We had been hearing all the murmurs about Deerhoof for a while. In fact, we'd been hearing about them ever since a wintry evening in late 2002 when we headed east from the Lower East Side, across the bridge, to Williamsburg, Brooklyn with the editor of the Japanese music magazine Switch. The editor was here to do special issue about the NYC music scene and to meet some real-life New York "underground" bands like Outhud, The Liars and Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

The trip to Williamsburg that night was for a photo shoot and interview with the folks who run the underground venue called Mighty Robot. Deerhoof kept popping up in the conversation about American bands. (Deerhoof is not an NYC group, but are based in San Francisco.)

Afterwards, Deerhoof kept appearing on our new-music radar, now and again mentioned by friends who uttered the band's name with beatific reverence. Later, we heard some tracks and were impressed. But, somehow, not completely blown away, that is, until now and the release of the new Deerhoof disc "Green Cosmos."

"Green Cosmos" is brilliant.

And it's one of the absolute freshest and most original discs to come out this year. (With this and M.I.A. "Arular" and the Fiery Furnaces "EP," 2005 is shaping up to be a special year for new music. We can't stop listening to this disc. At the office today, I played the whole album all the way through four times on my iPod -- and I had five meetings and a deadline!)

Tracks like the opener "Come See the Duck" might feel like more familiar territoy for hardcore fans, the track has the same start-stop aggression of your typical one-minute Melt Banana noise-punk assault.

"Spiral Golden Town" is our favorite track. It's a stunning piece of sci-fi pop that evokes epic grandeur with a playful synthetic lilt. Since "Green Cosmos" is almost completely sung Japanese, which is the first language of singer/bass-guitarist (and Tokyo native) Satomi Matsuzaki, it's a bit of a sonic landmark even for Deerhoof itself.

Essential Linkage

Deerhoof Factsheet [KillRockstars Records]

Deerhoof Bio [BlueGhost PR Website]

It's not unusual in Hollywood for movie stars, especially those who rocket to stardom while still in their twenties, to bring along some of their buddies for the wild whirlwind of a ride that comes with Hollywood fame and fortune. Hence the celeb's always present posse of friends and hangers on, otherwise known as "the entourage."

Entourage is the aptly titled name of HBO's original cable television show that mines the world of the famous young male actor and his inner circle of buddies. The show, part comedy, part drama ("dramady"?) had a strong enough first season to warrant a second, which had its premiere episode last week.

We had read about Entourage last year in an article about how the show was partly conceived by "Marky" Mark Wahlburg. The actor and former music star is one of the show's producers. In many ways, the program's plot lines are loosely based on Wahlburg's own real-life experiences as he rose rapidly in a few short years from Boston street urchin to hip-pop celebrity and sex symbol. And, of course, Wahlburg is no stranger to travelling with an entrourage.

When we first read about Entrourage, we weren't much intrigued by the prospect of the HBO program, even though the cable movie channel has an amazing track-record for developing great television fare.

But an aggressive and precision-targeted marketing assault in advance of season two may have paid off, at least for the Massive. The promotion resulted in an Entourage DVD of the second season premiere landing in our hands. We watched it and quickly got sucked into its storyline and characters. So much so that we planned to watch the second episode. And after seeing episode two, we are officially hooked.

Ironically, the celebrity friend, Vince (played by Adrian Grenier) around whom the entourage forms in the series Entourage, is the least interesting character. He's handsome, mildly charismatic, confident, cool and used to being the center of attention, but he is also utterly bland. Which is okay, because the focus is really on his friends.

It is the members of the entourage itself who are more deeply drawn and memorable. Eric (Kevin Connolly) is the reliable, smart buddy who serves as Vince's personal manager. He's the linchpin in these four friends' lives as a unit.

"Turtle" (Jerry Ferrara) and "Drama" (Kevin Dillon), Vince's older brother, are the other two members of the posse. Unlike, Vince or Eric, Turtle and Drama are a couple of perpetual screw-ups who would probably have little going for them if it wasn't for their connection to the now-famous Vince. But Turtle and Drama are the show's most colorful characters and add the comic relief that keeps the show light-hearted and real.

The juiciest role, however, is the character Ari, Vince's high-powered talent agent played by Jeremy Piven (Gross Pointe Blank) as a glib, slippery presence, part shmuck, part shark. Piven's character has the best, most memorable lines in the series, and he is reason enough to tune in to Entourage.

Yes, we're now Entourage converts.

Entrourage airs on HBO Sunday at 9:00 PM

Related Links

Entourage Homepage [HBO]

'Entourage' parties heartier in Season 2 [NY Daily news]

Hang with HBO's 'Entourage,' but forget making a 'Comeback' [SF Chronicle]

'Let's Hug It Out, Bitch' Street Postings Promote HBO's 'Entourage' [Ad Rants]

You know the old adage that "sex sells." In recent years, however, some advertisers and marketers have doubted whether sex is really an effective device anymore in our current sex-saturated mediascape. Doubters can rest assured about one thing though, sex coupled with Paris Hilton does sell. At least, that's what the latest numbers on the that Carl's Jr. commercial starring the naughtier Hilton sister would suggest.

Our favorite advertising blog, Ad Rants, reported last week that the Hitwise research shows the "Spicy Paris" commercial has been a big hit for the fast-food chain in driving traffic to the company's website and the dedicated Spicyparis.com site since the ad began airing. The indication from the data is that the ad campaign is actually driving hamburger sales, as the metrics that measure people searching online for a Carl's Jr. location have shot up dramatically, too.

Ad Rants reported the Hitwise research to show that for the term "paris hilton," Internet searches rose 102 percent, while searches for "carls jr" rocketed by 802 percent for the weeks ending May 21 and 28, 2005.

At any rate, even if you've already seen the "Spicy Paris" commercial a dozen times, you owe yourself the treat of seeing the full-length 60-second version of the clip on the Spicy Paris website, where you can also watch a mini-documentary and interview with Paris on the set of the commercial shoot. Good stuff for those of you who like to see Paris burning.

Full linkage to related sites after the "More" jump below.

Related Links

Carl's Jr. "Spicy Paris" Commercial Video Website

Paris Hilton Causes Hunt For Carl's Jr. Restaurants [Ad Rants]

Hitwise Website

Carl's Jr. Website

Russell Crowe arrived in New York City late Sunday to promote his new star-vehicle and possible Oscar-contender, the movie Cinderella Man, in which he stars with Rene Zelweger. Crowe wasn't in Manhattan but 24 hours when he got into a heaping hunk of trouble with the NYPD. This was the big news hitting the gossip tabs and blogosphere Monday, as well as mainstream media (the New York Times had a reporter downtown and on the story). They were alll over the story like flies on you-know-what.

What happened, allegedly: Russell Crowe allegedly threw a telephone at the night porter of the ultra-sleek, ultra-private and ultra-celebrity-filled Mercer Hotel in SoHo. The police were called and within approximately an hour, according to reports, Crowe was in a jail cell a few blocks away at a Tribeca police precinct.

Now we all know about Crowe's temper and violent tendencies. He's become famous for it, so much so that South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker devoted an entire episode of their animated sitcom to satirizing the Australian/New Zealand actor's proclivity for fisticuffs. What more of a pop cultural testament could you ask for?

At any rate, one can be cynical and easily assume that Crowe is copping some timely free publicity for himself and his new movie. After all, Cinderella Man is, ahem, a bio pic of a depression-era American prize-fighter. But is that what is really happening here. It would be sickening, but (sadly) not surprising. The Mercer Hotel porter who was struck by Crowe's alleged flying phone was injured by the handset. (How many dozens of lawyers do you think are trying to get a hold of that guy right now, huh?)

The background story, as reported by the times and other news outlets, is that Crowe was having difficulty placing an international call to his home in Australia and came down to the hotel lobby to complain.

By the way, the Mercer Hotel (and it's adjoining restaurant, the Mercer Kithcen, and bar, Merc Bar) is a beautiful boutique hotel in that luxury-contemporary Wallpaper magazine kind of way. The hotel, which is aptly on Mercer Street between Houston and Prince streets, is popular with celebrities because of it's privacy and relative anonymity in the heart of bustling Soho. Unless your were actually looking for it, you could walk by the hotel's front entrance a dozen times and never notice that there's even a hotel there, which is a pretty amazing architectural-design accomplishment.

But it doesn't really matter for the media; the tell-tale sign that you're there is the always lingering paparazzi who lie waiting for someone famous to step out of or into an always-idling limo double-parked on the cobblestones of Mercer Street. We imagine the press were at the Mercer pretty damn quick Monday morning.

Anyway, Crowe will not be spending any more time at the Mercer. HIs belongings were reportedly removed Monday afternnon, shortly after a court appearance and his release on bail. We can't wait to see Tuesday morning's New York Post coverage (as well as how the story is covered in Crowe's homeland, Down Under). It should be slamtastic.

Related Links

Cinderella Man Official Movie Website

The Mercer Hotel Website

Crowe's arrest sparks tabloid frenzy [Sydney Morning Herald]

True story: Three summers ago we received a newly released Puffy Amiyumi CD as a birthday present from some work colleagues who knew that we were music headz and that we had had spent some time living in Japan and doing a short music journalism stint.

We were, of course, already familiar with Puffy (as Puffy Amiyumi are known in Japan) as a J-pop force. We even knew some of their hit songs from Japanese radio airplay, countless karaoke sessions with Japanese friends and television, on which they appeared regularly throughout the late 1990's. We even liked a couple of their tunes, even though their music was brazenly derivative (but derivative of some of the very best pop, disco and rock music that had ever been recorded up till that time).

But "fans" we were not.

The CD was called "An Illustrated History of Puffy Amiyumi" and as the duo's first official US album debut, it was largely a compilation of their greatest hits and then some. A couple of tunes, we recall, which had been originally sung in Japanese, contained new vocal tracks with whole verses sung completely in English, a nod that would appeal to what would hopefully be a new found American audience. That audience, not surprisingly, was a niche market of Japanophiles and the kind of "otaku" teens and twenty-somethings that tended to also be huge manga comic book and Japanese anime fans, the same "kidz" that could be found at annual anime conventions in major cities nationwide.

New Jersey-based indie label Bar-None released "An Illustrated History" and, in hindsight, perhaps the record company really was on to something big in light of the success of the Hi, Hi Puffy Amiyumi animated series on Cartoon Network. Shortly after Bar-None released "Illustrated," Puffy Amiyumi were asked to provide the theme song to another Cartoon Network animated program called Tenn Titans, which itself became a hit. Between Teen Titans and the present, Hi, Hi Puffy Amiyumi was conceived and brought to life as the Adult Swim hit it has become.

Reading about Puffy Amiyumi in Jonathan Durbin's Paper magazine article recently led us to pop "An Illustrated Histry" onto our iPod and revisit the album. "Illustrated" is much as we remembered it -- a few gems amid lots of filler, some of it pure, unblinking kitsch. The parts sung in English make us cringe. But the gem -- mostly the bigger its, including their breakout single "Asia No Junshin" -- are solid well-crafted pop tunes written by a professional songwriter-producer of several of the band's best albums.

Check out the CD if your a true fan or if your musically curious or culturally adventurous. And check out the "Brief History of Puffy Amiyumi" profile on the Bar-None records website. There's a link to the profile after the "More" jump below.

Related Links

A Brief History of Puffy Amiyumi [Bar-None Records]

Hi, Hi Puffy Amiyumi [Paper Mag]

Official Puffy Amiyumi Website

Hi, Hi Puffy Amiyumi Video Clip [Cartoon Network]

Cartoon Network Website