Stuff to do tonight
If you’re after some mullet-meets-Paul Weller fringe comedy Paul Foot is in Bath for his Hovercraft Symphony In Gammon Sharp Major tour.
Friends in Dundee could keep it high-brow with a new version of Gogol’s the Gamblers, which starts its run at the Dundee Rep this evening. This Russian version is the best thing we could find to illustrate this - despite the linguistic barrier it’s still bizarrely entertaining.
Those who don’t fancy heading out could stay in and watch the Groundhog Day meets Call Of Duty fest that is Edge Of Tomorrow (or should that be Live. Die. Repeat?).
If that lot sounds a bit too much like hard work you could just watch this video for Tiga’s Bugatti on repeat for a few hours.
Meridian Dan definitely isn't skint
German Whip must have been a nice little earner for the Tottenham mc Meridian Dan, who’s back with another grime cut which is all about how much money he can fit in a briefcase. This time he’s helped out by President T and Wiley who dropped one of the year’s best grime nuggets himself a week ago.
Bill Murray's next frontier: Tinder
Bill swung by Jimmy Kimmel Live last night to discuss a few things including Tinder. The dating app doesn’t really hold water for Muzza though, as he can approach someone whenever he fancies it and, well, try to get off with them - as he tries to do moments later with a cameraman.
Grime general Ghetts gives us his top five tunes
Ghetts used a break in rehearsals for tonight’s MOBOs – where he’ll be performing his single Rebel, as well as hoping to snag an award or two – to tell us about the songs that inspire him. For those wanting to watch the awards there’s coverage from 8pm tonight on ITV2.
Tupac – All Eyez On Me
“I was young when I first heard this, so not everything he was saying might have been fully digested. But it still had a big impact. It’s about hardships, and how you have to keep going in the face of adversity, because it’s those hardships that make the man or woman out of us. Tupac spoke his mind in a time when it’s easy to fall victim to the puppetmaster. Whether we agree or disagree with some of the things that he said, you could see that he was real. Not real because he’s from the street or wherever, but just a real person.”
Notorious BIG – Sky’s The Limit
“I liked Biggie’s artistry. With Tupac it was more based on the person, but with Biggie it was about the music for me. On this track, he was talking about what it was like for him in school and you could see it wasn’t always roses for him, so that was very inspiring. The music works together with the message of the song to put you in the zone.”
Stevie Wonder – Ribbon In The Sky
“Stevie Wonder is an inspiring person in himself, and Ribbon In The Sky would be my favourite Stevie Wonder song. It’s deep metaphorically, double meanings all over the place. What I draw from it, someone else can draw something else from it. You can have multiple conversations about that song. Plus Stevie Wonder’s music is just very soulful.”
Dubz ft Giggs – Pain Is The Essence
“In the grime scene, it wasn’t really about songs – it was more based on radio sets, a collection of MCs going back-to-back. That’s what really got me into it: the Sidewinder sets, Deja Vu, Nasty Crew, Ruff Sqwad, Roll Deep… amazing, man. But there’s a song I like to listen to made by Giggs and Dubz called Pain Is The Essence. It’s a real chilled track and they’re just talking about life, you know? Giggs talks about life’s harsh realities, and in a time where it’s easy to play puppet, that’s what makes him stand out.”
FKA Twigs – Water Me
“If I’m being honest with you, I don’t really like recent music. The majority of stuff I hear coming through the radio or the TV doesn’t do it for me. But right now, what I’m into is FKA Twigs. What’s that song I had on repeat the other night, where her head’s moving like a clock? I do find her inspiring because the visuals are amazing, so artistic. The visuals are as important as the music, 100%. There’s a lot to learn from her. I’ve not got to see her live yet, but I was just speaking to someone else about her and they said she’s mesmerising.”
Ghetts’s new single Fire Burning is released 30 Nov
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The video for Drake's Tuesday is hilarious
You might not be aware of Tuesday, the summer sleeper hit from Drake’s latest pal and protege ILoveMakonnen. It’s a divisive earworm that many have written off as garbage while others are totally convinced by. For what it’s worth I actually quite like it, in the same way I like Lil B or Ren & Stimpy - it’s unnervingly entertaining. Anyway, the video -shot to promo the remix is hilarious. This is how we describe it in this month’s hip-hop playlist:
The video is actually pretty funny, but whether that’s intentional isn’t clear. Shots of cities all around the world are interspersed with citizens of those environs doing menial tasks and pointing at the sea while listening to the track. In another dimension, meanwhile – probably on a Tuesday night – Drake and a bunch of fashionista pals are sipping drinks in a bacchanalia-themed club where all the women wear masks, while Drizzy switches between huge grins and super sad faces. Nothing says 2014 emo-rap better than this.
Here’s a break down of why it made us chuckle.
ILoveMakonnen is clearly having the time of his life
Look at his chubby little chuckle bonce…
Drake’s mates are some of the funniest looking guys ever
First up: Made In Chelsea bro
Second pal: Weed dump mime bro
Drake doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry emo-rap tears
The man is clearly torn between enjoying the clearly ridiculous set up of the video with delivering an emotionally engaging song about, er, partying on a school night.
Check out the full thing below…
CLEVER MUSIC VIDEO ALERT
Here’s the video for The Bots’ new single All I Really Want, which might be the most ingenious music vid seen in quite some time. It plays out in the form of a Buzzfeed-style scrolling list piece, with GIFs - Spongebob Squarepants, Ron Paul, a dancing cat - matching up with the song’s lyrics. An obnoxious idea in the wrong hands, but here it works a treat. In fact I’m ready to declare it the closest thing we’ve seen yet to the Great American Listicle.
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The Simpsons goes loopy
Warning: this post contains a possible spoiler for something that might happen at some indeterminate point in the future. Maybe.
Simpsons showrunner Al Jean has revealed his idea for how the show should end, and it’s actually pretty good. Certainly better than pairing up with Family Guy or killing off Krusty’s dad or one of the show’s other recent witless stunts. Jean told Cinema Blend:
“There is an ending I’ve always had in mind, which was, I thought it would be cool if in the last episode they’re getting ready to go to a Christmas pageant, and they go to the Christmas pageant that opens up the first episode, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire,” so the entire series is a loop with no end. That would be my way of concluding the run, but nobody has asked me for it yet.”
A time loop! Very creative, and it would provide an answer of sorts for why the family never ages. It does raise some (slightly nerdy) questions - what about those episodes where the family see their own futures? Are they just false memories? Would the animation deteriorate to match the scratchy quality of that opening episode? - but generally I’m happy to go along with it. Not that such an event is likely to happen in the near future. As Jean says, “I think we’re the highest-rated show on the network, so it’s not like there’s an ending coming soon”.
What do you make of Jean’s possible ending? Got any better ideas for how the Simpsons should conclude? Maybe Homer entering The Black Lodge or something? Send them our way, and we’ll publish the best ones on the blog.
S Club 7: the reunion that some people, somewhere have been waiting for
Grimly inevitable comeback news now, and S Club 7, the definitive of all the S Clubs (pipe down, Juniors), have re-formed for Children In Need. In terms of reunions, this is hardly Morrissey and Marr hugging it out - as Stuart Heritage explained in this rather great piece from 2013, the S Club brand has been chugging along in some form for the past decade:
S Club 7 became known for their determination to limp on regardless. The loss of a member would cripple most groups, but when Paul left in 2002, they rebranded as S Club and carried on for another year. Since then, S Club has become a nebulous, catch-all term for any members who needed a safety net. In 2008, O’Meara, McIntosh and Cattermole began to tour smaller venues under the name S Club 3. Then in 2011 they resurfaced without Cattermole.
Then came the lowest point of all – the trio reformed again last year, turning up on an Australian morning show to perform a version of Reach so catastrophic that it’s genuinely difficult to sit through. The sight of them – all out of shape and sad-eyed, like abused circus bears – shuffling through the motions as Dannii Minogue enthusiastically mimed the lyrics in a series of unintentionally cruel cutaways – was just unbearably sad.
This is likely to be similarly depressing, but, hey, it’s for charidee, so that’s good. Plus, if it goes well it might prevent S Clubber Paul from inflicting any more of his nu-metal on humanity:
Stop it Paul.
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Are you not confused? Ayoade befuddles Guru-Murthy
Krishnan Guru-Murthy doesn’t half have a hard time with interviews. After his notorious tête-à-tête with Quentin Tarantino last year, last night he found himself sucked into the self-reflexive meta vortex that permanently surrounds Richard Ayoade. Rather than answer Guru-Murthy’s questions, Ayoade instead took the opportunity to go off on weird digressions about Norway, deny basic facts about himself, and deconstruct the very idea of the interview itself. Depending on how you feel about the man you’ll either find it annoying or quite endearing:
For a slightly less anarchic Ayoade interview, check out Sam Wolfson’s recent profile of him for G2.
