Late Night War Round Up...

The good news? Apparently, this thing could be winding down. The bad? Unfortunately it sounds like it's not going to end well. The latest reports have NBC buying out Conan and Leno returning to The Tonight Show. Evidently every single NBC executive is either blind and deaf, or they're a bunch of stubborn old people (although I suppose those things aren't mutually exclusive). Either way, they're making a decision that flies in the face of the popular consensus - that Leno is the bad guy who should step aside and do the right thing - and the ratings, which have recently spiked for Conan. In fact, Tonight Show ratings have actually eclipsed that of Leno's show even though he's on during prime time - kind of a big deal. But who cares, the old rich guys think Jay is funny, or something.

The A.V. Club has a great rundown of everything that's gone down so far here. Check it.

Edit/Update: Ken Tucker @ EW.com posted this today on Dick Ebersol, the NBC exec. who's leading the "anti-Conan" charge. He's also the same guy that almost single-handedly wrecked SNL in the early 80s and thought (former SNL & Seinfeld writer and current Curb Your Enthusiasm star) Larry David was a talentless hack. Tucker makes several other excellent points as well, and they all point to one thing: NBC is making a joke of itself.

Also of note: Conan and NBC may reach an agreement by the end of the weekend. Needless to say, it'll be interesting to see what O'brien does with his last week should that actually come to pass; he's been relentless as-is...

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Video: The Very Best's "Warm Heart of Africa"

Finally, the best track from one of my favorite albums of 2009 has a video, and it's actually pretty fun to watch. It's a good thing, too - Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig almost went an entire day without media exposure...

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First Impressions: Spoon's 'Transference'

In case you haven't heard, Transference, which was the most anticipated "confirmed" upcoming album of 2010 for me personally, has finally hit cyberspace. I'm not comfortable with evaluating how good or bad it is at this point (Spoon albums are always growers that reveal themselves over time, anyway), but I do have a few observations:

• This is the first album the band has ever produced completely on it's own, and you can tell. That's not to say it isn't Spoon-like; In fact, it's actually the opposite. Transference sounds like a can of Spoon concentrate, and I mean that in a good way.
• This album contains both a.) one of the rawest, lo-fi Spoon songs since Series of Sneaks ("Trouble Comes Running") and b.) an actual straight-up ballad ("Goodnight Laura")
• Can't say with 100% certainty that there are going to be stand-out tracks of the same caliber as those found on any of the previous 5 albums (i.e. "Sister Jack", "Everything Hits at Once", "Finer Feelings", "The Way We Get By, etc.), but what I can say at this point is that overall Transference is a really good listening experience as a whole. Even the tracks that had already been leaked ("Mystery Zone", "Got Nuffin", and "Written in Reverse"), which seemed a bit underwhelming at first listen, sound better within the context of the entire album. Again, it wouldn't be a Spoon album if it didn't require a little bit of diligence to truly enjoy it.
• "Who Makes Your Money", "Nobody Gets Me But You", "Written in Reverse", and "Out Go the Lights" are emerging as my early favorites.

Hard to truly evaluate any Spoon release this early on, but it's definitely a must-have for fans of the band, and a must-listen for fans of music in general. Probably wouldn't recommend this as an introduction to anyone who hasn't heard Spoon before, but that doesn't reflect on the quality of the album. Scroll down for what I think are some of the highlights that haven't already been leaked...

"Who Makes Your Money"

"Nobody Gets Me But You"

"Out Go the Lights"

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Jimmy Kimmel on Leno

Kimmel gets some pretty good shots in on "Jay-the-Terrible" here, although this is mostly just awkward...

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I Love Movies!

Hey everybody! The "I Love Movies" podcast is one of the best things that has happened to me in a long time. It's taped in front of a live audience at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in LA and hosted by Doug Benson, comedian and ummm... "herbalist" behind Super High Me. He always has at least two guests on the show with him each time. Some of the best so far have been Aziz Ansari, Thomas Lennon & Ben Garant, Patton Oswalt, David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, Matt Besser, Matt Walsh, Jon Hamm, and the list goes on. I don't think I realized how clever Benson is until listening to these podcasts. I really only knew him from Comedy Central specials (which suck because the comedians have to really hold back for the censors), and Super High Me, which I did enjoy. But, it is all about movies, so don't think you won't enjoy it if you aren't into pot or pot related humor. Now, in my experience, it's really hard to recommend podcasts to people because they have to find it and download it and so on and they just won't do it. So, I thought if I put the links right here maybe someone will actually check it out because if you like movies and/or things that are funny, this IS something you've been missing. There are usually two a month and sometimes more. You can find it on itunes or the link below, and if you like it also try "Never Not Funny", "Comedy Death-Ray" and "Comedy and Everything Else". So check it out and as always, Willem Dafoe is a shit head (you'll get this joke later).

I Love Movies
& Follow him on twitter here
http://twitter.com/DougBenson

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The 'Robocop' Rap

This thing is AWESOME. In 10 minutes DJ Mayhem & MC Mouthmaster give us a synopsis of the original Robocop film, complete with sound bytes and samples from the original theme. You really need to watch this in it's entirety:

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Music is Awesome!!!

After staying home with my daughter for a week and a half over Christmas break and then tacking on 2 snow days for good measure, I've gotten quite a dose of Nick Jr. recently. Being the immature person that I am, I've actually taken a liking to several of the shows they produce, especially Yo Gabba Gabba! Yeah, most of us, including me, have spent the past year and a half laughing at this:

But I actually sat down and watched several episodes, and it's really very good. It teaches great lessons (my favorite: "Shake, Shake, Shake it off" when you fall down), people like Jack Black and Andy Samberg make appearances routinely, and they invite great bands to get involved. Mark Kozelek, Low, The Little Ones, Roots, Rahzel, Jason Lytle, The Postmarks, The Shins, Mates of State, The Clientele, Hot Hot Heat, Jimmy Eat World, I'm From Barcelona, Enon, Of Montreal, and Chromeo have all made contributions. Also, Biz Markie does a new "beat" every episode. In other words, if you've got young kids, this show is a no-brainer.

Not surprisingly, one of the very best Yo! tracks comes from a band who has always sounded like it should be the house band for the show, The Little Ones (they wouldn't even need to change their name!).

"Hey, Won't Somebody Come and Play"

I also really like Chromeo's "Nice 'N' Clean"

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