This article was originally published in the UCSD Guardian.
For two days, female musical comedy duo Garfunkel & Oates brainstormed what a penis looks like. The girls, actresses Riki Lindhome (Garfunkel, 32) and Kate Micucci (Oates, 30), were writing the lyrics for “I Don’t Understand Job” — a little ditty about uncovering the mysteries of third base. Their mission: A clever way of describing male genitalia.
They eventually settled on “Silly Putty Pac Man ghost” and “Darth Vader Pez dispenser,” though the song still took them a total of five months to write, Lindhome told the Guardian during a phone call from Los Angeles.
“Sometimes things will just come to us,” Lindhome said. “It will be quick. We’ll write it in an hour and then maybe rewrite it the next day. And then sometimes it’s a five-month process.”
Clearly, Garfunkel & Oates are serious about their dick jokes.
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(Source: ucsdguardian.org)
This article was originally published in the Night & Day section of the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Is there any alt-rock band as absurd as Weezer? After its self-titled debut was released in 1994, the members of the band were bespectacled heroes, but after the 1996 follow-up “Pinkerton,” the group plunged into voluntary obscurity — even as the commercial failure became a cult classic for a generation of emo geeks.
Recent years are even stranger. There’s a music video with the Muppets, logo-emblazoned Snuggies, an album named after a “Lost” character. It’s as if Weezer is simply a platform for a series of hyper-meta jokes that no one else is in on, especially fans who cling to their copies of “Pinkerton” and pray for a revival of frontman Rivers Cuomo’s ’90s angst.
That day will probably never come, so expect the unexpected when the band hits the Seaside Stage at the Del Mar Racetrack on Saturday.
Case in point: On the phone from New Jersey, drummer Patrick Wilson is distracted. Band mate Brian Bell tunes his guitar and subwoofers pound in the background as Weezer prepares for a collaborative show with The Flaming Lips (both bands, performing side by side, trading off between tracks). It was Weezer’s management’s idea, Wilson thinks, and it’s the day of the gig and they’re still not sure what they’re doing.
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(Source: signonsandiego.com)
This interview was originally published in the UCSD Guardian — unfortunately, the online link has since been removed.
For some of us, the bips and beeps of the Game Boy are the soundtrack to childhood. The little ditty it played as you mastered Pokémon got stuck in your head for days. And nothing could encapsulate the frustration of stacking ill-shaped boxes more than the Tetris theme. Kids once had only vinyl records and rock ‘n’ roll — we got Nintendo and infectious bleeps.
Now artists around the world are tapping into that influence, composing new melodies from forgotten gaming technologies. These artists create chiptunes — aka 8-bit, bitpop and chip music — by hacking and tweaking vintage video game systems, such as the Nintendo Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System, so that they work like a sequencer with four different channels.
For Sixth College junior Patrick Trinh, the genre has been a revelation. He started teaching himself chiptunes last spring and now — under stage name Space Town Savior — has already landed himself an opening gig for mash-up DJs the Hood Internet at the Loft next Tuesday, among other shows with bitpop artists around Southern California.
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This article was originally published online at signonsandiego.com
Last month Ryan Raddon — otherwise known as electronic dance music (EDM) artist Kaskade — sent an innocent tweet to his followers, inviting them to the Hollywood premiere of the documentary film “Electric Daisy Carnival Experience,” where he promised a free DJ set to fans on the street.
But there would be no party: His declaration of “ME+BIG SPEAKERS+MUSIC=BLOCK PARTY!!!” that day transformed downtown Los Angeles into a near-riot zone. The crowds outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre grew to the thousands, culminating in a standoff between ravers and the police, who ordered the Kaskade fans to leave.
But the kids just wanted to dance.
Clearly, EDM is having its moment. When the genre first broke in the 90s — “Jock Jams,” Moby and all — many thought it was the future of pop music. But it fell back into the underground, only to emerge a decade later with Lady Gaga and deadmau5 leading the way.
Hence, this summer’s IDentity festival (headlined and curated by Kaskade) — the first traveling electronic music festival, modeled like the dance version of the Warped Tour or Ozzfest. It stops at Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in Chula Vista Friday. (For tickets, click here. )
We caught up with Kaskade to talk about the future of EDM and how ID Fest has spread the raver gospel.
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(Source: signonsandiego.com)
This article was originally published in the Night & Day section of the San Diego Union-Tribune.
For many, circus clowns are a living nightmare — a childhood trauma linked with garishly overdrawn features and zany balloon animals. Stanislav Knyazkov is no such clown. Though he’s performing as part of the duo Stas and Vas at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey “Fully Charged” circus this weekend, the Russian native opts for a minimalist costume. He sports makeup that’s more Ziggy Stardust than Bozo the Clown, so those with not-so-fond circus memories might have less to fear from the latest leg of “The Greatest Show On Earth.”
Nonetheless, Knyazkov asserts that clowns of all kinds deserve more credit for their unique brand of comedy. Interspersed between high-thrill acts, it’s the job of the clown to bring some much-needed laughter to the show.
“We recharge the audience,” Knyazkov said, dutifully plugging the circus’s techno theme.
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(Source: signonsandiego.com)
