Letterman

EPK

Like, Holy Shit - this record is great. Nasty Rock and Roll - get it now. “Real Love”, “Honey Bee” . . . it just keeps going.

“It’s A Long Way To The Top” - AC/DC Cover

“Murder In The City”

“Will You Return”

“Paranoia in B-Flat Minor”

“Die Die Die”

Port O’Brien

“I Woke Up Today”

“Don’t Take My Advice”

Members Of Twisted Sister Now Willing To Take It

NEW YORK—In a stunning reversal of their long-stated reluctance to take it, members of heavy-metal band Twisted Sister announced Monday that, after 24 years of fervent refusal, they are now willing to take it. “I acknowledge that we promised not to take it anymore, but things change. The world is a different place today, and with that in mind, we would like to go on record as saying that, starting right now, we are going to take it,” read a statement released by the band’s lead singer, Dee Snider. “To clarify, we would still prefer not to take it, but as of now, taking it is an option that we would be open to. That is all.” Bassist Mark “the Animal” Mendoza also stated that, in regards to what he wants to do with his life, he no longer solely wants to rock, but would instead prefer doing other things, such as raising a family and working as a claims adjuster in Rye, NY.

Ernie Cline says . . .

Dance Monkeys Dance began life as a slam poem that I wrote in the fall of 2000. It was largely inspired by the work of two of my heroes, Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams. I included the poem on my first spoken word CD and also made it available as a free download on my website. It became one of my most popular recordings, and a lot of people emailed it to their friends and posted links to it on blogs and message boards.

In March 2005, a college student named Paulo Ang used my audio recording of Dance Monkeys Dance to create a flash animation for a class project he was doing. He did this without my knowledge or input and then posted the animation online. It became a popular Internet meme. A lot of people emailed it to their friends and posted links to it on blogs and message boards, and it eventually led to the poem being featured on NPR.

I enjoyed Paulo’s animation, but I also thought some of the images used in it might lead viewers to misinterpret the poem’s meaning, or infer a subtext I never intended. I eventually felt inspired/compelled to create my own visuals for Dance Monkeys Dance.

I decided to rework and expand the original poem to serve as narration for a faux educational filmstrip, like those I grew up watching in grade school. I completed the Dance Monkeys Dance Filmstrip in December 2005 and made it available on my website. The filmstrip has since become a popular viral video. A lot of people email it to their friends and post links to it on blogs and message boards. And over the past year, fans around the globe have translated the filmstrip into 17 different languages. Harkle.com has also been kind enough to add closed captions for the hearing impaired.

The Internet is a strange and powerful thing.

One final note: I know Homo Sapiens belong to the family Hominidae, and that we’re technically “great apes” and not “monkeys.” This error in taxonomy was wholly intentional. For my purposes, I felt that the cadence and connotation of the word “monkey” worked far better than “ape” or “anthropoid.” Also, Webster’s Dictionary defines a “monkey” as:

1. a nonhuman primate mammal with the exception usually of the lemurs and tarsiers; especially: any of the smaller longer-tailed primates as contrasted with the apes.

2.a. a person resembling a monkey
b. a ludicrous figure : a dupe

The author’s own version:

Get your own kit here.

“Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” - Fleet Foxes Cover

“You’re Not Coming Home Tonight”

First Aid Kit is a Swedish duo formed by sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg from Enskede, a suburb south of Stockholm. They’re young - Klara is 15 and Johanna 17. The music they create could, however, hardly be called young, it’s rather ancient. The emphasis is on narrative lyrics accompanying playful melodies with intense, thick harmonies. This is nothing new.

The musical journey of Klara and Johanna began, as so many others have, with singing karaoke to various pop songs that leaked into their childhood home. It was Britney, Christina and so on. Nevertheless, they turned away from their earlier musical path a few years later, when they discoverd music that could touch them in a way completley new to them. An entry to this new way of experiencing music came with Bright Eyes, the alias of singer/songwriter Conor Oberst, Leonard Cohen and Mr. Dylan to name a few. Klara almost describes her first encounter with the song “First Day of My Life” by the earlier mentioned Bright Eyes as a revelation.

Today, it’s Rock and Roll

On the Bus, and Off It: The Initiation of a Young Rock Impresario

Whatever changes the music business has undergone, one truism remains: Concert promoters still operate on razor-thin margins and highly unbalanced risk-to-reward ratios, said Gary Bongiovanni, the editor in chief of Pollstar, the industry journal. “I tell concert promoters, Are you willing to take $50,000 in cash in your driveway and burn it, and then come back to work the next day? Then maybe you’re cut out to be a concert promoter,” he said.

Nice video

It’s Been Quite a Pool Party, but the Days Grow Short

Nowhere else does a quadruple-Olympic-size swimming pool fill with music usually heard in dark nightclubs where hula hoopers fear to tread. Nowhere else do water-sport squeals serve as auxiliary percussion. And for better or worse, no other stage has so definitively established itself as the preferred strolling grounds for the latest and most bizarre hipster plumage.

“This is the coolest place to people-watch,” said Bryan Murphy, 20, a University of Connecticut student who commutes to the pool on the 85-minute Metro North train from Bridgeport. “People in Brooklyn are different than people anywhere else. They just look different.”

I saw a double bill with Rush and Boston as one of my first ever concerts.

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