Bedazzling the Masses

This rhinestone-bedazzled wonderkind, also known as Leslie Hall, has created her own niche online as a ferocious rapper, talented producer and dedicated sweater curator - she was born to bust a jam.

How We Go Out


Willow Don't Cry


Zombie Killers

The world is full with silly love songs...

...but this is not one of them. Upon closer inspection, this single from Aussie-born soul girl (at heart, anyway) Sam Sparro sprinkles disco dust on a song about the existence of god and the meaning of life rather than some silly crush, which make the lyrics all that much more poignant. Check out the slickly produced video, with lyrics printed beneath:

If the fish swam out of the ocean
and grew legs and they started walking
and the apes climbed down from the trees
and grew tall and they started talking

and the stars fell out of the sky
and my tears rolled into the ocean
now I’m looking for a reason why
you even set my world into motion

’cause if you’re not really here
then the stars don’t even matter
now I’m filled to the top with fear
but it’s all just a bunch of matter
’cause if you’re not really here
then i don’t want to be either
i wanna be next to you
black and gold
black and gold
black and gold

i looked up into the gray sky
and see a thousand eyes staring back
and all around these golden beacons
i see nothing but black

i feel a way of something beyond them
i don’t see what i can feel
if vision is the only validation
then most of my life isn’t real

’cause if you’re not really here
then the stars don’t even matter
now I’m filled to the top with fear
but it’s all just a bunch of matter
’cause if you’re not really here
then i don’t want to be either
i wanna be next to you
black and gold
black and gold
black and gold

The rest of the albumn is just as bright and brassy, and socially conscious, it's decidedly funk-ified songs espousing on such popular topics as water shortage, pollution, hunger and famine and the importance of recycling.

Fortress Around My Heart

Fortress Around My Heart is the debut album from Ida Maria -- the Norwegian Alt-Pop sensation described as a cross between Amy Winehouse and The Strokes with a bit of Bjork and Iggy Pop thrown in for good measure. As of now this album is only available as a VERY EXPENSIVE import from the UK ($26.99 -- ack!)... so we need to be on the lookout for when it drops in the The States.

Modest Mouse @ The St. Auggie Amphitheater

This show was AWESOME! Great band, great venue, great experience..... The only negative of the evening was the Mouse's opening act, a mediocre jam-band from New Orleans. Even industrial strength earplugs couldn't stifle their painfully long set -- "Crawfish! Mardi Gras! Other things from our stupid city! Oooooh yeah!" -- it just went on and on and on.

Get Paste Magazine for Almost Free!

Check out this awesomeness... Paste magazine is offering "pay what you want*" one-year subscriptions. If you're interested, follow this link A.S.A.P. because I don't know how long this promotion will last.

Each issue comes with a music sampler CD ~ sweet!

HOOK ME UP!


*Minimum price is $1.00 (and the normal subscription rate is $19.95, so I doubt you'll want to pay more than that) -- have a credit card handy to complete your order.

Also, if by the divine hand of fate you already have a subscription to Paste, the free-ness works for one-year renewals as well.

Them vs You vs Me

When I first heard this song on the radio, I couldn't get it outta my brain. I wanted to look them up, find out the name of the song and the band, but kept forgetting - not the lyrics, just looking up the lyrics in hope of reverse engineering the identity of my new guilty pleasure. But, thankfully, Tom saved me the trouble by reading my mind instead, presenting to me the fabulous new album Them vs You vs Me by Finger Eleven, whose infectious first single I present to you via the glory and magic of youtubery!

Goodbye happy childhood memories, goodbye!

One of my favorite scenes from The Royal Tenenbaums reenacted by one of my favorite muppets, Kermit the Frog. Watch as, according to BestWeekEver.tv, which clued me in to this precious gem of puppetry, "Kermee stares at his own reflection, eyes never blinking, staring into the emptiness of life’s eternal puppetry."



Of course, this isn't the great green one's first dalliance with depressing lyrics...