Traction Princess
by The Scene on April 30th, 2008
Often inherent in one’s enjoyment of a work of art is the power of the simple act of discovery. Our discovery of Traction Princess will forever be bound with our appreciation of their music. This weekend, after spending a long afternoon napping in the park, we decided to go on an absentminded stroll through our fair city. It was nearing dusk as we turned down a back alley, only to literally bump into a harried and disheveled man dressed from head to toe in black. As we half-heartedly apologized for running into him, for we were convinced that the collision had been almost entirely his fault, he stuffed a CD jewel case into our hands and whispered, “Run, run or they’ll get you!”. He nervously glanced over his shoulder and, quick as a flash, quickly disappeared around the corner.
We, being quite understandably freaked out, high-tailed it back out our place of residence where we popped the CD, labeled simply “Traction Princess”, into our CD player. We don’t know all that much about Traction Princess, other than what information we could find on their MySpace page, but suffice to say, the band makes some of the most interesting music we’ve ever heard - a heady mixture of movie-soundtrack grandiosity and a terrifying fever dream. Every time we listen to it we’ll think of the man, dressed all in black, on the run from something so deep and infinite as to render it unknowable.
We Always Make Bad Choices
by The Scene on April 28th, 2008
We did not go to Coachella this year because when they announced the lineup we decided it wasn’t all that great and since we were too cool for school we thought it would be more fun to spend the weekend obsessively washing our hands. However, when they brought in the big guns to headline (Prince), we had to pause and reassess our not going.
In watching this video of The Purple One destroying Radiohead’s “Creep”, it’s pretty clear we made the wrong decision.
Friday Rock City
by The Scene on April 25th, 2008
Here at The Scene, we’ve known Jack Conte for a long time. In fact, we attended Little Lord Fontleroy’s School For The Hemophiliac Children of Royalty together and we’ve long known that the kid’s got talent to spare. Now he’s put out a new video (which he made himself with nothing more spit and gumption) for his song “Yeah Yeah Yeah” and it looks like it’s becoming a bona fide internet sensation.
Bone fide!
Blast From The Past
by The Scene on April 25th, 2008
So it turns out that last week’s Blast From The Past rocked so hard it took us 2 days of delay to think of something nearly as cool as Edgar Winter bashing out our collective brains.
This week, we’re going waaaaaay back in the past to one of the first music videos ever made. These were younger, more innocent times, before the internet, freeways, Al Qaida, and Jack In The Box pumpkin-flavored milkshakes. This was from an era in which you could be a ridiculously jacked bald man with an earring and tight white shirt and people wouldn’t assume you’re gay; rather they just assume you’ve broken and entered through their kitchen window to help them clean diamonds. Um, just watch the video and you’ll see what we mean.
A Distinctly Post-Modern Problem
by The Scene on April 25th, 2008
So there’s a new Journey song featuring the band’s new non-Steve Perry lead singer. Yes, of course, it’s terrible, that’s pretty obvious. Although hearing this song put us in a seriously meta quandary. See, we are now unable to remember if our love of Journey is sincere or ironic. We feel like we knew at one point but now…well…we’re not so sure.
Question & Answer
by The Scene on April 25th, 2008
Q: What’s the name of Ann Boleyn’s blue-collar rap equivalent?
A: Ain’t Bowlin’
Sorry.
We Think The Real Question Is
by The Scene on April 25th, 2008
In the spirit of fairness and all.
When will John McCain renounce Pauley Shore? Bio-Dome was offensive just plain awful. McCain has a racial responsibility to reject and denounce not only that movie, but the entire genre of Pauley Shore movies.
Although there is a Tenacious D cameo in Bio-Dome, so McCain only has to reject or denounce the film, not both.
Hey Kids, Guess What?
by The Scene on April 23rd, 2008
No, Mommy and Daddy aren’t getting back together—at least, not until you learn to stop crying about everything and being such a baby. You know that show you really like, the one with the kids and the dancing and the thinly veiled homoeroticism? The one you always talk about wanting to be in more than life itself because then everything will be okay and Suzie Jenkins will stop being such a bitch to you all the time because you’d be able to rub your international superstar success in her big, dumb, not-all-that-pretty-when-you-really-look-at-it-also-we-heard-she’s-bullemic -because-we-heard-that-from-like-three-people-and-we-like-totally-believe-it face?
High School Musical, yes, that’s the one. Well, hop in the SUV because we’re going to Long Beach Arena because we’re going to the Long Beach Area on 4/27 from 8am-12pm for the open casting call for Disney’s High School Musical Summer Session! It’s a brand new competition reality show based on Disney’s High School Musical! The show’s winner will get a role in the next High School Musical! Exclamation point!
So quit your job, quit your mom’s job and start getting down to
So very sorry.
(Also, we heard that Ashley Tisdale is huge bitch. You didn’t hear it from us though.)
Luckily There’s A Sale Down At Folding Chair Freddy’s Used Folding Chair and Hydrochloric Acid Warehouse
by The Scene on April 23rd, 2008
When we said earlier that his coverage of the Democratic primary made us want to “bludgeon Chris Matthews to death with a folding chair,” we were merely being rhetorical. However, when we saw this we realized that out desire to beat the living crap out of the cable TV host was now quite literal.
We know that it’s probably some kind of huge insight into Obama’s character that he wanted elitist OJ instead of down-home-backwoods-bumblefuck coffee but please, please, please, please we beg you, stop. Stop. Please stop. True, there’s nothing really happening on the campaign trail at the moment and you need something to talk about but, holy living fuck, stop.
When you cover stupid, trivial bullshit 24/7 people start to think that this is what campaign coverage is supposed to look like and then no one will even try to cover substantive issues anymore and will instead solely focus on stupid bullshit like this because it fits your pre-conceived narratives, making your job just that much easier. We are well aware that, more than anything else, more than any liberal or conservative bias, you’re really just incredibly lazy and coving insipid gossip is the easiest thing the world but please, for the sake of everything that is good and important about the American political system, just please stop.
Or else we’ll have to bludgeon you to death with a folding chair.
Just A Little
by The Scene on April 23rd, 2008
As you may have noticed, we’re a little obsessed with Phantom Planet. We find their brand power-pop is damn near irresistible when we’re in the right mood. Their new album, Raise the Dead, may be their best (or, at least, best since The Guest). Our favorite song is “Dropped,” a little piece slightly skewed magic that not only wouldn’t sound out of place on Beck’s Odelay, but actually had us double-checking our MP3 player to make sure that we hadn’t suddenly started listening to some obscure Beck b-side. Here’s a video of the band playing the song live at SXSW.
We like.
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