AVANT/CHICAGO

Califone Film at Sundance, Tour w/ Wilco

'All My Friends Are Funeral Singers', the film that accompanies Califone's new album of the same name, will be making its theatrical premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah this January. The film was written and directed by Califone frontman Tim Rutili.. The band will also be performing a live soundtrack alongside the film at the opening screening at Sundance. Even with all of the excitement surrounding the film, the band are spending the bulk of their February on tour, supporting Wilco.

Finals Week At Purdue - 1st Round of PhD Papers

Sorry to keep you all waiting on some new posts, but we are just swamped with school work to end the semester. So in the mean time, the Twitter feed (also to the left) will have to do. Thanks for you patience. See in no more then a couple days. The picture is a great shot of yours truly from this weekends killer Chicago Bluegrass Blues Fest with founder and music man Mike Raspatello. Good stuff from Rose Mountain Photos.

Let's Get Busy Baby

Once again we're going to have to cut our posts a little shy this week. Crazy amounts of work to do over the last week of finals.  It been a busy, but really good first semester of the PhD program.  As always we'll keep a poppin' over on the Twitter. Also look forward to our Top 10 Albums of the Year list very soon. In the mean time check out last years # 5 Hercules And Love Affair , self titled album for free.

Humpday Mixtape - Lupe's Joint

Lupe’s latest mixtape begins with him rapping over Radiohead's “The National Anthem” and Enemy of the State backs up the indie love with some serious hip-hop short jams with beats by Jay-Z, Travis Porter and Clipse.

The Hottest Decade on Record

It's very sad we live in a time of enviromental crisis but our nation is once again divided on a plain and simple issue because of a few loud mouths politicians and science-fearing fundamentalists have clouded the issue. Not that anyone with half a brain needs more proof but "The 00s" were the Hottest Decade on Record. Can't wait to hear the conservative spin on this one.

Far-Out And Trippy Bro

Dustin Amery Hostetler, AKA UPSO. His psychedelic, bold, graphic style has been featured on Burton snowboards, Chuck Taylor sneakers, Kid Robot Munnys, and in a slew of magazines. Dustin just created  UPSO's animation for FUEL TV. Signature Series of station IDs. The music is by GoLab.

Latest Gift From Adult Swim

In the tradition of showcasing left-of-center musicians and producers. ATL RMX features acts like El-P and HEALTH putting new twists on tracks like Young Jeezy's "I Got You" and OJ Da Juiceman's "Good Night." The songs were all remixed using Timbaland's new game Beaterator. Check into Prefuse 73, El-P, Flying Lotus Remix Atlanta MCs.

Chicago Blues & Bluegrass VIP Ticket Giveaway

A full day of amazing music - Dr. Dog, Bela Fleck, VanGhost, Emitt-Nershi Band and 23 others - plus free breakfast, VIP bar area, balcony seating, seperate bathrooms, skybox access with unrestriced exit/entry to the whole Fest. There are plenty of other goodies at this whole day event, so don't miss out. First three people to DM us at our Twitter account will get a pair of tix. To buy tickets go here.

We've Been What For This

Vodka Soon Available in Pill Form A researcher at a Russian university has developed a powdered form of alcohol that will soon make the consumption of vodka more convenient. But why can't they come up with a certain hangover cure?

Another Burrito On The Map

This one comes from Two Amigos. A solid morsel enjoyed after the Benson/Chisel show. Read the full review on our Burrito Map.

That's going to be the final post here until next Tues. We have a load of stuff to work on for the old PhD program as finals are not far off. Keep up with us over on the Twitter in the mean time.

A New Hobby?

One of the guys from Lotus showed us this after the show last weekend. It's a pamphlet kind of thing called The Jaded Reviews Guide to Hippie Watching in North America. It's got so many interesting and humurous descriptions. Plenty of laughs and sighs.

Back To The Big Easy

Saw the video for the Juvenile song Ha! for the first time in years. Dirty South Hip-Hop was blowing up back in the days when we crashed in NOLA for a year. It was not uncommon to see Master P SUV's rolling around or to see Cash Money entourages walking amongst the Sunday Second Line. It was an amazing time for music in a city famous for it. Being Indiana boys we'd often go to where the mostly likely top competition spot was for Hoops. The closest was Taylor Park just off the Magnolia Projects. The Ha! vid was shot mainly in the Magnolia and made us think back to our days down South. Haven't been there since Katrina, sure it's different. Always thinking about the city's positive recovery.  Anyway, that's our trip down memory lane for the week.

Recap Of Important Cultural Book

 

One of the great theorists, Theodor Adorno, On Popular Music.

 

Through the examination of popular music Adorno provides a framework for understanding entertainment forms within mass culture. He begins with the basic concept of standardization. "The whole structure of popular music is standardized, even where the attempt is made to circumvent standardization."  Popular music is manipulated by its promoters but also by its innate structure. While songs themselves can be considered art, the production and distribution, is formulaic for economic profit. Adorno famously points to imitation to reinforce the standardization process. Pseudo-individualism is another concept explained as the illusion of consumer power in culture. Adorno further explains the concepts of popular music as distraction from reality as well as a substitution for psychological meanings. In the end, popular music only allows the individual a temporary release from social dependencies.

 

Yeasayer Latest

Indie collective, Yeasayer, have release a video for Ambling Alp, the first single from Odd Blood, the band's highly anticipated 2nd LP, due February 9th. Listen/View here. We're really looking forward to this new album. The vid is good, but the song...well maybe it needs to grow on us.

Winter Ready To Do Its Thing

Winter sits on the lake like a content old man. Even as the sun sets, he holds steady. Nothing too fast, nothing too drastic.  Uniform and sure.  The lights may be going down, but nothing breaks, nothing cracks. Here comes another night, here comes another day.

Photo/Poem from the A/C archives 

New Noise Now

With description like post-goth, cult lullabies and mystic prog, a band can't be too bad. Mirror Mirror is an interesting sounding outfit with enough freak, hallucination and atmosphere for three bands. Give 'em a listen on Myspace.

Warhol Inc.  - Stronger Than Ever

Interest in Warhol continues to grow with ever younger and broader audiences. “Andy would love this” is a refrain commonly heard when people talk about society’s obsession with celebrities or its fixation on catastrophe. Interesting article on the subject.

Living In A Golden Musical Age

If you've followed this Blog for anytime you know were always waxing poetic about how we're living in a Golden Age of Music. Further proof came our way late last week. Ronald Jenkees is the biggest musician on YouTube and embarrassingly - like most people - we'd never heard of him. Embarrassing only because we run a site based on in part on music and this cat is there. Even more embarrassing when a friend of ours told us he was in fact good friends with the guy himself. Jenkees is a killer example of what modern technology can do for musicians, as it seems the dude has never left his living room and is on his way to become a force in sound. 

From the A/C archives

Creativity, Fulfillment and Flow: The Way of Life

Social theorist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi asks, "What makes a life worth living?" Noting that money cannot make us happy, he looks to those who find pleasure and lasting satisfaction in activities that bring about a state of "flow." Watch the video now on TED.

A Writing Revolution - Another Article on Our Amazing Time

Read: A Writing Revolution

Public discussion creates a social conscience. And discussion is booming. Nearly universal authorship, like universal literacy before it, stands to reshape society by hastening the flow of information and making individuals more influential.

Wines That Rock - Inspired by Music

A trio of wines inspired by rock bands is hitting the shelves soon. Each bottle features album art on the front, and "liner notes" about each wine on the back.

Two Shows - Pre/Post Thanksgiving

There are two bands we write about often - VanGhost and Lotus. Besides the fact that they're damn good people, they make fine, fine music. So we're pretty excited that they are both playing in the city within the course of a couple days. Van Ghost has an opening slot for Nershi-Law at Sub't on Wed. Lotus comes into town on Friday, playing the Vic with Hood Internet.  Break out the energy pills, it's going to get wild.

Another Animal Collective?

Besides making memorable music, Animal Collective has spawned a bustling group of bands following in their shadow. From MGMT to Yeasayer, there's a growing batch to choose from. Add the multi-instrumental Suckers to the mix. Check out some music on their Myspace.

"These lads melt together a peachy knack for warm and fuzzy, squiggly psych-pop, complete with whistling and Morricone-like druthers."
-URB

Digital World Through Art

In working through the creative potential of new technologies artists of all types are helping us to find new ways to think about these tools and working out how to integrate them into our wider cultural and commercial practice. Read - Giving Digital Life a Shape.

Annotated Bibliography Entry for Convergence Culture

We had to construct an Annotated Bibliography to lay out some structure for the direction of our studies in the PhD program.  We're going to post a few of the enteries here for your information.

Showing how consumers are using new and emerging technologies to produce and control media, Convergence Culture points to future trends in popular culture. It proposes that new and old media will converge to make a unique brand of news and entertainment. This is an important book due to exploring the popular culture implications of new media and technologies as well as addressing how consumers are now an integral part of the media and entertainment making apparatus as active participants. Jenkins uses concrete and entertaining examples from the recent entertainment landscape to show that these changes have as much to do with new technologies as with a shift in cultural dynamics. Jenkins work is cross-disciplinary in scope and speaks to many developing narratives in current society.

Benson & Chisel At Lincoln Hall

Save a few Lotus concerts our normally prolific live music regiment has really taken a nose-dive since starting the PhD program. So we're excited to get out and cover a show at the new Lincoln Hall.  Both Benson and Chisel are two performers we've wanted to see solo for awhile. The only negative we see about this night is that it's an XRT show, which usually brings out the Yipsters and Burb Boys in high numbers.  Hopefully we can find a nice, chill spot away from the PBR guzzlers.

Academe and the Decline of News Media

Newspapers, newsmagazines, and broadcast-news outlets are drastically cutting staff members, bureaus, page counts, and news holes—that is, when they're not simply going out of business. What do 16 of the top educators think is going to  happen next?

Watch What You Eat

The Peril of Palatability Dangerously delicious food, designed by Big Food and by restaurants to taste so good, threatens public health. Congress needs to do something

DC In Pictures - A Few Tourist Shots From Last Week

We found a little time to be touristy while in DC for the ASA Conference. We did not bring along the Rebel, so all of these shots are on a 3.0 megapixel 7 year old camera. For the most part they are just as good, except the night shots. Anyway take a quick run around the main attractions of DC.

Best Device For The Future Yet

We called this being what's next about a year ago. It's a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Imagine Minority Report and then some. See the demo SixthSense (Video)