Happy Thanksgiving week! Let me prime your appetite for turkey, stuffing, potatoes and pie with a little bit of some warm pop culture goodness. Here’s the top 4 things you need to know about from this past week:

4. The NPH Pose

For those of you who have been hiding in a hole for the past few years, Neil Patrick Harris has arisen like a child-star Jesus back into the mainstream. The man is funny, charismatic, and endlessly watchable in his many projects. Which is why nobody was surprised when he added his own pose to the world. Observe:

Simple, yet elegant. Spread this around and do NPH proud.

3. The Jason Segel Awesome Song

Speaking of people who make me laugh consistently (and are on How I Met Your Mother), schlubby comedy master Jason Segel has come out with a brand new video consisting of a song he sang at a The Swell Season show. And seeing as Mr. Segel has brought us the genius of the Dracula Puppet Musical, I’m pretty sure he can do no wrong with original songs. Watch and enjoy (and call the phone number because IT IS TOTALLY REAL).

2. The Once-Normal Lady GaGa

Speaking of people playing the piano exceptionally well, it turns out that before she went all crazy in the head, Lady GaGa was tearing up the ivories at NYU, as seen in this surprisingly good clip of her from her heyday there.

Now if that doesn’t make you question the power of stardom and fame on one’s sanity…

1. The Shame of the Nation: New Moon

Speaking of things that constantly make me question humanity, The Twilight Saga: New Moon shattered all sorts of records and young girls hearts in its opening this weekend. Unfortunately, this sort of thing propagates an endless sterotype amongt anyone with half a brain: the Twilight series is lame. There, I’m on the bandwagon, deal with it. Besides, when you have arguments like this one:

I rest my case.

Don’t eat too much turkey, everyone. See you all next week around the breakfast table!

Here’s a video of Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) singing a song with The Swell Season (Once).  At first I thought he was actually going to play a serious and sweet song… I’m ashamed that I thought that.  Luckily, he performed a hilarious pop ballad with the digits to a phone number that has been disconnected.  Bravo.

Jason Segal joined Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard (of The Swell Season) on stage to perform an original song he wrote. Hilarity and perfection ensue.

Now if only he’ll write and produce a full play of “Dracula’s Lament.” We can dream, can’t we?

The Swell Season just played at the Paramount this evening. My insides are still spinning. This is the second concert I have seen this week and this one, hands down, blew the other one out of the water, and I love the other band, I’ve seen them at the Triple Door three years in a row! There was something so Authentic about these two. Glen told stories that gave context to many of his songs. They had us sing along. They met a girl singing on the streets of Seattle today and asked her to play at their concert tonight… so she did!!!  He honored the Clancy Brothers, The Frames (his band before the Swell Season), a woman in an elevator with a blue coat, the woman up in the third tier who “opened up” to him and the entire audience, and he honored us, his audience… each with a song. He played one of his songs as he stepped away from all the mics… and the place was silent, you could have heard a pin drop. The Van Morrison song he played, made me nearly float, it was so amazing. The man can play a guitar!!! He broke strings on 3 guitars before the song was over!!! He told stories of real people in a way that you knew he valued them, not just the story he was telling about them. All of that was bonus… because then, they played their sweet music…. and all was well within me. …and did I mention the 6-song encore???? There is something so nice about seeing someone be who they are instead of putting on a show.

Tonight The Swell Season starts kicks off their US tour with a performance in Seattle. The Swell Season are Glen Hansard (from the Irish band, The Frames) and Marketa Irglova (classically trained Czech pianist and vocalist), both are known for their performance in Once, the 2007 music film from Ireland. The two were a couple and now they’re not but they’re still making beautiful music together.

Falling Slowly is one of those tunes you’ll hum for hours after you’ve heard it, mainly because of the repetitive melody, but also because it’s one of those “I could’ve written that” type of tunes. Want to learn it? Scroll down a bit on this page – Mario Ajero has a podcast lesson for you.

Recently they released a new video, “Low Rising”, from their album, Strict Joy, out now.

Here’s a video from 2007 of The Swell Season (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova) performing “Lies” from the “Once” soundtrack:

Click here to watch actor Jason Segel join The Swell Season onstage for a special song a few days ago.

Jason Segel, o ator, está ficando cada vez mais conhecido. Nos últimos dois anos ele participou de Ligeiramente Grávidos, Ressaca de Amor e Eu te amo, cara, além de poder ser visto semanalmente na sitcom de sucesso How I Met Your Mother, atualmente em sua quinta temporada.

Já Jason Segel, o cantor, não aparece com muita frequência, mas ele já deu amostras de que leva algum jeito para a coisa – em Eu te amo, cara, faz dupla com Paul Rudd tocando sucessos do Rush, e em Ressaca de Amor seu personagem escreve e estrela o próprio musical. Além disso, Jason já cantou em nada menos que quatro episódios de HIMYM.

Um dos ‘hits’ de Marshall Eriksen em How I Met Your Mother

No último dia 18, o The Swell Season fez um show em Los Angeles, e Jason dividiu o palco com a dupla vencedora do Oscar, Glen Hansard e Marketá Irglová - a quem, após a frustração de não ser indicado à estatueta de Melhor Canção Original pelo mini-musical apresentado em Ressaca de Amor, Jason pediu conselhos sobre como compor belas canções. Marketá lhe disse que escrevesse com o coração, e que incluísse o máximo de informações pessoais que pudesse (talvez ela não tenha dito exatamente isso, mas…).

Jason Segel dá uma palhinha do Dracula Musical

E, assentado ao piano, ele cantou. Uma composição própria, com o máximo de informações pessoais possível (até demais!), como ele mesmo entregou. Além de esclarecer que em Ressaca do Amor não houve efeitos especiais na sua cena de nu frontal, falando abertamente sobre o tamanho de seu pênis, ele dá seu número de telefone. Anota aí: (315) 329-6673.

Segel se apresenta com o The Swell Season

Easily the best thing I’ve seen online all week, maybe all month! Further proving Jason Segel might be the coolest guy that ever lived. Watch him preform an original song with The Swell Season below:

“Forgetting Sarah Marshall” star Jason Segel was looking for love last night at The Wiltern. He crashed The Swell Season’s set to woo us with a heartfelt song all in the name of getting laid. If a vampire puppet fell from the sky I would have called his number.

My boy Jason Segel hopped on stage to perform a Segel original with The Swell Season, aka, Once stars Glen Hansard and Marketa Iglova.  And as usual, he kills it.

Had a conversation with KW last night about my love for schluppy boys.  Jason Segel is pretty much the prototype.

Endlich ist das neue Video von The Swell Season da. Der Song heißt Low Rising und ist wie so ziemlich alles, was die Band aufgenommen hat, sehr schön.

]]> http://jakecoco.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/81/ Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:36:28 +0000 jakecoco http://jakecoco.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/81/

Jake Coco and Caitlin Hart-Falling Slowly Free MP3 (Cover)

Free MP3 Here http://bit.ly/4pJJPQ

Caitlin Hart and Jake Coco- Falling slowly by “the swell season”

Websites:
http://www.facebook.com/jakecocomusic
http://www.facebook.com/caitlinhartmusic

I’m sure some of you might think I’m crazy, but Tuesdays can be one of the best days of the week–especially when long-awaited albums hit the shelves. Last week I could have blown almost an entire paycheck on newly released albums (ok, that may be a bit of an exaggeration). Bon Jovi released, The Circle, Switchfoot’s Hello Hurricane hit the shelves (listen to Mess of Me) and A Fine Frenzy put out a Christmas album–Oh Blue Christmas. I have to admit, I wasn’t overly thrilled (and nothing but love for Jon and the gang) by The Circle. But, trust me, that hasn’t stopped me from getting tickets for his show in Atlanta on April 15. I am, however, loving the entire Hello Hurricane album! And Alison Sudol stayed true to her sultry, amost other-worldly sound on Oh Blue Christmas. The only other thing I could have asked for from the album was more songs (there are only six).

Today, John Mayer’s Battle Studies went on sale. I’m particularly enjoying the song, Assassin, off the album. Friends, Lovers or Nothing is also really good! The Swell Season also recently issued a new album, Strict Joy. Check out Low Rising here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5KV1Lf2NkY

Use the truth as a weapon to beat up all your friends

In These Arms, The Swell Season

Haven’t done a Music Monday in a long time, so I thought I’d better get back on the bandwagon and there’d be no better way to do so than with The Swell Season. If you are not familiar with this group, they are comprised of the lovely and talented Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (the pair who brought us the movie Once and the Oscar winning song, Falling Slowly), and Glen’s old band, The Frames. I had the distinct pleasure of seeing them a couple of weeks back from the front row of Butler University’s Clowes Hall (que fan girl squee). It was totally worth the ferocious crink in my neck I had by the end of the evening, let me tell you.

The great thing about a Swell Season show is that it’s all about the music. There are no pyrotechnics or back up dancers or glittery costumes. It’s just poetic lyrics, expert playing, and passionate singing. If that’s up your alley, you owe it to yourself to check out The Swell Season. Their albums are amazing (especially Strict Joy, from where most of the songs I’ll be using come), but definitely see them live if you can.

Now, on to the Outlander part. So many of the lyrics to Swell Season songs apply to events that have occured throughout the series, so I’ll post a video of the song and describe the scene to which I’m referring. There will be spoilers up ahead, so be forewarned if you haven’t read all of the books (though they wouldn’t be spoilers if you’d read these amazing books, now would they?). Everyone else, please enjoy!

I Have Loved You Wrong

This comes into play in Dragonfly in Amber, after Jamie and Claire are reunited when Jamie has been released from the Bastille. It’s clear that though they love each other deeply, both have done terrible things that have hurt the other. This song could be from either Jamie or Claire’s prospective, as they ask forgiveness of one another and accept it in return.

What Happens When The Heart Just Stops

While perhaps the whole song does not apply, the first few stanza’s definitely describe the way both Jamie and Claire feel in Voyager during their twenty year separation from one another. Beyond that, it’s a beautiful, sorrowful song and shows how Glen truly feels the words he sings.

Back Broke (song starts at 2:43)

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I initially thought this song would be perfect for when Jamie and Claire are reunited in Voyager, but as I read the lyrics I realized that it applied even better a little farther along in the plot of that same book. Claire has found out that Jamie was married to Loaghaire, but didn’t tell her. She leaves Lallybroch, intending to return to her own time, but goes back when Young Ian tells her that Loaghaire has shot Jamie and is dying. The line ‘I came on your command; don’t give me false hope’ describes perfectly what Claire is feeling as she tends to Jamie and truly begin the process of rekindling their relationship.

The Court of New Town (playing starts around 1:15)

Here’s a fiddle tune from Frames member, Colm mac con Iomaire. For this one, we skip all the way to the newest novel, An Echo in the Bone, when Claire is in Philidelphia tending Henri Christian and Jamie is forced to remain in Scotland until his brother-in-law passes away. The haunting, though lovely, melody perfectly describes the longing they feel for one another. In this respect, it could also represent the period when Claire believes that Jamie is dead and is feeling so lost without him.

Hope you’ve enjoyed these tunes and the walk down the Outlander memory lane.

The audience at The Swell Season’s first of two concerts at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles last night was lucky enough to catch a surprise special guest performance. How I Met Your Mother’s own Jason Segel joined Once’s Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová on stage and sang an original song/personal ad with a refrain calling out the digits of his phone number and referencing the cameo made by a certain body part of his in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Apparently, Segel became friends with Hansard and Irglová after he and friend Paul Rudd sent them wine in a restaurant one night and hilarity, I’m sure, ensued.

The new album by The Swell Season, Strict Joy, is excellent. Like their previous efforts, their songs are dreamy, wistful, melancholy, and hopeful all at once. The Swell Season’s Glen Hansard, originally from the Irish band, The Frames, and Marketa Irglova, a classically trained Czech pianist and vocalist, are accompanied by many musicians on their tour including violinists, cellists, guitarists, keyboardists, drummers, and a brass section. My favorite new song on Strict Joy is “Maybe I Was Born To Hold You In These Arms.” This live version is another Tiny Desk performance from NPR and, in lieu of their usual accompaniment, they ask those in the room to mimic the sounds of the instruments.

The Swell Season – Maybe I Was Born To Hold You In These Arms:

-Melissa