the dunce cap

The Dunce Cap: June 21, 2010

in: heavy rotation

Terry Richardson photographs Matthew Gray Gubler

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 13: Turns out I was a vampire myself in the devil town. (mix via 8tracks)

1. “Devil Town” – Tony Lucca
2. “Your Hand in Mine” – Explosions in the Sky
3. “Muzzle of Bees” – Wilco
4. “I Made a Resolution” – Sea Wolf
5. “Carmensita” – Devendra Banhart
6. “Sci-Fi Kid” – Blitzen Trapper
7. “September Gurls” – Big Star
8. “Political Scientist” – Ryan Adams
9. “Gene Autry” – Beulah
10. “Rewind” – Stereophonics
11. “The Light” – The Album Leaf
12. “Eyes” – Rogue Wave
13. “Hard Rain” – Shout Out Louds
14. “Walk Over Me” – Dirtie Blonde
15. “Bang a Gong (Get it On)” – T. Rex

So, to be fair – the photo with this mix has nothing to do with this mix. Really, it’s just a launch pad for me to talk about Terry Richardson and Matthew Gray Gubler, as well as to complete my weekly trifecta of pin-ups. Now, this isn’t a gossip blog. It’s not the springboard for me to coo and fawn over the foxy celebrities of network television. Two weeks ago, The Dunce Cap celebrated freaks and geeks alike, and this week’s edition has a decidedly different theme.

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 13 features 15 tracks (it’s an edition and a half!) about football. Good ol’ rough n’ tough Southern football. Each of these tracks is from the soundtrack of NBC’s television drama, “Friday Night Lights,” from the first season and a half (of which I have watched 27 episodes in the last 48 hours). “Friday Night Lights” follows a high school football squad in the fictional small town of Dillon, Texas, where football reigns supreme, but it’s more than just a show about football. It’s a show with heart and with a killer cast – the characters exude charm and genuineness that extends past the petty fights and forlorn heartbreak of adolescence. The realistic nature of the show even survived the melodrama of a terrible murder subplot.

The show is fantastic. And what surpasses even the show’s eye candy, the plot twists, the characterization and the pretty awesome athleticism is the music. Yup, it all comes full circle. The soundtrack is replete with instrumental post-rock from – where else? – Texas, courtesy of Explosions in the Sky, and Tony Lucca‘s cover of the Daniel Johnston‘s eerie and haunting “Devil Town” appears multiple times throughout the first season and in a fairly titillating season three promo. Coach’s daughter Julie is an indie fangirl, convincing boyfriend Matt Saracen to see the Old 97’s and The Decemberists, and the music taste her fictional character boasts translates into a really well-rounded and interesting soundtrack.

Check out a small slice of the music from the series, and watch the rebroadcast of season 4 (originally shown on DirecTV Channel 101) on NBC Friday nights (when else).

And, for your eyes’ delight, check out two of the show’s original stars, Taylor Kitsch as fullback/running back Tim Riggins and Northwestern alumnus Zach Gilford as quarterback Matt Saracen. I apologize in advance for my salacious behavior, but yummy.

Taylor Kitsch of "FNL"

“I apologize to everyone here, and if you can find it within yourselves to let me make it up to you in the showers, I’d appreciate it.” – Tim Riggins, Season 2

Zach Gilford of "FNL"

“You don’t have to worry about me, in a fight I just kinda stand in the back and just yell stuff. ”    – Matt Saracen, Season 1

Happy listening.

Oh, and p.s. Matthew Gray Gubler portrays the nerdily inept  Dr. Spencer Reid on “Criminal Minds.” Terry Richardson is an allegedly handsy (but very talented) celebrity photographer. FTR.

The Dunce Cap: June 14, 2010

in: heavy rotation

Image from BuzzFeed

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 12: How do I make this not sound cheap? I wanna show you where I sleep. (mix via 8tracks)

1. “Barely Legal” – The Strokes
2. “Sex and Reruns” – Matt Duke
3. “Pretty Melody” – Butch Walker
4. “Nothing’severgonnastandinmyway (again)” – Wilco
5. “Summer” – Magic Kids
6. “Polaroid Thomas” – World History
7. “Sunny Day” – Adam Balbo
8. “Arms and Hearts” – The Hold Steady
9. “Never Mine” – Brilliant Colors
10. “Me and Giuliani Down by the School Yard (A True Story)” – !!!

More music for your ears. It’s summer, and I’m glued to my tube for The Real Housewives of New York City finale (as if you couldn’t tell from my other posts), so I’m not leaving an extensive explanation of this mix. There are some of my favorite favorite tracks from some of my most beloved bands, and there are a few tracks I’ve just recently discovered. Listen to it while you’re TV tanning, no?

I’m embedding below Butch Walker‘s video for “Pretty Melody,” which is a kung-fu beauty. Check it out.


“Pretty Melody,” Butch Walker and the Black Widows

Happy listening.

The Dunce Cap: June 7, 2010

in: heavy rotation

The geeks of Wet Hot American Summer

I hope it’s not jumbo shrimp, because I’m allergic to oxymorons!

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 11: So many foreign worlds, so ready for us. (mix via 8tracks)

1. “Close to Home” – The Get Up Kids
2. “Laid” – James
3. “No Diggity” – Klaxons
4. “Silvia” – Miike Snow
5. “Be My Baby” – The Ronettes
6. “Britney” – I’m From Barcelona
7. “Creature Fear” – Bon Iver
8. “Happiness” – Jonsi and Alex
9. “For Real” – Okkervil River
10. “Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks” – The National

*BONUS TRACK: “The Geeks Get the Girls” – American Hi-Fi

The 2000s were, undeniably, the decade of the nerd. Sure, Duckie, Long Duk Dong and any character played by Anthony Michael Hall in a John Hughes flick had their fifteen minutes of fame, fortune and genuine female attention, but the aughts saw an unprecedented rise in the triumph of wallflowers in popular culture. There was the gang from Freaks and Geeks, led by John Francis Daley of Bones, who closed out the ’90s; Ugly Betty, Napoleon Dynamite, Seth Cohen and Ted Mosby (yes, the real Ted Mosby) all had their spots in the space-time continuum of geek lead triumph, but no ragtag troupe of amateur nerdlings captured my heart like the geeks of Wet Hot American Summer.

This is a mix inspired by these gems, by the caped kid cradling his 20-sided die, by The Cure Girl (called so in the credits of the film), by David Hyde Pierce‘s caustic Henry and all of the other kids who “like science.” They “save” their summer camp by diverting a rogue piece of Skylab, but the most earnest and touching part is that they discover friendship (this would warrant a trite vomit if it weren’t so hilariously choreographed by David Wain and Michaels Ian Black and Showalter). They form li’l bond to beat the summer camp blues, stargazing, plotting, commiserating and running from dodgeball. Together.

These are songs about unrequited love, homesickness, fear, Britney Spears and, of course, geeks. It’s dedicated to those freaks, geeks and Otis Redding-belting nerds who stole my heart and let me be their friend.

For now – I am jetsetting to the exotic town of Snellville, Ga., on Monday, but fret not – The Dunce Cap will prevail! I know I haven’t done June Book Club yet, so look out for that soon.

Now finish up them taters; I’m gonna go fondle my sweaters.

Happy listening.

The Dunce Cap: May 31, 2010

in: heavy rotation

Photo courtesy of super-creepy paparazzo

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 10: I command you to dance. It’s such a sweet sensation. (mix via 8tracks)

1. “July, July!” – The Decemberists
2. “Stole My Heart” – Little and Ashley
3. “Gone Daddy Gone” – Gnarls Barkley
4. “Good Vibrations” – Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch
5. “Airplanes” – Local Natives
6. “Home” – Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
7. “Map of the World” – Monsters of Folk
8. “Shiny Happy People” – R.E.M.
9. “Kiss” – Prince
10. “Girl” – Beck

Look at that little girl. Yes, it’s Suri Cruise, and yes, it’s already been established that I am kind of obsessed with her, but seriously. Just look at the joy captured on her face. So, sure, she’s cute, but why is she the new Maybelline maven of The Dunce Cap?

Well, frankly, I’m tired of my simple explanations that these mixes are brimming with happy songs, blah blah blah. I’m letting Suri say it instead. Try to look at that face without grinning. Really. I dare you. Triple dog dare.

This mix is fist-pumping (yuck) with hip-shaking, high-fiving tracks from artists like The Decemberists and Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch (so much yammering love about to happen in the coming days).  There’s a really great Violent Femmes cover from, of all people, Gnarls Barkley (Cee-Lo!) and my favorite Prince track ever. There’s even a reminder of home, a track from Athens’ own R.E.M.

So give it a whirl, and I hope your face lights up like Suri Cruise. And if you really do cheese that much, please send me photos.

Happy listening.

Book Club: Summer music

in: on queue

We’re two weeks away from summer, at least here at Northwestern, and yesterday the university’s famed Dillo Day marked the real start to summer celebrations. First up on The Dunce Cap’s music list: Guster, the midday artist at Dillo Day 2010. Guster performed alongside Regina Spektor, Super Mash Bros, Rhymefest and Nelly, who rounded out the day’s line-up.

Pretty melody:

Photo courtesy of NU student

See, my older sister got me into Guster six years ago. I’d listen to “Amsterdam,” from the band’s 2003 effort Keep It Together (or the one with the hummingbird on it), on repeat for days on end, and I’ve since fallen in love with their quirky lyricism and catchy hooks. The four nice Jewish boys from Tufts are known for their stage antics, wherein the members may pick up strange and unusual instruments, partake in witty stage banter or even participate in large-scale stage gags, such as a 2001 show in Rochester, NY, in which the guys were summoned to an empty stage “Price is Right” style. The members have paraded as a hillbilly opener (Peace Soldiers) and then as a jam band (Trippin’ Balls), and they continue to play hilarious covers, as with yesterday’s version of “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” an almost obvious epilogue to their own tune, “Red Oyster Cult.”

All in all, Guster remains one of my favorite bands, a constant tribute to summer, a theme The Dunce Cap seems a bit obsessed with. Check out “Two Points for Honesty” and “Amsterdam” below, and try to catch them out on the road this summer.

Congratulations on being the greatest looking place ever (existed). – Guster member on Northwestern’s Dillo Day crowd

“Two Points for Honesty,” from 2001’s Lost and Gone Forever

“Amsterdam,” from 2003’s Keep It Together

In other news: The use of Paula Cole’s “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone” as a torture device in the Star Wars-themed episode of “Family Guy” (“Something, Something, Something Dark Side“) was pretty upsetting. A hilarious but sad remembrance of one of my favorite songs from the ’90s.

The Dunce Cap: May 24, 2010

in: heavy rotation

Image from unknown source

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 9: (S)he dances in secret, (s)he’s a part-time punk. (mix via 8tracks)

1. “Glue Girls” – Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin
2. “Gardenia” – Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks
3. “Outta My Head” – M. Ward
4. “Two Doves” – Dirty Projectors
5. “Eleanor” – Low Millions
6. “Seen the Light” – Supergrass
7. “The Blues are Still Blue” – Belle & Sebastian
8. “Abe Lincoln” – Bishop Allen
9. “It’s There” – All Girl Summer Fun Band
10. “West End Girls” – Pet Shop Boys

Okay, folks. It’s getting more and more difficult to compose thoughtful explanations for each week’s mix. So here’s the long and short of it: These are songs I like. They make me smile. I want to belt them out obnoxiously. I want to bask in the summer sun with these as my soundtrack. Period.

These are all fun, optimistic songs, about break-ups (“Eleanor” and “Two Doves” – kind of), crushes (“Glue Girls” and “Gardenia,” among others. I like songs about major league crushes) and all things in between. There’s a whole litany of strong and interesting artists, from the monumental Stephen Malkmus to the one-hit-wonders Low Millions, who wrote a whole album about break-ups, even naming each vixen by name. There’s some Pet Shop Boys paired alongside some light and enjoyable All Girl Summer Fun Band. It’s replete with soaring hooks and roaring sing-a-longs, and it’ll put your ma’s old mixtapes to shame.

Happy listening.

P.S. I love to shout out to some of my peers, including my former editor (and constant inspiration) Jeremy Gordon. He wrote a really great piece on Chuck Klosterman, a man who captured my heart at 15, on his site Taintbrush. Gordon created Taintbrush with fellow Northwestern student Emmy Blotnick, and the site is brimming with hilarious pop culture analysis. Check it out, and demand more updates soon!

The Dunce Cap: May 17, 2010

in: heavy rotation

Image courtesy of John Pavlich.

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 8: Hey you with the pretty face, welcome to the human race. A celebration. (mix via 8tracks)

1. “Summertime” – The Sundays
2. “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” – Vampire Weekend
3. “Promises” – The Morning Benders
4. “Lust for Life” – Girls
5. “Center of Attention” – Guster
6. “The Only Living Boy in New York” – Everything but the Girl
7. “Mrs. Jackson” – Marvelous 3
8. “Mr. Blue Sky” – Electric Light Orchestra
9. “25 or 6 to 4” – Chicago
10. “Stars are Blind” – Paris Hilton

Yeah, I threw you off with that last track, didn’t I? The truth is that I love “Stars are Blind.” It’s terrible and cheesy and breathless and over-produced, but it makes me want to belt it out. Frankly, so do all of these tunes. And, yet again, each reminds me of summertime, when the livin’ is easy. There are some classic rock throwbacks, even a really great Chicago track, despite my denunciation of all geographically named musical artists. There’s an Everything but the Girl cover of my favorite Simon & Garfunkel song and a Marvelous 3 (Butch Walker‘s old band) track that nearly brings me to tears.

And, due to my disappointment in Mayfest’s choice of a nighttime headliner for this year’s Dillo Day, I’ve included a good ol’ Guster track. Here’s to hoping CollegeACB was right about something. Guster and Regina Spektor may be able to salvage an otherwise lackluster line-up. Band-aids galore!

Pour yourself a glass of lemonade, find a comfy seat on the porch, pull out your favorite novel and take a breather. These songs will get you started, but feel free to explore. Peter Gabriel, too.

Happy listening.

The Dunce Cap: May 10, 2010

in: heavy rotation

Image courtesy of nataliedee.com.

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 7: ‘Cause no one ever looked as vogue as her, in green. (mix via 8tracks)

  1. “Bloodbuzz Ohio” – The National
  2. “In Green” – Volcano, I’m Still Excited!!
  3. “Mr. Moon” – Kate Micucci
  4. “Jenny and the Summer Day” – The Avett Brothers
  5. “All My Friends” – LCD Soundsystem
  6. “Astair” – Matt Costa
  7. “You Wouldn’t Like Me” – Tegan & Sara
  8. “Burrito” – Pete Yorn
  9. “She’s Got You High” – Mumm-Ra
  10. “Too Little, Too Late” – Grizzly Bear

It’s starting to smell a bit like summer! Except, you know, not in Chicago, where the weather has shifted back into the dreary 50s-ish twilight monsoons. But in normal places, even at home, the shift is noticeable, and fidgety students are eager to frolic in sprinklers and devour ice cream cones (hence the photo, lawlz). Or maybe that’s just me.

My point is – there are four weeks left before I can begin my TBA summer adventures, and these songs are helping me get there just a little faster. There’s new National and some super-adorable Pete Yorn, as well as a Volcano, I’m Still Excited!! track that strongly reminds me of summer camp 2006. It’s a fun little mix with a great JoJo cover – the original is nearly unrecognizable – which, I’m sure, will inspire you to run, not walk, to the Cupcake Mobile! It’s ten thousand times better than your shotty old ice cream truck, I promise.

Do a little dance, and happy listening!

The Dunce Cap: May 3, 2010

in: heavy rotation

Image courtesy of brandonbird.com

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 6: On the carousel so around I spun (spun). (mix via 8tracks)

  1. “Bennie & the Jets” – Elton John
  2. “Elenore” – The Turtles
  3. “Someone I Can Be True With” – Sloan
  4. “Girlfriend” – Phoenix
  5. “House of Cards” – Butch Walker & the Black Widows
  6. “The Beach Song” – Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin
  7. “Straw Dog” – Something Corporate
  8. “Nothing on You” – B.o.B.
  9. “Electric Feel” – MGMT
  10. “Lost in Yichang” – Hilotrons

Another Thursday, another mix!
As you all probably know, I’m a sucker for anything that can make my hips swing!, and I think this playlist is full of ’em. Not all of them are intentionally dance-a-billy, but they’ve got a great beat, and, hell, they make me wanna cha cha. The mix kicks off with two of my favorite throwbacks, Elton‘s classic “Bennie and the Jets” and The Turtles‘ “Elenore” (almost as good as “Happy Together*” and surely less sappy), and moves onto a slew of solid tracks from modern artists, including Phoenix, Butch Walker (playing H.O.B. Chicago Sunday!), SSLYBY, B.o.B. (who butchered “Build Me Up Buttercup” when he sampled it for his “Don’t Break My Heart“) and MGMT. And the Butch track, “House of Cards”? Total shades of The Cars. Digging the track and the new album.

“Nothing on You,” B.o.B.’s track which was recently used in an ode to Betty White, is a cheerily sweet dedication to a one n’ only. The video, featured below, is wonderfully simplistic, and I especially love the shout-out to my fair city (and the poor, tornado-maimed Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, where I had my senior prom). In a similar vein, I’ve definitely noticed a rebirth of the music video, an art form I have long appreciated. My family didn’t have cable as a kid, and I distinctly remember attempting to adjust the antenna to get a static-y music video station, and my earliest memories of music television were not of Carson Daly and MTV but of the edited version of Juvenile’s “Back That (Thang) Up.”


“Nothing On You” [The Adventures of Bobby Ray, 2010]

So check it out, and if you’re feeling a bit nostalgic, maybe even revisit “Bye Bye Bye,” one of my favorite music videos from youth. I’m thinking about making next week a “Best Music Videos” playlist, so keep an eye out for that.

As always, happy listening!

(*editor’s note: This video is so trippy. It’s astronauts in jumpsuits, 80s shoulder pads, psychedelia and general weirdness. Very amusing, definitely worth a watch, but bizarre.)

The Dunce Cap: April 26, 2010

in: heavy rotation

Image courtesy of Buzz Sugar

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 5: And when the flowers grow, just know you’re still in my heart.
(mix via 8tracks)

  1. “Losing My Religion” – R.E.M.
  2. “Mr. Jones” – Counting Crows
  3. “Big Me” – Foo Fighters
  4. “Faded” – soulDecision
  5. “Why Don’t We Do it in the Road” – The Beatles
  6. “Closet” – Pete Yorn
  7. “Desperately Wanting” – Better Than Ezra
  8. “Far Away From Close” – Butch Walker
  9. “I Want to be Buried in Your Backyard” – Nightmare of You
  10. “Everyday I Write the Book” – Elvis Costello + The Attractions
    *Special bonus track for Foom!*
  11. “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” – Paula Cole

Hi kids, sorry this is so late. The Foom (a.k.a. Mother Keevan) was in Chicago for ΑΦ’s Mom’s Weekend, and I was a bit sidetracked from the usual posting. In lieu of a normal “what I’m listening to”-themed mix, I’ve opted for a trip down memory lane. My efficacy for musical knowledge comes from my mother, and, to celebrate both her visit and Mother’s Day, I’ve compiled this list of tracks – in chronological order! – of sing-a-longs from my youth, brought to you by the lady Foom.

The playlist begins with the heavy sounds of post-grunge R.E.M. and the lighter Counting Crows, followed by long hair, short ditty, late Nirvana/early Foo Fighters Dave Grohl and even the dirty, raucous pairing of soulDecision and The Beatles‘ “Why Don’t We Do it in the Road?” (the latter of which was a requisite Friday pick-me-up on local alternative station Z93/Dave-FM and thus the regular tune to my middle school mother-daughter carpools). There’s tracks I introduced to her, including the morosely sweet Nightmare of You single, and songs that tiptoe the line of exchange (anything Butch Walker, really). And, finally, I rounded off the smattering of songs with Paula Cole‘s “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?,” a track clearly better than her saccharine “Dawson’s Creek” theme song and one I’d all but forgotten until this morning.

For the album art, I chose a picture of Sophia and Dorothy from “The Golden Girls” to depict the quirky mother-daughter relationship I share with my own mom. She’s a special lady, that one, not too different from Estelle Getty‘s kooky Sophia, casually-unfurled acerbic tongue.

So, to the Foom, an ode to the woman who gave birth to me and to a wonderful weekend with that crazy ol’ woman.

Don’t forget to wish your mother(s) a happy day, and happy listening!