The Swedish doing what they do best: making brilliant music and then setting it to apocalyptic imagery.
This is the new Fever Ray video for “Keep The Streets Empty For Me” directed by Jens Klevje and Fabian Svensson, where in an abandoned city, the stray dogs are played by women.
It just doesn’t get any cheerier than this.
Because you’re barking up the wrong tree.
Outside of his TV career as The Naked Chef, Jamie Oliver is responsible for completely changing the way a new generation of people eat in the UK by working directly with the nation’s schools and department of education—implementing ways of offering healthy, cost-efficient meals that kids actually enjoy eating.
Now Jamie is bringing that same initiative to America—and for that, he’s been awarded the 2010 TED Prize.
Here’s Jamie at TED going Inconvenient Truth on the way our children eat. What I think you’ll find at the heart of this is Jamie’s love for kids. I have an immense respect for the amount of energy he’s put behind breaking the bad habits of how we feed our bodies, and by that, our minds.
Humdrum Town / Theophilus London
If Kanye West hijacked a Bruce Hornsby & the Range song, it might sound something like “Humdrum Town.” It’s the kind of track that makes you want to ride your BMX in figure eights in a strip mall parking lot.
Theophilus London may be based in Brooklyn, but his sound is all England. Bearing a striking resemblance to fellow underground-to-pop phenomenon Master Shortie, London takes a more emo approach to the hip hop/new wave hybrid.
You can download “Humdrum Town” for free at Green Label Sound. And here’s the video, shot in Brooklyn, at a bar I feel like I’ve been to at least twice with David. In fact, I think I said what’s up to this same girl on the L Train last summer. And no, I’m not kidding.
And if you’re wondering why all of this looks familiar:
Paper Romance / Groove Armada
Modern electro pop meets 80s stadium rock. This song makes me want to strut around in gold pants. It’s also one of the best song titles I’ve seen in a long time. Right now, the track is only available through iTunes Australia. The entire album is incredible, but nothing makes me want to get behind the wheel of a Trans Am quite like this one.
Here’s the beautiful video for “Paper Romance” directed by Hope Audikana – full of young people looking appropriately tragic and slightly foreign.
For me, a perfect day involves driving around the back woods of New York State, creeping through dilapidated barns, searching for lost treasures. When friends come up from the city I tell them to leave their good clothes at home and wear some sturdy boots. Then we’ll jump in the car and disappear into the hills.
My house is full of the things we’ve found. A voice recorder built by Thomas Edison’s company that etches sound onto wax tubes. A pair of goggles that people used to wear before cars had windshields. A silver print photograph of police cadets from 1893. Every one of these objects has a story to tell, and they fill the house with distant voices, like the warm mumblings of a radio turned low. They symbolize everything I cherish about the rich history of America.
My friend Erik Morabito, the owner of Café Bocca in Poughkeepsie, knows that antiques are my thing and he recently turned me on to the History Channel show American Pickers, which follows two best friends (Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz) while they drive around the countryside literally digging our history out of the earth – if not someone’s back shed. Each episode takes us on a fascinating deep-dive into the nuts and bolts of American history by looking at the things that we loved, used, and discarded along the way. It also serves as a portrait of the collectors and pack rats from across the country who have spent their lives storing these things away, and how hard it can be to let something go.
If you’ve ever driven past an old, broken down barn with a bunch of hubcaps nailed to the side of it and thought “Wow, I wonder what’s in there?” then this is the show for you.
Watch the latest episodes of American Pickers on www.history.com >
Some people write history.
Others retell it when they’re drunk.
I recently discovered the Drunk History Series on YouTube, which offers a new perspective on our founding fathers. The first two episodes feature Michael Cera as Alexander Hamilton and Jack Black as Ben Franklin.
The dubbed reenactment are pure brilliance.
Sparrow Hall
Music inspires everything I write. Everything I do. Everything I wear. Even the places I go. It was my friend Darrell Lievense who taught me how to listen to music. Back then, the two of us had about a dozen albums each, and we used to play them on a tape deck in a black Chevy Celebrity that would vibrate if you pushed it over 55. We’d drive around after school, down the sun-baked back roads of western New York listening to The Cure, Depeche Mode, Tori Amos, Nine Inch Nails, while we talked about girls and school and work, but mostly girls, for hours on end. After dinner, we would reconvene at his house, up in his closet-sized room, and play the very same albums on his stereo. But this was different. He’d plug in his Dad’s huge chunky headphones and hand them to me and pop in a tape and press play. And what I heard then wasn’t what I had heard in the car – or what I thought I had heard.
That’s how Darrell taught me that music isn’t just something that we hear, that swirls around us in an endless shuffle. It’s something we listen to. Even if we forget we’re listening. Every song has a story to tell. And just the fact that we’re playing it, and not forwarding along to the next, says something about what’s going on with us, and the life’s story we’re writing that day. The problem is our lives move incredibly fast, and the music we listen to tends to fade into the background. And we miss what these songs are whispering to us.
So I’ve decided to change things up on the Sparrow Hall blog. I’m not going to list the top ten songs I’ve been playing the most each month. Instead I’m going to listen to each, one at a time, and describe what I hear – which may be completely different from what you hear, but that’s just because each of us are writing our own stories.
The Temper Trap / Photo by Sugar Crisp
Sweet Disposition / The Temper Trap
This is my favorite song from the movie (500) Days of Summer. It completely captures the spirit of the film – the soaring, careening, aching cry of first love. It is the sound of the sun rising and setting over a city, a town, a house, a room. And a boy sitting in that room, on the edge of his bed, with one hand holding the phone number and one hand holding the phone, willing himself to make the call.
I found this video of The Temper Trap performing “Sweet Disposition” in New York in 2009. The sound quality isn’t great, and I don’t know why the cameraperson chose to hold it at a 45 degree angle, but the energy of the lead singer is definitely there. Amazing to watch as he slips into the zone. And that he actually manages to pull of the Boy-George-oversized-t-shirt look.
David Crabb & Sparrow Hall of A Crowd Electric / Photo by Megan Faulkner
A Crowd Electric (whom I hold a unique personal attachment to), just released their newest single, “The Waiter,” as part of the Two Blue Wolves Soundtrack – a multimedia collection of music, video and art based on my short story.
The theme of memory plays a central role in the Two Blue Wolves Digital Collection, which is dedicated to raising awareness for Alzheimer’s Disease in a younger demographic. Other Two Blue Wolves collaborators include Shawn Christensen of Stellastarr*, Kevin McAdams of Elefant, Sam Tyndall of ArpLine, Ana Lola Roman and The Hourly Radio. 15% of every Two Blue Wolves purchase goes directly to the Alzheimer’s Association, the nation’s leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer care, support and research.
Buy the Two Blue Wolves Digital Collection >
and help eliminate Alzheimer’s Disease
Prior to its release on Two Blue Wolves, “The Waiter” was featured for three months in the top songs of the London electro pop blog EQ (we can’t thank Raj Rudolph enough for all of the kind words and encouragement!).
The cover for “The Waiter” can be seen at A Crowd Electric’s official site, www.acrowdelectric.com, featuring a hauntingly beautiful photograph by Lindsey Bourque.
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