There are only about 2 and 1/2 weeks until. This makes me sad because there are only 2 and 1/2 more weeks for me to totally indulge in Christmas music. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I became totally obsessed with listening to Christmas music. This year I started listening to yuletide tunes well before Thanksgiving.
Here are the top ten Christmas tracks I’ve been spinning this year:
10. “Christmas Duel” by The Hives and Cyndi Lauper
The Most Attractive Man Alive (aka Pele from the Hives) and Cyndi Effing Lauper did a duet this year in which they list all the naughty, nasty things they’ve done over the last year: Example, sleeping with each other’s sister/brother, marrying drunk, hiring hit men, etc. Chalk another one up for the not safe for kids/family Christmas song play list.
Ok, so sometimes I’m a bit slow to catch on the things happening on the internets, but I semi-try to keep informed… here are some new music videos that have sprung up in the last week from some notable people who at one time could have been described as “hot messes” or “trainwrecks” but have seem to cleaned up their acts for the time being:
LILY ALLEN
Ultragrrrl linked to a video of Lily Allen’s new song “The Fear.” I think Lily looks AMAZING. With her jet black hair hanging long, and the bangs going across her face, I think she looks like a white Gogo from Kill Bill walking through a Gwen Stefani Harajuku Lovers TV commercial. It was directed by Nez.
Here’s a report from our special correspondent Sarah B from the December 2nd 9:30 Vampire Weekend show at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C.:
How can I describe the vibe of the classic DC crowd at the 9:30 on Tuesday night during Vampire Weekends second consecutive sold out show? Polite. They displayed their good upbringing by cheering and clapping at the appropriate times (but not too much or too loud) asking nicely and for an encore, singing along when it was requested and bobbing their heads coolly when asked to by frontman Koenig to do so during a new song, unnamed but breathtaking. In between all that, the vibe was…reserved. DC has a hard time relaxing. The last song, “Walcott,” got the biggest rise out of them.
The bands energy more than made up for the conservative crowd. Lovely and uncomplicated, clever and hard to classify, Vampire Weekend’s sound and lyrics create collages of random images–more like experimental film than anything else. It’s not surprising two of the four have dabbled in that medium.
They worked their way through the album, inserting the aforementioned new beauty, and a better- than-the-original Fleetwood Mac cover. This, of course, slightly lost on the youthful crowd. An enlightening moment came right before they launched into “M79.” Koenig asked us if anyone knew Jackson Crowter (stumped silence from the underwhelmed crowd). He went on to explain he was just a kid who rode the bus with keyboardist Batmanglij. That’s it. No complicated story. So nice. Just another random image in the collage…
In some sad news, the band members of the well-known Brooklyn band Dirty on Purpose has decided to go their separate ways. In an email sent to their mailing list this morning, the rock quartet announced that DOP will no longer be in existence for the foreseeable future:
We got back from tour about a month ago and sat down to talk about recording another record, and realized we didn’t really want to record another record. Not now anyway. So we’re going our separate ways.
As one of the first people to blog about the band (I first saw them in 2003–I believe in the Old Office of the Knitting Factory), this is an especially sad announcement to make, but you can still see the guys in their own respective projects: Joe and Doug belong to Neckbeard Telecaster; George plays bass in Coin Under Tongue; Joe also has another solo projected called Joe and the Flying Spoons; and Doug also plays with Purse Snatchers and Black Acid.
Wishing the guys well in all their future endeavors!
Have you been watching this season of Dexter? As you probably know, I’m a fan. Now that there is only a mere two episodes left until the end of the season, I have to say, even though the season started off kind of slow, I think these last few episodes have been great and proved good things come to those who wait.
It seems as though I’m not the only one who’s an admirer of America’s favorite serial killer. Was recently walking by Martin Albert Interiors in the Flatiron District and I saw these crazy chairs:
Yup, these white chairs have red embroidered blood splatters! Look closely, the sign reads “Inspired by Dexter”!!
But back to talking about the show…
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read on if you don’t want to know what’s been going on this season… [click to continue…]
