Boss Stuff on the Interwebs: Wednesday Links 02/03/11

• So....did some Coke bottle merchandise, eh?... Yeah, I'm sorry, but you're Daft fucking Punk, not Jar Jar Binks. You did not need to do this. (See them at Stereogum)

• "What happens when you merge a little darkness with the Pogues. Yes. Cult Of Youth is the answer." --Indie Kid vs Dance Kid.

• The Strokes' website has a to-the-second countdown clock for the new album. That's a shame. I thought they were cooler than that. What is cool? Their new video for Under the Cover of Darkness. Fell in Love with a Drummer has it.

• Neon Filler continues their cracker jack list of the top 100 indie/alternative albums of all time. This week: 80-71 (and Neutral Milk Hotel is in there).

• If you've been excited for the new Dum Dum Girls EP, Bowlegs has listened and says you're right on. Good news.

• Holyfuckingshit40000 takes a loving look back at my favourite Pavement album of all time. Yeah. I needed that.

• Because I'm having a really miserable day today. But Sam Friend writes folkish, pop-rock melodies of the kind that make you feel better. So I'm gonna go do that now. I'll be at Off The Radar if you need me.

Boss Stuff on the Interwebs: Wednesday Links 23/02/11

• Working to create what can only be described as an indie music canon, Neon Filler has begun their list of the top 100 indie/alternative albums of all time. This week: 90-81.

• You know what you've probably never seen? 1970's classic kids' film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory sampled to create an entire rap album then edited to make it even more of an acid-trip than it was before. Darwin Deez thinks it's time someone did that. (Tree Swingers)

• For the anglophiles who know you can never get enough cheeky British music videos: Andrew Evans Talks At You likes the new Frankie and the Heartstrings.

• As the music industry bitches and moans that things aren't fair because they're only making millions, artists search for new ways of getting things done. Listen Dammit takes a look at Broken Cities' creative and sensible distribution model for their new album Flux. Better yet, it seems to be working. Unless you're a record company, obviously, in which case this is bullshit.

• Architecture in Helsinki sounds different. Synthier, and Princier, and with crack-like powers to addict. Hyperbole has it.

• Electric Comic Book dug around a vintage record shop (in Brooklyn, of course) and came up with this early, pre-international EP from The Hives. It might not be what you expect.

• And finally, Yeasayer does a nifty cover of Crazy at Stereogum. You know, when I was about 10, my older sister bought a Cindy Crawford exercise video that prominently featured the Seal original. To this day, I can't hear that song without getting vivid images of a twenty-something Cindy Crawford doing lunges. It's like an awesome superpower.

Boss Stuff on the Interwebs: Wednesday Links 16/02/11

• Weezer just covered the State Farm jingle. I don't think this is to sell out, so much as it is to rile up a bunch of nervous hipsters and watch them unravel. Like a sweater. (See what I did there?) (Stereogum)

• The Brit Awards  happened again: Rihanna beat Robyn, Tinie Tempah beat The Xx, and Justin Bieber beat The National. Also Take That apparently hasn't yet been struck down by sweet justice.  Are you sure you even want to look? (Spinner) 

• The Grammys managed to be a little hipper. A little. Summary at Play On Daily.

• Growing up, while my friends all cooed over Courtney Love, I thought Melissa Auf der Maur was the coolest chick alive. Guess which one of us is still right? Bearly Rambling validates me after a decade and a half.

• PJ Harvey streamed an entire concert live, and you can watch it in its entirety at Their Bated Breath.

• Two very romantic phrases for this Valentines week: "I Remember" and "The Morning After Pills". Yeasayer's new video for the former can be found at the latter.

• As if the French needed help being moody, Sonic Youth is writing and recording the (francophone) soundtrack for a new French film. Both the songs and the movie trailer are thumbs up. See and hear at Sonic Masala.

Boss Stuff on the Interwebs: Wednesday Links 02/02/11

• Uh, The White Stripes have split. Full story at Artrocker.

• We All Want Someone to Shout For has The National performing Conversation 16 on Letterman. And it's worth watching if only to hear Letterman say "acclaimed rock-and-roll band" like a great big square.

• guerolitomusic does the new James Blake video. But more importantly, he uses "bad ass" and "smurftastic" in the same post. Not to be missed, all round.

• Play On Daily sums up British Sea Power's Valhalla Dancehall as "Modern English fronted by Alejandro Escovedo." That's not at all what I expected, but  a bloody fantastic description, no?

• Am I the only person who does not like Iron and Wine's new tune Walking Far from Home? Anyone else out there? No? Okay, well Stereogum has a Premature Evaluation of Kiss Each Other Clean, if you're more excited than I am. And This Moving Picture has the exclusive look at the Tree By the River video (a better song by far.)

• And from the vault-- Electric Comic Book dusts off The Who's Quadrophenia to compare and contrast with American Graffiti And it's awesome.

Boss Stuff on the Interwebs: Wednesday Links 26/01/11

• I'm already on the record as saying how much I love a good music documentary. Big Fun in the Big Town goes back to 1986's "up and coming" hip-hop movement in NYC. It features a young  Run DMC, Grandmaster Flash, Ice-T, Biz Markie, LL Cool J ...the list goes on, the documentary looks great, and guerolitomusic just reminded me that the word "fresh" needs to make a comeback.

• Six months after a cautiously positive review, and just one month after naming it the #2 best album of last year, Stereogum has a nice long article complaining about Arcade Fire's The Suburbs. Not that I care either way, but pick a side. Then just wait for the next single to come out to milk the album for pageviews, like the rest of us.

• Wondering what "progressive shoegaze" is? Hyperbole will demonstrate with Melbourne band Leagues and a sweet picture of Wonderwoman. 

• The Kills are planning a world tour and a new album. Details at Electric Comic Book. 

• What's Protocol has The Swell Season, The Frames, and City & Colour. Saves me three posts right there.

• So the creator of the musical abomination that is Glee got pissy with Kings of Leon and Slash because they won't let the show use their music. gleesucks.com is the only necessary rebuttal to that bitchery (Spinner) 

Boss Stuff on the Interwebs: Wednesday Links 19/01/11

• From their hometown of Lucerne, Guerolitomusic brings you post-punk/new-wave/mad-80's band Dans La Tente. Check it out, because who can hate the Swiss? Really. Unless you've been stabbed by a well-crafted pocketknife, I guess. Then you get a pass.

• Thanks to insomnia, Damien Is Listening To found this 17-minute Radiohead (re)mixtape, cementing my belief that without insomnia the blogosphere would not exist. Also, not without desperate cravings for attention.  

• Breaking More Waves investigates whether 2011 is the beginning of the end for dubstep, then gives some Skream and Example downloads that'll make you hope not. 

• Little Reviews does a... little review of The Love Language's lo-fi, indie pop album Libraries. Sachez que le site est français, mais la plupart de la musique est en anglais. Good stuff all around.

• The Morning After Pill has the video for Not in Love.  It features neither Crystal Castles nor Robert Smith, but if you have a thing for pictures of pretty girls as seen through a coma haze, this is your lucky day.

• You know those thirty-five inexplicable cable shows about cake? Well I guess an appearance by Pavement might make one of them suck less. If not, then at last you can watch one of the eleventy-nine shows about bridal dresses. (Stereogum)

• Speaking of tv, Ultra8210 has The Black Keys vs. Vampire Weekend competing in a "sell-out-off" on The Colbert Report. I'd tell you why, but frankly, if you haven't clicked by now, there's no helping you.

Boss Stuff on the Interwebs: Wednesday Links 12/01/11

• The Strokes have finally set a date for a new album release: March 22nd. Linear Tracking Lives has details.

• According to Spinner, Gorillaz have added a new member. I repeat--there is a new animated musician to care about. I'd call that geeky, but I'm a fucking blogger .

• The Bruise Cruise departs from Miami and docks in the Bahamas. It has a spa, dining, dancing, day trips, a swimming pool and all that other good cruise stuff. Oh, and it's a floating music festival featuring the likes of The Black Lips, Vivian Girls, Strange Boys, Ty Segall, Surfer Blood, Thee Oh Sees, Quintron and Miss Pussycat, Turbo Fruits and DJ Jonathan Toubin. Screw the buffet on this one. (Sonic Masala)

• Speaking of festivals, Stereogum has the possible Coachella lineup. All in one place, you could see Paul McCartney, Sleigh Bells, Arcade Fire, Bright Eyes, PJ Harvey, Lykke Li, Diplo, Daft Punk, Gwyneth Paltrow... Wait, what?

• ThisBonusTrack has a double dose of truly gorgeous music with Alcoholic Faith Mission and James Vincent McMorrow, all in one post.

• Way back in the summer, guerolitomusic named electro-pop outfit Foster the People a "band to watch." They're usually right about these things over there so you might want to check out the new single. 

• Dominic over at This Moving Picture and I both made unrelated, out-of-date Jeff Spicoli references on the same day, his about Ducktails, mine about La Femme. That's a bizarre enough coincidence to make this list.

Boss Stuff on the Interwebs: Wednesday Links 05/01/11

Still sick with the flu and drugged up like Valley of the Dolls. Be glad it's "Wednesday Links" and I can point you in the direction of coherent writing, because any minute now I'm going to down a bottle of Russian-brand Robitussin and then try to arrange a series of mirrors in a way that will make it possible to talk future Larissa into giving past Larissa lotto numbers.

Thank God it's holidays out here.

For you:

• Dave from Chromeo still teaches French part time and doesn't bat an eyelash using the word "bubbly" to discuss his music. Dave, let's hang out. Hyperbole has the interview. 

• Sonic Masala reviews the new Deerhoof. He says it sounds like Deerhoof, but with more way more words and opinions than I just did. Whatever guys. Meds.

• Best Coast performs Boyfriend on Jimmy Fallon and... ehhhh, I'd think twice about clicking. That's kind of like having a really good date at a leper colony (Stereogum)

• The Onion's A.V. Club lists single songs that derailed otherwise perfect albums. I agree with Revolution 9 guys, but you're wrong as hell about Rainy Day Women #12 & 35. 

• There seems to be a catty gap between those who like dubstep and those who don't. Ventomat offers Olinosterfant to try to bridge that.

• Do The Wintercoats make perfect orchestral pop? Breaking More Waves says yes.

• And someone discovered that if you put "Liz Lemon" at the beginning of a Kanye West tweet, it is going to sound like Tracy Jordan. (http://twitter.com/kanyejordan). Ha. 

Boss Stuff on the Interwebs: Wednesday Links 08/12/10

There's something wrong with my WiFi today. I'm looking into what the problem is, but I think it could be the fact that I live in Moscow. Once, the elevator to my 12th floor apartment broke and they didn't fix it for three weeks.

In Mother Russia, repairman calls you.

So posting may or may not be patchy. Luckily I have a list of things for you to look at:

• Prince Harry got Snoop Dogg to write a track called "Wet" for Prince William's bachelor party.  Fell In Love With a Drummer explains why I just typed a sentence that reads like an acid trip.

• I haven't heard the Greenhornes "comeback" album yet, but I'm looking forward to it. Electric Comic Book explains why you should be, too.

• I'm making mixtapes off the radio for everyone this year, but The L Magazine has some more impressive ideas for music lover-gifts.

• I looked into Gonjasufi thanks to The Devil Has the Best Tuna. Because how can you not download something labelled "Turkish Surf Music"?

• Prefix has a list of good songs to take off bad albums. Like the way I have one song off Duran Duran's Thank You. I'm not even going to tell you which one, so don't ask.

• Clicky Clicky Music Blog is really excited about the upcoming Yuck album. I'd never heard of the band before, but they make it contagious.

• End of the year means roundup lists. Music For Kids Who Can't Read Good rounds up their 25 favourite videos of the past year.  The Yeasayer video gave me a very ugly dream when it came out and I haven't been able to watch it since, but otherwise this is a swell way to waste two hours.

Boss Stuff on the Interwebs: Wednesday Links 01/12/10

Welcome to December. I live in Moscow and it's almost 9 am soooo...yeah it should be getting dark any minute now. But here are some top-notch links to help us forget that we probably won't see daylight this month unless there's a fire:

• Over the next few weeks, Rolling Stone will have fifty artists make 10-track playlists. So far, Dave Grohl does 80's hardcore, ?uestlove goes in for Prince, Keith Richards picks roots and reggae, and Win Butler is entirely Springsteen. Wait, what?

• Music for Kids Who Can't Read Good brings your catchy tune of the day, Living is So Easy by British Sea Power. Spoiler: At the end the listener hits the replay button.

• I know you're thinking "Like I need another French surf rock band on my iPod." But guerolitomusic still has LaFemme to make room for.

• Modern Mystery Blog reviews one of my current picks, No Joy's Ghost Blonde. The grunge comeback has started in earnest, guys.

• newdust is a  sucker for electronic artists like LAKE R▲DIO sampling vintage blues like Billie Holiday. Me too.

• Obscure Sound looks at the "lo-fi phenomenon" and argues its place using Ariel Pink and Blank Realm as cases in point.

• I remember Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness seeming epic when it came out. Granted, it doesn't take a lot to impress a tween, but it seemed like a goddam musical force that year. Consequence of Sound dusts it off to see how it looks in hindsight.

• Stereogum already has its 50 most anticipated albums of 2011. There's a lot to get excited about. Except U2. They can stop any time now, thanks.

Boss Stuff on the Interwebs: Wednesday Links 24/11/10

Yep--I'm going to make this joke every Wednesday.

Link day again, the time for you boys and girls to give these fine websites hits for doing all the work I'm not willing to do for you. Just like when our moms would pass out drunk and we'd have to go to the neighbour's house for dinner. But with less emotional scarring. Or more, depending on how much you hate clicking links, I guess.

This Wednesday:

• CaVa Cool and i(heart)music both weigh in on the hottest Canadian bands of 2010, only 10 years after people stopped using the word "hot". Good lists though.

• Spinner has a list of "15 Films defined by Songs of a Single Artist". Movie-geek meets music-geek is a nifty combination.

• Do you like Animal Collective? Do you like Bon Iver? Do you like Deerhunter?  I don't get it but congratulations, you're in luck. You might like The Mighty Lord Huron (With thanks to Obscure Sound)

• The new Lykke Li video gets the thumbs down from Modern Mystery Blog. The reason? Apparently not enough T&A.

• Yours Truly offers up the haunting Appropriate Stranger by Pina Chulada. It's beautiful: ethereal and sweet, but still mature-sounding. And bloody hard to turn off.

• Daytrotter aptly compares Alejandro Escovedo with a Texan Hold Steady. And uses the phrase "sad sacks and hoodrats". Double win.

• Gorillaz cover The xx on BBC's Live Lounge. All you Anglophiles just got hard-ons. (Head over to Stereogum) 

Boss Stuff on the Interwebs: Wednesday Links 17/11/10



Get it?! Link?! Haha! Hey guys wait! Don't click aw-





Everyone likes a link day. You get a lot to read, and I have next to nothing to write. A win-win situation for all of us avoiding work.

This week:

• Can't stand hearing a favourite song in a commercial? Me either. It's not that I'm a pretentious dick, it's that the next time I put on, say,  Morning Benders, I'm going to think of goddam Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  And also, I'm a pretentious dick.  Music for Kids Who Can't Read Good does a roundup of our latest beloved songs to be ruined by commercials (though somehow misses this Edward Sharpe sale which all but broke my heart)

• A Rolling Stones Monopoly exists and there is no way I can describe it as well as this guy, so just head on over to Electric Comic Book and have a laugh there. 

• Want to see Small Black make haunting videos in a gorgeous, abandoned NYC building? Of course you do. And The Gothamist  knows it

• Hard Candy Music gets some studio footage to go with the first track from the upcoming Adele album. Actual video out in December.

• Hipster Tracks:  What's that? You're not gonna click because of the name? That just makes you more of a hipster, you know.

•  Fell In Love With A Drummer claims to have a "french, new-wave Bob Dylan" from the vault? Sure, why not. Bonus points for the "Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity" reference.

• Girls' upcoming Broken Dreams Club gets a solid 9.0/10.0 review from Obscure Sound. And they don't give those nines out  to everybody.  Just most people.