Scanner : indie rock

Bearded Man of the Week: Aidan Moffat

Colleen Kane — Fri, 08 May 2009 18:14:00 GMT

Aidan Moffat, formerly of the Scottish indie band Arab Strap, is our Bearded Man of the Week for his sexy singing voice and his recent work as a non-expert sexpert. Read his column on The Quietus as he non-expertly fields questions about post-coital sleep, pregnancy horniness, whether women can be both feminist and masochist, and more. We don't know how helpful his advice is, but picturing it uttered in his Scottish accent makes it that much more ~~indecipherable~~ sexy.

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Crush of the Week: Carrie Brownstein

Brian Fairbanks — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:17:00 GMT

Carrie Brownstein, let me count the ways: hot, lesbian, in a sexy lesbian hard rock band (currently on hiatus), blogger, indie, participates in hilarious podcasts for NPR's All Songs Considered, hot, hot, hot.

(The fact that she dates women in no way affects our adoration one way or another. We just wanted to mention it as a way of explaining why we don't just shut up about her and use our connections to land a date.)

If you still consider her to be "in" rock and roll, then perhaps you'll peruse these photos and agree she's one of the sexiest brunettes in rock and roll.

Brownstein landed on the national map in the 1990s (holy shit, that was a long time ago at this point) thanks to her membership in the indie rock trio Sleater-Kinney, eventually landing in Time Magazine as its Best Band In America at the end of the decade. We first fell in love with Carrie after purchasing Dig Me Out and gushing over the adorable booklet photos of her-- oh, and the music was all right, I guess.

Seriously, Sleater-Kinney has always been a seriously entertaining band, and, many would argue, an explosive live act (see below evidence.) Therefore, we were forced to do a bit of scrambled readjustment when Monitor Mix first appeared on the NPR website.

"My hopes for Monitor Mix are that it will be descriptive as opposed to merely prescriptive. I would rather discuss and examine what it is that people actually consume than to tell you what you should be listening to." [Wikipedia]

How intelligent, especially for a rock star. Then, she had to go one-up herself with these excellent podcasts for All Songs Considered, in which she joins other NPR music staffers in goofing on each other and playing Ramones and Gerbils songs, plus a brief interlude of "All By Myself" until they can't keep a straight face anymore. Adorable.

And don't get us started on this comedy team she put together with Fred Armisen... it's making her look even more awesome than we thought possible... like Smittens wore by two seven-year-old lovebirds...

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People are Talking About Beth Ditto's Nude Magazine Shoot

Colleen Kane — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:48:00 GMT

Beth Ditto, singer of the Gossip, just became more badass by baring her ass for the cover of LOVE magazine.

It's not the first time-- she's also appeared nude on the cover of NME, who she told women weren't to blame for the size 0 ideal.

"Blame gay men who work in the fashion industry who want these women as dolls. Men don't know what it feels like to be a woman and be expected to look a particular way. The Beckhams are part of the machine; Paris Hilton is part of the machine."

Beth has stripped for On Our Backs as well. A post about this on Perez Hilton inspired 533 comments so far that we shan't read, presumably many of them pejorative and semi-literate, and 270 on Popeater.
Thoughts?

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Sloppy Seconds: In Which Our Indie Rock Wet Dream Comes True

Emily Farris — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 23:13:00 GMT

If you could go back and date every guy you ever rejected, would you? That's the plot behind the new web TV series "Hell Froze Over." [HellFrozeOver.tv]

Someone else watched Miss USA's porn debut so you don't have to (unless you want to) and raised a good question: are you supposed to watch an entire porno? [Plog]

Who said it? "I've had times when my pants split right down the middle when I bent down to reach a note." [Us]

This 20-pound-lobster video required a second email from the Brooklyn Paper today. [Brooklyn Paper]

To catch a FOXNews producer.... yeah, you get the drift. [Gawker]

These celebrities' Valentine's Day plans sound about as sexy as ours (which is not at all). [Yahoo!]

But that's okay, this video of Elvis Costello performing Jenny Lewis' "Carpetbaggers" with Lewis and Zooey Deschanel is all the Valentine's love we need.

[via Stereogum]

While You Were Sleeping: Zooey Deschanel's Next Record

Brian Fairbanks — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:16:00 GMT

Lily Allen's bizarre, Amy Winehouse-style rampage continues.

The stars react to their surprise Oscar nominations.

Who do you think said this: "I know people will find that as another thing to hate me on, but fuck it. I'm open to doing porn. Hell, I'll even do bisexual scenes - myself, another man and a woman, or just me and two women. I know people will find that as some weird shit, but I am who I am." The answer? Kanye West.

It's definitely over between Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling, friends. Macadams is now dating Josh Lucas.

Good for Young Jeezy for standing up to Bill O'Reilly: "I felt it was necessary."

Right-wing Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand is likely to be named as Hillary Clinton's replacement in the Senate about the time you read this.

And Zooey Deschanel is working with M. Ward on their followup to She & Him: Volume One. Hopefully, her fiancee, Ben Gibbard, will refrain from droning on in his lyric writing during their rumored collaboration.

What Do Christian Bale And Kermit The Frog Have In Common?

Today's Topless PETA Roundup

While You Were Sleeping: Lily Allen Sends Topless Pic To Wrong Guy

While You Were Sleeping: Pete Wentz Exposes... His Past

Brian Fairbanks — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:45:00 GMT

Celebrity Headline of the AM: "What can't Ashton do?" Nope, we didn't read the story.

Non-Celebrity Headline of the Day: New Zealand Airline seeks bald men to use as walking billboards

The Daily Mail has discovered the best way to make someone fall in love with you: take them on a rollercoaster rid e.

Usher is going to have another baby! Well, Tameka Foster is, but who wants to read about her, right? Usher's having a baby...!

Pete Wentz (AND HIS LARGE PENIS) are fessing up about all the drugs (penis!) and alcohol.

Natasha Bedingfield is engaged. Believe it or not, this was a top story on every news site this morning.

And is it a sign that mainstream will start to go independent instead of the other way around? Sonic Youth confirms they are signing with Matador Records.

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I Hate Myself For Loving You: Ryan Adams

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:34:00 GMT

Ryan Adams is an incredibly talented artist who has made at least three CDs worth every penny we paid for them. Unfortunately, despite this immense talent, he has very little concept of what makes a cohesive, flowing, tightly-packed album. Even those three great records (Gold, Cold Roses discs one and two, and even Heartbreaker) have so much filler that they are 45 minute masterpieces turned 75-minute wobbling opuses.

This inability to see his own limitations has carried over into Adams' personal life, giving Gawker and gossip rags a million stories to goof on him with. Someone this good looking, grungy, and totally "rock star" (often in the worst sense of the term) would attract this unwanted attention even if he wasn't accused of:

Ryan Adams... who has an aversion to bathing, is a jerk. "He was really nasty to (ex-girlfriend) Mandy Moore. He would always pick on her and say the meanest things. Like he had to tear her down to make himself feel better. And he's so narcissistic it's unreal. He constantly Googles himself and is obsessed with what people say about him online." A rep for Adams said, "I don't think any of that stuff is true. He was really super-good to [Moore], and he just felt it didn't work out. That's a bunch of nonsense." [Page Six]

Courtney Love isn't helping things either. From a blog post, apparently accusing Adams of abuse of her credit card:

Ryan Adams you fucking weasel. deal with it.858,00$
Current mood: determined

Adams then made his breakup with Mandy Moore more public than anyone ever wanted it to be with this post, which everyone (i.e. Gawker) believes is about her:

Ryan, if you're reading this: fuck what anybody says about you, including us. But please try to keep things in perspective (stopping a show to throw out a fan who called for "Summer of '69," the Bryan Adams song, is not helping our enjoyment of said show), don't get high and drunk dial reporters, and if someone says, "Hey, there are 24 songs here and 12 of them are worth putting out," maybe you should put out a record with those 12 songs on them and leave the rest for Ryan Adams - The Bootleg Series.

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I Hate Myself For Loving You: Zooey Deschanel

Sloppy Seconds: The Pregnant Man is No Longer Pregnant

Sloppy Seconds: The Truth About The "Abusive" Paul McCartney

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:51:00 GMT

An earthquake this morning registered 5.4 on the Andy Richter scale and was felt from LA to Vegas and down to Mexico. There were no reported injuries as of post time.

Although he's charged with a DUI, Shia LaBeouf was not at fault for the car crash that flipped his truck. The other driver has been ticketed for running a red light...

PageSix claims Marc Jacobs has wed in Paris... and if you didn't know, he married...

his Brazilian boyfriend in a civil ceremony... which is not legally binding.

Other sources speculate that this is just a decoy move while Jacobs gets married elsewhere, away from the prying press...

Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson and Charlize Theron are to appear on a breast cancer telethon the night of September 5th.

We couldn't imagine Paul McCartney ever hitting anyone-- shit, could you imagine the guy who wrote "Yesterday" and "Maybe I'm Amazed" getting medieval on anyone? Now, Heather Mills' ex-publicist is speaking out and basically confirming what we suspected all along: the evidence of McCartney abusing his ex-wife was completely fabricated to help the wife's case.

We're pretty sure it's a fake of... something... but WTF is this photo Gawker posted?

You can download the Walkmen's excellent new album for $5, with all of the proceeds going to the cause of one hospitalized baby. The music revolution, indeed.

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I Hate Myself For Loving You: Zooey Deschanel

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:04:00 GMT

Everybody's already in love with actress-turned-indie-rock-darling Zooey Deschanel, which is why, I, Scanner Brian hate myself for having to jump on the bandwagon.

1) The new season of "Weeds," on which Zooey is occasionally featured, premieres on Monday, my birthday, and also features Mary-Louise Parker. If a woman, any woman, can stand out (in talent, looks, presence, etc.) on a show with Mary-Louise, she's gotta be awesome.

2) The She & Him performance from Conan with Yo La Tengo backing them up. We'd show you that video, which Scanner Nicole has posted, except the link is down. And we wouldn't want you to have Zooey's amazing voice stuck in your head.

3) Just kidding, we're going to make you hear her anyway, via this great little animated short, featuring Zooey and M. Ward covering Smokey Robinson:

Zooey Deschanel, M. Ward and Yo La Tengo Would Like to Give You an Indie Rock Wet Dream this Afternoon

Nicole Pasulka — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:16:00 GMT

Yeah, sure, it's pedigreed to an annoying extent, but Zooey Deschanel and M.Ward as She & Him performing on Late Night With Conan O'Brien backed by Yo La Tengo is legitimately entertaining. And, whoa, she's definitely cute. Just one topless scene and we'll have pretty much forgiven her for All the Real Girls.

Learn The Romance Secrets of Dean & Britta

Bryan Christian — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Ever wondered how ex-Luna bandmates and current indie troubadours Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips first hooked up? It's pretty much just as hot as you thought.

That night I deliberately left my cigarettes in the van, which gave me an excuse to knock on Britta's door. I could have just lied about needing a cigarette, of course, but I was going to play the charade properly.
I knocked on Britta's door; she gave me a cigarette and a kiss, and by the next day we were coconspirators.

Yeah. We know. Fucking sigh, right?

That comes, BTW, from Wareham's new book Black Postcards: A Rock & Roll Romance which apparently details the demise of Luna and the rise of Dean & Britta, and which if there's a copy of it floating around the Nerve offices had better fall into our hands eventually. From what we've seen, the book seems full of the casually incisive writing that Wareham's rightly famous for -- that's right, in our world, he's famous! -- but just so you're aware, the line that's probably gonna get the most play in the blogosphere is this one:

My old friend Howard Thompson, the former head of A&R at Elektra, was at the show, and he quietly told me that Britta had “the best visible panty line in rock.”

Probably the first superlative we've heard coming from an A&R guy that we can't argue with.

[item via GoldenFiddle; quote via Men's Vogue]