IS GOOD

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I cannot stop singing Will Ferrell's jazz song from this sketch.

So much so that I ripped the audio for just that song, like a huge nerd.

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I just got outbid on eBay.

However, there IS a new Fiona Apple song:

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I love this.

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Megaman 2 is clearly/inarguably the best Nintendo game ever made. Here is the soundtrack, for you nerds.

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SMD has a new track!

Also I was listening to this mix they did a few months ago, which is mellow and tech-housey.

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Pat from Hey Mister animated the LMFAO sequence for this!

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Back when I was in Amsterdam I spent a day going through 7"s, and I found this awesome record "It's Love" by Blue Feather. I don't know much about them, aside from what Discogs tells me, which is that they were a Dutch funk/disco outfit from the early 80s. 

I really liked this track so I hunted down the 12" on eBay, which has a way longer percussion breakdown and keyboard solo, and is all around way stretched out and definitely a groovy jam.

You may now also listen to it, if that is your thing!

AND if you enjoy it, you can also download it, assuming you still do that!

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Here is a vinyl burn I recorded a while ago, of Ashford & Simpson's "Bourgie Bourgie" from their Send It LP. Yet another reason why 1977 was incontrovertibly the best year in recorded music.

Classy disco at its classiest!

Ashford & Simpson ~ Bourgie Bourgie (mp3)

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By Andy Warhol, 1980.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Via Retronaut.

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From WBEZ Chicago it's This American Life!

Distributed by Public Radio International!

I'm Ira Glass!

What is the plural of This American Life? These American Life? The Lives Of These Americans? This American Lifes? This American Lives?

These are my favorite These American Life:

1. Cuervo Man

Writer and contributor John Hodgman first encountered Cuervo Man on a press junket to Cuervo Nation, a small island owned by Jose Cuervo Tequila. Cuervo Man was wearing nothing but a Speedo, wraparound shades, and a red cape. Occasionally he'd stick a toilet plunger on his bald head. John was fascinated and eventually got to know Cuervo Man, whose real name was Ryan. Though the Cuervo act was Ryan's Plan B, it had a special power that John couldn't help but envy.

2. Hell House

Trinity Church in Texas puts on something called Hell House every Halloween. It's like a haunted house, but each scene shows teenage church members acting out scenes of things the church considers sins. There's a homosexual dying of AIDS; a girl in an abortion clinic (on a doctor's table with fake blood splashed between her legs); a mom who leaves her family for someone she meets on the Internet. George Ratliff made a documentary about all this called Hell House. He plays some of his footage and talks about how effective it is, and how much of a thrill it is for the pious teenagers to act like sinners.

3. #1 Party School

This year, The Princeton Review named Penn State the #1 Party School in America. It's a rotating crown—last year it was University of Florida, before that it was West Virginia University. So we wondered: what's it like to be at the country's top party school?

4. Act V

Over the course of six months, reporter and TAL contributor Jack Hitt followed a group of inmates at a high-security prison as they rehearsed and staged a production of the last act—Act V—ofHamlet. Shakespeare may seem like an odd match for a group of hardened criminals, but Jack found that they understand the Bard on a level that most of us might not. It's a play about murder and its consequences, performed by murderers, living out the consequences.

5. Dr. Phil

In the wake of a break-up, writer Starlee Kine finds so much comfort in break-up songs that she decides to try and write one herself—even though she has no musical ability whatsoever. For some help, she goes to a rather surprising expert on the subject: Phil Collins

6. As The Worm Turns

When Jasper Lawrence learned that hookworms might lessen the effects of his allergies, he set out on a unique mission: To travel to West Africa and purposefully become infected with the parasite. What he did next is even more surprising. 

7. Tough Room

Host Ira Glass spends time in perhaps the toughest room on earth, the editorial meeting at the satirical newspaper, The Onion, where there's one laugh for every 100 jokes.

This one features Todd Hanson, who was also interviewed by Marc Maron for WTF.

8. Rest Stop

Nine radio producers. Two days. One rest stop on the New York State Thruway. In this show, we'll bring you stories of people who are just passing through, and people who are at the rest stop every day—working. One of them has worked there since 1969. A bunch of others came from Asia and eastern Europe to pour coffee for travelers.

9. How To Talk To Kids

Sean O'Connor and Nick Maritato are professional comedians, and their job usually involves saying things that kids aren't supposed to hear. But last summer they got booked on a tour of kids' summer camps. TAL producer Jane Feltes tells us what happened. 

10. NUMMI

A car plant in Fremont California that might have saved the U.S. car industry. In 1984, General Motors and Toyota opened NUMMI as a joint venture. Toyota showed GM the secrets of its production system: How it made cars of much higher quality and much lower cost than GM achieved. Frank Langfitt explains why GM didn't learn the lessons—until it was too late.

Bonuses! Bonii? Bonuces?

1. Kasper Hauser's take on This American Life

2. From NPR, a story about eating Ortolan.

Scott Simon talks with Michael Paterniti about former French President Francois Mitterrand's last meal, which consisted of a rare — and illegal — dish of Ortolan, a bird about the size of a thumb. Mitterrand died in 1996. Paterniti's article "The Last Meal," for Esquire, gives his impressions of Mitterrand's meal — and what it meant to the late leader.

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"Wow, this website is great!" -The World, 2009 / Woody, today

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New video from Eli:

I only recognized about 40% of these clips, making me 40% of the nerd Eli is. Also guest shots by Lloyd, Frog, Pase & Roctakon. 

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We all know that

But, here are 2 new things I like. Surfer Blood performed "Miranda" from their super good Tarot Classics EP on Jimmy Fallon last night:

Also there's a new Shins song, which is basically just James Mercer and no one else from the original line-up. So click only if you like his voice. 

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Hey look, it's a new video from Ed Banger!

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KID KOALA - LIVE FROM THE SHORT ATTENTION SPAN AUDIO THEATER TOUR!

TURNTABLISM! The "art" of "skratching"! Remember skratching? No? I do. A little bit. When I first started working at Turntable Lab, I would pack records and ship them out every day for 8 hours ("Kids in Japan need their vaguely terrifying cover-having ISP records!" -Me), and then at the end of the day, I would either:

1. Put on "She Works Hard For The Money (Extended 12" Dance Version)" for hilarity's sake, or 

2. Skratch over a Paul Nice beat for recreation and relaxation. RECREATION AND RELAXATION! Christ almighty this still boggles my mind, not only because I used to think this would have some kind of therapeutic effect (it didn't), but also because I see people STILL TRYING TO LEARN HOW TO SKRATCH RECORDS TODAY! This is insane. This is actively staying in the past. It's like proudly strutting around with a beeper on and quoting Get Shorty.

I guess what I'm saying is ai yi yi. Yes, it's pleasurable to hear someone skratch on a mixtape or hip hop record, but then that pleasure evaporates after about 7 seconds and immediately becomes unbearable. That's why I've always liked it when people do weirder things with skratching, since it's already inherently a weird thing.

I'm pretty sure I saw Kid Koala on this tour, he was playing with P-Love and DJ Jester, forming not only an unstoppable triumvirate of Filipino-osity, but a trio of weird skratching DJ guys. The whole thing was multimedia and about half an hour, which is probably exactly the human attention span for such an event. 

Nerds always defer to higher status nerds, and when I saw this tour I hung out with P-Love and I was really nervous. This is dumb because Paolo is like the nicest most down-to-earth guy ever, but I was like analyzing everything he did and said. This process, by the way, is never-ending if you are a nerd, you just apply it to different things.

PULP - A DIFFERENT CLASS

Oh man this album is so good. Obviously. Also, water is hydrating.

I distinctly remember seeing the vinyl version of "This is Hardcore" on the wall at Kim's on St Mark's and not understanding it.

In the same way that I wasn't ready for the Smiths until I was like 25, I don't think I was ready for Pulp until I was 28. It's basically just too smart. It's so sophisticated and wry and funny and mordant and good. Is A Different Class the apotheosis of Pulp? Is it their White Trash, Two Heebs And A Bean? Their Eldorado? Their Rumours? Their Flood? Their Corrections? Probably.

This album is amazing, and also cheeseburgers are delicious. In conclusion, sex is an enjoyable activity.

BEST SONG: Common People DUH

V/A - MAGNOLIA OST

I bought this 100% because of Jon Brion. "Yo, respect to LA singer-songwriters." His production on the Fiona Apple album and selection on the Boogie Nights OST (best ever) made me a loyalist and I was like "I'll check out what this so-called Aimee Mann has to offer." And ultimately the soundtrack is a pretty accurate reflection of the movie -- nice, pretty, moments of beauty, overall too much. Although this soundtrack did make me like "Goodbye Stranger."

Best song: One

WILLIE NELSON - THE REDHEADED STRANGER

Willie Nelson! Man, it's easy to look at the modern day, weed-puffing golden-throated Willie Nelson and be like "you are an adorable teddy bear, now come over here so I can hide some hydro in the crags of your jowls." BUT like every neutered, smiling, harmless husk of celebrity, there was once some bite in them when they were hungrier! Wouldn't you agree, O'Shea Jackson?

See the full gallery on Posterous

SUBLIME - S/T

Yes! 1997 in the building! This is about as bro as I ever got. YES I have a mixtape with "Cryin" on it by Aerosmith, and occasionally I sing "Too Much" by Dave Matthews Band in the shower, BUT Sublime is as close to frat bro as I ever got. Sublime was great! "They blend pop, rock, punk, reggae, ska and rap" (-a magazine) and their songs are really catchy. I mean, duh it's all 100% the product of junkie father Bradley Nowhatever his last name is (the Long Beach Dub Allstars album was not exactly singlehandedly reviving the record industry), but he had a great voice that fit in all the genres he worked in. Do you want to hear him whine out the word "punani" so that it has 7 syllables? This album in particular is great. The first like 7 songs all are perfect in their playing order.

The one thing I have to say is YEESH, remaining members of Sublime. Stop going back to the mine for more gold. THERE AIN'T NO GOLD LEFT TO MINE. 

BEST SONG: The first 7 songs, then "Doin Time"

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I have no idea why this is so appealing to me.

Maybe it's because as an instrument, the glass harp is so incredibly dorky and requires not only the dedication needed to excel at an instrument, but also the drive/passion to overcome name-calling and societal mockery.

Also, there's 2 of them playing the glass harp here, so I can only imagine they overcame those odds together and fell in love, and now their appearance on a German talk show or whatever this is from is like their giant fuck you back to those who didn't believe them. 

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