Posts tagged “Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head”

Make it a club hit we can all dance to…

I really miss Brite Futures (originally called Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head). There’s something about their over-the-top, cheesy, synthpop sound that has stuck with me in a powerful way even though they broke up and haven’t released any music since 2011.

I equate Brite Futures to synthpop as I do Tenacious D to rock or Jonathan Coulton to folk/soft rock (or even Trevor Peach to emo): although lyrically hilarious and ofttimes inappropriate, they all transcend mere parody of their various genres and move right on through homage to become honest-to-goodness good. Tenacious D is not just good parody of rock, it is good rock. So too Brite Futures was good synthpop.

Here is “Too Young to Kill” from their second album Dark Past, one of only two official music videos the group ever made over the course of their two albums. It is not only a kickass synthpop song, but it lyrically deconstructs the whole concept of what it takes to make popular music. It also features some absolutely phenomenal and subtle special effects. Partake and be pleasured:

If you’d like to dive down the rabbit hole of Brite Futures/NPSH, I highly encourage it. Here’s their only other music video, “Sophisticated Side Ponytail” from their first album Glistening Pleasure. This video really leans into the whole 1980s aesthetic that permeates so much of Brite Future’s look and sound. Partake and be even more pleasured:

You have now been pleasured. I hope you have a brite future.

One thing you might not know about me is that I don’t listen to a lot of music, by which I mean I tend to focus on a small selection of music and then listen to it over and over and over again.

One of the things I do is I make Mix CDs that I listen to while I’m driving around—to and from work, to and from Fools Play, etc. Thing is, I only make one Mix CD about every three months and that’ll be pretty much all that I’ll listen to until I make another one.

Traditionally I go iTunes and organize my music by most recently added, then start pulling the best songs over to a new playlist as I work my way back in time through my music collection. This way my Mix CDs tend to have a handful of songs that I’ve acquired recently. I also try not to put in too many songs that were in my previous Mix CD. But I don’t add much music to my collection very often, so doing it that way only fills up a portion of the CD. So then I delve into my list of all-time most listenable songs. Y’know, the songs that I don’t really ever get tired of listening to (the playlist that I call “Ultimate Flawless Victory” in iTunes) and toss in a few of those. Then I look at all of the songs in my collection that I’ve given four or five stars and toss in a few of those.

These Mix CDs are both reflective and projective. I try to incorporate how my musical tastes have changed over the past three months while at the same time trying to predict what I’ll want to listen to for the next three months.

Here are the last two CDs I created:

August 2009:

1. Always Been There Anyway – Julia Massey
2. Around the Bend – The Asteroids Galaxy Tour
3. Brain Problem Situation – They Might Be Giants
4. Buddy Holly – Weezer
5. Cellars by Starlight – Kay Hanley
6. Golden Blunders – The Posies
7. Good Fish – Julia Massey
8. Have a F*****g Baby – Three Ninjas
9. Headphones on Your Heart – Leeni
10. House of Mayors – John linnell
11. The Last Thing On Your Mind – Lights
12. Little Fighter X – Fighter X
13. Lollipop – Mika
14. Lovebite – Order of the Crimson Wizard
15. Me + Yr Daughter – Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head
16. Over and Over – Leeni
17. Red Underwears – Three Ninjas
18. Say It Ain’t So – Weezer
19. Shut Up and Let Me Go – The Ting Tings
20. Soft Rocked By Me – Jonathan Coulton
21. Somewhere on This Couch – The Crazy Boy Floyds
22. The Way I Am – Ingrid Michaelson
23. You Don’t Know Me – Ben Folds (featuring Regina Spektor)

November 2009 (there is one repeat song from the August CD—see if you can spot it)

1. Dance, Dance, Dance – Lykke Li
2. Dirt Bike – They Might Be Giants
3. Doll Partz – Order of the Crimson Wizard
4. Heading Out at Dawn – Terrapin Productions
5. Jenny Towner – Julia Massey
6. Los Angeles – They Might Be Giants
7. Mario’s Café – Saint Etienne
8. Powers – Three Ninjas
9. Pride & Strawberry Wine – The Wastelanders
10. A Quiet Room – Tangentbot
11. Secret Skin – Busdriver
12. Spin Around – Josie & The Pussycats
13. Stairs – Locust Street Taxi
14. Starry Eyed Surprise – Oakenfold
15. Stop – Spice Girls
16. Sun Shower – Busdriver
17. Teenage Dirtbag – Wheatus
18. Theme from “Greatest American Hero” – Joey Scarbury
19. True Affection – The Blow
20. Ugly Girl – Fleming & John
21. Vancouver – They Might Be Giants
22. Veronica – Elvis Costello
23. The Way I Am – Ingrid Michaelson
24. What’s Golden – Jurassic 5
25. Your Love Is a Drug – Puffy AmiYumi

I have no idea what these songs say about me, so feel free to psychoanalyze me to your hearts’ content based solely on the content of these lists. Enjoy!

Link of the Month:
Star Pirates
This is just a really fun text-based MMORPG. It’s easy to log on, play for a couple of minutes, then log off. Or if you want, you can log on and play for hours. Plus its absolutely free! It has a great sense of community with fleet building and fleet wars. But it’s also a game in which everyone is a pirate, so there is a lot of player-killing and theft, so you gotta think strategically and watch your back. If you want you can use real-world money to purchase advantages in the game (such as regenerating fuel and energy at a must faster rate), but I’ve been playing for a couple of weeks now without spending a dime, so I know first-hand that it’s a great game even if you’re dirt-poor. Like me!

DVD of the Month:
My Boys: The Complete 1st Season
I would never have thought that I’d like this show. It’s about sports writers in Chicago. It’s 100% baseball metaphors. But I just think it’s hilarious. I knew that it was one of my favorite shows on television when they actually had a “douchebag intervention” when one of their friend started acting too “douchy.” These characters are really funny, and actually seem like they’ve known each other for years. Hugs, not drugs.

Album of the Month:
Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head: Glistening Pleasure
This album from a great Seattle-based indy group hasn’t even come out yet, and I’m making it my Album of the Month. I feel justifiably confident that it’s going to kick ass because I’ve heard it. Several songs are available on their MySpace page, and beyond that I’ve seen them live and the show was an absolute hoot. Hoot, I tell you! They’re like a brilliant parody of 1980s, high-energy, synth-rock. With songs like “Beard Lust” and “Me Plus Yr Daughter,” Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head is just awexome. And the band named after it is pretty awexome, too. Be like me and pre-order Glistening Pleasure! Support your local awexome!