Mixtape Tuesday - Betty’s First Quarter Faves April 15, 2008

Just like Rob in High Fidelity, I have become obsessive about lists. I nurture my Favorite Albums of 2008 list just as I would a precious houseplant or a child. I thought you might enjoy a sampler of my favorite songs on my top 10 albums. I’ll probably also do another one soon with my favorites in the 11-20 range because it’s not that the albums taking those slots don’t have amazing songs, it’s just that they aren’t quite as consistent as the top ten. Anyway - enjoy!

1. Ladyhawk - Night You’re Beautiful (from the album Shots)

2. The Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead (from the album Keep Your Eyes Ahead)

3. Liam Finn - Second Chance ( from the album I’ll Be Lightning)

4. Have a Nice Life - Hunter (from the album Deathconsciousness)

5. Baltic Fleet - Castellon Theme (from the album Baltic Fleet)

6. Spiritualized - Baby I’m Just A Fool (from the album Songs in A&E)

7. The LK - Yellow Ribbons (from the album Vs the Snow)

8. Pete and the Pirates - Come on Feet (from the album Little Death)

9. The Raveonettes - Aly, Walk With Me (from the album Lust Lust Lust)

10. Why? - The Hollows (from the album Alopecia)

 DOWNLOAD FULL MIX

Milo & Otis + Sigur Rós = Awesome

Rachel Dratch Needs Work And She Deserves To Work, So Why Isn’t She Working? April 7, 2008

Rachel Dratch left Saturday Night Live two years ago and then she was replaced on 30 Rock. The comedian is now working on, uh, dur…

“Maybe you can tell me,” Dratch told NY Mag at a Smart People screening on March 31. “I know you’re supposed to come up with fake stuff you’re doing. But honestly, I’m not doing much.”

Of the downtime since SNL, Dratch said: “It’s starting to get old. I’m starting to go crazy. I’m ready for a job.”

Being excluded from Vanity Fair’s recent “Queens of Comedy” issue didn’t help matters either. “Dude, that was a dark day,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘Oh, there’s everyone I worked with’.”

Dratch, who provided me with many laughs as Debbie Downer on SNL and Spencer’s girlfriend on The King Of Queens, isn’t picky about her next gig either.

“I’d work in a black-box theater company at this point,” she said. “I’d work with George W.”

Harmony Korine Was Doing Exactly What We Thought He Was Doing In Paris

Indie filmmaker Harmony Korine (Gummo, Julien Donkey-Boy) kept his fans waiting for years, but his latest movie Mister Lonely is finally scheduled for a U.S. release on May 2. So what exactly was Korine doing to fill the time when he moved to Paris a few years ago?

The auteur tells the Spring issue of Bomb Magazine:

“I was down on my luck. I lived in a tiny apartment next door to a pimp who was obsessed with [Holocaust survivor] Primo Levi. I couldn’t speak the language and I had no friends.

“I was doing many drugs and my teeth began to fall out … My best friend at the time was an old hag who had been sent to prison for shooting her husband.”

Yep. That sounds about right.

[via Page Six]

Mixtape Tuesday Is Back - No Joke! April 1, 2008

Happy April Fools! I think I speak for the both of us when I say - we suck. We suck and we know it. But March failed so hard this year. If it didn’t suck for you, I’d be willing to bet it sucked for someone you know. So today begins a new month and to celebrate I bring you a new a mix full of warm and fuzzy songs. I could have been a tool and made this a fake mix filled with Sir Mix-a-Lot or some shit, but I like you more than that, so rest assured that the songs below are real. Really awesome, might I add.

Arms - Kids Aflame (myspace)

Gentle Touch - Once You Used To (myspace)

The Limes - Left Hand Cycles (myspace)

Esser - I Love You (myspace)

A Faulty Chromosome - This Is Far From A Belle Epoque (download their full album for free from their myspace)

DOWNLOAD FULL MIX

Adam Green Gone Wild! March 31, 2008

“I’m actually here in Germany to teach a course on how to have good breath.”

Adam Green did one helluva job promoting his new solo album, Sixes & Sevens, on Germany’s late-night show “TV total.” He was two parts drunk, one part tired, and five parts silly!

Awkward highlights from the interview:

When asked if he drank too much beer, Green says:

“No, this is daddy’s medicine.”

When asked to describe his new album:

“It’s sort of about fighting in the Iraq war and the stuff that I did overseas that I don’t want to remember.”

On the Hanson brothers:

“I met those guys when I was fighting in the Iraq war.”

On nothing in particular — seriously wtf?

“Rock ‘n’ roll is about missing that woman.”

On living in Japan:

“I used to live in Japan, but I don’t consider myself to be Japanese.”

After the interview, Green managed to perform “Morning After Midnight” without incident. CLICK HERE FOR PART 2!

Michael Stipe Comes Out Of The Closet Again — This One’s For The Kids! March 17, 2008

Don’t lose any sleep over this ladies, but R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe is… gay. Oh, what’s that you say? You’ve known about this for 20+ years? Yeah, but this time it’s official!

In the new issue of Spin magazine, Stipe says:

“It was super complicated for me in the ’80s. I was totally open with the band and my family and my friends and certainly the people I was sleeping with. I thought it was pretty obvious. “

(Don’t worry, it was.)

Stipe adds:

“I’d just never felt strongly enough about a particular relationship to say, ‘Yeah, he’s my boyfriend, that is what it is.’ Now I recognize that to have public figures be very open about their sexuality helps some kid somewhere out there.”

Indeed it does, though I’m not entirely sure many kids know who Stipe is these days. Are any of the Jonas Brothers gay?

[via Queerty]

‘Under The Umbrella Tree’ March 13, 2008

“Wonder why The Klaxons looked so out of it trying to mime alongside Rihanna at the Brits? They’d dropped some acid before the show. Respect.” - PopBitch

‘Chapter 27′ Trailer: The Movie Jared Leto Gained 62lbs For! March 12, 2008

Jared Leto gained 62lbs to play John Lennon’s assassin, Mark David Chapman, in the independent film Chapter 27. I know this because he bragged about it on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in 2006. Jimmy Kimmel later told Stuff magazine that he could not stand Leto. “He was so insufferably satisfied with himself that I wanted to strangle him,” said Kimmel.

In addition to a bloated and self-satisfied Leto, Chapter 27 features Razzie winner Lindsay Lohan as Jude, a friend of Chapman’s. The film is being released in (a few) theaters this spring.

Iggy Pop & The Stooges Underwhelm Madonna At The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame March 11, 2008

Iggy Pop & The Stooges performed two Madonna songs at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony last night: “Ray of Light” and “Burning Up.”

As much as I love Iggy and his fierce shirtlessness, I found his rendition of “Ray of Light” to be rather weaksauce. I did, however, get chills when he gave his slick “Like A Virgin” speech at the end.