In memory of a highly gifted musician and father of the “moon walk” … he inspired millions around the world.
Be at the Philippines: 1,500 Prisoners at Cebu …
… or in India: Bollywood’s unforgettable “GIRLY MAN!”
… or the Guinness Book of World Records event: William and Mary College students…
… and maybe even a surprise wedding.
We will forever miss you!
R.I.P. Michael Jackson 1958-2009
Well whadya know. If you haven’t already heard, the folksy/blue-grass/Irish song playing in the latest Esurance animated ads is actually by a band named Sugar Cloud Cult, based right here in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Their Wiki entry shows them as an “experimental indie rock band” but sounds more folk to me. If you’re into that stuff, feel free to go to Esurance’s music download page. This page appears to be seasonal so don’t expect the tunes to hang around forever.
Tracks available for FREE download from the above listed page:
The animation is pretty whacky and weird but here you go:
After seeing the Family Guy episode (Season 7 – Episode 2) featuring The Trashmen’s one verse hit “Surfin’ Bird,” I got news from a close friend that the band was actually in town playing on Saturday evening at a dive (The Turf Club) on University and Snelling in St Paul, Minnesota. For those of you who’ve heard of the Surfin Bird song (and who hasn’t?), you might be surprised to find out that the group is actually based here in Minnesota. They were also the original kings of surf music. Before the Beachboys. Before the Beatles. Probably even before you.
15 bucks and a few cover bands and beers later, Tony Andreason (lead guitar), Dan Winslow (guitar), Bob Reed (bass), and Mark Andreason (drums) were rocking it out at a packed house a quarter after midnight. Time meant nothing to these “geriatric rockers” as they let loose a barrage of 50s-60s surf rock to a frantic wild crowd, of which half appeared to be well over 40 years young. Songs such as Surfin Bird, King of the Surf, Gloria, I Fought the Law, and It’s So Easy were instantly recognizable which brings me to the big question as to why in all these years of my existence did I not know who sang them until recently. Maybe it’s because The Trashmen don’t have a website?
Mini-mosh pits formed and disappeared in seconds possibly due to the age of some of the patrons. My only disappointment with the event was that there were no body surfers present. Disappointment with myself – not buying memorabilia (cd/tshirts) because the line was too long.
Some classic covers were splayed out much to the happiness of the retro-loving crowd. At the very end after we heard the gurgling sounds of a wet surfin’ bird bailing out into the waters, masked members of the Neanderthals jumped on stage with their drums and clubs (along with the Trashmen) pumping the crowd to a exhilarating finale with more tunes from that era. Best of all, I got a chance to shake Mark Andreason’s hands after the gig. One cool cat.
And so in case you still don’t know THE BIRD, you might want to check out a clip from the Surfin Bird episode of Seth McFarlane’s Family Guy show below.
PS: They’re playing in GreenBay (Wisconsin – booooo) Sunday tomorrow which would be technically today since it’s almost 5am right now and I need to catch some sleep. G’nite!
I’d forgotten all about Rick Astley and his 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up” until they started playing that song after ever other track at “First Ave” club in Minneapolis last night for the Halloween party special.
Thought it was strange that his song was getting inserted between the different techno tracks like a pitbull among hockey moms. Some of the people I was with had no clue as to who the singer was and then Rick Astley himself sprang up on the stage bopping around with a youthful demeanor akin to his music videos. The crowd went wild. All of a sudden, fond memories of “rickrolling” flooded back to me.
Alright enough of that sentimental crap. Here’s the link if you want to know about rickroll and have a Happy Halloween Weekend!!! Also, remember to pass on your knowledge about rickrolling to your uninformed peers and after they’ve seen the stuff, annouce to them – “You just got rickrolled!”
UPDATE: I just found a Rick Astley video on this cool website. It’s SFW (Safe For Work) unless there’s something badly wrong with you.
With the crackdown of the RIAA on music lovers all over, I have come to grow distant from music in recent years. Not even the discovery of the magical Guitar Hero on video game consoles or more recently, David Cook winning American Idol can change me. It’s hard to imagine that at one point in my life, I was a huge music fan plunking hundreds every year for CDs and fattening the wallets of the big people in the recording industry. No more. The RIAA’s actions on their customers or future-customers has resulted in a backlash and now more than ever, fans are resorting to obtaining copies of their favorite songs by any means.
Here’s one way… the online way. You’re not going to have to use P2P sharing software like Kazaa or Limewire. Just the plain old way – websites and in this case, the MySpace pages of your favorite bands. When you right-click on the name of your band in the black box section, you will get the option shown below.
Now if you don’t get that option, you might want to follow my guide in this previous post and then come back here. So anyways, your file is downloading and when it’s completed, you’re in for a pleasant surprise. Oh and make sure you only download songs you legally own. For example, I already own several Iron Maiden CD albums which have “Two Minutes To Midnight” so this should be legal for me.
The “video” you downloaded actually ends up getting stored as a MP3 file. Yes, MP3. On Windows XP machines, the file should typically be stored in C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\My Documents\My Videos\RealPlayer Downloads
or My Documents > My Videos > RealPlayer Downloads if that’s easier to read.
The quality will depend on the uploaded file to the MySpace account by the person who set it up but they should all be at a rather low bitrate of 96kbps @ 22kHz. It’s definitely not CD quality but it should sound decent for the unsophisticated listener and it’s FREE. Let me know your thoughts.
EDIT: Doesn’t work all the time. 
The singers of songs such as “The Humans are Dead” are making a trip out to Minnesota TODAY. They will be performing live at The Orpheum Theater @ 8pm tonight and unfortunately, yours truly does not have a ticket. Apparently they’ve been sold out for a while but I gave it a shot on Ticketmaster and came up empty. Their next stop is Chicago (Chicago Theater) and then they’re headed out west to Denver, Colorado. Here’s a quick listing of their tour. Anyone going to see FOTC tonight?
It seems like every few months, there’s something really gross making the rounds out on YouTube. The last big viral video was the 2 GIRLS 1 CUP crap literally. The video was pulled faster than you could say KAZAAM but recordings of the reactions of viewers proved to be equally as popular.
So this time, it’s by “Riskay – The Drama Queen” who shops around for a catchy R&B/Hip-Hop tune which goes something like …
… can I smell your yo dick?
Seriously who says that but the song is definitely catchy. The rather strange request to sniff her boyfriend’s (or boo or whatever) d*ck to see if he’s messing around with some other chick is downright gross. The best thing in the video is the iPhone doing some Joey Grecko (host of Cheaters TV) stuff to aide our “Riskay” and confirm her fears. The poor iPhone gets thrown but survives the fall.
Also, quite a few spoofs are already out on the internet. Check them all out, YO!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruef7aYCEbc
EDIT: 2008-11-01 Fixed broken video link. Apparently you can’t embed it anymore.
Download.com’s “music” division is allowing for free legal downloads of 2 songs from the hit HBO Showtime series featuring Bret McKenzie and Jermaine Clement – The Flight of the Conchords. The tracks in particular are Business Time and Ladies of the World. Personally, I woulda liked to see Inner City Pressure, The Humans are Dead, Most Beautiful Girl in the Room, and If You’re Into It instead. But they’re all funny which is why the show is so great. Satire. Humor. Light hearted music with humorous lyrics. And very awkward characters.
Here’s a video featuring FOTC’s one and only on-screen fan, Mel, with here “vlogs” here on YouTube. There are around 9 episodes of her vlogs so feel free to check them all out on YouTube. Yea she’s weird.
So I’d never heard of them before or seen em on TV and the vocals confused me. KC thought it was a chick. Then we saw the video and we were like “oh you’re right it was a chick!” haha. Looks like a goth version of Fergie I said. Found them when I was downloading random samples of songs over the internet and I’d say their hit “Monsoon” or better known in Germany as “Durch den Monsun” (translated ~ Through the Monsoon) is a mix between Nirvana and modern day rock.
So we were wrong. It’s a dude afterall. Bill Kaulitz. Even though he looked like a “she” in this music video and in others. He even sports a french manicure and poses very femininely. Strange. Well that’s his choice I guess. Feel free to find other vids of “Tokio Hotel” over YouTube with half of them revolving around the gay-brother controversy which only seems to make them more popular. Strange.
Tokio Hotel consists of 4 German teenagers – Bill (vocals) and Tom Kaulitz (guitars), Georg Listing (bass), and Gustav Schafer (drums). The band was named after Bill’s love for Tokyo and that’s about it.
In memory of SNL’s “Dear Sister” which happened to be a parody of the season finale episode of Fox’s teen drama show, The OC. Some nice guys decided to do their take using Family Guy instead. Put on a comment if you don’t find it funny. 
And in case you’re interested, the song featured is “Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap.
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