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the summit doesn't differ from the deep, dark valley

And the valley doesn’t differ from the kitchen sink

I really need to hack into my CSS files and redo my ordered lists. Until then, another top10 in minor key…

1) This is Not a Test • Volume One • She & Him
2) Cherbourg • The Flying Club Cup • Beirut
3) Black & Gold • Sam Sparro • Sam Sparro
4) Love Will Tear Us Apart • Substance • Joy Division
5) Deep Blue • Velocifero • Ladytron
6) Nighttiming • Nighttiming • Coconut Records
7) Empty Hearts • The Historical Conquests Of Josh Ritter • Josh Ritter Canadian Girl • You & Me • The Walkmen
9) Oh Yeah? • Cherry Kicks • Caesars
10) Tessellate • Elephant Shell • Tokyo Police Club

literal "take on me"

A parody of A-Ha’s “Take on Me” in which the lyrics are literal. Band mont-aaaaaaaaage!

(via, yes, Kottke)

stevie wonder on sesame street, 1972

Not as adorable as Feist, but. . . dayyyyyum.

Kid on the fire escape is loving it.
(via Kottke)

the walkmen, "in the new year"

Holy crap. I am so excited for the Walkmen show this Saturday at the 930. You & Me is already at least my second favorite album (after Everyone Who Pretended to LIke Me Is Gone) and is making a good run at #1. SO. EXCITED.

Jeremy H passes along a video (after the jump) of Hamilton and the ‘men in Juan’s very cramped Basement. Did I mention I am pumped for this weekend’s show?

In other news, Tokyo Police Club are opening for Weezer’s current tour, including a spot at Madison Square Garden. I’m pretty happy for them, but to me, they’ll always be a bunch of gawky Canadian teenagers playing indie rock venues. [h/t: Pop Tarts Suck Toasted]
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the now explosion

In 1968, broadcaster Bob Whitney experimented with a new program that would play Top 40 singles with a continuous video feed. The result was The Now Explosion, a show a lot like the weekly Top 40 shows of Casey Kasem and Rick Dees. The show recorded in Atlanta and broadcast on WATL-TV. A young Ted Turner later bought the rights and broadcast it on his new station, WTCG-TV (which would, in 1979, become WTBS). Production was pretty crude, but kind of amazing for its time. After the jump, a peak at psychedelic-era MTV and how it was produced.
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wes anderson and jason schwartzman shop for CDs and DVDs

YouTube – Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman Shop for CDs and DVDs. Pretty sure I’d be deep in debt after such a shopping trip.

music to self medicate to

I know I sort of abandoned the top10. But for the moment…a third of a liter of gin, a half-flask of Dewar’s, and this is what I have to show for it*:

1) Canadian Girl • You & Me • The Walkmen
2) Endless Shovel • Out of the Shadow • Rogue Wave
3) The Wind • Almost Famous • Cat Stevens
4) You Are What You Love • Rabbit Fur Coat • Jenny Lewis With The Watson Twins
5) The Philadelphia Grand Jury • Widow City • The Fiery Furnaces
6) The Baskervilles • Elephant Shell • Tokyo Police Club
7) Dependence • Beauties Never Die • Sissy Wish Barely Listening • Barely Listening • Pilot Speed
9) Subhuman Girl • Cherry Kicks • Caesars
10) Tonight I Have To Leave It • Our Ill Wills • Shout Out Louds

* – Well, last night, anyway. Tonight was just beer and cathartic venting and pretentious music talk.

aimee mann, "freeway"

From Aimee Mann’s latest album, @#%&! Smilers:



Bonus for readers of Something*Positive: the real T-Bob is the bare-scalped fellow in the above video.

perhaps the best bollywood cover ever

Classic Bollywood liked to copy American songs with reckless abandon. (Today, they just copy pathetic Casio keyboard beats and rap in “muscle” shirts.) Indeed, I probably heard “Mere Jaisi Hasseena” (Armaan, 1981—so hot) before I heard the song it covered (“When You’re In Love With a Beautiful Woman”, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, 1978).

But this is definitely one of my favorite Bollywood covers: “Tumse Hai Dil Ko”, from Janwaar (1965):

(And that’s only half the actual song. I don’t expect anything less than 6m from Bollywood, and neither should you.)