Fujiya & Miyagi

so I've been loving these guys lately. The name sounds like they'd be some twee Japanese pop duo, but it's actually three (formerly two) Englishmen who play really cool electronic rock. They named their band from the Karate Kid character and a synthesizer brand. They claim Krautrock bands as influences, which makes sense, like on "Collarbone," but they're pretty diverse - it's sometimes mellow like American Analog Set, sometimes more hypnotic, sometimes dancey like Hot Chip, and sometimes like a less gloomy Junior Boys. It's just generally good - soft vocals over cool beats, and great videos.

Here's "Ankle Injuries."



I love the part where they repeat the band name.

"Sore Thumb"


"Collarbone"


"Collarbone" and "Ankle Injuries" are from 2006's Transparent Things and "Sore Thumb" is from 2008's Lightbulbs. And no, not all of the songs are named for body parts. They're playing in DC on Feb 19 at the 9:30 Club.

Here's their Myspace.

Vibrator commercial

so my buddy forwarded me this, it's the commercial my roommate and I saw during "Rambo: First Blood Part 2" on TV. Bizarre.

Datarock in Paris

so this is a pretty cool video: it's Bergen, Norway's Datarock walking around Paris. The song is "I Used to Dance With My Daddy."

Don't read this post at work.

so last night I saw my first ever vibrator ad on TV. My roommate and I were watching Rambo: First Blood Part 2 on AMC, which is a pretty awesome movie if you haven't seen it, though I recommend seeing the first movie beforehand.

It was after midnight, and all of a sudden an ad for a vibrating sex toy for women came on - it was this thing by Trojan that you put on the tip of your finger and it vibrates and also had little plastic hairs on it. There were all these cooing women talking to their girlfriends about it in the ad. It was pretty weird to see a sex toy ad on TV and on a legit network, let alone one showing Rambo. They also had ads for maxi pads and stuff, so maybe they got their demographics messed up. I could see guys buying the sex toy for their girlfriends, but maxi pads, not so much.

Anyway, it got us talking - maybe the US is becoming more like Europe, less puritanical and more open towards sex. I'm fine with that. And it also reminded me of one of the scenes from that movie Euro Trip (which is not bad when it comes to dumb comedies with a lot of boobs). The characters were talking about how much nudity is on European TV, and then there's an ad for peanut butter with two naked lesbians making out. It's pretty funny.

So maybe that commercial is next on AMC, during Not Without My Daughter or How Stella Got Her Groove Back or some other movie that doesn't fit.

Snow

so in honor of the first appreciable snowfall in DC, here's a snow-related song. Enjoy.



UPDATE: Warner Music Group took the music out of the video. Thanks a lot, dicks.

Crapstone

so this is an awesome article, via my friend. I want to go to all these places.

Photo by Russell Bates/Ross Parry Agency

Rush Limbaugh

so I wrote about the Inauguration rental bust awhile ago, and how a lot of other folks have written about it too. An AP writer contacted me about it, which is pretty cool, and I spoke to him for awhile about lower-than-expected crowds in DC and how almost no one was able to rent their place - basically, it was all hype. They only used one thing I said, how much we tried to rent our place for -- but I can understand using only that, as they only have limited space.

Then I was looking where the AP article got picked up (some random places, like the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the New Zealand Herald) and I found a mention on Rush Limbaugh's site (story #12):

"Andrew Wiseman isn't having much luck, either. He and his roommate were excited about the chance to make a profit by renting out their row house in northwest Washington. They posted an ad in December on Craigslist to see what would happen. At first, they asked for $2,500 a night. With no takers, they have slashed the price to $1,800" a night. Wait a minute, now. They wanted $2,500 a night? Isn't that called evil profiteering? What would the Obama Messiah say of this! That is gouging. I mean, that's worse than Big Oil ever thought about doing! It's speculation and gouging at the same time.

Of course, Rush (or whoever writes for this site) misses the rest of the story, that tons of people all over the DC area were doing the same thing due to a lot of media hype about big money to be made: people including (Republican) Fred Thompson, who made headlines trying to rent out his condo for $30,000.

But anyway, it's pretty cool to get singled out by a dope as big as Rush Limbaugh.

Barack Obama at Ben's Chili Bowl

so Barack Obama was at Ben's Chili Bowl on Saturday. Pretty cool.



Ben's is an old, famous place on U Street in DC. It's pretty great. He's eating with the mayor of DC, Adrian Fenty.

The Inauguration rental bust

so I wrote about the Inauguration rental market disappearing a few days ago on DCist, and now lots of mainstream media types caught on too - the Washington Post, New York Times, UPI, City Paper, and an upcoming AP article (which they interviewed me for, which was pretty cool.)

So in short, the articles about people renting their places out for big bucks during the Inauguration has spawned more articles about people not being able to rent their places out for Inauguration.

New Dan Deacon - "Get Older"

So there's a new album coming out by Dan Deacon, the Baltimore electronic goofball. He's got a sound out now called "Get Older," here it is:

Get Older - Dan Deacon

Pretty kooky. It's got the kitchen sink sound that Deacon usually has, but it's more tinny sounding and noisy than usual, and a bit less catchy. I do like the robot voice and breakdown at about 5 minutes though.

The album is called Bromst and comes out March 24. Here's his Myspace and website, and here's an interview I did with him awhile ago.

Senior Adult Choir

so this is pretty awesome:

Senior Adult Choir: Hey Ya @ Yahoo! Video

Happy New Year.