January 2009
46 posts
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Watch#299: bob dylan and will.i.am - pepsi refresh anthem (superbowl ad) (2009)
a fatwa is hereby issued against the pepsi corporation and will.i.am for this massive fucking travesty of a television commercial, which preemptively ruins tomorrow’s football game. “yo yo yo yo/ may you’re hands always be busy”? to hell with will.i.am and to hell with pepsi. i hope they’ve...
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Watch#297: notorious b.i.g. (with junior m.a.f.i.a.) - get money (1995)
my fury over the notorious b.i.g.’s life being turned into a biopic (co-producer puff daddy probably came up with the poster line, no dream is too big) can only be likened to the fury notorious b.i.g. describes in get money, wherein he memorably threatens to turn a foe into “milkbox material.” get money is also...
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Watch#296: the police - don’t stand so close to me (1980)
long before sting’s descent into all-out kooky creepiness (he’s currently sporting a full gorton’s fisherman beard) there were warning flags. even back in his hayday, there were flashes of him in muscle shirts wearing angel wings on his back (at this video’s beginning), and sitting shirtless behind teacher’s...
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Watch#295: champion jack dupree and king curtis - poor boy blues (1971)
when i said king curtis cured sunday sadness, i had been listening to his sticky, steaming, delicious recipe for soul (“one half tea-cup of bass… one pound of fatback drums… four level tablespoons of boiling memphis guitars… a little pinch of organ… add a little more drums… about a half pint of...
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Watch#290: aretha franklin - rock steady (1972, soul train)
in honor of the truly amazing hat aretha franklin just wore in front of millions of people as she sang my country tis of thee, here she is funking to one of her funkiest funk songs, a tune with that funktified, low-down feeling. for this is a day to move your hips from left to right! to do that funky dance all night! america’s got the...
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Watch#286: n.w.a. - straight outta compton (1988)
in today’s observer i wrote a story about manhattan’s monolithic apthorp apartment house. it’s a story that involves orthodox rabbis, red ants, a putin-connected diamond billionaire, a jordache jeans magnate, and a real estate manager who carries a .380 sig sauer and a .380 walther (just like n.w.a.), and there are quotes like,...
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Watch#284: the doors - touch me (1968, the smothers brothers comedy hour)
about a year and a half ago i was at fifth avenue and 12th street, on the phone with my grandma louise, talking about our upcoming lobster dinner at a restaurant in the chelsea hotel, when who do i see but elvis costello. i told my grandma that i had to call her back, and said to mr. costello, “i’m really sorry to...
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Watch#283: cat power (and the dirty delta blues band) - naked if i want to (2008)
holy heavens, last night i saw cat power play in a tiny, tiny, tiny backroom of a bar in brooklyn, so i wrote about it just now for the observer:
anyone anywhere who thinks they know anything about new york city can tell you that brooklyn is dead—especially williamsburg, but especially everything surrounding the...
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Watch#282: the flaming lips - this here giraffe (1995)
not that the flaming lips shouldn’t be allowed to keep playing into the 21st century, but if they had stopped after the 90s, i think the globe would better appreciate their buzzy, buttery, acid-eating, plaid-shirted, shaggy-haired oeuvre—with songs like oh, my pregnant head (labia in the sunlight) and also what is the light? (an...
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