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Cold War Kids iHeart Radio Album Release Party - My Quick Opinions

I've seen the Cold War Kids twice now, and my favorite thing about seeing them is they love to let people see them for free in Los Angeles. A free show is always the right idea. This time I got to see them at the iHeart Radio stage in Burbank, California. It's a very cool space, and the staff is super nice. Part of this iHeart Radio streaming party was a line of questioning from iHeart Radio personality. It was cool to hear lead singer Nathan Willett talk about his love for Los Angeles and desire to use their new album, LA Divine, to set the record straight about the city's perception. He told Billboard the album is "the best version of what [they've] always done," and I agree. There's nothing particularly outstanding about the new album. There's no new, adventurous sound. The freshest thing about LA Divine is the effect the tumultuous year that was 2016 had on the lyrics. For example, Nathan told an amazing story about an art piece in New ...

New Music Friday: Hot Takes

It's Thursday-night-into-Friday-morning and you know what that means: New music is being posted all over the internet! I am giddy. I have my glass of red wine beside me and I'm ready to pass judgment on everything I hear. The first three new things I listened to were: Kendrick's "HUMBLE," Mary J Blige's "Love Yourself," and whatever the hell Ludacris just did. Let's start with Kendrick. We got "The Heart Part 4" earlier, so let me mention that I love that Kendrick forces his new listeners to search out preceding Parts by releasing new chapters around each project. It's important to understand how his art has changed. It's like an abridged version of his discography. OK, done with the praise. Because we know KDot is a genius. We know he completely flips it on each project, and it seems the album coming April 7 will continue that trend. But the big question is: Is he after Big Sean or Drake? My opinion: both or neither...

Justice for Georgina, aka Go See Get Out Immediately

WARNING: ALL OF THE SPOILERS. LIKE, SO MANY SPOILERS. GO SEE THE MOVIE. THAT'S AN ORDER. In Get Out , the brilliant new Jordan Peele film, black people are used by white people's brains. That's the shortest explanation, as there are so many levels to the movie. I'm typically not one to see scary movies (I can't even get through Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video), but when I read about this movie's perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes and the raving reviews from critics, I had to go and support this film from a black director with black stars. I'm not a fan of scary movies. They always give me nightmares. Before I saw the film, a coworker assured me that I wouldn't have nightmares after watching Get Out . He was right and wrong. I didn't have nightmares about monsters lurking in dark corners, but I stayed awake unpacking all of the themes and metaphors of the film. In doing so, a big part of why I wasn't afraid occurred to...

Mrs. without the "r."

Of course I'm a feminist. Not that that needs explaining, but I absolutely believe in equal treatment and opportunities for both sexes. But being a feminist doesn't mean I burn bras every Tuesday night. I still adhere to a number of not-so-feminist-friendly traditions. For example, I hate taking the trash out. That's a "man's" job. I take the trash out when I must, but if I can ask Jersey Mike to do it , well that's just 10 times better. Typically, for me, a man's job is any job I don't want to do. Maybe that's not quite a tradition (more me leaning on societal norms to feed my laziness). But there's one tradition that, growing up, I always thought I'd be fine: Taking my husband's last name. My mother kept her maiden name when she married my father. She was born a Shute and felt that shouldn't have to change just because she found a cool guy to spend her life with. Growing up it wasn't confusing for me u...

The music died with Prince today

Today I had a breakdown at work. Like a damn fool. I had a horrible night, woke up exhausted, and decided to remain unplugged until I got to work. I wanted to take the morning slowly. I arrived at the office, sat down in my first meeting and heard "I'm just so sad about the news. We're going to write a few things about Prince today, Doriean are you able to do that?" So I'm sitting there like a dumbass asking "What happened?" Then it hit me. Maybe that wasn't the flu that caused Prince's plane to land suddenly last week. Maybe something was really wrong. Because he's gone. So then I'm listening to my assignments, trying to wrap my brain around selecting the best Prince songs (impossible). I'm talking like nothing is happening but tears are streaming. My editor asks if I need a minute and I run to the bathroom and bawl like an infant. I've been trying to listen to music all day. But nothing compa...

How Macklemore's "White Privilege" Made Me Feel, Explained Using Chocolate Pudding

It was hard for me to put this into words. It's hard to explain. If you are an OKnLA reader, you read my last post and you know that I'm exhausted. I'm so tired of trying to tell people who just don't seem to (want to) get it that it's not OK what's happening. You know what I do like? Pudding, specifically the chocolate variety. So I put this thing together in an effort to describe how it feels to hear "White Privilege," how it feels to see Kylie Jenner darken her skin and plump her features, how it feels to hear Iggy Azalea on the radio, how it feels to learn that Mylie Cyrus invented twerking ... Maybe it will make sense to you. Maybe it won't. But it's something I had to do. So here it is. you are a chef. you love to make things. it's your outlet. it's how you express yourself. one day, you concoct an amazing recipe for chocolate pudding. it's so good. so very good. the kids, they love it! then, health nuts an...