M.I.A. is an artist had a unique sound for American popular music. Despite that (or because of that), she got huge last year. I thought she was awful at Lollapalooza last year, but she did have a lot more people than the band she drowned out, Electric Six, playing on the stage next to her. Anyways, it seems that the major labels are trying to repeat that success with Santogold.
Santogold sounds like M.I.A., dancey music thats heavy on the beats. The music has a 80’s pop and a world music feel to it. She is is getting a lot of affection from the “blogosphere”, so you better get a listen in before the backlash starts. Give it a listen at HypeMachine or at Lollapalooza this summer.
Working with logos and graphics all day, I get a great kick out of knowing how they were made, the reasoning behind them and things like that. It took me a while to figure out that the new Baskin Robbin’s logo had a thirty one in the middle of it. I think I was the last person to notice the arrow inside of the FedEx logo. But my favorite logo story is about the Starbuck’s logo.
The reason that it is relevant right now is because Starbucks is bringing back the old logo on their cups. The most obvious weird thing about it is that such a major American company would use a logo that has bare breasts on it. The full story is at DeadProgrammer.com, but the weirdest part of bringing back this logo is because it is making it obvious that the mermaid is the two finned and the story behind mermaids.
Basically, mermaids were sirens of the sea. But how can you have sex with Ariel if her bottom half is a fish? Well, skeezy sailors must have figured that sex with a mythical mermaid is more logical if it has two fins. Yep, take another look at the logo and you see that the Starbuck’s logo is holding her legs back spread eagle. Think about that next time you grab a coffee.
The one that really caught my ear was about Townes Van Zandt. He is a great folk singer/songwriter with a great dry sense of humor. You might heard a song of his in The Big Leboski, his cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Dead Flowers” is played during the credits. I’m not a talker, so learn more about him from Doctor Mooney and enjoy a whole live performance from 1973. Some songs are serious, some are funny; but if you listen to any, definitely check out “Talking Thunderbird Blues.”
If that doesn’t sassify you, there is a documentary about him called Be Here To Love Me: A Story About Townes Van Zandt. I haven’t seen it yet, but it looks like it has some great cameos. The trailer is after the jump. (more…)
i thought so. i know i haven’t been bruce-blooging in awhile, but i think i’ve found a way to totally redeem myself….the brothers solomon. rent it. immediately. it might sound stupid (and of course it is), but if you love gob the way i love gob, then you will be entertained. so roeper claims to have walked out of the theater on it… don’t listen to him, he’s an old man. here’s a test to see if you’ll like it — does the picture below amuse you? yup, you’re in. trust me, if there’s one thing i know in this world, it’s freaks.
John Mayer’s like-ability factor goes fluctuates a lot. He does things that make me hate him like creating crappy adult contemporary songs, doing great blues stuff to get cred while still pumping out adult contemporary songs, and then theres the dating of Jessica Simpson. He gets points for actually being good at blues and every once in a while using it, being mostly entertaining whenever I have seen him interviewed, and being friends with people like Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy. Though the real question is if he is ejaculating or crapping when he makes faces like the one above.
Anyways, I guess he also thinks that he is very entertaining. He has tried his hand at standup a few times, and apparently they didn’t go all that bad. He also convinced VH1 to give him a show. Here is a highlight that upped his stock in my book:
M.I.A. is an artist had a unique sound for American popular music. Despite that (or because of that), she got huge last year. I thought she was awful at Lollapalooza last year, but she did have a lot more people than the band she drowned out, Electric Six, playing on the stage next to her. Anyways, it seems that the major labels are trying to repeat that success with Santogold.
Many music blogs tend to only focus on new music, ones that mainly focus on older music stand out. 
John Mayer’s like-ability factor goes fluctuates a lot. He does things that make me hate him like creating crappy adult contemporary songs, doing great blues stuff to get cred while still pumping out adult contemporary songs, and then theres the dating of Jessica Simpson. He gets points for actually being good at blues and every once in a while using it, being mostly entertaining whenever I have seen him interviewed, and being friends with people like Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy. Though the real question is if he is ejaculating or crapping when he makes faces like the one above.