Having seen this on VH1 years ago, I’ve been looking for this video on the internets ever since I’ve been able to watch video online.
Here’s the completely bad-ass 7 minute performance of “I Want to Take You Higher”

And the high-larious interview with Sly Stone:

After remembering the problems from playing in similarly cold weather during high school marching band, I wondered how the quartet featuring Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Anthony McGill and Gabriela Montero managed to play with such precise intonation during the cold weather at the inauguration. Simple– the broadcast and webcast audio was recorded in advance in a temperate recording studio.
The New York Times reports, At the Inauguration – The Famous Fingers Were Live, but Their Sound Was Recorded: “The players and the inauguration organizing committee said the arrangement was necessary because of the extreme cold and wind during Tuesday’s ceremony. The conditions raised the possibility of broken piano strings, cracked instruments and wacky intonation minutes before the president’s swearing in (which had problems of its own).”
And for other clarinet nerds, that snazzy clarinet McGill played is a LeBlanc by Backun Legacy. The Times profiled McGill, who is a principal clarinetist for the Met opera earlier in the week, Another Eloquent Chicagoan at Center Stage.

At The A.V. Club, Chuck Klosterman reviews Chinese Democracy

Reviewing Chinese Democracy is not like reviewing music. It’s more like reviewing a unicorn. Should I primarily be blown away that it exists at all? Am I supposed to compare it to conventional horses? To a rhinoceros? Does its pre-existing mythology impact its actual value, or must it be examined inside a cultural vacuum, as if this creature is no more (or less) special than the remainder of the animal kingdom? …
It’s as if Axl is desperately trying to get some unmakeable dream song from inside his skull onto the CD, and the result is an overstuffed maelstrom that makes all the punk dolts scoff. His ambition is noble, yet wildly unrealistic. It’s like if Jeff Lynne tried to make Out Of The Blue sound more like Fun House, except with jazz drumming and a girl singer from Motown.

Continuing from yesterday, here is another annoying trend of television news reporting: attempting to sound smarter by needlessly using excessively long words.
In this clip that’s been going around the web today, Fox News correspondent Carl Cameron twice uses the word “knowledgeability” where the shorter and more direct “knowledge” would have sufficed.

Or is knowledge:knowledgeability :: truth:truthiness

These United States released a new album earlier this fall, titled Crimes full of rollicking songs for people with beards, by people with beards. And for everyone else, too. The music of These United States is a throwback to earlier, simpler times while still feeling relevant and fresh.
Here’s the video for Get Yourself Home:

These United States on iLike – Get updates inside iTunes

While it’s not the first, it is a good example of what a talented editor can do with the wonderful resource of public domain film material available at the Internet Archive.

Built from 40+ public domain films, the video for “Get Yourself Home” by These United States uses the free and long forgotten footage of the Prelinger Archives. With each clip, a resurrected moment of early film history offers itself up to be woven into the fabric of a whole new American narrative. From the main character, who comes from a 1930’s propaganda film about the importance of workers’ unions, to the passing scenes of carnivals, cabarets and the great wild West, all come together to evoke the contrasting emotions, environments, sins, schemes, devils and delusions that bind us on These United States’ newest release “Crimes.”

MP3: West Won
MP3: Get Yourself Home (In Search of the Mistress Whose Kisses Are Famous)
These United States come to NYC on Nov 19 at the Knitting Factory Tap Bar.

The new phone books are here! The new phone books are here!
El Jezel was so thrilled to get their ticket into CMJ that they recorded it on film:

El Jezel plays The Delancey early on Saturday evening as part of a long night of NYC bands for the Stereoactive NYC showcase and 5th Anniversary part.

“It’s a comedy about a group of squabbling survivors in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. Tonally, it’s a cross between The Stand and The Office.” Stars include Justine Bateman, Ze Frank and Ernie Hudson. Seriously.

The Remnants (preview) from John August on Vimeo.

The Show with Ze Frank, Sept. 11, 2006:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Sept. 20, 2001:

This video has been making its way arund the web and is pretty awesome. Fear Zombie Stalin!

GORBACHOV: THE MUSIC VIDEO – BIGGER AND RUSSIANER from Tom Stern on Vimeo.

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.