Music You Should Be Listening To: March 2013

I’m just gonna get right to introducing the music this month because after last months post I had quite a few complaints.

@2indastink wrote, “Quit messing around and get to the music!”

@5nuckshuff wrote, “Todd sux. Space shuttle rules!”

@peaceandlove wrote, “I fucking hate your guts. Who gives a shit about your thoughts and feelings?!! Get to the music already.”

And that is just a small sample. Now, far be it from me to keep you all from the music you long for, so here you go…

Because I don’t want to be the guy that upsets your day. I know you’re in a hurry and have limited time at the computer/tablet/smartphone for exploring interesting new things. I too hate having to wait one maybe two whole minutes for something that I should have access to immediately. It’s like when you’re at the local grocery store, fast food restaurant or Gap-type clothing outfitter and waiting in line to pay. The people in front of you should just get out of the way. We have shit to do! Instead, they selfishly pay for their own items and make us all wait. Insufferable. That’s why I’m getting straight to the music today, no messing around…

No waiting. No delays. No sifting through poorly written stories about music and non-music related topics. Who wants to read that stuff? Not me. livinNo sir, I will not read for enjoyment. I’ve read too much already. Besides, there’s no time to read when you’ve got livin’ to do…“L.I.V.I.N.”… We should be out having real world experiences. Back packing through exotic locals. Meeting new and interesting people. Having great love affairs. Sleeping in hostels. Nearly dying in said hostel because it is actually a backer packer slaughterhouse. Come to think of it, because I’ve taken time to read things in the past, I’ve not lived my life to its fullest. I’ve never been caught with a pound of hash duct taped to my belly in a Turkish airport. I’ve never done time in a Malaysian prison for a crime I didn’t commit. Do you know how many criminal plots I’ve foiled with just my wits and my never say die attitude? Two. Only two. I’m 38 years old. My father had twice as many under his belt at that age. But it’s a different time now. My father didn’t have things like video games, the internet and Honey Boo Boo re-runs to distract him from his destiny. I’ll not be to blame for your wasted lives. So I’m getting right to it…

Well, is anyone ever really to blame for something like this? To quote the late great Howard Jones, “No one is to blame.”…Wait…This just in…Turns out Howard Jones isn’t dead. Who knew? Well the sentiment is still the same. Some things are just out of our hands. We can’t control time. We can only do the best with what little free time we have. There never seems to be enough of it does there? So to avoid any anxiety attacks à la Jessie Spano from Saved by the Bell

I’m getting right to the music this week…

Dig right into it. Immerse yourself in the awesomeness. You need a little “Me Time.” Put the kids to bed early. Wear your headphones so they can’t distract you. Listen while you drink a latte from Starbucks. Treat yourself. You deserve it. Life is fleeting. Me? I’m going to be listening while simultaneously training for the Iron Man Triathlon, learning Japanese and teaching my son how to throw a curveball. Well, I may have to shorten that list. There’s probably not enough time for everything. Uh oh. Anxiety attack time. No time. No time! Never any time!

I’m so excited
and I just can’t hide it
I’m so excited
I’m so…scared

Ok… Took my Lexapro… I feel better now.

Crap. Looks like I really am out of time. Didn’t get to the music.  Well, I don’t want to leave you hanging. Here’s a quick list of some albums you can check out. Enjoy…

Palma Violets, 180

Waxhatchee, Cerulean Salt

Youth Lagoon, Wondrous Bughouse

CHVRCHES, Recover EP

MoSS? Monthly Mixtape: March 2013

112

Side A : Todd’s Picks

1. Palma Violets, “Best of Friends”

2. Waxahatchee, “Peace and Quite”

3. Parquet Courts, “Stoned and Starving”

4. Foxygen, “Shuggie”

5. Small Black, “Free at Dawn”

Side B : Chris’ Picks

1. Alpine, “Gasoline”

2. Cotillon, “Talk to Her”

3. Fantasmas, “No Soul”

4. Kate Boy, “In Your Eyes”

5. Vampire Weekend, “Step”

Live TV is hard (Or: The Day Pop Culture Passed Me By)

kevin_hart_snl_photo_001This weekend marked a major milestone in my life as a pop culture junkie. I had no clue who the guest host or musical guest were on SNL. This was unprecedented. Once in a while they will have an actor or borderline famous person on that I won’t be super familiar with but I always know who they are or what show/movie/team they are associated with. Quite often, they will have a musical guest on that I would never listen to but I will have at least heard of them. As I sat down to watch this week’s show they announced the host, Kevin Hart. Who the hell is that? Musical guest Macklemore with Ryan Lewis? Who the hell are they? Then I found out another piece of information about myself; I didn’t care! Normally, I would have rushed to the nearest Googler and looked them up, but I truly didn’t care. Had pop culture passed me by? Why didn’t I care who these people were? Who is Kevin Hart? Macklemore?

Ok, fine let’s find out. Give me a minute…

I just checked out the IMDb for Kevin Hart. Now I’m looking this up for the sake of this post. Lest anyone think I actually care who this dude is or what piece of shit TV or movies he’s done…

Kevin Hart has 50 acting credits listed in his IMDb. 90% of which I had never heard of. Here is the only credit in that list I have actually seen.

2005, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Smart Tech Customer

With a resume like that, I totally see why he was picked to host. To be honest the skits weren’t too bad. The Walking Dead one made me laugh.

And then there’s Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. I don’t want to go on too long about these guys because I’ll just come across like a music snob a-hole. I know, music is subjective and we are all entitled to like what we want. But Wow! People actually like this stuff! Two guys pretend to be rapping while eight guys pretend to play brass instruments behind them. My wife and I play The Beatles Rockband game on the PS3 from time to time. Maybe next week SNL will have us on. At least the fake music we play is worth listening to. I’ll be waiting for the call from Lorne Michaels. Take a look below. Since NBC are dicks about people embedding there videos, here is a crappy YouTube clip of someone recording the performance via cellphone camera.

You can check out a better quality video here…http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/macklemore-and-ryan-lewis-thrift-shop/n33498

After that performance last year’s Lana Del Rey debacle isn’t looking so bad.

What were you thinking Lorne? This year had been pretty good so far too. A good mix of young and old hosts. Decent musical guests. They lost some longtime favorite cast members like Andy Samberg and Kristen Wiig and brought in a few new people that are really good. That new blonde chick cracks me up almost every episode. Some of the previously lesser known cast like Bobby Moynihan and Taran Killam have stepped it up too. I guess they can’t all be home runs. At least we can look forward to Timberlake’s appearance next week. Those usually are home runs.