Hollywood Nailz Is the Greatest Show on YouTube

It's been out for a sec but, like, so far Seth Bogart's (that's Hunx of His Punx fame) rock 'n' roll variety show has under a skrillion views and that is not enough views. It's only on the first episode but it has Shannon and the Clams and Grass Widow in a battle of the bands and star turns from Nobunny and King Khan and just loads of beautiful people. I cannot wait until the next episode. There has to be a next episode. IFC needs to pick this up right now and I don't want to hear another word about Girls. There are plenty of girls in Hollywood Nailz.

(Full disclosure/gloating: I contributed to the Kickstarter for this so now I have the episode on DVD and an autographed picture of Seth Bogart and Brande Bytheway. I can't decide if I want to keep it or give it away in a Bad Idea Potluck sweepstakes.)

Skeletons in the Pool

Teenagers from Outer Space is a beautiful and moving film. Also, it is impossible to watch it and not fall in love with Betty.  You can't blame her wayward spaceman for wanting to stay on Earth.

Screaming Females Back On Top!

A couple nights ago someone asked me who my favorite band was. After narrowing the list to fairly active current bands Screaming Females came to mind, but then I realized I hadn't exactly been listening to them nonstop lately, so I skipped them.

But now they have this new video for "Laura and Marty" and I think I was wrong about them not being my favorite. Oh, man. And then there's Noun.

It's Raining Candy Rain!

Candy Rain #2 is here! Speaking on magazines for ladies, the second issue of Bad Idea Potluck's favorite print publication is out! Get your copy of the only legit porn mag for women today! No photo for this post. We only post tasteful pictures of dudes on this blog. And Candy Rain is not about that, bless its heart.

Vag Magazine Power

 

Vag Magazine is a comedic Web series about a wacky feminist pop culture magazine and my new favorite thing for at least the next 24 hours. It's been around long enough for all the usual suspects to write about it and have some opinions, but after I read a few blog posts I decided I didn't care. 

I've written for a magazine that bears a striking resemblance to this fictional publication and been a loyal reader of all the other ones and this really made me laugh. Also, Bitch approves. So, when is season two?

Tilt Ruled

Was Cinder Block the greatest punk vocalist of the '90s? Are you willing to fight me about it? Really. "Unravel" is forever.

I'm serious about Tilt having been a very underrated band. Too bad the snoot who wrote the Tilt bio over at All Music Guide sounds like he's too good to fight me.

"Libel" was also a pretty good song, come to think of it:

No One Told Me There Were Teddy Girls

So ... Teddy Girls. 

via

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Kinda makes you rethink blazers. This is all in the 40s and early 50s by the way. The Teddy boys and girls were one of those proto youth subcultures in post-war Britain. They had their look together before rock 'n' roll hit. No drinking. No rude behavior. Just dressing up.

And I just came across this modern lookbook deal that's inspired by Teddy girls. So, it's coming back? Or, rather, coming back again? I read that Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren brought the look back in the 1970s with a Day-Glo twist. It's interesting that the look would be brought back periodically and deliberately in different forms by designers because it was originally a revival of Edwardian fashions. It was the look that boutiques were pushing after the war. That's where the name comes from.

I got onto this subject doing searches for creepers. My shoe obsession has crossed a dangerous line.

See also: Karl Heinz Weinberger

Black Math Horseman

I find some of my favorite music wandering through the Internet like a babe in the woods.
Black Math Horseman is the newest of these discoveries. The bit of raw noise lacing the band's stripped down songs makes for a kind of awesome lo-fi metal. Their song "Tyrant" is more like soulful kraut rock though, if you can imagine that. Some of their fans identify them with post-rock but that term would divert attention from  the wild beauty, purity, and fundamental gnarliness of their style. Post-rock isn't inaccurate either, because of the seeming simplicity in their hypnotic music that masks its real sophistication. There's a lot of masking going on here really. The raw metalness tends to hide the bits of goth filigree that's always there on the fringes. A bit like this:

It was this interview with vocalist/bassist Sera Timms at Invisible Oranges that piqued my interest. Her vocals rule.


Their debut album Wyllt, came out last year.

Panache

When I say I'm getting really excited about Australian fashion, I'm really mostly just talking about Panache.

Two Boys for Every Girl

One Bride for 2 Brothers: A Custom Fades in India 
(from NYT)

For the record, BIP is strongly in favor of polyandry and is sorry to hear it is losing its hold in this remote part of India. No matter. It continues to gain popularity in our futuristic Utopian fantasy world.

Vivian Girls has a new drummer.

So Vivian Girls has a new drummer. The link is to a Brooklyn Vegan post and, you're never going to believe this, but the comments thread is full of hate and fat jokes. I try not to read too many comments anywhere, but when I do get sucked in over at BV, I'm always impressed by how consistent the tone is. If I'm there, it's usually because I'm reading up on a female artist. But I should probably do it anytime I start wondering if maybe we've all moved beyond the point of needing publications like Bust to cover pop culture like white on rice. We haven't.

Whatevs. Meet Fiona:

About not posting

I may have lied.

Check this out. Via Jessica Hopper's Twitter: Hey Ladies, A Complete History of Women in Music

Lower Dens

Do you ever wake up in the morning wondering what Jana Hunter has been up to lately? I really do. It's sort of the same thing as wondering where all the good indie rock went. In that either one of them could be anywhere. Ms. Hunter moves a lot and is as materially elusive as her haunted folk music is elusive in its basic nature.

Recently she has been found  in Baltimore, fronting a band called Lower Dens. They have a single even:

"Hospice Gates"


I have the crazy feeling from this of a big wind coming up. Of something good and strange on the way. Their album, Twin-Hand Movement, is due out in July.

Look forward to:

5.13 Ocean Springs, MS - Rusty Robots
5.14 New Orleans, LA - The Saint
5.15 Houston, TX - Mango's
5.16 Austin, TX - Club Deville
5.17 Lubbock, TX - Riprocks
5.18 Las Cruces, NM - Equinox
5.19 Phoenix, AZ - Rogue Bar
5.20 San Diego, CA - Tin Can Alehouse
5.21 Los Angeles, CA - Sync Space
5.22 Los Angeles, CA - The Smell
5.24 San Francisco, CA - El Rio (early)
5.25 Eureka, CA - Lil Red Lion
5.26 Portland, OR - Rotture
5.27 Ellensburg, WA - Raw Space
5.28 Olympia, WA - Northern
5.29 Seattle, WA - Sunset Tavern (early)
6.1 Denver, CO - Rhinoceropolis
6.2 Kansas City, MO - The Foundation
6.3 Bloomington, IN - The Bishop
6.5 Chicago, IL - Permanent Records (In-store @ 5pm)
6.5 Chicago, IL - The Hideout
6.6 Detroit, MI - Majestic Cafe
6.7 Toronto, ON - Double Double Land
6.8 Montreal, QC - Green Room
6.9 Burlington, VT - Monkey House
6.10 Dover, NH - Brickhouse
6.11 Boston, MA - Brookline Cable Access
6.12 Brooklyn, NY - Silent Barn
6.13 Baltimore, MD - Penthouse

All shows w/ Future Islands

Fan Art

Bobby over at 7" Atlanta sent me this because we're on the subject of Daria over here and this is kind of in the same style. It was made by Wes West. Oh, man, now I'm having a vision of an episode of Daria with Vivian Girls, like the episode with The Ramones. Can't you just see that? I wonder if the gang would get along with them. They would. Of course they would. But then where would the conflict come from? It'd just be all, "Hey guys, what's up? Great show." The Ramones were on Daria one time, right? That's what my heart says.

On an almost unrelated note, I found this while attempting to check my facts: Tommy Ramone's Favorite Jewish Punks. I seriously didn't know Serge Gainsbourg was Jewish.

Stop or I'll go Blind

 

This video makes my heart race.  I love all Beyonce's personas and I don't care to hear about your problems with her or them. Look at this video. She should clearly get to do whatever she wants all the time. Like, playing  Etta James in Cadillac Records around the same time. Did you see this movie yet? 

I know this was all awhile ago but I just put two and two together. 

 

But for comparison's sake:

 

Oh, and just one more.

Read Feminist Music Geek

I think this is only the second time I'm re-posting the riches of Feminist Music Geek here. This time it's because Ms. Vesey introduced me to the rad punk choir that is Gaggle. I had to share a few videos with you.

They remind me of how a wise man once revealed to me that black is actually only the first level of goth. (The highest two levels are white and rainbows.) They have a 7" out on a label called Transgressive. I definitely hope to hear a lot more from them in the near future. They're on Amazon too: I Hear Flies. I also enjoy that with lyrics like "I like cigarettes" etc, they don't care what you think of their nasty habits.

Also, for a thoughtful  response to M.I.A.'s nine minute long, extremely violent new music video, go and read Vesey's recent "Tuning In" post at Bitch.com.

Ladies of Las Vegas

This just in: the women's studies department at UNLV, which is awesome and routinely fosters the kind of radness that Las Vegas sorely needs, may be in danger due to budget cuts and there isn't much time left to try to save it. More info here on the Book of Faces.

Make it Beautiful!

In just a couple of weeks (May 4) The Shondes, one of the bands I got buried under, will release an album called My Dear One. They played LadyFest Las Vegas in, like, 2006 and before they even got to town, I had become a crazed fan based on their song "Your Monster". It's powerfully catchy and I was convinced it related directly to my life. They had a three song demo out then and rocked the auditorium at UNLV. Few indie bands from way out east were making it all the way to Las Vegas at the time so they scored some eternal points with me that way.

Their first full-length, The Red Sea, was a solid album, but I think I was really waiting for this one. They remind me more and more of Rainer Maria and Pretty Girls Makes Graves, but with Yiddish violin. They're quickly becoming one of my favoritest bands. It's been awhile since I picked up an album that was more than fun and exciting. This one also makes me feel stuff. Normally, I avoid art that makes me feel in the same way that I avoid mystery puddles on subway seats. But once I let I let the emo in, I always wonder why I don't do it more often. It's good for you, if you don't overindulge. Maybe four transgendered rights activists advocating justice for Palestine will bring that style back.

Get ready for some grown-up emo balladry:



My Dear One

For Reference:

Bad Idea Potluck wants to know what kind of bad you are, so we made a poll. This is the kind of bad I feel like today:

Fun fact: The image of Des'ree above is in the National Portrait Gallery in London. Is it time for another Des'ree album? I think it might be.

AND THEN HE KISSED ME!!

Just so you all know, the beginning of the movie Adventures in Babysitting is basically how I start each and every day of my life. FYI, ETC ... The Crystals, a bitching tartan poufy skirt, leaping through my eau de toilette ... everything except the douchey bro. (I am currently douchey bro-less, but feel free to fill out an application and start the line to my left, fellas)



Hey Williamsburg-ites  ... Williamsburgians? Williamsburgonians? Whatever you call yourself, check it:

Off of Metropolitan and Grand, there is a street named Betty "Moe" Trezza Way. The other night, on my way with some friends to a rooftop BBQ, we walked by this street and I was all "Lolz, What girl gets the nickname Moe???!! Bahahaha." My friend Sara suggested I look up this unfortunate lady, and as it turns out I am psyched we accidentally walked past at all.

Betty "Moe" Trezza played for the Racine Belles All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She was born and raised, then later died in Williamsburg, on the very street now named for her. Betty Spaghetti!!!! The woman, the myth, REALIZED on the streets of the east 'Burg.



I hope everyone has a good weekend. If you need something fun to do on Friday that involves musical treats and dancing until wee hours with Master Jonathan Toubin and his pal from SF Primo, please hit this party up proper: