All Aboard! There’s an incoming train soon to steam past your local blogspot or review site; it’s the Rivers Cuomo Hate Bandwagon Express! It’s a hugely popular ticket and might entice you for a ride, especially when you see all your trendy hipstre friends waving smugly from a coach class window.

Well, say goodbye to your last shred of cred, turn off your Pitchfork RSS, and give your oh so beloved Merriweather Post Pavilion vinyl to a Westwood hobo. One of the most fun party albums of 2009 has been unleashed and it demands your full attention: its name is Raditude.

Rivers Cuomo simply "can't stop partying"

Before you give it a listen, there are several key issues that must be addressed:

1) Weezer will never release a Pinkerton II. The tormented spirit of the Weezer’s second album is an anomaly in the band’s catalogue, and frankly, the world doesn’t exactly need more of it. Raditude finds the band hitting a new stride with a fresh, unabashedly fun attitude, fully embracing their pop sensabilities in infectiously catchy tracks “The Girl Got Hot” and “Put Me Back Together.” Several new songs would also seamlessly fit onto the tracklist of Blue, such as “The Prettiest Girl in the Whole Wide World” and especially “(If You’re Wondering if I Want You To) I Want You To” which might be the best Weezer track this decade.

2) The “irony” issue. The first unraveling of a mustached Cuomo on the Red album cover, as well as ridiculously ambitious genre-spanning tracks like The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived, shocked the post-Make-Believe world of Weezer fans. Most have speculated (or perhaps hoped) that the band may be subtly trolling the mainstream music industry in a meta-conscious fashion, but with the excepetion of Pink, Weezer has always been since the beginning a band to incorporate humor, perhaps similar in the same sense to a band like Ween. The wacky hijinx of Weezer in recent years (”Wuggie” snuggies, interactive shows, Weezy cameos, Youtube worship) may be less the grand ironic scheming of a pop band and more just the simple personality of Rivers Cuomo. He’s a strange dude.

3) The lyrics. Correct, they are dumb, and yes, Cuomo is pushing forty and singing about girls and parties and malls. But really, it’s just an extremely enjoyable, albeit dumb, pop-rock album. Are they really an issue?

Raditude is a party album, a breezy summer album. A collection of well-crafted pop that begs to uplift your mood. Find a sunny day, find a bike, and understand.

-Ricky

2morrow Oct. 31st tune in to the JokerPace Radio Hour from Noon-2pm and continue your Ghoulish wknd with a eclectic mix and funny tidbits with your boy DJ JokerPace…I’ll take care of u during the day then come night fall–get butt naked nasty with a bowl of candy and ur favorite Michael Jackson mask!

Ingredients:

-asymmetrical spikey hair wig (available at most online Halloween stores)
-a bright colored blouse
-khaki slacks

To enhance the look:

-an Ed Hardy wearing, overweight, slightly balding guy to chain-smoke and party with a bunch of teen girls while you’re stuck caring for your 8 kids.

-two twin girls with short black hair (make sure one of them acts like a brat all night).

-6 little kids, one of which in glasses (it doesn’t necessarily matter if they look alike, but preferably their sextuplets).

And there you have it, Kate Gosselin! You’re ready to hit the town. Don’t go too crazy, you party animal!

(But, seriously though, Jon sucks. KATE ALL THE WAY!)

-Deni

Dan Deacon really knows how to throw a party. Known for his highly interactive concerts involving comedic dance routines and epic sing-alongs, Dan Deacon did not disappoint. However, this particular show at the Echo was a little special. After knowing that he suddenly cancelled his performance at the FYF Fest last month and cancelled his Irvine show a few days prior for a “family emergency”, we were wondering if he would turn up at all. To our relief, Dan arrived to the venue just a bit late, announcing that he had just come from his grandfather’s funeral. We had a sentimental moment, gathering together, placing our hands on the head of the person next to us, repeating after Dan, “how could you, you promised me, I trusted you, how could you? I’m so sorry. My blood, your blood, your father, your mother, your grandparents, your grandparents before them, do you truly love anything? I know you do, that’s why we’re here…for you, for love, forever”. And thus, Dan kicked off the show, showering his love onto hundreds of sweaty hipsters.

As with all his shows, Dan set up his equipment and played on the floor, surrounded by the crowd. As the party started, his signature green skull lit up as well as the strobe lights adorned with freaky masks and neon tape. Playing a lot of songs from his latest album, Bromst, Dan had the crowd pumped and dancing for a good hour. The highlight of the night was a huge dance off, as we formed a circle in the middle of the floor. Two people showed off their best moves for a good 15 seconds before tagging another audience member to take their place. Whether you were forced to dance or were just watching, the energy was vibrant and full of life.

The downside of such a high energy dance party was being repeatedly shoved into sweaty armpits and knocked around. The crowed was so tightly packed around Dan, I could barely breathe through some songs. As Dan remarked, “that is a horrible smell, what a horrible smell!” He ended the show with his glorious epic “Wham City” as we all crowded together and sang along. Despite having just come from his grandfather’s funeral, Dan blew us away with an amazing set and welcomed us into his family of wild beats and bizarre dance moves. If you’re thinking about going to a Dan Deacon show in the future, I have a few words of advice: come with memorized lyrics and get ready to shake whatcha mama gave ya.

– Janet Lee

As discussed during the first hour of UCLAradio News last night, two former UCLA basketball stars – Darren Collison and Jrue Holiday – will make their debuts in “The League” tonight.

Collison, who appeared in three Final Fours during his Bruin career, was selected by the New Orleans with the 21st pick in this year’s NBA Draft. He was expected to backup superstar point guard Chris Paul, but instead is battling for that reserve spot with Bobby Brown. (Not that Bobby Brown. This Brown is of Cal-State Fullerton, not New Edition.)

Holiday left UCLA after just one season and was nabbed by Philadelphia 17th in the Draft. Jrue  is near the bottom of the Philadelphia rotation and may not see much action this year, but Holiday showed some flashes in the preseason and is expected to improve in the future.

-BT

Miss out on the last installation of Cultural Affair Commission’s Monday Night Jazz Series? Don’t worry. UCLAradio.com has got  your back. Here for your personal enjoyment, or sharing privileges, are the sweet sounds of the funk-alicious Geology Of Ornithology Collective. Enough said. Enjoy!

If you know Jack Kerouac, then you probably know of his profound effect on Beat Poetry, his severe drinking habit, or his strong affliction for Catholicism and conservative politics. You might also know about his experience with Buddhism or his inability to leave his mother in his later life.

However, what you might not know is that Jay Farrar from Son Volts and Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie joined together to honor Kerouac, one of their favorite writers, with a twelve song CD. Originally meant to simply be the soundtrack for the coming documentary about Kerouac’s life, the people he knew, and the culture he influenced, it quickly turned into a full-length album entitled One Fast Move or I’m Gone.

Inspired by Kerouac’s book Big Sur, One Fast Move Or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur (the documentary) is due out later this fall. It contains interviews with his contemporaries, such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Carolyn Cassady, Joyce Johnson and Michael McClure, those poets, artists, and musicians he’s influenced, passages from his album, and intense imagery he encountered on his travels juxtaposed with Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard’s folk inspired soundtrack.

This soundtrack, released on October 20^, 2009, contains a feel exactly related to road tripping across the country. It is no surprise that Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard have studied his writing, because they are able to translate the melancholy feel expressed throughout his novels into a beautiful country, folk, indie mash up.

Ben Gibbard’s songs are obviously more pop than those of Jay Farrar, however, this CD is no Narrow Stairs. Jay Farrar’s intensely moving alternative country style openly influences Gibbard, which in turn creates a beautifully constructed album. Despite the stylistic differences openly observed between the Farrar songs, such as “Big Sur”, and the Gibbard songs, like my favorite “One Fast Move Or I’m Gone”, the album flows easily from one song to the other.

Listening to this album through headphones and watching the musicians themselves is an entirely different experience. A friend, who was unfamiliar with the new album and Kerouac’s work, I went to see them on Friday, October 23^rd, at the El Rey. For those unfamiliar with the El Rey, it’s an intimate theater in the middle of the Art Deco District on Wilshire. Built in the 1930’s, its original purpose was a movie theater, later converted in 1994 into a concert venue. Ben and Jay played only songs from their album, each getting a turn as lead vocals and guitar. Often times Ben would escape to the piano for a song, and once left the stage entirely for Jay to perform “Final Horrors”, a down home blues inspired song. Watching them come together and play off each other was a truly inspiring view.

It is easy to get lost in thought with these songs, picturing exactly what Kerouac had seen on his joineries around the country and his summer spent in Big Sur. If the documentary is half as moving as the first joint effort by Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard, I will consider it a huge success.

–M.Green
Urban Roots Radio Saturday 10-12 PM

On Tuesday night, British nu-folk band Noah and the Whale opened their United States tour to promote their new album, The First Days of Spring, to a crowded house at the Roxy in West Hollywood.

For those who have not listened to the new album, it was apparent right off the bat that this is a new Noah and the Whale group, both physically and emotionally. Missing is Laura Marling, former singer and girlfriend of frontman Charlie Fink. The result is essentially an album of Fink’s emotional breakdown after their breakup. Haunting guitar riffs and hardened vocals replace the whistling and ukuleles that fans have associated with Noah and the Whale after popular songs like “5 Years Time” and “2 Atoms in a Molecule” from their last album, Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down. For those who may not know the band, you may recognize “5 Years Time” with its “fun, fun, fun, sun, sun, sun” refrain, featured on car commercials and tv shows throughout the past year.

It was disappointing at first when the show ended without the band playing their up-beat sing-a-long tracks from their first album, but those songs truly would not have gone with the flow of the show. The band instead opted to mostly play songs from their new album. Fans of the older album may have been let down a little however it is true that often the greatest, most beautiful music comes from either the creation of powerful love, or the loss of it. Lead singer Charlie Fink looked dejected throughout the entire performance, at times appearing on the verge of tears, which brought sincerity and power to the music that they performed.

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Alright ya, I bet you’re only reading this because thats the cutest deer-in-headlights ice-cream drooling kid you’ve ever seen, and if this is indeed the case, then he’s served his purpose. Onto the music…

Little People’s debut album, Mickey Mouse Operation, is near impossible to pigeonhole into a single genre and thus I will instead use as many words as possible to describe its sound. It’s a fusion of Electronic, Hip Hop, Groove, Chill and Break, and is a mostly sample based, mainly an instrumental eargasm. If you call yourself a lover or even liker of any of these, you should definitely check it out at the end of this post.

The album starts off with an incredible head nodder, “Basique”, which, true to its name, finds a way to create an amazing aural sensation using mainly very ‘basic’ instruments: drums and piano. This stripped down theme continues through the rest of Mickey Mouse Operation with the addition of some other expertly timed samples and synthesizer melodies. The album continues to groove along until the next stand-out song, one of the few vocal accompanied tracks: “Breathe Again”. Little People’s beat mixes perfectly with the soft-spoken melodic voice of singer, Rachael Roberts and creates an amazing listening experience. Little People strays from his formula of basic piano and drums and lays into a break beat over heavy and light synth melodies for another of my favorites off the album, “Idiom”. In another, “Behind Closed Doors”, he starts out with a slow bass groove, then gradually finds a foothold in a Ratatat-like synth melody that takes over and never lets go.

Mickey Mouse Operation does strike a few off chords however. Songs such as “Unsaid”, and “Eitheror” are at times too harsh, but in general do not interrupt the groove of the album.

Luckily for us, Little People saves the best for last. Would-be singles, “Start Shootin” and “Gravitas” close out the album in 1-2 combo that had me playing the final songs again and again. “Start Shootin’ ” is Little People doing what he does best with an entrancing piano melody laid over a hi-hat intensive breakbeat. A grooving bass line and accompanying sample noise round out what I think is a must-listen. “Gravitas”, the final song, really conveys just that. Using the same materials, Little People crafts a more hip-hopish song that retains the same deep yet light-hearted personality he expresses in the rest of the aptly named, Mickey Mouse Operation.

My favorite tracks (in order): “Start Shootin”, “Gravitas”, “Basique”, “Idiom”, “Behind Closed Doors”

Despite the album’s cuteness factor, this 2006 effort by UK artist Laurent Clerc, never hit mainstream success. Its a shame and I hope we’ll still be hearing more from him at some point in the future.

Listen (Youtube):

Start Shootin’

Gravitas

Basique

–Paul Servino
The Cool Down, Saturdays 2-4pm

Last night, I went to a screening at the Billy WIlder Theater of two British films made in the late 40’s early 50’s, “The Clouded Yellow” and “The October Man,” both of which are completely bad ass and I highly recommend them. After the films, my friend and I, as we often do, discussed what we liked and disliked, “the portly middle aged balding man was in my opinion the most affective villian, especially while plodding after her with the knife near the train tracks.” I then realized that, after all the movies we’ve seen, I have never taken the time to write down any of these sort of immediate reactions, which prompted me to create my very own movie journal, here’s how to make yours:

Materials:

Cover (see below for ideas)

Scissors

Ruler

Paper Cutter (accelerates the process considerably)

Bone Folder OR hard edge to make nice creases with

Binding Tape OR tacky glue and two 2 inch wide strips of fabric

Various Papers (make sure these are large enough to be folded in half and stuck in your cover, I use binder paper, sketch pad paper, sheet music, calendars anything in the waste paper basket)

Needle

Thick Thread (I use embroidery thread)

Awl (optional but also helps get the needle through thick pages)

STEP No. 1: FIND YO COVER

A) With an exacto knife, spew the guts out of an old book (choose wisely, go for aesthetics but please, avoid the classics) HINT: ask the library if they’re getting rid of any books, they usually got boxes full

B) Find a piece of heavy weight paper or light cardboard (can be cereal box, test print from photo class, or in this case an old movie poster) and score two parallel lines in the center to form the spine

STEP No. 2: CUT YO PAPER

A) Measure your cover of choice while opened to it’s full extent and subtract half an inch from all sides, this will be the dimensions of your inner paper

B) Take a piece of paper and cut it to the dimensions you just found, then, using this as a guide take a stack of paper (not too thick) and cut the rest to size…. this will be when the paper cutter comes in handy

C) Fold all the pages you have cut in half (using a bone folder or somethin) and arrange them how you want them to be bound in the book

STEP No. 3: SEW IT TOGETHA

A)Taking a threaded needle and groups of about 5-10 pages (depending on the thickness) puncture the center of the page at the spine from the outside-in (which will hide the knot at the end of the thread) then, making sure all pages are still aligned, stab back through about a half inch down from the top of the page and back through again a half inch from the bottom of the page, and finally through the initial hole at the center….

this sound confusing but you’re basically just making two large stitches to keep the group of pages together.

B) Once you have stitched all your paper into groups, sew together all the groups by using the thread on the spine

C) After all paper is securely fastened together in a coverless book-like format, you are ready to attach it to the cover

STEP No. 4: SHLAP IT ALL TOGETHA

A) Take your shmantzy binding tape and adhere one side to the inner cover and one to the pages

OR take your two strips of fabric and sew them down the middle (right sides together) cover them with tacky glue and paste the bottom strip to the inside cover aligning it with the spine, and the top stip to the pages, also making sure they are lined up

B) Let that shit dry.. maybe use a couple clamps… maybe bump some ucla radio… then furiously fill that shit with everything you’ve ever wanted to get on paper.

DJ GMA

Sweet Talk, Sunday 10-12pm

The French Collaborative movement “La Blogotheque” has taken the “Indie” world by storm and continues to produce brilliantly filmed acoustic concerts. Vincent Moon, the independent filmmaker behind Blogoteque is based in Paris, France. His “concert a emporter” or “take away shows” are featured on both his website and Youtube.

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Listen to UCLAradio.com this week and all weekend for a chance to win tickets to the Nokia Theater movie premier of Michael Jackson’s This Is It! Check back here for an updated list of shows giving away tickets to this exciting event! Details of the screening are listed below:

Tuesday October 27, 2009

6:00 PM, Doors Open At 4:30 PM

Nokia Theatre L.A. Live

Shows Participating In Giveaway:

Bomp! Thursday, 2:00-4:00 PM

Erotic Thriller Friday, 12:00-2:00 PM

All Souled Out Friday, 6:00-8:00 PM

The Cool Down Saturday, 2:00-4:00 PM

¡Musiquality! Monday, 4:00-6:00 PM

HAVE YOU HEARD THE MOST SPECTACULAR MOVIE REVIEW SHOW ON UCLARADIO?

It’s EROTIC THRILLER on Fridays from 12-2 PM.

Do you like listening to sweet jams? Do you like outrageous/hilarious/horrifying/sentimental/[insert adj. here] movies?

Then this is the show for you! Tune in to DJ Jimmy, Miss Honeypants, Britt-Vicious, and the interns (woo!), to hear about all the hottest movies in theaters now.

BUT WAIT! That’s not all, turn up the volume as we discuss even more awesome movies.  With our weekly themes such as LGBT, Blaxploitation, and nerd movies, you just can’t get enough. Have any questions? Suggestions? Do you disagree with our (superior) reviews? Call in and let us know what you think! Until then…

Can you dig it?

–Alanna

After the unfortunate cancellation of the highly anticipated Hard Summer 2009 Music Festival, the promoters at Hard rally back with an epic lineup for the renowned Haunted Mansion music festival this Halloween. The event has heralded so many big names in the electronic dance music scene that it had to be spread over two separate nights. Although the experience was nothing short of mind-blasting when I attended the festival last year, the rise in ticket prices kept me from going again this year. Nonetheless, it is an incredible show at the massive venue known as The Shrine and it is clear that this year’s edition is going to be a hit from the fact that tickets were sold out a month in advance. For those who believe that the best way to spend Halloween is a couple nights in Santa Barbara, you might need to reconsider–people from Santa Barbara and from all over come down to LA for the Hard Haunted Mansion to make their Halloween an experience of a lifetime.

–Shayan Sayadi
Erotic Thriller 12-2 pm Fridays

Youtube can be a hilarious, informative, entertaining, and useful source of new media on the Internet.  Lately, I have found myself admiring and enjoying some of the more independent bands that place their music on Youtube.  And yes, there are plenty of trashy bands on Youtube hoping to “make it big” who just don’t have the sound but I was wondering about everyone else’s experience about finding bands that they really liked on sites like Youtube.  That’s not the case with Boyce Avenue.

Now, who are they?   Well, Boyce Avenue consists of three brothers from Florida who pretty much epitomize the Youtube genre.  That’s right, I think there is a Youtube genre and popular style.  How many times have you watched a cover of a popular song on Youtube?  Now ask yourself how many times you have seen someone playing an acoustic guitar on Youtube?  Lots right?  Well Boyce Avenue combines the two styles.  Known for their strong acoustic roots, Boyce Avenue has released a 4 volume set of covers.  It’s not really music that I brag about listening to, and I’ll be honest, in the past, I have not been real impressed with bands that “just do covers,”  but, these guys do it pretty damn well and I think we can all admit to enjoying seeing acoustic covers of some of today’s and yesterday’s most popular covers.

With this band in mind, who have you guys first found on youtube and proceeded to listen to more of their music through other outlets?  Boyce Avenue was mine.  What’s yours?

So "Boy band"-esque!

And yes, I know how boy-bandish they look.  Try it out.  It’s what I like to call “comfort-music.”  Like comfort music.  At least for me.  Makes me feel all warm in side watching someone play the acoustic guitar.

–Kevin Poirier
Just Kickin’ It, Saturday 4-6pm
(And yes this is for you Mike J.!  Rest in Peace!  :-D)