Lovely new music video from Ok Go, album to be released 1/12!

UPDATE 1/19:
This album is really great! It sounds very mature, not quite as charts-focused as earlier ones. Nice progression. Buy it now on iTunes or Amazon. Here’s a review.

Ok Go – WTF?

In case you were thinking that Jay-Z’s awful new single Empire State of Mind is ripping off Asamov’s Supa Dynamite you’d be correct. But em *technically* not, because they both sampled and sped up The Moments’ Love on a Two-Way Street. To Jay-Z’s credit, his producers obviously did go back to the source material, because they’re using more of it than Asamov did.

Asamov’s song is 1,000 times better, but they didn’t sell any records probably because they’re from Jacksonville, and then they got sued by the estate of Isaac Asamov, and now they’re gone.

Magic moment #1: Mr. Lif’s rap (you’re six strokes on par four)
Magic moment #2: Giving a shoutout to everything in the world
Magic moment #3: No Alicia Keys

Via Boombox.

Asamov – Supa Dynamite (Feat. Mr Lif)

Had coffee this morning with former members of the Youth International Party, who were reminiscing on this spring-like day in New York about how, in April of 1968, they ceremonially removed the hands of the clock in Grand Central Station.

They poured into the vast main concourse of Manhattan’s Grand Central Station 3,000 strong, wearing their customary capes, gowns, feathers and beads. They tossed hot cross buns and firecrackers, and floated balloons up toward the celestial blue ceiling. They hummed the cosmic “Ommm,” snake-danced to the tune of Have a Marijuana, and proudly unfurled a huge banner emblazoned with a lazy “Y.”

The Yippies—1968′s version of the hippies—were celebrating spring. Hardly had the equinoctial orgy begun, when it turned as bleak as a midwinter blizzard. A dozen youths scaled the information booth, ripped off the clock hands, scribbled graffiti and defiantly passed around lighted marijuana “joints” in full view of the Tactical Patrol Force. The fuzz charged, billy clubs flailing, and arrested 61 demonstrators. Battered but unbowed, the celebrants coursed off to the Central Park Sheep Meadow to “yip up the sun.”

Time Magazine

David Peel & the Lower East Side – I Like Marijuana

I was listening to Boy Wonder’s excellent set last night on KSHU in northern California and was blown away by this song from local Arcata band The Cutters.

They sound like The Hollis Wake or Dressy Bessy. Lots more mp3s at their site above. No good pictures though! That’s their tour van pictured. Note the reversed Cutters bumpersticker—it’s the little things.

The Cutters Swing Set

The song below is the B Side on her Obsessions single which appears only to be available on 7″ vinyl in the US. I think it is for sale on CD in the UK though, so I recommend you fly there and get it.

Anyway, I love this song—reminds me of Lene Lovich kinda—but I was reading her blog and was v disappointed to learn that she must be colorblind or something because how could she be so wrong about the colors of the numbers? I must set the record straight and prevent this misinformation from spreading.

Three- Green (SO fucking green) ORANGEY BROWN
Four- Purple [CORRECT]
Five- Red [CORRECT]
Six- Blue SILVER
Seven- Gold/ Yellow WHAT?! BLUE
Eight- Deep Purple BROWN
Nine- Brown GOLD
Ten- Black YELLOW
Eleven- Silver NO COLOR

Also, she didn’t cover these, but

One- BLACK
Two- WHITE

Marina & the Diamonds – Mowgli’s Road

(via Georgia)

Rjd2′s 2003 album The Horror is great.  I’m not loving the new album though (“The Third Hand”).  Also, it’s worth mentioning that his site is pretty rad.

Rjd2 – Ghostwriter Remix

So! I had a nice trip down to rural Georgia for an iPhone App development class last week. Turns out Objective C is really hard! And the PHP ‘programming’ I’ve been doing all this time is kinda lightweight in comparison. Ha! Whatever.

Anyway, I decided to drive down there and of course music was a major concern on the 15ish hour drive. I did bring some CDs, but after getting bored with listening to Fantasies over and over and over I was happy to check out satellite radio for the first time, and in particular, Sirius XMU. It’s really nice to listen to the radio when there is actually good music and cursing and no commercials. (I’m not recommending paying $8/month, which is what they’re asking for online access. They should offer a lower price just to get one channel!)

I prepared this handy list of observations about XMU:

• Most underplayed song: ‘Fuck You’ by Lily Allen
• Most overplayed song: ‘Train Song’ by PJ Harvey and Ben Gibbard
• Most overplayed artist: Cursive
• Least explicable song (played frequently): ‘Reasons to Quit’ by Phosphorescence
• Least explicable artist (played frequently): Glasvegas
• Best DJ: Aquarium Drunkard (Guest DJ)
• Best XMU DJ: Jenny Eliscu
• Most annoying DJ: Jake Fogelnest

Here’s a song I liked that I discovered through XMU.

Ida Maria – Oh My God

Well so I’m coming around on Fantasies. Maybe this isn’t the album I had expected given the detailed artistic progression I had mapped onto them, but there’s a lot to like here. Go give Gimme Sympathy a listen on their website (second track in the player) and tell me what you think. I still stand by my feelings about this song in my earlier WTF post (great, but could rock more), but like I said I’ve pretty much changed w/r/t the album as a whole.

Sorry this is turning into The Metric Blog. Should be back to normal by November!

This song, on Grow Up and Blow Away was originally recorded and released DIY in 2001, but only officially released via label in 2007. I think I need to re-orient this album in my mind as having actually been in 2007, since Fantasies seems to expand on it more than on 2005′s Live It Out.

Metric – Soft Rock Star (Jimmy vs Joe mix)

If you like to rock, and aren’t afraid of a little a lot of confetti, you should go check out Ok Go at one of their upcoming shows. I went to one last night in Williamsburg, and it was a pretty much a blast. They’re huge now. I mean they won a Grammy, after all.

I miss the days though that they did audience-picks-the-cover at the start of the show. In honor of that…

Ok Go – Antmusic

New Metric album Fantasies is available for preorder. Way better than iTunes.

I think it’s ok to post this mp3 because it’s been available for free for some time from their site. Right?

Metric – Help I’m Alive