The Spike Jonze Where the Wild Things Are adaptation has had a troubled and well documented production, but it finally has a trailer, which means it is for real coming out! The fact that it looks awesome is great news as well. View the trailer (and download it for your iPod to show random strangers on the street) here. Also, I want to share with you King Khan and the Shrines. King Khan is a real wild thing (see what I did there?) who plays a Velvet Underground and James Brown influenced garage-soul that is totally rad and infectious. There last album came out in Germany a few years ago and it's finally getting an American release pretty soon. I saw these guys live a little bit ago and they were absolutely phenomenal. Here's some songs: I Wanna Be a Girl- this is my very favorite song on the album. It's kind of an anthem for guys who really really admire women. Welfare Bread- Another great song. Khan wants you to chill out and relax. The government's going to take care of everything. 69 Faces of Love- This is a love song. This is a love song? It sure is pretty, and a little swoony even. Khan even works in some real '60s-styled psychedelia for good measure.
Dead Mellotron is this kid from Louisiana who makes pretty great pseudo-psychadelic ambient pop music. Waves of distortion and reverb and pretty melodies buried under this mountain of sound. He reminds me a little of Atlas Sound covering Jesus and Mary Chain (this is lazy critisism). You can download his ep which includes a cover of my beloved Beach House's "Salt Water" at his MySpace. It's worth it.
I've been thinking a lot about Meredith Vieira again, folks. I think it started when she was on the last part of 30 Rock last week when it hit me; I just don't hate her the same way I used to. It's not that she's changed, I just think we've both done some growing up and we're growing apart. It's not like I still won't be overtaken by a rage every time I see her, but things aren't the same between us anymore. I just feel like I need to move on to someone new, someone who fits my life, who reflects where I am now as a person. So I am hereby moving my irrational anger onto another pop culture figure...DJ Khaled (real name. Khaled Khaled), the man most well known for taking those annoying DJ shoutouts from free mixtapes and putting them all over his albums that feature more than his fair share of moderately popular hip-hop figure. I guess I could live with that if he produced all the songs on his album, I mean that's what DJs do right? Instead, he just puts on a couple of his own decent beats and then shoves a bunch of generic numbers from other producers and before letting his famous friends rap all over them. He doesn't do anything but shout, right? Which is really annoying, right? He keeps saying he's the best, but he's pretty much the worst. Here's some videos so I don't end up yelling on a steet corner:
Notice how Khaled does pretty much nothing on these songs but shout at the beginning. I checked Wikipedia, and he produces neither of these songs. So why are they his songs? Why is he mugging all over the videos? Why does he include himself in "We the Best?" Shouldn't he be saying, "they the best?" Because he isn't doing anything to be included in bestness. Yet his ego is huge. Therefore I hate him. I'm sorry Meredith, I hope things work out for you in the end. No I don't. I didn't know how much I'd miss her till she was gone... Oh well, life goes on.
