Gavin Rossdale Helps America Lose Their Collective Shit

Hey, there.
How's it goin'?

Bet I know what you DIDN'T expect to see today:
Gavin Rossdale on TV playing a Joker vs. Twilight vs. The Crow singer, who may or may not be chewin' on folks.  WHAM!

Congrats.  That look on your face just tightened at least a dozen crucial muscles.
You will never wrinkle.

"After the J" [(c) - My Stupidity] we can even take it a step further and watch Count Rossdale cover Joy Division.  Yes...this actually happened.  It is the greatest and worst thing ever filmed.  God Bless Earth!

Felt 2-for-1 Sale

 Shit!  About time we got some actual jams.  I was sick of all the behind-the-scenes and interviews...I don't even watch 90% of that stuff.  Just give me the music.

2 new jams from Felt (Slug, Murs & Aesop Rock on them beats) after the J (see that?  "after the J"?  DAMN, I'm cool.)

Peter, Bjorn & John - Don't Move Me (Miike Snow Remix)

(Not an official video)

Did we already know about this?
Can't be "new", right?
Ah well.  Its decent.
Have some.

Let's All Laugh At The Bravery...Again

Watch more AOL Music videos on AOL Video

If you are anything like me (and face it, you are) then you are fascinated by the ridicu-sadness that is The Bravery.  With all due respect to Owl City, The Bravery are the true O.G. Kings of "indie" steez theft.  They've managed to hop on every major "scene" change the cool kids have been into in the last half of the decade...and they've carved out a nice career doing it.  Amazing.

Problem is, they always seem to be 3 months too late, so nothing they do ever has a big impact.  Look at this video...is it not the epitome of Aug/Sept '09?  It's as if by the time The Bravery inhales "sub-culture", decides whats hot, digests it, and pukes it back up...everyone has already moved on.  Honestly, som small part of me expected some kind of low-fi, "I recorded this next to my toilet" sounding electro new-wavvy thing.

On the brightside, they have given me countless hours minutes of entertainment.  The anticipation of hearing a new Bravery jam is like nothing else.  "Whay are they gonna jack this time?!".  Their music is like a prize in the worst box of cereal ever.

I love you, The Bravery.
You are the most fantastic kind of terrible.

Mos Def ft. Talib Kweli - History (a capella)

You want a free, a capella copy of "History"?  Of course you do.
Google "Mos Def" and get you one.
I think its a magic trick or something.
I don't understand half of this techno shit.

Side note:  Is that not one of the most evocative photos in the history of Hip-Hop?  Every time I see it, I'm transported right back to 1998.

Clipse - Doorman

Yup...that did it.
I officially have no hope for this album.
None.

And Pharrell, you're still my favorite button pusher of all time, but I REALLY need you to come up off them horns you're on these days.

Is that Fam-Lay doing the "la la la" bit?  What happened to him...or Roscoe, for that matter?

Madlib ft. Guilty Simpson - The Paper

This is pretty fancy.
It comes from the first volume of The Madlib Medicine Show.
I am entirely too lazy to explain what that is, so read here.

The Urkel Dance

No idea why I just posted this.  Most likely because I'm bored and felt like I needed to have some sort of strange impact on your day.   It felt like the right thing to do.

Are The "Best of 2009" Posts Even Worthwhile This Year??

After reading this gem of a bloggery from the author that serves as both the Woodward AND Bernstein of my generation, I've come to a sad and stunning realization: A "Best of 2009" post (a.k.a. The Jammie Awards in these parts) isn't even worth doing this year. Music was EXTRA whack! Pick a genre, pick a scene, pick a movement, they were all generally dry as hell. Don't believe me? Take a quick stroll through the Most Played songs on your iTunes. How much of it is from 2009?

I'll wait.

See?!

It all shit.  Everything you bought/downloaded in 2009 was something that you were madly in love with for about a month, then stopped listening to and eventually forgot you owned, leading to the inevitable "Ohhh YEAH, I forgot I had this!" moment when one of the tracks come up in shuffle.  How sad.

Even worse, it reminds me how much fun I had sitting at this same desk and haphazardly throwing together my big post for the 2008 Jammie Awards last December.  After sitting here, and scrolling throuh my own music stash, and looking through the blog archives for the last 10+ months...I honestly can't come up with enough albums or songs in 2009 that made a REALLY lasting impression on me.  Music that I know I'll still be listening to in 5yrs.  It just didn't happen.

To take it even further, I can only think of ONE album this year that's even worthy of "Best of.." praise: Miike Snow.  That's it.  That's the list.  A one-album competition for Album of the Year.  How sad.

Saigon - My Crew

(VIDEO) Saigon & Statik Selektah "My Crew" from Statik Selektah on Vimeo.

Statik Selektah on them beats.
Them beats are the ONLY reason for this post. Sample is beaux-nanners.

WTF happened to Saigon?! I used to be somewhat of a fan of his...but it seems that something/someone made him decide to got really extra on the whole tough guy thing...and obviously I don't give a shit about guns and fist fights...so I kinda lost track of the guy (to the degree that I don't even have a Saigon tag yet, wow). This is the kind of shit he's rhymin' about these days? C'mon, Saigon...we all know you're better than this.

Joell Ortiz - On Tour

Its only the 9th, but its already pretty clear that Joell won November.
Have some.

Wale - OGz

Radio rip, unfortunately.
Travis Barker on them drums.
Nope, this is not on the album.

U2 x Jay-Z - Sunday Bloody Sunday

U2 - New Music - More Music Videos

Jay-Z jams out with something called a "U2" in a the Pepole's Confederation of German States for the European Music Awards.

Mad political, yo.

The End of Bloc Party? Kele Going Solo?

Rumors have been bubbling for months that the boys of Bloc Party have been (at the very least) considering a split.  For good?  Temporary?  Who knows.

Kele was quoted in the summer on Aussie radio, saying:

“It’s weird, we’re out of contract now so... we might take a year off, we might take three years off.... you know we might never make a record again or we might head straight back in and do a record," he said.  "We’ll see how we feel come the end of this touring cycle."

Then came this from drummer, Matt Tong:

"We definitely need to have a break and gain a bit of perspective on life outside of the band. Hopefully if we do reconvene at some point in the future we'll be refreshed and have so many ideas to bring to what it is we do.

"I definitely don't think this will be the last you'll hear of the people who make up Bloc Party. Kele is an insatiable workaholic and creating is something he is so connected to so you'll definitely hear from him again along with Russell and Gordon also.

"As for me I don't know, I wouldn't mind trying something else for a while."

(via Strangeglue)

Now, it seems we have confirmation that Kele will, in fact, be the first member to branch out.  Info coming from producer Hudson Mohawk (via BBC1) that:

Im kinda… it hasn’t been finalized yet, but I’m also kinda doing a little bit of stuff for Kele from Bloc Party’s solo album as well. He’s doing a record with one of the guy’s from Spank Rock, so possibly gonna be doing some stuff for that.

If you aren't familiar with Spank Rock, head this way.   YEAH...not a very likely combination, is it?  However, this DOES answer the "Who was it in Bloc Party that was turning it into an electro band" questions.  Although, this song with Tiesto may have already answered that definitively.

Fingers crossed, I guess.

UPDATE:  Since we're already here, lets head below the jump and jam some of what I think are some of the Bloc's most underrated jams.  Off-album jams, pre-Silent Alarm jams, that kinda thing . . .

Curren$y - Life Under The Scope

Blogger Blashpemy:  This is the first Curren$y song that's ever caught my ear.  And even this is 85% because of the beat.  There's another rapper out there with a HUGE internet following who I just don't understand the hoopla for (one recently associated with Curren$y) but I'll save that diatribe for if/when said rapper ever releases an album.