Does This Look Like A Facelift That Would Lie To You?

Taylor Savvy “Treat Him Like A Lady (Sometimes)” – I never realized how much Taylor Savvy sounded like John Mayer until I heard this song. It’s all in the voice, of course (though Savvy isn’t quite as reedy or affected as Mayer), because this track sounds a lot more lite FM/boy-band than acoustic Starbucks rock. It makes a lot of sense for Savvy to play up any similarities to Mayer, whether it is intentional or not, given that his whole act is about subverting his pretty boy looks and smooth pop with peculiar lyrics and his Justin Timberlake-meets-Chippendales stage show. If Savvy is going to send up the music made by men to seduce women, John Mayer is an excellent contemporary reference point. Bonus points: Savvy’s lyrical advice in this song (basically, you should treat men with tenderness and affection sometimes) seems like something that Mayer would actually write, given the level of humor and self-awareness that he displayed on his recent VH1 special. (Click here to buy it from Juno.)

Roots Manuva “Colossal Insight (Jammer & Mizz Beatz Remix)” – Though Roots Manuva is not quite as extreme as many of his UK hip hop contempories, it would be difficult to confuse his music with any current American rap artists. His vocal flow is fluid and somewhat conventional, but his tracks are often cold and trebly in a way which is obviously influenced by European electronic artists, whereas American electronic hip hop beats come out of the funk tradition and tend to emphasize warmer low-end frequencies. This track is particularly indebted to modern American r&b (especially on the chorus), but sounds as though it was programmed by a person immersed in Europop and UK Garage. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

Elsewhere: This realvideo clip of Joan Rivers interviewing Alia “Maeby” Shawkat and Michael “George-Michael” Cera on the red carpet at the Golden Globes is priceless. Shawkat and Cera are clearly uncomfortable in the situation but play to their comedic strengths while Rivers seems more than ever like a batty old lady. Make sure that you watch the entire clip, because those last few seconds are hilarious. Also worth checking out, though not quite as funny, is this clip of Rivers interviewing “old friend” Jessica Walter, who she introduces as being Barbara Walters.

Also: Fluxblog appears briefly in an MTV News story about Music For Robots and a band of teenagers from Brooklyn called The Hysterics. I recommend the song by their frontman Oliver Ignatius on the MFR site – it’s very catchy and sounds a lot like Elliott Smith’s jauntier tunes.