Frankbeaton.com

The difference between Black-Eyed Peas’ “My Humps” (which I’ve written about before) and Kelis’s “Milkshake” is, of course, that “Milkshake”, while ridiculous, is also pretty damn sexy — whereas “My Humps” just leaves you with a “What the fuck…?” feeling so profound it’s difficult to shake, even years later.

Having said that, a sure-fire way to strip any song of its sexiness is by mashing it up with the theme from GHOSTBUSTERS. This is especially true if the mashup works really, really well.

Enjoy.

mp3: “Milkshake Busters”

read comments (0)

The sales and download figures for IN RAINBOWS have been released, and (much to the delight of hrumph’ing old-media types), they show that 65% of fans opted not to pay a dime for it.

As someone who works in the digital music world, I’d love to hear some opinions on this. Is a 65% freeloader rate higher or lower than you expected?

read comments (3)

Here’s a nice way to spend the next four minutes of your life.

My good friend Joshua Ellis’s new band Red State Soundsystem (love that name) just released their first track, a fine bit of alt-country fare called “Scatterlings and Refugees”, for free via the band’s website.

I really like this one. Reminds me a bit of Okkervil River’s “Song of Our So-Called Friend” — and that’s definitely meant as a complement.

Give it a listen. Then drop by this post on Josh’s blog and let him know what you thought.

mp3: Red State Soundsystem - Scatterlings and Refugees

read comments (0)

Apparently this is from GOSSIP GIRL, which I’ve never seen, but I figure any show that features an a capella choral rendition of Fergie’s “Glamorous” is probably okay.

mp3: Constance Billard Choir - Glamorous

And while we’re on the subject of ironic Fergie covers (a phenomenon probably deserving of its own dedicated blog somewhere), here’s Alanis Morrissette doing “My Humps”.

Have a good weekend, Internet.

read comments (0)

…at Berbati’s Pan Saturday night was amazing. Great band, incredible performance, and I think I’m a little bit in love with Will Sheff.

Unfortunately, I spent much of the evening stuck behind this guy:

Whafro™: Makes a better ironic door than it does an ironic window.

Okkervil River - “Plus Ones”

read comments (1)

Back in the eighties and nineties, you could pinpoint the exact moment when a band ceased to be cool or interesting or relevant. It was when they hired a full symphony orchestra to back them — usually on some shitty anthemic power ballad.

Bands these days are exactly the same. Only now it’s a gospel choir.

I guess what I’m wondering is, am I the only one who feels really embarrassed for the people IN these symphonies and choirs? The gospel singers who really just want to make a joyful noise unto the Lord, the classically-trained musicians whose lives have been dedicated to honoring the great composers — all of them reduced to playing kid-simple chord progressions or belting out some half-literate retard poem about the singer’s ex-girlfriend. God, how awful for them! One day you’re performing at Albert Hall with the London Philharmonic, the next day you’re crammed into a recording booth, taking orders from some 16th minute rock star itching his way through rehab.

Horrible.

So. Consider this a targeted public service announcement. To the Killers and Rilo Kiley and Muse and all the rest of you: Please stop embarrassing gospel singers for the sake of irony. It’s kind of fucked up.

read comments (1)

…did I always like the Pet Shop Boys and just never admitted it to myself until now, or did my opinion of them actually change at some point?

read comments (3)