Tampa Calling

Last Thursday, on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to land on the Moon, NASA came out with the embarrassing news that it had somehow, over the years, managed to record over America’s most important historical footage of said trip to the Moon’s surface. You know, the famous footage of Neil Armstrong’s “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” the one that all those conspiracy theorists say is faked Wag the Dog style? Yeah, that footage.

(Apparently, in the 1970s and ’80s, NASA had a shortage of tapes, so it erased about 200,000 of them and reused them, including ones documenting the historical event.)

Luckily, NASA’s news came with a Hollywood saves-the-day solution: those crafty preservationists who restored Casablanca are digitally sharpening and cleaning up grainy footage of the moon landing taken from four sources NASA scrounged from around the world. The results are said to be better than what TV viewers witnessed on July 20, 1969, and according to senior NASA engineer Dick Nafzger, “There’s nothing being created; there’s nothing being manufactured.”

In honor of NASA’s royal fuck-up, I’ve made up a playlist of songs dedicated to the moon. There are a great deal more than 10, and some are rather obvious, but headlines are better with nice round numbers … interesting how many of these songs were produced in the ’70s. I guess a mission to the moon will inspire some songs, huh? Read the rest of this entry »

A weekly bulletin on musical guests playing late night TV; set your TIVOs or DVRs if you’ve got an early bedtime and you haven’t already caught these appearances (or want to see them again).

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Monday, June 29: Steve Earle (June 3, pictured; photo by Ted Barron)
Tuesday, June 30: The Fray (April 2)
Wednesday, July 1: the Jonas Brothers (June 11)
Thursday, July 2: P.J. Harvey & John Parish (June 12)
Friday, July 3: Rick Ross with Magazeen (May 14)

The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, NBC
Monday, June 29: Green Day (June 2)
Tuesday, June 30: John Mayer (June 4)
Wednesday, July 1: Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal (June 9)
Thursday, July 2: Neko Case (June 11)
Friday, July 3: Incubus (June 17) Read the rest of this entry »

A weekly bulletin on musical guests playing the five-nights-a-week late night talk shows (and SNL); set your TIVOs or DVRs, if you haven’t already seen them…

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Monday, April 6: Razorlight (original air date 03/11)
Tuesday, April 7: Cursive (03/13)
Wednesday, April 8: Bell X1 (03/17)
Friday, April 10: U2 (03/05)

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NBC
Monday, April 6: Raul Malo (03/11)
Tuesday, April 7: Prince (03/27)
Wednesday, April 8: Prince (03/25)
Thursday, April 9: Naturally 7 (03/18)
Friday, April 10: PJ Harvey and John Parish (03/24)

Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, CBS
Monday, April 6: M. Ward (03/06)

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, NBC
Monday, April 6: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (03/04)
Wednesday, April 8: The Virgins (03/11)
Thursday, April 9: Gabriella Cilmi (03/24)
Friday, April 10: Trace Adkins (03/13) Read the rest of this entry »

A regular weekly bulletin on musical guests playing the five-nights-a-week late night talk shows (and SNL); set your TIVOs or DVRs.

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Monday, March 2-Friday, March 6: U2 (pictured, and yes, they are the musical guest every night this week)

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NBC
Monday, March 2: The Fray
Tuesday, March 3: Bettye Lavette
Wednesday, March 4: Neko Case
Thursday, March 5: Tom Jones
Friday, March 6: Papa Roach

Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, CBS
Thursday, March 5: Andrew Bird
Friday, March 6: M. Ward

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, NBC
(Fallon takes the O’Brien torch with The Roots serving as his house band and kicks off his first week with a pretty fatty schedule of A-list guests and performers)
Monday, March 2: Justin Timberlake, Van Morrison
Tuesday, March 3: Jon Bon Jovi, Santogold
Wednesday, March 4: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Thursday, March 5: Ludacris Read the rest of this entry »

–A review by Creative Loafing Sarasota Editor Cooper Levy-Baker from the Sarasota blog, the 941.

Two months ago, we teased the hell out of the debut disc by the hot-shot DJ duo N.A.S.A., and posted an mp3 and a video by the group to boot. Well, this past Tuesday, the disc finally hit the streets, and Pitchfork has already chimed in with a strong-handed diss, claiming the extensive guest list scattered around The Spirit of Apollo is the only good thing about it. In writer Tom Breihan’s view, N.A.S.A.’s Rolodex trumps everything musical about the release.

And, while we certainly got a lot of mileage — about 100 words worth — out of the ridonkulous list of stars attached to the project in our original post, I couldn’t disagree more about the quality of the music the boys at N.A.S.A. have cooked up. “Money” (the video for which we posted earlier) is a propulsive beast, merging David Byrne’s New Wave nasality with energetic dancehall toasts and a speaker-rattling breakbeat. “Way Down” is all orchestral slow-grind with a wonderfully Wu way about it (which makes sense, since it’s got a guest shot from RZA). “Strange Enough,” meanwhile, splits the difference between ODB’s lunacy and Karen O’s fuzzy punk squawk with remarkable ease. Read the rest of this entry »