Kids and Money

I recently started reading BPM on a regular basis. They don't try and sway me towards "The Dark side", their reviews appear to be unbiased, and I absolutely love there interviews and other articles. Oh yeah you can also read the entire magazine cover to cover for free on their website. I discovered one such article in the November issue.

Conveniently titled "Material Girls (+ Boys). The short, 5 paragraph piece talks about a new 'docu-short' by award winning filmmaker Lauren Greenfield and in conjunction with The New York Times Magazine's Money issue. The film was shot in LA and Lauren asks different teenagers about money and its effect on their lives.


I'm not trying to pick on the "well-to-do" people in the world, I just find it amusing to listen to people explain their spending...almost rationalizing it to you. The film doesn't just stick to the upper crust. Miss Greenfield talks on all walks of life, from the "4-digit" girls ($1000+ FYI) to family's that share a one bedroom house. It's somewhat humbling to see these kids, none of them are portrayed as unhappy or in an unsatisfactory light. They're all on different tiers revolving around the same city.


I commend Lauren Greenfield for this unbiased look at what could become a major problem for children and teenagers especially in the next decade or so...


You can watch the entire 14 minute film here and then find out more about Lauren Greenfield at her website.


Quotes from the documentary that I just love:

"Going to the things that are 4-digits I think that's very inappropriate for school."..."But, if you want like a really nice classic bag. Its definitely appropriate to spend that kind of like 4-digits..."
-Gabby, 16

"Its just something you have to do. You have to be popular, you have to be in-style. And in order to be popular you have to be in-style, so like you know. So to achieve popularity you have to have a lot of clothes, a lot of shoes."
-Sean Michael, 17 (as an added notation, Mr. Michael says he spends $700-$800 a month just on clothes, which is over twice what I pay in rent every month.)

Oh my a music blog contest....

No, not that kind of contest. The only thing you might win is a feeling of self-worth from helping out a friend.

(Via Hey Nielsen)

(UPDATED 11/13) Following the success (good for us, good for bloggers) of our First Annual TV Blog Contest, we're launching our First Annual Music Blog Contest on Monday, November 12. With the help of our friends at Billboard.com, we've nominated a heap of U.S. blogs that serve up reviews, features, downloads, and more. Check out the complete list of blogs after the jump and the rules here.

You must be a member to vote. Membership is free!

A big thanks to Billboard.com's Jaded Insider Blog for their help and to our newest H!N teammate Sarah Epler who researched all of the sites and stats, and has not taken her headphones off in a week.

Best Music Blog Nominees | Rules

To vote, simply click on the VOTE link next to the blog and then click on the RATE IT button on that blog's main page. You can vote for as many blogs as you want, but you can only vote for each blog once.

3Hive | Visit | VOTE Adam's World | Visit | VOTE Aquarium Drunk | Visit | VOTE Arjan Writes | Visit | VOTE Audiversity | Visit | VOTE Aurgasm | Visit | VOTE Atoms 4 Peace | Visit | VOTE BBQ Chicken Robot | Visit | VOTE Big Stereo | Visit | VOTE Blogs are for Dogs | Visit | VOTE Bradley's Almanac | Visit | VOTE Broken Dial | Visit | VOTE Brooklyn Bodega | Visit | VOTE Brooklyn Vegan | Visit | VOTE Cable & Tweed | Visit | VOTE Can You See The Sunset From The Southside? | Visit | VOTE Captain Obvious | Visit | VOTE Cat Bird Seat | Visit | VOTE Che Sing the Cool | Visit | VOTE Concrete Loop | Visit | VOTE Confessions of a Music Addict | Visit | VOTE Copy Right? | Visit | VOTE Culture Bully | Visit | VOTE Day Trotter | Visit | VOTE Done Waiting | Visit | VOTE Ear Farm | Visit | VOTE Ear Sucker | Visit | VOTE Flux Blog | Visit | VOTE Good Weather For Airstrikes | Visit | VOTE Gorilla Vs. Bear | Visit | VOTE GRANDGOOD | Visit | VOTE Hear Ya | Visit | VOTE Hip Hop Ruckus | Visit | VOTE Hit Hip Hop | Visit | VOTE Honorable Media | Visit | VOTE I am Fuel, You are Friends | Visit | VOTE I Guess I'm Floating Visit| VOTE | Idolator | Visit | VOTE Indie Blog Heaven | Visit | VOTE Indie Muse | Visit | VOTE It's Hard to Find a Friend | Visit | VOTE Largehearted Boy | Visit | VOTE Late Night Wall Flower | Visit | VOTE Live Music Blog | Visit | VOTE Melody Nelson | Visit | VOTE Metal Lungies | Visit | VOTE Metal Martyr | Visit | VOTE Milk Milk Lemonade | Visit | VOTE Modern Age | Visit | VOTE

More Cowbell | Visit | VOTE Music for All Marck | Visit | VOTE Music for Robots | Visit | VOTE Music Forecast | Visit | VOTE Music Is Art | Visit | VOTE Music Is Not Dead | Visit | VOTE Music Ramen | Visit | VOTE Music Snobbery | Visit | VOTE Muzzle of Bees | Visit | VOTE My Old Kentucky Blog | Visit | VOTE Nah, Right | Visit | VOTE Notes from a Different Kitchen | Visit | VOTE Obscure Sound | Visit | VOTE Oh Word | Visit | VOTE Palms Out | Visit | VOTE Pardon Me Duke | Visit | VOTE Pop Muse | Visit | VOTE Pop Tarts Suck Toasted | Visit | VOTE Pro Hip Hop | Visit | VOTE Redthreat | Visit | VOTE Rock Insider | Visit | VOTE Rock Sellout | Visit | VOTE Salad Days Music | Visit | VOTE Shots Ring Out | Visit | VOTE Shoutmouth | Visit | VOTE Skatterbrain | Visit | VOTE Soft Communication | Visit | VOTE Some Velvet Blog | Visit | VOTE Soul Sides | Visit | VOTE Sound On The Sound | Visit | VOTE Soviet Panda | Visit | VOTE Speed of Dark | Visit | VOTE Stereogum | Visit | VOTE Strivin | Visit | VOTE The Late Greats | Visit | VOTE The Lonely Note | Visit | VOTE The Music Slut | Visit | VOTE The Rap Up | Visit | VOTE The Rawking Refuses To Stop! | Visit | VOTE The Sky Report | Visit | VOTE The World Forgot | Visit | VOTE The Yellow Stereo | Visit | VOTE Tiny Mix Tapes | Visit | VOTE T-Sides | Visit | VOTE Ultragrrrl | Visit | VOTE Underrated | Visit | VOTE Vitamin H2 | Visit | VOTE WFMU | Visit | VOTE Yeti Don't Dance | Visit | VOTE You Aint No Picasso | Visit | VOTE You Heard That New | Visit | VOTE

God damn what is it mean

White Shoes & The Couples Company
(Minty Fresh Records)

As a child I watched a lot of old television shows (i.e. Mary Tyler Moore Show, Get Smart, The Bob Newhart Show, The Dyke Van Dyke, F-Troop, Dragnet...anything that was playing on Nick at Nite when Nick at Nite was on Nickelodeon and there wasn't a channel dedicated to 5 hour blocks of the Cosby show everyday). I feel that this was a major point in my life. I discovered 'Classic' shows that my parents and grandparents were raised on, and I've noticed that quite a few of my friends also share a fondness for these shows.

That being noted, I was very happy the first time I heard the Indonesian sextet, White Shoes & The Couples Company. They had all the makings of a 70's show...wardrobe included.

White Shoes & The Couples Company self-titled album , available on Minty Fresh, is a breathe of fresh air for me in this slow moving indie pop world. Their light harmonies, sparse arrangements and flowing melodies make it easy to stare off just reminiscing about your childhood over a cup of tea. Its no wonder All Music Guide named them one of their "25 Most Crush Worthy" bands last year .

White Shoes formed in 2002 at an art institute at Cikini, central Jakarta. Two lover from the fine art faculty Rio & Sari decided to form a band together with their ffriend in the faculty named Saleh. This was the first formation of White Shoes & The Couples Company, which featured Sari on vocal & violin, Rio on rhythm guitar and Saleh on melody guitar. The three of them made their first debut as White Shoes & The Couples Company at a college event. However, the trio formation diverged from their original plan when Sari and Rio had keenly asked a married couple from the music faculty to join the band. The couples was Ricky Surya Virgana & Mela Virgana. Yet the couple was hard to meet since they were busy lecturing and covering for orchestras. Several months later, the couple join White Shoes & The Couples Company with Ricky on Bass and cello and Mela on viola, keyboards and piano. White Shoes & The Couples Company did not have a drummer in the beginining, but Ricky took the initiative to ask a friend at his faculty namely John Navid to play drums for one event at the BB's Bar. How ever, as the time went by John eventually became a permanent drummer in 2004. Thus, the final formation of White Shoes & The Couples Company was set.

I feel like it would be cheating you not to give you as many songs from White Shoes & The Couples Company, but I don't want to infringe on anyone, so I'll put them up in the form of videos. I can't pick a favorite song, but do yourself a favor and go get this album. You won't regret it.

Track 2 Tentang Cita

Tentang Cita (White Shoes and the Couples Company)

Track 4 Windu & Defrina

Track 6 Sunday Memory Lane

Track 8 Senandung Maaf

Hot Chip New Album Free MP3....

Its no secret that Hot Chip are readying a new record, Made In The Dark, for release February 5, 2008. What you should know is that they are giving away a MP3 that has been streaming on their myspace. "I Became A Volunteer" is not a track from their up coming LP, but it is a pretty sweet song. The only catch is that you have to sign up for their mailing list to get access to the mp3, but who doesn't want up to date information on one of London's hottest groups?

The Woodies mad me ill

I made out to MTVu's 4th annual Woodie awards. It was um, interesting....I didn't know it was happening until the night before. And I didn't vote, but a friend pointed out that the bands that were present, were the ones that ended up taking the woodies home, aside for Madvillian winning the left field Woodie...I don't know if it just happened that way or if every awards show really is set up...


The night was pretty uneventful...The performances were good, and the drinks were strong. The most interesting thing to happen during the night was watching the antics of Philly's MC Spank Rock, and his interactions with the live blogging tables of The Gothamist and Best Week Ever.

And to make things even better...between Rilo Kiley's 2 song set (They closed out the night's performances and the show itself), MTV handed out a press release...which I find pretty ridiculous...its pretty much the equivalent to live blogging but in hard copy form. I even took the time to jot down notes during the precedings to re-tell the story to everyone...but instead you can just read about it.














Regardless I ended up waking up the next day feeling sick, and even now I'm still fighting this badass cold...

c-c-c-cool

NME put up their Cool List 2007 earlier today, so go and vote...someone has to be cool, right?

Hello, Blue Roses

Is it any surprise that Dan Bejar would be collaborating/releasing a new record? From The New Pornographers to Destroyer he always seems to be pushing forward in mud hole that we call the music world (industry sounds a bit too tacky here).

This time he's teamed up with Sydney Vermont as the duo Hello, Blue Rose. Together they create a warm soft aura in the vein of Joni Mitchell-ish singer/songwriters of the 70's...But you will notice a deepness upon listening, a new founded insight into song structure, and of course there is a great juxtaposition betweenBejar's songwriting and vocals to Syndey's ethereal voice.

Their debut is due out on January 22, 2008 on Chicago-based label Locust Music. But if you can't wait until then, there will be two 7" splits coming in December. One a 'tour only' split with Frog Eyes on Absolutely Kosher, and the other with the UK's Starless & Bible Black. Available only from Locust's website.


Go to Hello, Blue Roses Myspace to listen to Hello, Blue Roses (yes that is the song title, I'm not delirious yet)...or click here to hear the song "Shadow Falls"

Marina Gasolina

Brazilian's Bonde do Role are coming out with an EP in December featuring a bunch of remixes and a couple of new tracks. Its all those dance hits off of With Lasers remixed by all your favorite Artist...well I'm sure that it'll be great no matter what.

Its scheduled for a December 4th release.

The track listing looks a little like this:

1 - Marina Gasolina (New Version)
2 - Contaminada
3 - Cagago
4 - Miami Beach
5 - Marina Gasolina (Fake Blood Remix)
6 - Marina Gasolina (Peaches Remix)
7 - Office Boy (CSS Remix)
8 - Office Boy (Architecture In Helsinki Remix)
9 - Solta O Frango (Bitchee Bitchee Ya Ya Remix)
10 - Solta O Frango (Ladytron Remix)


Its getting to be pretty cold out now, so let's hope that another dose of that infectious Baile Funk will help keep us warm until the spring thaw.

Charith Cutestory

So I just recently started watching Vice's VBS.TV...something to do with the writer's strike, or perhaps because I don't have basic cable...but some how I started watching a segment that they dubbed 'The Cute Show' and I don't know, but it is damn cute. There are so many (well about 8) shows up and each one is equally as adorable.

This one is the first episode that I watched...









I don't care how this speaks about my character...its CUTE.

pop:ped

Then:












Now:




I really don't have much to say about this, but if this isn't a great start for the return of pop music?...
Then how about the fact that Britney Spears' lastest album will be at the top of the Bilboard Charts next week. Huh?..HUH?


Oh Backstreet Boys where are you?...Oh Wait...

Post: Halloween

With a slew of new and upcoming releasefor Def Jux this year, The Juggaknots' DJ Boo compiled a mixtape for Definitive Jux for the recent Halloween holiday entitled Halloween Candy Before Dinner. Featuring Definitive Jux artists El-P, Aesop Rock, Junk Science, Hangar 18 and Rob Sonic.

Tracklisting:

Aesop Rock - Citronella
El-P - Smithereens'
Rob Sonic - Rock The Convoy
Junk Science - Do It Easy
Hangar 18 - West Wing
Rob Sonic - Dead As Disco
Junk Science - Hey!
Hangar 18 - Bakin' Soda
Junk Science - Jerry McGuire
Hangar 18 - Thing Big
Rob Sonic - Fat Man & Little Boy
El-P - Flyentology
Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass