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

Some quotes from Stop Peter Bjorn and John:

I should start off by confessing that despite my best intentions, I did wind up walking by La Zona Rosa, the club where Peter Bjorn and John were headlining last night. And I was discouraged to see the size of the turnout — really, it was astonishing. This blog has a lot of work to do. I went by around 10 p.m., at a time when most of the clubs on Sixth Street were just getting started, and there was a huge line that stretched for maybe fifty yards. La Zona Rosa is really pretty far out of the center of town, too, so most of these people walked a long way. I have to ask: Who are these people? I spent a while lingering around, watching the people line up, trying to figure out just what the matter with them was. Really, it was a standard collection of hipster jackasses, with tight jeans and chunky glasses; people who no doubt had just read about Peter Bjorn and John on some stupid music blog (or on this blog — and yes, I’m aware of the irony, assholes, but my philosophy is that you need to educate people and let them make their own choices, foolish or not), who figured that they were the next big thing, and so made up their mind to get in on it. God damn it, it made me mad, the calculating cynicism of it.

And then,

One thing that a lot of us have probably thought when listening to “Young Folks,” or seeing video of their live performances, is: How does Peter do such an awesome job of whistling? He seems to nail it every time. Well, the answer is: he’s lip-synching the fucking solo. The KEXP performance is 100% proof. On at least two occasions, he accidentally starts singing over the solo. The entire facade of this band crumbles. They’re like a Swedish Milli Vanilli.

And finally,

This whole campaign against Peter Bjorn and John has pushed me to what I now realize is a total mental and emotional breakdown. I haven’t eaten in forty-eight hours, and the friends I am staying with have
basically asked me to get out. I simply can’t carry this burden any
longer. I have packed up my car and am leaving town.

Judging by the comments, it looks like a lot of people think the blog is fake—that it’s some sort of marketing gimmick timed for SxSW.  I don’t think so.  I believe!

Tragically (or hilariously), the movement was over before it really began. It looks like he didn’t even show up to his inaugural Stop PBJ event at the record store in Austin.  My heart goes out to him.

Peter, Bjorn and John – Young Folks (thanks Roland)

They’re like a younger Belle & Sebastian but from Sweden and with raging hormones.  And in the tradition of recent Scandinavian bands I’ve been listening to*, appear to have like a lot of peripheral members.  Which, given the Strip Club’s obvious disposition, could mean a pretty kinky live experience.  Or not.  Maybe not.  I don’t know.

Down and Out and Away (mp3)

*I guess I just mean Ske & Gus Gus

I suppose it’s not a good time time to be Sony, particularly in San Francisco.  Nevertheless, via AmericaBlog, I saw a beautiful new Sony ad (for a TV or whatever) that I wanted to pass along.  As you can deduce from the picture above, it concerns bouncy-balls.

First, the Nick Drake-esque soundtrack is by the talented José González.  The song is a cover of ‘Heartbeats’ by The Knife — a band I don’t understand at all. 

The second thing I want to say about the Sony ad is that it’s another entry in what has become the ‘raw economic power’ genre of ads: big-budget TV spots that only tangentially relate to the product itself.  For an even-more-remarkable example, see this spot for Microsoft’s XBOX 360 (needless to say, it’s hard to find a QuickTime version).  All this is to say that I hope the “a million dollars can’t be wrong” model of advertising is making investors a little uncomfortable.  After all, what happened to the “you won’t believe how incredible this product is… look!” model?  When did you see that last?

José González – Heartbeats