Pauly D.
I had an epically lazy Saturday. I mean, lazy to the point that I’m now all caught up on Jersey Shore Season 2. I’m more and more convinced that Jersey Shore is a work of staggering genius and that Pauly D, strangely, is the its most compelling character.
‘Crave You’ by Flight Facilities. Directed by Moop Jaw.
Most Saturday mornings for me start by catching up with Tumblr and Kottke. I’ll often find links that I’ll email my Mum or my brother. On one such trip to my inbox, I saw a friend’s chat status linking to the new Flight Facilities song ‘Crave You’. I saw it was produced by Moop Jaw, who I’d heard about last year.
Anyway, I get the biggest kick hearing about killer Australian companies doing good things, especially creatively. Moop Jaw seems to be on to something.
I also followed a tip from a friend to Wooooomag. I bought a copy. It looks like it’s run by an Australian guy too so mark +2 for the Aussies.
‘Rabbit Song’ by Boy & Bear.
Actually, make that +3. I met Boy & Bear’s manager recently. He’s based in New York now. I hadn’t properly caught up with them since they were getting chased by all the Australian labels late last year.
What a great band.
‘Flume (Cover)’ by Boy & Bear.
‘Time To Wander’ by Gypsy & The Cat.
One of the other bands to be caught in last year’s A&R frenzy was Gypsy & The Cat, who seemed to emerge out of nowhere to create this stadium-worthy sound from their bedrooms .
They are getting better. I wonder if they’ll write a ‘Sweet Disposition‘ to tip them over the edge…
‘Starry Eyed’ by Ellie Goulding.
Boy & Bear, Gypsy & The Cat and Ellie Goulding were all recommended to me by the same person in the middle of last year.
So Ellie’s on Neon Gold Beat Co. who are an abso-fkn-mazing label. I felt so inspired by their work that I looked them up on Facebook and messaged them to say I loved what they were doing.
Ellie was one of Neon Gold’s early finds (alongside Passion Pit) and she’s become a huge star in the UK. On a recent tour she did ‘Ellie Runs‘ where she would do early morning runs with her fans.
It was sponsored by Nike and seems like a fairly un-rock star thing to do. As a runner, I’m pretty intrigued by this sort of thing. I can’t decide if it’s the raddest or weirdest music promotion I’ve ever seen.
As part of ‘Ellie Runs’ she designed her own pair of Nikes on Nike ID which is one of those things Nike does that just makes you love them.
Ellie is produced by Starsmith, who is also a-f-m. Check out his Tumblr here where you can find stuff like this excellent Robyn remix.
Robyn – Hang With Me (Starsmith Remix) by Starsmith
Seems like he’s a huge fan of Svpply too which was founded by the supremely talented Ben Pieratt (sadly, not an Australian).
Anyway – there’s this Wikipedia bit on Starsmith that says he was inspired by Frankmusik’s track ‘In Step’. And like Starsmith and Ellie Goulding, Frankmusik is a just-turned-twenty-but-I’m-killing-it-already UK artist. I’m intrigued to know how they all connected in the first place. It’s an inspiring talent cluster.
I spent a lot of time reading ‘The Bridge’ about Obama.
I loved this bit describing the process of weighing up whether or not to run.
The voices for caution in Obama’s camp argued that the majority of the electorate would want him to pay his dues in the Senate and slowly accumulate more political credibility and experience. But that argument was fast losing its appeal… When would a chance even half as propitious come again? Obama might end up regretting his own reluctance or hesitation for the rest of his life.
Timing is everything.
I’ll be getting Steven B. Johnson’s new book Where Good Ideas Come From. I like the way it talks about the web as a way to find and connect with other people’s hunches. That’s basically what I felt like I was doing all day.
I’m also reading Bill Simmons‘ ‘Book of Basketball‘ which, if you like basketball, you can’t not read. It’s incredible.
I’m reading it on my Kindle. I didn’t like reading on the iPad, so I figured I’d give the Kindle a try. Actually, Bijan‘s tweet linked me to Marco’s review and after reading that I bought one.
It’s actually really good. The keyboard and UI are terrible, but the flat screen means you can fall asleep reading it and not feel like you’re staring at a computer monitor.
I also spent a bunch of time:
- buying books for my Kindle;
- exploring this site; and
- reading about the best comedians right now – and discovered Hannibal Buress, 30 Rock writer and standup in the process. Hilarious.
I rediscovered Last Night’s Party which I find really compelling. There’s one video on there sponsored by Kanon Vodka where Bronques shoots a party in the Hamptons hosted by Saturdays NYC.
I love Saturdays, it does good coffee and has a great space out the back but I’m interested to see how long it will stay real. I saw the founder on a Blackberry Ad last week. I’m not sure Kurt Cobain would approve.
Speaking of music, two theories I came up with yesterday.
- 1999 was the worst year ever for music.
- Shook Ones Pt. II is the perfect rap song.
This is Fred Durst now.
Think back to ’99 – Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, Korn. What a terrible time. No wonder The Strokes were such a revelation in 2001.
I think ‘Shook Ones’ helps explain why ‘Illmatic’ is my favourite hip-hop record ever.
So all in all, it was a fun day.
I went out for a drink with some friends at 11pm and then at about 2am, followed them to a birthday party in Alphabet City. I got chatting to the guy whose birthday it was. He turned out to be working in A&R here in New York. I was telling him about how much I loved Neon Gold and he said – Yeah, I love those guys too. They just left as you came in.
The internet’s a fun place and New York city sometimes makes it even better.
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