Ephemera

I was about four years too old for Transformers the first time around — they were definitely the toys I wish I’d had when I was 10 years old — and certainly too old for the cartoon series. So I don’t really have the excitement for the movie I would about, say, a Micronauts movie. And the fact that Michael Bay is directing makes it even less thrilling. But when the trailer hit the internet today, I bit.

Yep, it’s a Michael Bay movie all right, with things are blowing up real good. Wake me when the Autobots win. The only other notable thing, and the only reason I’m posting about this, is that star Shia LeBeouf (who I like) seems to wear a Strokes t-shirt for the whole movie.

I wonder if they’ll be on the soundtrack? And will either of those things be enough to get Miss Modern Age to buy a ticket?

Thanks to US Weekly, we all know celebrities are just like us. But you may not realize that medium commercially successful singer/songwriters are just like us too.

Just ask Sondre Lerche, who will release his second album in less than a year, Phantom Punch, on February 7, 2007. For one thing, he’s just like us in that he has his own blog. And on that blog he informs us that he also has to do his own accounting. This is the ugly side of the music that VH1 never dared to go behind.

"This industry really eats you up and spits you out. And then you have to do your receipts.

Because I am with myself most of the time, no one is better suited in
explaining exactly why buying six horse masks is an expense that is
relevant to my business…"

Personally, I would think he could afford an accountant. I can afford an accountant. But I applaud his DiY attitude, nonetheless.

You can hear Phantom Punch‘s noisy, Joseph K-ish title track on Sondre’s MySpace page.

The song’s video (which explains something from the above quote) was directed by Kristoffer Borgli, who won a contest for the chance to do so. Someone likes Michel Gondry…

Previously seen as an explative-spewing bastard on Hell’s Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares and other series, Gordon Ramsey’s F Word aims to show a kinder, gentler side to Britain’s most famous chef. His goal: get people, women specifically, back in the kitchen and caring about food. That and getting fresh with hot chicks in the name of Good Television. I have to admit, I thought the first episode was pretty good.

When I first heard the title of the series, I immediately thought of the song "The F Word" by Babybird. And lo and behold, it’s being used as the theme song of the series. In fact, the song practically omniprescent throughout each episode.

MP3: Babybird – "The F Word"

If you’ve never heard of Babybird, it’s the pseudonym of Stephen Jones, who was somewhat of a Brit indie sensation in the mid-90s, but never even dented the public consciousness of America. Amazingly prolific, he released five albums of home-recorded songs in 1995, then rerecorded the best songs from those records for his proper debut, 1996’s Ugly Beautiful, which spawned the UK hit "You’re Gorgeous."

The follow-up was 1998’s dark, depressing There’s Something Going On — which kind of sank his career. (1998 was dark year in Britain, which also saw the release of Pulp’s This is Hardcore and The Divine Comedy’s Fin de Siècle — both downer albums from bands known for being a bit more fun.). 2000’s Bugged went virtually unnoticed but is actually a really great record, containing "The F Word" and the twisted ballad "Out of Sight." Nearly all of Babybird’s albums are out-of-print, but the 2004 compilation Best of Babybird hits most of the high points.

Babybird went dark after Bugged, though in 2002 Jones released an album under his own name, Almost Cured of Sadness, a bedroom-recorded affair which featured a lot songs with annoying Chipmunk vocals.

But I’m happy to report that Jones has revived the Babybird pseudonym with his new album Between My Ears There’s Nothing but Music. It finds him in fine form, bizzare but undeniably catchy. My favorite is "Lighter ‘n’ Spoon" that puts an interesting spin on the old two-peas-in-a-pod theme. I don’t see it being used as a TV theme any time soon, but stranger things have happened.

MP3: Babybird – "Lighter ‘n’ Spoon"

Gordon Ramsey’s F Word airs Sunday nights at 9PM EST on BBC America.

I was flipping through the new Caroline Distribution catalog when this stopped me dead in my tracks:
Initially, I thought it was a CD from Germany’s most famous exports, Heino. Right country, wrong guy. The title read, Karl Lagerfeld: My Favorite Songs. Oh dear. Could the 73-year-old German fashion icon and former fan-waver be recording an album of standards? (That would probably be a lot like a Heino record, come to think of it.)

No. Turns out Lagerfeld has compiled a two-disc set of his favorite songs — presumably used in recent fashion shows.

Heino is not on it, though "Blau Blueht Der Enzian" would make perfect catwalk material.

I was all ready to make more jokes at his expense, but then I read the tracklisting which, the sell sheet claims, was chosen by Lagerfeld himself. LCD Soundsystem. Stereolab. Xavier Cugat. Stravinsky! The Fall!! So I can only make fun of the "Amazing CD digipak design" which Lagerfeld also created. Actually, I haven’t seen it so I can only judge the cover. He’s just not the same without the girth… and the fan.

Full tracklisting for Karl Lagerfeld: My Favorite Songs…

DISC 1
1.    Devendra Banhart – Feel Like a Child
2.    The Boy Least Likely To – Be Gentle with Me
3.    Minotaur Shock – Vigo Bay
4.    Lindstrom & Prinz Thomas – Mighty Girl
5.    Mayber & Aguayo – Slow
6.    LCD Soundsystem – Too Much Love
7.    The Free Design – The Proper Ornaments
8.    The Pipettes – Your Kisses are Wasted On Me
9.    Smokers Die Younger – Yer Actual
10.    Electrelane – Eight Steps
11.    Xavier Cugat – Perfidia
12.    Planning to Rock – I Wanna Bite Ya
13.    Fiery Furnaces – I’m in No Mood
14.    A Hawk and a Hacksaw – Romceasca

DISC 2
1.    The Fall – Blindness
2.    Stravinsky – Pulcinella
3.    The Bell Orchestra – The Upwards March
4.    Siouxsie & the Banshees – Spellbound
5.    Matmos – Solo Buttons for Joe Meek
6.    Caribou – Lord Leopard
7.    Goldfrapp – Slide In (DFA remix)
8.    Joakim – I Wish You Were Gone
9.    Stereolab – I Was a Sunny Rainphase
10.    Kreidler – Cervantes

Buy it from BN.com

While trying to wrap up what’s turning into a long-winded review of Tuesday night’s Dears show at Bowery Ballroom (apocalyptic!), not to mention thoughts on such things as the new Scissor Sisters (disappointing!), Idolator (it’s a blog!), the new TV season (I watch too much TV!), and a hundred other posts not likely to ever materialize(I’m lazy!)…

…I’d like to point you toward my friend Toby’s blog, Finest Kiss. Toby and I worked at our college radio station together during George Bush, Sr’s presidency, and he went on to be Music Director at WCDB in Albany during his grad school days. There he amassed a giant indie rock 7" collection. He’d send me mixtapes compilations of them, most of it which I’d never heard of before (or since). But there was a lot of great songs that never made it to CD, even though this was the mid-’90s. Many of these bands never got further than one single and a chickfactor review.

Before this gets too lengthy, the point is Toby has started digitizing these little slabs of lost vinyl and is now offering them up as MP3s, the first of which was posted today.

Anyone remember Swedish band Neil Armstrong? Check it out.

Hopefully, Toby will be industrious and keep these coming at a regular rate. I have been looking for a quality MP3 of Monsterland‘s "Peanut Butter Karma" for forever. Anyone got that one?

I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again, but The Onion’s AV Club is one of the few outlets out there that actually gives "entertainment journalism" a good name. And they’re actually getting better. One of my favorite new features is "Random Rules." While they aren’t the only mag to get a celebrity to put their iPod’s on shuffle and have them talk about what songs come up, The AV Club does it better than anyone else.

To date, it’s usually a comedian, but this week they talk to LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy — it’s an absolute must-read. If you didn’t respect the man before you certainly should now. Murphy is eloquent, erudite, refreshingly unexpurgated.

There couldn’t be a more perfect song to come up first than The Fall‘s "In the Park." It’s hard to imagine anyone listening to LCD Soundsystem’s debut and not realizing what a massive Fall fan Murphy is (as am I), but this cinches it:

I love The Fall. To me, it’s the best catalog in rock history. I’ll take
it over The Beatles or The Velvet Underground. It’s really beautiful
and broken, and it was the first thing I found that was completely
unencumbered by bourgie tastes. Bands like Echo & The Bunnymen — when
you’re a teenager, that shit’s great. You’re like, "Oh, this is dark
and mysterious and English." But it’s really juvenile in terms of its
aesthetic. The Fall was different. There’s no candy.

He goes on to discuss Devendra Banhart, Lou Reed, Can, and the Finding Nemo DVD. Elsewhere, there are new interviews with Alan More (who knows the score) and Alan Arkin (maybe the best thing in the overrated Little Miss Sunshine), a wrap-up of the Pitchfork Music Festival and San Diego Comic Con, and a list of 14 Classic Tom Petty opening lines. Now if they’d just put their food section online…

MP3: The Fall – "In the Park"

Has anyone else noticed that The Onion has changed in the last month? Not a SPIN-style revamp (devolution) or anything, but they have been fiddling with the look, and expanding things as well. In the NYC print edition three weeks ago (or so) The Onion looked radically different, to the point where I thought it might be a joke. All new fonts and, to my horror, new people/photos in the "What Do You Think?" section. But the next week, the familiar faces were back and the fonts looked more normal, but it was apparent America’s Finest News Source had undergone a rethink/redesign. This week’s Onion has a Sports Page. New feature? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

You notice it more in the print edition, if it’s available in your area, especially in the AV Club half where coverage has grown — specifically the local coverage. The NYC edition now includes a food section! It’s only two pages, but I did a double take when I saw the interview with Gilt chef Paul Liebrandt in last week’s issue. There’s small (one page) but well-selected restaurant guide too.
Except where they recommend Williamsburg’s SEA. With seven other Thai restaurants within walking distance, why would The Onion pick the place filled almost entirely with Sex & the City wannabes drinking $11 mojitos while vapid chillout music blares on the soundsystem?  The food is fine, but Chai — less than a block away — has great food and a more understated ambiance.

Other than that, it’s a nice addition to The Onion. Too bad its not online.