~Z.T.~ Will Pink retain her #1 seed in the tournament or will Ben Folds and Regina Spektor be this year’s Cinderella? On the surface it seems like a blowout for Pink, but we’ve been proven wrong before. Read the rest of this entry »
Archive for December, 2008
Lil Wayne and Estelle in the semi-finals
On December - 26 - 2008
~Z.T.~ Two songs have their tickets punched for the final four. “Lollipop” and “American Boy” are moving on with “Womanizer” vs. “Shake it” and “So What” vs. “You Don’t Know Me” battling until midnight tomorrow night. Read the rest of this entry »
Britney Spears “Womanizer” vs. Metro Station “Shake It”
On December - 25 - 2008
-A.S. Both of these songs won by a landslide in the first round. I would imagine that this match up will turn out a bit closer. One one hand you have the ever-so-popular teen pop star turned basket case and back again as a pop icon. On the other side you have the lesser known band, with the lesser known offspring of Billy Ray Cyrus.
~Z.T.~ In the words of Maebe Funke, this is like comparing apples to some fruit no one’s ever heard of. Britney Spears is THE female pop star of the last 15 years and this may be her catchiest song yet. It’s a tour-de-force that resurrected her career. Last week I was late to work because “Womanizer” came on my ipod speaker and I refused to leave until it ended. Metro Station comes out with yet another way we can shake it and we’re supposed to be impressed? Listen boys, we’ve had our fill of “shake.” We’ve shaken it like a polaroid picture, we’ve shaked it before rattleing and rolling, we’ve been shook all night long. Shake it somewhere else. We’re all full here. It’s Britney, bitch.
-A.S. Metro Station may not have been around the block as many times at Britney Spears, but their song definitely makes me want to shake shake, shake shake a shake it. Britney repeating womanizer over and over again sounds like a drone. Metro Station has the perfect amount of repetitiveness. Enough to get it stuck in your head for days at a time. Hate on their semi emo appearance all you want, but these guys put out one of the catchiest, if not best songs of the year.
Girl Talk is my Christmas
On December - 25 - 2008
~Z.T.~ As a Jew, I’ve never had the Christmas morning experience. Am I jealous this morning? You betcha. I can only imagine what Christmas morning like. It must be like the best feeling in the world (with your clothes on.) It must be like being on stage at a Girl Talk show. Read the rest of this entry »
Estelle beats T.I.
On December - 25 - 2008
~Z.T.~ For those of you who were celebrating Christmas, you may have missed Estelle coming from behind to beat T.I. 67.4% to 32.6% and moving on to the semi-finals.
Round 2: Lil Wayne “Lollipop” vs. Gnarls Barkley “Going On”
On December - 25 - 2008
~Z.T.~ Lil Wayne had the biggest album of 2008 in terms of sales, Grammy noms and candy sexual innuendo. Gnarls Barkley’s sophomore effort didn’t have a monster smash like “Crazy,” but Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo filled the album with some gems. Let’s see if “Going On” can pull another massive upset and move on to face Estelle.
~Z.T.~ “Crazy” would have certainly won the competition two years ago. Does “Going On” have a chance? I honestly didn’t think it would make it this far, but this is a great bracket buster. Put it on. Try not to clap along or tap your toes. Pretty tough, huh?
Sure, Lil Wayne’s infinitely more popular these days, but is he catchier? “Lollipop” is a great song, but try humming to it, try dancing along with it. All you can do is sway and say L-L-L-Lick. The only reason it’s in your head is because you can’t escape hearing it. Most popular? Certainly. Catchiest? Hardly.
-A.S. Zack stole my line about “Lollipop” being candy sexual innuendo from my first round post for this song. No matter which song wins this match up, it will beat “American Girl” in the next round. Bitter much? Maybe, but I’m still not sure how Estelle made the overnight upset over “Whatever You Like.” I call shenanigans.
Weezy knows what lures people in. His lyrics are dumb. His voice sounds weird. He looks like Beetlejuice from Howard Stern. If his songs weren’t incredibly catchy, why would he be such a hit?
Vote at College News.
Round 2! Estelle “American Boy” vs. T.I. “Whatever You Like”
On December - 24 - 2008
-A.S. Thanks to all of you who made round one of our Catchiest Songs of 2008 bracket a success. Things get much more exciting around here when it’s not just five of our friends and Zack and I participating. The first match up of the second round brings Estelle f. Kanye West, “American Boy” up against T.I.’s “Whatever You Like.” Zack and I each have one of these songs in the finals, so it figures to be one of the biggest match ups of the competition. Which one will you send to the final four?
~Z.T.~ If you read this blog with any regularity, you know I’m a big Kanye-basher. But, like reading an old love-letter from an ex long after you’ve broken up, this song makes me remember why I used to love Kan. “So, to hell with all that rubbish.” When guesting on Estelle’s song, he forgets his self-promotion long enough to drop quick, punchy verses that work damn well over Estelle’s crooning. With her chorus of “La la la’s,” the hard hitting one-two-three beat and the ever-changing list of American cities she wants to visit, this song is a perfect collage of 2008 pop music. Wouldn’t you want to be her American Boy? American Boy.
-A.S. T.I. performed on SNL with cash stuffed into his pants pockets, that’s how money he is. Fueled by his anger towards the media coverage of his legal troubles, T.I. put out one of the best albums of the year. No song was better, or catchier than “Whatever You Like.” Everything about this song screams catchy. A chorus that is repeated often, easy to remember lyrics and even his flow is catchy. T.I. wants you to know you can have “Whatever You Like,” but what I would really like is for you to vote for this song.
Round one recap and standings
On December - 24 - 2008
~Z.T.~ We’re all done with round one and the points double as we move to the elite eight. We have one perfect bracket- way to go Matt Hagel! One bracket that’s already lost- Sorry Michael Berger, it doesn’t look like “A-Punk” and “Electric Feel” will be facing off in the finals, and a bunch of brackets that have endless possibilities as the points go up.
This week’s match-ups:
Standings after round one
8- Hagel
6- Shore, Hett, Solof, Anna, Kaitlin, Zelin, Jess
5- Blumenfeld, Alissa, Kabb, Teibloom, Silver
4- Berger, Laura
3- Sami, Millichap
The Festival Crashers ChicBuds Video
On December - 22 - 2008
~Z.T.~ Here it is. The first of many Festival Crashers videos. The original concept was a quest for catchiest song of the year with clips of all 16 nominees. Well, we don’t “have the rights” to all those songs, so we got the rights to three of the songs, found a crew and it came together. Here’s what we came up with:
Special thanks to:
-Patrick Wimp for his incredible directing and editing
-The models for working for headphones
-ChicBuds for sponsoring this whole thing
-Halley Bass for getting us in touch with ChicBuds
-Enclave for letting us shoot
-Our friends and families and all you readers for your support. We love you with all our hearts. (Some parts of Z.T’s heart may be reserved for Jack White.)
Pink “So What” vs. Jamie Lidell “Wait For Me”
On December - 22 - 2008
-A.S. Here it is. The last match up of the first round. The number one overall seed in Pink’s “So What” versus one of my favorite new artist discoveries of the pat year in Jamie Lidell. I think one of the coolest parts about this match up though, is that Zack and I both have great stories behind each of the songs. Are you going to vote for the favorite, or get behind the underdog?
Nah nah nah naaah nah naah nah, nah nah nah naaah naah nah. I could write nothing else besides that and it would suffice as an argument for why “So What” is the catchiest song of 2008. Instead, I’m going to tell you a story about how catchy the song really is.
A couple of months ago, I had a photo pass for the Panic at the Disco show at the Allstate Arena. On the bill with PatD was the Cab, the Plain White T’s and Dashboard Confessional. I really had no interest in seeing any of the other bands, so I got to the arena midway through Dashboard’s set. As we got to our seats, lead singer Chris Carrabba invited the Cab and the Plain White T’s back to the stage. He asked the crowd if they ever have a song get stuck in their heads and just can’t get it out. Then the super group launched into Pink’s “So What.” Thousands of screaming tweens sang along to every word. This song is so catchy, it took three bands playing together to exorcise it from their collective heads.
~Z.T.~ There are encores and then there’s Jamie Lidell at The Metro 10/8/08. As we walked up to the venue, Andy and I had press passes and our friend Franklin was about to pay $20 bucks for a show that was already in progress. I told him it might not be worth it at that point. The encore alone was worth it. Lidell put on a spectacular performance mixing his electronic dance loops and beat boxing with his soul. A kind of soul so true that Andy likes to say it’s as if he found Stevie Wonder’s old notebooks. Apparently Lidell can read Braille.
Lidell closed the set with a lively version of “Wait For Me,” a pleading, heartfelt song to a woman while he’s on tour, asking her to wait. Wait for him. When he finished it with a flourish, the crowd decided they couldn’t wait for the encore. He went off stage and with no music to accompany them the crowd just kept singing the chorus: “I’m waiting. I’m waiting. I’m waiting yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.” Over and over, faster and faster, until Jamie came out with an overjoyed look on his face. “You sound beautiful, Chicago! I hope this never stops.” I know I haven’t stopped.
Vote at College News.
