For the love of llamas

There's no question that llamas are probably one of the coolest animals out there. They spit at stuff, make noises like crying babies when they're frightened and you can use them as pack animals. Plus, they're all fluffy and goofy looking. I feel that they are a very underrepresented animal in the music industry. It is for this reason that I am thrilled to announce the arrival of the Dirty Projector's video for "Stillness is the Move." Go ahead, take in the llama goodness:

To Rent or not to Rent

Even though I spent much of my teenage-hood in hopeless drama nerdiness I still never quite became enamored with Rent. The musical always seemed like a hopelessly campy take on a complex and heartbreaking topic, sort of like "Angels in America" as adapted by the Muppets.

Add to that that I've always felt the show lacked truly standout musical numbers (the closest being "La Vie Boheme") and it just lacks appeal for me, someone who is in general fairly tolerant of musicals.



In any case I have elected not to see the touring production in Portland but would be interested to hear the take of anyone who did.

Thoughts? What's the mysterious attraction behind this thing?

Summer is going to be awesome...

So this is a teeny bit late, but Musicfest NW and PDX Pop Now! have finally announced their line-ups for this year. The one for MFNW is a partial line up but, so far, things are looking very good. You can check it out here. PDX Pop Now!'s line up is available here. While MFNW is priced pretty well if you get a wrist band, PDX Pop will be FREE. So, if you're short on cash, that's one I highly recomend not missing. Also, be sure to pick up a copy of the 2009 PDX Pop Now! compilation. There are some particular good tracks by the Mint Chicks and Ah Holly Fam'ly.

Sunny Days ahead...

...both literally and metaphorically.

Not only is "June: damp dungeon edition" speeding towards a close but the mopey Seattalites of Sunny Day Real Estate are reuniting to give my 17-year-old self the best birthday present ever.



Since Sunny Day Real Estate has broken up the genre they helped found has gone down the worst possible path but SDRE actually made emo that was kinda, sorta good (remember?). They, along with Get Up Kids, will be play this year's Music Fest Northwest on September 16.

Hit the link for the full (and pretty bad-assed) lineup.

KPSU celebrates 15 years of awesome

KPSU will be hosting their 15 year anniversary party this Saturday, June 27 at Pioneer Courthouse Square. The festivities will last from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and will feature performances from such local favorites as Nurses, Jared Mees and the Grown Children and Church. There will also be a boat load of awesome local business (NW Film Center, Ground Kontrol, etc...), a beer garden featuring Eugene brewers Ninkasi, photo booths and henna artists. The best part is that it's all FREE (ok, minus the beer part). Go on over, check it out and support your college radio station.

Avant-garde televsion news

There is no way this can be real:

"No Reasons" not to love this

It didn't seem possible for VEGA's "No Reasons" to get any better than it already was... and then this happened. Thank you to the lovely folks at The Hood Internet for continuing to churn out some amazingly sick beats.

Tattoolicious

The NW Film Center will be showing Tattoos: A Scarred History on Sunday, June 21 at 4:30 p.m. The film is directed by British director S.J. Evans and includes the late and incredibly great David Carradine. Below is the trailer, which is not all that amazing (and definitely NSFW), but I try not to judge these things based on a poorly spliced up sampling of clips. I'm a big fan of both tattoos and Carradine; that's all it's really going to take to get me in there.

Finally, I can watch porn at work with confidence!

It was bound to happen some day. Sexy Clube, an adult website in Brazil, has developed a mirror that attaches to your computer, letting you see if anyone is behind you while you...uh...you know. Thanks to the folks at this fantastic blog for this hot tip on internet safety.

New video from Benîot Pioulard

Portland artist Benoît Pioulard has a new video out for "A Woolgathering Exodus" from his last album Temper, which was release back in October, 2008. I'm new to Pioulard's stuff but so far me likey mucho. The video uses some sweet, but simple animation and the song is a rich folky treat. You can watch it here. Below, is an earlier video for "Ragged Tint," another song off the same album:

Nite Club just released their new album, My Tronic. I have not listened to the whole thing yet but here is a pretty sweet cover of Kanye West's "Good Life" off of it. The video is kind of cool on its own actually:



If you're curious, you can check out more stuff from Nite Club here.

Santigold and some good old Southern love

Hey, remember back in 2004 when Dangermouse put out the Grey Album and everybody freaked out? I sure do. Since then, there have been many similar scandles, the latest of which would be DJ Terry Urban's new mash-up, Southerngold. Stereogum reported this week that Urban has taken Santigold's self-titled album and remixed it with some of his favorite Southern hip-hop. I was excited so I gave it a listen. Not quite as amazing as I thought it would be, but still a very good time. If you want it however, the only avenues available for obtaining it at this time are the one of questionable legality (i.e. some good ol' fashioned internet piracy).

RIP Jeff Hanson 1978-2009

In an email from Kill Rock Stars:

"We are deeply shocked and saddened to report that Kill Rock Stars artist Jeff Hanson passed away on June 5, 2009 in his home, a victim of a terrible accident. Jeff has been a part of the KRS family since 2003 when he became the first artist signed to the label from an unsolicited demo."

No word on what the accident was, but all I can say is that the world lost another great artist. My thoughts will be with his family, friends and everyone at KRS.