Crumbler

Tina Fey's favorite '30 Rock' moments

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:22:12 -0700

Tina Fey has good taste in favorite 30 Rock moments. “What am I, a farmer?”

Get Phoenix's pre-'Wolfgang' album for $1.99

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:12:16 -0700

Get Phoenix's pre-'Wolfgang' album for $1.99:

It’s Never Been Like That for less than the cost of a latte. Oh, Amazon music store. Is there anything you won’t do to destroy iTunes?

“Drumming Song,” Florence + the Machine. On one...

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:15:10 -0700

“Drumming Song,” Florence + the Machine. On one hand, Florence Welch wants to be nearer to her lover; on the other hand, the love is consuming her, and driving her more than a little insane. The music is equally hot and bothered; the track lives up to its title with a series of gunshot drum parts that build to shattering crescendos. The Machine goes out of its way to convey a sense of enormity, of being overwhelmed — a sound that happens to match Welch’s lyrics perfectly. Of everything I listened to this year, “Drumming Song” was the only thing to cause a physical reaction in me: Every time I hear it, my chest tightens. It’s a lusty heart attack of a song, and one of the year’s best.

In college I enjoyed playing an annoying game where, whenever I...

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:39:26 -0700

In college I enjoyed playing an annoying game where, whenever I was watching a movie in the theater and one of the actors said the title of that movie, I would lean over to a friend and whisper-shout, “Aaaaaaaaand we have a title!” Well, today Gabe Videogum made my month by organizing a collection of such moments into a delightful supercut.

To promote the 20th anniversary of Say Anything, an army of...

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:31:00 -0700

To promote the 20th anniversary of Say Anything, an army of Doblers took to the streets to blast “In Your Eyes” from the stereo.

"Initially, it was like, “What?!” But Thom Yorke did it, and we like him. It’s..."

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:10:35 -0700

“Initially, it was like, “What?!” But Thom Yorke did it, and we like him. It’s like: “If dad does it, it’s OK, right?” Radiohead are like parents of good modern rock ‘n’ roll in certain ways. They paved that path.”

- Chris Taylor, of Grizzly Bear, on why the band decided to record a song for the Twilight album.

Bloc Party to enter 'terrible solo album' phase of career

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:50:00 -0700

Bloc Party to enter 'terrible solo album' phase of career:

The move represents a logical next step following their ‘sophomore slump’ and ‘third album that improved on the second without attracting any new fans’ phases. (via)

The Day in Music

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:55:01 -0700

Norah Jones and Ryan Adams continued their series of snoozer collaborations. I’m a fan of both artists, and this improves a bit on their previous “Dear John.” But somehow the whole is less than the sum of its parts.
Crumbler readers’ least favorite band, the Dirty Projectors, played a sweet acoustic version of “No Intention” for something called “Sirius XMU.” I have fallen completely into would-reblog-them-singing-the-phone-book territory with these guys. Those harmonies!
Julian Casablancas has recorded a studio version of that old jokey SNL Christmas carol, “I Wish It Was Christmas Today.” I don’t want to overstate things, but it’s better than the Strokes’ last album.

Download Liz Phair's pre-'Exile in Guyville' demo tapes

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:20:00 -0700

Download Liz Phair's pre-'Exile in Guyville' demo tapes:

They’re free. (via)

UPDATE: The headline has been corrected so as to no longer suggest that Liz Phair recorded demos for the Rolling Stones’ legendary Exile on Main St. Thank you/sad face to Nerdshares for pointing this out to me.

"Somehow losing by this tiny margin is brutalizing. And because this is a vote on my dignity as a..."

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:35:12 -0700

“

Somehow losing by this tiny margin is brutalizing. And because this is a vote on my dignity as a human being, it is hard not to take it personally or emotionally. But I also know that the history of civil rights movements has many steps backward as forward, and some of those reversals actually catalyze the convictions that lead to victories. A decade ago, the marriage issue was toxic. Now it divides evenly. Soon, it will win everywhere.

I know for many younger gays and lesbians, this process can seem bewildering and hurtful. But I’m old enough now to be able to look back and see the hill we have climbed in such a short amount of time, and the minds and hearts we have changed. Including our own. Know hope.

”

- Andrew Sullivan on Maine.

The alleged 'top 10 music cliches'

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:24:00 -0700

The alleged 'top 10 music cliches':

Spinner takes a shot at it but somehow misses the Ill-Considered Solo Project, the Ill-Considered Side Project, the Celebutard Single, and the Late-Period Slide into Irrelevance. Which are way more cliche than, say, ‘using Internet slang in song titles.’

"One of the things I love about U2 … is that they want to take everyone with them for the ride!..."

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:09:07 -0700

“One of the things I love about U2 … is that they want to take everyone with them for the ride! They don’t want to let anyone go at any point! I’m always saying, ‘Look, if you’re going to do something new, you’re going to lose a few supporters along the way.’ And they really fight against that. I honestly don’t think it’s greed. It’s the feeling that everybody’s got to be at the party: we’re not going to make it unapproachable to anybody. I’m sure a big part of Bono’s drive comes from the times he visits nightclubs and sees 18-year-old girls dancing to records that aren’t U2! And I think that really bugs him!”

- An incredibly charming Brian Eno, making my case against U2 even as he’s ostensibly making a case for them, in Pitchfork. (He does the same thing with Coldplay: “I’m sure they’ll turn out to be a great band.” Ouch!)

Photo

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:39:12 -0700

Auto-Tune the News hits the CBS Evening News

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:38:07 -0700

Auto-Tune the News hits the CBS Evening News:

There’s no video clip up yet, but the CBS Web site has a story.

Something called Loft Life Magazine — “The Loftstyle...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:11:45 -0700

Something called Loft Life Magazine — “The Loftstyle Guide to Life in the City” — gets a tour of Wilco’s Chicago loft. The loft pops up a lot in I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, and was used more recently to record parts of Andrew Bird’s record and Wilco’s own “You and I” duet with Feist. It is very beautiful and reportedly filled with dozens of rare and spectacular instruments, such as Nels Cline’s Extended Wankmaster guitar with 16 whammy bars (perfect for soloing) and a set of bongo drums with Jay Farrar’s face painted on the skins.

(Incidentally, it’s kind of hard to see where Loft Life Magazine goes from here. “You guys know any other famous lofts?” “Um … Didn’t Friends take place in a loft?” “Yes, Alan, we’ve done four stories on it in the last year.” “Well shit.”) (via)

"Southern Novel of Black Misery. Africans in America, cut your teeth on this literary staple. Slip on..."

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:22:20 -0700

“Southern Novel of Black Misery. Africans in America, cut your teeth on this literary staple. Slip on your sepia-tinted goggles and investigate the legacy of slavery that still reverberates to this day, the legacy of Reconstruction that still reverberates to this day, and crackers. Invent nutty transliterations of what you think slaves talked like. But hurry up — the hounds are a-gittin’ closer!”

- The always-entertaining Colson Whitehead, in his guide to picking out the genre of your next novel.

Fox viewers are some of the best-infromed people you will ever...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:56:42 -0700

Fox viewers are some of the best-infromed people you will ever meet. (via)

“Two,” the Antlers (Daytrotter session). I hesitated...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:57:00 -0700

“Two,” the Antlers (Daytrotter session). I hesitated before posting this song so soon after I posted a video of it. But this version, from an excellent Daytrotter session, may prove to be my favorite. In the studio version, the wrenching lyrics are difficult to hear; they’re set back in the mix, occasionally drowned out by a chiming guitar. This version puts the vocals up front, where they belong. Peter Silberman relates his sad, angry tale of a man losing his wife to cancer, and it just levels you:

There’s two people living in one small room,
from your two half-families tearing at you,
Two ways to tell the story (no one worries),
Two silver rings on our fingers in a hurry,
Two people talking inside your brain,
Two people believing that I’m the one to blame,
Two different voices coming out of your mouth,
While I’m too cold to care and too sick to shout.

The Antler’s Hospice is on sale at Amazon for $5.

This Halloween, Crumbler IS Balloon Boy.

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:11:26 -0700

This Halloween, Crumbler IS Balloon Boy.

Fail whale Halloween costume.

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:21:41 -0700

Fail whale Halloween costume.