Fleet Foxes

Although I'm a latecomer to the Fleet Foxes' much ballyhooed new album, I did want to take a second to share the song and really interesting video for their song "White Winter Hymnal." I'm not the only one that gets a little freaked out by claymation, right? I'd rather pay you 100 bucks than watch that terrifying Tool video from a few years back.

The album itself is really worth listening to: it' a really confident and polished version of that sort of soft, rustic sound that I'm normally a little more "eh" about. Anyway, here's the video (thanks go to BK for the heads-up):

Attack!

Oh, it's been a long and winding road to the Presidential Election, but one of our unalienable rights is now only a month and a half away. So break out your bunting, pop some Orville Redenbacher, and plant yourself in front of the old HDTV – it's political attack ad season.

The primary elections were already historic, but the many differences between the presidential candidates make their ads all the more interesting. We have Change vs The Same, Multiracial vs Uniracial, Hip vs Hip-replacement. A couple months ago it seemed like the election might be a formality, but polling shows McCain essentially even with Obama. When things get tight, the feces flinging begins.

McCain was first to make waves with his claim that Obama is a bigger celeb than Britney or Paris and is apparently unfit to run a country because of this. Obama, a universally liked and respected black man running for president of the United States of America, is definitely a celebrity. But, obviously, so is McCain. Weak stuff if you ask me, especially when Obama has been adamant about running a positive campaign.

"Celebrity" ad


Obama is now responding with negative ads in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Florida which air simultaneously with national ads that are much less biting. It's always fun to see what the public (though it's mostly the media) responds to and whether it affects their voting.

Luckily for us, there's a website that has collected every presidential ad since the very first was created for Dwight Eisenhower’s campaign in 1952. The Living Room Candidate lets us compare Reagan to Mondale, Nixon to McGovern, and Clinton to Bush to Perot. It's a great reminder that political mudslinging has been around as long as politics itself.

Make sure to check out the site to get yourself in the mood. Since I can't find out how to embed their videos, I'm leaving you a YouTube clip of George H.W. Bush's famous "Willie Horton" ad. Feel the hate.

Feeling Perturbed?

Like old Muggs here? Well, I promise that actual posts will be coming soon!

In the meantime, have you ever read James Thurber's "The Owl Who Was God"?

School House Rock! Rocks, Rocks

Last night at a barbecue I had a chance to rediscover School House Rock! Rocks, one of the great tribute albums of my childhood. Much like The Crash Test Dummies' God Shuffled His Feet, I probably played this slightly jokey record about 39 times more than anyone reasonably should have.

That being said, this collection, composed of 90's artists putting their own take on the entertaining, if slightly dippy, School House Rock videos from the 70's, is a legitimately entertaining collection of songs. Plus, it's practically a "who's who" of mid-nineties rock & roll. I'm pretty sure that my introduction to Pavement came via their version of "No More Kings," and a pre-lame Moby has an awesome thrashing, menacing version of "Verbs." The Lemonheads, for that matter, never sounded more pleasantly stoned than during their cover of "My Hero, Zero."

My two favorites are placed right at the beginning of the record. Deluxx Folk Implosion's "I'm Just a Bill" is almost too tongue in cheek but, listening to it last night, I couldn't help but think that it still held up pretty well as both a funny, if still respectful, tribute to the song and a prefect send-up on the earnestness of the original narration (though The Simpsons' "Amendment to Be" remains the all-time classic send-up). In case you've never seen it, here's the original song:



The real gem remains Blind Melon's "Three is a Magic Number," a song that seems so up their silly hippie alley that it's almost hard to believe their version is a cover. Shannon Hoon was born to sing that song, and it's likely the best thing they did after "No Rain." Here's the video (with their cover in place of the original):

In the Wheelhouse

Ladies and germs, the long-discussed Brandon and Josh podcast is almost here! There are wheels within wheels, fingers in pies, cogs in the machine, all conspiring to make it one of the 20 greatest podcast experiences of your life! What's that you say? You haven't had one, let alone 20, great podcast experiences? Even better for us!

What can I tell you about it so far?

We have a name: In the Wheelhouse. Please refer to this for a little more info on this sadly underused expression.

We have a website: www.wheelhouseshow.com. Which, while empty for now, will soon be a veritable treasure trove of fantastical, heart-stopping information!

We have a producer: our good buddy Steve, who knows more about matters technical (and websites, and organization, and planning...) than I ever will.

We have a theme song which, when finished, will sound a little bit like the slice of genius below:

Catching Up

Sorry, you faithful 3-7 readers out there, for my lack of posting of late. I'm currently finishing the final two weeks of my current job before I switch over to my new one (a job in publishing very similar to the one that I have now, but better) and things have thus been a little crazy of late.

Here are a few things you almost certainly don't need to know:

1. I went to Atlantic City and actually came back to New York with more money than I left with! Thanks go to all the terrible players at my poker table at the Taj!

2. I think that the new Walkmen record, You and Me, might end up being the best album of the year. Extremely, extremely strong from top to bottom. I actually saw them play a few years ago and I still don't understand how Hamilton Leithauser's vocal cords are still working. Head over to the Black T-Shirt to listen to "In the New Year," one of the standout tracks from the album.

3. I'm on a massive John McPhee kick right now. Anyone read any of his stuff? I'm not much of a geology buff (or haven't been in the past) so I'd avoided him for quite a while, incorrectly thinking that nature writing was predominant area of focus. It turns out that he's actually all ove the place as an essayist, covering everything from sports to Farmer's Markets. I'm currently reading the extremely interesting Looking for a Ship, about a trip he takes on the US Merchant Marine. Any other fans out there with books of his to recommend?

4. If I hadn't been so distracted with job-related matters, I probably could have written 7,000 words about that amazing, day-gobbling Wimbledon final. It's certainly the highest-quality tennis match I can remember seeing, and rivals the Sampras-Alex Corretja US Open quarterfinal that I watched with my mom way back in 1996 for sheer drama. And, because I like you all so much, here's a clip from that riveting quarterfinal:



Better (Chatter) posts to come!

Was I the Only One that Read "Low Moon"?

Now that the New York Times Magazine's "Funny Pages" section has moved on to some, not especially engrossing as of yet, new comic, I wanted to recommend that everyone check out Jason's "Low Moon" series that run throughout the spring in the magazine.


I can't totally explain why I was so intrigued by this unusual mix of dogs, chess, and the Old West, but it was the first thing that I read every week in the magazine for it's entire 16 week run. Maybe it was the classic cartoonish drawing style? Or the soft, pleasant colors? Or maybe just the fact that the overall weirdness of the cartoon always seemed to provoke a laugh? Regardless, check it out while it's still up!

(Also, a big thanks are owed to Brandon over at The Black Tee Shirt for the format redesign! Much, much improved!)