Countdown Friday: Kanye's Tweets!

As I am sure most people have heard, Kanye West has joined twitter.  Here's the top ten reasons his tweets make my life a little brighter.

1. They are ridiculous, and as Jenny would say, "AH-MAZING".  He says these crazy things and get caught up on certain subjects.  Two days ago he tweeted 5 times in seven minutes about The We Tang Clan.  I think this has something to do with the Raekwon/Beieber/Kanye West project he's working on.  He also makes sweeping comments like...

"Respect to the whole Wu Tang for being the most influential movement in my life... I think about Ghost Face every time I look a jewelry". 
 It starts out so sweet and genuine and then changes to what i am sure is still authentic but still pretty ridiculous.  I love it.   Another instant of oddness,

  "I know you see me.... it's like I'm 3D!"

2. The ridiculousness of these tweets has started a movement by comic Aziz Ansari to start a hash tag called, #PredictingKanyeTweets.  This is what I mean when I say that Kanye West's joining Twitter has made my life a little brighter.  Here are my favorites. 

"Damn I wish Hermes made edible snacks, Cheezits just ain't dope enough for my mouth" 

"yo how @levarburton got a million more followers than me!? i aint better than reading rainbow?!"

"Hans Zimmer needs to write a score for whenever I eat a cookie. when I eat cookies shit is mad suspenseful"

3.  Along those lines, there is a genius out there who decided to pair Kanye West's Tweet with New Yorker cartoons.  I will let the work speak for itself. 

5.  It makes me happy to know that he is in studio.  Kanye is constantly tweeting about recording and remixing new things, and is obsessed with his new "Power" single.  You also get a good idea of how the new album is coming together.  The other day he asked for calligrapher suggestions, which I am assuming is for album art.  

6. No along the lines of him being in the studio, we know exactly who he's in the studio with.  Here is a  tweet that excites me.  

"Me Mos & Tip.. Late night studio... I got on Tip's glasses"

Kanye, Mos Def and Q-Tip on a song together?  Yes, this new album will live up to the hype. 

7.  Kanye posted a link to Ninjasonik.  Ninjasonik is a hip hop group out of Brooklyn that are friends of a friend, and I always like to see the smaller groups get shout outs.  I also have a feeling if Kanye's 700,000 plus followers read that it's going to do good things for Ninjasonik.  It's not just them, I hope Kanye will keep introducing the world to groups we haven't heard of.  It was a little over two years ago we met Kid Cudi through kanyeuniversecity.com.  Keep it up West.

"Matt & Kim - Daylight ... drums are so stupid on this song!! peep this Ninjasonik flip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2vO65MP0lc"

8.  Kanye West and Justin Bieber have been communicating on Twitter.  When I first read that Kanye had listened "Runaway Love" ten times in a row I thought he was talking about the Ludacris and Mary J. Blige song from a few years back.  Then I kept reading and realizes he was a Belieber (like believer).  It makes me chuckle that Kanye West get obsessive about Justin Bieber songs, and I am sure he made that kids day.  Also, Kanye tells us he's going around his class clapping to the song.  Kanye West is clapping to Justin Bieber. 
9. I like the Kanye posts what he's listening to because it will make me thing of albums I haven't put on in while.  Of course there was the Wu-Tang tangent the other day, and I've said before how much I love Method Man.  He was also praising M.I.A.'s "Bamboo Banga"" last week, probably because it repeats the word "power" over and over again.
10. He knows he's been a jackass and that he is slightly ridiculous, but he comes back and is endearing about it.  This is why I can be disappointed in him, but he will always be one of my favorites. 
"Thank you MTV for letting for putting POWER right after your #1 show. IFEELTHELOVE!... and thanks for the 2nd I mean 3rd ok 4th chance!!!"

Sounds Like...

First off, I want to say that I am so happy Sir Lucious Left Foot... The Sun of Chico Dusty was finally released and I have new Big Boi in my life.  The album is great and you can really tell he was feeling creatively inspired.  I was extremely disappointed at the break up of Outkast, but maybe it is exactly what they needed artistically, because this album is much stronger than Idlewild. 

That being said, one of my favorite tracks on the album is "Daddy Fat Sax".  You can literally feel the energy pouring out of it.  I can just imagine Big Boi at The Metro running across the stage while rapping and the whole place going crazy.  I hope beyond hope he tours this fall or winter, and the Metro is on his list, even though he's probably too big to play there.  I think one of the reasons I can imagine this so vividly is that "Daddy Fat Sax" sounds similar to Wale's "World Tour", and I have seen Wale go bouncing across the stage at The Metro.  See what you think...

Daddy Fat Sax

World Tour

I can't really put my finger on what it is, but they just seem alike to me.  I could be completely out of my mind but, if I were a DJ I would experiment to see what these two sound like mashed up.

Musical Seasons

This morning while getting ready for work I've decided to prepare myself for a Ray LaMontage and David Grey concert that I am going to a week from Wednesday.  They also both have new albums being released tomorrow, so I'll have a big music day.  The are playing at the Pritzker Pavillion in Millenium Park, and I bought the tickets almost as much for the location as I did for the music.  I saw the Chicago Symphony Orchestra play there two years ago and it's amazing to watch the sunset behind the city architecture while listening to good music, but that's not what this post is about.

I'm interested in how music correlates to seasons and why? I know that obviously a song can bring up emotions and memories of a pinpointed place.  U2's "With or Without You" reminds me of my high school boyfriend and "The World At Large" by Modest Mouse always makes me think of a specific gas station in Manchester, ME where my Dad and I stopped on our way home one day while listening to the album for the first time.  However I seem to correlate genres of music with specific seasons.

It's 80 degrees outside and humid, and I listen to Ray LaMontage and I want to put on boots and a corduroy blazer.  I associate that guitar centric, sing songwriter haunting voice with fall. It reminds me of going back to school, kicking leaves while walking on the sidewalk, and deciding whether a sweater is enough or if I will need a jacket too.  I've realized I think this is because growing up in Boston and spending my summers in Maine I had two distinctive groups of friends, and the high school ones were more the mellow sounds of these guitarist.  The school year was usually highlighted with One Fell Swoop/Dispatch, Guster, and John Mayer concerts, and sitting in friends basements to see what Van Morrison song they learned on their guitar that week.  Even in college, my sophomore year the first week back we went to see Ben Harper and Jack Johnson at Red Rocks, with a special surprise appearance of G. Love.

The same way hip hop and punk/rock reminds me of summer.  The skaters and others I hung out with would be blasting what was then the new Chronic 2001 and going to Dropkick Murphy's and Bouncing Souls concerts.  Another summer staple was Dave Matthews Band, but I'm sure that has to do with the fact that he does his huge tours every summer.

I obviously don't only listen to certain genre of music during certain seasons, it's just the way the songs make me feel and the way I correlate it to the season.  That being said, this concert could not come at a better time for at least my psyche, the last week of August, just in time to say goodbye to summer and hello to fall.  I almost hope there's a chill in the air next Wednesday.

Lennon Bio-pic Coming to Theaters Near You

I saw a trailer yesterday for Nowhere Boy a movie coming out in December about John Lennon and the creation of the Beatles.  I was a little shocked that I hadn't heard anything about this movie.  Maybe I read a tiny little blurb on the side bar of a Rolling Stone, but I didn't remember it.  At first I was a bit taken aback, knowing that if it wasn't done correctly you would have a lot of very angry Beatles fans, young and old.  Then I got to thinking about it, and there have been so many movie bio-pics in recent history that have been done really well.  Mostly I am thinking of Ray and Walk The Line.  The more I thought about the stranger it seemed that no movie had been made before.  Well they may have been one, but it obviously wasn't good enough to garner any major attention.  This on the other hand looks promising.  Obviously The Beatles are too big just to focus on the entire history of the band.  I think taking just John Lennon and the creation of the band is genius.  Plus I think that this will encourage people who listen to The Beatles, but may not know them that well to really get into their music and their stories. The are the biggest rock band of all time, and John Lennon is probably the most famous poet of the 20th century.  He was such an inspiration to so many people it surprises me this hasn't come out earlier.  I hope the movie will be satisfying, and I can tell you that during the lull between Christmas and New Years I hope to find my way into a movie theater to see Nowhere Boy.

Why Do Pop Stars Hate Pants?

Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, Beyonce, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Ke$ha, Kelis, Miley Cyrus, Pink, Ciara, Shakira, Kylie Minogue, Madonna, Fergie, Justin Timberlake with Bobby Moynihan and Andy Sandberg plus a bewildered Beyonce.

Great Album Titles

Just as I sometimes like to put up great lines I think I am also going to point out great album names.  I mean am I the only one with friends when something odd or pun-tastic is said thinks, that would be a great band name or that would be a great album title?  Anyway, while making a great playlist for one of my best friends today I came across one of the greatest album titles of all time:

Modest Mouse's "Good News For People Who Love Bad News". 

Great album, great title.  I think it came out in 2004, and it was amazing.

Lolla Blues

I know that I haven't written in a while, and I was actually laying in bed last night thinking about how I need to get back on the posting horse.  I guess I've just been distracted by the summer and depressed that Lollapalooza is taking place as I type about a mile away from me.  Depressed because I do not like being hot (though it's pretty nice) and dehydrated tripping my way from stage to stage and missing most of my favorite acts.  It's just hard to stay still and watch when you know something great is going on a different stage.  I guess I'm just not made for festivals.  My other depression that comes along with Lolla is that the acts have to sign contracts the exclude them from playing the Chicago area in the near future.  Now I may have these terms wrong, but I believe it's 300 miles and 9 months, maybe 8 months.  But that rules out Milwaukee and all the outlying Chicago suburbs as places to see these acts.  It means I won't see Soundgarden (not that interested actually), Nneka (very interested), or the New Pornographers for close to a year.  About a month ago I was talking to a friend of a friend who's a concert promoter (really cool guy actually) venting my frustrations, he said he'd think about putting the same thing in the contracts for the festivals he puts on. (Great, I'm spreading the word to the smaller festivals too now).   Maybe I will go home tonight and in that great Chicago tradition write a song entitled, "Lolla Blues".