totalvibration:

Lana Del Rey’s “Video Games,” now at 1% the speed and now 100% more listenable.

[jupiter mission]

Messy, but really, really solid.

vamoschicago:

A clip from practice last week. It’s a song a bout control and not having any, ever. “Drawing on the Walls” First song to feature Skerica on keys.

morninggloria:

Not to toot my own horn, but I think this is important for people to know. 

The Susan G Komen foundation has announced they’ll cease providing grants to Planned Parenthood, which uses the funds to provide mammograms to low income women.  Komen claims that they’ve ceased funding because PP is under investigation by Congress, but the reality is the new VP of Policy is rabidly anti-choice Palin-endorsed politician Karen Handel.  She’s worked there since April of ‘11. 

Anti-abortion people value the life of completely unrelated embryos over the life of poor women.  

Incredible.

murkavenue:

CLUE 1:
“went to short dogs house,
they was watching Yo MTV
RAPS”
Yo MTV RAPS first aired:
Aug 6th 1988
CLUE 2:
Ice Cubes single “today was a good day” released on:
Feb 23 1993
CLUE 3:
”The Lakers beat the Super
Sonics”
Dates between Yo MTV Raps air date AUGUST 6 1988 and the release…

My sentiments exactly.

maura:

oh my god

An oldie, but a goodie. Guaranteed to make me laugh hysterically.

bainard:

Bert and Ernie Go Brutal

, or, why the Internet exists.

I made this list because I’m an idiot who likes to waste your time. Bon listening! Organized by top 100, perfectly good albums not on the list, disappointments, and worst. I also added two photos I took of the Psychic Paramount’s show from the Empty Bottle this past July, precisely because no one asked for it.

Their album II is my number one. I’ll trust you saw what I did there.

But anyone who likes music should ask for their album post-haste, because holy balls. If the MP3 killed the album, my number one is the album’s hand violently shooting out of its grave in order to seek bloody revenge. Yeah, it’s fucking magical.

Criteria? Sure, Criteria. Let Me Pull This From My Nether Regions:

100 — 81: Formulaic pleasures at their best, with two or three really great songs helping to carry the weight of amiable placeholders. The best of music you can do the dishes to.

80 — 61: The number of great songs per album up to four, but overall album consistency is greater, if not exactly consistently inspired yet. There’s a little bit more artistic spark here, in some cases resulting in records that are quite, quite good, but whose reach just barely exceeds their grasp.

60 - 41: Very good artists reaching their individual artistic pinnacles, resulting in strong, if not exactly forward-thinking, innovative, or earth-shattering efforts. Toward the top of this group, the tip into greatness begins.

40 - 21: Artists working at the best of a particular sub-genre, resulting in great albums touching on transcendence, but not holding on to it for the duration. Still, holy crap. Buy these records if you haven’t already.

21 - 4: Albums of the year. Album consistency starts at great, and ends in fantastic.

3 - 1: Album of the decade contenders, ones that will hopefully come to define how subsequent generations look at music. Only time will tell though.

Best albums of 2011

1.     The Psychic Paramount – II

2.     PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

3.     Shabazz Palaces – Black Up

4.     Tune-Yards —  W H O K I L L

5.     Radiohead – The King of Limbs

6.     Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo

7.     Disappears - Guider

8.     Liturgy – Aesthethica

9.     Deep Earth – House of Mighty

10.  Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes

11.  St. Vincent – Strange Mercy

12.  Indian – Guiltless

13. The War On Drugs – Slave Ambient

14. Implodes – Black Earth 

15. CAVE – Neverendless

16. Wild Flag – Wild Flag

17. The Atlas Moth – An Ache For The Distance 

18. Zola Jesus – Conatus  

19. Bloodiest - Descent 

20. Danny Brown - XXX 

21. Tim Hecker – Ravedeath, 1972

22. Food Pyramid – III

23. Das Racist - Relax 

24. Fucked Up – David Comes To Life

25. Vee Dee — Vee Dee

26. EMA – Past Life Martyred Saints  

27. Wume - Distance

28. Oneida – Absolute II

29.Anatomy of Habit – Anatomy of Habit 

30. Grails – Deep Politics

31. Mountains – Air Museum

32. ‘Spective Audio – Vital Sound I compilation

33. The Men – Leave Home

34. Bruce Lamont – Feral Songs For The Epic Decline

35. Seun Kuti – From Africa, With Fury: Rise

36. Jesu –Ascension

37. Wye Oak - Civilian

38. True Widow - As High As the Highest Heavens and from the Center to the Circumference of the Earth

39. Ga’an – Black Equus

40. Verma – S/T II

41. Lee Forest — Leaf Auras

42. Barn Owl – Lost In The Glare

43. Anthrax – Worship Music

44. Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo – Cotonou Club

45. Eleanor Friedburger – Last Summer

46. Freddie Gibbs – Cold Day in Hell

47. Heavy Times – Jacker

48. DJ Quik – The Book of David

49. l’Eternebre – l’Eternebre

50. Battles — Gloss Drop

51. Ty Segall – Goodbye Bread

52. Catacombz — Catacombz

53. Wilco – The Whole Love

54. Crystal Antlers – Two-Way Mirror

55. Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact

56. Russian Circles - Empros

57. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming

58.  Cinchel – Friday. Deconstruction

59. Adele - 21

60. Cliff Martinez – Contagion Original Score

61. Mastodon – The Hunter

62. Tom Waits – Bad As Me

63. The Antlers – Burst Apart

64. Atlas Sound — Parallax

65. Thundercat – The Golden Age of Apocalypse

66. Deerhoof – Deerhoof Vs. Evil

67. Young Widows – In and Out of Youth And Lightness

68. The Go! Team – Rolling Blackouts

69. The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar

70. Domo Genesis – Under The Influence

71. Hella - Tripper

72. Death Cab For Cutie – Codes and Keys

73. Tee Pee - Morals

74. TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light

75. Panda Bear - Tomboy

76. The Horrors - Skying

77. Earth – Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I

78. Netherfriends – Alap

79. The Dodos – No Color

80. Secret Wars – Double Fantasy Vacation

81. Cold Cave – Cherish The Light Years

82. The Rapture – In The Grace Of Your Love

83. JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound – Want More

84. Roommate – Guilty Rainbow

85. Feist - Metals

86. Mannequin Men – Mannequin Men

87. Black Lips – Arabia Mountain

88. Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

89. Save the Clocktower - Carousel

90. The Cool Kids – When Fish Ride Bicycles

91. Lady Gaga – Born This Way

92. The Eternals – Approaching The Energy Field

93. The Decemberists – The King Is Dead

94. Jay-Z and Kanye West – Watch The Throne

95. Le Butcherettes – Sin Sin Sin

96. Esben and the Witch – Violet Cries

97. Mickey – Rock and Roll Dreamer

98. Ponytail – Do Whatever You Want All The Time

99. Explosions in the Sky – Take Care, Take Care, Take Care

100. Stephen Malkmus – Mirror Traffic

Perfectly Good Records Not On This List 

Apteka – Gargoyle Days

The Roots – Undun

Grey Ghost – Songs To Wake Up To

Drake – Take Care

Yawn - Open Season

Vakill – Armor of God

Psalm One — Get In The Van Vol. 3

Disappointments

1. Gillian Welch

2. Ponytail*

3. The Eternals*

4. Tori Y Moi

5. Neon Indian

6. Alela Diane

7. Wiz Khalifa – Black and Yellow

8. R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now

9. Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde

10. Mountain Goats

11. Wu Lyf

12. Yuck

13. Pains of Being Pure At Heart

14. Julianna Bartwick

15. Lil Wayne

*These albums still have three or four amazing tracks; they just pale, vastly, compared to their predecessors. Hence, they’re on the list, but are very, very far down on it.

Worst:

1. Tennis
2. Fleet Foxes
3. Destroyer
4. The Strokes
5. Lupe Fiasco
6. The Weeknd
7. Art Brut
8. Cults
9. Bon Iver
10. James Blake
11. The Dears
12. Thurston Moore
13. Azita
14. Broken Records
15. Girls
16. British Sea Power
17. John Maus
18. Bright Eyes
19. Wyoming
20. Grouper
21. Tyler, The Creator
22. Loutallica
23. Childish Gambino
24. Tapes N Tapes

(via Restrepo: The Movie website)

Soldiers are journalists with license to kill. The United States soldiers portrayed in the 2010 Afghan war documentary Restrepo are charged with clearing the Korengal valley of the Taliban insurgency. Theirs is a job that requires not just firepower, but negotiation prowess as well. While the former can come all too easy for the American soldiers and their enemies, it is the latter that provides the most frustrating, enlightening, and, ultimately, humanizing moments of the Sebastian Junger/Tim Harrington co-directed documentary.

Lauded for its unflinching, harrowing depictions of loss and suffering in war, as well as for its cinematic depiction of beautiful mountainscapes, Restrepo follows the 173rd Airborne Brigade on their mission in ‘the deadliest valley in Afghanistan.’ In the first scene, we see camaraderie as Juan ‘Doc’ Restrepo rallies his fellow soldiers in arms before they are sent to combat.

Restrepo, sadly, is one of the first casualties from the brigade. His death, and the outpost that is named after him, provides the film’s haunting foundation. While the soldiers share their struggles and their frustration, Restrepo is always on their mind.

What makes Restrepo most fascinating is watching soldiers who had no previous context for the Korengal valley – many of the soldiers at the beginning of the film scoff at, or are ambivalent toward, its reputation – suddenly have to become sensitive to numerous local conflicts.

They have to figure out ways to appease the cow-owning farmer, in a scene that rivals any black comedy about the absurdity of war, who is claiming that one of his cows got caught and died on one of the outpost’s fences. Restrepo is remarkable not only for its candor about the death and violence faced in war, but the smaller, more personal conflicts that soldiers have to face; not just with each other, but with the skeptical populace who they have to convince of America being better allies than the Taliban. (Not helping their case is the aftermath of Operation Rock Avalanche, which results not only in soldier casualties, but in the deaths and injuries of innocent Afghan civilians as well.)

Throughout these setbacks, the soldiers ask questions in the same way journalists do. They seek information, and the only way to get it is to wade into uncertain, potentially harmful territory. There’s only one way to do it, and doing it is not at all easy.

There are plenty of tragedies on screen in Restrepo, and, with co-director Tim Herrington’s death in April 2011, an even sadder postscript. But what’s most tragic is, for all of the soldiers’ efforts, fraught with error and danger as they are, they don’t make a connection with the locals. Perhaps they can’t, and, given the wind down of the Afghanistan war, perhaps it doesn’t matter if they don’t . But, in portraying the futility of war, both in combat and in negotiations, Restrepo becomes the most forthright documentary about war perhaps ever committed to film.