Happy Monday, Arts Desk readers!
Fresh off detonating an n-bomb and other ordnance in an interview with Playboy, John Mayer descended into the bosom of Obama’s Post-Racial America to play a two-hour gig at the Verizon Center Saturday. In a remarkable show of restraint, the embattled musician managed to limit his word vomit to innocuous musings [...]
Electro-pop band La Roux is playing to a sold out 9:30 Club tonight [Ed. note: Show's been postponed!], a sure sign that audiences love the duo made up of lead singer Elly Jackson and musician Ben Langmaid. However, La Roux — more specifically, Jackson herself — is known for being a bit of a... well, [...]
Forty years ago, concert film were big. No really, they played on big screens and carried cultural import. In 1970, the documentary Woodstock won an academy award. When Talking Heads released Stop Making Sense in 1984, people were apparently dancing in the aisles of the theater.
Then, shortly thereafter, there were no aisles left to dance [...]
Directed by Kenny Ortega
There's no mention of Michael Jackson's death in This Is It — not even dates under his photo in the closing-credits dedication. But even if director Kenny Ortega had chosen to acknowledge the King of Pop's passing, it'd still be easy to forget the fact while watching this extraordinary and eye-opening cobble [...]
Former Black and White Jacksons guitarist Tim George formed Dizzy Spells with Kelela Mizanekristos, and the group's songs can be ethereal and deeply felt or playful and jagged. The band describes itself as "Rock/Americana/Neo-Soul," which is pretty apt, but it ignores the woozy trip-hop sound that's all over "Laser Light." You can stream that song [...]
Charlotte Gainsbourg: "IRM"
Having exhausted pop music's reserve of rakish Euros—Jarvis Cocker, Air, Neil Hannon—on her last record, 5:55, Charlotte Gainsbourg has hopped over the pond and tapped Beck to produce her new one, IRM. Unsurprisingly, it's weirder than her last. At least the title track—a Silver Apples-cribbing 2 minutes of metallic bonging and electronic squiggles—suggests [...]
Today, soothing WAMU radio host Kojo Nnamdi prefaced a call-in hour by going off on all things Michael Jackson. He sorta boasted to listeners that his show had been a Michael Jackson Free Zone this past week. He then explained his confusion as to why African American leaders and African American Professor types would debase [...]
And by buying Thriller off iTunes last week, I am! I so am!
It will be sadder next paycheck when I buy Off the Wall and hope my wife doesn't notice. But for now, success! Blanket, this one is for you.
One of the Post's best blogs reminds us that Farrah Fawcett wasn't the only person whose demise was blocked out by Michael Jackson's—Sky Saxon, singer of the Seeds, died last Thursday as well. I'll say—the publicist who emailed me on June 15 about a garage-rock tour featuring Love, the Electric Prunes, and Saxon, hasn't uttered [...]
CNN, Associated Press, and the Los Angeles Times have confirmed that Michael Jackson has died. He was 50 years old. Damn.
