LCD Soundsystem

I've never been much of an LCD Soundsystem fan, but I thought I was going to die laughing.

New Weezer Album

I'm two track's into Weezer's new album, Hurley, and so far it's phenomenal. There may be a lot of contenders for Album of the Year this year.

(addendum: Music does not get better than "Ruling Me." Spread the good news: Weezer is back!)

(second addendum: Okay, maybe I spoke too soon--not all the songs are as good as "Ruling Me." Still, one great song is not bad.)

(third addendum: Okay, the new Weezer album actually sucks. That's what I get for making snap judgments.)

"How I Got To Be This Way"

I'm surprised to be saying this, but "How I Got To Be This Way" is actually kind of a great song. It's on VEVO's "On The Rise: Country" playlist, but Southern drawl and the rural flavor are pretty much all that make it country. I'd class it, rather, with what is sometimes called power pop. It might not be all that original, but that's not the point: it's tight and catchy and chock full of heart.

American Apparel Is The New Abercrombie & Fitch

The most important thing to know is that American Apparel is the new Abercrombie & Fitch. Which is to say, all of a sudden even the popular kids are dressing like hipsters. I'm not just saying this because I recently started spending most of my time in the vicinity of 12th and Broadway. I see the change just as much in mass culture, particularly in certain music videos for songs by artists who could not be more mainstream: Katy Perry, Usher, and Taio Cruz. About five years ago hipsterdom started riding a dialectical whiplash headed straight for the dead center of the mainstream. The period of 2004-2005 was the breaking point, the era of "Float On" and the Postal Service and Franz Ferdinand and the soundtrack to Garden State. The last six months or so were the Age of Gaga, which is now on hold until she releases her new album. With Gaga momentarily back-burnered, the air that has rushed in to fill her void is all hipster-inflected. Alternative is truly the new normal.

That poor girl who fell out of a 25th-floor window her first night (or thereabouts) at the Parsons School of Design was, judging from the few pictures I've seen of her, a patron of American Apparel or some analogous brand. The police found a small camera next to her body, and speculated that she may have climbed outside the window to take a picture--presumably, a picture to post on her "online diary." Hipsterdom has spread via the Internet.

The "Teenage Dream" video was shot to look like a Facebook photo album come to life. This shows us beyond a doubt that this abrupt change is because people now spend more time on Facebook than they do looking at professional photography. Mark Zuckerberg had no idea what an all-devouring monster he was unleashing on the world.

Far East Movement: "Like a G6"

I kind of like this song, or at least the opening chorus.

"Poppin' bottles in the ice...like a blizzard/When we drink, we do it right, gettin' slizzered/sippin' sizzurp in my ride, in my ride, like three-six/Now I'm feelin' so fly, like a G6."

That's not bad, although I doubt anyone in the video is sippin' sizzurp in anyone's ride, unless by "sizzurp" you mean "Malibu" and by "ride" you mean "drunk driving is dangerous." And admittedly the thing goes from decent to horrible as soon as those scrubby dudes show up and start rapping. But these days, 38 seconds of decent music should be enough for anyone.

Carney

aka Johnny Depp: The Band.

"Telephone"

I just watched the "Telephone" video again for the first time in a while, and I was struck by how well it schematizes the difference between Gaga and Beyonce. To wit: Beyonce just wants to kill her boyfriend; Gaga wants to kill everyone.