Category: unsorted

Old Stuff Starts Here…

This site was relaunched in November of 2015, but the blog’s been around since April of 2009. It’s been through many changes, so what lies beyond is almost certainly not formatted properly and often (yuck) written in third person. It’s also incomplete. I’m still filling in my two-plus years as a SPIN staffer, and moving even older posts over to this site. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Watch: Liza Oppenheimer Channels ‘Midnight Cowboy’ in Music Video for ‘Los Angeles’

We here at Aural Standards are particularly partial to songs about our city, and “Los Angeles” by friend-of-the-blog Liza Oppenheimer is a new fave. We’ve also got a certain affinity for all (er, most) things Dustin Hoffman, so upon learning that the Dee Robertson-directed video for this folksy jangler would pay a little tribute to Midnight Cowboy, well, we were elated. Check out the clip below, and then learn a little more from Liza after the jump.

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Full Time with SPIN, Senior Writer, Los Angeles

Alright, enough with the third person. I am very proud to share that after nearly three years of freelancing for the very publication that inspired me to scribble about music in the first place, I am going full-time with SPIN starting now with the title Senior Writer. (Unofficially, you might also refer to me as West Coast Dude.) So that means fewer updates here, but it also means virtually all of my work will be appearing in one place anyway, so who needs a blog? Read SPIN. Gonna be a lot of news stories, some shared songs and videos, and a great deal of old school reportage, so keep up over there as we kick off a new chapter of web dominance. Match me, Sidney! So begins my year(s) of living dangerously.

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‘It’s a Disaster’ Picked Up by Oscilloscope!

One in a two-part series of Big Thangz Poppin’ for Aural Standards. We are tickled pink to announce that Oscilloscope Laboratories, the film distro. co. co-founded by the late great Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, has acquired North American rights to It’s a Disaster. This is, of course, our most recent music supervision project with the brilliant Vacationeers team headed up by Todd Berger. Oscilloscope has also recently gotten behind the LCD Soundsystem documentary Shut Up and Play the Hits, and one of our favorites*, Bellflower. What does this mean? We’ll be in theaters and on demand early next year. This comes thanks to an extremely strong showing at the L.A. Film Fest. Whoo!

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Wallpaper. Makes the Internet Choke on Own Vomit via NSFW Lyric Video for “Puke My Brains Out”

Yes yes yes yes. A video that includes 3-D avatars having acrobatic sex. A song that includes the words “gotta get my brains outside of my face.” An interview that hinges upon terms like “vintage internet,” “sea punk” and “ayahuasca,” plus includes the following choice quote: “If you think you’ve seen the dark side of the internet, you haven’t seen shit until you’re on the porn message board circuit trying to figure out how to make 3-D figures fuck.” Loyal readers know Aural Standards has been backing Wallpaper since the VERY BEGINNING, so we’re pumped to have this up on the SPIN homepage right now. #tehinternetz

This is NOT the video in question, but also involves creative use of upchuck:

SPIN Premieres: HOTT MT Kidnaps Wayne Coyne, Growlers Diss Uncle Sam, Nick Waterhouse Slays

Been doing some blogging for SPIN lately, which included wrangling a trio of super sweet premieres from West Coast up-and-comers. Included: L.A. weirdos HOTT MT, who forced the lead Flaming Lip to do their bidding on camera; Costa Mesa beach bum kingpins the Growlers, who’ve dubbed America’s top-hatted human mascot a “dick”; and Nick Waterhouse, a San Francisco neo-greaser whose brand of soul revival won’t make you gag. Click below to dig in:

And some bonus Waterhouse for your troubles: