5 Favorite Swan Songs

I picked up the latest Bright Eyes record today, and it got me thinking about swan song albums. Connor Oberst, the founder of the band, has said that this will be his last album under the Bright Eyes moniker, and while fans are often disappointed when an artist decides to hang it up, I've always had a certain amount of respect for musicians that knew when to hang it up before the music got stale or repetitive. Here are five of my favorite last hurrahs:

1. Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come

This album is legendary among indie snobs and Hot Topic regulars alike. That's no easy feat. The title of the 1998 record would seem arrogant if it hadn't turned out to be true.

2. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

In an uncomfortable interview before his last television performance with LCD, 41 year-old frontman James Murphy told Stephen Colbert that at certain point "it just gets embarrassing." As great as this album is, I suppose seeing Murphy sing "Drunk Girls" during his golden years would be a bit of a buzz kill.

3. The Blood Brothers - Young Machetes

These guys were all over the place stylistically, so it's hard to imagine that they could run out of ideas. The split was probably for the best, though. With all the impossibly high-pitched shrieking in their tunes, I'm guessing their throats were pretty sore.

4. The White Stripes - Icky Thump

Jack and Meg White may have called it quits this past February, but their music lives on, like in that commercial for the show with those two guys who collect garbage.

5. As Cities Burn - Hell or High Water

This album was definitely a departure from the band's metalcore roots. Instead As Cities Burn opted for a more melodic rock sound that even hints at new wave at certain points. It would have been interesting to see what direction the band would have taken on the next record.

-Riley Ubben

Bonnaroo at its Best

This time of the year beats Christmas and Thanksgiving. Last week, 2011's Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival line up was announced. Like every year since 2009, the event will take place in Manchester, TN June 9-12. Headliners include Grammy winner Arcade Fire, along with the Black Keys and Eminem. Other large names such as Best Coast, DeVotcka, Florence and the Machines, and Ratatat will also perform.

How is it that all of my favorite musicians are going to be in the same city at the same time? I am having trouble falling asleep at night, devising a secret plan on how I can sneak into the show. This line up may just top last year's, which included groups such as She & Him and The Dead Weather. An estimated number of 75,000 people turned up in 2010-about the size of Chicago's annual Lollapalooza.

If I can't sneak in someone's guitar case, I will pretend I'm at Bonnaroo by sharing a video of five piece indie pop group Freelance Whales. Known for their obscure instrumentation (banjos, glockenspiels, and mandolins to name a few,) the band surprises audiences by performing in subways and on New York City's streets.

What you always wanted to do in art class

I remember my high school art teacher telling my class that "the process can be just as beautiful as the work itself." This sounded ridiculously campy to me at the time, I mean, a painting of a bowl of fruit is great, but who cares how it got there? Recently I started doing some research on the work of Lil Picard and performance art, and I started to see what all of my teacher's cheesy lines were about. Today I came across a video of a group of people simply pouring cups of different colored paint on top of a white block. The result itself is great, but watching the time-lapse footage of it all happening is incredible. But why describe it to you when there's YouTube? Here's the video:

-Riley Ubben

Keep Portland Weird

The other day I overheard a conversation amongst vegans:

“You HAVE to try this ice-cream. It's soy free!”

“Really? Where did you get that? I bought the most incredible vegan mustard last week, no oils added.”

Now don’t get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for vegans. I cannot imagine a diet lacking in obscure cheeses or scrambled eggs. I appreciate Iowa City for its organic-conscious atmosphere, and vegan restaurants such as The Red Avocado and Fair Grounds Coffeehouse. But when does eco-friendly behavior become borderline crazy? In the television series Portlandia, the vegans, dumpster divers, and feminist librarians of the unique city are shown in a humorous light.

In one particular skit, a hip adult couple is shown ordering food at a restaurant. They ask their server about the chicken on the menu. What did the chicken eat? What about the farm? Is it local? How big is the area where the chickens are allowed to roam free?

To calm the couple’s nerves the waitress fetches a portfolio of the chicken, complete with a heavy stack of papers and a photo of the deceased bird. Luckily the chicken, which goes by the name of Collin, had 4 acres to roam. He ate a diet of soy, whey and hazelnuts, and lived on a farm approximately 30 minutes away. Before ordering a meal, the couple decides to double check on Collin’s environment by visiting the farm.

As I watch the show pigging out on high calorie, soy induced ice cream, it seems as if Portland and Iowa City may not be so different after all. In fact, the more I watch the more I get angry at Whole Foods for being corporate, and realize that dumpster diving may not be a shabby gig. The show portrays Portland as strange, yet so inexplicably wonderful.

- Laura

Arctic Sprint

Yesterday, reportedly 15 minutes of exposure to the four degree weather outside could cause frostbite. Today is not much better with a mere seven degrees and an 11 mph wind chill making it feel like negative nine degrees.
This type of weather leads many UI students to take the most inconvenient route to their classes- walking through every building in sight just to stay warm. And for those too frigid to move, the cold compels groups of student-shaped icicles to wait for lengthy periods of time simply to ride a heated Cambus.
Yes, the UI campus has resembled an arctic town for the past few weeks, with North Face- coated and UGG-booted Eskimos hiding their faces behind their furry hoods on every street corner.
I am disappointed by the groundhog this year- when he didn’t see his shadow he gave me hope for the early arrival of spring but it currently looks like this bitter winter has no end in sight.
On the positive side, the enduring chilly weather has given me the opportunity to practice sprinting as I rush from heated building to heated building to get to my classes. At this rate, I’ll be ready to join the track team by the time spring arrives.

5 Tips for the aspiring movie snob

Everyone’s got those select few friends who are very enthusiastic about their movie-watching. You know the type. They take great pride in the fact that they spend their free time watching way more movies than you, and they never want you to forget it. I know you’re probably thinking, “How can I be just like them?” Give these five tips a try, and soon you’ll be snobbing it up with the best of them.

1. Laugh independently

Take great care not to laugh too hard at the scenes that all your friends laugh at. This could suggest that they are just as capable of spotting a good laugh as you are. Instead, try laughing extra hard at parts that may only elicit a small chuckle out of your fellow viewers. This will assert the subtle nuances of your perceptive sense of humor and assure those around you that you are indeed the superior movie aficionado.

2. Name drop, name drop, name drop

If possible, do some research before said movie experience and find the name of a quasi-famous supporting actor in the film with a minor enough role that none of your friends will pay attention to him. That is, until you convince them that they need to be paying attention to him. Proceed to call said actor “the man” at every available opportunity, being as broad as possible so that you don’t end up actually having to explain what places this particular actor above the rest. Make sure to enlighten your uninformed friends about how underrated said actor is and make more vague statements about how he or she “steals the show” from some of the actors with lead roles.

3. Know your audience

When suggesting movies to others, do not under any circumstance recommend a movie if there’s a good chance that they’ve heard of it. This works best if you’re familiar with the person you’re talking to. If this person enjoys action movies, for example, present them with a low-budget tragedy. Make sure to say things like, “I loved it, but it’s probably not for you.” This will show off the breadth of your tastes.

4. Utilize social media

Rotten Tomatoes for Facebook is a great tool for movie snobs. After every movie you watch, pass your judgement on it for all the online community to see. The five-star rating system allows you to be just vague enough that if another movie buff calls you out on one of your ratings, you can simply complain that a ten point system would reflect your opinion much more accurately.

5. Stay up to date

The biggest mistake a music snob can make is falling behind. Just imagine the embarrassment you would feel if one of your less cinematically inclined friends happened to mention an upcoming film that you weren’t aware of. To ensure this never happens, religiously scan upcoming movie lists and watch all the movie trailers you can. With a little hard work, you can enjoy movies better than all your friends.

-Riley Ubben

The Next Big Thing... Viral Videos

Everyone loves discovering the next big thing. Whether it's being that dude who listened to Kid Cudi 6 months before anyone had ever heard Day 'N Nite for the first time ("Dude, this is so old."), or the guy who gathered everyone around his laptop to share with everyone their first Cup Chicks experience, (That was definitely me) everyone loves being first. That's why I'm starting The Next Big Thing. For it's debut, I'm doing viral videos. I will choose videos that have under 1,000 views, and predict their future glory of the million view mark. Enjoy.

1. "Microwave Explosion"

Title says it all, and it's awesome. Try this at home.

MICROWAVE EXPLOSION!!!

2. "The Greatest Sarah Palin Impression... Period."

Move aside Tina Fey, you've met your match.

THE GREATEST SARAH PALIN IMPRESSION EVER!!!

3. "Don't You Wish Your Neighbor Was Hot Like Me"

Don't mess with this guy's fence. (Check out the Captain pose at the end)

CRAZY NEIGHBOR

4. "Yes Officer, That's My Kid..."

This is why Ritalin is necessary.

HYPER KID

5. "Lewis & Clark"

Two of the greatest and noble men of our time.

TWO WISE MEN


Peace,

Evan

Let's Start Over

The Heligoats box 2 from Snap FM on Vimeo.

We all know how it works, we get a new band to listen to for a week or so and then get tired of them. They become recycled to the bottom of your "most played" list on your iTunes, only to be brought out again at random points of desperation for something new. Occasionally, though we find something special- a band that can keep you riding a high for weeks. I guess you could call it love.

And there's nothing like falling in love with a new band, right? Well, it's happened to me once again, and it was exactly the lift I needed. Something fresh, something that spoke to me in a way that I'd never heard, from a band I'd never heard of. They're called The Heligoats, which is mainly a product of Chris Otepka work. Reading the clever lyrics and listening to his slanted rhymes in songs like "Dark," "The Great Outdoors," and "Fish Sticks" (featured above) left me feeling like I couldn't get enough. I wanted more. The voice and the approach are just so well versed with each other that I had to tell someone about what I'd found. The video above shows how simple, yet beautiful his music is. I love that. I don't know if in a week's time whether the Heligoats will still have my full attention, but at the moment they are THE BEST EVER (caps for emphasis, not fury). We'll see how long that lasts, though, and then I suppose I'll know if this love was "true."

-Eric Hawkinson

Glitter Gone Wild

Over winter break I spent many days lazily hanging out with my friends and relaxing. One of the many things I did over break that I don't have time to when school is in session is watch YouTube music videos.
My friends and I spent hours browsing the video site for the funniest, weirdest and most pointless videos. My friends especially enjoyed repeatedly watching Ke$ha, Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus's new clips.
I was appalled by Ke$ha's ridiculous attire in "We R Who We R", which include her black blush, trashy ripped American flag t-shirt, not to mention her gold studded eyebrows.
If that wasn’t enough, Cyrus’s “Can’t Be Tamed” video was a disturbing cry for the Disney pop-star to break free from her pre-teen audience and get a different kind of attention. Cyrus tries too hard to be edgy in this video with her bird transformation and intimate dances. This clip seems like Cyrus's poor attempt at mounting to the intensity of Lady Gaga's famed videos.
Katy Perry is the pop princess making the right moves in her new videos, particularly in the free-spirited “Teenage Dream” and the inspiring “Firework.” The “Firework” video touches on issues of, love, death, and self-esteem beautifully with vivid images and strong message of acceptance.

In a few months Spring break will come and I will take my usual seat in front of my laptop, ready to watch the newest YouTube music videos. I can only hope that they will contain much less glitter.

The Best Twwweeets of 2010

If we learned anything in 2010, besides the side effects of oil, adding mosque to my vocabulary, and how much Arizona loves diversity, it'd have to be that Twitter is here to stay. At first I was amazed by its simplicity. By basically stealing the status update from Facebook, Twitter busted on the scene and made anyone who can type suddenly important. Now here we are at the end of 2010, and it can finally be concluded that Everyone has Twitter. That is, everyone that matters.

And just to clarify that when I say everyone that matters, I mean famous people. Everyone loves famous people, except there's that slight curiosity we repress that tears us apart to know what exactly famous people think throughout the course of their everyday famous lives. Do they wake up everyday and put their pants on one leg at a time? (Or one meat limb at a time, Gaga?) Do they make the same decisions we do? (Hmm... Red or Yellow Ferrari today?) While thanks to Twitter, all our unfulfilled answers of celebrity's most inner thoughts are available to us at our own disposal. So without further ado, I'd like to list the top 5 most inner thoughts from my favorite famous people whom I follow intensely everyday waking minute of my life. Enjoy.

5. 50 Cent (Still keepin' it gangsta via 140 characters or less)

@50CENT: Perez hilton calld me douchebag so I had my homie shoot up a gay wedding. wasnt his but still made me feel better.

I only wish I could be a fly on the wall for 50's therapy sessions.

4. Kevin Jonas (The bad boy of the bros)

@kevinjonas: Bieber fans are talking shit about me? I’m sorry, I can’t hear them. I’m not seated near the kids table…

AWWWW SHIIIAAAAT YOOO! Was dat a Thanksgiving themed insult K-Jo?

3. Kanye West

@kanyewest: i hate when im on a flight & I wake up with a water bottle next 2 me like oh great now i gotta be responsible for this water bottle

Sounds like Yeezy's having a Larry David moment.

2. John McCain

@johnmccain:

@Sn00ki u r right, I would never tax your tanning bed! Pres Obama's tax/spend policy is quite The Situation. but I do rec wearing sunscreen!

He's Hip! He's Fresh! He's familiar with Jersey Shore! McCain 2012!

1. Al Qaeda

@alqaeda: just noticed twitter keeps keeps prompting me to "Add a location to your tweets." not falling for that one.

Damn, there goes all that money spent on intelligence.


by: EvAn ClArK