Moving To New York
MP3: “Moving To New York” - The Wombats
So here’s a fairly big announcement; it’s been in the works for a while, but I’ve refrained from mentioning it here so as not to jinx it before it was official. However, I received official notice on Wednesday, so here goes. As of 3 PM last Friday I am no longer enrolled as a student at the University of Virginia, and I will be continuing my education as a transfer student at New York University next month. Those of you who know me personally (and probably a few of you more discerning readers) are well aware that I was less than thrilled at UVA, and for those of you who don’t I won’t go into it too much, but it basically came down to the fact that UVA’s journalism program paled drastically in comparison to that of NYU and to put it bluntly, I needed to get the fuck out of Charlottesville and into a more urban environment. Don’t get me wrong - Charlottesville’s a great town, but having been born in London, raised in DC and spent the last summer in New York City, the college town environment just wasn’t doing it for me anymore. And, I mean, don’t even get me started on the social scene (but really, it’s impossible not to, so here I go).
I loved my first semester at UVA, but once Greek Life started in second semester and it became clear that the social scene revolved exclusively around frat-based events (and absolutely nothing else), things started to go downhill real fast. Furthermore, the lack of diversity is ridiculous. I met some really great people there and it sucks to have to leave my friends, but the active social atmosphere is comprised dominantly of white Anglo Christians conforming to a similar upper middle-class fashion code (read: preppy as shit) and subscribing to the same system of fraternity and sorority-based beliefs. And yeah, to attend a university where one’s status is so heavily determined by the fraternity or sorority they are in and their ability to conform to a uniform social code is not exactly a situation I enjoyed consistently finding myself in. I’m psyched to now have the opportunity to go to a school where one’s treatment is not determined by the acceptability of their response to the omnipresent “What frat are you in?” query; I’m over all this frarority shit. But yeah, now I’m just ranting.
ANYWAY, this means big things for the site as well, as I’m technically going to be becoming another one of those NYC bloggers that already dominate this here internet. It should be good though, as I’ll get to see a shit-ton more shows and be exposed to a lot of new bands I might otherwise never have come across. Plus, for my field of interest (journalism and/or music business), there really is no better place for me to be than the City; I hear the music scene is a little bit more vibrant than that of Charlottesville, Virginia. All in all, I’m fucking thrilled; there isn’t that much more to say.
As for the next month on GWFAS, we’ve shifted into end-of-the-year mode, and Everett (yes, he’s still alive) and I are preparing our massive Best Of 2006 lists for your consumption in the near-to-immediate future. We’ve got our annual Top Remixes list, our Top 50 Songs list and everyone’s favorite, our Top 50 Music Videos list, which was such a ridiculously-huge success last year we’d be borderline retarded not to do it again. However, this generally means less frequent posting (say goodbye to daily updates), but when we do post I can assure you they will be packed with content and chock-full of downloadable hotness, just you wait. Not sure if we’ll have any more artist profile/single review-type updates in the meantime; I’ll probably just end up tacking on some random odds, ends and mp3s onto the bottom of whatever the day’s post is so you guys don’t fall out of the loop on what’s hot in the mp3-world at any given moment. Actually, I think I’ll do that right now:
HOLY SHIT: NEW ARCADE FIRE SONG
Yeah, it’s only a radio-rip and yeah, it’s absolutely everywhere by now, but it’s too good for me not to post here anyway. Apparently the small group of people who have heard the album (in highly-secured listening sessions with band officials standing by, mind you) have said it’s fucking amazing (read: better than Funeral); dial 1-866-NEON-BIBLE for more info (seriously). And if Neon Bible really is the album title, as is suspected, then it’s hands-down one of the most awesome album names I’ve ever heard. Just sayin’.
MP3: “Intervention” (BBC Radio Rip) - Arcade Fire ((highly recommended))
OH HEY, IT’S A NEW SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO SINGLE
Simian Mobile Disco are the most exciting thing to happen to the UK electronica scene in a long time, and they’re preparing a new single, “Hot Dog”, for release next month. Naturally, it’s already making its rounds on the internet (along with another similar-sounding track, “It’s The Beat”), so get on that below. It’s no “Hustler”, or even “Tits & Acid” for that matter, but it’s still the SMD and it’s still getting me very excited to hear what they serve up on their as-yet-untitled debut LP next year.
MP3: “Hot Dog” - Simian Mobile Disco
THIS IS SO FUCKING GOOD AS WELL
To round things off, here’s the most fun song of the last 2,000 years. Seriously, I didn’t think it was even legal for unsigned bands to write songs this good. It’s like the perfect indie-pop equivalent of “Hey Ya” (I’d like someone to agree with me here, please holla back in the comments), and while I didn’t really think I needed an indie-pop version of “Hey Ya”, I apparently couldn’t have been more wrong. This is fucking GREAT. Ooh, ooh-waaa.
MP3: “All The Rage” - The Royal We ((highly recommended))
That’s all for now - check back with us soon for some massive year-in-review coverage replete with an unbelievable amount of mp3 goodness.