Another indie rock on ice moment for you, courtesy of Quebecois pairs team Utako Wakamatsu & Jean-Sebastien Fecteau. If only they replicated the fluid nature of OK GO’s treadmill dance, maybe I wouldn’t snooze through this.

Thanks to Kristin for passing this along!

Italian figure skater Valentina Marchei puts together a pretty enjoyable exhibition performance using the Pipettes’ “Pull Shapes”; I can’t help but marvel at the parallels between the two — what _do_ they do when the music stops?

Strange occurence lately — my worst bouts of insomnia [compared to the ongoing brand] happen when it’s snowing. Even my melatonin tabs are powerless! Whatever, I live for this weather. Anyway, I could use a break from writing personal statements and explaining why I’m The Greatest T.A. Candidate In The World:

» Believe the hype about Amy Winehouse. iTunes had “You Know I’m No Good” as their Download Of the Week. Sucks that y’all missed it. _Back To Black_ comes out on Dusty Groove this Winter/Early Spring. There are a couple of clunkers on here, primarily the nu-soul noodlers, but when she whips out an abbreviated re-adaptation of Billy Paul’s “Me & Mrs. Jones” from the perspective of the mistress, everything is redeemed. This record has re-upped my Res listenership as well. When is _her_ next record going to come out?

» Went to Pilam for the Violent Students/Homostupids gig. All the fraternity kids stayed on the upstairs floors in silent protest, resulting in a total Penn-vs-Community hostile vibe I haven’t witnessed since the final dregs of the 90’s. I have a new theory thanks to this show: every band should know “Wooly Bully” and “Louie, Louie”. I’m going to make Nuge As The News learn other college party classix too. That’s all we’re going to do, plus “Rock’N'Roll N*****”, just because somewhere in the world Bob Lefsetz is still fuming over Patti’s induction to the RNRHOF.

» I’m kind of seriously in love with the Spiritualized remix/remake of Ono’s “Walking On Thin Ice” from the forthcoming _Yes I’m A Witch_. Ditto for the new Explosions In The Sky.

» You heard it here first: Brown Recluse Sings will have a song featured in an upcoming episode of _Veronica Mars_. It’s a perfect backdrop to Veronica & Logan’s relationship woes, truss. [also: did your heart burst into a million pieces for piz last week or what?]

ALSO, BRS are playng the WQHS show this Friday night, along with locals Golden Ball, Creeping Weeds and Arc In Round. Please come out and support the bands and WQHS. Additional perk: seeing Pilam while it’s still in an antiseptic state.

Welcome to your OMGWTF moment of the day.

I’m trying to make 2007 all about the love, and crap like this totally ruins it. Look, I feel bad slagging Pressler. But maybe she needs to rethink the journalism thing and look into comedy writing. Seriously, WHAT THE FUCK? I am less offended by articles in the Daily Pennsylvanian. I can only hope that ghosts are real, and W.E.B. DuBois haunts her down for the rest of her existence until she (re-)reads The Souls of Black Folk.

There’s no ignoring that indie rockers are a melanin-deprived bunch, and it is good to read about the re-integration of rock culture, especially when the ascendency of indie rock to popular culture has wrought complete homogenization. It’s a real “up with people” moment, marred by insipid, wide-eyed cultural generalizations not that far off from “News At 10: Black People Defy Cultural Stereotypes”. If you managed to read that without feeling some vomit-inducing combination of rage and embarrassment, well, I guess you’re better than me.

Woman versus technology — the eternal struggle. This time around it was a one-two punch of turntable goofs; both the weighting and skating on TT1 were all sorts of screwy, which resulted in the Love Is All and McCoys tracks sounding totally bad. Not exactly my best foot forward after a week off. I wound up having to retool my sets but overall, I think it worked out quite fine. I’m just happy to have spent some time at somewhere else other thank my bed, work or the library. Lots of love, lots of angst in this week’s episode, which is well, how I’m kind of feeling these days. The new Explosions In The Sky album gives me serious mental feelings.

Listen, Learn, Love.

explosions in the sky - the birth and death of the sky - all of a sudden i miss everyone
yoko ono (w/ jason pierce of spiritualized) - walking on thin ice - yes, im a witch

love is all - kiss kiss kiss - make out. fall out. make up. 7″
cause co-motion - which way is up? - 7″ - N
the mccoys - fever - 45
seam - little chang, big city - the place is glacial
unwound - eternalux - a day in the park

love of diagrams - pace or patience - ep - N
railroad jerk - what did you expect? - one track mind
the oh johnny! girls - killing spree - demo - N
gloria jones - tainted love - 45″
billy paul - me & mrs jones - 360 degrees of billy paul
amy winehouse - me & mr jones - back to black

brown recluse sings - western meadowlark - black sunday ep
tyvek - mary ellen claims - 7″
juliana hatfield - universal heartbeat - only everything
eugene mirman - revolve (the complete new testament in the form of a teen magazine) - en garde society!
candy & the kisses - the 81 - cameo parkway 1959-1967
curtis mayfield - move on up - curtis

narthex - noise in my pocket - twin cities
home blitz - stupid street - live outside 7″
dead meadow - sleepy silver door - s/t - N
guided by voices - hot freaks - bee thousand
little girls - how to pick up girls - thank heaven

the long blondes - appropriation (by any other name) - appropriation (by any other name) ep - N

My weekly installment of musical awesomeness, peppered with awkward on-air interactions, aka HER JAZZ, returns today. Won’t you please tune in? You’re not gonna see or hear from me otherwise until this grad school app thing is O-V-E-R.

4-6PM EST on WQHS.org

Anticipate the hit parade: Home Blitz! Brown Recluse Sings! Amy Winehouse! caUSE co-MOTION!! Chandra! Railroad Jerk! Heaven 17! Chicks On Speed!

Big thanks to Michael of “The Amateur Hour” for covering last week.

Tell all your friends.

right now i’m thinking i should stick my head in a bag of rice.

It’s the final stretch for grad school applications; right now my stress levels are at an all time high. Please help me retain what [very, very, very] scant shred of sanity I have by observing the following:

1. *Don’t* expect any replies from me until this thing is over. It’s probably a good idea to just *not* email me right now.

2. *Do* listen to my radio show this week. (Wednesday, 4-6PM, WQHS.org)

3. *Do* keep your fingers crossed and think good thoughts during this phase.

OK, holy fucking shit. Doesn’t the last clip resemble the opening of something familiar? Wait, is it just me or does this feel like my paper in reverse?

…never a dull moment ’round here. Jessica, I’m changing your mailbox label tomorrow morning.

You know how people often talk about the parallels between indie and major labels? Well, here’s more proof of that:

Absolutely Kosher Records and Misra Records today announced a strategic partnership under which the management of both record labels will come together under one roof. By sharing overhead and operating costs, the two labels will be free to increase staff and devote more resources to what they do best: discovering, releasing and promoting great music.

Indie Rock Mergers! WTF?