I wasn’t going to say anything about this until Kanye gave it the all clear, but the new video for Jonathan Boulet’s “A Community Servce Announcement” is the best video of ALL TIME. Well, it’s a great little green screen spaff out cooked up by Special Problems. And the song’s catchy to boot.

Jonathan Boulet’s self-titled debut album will be released by Modular on December 4.

DISCLAIMER: Modular gives me money (I am employed there).

The one man band wunderkid dream is over.

According to the Forks, Nathan Williams’ scuzzy surf rock oufit Wavves has multiplied. Last year Williams scored a drummer for Wavves’ live show…. Two, actually.

Now it appears Williams has snatched up Jay Reatard’s recently ‘hirable‘ rhythm section, bassist Stephen Pope and drummer Billy Hayes. Or so the recent video evidence below would have us believe.

No sign of superhuman Lurch-like Zach Hill, who was previously on skin duties.

Who the hell doesn’t like free music? Wait, don’t answer that LARS! I know you’re out there!

Eels are jumping on the giving-away-music wagon by giving away the quintessentially Eels sounding (see: heart breaking, tender, geatures lyrics about birds) “Little Bird”. It’ll cost you an email and maybe a packet of tissues depending on how much you “get” it.

DOWNLOAD: “Little Bird” from eelstheband.com

I am pretty certain that having what are more or less “hardcore pornographic shorts” for your band’s music video is the new In Rainbows method.

I am very bad at watching music videos, assuming they live online since I don’t “get” television in my place. To watch a music video requires me to devote my whole attention to something for approximately 3 minutes. While I do have textbook ADD, I am also an exceptional multi tasker who can juggle several things at once while doing some serious web surfing. I can listen to Blink-182, Yahoo! chat, submit a picture to Brown Cardigan and Pull Out on a Bro all simultaneously – but for me to watch a video I have to stop everything I am doing and have no outside distractions, which is getting a lot harder what with YouTube’s in-your-face Google Ads popping up every 8 seconds and all. The influx of music videos combined with the fact that the only viewing method I have is “on demand” results in my losing patience and interest, very quickly.

Two videos I have managed to watch lately have been making quite a bit of ruckus, and it’s because they star real, live, NSFW penis’. Both Girls’ “Lust for Life” and Flaming Lips’ “Watching The Planets” music videos feature such an extreme amount of nudity and in your face wang/hooters, it’s very hard not to watch. Hey, you even get to see Wayne’s Coyne. Wang Coyne. etc.

I am not sure what this says about me, the music industry or music videos in general. Or maybe it speaks volumes. Perhaps it’s all just a coincidence, or a well orchestrated eye-grabbing crotch-rubbing move to attract the ADD kids like myself.

Much has been said about Weezer’s seventh album, Raditude. From its wacky title and startling artwork, to its contraversial marketing and the fact the majority of its songs are co-written with “professional” songwriters. This is not another review or an assessment of the record’s tracks, but rather a compact case study of Rivers Cuomo’s curse/gift that is arguably at its most present on Raditude, for better or worse: Cuomo’s personal mission to perfect popular music.

A cynic could argue that the irony lies in the fact that Cuomo not only perfected, but crafted, his own brand of pop perfection in 1994 on Weezer’s self-titled debut, more commonly known as The Blue Album. Channeling a range of influences from the classic (The Beatles, Beach Boys) to the contemporary (Nirvana, Pixies) Cuomo created the “Weezer sound” so many succeeding bands have not only cited, but obsessed over, as a point of reference. There were songs about homies, sweaters, surfing and girls who looked like Mary Tyler Moore.

Raditude is in one sense the most cohesive and complete body of work the band have made since their 00s come back with 2001’s Weezer (The Green Album) and this is because it more or less maintains the same, albeit slightly updated, pop-citation philosophy found on Blue. The classic influences are still there (Cuomo has never channelled Pet Sounds era Brian Wilson as much as on closer “I Don’t Want To Let You Go”) while the contemporary influences in some intances have slightly changed (Lil’ Wayne, Lady Gaga, MGMT). There are songs about homies, Slayer t-shirts, partying and girls with the “Shirley Appleby look”.

But it’s not Blue. It’s Raditude

Weezer have been known to throw curveballs throughout their career, and that’s just putting it lightly. One look at the band’s discography and it becomes clear that pleasing the small percentage of hardcore fans is not part of Cuomo’s agenda. In fact, there is no over-arching plan besides: perfect pop music. You liked the universal catchiness and quintessentially “indie” sounding Blue Album? Well here’s a raw, heart on the sleeve personal record you’ll probably hate (Pinkeron). You want a heavy, emotional, undernourished masterpiece again? Here’s 28 minutes of sugar-coated, formulaic pop (Green). And so forth. These are experiments. The songs and albums are the results of these experiments. We, the listener, are the subjects. Whether or not these tests equate to more or less fans, higher or lower record sales doesn’t seem to affect Professor Cuomo.

The fact I’ve already spent more than three paragraphs talking about Raditude and Weezer is already too much.

One browse at Julian Casablancas’ newly designed website and you’d be forgiven for thinking you had just stumbled upon Warner Bros’ official page for Blade Runner. The only problem is, the Internet as we know and love it wasn’t really kicking about in 1982, back when the extent of marketing a film couldn’t go beyond trailers, posters and radio spots.

The all too familiar cyber-punk setting is provided by Warren Fu, a gentleman well-versed in all things sci-fi as one look at his resume will tell. Fu got his big start on the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy as a storyboard and visual effects artist (roughly 99% of all males dream job). The immediate Blade Runner feel makes even more sense (is that a Spinner?) since the trilogy’s infamous “city planet” Coruscant, one of the series’ major settings, was directly influenced by the urban Hades that is LA circa 2019 depicted in Blade Runner.

Since then, Fu has moved into music video/website territory, perhaps most famously directing the 2nd version of The Strokes’ “You Only Live Once” video, which features more 2001 visual cues than you could poke a starchild with. Fu’s relationship with The Strokes has only strengthened since, not only designing their website but directing drummer Fabrizio Moretti’s side-project, Little Joy’s video for “No One’s Better Sake” and most recently the extremely cinematic “trailer” for Casablancas’ solo debut, Phrazes for the Young. Recently a casting call was put out in Los Angeles for Julian’s first music video, requesting “real Mad Max diehards with a post-apocalyptic look” and steampunk advocates. Though it wasn’t mentioned, it sounds like Fu to me.

Fu displays an uncanny ability to reference familiar sci-fi cues, while making the work completely his own, much like The Strokes’ own remarkable modern take on recognised, classic rock. Fitting.

UPDATE: Warren Fu just sent me an email confirming he is indeed doing Julian’s upcoming video, though he did not say what one: “Yeah, you know me too well… I’m directing Julian’s upcoming video.” So there you have it, folks.

One of biggest memes of the year has without a doubt been Sidney, the “flying” dog who graces the cover of Weezer’s seventh album, Raditude.

Sidney’s proud owner, Jason Neely, has updated his Flickr with a shot showing Sidney sitting rather happily with a copy of the album. Meta. The whole gallery’s got a massive “aww” factor to it and the amount of air time this canine is getting throughout the pictures should be enough proof that the infamous leap wasn’t Photoshopped.

This site would be a hell of a lot different if it weren’t for Julian Casablancas. We’d probably still (only) post about Weezer and stalk the shit out of David McCormack, but without J Casa Casa, we would never have had The Strokes. And without The Strokes, ths website wouldn’t be called “Twelve Major Chords”. And now I’ve gone and said too much…

Sony have given us 5 copies of Julian Casablancas’ debut album, Phrazes for the Young (full [more than one-sentence] review coming soon) to give away. To get your hands on Jules’ maiden foray into solo territory, you’ll have to answer the following:

What song’s lyrics did Twelve Major Chords get its name from?

To enter, send an email to angus@twelvemajorchords.com with the subject “J Casa Casa Contest” and your answer in the email’s body.

It’s killer. Directed by Marc Webb, the gentleman responsible for (500) Days Of Bummer. Oh and P.S. – BROS BEFORE HOES.