New White Rabbits Video: "Percussion Gun"

This song is excellent. The video's really great, too. Seriously. Watch it. The band gave the song out for free, so you can probably find it on Hype Machine or with a simple google search.

Do you guys remember how awesome this song was/is?

Buddy Holly Gets Rickrolled

I occasionally go through these weird intense periods of obsession with bands that I had never really been hung up on before. Last summer it was Sam Cooke. This past winter it was Nirvana (Kurt Cobain more specifically). There's usually a small event that prompts the obsessive period. For Sam Cooke, it was a vinyl I snagged at a garage sale. For Nirvana, it was the excellent Kurt Cobain movie "About A Son." Now it's Buddy Holly, possibly prompted by last February's 50th anniversary of Buddy's death and last night's win of an excellent Buddy Holly and the Crickets vinyl off of ebay. I can't stop reading about him and looking at pictures and listening to tunes. I stumbled upon this audio recording of a phone call Buddy made to his label boss. The background for the call is simple enough: Buddy Holly and his band were recording some bomb-ass tracks, and the label was sitting on them. Buddy wanted to take the songs to someone that would put them out. Just a classic example of music industry mismanagement. But I include the audio because Buddy just seems like the nicest guy in the world his sense of style was just flawless and it makes me sad that he was getting Rickrolled and it makes me sad that he's gone.

Buddy Holly gettin' screwed.

Just decided that this may be one of my favorite songs ever.

Sears Tower Glass Ledge

Have all y'all Chicagoans heard about this new Sears Tower gimmick? The glass floor/wall/ceiling viewing balcony thing? Supposed to be put in by June. Looks awesome and terrifying.

Pitchfork Fest Shaping Up Pretty Nicely

I may have to make my return to the fest this year, as it seems to continue to get better. The lineup (with the bands that I'm particularly interested in in bold):

Saturday
The National
Beirut 
DOOM
Yeasayer
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Fucked Up
Plants and Animals
Matt and Kim
Lindstrøm *
Wavves
Ponytail *
Charles Hamilton
The Duchess and The Duke
Disappears

Sunday
The Flaming Lips
Grizzly Bear
M83
The Walkmen
Pharoahe Monch
Blitzen Trapper
Frightened Rabbit 
The Mae Shi 

The Wisdom of West

This tidbit is in Kanye West's new mini-advice book.

"When walking down the street, you can walk in one 

line perfectly without ever falling over. Now take that 

same city block, make it a foot wider and then put it 

a hundred stories high. You're going to be so focused 

on the fact that you don't have a banister, that you're 

more likely to fall because of it.

When you're so focused on what you don't have…you won't have!

Isn't it interesting how one thing changes everything?"

I doubt this is something he came up with on his own, but I'm finding it pretty germane to where I'm at right now.