Peanut Butter Jelly Time

To answer Slayve’s question, it’d be best to watch this instructional video:

Brian, in a banana suit, holding maracas (from Family Guy).

According to a Wikipedia entry,

“Peanut Butter Jelly Time” is a Flash animation that emerged in the early 2000s and became an Internet phenomenon. Based on a song of the same name recorded by the Buckwheat Boyz, the best known version of the animation (usually distributed as a Flash clip) shows a pixelated dancing banana moving back and forth to the song’s repetitive chorus.

The dance that the male Tauren from World of Warcraft does is basically the peanut butter jelly time dance. But without the maracas.

Happening: The Changes

What: The Changes
When: Tues., Mar. 20, at 10 p.m. | Wed., Mar. 21, doors open at 8 p.m.
Where: Pianos, New York, NY | Union Hall, Brooklyn, NY
Cost: $10, both shows
The Changes are a great little indie group from Chicago. I’ve only seen them play live once, about three years back, but they’ve since become one of my favorite bands because of their smart, earnest lyrics and fun sound. Reminiscent of The Sea and Cake.

Wizard Rock

While in Boston, I was introduced to the music genre Wizard Rock, which according to Wikipedia dates from 2002 with Harry and the Potters being the first such band. My friend Alice had seen Harry and the Potters and dragged me to see The Remus Lupins at T.T. the Bear’s.

The show was actually quite fun. Despite the plural in the band’s name, Alex Carpenter is the sole member, though he was accompanied on one song by friends on other instruments. I bought a copy of his CD–you can hear some of his music on his Web site and myspace page–though it lacks the energy of his live playing. (He also played the show in a Hogwarts uniform, sweater and all; I don’t know how he withstood the heat.)

Still, he’s a talented musician, and it was interesting to learn about another facet of fandom. (See Wikipedia articles on cosplay and slash fiction).

Sony Fined–Radio Still Needs Saving

When I heard the news that Sony had been fined $10 million for bribing radio stations, I thought, and how is that news? Sony settled with the office of New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. In a statement released by his office on Tuesday, Spitzer said, “Our investigation shows that, contrary to listener expectations that songs are selected for airplay based on artistic merit and popularity, air time is often determined by undisclosed payoffs to radio stations and their employees.”

I’m glad Sony was fined, no matter how useless the act. But Spitzer’s suggestion that listeners expect that “songs are selected for airplay based on artistic merit and popularity” strikes me as a little preposterous.

A few years ago, I held a menial summer job that allowed me to
listen to the radio while I worked. Now, I like Britney Spears as much as the next person who won’t admit to occasionally singing “Baby One More Time” in the shower, but the hourly repetition of what seemed like a single playlist (and the constant commercial interruptions) over eight consecutive hours quickly became dull.

In his statement, Spitzer refers to payoffs — gifts and free trips — that Sony offered radio stations. I view bribes, however, as just one more tactic record companies take to aggressively market music chosen for its salability. The radio stations, also out to make money, willingly play the same songs by the same artists over and over again, claiming all the while that that’s what the people want.

Spitzer can try to eradicate “pay-for-play” but the online sharing of songs, the defection of increasing numbers of people to satellite radio and the popularity of iPods all point to deeper problems with the music and commercial radio industry.

More Connected Than We Thought

This whole wireless thing is very odd. Maybe if I had more of an understanding of the technology, I wouldn’t be so amused by the fact that I can pick up network “stephen” in my apartment. Or that now — sitting in the school library — I can share music with “Dave” (everything from Britney Spears to Yo-Yo Ma) and “Eren” (a lot of rock and alternative).

I look through my iTunes playlist as a stranger might. What kinds of assumptions are other users making about my music? One person connected to my playlist, though only briefly. Did this person see Kylie Minogue — sandwiched between Kurt Elling and Les Savy Fav — and think, there’s nothing to work with here?

I see a lot of top 40 stuff, like N’Sync and Avril Lavigne, in other people’s playlists. Some other bands that are popular right now, like everyone seems to have some songs from The Killers or The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I assume that the people with music from bands like Weezer, Blur or 311 are older, music that I listened to in high school.

And there seems to be an art to the naming of one’s playlist. Not just generic stuff like So-and-So’s Music (the iTunes default) but “Music from the 8th floor” or “Gloves found owner missing?” There was even one — and I should have noted the specific wording — that seemed to be a message to someone telling him where to go.