Warehouse is in order

Animaniacs, what a good memory

I have no idea why, it's just funny

Top Ten Bush Moments

Simpsons on Piano

Gregarious and I are suckers for Simpsons songs on instruments:

Moving, vacation, babies, etc...

Distraction Jackson is a bit busy right now so we might be holding off on our high quality posts until after the weekend. I'm moving, won't have internet until the fifth and currently on vacation, Gregarious is possibly having a baby in the next few days/hours/minutes. Big events, sorry DJ has to suffer in post quantity or quality. Hopefully I've posted enough videos above to make you happy until the 5th.

Andy McKee plays Toto's "Africa"

My buddy Erich told me about Andy McKee and showed me this video:



He recently put out a CD with Don Ross. Check it out.

Merry Christmas to our Loyal 17

Merry Christmas to the blog visitors of DJ. Even though I'd probably still run this blog if only 1 person was visiting, it's great to know that at least 17-20 people a day check this site if not the 80 some that visited on that one big day we had. Glad to see you like it, come here every week or day and I hope you keep coming back to check out the complete randomness, mixed with a lot of music, that is Distraction Jackson.

Merry Christmas.

Live Tyler

The Bassist Can Appreciate This

The Original Stuntman/Jackie Chan

He's no Bizmarke

Almost a Boat Plane

Fast forward to 50 seconds:

I would never ride this

Rumbling, Tumbling Bumbling...

Solo Speed Climb

Hotel Cafe "Winter Songs"

One of the best venues to produce good musicians, Hotel Cafe has released a record for the holiday season called "Winter Songs". It features all women of Hotel Cafe, including Sara Bareilles, KT Tunstall, Ingrid Michaelson, Colbie Caillat, Priscilla Ahn, etc... I like about half the songs, especially from the above mentioned. Check it out on their site, they have a player.

Previous Hotel Cafe posts: Joe Purdy and Hotel Cafe Tour.

Uhh...open the door, look at the roof

100 Best Tracks and Worst Album Covers of 2008

This might be my last two lists that I post (maybe).

100 Best Tracks. This one's a gem because they have a player below each track for your ear devices...and it's the whole list this time.

Worst album covers of 2008. This has slowly grown to be my favorite list this year. Brad Paisley made the list (pitchfork's comment below):


"The artist who did this also designs GeoCities pages for people in 1996."

Number 52 in the right background is seriously upset that he didn't get a hug from coach.

Lego Hoth

Ridiculous Star Wars Legoage

Gummy Awards

I'm a big fan of the Gummy awards presented by Stereogum.com. This years category has: Best Album, Best Movie, Best TV Album, Best.... Check it out.

Here's Best Music Video...

Justin King & Trace Bundy

Double guitar:


Trace Bundy does Christmas music...


...pachabel's canon...

Erik Mongrain Taps it out

I won't even comment on this except to say that I am seriously impressed and if you've never played guitar before this is very impressive what he does with all parts of the guitar and the sound/harmonics he gets from it:

All the lists, 2008 style

I've already posted my favorites lists this last week but there are more out there and I'm sick of posting them. So here are the rest.

New pic

The new picture of Gregarious and I is a picture from our live Tenacious DJ concert to benefit addicted bloggers to get out of their chairs and relieve themselves twice a day. We called it Tenacious DJ's BABGOTCRTTD concert. Only 10 loyal DJer's came. We raised $.14. Sorry BABGOTCRTTD's, suffer more.

Jack Johnson and Friends Christmas Album

Thanks to Gregarious showing me this, Jack Johnson and his label have released their first "Holiday" album. I'm a fan of everyone on there but I will say that I like the Jack songs better than the others. The Matt Costa one is good and Rogue Wave's is a different little gem. Check it out, I'm happy they have something out there so I don't have to listen to Mannheim Steamroller anymore.

Take Away Show Friday - Dirty Projectors

Take Away Show Friday - Sophie Hunger "The Sad Fisherman"

Google Earth Steps It Up a Notch

Google makes the nerd in me happy.

Fiction Family

As previously mentioned, Jon Foreman from Switchfoot and Sean Watkins from Nickel Creek have started a band called Fiction Family. They were toying with calling themselves The Real SeanJon, but I think they were just looking to get sued by a rapper.

Anyway, their album is coming out in January and you can download a free mp3 of their song, "When She's Near" by going here. They don't sound like Switchfoot or Nickel Creek, they just hit the spot.

Enjoy!

Amie Street

Very good Best Albums of 2008 list. Features Brett Dennen, Vampire Weekend, The Weepies, etc...

Oh No, the Acorns!

Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention. I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. I need all of you, to stop what you're doing and listen. Cannonball!
(I'm sorry, they've been showing Anchorman on TBS around the clock)

By the way, we're still studying squirrels?

Relevant's Top Ten Albums

For a different Best Albums list than Rolling Stone that doesn't include the Jonas Brothers, Relevant's Top Ten Albums of 2008. I agree with their number 1, it is a very good album.

50 Tool Addictions, 50 Websites

You can do everything on the internet. And here are the tools that have helped you or will help you do that.

Album Review - Heavy D "Vibes"

Wait, what? Heavy D has a new album? Nice, that brings me back...Wait, it's classified as "Reggae-pop"? This should be interesting, Allmusic reviews.

Chilled Beach?

World's First Chilled Beach, for rich people's pleasure.

12 Things About "A Christmas Story"

Great movie, had no idea about some of these.

Bon Iver on Conan

Good stuff here from Bon Iver on Conan



More Bon Iver goodness:
Bon iver - "Flume" from MySpace Transmissions


Bon Iver - "For Emma" from MySpace Transmissions


Bon Iver - "Lump Sum" from MySpace Transmissions


Bon Iver - "Blindsided" from MySpace Transmissions

Pitchforks 100 Best Tracks (#100-#51)

Pitchfork has and will be releasing their Top end of the year Lists this week. Today they have their Best 100 Tracks of 2008, numbers 100-51. What's great about this list is that every song has the track you can play. Brilliant!

I'll post the rest of their stuff this week:
* T: The Best Tracks of 2008 (50-1)
* W: The Best Albums of 2008 (honorable mention)
* Th: The Best Albums of 2008 (50-26)
* F: The Best Albums of 2008 (25-1)

Rolling Stone's Top 50 Albums - What in the world?

Okay, so I know this is list overload and I"ll stick to my normal sites like Stereogum and Pitchfork but I was looking through Rolling Stone's Top 50 Albums list and noticed a few terrible descrepencies, mainly:
40 Jonas Brothers - A Little Bit Longer
39 Taylor Swift - Fearless
12 Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy (can it be that good?)
03 Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III

So, my thoughts: Jonas Brothers? I know Rolling Stone covers more than just indie or alternative music but honestly do they have to go out to the world of tweendom? This is not a case of being fair to all genre's, this is a case of trying to cater to tweens; their future subscribers.

Fair is when you put in a "country" (country is not the country of the days of old) star. I have no comment on her other than Rolling Stone has gone too far with their fairness. If they had wanted to be fair and put in country than there are far more artists that are pure country that could take this title...mainly the ultra talented Brad Paisley. I'm not a huge fan of country (not really any besides Johnny Cash) but I appreciate some of their talent and he has to be top...plays very great lead while singing, very impressive.

GNR: I'll admit, I was a huge fan when I was an early teen in the 90's and I'm all for them releasing another album...if it was 1995 and this kind of rock was not past it's ridiculous stage. I've listened to the album and it's brought back nostalgic feelings, but it's just too late, I'm onto indie and such...

Lil Wayne. I know he broke selling records and had a huge album in the rap world and for that they had to mention him...but I don't agree. I've listened to his stuff on talk shows and SNL and it annoys me. Then again I'm a huge fan of real rap, read: Run DMC, De La Soul, Tribe, etc... His isn't the rap I know, his is annoying and it doesn't make any of my lists.

Venting, accomplished. The rest of the list is fairly decent with Bon Iver, Vampire Weekend, Cold Play, Dylan and Fleet Foxes. Wait, why is John "Cougar" Mellencamp at number 5?

Why is this not on the front page?

Notable news items highly worthy of DJ:

5 Terrible Gadgets (or are they? I like the pillow one)

Actor slits own throat in play

And the most important article you'll view today: Ninja Squirrel Pictures

Playable Shirt

This could get annoying on the subway or possibly be a worse distraction than texting...unless you got good with it.

Top 10 Your Face off

Time has apparently assigned their entire staff to work on Top Ten Lists for the last few months. Who am I kidding, we all love these.

Album Review - Guns N Roses "Chinese Democracy"

Way too late from the big days of GNR, but here is the review of Guns N Roses latest. (This used to be my favorite hair band back in the day - there is still a place in my heart for Axl)

To put Chinese Democracy in some perspective: it arrives 17 years after the twin Use Your Illusion, the last set of original music by Guns N' Roses. Consider that 17 years prior to the Illusions, it was 1974, back before the Ramones and Sex Pistols, back before Aerosmith had Rocks and Toys in the Attic, back before Queen had A Night at the Opera — back before almost anything that Axl Rose worships even existed. Generations have passed in these 17 years, but not for Axl. He cut himself off from the world following the trouble-ridden Use Your Illusion tour, retreating to the Hollywood Hills, swapping every original GNR member in favor of contract players culled from his mid-'90s musical obsessions — Tommy Stinson from the Replacements, Robin Finck from Nine Inch Nails, Buckethead from guitar magazines — as he turned into rock's Charles Foster Kane, a genius in self-imposed exile spending millions to make his own Xanadu, Chinese Democracy.

Like Xanadu, Chinese Democracy is a monument to man's might, but where Kane sought to bring the world underneath his roof, Axl labored to create an ideal version of his inner world, working endlessly on a set of songs about his heartbreak, persecution, and paranoia, topics well mined on the Illusions. Using the pompous ten-minute epics "Estranged" and "November Rain" as his foundation, Axl strips away all remnants of the old, snake-dancing GNR, shedding the black humor and blues, replacing any good times with vindictive spleen in the vein of "You Could Be Mine." All this melodrama and malevolence feels familiar and, surprisingly, so does much of Chinese Democracy, even for those listeners who didn't hear the portions of the record as leaked demos and live tracks. Despite a few surface flourishes — all the endless, evident hours spent on Pro Tools, a hip-hop loop here, a Spanish six-string there, absurd elastic guitar effects — this is an album unconcerned with the future of rock & roll. One listen and it's abundantly clear that Axl spent the decade-plus in the studio not reinventing but refining, obsessing over a handful of tracks, and spending an inordinate amount of time chasing the sound in his head — that's it, no more, no less

10 Riff Offs

Remember the controversy with Coldplay's latest "Viva La Vida" that sounded a lot like a Creaky Boards song? This site was obviously inspired by finding more "riff-offs". Compares the two side by side with the ability to listen to both songs.

Digital Prowess

This graphic artist is impressive to say the least. My favorites are the anatomy of a gummy bear and anatomy of a lego figure.

Mr. Bean dance

Classic Mr. Bean and his dance prowess:

Take Away Show Friday - Fleet Foxes "Sun Giant" & "Winter Hymnal"

A site I check everyday (read:many times a day) called current (it's like newsvine + cnn + our generation + multimedia + user input) for news, music, and tons of a other stuff has paired with La Blogotheque and his Take Away Shows. This is their first pairing (no more than just showing his shows on currents site). Good one with Fleet Foxes:

Desert Bus for Hope

Interesting way to raise money for a charity...by playing the most boring game ever.

Best of 2008 - Artists, Tracks and Albums

The lists of 2008 are starting to come out. Leading off is Last.fm (one of my favorite music sites) Best Artists of 2008. You can play a track from each artists.

Alternatively, the Best Albums of 2008 and the Best Tracks of 2008.

By the way, all of these lists are based on the number of listeners or plays on last.fm (or using their plugin for iTunes that logs what you play). This one's by the people, not the editors.

(i don't mean to spoil the list, but I'm happy Bon Iver made it in there)

Empire State Building, stolen.

Journalists have taken over the Empire State Building.

Reducing the Price

Where in the heck is Live Tyler?

Well, I've been busy and been turned into an octopus. Don't let this dissuade you from visiting Distraction Jackson because I can still type. On a more serious note these events have happened in the last month to make me not able to post as much and instead have been posting quick snippets or videos that get content up on the site. That's not my total vision for this site, it's a lot more and the music part of that vision has suffered. Here are my lame excuses for dropping the quality and amount of postings:

-We sold our house and moved into a new one
-I was packing boxes
-I was without the internet machine for two weeks
-I was lazy
-Couldn't post on my lunch break b/c work cracked down on which sites we go to
-Can't watch/listen streaming video or audio at work...this makes posting to DJ very difficult during the day
-I was lazy during the holiday week

So, that being said, I will return to posting and offer you this gem in the meantime:


By the way, I'm way backlogged with "Daytrotter Sessions", "new artist discoveries", "Where do I start?", "Album Review" and "Current Bandcrush". I'll start pumping those out soon.

Diddy, just stop.

Seriously, Diddy wants to be the next Bond

YouTube Symphony Orchestra

Interesting way to form a symphony, but leave it up to youtube. Join them and play Carnegie

Album Covers, again

My personal favorite is the "Incomparable Steve Warren". Wow.

The Most Dangerous Cuddling...

...is with a deceivingly cute panda bear. Does this guy not realize that the name of the panda also has the name bear attached to it? He should maybe try the koala's, they are more cuddleable.

Woah.