Blog Topic: Media Matters

Homedrone: The 2014 Grammys in 12 Tweets

By Gabe Vodicka | January 27, 2014 12:27pm

Daft Punk won a bunch of awards.

The 2014 Grammy Awards happened last night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The telecast had everything you would expect from the Grammys: whitebread collaborations (Chicago and Robin Thicke), blatant oversights (Kendrick; hip hop, in general), hilarious crowd shots and the occasional bit of honest-to-goodness brilliance (Kendrick, again, and his shouldn't-have-worked-but-did collab with Imagine Dragons).

After the jump, a 12-tweet recap of Music's Biggest Night™. For the full list of winners, go here.

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In the Loop: Watch Hitler React to the ABH Paywall

By Blake Aued | January 27, 2014 10:48am

Genocidal dictator Adolph Hitler throws a fit over the Athens Banner-Herald's new paywall in this video by one Garry Moon that's going viral locally.

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Grub Notes: Watch An Incredible Tlaloc Commercial Starring Local Band DIP

By Gabe Vodicka | January 22, 2014 12:47pm

Here's a little something to ease your mid-week malaise: an incredible new commercial for local Mexican restaurant Tlaloc, featuring freak-pop band DIP.

Really, the ad makes a weird sort of sense, given the group's name and propensity for all things dip-related (queso, anyone?). It also plays up the fact that Tlaloc, formerly beer-and-wine-only, is now serving margaritas, and ends with the restaurant's madcap catchphrase: "Let's get drunk!"

Watch after the jump.

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Culture Briefs: Watch the Trailer for a New Documentary on Athens Poet and Activist LIFE

By Gabe Vodicka | December 13, 2013 11:10am

Athens poet, social worker and author Lemuel LaRoche, a.k.a. LIFE, has made it his, er, life's work to improve his community, using unconventional tools like art, chess and music to educate and connect local underserved African American youths.

Now comes a new documentary called LIFE the Griot, directed by local filmmaker Matt DeGennaro and produced by Grady Thrasher and Kathy Prescott. You can watch the trailer after the jump.

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In the Loop: No, Avid Bookshop Is Not Closing

By Blake Aued | November 14, 2013 2:10pm

The Red & Black set off a shitstorm today when, in an editorial decrying the failure of several local businesses, it falsely reported that the popular locally owned bookstore Avid is closing (it has since been corrected online).

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Homedrone: This Week in David Lowery Beefs: YouTube, Rap Genius

By Gabe Vodicka | November 12, 2013 4:39pm

Photo Credit: Jason Thrasher

David Lowery

UGA Music Business Program lecturer and Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven frontman David Lowery isunhappy about a lot of things these days. Recently, he has devoted plenty of blog space to professing his unhappiness with the YouTube Music Awards (you can find all his #YTMA coverage here, including posts where he digs up grainy jihad recruitment clips and spammy "buy-steroids" videos in an attempt to prove the point… that YouTube is evil? Or a serial copyright infringer? Or maybe just bad for kids? It's sort of unclear).

Elsewhere, Lowery has spearheaded a study that attempts to out the 50 most "undesirable" lyric websites (ick, that phrasing)—unlicensed (or dubiously licensed) sites that publish song lyrics—with the No. 1 culprit emerging as the community-oriented, hip hop-centric annotation site Rap Genius. The National Music Publishers Association has taken the case.

More after the jump.

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Homedrone: Bill Cody-Directed Black Lips Doc Premieres Sunday in Atlanta

By Gabe Vodicka | October 25, 2013 2:16pm

Black Lips

Kids Like You and Me, a new documentary that follows Atlanta punks the Black Lips on a recent Middle East tour, will have its Georgia premiere at Atlanta's Plaza Theatre on Sunday, Oct. 27. Watch the trailer and read what director Bill Cody has to say about his film after the jump.

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Homedrone: Elf Power's Bryan Poole Talks Guns on Illinois TV News

By Gabe Vodicka | October 16, 2013 4:57pm

So, here's a funny thing. Yesterday, Champaign-Urbana, IL ABC affiliate WICD NewsChannel 15 ran a story on Urbana's gun laws and how they conflict with from those of the neighboring Univeristy of Illinois and the presumed wacky hijinks that could ensue once the city's concealed carry law goes into effect.

The "person on the street" giving his two cents is none other than Bryan Poole, aka the Late BP Helium, Elf Power guitarist and friendly Athens fella. Seems that Poole, "pedestrian," was wandering the streets prior to the Neutral Milk Hotel/Elf Power show in Urbana and was stopped by the news crew, who were no doubt drawn to his scruffy facial hair and impish aura.

Poole's sage advice? "Seems like it could be very confusing. The first thing that comes to mind is maybe they could put signs up."

Watch the clip here.

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Homedrone: Peter Buck On Life After R.E.M.

By Gabe Vodicka | October 10, 2013 1:36pm

It seemed like everything occurred at once. I remember I felt really sorry for myself for a day or two, and then I thought, well, this is bullshit. I have got a million friends; if I was broke I could just call them and stay on their couches for 10 years. I still have whatever ability I had, which isn’t a lot. I’ve got great family, great friends. You know, I don’t have to work for a reason; there’s no need.

I love those songs. But I never want to play “Losing My Religion” again. “Man on the Moon,” it’s a great song. But it’s five minutes long and I’ve played it a couple thousand times.

—From a very long Salon interview with Peter Buck, which the former R.E.M. guitarist (playing the 40 Watt on Thursday, Nov. 14) hints will be his last.

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In the Loop: Solid Waste Director Corley Cleared of Wrongdoing

By Blake Aued | October 1, 2013 12:58pm

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation looked into it—as is standing operating procedure whenever a local government official is accused of snack-machine-related corruption—and found nothing.

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