R.I.P. Adam Yauch 1964 - 2012

Oscilloscope Laboratories

Above- a rare vocal performance by MCA on Brenda K Starr's album track "Suspicion" from 1985.

Coincidentally, I already had May lined up in my head as the month for a Grand Royal label retrospective (hence my comment about Ben Lee in the previous post), and Yauch's untimely death has made this extremely apposite.  So expect downloads from the likes of Ben Lee, the Kostars, Buffalo Daughter and Sean Lennon over the next few weeks.

School Daze

And speaking of Homeland, just how cute is Morena Baccarin, the Brazilian-born actress that plays opposite Damian Lewis?  You can see her here, second from the right, just next to Clare Danes (who once squired Ben Lee- of whom more next month).  I'm a total sucker for that haircut. Yowzah.

It partly explains (though only partly) my affection for School of Seven Bells.  This shoegaze-esque group, nominally a duo, though usually augmented by additional musicians (in particular Allie Alvarado aka Painted Face), features the winsome Alejandra Deheza on vocals, and she bears a marked resemblance to the aforementioned Homeland actress.  Of course, that's merely a nice bonus.  Even if she looked like Hylda Baker (or even Arthur Baker), I'd still be greatly attracted to the SVIIB sound.  If you've ever wondered what Slowdive would have sounded like if they'd come from Williamsburg rather than Reading-- hey, who hasn't?-- I imagine they'd have sounded a lot like this.  The new single The Night is out next week, and you can hear them performing it on the Jimmy Fallon Show below.

Dick Institute

The new that Dick Clark died last week wasn't a big deal on this side of the Atlantic.  It was a big deal in the US, however, because of Clark's long-standing association with American Bandstand.  This little piece details some of the highlights (and lowlights) of his long career, including interviews and performances from the likes of Madonna,  Devo, Run DMC, The Beach Boys and more.  However, it's mostly of interest for an absolutely jaw-dropping 10 minutes of Clark trying to corral a recalcitrant Metal Box-era Public Image Ltd.  Even though it's over 30 years old, it's as much must-see TV as this week's episode of Homeland.

Test Department

A great piece by St. Etienne's Bob Stanley on a British institution.

Yes Sir, I Will (wear an anarchist logo on my hoodie)

Chris Brown, moments before hitting another woman (probably).

Keeping it Surreal

Do you want to know what's totally grinding my gears right now? What's totally rippin' ma knittin'? It's the overuse and misuse of the word "surreal".  From having specific art-historical connotations, its meaning has been debased until it's now a synonym of "slightly unusual".

I know this is hardly a new thing. But the latest generation of media airheads seems to use "surreal" with depressing regularity, each time moving it further from its initial context and into the realm of banality. I just heard it being said on the radio (6Music, Lauren Laverne, of whom I expect better). And I heard it with depressing frequency at and around this year's Oscars.  Examples?  Shailene Woodley calling the Oscar rumour-mill "surreal". The Oscar ballot counter calling his job "surreal".  And Trent Reznor calling his Oscar nomination.... well you get the idea.

Worse, each red carpet guest on the night itself was asked by reporters "What's your most surreal moment of the night so far?"  With so many art collectors in La-La Land (and with its history of supporting filmmakers with genuine surrealist credentials, such as Bunuel and Hitchcock), you really hoped that some wise guy outside the Kodak Theater [sic] might point up the misuse of the term by answering "Well, I just saw Guillaume Apollinaire and Rene Magritte talking to Lindsay Lohan."  But no one did. So it goes.

Rawkus Assembly

Congratulations, too, to The Sun newspaper for providing an early contender for the Irk the Purists' Headline of the Year award last Friday.  Accompanying an article about the arrest of Falkirk MP Eric Joyce for allegedly assaulting a fellow member, the headline read "Commons Have A Go If You Think You're Hard Enough".

Now as a Guardian-reading, brown-rice eating, bed-wetting relativist liberal, you'd possibly expect me to denounce all the works of Rupert Murdoch and his progeny. And yes, I'll concede that their business and journalistic methods leave something to be desired. But when he's not bring national institutions to their knees, James Murdoch (son of Rupert and until today the chairman of News International) is cold getting busy with the flavor.  He's chilly most. He knows what's def. What's wack. What's jam. What's straight-up booty.

For strange as it may seem, Murdoch fils, before he became better known for his cameo appearances at  the Levenson Enquiry, was one of the co-founders of the seminal hip hop label Rawkus, which helped to launch the careers of Talib Kweli, Pharoahe Monche, Hi-Tek, Common and, notably, Mos Def. The label, in fact, was bought by News International in 1998, some two years after the label's launch, before being sold on to MCA.  It's salutary, isn't it, to think of James Murdoch in a disreputable industry, having to deal every day with thugs, reprobates, unsavoury managers and hangers-on. If only he'd stuck to hip hop instead of going into journalism (b'dum tsh).

To recall the days when James Murdoch was almost as hip as James Lavelle, rather than the blinking, evasive character we see on our TV screens today, here's a little something by Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek from 1999 or so.

Yo!

Download Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek The Express (mp3)