Thunderheist - "Jerk It"

so I got this in a press release, but it's pretty awesome. The song sounds a bit like Missy Elliott/Timbaland, but more of a hipster dance club version, which is a pretty good combo if you ask me. The group is a from Canada, with a singer named Isis and a beat maker named Graham Zilla. Anyway, the song is pretty awesome, and the video is cool too -- weird, plus a hot girl. That's a recipe for a good video to me.

thunderheist - jerk it from thatgo on Vimeo.

Plus it's kind of a amusingly obvious reference - the song is called "Jerk It" and she's holding a rooster.

Their other stuff is pretty good too.

Myspace
Website

New Kings of Convenience album coming in September

so Kings of Convenience, a Norwegian band I like a lot, are coming out with a new album in September. To wit, this postcard. Click it for the full version.



Also, Tyskland is Germany. I looked it up.

New Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse album streaming on NPR

so this is pretty cool -- there's a new album by Danger Mouse (half of Gnarls Barkley) and Mark Linklous from Sparklehorse, plus all these guys:

James Mercer of The Shins, The Flaming Lips, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Frank Black of the Pixies, Iggy Pop, Nina Persson of The Cardigans, Suzanne Vega, Vic Chesnutt, David Lynch, and Scott Spillane of Neutral Milk Hotel and The Gerbils.

Here's the stream from NPR.

And David Lynch is taking photos for the album.

Lützenkirchen - "3 Tage Wach"

so Lützenkirchen (I had to copy and paste the ü) is an electronic artist from Munich, Germany. I found this video just randomly on Youtube. It's pretty awesome.


Lützenkirchen- 3 Tage wach - MyVideo

There's an English version too, and if the song is translated, then "3 Tage Wach" means "three days awake" and the song is about getting drunk. There's also a pretty awesome 8 minute version in German.

Here's Lützenkirchen's Myspace and his blog.

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.

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."

The Obamas in Washington

so this is a pretty cool article, it's asking whether the Obamas will go out in Washington more than George W. Bush. It mentions a few spots, like 2 Amy's (which I think is overrated) and Ben's Chili Bowl, and is one of the few articles about D.C. that talks about the city itself rather than just the institutions of government. I hope there are more to come.

Samuel L. Jackson cab driver

So today I had a pretty awesome cab driver.

I was going to work, and as soon as I got in, he yelled "FUCK! It's Friday! They gonna run us over!" or something to that effect about the buses and cars on the street. He had the exact same tone and voice as Samuel L., it was kind of uncanny. It was mostly joking and pretty hilarious, he kept doing it on 16th Street, honking and hollering, sometimes just random stuff: "SOMERSAULTS!", and him and me were laughing it up.

Other than the Samuel L yelling, he was a totally normal guy, talking about what he thought of the meter and stuff. Then when I got work, the fare was $10 so I gave him $12, and he gave me $1 back, saying that's for church, or remember me when you get a drink today. Pretty cool. I like interesting cabbies.

Metronomy - "Radio Ladio"

so this is a pretty cool video by Metronomy, an English electronic music act I found by browsing the Youtube related videos. It's proof that you just need to be creative to make a cool video.



My friend has their album, Pip Paine (Pay the £5000 You Owe), and says it's pretty excellent.

Dan Deacon etc at the Black Cat

So I went to see Dan Deacon, Matt & Kim, etc at the Black Cat last night for the F Year Tour. Here's a video.



And here's the DCist review I wrote.

Buzzerball

So I've been playing this free online basketball manager game called Buzzerball for awhile, it's pretty cool.

You get players and train them, trade them, set your strategy, and so on, and your team plays against other peoples' teams from around the world. It's fun. My team is called the Marion Barries and we're 2-2 in the league so far, but my shooting guard, Devin Reggie, is tearing it up.

It's free, so check it out. You can play against me too.

And if you like soccer, I'm in a similar soccer game called Hattrick. I think Buzzerball is based on Hattrick.

so I saw this commercial today. Pretty cool.



I was pretty much blown away when I saw it, I rewinded it to see it again. It's different and cool, I was surprised it said what it did. And there's no sound, so it's more noticeably different. Of course, the fact that it's selling something kind of undercuts the message, but it's a good message nonetheless.

so this is a pretty cool video. It's a Keepon robot dancing to Spoon's "Don't You Evah."



There was one before where it danced to "I Turn My Camera On."

so i wish there were more commercials like this

so I've known about towns with names like Bumpass, Virginia, Fucking, Austria, Intercourse, Pennsylvania, and Dildo, Newfoundland (which is only about an hour trip from Conception Bay, figure that one out). But browsing a list on Wikipedia, I discovered Condom, France.

I think Condom and Fucking should become sister cities. Not only would it be hilarious, it'd be a good way to promote safe sex. I bet it'd get a lot of play (pun!) in newspapers and blogs, and everybody would forward it to everybody else. So I'm going to start the campaign!

I'm gonna email the Sister Cities nonprofit, UNAIDS, the International AIDS Society, and whatever other nonprofits I can think of. But before that, I'm going to visit this lovely little town.

so this is awesome. I saw it on stereogum

so this is the best sports name ever: Boof Bonser. Awesome.

so I found this on myspace, pretty cool. I used to watch this show, and I had a big version of the green guy and a small one of the blue guy. I always like looking at these old cartoons and toys on the internet, it's amazing how much I've forgotten about until I see them again.



Here's the wikipedia page on the Centurions.

so tonight i was flipping channels and landed on Current, that TV network Al Gore started. I'd never watched it, but ended up watching about three hours straight. It's good. It was founded to be an anti-Fox News, but they changed their model before it launched (and maybe a good thing, since Air America Radio is having problems) to be a series of news "pods" for younger people, i.e. 18-30ish. Some are produced by viewers and some are made by the station staff, but they're all pretty interesting.

The station operates differently than any other TV I can think of, all the pods are a few minutes long, and then there's another one. I saw one about coca growing in Colombia, a solider with post-traumatic stress syndrome, a Swedish band (Mando Diao, maybe I'll check them out), a dance club in London, a guy doing "parkour," which is a sport where you run around and jump off stuff, and so on. They're not corny or coying, and they remind me most of Channel One News, if anybody had that back in school. But they were cooler than that, and some weren't news at all, just interesting stuff. I really enjoyed it and if you have it, I recommend it.

so honestly, there is not much I can say about this. it's the best thing i've ever seen.

update: this version works



(this one doesn't)