfortunately, kids these days don’t have any semblance of an attention span, so they had to go with the radio edit of the song, which is a minute shorter, for the music video. You end up losing a lot of the imaginative transitional sections, but it doesn’t obscure the fact that this is a killer song that takes the band in an entirely new direction.
I wasn’t fully on-board with the new sound the first few times I heard “The Catalyst” but it has grown on me a lot since then. This may be high expectations, but A Thousand Suns could be a game-changer.
Joe Hahn (the band’s DJ) directed the video:
-Sam
A couple of days ago I got off my arse long enough to go check out Scott Pilgrim VS The World. It totally knocked me out. It’s an absolute thrill-ride; packed with OTT battles, quotable quips and awesome tunes. I’d recommend you see the movie, as not only is it one of the year’s best, but you’ll get the full effect of the blistering soundtrack.
OSTs are a curious thing. It’s rare to find a compiled movie soundtrack that is more hit than miss. Sure, we’ve had a few good ones over the years. Juno had plenty of nerdy, too-hip-for-their-own-good acoustic numbers, whereas Death Proof provided us with the perfect bar room mix. Besides those, it’s a very short list…one that you can add Scott Pilgrim to.
The interesting thing about this soundtrack is that some of the songs – performed by reputable Canadian artists – are based off the comic book series. Bands took Bryan Lee O’Malley’s fiction and made real songs from it, remaining faithful to the feel of his work. Indie kook Beck does a stellar job of interpreting the songs of Scott Pilgrim’s own band, Sex Bob-Omb; Garbage Truck and We are Sex Bob-Omb prove to be two of the best tracks on here. Metric contribute ass-shaker Black Sheep to the mix (attributed to the mega-famous band of Pilgrim’s ex-girlfriend, The Clash at Demonhead, in the movie), adding an interesting hipster slant to compliment the raucous garage-rock of Beck’s tracks. However, the most impressive thing about this soundtrack is the eclectic work of Broken Social Scene. For over a decade this band have pushed pop boundaries, and they write the songs for Crash and the Boys, a local rival band of Sex Bob-Omb. Their barbed song titles (I am Sad, SoVery, Very Sad etc) provide some comedic heft in the movie, I am Sad… being about a second long. We Hate You Please Die is an aggressive and entertaining effort, showing a side of BSS that hasn’t really been seen before.
Broken Social Scene also contribute the best song here, their very own Anthems For A Seventeen-Year Old Girl, which provides a laid-back relief from the pounding rhythms of the other tracks. The song’s looped vocals and heavily-synthesised vibe are truly fantastic. It’s disappointing, then, that the other “real” songs are not quite up to scratch. Sure, they’re mostly fine, Plumtree’s Scott Pilgrimis a brilliant slice of Grrl Rock, but tracks by T-Rex and The Bluetones signal a dip in quality. The soundtrack’s real strength lies in its quirky catchiness, yet there are a few songs that only serve to kill the party. No matter though, because as far as movie soundtracks go, this is a winner. Check out the comics, check out the movie, then get your hands on this, because all 3 are riotously entertaining.
As mentioned before, Tom Morello is a very busy man. He is still working with Boots Riley as Street Sweeper Social Club. Their self titled debut album was released in 2009, to some mixed reactions. The album was bursting at the seams with its politically charged lyrics that everyone would have expected from The Coup or Rage Against The Machine (or even Morello’s Nightwatchman alter-ego.) being smoothly by Riley and the always impressive guitar playing that Morello is known for. It was an album that is amazing…on paper. The execution of it did leave something to be desired. That is not to say that the album is terrible by any means, but both of these artists’ styles needed a bit more blending. When the songs worked, they were amazing, but the rest needed more tweaking so that they could mix together better.
If The Ghetto Blaster EP is a sign of things to come from this duo, then all of us have something to be excited for. The 7 song EP features three new songs (”Ghetto Blaster”, “The New Fuck You”, and “Scars”), three covers (M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” and LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out”, The Coup’s “Everythang”) and a remix of one of the better songs from their eponymous debut “Promenade”.
More after the jump
Cee-Lo Green has just released a song that is sure to be a contender for most subversively awesome summer anthem.
Usually telling your gold-digging ex-girlfriend and her new douchebag guy to fuck off is a sore subject. Apparently, not in Cee-Lo’s world, though, because on this absolutely appropriately titled track (”Fuck You,” natch), he sounds positively jubilant.
And no, this song isn’t a novelty, so don’t just write it off.
This track will appear on Cee-Lo’s new solo album, The Lady Killer, which should be out before the end of the year.
-Sam