Month: January 2014

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What makes sense in that world? The Chemical Brothers locate their answer at the moment hedonism shades into chaos. “Setting Sun” might not be the noisiest Number One, but it’s one of the most aggressive and turbulent – great chthonic shudders of bass, a drum loop that seems to be trying to punch a hole in the track, snatches of drone on endless spin cycle, the whole song strafed by feedback squeals then swamped in machine-goblin chatter as soon as the singer tries to communicate. Any attempt by the song to be a song is undercut – the breakdown sounds like an equipment failure and reboot, and Gallagher’s vocals are treated and flattened into irrelevance. (Apparently he performs “Setting Sun” as an actual song live, which is hard to imagine – the lyrics are flotsam and the track’s main weak point is his attempt to corral the noise into a tune.)

“Setting Sun” – from Dig Your Own Hole, my favorite Chemical Brothers album, if only for the nostalgia element – is one of my favorite ChemBros songs, alongside the equally Noel Gallagher-vocalled “Let Forever Be,” which is another attempt to redo the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows.” Tom Ewing’s take on “Sun” is, of course, a must-read, especially because of what he says about the song essentially closing the door on the 1966 revivalism it seemed a product of.

(Also, Noel Gallagher’s live version of “Setting Sun” is notable not only for being performed solo, but also acoustically most of the time. I should find it on YouTube, for the curious.)

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The booth that was staffed with the booth babes generated a third of the foot traffic (as measured by conversations or demos with our reps) and less than half the leads (as measured by a badge swipe or a completed contact form) while the other team had a consistently packed booth that ultimately generated over 550 leads, over triple from the previous year.

Spencer Chen ran two booths at a tech convention – one following the traditional convention convention of having models front the stall, one with a couple of “show contractors… with established people skills.” Turns out that attendees preferred the non-booth babe booth. Hey, every tech/comic convention in the world, maybe you should think about this.

(I’m particularly interested in the idea that booth babes intimidate people – or, I should say, interested in that being attributed to “nerds being awkward around girls.” I’m unconvinced that’s the case; I’d be curious to know how many people didn’t talk to the booth babes because it seemed tacky/they didn’t want to look like they were perving on the models.)

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I’m not sure this story has ever been told and Annie might not thank me for telling it. But I think we were flying to New York and I sort of brought up midway in the flight and said I’ve just signed this girl group. And Annie was very interested.

She said “I want to meet them’. Almost directly, she was the one who got them to be louder and more brash and more specific. So Emma who was the sweet cute blonde girl became Baby Spice. She just played it and hammed it up – none of these names actually existed, but Annie gave them focus.

Simon Fuller reveals that Annie Lennox, of all people, was behind the personality branding of the Spice Girls. Annie, this may end up being your crowning moment of pop glory.
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How And Why tells the story of Goodman Hesselman (Hawkes), who can explain how and why a nuclear reactor works but is clueless about life. After losing his gig hosting children’s science show How And Why, he tries to start over with a new show in a little TV market in the middle of nowhere when he encounters the supernatural world. Cera plays Mendelson, Goodman’s new boss at the studio. Even though they legally cannot use any part of How And Why, Mendelson is confident they will replicate the show.

Michael Cera and John Hawkes have signed on for a new sitcom written by Charlie Kaufman. Consider me very interested.