"music" news and stories

If you think Les Savy Fav is the name of that hip new French clothing designer, or that Camera Obscura is just the name of an old camera, you're probably not the demographic this book is aiming for.

Then again, people can always bond over their love of food, no matter what their musical preferences, right?

Pretty much the phattest, baddest cookbook in town, I Like Food, Food Tastes Good is a conglomeration of recipes sent in by indie rawkers.

As you'd imagine, the recipes are all over the board, from soups to entrees to drinks. Some notable mentions: Death Cab for Cutie's Veggie Sausage and Peanut Butter Sandwich; They Might Be Giants' pomegranate-infused cocktail; and Camera Obscura's Vegetarian Paella.

Fair warning: some of the recipes's aren't exactly written by professional food writers: The infamous El Hefe from punk band NOFX writes, "make some mac and cheese, then mix in a can of nelly chilly...word." Well, at least it's to the point.

Bottom line: the book is kind of like an indie rock song. Even if the initial hook (in this case, the fact that musicians are featured) doesn't pull you in, you can appreciate the fact that the song (er, recipes) were made with love. Or...something.

I thought I'd give you a little musical accompaniment to your coffee-drinking/blog-reading/procrastinating this morning. Blur's "Coffee and TV" is, hands down, the best music video starring an anthropomorphic carton of milk. Seriously. Try to find a better music video starring a carton of milk. I dare you.

Without giving too much away, the video's googley-eyed star makes his way through the city, encountering danger, suspense, and love on his quest. The video is worth watching through to the end, if not for the classic song, then for the oddly sweet, albeit slightly morbid, ending.

Ah, milk. It's tasty, it's satisfying, and it makes a great music video star.

Last Saturday a couple of friends came over for brunch. We ate french toast, drank a pot of coffee and watched four episodes of Flight of the Conchords back to back. My friend Shay passionately in love with FotC and so I'd been saving up, not watched any of the episodes until we could watch them together. I watched, amazed that something this funny and ridiculous was actually getting made, and became instantly besotted.

So you can imagine my delight in discovering that the folks over at YumSugar have developed a lasagna-for-one recipe, inspired by the FotC song, "I'm Not Cryin'" in which Bret sings about his heartbreak and how he's "making a lasagna...for one." I love it when parody becomes inspiration.

Yup, it's true, according to this survey from Student Monitor.

Now, my first reaction was to say "oh, please, come on!" But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. We can have stories about drinking a lot in college and partying and all that, but I think what this survey is saying is that students value "music" more than "drinking beer." We also have to realize that iPods got a 73% vote as being "in" compared to the 71% that iPods got, so it's not like they're choosing one completely over the other and the other isn't even on their radar. The surprising thing is the lame quote in the article from the guy at Student Monitor.

Now, I wonder if they included sex in the survey? Let's see where that shows up with college students.