Posts in News
Nothing's More Rock'n'Roll Than Bond

James Bond is back and badder than ever. I could go on about the movie, but I have no doubt it will be reviewed out the yin yang by Sunday—what’s really cool is this Bond’s theme song. A collaboration between Jack White and Alicia Keys, “Another Way To Die” rocks. It might just be the song that finally earns the Bond franchise (marked by its swinging theme songs) a long awaited Oscar award. Originally, Amy Winehouse was supposed to record the track, in the style of an old school Bond chanteuse; but I think Alicia Keys vocals were a perfect surprise. And the mini music video playing under the opening credits was perfect for it, too. A super retro ‘70s look, with giant undulating sand women and Daniel Craig walking around. It looked as if it were real film, and had an overall grainy quality, which visually matched the sound of the song. I’d shell the 8 bucks just to see that again.

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Bad economy = fewer children being held over balcony rails
Michael Jackson, who had gone into default on the $24.5 million Neverland ranch, transferred the deed to a company he partially controls Monday. The company, Sycamore Valley Ranch Co. LLC was a joint venture between Jackson and an affiliate of Colony Capital LLC. What will become of the 2,500-acre property in Santa Barbara's wine country? No one has said yet. Recent photos show that the ranch is falling into disrepair. Jackson has not stayed there since he was acquitted of his 2003 charges of molesting a 13-year-old boy. Ever since his arrest, Jackson's financial status has begun to crumble, just like his abandoned zoo, ferris wheel, and roller coasters. Not to mention his dignity.
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KSCR Top 30 and Adds from 10/26 - 11/02

Radio 200

 
Rank Artist Recording Label
1 DEERHUNTER Microcastle Kranky  
2 FRIENDLY FIRES Friendly Fires XL  
3 SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO Attack Decay Sustain Release Interscope  
4 ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS Another World [EP] Secretly Canadian  
5 PASSION PIT Chunk Of Change Frenchkiss  
6 FUJIYA AND MIYAGI Lightbulbs Deaf Dumb And Blind  
7 CRYSTAL ANTLERS Crystal Antlers [EP] Touch And Go  
8 CRYSTAL STILTS Alight Of Night Slumberland  
9 COLD WAR KIDS Loyalty To Loyalty Downtown  
10 OF MONTREAL Skeletal Lamping Polyvinyl  
11 FUCKED UP The Chemistry Of Common Life Matador  
12 VIVIAN GIRLS Vivian Girls In The Red  
13 SQUAREPUSHER Just A Souvenir Warp  
14 HIGH PLACES High Places Thrill Jockey  
15 SHUGO TOKUMARU Exit P-Vine  
16 JENNY LEWIS Acid Tongue Warner Bros.  
17 MOGWAI The Hawk Is Howling Matador  
18 HOLD STEADY Stay Positive Vagrant  
19 ABE VIGODA Skeleton PostPresent Medium  
20 SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS Alpinisms Ghostly International  
21 PRETTY AND NICE Get Young Hardly Art  
22 DEPARTMENT OF EAGLES In Ear Park 4AD  
23 ARMS Kids Aflame Melodic  
24 LITTLE ONES Morning Tide Chop Shop  
25 GANG GANG DANCE Saint Dympha The Social Registry  
26 ANNUALS Such Fun Canvasback  
27 MARNIE STERN This Is It... Kill Rock Stars  
28 WOMEN Women Jagjaguwar  
29 ED LAURIE Meanwhile In The Park Dangerbird  
30 ROSEBUDS Life Like Merge  
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Sunset Strip meets skid row
The Stay hotel, newly carved out of the Cecil Hotel on Main Street between 6th and 7th, advertises using model-actors who are paid to hang out in glass-walled rooms. The 20-somethings stand in stark contrast to the rest of the area, well known for its low-income residents. In fact The Cecil Hotel has served low-income residents for years, and advocates for the poor worry about where they will go if the neighborhood morphs into another glitzy, expensive tourist trap. Advocates say they find it frustrating to see businesses once again catering to young, chic tourists rather than helping the down-and-out residents. But the man who created and runs the Stay, William Lanting, says the Stay will help create a "new neighborhood" he hopes will be more vibrant. Either way, the Stay offers rooms for under $100 a night, shared room and bunk bed options, and even an Xbox game area. So for those of you who have always wanted to visit a poor neighborhood, but  just couldn't find suitable accommodations, the Stay's got you covered.
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KSCR Top 30 and Adds from 10/12 - 10/26
Courtesy of our Music Director, Maura.

Radio 200 Adds

Rank Artist Recording Label  
1 REEFER Reefer Alphapup  
2 SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS Alpinisms Ghostly International  
3 DEARS Missiles Dangerbird  
4 CRYSTAL STILTS Alight Of Night Slumberland  
5 STAR FUCKING HIPSTERS Until We're Dead Fat Wreck Chords  
* indicates information which has not yet been verified by CMJ staff. Radio 200
Rank Artist Recording Label  
1 VIVIAN GIRLS Vivian Girls In The Red  
2 OF MONTREAL Skeletal Lamping Polyvinyl  
3 HIGH PLACES High Places Thrill Jockey  
4 WOMEN Women Jagjaguwar  
5 I'M FROM BARCELONA Who Killed Harry Houdini? Mute  
6 THE CLASH The Clash At Shea Stadium Epic-Legacy  
7 DEPARTMENT OF EAGLES In Ear Park 4AD  
8 COLD WAR KIDS Loyalty To Loyalty Downtown  
9 WIRE Object 47 Pink Flag  
10 JENNY LEWIS Acid Tongue Warner Bros.  
11 SEA AND CAKE Car Alarm Thrill Jockey  
12 HERMAN DUNE Next Year In Zion Everloving  
13 HER SPACE HOLIDAY Sleep Tigers [EP] Mush  
14 GANG GANG DANCE Saint Dympha The Social Registry  
15 GREGORY AND THE HAWK Moeni And Kitchi FatCat  
16 MAD JUANA Bruja On The Corner Acetate  
17 MOGWAI The Hawk Is Howling Matador  
18 PASSION PIT Chunk Of Change Frenchkiss  
19 TRIVIUM Shogun Roadrunner  
20 DEERHOOF Offend Maggie Kill Rock Stars  
21 LITTLE ONES Morning Tide Chop Shop  
22 SECRET MACHINES The Secret Machines World's Fair  
23 MARNIE STERN This Is It... Kill Rock Stars  
24 PRETTY AND NICE Get Young Hardly Art  
25 ROSEBUDS Life Like Merge  
26 JAY REATARD Matador Singles '08 Matador  
27 LITTLE JOY Little Joy Rough Trade  
28 CATFISH HAVEN Devastator Secretly Canadian  
29 TAT Soho Lights [EP] Red-Sony  
30 BROKEN WEST Now Or Heaven Merge  
* indicates information which has not yet been verified by CMJ staff.
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Final Days of CMJ
(Pictured: Singing DJ Jens Lekman at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. For more better photos, check out Brooklyn Vegan's post) The last two days of CMJ were jam packed with temptatious showcases, mixers, and panels. Thursday, I went down to the South Side Seaport, and after getting terribly lost, I was only able to catch Bearsuit. The band was a fat waste of time musically. However, the band did tell a zinger related to technical difficulties: "We're having problems with American Power." "A lot of people are." As cute as they were, I wished I had caught the last moments of Brooklyn's Loose Limbs, who sound a bit like Thee Oh Sees. In the evening, the folks at Matador threw a little party at Stanton Public, with DJ sets by Times New Viking and The Teenagers. Admittedly, it was after some failed attempts to go to other shows. (Piano's was sold out very early, so we didn't catch the Dutchess and the Duke and the line for the Vivian Girls was long and static.) Saturday, AAM threw their showcase which had a great line-up: Crystal Antlers, Ruby Suns, Monotonix, Annuals, and A Place to Bury Strangers. I caught up with Crystal Antlers here, and they gave me a little interview about their tour, CMJ, and some future plans (transcript posted soon). I have their EP, but hadn't yet seen them live and let me tell you, recordings sell them short. Ruby Suns played percussion heavy, island music with light electronics and I was in disbelief that two young New Zealanders were making all that music. Man, I thought Crystal Antlers had great energy, but Monotonix was the most shocking, exciting, and unpredictable show I saw at CMJ. The lead singer kicked over trashcans like they were soccer balls, threw water unto the crowd in a manner similar to a mass baptism (he does sort of look like Jesus), and hung off the balcony until security gently pulled him off. He moved like a whack-a-mole machine, frantically disappearing and reappearing in different parts of the venue. The other members had wild antics as well, and I was shocked how perfectly the tunes and vocals were, despite being upside down or having your drumset held up steadily by members of the crowd.
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I'm Trying To Help
Okay so this is a year old but as I write this I am laughing hysterically at something I just discovered last night. So last year, underground rapper Aesop Rock had his own cable access show on mtv.com called "I'm Trying to Help," in which he and some friends (producer Blockhead & rapper Rob Sonic) hosted a talk show featuring Irish dancing, a monkey trainer, live performances, and advice on love. One could compare these episodes to The Tim & Eric Awesome Show except these guys seem like they're serious about what they're doing, which makes it all the more hilarious. The awkwardness is not forced, it just exists due to circumstance and also to the fact that it's a cable access show. Plus, the punch lines are fantastic ("I'm not a player but I do blog a lot") and at one point this Russian guy calls them saying that he has information from the KGB that "salt and pepper, they may be here, and in effect and may want you to push it. Is this correct?"  Amazing. With that, I leave you with the whole show in hopes that you may find it as hilarious as I did.
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Halloween on the cheap

It’s the happiest time of year! A time of generosity, family, and playboy bunny costumes. Every year I look forward gleefully to the Halloween season, with its fantastic television programming and free Milky Way bars, but I have to admit my last Halloween was a bust. So I started researching early this year, to make sure that the campy fun doesn’t end until November.

 

Here’s something cool to do before the parties around campus get into swing—and you don’t have to pay a cover charge.  From six to eleven on Halloween night, Santa Monica Boulevard will become a party ground for children at heart to troop around in costume. Every year West Hollywood hosts the Halloween Carnaval, which will culminate in an outdoor costume ball of expected raunchiness and glitter. Thousands are expected to roll out, so if you’re going, carpool or take the bus.

 

http://www.weho.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/detail/navid/339/cid/2183/

For the bus from USC, just take Metro 38 heading west from Jefferson and Royal to Fairfax and Apple, and catch the 105 to West Hollywood.

 

And if you’re feeling up to going out the day after, celebrate the Day of the Dead on Olvera St., located conveniently next to all the other historic neighborhoods (read: Chinatown and Little Tokyo.) Decked out with handicraft skulls on any day, it becomes a Tim Burton-esque paradise every November 1st. It’s fun, and again free, and there’s good food all round.

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Save The Chimps!!! (By Listening to Buena Vista Social Club)
As I was doing my daily perusing around the internet I stumbled upon an article that shocked me.  It read

Chimps: Not Human, But Are They People?.

At first I clicked on the article expecting an article that would finally tell me that chimpanzees are just furry dwarves with hands for feet (something I always suspected after watching videos like this one)   But what I found out in the article was even more frightening than a chimp getting a haircut.  According to scientists, via WIRED magazine, the chimp population has now reached critical levels.  In recent years the number of chimps has fallen from 10,000 in West Africa to only a couple thousand.  I was appalled by what I had read and immediately needed to get a hold of the situation.  To help put things into perspective I listened to a band I had just discovered a band called Buena Vista Social Club.  A collection of all the great Cuban artists of the 40's and 50's they joined together in the late 90s with slide guitarist Ry Cooder to form this Cuban Super group.  Their afro-cuban beat helped me put things into perspective and realize that I can't do anything about the chimp population, but I can dance like an idiot in my apartment to "Candela".  So to help you forget your worries I am putting the song up here for your enjoyment.  Dance away.  
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KSCR Top 30 from 10/6-10/12
Here's the top 30 albums played on KSCR last week:
1 JENNY LEWIS Acid Tongue Warner Bros.  
2 NOAH AND THE WHALE Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down Cherry Tree-Interscope  
3 DEPARTMENT OF EAGLES In Ear Park 4AD  
4 TV ON THE RADIO Dear Science Interscope  
5 METALLICA Death Magnetic Warner Bros.  
6 FUJIYA AND MIYAGI Lightbulbs Deaf Dumb And Blind  
7 POLYSICS We Ate The Machine MySpace  
8 COLD WAR KIDS Loyalty To Loyalty Downtown  
9 WIRE Object 47 Pink Flag  
10 GASLIGHT ANTHEM The '59 Sound Side One Dummy  
11 RATATAT LP3 XL  
12 DEERHOOF Offend Maggie Kill Rock Stars  
13 HIGH PLACES High Places Thrill Jockey  
14 JAY REATARD Matador Singles '08 Matador  
15 MOGWAI The Hawk Is Howling Matador  
16 WALKMEN You And Me Gigantic  
17 RA RA RIOT The Rhumb Line Barsuk  
18 DAEDELUS Love To Make Music To Ninja Tune  
19 HERMAN DUNE Next Year In Zion Everloving  
20 HEARTS OF PALM UK For Life Hypnote  
21 EL GUINCHO Alegranza! XL-Young Turks  
22 PICA BEATS Beating Back The Claws Of The Cold Hardly Art  
23 OXFORD COLLAPSE Bits SUB POP  
24 CRYSTAL ANTLERS Crystal Antlers [EP] Touch And Go  
25 MARNIE STERN This Is It... Kill Rock Stars  
26 EARLIMART Hymn And Her Shout! Factory  
27 SPINTO BAND Moonwink Park The Van  
28 LYKKE LI Youth Novels LL  
29 OKKERVIL RIVER The Stand Ins Jagjaguwar  
30 BRIAN WILSON That Lucky Old Sun Capitol
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