What a fun, sexy time for you: Arrested Development MP3s

I'm only beginning to get over my mourning period for Arrested Development, easily the smartest, zaniest, wittiest and all-around best sitcom of the last eighty-five years or so. I figure a lot of you agree, since the one post I wrote about the show has consistently remained one of this blog's most popular. And every day, more and more people find their way over here via Arrested-related searches. But I'm not really surprised. I'm still rewatching my DVDs at an alarming rate. I'm still excessively quoting the show whether the context calls for it or not. But COME ON! "Mr. Banana Grabber?" "Operation Hot Mother?" "Banger in the mouth?" Nothing improves a solemn Thanksgiving dinner with the family more than busting out those allusions. Here are some of my other favorite moments from my three favorite characters: * MP3: G.O.B. Bluth - With Club Sauce * MP3: G.O.B. Bluth - Fuck Mountain * MP3: G.O.B. Bluth - Unless It Be-eth Me, Thy Sweet Lord * MP3: G.O.B. Bluth - Push The Tension * MP3: G.O.B. Bluth - Sexual Harassment Speech * MP3: Buster Bluth - They Even Touched My Charlie Browns * MP3: Buster Bluth - Awards From Army * MP3: Buster Bluth - Hey Hermano * MP3: Buster Bluth - Grilled Cheese * MP3: Buster Bluth - Like Anyone Would Want To 'R' Her * MP3: Tobias Fünke - Douche Chill * MP3: Tobias Fünke - Fire Sale * MP3: Tobias Fünke - Do These Effectively Hide My Thunder? * MP3: Tobias Fünke - Hey Fizellas * MP3: Tobias Fünke - Taking A Chubby * MP3: Arrested Development Theme [Buy Seasons 1, 2 and 3] (With special thanks to the-op.com) Tags: Arrested Development, Buster Bluth, GOB Bluth, Tobias Funke, David Cross, quotes, MP3

Big infatuation: the Long Blondes MP3s

Photo by Dean Chalkley It’s been kind of a gloomy year so far. Most of my favorite records have been either sad, serious, quiet or angry. Now that’s all well and good, and probably more reflective of the times we're in, but sometimes a guy just wants to rock out. Get a nice little buzz going and hit the town like an Ali right hook. That’s why I’m so grateful that Sheffield's Long Blondes have finally issued their long-hinted-at debut, Someone To Drive You Home (in England, anyway). It’s so overloaded with joyful, danceable rhythms that I’m already envisioning whole bars of Brooklyn girls doing that hipster heel-hip swivel I find so endearing. Led by the hyper-charismatic Kate Jackson, the Long Blondes excel at sweet, hook-driven Britpop. They hammer out choruses that will cheerfully pinball in your head for hours. They charge at you with bouncy, elastic(a) guitar lines that guarantee your feet at a minimum will be moving. It’s music that smartly calls back everything as recent as Franz Ferdinand’s “Tell Me Tonight” to as early as ‘60s girl groups and Blondie’s new-wave pop. But the band’s success is as much due to its songs as its carefully-coifed ancestry. Every track on Someone to Drive You Home feels like a winner without exception, and though there've been four quality singles (“Giddy Stratospheres,” Separated By Motorways,” “Weekend Without Makeup” and “Once and Never Again”), most of the others could’ve happily stood in instead. As we head into December's doldrums, this album arrives as a much-needed pick-me-up, both literally and figuratively. As the winter chill settles in and the inevitable holiday blues strikes, I'll be playing this one on repeat, faithfully tapping out the gloom. Because while I almost never spring for imports, this is one party that I just couldn't afford to miss. * MP3: "Giddy Stratospheres" - The Long Blondes from Someone To Drive You Home * MP3: "Lust In The Movies" - The Long Blondes from Someone To Drive You Home [Buy it] * Band Website: The Long Blondes Tags: Long Blondes, Kate Jackson, Giddy Stratospheres, Britpop, MP3

Video Tuesday #17

"Lie To Me" Tom Waits "Open Your Eyes, You Can Fly" OOIOO "Separated By Motorways" The Long Blondes "Army of Me" (Animated version) Bjork

Thailand series #7

That's the end of the Thailand series. Hope you enjoyed it.

Get even: The Evens MP3s

Photo by The Evens For the last six years, every time I’ve read the news or discussed current events, I’ve vacillated between anger, depression, outrage, resignation and total powerlessness. I knew from the outset that Bush would be bad for this country, but I had no idea how virulently bad. I knew having Republicans in control of all three branches of governments would set us back, but I couldn’t foresee quite the extent of the damage. Whether it’s been committed internationally, socially, environmentally, economically, militarily—just to name a few—it’ll take a long, long time to undo this recent legacy. A lot of musicians, artists and writers have responded of course, with increasing frequency and varying degrees of success. I mean, how do you tackle an administration so historically massive without historical distance? How do you make incisive criticisms without simplifying your message or dampening your art form? It’s a heady challenge for any artist, but then Ian MacKaye has been charging headfirst at the establishment since the first Reagan presidency. From Minor Threat to Embrace to Fugazi and now The Evens, he’s never been afraid to speak/scream his mind. From the outset, he’s been unabashedly political and anti-materalist, never toning down the sound or message for mainstream consumption. So if there’s anyone’s musical take I’d like to hear on Bush, MacKaye would be right up there. (A few others I’d look forward to: M.I.A., Sonic Youth, El-P, the Books). Fortunately, just in time for another election cycle, MacKaye is back to protest again. Reteaming with former Warmers drummer (and his girlfriend) Amy Farina, he takes on Bush in a number of ways. The best and cleverest approach is on closer “Dinner With The President.” There, MacKaye and Farina personalize the Commander-in-Chief’s unwelcoming nature rather than keeping it macroscopic. It’s not his inattention to Sudan or his failure to reach bipartisan compromise, but the fact that he hasn’t invited them to dinner that really troubles them. “Available, but they’re not calling me/ I live in town, it’s not geography,” MacKaye intones, sounding vaguely hurt and maybe even surprised. Then they hypothesize what could be behind the snub: “Maybe we don’t have any common interests/ maybe we don’t speak the same tongue/ maybe power lies in inaccessibility/ Maybe power lies.” The duo isn’t as subtle on earlier songs such as “Everybody Knows,” which subs the metaphors for straight-up calling out. MacKaye even gets his ire up to late-Fugazi levels, exclaiming, “You’re fired!,” “Everybody knows you are a liar,” and most poignantly, “Let the door hit you on the ass.” It’s something I’d find obnoxious out of a lot of other people’s mouths (Michael Franti, Ani DiFranco, anyone at Lilith Fair) but it somehow sounds right here. Farina, who really emerges as a full presence on this album, sounds so joyful and excited about expelling the President. And MacKaye, more than twenty-five years at the forefront of the underground, still sounds so cool when he’s losing his cool. Because, while it may not be the most sophisticated emotion, after the chaos that’s been wrought on this country (and a few others), sometimes all you want to do is get even. * MP3: "Dinner With The President" - The Evens from Get Evens * MP3: "Everybody Knows" - The Evens from Get Evens [Buy it] * Band Website: The Evens Tags: The Evens, Ian MacKaye, Get Evens, Amy Farina, George Bush, Dischord, MP3

Thailand series #6

Thailand series #5

Nick of Tim

A few years ago, I wrote a comic strip with my friend Ben. It was perhaps the most exhilarating and dizzyingly amazing six months of my life. Then Ben and I realized we were lazy and didn't care that much and were not always especially funny once we sobered up. So now I just live vicariously through comics like Bassist Wanted and Toothpaste For Dinner and a new one called Nick of Tim. Here's a taste of the funny they're dishing out: You can check out more Nick of Tim here.

Thailand series #4

Guest post: Sarah Allen

Today, I'm ceding the stage to introduce my friend Sarah, who's contributing Nerd Litter's first-ever guest post. And what a great post it is, striking up a potent mix of the provocative and evocative, not to mention incorporating some excellent musical selections. Enjoy. "Favorite" - Neko Case from Canadian Amp [Buy it] he said my name, over and over again, and then he whispered, "I'm going to give you bruises," his mouth against my cheek. "Expressway to Yr Skull (The Crucifixion of Sean Penn/Madonna, Sean and Me)" - Sonic Youth from EVOL [Buy it] I concentrated hard on pretending to listen, and he walked through my apartment turning off all of the lights except for the one in the hallway. it was too cold inside with the windows open, but he unbuttoned his shirt anyway and lay back across my bed sideways. I pulled off my necklace. his jaw in my hand was the squarest I'd ever felt. "Happy" - Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins from Rabbit Fur Coat [Buy it] I was holding the cake with upturned palms, all of the candles lit, and I looked up at him and said I'd heard he'd had a rough day, and he looked startled, and I thought, "oh." "Wayside/Back In Time" - Gillian Welch from Soul Journey [Buy it] I opened the car door so that I could hear how hard the rain was, and considered the following: whether or not I was hungry, if I should put on shoes, who I forgot to say goodbye to, and how I would describe this to him, the color of this sky in Kentucky. "Tennessee" - Silver Jews from Bright Flight [Buy it] he ordered me another drink while I poured pepper into his grits and stirred. I'd never been looked at so hard in my life, and I thought to myself, "don't you ever forget how he's looking at you right now, ever, as long as you live." "Temperature" - Sean Paul from The Trinity we were drinking rum and cokes from paper cups, I had on red lipstick, our hands were sticky, there were boats in the harbor, the tree branches hung so low they touched our faces, my throat was sore, none of us had cried all day, and we were trying to decide what to eat for dinner. "Mushaboom" - Feist from Let It Die [Buy it] we'd taken the train and I'd shown him the power lines and graffiti and buildings that I watched every morning on my way to work. the snow was coming down hard; I couldn't remember the last time I was so happy. "West Palm Beach" - Palace Music from Lost Blues and Other Songs [Buy it] it was late at night, and he brushed my hair across my cheek and put his hand on the side of my face and pulled me towards him and went back to sleep. "Never Trust A Master" - Xylen Roberts [Visit him] my brother was driving and I leaned back onto his shoulder with my feet out the window, legs stretched straight, calves cut into by the car door. it was getting ready to rain, and dark, and he was taking roads I'd never seen, though we'd lived there for years. "12 Bellevue" - Kathleen Edwards from Failer [Buy it] she pulled the car over and I got out and walked to the train tracks, and there were more birds than I could count flying in a circle over my head. she'd been laughing all morning, and we'd eaten crêpes with ice cream and crêpes with cranberries. there was still a lot to do. If you'd like to submit a Guest Post of your own or perhaps even your own list of songs that make you think of the ten favorite things that happened to you this year, contact me at nerdlitter[at]yahoo[dot]com.

Thailand series #3

Video Tuesday #16

"God's Gonna Cut You Down" (Unofficial version) Johnny Cash (via Antville) "The Funeral" The Clipse "Somnambulist" Small Sails "Because Of" Leonard Cohen "Advice For Young Mothers To Be" The Veils "F.K.O." Subtle

Thailand series #2

Mixtape for my sweetheart, the drunk #13

1) "Jesus For The Jugular" - The Veils from Nux Vomica [Buy it] 2) "Buried In Teeth" - Mariee Sioux from A Bundled Bundle of Bundles [Buy it] 3) "Run Through Your Hair" - Oneida from The Wedding [Buy it] 4) "Long Legs" - The Magic Numbers from The Magic Numbers [Buy it] 5) "Dirty Fingernails" - Modest Mouse from The Fruit That Ate Itself [Buy it] 6) "New Skin" - Celebration from Celebration [Buy it] 7) "1000 Pound Eyelids" - Chad VanGaalen from Infiniheart [Buy it] 8) "In My Head" - The Ballet from Mattachine! [Buy it] 9) "My Heart Is Out of Bounds" - The Long Blondes from "Appropriation" single [Buy it] 10) "I Know The Weight Of Your Throat" - Sunset Rubdown from Snake's Got A Leg [Buy it] 11) "Counting Up Your Bones" - Nina Nastasia from On Leaving [Buy it] 12) "Molly's Lips" - Nirvana from Incesticide [Buy it] 13) "Ce Visage-là" - Marianne Dissard from 11 songs demo [Buy it]

Thailand series #1