Videos of the Week

Here are the videos that stuffed me like a Thanksgiving turkey:



Reality bending clip from Broken Bells that continues the story line from their other video "Holding On For Life."



Black and white clip from Icona Pop details a love triangle.



Glee star Dianna Agron stars in this clip for The Killers new track.



Abstract clip from Factory Floor.



Haunting clip for the title track from Sky Ferreira's new record.



Visually striking clip from Major Lazer.

Non-Sequiturs

Beautiful.

Hot daddy.

Beefy bear.

Damn.

Chest fur.

Beautiful belly.

Sexy profile.

UNF.

Smirk and fur.

I'd be all over that.

Gorgeous eyes.

Nail bitingly handsome.

Woof.

Leather daddy.

Slab o' beef.

Tight.

Nerdy bear.

Ginger hotness.

Striking.

Pit lick.

Groink.

Damn.

Great body.

Furlicious.

Yummy.

Swoon.

More sexy belly.

Sigh.

Lift it!

Drool.

Nice chest hair.

I'm done.

Ditto.

Sexy smile.

Beefy goodness.

So handsome.

Wow.

Likewise.

Nips.

Grrrrrr.

Gorgeous.

If you don't like The Go-Betweens, I don't like you.

For some weird reason, I can always recognize a Cy Twombly painting.

The Church's album After Everything Now This is severely underrated.

There are too many buzzkills in the world.

Mitch McConnell and John Boehner seriously need to go fuck themselves.

To have a greatest hits record, I think you should have at least ten actual hit singles at a minimum. It always befuddles me when someone has a greatest hits record and only have a couple of albums out, with at most 3 hit singles.

You know you made the right decision to unfriend someone on FB when you never hear from them ever again, if you ever heard from them at all.

Seeing as I have never seen an episode of Doctor Who, I don't understand the rampant fan fervor over the show. It's been around forever and under many different incarnations, I can even begin to think about trying to resolve that issue.

"If you fall asleep before you die, it doesn't really count."

It's always touching and heart warming when two complete assholes find each other.

Until this past weekend I have never bought patterned socks.

Telling me to smile in a picture is just going to make me not want to smile at all.

Shopping at Dick's Sporting Goods is about as fun as a day at the DMV.

In my experience, people who claim they are "nice," "good," "have excellent character, morals, etc.," are usually the ones you need to watch your back on.

It's very hard to even remotely complain about my job considering I really don't have anyone looking over my shoulder and I am given almost 100% autonomy.

I'm proud to say I have never worn jorts or skinny jeans.

Foreplay is vastly overrated.

Every bear wishes Santa were their Daddy.

Holiday weeks are really bad for my gym routine.

Nothing quite says being an adult like signing your will.

My favorite word this week is coruscating.

When a band's B-side material is better than most bands' A-List material, you know they are legendary.

Sure, sex on a beach sounds very romantic, until sand gets where it shouldn't.

Lyrics Rattling Around My Brain

"Now that it's over I found myself fleeting
The sound permeated all directions at once
I never said goodbye to the family, lovers
Brothers and daughters, the rest of the bunch
It seems so strange that the things I was chasing
Have all evaporated like a distant dream
Petty ambition, petty obstruction
Something in between
I really thought it would go on forever
Never believed they would sever the ties
All of the questions remaining unanswered
A stranger's reflection in a stranger's eyes
Here is a child playing in a garden
Here is an old man with a broken heart
Here comes a train to take you away
It all goes round and round and comes back to the start
I was never really sure what I was waiting for
When the moment came I was looking away
Obsessed with a past, scared of the future
Never took the time to be here today
After everything now this happens
It's not a grand illusion, it's a stupid little trick
The show must go on, these people have paid
You're standing in the wings feeling kinda sick
Never really sure what you were waiting for
When the moment came you just couldn't choose
The fog sweeps down over the marine city
Standing backstage trying to pull on your shoes."

The Church
"After Everything"

"I imagine my lungs breathing in as a pair of wings
there's a crow in my chest crying out through my broken ribs
it's so warm on your forehead the sweat makes my lipstick melt
the deep smell of you dangerously
matches the perfume inside of me

It must be my heart you are after
it must be my lungs you are breathing from
we are not the winners or the losers
oh baby we are the fight

You're everything I always longed for
everything I always wanted
everything, everything
everything, everything

Love with you. it's from marble to mud every second breath
but you have me protecting your ass like a lioness
sometimes i don't know whether to laugh or simply kill myself
but i don't care what they say
there's no mess that can't be danced away

Together we destroy. together we go down
you wear my necklace and I wear your black jeans
I still dream. you still dream
it ain't an easy life
but baby we are the fight

You're everything I always longed for
everything i always wanted
everything, everything
everything, everything."

Maya Jane Coles ft. Karin Park
"Everything"

"Alternate world
alternate age
alternate life

Alternate world
alternate age
alternate life

Oh-oh we'll shed our skin
we'll walk the other side
oh-oh we'll brace for it
and conquer everything
oh-oh-oh
and conquer everything
oh-oh-oh

Oh-oh we're magical
we'll wake the dead from sleep
oh-oh we'll shed our skin
we'll walk the other side
oh-oh we'll brace for it
and conquer everything
oh-oh-oh
and conquer everything
oh-oh-oh

Tear me away from this fight
tear me away
take me to an
alternate world
alternate age
alternate life

Alternate world
alternate age
alternate life

Alternate world
alternate age
alternate life

Make what we believe
don't we make what we can."

Son Lux
"Alternate World"

Appealing Things

Sweet potato pie
Variety Playhouse; still the best venue to see a band in Atlanta
Thanksgiving with friends
Chvrches live

Annoying Things

People in front of you who don't look behind them going through doors and letting it slam in your face
Unseasonably cold weather in November

Jam of the Day: Son Lux - "Alternate World"

Stunning lead track from Son Lux's new record Lanterns. His voice sounds so fragile; gives me goosebumps every time.

Video: Sky Ferreira - "Night Time, My Time"

The haunting title track to Sky Ferreira's album gets a dark video treatment.

Jam of the Day: Joel Compass - "Run"

This guy needs to be huge. Love this new single.

Concert Watch: Chvrches - "Lies"

I haven't been this excited for a concert in ages. Their debut record The Bones Of What You Believe is an instant synthpop classic with "Lies" being one (of many) ridiculously catchy tracks.

Video: ††† (Crosses) - "Bi†ches Brew"

Horror movie influenced video from ††† (Crosses), the side project of Deftones singer Chino Moreno.

Jam of the Day: Haunted House - "Guts"

Don't let the creepy name, title, and cover art scare you away from listening to Haunted House. The Detroit duo of Joe Walmsley and Jeff Supina are a more 80s synthpop act than fright fest. While there are goth overtones to their songs, this one has a nice warmth in the keyboards and their vocals.



Their self-titled EP is out via their website.

Album Review: Son Lux - Lanterns

Son Lux
Lanterns
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

Ryan Lott, who performs under the name Son Lux, is obviously fascinated with the tension created between use of electronic and more organic instruments. His first couple of releases straddled the line between the worlds of artists like Owen Pallett, Radiohead, James Blake, and Wild Beasts; never quite finding the right mix of the two. Lanterns, his third record, is perhaps the best culmination of his talents so far, showing that collaborations with Sufjan Stevens have given him new focus and purpose in his recordings. Alternating between interior leaning tracks and more maximalist cuts, Lanterns is a fascinating listen that, while not always reaching the heights it aspires to, shows that is heading in the right direction. Lanterns, while not exactly a concept record of sorts, definitely has a series of themes running through it, ostensibly a collection of tracks about not feeling quite one with the world and wishing for something different. But in this world, getting what you want doesn't necessarily mean being happy with the ultimate decision.

Launching the record with a chorus of voices, samples, and ukulele, "Alternate World," is a somber meditation on how hard this world is to live in, and wanting to move on. Lott plaintively sings "tear me away from this fight/tear me away/take me to an/alternate world/alternate age/alternate life." There is a beautiful interplay between the subtle electronics and beats with strings and ukulele.



Album highlight "Lost It To Trying" erupts out of the gate next, stealing a bit from Sujan's The Age of Adz, with its haunting mix of horns, woodwinds, blistering percussion, and electronic elements. While all the elements feel like they are spinning out of control, Lott is somehow able to keep it all in check, trying to figure out his place in the world, wondering if they "Give in and get out/We rise in the dying."



The record moves along its path of knowledge and discovery up through the final tracks, with our protagonist reaching the point where he, and his lover/partner wants to "Leave the wasting world behind us/We will make it out alive/Leave the waiting world behind us/We will not look back this time" on the penultimate track "Plan Our Escape," before subtly moving into the final track "Lanterns Lit," where he is now alone, haven't not made the leap realizing there is more to this world, but seeing that his lover/partner has left this life he sets out to truly live, singing, "And with all your grief in my arms/I will labor by singing light/I'll keep my lanterns lit."



This push and pull between succumbing to the stresses and harshness of this world and seeking solace in something else is mirrored throughout the record by Lott's choices of more minimalist electronic flavored tracks and the maximalist tracks that almost overflow with outsized arrangements. Some of the best tracks, for me, are the electronic leaning ones, such as the menacing "Ransom," with its steady bassline throb, that is kept in check by a steady rise of strings;



and the dark, alt-R&B influence of "Easy," which strains above a whisper and keeps you in its masterful thrall.



The album is a bit front loaded with its best tracks, with the back half straining a little under the weight it of all. I felt that the track "Enough of Our Machines" should have been the one track that tied everything together, but its meandering mix of organic instrumentation never really rose to anything memorable, its latter attempt to intertwine electronics in the mix was maddeningly incohesive, and the lyrics faded into the background rather than creating the emotive context necessary for the leap at the end.



While these small missteps took a little bit away from the overall feel of the record, they were not enough to truly derail the effort. There is enough on Lanterns to show that Lott is almost where he is ready to give us a classic work. It is heartening to see him at least shooting for the stars, when so many others are all too willing to play it safe.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.

Video: Icona Pop - "Just Another Night"

Love triangle between the Icona Pop girls and a man in this black and white clip.