Bree!

Down the youtubes: Comdey Central clips are being removed from youtube. (Absolutepunk)


Why  would 17 year olds want to dress up at Captain Underpants EXCEPT to look half-naked?
 (WRIC.com)


Melissa says we should know about musician Paolo Nutini before he blows up here in the states.


Brooke Hogan misunderstands the concept of "shopping." (NY Post)


Befriend your brother from another mother on this, uh... alternative myspace?


Bad form, Bill: Maher does Halloween as a bloody Steve Irwin.  (socialitelife.com)


Define "charitable cause": Oprah gives audience members $1,000 debit cards... to spend on charity. (Ohnotheydidnt) So, if I got one and I know I need a root canal and two fillings and I have no dental insurance, can I give the card to myself?


That's some nice techie product placement: NEW Pussycat Dolls vid "Wait a Minute" ft. Timbaland. (AOL Music)

Quit pretending to like Indie Rock, you poser pot heads. (Stereogum)

Haaaaaa. Sorry. That was for that last link. Hahahaha. Ok, done now.

Jared Leto still hates your blog. And Hobbits. So if you're a avid-blogging hobbit, watch yo' back. (Best Week Ever)

Internet killed the TV Star? Yahoo Talent Search + Maria Sansone's "The Nine" is all about the amateur video. (TechNews)

South Park Burnnnnn: Steve Irwin gets sent to Hell. (seriouslyomgwtf)

New version of GC's "Keep Your Hands Off My Girl". No scene kids eating in this one.

Wedgies, WTF? Brad Pitt is kind of weird. (Ohnotheydidnt)

Two things I don't need, together:  A credit card with Carmen Electra's face on it. (Mollygood)
 
John Lennon's spawn, Sean will be touring on his album Friendly Fire real soon. (Absolutepunk) Watch the video for the Moody song, "Dead Meat."

While it's true that everytime I mention Paris Hilton, my I.Q. drops, this parody video got some giggles out of me.

Tim Burton + The Killers = Skeleton Makeout Sessions. No, Nicole Richie is NOT in this video.

Vincent Gallo & Cory Kennedy: Mentor and orphan, or partyhardy name-dropper and creepy pedophile? (Dlisted)

Kate Moss gives her alleged fetus it's first drink. (Best Week Ever)

Boys, hit the make-up aisle: Guyliner is totally in. (MTV.com)

Are you down with Fraggle Rock? The 80's cult hit is being developed into a movie by Frank Zappa's son. (CNN.com)

Thursday thrashes around a fake plane for their "At This Velocity" video.

Dead rock stars make the big bucks. (Stereogum)

6 Days until the MTVU Woodie Awards! They air 11/2 at 8pm ET/PT, so mark your calendars!

Two of your beloved bands are up for Woodie of the Year; The Academy Is... for "Slow Down" and Gym Class Heroes for "The Queen and I"

The Academy Is... also has TWO videos in the final four up for Streaming Woodie

Cartel's "Honestly" is up for Road Woodie

Go watch all the videos and make your predictions here!

Absolutepunk is interviewing Panic! at the Disco them in the coming weeks, submit your questions.

Youtube nukes 30,000 vids! Is this the end of YouTube as we know it? (Gawker)

New Music from Mama Stefani: Perez Hilton has "Wind It Up"

File under things we'd love to live without: K-Fed in a Hip Hop musical (DListed)

FBR/Decaydance Winter Sampler out on PureVolume!

The holidaze are upon us, it's time for Nightmare Before Christmas says Fobfreakonaleash.

Paris Hilton smuggles drugs in Teddybears. Cute. (Egostastic)

So, Bamboozle Left. I'm not feeling particularly verbose today, but I'll give you what I can.

Saturday: Jeff was FINALLY allowed a day off, so he came with me... we were late, thanks to inexplicable traffic, and missed Over It and The Matches... who he wanted to see the most. So sad. I made my rounds and said hi to most people I knew that would be there. The first band we watched was Sugarcult, who arent really looking as sharp as they used to, but who are still a fun band... I will never get tired of "Bouncing Off The Walls" even though the song is about Cocaine and I really can't relate. Ha. They played some new songs "Do It Alone" (have you seen the second version of the video? It's worth watching, fo sho) and "Los Angeles" (I usually like songs about areas that pertain to me, but this one is kinda dark and kinda reminds me how much I don't like LA). I have good memories associated with Sugarcult, though... like the time we all went to see them play this ghetto-ish club in Fullerton (?) (Or Orange?)... there were plastic bags all over the ceiling, to keep the rain out since it was pouring. Was the place called the Red Velvet? Or did I just make that up? Holy tangent, Batman.

Cobra Starship was next, and they're always entertaining. They played Keep It Simple, my favorite song, and I got some video of that. Then came Gym Class Heroes... Travis is such a charming, entertaining frontman. It's going to be weird not seeing Gym Class & CS together in the future. Hellogoodbye was synthy, simple and wonderful. I got some video of "Oh, It Is Love"... they didnt seem to have as much merch as they usually do, or else I would have bought something. I did buy a Kill Brand shirt, though-- one I'd been eyeing on Warped Tour.

Then came Jacks Mannequin... who I really like, but I was anticipating SoCo the whole time. Jeff&I stood in the same spot for over an hour. My heart nearly burst when they started playing "Konstantine." They also played "I Woke Up in a Car" and "Hurricane." We left after that, I was so incredibly content. Jeff didn't get to see his bands, but he did really end up liking Jacks Mannequin/SoCo....

Sunday recap later.

So Nastassia and I are driving up to the Wiltern-- and she grabs my knee-- "TONY KANAL!"
Me: WHAT
Her: RIGHT THERE
Me: ohmygod
Her: Tony Kanal!
Me: PARK! Hurrrry he's getting AWAY!

So we fork over $15 bucks to park in the lot around the corner and we race inside. We look around, don't see him. Sigh. Were in line waiting for a drink...

Her: He's coming down the stairs.
Me: Srsly?
Her: He's coming this way.
Me: Ohmygod he's right behind us.

I can't NOT talk to him. Remember the time I didn't talk to Milo whatever his name is who plays Jess on Gilmore Girls @ the Jimmy Eat World show? Remember the time I didn't talk to Elyse from Dance Hall Crashers @ the Get Up Kids show? Regret regret regret. And this is TONY KANAL. Inspiration for MANY of my favorite songs.
...

I turn and refrain from saying "Excuse Me Mr. even though, yes, the thought did occur to me, corny and awful as it was.

I turn and don't say: Would you mind dating me and then breaking up with me so I can write hit songs and become an icon?

I turn and don't say: Can you tell Gwen I'm available for babysitting?

I turn and don't say: Any chance Gwen is experiencing post-partum depression and will write something a little less Rock Steady and a little more Return of Saturn?

I turn and don't say: Thank you for your existence.

Instead I manage to say: "I know you probably don't want to be bothered, but I am a huge fan of your band."

Tony Kanal says: Oh thank you.

All smooth and suave like he is.



Also, The Killers were good. And Amy Smart was there, which made me think of how much I dislike the Directors Cut of The Butterfly Effect.

But mostly, I met Tony Kanal :)

This could be the song everyone relates to...
another melody something we go through
these could be the words to use in good fortune
to keep in the back of mind for your back-up plan

Confession: I really really really like the new MCR single. I especially like it when I hear it in the morning, driving to work or school. Makes me feel ready to take on the day. Only once did it instigate an anxiety attack because I thought too much about the lyrics and how it was about somebody who had passed on and... ok, here it comes again, time to change the subject.

Confession of something you already knew: I am so head over heels in love with New Found Glory. If I could marry Coming Home, I would. I would marry it and then renew my vows every week. I sincerely hope everything works out and me and Kiki can go see them in SD (I have class the other two nights *sob*). If it wasn't my last quarter and I didn't care about my GPA, you know damn well I'd skip class (an exam, even) to see them. I think they (ok, and maybe mxpx) are the only band I'm willing to get in the pit for. Thats a lie, but theyre the only band whos playing a show anytime SOON that I'd get in the pit for.

Health: The muscle relaxants were working for awhile for my clenching problem, but not so much anymore. It stops me from doing it at night mostly, but not during the day. I've noticed I do it whenever I get upset, or whenever I'm stressed, or even when I'm concentrating. I can't take the meds during the day, cause that sh*t knocks me out. Other than that, things are good. I've been working out 3x a week, and doing a lot more stretching. Living across the street from trader joes is a dream. Oh I have pics of my apt in recent photos, so check em out, I know I lagged.

Jeff got business cards from his wok that say "Jeff Schaum, Editor" which made me really excited, so I asked for some. He is still working crazy hours and working on freelance stuff at home. The other day he came in really late and instead of climbing into bed and hugging me, he came over to my side and stood there-- I opened my eyes out of a dead sleep and freaked OUT. I said "ohmygod" and grabbed my heart. Not nice. But I was back asleep 5 min later. I finally uploaded pics of my apartment here.

Oh, I went to the GC/Pink Spiders/Young Love show last weekend... did I blog about that? Anyway, I went alone but sort of made friends when I got there. I think they were hitting on me but I never know until someone offers to buy me a drink, which they didn't. I also think they were lying when they told me what they did for a living (although their answers were unimpressive)... speaking of lying, what happened to that show "Angela's Eyes"? I loved it. I want to study nonverbal communication. Anyway, here is a video of my most favorite GC song ever.

I went to The Killers on Kimmel Wednesday night, it was my first time seeing them and it was fabulous. Only I wish Brandon would lose the 'stache and bring back the eyeliner, Mr. Brightside style. ONE of the Killers (it's true, I only know Brandon Flowers' name, I'm awful) said "Excuse me" when we were waiting to get into the green room, and I had a happy moment because I thought "That man hangs out with Brandon Flowers." I don't ever want to meet him. You should never meet your idols. Keeps things happy, and idealistic. Anyway. We drank white wine and talked about our teamers and No Doubt while we waited for The Killers to go on. I got to see Farah and Deanne, and wanted to ask them to hang out afterward, but then I remembered I had a paper to write so I just went home.

I'm going to The Killers tonight, and Gym Class/CS tomorrow :)

School: I met with Dr. Baaske to double check my electives. We have to do a course substitution and badger records to correct my petition, which was granted back in '04. Thennnn he was like "This is seriously your GPA?" Yeah. "Are you going to grad school." I. Uh. Maybe. "You should seriously consider it, especially with this GPA and how I remember you as a student of mine." But I don't know where to go, or for what. "Make an appointment with me. Ill persuade you." Ok. "I mean it." Ok! So, maybe sometime in the next couple weeks I'll have a plan.

Future: I have decided that what I want to do, ultimately, is music supervision. Do I think grad school will help me with that? No. But someday in the far off future, I'm going to be sick of the entertainment industry and then I'll want to teach. The dilemma, then, is how do I take steps toward this goal while I'm in grad school? I have experience in it, from interning with Fuel, but I'd like to know more, get more hands on. Are there books I should read? Shows I should watch? People I should meet? Does anyone know where Alex Patasvas lives, so I can begin stalking her?

Songs you should download, immediately:
Church of Hot Addiction - Cobra Starship
Like Satellites - Over It (totally and ending-credits song!)
Read My Mind - The Killers

Oh. Duh-- just go to my audio... I just uploaded all the best songs :)


it's the beat that keeps you marching on
so take your jacks I've got armor on
reasons will reveil itselve into time
so for luck will you cross your fingers

You worked with Swedish producer Tore Johansson on your second album, Oh No, who previously worked with Franz Ferdinand and The Cardigans.  How was he to work with and how did working with him contribute to the success of the album?

He was fantastic to work with and I think the thing that he brought to it mostly was an overall focus.  We tend to get sucked up into vortexes of detail where we go after a kick drum sound for hours and hours and hours.  He did a good job of helping us seize a whole record as a single thing.  Since our song writing is kind of all over the place it helped up bring lots of wildly different songs into a similar sort of sonic space so that they all felt like they belonged together.

Some of your fans feel like Oh No is a huge departure sound wise from the debut album.  Do you agree and was it a calculated move?

It feels very different to me.  I suppose it was calculated in a sense that we knew that we didn’t want to make our first record again.  It wasn’t so much that we were calculating our departure as we were calculating what we wanted next which was a different concept.  A lot of people think it sounds really similar.  To me it feels really different because it’s much more loose and organic and has much more to do with us playing together as opposed to us layering up things.  Our first record was more about cramming every little space with bells and whistles.  This one feels a lot more honest.

[Brief interlude while Damian contemplates the speed of the song playing in the background.]

It’s rumored that there were over 60 songs written for this album.  How did you manage to whittle that down to 13?

They sort of whittle themselves down.  About half of them the band didn’t collectively like enough to chase after.  Some of them were too far upflung from the rest of them to seem that they would fit on an album together.  You get excited about something one day you just chase after it until you’re done with it. There’s still some good ideas that didn’t make it on the record but I like to think that the best ones did.

Can we expect to hear the songs somewhere else?

Probably not.  Little bits of them maybe.  They’re not as good I don’t think but little bits of them may be.

That doesn’t stop some bands.

Yeah.  Well it should in my opinion.  We only want to release the stuff that’s good.  I’m sure bits of them will resurface in new songs.  Now that we’re thinking about our next record it’s not exciting to think about old recordings that you already turned down once.  It’s like girls, ya know?  You don’t want to go back and date your ex-ex-ex-girlfiend.

They do.

They do.  Yeah that’s a terrible analogy because people do exactly that.

Much of the success of Oh No is given to the dance routine—

Dance video!

Did you ever expect it to be so huge?

Yes.  Next question.
We didn’t even know it was a video when we made it.  It was a practice tape.  On the other hand it does not surprise me that people like to see dancing so much.

You recently performed on Jay Leno but were unable to do “the dance” because of strict rules about lip-syncing.  What’s that all about???

That was about total bullshit.  I guess the person who books the Leno show has a rule about not having lip synched bands on there.  We had to try to convince her that it wasn’t technically lip-synching.  Rather, even if it is technically lip-synching, it’s more about a dance routine than it is about anything else.  I think the thing is they are a comedy show and they do the comedy.  When you come on to do the music you do the music.  If what you do in anyway crosses over they don’t want to be involved.  It infringed on there own territory too much.

You have the ability to change your vocal stylings from song to song quite dramatically.

Yes. [In his deepest voice]
Thank you. I appreciate that. 

[nods] We know you have some crazy degree from Brown.  Did you ever take singing lessons?

Yes but not at Brown.  I took lessons after Brown from this insane man in Los Angeles named Ron Anderson.  Who was Bjork’s vocal coach and Axl Rose’s vocal coach.  In fact I got his number from Frank Black (of The Pixies) who is my idol.  I don’t know that I learned a lot about vocal sounds from him but I have learned to keep my voice alive for 12 months of tour.  The way I sang when we first started out, I would not have been able to make it through more than a couple week of shows.  That is exactly why I was pointed towards him. 

What singers inspire you?

Black Francis or Frank Black, Craig Wedren from Shudder To Think, Roberta Flack, Jeff Tweedy from Wilco, Robert Smith, Ian Brown from Stone Roses, Prince.

You haven’t been shy about expressing your political leanings and opinions like anti-piracy software on cds.  How important is it to you to get that message out to your fans?

I don’t feel like a browbeating message deliverer but it is important to me. I try to be perceived as the person I think I am.  It’s important to me when I feel strongly about something that I not shy away from talking about it.  At the same time our music is not overtly political.  I’m certainly not going to write songs about the fallacy of copy protection.  I feel like good people are well spoken.  Good citizens are involved.  I feel like being some of each.

What one word or sentence do you hope your music evokes from fans?

What word or sentence?

Feeling?

Yeah.  That’s it.  Feeling.  Thank you.  You got it.  I hope we’re not so one dimensional to only evoke a single emotion.  What I care about music in general is that it does evoke emotion.  That it kick you in the gut in that kind of animal way.  That is what’s so great about music that it can communicate things so much more immediately and so much more intensely and emotionally then other kinds of communication.  I just hope that our songs have those effects on people.  Bad music isn’t much stuff that annoys me a lot.  It’s just stuff I don’t care about.  Bland. Blah. The one word I hope our music evokes is feeling.  Just that people give a shit about it.

Your style has been self-described as awf-some (awful and awesome at the same time.) Can you describe how that came about?

There’s not really a direct root from birth to these clothes.  I think the turning point for the band was playing a show across the street from the Republican National Convention in the 2004 election.  We wanted to look like stuffy assholes. So, we all dressed in suits.  I thought it would make the whole thing seem really stuffy but instead it actually make it really fun.  I got into wearing suits in general.  I guess in some strange evolutionary niche the patterns and insanity crept into there.

Were you ever t-shirt and jeans kinda guys?

Yeah. We were.  Our first record, most of our promos pictures are t-shirts and jeans.  It’s a little bit embarrassing.  In fact, two nights ago, I was wearing t-shirt and jeans because they were the clothes I had in my bag back at the hotel.  We went to see Depeche Mode play in New Jersey.  It was a long drive from where we were.  I got about half way to the show when I had realized that I had forgotten my real clothes. I was going to have to show up to this Depeche Mode show and meet Depeche Mode in jeans and a t-shirt which to me at this point feels like pajamas.  It really bummed me out but I had to go through with it.  So, I was a jeans and t-shirt guy once this week even.  Accidentally.

You teamed up with iTunes for a successful viral marketing campaign to promote A Million Ways.  How important do you think it is for bands to do that kind of thing today? Very.  Record labels will not have a strangle hold on the music industry for very much longer, in fact they don’t really now. The corollary is that there is no money in music anymore.  Which can make it difficult to make a living.  For people to find you in this sort of new era you definitely need to be actively involved with the online community.
You recently spent the night in jail in FL and after it all went down, the results were the most hilarious blog ever written and a mugshot fit for framing.  Can you explain what happened to everybody and how you felt at the time? 

Sure, well, I got to jail by standing in the wrong place and not moving when a cop asked me to.  A cop who I didn’t know at the time was a cop.  It was really funny at first.  This woman asked me to move and I didn’t.  Then she put some more appropriately dressed cops on me.  They were like “What part of move didn’t you understand?”.  I actually said, “I understood the whole thing.  I just didn’t do it.” They didn’t like that at all.  They basically tackled me and cuffed me behind my back and everything. Then sat me right outside the door of the club we were playing.  Two thousand people are streaming out of the club.  Now, of course, where they were trying to avoid a scene now they just created a huge one. It took 14 cops to get me to the station.  They were so excited to play cop.  This was all on Disney property but it was real Orlando police.  I think that the Orlando police that are assigned to the Disney property never get to do anything because Disney always deals with it themselves.  On the way to jail, I got the cop to watch our video in the car. Some girls drove by holding “Free Damian” signs.  The whole thing really was just funny.  When I got to jail it got pretty depressing.  I was in a variety of different cells ranging between 2 and 20 people.  From what I could tell everybody else there no had any expectation of leaving within 6 months.  When people heard what I was in for they were like, “Wow! You’ll be out in 3 days or less!” Like that was such a blessing, ya know?  The complete and total defeat of the people in there was overwhelming and pretty depressing.

OK Go is very interactive with the fans via fan interviews, flickr, the blog, etc.  Has this been a conscious decision from the get go and do you have any messages for your fans? 

It’s hard to say that it was a conscious decision.  We are aware that we are like that and we try to stay like that.  It’s mostly because it’s what feels right.  We want to be at the center of a community of people who care about our music and about the same things that we care about.  We want to have a toehold in people’s worlds.  That said I don’t have any particular messages today… watch out for disgusting salads you might get really bad food poisoning.

What inspired you to start doing Podcasts? Are you really just trying to see how far your fans will go? 

The internet, music distribution and promotion is so the Wild West nobody really knows what works and what doesn’t.  It just seems that it’s fun.  More ways to communicate with people—As a music fan I am so obsessed with the bands I am obsessed with.  I was even moreso as a fifteen year old.  I know what the feeling is just wanting there to be an infinite world you can dive into to look for more and more stuff.  We’re always happy to provide things so that people can play in the little jungle gym that is OK Go.

If you could trade places with another member of the band for 48 hours, who would it be and what would you do?  I feel like I should have a better answer for this.  This sounds really boring, I would probably trade places with Dan because I love playing drums.  I would trade places with Dan so I can be really sweet at playing drums for a while.  I like playing drums a lot more than I like playing guitar.  I would do that just so I could bang the shit out of drums for a little while.  I know it’s not a very inventive answer but that’s what I would do.
You did a series of PSAs for the Federal Truth in Music Project. What in the world were those about? 

We’re just explaining life.  I feel like all those movies pretty much sum up everything you need to know about life.  A P.O. needing a dollar amount.  It’s important stuff.

We don’t think Jorge is a real person.  Can you give us any proof of his existence? 

He’s on “This American Life” pretty frequently.  So, if you listen to “This American Life” a lot you’ll hear him on there. 

Can we expect to hear Tim on lead vocals again on future recordings?

Yes.

Who’s your favorite boy band and why?

The Jackson Five.  Does it need explanation?  They are obviously the best.