I've been "blogging" at coverlover.vox.com (which lets me emb videos :)

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Busy, busy, busy.... I've been working a lot lately.  I have to work on Labor Day, which is fine, because I guess, I can use the money.

The only place really that you can find me is at weheartmusic.com, which is kind of like my baby.  We've recently spawned a W?M Podcast!  You can listen to Episode 002 here in the embed.    You should subscribe to hear the latest news and music :)!

Ryan and I discussed two stories: Supergrass: Sleep Walking Accident and Buzzcocks...Imagine A Mildly Amusing Panel Show.

Below is an example of the bands that I've written for W?M (go to LAB to hear the audio):

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Albums..>          ..>..>..> PHOTO:Ana [Mar 2000]Porn Beautiful [Mar 2002]Devil Is A Girl [Mar 2005]Where Heaven Ends [Mar 2005]Where Heaven Ends (Uncensored) [May 2006]Devil Is A Girl/Where Heaven Ends (Germany)      Band Members..>..> ? Ana (singer ? Pekka (guitars) ? Johannes (Ana's brother; guitars) ? Kirka (bass) ? Masa (drums)   Footnotes [1] From "Now We're REALLY Underground"

 

See as we don't have any bands from Finland, I've decided to pick a Finnish band called LAB today.  They are a "gothic rock" band on Sony/BMG, but I think they're more Alternative Rock from the 1999 to 2005 era.  They sound similar to Daisy Chainsaw^[W?M], so if you like them, you'll love LAB.

Looking at their album covers, you can start to see a trend: the direction of the band seems to be in Christianity imagery of Angels and Devils.  Their third album featured a topless Ana in a Christ like on-the-cross position, an imagery that would never be accepted in America (good thing none of their albums was ever released here).

Of course, none of their songs actually deals with religion.

Sadly, the only international fame they've received is being on the soundtrack to Vivendi Universal's FlatOut Video Game.The song is "Beat the Boys", which I've included here for you to listen to.

The other song I've picked out is "Killing Me", which is from their debut album, Porn Beautiful.

As far as I know, the band is no longer around. According to their last post entry (sometime in 2005), the band was dropped by BMG/Sony^[1].  

 August 31, 2007 9:53 PM  vu  my?posts  vu@weheartmusic.com labplanet.net     

I haven't updated this blog in a long time, sorry. I've been spending all my time over at weheartmusic, as you guys are probably aware.

I "discovered" this blog ranking website a few days ago and now I can see who's actually popular vs the over fourteen million blogs out there. I'm very pleased to say that weheartmusic is ranked in the 13,000 area. I think in a few months we'll be in the 10k club. We've only been around since January 2007, and we're already doing better than most blogs that's been around for years.

I also joined facebook, I thought it was only open to skool kids, and I'm not sure if I like it. It's definitely replacing myspace for sure, I mean as a means to stay in contact with friends, as these are REAL people vs myspace spambots. Not sure if you can find me on facebook, just do a search for my email address I guess.

vu Links: Technorati Profile

I just saw a very interesting movie called "Tears of the Black Tiger".  It's sort of a Thaighetti Western.  They filmed the movie in Thailand, so they had to try make the movie more "western". But it fails miserably - there's just something about Thai clothing, designs, actors, trees, that is distinctively Thai.  The story seems to be borrowed from Romeo & Juliet.

Their technique and influence are obvious from Italy (or more specifically Italian Westerns), with the tight zoom in the eyes and the crazy gun fights... it's already a cult favorite since the movie was released in 2000 but FINALLY made it to DVD this month in 2007 (courtesy of Magnolia Pictures).  The domestic release features an English audio track (which is NOT BAD since everything seems to sync).  If you consider the Spaghetti Westerns with their English dubs, it sort of feels normal to have this movie dubbed.

Anyroad, hey, everybody's favorite girl-trio, the Pipettes, just announced their North American tour and special US-only EP.  And guess what ???? They are NOT SKIPPING MINNESOTA!  Unbelievable!   The 7th Street Entry is a TINY venue, there's probably only a maximum of 200 people in before they break some sort of fire code.  If anyone wants to come see them play here - you are more than welcome to stay over at my house!  I have blankets, a xbox, and 2,000 DVDs to keep ourselves entertained.

Anyway, their limited tour dates:

June 1 - Toronto, ON - Lee's Palace
June 2 - Washington, DC - Black Cat
June 3 - Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
June 4 - Boston, MA - Great Scott
June 5 - New York, NY - Highline Ballroom
June 7 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
June 8 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
June 10 - San Diego, CA - Casbah
June 11 - Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour
June 12 - San Francisco, CA - Popscene @ Rickshaw Stop
June 14 - Seattle, WA - Chop Suey
June 15 - Vancouver, BC - Plaza Club

And for an added bonus here is the cover to The Pipettes EP "Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me" out on June 5th!

The sad news?  "We Are The Pipettes" LP will not be domestically released until August 28th (even though all the hardcore fans probably already have a copy!) :/

Remember that Winter Mix CD?  Well it sort of became a Weheartmusic CD/Booklet. 

The CD is free to anyone interested, I just need you to send me postage, it should be less than $3. Of course, you can always read and hear the tracks yourself:

1.  Cristina | Zazie - Rose
2.  Randy | Math and Physics Club - Weekends Away
3.  Michael | Sonic Youth - Kool Thing
4.  Brody | A Very Hip Band From London Called The Rocks
5.  Gus | 23
6.  Vu | Stars - Heart
7.  Melinda | "Beware of the Piano": DJ Lebowitz rockin' your punkass like the donkey
8.  Christopher | Halflight - Worship
9.  Minh |  It's Mono, so there!
10. Kristine |  Nada Surf - Always Love
11. Jason | Eisley - Sea King
12. Em | RIAA - It's Whiskey
13. Jaime | Moi, le voisin
14. Maggie | My Favorite - The Kids Are All Wrong
15. Em | Daft Punk - Da Funk
16. Mads | Candie Payne - All I Need To Hear
17. Troy | Bleach - Dipping
18. Celeste | The Feminine Complex - Are You Lonesome Like Me?

I have made enough copies for everyone on the track listing.  I painted on each CD, so each one is unique and different.  Even the booklet will be slightly different from one another.

Did you know that myspace also blocked youtube (but enough users fought back), Imeem, Vidilife, Stickam, and Revver?

I can't wait until they ban Flickr or Twitter! 

Watch my favorite scene from Veronica Mars, Season 3, Episode 14. It's only 2 minutes, well worth checking out:

Listen to the theme song

Too awful.  The original song:

Alanis Morrissette's reimagined version:

I am still pretty busy at weheartmusic.com.  At least, I'm having a lot of fun talking about music.  I'm not going to include this Alanis version (everyone is talking about it in the bloggosphere)... although I do have a cover-lover blog as well :/

If you could balance a flip phone on your nose - would you use it to save the world?

Happy pre St Patrick's day. Anonymous woman music writer just posted a mashup between Run DMC vs the Pogues