Pomp. La. MOOSE. I have no idea if it means anything. What I do know is that they do amazing covers. They’re right up there in the cover pantheon that includes Jamie Cullum, Marco Benevento, Halloween, Alaska, and The Bad Plus.
And apparently I’m not the only one who’s noticed: the majority of the videos on their YouTube Channel have over a million views. Damn.
Perhaps the more important detail is how they got to be famous. They don’t play that many live shows. They don’t really promote themselves, at least not in the traditional corporate sense. They just sit in their San Fran apartment with their ambiguous relationship status, tons of instruments, a video camera, and some recording equipment and make great music. I love the internet. It finds real talent. And, for some reason, an inordinate amount of silly cat videos. As the world should be.
Get more Pomplamoose over at YouTube. Or support them on iTunes.
So, now that The Flight of the Conchords have just kind of…disappeared…it seems like the market has once again opened up for a comedy troupe from Pacific waters. And in a series of events that would make the Conchords themselves cringe, it looks like a comedy trio from none other than Australia is poised to take their spots. Now, we already knew that Australia had some comedic chops, but now it’s clear that they’re playing for keeps. The Axis of Awesome played their Four Chord Song at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and while I’ll admit I was skeptical at first, it was really quite clever.
I live in Rhode Island and love it. It’s physically gorgeous and hovers around an almost unnerving level of eclectic throughout the summer months. It’s a curious little state.
Some of that curiosity comes from a man named George Wein. A little over 50 years ago, he established the Newport Jazz and Folk Festival. He’s the man that combined music and the ocean into one lovely little package. He also provided the setting for Dylan’s electric debut.
Anyway, over the past four or five years, the Folk Festival has done a phenomenal job of picking a nice mix of established talent and newcomers and this year is no exception. Mixing The Avett Brothers and Andrew Bird with Ben Solle (who kicked off A&V MIxtape No. 5) and Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, it’s…just…god, I lov George Wein.
Not only that, the promo video released yesterday is sweet, mostly because it’s kind of reminiscent of a Spongebob/Puff the Magic Dragon mash up.
In a companion piece to the love flick 500 Days of Summer, director Marc Webb tapped into his creative juices and concoted a little romantic vignette for the starring duo Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, set to She and Him’s minor hit “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?” Naturally, I eat up anything Ms. Deschanel touches, and this was no exception. Enjoy.
It’s one of those mornings where I’m getting quite giddy because I think I’ve found my new favorite thing. It’s that perfect mix of obscure, over the top, and hilarious that garners the respect it so rightly deserves. I give you Serge Gainsbourg’s Melody Nelson.
Released in 1971 as a concept album, Melody Nelson is basically a half hour long funky introspection by Serge recounting his Lolita-style love affair with the eponymous teen. The story (omgz spoiler alert) is as follows: Serge is trolling around in his Rolls Royce late one night when he hits Melody on her bicycle. Without missing a beat, he seduces her through the use of dark clothing and a lit cigarette and immediately following thereafter, they dance in front of a green screen for five songs, and then the torrid fling ends when Melody up and dies in a plane crash. Serge goes back to his cigarette and brooding introspection.
I probably should clear up here that the album itself is actually not that bad, in a corny French porn sort of way. I actually rather enjoyed it. It’s just…the music videos. Oh Serge. Those music videos. I dig that green screen was a fancy new technology in 1971 but just because you can be edgy and hip doesn’t mean that you should be. The future will most certainly laugh you off as a silly product of a bygone era (are you listening Lady GaGa?). Come on Serge, you must have realized that this would be recognized as hilariously embarrassing by future generations:
Oh well. C’est la vie. You can by the album on iTunes or blah blah blah blah blah seriously just stream it on YouTube.
The kids of New York’s P.S.22 are SO much more musically cultured than I was at their age. Led by their maestro Mr. B (probably one of the hippest faculty members the public school system has), these choral kids do Pheonix, Alicia Keys/Jay-Z, and Owl City (don’t judge). And they’ve even got ties with my neck of the woods, having teamed up with IC’s Ithacapella a little while back. See the rest of their (rather extensive) repertoire here.
False. I do not, as I would like to keep the option of marrying Ezra Koenig open without it being weird. Anyway, although I don’t watch SNL quite often, I did scrounge around Hulu when I heard they were the musical guest on Saturday’s show. This, of course, is yet another example of their musical greatness. Not to mention, check out how happy drummer Chris Tomson looks. Comme toujours, jouissez.
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I know we’ve been critical of Yale’s music scene in the past, but Sam Lee (’12) and childhood friend Alex Caplow are doing their best to change our minds. “Real Life Color”, released under the band name Magic Man, was written in various locations in France and recorded/mixed in the good ol’ US of A via email and internet.
I’ve seriously been listening to this on repeat for several days. Download the album for free here. Really. Now. Do it.
Maybe Lee can do a remix with everyone’s favorite admissions officer? I sure hope so.
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…as in, the one that isn’t absurdly dark and violent and must have been the Shakespearean equivalent to a baroque period. Titus Andronicus came out of nowhere in 2008 and delivered unto the underground world of music fuzzy guitars, a singer that couldn’t sing, and overall a band that sounded one martini away from keeling over. Yet, somehow, it all worked so well, everything meshed to create a fun sound that evoked a feeling that nobody could quite put their finger on yet. Enter “The Monitor,” just as fuzzy and drunk as their debut but with a more focused and lighthearted approach; with it, everyone realized it was a feeling reminiscent of the infantile punk rock scene of the 1980s, without being punk rock. Fun bleeds from every second of every song TA plays out, and losing oneself in the wave of it is all too easy. Listen to the sample track “Titus Andronicus Forever” at the top of the post, stream it on Myspace, or preorder the album here.
A few weeks back, indie (?) band Ok Go teamed up with Notre Dame University and released a souped up marching band rendition of their new single “This Too Shall Pass”. Now they’re back with another version of the song and another snazzy music video to go with it. This time, they channelled the spirt of Rube Goldberg (I dunno, was that even an actually guy?) and Wiley Coyote to lay down some sweet-ass chain reactions. Enjoy.
