Johnny Weir and the 2010 Vancouver Olympics

I am more interested in men’s figure skating right now than necessary, all due to a saucy little diva named Johnny Weir. Me, Lady Gaga, and Johnny Weir need to hang out. For serious.

Somehow, I started watching Be Good Johnny Weir on the Sundance Channel recently…I’m sure it was one of those “it came on after something else” scenarios, but quickly, I was launched headlong into the world of trash television. I’ve never been one to watch reality shows. I’m not a Jersey Shore watcher or a Whoever of Love fan, but I absolutely cannot get enough of Johnny Weir and his ridiculous antics.

The initial pilot is an hour long introduction to Johnny called Pop Star On Ice and opens with him in a blond wig in a bathtub with his best friend and roommate Paris Chilton. Hilarity and ridiculousness ensue, but there’s the serious side of the actual figure skating. From playing dress up in his famously controversial furs, to visits to the tailor, to his rivalry with peer skater Evan Lysacek,  and dealing with his overbearing Russian coach, Galina, there is never a dull moment. Johnny Weir is certainly not a dull person!

He grew in in Pennsylvania (represent!) and started skating in a frozen fucking cornfield! At the relatively late age of 12, Johnny started his life in professional skating, landing his first axel just weeks into training. He’s had some rough patches and dissapointments over the years, but Johnny’s made his way back to the Olympics. He’s made figure skating glamorous. What he lacks in athleticism, he certainly makes up for in performance. He’s over the top and I absolutely love him for it. Check out his short performance below.

Um, LOVE HIM! I can’t wait to catch his free skate, tonight on NBC. Also make sure to check out Be Good Johnny Weir on the Sundance Channel, Mondays at 10:30pm.

Also, see!? Lady Gaga! It was meant to be!

Go Periscope – Self Titled

A year and a half after production began, Go Periscope has officially released their first, self-titled album! Hooray!

This album seems to begin with the songs that they’ve been pushing for months on all of their sites (see: previous blog) including “Crush Me”, “Breathe Deception”, “No Chaser” and Emily”, but dives into some totally new tracks. At least for the masses.

Even since I first covered them in November, the Seattle duo has spread like the herpes virus, popping up on Top Spot USA‘s list of breaking artists, MTV’s The Real World, and Oxygen’s The Bad Girls Club, all the while still rocking radio stations like Fusion Radio Chicago and C89.5 Seattle. Keep in mind that all this action is occurring around their first, self-released album. Imagine what’s going to happen when these guys get signed. It’s bands like Go Periscope that make me appreciate the fact that I don’t listen to the radio. I don’t want to get sick of them, and they’re an incredibly marketable band. Look at Owl City. I would hate Owl City if I listened to the radio. David Guetta, too! I don’t blame the artists, I blame the radio stations for not playing more than four tracks on a regular basis.

Anyway, back to the album. This is a solid freshman effort, especially for being self-released. It sounds spectacular. The only qualm I have about it is the song order. They put the majority of songs that they’ve pre-released at the beginning, leaving the new tracks at the end. What’s going to happen is that everyone who has been listening to them for the past few months are going to listen to the first few tracks, then begin the album over again. If you hadn’t listened to them in advance, this probably wouldn’t happen. I’m just hoping people listen to this album all the way through because it’s really quite good.

It’s got all the pumps, thumps, and grunts needed on the dance floor, infectious beats, just enough sex appeal without being raunchy, not to mention two adorable guys. These guys have really just…got it. I love this wave of new electronic and electronically inspired artists coming out these days! Go Periscope is on the forefront of something huge, so check ‘em out! You can find their album on Amazon and iTunes right now! B!

And once again, Jools Holland…

Again! Again with the Jools Holland! Last night’s episode was actually a repeat from 2003, but I’m new to Jools, so you’ll have to forgive me.

Last night’s line up included The Darkness, Moloko, Nick Cave, The Thrills, Simply Red, Sam Brown, and even Jools himself on the piano. He really does kick ass. Nick Cave was sufficiently creepy, the guy from The Darkness was absolutely hysterical, but Moloko takes the cake on this one…absolutely fantastic!

Check ‘em out. Moloko – “Sing It Back”
*Make sure you watch this ’til the end. It’s worth it.

The Darkness – ” I Believe In A Thing Called Love” His outfit is truly phenomenal.

Nick Cave – “He Wants You”

The Soft Pack – Self Titled

Oooooooh, I know what I’ll be singing into my hairbrush and dancing like Molly Ringwald to later…The Soft Pack’s new, self-titled album released earlier this month.

Formerly “The Muslims”, looks like the boys of The Soft Pack finally grew up enough to know that controversy isn’t all that grand. Thankfully, their music hasn’t changed. It’s still that gritty “I don’t give a fuck” punk with a little bit of SoCo surfer and just a sprinkling of garage rock.

Formerly of San Diego, the Los Angeles residents seem to finally be making it to the main scene and I think the new name really helps. Post 9/11, you get a lot of ignorant assholes out there. According to the band, when they formed, the name meant “nothing to them”. Well, it certainly means something to everyone else now.

Anyway, this album’s awesome. This album reeks of cassette tapes and cigarettes and hair glue. It’s delicious. It’s got it’s poppier numbers such as the opener, “C’mon”, vaguely reminiscent of The Strokes. What ever happened to those guys, anyway? On the other side, it’s got grittier, garage rock tracks like “Answer to Yourself”.

It’s excellently…simple. It takes rock and roll to a stripped down level of just the very best parts. With basic guitars and too-cool-to-care vocals, you really don’t need much else to make a good punk album.

The quartet is currently touring over in Europe, but I’d love to catch them live. This albums seems like it would translate into a great, energetic show. The kind that makes life-long fans, even if you’ve never heard of The Muslims. Check ‘em out! B

The Soft Pack’s Site

“C’mon”

Elvis Perkins in Dearland…and abandoned zoos…

Another gem found on Current TV (hey, I’ve been snowed in, okay!?), Elvis Perkins in Dearland. There is some serious folk-y goodness going on here. Along with your standard guitar, bass, and drums, you get saxophones, clarinets, organs, harmoniums, and trombones!

This guy also has an incredibly interesting history. Being the son of Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates in Psycho) and Berry Berenson, the youngest daughter of an American shipping executive, who died on September 11, 2001 on American Airlines flight 11, this guy is a musical journalist’s dream. Sometimes the truth really is better than fiction.

Anyway, he’s awesome. I love the whole band actually. Check ‘em out over at their site.

Elvis Perkins in Dearland on Current TV’s Embedded:

Honeycut – The Day I Turned To Glass

Excuse me, I love them. And once again, I love Current TV for telling me about them. Three pieces with a full sound are a serious weak point for me. Also, Honeycut’s got it. What is “it” you ask? Well, it is THE FUNK.

Part of Quannum Projects, the San Franciscans are intertwined with such awesome people including Blackalicious, Chief XCel, and DJ Shadow. Unfortunately, since their first album, The Day I Turned To Glass was released in 2006, they haven’t released a full length album.

Dear Honeycut, I WANT MOOOOOOORE!

This album has a lot of the elements I wanted to hear in the new Sade album, Soldier of Love. It’s got some groovalicious tracks to make sweet love down by the fire to, total chill out, to tracks like “The Day I Turned to Glass”, very Blackalicious mixed with Gorillaz. Then, there’s “Aluminum City”. CANNOT get enough of this track! Or the strings in this track. Luscious! This album is downright sexy. It’s what Jamiroquai would be making now, had he not gone all creepy on us. It’s amazing how versatile this album is. The downtempo tracks are so chill and the upbeat tracks are so catchy and there’s just such a nice blend between the two.

From what I remember from that show on Current, they came together on a connection to soul and you can really tell. They go straight up bossa nova a few times. It makes me sad that more people don’t know who they are. Like Go Periscope, these guys are gonna be HUUUUGE. Make more music, Honeycut. Please. A!

Check them out over on their site.

“Aluminum City”

“Exodus Honey”

Sade – Soldier of Love

Yesterday marked the release of Sade’s first album in ten years, Soldiers of Love. This album is…terrible. It’s just SO BORING. It’s painful. This album is good for two things: 1.) Sappy love scenes in really bad movies and 2.) Elevators. I can see this being played in a lot of elevators. Slinky saxophone, simple beats, and Sade’s smooth vocals take me right back to 1984, and that’s never a good thing. “Smooth Operator”. The entire album sounds like “Smooth Operator”.

And seriously, there is a track on here called “Babyfather”. No joke there, folks. Is this a more classy way of saying “Babydaddy”? Is that a bad rap song yet? You think for only releasing six albums in almost thirty years…it would be better. It would be different. It should have evolved by now.

On the plus side, they’re still making music after thirty years. None of them have been in the news for sex addiction or a heroin problem. And, it’s remarkably well produced. Well, by all means, they should’ve gotten their practice by now. Also, I think this album has…mix-ability. I could see some sort of trip-hop collab goin’ on there. Someone, please remix this album. It could be nothing but an improvement.

If you like Sade, you might like this album. Probably because it sounds like EVERY OTHER ALBUM she’s ever done. Six albums of the same songs. Ugh. D

Sade’s Site

Massive Attack – Heligoland

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Massive Attack’s new album, Heligoland came out today!!! In case you couldn’t tell, I’m just a wee bit excited. It’s gonna be a great week (or couple of weeks), folks! There’s so much new stuff coming out and people coming out of the woodwork. Ooooh, it’s gonna be good, so stay tuned.

Anyway, on to today’s album at hand, Massive Attack’s Heligoland. After seven long years, the Bristol collaboration has released their fifth studio album, named after the German archipelago and it is pretty damn sweet.

After 100th Window, I have to admit that I was a little concerned for the once threesome that was Massive Attack. They were disappearing literally and figuratively. Down to just Robert “3D” del Naja, this album was barely a whisper after the bang that was the guitar laden Mezzanine.

This album is liquid trip hop, fluid yet synthetic in only ways that Massive Attack can manage. They were on the forefront of trip-hop, paving the way with artists like Portishead (Adrian Utley stops by for a collab on Heligoland, BTW) and Tricky. This album is beautiful. Utterly, amazingly beautiful.

Once again, it’s got the all star cast that Massive Attack has no trouble rousting about, including long time collaborator Horace Andy, Tunde Adebimpe of TV On The Radio, Damon Albarn of Gorillaz,  Hope Sandoval, Guy Garvey of Elbow and Martina Topley-Bird. And that’s just the vocalists. In the way of musicians, they have Portishead collaborator John Baggott, Neil Davidge, and Billy Fuller of Beak.

It’s shaping up to have all of the elements that make me love Massive Attack…breathy vocals, distorted guitar, lavish string arrangements, flourishes of grand piano, and shifting basslines. The combination of reggae and trip hop beats is always just…perfect. It’s deliciously experimental. While electronic, it’s certainly not a dance album. This album is something else entirely. It’s velvet for the ears.

I’m so glad that after seven years, this album didn’t suck. I was really afraid of a Trent Reznor situation (aka: long break then everything seriously sucking for…well, ever, after that).

And you know what…after all of that, the deluxe second disc of this album is EVEN BETTER. The six track remix album features mixes by Gui Borrato, Tim Goldsworthy, Ryuichi Sakamoto & Yukihiro Takahashi, She Is Danger, and Breakage. Gui Borrato’s mix of “Paradise Circus” is just…sick. It’s sick. It’s awesome. Slamming, sexy beats. Mmmm. Definitely check out this album AND the remix disc. I don’t think one would be nearly as good without the other. It’s the peanut butter and jelly of Massive Attack’s career. B

“Paradise Circus” (Gui Boratto Dub)

BT – These Hopeful Machines

Oh, BT. Such memories of BT. All great ones might I add. The first note of BT’s that I ever heard was his collaboration with Tori Amos, “Blue Skies”. I can’t remember where I was or who spun it, but I remember standing in a vast warehouse wondering how Tori Amos could be pumping from these speakers. It. Was. Glorious.

BT is one of those artists who is actually an artist. The man has a musical technique named after him, his own software, six studio albums, numerous collaborations, and a plethora of movie and video game scores. His sheer volume of work is astounding, especially considering the quality. A lot of the time when an artist has that magnitude of work, some of it’s bound to be crap.

Well, not the case with BT. This newest album, These Hopeful Machines was released on Tuesday and musically, it’s awesome. It’s just a natural progression when you consider his previous albums. While These Hopeful Machines returns to the clubs after the break that was This Binary Universe, it absolutely has that element of ambiance.

It’s got dance floor stomping tracks like, “Suddenly” and “The Emergency”, the drowsy beats of “Every Other Way”, and the shockingly different cover of The Psychedelic Furs, “The Ghost in You”. This album has a wide variety of sounds for your listening pleasure. Based on the music alone, This album would have gotten and A. Unfortunately, the vocals make me want to bleed from my ears.

Thankfully, there’s two solely instrumental tracks (one per album on this dual disc set), “The Rose of Jericho” and “La Nocturne de Lumiere” to stop the screeching, whiny vocals. It’s a damn shame, really. It’s not BT’s voice that I mind so much, and honestly I find it very refreshing that he does do his own vocals, but where he gets some of these women for the female vocals just beats the hell out of me. All in all, I’m still going to give it a B because, musically, it’s a marvelous album. They just need to shut the hell up and let the music happen.

BT’s Site

The Exposed

So, I swear I’ve heard of these guys before. I don’t know how or why or where, but I swear I have. Anyway, they added me over on the ol’ MySpace and they’re certainly diggable.

And…they played with Cock Sparrer! For reals!? They’ve also played with Rancid and the Bouncing Souls, but Cock Sparrer!? That is truly awesome. For those of you who don’t know of Cock Sparrer, go check ‘em out here.

From what I hear in the few tracks listed on their MySpace, these guys kick some major ass. They’ve got all the best parts of punk, ska, oi, and even metal. It makes me want to be 15 again getting stomped to shit in a circle pit in 1000 degree heat in some field in Pennsylvania. Oh, the memories.

The Exposed have their first full length album, Welcome to Rebel City, out in March and they’ll be on this side of the pond for Warped Tour next year. (Hmmm….it’s been so long since I’ve been to Warped. That may have to change this year.)

Anyway, check out The Exposed at their Myspace, their Facebook, or their Twitter and commence grooving. It’ll keep the Mondays at bay.

The Exposed Video by The Exposed – MySpace Video.