BAW II: Electric Boogaloo

Seriously, what would I be doing these days without Spotify? Sure, the ads in between every third song are annoying, but the ability to immediately pull up just about any music I want to listen to is worth the inconvenience. Last night, catching up on All Songs Considered podcasts while I was at the gym, I heard two bands I wanted to check out: Grouplove and We Were Promised Jetpacks. So when I got home, I opened Spotify, searched both groups, added their latest albums to my playlist (Never Trust A Happy Song and In The Pit of the Stomach, if you're interested), and I had a soundtrack for today. So easy.

As for the music, I'm digging both albums for different reasons. Grouplove plays a tighter version of 90's psychedelica, like a less trippy Flaming Lips, and despite their album title, there's a raucous joy in their music. If you can listen to "Tongue-Tied" and not tap your feet, there's something wrong with you.

WWPJ, on the other hand, play that angular British rock made popular by Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, and Bloc Party, but they have the ability to reach a more expansive layer in their songs. Listen to the instrumental opening of "Act on Impulse" for an example.


Grouplove, "Tongue-Tied"


 We Were Promised Jetpacks, "Act on Impulse"

Bored at Work, part 1

Lots of downtime at my new job (briefly interrupted by periods of OHMYGOD GETITALLDONENOWNOWNOW), so I'm going to start posting about what I'm doing in all this dead time, mainly because it's more interesting and uses more brain function than hitting refresh on my Google Reader every two minutes.

I've been using Spotify quite a bit, and the nice thing about it (aside from being free, of course) is that it's exposed me to a lot of music I might not normally hear. Right now, I'm listening to Childish Gambino's Camp. Childish Gambino is better known as comedian Donald Glover of that show Community everyone keeps saying I should watch but still haven't gotten around to yet. As rap albums by actors go, this one's much better than I expected.

I'm also reading Daniel Wilson's Robopocalypse (a novel set in the near future that chronicles sentient robots taking over the world and trying to wipe out humanity) on my iPad. Oh, delicious irony. Sadly, it's not as good as I'd like it to be — it's a pale imitation of Max Brooks' World War Z, by way of The Terminator. Swapping the walking dead for killer robots is already a downgrade, but if you're telling your story as an oral history, it works a lot better if your characters have distinct voices, which is where this book fails for me. Everybody (soldiers, senators, a 14-year-old girl from Chicago, a 45-year-old roughneck from Texas) sounds exactly the same: dry, unemotional, and way too quick with the exposition. Still, there's enough promise in the premise that I'll finish it and hope it gets better before the end.

P’s & Q’s

In the category of unfinished business, I'm finally getting around to finishing my alphabet mixes. At this rate, I'm feeling a bit like Sufjan and his 50 States project. But hey, at least I have a realistic chance of finishing mine. After a 19-month delay, here’s P and Q:

1. Preservation… Aesop Rock & Del Tha Funky Homosapien
2. Paperback Writer… The Beatles
3. Please Don't Talk About Murder While I'm Eating… Ben Harper
4. Picture Book… Bill Lloyd & Tommy Womack
5. Perfect Games… The Broken West
6. Post Script… Finch
7. Pattern Skies… The Greenhornes
8. Party Pit… The Hold Steady
9. Permanent Hurt… John Hiatt
10. Pure… Lightning Seeds
11. Portland, Oregon… Loretta Lynn with Jack White
12. Postcard Of A Painting… Maxïmo Park
13. Piece Of Crap… Neil Young & Crazy Horse
14. People Got a Lotta Nerve… Neko Case
15. Pop Lie… Okkervil River
16. Portions For Foxes… Rilo Kiley
17. Paul Simon… The Russian Futurists
18. Prophet Of Doom… The Samples
19. Poison Lovers… Steve Earle
20. Panic… The Stills
21. Pure Juice… Summercamp
22. Pumping On Your Stereo… Supergrass
23. Pink Triangle… Weezer
24. Postcards From Hell… The Wood Brothers


1. Qué Onda Guero… Beck
2. Queen Of The World… The Bottle Rockets
3. Quattro (World Drifts In)… Calexico
4. Queen Of Charades… The Connells
5. Queen Of Hollywood… The Corrs
6. Queen Bitch… David Bowie
7. Quicksand… Dinosaur Jr
8. Quiet Houses… Fleet Foxes
9. Quiet Heart… The Go-Betweens
10. Quick Painless & Easy… Ivy
11. Quiet… John Mayer
12. Que Lindo Sueño… King Khan And The Shrines
13. Quiet As A Mouse… Margot & The Nuclear So And So's
14. Quiet Her… Matthew Sweet
15. Quannum World… Quannum MCs
16. Question… Rhett Miller
17. Quiet… Smashing Pumpkins
18. Queen Of Apology… The Sounds
19. QMS… T-Love
20. Quicksand… Travis

Another Star Wars fan film

OK, despite the fact that Papa George is still trying his hardest to ruin Star Wars for my generation, my last two posts have been Star Wars-themed, fan-created video clips. That tells me two things: 1) the fans still get what makes this whole Star Wars thing great, and 2) maybe it’s time for Lucas to let somebody else make the decisions.

This short, fan-created film tells the story of the dumped cargo shipment that earned Han that famous price on his head from Jabba the Hutt. In under 6 minutes, this production crew manages to out-do anything in the prequels and give the Clone Wars cartoon a run for its money. Special bonus points for finding a voice actor who’s a dead ringer for Harrison Ford circa 1977. More, please.

Lando’s not a system, he’s a man.

Lando Calrissian FTW. I would so watch this movie.

Hello Helvetica

I have to admit, Jay-Z took a long time to grow on me (I think it had something to do with his use of the most annoying hook in the history of rap), but the longer he sticks around, the more respect I have for the guy. Talk about a master of personal branding. From the moment he decided to go with this whole hip hop Rat Pack thing, he’s projected such a fully-developed, well-thought-out image, from how he dresses to who he collaborates with to how his videos look. I’ve definitely got a soft spot for well-done typography motion graphics, but this video works especially well because the Helvetica fits perfectly with Jay’s back-to-basics classic style, as well as nodding to the New York public transit signage prominently featured all over Brooklyn. Given his attention to detail, I’ve got to think Jay had something to say about that choice as well.

Jay Z - "Hello Brooklyn" from Gregory Solenström on Vimeo.

Like chocolate and peanut butter

Two great tastes that taste great together: words by Nick Hornby, music by Ben Folds. For fans of either, mark Sept. 28 on your calendars.

We Got This

Just a friendly reminder to all the English fans out there that a little less than one year ago, the US beat the best team in the world. Saturday is gonna be like my birthday and Christmas all rolled into one.

Adidas’ World Cup commercial

Star Wars™ Cantina 2010 / adidas Originals from Dominic Prevost on Vimeo.

I love soccer. I love Star Wars (well, at least the original trilogy). And I’ve invested so much money into adidas products, I should have a spot on the board of directors by now. So, on paper, this should have been the perfect ad. There’s even a cameo by Noel Gallagher, for cryin’ out loud. It’s like they tapped directly into my brain. But for some reason, the whole thing just kind of falls flat.

Maybe Snoop Dogg ruined it for me. Maybe soccer players and musicians are 100% the wrong people to ask to act in front of a green screen (I mean, Daft Punk have no lines, and they still look uncomfortable). Or maybe a mashup of so many of my favorite things could never live up to my expectations. Nike’s Write the Future ad works because it sticks to soccer. This adidas ad just feels like the creative team tried to cram a whole mess of crap into the pot, and it became a big steaming plate of WTF?

I can just imagine the meeting. “We got access to the cantina scene! The fucking cantina scene! Lucas never lets anybody mess with his stuff (other than himself, of course). What else we got? How about cameos from a California rapper and two English rock stars whose biggest hits were in the early 90’s! And, let’s get Daft Punk! They sort of look like they’re Star Wars characters. And Beckham’s injured, he’s not going to the World Cup, maybe we can throw him in there! And then let’s sprinkle a few more random people in the background and badly edit the scene to make sure this thing isn’t 8 minutes long. Perfect!” Ultimately, what does any of this mish-mash have to do with the World Cup? In the end, it just turns out to be a whole lot of wasted potential. Sorry, adidas. FAIL.

Still Lost...

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

So, that feeling of wasting 6 years of TV viewing that I had immediately following the Lost finale is starting to fade away, but I still feel like I could have used a lot more answers. College Humor does a pretty good job of summing up the insane amount of loose ends, although they didn’t quite come up with 108 questions, which would have been a much better conceit. And they managed to leave out the most important question that remains unresolved. In the immortal words of Charlie Pace, “Guys, where are we?”