Showing posts with label Annie Lila Berge Strand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Annie Lila Berge Strand. Show all posts


Beatles and Celebrities "Come Together"
for one Big Beatles-Love Fest
(And it was AWESOME!)
 
 
Last night was the 50th year anniversary of when the Beatles first premiered their sound on the TV airwaves on Ed Sullivan. What did it all entail exactly? Well, Paul's 70s wail, Ringo bopping along, Dhani just being plain awesome and an 80 year old Yoko danced! Yoko danced a lot...
 
... And that made me a very very happy girl.

I will never understand the Yoko Ono hate -- a pioneering feminist/poet/artist had
one of the greatest love stories with a HSP revolutionary as John Lennon was.
Stop believing that this amazing woman was the cause of the Beatles breaking up!
It really was the perfect definition of a Love-Fest leaded by Dave Grohl, the perfect Beatle fan who collaborated (and help create) my favorite non-reunion moments of the nights with a lesser known Beatles rock tune, "Hey Bulldog" ("...it's a quintessential Beatles rocker," He explained his song choice, "Paul's rolling bass line. The trademark Ringo drum fills, George's gritty distorted guitar. And that sound that only the back of John Lennon's throat could produce." Backing him up on "Hey Bulldog" included ELO front man and close Beatle-friend Jeff Lynne and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" included mind-numbing and breathless rock n roll courtesy of Grohl on drums and mind-altering dueling solos by Joe Walsh and Gary Clark Jr. (I'm still not over that solo..)

 
And then "the great reunion" with a bevy of standards coming from either Starr or McCartney individually or together: "I Saw Her Standing There," "Hey Jude," "Get Back," "Yellow Submarine," and my absolute favorite moments in "Matchbox" and the infamous Shirelles cover "Boys." It was during somewhere in the middle of Ringo's set that all the charisma that is known as the Beatles became truthfully hypnotic with the whole room's arms up in the air making the peace sign. The Beatles are apart of us, and I sobbed like a little girl. It's truly something when we say we love The Beatles, but it's another thing to truly see it displayed on camera with close ups of your average celebrity enraptured by the music. The Beatles are apart of us. The Beatles music speaks to us like nothing else. It was then I realized that this little scuffle band from Liverpool speaks such volumes because they happened at a time when the human race was discovering themselves and from that, they were in the right place at the right time to design pop culture and rock-n-roll as we know it complete with sobbing pre-teen fans.

Thank you, Paul and Ringo for a majestic night.
 
....My only question is where the hell was Freda Kelly (their fan-club secretary and close friend) to enjoy this night with her, as she called McCartney and Starr back in the days, big brothers?
 
....Why am I learning about Ed Sheeran just now? This guy is amazing!
 
 
 
Josh Groban *HAS* been the Greatest
Philosopher of All Time, Where
Have You Been, Huffpo?
 
 
 
No complaints though, really, but this is so much win.
SO.
MUCH.
WIN.
 
 
 
 
 
Charlotte Church Continues to
"Glitterbomb" and Melt My Face
With the New Look!
 
 
 
Annie Gives Us (but mostly Russia)
a Big "Russian Kiss"
 
The only way to retaliate against politics is a good song. So leave it to one of my favorite people, Norwegian songstress who-simply-cannot-suck Annie to stick it to Russia. I was surprised when I saw the song's objective (and the video!), I half suspected this is something that Peaches or someone else more bent on the shock factor would take on but in a way, this makes me respect Annie SO MUCH more than I already do. Plus, I love that haircut!!!
 
Anyway, "Russian Kiss" is a great collaboration with visual artist Bjarne Melgaard and Annie's frequent lover in song, Richard X. Based on a 90s club song "French Kiss," Annie's embellished tune has been turned around to be a magical retaliation against Putin's anti-LGB Legislation. [I leave the "T" off because they are not the ones attacked for the moment...] And while I'm a person who keeps bedroom things in the bedroom without a double standard; I think what had to be done to get a message to Russia was bad-ass but for me personally, the video didn't do much for me. But I absolutely love that Annie did this... once my surprise wore off and the male groans left my ears. I like girls, I don't need to hear that. =) 
 
 

 
There's no excuse for my absence but in my spiritual life late summer always kicks my butt hard. But wider periods of time between Vspots means more happy awesome accumulated in one post.
 
Can you handle it?
 
Hey, Annie! ...and Richard X

 
The magical duo are finally back making sweet sweet music ranging from the club-friendly (Invisible) to electronic (Mixed Emotions)  to the electropop (Ralph Macchio) to Carribean infused beats (Hold On). If it takes 3 years for Annie to break out  new songs; this is definitely worth the wait and as you watch the music video to the first single "Back Together," you'll forget about the gap of time staring into her beautiful Nordic face. Oh and when I say you, I really mean me. <3 <3
 


 
 
Cher's Back.
 
I think when you get to a certain age you are allowed to write a song about it being a "Woman's world" even with all the anti-abortion bills, women being raped mindlessly, and Middle Eastern women stripped of their rights. But in Cher's case, when you have been a survivor like she has for seven decades, you can do whatever the hell you want. And as for the first single off of her TWENTY SIXTH album, Closer to the Truth coming out September 24th, it doesn't disappoint -- at least for those who like her evolving sound.
 
 
 
 
"Coffee Town" is Open for Business! Josh Groban, make me coffee!
 
CollegeHumor finally put out the trailer "Coffee Town" which I had announced back in January in "January 20th's Holy Snow Vspot" and while it looks like a "let's just watch and see how it goes" I just want to put that Kanye West quote on repeat. I love it when Josh Groban goes gangster.
 
 
 
Scandipopera? Yes Please!
 
 
 
 
Natalia Kills Kills Saturday Night
 
Natalia Kills knows exactly how to make herself look like a bad ass while simultaneously making bubblegum pop -- and she succeeds with Saturday Night.
 
 
 
Oh Mr. Little Jeans, Marry Me.
I love you.
 




Busy spring works brings an exhausted B brings no voguegasmly awesome posts. So, I will not waste much time in showing off epic awesomeness that has happened in the past... oh I don't know... the past month.

Monica Birkenes's Mr. Little Jeans on Fi-yah!


A music video that shows Monica's perfect face in its entirety, a song on one of the most popular movies of the summer AND blowing up her soundcloud with new awesome electro beats. Yeah, there's not much else to say other than... FINALLY!












THIS! (but especially Damon's picture)





























Musicians Who Need No Introduction With New Music 
(Except for a mass of keyboard letters in excitement)

ANNIE - Tube Stops and Lonely Hearts


Le Kid - We Are Young



... But the Greatest News of All....

One Life to Live is resurrected and thus far proving a little shaky, but to see people's faces who you consider
comfort food is the happiest thing to happen to me ALL month. Thank you Prospect Park and thank you to fellow fans, WE DID IT! (And Corbin Blue, yeah that one from Disney, he's pretty nice to look at)

So what if today's episode had 2 girls kissing or more fluent swearing or racier getting naked and sex? It's real, it's OLTL2.0 on Hulu! (And Trevor St. John is BAAAAACK) (And Shenaz Treasury as Rama has an amaziing body and ... OK OK, I'm done! I swear!)







Shoelaces by the Submarines


Go Outside by the Cults

God Only Knows (Beach Boys Cover) by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.

Bang by the Raveonettes
 
Alien Summer by The Toxic Avenger feat. ANNIE

Popsicles and Icicles by The Murmaids

Nice Day by Persephone's Bees

Swimming Pool by Freezepop

Kids by Sleigh Bells
  Now someone go eat a popsicle for me!
Maybe it's the youth gardens of Sweden or the Scandinavian stereotype of being quiet and shy so the music comes from that one special place where they can truly be themselves - well - either way, Scandinavians are amazing at their musical craft, probably even better than Americans. I swear by a good handful of Scandinavian songstresses, be it Swedish, or (where a fourth of my heritage comes from) Norway, or even Denmark.

ANNIE


What can I possibly say about Ms. Strand? Six words: I love her! I love her! Going by her first name, Annie has rocked music blogs since 2005 with her debut "Anniemal" hooking together indie and intellectual lyrics with candified electronic hooks. Five years later, she still does not disappoint after the release of a single, "I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me" then a much anticipated album just last year that shows off she's more than just another Kylie Minogue of electropop music. Songs such as "Take You Home" and "Marie Cherie" shows off her impeccable ability to create an atmospheric ambiance that lies somewhere between electro and your typical Yanni album. Have I mentioned she's the nicest woman I have ever spoken with? Add her, if you have her on the Little Bluebird named Twitter, you'll fall in love with her as much as I have.



CallMeKat

CallMeKat is something soothing and ethereal, so it seems only proper to call her Goddess or simply Katerine Ottosen. Colliding blues with lo-fi, you're never too sure if Katerine is either depressed or simply one of those happy shades of melancholy (it exists!) in her lyrics but one of my favorites, "Bug in a Web" shows off a sort of sadness and yearning. "Don't go, just stay, I put my rusty mind away..." it gets stuck in my head so often. Anyone who can make a perfect interpretation out of Britney Spears's "Toxic" immediately touches my v-spot.


The Raveonettes

There really is no introduction I can give for Sune Rose Wagner and fashion goddess Sharin Foo. Intelligent and catchy lyrics somewhere underneath one part electronic music of a layer underneath five layers of pure synth noise under another layer of rock music. It is pure perfection and yet, not for everyone, at least their noisy masterpieces such as "Aly Walk With Me," "Noisy Summer," and from the most recent album "Break Up Girls." Keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming album comprised mostly of B sides otherwise classics in the making. Other classics include "Suicide" and "Bang!"



Kate Havnevik

How to describe Kate in a nutshell would be to explain to any Grey's Anatomy fan, "You've heard her in like every episode last season." Which is so true, about eight songs exactly. Soft and dreamy with a few synths intricately injected in between the line, Kate could easily be musically Frou Frou's little sister with a piano singing her diary. Look for Kate's latest, "You" to come out sometime this year.



Robyn

I could not keep the duchess of S-Pop off of my list, it would be unimaginable to not see Robyn either in her rapping "Konichiwa Bitches" or her latest electronic LP experiments of last year that have accumulated into "Body Talk" shows off the best of her rapping skills ("Fembot" and another collaboration with Snoop Dogg on "You Should Know Better") and lyrics. Number one example? "You know when in Rome I sat down with the Romans said "We need a black pope and she better be a woman" There'll be no more celibacy even the Vatican knows not to fuck with me." But nothing is more majestic from the hit maker than her Grammy-nominated "Dancing on My Own" which has made awkward dancing look cool. But here is her latest single, "Hang With Me" upon the millions of perfect melodies this Swedish Songstress has to offer.



Katzenjammer

From pure amazing pop candy to something that belongs in an awesome underworld of bluegrassy circus music that would come out of Tim Burton if he was a musician is the crazy imaginative minds of the foursome Katzenjammer (replace the j with a y when you say it out loud). Taking their name unashamedly from a German cartoon these Norwegian ladies, Turid Jørgensen, Solveig Heilo, Marianne Sveen and Anne Marit Bergheim, primarily call themselves a folk band with their bigger hit on the other side of the Atlantic, "A Bar in Amsterdam" but it is songs such as "Demon Kitty Rag," "Le Pop," and "On The Devil's Back (Hey Ho)" they have many influences and like a good German expressionist film, they can be interpreted in a number of ways. Check out the cat guitar.




Those Dancing Days

Getting more and more popular nowadays, coming into their own sound that has become something like the female Artic Monkeys instead of their debut twee-inspired "In Our Space Hero Suits," Lisa Pyk, Rebecka Rolfart, Mimmi Evrell, Cissi Efraimsson with their lead vocalist (and the woman of my dreams) Linnea Jönsson are taking over and forcing you to like it in a dominatrix kind of way. Ahem. Anyway, their newest album "Daydreams and Nightmares" came out and even in the alternative rock, Linnea's sweet as honey voice still has never sounded better, especially in the current single on rotation, "Fuckarias."



Margaret Berger

Margaret is truly an enigma, not winning Norge Idol coming in second but gaining a whole GLBT following with her empowering songs such as "Samantha" and "Still." It's perfect pop music that America will never hear, it's another S-Pop woman singing about robots in "Robot Song" and perky Abba-hooky "Will You Remember Me Tomorrow?" Her second and most recent album, 2006's"Pretty Scary Fairy" had catapulted her into a new sound from 2004's "Chameleon" with a sharper electronic sound that could almost rival Annie. But let's not get ahead of herself.



Edit: Did more digging on Margaret and she recently put a new single, "In a Box"



Find Margaret Berger on Facebook

Other notables?
Frida Sundemo "Towers"
Maria Mena "You're the Only One"
Marit Bergman "No Party"
Marit Larsen "If A Song Could Get Me You"
Bertine Zetiltz "Girl Like You"
So every Monday night I'll be showing off at least under 10 things that are making me happy or a voguegastistic bitch the past week in pop culture, facebookland, twitterland, or random irreverent things here in Iowa City.

LA Times on 30 Rock Episode


NBC is slowly getting me back onto their Thursday nights, and Thank God! I've been wanting to for quite awhile noticing the humor has changed from Will and Grace slapstick to the smart low-key situational comedy. Liz Lemon is reputedly a voice for women, as Tina Fey's writing is sharp and witty, but according to the LA Times Blog, this past Thursday was no other but another example how pop culture struggles to find us a situational middle ground - on feminism.

After ragging on Joanofsnark.com, Lemon has decided to do the "feminist thing" in bringing a writer, Abby Flynn, to work at TGS. Big mistake as she, at first glance, was a male-happy fetishist complete with pony tails, revealing clothing, and babytalking lesbian orgies and sexual innuendo. Until Flynn is outed as a disguised woman on the run from her homicidal boyfriend, duping Lemon into her usual "put foot in mouth" style - LA Times were quick to place "Are the Liz Lemons of the world motivated by righteous feminist indignation, or by their own gnawing insecurity?" This is common with Glee as well, if you give a theme too much power, it will look pro- and like an After-School special but if you do too little with the theme, it looks like people don't care. But while Glee is off worrying about a special middle ground in caring what things should sound like, I think 30 Rock did one thing right last week - it's all about balancing on a very teetering subject while still showing well written dialogue.


Oscars

Well, 8 out of 15 nominations is pretty standard on my ballot card. Black Swan didn't get a single piece of recognition other than the amazing acting that was Natalie Portman (notice that her video clip was when she was telling her mother the news she got the White Swan part; how meticulous acting, happiness, relief, excitement, nervousness! All in one moment! That is acting, Christian Bale.) The King's Speech swept the Oscars, Inception most of the aesthetic awards, and Melissa Leo and Christian Bale rep'ed The Fighter. Best moments included Kirk Douglas being a dirty cheeky old man (I don't care what anyone says, I support old people getting their freak on, I just don't want to see it), James Franco dressed as Marilyn Monroe from "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and Anne Hathaway showing off every reason why I wish I could play her girlfriend on Glee. Thank you, Anne, for being the unstoned one.


Annie is featured on Designer Drugs "Crazy For You"

This needs no introduction because Annie is awesome, I did not even question her awesomeness that when she tweeted me back about Norwegian brown cheese. I don't care! I love this woman.



Cats Quote Charlie Sheen

Ripped from the radio's "The Alex Jones Show," from the most appalling words from the famous party-man (somehow party-boy is a better phrase for how he acts) otherwise known as Charlie Sheen, this isn't your standard LOLcats.



Best Twitter last Week

jracineui This just in: Future #MiddleEast protests will be blamed on Lady Gaga's new music video for #BornThisWay

Lady Gaga's new Music Video



I question myself in embedding the video, but I suppose for elaboration purposes, here is the newest from Ms. Germanotta (oh yes, I went there!) where the creative 80s inspired art direction in my concern is actually... dare I say... good? It's creative, and maybe I harbor a little resentment towards the first three minutes of the slight original score of Metropolis, but I suppose that only shows that Gaga as a film/media student further. I can accept that - looking strictly as the video. The song is a whole other story (or rather article) based on cultural and humanistic leniency and NOT about the gayness.
As I have written multiple times before, and this should be made into a t-shirt, "Lady Gaga does NOT speak for me."


Stream "Wounded Rhymes" Lykke Li


But let's end on one of the best things that happened to me - or rather Li's fan club - is a full streamed preview of her album, Wounded Rhymes on stereogum.com. You can find the album everywhere as of TOMORROW! Spotlighted songs include "Get Some," "Sadness is a Blessing," and "I Follow Rivers."

Get excited and get some!
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