If you just want a quick Hot Hot Heat fix, here’s the title song from the forthcoming album, Future Breeds. To be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. I’m itching to relive my 27th birthday dance extravaganza and I don’t think this is going to cut it…

Something I particularly appreciate is their ability to roll with the punches, even when the punch (in this case, tendinitis) forces them to stop touring indefinitely. Fans will just have to stay loyal and patient and live vicariously through the album’s adventures online:

It travels to Ecuador.

Builds pyramids in the sand.

Visits Joshua Tree National Park

And hobnobs with monkeys.

Wasn’t that fun?

Fellow labelmate Scott Avett is also waiting patiently for Bombadil to be back in circuit. Here he is honoring the group with a lovely cover of the song “Marriage.”

It’s one in the morning. My boyfriend is hanging out just ten feet away from me on the couch, oblivious to the fit I am having at my laptop (He bought a new guitar today so the focus is definitely not on me). The fit is due to one thing and one thing only – I’ve just begun listening to Jesca Hoop’s new album Hunting My Dress. Suffice to say she’s outdone her earlier work Kismet and I loved that album when I first heard it, too!

Jesca Hoop started from a normal enough background. She grew up in a very musical, very Mormon family and paid her dues as a struggling artist (I suppose) by being a nanny. That’s if you want to call being Tom Waits’ nanny a struggle, of course. To be fair, I’m sure it came with its own unique challenges… not the least of which is the pressure of being affiliated with Tom Waits, period.

The big quote he released on her behalf is “Jesca Hoop’s music is like a four sided coin. She is an old soul, like a black pearl, a good witch or a red moon. Her music is like going swimming in a lake at night.”

“Spellbinding and flawlessly executed”… is probably what I would say if I could download the darn thing off iTunes!! Unfortunately for me, Jesca moved to Manchester before the release of Hunting My Dress last November, and it’s only available in the UK right now. I have to admit that a part of me is pretty ticked off about that.

Let’s just say that the boyfriend didn’t notice my initial glee, but he certainly heard my frustration.

Nonetheless, I still have much love for what I’ve heard so far and take solace in being able to show you the visual below. If I’m lucky, the rest of her album is as dark and complex as it appears to be here, with the song “Whispering Light”.

Credit Suisse estimates that YouTube will lose close to half a billion dollars this year. If it were a bank, it would be eligible for TARP funds.

I was thinking about this the other day. Might even have been yesterday. The line of thought went something like this: if it were early 2005, and I were a millionaire, and you brought me the business plan for YouTube, I wouldn’t invest. “We’re going to provide the world enough web space and bandwidth so that anyone with an internet connection can upload any film about any subject they want — for free, mind you — and then everyone else can surf on in or find a video embedded free-of-charge on another site, and viewers watch these films carte blanche — for free, mind you — and all we get in return is the chance for ad revenue? You’re kidding, right?”

Turns out that yes, they’re kidding. Please watch the video below and then go click on one of their ads.

It’s “Oh My God” by Ida Maria, from her Fortress Round My Heart LP.

tMiM: now 200 posts strong. What an anniversary, playing Blair Witch Project Cam with Ms. Maria.

From their Myspace page:

There’s not much difference between a playground bully, a corporate CEO and the self-absorbed figureheads of many of the world’s current administrations. They’ll all tell you that by surrendering your lunch money or tax dollars, they’re working toward “your best interests.” And we all realize these people are merely imposing a will of their own choosing to enhance their own mythology. Of course, fake benevolence isn’t the sole domain of public figures: Life has taught us the most insidious masters of manipulation come in more covert and intimate forms. Consider your friends, lovers and spouses.

Nobody knows these constructs like Ogre and cEVIN Key, the braintrust behind Skinny Puppy, who, while entering their third decade working together, remain the world’s most forward-thinking electronic/industrial-rock unit. Mythmaker, their 13th disc and second for SPV, is a harrowing song cycle framed in dark, intriguing atmospheres that explore the concept of control and the manipulation of culture that falsely enhances the lives of the duplicitous.

[...]

Skinny Puppy’s art has never been something to be taken at face value, and careful attention to Ogre’s commentaries on Mythmaker will reveal an underlying sense of seething. The opening “magnifishit” (with the disturbing line “I am the maggot’s muscle/magnet missile/your mother’s pisshole”) is a send-up of alt-culture braggadocio intended to be demeaned. On the urgent “politikiL” the singer asks rhetorically, “Are you up for the suck?” effectively summarizing the deceit and half-truths fed to the legion of the media-pacified.

Umm, yeah. Sure. And as if on cue:

The Genetic Opera is looking for approximately 200 people to volunteer for one day as opera patrons in TORONTO on WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 17. It is an opportunity to see an amazing cast of renowned artists perform on stage during the making of a feature film. The scenes being filmed on the day will feature:

Paris Hilton (making her musical screen debut)
Sarah Brightman (from Phantom of the Opera)
Paul Sorvino (from GoodFellas and Law and Order)
Anthony Head (from Buffy The Vampire Slayer)
Alexa Vega (from the Spy Kids films)
Kevin Ogilvie (“Ogre” from the cult band Skinny Puppy)

What was that you were saying again about the media-pacified, Mr. Film a Motion Picture With Paris Hilton?

Vivisect VI remains one of the greatest LPs of all time, and “Harsh Stone White” one of the greatest tracks. Warning: these are dark waters…

Me like, methinks. Apparently his third LP is due in mid-May 2009.

Update: JACKBOOTS!!!

This was one of those early 2008 releases that promised a great year. But by the time summer rolled around we knew we were in trouble.

Give it a listen. Great stuff. And what a voice, right?

Let us know what you think.