Is it just us, or has the bloom fallen off the Beck rose in the last couple of years? This is not to say that he’s running out of gas, but rather that there has been a, um, sea change (see what we did there?) on the musical landscape, and Beck is no longer hanging with Jack Nicholson in the VIP area, though to be fair Jack’s VIP area only has room for one person, and that person is Jack Nicholson. Still, you get our point – modern rock is leaving the giants of the ’00s behind. It’s sad when it happens, but it always happens.
So let’s enjoy a little bit of aughts nostalgia with “E-Pro,” the slammin’ lead single from Beck’s great 2005 Guero album. Even better is the trippy video, which features Beck taking one wild animated trip, which is assembled to resemble the most terrifying tracking shot ever made.
So what, so what, so what’s the Beastie Boys connection here, you ask? Listen to that rhythm track in “E-Pro.” Does it sound familiar? If so, it’s because you know your Beastie Boys, as Beck used a sped-up sample of their 1992 song “So What’cha Want” as the basis for his song. We saw a couple of mash-ups of the two tracks on YouTube, but frankly they were not terribly good, so we’re going with the original here. It still hasn’t sunk in that MCA is dead. Sigh.
Happy Friday, everyone. Be quirky this weekend. Beck would approve.
This week Saturday Night Live is celebrating the end of its’ 37th season on air (yes, you read that right) by pulling out the usual bags of tricks. That includes rock god Mick Jagger taking on hosting duties, while Arcade Fire and the Foo Fighters provide the marquee music interludes (plus there will be comedy sketches…at least I think they still do those).
But while the cast and crew will mostly be sticking to the traditional SNL formula for success, they are throwing one new variable into the mix for this monumental occasion. That comes in the form of a partnership with the Facebook app Color.
Some of you may remember Color as the app that allowed you to share your photos and short (about 30 seconds) live video clips with a network of your closest friends. More likely though, you remember the story of how the program managed to raise $41 million dollars for its launch, only to fade into obscurity sometimes after that. It’s not that the program didn’t work; it just didn’t manage to catch on in the ever growing app market.
But now, thanks to a new partnership with Verizon, Color is looking to make a big comeback. Not only will Verizon start making the app standard on all new Android phones, but Color has also beefed up its’ own services, particularly in the video area which now has a better broadcast quality, sound with your live feed (for Verizon customers), and the ability to notify your friends immediately for live broadcast.
To celebrate (and most importantly, to promote), Color will be teaming with SNL to have the actors, crew, and guests take backstage footage of the evening, and fill in the breaks and commercials with exclusive footage that will be broadcast to anyone who friends Verizon on Facebook.
Color certainly seems more focused this time around. It’s no wonder either considering the recent $1 billion Instagram acquisition by Facebook, and how Facebook itself is preparing for the richest public offering anyone has ever seen. But if you’re looking for the new Color’s greatest motivation…that may actually be Twitter. It’s a smart move to try to set up a service that could be similar to Twitter, but uses video instead since that would seem to be the logical progression of the medium.
If you’re interested in the footage,you just have to like Verizon on Facebook, and download the Color for Facebook app on your mobile device. While Verizon customers are the only ones that get sound with the feed, anyone can sign up for it.
It’s easy to see that the team behind Color believes in their product, and their dedication to getting their name out there shows that. If the SNL show is a success, it’s easy to imagine the public imagination taking hold of this app and making something unique out of it.
And , maybe Mick will even sing “Start Me Up” for them.
This video is amazing. 44-year old Hawaii surfer Garrett McNamara broke the world record for the largest wave ever surfed. The Guinness Book of World Records has confirmed the record saying it was officially 78 feet, beating the old record by about 1 foot. Spicoli would be proud . . .
Frankly, we’re surprised we didn’t feature this song in this column earlier. It’s upbeat, it’s catchy, and it’s about having a drink or three with your mates. What’s not to love? Oh, right, that whole misogynist subtext. (Sample lyric: “And then we ask all the questions, and you take all your clothes off, and go back to the kitchen sink.”) Yeah, sorry about that.
But hey, look, Norman “Fatboy Slim” Cook is on the right in the white cardigan sweater! That’s right, Fatboy Slim was the Housemartins’ bass player, and a damn good bass player at that. Funny that he decided to scrap instruments for turntables. Not that we’re complaining, because it led to this giagantic slice of awesomeness.
Sigh. we’re still stinging from the death of MCA last Friday. *pours out 40*
We saw Fatboy Slim open up for the Chemical Brothers in 1999. Cook threw out a ridiculous hodgepodge of tunes, from Prince to the Kinks, and it all worked remarkably well. When he played his own remix of the Beastie Boys’ “Body Movin’,” though, he blew the roof off the joint, and even the Chemicals had a hard time topping it. It was one of those ‘right place, right time’ moments. And we were there, man.
Happy Friday, everyone. May your weekend be one of those ‘right place, right time’ moments.
