Anybody else out there watching the free concert on the national mall today courtesy HBO? Never thought I’d see Jack Black share the stage with Garth Brooks. U2 just wrapped up; now a bald eagle is at the podium (is that thing going to speak, too?) …

Proud moment that just gets me ready for Tuesday. Gotta go; Obama’s walking up.

Photos courtesy HBO – more over here.

A blue-breasted toucan watches a little pixie girl pose happily while spoon-feeding herself artificially scented, sweetened, and flavored morsels quickly getting soggy in pasteurized, homogenized whole milk. She might as well begin the day with desert. In case her cereal isn’t sweet enough, that’s not a problem; a sugar bowl is close by. If she wants a second cereal course a box of Sugar Smacks is open and waiting to be consumed.

I don’t know her name but I do know his. He’s my favorite spokes-creature-character of all time, Toucan Sam. He must be a big fan of Carmen Miranda because that fruit tower hat he’s wearing looks just like the tutti-frutti headdress that made Ms. Miranda a timeless icon of exotic-Americana. It goes so well with his black-tipped pink, orange and yellow beak. And that box he’s printed on has to be one of the best, if not thee best examples of cereal box graphics ever. That mod black and white positive-negative diagonal divide is nearly hypnotic.
»continue reading Charles Phoenix’s Slide of the Week: Just a Spoonful of Fruit Loops, Somewhere USA, 1966 (Plus Pasadena DooDah Parade Info…This Sunday!)

DEATH TOLL RECAP
Lordy! What a week-or-so of sheer death we’ve had. Scenestar turned out the lights. Wayne Coyne poured a 40 for year 48 on the planet. Aziz killed his offer to guest blog (maybe next time). Burger King had Facebookers sacrificing each other for Whoppers – right up to the point that Facebook sacrificed the bejesus out of Burger King. Indie103 perished. KXLU said meh. Commenters discussed the response. We attended a touching, albeit unnecessarily profane, service for Circuit City (monster cables were cremated). Finally, the dude who licensed this cruddy-looking mossy tombstone came calling for cash. The infinity trick to the right simply means we’ll be invoiced 37x more than originally estimated. End of day, death is just no fun. And expensive. Next week: Rebirth? Have y’selves a great weekend out there.

(Developing) ANNOYING PARKING LOT LOUDSPEAKER OUTSIDE BOX-STREWN, CHAPTER-LADEN SUNSET JUNCTION BEHEMOTH REPEATEDLY LOOPING NONSENSE BLATHER ABOUT REFUSING TO PLAY BRIT, PUFFY

Yep, it’s true. We should have some interesting takes on the retailer’s death later today. For now, CNNMoney.com has the scoop:

The retailer’s Web site and call center will cease to operate after Jan. 18.
Circuit City said employees will receive 60 days notice of the termination.
Employees who are laid off earlier will get pay and benefits for the 60-day period beginning Friday. (source)

Such bullshit. Where the fuck do I go to pay $136 for a 6′ HDMI cable now (no interest, 3 mos). Where the fuck do I go to pay $69 for an RCA cable. (Did You Know? “Old-school” Ludicroid-Marketing-Deprived RCA cables may be purchased at your nearest 99 cent store for, you guessed it, 99 cents) Who in the holy living fuck am I supposed to harass for a replacement fuse for this 37-year-old Harman Kardon? Etc.

Not done, bitches. Guess where I just blogged this post. CIRCUIT CITY, MOTHERFUCKERS. WHERE THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO BLOG NOW. Shit’s dyin’ all ’round me this week. Such bullshit.
»continue reading CIRCUIT CITY TO CLOSE MOTHERFUCKIN’ DOORS

Note from ed: We’d asked veteran (and venerable) KXLU morning DJ McAllister to sound off on Indie 103′s apparent demise today. She responded with aplomb, fresh off her Thursday morning drive time shift no less. Without further ado…

Apparently Indie 103.1 is over. I have no idea if this rumor is true because I don’t have an iphone or twitter or a carrier pigeon that keeps me posted on these kinds of things, but for right now let’s consider it true. Losanjealous asked for my official response as a KXLU dj, so here it is:
»continue reading Regarding Indie 103′s Demise

Yep, it’s true. We should have some interesting takes on the Indie/Entravision station’s death soon. Meantime, Metblogs has posted what appears to be the twitter scoop here. Some kind soul (embittered staffer?) has already updated Wikipedia as well:

On August 19th, 2008, Station Manager Dawn Girocco announced her departure from the station.[2] Starting in October 2008, longtime specialty shows were either dropped (“Feel My Heat,” Community Service,” “Big Sonic Heaven,” “Camp Freddy Radio”) or moved to weekends (“Harmony in My Head”).[3] Upon the cancellation of his roots music show “Watusi Rodeo,” Chris Morris accused the station of “now being styled as KROQ Jr.” in an effort to increase the station’s ratings.[4]
»continue reading Indie 103.1 Has Imploded, If You Did Not Get The Memo

HEADS UP
The Long Lost @ Dakota Lounge, Santa Monica Thu Jan 15

The Long Lost (Alfred “Daedelus” Darlington and Laura Darlington) are playing tonight in a somewhat rare appearance at the Dakota Lounge in Santa Monica (née Temple Bar, RIP). A couple of us caught Alfred rocking the monome solo @ NHM last night (Flight o’ the Conchords new season screening, thanks HBO!), but this vibe he does with his wife is totally different and always great (read: killer melodies, less-intrusive looping, more Jobim-inspired classical bossa, breathy vox by Laura dribbled liberally on top). I still am hesitant to believe their claims that a ninja tune long-playing album exists, has been released and/or will be released, and as such will cling to my KPFK Carlos Niño spaceways circa 2001-2002 cassette tapes for as long as need be. (UPDATE: Scratch that; the latest rumor is a March 2009 CD/LP release, according to one of my favorite retailers. Mum’s the word over @ the label; however, you can buy two tracks (& two Flying Lotus remixes) from the recent 12″ at iTunes here. Got all that?) Finally, don’t forget that Daedelus will be collaborating with dancers in Santa Monica this Sunday shortly before jetting off to play some festival in Australia.

Photo: Daedelus’ (Alfred’s) hands channeling monome @ Brainfeeder, Echoplex by Sung

» The Long Lost (myspace)
» Official Site (tons of info)

RELATED PHOTO FUN
Alfred’s most recent Halloween costume by Sung

Rising pop star Aziz Ansari hits Largo this weekend (see: Pick of the Week) for his Glow In The Dark tour. We speak with him briefly in two languages today.

Aziz. You “won” the second best Los Angeles concert of 2008 on our site for a 20-minute set at the Orpheum last summer. Question. Why didn’t you win top honors? (Where did the failure occur?) Discuss.

Clearly, Radiohead had a few fans who were more adept at having robots vote for them over and over. I hope that Radiohead’s scheme to beat me left a huge carbon footprint. The fans know who really won.

Describe if you will your songwriting process.
»continue reading Ten Random Questions For Aziz Ansari

Facebook continues its world domination, now using food as bait to reel us onto stalking people, not gently, but with a hatchet. Sacrifice 10 virtual friends on Facebook and Burger King will feed you a real-life Whopper.

»continue reading Sacrifice Friends for Burgers

Attention, rest of the world. Probably you have already heard it from your other friends in Los Angeles, but we wanted to make sure that we drove the point home at this time. It is precisely 89 degrees (F) in Tinseltown (31 deg C) @ 1pm PST (9pm GMT), 13 January 2009. This photo, taken four hours in the future, showcases what our skyline will look like as we gaze east from the ocean atop Runyon Canyon, 5:06pm PST (1:06am GMT) this evening. I hesitate to mention that I am headed to a patio at this time. Now carry on with whatever it is you do out there in the cold.

Happy 48th from one Oklahoma brother to another, my man.
»continue reading Happy 48th Birthday Wayne Coyne

PICK OF THE WEEK

Aziz Ansari
Glow In The Dark Tour
w/ Nick Kroll
& Special guests
Largo at The Coronet Theater
Saturday, January 17
Info
 

Tim and Eric
Awesome Show, Great Job! Tour 2009
Friday, January 16
The Glass House
Pomona
Info
[ENTER TO WIN]
 

Delta Spirit
w/ Everest
Friday, January 16
El Rey Theater
Info
[ENTER TO WIN]
 

Autolux
w/ Wooden Shjips
Saturday, January 17
Henry Fonda Theater
Info
[ENTER TO WIN]
 

STS9
(Sound Tribe Sector 9)
The Wiltern
Fri. Jan. 16 & Sat. Jan. 17
[ENTER TO WIN]
*Specify night preference, if any
 
 

Love Grenades, War Tapes & Sam Sparro (DJ set) @ The Roxy Thu 1/22
West Indian Girl w/ Juliette Commagere & His Orchestra @ The Roxy Sat 1/24
The Soft Pack @ Echoplex (Formerly The Muslims) Wed 2/4
Demetri Martin @ Henry Fonda Fri 2/13
Donovan Frankenreiter w/ Gary Jules @ The Roxy Fri 2/20
Ra Ra Riot @ El Rey Sat 2/28
The Bad Plus @ The Mint Fri 3/6
Black Mountain @ Echoplex Sat 3/21
The Airborne Toxic Event w/ The Henry Clay People & Rademacher @ Glass House Thu 3/26
Dark Star Orchestra @ El Rey Fri 4/10
Sun Kil Moon @ El Rey Wed 5/27
 

TUESDAY
Ida Maria @ Viper Room
Warpaint w/ Brother Reade @ Echoplex

THURSDAY
Stanley Clarke @ Canyon Club

FRIDAY
Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job @ Glass House
Delta Spirit @ El Rey
STS9 @ The Wiltern
The Muffs @ Spaceland

SATURDAY
Alan Parsons Project Live w/ Edwin McCain @ House of Blues
Autolux @ Henry Fonda
Aziz Ansari @ Largo
Fool’s Gold, Visa, Dot Hacker & Sonos @ Troubadour (free)
Paramount Styles w/ Rademacher & Model/Actress @ Spaceland (Scott McCloud from Girls Against Boys)
STS9 @ The Wiltern
Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job @ Club Nokia

Blogging about music “just for fun” is, as it turns out, not particularly easy. Sure it starts out that way, but something happens while you’re busy writing and uploading mp3s. Pageviews grow, pressures mount and the next thing you know you’re shilling concert tickets, securing photo passes and every music publicist under the sun is facebook-friending and trying to slip you an artist they’re working with. Believe it, man. Clell Tickle is out there, he’s your new best friend and he’d love your mention. As such, this week’s announcement that the doors have closed over at our buddies The Scenestar poses two very real problems: (1) one less voice to offer an alternative to the filthy Tribunes of the world, (2) this will inevitably just make the rest of our inboxes that much more stuffed. Fact of the matter is that when one music blog shuts its doors, we all lose. Good luck to Oscar and the entire gang; sorry to see you go. We’ll be interested to see what 2009 brings.

In no particular order below are a few local (Los Angeles-based) music-centric blogs that I enjoy, if you haven’t already found them. Each has its merits and specialties. Feel free to add your own blog or any you feel I’ve forgotten to the comment section.
»continue reading TheScenestar.com Throws In Digital Towel