CASTANET CLAP IS OVER; WE CAN ALL HAVE FUN NOW
In case you have somehow missed it over the last couple months, I won’t be updating this website anymore. We’re moving on to bolder, more ridiculous pastures, where media frivolity and things that are just plain awesome reside. Get into it:
We’ve already been starry-eyed and salivating over pop culture for a couple months, and now all of the last pieces are falling into place. Change your urls and come along! Everything here will continue to live, but all the fresh perspectives are elsewhere.
Day whatever: still have an affinity for clever parody trailers. These two approach the use of trailers in two different ways, but both succeed.
Check out the preview for ‘Gaga in Wonderland’. Tim Burton’s movie was decent enough, but it would have been ever more satisfying with a few touches from the Haus of Gaga.
‘Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer’ sums up everything ever nominated for Best Picture so that you’ll always know what you’re getting into. You can either see the movies or at least feel like you have by assuming they’ve already got it covered here. I first saw this video on Cracked.com.
Stereo Subversion feature: Eluvium
Over a year after I did my first interview/profile piece for an artist, I’m branching out into that territory again. Blogs like Stereogum, Tiny Mix Tapes, and Pitchfork are all buzzing about Eluvium’s upcoming album, Similes. Due out on February 23rd, the album is the first official release from Matthew Cooper in a few years, and in that time, he’s built up a reputation as one of the most worthwhile composers in more mainstream instrumental music, rubbing elbows with other successful bands like Explosions in the Sky.
Last month, I got to talk with Matt and discuss where he’s been and what’s coming next for Stereo Subversion:
SSv: And how has the direction of your music changed in the last two or three years? What’s inspired you to write since the last album?
Matthew: For Similes, it’s the longest time since I’ve waited to put out anything. Or since I’ve put out a new Eluvium album. Actually, before I was working on Similes, I was working on another record that I guess I would describe as the follow-up to Copia, in a way, where it did have more orchestration, and it was kind of longer, even more drawn out orchestration. I got fed up with it right before I finished it and felt that I’d hit a stasis. It seemed like all of the ideas were coming a little too easy to me. And, so, I was talking with my wife about it, voicing my frustration, and she was like, ‘Well, why don’t you do what it is that you really want to be doing?’
That’s how Similes started. Because I had a lot more time, and I was working on a few other things instead of Eluvium albums, it kind of came from just sort of sitting and thinking. That sounds rather simple. Certain, [more specific] ideas do come up, but it really cropped up out of the idea of just being lost in thought. That was the direction that I wanted to take with the new album was something that sort of described the idea of not really having any specific thought – that sort of thinking about thought.
HBO’s previews first episode of ‘How To Make It In America’
HBO’s new series, How To Make It In America, officially premieres Sunday, February 14 at 10pm, but the network has already made the first episode available online. Executive produced by Mark Wahlberg, the show takes place in New York and sort of feels like what Entourage might have been before Vincent Chase became a movie star.
It includes a recognizable cast of characters, including Luis Guzmán, Shannyn Sossamon, and Eddie Kaye Thomas. Kid Cudi makes hia (brief) acting debut. The first episode doesn’t really get into what his character is all about, but in interviews about the series, Cudi said that he wanted to pursue something that didn’t have anything to do with his day job.
“It was important to me early on to branch away from music and actually do something outside my comfort zone,” he told AZ Central. “When we were developing my character with the writers, I was telling them, ‘Man, I don’t want to be anything that has to do with music,’ just because that’s not really acting.”
HBO is also holding an advanced screening of the show in a few major US cities. Check out the weblog for more information.
Belated words about the Grammy Awards & Hip-Hop
I’ve been a little all over the place lately. It feels like I haven’t updated this in forever, when, in reality, it’s been a couple weeks. Like so many people in the music world, I did catch the Grammy Awards. Most of the best moments happened in the first hour or so, but it was some of the media leading up the Grammys that really caught my attention. In particular, here’s an article from The Boombox about the contentious relationship between the awards show and rap music.
It took a decade after the Grammy Association first acknowledged the genre that a hip-hop artist finally took the most coveted crown jewel. The same year that Hill won her five golden gramophones, only three hip-hop awards — Best Rap Solo Performance, Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, and Best Rap Album — existed. Classical music, on the other hand, had long lost its mainstream luster, yet it continued to be honored by NARAS with a healthy 11 awards. While it’s relatively unfair to pit two genres against each other in terms of nomination numbers, hip-hop had arguably outgrown a host of genres that have remained the focal point of Grammy honors.
And as a result, the Grammys became more of a novelty for consistently snubbing hip-hop than a lauded taste-making institution.
The post focuses more on which artists have been able to succeed on the program over the years, but a friend also pointed out to me that, of the five hip-hop categories, four were given out during the pre-tel. Only “Best Rap/Sung Collaboration” made it to TV this year, relegating hip-hop to the kids table with the exception of a couple hip-hop performances by Black Eyed Peas and “Forever” done by Lil’ Wayne, Eminem, and Drake.
What gives?
Lady Gaga and Trina? Really?
There are unlikely matches, and then there’s “Let Them Hoes Fight.” Leaked online recently, the song is supposed to be the first single on Trina’s upcoming album, Amazin’, and features Lady Gaga. It’s definitely not a match-up I could have ever guessed at, but online buzz says that Gaga participated on the song right before she became a phenomenon. The track has been out for a couple weeks now, but Rap Up got a hold of producer Jim Jonsin to learn more about how the song came together.
“I was in the studio with a writer working on tracks and ideas for random artists and this girl came over,” he revealed. “She looked bugged out like she was out late the night before. It turned out it wasLady Gaga, and this was probably three months before ‘Just Dance’ came out and blew up.”
Gaga happened to be writing for another pop superstar when the song came to fruition. “I gave her some music and she went to work in a back room. I think she was writing an idea for Britney [Spears] and it was sick, so I grabbed her and brought her back in the room.”
“We started writing a song called ‘Freezer Burn’ and that song turned out really good, so we did another song called ‘Kaboom.’ We were playing the songs back, trying to figure out who to give them to.
It’s got some of the attitude a lot of people have come to associate with Gaga’s style, but the message doesn’t fully fit in with her messages or typical songwriting, probably a result of Trina getting in on the track later. To me, her collaboration with Beyonce for “Telephone” trumps this one, but listening to the tracks back-to-back shows how much the final product can change from collaboration to collaboration.
Watch This Show: Gavin & Stacey
There’s something that’s so completely satisfying about watching an entire series from beginning to end. For shows that run long enough, it’s easy enough to miss an episode here or there and sometimes, if they’re filler episodes, it doesn’t matter as much. With Gavin & Stacey, I watched every episode from the most charming pilot I’ve ever seen to the Christmas Special and the series finale that made me laugh as much as it made me cry.
I’ve always been an Anglophile. Give me some people with varying degrees of UK accents and I’m totally hooked. There’s something about the way their series pan out that captivates me, whether it’s with period pieces or modern takes on escapist drama. From start to finish, Gavin & Stacey is a charming amalgam of romance and realism; charming to the point of teeth-aching sweetness, sometimes, but always filled with enough good humor and comedy to sell the unwavering point: you’re rooting for Gavin and Stacey to work out.
There are TV shows, and then there are TV shows, things put on the air specifically so that they’ll elicit a response; political, emotional, draining — they exist in order to make you think. It would be really easy to group Gavin & Stacey into a fluffy category, as something less. It’s about a pair of people who meet over the phone, fall in love, get married and eventually, try and start a family. That might not seem like much of a moving premise. It’s been done a hundred times, the concept of shows centered around home and the family, namely with American hits like Brothers & Sisters and the aptly titled Modern Family. It’s not new, but it’s interesting. Procedurals are still going strong, and they will be as long as Law & Order is around (considering it’s been renewed for its 21st season, it doesn’t look like it’ll be going away any time soon), but there’s also a brand new focus: Family. Togetherness. Love. Those are the big sellers nowadays, that sentimentality accepted as long as it’s funny.
What I mean to say is this: the era of Married with Children, it’s not.
Gavin & Stacey strikes the odd balance of pushing the line too far and making you believe that these people are actually in love. On a lesser show, with worse writing and a cast that didn’t feature exemplary actors each week, there’d be a whiff of parody in the air. Parody is what we turn too when things get too mushy, when we’re embarrassed, and from James Corden, who together with Mat Horne (the ever-earnest Gavin) wrote and starred in the gem Lesbian Vampire Killers, parody is probably what would be expected. The sum of the parts shouldn’t have been a heart-warming testament to how true love can be, but that’s what managed to happen anyway. Not that there aren’t an excess amount of tongue-in-cheek moments, up to and including: incestuous overtones between an uncle and nephew (both, of course, over the legal age of consent), parental squabbling and healthy dose of British and Welsh idiosyncrasies, but those just manage to root the whole thing into reality.
They say that watching television is more about escapism than it is about anything else, and maybe that’s true. I’d love to take a mini-break into the charming world of Barry Island, Wales.
Childish Gambino is actually a comedian, but he’s also a rapper
I like Donald Glover. My introduction to him came through videos produced by Derrick Comedy, and then I was glad to see him pop up on NBC’s Community and hear that he’s gotten to write for 30 Rock. Yet, when my friend linked me to a mixtape by some guy called Childish Gambino, I looked at the cover art and still first thought, “Hey! It’s the Bro Rape guy!”
He has definitely kept himself busy since that three-year-old skit, though. I’m surprised that I hadn’t heard about Donald Glover’s efforts as an underground hip-hop artist before now, considering his past releases have been covered by blogs like the LAist and worked with artists like MC Chris to supply the memorable track “The Stand” for Derrick Comedy’s first film, Mystery Team.
And yet, here I am, a little late to the party but throwing my two cents in about it anyway. Childish Gambino’s style is a mixture of hilarity and ridiculousness, of nerdcore and street bravado alike. Not every track is perfectly produced or executed, but there’s even something intriguing about the rough edges. None of it detracts from the infectiousness of Donald Glover’s timbre, how clever lyrics like two of you chains equals one of my shirt sir/you got Jacob Jeweler/I got Anna Wintour (from the song “New Prince (Crown On The Ground)”) manage to be, trying to guess which indie favorites he samples (including Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective), or simply the challenge in testing whether you get each pop culture reference.
Childish Gambino – New Prince (Crown On The Ground)
Donald Glover might may just be poised to contend with current comedy giants without copying what’s already out there. He’s got his own flavor, and you’re probably going to want to get in on it now.
Film Review: Youth In Revolt
Michael Cera’s strategy seems to be this: play the same character, but in increasingly oddball situations. As the focus of the movie Youth in Revolt, Michael Cera plays an awkward, sixteen-year-old virgin prone to witty inner monologue and conversation. He’s focused on finding young love, getting laid for the first time, and going to the most extreme lengths to do so.
Although this feels like a rehash of some of Cera’s early, more popular work, it was actually filmed over a year ago, before his roles began to veer away from characters that are strictly teenagers. Twisp has been aged up a couple years, from fourteen to sixteen, which doesn’t make his adventures much more probable, but it does make some of the attitude more believable.
Gustin Nash adapts the movie from the novels, a series of troubles that almost feel like self-contained events until the end of the film, where they all converge to catalyze Nick’s final run from the law. Snappy dialogue and a top notch, star-studded cast ensure that the film is packed with funny, sometimes crass humor. It’s easier to ignore how farfetched some of the people and situations are by letting the humor carry things along.
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