Blog: Merry Swankster

Ssion - "Clown" Here’s a vibrantly awesome video for your Friday afternoon. Super colorful, super catchy, super awesome, super glam, super. Go full screen on this one to fully appreciate it. Watching it brings back bad memories of missing Ssion's set (pronounced like the 2nd syllable of passion) and instead suffering through Fischerspooner ...//shudders\\.

[Fanfarlo] Monday February 22 The Growlers @ Hi-Dive Epica @ Bluebird Theater Billy Joel & Elton John @ Pepsi Center Tuesday February 23 Noodles Alexander @ Larimer Lounge Bowline On A Bight @ Cervantes Other Side Tyler Despres and Maria Kohler @ Meadowlark Wednesday February 24 Chainsaw Love Affair @ Marquis Theater Black Cat Ashes @ Larimer Lounge Octopus Nebula & Papadosio @ Fox Theatre Neverbreak, With Vengeance @ [...]

Vampire Weekend - "Giving Up the Gun" Vampire Weekend get a lot of slack from the indie bottom feeders (BV comment section, et al), which is predictably unfortunate. Regardless of where one stands, you need to hand it to them for keeping things interesting. Enlisting a stable of pop culture heavyweights on this, their heavily stylized video for the downtempo standout cut from Contra , including rappers RZA and Lil Jon, Disney franchise heartthrob Joe Jonas, and Hollywood star Jake Gyllenhaal all appearing in a variety of bizarre roles surrounding [...]

[G-dubs] Monday February 15 Cole Rudy's Jazz Expo @ Meadowlark Tuesday February 16 Eyedea & Abilities Marquis Theater Beryl Beloved @ Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom Jon Wayne and the Pain @ Cervantes Other Side John Butler Trio @ Fox Theatre Wednesday February 17 Bad Mother and the Sons of Bitches @ Larimer Lounge Otep @ Marquis Theater Krizz Kaliko @ Gothic Theatre Guy Clark @ Swallow Hill Fresh Breath Committee [...]

Stephin Merritt of Magnetic Fields named his epic work 69 Love Songs because he needed an outsize numeral. He considered 100 but decided it was simply too much, so he chose 69, both for its graphic potential (“It’s a visual palindrome. It would make a good logo on a Broadway poster”) and because it was the next lowest number below 100 “that had another relevant meaning.” And he’s right. Sure, 72 is the number of beats-per-minute in the average human heart rate, and 98.6 is the average human temperature, but 69, nimble shorthand for an iconic—not to mention [...]

The Morning Benders with the Echo Chamber Orchestra – “Excuses” Here's a gorgeous version of “Excuses” from the Morning Benders’ forthcoming album Big Echo . The band employed “all their friends” from the Bay Area, referred to them as the “Echo Chamber Orchestra” and gave it the Spector-inspired wall of sound treatment. Enlisted talents include John Vanderslice, Christopher Owens (Girls) and a ton of others. A success by any definition. Silky voiced Morning Benders front man Chris Chu [...]

Robinson Crusoe with dog and music (1913) The following is an account of a middle-aged male who lived twenty-eight years all alone on an un-inhabited island. Found next to his skeletal remains was a smashed up music device that was still playing a song in the sand. The mix between the force of sun and the anxiety that comes with desolate isolation tell me it must already be past noon. The waves pull inward, everything does here, and instinct and hunger drag [...]

• Kato - Holiday Show Final

[Girls] Monday February 8 The Entrance Band @ Hi-Dive Gungor @ Walnut Room LoveHateHero @ Marquis Theater Tuesday February 9 Mark Brut @ Larimer Lounge Matt Hires @ Soiled Dove Tyler Despres @ Meadowlark Wednesday February 10 Girls @ Bluebird Theater Theodore Black @ Larimer Lounge Langhorne Slim @ Hi-Dive Theory of a Deadman @ Ogden Theater Mystic Roots Band @ Cervantes' Other Side Telepath @ Fox [...]

Monday February 1 Haiti relief benefit: Mike Maurer Band, I Sank Molly Brown, more @ Marquis Theater Nouvelle Vague @ Bluebird Theater Jackie Greene @ Fox Theatre Brittany Shane @ Walnut Room Tuesday February 2 Ave @ Larimer Lounge The Strange @ Cervantes Other Side Dubskin & Euforquestra @ Boulder Theater Wednesday February 3 Four Year Strong @ Marquis Theater To My Love @ Larimer Lounge Jet Edison @ Cervantes Other Side All [...]

“Oh, how happy we will be/ if we keep the ten commandments of love.” —the Moonglows “One of a thousand pities that you can’t categorize There are ten commandments of love…” —Elvis Costello, “Pidjin English “She’s got the ten commandments tattooed on her arm.” —MC5, “Sister Anne” Not nine. Not eleven. Ten commandments. No wonder ten-named songs are a solid lot: they are linked inextricably to [...]

Gang Of Four - "To Hell With Poverty" Live on Old Grey Whistle Test, 4.11.1981 Worth it alone for Jon King's freakout dancing.

Here is Fever Ray's Karin Dreijer Andersson accepting an award at Sweden's P3 Guld public radio award show. Her um, inspired outfit looks like the result of a nightmare mashup of a Shriner, a Greek Orthodox bishop and the always feared actualization of way, way too many psychedelics.

Monday January 25 Nile @ Bluebird Theater Tuesday January 26 Adam Franklin & Bolts of Melody @ Hi-Dive Patrick Kratzer @ Larimer Lounge Timbaland feat The Fray @ Gothic Theatre Wednesday January 27 Suckered Inn @ Hi-Dive White Denim @ Larimer Lounge Silent Civilian @ Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom Dumpstaphunk @ Fox Theatre Analog Space @ Lion’s Lair iCconoClass @ Herman’s Hideaway Thursday January 28 High On [...]

Monday January 18 Tuesday January 19 Parachute @ Marquis Theater Seismic Event @ Larimer Lounge Wednesday January 20 Goodie Mob @ Gothic Theatre Baby Birds Don’t Drink Milk w/ MMCIII @ Rhinoceropolis Edge of the World @ Larimer Lounge Mount Righteous @ Hi-Dive Greensky Bluegrass @ Bluebird Theater The Grascals @ Soiled Dove Johnny Woodrose @ Meadowlark Thursday January 21 Primasonic w/ New Ben Franklins (CD Release) [...]

If she sounds like she's haunting your 1997-era dial up modem in this recording, it's because she kinda is (maybe): M.I.A. also says that she recorded a song called (seriously) "I'm Down Like Your Internet Connection" with a group of Filipino Verizon workers. She says, "I was having issues with my cable and wireless, and I was on the phone [with tech support] for three hours, and I thought, 'Maybe this needs to be part of my music, could you just learn these lyrics and sing it down the phone to me?' 10 phone calls later, I [...]

[Reverend Horton Heat week in Colorado] Monday January 11 Tuesday January 12 Tyler Despres @ Meadowlark Wednesday January 13 100 Monkeys @ Marquis Theater The Supervillains @ The Black Sheep Pluyd w/ Matt Spinks @ Herman’s Hideaway Analog Space @ Meadowlark Thursday January 14 Fellow Citizens @ Marquis Theater 3 Two @ Larimer Lounge Panal S.A. de C.V. @ Hi-Dive [...]

Please let this herald the year of very weird hip-hop videos. Lil Wayne with a horse and magenta-paint-drenched Rubix cube. Jim Jones with a cross fighting grandma zombies. Dipset constructing a house made out of stucco and old National Geographics. Man, my imagination is shot.

Robinson Crusoe with dog and music (1913) The following is an account of a middle-aged male who lived twenty-eight years all alone on an un-inhabited island. This text was found next to his skeletal remains. Also found an arm’s length away was a smashed up music device still playing in the sand. The mix between the force of sun and the anxiety that comes with desolate isolation tell me it must already be past noon. The waves pull inward, everything does here, and instinct and hunger drag [...]

• "Holiday Road" by Philly's own David "DL... » holidayshowfinal.m4a

I hope you enjoyed our 50 songs of 2009 list as much as we enjoyed writing. Shall we say 87% enjoyment? Aces. Before we go headfirst into 2010 (/checks calendar, /urges all to momentarily forget what year it is), I wanted to do my own listicle of favorite songs and albums of 2009. Here they are. THNX! Albums of the year Honorable mentions Bat for Lashes – Two Suns Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz Dark was the Night [...]

Monday January 4 Show Me The Sky @ The Black Sheep Quee Quegs @ Old Curtis St. Bar Tuesday January 5 Andy Henningsen @ Larimer Lounge Wednesday January 6 The Acidophiles @ Larimer Lounge Robert Earl Keen @ The Black Sheep Carl Robota @ Meadowlark Thursday January 7 Iconoclass @ Old Curtis St. Bar Omega Agency @ Larimer Lounge The Band of Heathens @ Bluebird Theater [...]