Gorillaz ft. Little Dragon - Empire Ants (Live on Letterman)

Werner Herzog Reads Twas The Night Before Christmas

Existential thirst is the engine that drives the holiday machine...

Best Coast - When I'm With You

The Dream Of The '90s Is Alive In Portland: Pics, Videos, Links, News

"Portland is a city where young people go to retire."

Jon Savage on song: The Smiths' The Queen Is Dead is an anthem for our times | Music | guardian.co.uk

Yep,

The Queen Is Dead is the Smiths' mature masterpiece. The playing is faultless: the rhythm section is both supple and relentless, while Johnny Marr's wah-wah guitar is constantly in motion, in total sympathy with the song's mood changes: rhythmic and viciously propulsive one minute, ambient the next. Morrissey's lyrics are pointed, witty and tricksy, with their implied rhymes: "castration" instead of "strings" to take just one example.

Best of all, they give a thorough portrait of how it feels to be an outsider, rooted in a precise physical and psychological place – "hemmed in like a boar between arches". When you hear the line "but the rain that flattens my hair" you can think of no other place than Manchester, and in many ways The Queen Is Dead represents the highpoint of Morrissey's lyric writing – when he was still informed by his city and its past.

This sense of rootedness is important. You intuitively sense that the musicians have experienced, indeed have deeply felt, what they are communicating. They know of what they speak. This sense transmits itself to the listener, who in turn finds a reflection of their own experience, and so the bond is forged. And that sense of connection remains: two and a half decades after I first heard it, The Queen Is Dead still rings proud and strong.

[via somedizzywhore]

Pitchfork: Album Reviews: Orange Juice: Coals to Newcastle

I don't know, maybe some legendary but unheard bands should stay that way. I'm no expert on Orange Juice, but I'm sympathetic to their influence. Unfortunately, there's no getting around the fact early tracks like this are sort-of, kind-of, lame:


First off, Edwyn Collins is Rick Astley-esque with the hair, the attitude, the shirt. There's no getting around that. It also doesn't help that this particular video comes from the school of aspirational silliness, which is to say, hey, we're playing music in the TARDIS, life ain't that bad. Things aren't so hard. We're young, you're old, and the world will be ours. Here goofy disregard for convention trumps angry attack.

So post-punk is or was anti-punk, and about as confrontational and non-comformist as retro-preppy Vampire Weekend singing songs for faux-preppy Tommy Hilfiger. In this case the band goofs around city streets, wears white trousers and Hawaiian shirts in the cold Scottish rain, and somehow manages to embody the very essence of preppy funsterism. Forced fun is usually no fun at all, and in this case the target of their fun, the "documentary" footage of drab UK life, looks amazing, and outshines all of the 80s-isms. Just look at those gray streets and those dark, serious citizens of collapsing empire. It oddly fascinates.

On the positive side, there's a nifty little guitar bit that underpins the whole track and which will eventually find its apotheosis in INXS's "Need You Tonight". If you don't like that, then there's no hope. And if nothing else the catchiness of the guitar bit hints at as-yet unrealized talent. There's more going on here than meets the eye.

As for Edwyn Collins, we'll always have 1994:

"My Dark Star" - Suede

John Kongos - "He's Gonna Step On You Again"

Oh hey, you learn something new every day.

Orson Welles On Art And Work | The New Republic

Orson Welles in 1960 on his political convictions, and forgotten battles between liberals like himself and rightists.

The National - "Terrible Love"

kung fu grippe | Just a man in a cowboy suit

John Vanderslice performs "Promising Actress":

"I Want The World To Stop" - Belle & Sebastian

"Letter from an Occupant" - The New Pornographers

Pitchfork: Forkcast: Prinzhorn Dance School: "Seed, Crop, Harvest"

Prinzhorn Dance School return with "Seed, Crop, Harvest". Less angular, less shouty, more lo-fi groove. The new track sounds like The xx or Joy Division.

This was from their 2007 debut:



And this:

"Regret" - New Order

New Order, Regret
Uploaded by harrison73. - See the latest featured music videos.

"Brimful of Asha" - Cornershop

Cornershop - Brimful of Asha
Uploaded by FabCure. - Explore more music videos.

Watch Robyn’s New Video, ‘Hang With Me’ -- Vulture

New Robyn:

Robyn - Hang With Me official video from Robyn on Vimeo.

My greatest regret in life is not having been born in Scandinavia.

Royksopp - "Poor Leno"

Erlend Oye - "There is a Light That Never Goes Out"

Manhattan Skyline

Always thought this was a Kings of Convenience song, but turns out it was a cover of A-Ha. The original makes you wonder why the world didn't just end in 1986. It's gobsmacking, awesome, and terrifying:



Here are the Kings in their student glasses and sweaters. I'm sure they've got bus passes tucked into their back pockets for the ride home: