New music:



Kaiser Chiefs: Not as shitty as once thought.

Kaiser Chiefs / "Ruby" (pillaged from Extrawack!)
I previously had taken a firm stance against Kaiser Chiefs, but their new single "Ruby" is pretty damn catchy. Like the Futureheads, they showed up in the wake of Franz Ferdinand and were part of a surge in "fun" British rock bands that I didn't see the point in (Franz were enough for me). Most music videos are pretty pointless these days, but this one's actually very good. And FYI, Kaiser Chiefs are from Leeds, but named their band after the South African soccer team that former Leeds United (and South Africa) captain Lucas Radebe played for.

Papercuts / "John Brown"
This sounds like it could have come from the ride-off-into-the-sunset scene of a Quentin Tarantino movie (I think Kill Bill 2 had one?). Has a certain late '60s or early '70s spaghetti western feel. Too bad the name is just a bit off.

Patrick Wolf / "Bluebells"
Another promising song from Wolf's forthcoming third LP. It has a similar feel to his second album, which means acoustic guitar, piano and random instruments from black-and-white movies, all mixed with electronic (but not dance-y) beats and synths. By the way, Patrick Wolf is weird.


Brand New: At least two of the guitars are totally unnecessary

Brand New / "Jesus Christ" (plundered from Music is Art)
Brand New are one of those borderline emo/punk bands, though in their defense they're not a bunch of pierced-lip retards wearing black makeup. I saw them on Conan last week and thought this song was really good. It's down-tempo, but it's not a ballad--reminds me a wizzle bit of Interpol's "Leif Erikson." But just a wizzle.


The Laughing: Bringing gay carpentry to the masses

The Laughing / "Wearing the Colors" (stolen from the incomparable GvB)
The Laughing are a new band, and for this song they stole the horn section from Radiohead's "The National Anthem." Dark, purposeful rock music from guys who look dorky and not terribly purposeful.

*******

The twenty most popular science myths.

*******

Bears fans are tasteful.

******

As you might guess, I smugly enjoyed the Globe's chronicling of the Colts' victory over the Pats, mainly because I'm sick of having to hear about the Pats all the time. My favorite line:

Anna Majszyk's head hung low as she walked out of Game On off Lansdowne Street.

"My boyfriend's in tears," said Majszyk, 23, of Newton. "It's really disappointing. I'm still in shock."

******

KevNev mentioned the new movie "Sunshine," which looks pretty interesting. I don't know much about the plot, except that it involves people being chucked into the walls of their spaceship. A lot.

******

The Oscar nominations are in. Among the best pic nominees, I saw Little Miss Sunshine (really good, amusing), Letters From Iwo Jima (really good, heavy) and The Departed (the best, awesome in most every way).

******

Online hunting actually exists, and people aren't happy about it.

New technology has enabled online hunters to gun down live deer and other animals from their computers.

It works like this: The "hunter" logs on to a website, where he or she views a live video broadcast from a selected location, such as a ranch stocked with game animals.

The feeding area is rigged with a loaded rifle that can be controlled through the website. When an animal wanders into the site of the gun, the hunter can fire the weapon with the click of a mouse.

Now, state Senator Robert Creedon, a Brockton Democrat, has filed a bill that would ban anyone in Massachusetts from taking part in Internet hunting.

The whole idea of internet hunting is pretty lame, but I'm half-impressed that someone even bothered to set something like this up.