Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, and Motherloving, Oh My!!

If you weren't aware, Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective are locked in a blogosphere battle for the ages. Not with each other, of course... but every talking head (er, typing hand?) has an opinion on which album is better: Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion (released in January amid massive hype) or Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest (set to be released May 26th... also amid massive hype). Naturally, we have an opinion as well, but we're reserving it until Veckatimest actually drops. In the meantime, both bands have been on the cathode-ray tubular device in the past week playing some of the highlights of their albums: Grizzly Bear on "Live with Jools Holland" and Animal Collective (complete with interpretive dancers) on Letterman. Take a listen!

... Oh yeah, and there was something about loving mothers? Or making love to mothers? Or mothers' love?...

Animal Collective: "Summertime Clothes"


Grizzly Bear: "Two Weeks"


Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg: "Motherloving"

In Case You Missed It

Justin Timberlake hosted SNL for the third time last night and once again delivered the goods.  He brought back all the favorites including another hilariously inappropriate digital short with Andy Samberg, the Barry Gibb Talk Show and my personal favorite - Plasticville.  Check it out below and the others on Hulu - bow down to the King of SNL.

Songs For Mom

Mother's Day is Sunday, and whether you're going to be at home, sending a card and flowers, or spending some time on the phone this weekend, we wanted to help out by giving you two of our favorite songs about moms. Have a great weekend, and don't forget to call!

Iron & Wine: "Upward Over The Mountain"
Easily one of the most beautiful songs in a long line of them from Iron & Wine. Don't pay close attention to the lyrics if you don't want to tear up a little.


Kanye West: "Hey Mama"
Recorded before Kanye's mother, Donda West, passed away in 2007, this is especially sad to listen to now. It's been extremely apparent how important his mother was to him, and equally refreshing that he has no problem rapping about it.

Fluteboxing and Superbeatboxing

It's entirely possible that you've already seen this, but when our most dedicated reader forwards along a video of something to post, we have to do it. Courtesy of Chrissy, enjoy this video of a dude beatboxing through a flute (definitely awesome), another dude doing some really complex beatboxing, and ending with a little duet. Something tells me that the kids need to work harder... luckily, they work for Google, so that won't be a problem.

AI Quick Note

More SYTYCD alum sightings!  Benji dancing backup for Paula Abdul.  It's good to see he's getting work in styles other than West Coast Swing.

I was right again but I can't say I'm happy about it.  Allison is so talented and it was nice to have a normal awkward teenager on the show.  This won't be the last we hear from her!

Kelly Clarkson: "Did You"

I haven't read any of the Twilight children's books, but I hear they're all the rage in the 12-19 year-old white girls with heartache issues demographic. Coincidentally, Kelly Clarkson also appeals to that demographic (and many others), and she really catered to the audience with "Did You." It sounds like a C-level song from Kelly... she undoubtedly went through the motions with this one and cashed the paycheck, because she's way too smart and talented to really care about a song for the New Moon soundtrack... right??

St. Vincent: Actor

We've been pretty sure (for a while now), that Annie Clark's newest album as St. Vincent was going to be spectacular. And sure enough, Actor is being hailed as one of 2009's best, receiving accolades from virtually every major magazine and blog. Metacritic does a great job compiling ratings and reviews, so if you're interested, you should definitely comb through them, but allow me to summarize: the sweet/soft physical appearance and vocals stand in sharp contrast to the content of her songs. The word "Disney" is getting thrown around in a lot of the reviews; partly because some of the arrangements recall early Disney classics, and partly because many of those same classics used the superficial guise of "cartoon" to depict dark, heavy themes. The comparison to Actor is appropriate, and on essentially every song, the sound belies the story. With such rich musical arrangements accompanying the complex lyrics, this is an album that almost demands multiple listens. Lucky for us.


PS. Apparently, Lala may now require you to register with them so you can listen to certain songs. You can go here or here to read more about it if you want, but if you're asked to sign-up, just do it! It's the equivalent of signing up for something like Pandora, and it definitely shouldn't cost you anything (unless you want to start buying music from the site).