Humdrum Town.

Theophilus London gave  Hum Drum, one of the shortest, sweetest tracks off his This Charming Mixtape, the full pop single treatment. Extra verse, chorus repeat, video. 

I like the vibe. Get the track at Green Label Sound.

"I Hate Fashion."

Twitter, the blogosphere and all the other places where fashion, culture and boredom intersect are fashionably ablaze in times like these, the week of the Berlin Fashion Week. I must admit, these days bring along a few interesting styles and interviews that are brilliant in text yet a bit ambiguous in picture (German link to an interview with Stefan Eckert ) I have, like so many others, a guilty pleasure in casually subscribing to The Satorialist. And while I do think that personal fashion and style can (but must not) be a tool of self-expression (and fun), I also agree with this article by Tanya Gold in the Guardian. When she describes the experience of having the extensive, expensive siren cry of fashion (or rather: the pressure of the Fashion Industry) as grueling soundtrack of growing up: 

Can't you ignore it, you may ask? Can't you squeeze yourself into a ­library and have an inner life instead? Ha! Anyone who thinks that has never been a young woman staring into the window of Topshop. Sophisticated weapons are employed to make us need the rubbish. And so we do.

Or relates the story of meeting a 16 year old model: 

She was a sweet, utterly ordinary girl with an astonishing face. She ­exuded gloom. She showed me a photograph of herself. It had ­appeared on the cover of Vogue. "I don't think it looks like me at all," she said. She was right. It didn't. It was a non-existent woman.

Or even mentions the fashionable shoe related death of a 16 year old who fell under a train: 

This was different from the usual Fashion Death, where a model has a heart attack on the catwalk, because she lives on grapes. This was an ordinary girl – a bystander. And why was she wearing high-heeled shoes on an icy night? Because fashion, the whispering monster, told her to.

 I can't stop nodding my head - and shaking it at the same time. Nodding in agreement. Shaking at the stories - and being surprised at how little I am surprised by these stories. So even though I did not suffer as badly under the cry of fashion as a dude, there is a lot not to like about Fashion.  Don't agree? Go read articles like this one. 

And This! Machine! Is Dying!

Few instruments excite me as much as a cello or a hard strumming acoustic guitar. And few things make my heart jump as indie/folk/americana with a raw yet complex sing-a-long vibe. 

So, of course, This Machine Is Dying by Kittens Ablaze had me at metaphorical 'Hello'. 

via Indiestreber

Keep This Town Alive!

Wake (Keep This Town Alive)  by Finn Riggins is a nice, clever, breezy ray of light - from Iowa, of all places! Perfect for this week - you can almost hear the spring coming (that is: the snow melted) yet you know that it's still a long home stretch through winterland.

American Ghetto

To conclude Portugal. the Man day: Apart from releasing the video for the Sun, Portugal. the Man also announced that they're releasing new material soon:

We will shortly make an official announcement for the release of American Ghetto. This one is for you, we are not sending it to press and we are not sending it to radio. When all the finishing touches are complete we will make it available to everyone on the same day. OK, we will answer 2 questions right now…
1. Yes, it is an entire album, 11 songs
2. Yes, it is a slightly more electronic, beats, samplers, etc. album than The Satanic Satanist. Maybe not something for the casual listener but for those who have a most of our records we think you will love it.

If it's anything like a It's Complicated Being A Wizard for Satanic Satanist (it sure does sond like it), I'll be jumping circles. 

Big, Bad, Sunny Sheep.

Portgal. the Man released a video for The Sun, prominently featuring their bass player Zach in a sheep costume.


The awesomeness just never stops flowing from this band.

Distorted Pop.

Is your heating on?
Are you feeling warm?
About the future, 
about the future.

Tonight.

Weather Warning

Cain | MySpace Video

The Xcerts: Weather Warning.

yeah.

This Must Be It.

Music television is dead. But that's alright. Music videos can finally go back/become (of course unprofitable) art and genius shot movies that enrich the song. Instead of being promotional tools and, by chance, artworks.
Today's example of what music videos can be: Röyksopp - This Must Be It
 
Röyksopp 'This Must Be It' from Röyksopp on Vimeo.

Candy or Poetry?

What a brilliant idea - a 1964 candy vending machiene turned into a Poetry Machine by the editors of Molossus:

The machine sold nine different poems by category—from Love Poem to Food Poem to Poem to Help You Get Laid*—including work by Amatoritsero Ede, Armando Celayo, Ryan Van Winkle, Elizabeth Aamot, David Shook, and Víctor Terán.

This machine debuted in Sept. '09 in LA for for the 13th annual Silver Lake Art Crawl.More machienes are to be distributed, for example in El Paso. I'd love to read the actual poems inside - or better, have a couple of these machines closer by. That'd be one healthy diet.

*Of course, one of the categories has to be 'Poem to Help You Get Laid. Sigh.

Giuliani: No Domestic Attacks

Being in the opposition apparently does weird things to you and your memory. For example, you claim that there was no domestic terrorist attack in the US during George W. Bush's rule, despite the fact that your international claim to fame is that you were the mayor of a city that experienced the largest domestic terrorist attack - on September 11, 2001.