Tuesday, July 31

8-Bit Olympics


Yes, of course we love our Olympic games. Especially when they're reminiscent of Super Nintendo. Check out this really cool video by animating studio Flikli, which showcases all of the favorites in glorious 8-bit...well, glory. You've got gymnastics, basketball, pole vaulting...so many good ones. Really well done.

Sunday, July 29

That Gotye Song



Even more Gotye madness! This song's been out for well over a year now, and I still hear it fairly constantly on the radio. Fortunately the BreakfastToms have made a video to show how we really feel when it comes on. Guilt. Annoyance. Excitement. All of these things combine to make a fantastic portrayal of our reactions.

Highlights for me included the "feels so rrrrRUFF;" the mumbling through various words of the chorus; and the "ahh, ahh, ahh" of the backing vocals during the second chorus. You'll understand what I mean when you see it. The beginning starts a little slow, but boy oh boy, is the payoff worth it. 

Saturday, July 28

Somebody That I Used to Know Parody of a Cover



Hmm...that title makes this sound kind of Inception-esque...well, it's not at all. It's just The Key of Awesome! doing a parody of Walk Off the Earth's excellent cover of Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know." You know, that one where five people are playing one guitar?

Anyway, TKoA's parody is pretty spot-on. Lots of gems in this one, my personal favorite being the "plinky noise" and Tony just wandering away. You'll have to watch the video to find out what I'm talking about. What a teaser!

Monday, July 23

Twitter: The Romantic Comedy


Have you ever imagined what a movie about Twitter would be like? Not at all? OK, how about after The Social Network? Now there's some curiosity, eh? Still no? Well...they made a trailer about a Twitter movie anyway!

Called You Got Retweeted, I sincerely doubt this will develop into a big thing. But they at least got some fairly big names to star in the trailer. Alison Brie, Jason Ritter, Daniel Franzese and Kimmy Gatewood come together in a fairly entertaining (albeit, completely stupid) romp where hashtags and @mentions are a thing of beauty. Fantastic.
 
Via Mashable

Twitter Hashtag...Musical Style!


One of the (originally) unique features about Twitter is (was) the hashtag. No doubt you've seen them now on all sorts of platforms, ranging from useful: "Hey, is anyone else going to see #IcePrincess?" to just ways to add something at the end of a sentence, without hitting the spacebar: "I just went back for sixths at Golden Corral #cantwaittohavethismassivediarrhealattack."

Regardless, Paul the Trombonist has decided to give us a little musical history of the hashtag. Pretty cool stuff. Check it out! 

Via Mashable

Sunday, July 22

Nick Offerman Reads Tweets From Female Celebrities



Let's be real, here. Nick Offerman, from Parks and Recreation, is awesome. He's a man's man, and as such, is often doing very manly things, such as operating power saws and whatnot. From time to time, the folks over at Team Coco like to have him read tweets from female celebrities, as well. And the results, as expected, are pretty dang funny.

This also makes me quite sad that some of these are actual tweets. But it's still far better than what I come across on a day to day basis. FAR better.

I'm Batman...Said A Lot of Times



Sometimes people make supercuts that are ridiculous. This is a prime example of one such video. Wait a minute...virtually every supercut video is ridiculous...

Well, in any case, this one's pretty entertaining. In honor of The Dark Knight Rises, it's a bunch of people, from Community's Abed to Lady Gaga, saying some variant of the phrase "I'm Batman." Of course, clips from actual Batman movies and shows are in there, too. My personal favorite is the one that I believe is from Robot Chicken - the one that's taking place in the backseat of a car.

Tuesday, July 17

Epic Shake Weight Prank

This video came out about a month ago, and I saw it about a week later. But I'm stupid, so I didn't decide to post it until right now. Oops. Anyway, it's a pretty hilarious video of people using the Shake Weight in public. It confuses a lot of passersby, which is always entertaining. I've used one of these things before. They're kind of awkward and bulky, and they make noise for some reason, but they do give a fairly good workout, so kudos for that.

Saturday, July 14

Girl Voices All 151 Original Pokemon




This is just incredible. In honor of me not doing a RtP for nearly a month (I will get back to it soon, I promise!), here's a girl who does the voices/sound effects/yells/whatever you want to call it for all of the 151 original Pokemon. Every. Single. One. From the incredibly odd sound Victreebel makes to the soothing "let me put you to sleep" Jigglypuff, it's absolutely fantastic, and it seems like a lot of these are spot on. I seriously can't get over how impressive this is. Check it out!

Wednesday, July 11

No...These "Call Me Maybe" Videos WON'T Stop



Yesterday you may recall a post on more parodies of Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe." Of course, that is not the end of it. There's more. And there will always be more until the end of time.

In this case, it's the mascots of the Big 10 (well, now, 12...although only about four are prevalent in here) performing to the song. It's not bad by any means, but...I mean, we GET it. This song is catchy.

Tuesday, July 10

Can These PLEASE Be the End of "Call Me Maybe" Parodies?

Look, I love Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" as much as anyone. But when you start getting parodies like these...I think it's time to put it to rest. 

The first is Cookie Monster singing about, well, what else? Cookies. It's called "Share It Maybe," and takes place in an office. And it's delightful, but the CM's voice is just really irritating whilst singing. Too bad.



The second one gets points for its adorable video, but the "singing" leaves much to be desired. Maybe because it's just a corgi barking periodically along with the beat of the song. But the music video is pretty much the same thing as the actual song, which is absolutely fantastic. The "twist" at the end is especially awesome.

Sunday, July 8

This Man Is Interviewing Himself...From 20 Years Ago!



This is incredibly clever and makes me want to go back and search for old family videos to see if I could pull off something similar. Maybe. MAYBE WE CAN!!! If that's not a teaser I don't know what is.

Watch this dude, Jeremiah McDonald, as he interviews his 12-year-old self about everything and anything under the sun. Well, I guess the most obscure reference is to Dr. Who. Either way, this is really entertaining and worth checking out. So do it!

Via Mashable

Dora the Explorer is Real!



Goodness, it's been a minute since we posted. And there probably will still be some transitionary phases. Moving is hard!

Anyways, today we see Ariel Winter (from Modern Family) as a live-action Dora in some kind of College Humor Dora, The Explorer movie trailer. And it's fairly entertaining. I personally like the "the Swiper's right behind you!" and Dora still not knowing where he is. Channeled some Blues Clues memories for me, personally. That's always a winner.

Monday, July 2

Can I Get a CD Review? The Offspring - Days Go By





It's been four years since The Offspring's last record, 2008's Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace. So you could certainly say some days have gone by before they started working on their 9th full-length disc, the aptly titled Days Gone By. I wasn't sure what to think about this record after the first two singles: "Days Go By" could easily be a b-side from a Foo Fighters album, and while I find "Cruising California (Bumpin' In My Trunk)" infectiously catchy, it wasn't obvious that the whole CD could be held up by that kind of music. It's clearly a joke song, so how many would there be on the record?

It turns out, not many. The Offspring for the most part take a serious tone with this album, and it's great. There are a few slow moments, but otherwise this is a very solid rock album. Let's track-by-track it:

1) "The Future Is Now" - This one has been compared quite a bit to Rise Against. I can definitely see the similarities to "Savior," specifically, but that doesn't make it a bad song. It's got the requisite energy to kick off the record, and even has a nifty piano breakdown near the end. 4/5

2) "Secrets From the Underground" - Another mid-tempo rocker, SFTU (which, now that I abbreviate it, looks dangerously close to abridged profanity) could certainly fit right in on Smash or Ixnay on the Hombre. That chorus is pretty catchy. 4/5

3) "Days Go By" - This was the lead single for the album, and like I said, it seems like it could fit right in on a Foo Fighters album. While that's not necessarily a terrible thing, this is possibly the most generic song on the whole disc. Which of course makes it perfect to ride the airwaves. 3/5

4) "Turning Into You" - Another Rise Against "ripoff" (at least according to some, this time it sounds like "Ready to Fall") marks the 4th track of the record. I actually really like the drum machine in the beginning and end, and "Ready to Fall" is a really good song, so if this rips it off, it picked a good one to borrow from. 4.5/5

5) "Hurting as One" - The chorus in particular is reminiscent of earlier Offspring, most notably "Something to Believe In" off of Smash. Again, this is not a bad thing by any means, and since there are only two really fast songs on this album, "Hurting as One" gets brownie points for being one of them. 4.5/5

6) "Cruising California (Bumpin' In My Trunk)" - Possibly the most polarizing song The Offspring have ever written. People really hate this song. There's no other way around it. I think it's really catchy, albeit stupid, but I mean...are we really surprised by this anymore? People are like "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" was at least clever; this is just so stupid." News flash: They're BOTH stupid, but they're both uniquely clever in their satirization of current pop music. I don't normally like a lot of music that's repeated on the radio, but because this is mad catchy (like irritatingly so), I'll give it a bit of a boost. 4.5/5

7) "All I Have Left Is You" - Simply looking at the track titles, if you had to pick one song to be a slow, romantic ballad, you'd pick this one, right? And you'd be absolutely correct. At 5:18, it's the longest song The Offspring have done, either (since I don't count "Pay the Man's" five-minute intro as part of that song, or any track with a hidden "song" or message at the end - a la Smash and Ixnay because the reason they're so long is mostly silence). But it's growing on me a little; it's not that repetitive, which is surprising for a song of its length. Much better than "Fix You" from the last album, if nothing else. 3.5/5

8) "OC Guns" - I don't know why this song isn't getting more flak. It's just...not good. Bassist Greg K. apparently said in an interview that this was on his favorite songs of the record. I really think it's just because it's the only song you can really hear the bass on. I think it's supposed to be about gang violence, but rest assured, this is not "Come Out and Play Part II." From the crappy Spanish rapping to the "tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki, what up holmes," it's just a poor effort all around. 1.5/5

9) "Dirty Magic" - I still think this is kind of cheating..."Dirty Magic" is a song from 1992's Ignition, and any time a song gets re-recorded for an album, there's always the risk of doing it wrong. I really like this update, as the original is one of my favorites by the band. But there's still a part of me that wonders if another new song could have been included as well. 4.5/5

10) "I Wanna Secret Family (With You)" - These last three songs are my favorite on the album. This is definitely a poppy summer jam, and would have satisfied fans a lot more than "Cruising California" did, mainly because this isn't entirely a joke song. It's still extremely poppy, in a similar vein to "Want You Bad," but I also hear things like The Wonders in it. Just really, REALLY catchy. And it's awesome. 5/5

11) "Dividing By Zero" - After the extreme pop of the previous track, The Offspring write probably their "punkiest" song in years. This seems to be an early consensus for favorite off the album from a lot of reviewers, and I don't think I'm an exception. It's fast, it's furious, and it's supremely melodic and will get stuck in your head. It borrows some elements from their self-titled album and Ignition (mostly with a middle-Eastern guitar sound in parts), but mostly it just rocks, and is actually the beginning of a two-part medley with the next track. 5/5

12) "Slim Pickens Does The Right Thing And Rides the Bomb to Hell" - Despite its Fall Out Boy-esque title, this song is fantastic. It's got a little Bad Religion feel to it, and these may be some of the best lyrics Dexter Holland has ever penned. It's an excellent way to close the album, and is probably my favorite final track on any Offspring record. 5/5

All in all, there are a few hiccups along the way, but the final third of the album is among the band's finest work. Die-hard Offspring fans will eat this one right up. And newbies may find enough in the beginning to latch onto. Definitely worth checking out.

Final Score: 4/5