~notes~ (Vol. 2)

Yeezus’s secret super group & the oracle of foodtrends

Mad’s Music Mix

Bleachers, “Shadow.” The band fun. is not my jam. That one song about being young annoys me, probably because the first time I heard it was via a bunch of boisterous theater kids doing their own rendition in the midnight hour before I had a final. But fun. band member (and Lena Dunham’s boytoy) Jack Antonoff just released an album this past week under the name Bleachers, and I really dig it. It’s anthemic pop at its best. People are all over “I Wanna Get Better,” but my favorite is the pump up, best buds song “Shadow.”

Shura, “Just Once.” Sweet and fragile, Shura evokes Sky Ferreira, but in a much less confrontational way. In fact, she croons “If you get my name wrong, I won’t get pissed off.” *New Cool Girl Alert*

Years and Years, “Breathe” (Blu Cantrell cover). I have a special place in my heart for covers, especially for ones that shine a new musical light on an original by incorporating a different musical genre/instrumentation (See: Ben L’Oncle Soul’s “Seven Nation Army”). So the bouncy original gets a lot smoother thanks to these soulful Brits.

P.S. Man, it’s been a while since I even thought of Blu Cantrell. Speaking of throwback, this leads me to the weekly “What My Wrists are Feelin”: Allow me to introduce all you wistful saps to The Nostalgia Machine.

Pick a year and BAM! top music videos from that year. While perusing the site, I rediscovered an old classic, Next’s “Too Close” from ‘97. I suppose I never paid close attention to the lyrics (what with me being 6ish and all), but those are some dirrrrty lyrics. Man the ‘90s were a wild time.

Music Vid Pick: I recently learned that Kanye (all praize Yeezus) was in a supergroup called Child Rebel Soldier with Lupe Fiasco and Pharrell. How could I have slept on this?! Anyway, as I was looking for their videos on Youtube, this gem popped up. It’s an 88-Keys song featuring Yeezy and it’s got everything: a geriatric Kanye, a stretch limo and…Pete Wentz.

Jeff’s Journo Jems

Public Displays of Transaction [Matter on Medium] Last week, I was talking with my friend Cally about our mutual fascination with the voyeurism afforded by the payment-app-turned-social-network Venmo. And then I checked out Matter (arguably the best collection of journalism and commentary on the publishing platform Medium) and found this beautifully synthesized story about following the rise and fall of a distant acquaintance’s relationship on Venmo — I’m not alone!

The Fasinatng…Frustrating…Fascinating History of Autocorrect [Wired] Headline writing FTW. This deep dive on autocorrect starts off by detailing the basics of the technology — in a manner that even the non-tech crowd can wrap its mind around — but the story really excels when it talks about linguistics in an age where we converse with our thumbs.

My Life With Piper: From the Big House to the Big Screen [Matter on Medium] Two posts from Matter this week! I’m really subtly showing my obsession. This story is the exhaustive (~45 min read) first-hand account of Larry Smith, otherwise known as Jason Biggs on “Orange is the New Black.” Larry is a great writer — you’ll recall from the show that he is, in fact, a writer by trade — but fair warning: I found myself sighing at times thinking he seemed to be the epitome of a white, listless bro.

These People Know What You’re Going to Want to Eat Before You Do [Vox] What more can you want out of a food story than a main source named Faith Popcorn? Okay, so that’s not her birth name, but the moniker seems well earned as one of the arbiters — oracle may be more apt here — of food trends.

Throwback: A Loaded Gun [The New Yorker] This is one of those stories that’s best to just read without much context. The story’s author, Patrick Radden-Keefe, takes a bizarre news story (a biology professor shoots six colleagues at a faculty meeting at the University of Alabama Huntsville in 2010) and uncovers the woman’s even more perplexing past.