be your own PET "Get Awkward" Preview on MySpace!

I can barely contain myself, I'm so excited to be saying this.

Kickass Tennessee punk band be your own PET is releasing their sophomore album this spring, as you might've known... and there's a preview on MySpace! Tracklisting, album art, four full-length tracks and everything!!

Get Awkward Tracklisting:

1. Super Soaked*

2. Black Hole*

3. Heart Throb

4. Becky

5. The Kelly Affair*

6. Twisted Nerve

7. Blow Yr Mind

8. Bummer Time

9. Bitches Leave

10. You're a Waste

11. Food Fight!*

12. Zombie Graveyard Party!

13. What's Your Damage?

14. Creepy Crawl

15. The Beast Within

*full-length track available for preview on MySpace

This new shit is AWESOME.

From how it looks, this album'll be HOT.

"Super Soaked" is Toys 'R' Us kid anthem, and a killer opener. "Black Hole" is a relatable anthem of living in a city with nothing to do, and my favorite. "Food Fight" is a CAFETERIA FOOD FIGHT GONE PUNK. SO BADASS. The reason why I love this band. "The Kelly Affair" is about one of my favorite movies, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. But why listen to me?

Go hear it now!

KEEP IN MIND: Ultra Orange & Emmanuelle

Last night, I had the pleasure of seeing the absolutely phenomenal The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which I highly recommend, and noticed the pristine quality of the music used throughout the film. So many great tracks are used, even if the film's soundtrack has no more than eight songs.

But one of the songs I can't get out of my mind is track number five, "Don't Kiss Me Goodbye" by a little band called Ultra Orange & Emmanuelle. It is very simplistic, but arresting, and captures the feeling of the scene in which its used. Snobs who have seen Diving Bell would, at mention of the song, probably respond with something like "You know the singer's the chick who played Céline, right?"

A close listen or the tiniest bit of research will be enough to confirm that the woman singing is indeed Emmanuelle Seigner: French bombshell, wife of Roman Polanski (sorry, boys) and the female face that appears on the Diving Bell poster.

Even a little bit more of Internet time will show you Ultra Orange & Emmanuelle's immense amount of talent: their melodies are new, their lyrics bilingual, the vocals and instruments are perfectly understated... completely minimal bliss.

This band works perfectly together. If you were to separate the vocals from the instruments or visa versa, I'd imagine the sound would be very lonely because these two parts compliment each other wonderfully.

In summation, very excellent stuff and I wouldn't expect you to keep this good knowledge to yourself! I have a feeling this trio will go far.

Watch the video of standout single "Sing Sing" below if you want more:

A poem for the teenage girls of the '90s in bereavement

A HAIKU FOR HEATH LEDGER

The following will probably be a summation of the thoughts of every girl around my age:

I'll miss my Heath bar
In my dreams I ate him up
My best friend did, too

R.I.P.
~Heath Ledger~
1979 - 2008

I forgot how fine he was.
Pour one out for him.

Ohhhh my sweet lord. NASA.

You've gotta hear this to believe it.
Karen O & Kool Keith... perhaps a preview for the NASA album which will be HOT AS HELL?!
Hear it. Now. Here. And now.
It won't be on the NASA album, but it's still a really good estimate of what it'll all sound like.

Sexy rock chicks + rappers = what to expect for NASA's hot-ass debut

NASA debut tracklisting:
'The People Tree' (featuring David Byrne, Chail 2na, Gift of Gab and Z-Trip)
'Nasa Music' (ft. E-40, Method Man and DJ Swamp)
'Way Down' (ft. RZA, John Frusciante and Barbie Hatch)
'Hip Hop' (ft. KRS- One, Fatlip and Slim Kid Tre)
'Four Rooms, Earth View''Money' (ft. David Byrne, Seu Jorge, Ras Congo and Z-Trip)
'Strange Enough' (ft. Karen O, Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Fatlip)
'Samba Hey' (Portuguese Version) (ft. Seu Jorge)
'A Volta' (ft. Lovefoxxx, Amanda Blank and Sizzle)
'The Ultimate' (ft. Fatlip and Gift Of Gab)
'Spacious Thoughts' (ft Tom Waits and Kool Keith)
'Electric Flowers' (ft. RZA and Nina Persson)
'There’s A Party' (ft. George Clinton)
'O Pato' (ft. Kool Kojak)
'Whachadoin?' (ft. MIA, Spank Rock and Nick Zinner)
'Samba Soul' (ft. Del Tha Funkee Homosapien and DJ Obert)
'I Am God' (ft. Kool Kojak)
'Outro'

The WTF: No. 5-- The Slow Death of the Bar

Where's the ruffinest, tuffinest place you can think of?
A bar, of course! For decades, people all over the world have been hitting bars and pubs alike to be able to find the freedom to drink, smoke, curse, and act like a total idiot in public... until now. In recent years, one of the four rights previously mentioned seem to be dying (and of course, the very last one has limits).
Smoking was recently removed from indoors at bars, a single blow to the gritty body of the bar, and not only in America-- the UK also banned it a few summers ago (and if you can't smoke indoors in the UK, where can you?), provoking the creation of a seven-minute short film called The End of an Era.
They're obviously not stopping here.

The ingredients of a bar brawl have to involve both of the following: lots of alcohol and drunken swears. How can you drink like a man if you can't swear? Ask the city of St. Louis, who is proposing a bill to ban swearing in bars.

MSNBC has their word here.

(Not only) To spite the could-be creation of this bill, I say... what the fuck?

Tough Love: Goldfrapp "A&E"

Happy New Year, kids! Here's some news for you.

When Goldfrapp announced the oh-so-soon release of their forth album, Seventh Tree, and posted eerie loops (hear one on their website) of its tracks, I had a feeling Felt Mountain fans around the world rejoiced. A second trippy nature album? Bring it on!

So I came home, excited to find a little present in my mail-- it said that Goldfrapp's new single "A&E" was going to be up on MySpace! I hurried, eager to hear the sounds of this wonderful news.
It starts out with a harp. Expected. But then, unexpectedly, Alison Goldfrapp starts to dish out cliched, saccharine lyrics. It sucks at first.
Then, once the chorus is reached, it really, really sucks. This is like new age Emmy Rossum shit. This is like bumper music for The Hills (watch them eat it up, they probably will). What the hell, guys?! Alison Goldfrapp & Will Gregory are usually totally geniuses, especially Gregory, master of beats. But what is this?! Even the mind-blowing vocals of Alison are suffering here.
It comes to me, a little late, that this is their worst single yet... which is very, very disappointing for how creative these two are.

Alison. Greg. You shouldn't be stooping to this horrid, poppy crap.

It'll probably be really popular. Who knows?
Hear it for yourself and be the judge.

The other news was that the album working for their forthcoming album, Seventh Tree, would be revealed. I was very excited-- the album covers usually are perfect reps for the sound: with Felt Mountain's trippy ambience, Black Cherry's futuristic sexuality, (the best cover so far) Supernature's glamorous mystique... this one'll have to be interesting.
So I click on the link to see it, and find this:

A fellow blog reader's comment summarizes my feelings:

"That's IT?"

Their covers are usually such artistic beauties that look like they took a lot of work! This just looks they took a picture of Alison (who does look very lovely, I add) and just chose a font for "Seventh Tree" and added their logo in the same colour.
I love Goldfrapp. A lot. I really, really love them and I think they're amazing.

But really... what is THIS?
I really hope that the album isn't as disappointing as its cover... not to mention its first single.
Guys! I love you! You can do so much better!

I do it because I care.
Y, Lolita Hazed