Friday, July 31, 2020

"Beavis & Butthead's Favorite Videos 2016-2020," Plus "Bill & Ted 3" Update


This post includes an update from our March 2018 list imagining Beavis & Butthead's Favorite Videos 1995-2018.

But first...

Bill & Ted 3 Comes To Streaming In September

We recently saw Freaked (1993) for the first time. It's the only non-Bill & Ted movie to star both Alex and Keanu, and its absurdity helped us understand how good they are at writing wildly bizarre comedy. It's honestly one of the best movies we've ever seen, and it sparked our nostalgia for early '90s Nickelodeon-style gross-out humor.

It also strongly built our anticipation for Bill and Ted Face The Music despite our boredom with excessive reboots and unnecessary sequels. Due on streaming services in September, the third and likely final installment of the Bill & Ted trilogy experienced a decade of drafts and rewrites before Alex and Keanu agreed on its current version.

Spoiler headlines on our Google news feed reports that Bill & Ted 3 feature our heroes as dads, updating the universe to include their immediate families.

New Beavis Series and Spin-offs Coming Soon

Elsewhere on our Google news feed, we saw about 20 headlines that really wanted us to know about the "reimagined" Beavis and Butthead reboot due to premiere in 2021.

We think it's entirely possible that Mike Judge received a screener of Bill and Ted Face The Music, thus encouraging him to finally update B&B's universe to the present day -- with children of their own.

In the mid 2000s, Mike had stated in interviews that he could only imagine B&B as either teenagers or senior citizens. We agree with this entirely; a reimagining of Beavis and Butthead as boneheaded, marginally responsible 40-something dads is probably not the best move for universe expansion. And yet, the internet buzz suggests the show might move forward with this decision.

Viacom is reviving Beavis and Butthead, and it's possibly going to suck. Why are we not surprised?

On a positive note, this means Beavis finally scored.

They're also moving the new series from MTV to Comedy Central. A great idea in theory, the move would ensure more substantial viewership numbers, since literally no one cares about MTV anymore. (It would likely stream on Hulu in either case.) Over the past 15 years, Viacom blew every last opportunity to properly revive MTV's brand and expand their audience. But it's become painfully obvious that no one who currently works at Viacom gives one single fuck about fans of MTV or its current state.

Reports indicate the channel aired a record 113 weekly hours of Ridiculousness earlier this summer. That's about two-thirds of the hours in an entire week. The same reports indicate MTV might finally get renamed and/or repurposed within the next 2-3 years. If it weren't for the VMAs, would MTV even exist anymore?

Do America is a obvious classic, and another 90 minute B&B adventure would be hugely welcomed by fans. However, their TV adventures really shouldn't exceed 5 minutes of content, or else the writers risk placing B&B in higher concept stories where their IQs might require an upgrade. The broken lighter in Beavis's thought bubble might actually ignite for once. This would be bad!

B&B Needs Videos

Similar to the setting of both Bill & Ted and Wayne's World, heavy metal and music discussion were central to the success of B&B's initial run. Sadly, a much smaller selection of videos made the cut for their 2011 season. We anticipate the show's move to Comedy Central all but ensures the "reimagined" update will distance the show from music even further.

We've read countless arguments in favor of removing music videos from the show, and they all suck:

"MTV airs shows, not videos."

Why does that matter? The original run included a few hundred videos that MTV rarely aired or hadn't aired in over a decade. The video selection was never faithful to their own channel's programming until the 2011 season.

"MTV doesn't play music anymore."

Yeah, no shit, but today there are seven other Viacom channels that DO focus on music videos. Either way, Beavis and Butthead's universe is consistently brainless, low concept, and juvenile. Why does it need to be "updated" to exclude references to music or heavy metal? The boundaries of Highland, Texas exist entirely in Mike Judge's mind; if he really wanted to, he could "reimagine" a world where B&B are still couch potatoes, still watching bad TV, still laughing at shitty videos. There's no tangible reason to throw that away besides Viacom's suggestion that removing music would be a fiscally responsible decision.

"The world of music doesn't need their negativity."

Not true. As stated in our earlier post, "Any musician should consider it an honor to have them say their band sucks."

If Beavis and Butthead can't headbang at a Fury or Slipknot video or yell "THIS SUCKS" at a Shinedown or Train video, then maybe the show should not return at all. If there's literally zero opportunity for cross-branding and music exposure, perhaps they're wasting their time. The world of infinite 7.8's desperately needs some unchecked critique without a comments section. B&B might be the best possible way to encourage this.

"We now live in a world where everyone has a voice thanks to Twitter and Youtube comments."

Correct, and in case you haven't noticed, both Twitter and Youtube comments are cesspools of noise, ignorance, and garbage opinions. If anything, the current state of social media only increases the potential value of B&B's return to unchecked video critique.

"The value of promo videos is not what it once was. Modern music videos aren't worth promoting. People didn't watch Beavis and Butthead for music exposure."

Entirely wrong. Right now, the world of promo clips is ripe as fuck for something like a Beavis and Butthead reboot.

"@Catatonicyouths already fills the lmao-metal void."

If anything, the success of @catatonicyouths only further proves how potentially huge this could be.

On that note, we decided to update our hypothetical "B&B's Favorite Videos" canon, which will sadly never be seen by anyone with the authority to make a creative executive decision. But hey, we tried.

Beavis and Butthead's Favorite Videos 2016-2020

"So we wrote up a fanfic list starting with September 1995. They might have loved hating some of these. They might have genuinely enjoyed some of them. They might have simply reacting by smacking each other upside the head."

We updated the original post with these videos. They vary in quality, but we think they're all worthy of discussion. (And they have all appeared on our MTVZ playlists at some point.)

2016
Maren Morris "80s Mercedes"
Melkbelly "Elk Mountain"
Joey Purp f/ Chance The Rapper "Girls @"
Weezer "King of the World"
DNCE "Cake By The Ocean"
Radiohead "Burn The Witch"
Teen Suicide "Violets"
Bishop Bullwinkle "Hell To The Naw"

2017
Pissed Jeans "The Bar Is Low"
Run The Jewels "Love Again"
Young Thug "Wyclef Jean"
Lil Yachty "Bring It Back"
Cloakroom "The Sun Won't Let Us Go"
Alex G "Bobby"
New Found Glory "The Sound Of Two Voices"
Charli XCX "Boys"
Uncl Rodg "Rollin' in the Hay"

2018
Bruno Mars f/ Cardi B "Finesse"
Wrong "Zero Cool"
The Chats "Smoko"
Fozzy "Judas"
Hunt The Dinosuar "Destructo"
Sheck Wes "Mo Bamba"
Valee "Womp Womp"
Flasher "Material"
Pig Destroyer "Mt Skull"
Kanye West & Lil Pump "I Love It"
Broods "Peach"
2 Chainz "Proud"
Mason Ramsey "Famous"
Andrew WK "Music Is Worth Living For"
Tenement "Garden Of Secrecy"
Turnstile "I Don't Wanna Be Blind"
Greta Van Fleet "Highway Tune"
Sting & Shaggy "Gotta Get Back My Baby"
Little Big "Skibidi"

2019
100 Gecs "Money Machine"
Realworld "Green Room"
DaBaby "Babysitter"
Steve Lacy "Playground"
Rich Dunk "High School"
Billy V "Real Tune Is Life"
DaBaby "Suge"
2 Chainz "2 Dollar Bill"
Danny Brown "Dirty Laundry"
The Chats "Identity Theft"
Fury "Angels Over Berlin"
Sedona "More Love"
Devil Master "Black Flame Candle"
Rammstein "Sex"

2020
645AR "4 Da Trap"
Thundercat "Dragonball Durag"
RMR "Rascal"
Bad Bunny "Si Veo a Tu Mama"
Puddle Of Mudd "About A Girl"
Soccer Mommy "Circle The Drain"
Lil Mosey "Blueberry Faygo"
Protomartyr "Processed By The Boys"
Disclosure "My High"
Mimi Barks "The Dark"
Oneohtrix Point Never "Lost But Never Alone"
Lil Yachty "Oprah's Bank Account"

Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Monday, July 27, 2020

The New Shit Radar: Late-July 2020

The New Shit Radar is late, but we made it with a few days to spare.

Most things suck right now. And by most, we mean about 96% of things.

10 or 20 or 30 years ago, this living hell might not have lasted quite as long. There might have been a light at the end of the tunnel by this point. Today, there is none.

And also 10-30 years ago, internet speeds weren't nearly as fast. In 2020, we can communicate faster; we can instantly share ideas virtually (for better or worse); we can not only create homemade art and music, but we can share them on handheld computers.

Most things suck right now, but at least there's screaming mummies.

And rock is still here, thriving more than any other genre, far beyond the boundaries of capitalism without shows, without venues, without major labels, without big money bloggers, and with its most heinous offenders recieving their karmic due diligence. Virtual DIY zines and newsletters are more important than ever. Free charity EPs comprise many of 2020's best releases.

Rockism might come back with a vengeance by the time the pandemic eventually fades, free of blue checks and rich parents dictating future end-of-year lists. 2020 was blessed with Bandcamp's massive free storage capacity -- unavailable decades ago.

Most things tremendously suck right now. But new rock is not one of those things.

The newest news. The hottest jams. Let's go...

Nashville's Thirdface Release a New Summer Single
May or may not be hinting at more music later in 2020.


Also check out their video from last summer...


"PUNK BAND" Has Been Looped In Our Head For A Few Days
It's still there.


Don't Think We Forgot About Territory Slugs
We did not forget. Still no word on a release date, but the long awaited "Alone Time" was posted back in April.
https://soundcloud.com/andy-chervenak/alone-time-vox-2

(Sandy) Alex G Is Now Alex G
This really messed up our scrobbles, and turns out it was all for naught. If they just combined these into one artist account, Alex G would be our 4th or 5th highest scrobble of all time. But instead it's split between "Alex G" at #28 and "(Sandy) Alex G" at #12. Can someone get on this already?

Here's their latest video from back in Feb:


Cloud Nothings Release Surprise Quarantine Full Length
And somehow emerge tighter than ever. Only two songs are available for free now. No word from Todd Hyman on the official release date just yet:


Lavender Flu Covers "In League With Satan"
We're in favor of more bands covering this song. Midnight's cover is also sick. They're both sick.
https://lavenderflu.bandcamp.com/track/in-league-with-satan

Super Flasher's Self-Titled Arrives On Bandcamp!
We don't remember liking this band on Facebook, but we're glad we did because hey check this out:


Lea's Latest New Single Is One In A Million
A few months ago, we played "One In A Million" by Aaliyah during our radio shift. We did this because we have a 12-inch single of this jam, and we like to occasionally play it on the radio since it is the greatest record of all time.

So long story short: Vitti was driving around, probably with Jon and Salvator and possibly Boner, and they heard a re-run of this show where I correctly described it as the greatest song. A few minutes later, I got a random text from Vitti saying "How much did James pay you to say that hahah" and it took me about 10 minutes to figure out that #1 it was a Monday night around 11:30PM, #2 the radio station was playing this specific re-run, and #3 Vitti misheard me as saying "Lea" instead of "Aaliyah."

So now Lea has a new song that is the actual greatest song of all time. It's "all the feels." It's everything. Waiting on that full length already.


Shamir Drops "On My Own" Video
Future MTVZ content is here.


Vince Loves The New Knot Single


Can you blame him?


After Hours Top 10 Most Played -- Week Of July 20thth
We're trying to figure out how to get anyone to care about After Hours FM. Here's the songs with the most plays from last week:

WXCI AFTER HOURS TOP 10 (Week of 7/20/20)
This week ARTIST Title Links
1 HUM Step Into You humband.bandcamp.com/
track/step-into-you
2 HUM Cloud City humband.bandcamp.com/
track/cloud-city
3 RUN THE JEWELS Walking In The Snow Youtube
4 NNAMDI Rage nnamdiogbonnaya.bandcamp.com/
track/rage
5 CORIKY Too Many Husbands coriky.bandcamp.com/
track/too-many-husbands
6 TURNSTILE & MALL GRAB I Wanna Be Blind Youtube
7 HUM Waves humband.bandcamp.com/
track/waves
8 CCR HEADCLEANER Half A Tooth ccrheadcleaner.bandcamp.com/
track/half-a-tooth-extra-pound-edit
9 DEERHOOF O Ye Saddle Babes deerhoof.bandcamp.com/
track/o-ye-saddle-babes
10 MINDFORCE Hope Dies In The City bbbrecords.bandcamp.com/
track/hope-dies-in-the-city
11 ROLLING BLACKOUTS CF Falling Thunder rollingblackoutscoastalfever
.bandcamp.com/track/falling-thunder
12 THIRDFACE Grasping At The Root thirdface.bandcamp.com/
track/grasping-at-the-root
13 KEVIN KRAUTER Green Eyes kevinkrauter.bandcamp.com/
track/green-eyes
14 STEVE HARTLETT La La In The Back Seat stevehartlett.bandcamp.com/
track/la-la-in-the-back-seat
15 THE STROKES Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus Youtube

Monday, July 6, 2020

All of the "2010s Albums" Listicles Were Bad, So We Fixed Them



Earlier this week, Spin posted their 101 Best Albums Of The 2010s, officially marking the close of end-of-decade season. Respect to SPIN for waiting it out. They won the "firstness" battle by coming in dead last.

The biggest surprise: Spin's #1 album matched our own, gratifyingly. Before last week, the legacy of ANTI felt destined for 8-10 more years of "stans only" devotion. In either case, the record will become eligible for nostalgia reassessment around 2028; meanwhile, a large anticlimactic brushstroke of anticonsensus from the bigger publications appropriately and frustratingly reflected the growing entitlement of the 2010s.

The Spin list also helped us reaffirm glaring constants among the past decade of music blogging.

- The landscape of music journalism has grown far too wide.
- By 2010, MTV and local radio no longer widely influenced new music consumption. With nowhere else for music fans to turn, the potential value of music journalism shot up exponentially.
- There are more music news reporters and music opinion writers today than at any other point in human history, and most of them born after 1985 possess questionably average levels of music knowledge. The armchair writing on RateYourMusic might not flow as nicely as on Conde Nast, but their community's lack of disinterest or apathy prove that unpaid opinions can possess equal value to paid opinions.
- As skilled press agents grow more adept at emphasizing the "importance" of their clients' expensive album campaigns, more mid-20s music writers and blog editors repeatedly fall for the ruse.

Add it all together, and we end up with millions of eyeballs reading through a failed attempt at a canon favoring capitalism-indie and all of the blue checkmark rich kids' favorite artists.

That said, it wasn't all bad. The editors occasionally granted positions to some truly great records that usually showed up on only one list in the #76-100 section. The ratio of good to boring was probably around 1 to 3, or 25%. It's not an impressive percentage, especially compared to the more widely consumed decade lists at the close of the '80s or '90s. But 25% definitely adds up to more than 100 albums.

And so, we wondered... What would it look like if we removed all the crap and compiled one list focusing on the best records and most accurate placements?

For this exercise, we cherry-picked placements from "The Big Four" of music blogs: Rolling Stone for the boomers, Spin for the Gen Xers, Pitchfork and Stereogum for the millennials.

We also included Vice's shockingly great zoomer-friendly decade round-up. Incidentally, Vice/Noisey was the only other popular blog to place ANTI in their Top 10. An anomaly for this decade, the Vice list felt like its curators actually paid attention to what young music fans actively enjoyed throughout the past 10 years, instead of cheerleading for Clairo and 19 other rich kids that sound like Clairo. Instead, Vice's Top 10 featured less precious outliers like Young Thug at #2, OPN at #10, and (best of all) Power Trip at #4.

After this Vice post, we spent summer and fall of last year temporarily convinced that Vice/Noisey might be our new spot. The list was THAT good. But sadly, their bland best-of-2019 selections squashed that hope.

It's worth noting that Pitchfork's "200 Best Albums of the 2010s" had the opposite effect. It's probably the single worst "listicle event" from any major publication in the history of music journalism. Our respect for Pitchfork's recommendations had all but disappeared since their 2015 acquisition from Conde Nast; these end-of-decade lists officially sealed the coffin. They had a very good run, but they're now equally as relevant as Rolling Stone with their best days behind them and their most devoted readers chasing a nostalgia dragon. We won't take them seriously ever again. RIP to "The Age of Pitchfork" and all their "important" music coverage.

So let's get into it. We made an effort to include records at their highest level of placement whenever possible, but never higher than that position. In an extra credit attempt to spice up the variance, we also included five selections that did not appear on these five listicles - from five entirely different blogs. We also extended this from 100 to 120 records, partially due to the ten genuinely great records throughout the 101-200 portion of Pitchfork's bloated canon.

The mega-list is here, all cleaned up. We fixed everything, and it looks much nicer now. It was our pleasure.

1. Rihanna ANTI (Spin, #1)
2. Kendrick Lamar To Pimp a Butterfly (Spin, #2)
3. Kanye West Yeezus (Stereogum, #2)
4. Power Trip Nightmare Logic (Vice/Noisey, #4)
5. David Bowie Blackstar (Rolling Stone, #5)
6. Rich Gang Tha Tour Part 1 (Vice/Noisey, #2)
7. The Knife Shaking The Habitual (Spin, #3)
8. Robyn Body Talk (Pitchfork, #8)
9. D'Angelo and the Vanguard Black Messiah (Pitchfork, #9)
10. Oneohtrix Point Never Replica (Vice/Noisey, #10)
11. Carly Rae Jepsen E•MO•TION (Stereogum, #9)
12. Miguel Kaleidoscope Dream (Vice/Noisey, #12)
13. Kendrick Lamar good kid, m.A.A.d city (Stereogum, #6)
14. Tame Impala Lonerism (Vice/Noisey, #13)
15. Frank Ocean nostalgia, ULTRA (Spin, #15)
16. Sufjan Stevens Carrie & Lowell (Stereogum, #16)
17. Skrillex Bangarang (Spin, #5)
18. My Bloody Valentine mbv (Stereogum, #18)
19. A Tribe Called Quest We Got It From Here... Thank You For Your Service (Spin, #19)
20. DJ Rashad Double Cup (Vice/Noisey, #6)

21. Courtney Barnett Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit (Rolling Stone, #21)
22. Solange A Seat At The Table (Vice/Noisey, #1)
23. Parquet Courts Sunbathing Animal (Spin, #14)
24. Nicki Minaj Pink Friday (Spin, #24)
25. Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Rolling Stone, #1)
26. Frank Ocean Channel Orange (Pitchfork, #10)
27. Chromatics Kill For Love (Gorilla vs Bear, #8)
28. Danny Brown XXX (Spin, #12)
29. Deerhunter Halcyon Digest (Pitchfork, #29)
30. Paramore Paramore (Spin, #30)
31. Beyonce 4 (Pitchfork, #31)
32. Future DS2 (Vice/Noisey, #9)
33. Mitski Be The Cowboy (Rolling Stone, #33)
34. Thundercat Drunk (Vice/Noisey, #34)
35. Waka Flocka Flame Flockaveli (Vice/Noisey, #35)
36. Converge All We Love We Leave Behind (AV Club, #36)
37. Charli XCX Pop 2 (Vice/Noisey, #37)
38. Death Grips The Money Store (Spin, #38)
39. Mount Eerie A Crow Looked At Me (Vice/Noisey, #17)
40. The Weeknd House Of Balloons (Vice/Noisey, #40)

41. Kacey Musgraves Golden Hour (Rolling Stone, #11)
42. Erykah Badu New Amerikah Pt 2 Return of The Ankh (Pitchfork, #42)
43. Pusha T Daytona (Spin, #43)
44. No Age Everything In Between (Spin, #44)
45. Slowdive Slowdive (Stereogum, #44)
46. Bruce Springsteen Wrecking Ball (Rolling Stone, #46)
47. Aphex Twin Syro (Vice/Noisey, #47)
48. Purple Mountains Purple Mountains (Spin, #47)
49. Jay-Z and Kanye West Watch The Throne (Rolling Stone, #49)
50. Run The Jewels Run The Jewels 2 (Stereogum, #50)
51. Young Thug Barter 6 (Vice/Noisey, #19)
52. Carcass Surgical Steel (Vice/Noisey, #52)
53. Tyler The Creator Flower Boy (Vice/Noisey, #53)
54. Daft Punk Random Access Memories (Rolling Stone, #54)
55. Japandroids Celebration Rock (Spin, #17)
56. Kamasi Washington The Epic (Vice/Noisey, #56)
57. Earl Sweatshirt Doris (Stereogum, #57)
58. Bjork Vulnicura (Pitchfork, #56)
59. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib Pinata (Vice/Noisey, #59)
60. Nicki Minaj The Pinkprint (Rolling Stone, #60)

61. The-Dream Love King (Vice/Noisey, #61)
62. Omar Souleyman Haflat Gharbia: The Western Concerts (Spin, #52)
63. Fucked Up David Comes To Life (Stereogum, #63)
64. Lil Peep Come Over When You're Sobert Pt 1 (Vice/Noisey, #64)
65. Cloud Nothings Attack on Memory (Consequence Of Sound, #65)
66. Maren Morris Hero (Billboard, #64)
67. John Maus We Must Become The Pitiless Censors of Ourselves (Vice/Noisey, #67)
68. Flying Lotus Cosmogramma (Pitchfork, #68)
69. 100 Gecs 100 Gecs (Spin, #60)
70. Playboi Carti Playboi Carti (Spin, #70)
71. Miguel Wildheart (Slant, #68)
72. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Ghosteen (Stereogum, #72)
73. Colleen Green I Want To Grow Up (Spin, #73)
74. Low Double Negative (Stereogum, #71)
75. Beyonce Beyonce (Pitchfork, #3)
76. (Sandy) Alex G DSU (Stereogum, #76)
77. Turnstile Nonstop Feeling (Vice/Noisey, #77)
78. Zeal & Ardor Devil Is Fine (Spin, #78)
79. Kurt Vile Smoke Ring for My Halo (Pitchfork, #78)
80. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks Mirror Traffic (Rolling Stone, #80)

81. Sheer Mag Compilation (I, II, & III) (Spin, #81)
82. Total Control Henge Beat (Vice/Noisey, #80)
83. Priests Nothing Feels Natural (Stereogum, #83)
84. Big Thief UFOF (Pitchfork, #33)
85. Arcade Fire The Suburbs (Stereogum, #14)
86. Fiona Apple The Idler Wheel (Pitchfork, #6)
87. Jeremih Late Nights: The Album (Vice/Noisey, #87)
88. Pile Dripping (Vice/Noisey, #88)
89. Big Boi Sir Lucious Left Foot... Son Of Chico Dusty (Consequence Of Sound, #89)
90. Neil Young + Crazy Horse Psychedelic Pill (Rolling Stone, #90)
91. YG My Krazy Life (Uproxx, #91)
92. DaBaby Blank Blank (Spin, #92)
93. Skrillex Scary Monster and Nice Sprites (Vice/Noisey, #93)
94. Sheer Mag Need You To Feel My Love (Vice/Noisey, #83)
95. Jai Paul Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones) (Pitchfork, #95)
96. Homeboy Sandman Kindness for Weakness (Spin, #88)
97. Rae Sremmurd SremmLife (Pitchfork, #87)
98. Charly Bliss Guppy (Stereogum, #90)
99. Earl Sweatshirt I Don't Like Shit I Don't Go Outside (Spin, #99)
100. Salem King Night (Vice/Noisey, #100)

101. Mitski Puberty 2 (Stereogum, #27)
102. Pup The Dream Is Over (Spin, #53)
103. Syd Fin (Spin, #42)
104. Beach House Teen Dream (Vice/Noisey, #11)
105. PJ Harvey Let England Shake (Vice/Noisey, #71)
106. Kendrick Lamar DAMN. (Stereogum, #11)
107. Against Me! White Crosses (Spin, #55)
108. Real Estate Days (Pitchfork, #123)
109. Janelle Monae The ArchAndroid (Pitchfork, #116)
111. Drake Take Care (Rolling Stone, #6)
112. ASAP ROCKY LIVE.LOVE.ASAP (Pitchfork, #137)
113. Tierra Whack Whack World (Spin, #10)
114. Chief Keef Finally Rich (Pitchfork, #145)
115. Joanna Newson Have One On Me (Pitchfork, #16)
116. Vince Staples Summertime '06 (Stereogum, #23)
117. Mac Demarco 2 (Pitchfork, #149)
118. Lady Gaga The Fame Monster (Pitchfork, #151)
119. G.L.O.S.S. Trans Day of Revenge (Pitchfork, #182)
120. Hailu Mergia Lala Belu (Pitchfork, #185)