Writing by Dave on Monday, 15 December, 2008 at 10:40 am
We’ve been spinning 808s and Heartbreak fairly often, mostly because it’s not a bad album to listen to while bracing yourself against the blistering cold. Also, because it’s not a bad album, though it could have been made by anyone with enough money to pay Kanye West for his producing ability.
It’s the oft-discussed auto-tune on the new album, and Kanye West finally gave us a glimpse of just how far he streched his “singing” by performing “Love Lockdown” on Saturday Night Live. Yes, the visuals are cool, but being unable to hit the high notes, Kanye left some crooning for on off-screen female vocalist, then managed to remain flat…through the live auto-tune.
808s and Heartbreak is a fine album. It’s just not a Kanye West album, and the guy can’t shut up about how awesome he is. Let this be a lesson: if you talk the talk well enough to get away with arrogance, maybe you shouldn’t try to sing the talk.
Writing by Dave on Wednesday, 10 December, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Color me disappointed.
Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails are finishing up their Lights Over The Sky Tour, one of the most visually stunning and technically intracite stage shows ever produced. A technology company called Moment Factory (who has done work with Cirque du Soleil) developed the technology to run the show out of a single “brain” computer that uses laser barriers to sense motion on the stage and allow transparent and LED screens to be interactive.
That looks something like this:
Skip ahead to 5:40 on the YouTube video to see Nine Inch Nails perform “Only.” The front screen is a semi transparent one that shows TV white noise. On the floor of the stage is a laser barrier running up and down marked by LED lights on the stage. When Trent Reznor breaches the laser barrier, the white noise “opens” to reveal Reznor and the band.
Some of the show lose it’s grandeur in a YouTube video, which is why Nine Inch Nails plan to shoot their tour with James Cameron’s 3D cameras for a 3D-theater concert film sounded so awesome.
Writing by Dave on Tuesday, 9 December, 2008 at 10:43 am
The score for The Dark Knight, Batman’s greatest film and this year’s highest grossing, was previously disqualified from the Best Score Academy Award because five composers were listed on it’s music cue sheet: Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard, music editor Alex Gibson, ambient designer Mel Wesson and composer Lorne Balfe.
Writing by Dave on Friday, 5 December, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Ladies and gentleman, after throwing down the gauntlet and ignoring a crass Twitter message, Stephen Colbert managed to motivate you, The Colbert Nation, to move his album to number 2 on the iTunes charts, while Mr. West (”He’s not the voice of his generation, thanks to auto-tune he’s not even the voice of his new album”)’s 808s and Heartbreak could only muster #4.
Colbert isn’t foolish enough to go after Britney, but consider Kanye humbled.
Writing by Dave on Wednesday, 3 December, 2008 at 12:34 pm
This a continuation of yesterday’s Brief Absurdity, where Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert told his viewers and the Colbert Nation that “Operation Humble Kanye” will be taking place TODAY, Wednesday, December 3rd, at 5PM EST.
At that time, Colbert asks that you log into the iTunes store and buy his Christmas album, A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift Of All. The goal is to knock Kanye West down a notch by usurping the number one iTunes spot from his album 808s and Heartbreak.
Thing is, Britney’s Circus did that yesterday mere hours after her Good Morning America performance. So, now we’re teaching Britney Spears AND Kanye West the meaning of humbling yourself before digital consumers.
Kanye Twittered the above tweet yesterday, but otherwise hasn’t responded. The story made it to the top of Digg yesterday, suggesting that not acknowledging the challenge might be better. The internets are already aflame, no need to bring real people into it.
Either way, it will be interesting to see if the iTunes store shudders under the strain.
Writing by Dave on Tuesday, 2 December, 2008 at 10:05 am
Britney Spears celebrated her 27th birthday today on Good Morning America, where she also debuted her new single “Circus” and her now-repetitive performance of “Womanizer,” both off her new album (in stores today) also called Circus.
Under the cut, this morning’s two performances on Good Morning America…
Writing by Dave on Tuesday, 2 December, 2008 at 7:17 am
We don’t have anything against 808s and Heartbreak, really. It’s been Kanye and Britney on our pop-culture playlist for the past couple of weeks, so we can’t say anything bad about it. Kanye West doesn’t really owe us summer hits for the winter, so some sad, emo, winter songs will do.
But Stephen Colbert knows egomania when he sees it, and he’s launched a challenge to the unusally suggestion-ready Colbert Nation: Buy Colbert’s Christmas album off iTunes this Wednesday at 5PM EST to rocket Colbert to the top of the iCharts.
Yes, Colbert is making money off this. But wouldn’t it be great to stick it to Kanye?
