Album cover stories

I never met an album cover history lesson I didn't like; we know this.
I picked the 4 best for you, my darlings (there were 40 total).

Joy Division, 'Unknown Pleasures' (1979). This enigmatic image, suggested by Bernard Sumner, comes from an edition of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy: it represents exactly one hundred pulses from the first pulsar.


Patti Smith, 'Horses' (1975). Robert Mapplethorpe was the man behind the camera on this album cover. A relationship blossomed between the photographer and Smith which would span two decades. Mapplethorpe described his relationship with the singer-poet as "like taking drugs; you're in an abstract place and it's perfect."
(I included this based on this quote alone)


The Mars Volta, 'Frances The Mute' (2005). Designed by Storm Thorgerson, famous for his iconic Pink Floyd album sleeves, this disturbing image is a reinterpretation of a 1928 painting by the surrealist artist Rene Magritte, 'The Lovers'.*


The Smiths, 'Meat Is Murder' (1985). This album cover featured an edited still image from Emile de Antonio's 1968 Vietnam documentary 'In The Year Of The Pig'. The writing on the soldier's helmet originally read "Make War Not Love".

- Link

*

Prodigy's top 40 MCs

Hey, waiiiiit a minute. How come my lists like this never get coverage in XXL? No fairsies.

Dear Prodigy, my list is WAY BETTER than yers.
Just kidding, sir. Please don't stab my brain with my nosebone.
XOXO, Logan.

- Link

JENS LEKMAN, you could get it*

So I'm a little late with this one but it's just simple ear candy. (Thx, Gav)

Oh Jens! I wanna know what love is/I want you to show me!

* Everybody calm down; it's said in jest. People are super duper into my good-girl-ness so there's always lots of consternation and freaking the fuck out when I joke like this in an attempt to amuse myself.

Lace me, post haste

Birthdays was the worst days/now we drink champagne when we thirst-aaaay.

03/29, in this, the year of our lord, 2009...
the birth of your favorite bikini-clad nerdy blogger shall be celebrated throughout the land.

ANTE UP.

- Link

"When I am king, you will be first against the wall"

"Paranoid Android" on Mario Paint Composer! Yet again, something in my life that
is completely useless yet allows me to keep living.

Basically from the 2:06 point on, I'm in 8-bit heaven (again). Get 'em, Adolfo Baez!

N.W.A. biopic in the works

A world of NO.

"Titled, what else, "Straight Outta Compton," the film will chart the rise and fall of the group that were banned on MTV, radio and basically every other existing outlet, but still went on to sell millions of records regardless. Though Public Enemy were one of the first hip-hop groups to break through with a revolutionary, agitating and politicized tone, NWA's West Coast brand of gangster rap was much more anarchic and nihilistic...

The group quickly splintered after their success with 1998's Straight Outta Compton. Ice Cube left the group in 1990 after falling out with the group over money issues and they disbanded in 1991. Eazy-E died of AIDS related causes in 1995. The film's producers include Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Tomica Wright (Eazy-E's widow), and they're actively seeking an Curtis Hanson-like director; he helmed one of the best hip-hop films in "8 Mile.""

PS:

Once again, I have happened upon something so epic that I just cannot come to terms with it. I'm dyinnnnng re: the above pic. Fourth dude is Arabian Prince, oh my goodness, who it turns out produced "Supersonic"! Music-nerd receptors on overload!

- Link

Hating with flair & enthusiasm: 14-year-old boy edition

JONATHAN KROHN IS QUITE THE PROBLEM.

"The future of the conservative movement presented himself on Friday, and he was 13.

Jonathan Krohn, the author of "Define Conservatism" and political prodigy voted "Atlanta's Most Talented Child" in 2006, was the talk of the Conservative Political Action Conference for a brief portion of the afternoon session...

How, exactly, a 13-year-old (Krohn turns 14 on Sunday) got to this place is story of an intense, downright obsessive, interest in politics. Sitting at a table and signing copies his books -- his red tie flopping on top of the white tablecloth, a flag pin pinched to his sports coat -- he assigns credit for his fast ascension to none other than Bill Bennett.

"I got into politics when I was eight years old. Six years now. And I got involved because I started listening to talk radio. It goes back to one event. The Democrats filibustered something in the Senate when I was eight years old. I don't remember what it was on and I didn't honestly care when I was eight years old. I cared about the history and the Senate rules," he told the Huffington Post. "I listened to Bill Bennett and tons of other talk show hosts who talked about that and other policies and started branching out and caring about other issues in regards to politics. Bill Bennett really became an idol for me. I listened to him every morning from 6 to 9 for, oh, years. And I started learning more and started to be able to think on my own, understanding politics on my own. I started to be able to use my mind to engage in political conversations under the conservative banner.""

- Link

This is un-handle-able, you guys. I already have to deal with adult mutants spreading conservative foolishness, and now we got a kid pantomiming all the idiots his parents have forced down his throat. Get that meth foil ready now young Jonathan, because you are, as they say, fucked. Mr. and Mrs. Krohn, you'll be hearing from my lawyer for unleashing this upon the world.

Madame Butterfly, let me in your house of pleasure

Adventures In The Land Of Music - Dynasty

Seen in NY, per Wooster Collective

I know there is a god, a force larger than myself, a hand guiding the universe because, really, it can't be a coincidence that I just found this 12" at Turntable Lab the same day I see the Mario pic. I would have a "so cute I think I just passed out" moment upon seeing the above image in real life on a real life street in NY.

I feel especially close to you guys so I'm giving you access to my innermost thoughts, such as the sequence that occurred when that Cocoa B's song first came out and I heard it on my car radio:

"Holy shit this is stupid."
"OMG whyyyy didn't I think of this!! Why didn't someone else think of this! NEXT LEVELS."
"Who produced this? That human just took the easy way out. No originality. Retarded."
"Who produced this???? MY LIFE IS NOW WORTH LIVING. Ear candy to the nth, now leaving Earth, nothing more to listen to, I have been to the top of the mountain." (It could be that I am occasionally bipolar and/or overly excited about music)

Super Brooklyn ( Original ) - Cocoa Brovas

- Link

"Cops" for kids!

Like so many things in my life, this is so glorious and stupid. "Hey, hey--quit yellin" is the highlight.

COPS for Kids! from Sunset Television on Vimeo.

OBVS: "Musicians Read Emotions Better"

From the "No Fucking Way" File.

Musicians Read Emotions Better
by Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 06 March 2009 11:17 am ET

"That soulful singer and expressive guitarist really are more tapped into their feelings than the rest of us. New research shows that people with musical training are better at reading emotion in sound.

In fact, the more years of musical experience people have, and the younger they began their music training, the better their nervous system is at processing emotions in sound.

Neuroscientists asked 30 people to watch a subtitled nature film while listening to a 250-millisecond clip of a distressed baby’s cry. Using scalp electrodes, the researchers measured how sensitive the people were to the sound, especially the more complicated part that communicates emotional content.

The scientists found that the musicians were able to hone in directly to the emotional aspect of the sound, while non-musicians weren't able to compartmentalize the sound as easily.

“That [musicians'] brains respond more quickly and accurately than the brains of non-musicians is something we’d expect to translate into the perception of emotion in other settings,” said Dana Strait, a graduate student at Northwestern University and first author of a paper detailing the findings in the latest issue of the European Journal of Neuroscience.

The aspects of sound that musicians processed more efficiently are the same elements that people with some language disorders, such as dyslexia and autism, have trouble understanding.

“It would not be a leap to suggest that children with language processing disorders may benefit from musical experience,” said Strait's advisor, neuroscientist Nina Kraus.

This isn't the first study to find links between music and emotions. Previous research found that people who are more familiar with a piece of music are more likely to get chills and goosebumps from the performance, indicating that they experience the emotion in the music more deeply. Another study found that even babies can distinguish between happy songs and sad, revealing that recognizing feelings in music comes naturally to humans.

“Quickly and accurately identifying emotion in sound is a skill that translates across all arenas, whether in the predator-infested jungle or in the classroom, boardroom or bedroom,” Strait said."

- Link

Aceyalone ft. Bionik - "The Way It Was"

It seems like I'm tagging every other post nowadays with the ol' "Ear candy" label. OH ACEY!

I am prepared for all the gentlemen in attendance to question my taste with this one; lest ye forget, however, that I am a girly girl, I am here to remind you that I get a pass when it comes to music with no real redeeming value. I can't always be listening to, y'know, Living Legends & Pharoahe Monch & whatnot; sometimes that gets to be too boyish, too testosterone-infused, you know. I cook & clean & I like baby animals & sundresses & pretty melodies, and I can therefore get away with enjoying a lil ear candy. It's my physical curvatures and softness that makes it so. I win. Yaay.

Hip hop album covers recreated in LEGO!

So stupid & cute & brilliant. The EPMD one is the best and that's not up for discussion.
(2nd place--Gangstarr, obvs.)

- Link

Sarah Shahi is my girlfriend

Of course she has the large, pretty eyes and ambiguously ethnic look. Of COURSE. Don't act like you just discovered the type of ladies I always develop intense, throbbing girl love for. Plus she's Spanish & Persian, two ethnicities that people always think I have at least a little of in my makeup. This probably makes me supremely narcissistic and that is a problem but it's not something we can't talk through and work out together, you guys.

Sarah, call me. YOUR SEX IS ON FIIIII-RE.


This has been my latest hot, pulsating lesbatronic moment. Thank you.

Charles Hamilton - "Way Cool"

"Never spit the same bar twice/never hit the same bar twice."

"White girls love me, I'm playin them off/only Clarissa be explainin it all."

I see Jim Jones' classic rhyme-a-word-with-the-same-word and basic dumb raps style has been boosted in this track right here. But CH gets away with it cuz he's so painfully ironic that it's a joke within a joke within an enigmatic riddle wrapped in a punchline and tied with a big bow on top. Being self-referential and extra-extra postmodern will win you points with this lady, gentlemen.

The "Clarissa Explains It All" THEME SONG, people. He flipped it & BOUNCED it. You guys, I'm hanging my head in shame. I don't want to like this but it's sugary sweet to my little girly ears. This track, it makes me feel warm in special places. Ours is a forbidden love.

"Like the crashin of Dow Jones stock/I had to connect to cross seals, to catch more mils"

I don't know...I was curious, so I figured you guys might be too.

NASDAQ Composite Index vs. Dow Jones Industrial Average

"Unless you’re reading this book in 2037 and times have drastically changed, the NASDAQ* Composite Index is lower than the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The Explanation:
The DJIA was created by former Wall Street Journal cofounder Charles Dow in 1896. Dow picked 12 important companies from a variety of industries, from the U.S. Leather Company to the American Sugar Company (things had more transparent names in the days before Exelon). The only company still on the list is General Electric. Today the average includes not 12 companies but 30, from 3M to Wal-Mart. When first published, the DJIA stood at 40.94. The DJIA hadn’t closed above 1,000 until 1972. But the ’80s and ’90s were periods of intense growth for the stock market as a whole, which was reflected in the Average: By January of 2000, just before the dot-com bust, the average reached 11,722.98.

Although it only reflects what’s happening to a tiny percentage of publicly traded companies, the DJIA has been an important measure of the stock market’s health for more than a century, and it’s unlikely to go anywhere. There are broader, more accurate reflections of what’s happening (like the S&P 500 index), but at the end of the day, the most attention is still paid to the DJIA.

That’s starting to change, however, thanks largely to the NASDAQ. Most DJIA companies are traded on the New York stock exchange; the NASDAQ exchange is a relative newcomer to the stock exchange game (it was founded in 1971), and was the world’s first fully electronic stock market. As befits a digital stock exchange, many of NASDAQ’s marquis stocks are tech companies, including Microsoft, Amazon.com, and Dell. The NASDAQ Composite Index is an alternative to the DJIA. Instead of measuring the peaks and troughs of 30 big companies, it measures the change in the more than 3,000 stocks traded on NASDAQ. Because it’s a tech-heavy stock exchange, it suffered much worse than the DJIA after the dot-com bust, falling from 5,132 to a low below 1,200 in 2002. Still, the NASDAQ Composite Index started back in 1971 with a value of exactly 100—so it’s done well overall. If there are any lessons to be drawn from the histories of both DJIA and NASDAQ, it is these: Long-term investors tend to make more money. And, perhaps most important, investors who start out rich tend to get richer."

* National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations

- Link

"500 Days of Summer"

To have a dude respond to my musical tastes like dude in elevator does to girl in elevator...oh my god, shut it down and don't stop til you get enough and straight change the game and allothat. I don't need the ego boost or validation--I just want the sweet, fleeting moment in life. Throw in a few more individuals of color and take away some of the sulky white kids and you got yourself a little item I refer to as "Logan's fantasy movie trailer." Until that biopic with Andre 3000 playing Jimi Hendrix comes out for me to pleasure myself to, this is the one that fulfills me.
I need all the gentlemen in attendance to play your position and show a Smiths dork
with breasts and highlighted hair* some apreesh.

And in the darkened underpass, I thought oh god, my chance has come at last! But then a strange fear gripped me and I just couldn't ask!

*

Random Tribute: Raymond Carver

What the Doctor Said

He said it doesn't look good
he said it looks bad in fact real bad
he said I counted thirty-two of them on one lung before
I quit counting them
I said I'm glad I wouldn't want to know
about any more being there than that
he said are you a religious man do you kneel down
in forest groves and let yourself ask for help
when you come to a waterfall
mist blowing against your face and arms
do you stop and ask for understanding at those moments
I said not yet but I intend to start today
he said I'm real sorry he said
I wish I had some other kind of news to give you
I said Amen and he said something else
I didn't catch and not knowing what else to do
and not wanting him to have to repeat it
and me to have to fully digest it
I just looked at him
for a minute and he looked back it was then
I jumped up and shook hands with this man who'd just given me
something no one else on earth had ever given me
I may have even thanked him habit being so strong

.......................

It sounds cliche, the tortured/brilliant, alcoholic, dying young-ness
of Raymond Carver, but he's not a cliche.
Maybe because I tend to be verbose and can't really say anything
succinctly and without layering language on top of itself,
I have been in complete and total throbbing love with his spare,
beautiful style since I was 15 and Uncle George gave me 
a copy of Cathedral. 
His characters talk and think and act like the men who raised me.

Dirty realism. Click

Let's get it!

You guys, take my hand & follow me to the light!
I got a King Crimson "In the Court of the Crimson King"* about 2 swap meets ago and oh lord please believe when I tell you the boys were sweatin me when I was walkin around with it under my arm.
I'm going by myself, as always, and I'll probably be 1 of 5 there with lady parts.
Say hi if you see me; I'm nice. Also, feel free to lace me without believing this will lead to naked activities between us; just do it 'cuz you're a nice dude.

"Heeeeeere we go." - Rick The Ruler

Dear Beat Swap Meet, I am also adding points to your overall score for the super steezy Stets reference!

*

Oh Word?

Make um say ETYMOLOGYYYYY. Today's word: JEANS!


Genoa--called "Gene" by sixteenth-century Europeans--was the first city to make denim cloth (see Denim) used for jeans. The pants were named after the city.

Bonus nerdage:

Denim:

The tough cloth used in jeans was originally made in Nimes, France, as well as Genoa, Italy. It was called Serge di Nimes--later shortened to di Nimes, which became denim.

You guys, I'm a throbbing assemblage of insecurities but dare I say I do like the situation I have behind me. Thanks, Mom!

Big City Philadelphia for the finish

I ain't on your contract but you gon pay me like I'm Rifkind!

I care about you and want you to be happy so please listen to this

SO ICEY! Obvs that wiggly bassline is Dead-Prez-esque and this pleases me.

My Elastic Eye - The Chemical Brothers

Hip Hop - Dead Prez