A Lego remix of OK Go’s “Here We Go Again” (the treadmill video):

No, I’m not talking about Axl’s All Star Touring Band, but rather some awesome live footage of Guns ‘n Roses from back in ’88 at the height of their powers. Despite out of tune guitars, bum notes and Axl’s occassionally lazy vocal phrasing, this show rocks, and the energy in these songs is even better the studio versions. Too bad drugs and egos would soon bring these guys down.
BTW, in case you’re wondering, the venue is the Ritz, which is now Webster Hall in NYC. The show feels so vital that it’s crazy to think that this was 18 years ago…

We’re not actually sponsoring anything as BRR, but if we were going to sponsor shows, this would be a good one to start with:
The Walk Ons and The Bosch
performing live at Crash Mansion
with Maggie Kim (video release) and Apollo Heights
Friday, November 10, 2006 at 9 PM
RSVP for free admission at New York Underbelly

WSJ: When Being a Fake Rock Star Is Better Than the Reality: “Many professional rockers, however, say the game lets them act out a fantasy that their real lives don’t quite match. Sometimes, pretending to be a rock star for a few minutes can be more fun than being one”

Newsday: How iTunes saved ‘The Office’: iTunes has saved ‘The Office.’ A year ago, the show was about to suffer the fate of a hundred thousand other shows that labored under the tyranny of Nielsen: It was about to get the ax.”
The NY Post has the latest scoop on BSG spinoff, “Caprica”: The Ring Cylon: “The story, Moore says, ‘centers around two families, one of whom owns an enormous corporation, à la Microsoft, and it builds the first Cylons; then the other family is Adama’s father, who’s a lawyer at the time and starts to become an opponent of what they’re trying to do.'”
Finally, TV Squad finds Michael Cera’s (George Michael Bluth on Arrested Development) new band. No, he’s not playing cowbell in Dr. Funke’s 100% Natural Good-Time Family Band Solution, but is playing guitar in The Long Goodbye. Michael Cera Brings the Indie Rock

The Good, The Bad and The Queen is Damon Albarn’s (Blur, Gorillaz) latest project. The BBC has a live set: Electric Proms: The Good, The Bad and the Queen:

There’s plenty of talent in the line up. Britpop renaissance man Damon Albarn, has brought together two musical legends in Paul Simonon of The Clash and Tony Allen of Fela Kuti, one of the most exciting drummers in the world. The band is completed by ex-Verve guitarist Simon Tong. The band take to the stage looking like a gang of vagabonds dressed in shabby suits – Damon’s top hat completes the look.
The sound is a vaudeville music box of delights – enchanting lullabies that have a dark, mysterious edge but they still receive a warm reception from the crowd. “Three Changes” ups the tempo as the audience dance and cheer, much to the relief of Damon Albarn. The band finish on a high with “TGTBQ” and the audience leave in the knowledge that they’ve witnessed something quite magical.

Zoot gets in a saxophone dispute on the Muppet show:

Paid Content reports: Pittman’s Pilot Group, Hirschhorn Invest In Music Blog Stereogum.com: “Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group and former MTVN digital head Jason Hirschhorn have invested in Stereogum.com, the popular music-scene blog founded by Scott Lapatine.”
Bubble 2.0!
Update (10/29), the Post confirms: MTV Guru Hirschhorn Takes Stake in Stereogum: “Armed with new money from both Pittman and Hirschhorn, Stereogum, already singled out by everyone from Entertainment Weekly to The Wall Street Journal as one of the best music resources on the Web, plans to add more writers and go ‘deeper and narrower’ with its indy-rock music coverage.”

AP: Television theme songs are fading fast: “Today, show themes are doing a fast fade as the networks crunch their programming budgets.”
The theme song can put the viewer in the mood and mindset to watch the show. The Sopranos does this particularly well. The opening theme song is the voyage through the Lincoln Tunnel to Tony Soprano’s New Jersey. Danny Elfman’s theme for The Simpsons is a throwback to the classic television show themes. Even when The Simpsons debuted back in 1989, that long orchestral theme was an anachronism.
And, over the last 17 years, television shows have become shorter, in order to fit more commercial time into that same hour or half-hour. On mid-era and later Simpsons episodes, the full theme is rarely shown, to have enough time for story in the episode.
The theme song is all about setting the mood and tone. One of my favorites is Lost’s non-song theme. The simple black and white title card and disturbing shifting chord is disconcertingly eerie. Since Lost usually does a good job of setting up some odd event or feature in the cold open or previouslies, the disconcerting evil chord works.
Of the other BRR-favorite shows, Doctor Who’s theme is a classic. TAR works well at setting mood, but isn’t particularly memorable.
Battlestar Galactica’s theme music not only conveys a sense of the isolation and loneliness of the surviving colonists, but also manages to be almost the exact opposite of the vaguely-John Williams theme from the 1970’s BSG series. All distance from the Lorne Greene series is good. Unlike the traditional series that run the same credit sequence week after week, Galactica flashes forward to scenes from later in the episode. Not only that, but the credits did (until this third season) update the count from the whiteboard of extinction.
Finally, I’m simply ambivalent about the The Office theme music.

Rumor has it that LiveNation and The Bowery Presents are battling for control of two neighboring venues in Williamsburg. Both parties would consolidate the two into one large (~2,000 capacity) venue. Curbed speculates that the two venues are Galapagos and Northsix: Crazy Rumor of the Week: Williamsburg ‘Supervenue’?
Aside from the fact that Galapagos and Northsix may be the only two neighboring music venues in Williamsburg, Galapagos is looking to move into a new space as part of an ambitious expansion plan. The new location would include a 300 seat performance space with “a separate theatre enviornment and a cinema.” In addition to expanding to a larger space in Brooklyn, Galapagos hopes to partner with other venues in Berlin, Mumbai and Beijing to offer emerging artists the opportunity to perform to a global audience.
In other Williamsburg venue news, New York Magazine’s Fall Nightlife Preview pegged the new, larger-capacity Luna Lounge for a “fall” opening. The new space on Williamsburg’s Metropolitan Ave. is expected to fit in between the Mercury Lounge and Bowery Ballroom in the NYC venue hierarchy.