Silversun Pickups Perform On MTV Unplugged

Did you know MTV resurrected their Unplugged series? Silversun Pickups recently performed a session and it's all online. Enjoy!

Silversun Pickups - New Music - More Music Videos

Silversun Pickups - New Music - More Music Videos

More clips if you 'keep on reading'.

Silversun Pickups - New Music - More Music Videos

Silversun Pickups - New Music - More Music Videos

Silversun Pickups - New Music - More Music Videos

Silversun Pickups - New Music - More Music Videos

Listen to Causes 2 on MTV2

This is straight from a press release, but this album has amazing artists and is for a great cause, so check it out:

Waxploitation and MTV are partnering up to premiere Causes 2 a week before the album comes out via MTV's The Leak. The album will debut April 28th to May 5th via The Leak, which gives music fans the chance to listen to new albums in their entirety, from start to finish, one week before their official release.

You can hear the album at www.mtv.com/music/the_leak. The album is available worldwide in both CD and digital formats. Pre-orders are available at www.waxploitation.com/buycauses

The album will be prominently featured on MTV, mtvU, MTV.com and Think.MTV.com, where people can learn more about the crisis in Darfur

Causes 2 is the second album from Waxploitation's ongoing benefit series for Darfur. 100% of the profits from the album go to Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Oxfam America.

The album includes rare and exclusive songs from some of the most compelling artists in the indie and alternative worlds: Black Moth Super Rainbow, The Decemberists, Devendra Banhart, Diplo, Federico Aubele, Gnarls Barkley, LCD Soundsystem, Matthew Dear, Mum, My Morning Jacket, Neon Neon, Richard Swift, RJD2, and Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, as well as a contribution from Adult Swim's Tim & Eric.

Sucks To Be A Kid

When I was growing up, my family's New Year's Eve tradition consisted of some variation of a cheese & summer sausage tray, Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider, a 'party box' with noisemakers, hats, and leis, and watching a combination of all the networks' New Years Eve Specials, catching the 'it' bands in Times Square and Vegas and all the worldwide fireworks displays, as presented on TV, usually starting in Sydney Harbor. Oh, and the gunshots from the Mexicans in Otay who shoot bullets to celebrate, but that's a whole different thing altogether.

Well, now, the kids have Ryan Seacrest, and on MTV? A New Years Eve special featuring the shittiest bands in the world and hosted by Tila Tequila.

I couldn't be more grateful that I'm 31.

Seriously.

SDMAs Mentioned On MTV.com

Not really news, but it's nice when local bands are mentioned on the same pages talking about Notorious B.I.G. and Britney-

As I Lay Dying clearly have more than a few gasps left — the metal band edged
out Switchfoot, Jason Mraz and others to win the San Diego Music Award for
Artist of the Year. AILD nabbed the same honor in 2005. from mtv.com

So Sad: Britney "Performs" At MTV VMAs

Relive the nightmare here. Someone save this woman. Not even trying to lip sync, not even trying to dance. How many times does she almost fall?

OHHHHHHH. I get it, John Norris

You're going for the Win Butler/Arcade Fire "look" with the combat boots. F-, dude. You look like shit.

Dilemma: Magnoilia Electric Co At The Casbah or Live Blog The VMAs?

I love my Secretly Canadian bands, Magnolia Electric Co. included, but John Norris looks so scary ugly in the VMA preshow, Britney clips keep playing showing that apparently, the girl can't dance after all those late night McDonald's stops, and it's in Vegas and already several interviewees appear to have a good buzz (Nelly Furtado, I'm talking to you). Oh, and Pete Wentz, when being asked about DJing said, "People always go off with Justin Timberlake's "My Love" and Journey's "Don't Stop Believin". Patrick cut's in, "Don't forget Bon Jovi. People go crazy for Bon Jovi." Then the VJ asks, "Bon Jovi? You spin Bon Jovi?" and Pete responds, "oh yeah, I play all kinds of crappy music."

Call me old school, but I'd listen to Bon Jovi anyday before Fall Out Boy.

This shit is a trainwreck and it'll be on 80 more times this week, so I guess I'm off to see Jason Molina.

Sorry Excuse For A Blogger: Visiting the San Diego Zoo, Superbad, MTV

A great deal of my personal and free time is spent enjoying music. For me, as many people, it's about the escapism of it...lyrics and music I may or may not relate to, accompanied by a few cocktails to help me forget about the hum-drum of working a 9 to 5. The funny thing about that, is that now that I'm unemployed, there's nothing to escape from. I mean, I will have to buckle down and find a new day job, but I've really thoroughly enjoyed this week, spending time with my family, particularly my new niece Johanna, and haven't been spending all that much time in front of the computer. I'll get back on it, post my pics from Monday (maybe when I get home tonight), but it's funny how much living there is to do in this town.


Today, my friend Darcy, my sister, Johanna and I started our day with an early lunch at Ponce's (always delicious), then we spent the day climbing the inclines of the San Diego Zoo. Let me say, if you're a softy (like I am) and all in love with the wonder of life (as clearly I am these days), then this is a great time to go to the zoo. There are babies EVERYWHERE. Not just the typical mom's with strollers, I'm talking about all that winter lovin the animals made has produced results.


From the second you walk in and see the dozens of flamingo chicks, to the duck chicks, all the way down gorilla tropics to the baby monkeys in Ituri Forest (where did the otters go?), to the ridiculous line hoping to catch a glimpse of the pandas (though easier to just check the panda-cam) to the new baby giraffe that was born last Thursday and is already 6 feet tall.

My only regret was that we didn't stay into the nighttime zoo action, when all the animals go kinda nutso. It's nice to be a tourist in my own city.

I was home by 4:45, enough time to shower and head down to get in line for the screening of Superbad. Daye sent out the e-mail this morning, and being free with my time, I took my laptop and iPod down and sat my ass in line by 5:20 for the 7 pm showing. It wasn't long before the line was wrapped down the street and several of our friends showed up. We were able to secure almost two full rows for the screening. I was up late last night watching various stars of the film promote on late night shows and with 3 different clips, knew this was a movie I'd want to see and it didn't disappoint. It is funny. People are calling it "the funniest movie of the year" though I would argue that there's not really that much competition in the arena. This movie was hysterical, despite the absolute OBSESSION with dicks, fellatio, tits, booze, dick, dick, and more dick. Behind all of it, there is a good story about how we deal with the transition from high school to college, knowing we'll have to part from some friends and life as we knew it. There were moments that reminded me a lot of other movies in the high school/college party genre...Garden State in some of the party and cop scenes, American Pie in some of the "shocking" sex moments, Napoleon Dynamite in the dorky language of high school, but those are all good places to draw from and the movie was hilarious. My only disappointment is that in a packed theatre, you miss a lot of the dialog from people laughing so hard...but for me a problem because I know I probably won't see the movie again till I buy a DVD after the release...which could be 6 months away. If you're not averse to theatres, however, I highly recommend seeing the movie when it is released on August 17th, or if you're lucky, catch the screening next week. If I get info on that, I'll pass it on. And a special shout out to the uber sweet girl who sat in our row. "Those seats are saved," we said. "Too bad." Aww, I love the kindness of strangers.

Anyway, I was deciding on where to go and what to do tonight and then quickly changed plans when I discovered that the new Real World is on, followed by the new Hills that I missed. omg. I don't really care that I'm 30. I love this shit. Maybe I'll hit the Ken Club after, but for now, I want my MTV. (ps- actually the Hills are reruns that I never saw. New episode on Monday)

MTV Scarred Live

After maybe 4 hours of sleep, it was double alarm action, a shower and full lathering up in sunscreen, throwing on my old Cheffey's and we were on our way. Natalie picked me up and we headed off to MTV's "Scarred:Live" taping at the Len Moore Chula Vista Skatepark. Despite growing up in Chula Vista, this was not there when I was growing up, so I had to mapquest the place. It's kinda near where I grew up, all I really remember is that people used to grow weed in those canyons behind Oleander (when they were still canyons). It's funny now that when I go to CV, it's usually just to my parents' house, and when it's not, I'm amazed (and sometimes sad) at the growth, but this skate park is really cool and I think it's definitely a plus for the community.

Since Natalie pretty much covered the actual event here and here, I'll try not to duplicate her recounting of the events.

Even though I actually watch the show on tv (like I'm crazily addicted to it), so many of the tricks on this day were anticlimactic. Proof that it doesn't take a really difficult trick to really, really hurt yourself, but when you see 9, 10, and 11 year old kids pulling tricks harder than those featured on the show, you gotta wonder why there aren't just perma-cams constantly recording at the skate park.

Anyway, that is not to say it wasn't a fun time. This is my third MTV event in my lifetime (Spring Break '94 and SuperBowl XXXVII in '03 were the others) and there's something so interesting about the enthusiasm of the crowd (or sometimes lack, thereof) for being on tv. Getting a behind-the-scenes look at how a 3 hour live production moves was really impressive to this former a/v geek.


We arrived and had no problem getting our media passes and wandering around. I'm of the belief that it's easier to ask forgiveness than to beg permission, so we just sorta went anywhere we wanted. This is the shark tank used in the final trick of the day.



We were only ever asked to move so we were out of camera shots, and once when they were setting up Kenny's airmattress alongside the rail he was sliding. There was an MTV guy...an intern? I don't know... I kept calling him the fluffer, because it was his responsibility to hype the crowd between commercial breaks and live shots, host little dance contests, etc. There were supposed to be between 300 and 500 skaters there as wallpaper, but as far as I could tell, they were far below that number so it was also his responsibility to get groups of people and move them around, so there was always a group of screamin people behind the MTV hosts. I think maybe one thing that wasn't accounted for is that this crowd was 95% males who probably all consider themselves somewhat counterculture, so even if they like MTV, the skate park, the event, etc., getting them to scream and howl here is a lot different than a TRL or Spring Break crowd.

The format of the show was pretty consistent. Show the burly clip of the person hurting themself, then if they were present and the trick involved skating or bmx riding, they reattempted it at the skate park. A couple people were just contacted live via telephone, like the kid who hurt himself by trying to get launched on a see-saw like plank of wood and who was crowned "the biggest idiot" (and was proud). Relying on MTV and Natalie to capture those things, I was more interested in the skate culture and chatting with the kids at the park.


I liked his "white trash" t-shirt.


Chicks skate, too...





Each of these kids was between 9 and 11 and all claimed to have been skating for two and half years. One of them was visiting from Vegas, another was from north. My childhood vacations would've been loads different had there been a skatepark around.

Anyway, at one point Natalie got on camera. I think she was just pictured in the corner of the screen and was supposed to have a dramatic reaction to one of the Scarred Top 10. Instead, the camera guy had to tell her not to smile or laugh.



We bumped into Eric (blogsandiego.com) and his son and hung out with them the rest of the time we were there.



Wee Man (Jason in real life) kept messing up his cue cards which was pretty funny, because the show really was live (at least on the east coast). We were teasing him a little bit, and he was cool about it. I mean, really, what a choy job, right?

Kenny was the one who had ripped his...well, read it on Natalie's, but he reattempted the trick several times, until he hurt himself again, though he attempted to walk it off and smile through the pain, he ended up sitting by us for a while with ice on his knee.

Finally it was time for the big shark tank jump. I've never really been a fan of motocross, it seems to defy my attempts at being eco-conscious, and this day was no different. The noxious fumes were so strong, especially because we were right next to the bike. I know it looks cool, and it's all probably fun as hell, too, but I definitely appreciate the skating and BMX stuff more.

The culture of it also is something I will probably never understand:

This is the "Metal Mulisha"

Anyway, Brian Deegan safely made his jump over the shark tank, and all was well with the world. Natalie and I were off. She dropped me at my mom's for my sister's 9th birthday party. After 4 hours of sleep, being at the skate thing from 10-2, then being at a kids birthday party until 8, I was in no condition to go out that night. I tried. I thought I'd take a nap and rev up, but I didn't, and that was just fine by me. I promise to get back to the music...