This Sunday: See Josh Sallee Tape the Season Premiere of STATIC
Rapper Josh Sallee, who recently landed on the cover of LOOKatOKC, will be the first artist featured on the new season of STATIC, and we will tape the performance before a live audience at 5 p.m. Sunday, at VZD’s, 4200 N Western. Admission is free. We want a big crowd for this first installment, so drop all your other Labor Day Weekend activities and take a break with Josh for a couple of hours of great local music.
Video of the Day: St. Vincent plays “Cruel” on “The Late Show with David Letterman”
I’d like to say that we fully expected Annie Clark to perform “Cruel” on Letterman and just thoroughly knock us down, but we should just get used to her exceeding all expectations. “Strange Mercy” is out in two weeks. The countdown begins… Nowwwwww.
– Lang
St. Vincent on “Late Show With David Letterman” Tonight
Annie Clark will perform a track from “Strange Mercy” (Due Sept. 13) on “The Late Show With David Letterman,” which runs at 10:37 p.m. on KWTV Channel 9 or whenever you want it to if you have a DVR. I’ll let you guess what Tuesday’s “Video of the Day” will be.
– Lang
Video of the Day: Jay-Z and Kanye West, “Otis” Live at the MTV Video Music Awards
When it starts like this, it isn’t going to get any better. Man, can you handle the unbridled passion between Biebs and Gomez at the end of this clip? Did Elton dress him or something?
– Lang
Get More: 2011 VMA, Music, JAY Z and Kanye West
Video of the Day: St. Vincent “Cruel”
As my colleague BAM reported, Annie Erin Clark debuted her video for “Cruel” today, and it’s a stunner. In the clip, she is kidnapped, put in a trunk, held at gunpoint and buried alive. It’s harrowing and beautiful all at once. The only thing cruel about the first video from “Strange Mercy” is what it will do to poor friend-of-StaticBlog Matt Carney, who is probably in a fetal position right about now, sucking his thumb.
“Strange Mercy” arrives Sept. 13. Mark that one as a new StaticBlog national holiday.
– Lang
Video of the Day: OK Go, “The Muppet Show Theme Song”
It’s time to get things started on the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational, Muppet-ational video of OK Go’s career. Damian Kulash must be thrilled that his gamble last year, in which he told off EMI in a New York Times guest editorial and was allowed to take the band indie again, paid off so handsomely.
Come back, Bunny!
– Lang
Video of the Day: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, “No One Is (As I Are Be)”
Malkmus releases the Beck-produced “Mirror Traffic” tomorrow and it’s potentially the most satisfying and song-oriented album he’s released since his solo debut 10 years ago. Did Pavement refocus our hero after his years of noodle-dance guitar eruptions? Tune in tomorrow.
– Lang
See the video at the New York Times, here.
Comedian Maria Bamford brings her voice(s) to City Arts Center Friday
Maria Bamford named her most recent comedy album “Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome” for a good reason: she suffers from it. But it also feeds her stand-up routines.
“I was about 10 years old and I stopped being able to sleep at night because I had these intense obsessions or fears that I was going to… usually a fear of doing something violent or sexual or something sort of taboo,” said Bamford, who will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday at City Arts Center, 3000 General Pershing Blvd at State Fair Park. “It’s kind of like the person who compulsively washes their hands, except you’re trying to wash your thoughts. Like you go, ‘I’m not going to think about the elephant I just thought of,’ and then your brain won’t let you stop thinking about it.’”
Bamford originally dealt with the condition by squeezing her fists together or avoiding contact, she said, but then when she would have an incident, she often found that time had a way of bringing out the humor in bizarre events.
“Whenever there’s something painful in your life, something you think a lot about, and you get some distance from it, it sometimes becomes funny,” said Bamford, 40. “Like when you lose your temper with somebody at 7 Eleven, telling them you need more crushed ice until you get arrested and you’re in the cop car and you go, ‘Well, that was dumb,’ that becomes a good story.”
These days, Bamford is filled with such good stories and comes armed with an amazing array of voices that bring them to life during her performances. Her voice characterizations can turn on a dime, going from a demented baby voice to Alicia Keys from zero to 60. Ridiculous family arguments about politics and religion provide the fuel for her bizarre but realistic bits about her mother, and Bamford precisely executes her mom’s Minnesota accent.
Her voices, which crop up occasionally in animated programs such as “CatDog” or “Hey Arnold,” get perfected during commutes, when Bamford says a near-constant monologue is taking place.
“I totally talk to myself when I’m walking or driving — that’s usually when ideas come out,” she said. “The few that I do are just me being ridiculous, and my mom is a very strong figure in my life, so it’s easy to remember what she sounds like.”
Bamford received some of her greatest exposure from “The Comedians of Comedy,” the film and Comedy Central series featuring her on tour with Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn and Zach Galifianakis, and like many of the stand-up comedians enjoying the latest renaissance in the art form, she frequents the podcasts that help promote their work, such as “Doug Loves Movies,” “The Nerdist” and Marc Maron’s weekly interview podcast. She said those podcasts have transformed the way comedians pack a room by allowing them to speak directly to their fans. While it seems that stand-up comedians are becoming more self-evaluating — a phenomenon spotlighted in the recent HBO special “Talking Funny” with Jerry Seinfeld, Louis C.K., Chris Rock and Ricky Gervais — Bamford said comics have always been self-critical and constantly assess their processes. These days, there are just more ways to listen in on them.
“We’re all having our fishbowl experience,” she said. “With the podcasts, we’re just hearing more of what people are thinking all the time.”
COMEDY SHOW
Maria Bamford
With: Jackie Kashian, James Draper and Zach Smith.
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday.
Where: City Arts Center, 3000 General Pershing Blvd.
Tickets: $22 advance/$25 at the door.
Information: Ticketstorm.com.
Video of the Day: Jay-Z and Kanye West, “Otis”
This is one joyous video — one of the best of the year. Hova and Yeezy modify a Maybach and joyride around an industrial park to the soulful sounds of Mr. Redding. Spike Jonze, you are a golden god.
– Lang
Get More: JAY Z and Kanye West, Music, More Music Videos
Video of the Day: Mayer Hawthorne, “A Long Time”
Hawthorne made quite a splash in 2009 with “A Strange Arrangement,” which delivered a convincing homage to late-1960s-early 1970s soul. He’s now moved from Stones Throw to Universal Republic and will release “How Do You Do” this fall. This is the first taste, set to a mid-1980s Detroit public access dance show. Tell then Honest Hank sent you.
– Lang
