Dear God, Why Is Ville Valo So Hot ?!?!!

Before sparkly R.Patz – there was Ville Valo – who we can call V.Valo, just for consistency’s sake.

Feast your eyes on this Finnish beauty:

(you’re welcome)

Thursday Tunes, June 5

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about My Brightest Diamond, you can stream their newest album, A Thousand Shark’s Teeth from AOL. Seriously, give it a listen, you won’t be disappointed – especially if you’re into St. Vincent, Niko Case or any of those hip songbirds.

Also available:

Radiohead – “Best of”

The Cool Kids – “Bake Sale”

This Weekend’s Best Bets, June 5

The weather’s finally started shaping up to make for some summertime merry making. Having a serious allergy to the cold weather, I often ask myself, “what the hell am I doing this far North?” But, alas, my questions are always answered in the first couple days of June.

One of the best parts of living in NYC is the ability to enjoy endless fun things over the weekends (and during the week) practically for free.

This weekend’s gameplan:

The Sex and the City Movie – word on the street is that the writing is terrible, but the clothes are phenomenal. Full (though late) review to come.

The Big Apple BBQ Block Party- its no secret that I love me some barbecue.From the website: “14 of the nation’s top pitmasters wil showcase their unique, award-winning regional barbecue styles, including new additions from Virginia, California and Connecticut.” I’m most excited about sampling:

Mr. Cecil’s California Ribs

Los Angeles, CA
Beef Ribs & Cucumber,
Tomato Salad

Wilson’s Barbeque

Fairfield, CT
Texas Style Brisket & Coleslaw

Gnarls Barkley at Irving Plaza- MySpace secret show. Starts at 9:40 – and its free!

And for good measure, here’s the kinda crazy video for Run :

Central Park Summerstage Schedule

There is nothing better than sitting on the lawn and enjoying some free tunes on a warm summer Saturday.  And, its even better when the show’s free.
Central Park Summerstage’s schedule’s up and online (though this isn’t news, I’m just getting the time to check it out).

I will probably be taking advantage of Vampire Weekend and Yael Naim (you know, the girl that sing’s the Macbook Air song).

Listen to Vampire Weekend Perform Cape Cod LIVE! on Jimmy Kimmel

Listen to Yael Naim cover Britney Spears’s Toxic

Recommended: My Brightest Diamond

Living in NYC offers me the pleasure of being introduced to things that I might not have otherwise known in other parts of the country. My Brightest Diamond (read:singer-songwriter multi-instrumentalist Shara Worden) is one of them. Mixing elements of opera, classical, maybe even a little tango and rock, she reminds me of a Si-Se* meets Porishead meets Jesca Hoop with more ‘tude. What this world really needs, is more rock opera.

You can check out My Brightest Diamond on MySpace.

April 4 – Tunes.

Ladytron – Black Cat
Yeah! New Ladytron!

Black Kids – “I’m Not Going to Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You” (video)
Kind of sick of this band, but still can’t stop listening to this song…

This Week’s All Song’s Considered
A really good one this week – playlist includes:

• DeVotchKa
  Mad and Faithful Telling / New World
• Colin Meloy
  Colin Meloy Sings Live! / Wonder
• Make a Rising
  Infinite Ellipse and Head With Open Fontanel / Sneffels Yokul
• Man Man
  Rabbit Habits / Ballad of Butter Beans
• The Raconteurs
  Consolers of the Lonely / Many Shades of Black
• Peter Fedofsky
  The Curious Flying Machine / Dumb Angel

Radiohead Goes Nude

photo courtesy of Stereogum

I, myself, have never been a huge fan of Radiohead, though the people that fill my social circles air on the side of “die-hard” rather than casual listener.  Though I’ve always appreciated the quality of their music, they’ve always been lumped into the “really good background music” side of my collection.

In either case, the one thing that I can say about them is that I’ve really come to appreciate their renegade style when it comes to fighting against the music industry – especially by giving away their latest album, In Rainbows more or less for free.  To prove how much more they don’t need a label and how amazingly awesome they are, the band announced yesterday that they’ve created a site that allows fans and users alike to upload remixes of their single Nude (you can download the single here).

Pitchfork recently featured a pretty decent remix of the song by Canadian band, Holy Fuck – click here to download it.

Visit the Nude Micro-Site to upload your remix.

Scraps

I want one

Cool and Crazy Right Down the Street….

In the midst of running errands today, I managed to find time to pop into Cool and Crazy – a record store within relatively close proximity to my apartment. The store itself seems a bit out of place, but once you walk in, you’re greeted by a musty yet pleasant atmosphere. Cool and Crazy, owned by Tim Warren – who many may know for his work in the 80’s cult-garage genre – is exactly the type of store you expect to be in Brooklyn, offering a very diverse mix of several very specific genres. Tim, a master of so many genres of American music from decades past (50’s and 60’s primarily) helped me pick out some pretty stellar R&B collections. The guy’s great, quirky and so very knowledgeable. Oh, and they have an open listening policy and really comfy couch.

Check it out: 72 Manhattan Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11206

Makes me want to listen to Nina Simone and watch Ray

So, Zune Me!

photo courtesy of stereogum

I’m not crazy about the name (read: I absolutely hate the name. Zune?? Whose idea was that?), but I’m willing to give Microsoft a shot.

Today, Microsoft unveiled the intimate details about their new MP3 player, Zune, which is expected to compete with Apple’s iPod. I’m going to try to be an educated consumer and wait it out until I can actually use one, but thus far, while the Zune offers some pretty amazing features which Apple (and other MP3 producers) have failed to produce in the past. Personally, I’m drawn to the verticle/horizontal full color screen and Wireless Technology.

Stereogum gives us a great rundown of pros and cons.

Rumor has it that Zune will be released on November 14th of this year – just in time for the holiday rush. Oh, Microsoft, you’re so predictable.