Corey.

What would you do baby?

Recently re-discovered this gem of a tv theme:



Don't laugh man, I'm fucking serious. Just close your eyes and try to de-contextualize it. Great changes. And you know who sings it? Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams. BAM!!!!!

Now to get SUPER nerdy for a minute...the first season had the same song, but a different version done with all studio musicians. Just compare the musical choices and level of nuance:




This really illustrates the difference between "pro ses" musicians and those with more expressive creativity. It's like Wallace Roney vs Miles Davis. I consider Mathis the vocal counterpoint to "Live Evil"-era Miles...




In other words, gutbucket funk in a sheen of noise and confusion. Or is that the hair I'm thinking of?

Like the BRAND, not the BAND

Kinda old news, but people seem to be pretty unanimously in favor of the new Julian Cassablancas record. I don't really get the bru ha ha. To me, it has that Strokes-ian combination of vague cool and pervasive blandness. But what is appealing to me about the record is the accompanying promo campaign.

Whoever brainstormed the look of the album and other related "brand content" (website, videos, concert posters, etc.) did a bang up job melding a lot of my favorite 80s shit (early digital imaging, post-apocalyptic narratives, cyberpunk landscapes, smoky backlighting) with a kind of neo-classical design aesthetic. Great stuff. Here are some stills from various sources: