In addition to making hit records and wearing funky sunglasses, Kanye West is also very good at helping other celebrities gauge just how famous they are. It’s called the Kanye Famous Test, and it’s quite simple: if Kanye West sees you in a public place, mistakes you for an innocent civilian, and forces you to listen to his new material (presumably to get the commoner perspective), you are not yet Kanye Famous. Jenny Lewis? Apparently not Kanye Famous.
Rilo Kiley remains an all-time favorite band. But their latest album, Under the Blacklight, broke my spirit. Where was the bittersweet loneliness? Where were the trademark prickly-yet-vulnerable lyrics? All the essential elements of Rilo Kiley were absent. In my initial stages of grief, I just drove around listening to their first two albums, wallowing in the past. But then I got to thinking, what’s behind this woeful nosedive in quality? Could it have been the switch to a major label? Lack of creative focus? Finally I landed on an answer: pants. More specifically, the length of Jenny Lewis’s pants and skirts.
YouTube and other video sites are often used for evil, but sometimes you find clips that you immediately can’t live without, specifically old or obscure musical performances that would otherwise never see the light of day, except for maybe on a more serious-minded VH1 nostalgia program. Also, tribute videos. In an attempt to curb my compulsion to write four or five individual posts about my favorite online video finds, I have complied the essentials for you. After the jump: Dolly, Stevie, hot Latinos.
– Rilo Kiley’s new album, tentatively titled Hey, We Have Some Dudes, Too!, will be out in August. [NME] – Sting and David Bowie are teaming up to launch a burlesque club in New York City. Bowie, you fool! Don’t you realize that Sumner fella is jinxed? More »