Sound of a Generation

I am currently listening to the latest All Song’s Considered podcast entitled “The Sound of a Generation.” All of the podcasts are great, with guest DJs and Bob Boilen’s soothing voice, but this one just strikes a certain chord (err no pun intended).

All Songs Considered–”Sound of a Generation”

What the hell is the sound of our generation, known as Generation Y or the Millennials? The podcast has some great discussion while also playing some tunes that will really throw you back.

“Anything you listen to at the point of your life when you’re coming of age is going to become iconic”–this, Stephen Thompson insists, is true regardless of how good the music actually is. So, my question to you is, what songs or bands or artists have become iconic of “coming of age” for your lives?

“Yeah, everyone listened to Michael Bolton, but not everyone talked about Michael Bolton”–Are the boy bands of the late 90s our Michael Bolton?

Sorry for such a serious/endless post, but this is such a Kool Thing.

Rachael Ray – So hipster, she’s a terrorist

If you’ve been any where near a television in the past year, you’ve undoubtedly noticed the boisterous and brassy Rachael Ray babbling on about sammies and EVOO.  She has lent herself to numerous ad campaigns as well, trying to sell us crackers and donuts with that creepy smile plastered across her face.

Besides her roles in the kooky, simplistic food world and the American capitalist system, Ray has also placed a stake in the hipster realm.  During this years SXSW, Ray hosted her own party, with the Ravonettes and Holy Fuck performing.  Ray even boasted she was “America’s favorite indie music lover.”  Who knew?

Now Ray’s hipsterdom has run her into trouble.  In a recent ad for Dunkin Donuts, Ray donned a scarf probably straight off the shelves at Urban Outfitters.  Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin took this scarf to mean something else.  Referred to by Malkin as a hate mongering “jihad chic keffiyah,” Ray’s scarf has spurred Dunkin Donuts to remove the commerical from its campaign.

Apparently, this is the new face of terrorism:

Next time you’re at American Apparel, you best watch your back.

Flavor-tripping

Miracle fruit: A tiny berry that tricks the tongue.

“Carrie Dashow dropped a large dollop of lemon sorbet into a glass of Guinness, stirred, drank and proclaimed that it tasted like a “chocolate shake.”

Nearby, Yuka Yoneda tilted her head back as her boyfriend, Albert Yuen, drizzled Tabasco sauce onto her tongue. She swallowed and considered the flavor: “Doughnut glaze, hot doughnut glaze!”

They were among 40 or so people who were tasting under the influence of a small red berry called miracle fruit at a rooftop party in Long Island City, Queens, last Friday night. The berry rewires the way the palate perceives sour flavors for an hour or so, rendering lemons as sweet as candy.”

Miracle fruit for our next release party, anyone?

kuh-ra-zee!

Britain’s Daily Mail recently published an article about one of the world’s last uncontacted tribes in the Envira region of Brazil. To document the existence of the tribe, anthropologists flew over the region to take photographs. The tribes people, perhaps thinking the plane was some sort of bird or spirit, fired bows and arrows at the plane.

“It is extraordinary to think that, in 2008, there remain about a hundred groups of people, scattered over the Earth, who know nothing of our world and we nothing of theirs, save a handful of brief encounters.”

To see the photographs and read the full article, go here.

New Music!

For the past few years, Haley Bonar has been touring small venues solo while also making appearances with whistling, violin slinging Andrew Bird. She appeared on his last album, Armchair Apocrypha, as that cutting voice able to sing along side and compliment the always formidable Bird. Well, Bonar is about to release her latest solo project Big Star on June 12th. After listening to the album several times through, I’ve realized that it is a carefully crafted folk album which traverses into the realm of noise. All the ambient noise of recording is amazingly preserved on this album to the point where I felt myself sitting in the recording studio, staring at the production of it all like some crazed, twelve year old fan. In the vein of neo-folk singer Josh Ritter, these are quiet songs with lyrics that get under your skin.

Here is the title MP3 from the new album:

http://www.afternoonrecords.com/haleybonar_bigstar.mp3

To stream more music, go to

http://www.haleybonar.com/

Some Sweet Prose

One of my favorite publishers, Kenning Editions, is putting out a new chapbook by Pamela Lu called Ambient Parking Lot . The premise of her writings?

“a band of musicians wander the parking structures of urban downtown and greater suburbia in quest of the ultimate ambient noise–one that promises to embody their historical moment and deliver them up to the heights of their self-important artistry.”

Here is a short, but high impact piece from the chapbook which describes the performance of a dancer as trapped under one of the cement pillars of a parking structure:

http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~poetry/Assets-Holloway%202003/Poems-Holloway%202003/lupoem.html

“Oh, she’s just being Miley.”

An earth-shattering discovery made recently by The Onion’s Jackie Harvey:

“Have you ever noticed that you never see Miley Cyrus and Hanna Montana in the same room at the same time? (She’s kind of like Superman and Peter Parker in that way.) Well, that’s because the hot Disney singer and the hot teen singer are one and the same person! I hope I haven’t put her father, country superstar Billy Ray Cyrus, in danger by revealing her secret identity, but it’s news, and my job is to break big news.”

For more recent going ons, read The Outside Scoop.

Celine Dion is amazing.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=CEggoXwoXEY&feature=related

Most people do not need to be convinced that Celine Dion is one of the best human beings. But, just in case you aren’t, watch this video. Three editors to Interrobang agree that it’s worthy of a study break. We also agree that it’s funny enough to play sans earphones and at an audibly loud volume in Cafe Ambrosia during finals week.

Art and the Human Body

The lengths a deranged (this is just speculation) Yale art student goes through in order to stimulate debate about the relationship between art and the human body:

“A Yale student who claims she artificially inseminated herself “as often as possible” and then took drugs to induce miscarriages for her senior art project says she will showcase the stomach-turning display next week — complete with her own blood samples and videos from the terminated possible pregnancies.”

Read the full article here.

Is the manipulation of reproduction considered art?

ha does this offend you, yeah?

http://www.nme.com/news/coldplay/35718

So Coldplay was recently voted, in a poll taken by Travelodge (the sleepiest of all nighttime dwellings) as the band that the most people in Great Britain fall asleep to. Here is an explanation for the Brits snoozing to Coldplay:

‘”The research shows that we are increasingly relying on slow, sleepy music and unchallenging books to take our minds off the pressures of modern living, to help us switch off and get to sleep at night”, said Travelodge spokesperson Leigh McCarron.’

Any quips with this poll? I for one am thinking, finally, some statistical evidence supporting the tranquilizing abilities of this band. If you happen to fall asleep to a band other than that which plays cold, what is it?