Jimmy Fallon’s talent for impersonation never ceases to amaze me. The first time I heard his Neil Young character cover a pop song, I really thought I was listening to Neil Young. Then I saw him pull off The Boss in the opening of the Emmy’s a couple years back. And most recently he did Bowie for his Tim Tebow tribute. Well last week he really impressed me with his most recent impersonation. This time Fallon pays tribute to the New York Knicks new savior, Jeremy Lin, as Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder.
I tried real hard to avoid writing anything about Whitney Houston since I heard news of hear of her untimely death. Not that I’m not saddened by the loss of another great voice. I just know that I’m not breaking the news to anyone, and I find it kind of gross all of the people trying to boost traffic by taking advantage of sad stories like this. But I just happened to stumble upon this video of Oklahoma native, Ben Rector performing Houston’s hit song “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” and I couldn’t help but share it with you all. Enjoy.
Josh Ritter released a new EP yesterday. Bringing Home the Darlings, released on Pytheas Recordings, has six brand new songs that were mixed and recorded this winter at a small little studio in Brooklyn called Homeward Sound.
Along with the new release, Ritter also revealed the video for the song “Love Is Making Its Way Back Home” on Etsy. This crazy awesome stop-motion video was made with over 12,000 pieces of construction paper and had no effects added in post production. Which means, everything that you see here is nothing more than photographs of paper with no effects whatsover. Pretty amazing.
Colin Meloy, frontman for indie folk-rock group, The Decemberists, released his debut novel last year. It is the first book in his Wildwood Trilogy that he has created with the mother of his child, award-winning illustrator Carson Ellis. It is a very impressive, if somewhat predictable, first novel from an artist who has already made his name as a musician first. Meloy created a new and exciting world with Wildwood, one that I will be happy to venture through again. I could do without the whole “machines are bad/nature is good” lesson that was thrown in there a couple times. It’s not that I disagreed with the sentiment, it just felt a little trite. Even before reading his debut novel, I knew that Colin was a marvelous wordsmith and a great storyteller. I really enjoyed his writing style and his decision to utilize his extensive vocabulary to the fullest despite it being a children’s novel. The first installment in the Wildwood Chronicles
was a great read and I highly recommend it. I expect even greater things from the 2nd book in this trilogy.
And in the off chance you have stumbled upon this site having never heard The Decemberists, take a listen to one of my favorites from their debut release Castaways and Cutouts.
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