Clips

Brooklyn Based, February 1, 2012

Outernational opening for GBH in 2010.

Well, the Super Bowl is this Sunday, and as you may have heard, a little team called the New York Giants will be playing. So the city is likely to be awash with football fever. But maybe you don’t like to watch men in tight pants bash into each other between ridiculously expensive commercial breaks. You could watch the Puppy Bowl instead, but maybe you want to get out of the house and pretend that sports don’t exist for a few hours.

So the natural solution is to find a show to see. And luckily, there are a few of them happening on Sunday night.

Outernational rocks the Acheron (57 Waterbury Street) on Sunday, wrapping up their current tour. They’ll be playing from all of their records, including the most recent one that came about thanks to their successful Kickstarter campaign. If you’re into unapologetically political rock that pulls influence from punk, reggae and world music, check this gig out. The show is all ages, and doors are at 8pm.
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Death + Taxes, January 30, 2012

The Flaming Lips are going full speed ahead with their plans to release a collaboration album on Record Store Day. They’ve announced that they’re working with Bon Iver, Yoko Ono and Nick Cave, and now they’ve unveiled a preview of a track with Erykah Badu.

The spacey, floaty track also samples from Siri, which may be the Apple personal assistant’s first appearance on a song from a bigger-name band, unless you count the brilliant hack that has her rapping to Notorious B.I.G.’s “Hypnotize.”

Check out a clip of the track below. Record Store Day is April 21, 2012.

Death + Taxes, January 20, 2012

When Amazon first started, all you could buy from them was books. Then they expanded and over the years have grown into a place where you can get just about anything, from Kindles to clothing, without having to go outside or even put on pants.

One thing I’m pretty sure they don’t stock, however, is drugs.

Even still, when Sophia Stockton, a college student in Kansas, ordered a textbook from Amazon, she got an unexpected bonus: there was a little baggie of cocaine stuck between the pages of “Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives, and Issues.”

She took the book and its additional contents to the police, who confirmed her suspicions about the white powder. It was probably about $400-worth of the drug, which would have covered Stockton’s book expenses for at least a couple of semesters. Somewhere, there’s an educated cokehead kicking himself.

Let this be a lesson to drug users out there. If you’re going to hide your stash in a textbook, make sure you empty it out before selling it online.

[Via Huffington Post]

Death + Taxes, January 18, 2012

The Internet is shrouded in black today as major sites like Wikipedia, Mozilla, Reddit and Boing Boing have dimmed their lights to protest SOPA and PIPA. Across the web, pages big and small are encouraging users to call their Senators and Congresspeople to urge them to vote against the bills.

By far the most entertaining demonstration comes from online cartoon The Oatmeal. The site uses an animated gif to break down the bills and describes what the implications could be — especially for entertainment sites — if they pass. It’s a funny gif, done in The Oatmeal’s style, but still gives a good explanation.

Head over to The Oatmeal to see the image in context. And don’t forget to contact your representative.

Death + Taxes, January 17, 2012

Islands are gearing up to release their new album, “A Sleep & A Forgetting” next month, and already released “This is Not a Song” back in December. Now they’ve dropped the second single from the album, “Hallways.”

The new number is a fun and upbeat song with bouncing pianos and chirpy harmonies. The guitar line is a little surf-like and the beat is so damn catchy it almost hurts. If this is an example of the whole record, we’ll be in for a real treat.

Check out the track below. “A Sleep & A Forgetting” is out February 14 on Anti- records.

[Via Prefix]

Death + Taxes, January 17, 2012

Winter is not always a fun time to be a pet owner. Sure, some pups have a great time outside like the goofball pictured above. But others are a little less enthusiastic about the cold.

On the scale of one to Iditarod, my dog lands somewhere in the realm of “who do you think you’re kidding asking me to poop in this snowbank?” She pretty much refuses to stay outside for more than 30 seconds in any form of precipitation and dishes out her best WTF face if I try to make her walk on even the tiniest bit of accumulated snow. In short, she’s 20 pounds of pure wimp.

I had always figured that it was because her feet were cold. They are fairly small, and at the bottom of a set of skinny little legs, so I take pity on her and tell myself if she wasn’t such a dedicated nudist I’d have bought her doggy boots by now.

But now I realize she’s a big faker.

See, dog feet are designed to withstand the cold. A study recently published in the journal “Veterinary Dermatology” revealed that canine paws are made to withstand temperatures as low as -35 degrees Celsius. Blood vessels are laid out with arteries and veins passing closely by each other, which means that as soon as blood gets cold, it is immediately warmed again. The blood is also quickly circulated out of the paws so it stays warm, which keeps the dog’s overall body temperature relatively steady. There is also plenty of fat and connective tissue in the paw pads so that they are fairly well insulated from the cold, much like a penguin’s wing.

This means your dog is most likely perfectly safe playing outside in the snow for a while, presuming you don’t live inside the Arctic circle. Of course, it may still have an aversion to getting its delicate little paws wet in the snow, so if you still fall prey to the sad face it makes when you try and get it to pee on an ice patch, don’t feel bad. I’ll probably still carry my own dog across the street next time it snows. Those eyes can make us do just about anything.

[Via Time]

Death + Taxes, December 13, 2011

Their reasons actually make a lot of sense.

Since the introduction of Spotify and similar services, there have been a lot of arguments about whether or not streaming is good for music. These seem to heighten whenever an artist or label decides not to allow their work to stream, and there’s a debate between fans who want free and easy access and artists who want to eat and pay bills.

The most recent — but far from the only — band to block a new record from streaming is The Black Keys. They announced last week that their new album, “El Camino,” was not going to be available on services like Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody and MOG.

The band spoke with VH1 to explain the decision. Basically, streaming in its current form is terrible for artists, which we already knew, but they feel it’s also not great for fans.

Drummer Patrick Carney said, “it felt unfair to people who purchased our album to allow people to just go on a website and stream the album for free whenever they wanted.” He also pointed out that at this time, streaming services haven’t figured out a way to be lucrative — or even survivable — for artists.

“For a band that makes a living selling music, it’s not at a point yet to be feasible for us,” he said. “It’s set up to be a little bit more fair for the labels than it is for the artists, I think.”

The band will still stream their lead single, “Lonely Boy.” They seem to be using services in an intelligent way — by allowing one song to be available, streaming becomes more of a marketing tool than a replacement for purchases.

For bands to make a living in the digital age, this is one model that might work better. Provide one song, or a few, off an album for free or allow a set number of listens per account without paying, then require that they purchase the whole album — in either digital or physical form — to have unlimited access to the entire record. The streaming services would become more of a preview than the sole way to hear music, so the fans don’t have to buy an album blindly but the musicians still get to make their rent each month.

Check out the interview below. “El Camino” is out now on Nonesuch Records.

Death + Taxes, November 30, 2011

Really.

I’m basically Hanson’s target demographic. When their hit “Mmmbop” exploded in 1997, I was a 13-year-old girl. Upon being introduced to the track, I was — putting this mildly — a big fan. In fact, I convinced my parents to drive me two hours from Buffalo to Toronto to see them live.

It was definitely not a cool thing in my middle school to be really enamored of Zac, Taylor and Isaac, so I got a lot of heat for it, but I didn’t care. After the hype died down and I moved on to other musical endeavors, I was embarrassed about my Hanson-loving past for a while, but at this point I own it.

So you can bet I will be sampling their new beer flavor, MmmHop IPA. Yes, you read that right. Hanson is developing their own beer, and they’ve named it “MmmHop.” Because, honestly, what else could they possibly have called it?

Youngest brother Zac announced their foray into the brewing industry during an event at the Oxford Union in England earlier this week:

It’s vital our fans have trust in everything Hanson do. We are soon going to be selling our own beer. I’m not joking – MMMhop IPA anyone?

They might as well cater to the fact that their formerly-teenage fans are adults now, too.

[Via The Express]

Death + Taxes, November 25, 2011

Proceeds will be divided between different Occupy protests and other charities.

The Occupy movement has seen plenty of support from musicians, so it’s only fitting that now they will be releasing a benefit album. Unlike Jay-Z’s t-shirts, this one will actually help out the protests nationwide.

Just a couple of weeks ago, David Crosby and Graham Nash said they thought a record was a great idea, and they, among many others, will be contributing a song to it. “Occupy This Album” will feature tracks from Jackson Browne, Ladytron, Yo La Tengo, Devo, Lucinda Williams, and even Michael Moore. It seems the filmmaker has decided to sing.

The proceeds will go through an organization called Alliance for Global Justice, which will divide up the money between the different occupations as well as other charity projects. It’s being curated by musician Jason Samel, who hopes to raise between $1 million and $2 million.

The album, which will likely be released digitally before later coming out on CD, will feature a mix of new and live tracks, including one from the now-infamous Zuccotti Park drum circle. Third Eye Blind released a free song in honor of the protests recently, called “If There Ever Was a Time,” that will appear on the compilation.

You can check out that track below. “Occupy This Album” doesn’t have a release date yet, but will likely be out sometime this winter.

Third Eye Blind – If There Ever Was A Time.

[Via Crain's New York]

Death + Taxes, November 23, 2011

The first episode of the British sci-fi series aired on November 23, 1963.

It’s a very important day in nerd history: the 48th anniversary of the debut of “Doctor Who.”

History

For the uninitiated, “Doctor Who” tells the story of the Doctor, a centuries-old Time Lord who travels around throughout space and time in a machine called the TARDIS, usually with a human companion, saving the universe from various enemies and dangers.

The original series ran from 1963 until 1989, then a movie was produced in 1996 and the series was rebooted in 2005. The new version, which currently stars Matt Smith as the Doctor, just wrapped its sixth season.

The Debut

The first episode, “An Unearthly Child,” starts with a pair of teachers in a high school worrying about one of their students, Susan Foreman, who is exceptionally brilliant in some areas but bizarrely misinformed in others. They follow her to her home, which leads them to a police phone box inside a junkyard. Upon stepping inside — which is bigger than the outside — we get our very first glimpse at the TARDIS and learn that it stands for “Time and Relative Dimension in Space.”

Very little is revealed about the Doctor, played by William Hartnell, in that first episode. He appears very different than later versions, however, seeming harsh when he speaks to his granddaughter Susan, and when he refuses to let the two teachers leave the TARDIS. It’s leaps and bounds from the more jovial current incarnation.

The half-hour episode ends with the TARDIS landing on a mysterious desert-like terrain, with an ominous shadow approaching.

The Doctor and Companions

The Doctor was not originally written to be a reincarnating character, but Hartnell’s health started to fade and the writers needed to devise a way to keep the show going after the actor left. So they wrote in the Time Lord’s ability to regenerate himself. He went through seven incarnations during the series’ original run, then the eighth version starred in the movie, and versions nine, ten and eleven have been featured in the reboot.

The longest-running Doctor so far is the fourth version, played by Tom Baker, who was on the show from 1974 through 1981. He may also be the most iconic, with his signature extra-long, multi-colored scarf.

Aside from years of goofy storylines and writing that combines interesting and sometimes scary science fiction with sharp wit, the rotating cast has helped the longevity of the series. It keeps it from falling prey to the whims of a single star, but it also keeps things fresh. There has been some kind of change-up almost every season of the new series. If the Doctor stays the same, then the companion changes. Since 2005 we’ve seen Rose, Martha, Donna and Amy come along in the TARDIS, sometimes also accompanied by friends, family or significant others from their own lives.

Fans tend to rally behind the different Doctors and companions, and having new ones every couple of years keeps it from going stale. And since each companion and each version of the Doctor has a unique personality, the dynamic of their relationship is constantly shifting. Their interactions can be as compelling — or sometimes more so — than the actual plot of an episode.

Monsters

There have been different versions of various enemies over the years, but some of the most popular are the Daleks and the Cybermen. The Daleks are the Doctor’s most feared enemy, and though they look like upside-down trash cans with plungers for arms, they are viciously lethal and practically indestructible, with their trademark cry of “exterminate.” The Cybermen are “upgraded” humans — they take a human brain, remove emotions, and put them in a metal suit. They are similarly lethal and indestructible.

Weeping Angels are a fan favorite, despite being a brand new enemy. They debuted in the 2007 episode “Blink,” and appear as stone angel statues if anyone is looking at them but can move and kill when no one is watching.

Watching the Show

For anyone wishing to start watching the show, the best place for an introduction is the premiere episode of the rebooted series. That debut, “Rose,” introduces the audience to the ninth Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston, and his companion Rose Tyler, played by Billie Piper. Give it a chance, because the first episode is a little slow, but then it picks up.

There’s too much history and referencing back to start at any of the next few seasons — even when the Doctor regenerates into David Tennant‘s tenth version, he still has his relationship with Rose established — but another starting point is season five.

Tennant’s Doctor has regenerated into Smith’s eleventh, and we’re introduced to a new companion, Amy Pond, at the same time. There was also some shifting with the creative team, so the series had a small makeover. If all you want is to get caught up in time for the Christmas special, watching season five and six then moving backwards would work.

A word of warning: this is one of those shows that’s hard to be a casual fan of. People seem to either not be able to get into it, or become at least mildly obsessed. If you sit down to watch one episode, you may end up watching four in a row. There’s a lot of truth to this cartoon:

But with a holiday weekend, curling up with your Netflix account to watch “Doctor Who” could be a great way to avoid actually spending time with your family. In the mean time, watch a clip from the series’ 1963 premiere episode below:

[Cartoon via Art 'n' Stuff]