The Clash: Live at Shea Stadium

The Clash have released a live album from when they played at Shea Stadium opening for The Who in 1982. My relationship with The Clash is as follows: London Calling is undeniably one of my favorite records if not one of the best rock albums ever made. That being said, I have never personally ventured to far past it to Combat Rock or anything, mostly because I don't want to ruin what I pretty much maintain as a flawless reputation.

This live album (while heavily laden with London Calling tunes) has plenty of other songs (Tommy Gun, Police on My Back, I Fought the Law) and solidified in my mind that they are an immensely influential band in so many genres. The way they combined punk, reggae, and the genre that would eventually become ska, so wonderfully is truly amazing. Bottom line, I thought The Clash were awesome before, but I wasn't going to give myself a mohawk and start singing like Joe Strummer. Now I am seriously considering it...

Yearbook Yourself

This site is the best. A history lesson and product placement. Works awesome with webcam photos.

http://www.yearbookyourself.com/

PS, look at me.

Love Lockdown Music Video Premieres on "Ellen"

So remember when I told you earlier today about Kanye West's new album coming out soon? Well, I've got a couple more quick updates on that. According to RollingStone.com the album will come out on November 25. Also, today he debuted the video for "Love Lockdown" on the talk show Ellen. The song has an awesome mix of tribal drums as well as the latest hip-hop trend of overusing a pitch corrector. The video is extremely trippy, but very awesome. Enjoy.

The Onion: Pushing the Comedic Envelope

Most people are relatively familiar with The Onion News. What started as a small publication full of parody news stories, has grown into an empire: with weekly YouTube videos, a recent full-length, straight-to-DVD film and regular print publications. It seems like more and more people are turning to fake comedic news sources to stay up on current events than ever before. Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" are hugely popular, especially among young people. However, these sources, for the most part report on real events, with hilarious commentary. The Onion takes a completely different approach, reporting completely fictional stories based upon current events. My favorite aspect of them has got to be their channel on YouTube. Each week a new video is released, always delightfully insightful. They are comic geniuses. Some of my recent favorites include a report that teen pop-star Miley Cyrus will be "depleted" if fans keep obsessing over her, and a pre-game coin toss causing football players to forfeit the game because of an existential awakening. In the midst of the election though, The Onion has really stepped up its game. Their "War for the White House" coverage (complete with explosion graphics) is a fabulously sarcastic take on such a serious election. The Onion has made jabs at both candidates through their series of about 15 short films so far. Definitely worth checking out if you have some time to kill and want a less serious approach to the 2008 Presidential Election.

The Onion's YouTube Channel can be found here, with all of their videos on it.

Kanye West's New Album to be Released Soon

Kanye West is constantly up to something, always causing a stir in the music scene. A couple weeks ago he told fans that he would be moving the release date of his fourth studio album, "808s and Heartbreak", up to "November something" (MTV.com). He debuted his first single from it, "Love Lockdown", on September 7, 2008 at the MTV Video Music awards. The album, which was originally slated for release on December 16, is being moved up according to Kanye's blog (www.kanyeuniversecity.com/blog) because, "I want y'all [the fans] to hear it as soon as possible." Kanye's first three album's are some of my favorite and am really excited for his next one.

Happy Birthday Thom Yorke

Today is Thom Yorke's 40th birthday. In honor of this I would like to take a very abbreviated look at his life.

He was born in Wellingborough, England, but grew up with his family in Oxford. He had several surgeries on his left eye, which was paralyzed. The last surgery was botched but eventually he was able to have partial vision. He grew up being inspired by bands like Queen and The Beatles.

He went to an all boys school in Oxford where he met future band mates Ed O'Brien and Colin Greenwood. During his time at school there he formed On a Friday, the lineup which would later become Radiohead.

Radiohead burst onto the scene in 1993 with their single "Creep" and the rest, as they say is history. With each album pushing the limits of their own musicality, and the alternative rock scene as a whole. Bottom line: if I can look back on my life at 40 and have accomplished even one third of what Thom Yorke has, I will consider my life a success.

(A portion of this information was gathered from Thom York Biography at starpulse.com )

MGMT

One emerging group that is beginning to really make their name lately is MGMT. They are an electro-rock duo from upstate, New York. Their debut album (although they released one prior as 'The Management') "Oracular Spectacular", is a great testament to the ingenuity that modern artists are exhibiting. It was released digitally over a year ago but not onto CD until January 22, 2008. I have been listening to it on and off ever since then. In the beginning there were a few songs I really liked, but the album never really stood out. Lately, I can't get enough of it. All of the songs I was indifferent on have really grown on me, and the ones I liked to begin with have just gotten better. "Time To Pretend" is an awesomely danceable track that pokes fun at the music and pop-culture world. "Electric Feel" is by far the best track, a discoey track that perfectly features their dual vocal style. A lot of their other tracks are spacey ballads but all of them are great. MGMT gained a lot of attention over the summer performing at festivals such as Bonnaroo and Coachella. Here is a video of them performing on the David Letterman show quite a while ago. Enjoy.