Possible Songs of the Summer

Every summer since its inception, tbtl has had a "Song of the Summer" contest in which they try to predict the song of the summer. The song you hear at all the summer parties and barbecues. These are the nominees for this summer.

Adele- Rolling in the Deep

I would be surprised if this didn't win. I'm hearing it everywhere. It is a good level of popular, as in, people know it but it's not Katy Perry.

Foster the People - Pumped Up Kicks

I've been hearing this one quite a bit too. Though, if it was playing and you asked me the name of the band or song I would say "umm... I'm not sure... I think the song is like.... pumped up kids or something." I do really like this song though.

Fitz and the Tantrums - Moneygrabbers

Old School is TOTALLY trending you guys. I think it all started with "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley. Now this, Mayer Hawthorne, Cee-lo green, Adele, etc. This song has that going for it, but it isn't all that summer-y.

Bruno Mars - Lazy Song

This is a bad song.

Jenny O - Well OK Honey

Much like the Fitz and the Tantrums song that's nominated, it's a pretty good song, but it isn't very summer-y.

Hoodie Allen - I'm Not a Robot

This reminds me a lot of Chiddy Bang, but Chiddy Bang has a VERY early expiration date. I'm afraid that will happen to this guy, who, by the way, is only 21. I really like this song. I could "jam" to it, as adults think kids say.

Rye Rye ft. MIA - Sunshine

It'll be tough for MIA for her to come back after the serious MIA backlash and I don't think this song is going to it. Also, Rye Rye sounds like Landi from Die Antwoord.

Brett Dennen - Sydney I'll Come Running

This si a pretty decent, but uninteresting, song. I don't think it will receive too many votes, which is fine.

The Belle Brigade - Where Not to Look for Freedom

Nice-n-folksy-n-upbeat, but THE summer song. No way.

Givers - Up Up Up

Givers, as far as I know, are still pretty unknown. However, they were on Fallon last night, and Fallon broke Odd Future. Then again, everyone hates Odd Future now, which I don't get. You knew what you were getting into when you started listening to them. That's something for an entirely different post though. I don't think this will be that song you here wherever you go. It's just too generic.

The Lonely Forest - Turn off This Song and Go Outside

This song is a paradox! How am I supposed to listen to the song if every time I try to I'm told to turn it off! But furrealz, this is a pretty good song. I saw them live a couple weeks ago. They are very good! I could see this song getting played quite a bit over the summer, but I don't think anyone would give it a second thought after listening to it.

Lady Gaga - Edge of Glory

Nope.

Jessie J - Price Tag

I guess as far as pop songs go, this is fine. But that's it. It's just fine. Jessie J seems like a pretty cool girl, but I don't think she's anymore interesting than any other pop star who's been on SNL. The best thing I can say about this song is that it is listenable.

Final verdict:
If Adele doesn't get the Airplanes Treatment, it will win.

You can vote here.

The Real World - New York

First off, I want to apologize for not recapping this most recent season of The Real World. Here's a quick recap of the season:

Mike is very conservative in his beliefs. Leroy likes sex a lot. Dustin falls in love easily. Heather is the resident cute girl. Naomi is really confident and lives in the bronx. Nany is 21 and has had the same boyfriend for six years. Adam claims to have "no game" when it comes to girls, but gets Nany to break up with her boyfriend within the first few weeks. Dustin falls for Heather. Leroy and Naomi start sleeping together, but allow each other to sleep with other people. Leroy and Mike become best friends. Adam gets ridiculous when drunk and is kicked out. Nany's really sad about it. They get a new roommate, Cooke. She's pretty boring throughout the show. The roommates find out that Dustin used to do gay porn. Heather's really upset, so they break up, only to get back together a few days later. When broken up Dustin drunkenly kisses Cooke and all the girls are pissed at her. Adam visits Las Vegas and Nany decides she doesn't like him anymore. In the last episode Mike and Naomi have a fake wedding for fun. It was better than New Orleans, but not quite as good as DC.

The AV Club started recapping the FIRST season of The Real World, which aired in 1992. I was only a baby! I decided to also start watching the season on youtube. I have watched the first two episodes so far. And so far I really like it. It is just as stupid as every season I've seen has been. (I started watching casually in season 19, Sydney. I began watching regularly in season 22, Cancun. So far, my favorite season has been DC, which is apparently a lot of people's least favorite season because it was too serious.) The main character in the first season seems to be Julie, who is 19 years old, the youngest of seven kids and the youngest of the seven roommates. She grew up very sheltered, but is very open-minded. She becomes fast friends with Eric by the second episode. Eric is a model. In the second episode he is on a tv show talking about sexuality in television commercials. He is in a commercial in which he and a woman rip each other's clothes off down to their underwear to symbolize some big sale or something. I don't know. The ad was confusing. Surprisingly, Julie believes it is ok to wear only underwear on the television. Julie also becomes good friends with Heather, who is a rapper. And she's black, which Julie's dad doesn't like very much. Kevin is also black. One night in the first episode Julie and Kevin talk about prejudice. The conversation doesn't really go anywhere, nor does it accomplish anything. Other cast members include Norman, who is pretty obviously the first token gay roommate. It hasn't been said outright yet, but you can tell, also it's on wikipedia. And rounding out the cast is Andre, who obviously likes grunge so much. How do I know? Because it's the early 90's and he has really long hair and doesn't seem to care. Oh, I almost forgot about Becky. There's also this girl named Becky, who is a folk singer. In the first episode she has a gig and all the roommates come to watch. Norman than discusses it in his bathtub in his talking head interview. It was very strange. In the second episode Becky seems to catch on to the attraction between Julie and Eric. She is never seen during the "action sequences," but recollects everything that happened. She tells a story of how she asked Eric if it would be ok to bring a date for Julie to this party. Apparently Eric looked like he was going to shoot fire out of his eyes. He did not want to have Becky bring Julie a date. But Julie is just so sweet and innocent it doesn't seem that she understands what Eric really thinks of her. She probably just thinks they're friends.
It's really interesting to watch this so close to the end of the most recent season. (Season 25 ended last Wednesday.) It doesn't seem like MTV had enough crew to catch everything, as Becky only told the camera what happened to her during the second episode and Andre, Norman and Kevin were briefly, if at all, in the second episode. They've certainly got the show down to a science. I really like this season so far because one, it's interesting to see how unchanged the show is, and it's interesting to see how changed the world is. For example, when they don't have anything to do they simply sit around and talk about eating habits. However, a major part of episode 2, as mentioned before, was sexuality in advertising. In 1992, it was a big deal, but in 2011, this is the norm. Saying the show is entirely unchanged isn't completely true. The basic idea of show is still the same, throw seven (or eight) people in a house/loft/mansion/casino and see how they interact. In the first few seasons they were not given an assignment, since the fifth season, with a few exceptions, they had a job they had to attend to. I would say that the people have become more attractive since the first season, but I'm sure the people on the show were good looking for 1992, but none of them look like the girls in the most recent seasons.

The Rapture

As you probably know by now, this Saturday marks the definite rapture, for real. People have been saying the world is ending on Saturday, which is not true. May 21 marks the Rapture, or Judgement Day. The world is ending five months later, on October 21. This Saturday, all of the good, god-loving, god-fearing christians will ascend into heaven and leave everyone else on earth. Then on October 21, 2011 the world will end. So, you need not worry about Saturday* because you will either ascend into heaven or live on the earth with a third less people. We're not living on the post-apocalyptic, zombie-ridden, sunless, leathery society** we've all dreamt of for those five months. If you somehow survive October 21, props to you. I hope it's everything Roland Emmerich imagined.

*because the rapture isn't real.
**feel free to add any of your favorite futuristic movie cliches to that list.

Successful Alcoholics

This is the new short film from TJ MIller starring TJ Miller and one of my many girlfriends, Lizzy Caplan. It is very good. You should watch it. Warning: It gets sad at the end, but you can figure that out within the first five minutes. It is very sad. It is very funny. You should watch it.

Successful Alcoholics from TJ Miller, Lizzy Caplan & Jordan Vogt-Roberts from Lizzy Caplan

This is a song, apparently.

This sin't so much a song as it is a collection of repetitive sounds. I really like the part when the music just stops and he repeats whatever it is he's repeating at that point. It's really quality. This video is very similar to the high times pizza party video in that it is only so long, but in both videos it feels like hours have passed from the beginning to the end of the video. Anyway, this video is great, or terrible. Who am I kidding? It's terrible.

Who should win Survivor?

This season's twist was Redemption Island. The idea was, once someone is voted out they are sent to Redemption Island. The two outcasts would then duel. Eventually, someone would be put back in the game. Matt was sent to RI very early on in the season. He defeated everyone up to the merge, at which point he was put back in the game. He then came up with this plan to get Bawston Rawb out. He then decided he was too loyal and told Rob about the plan and aligned himself with Rob. Rob then decided to get his entire alliance to turn against Matt and send him back to RI. Rob's plan was successful. Matt has been on Redemption Island ever since. So who's left?

ON ISLAND

BAWSTON RAWB

This is his 4th time on the show. He first was on in the fourth season, aka "Old School Survivor." He was later on Survivor: All Stars and Heroes vs. Villains. He is very well liked and is probably the favorite to win. Unfortunately for him, he ahs made an alliance with almost anyone on the show, as well as everyone still on the island. The reason Russell lost in his first two seasons was because the jury was spiteful. That is probably what's going to happen to Rob if he makes it to the finals.

PHILLIP

Phillip is the resident crazy person. At one point in the show, someone called him crazy and Phillip accused him of being racist. But he wasn't being racist, Phillip is just crazy. He says that if he makes it to the finals, he has a fool-proof plan to beat Rob. I really hope he wins, or at least makes it to the finals because he is great.

NATALIE

Natalie is 19 years old and Rob's closest alliance. He's promised to take her to the final two, and has stuck by his word throughout the game. She hasn't pissed anyone off too much, so she might win. But, she's also uninteresting.

ASHLEY

Ashley is the other girl in the game. She was going to be voted out in the last episode, but won immunity. She is also fairly uninteresting, but won't win because no one really cares about her.

ON REDEMPTION ISLAND

GRANT

Grant was voted out because Ashley won immunity. If he makes it back in the game, he has a pretty good chance of winning.

MATT

Matt has spent a majority of the game on redemption island. Everyone was rooting for him in the first half of the season when he was defeating everyone. When he came back into the game only to allow Rob to vote him out again. I really hope he doesn't get back in the game. He does not deserve to win. He was voted out twice, has done nothing strategic, and simply skated his way through the game.

ANDREA

Andrea is going to lose the next RI duel or whatever. I'm not too concerned about her.

MIKE

Mike was a victim of Rob's takeover. He is the last person from the Zapatera tribe. There was nothing he could do to avoid getting voted out and can now only hope he wins the probably final duel (and any subsequent duels).




I have no idea how they are going to wrap this up. There are eight people left only two hours left of show. The finale airs tonight at 8 on CBS.

Brief Turtleneck & Chain Track by Track review

1. We're Back!

Obviously great. So funny and great. Need I say more?

2. Mama

The one problem with Lonely Island is sometimes they can't keep sketches from songs and vice versa. This song would make a really funny sketch, but as a song, it's kind of boring.

3. I Just Had Sex

One great thing Lonely Island does is get really big music stars to make these stupid songs. Akon shines, as does Lonely Island.

4. Jack Sparrow

Such a great idea for a song that is very well executed.

5. Attracted To Us

The music in this song is kind of annoying, but the lyrics are hilarious.

6. Rocky

This sounds kind of like what would happen if Flight of the Concords did a Beastie Boys song, which is basically what The Lonely Island is. I really like how this song tells a story.

7. My Mic (interlude)

Really basic, really funny.

8. Turtleneck & Chain

Title track! Snoop Dogg! Greatness!

9. Shy Ronnie 2: Ronnie & Clyde

Shy Ronnie has always been great. Rihanna is also really cool. Yeah! This song!

10. Trouble on Dookie Island

From what I could gather, they are running from the cops, and also they are pooping a lot. Great concept! Great song!

11. Falcor Vs. Atreyu (Classy Skit #1)

Good skit. right?

12. Motherlover

Justin Timberlake is amazing. Justin Timberlake hasn't put out an album in 5 years. Since then he has been featured on two Lonely Island songs. Maybe he should get back to making his own music, because it is also good.

13. The Creep

When this premiered on SNL a few months ago I thought it was really funny. But listening to the song, I was really bored. So much of this song relies on the visual gags, which is obviously absent in the song.

14. Watch Me Do Me (Classy Skit #2)

Also, very classy.

15. Threw it on the Ground

This reminds me of "Punching People in the Face while Eating," which was great. It's probably the funniest song so far on the album.

16. Japan

When I saw this song was called "Japan" I thought "I wonder how racist this will be?" Actually, not very. I also thought "How funny is this going to be?" Very. I really hope they make a video for this.

17. After Party

Obviously this song is great, as it begins with a reference to Remix to Ignition, which is probably the best song ever. It also does something Lonely Island is great at. They make these songs that sound really hardcore, but the lyrics are really depressing.

18. No Homo

Great satire of a really stupid phrase.

19. No Homo (outro)

Completely unnecessary? Maybe. Do I care? Nope.