WinStar Spotlight Blog
While we were all busy being culture snobs, something happened with bookings at casino venues. It honestly was not that long ago that casinos were the place where once-great performers went for one last roll of the dice, but suddenly, places like WinStar World Casino in Thackerville are just blowing up. Weezer recently played the 3,000-seat Global Event Center, and in a particularly unusual turn of events, the great Al Pacino, a man who is one hit record away from scoring the coveted EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony), engaged the audience in a wide-ranging Q&A session. Other casinos are doing bang-up business, as well — who would think a few years ago that Snoop Dogg would play Lucky Star Casino in Concho?
At any rate, in August The WinStar World Casino launched WinStar Spotlight , a smart, engaging entertainment blog covering upcoming performances and events at the venue. This is a smart move for WinStar — a lot of casinos are unfortunately old-school and disappointingly minimalist in their approach to promoting their shows, but because WinStar is competing directly with many non-casino arenas for A-listers these days, this is a good development.
I’m actually looking at doing a long-form story on the rise of the casino entertainment business and the rehabilitation of its image. A few years ago, I saw B.B. King at Riverwind. When you’re just a few rows back from true greatness and the presentation is as good as it was that night, it’s worth the consideration. Weezer playing WinStar is similarly impressive. Currently, that venue is in country mode, with Dierks Bentley playing tomorrow night and the next few months featuring performances by Dwight Yoakam, Willie Nelson and Blake Shelton, among others, but they’ll get back to rock in good time, and their comedy offerings are often of the highest order. Earlier this year, Craig Ferguson performed there, and then incorporated the WinStar’s all-the-world’s-landmarks facade into his opening monologue.
My friend Phil Bacharach oversees WinStar Spotlight — he knows how to do this. Let it be an example.
Video of the Day: The Black Keys, “Lonely Boy”
Hearing this great single, along with the prospect of the new Black Keys album, “El Camino,” coming out in a mere five weeks, makes me want to do this.
– Lang
Video of the Day: Eugene McGuinness, “Lion”
There’s a bit of The The to this first single from “The Invitation to the Voyage,” but as Stereogum noted, the best thing about this video is McGuinness’ complete disregard for having frenetic dancers following him around wherever he goes. As if this happens to everybody.
– Lang
Video of the Day: Coldplay, “Paradise”
This first official video from “Mylo Xyloto,” due next Tuesday, features Chris Martin in an elephant suit searching for the elusive title place. It’s not exactly a milk carton wandering around with Graham Coxon’s face on it, but it’s definitely not Coldplay’s default aesthetic position and bodes well for the Brian Eno-produced disc as a whole.
– Lang
Video of the Day: M83, “Midnight City”
Anthony Gonzalez, the French synth-pop mastermind of M83, releases the much-awaited “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming” tomorrow. Much like the clips for “Kim & Jessie” and “We Own the Sky” from “Saturdays = Youth,” “Midnight City” feels like a fully realized feature film distilled into five minutes. In this story, telekinetic kids from a group home are drawn to a curious disturbance in the sky. Much as M83′s singles recall the synth-driven chart hits of the early 1980s, “Midnight City” brings to mind classic Spielberg.
– Lang
M83 - Midnight City (Clip Officiel) by Spi0n
Video of the Day: Gruff Rhys, “Whale Trail”
Our Super Furry hero rocks a Rascal on a fanciful ride over the clouds — psychedelia as filtered through “Yo Gabba Gabba.” This looks to be a standalone track — “Whail Trail” was not on “Hotel Shampoo,” which was released in February.
– Lang
Video of the Day: Ryan Adams, “Lucky Now”
While the standard gap between releases for major artists is around three years, fans of Ryan Adams must feel as though he pulled a Peter Gabriel or something — the man was releasing two albums per year at one point. “Ashes and Fire,” his first album since 2008, is not full of surprises, but it makes up for it by being beautifully crafted all around and sustaining a mood. Three more listens, and I’ll be ready to pass judgment.
– Lang
Video of the Day: Beyonce, “Countdown”
Director Adria Petty (daughter of a Wilbury) packs about a dozen amazing video ideas into one clip. A contender for Video of the Year.
– Lang
Get More: Beyoncé, Music, More Music Videos
Video of the Damned: T-Pain, “5 O’Clock” (feat. Lily Allen and Wiz Khalifa)
The good news: T-Pain owes Lily Allen pound notes by the pound for sampling copious amounts of “Who’d Have Known” from 2009′s “It’s Not Me, It’s You.” The bad news: Lily does not show up in the video, and her part is lip-synched by a generic model. More bad news: T-Pain is wearing a sweater that would embarrass Cliff Huxtable. Even more bad news: Lily still does not show up in the video.
By the way, St. Lily of StaticBlog is currently working on the songs for the West End production of “Bridget Jones’ Diary,” which is about the only way that something so potentially atrocious could be amazing.
– Lang
Video of the Day 2: Florence + the Machine, “Shake It Out”
Like “Lungs” and most of Adele’s “21,” Florence + The Machine’s second album, “Ceremonials,” is produced by Paul Epworth, who has both a great sense of art-pop drama and an uncommon facility with “northern soul,” so the guess is that “Ceremonials” is going to open big for Florence Welch. The album is due on Halloween morning, which means that while October just began, I can hardly wait for it to end.
– Lang
