Love The Way You're Lost...Oops, I Mean Lie

I was impressed with Rihanna and Eminem's collaboration from the very first time I heard it. What more could a song need? Two of the most successful artists of the moment singing together in a rap-sung collab to rival B.O.B and Hayley Williams' "Airplanes". The next step was, of course, a video to match the intensity of the lyrics, and this video was as explosive as anyone could have expected.

Perhaps the trend is starting to lean towards celebrities starring in music videos. Earlier this year, animated band Gorillaz cast Bruce Willis in their video for "Super Fast Jellyfish", a few months later Killers frontman Brandon Flowers was saved from ninja's by South Africa's very own Charlize Theron, and now Rihanna and Eminem narrate the "hot love" of Lost's Dominic Monaghan (oh, and Megan Fox is there too). Controversy is sure to abound. Firstly, it's Rihanna. The girl creates controversy with everything from her haircut to her relationships. Secondly, it's Eminem. The very man whose songs one is unable to follow on the radio because 99% has to be bleeped out...

Anyway, some say that the video glamourises domestic violence. I say, get a life. Some people will complain about anything. I don't mean that I support domestic violence, of course not, but by now we should all be capable of differentiating between what is real and what is there to make a few more million dollars for the artist in question. And I see RiRi and Em laughing all the way to the bank.

Time For Africa?

The FIFA world cup 2010 was supposed to be the time for Africa to shine, and shine we did. I had never seen a country unite to the degree that South Africa did between the 11th of June and 11th of July 2010. Flags waved from every surface, and of course you couldn't go anywhere without hearing someone belting out "sum-ie-na-me-na-eh-eh-waka-waka-eh-eh" without having a clue what it meant.

"Waka Waka" was the song chosen as the FIFA world cup anthem for 2010, and of course it was an instant hit, climbing to the top of many charts, and being played incessantly on the radio. Although many South Africans were offended by the fact that a Columbian singer- Shakira- was singing the anthem for this "African world cup", everyone took heart in the fact that at least brilliant local band Freshly Ground featured in the song with her.

Imagine my horror then when seeing the video for this song on MTV and realising that only Shakira was being credited. Although Freshly Ground clearly appeared in the video, the song was cited as "Waka Waka- Shakira". Do you see my unimpressed face? I now have to question whether or not Freshly Ground were given any international exposure at all, and sadly I think "not" is the correct answer here. And thus the lyrics "time for Africa" seem extremely ironic.

On The Fringe Of Science...

A few weeks ago, a great tragedy befell the world of television; Lost ended after a run of six seasons. Being a great fan of Lost, I undertook a customary mourning period, and now I am back in the game, and ready to find a new tv obsession. But, what to watch? I enjoy comedies such as The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother, but they are nowhere near as absorbing as show which demonstrates real character development. As much as I love Sheldon, Penny, Barney and the others, it's just not the same kind of love that I feel for Sawyer, Charlie and the rest of the Losties. As for CSI/NCIS/Law & Order, and the various other criminal-type, acronym-using shows, they fail to interest me for more than one or two episodes. I guess I could try Grey's Anatomy, but do I really have the energy to start a show that already has six seasons out? No, I do not. So I turned to Fringe. Created by JJ Abrams, I decided that it could be no less than brilliant in concept, if nothing else.
After watching the first episode of Fringe, I was able to make several deductions:
1) JJ Abrams has an obsession with planes. Also, the number 108 was slipped into conversation, but that may have been an actual nod to Lost.
2) Michael Giacchino has a very distinctive musical style. I smiled to myself everytime theme music started to play in the background (hey, I am not Lost obsessed, I am just observant).
3) Fringe is nothing like Heroes, as I had originally thought it might be. If I had to compare it to another show, I would chose the X-Files.
I am trying to stop myself fom scoffing when words such as "re-animation" and "mind-control" are usesd, and remind myself that I had no problem with Heroes making use of similar concepts (although I did, at first, have a huge problem with Lost's use of time travel). Fringe seems like a good show so far, I will continue to watch it. I am trying to keep an open mind, and not to hate it as I did Jericho simply because it had replaced Heroes.

Caught In The Crossfire

In late April of 2010, a strange phenomenon could be observed when logging onto the website of my favourite band. http://www.thekillersmusic.com/ bore what could only be described as a countdown. The countdown was set to end at 8pm, Thursday April 29th local time. What was being counted down to, no one knew. Speculation was rife; a new single, a covers album, an end to the hiatus, a countdown to a break-up (but surely they wouldn't be so sadistic), and even perhaps a countdown to a Brandon Flowers solo album. I laughed the last one off, seriously, solo album? Why would they announce that on the band's official website? Well, obviously I was in for quite a shock when the countdown ended and I found out that it was indeed a solo album! Minutes later, I heard that the title of this Solo Album was "Flamingo". Uh, okay then. I turned off my computer and went to sleep, highly, highly put out. So much so that I changed my desktop background, which had been a picture I'd taken during the concert I went to last December, and even removed Hot Fuss from my car cd player, replacing it with the angry rock sounds of Bon Jovi for three whole days.
Eventually I couldn't take not listening to Mr. Brightside on my way to lectures or Everything Will Be Alright after supper, so I forgave them. However, I was still not impressed with the idea of Flamingo.
Fast forward a few months to mid-June. It's the day of the Fifa World Cup kick-off. I am South African, which means that my life had pretty much revolved around soccer for the last week or so. This meant that I was completely oblivious to the fact that a certain radio station had been claiming that they were to play Brandon's first single, Crossfire that very day. A few hours before this monumental event (and I'm not talking about kick-off), Twitter enlightened me as to the fact that I could potentially be hearing Crossfire that very day. Using all of my very limited technological know-how, I managed to stream this very station and, lo and behold, hear Crossfire! I also attempted to record it on my cellphone as it was playing (remove that judging face, please, I bet you did the same thing), but all I could hear on the recording was myself screaming (oh dear, i'm not doing much to prove that I'm not an obsessive fan-girl, am I?). I was on a complete high, I loved the song! Only later did I find out that it had been an illegal leak of the song. I felt terrrible about having listened to it, but I didn't know that it had been played without permission. I am the type of person that, had I known, I would probably have launched an active protest against the station. No, I'm serious, I actively boycott not only Chris Brown and Kanye West for their various misdemenours, but also plastic bags, for their general environmental degredation, but that's another story altogether.
Anyway, back to Crossfire. I must say that I am extremely impressed. I'm still not completely happy about Brandon going solo, it just makes me sad as I'm so attached to the band as a whole, but the song is a masterpiece. I have also managed to procure an image of the cover artwork for the single, sadi image is now the wallpaper background on my cellphone. Okay, okay, do it, call me a fangirl, I can handle it!
I greatly look forward to hearing Crossfire played on the radio once it has been released officially. I wish Brandon nothing but luck with his solo career, and nothing will make me happier than seeing Crossfire soar to the top of the charts, but really, the sooner the boys re-unite for a 4th studio album, the happier I will be.

Don't Call My Name, GaGa!

The day is saturday, the 10th of April, 2010. I am packing to go back to varsity after the Easter break, when an unfamiliar songs comes on the radio. Within a minute I am rolling around my bed in fits of laughter, as Lady Gaga sings animatedly about a lover named Alejandro. I am strongly remined of Maya's twin brother in season 2 of Heroes. I think this is why I took to the song immediately. I am by no means a Gaga fan. Yes, I like Paparazzi very much, and Boys Boys Boys is tolerable, though that may simply be because of The Killers reference. Play Lovegame, however, and I may become violent.
The video for Alejandro premierd today, and I really look forward to seeing it. Gaga may be crazy (and may be a man, but that's a whole other story), but she sure does know how to make a music video that gets people talking. Whether she's killing her boyfriend or breaking out of jail, I will admit that Gaga's videos are pieces of art- very, very strange art- and Alejandro is sure to be no different.

Change

I like Taylor Swift, I really do. Don't worry, I can see your shocked face. You're wondering why a girl who has *slightly* unnatural obsessions with certain rockbands (cough...the killers...cough...coldplay) is also a fan of a little country singer whose lyrical range goes from boys to boys, to boys who she likes, to boys who broke her heart to, well, boys. I must say, you have a valid point. I think the reason I like her is that she is a breathe of fresh air in the otherwise self-obsessed music industry. After winning the Grammy for Album of the Year, she un-ashamedly jumped up and down screaming and hugging her mom on worldwide TV. Perhaps I like her more as a person than as a singer, if that makes any sense at all. However, her lyrics are cute, and her tunes are infectious, they are the perfect type of thing to dance around your room to while you're getting ready to meet the girls for a night out. But for some reason, tonight her little fairytale love songs are making me want to puke. I underwent rather a drastic change in music from the whole of the album Fearless to suddenly blasting "This Is War" by 30 Seconds To Mars. Must have been a bit of a shock to anyone watching my "nowplaying" status on G-Talk.

Anyway, that's my little rant for the night, and for the record, I still love Taylor, and I'll listen ti her again when today really is a fairytale.

The Best And The Worst

I have been listening to the charts this morning, on the radio, and have decided to share my favourite and least favourite songs from this week's charts.

The Toastings:

"Letters From the Sky" - Civil Twilight. Civil Twilight are a three-piece rock band originating from none other than our very own Mother City, Cape Town. In my opinion, this song is reminiscent of both Muse and The Fray, which turns out to be a very good mix indeed! Watch out for these guys, they are going to be big!

And The Roastings:

"Superfast Jellyfish"- Gorillaz. Okay, I can accept that I am going to get some hating from posting this as the worst song of the week, especially in light of the fact that this band has just replaced U2 at the Glastonbury Festival...

The thing is, I just do not like this song! To me, it does not even sound like a real song, more like something that could be used as a jingle on a commercial fishcakes or something like that. Also, the lyrics make absolutely no sense to me. It seems that they have thrown a bunch of random ideas together to see what happens. Don't get me wrong, sometimes seemingly unconnected ideas make for a great part of a song ("the teenage queen, a loaded gun, the drop dead dream, the chosen one, a southern drawl, a world unseen, a city wall and a trampoline"). I have researched the song, and apparently it may be about ocean pollution. So maybe I'm just not clever enough for this song.