Listening to: Goodie Mob, "Beautiful Skin."
Look, I like Cee-Lo's new song as much as the next person but watching it go viral has sort of made me roll my eyes. I can't decide if its popularity is due to the at first cool but ultimately derivative video, the sentiment and meaning behind the song, or if people just like singing along to something titled "Fuck You." This is now the official summer anthem -- although maybe the Antoine Dodson remix (and its controversy) has the claim to that title -- and everybody and their mom has been posting Mr. Green's latest hit to their Facebooks and Twitters like they're the first ones who found it.
For the record, Theresa was the first one on it, at least in my universe. She was also the person that got me into Cee-Lo years ago so clearly I owe her a great debt. And since I do love Cee-Lo, I should just be happy that this might be the track that pushes him to solo super stardom. Plus, this summer does deserve a bit of a middle finger doesn't it? I mean, I've been walking around flicking people off most of the last month so really I've been leading the movement. Not on purpose mind you, it's just how my finger has been for the past few weeks.
See I came back to San Diego for two things this summer: surfing and basketball. The second time out on the courts I suffered the lamest basketball injury ever. I poked at the ball in a defensive manner and emerged with a mallet finger. Basically the tendon tore and the end of my finger won't go back up on its own. Eight weeks in a splint and no basketball or beach for me. Sigh. And it's not even like the finger hurt at all. No swelling, discoloration, or pain. The biggest thing I've had to suffer through is the inevitable "haha, are you giving me the finger?" jokes. Yes, I've heard that one already, gimme my change already.
Anyway, who cares about me, let's talk music. There's this semi-new site called Shuffler.fm that browses through music blogs in an easy and convenient manner. I would say more about it but the idea is dead simple and the execution perfect. Plus Mashable covered it here.
There are a variety of music channels on the homepage, ranging from indie to hip hop to shoegaze. You just select one and off you go. Shuffler.fm is great for discovering new music blogs -- there are so many! -- and a lot of the tracks are quite recent and the day to day experience is not as predictable as Pandora's tightly curated playlists. The best part of the Shuffler.fm experience is that you can download the MP3 right then and there if you like a particular song.
Some of the stuff that caught my attention in the indie pop section so far have been:
- Freelance Whales, "Hannah"
- Cults, "Go Outside"
- Very Truly Yours, "Popsong '91"
Oh and since I'm here, my friend told me about Dirpy, which converts Youtube content to videos or MP3s. Easy to use and quite useful for making sure you own a copy of the newest dance instructional video so you can practice offline. You know, like I'm sure everyone does.
