Monkeys, waterfalls, and Packers! OH MY!

Do you have one of those music videos you just wish you never saw? The video for that song you were listening to and just thought, "Hey, I wonder if they made a music video for this... it's pretty good." You then proceeded to look up and watch the video, only to be disturbed by its contents. Don't worry, you're not alone. I, too, had this unfortunate experience lately with the song Do You Right by 311. The song is fairly relaxing (it's about marijuana - what did you expect?) and I figured it could have a decent music video to go along with it. I'm not sure if I have the proper words to express what I saw after that... an extremely colorful mural, back-up vocalist SA Martinez busting some strange moves in fast motion, lead vocalist Nick Hexum shirtless (but in a baggy jacket) sporting a Green Bay Packers cap while awkwardly moving his hands around, waterfalls, rocks, and a few species of monkey zooming by in the background - I'm so confused. This one scene, at exactly 1:24 into the video, contains most of the elements of my confusion: Now I know this video is from the early 90s, but are we really going to let that be an excuse for this absurdity? All I can say is... witness it for yourself here.

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Currently listening to

	311
	First Straw

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Rock & Roll & Mamograms

I love boobies. I mean, who doesn’t? Unfortunately for those of us who have them (or are avid fans of them), breast cancer affects 1 in 8 women. This Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Keep a Breast Foundation is teaming up with local LA music community, Kiss or Kill, to present a month of concerts aimed at raising awareness and money to go towards breast cancer research. Kiss or Kill, a collective of local bands, has been bringing cheap, community-driven punk shows to the LA music scene every week for the last 5 years. This month they go pink, with every show featuring female artists and musicians (reminiscent of their former monthly “All Grrrrl Rock Riot!�). Proceeds from all the shows, as well as a limited release compilation album featuring all of the participating bands will go to benefit the Keep a Breast Foundation. Additionally, each of the women (including members of Bang Sugar Bang, the Mullhollands, Underwater City People, and more) will be having a plaster form made of their torsos to be customized by artists and auctioned off to raise consciousness and funding for research and treatment at an event in early November. Kiss or Kill is every Wednesday night at El Cid. Be sure to buy a "Boobies!" shirt! (Seriously, they exist!) Check out this promotional video from the accompanying photo shoot with Jessy Plume and Love Rebellion

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Recycled Sounds: Return of the Dance

Until Daft Punk descended from the mothership in their robot suits for 1997's seminal Homework, mainstream dance music had spent a long time building its identity around slickly-produced synthpop cotton candy and mildly embarrassing Jock Jams-era stadium shout-alongs. With one look at Michel Gondry's Bubsy Berkley-on-acid video for "Around the World," you knew that cutting a rug didn't require random exhortations of "Everybody dance now!" anymore. Around the same time, the trance/ambient scene started to pick up steam thanks to the mojo of a Maryland DJ-turned-producer named BT (née Brian Transeau). His 1999 album Movement in Still Life marked the zenith of his efforts to introduce a special brand of hip-hop influenced, stutter-riddled trance to the masses, largely by virtue of his work composing film scores and collaborating with wildly successful pop acts such as NSync. BT's alternately spazzy and soothing compositions cut through the fat of an American dance scene awash with Jennifer Lopez and Britney Spears singles. But then something unusual happened--people stopped moving. A sort of post-millennial exhaustion poisoned the dancefloor. Somehow, actual dancing became taboo in dance-oriented music, replaced by exercises for the comatose like snapping your fingers, doing the Rockaway, and leaning back. If somebody had released a record telling people to lay down and take a nap during this period, it probably would have been a huge club-banger. Even the old guard was off its game--both Daft Punk's Human After All and BT's Emotional Technology failed to resonate with audiences seemingly more concerned with an economy of motion (though I doubt BT's newly frosted tips helped matters). However, thanks to an infusion of new talent, the tide appears to be turning. Daft Punk protégés Justice sent people scrambling back to the dancefloor this year with their none-too-subtly-titled "D.A.N.C.E.", a song the French duo has described as an ode to Michael Jackson. Also delivering on their promise to make dancing sexy again is the Montreal-based electro-funk outfit (and current MTV interstitial darlings) Chromeo, who describe themselves as "the only successful Arab/Jewish collaboration since the beginning of time." Their recent sophomore effort, Fancy Footwork, puts the primal sense of attraction and jubilation back into the dance, encouraging all would-be wallflowers to "Let her see that fancy footwork/Show her you're that type of guy." When you toss in both groups' penchant for unique, whimsical videos (like Chromeo's "Tenderoni"), it's clear that the dance, at long last, is making its comeback. Daft Punk would (and should) be proud.

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A Story in a Pop Song? No Way!

Recently I stumbled across this article in Rolling Stone, in which the author makes a passing comment comparing the band Fountains of Wayne and the NPR radio show This American Life. It blew my mind. One of my favorite bands of all time is Fountains of Wayne. They are best known for their Mrs. Robinson-esque hit, Stacy's Mom ("Stacy's Mom has got it goin' on"), which (ironically because it was off of their 3rd album) earned them a nomination for Best New Artist at the Grammy's. FOW achieves this high status on my list of great music because they pair storytelling with kick-ass pop melodies. They are one of the forerunners of modern-day power pop. Like the Beatles, they try to take on as many different genres as possible within an album, and are able to transition from rock n' roll to country to lullaby like nobody's business. Their songs about events that outwardly seem inconsequential turn into gorgeous snippets of everyday life. Adam Schlesinger, the bass player and one of the main contributors to the songwriting of the group, has also penned songs for movies like Music and Lyrics and That Thing You Do!. The overlying factor of their brilliance, however, is really that their music places a simple narrative story about everyday life in the context of an upbeat pop song.This American Life, Ira Glass' radio show and new series on Showtime of growing popularity, also does this with varying levels of success. In their best episodes, all of which can be found here, Ira Glass and his team tell great, captivating stories that keep you interested for an entire hour. Music, interviews, and personal storytelling is shown at its best on this radio show. At a time when entertainment is quickly moving towards fast-paced images and movies that place more emphasis on shock than literary value, it is really refreshing to have a show - on the radio - that tells extraordinary stories about people without being too flashy or contrived. The show easily moves from humor to sadness to political commentary, in the same way that Fountains of Wayne is able to transition between these different emotional elements within an album or song. However, for some reason, before the Rolling Stone reporter made that offhand comparison between Fountains of Wayne's new cohesive album Traffic and Weather and an episode of This American Life, the thought never entered my mind that two of my favorite things to listen to would be related by the affinity of telling a good story.

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