Buzz Rant & Rave

The video for "Dance With Me," off of Blame it on Gravity-- Rhett Miller and company's first studio album in 4 years-- features Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer ("Number 6") and some cool nerd kung-fu fighting :

The Old 97's play Webster Hall on August 1.

Mancino is one of the most interesting and fun bands playing rock music in New York these days. Their songs tend to veer off in unexpected directions, but always rooted in a groove and built around strong melodies. They don't take themselves too seriously, but also have a very unique sound. Plus, I have to at least give props to any rock band that uses some clarinet.

Last night's show at The Delancey shows that the Mancino train is rolling along with some great new songs and a polished and musical live show.

I can't add much about Gold Streets set since I was running late and the venue has actually starting bands on time. The Delancey upgraded the sound in the live room somewhat recently, which is a nice change.

Via Stereoactive NYC, here's video of Mancino playing "Buy My Product" at an earlier show at The Delancey.

Here's a mashup that re-contextualizes scenes from Ferris Bueller's Day Off by combining them with the score from Requiem for a Dream:

This demonstrates how strongly music affects mood and how we perceive scenes synced with a score.

In the Star-Ledger, Alan Sepinwall interviews the composers for Lost and Battlestar Galactica: Michael Giacchino and Bear McCreary, score keepers: "The trend in television music of late has been towards wall-to-wall songs, like on "Grey's Anatomy." But a handful of series still use traditional scores, and some composers - notably Giacchino on "Lost" and Bear McCreary on "Battlestar Galactica" - have been able to do transcendent work in an area that's too often underappreciated. On most TV shows, the music is the most important dramatic element that you notice the least. With "Lost" and "Battlestar," it's impossible not to notice, or to think of either series without some composition or other by Giacchino or McCreary coming into your head."

And here are Sepinwall's transcripts of the interviews with Giacchino and McCreary.