Daphne Loves...Dancing?

Two recent addictions of mine converged on my TV screen last night as So You Think You Can Dance featured the song "Pollen and Salt" by Daphne Loves Derby. I've been a huge fan of Daphne Loves Derby ever since 2005's, On the Strength of All Convinced, which features "Pollen and Salt," and recently I've been on a binge-listening to them along with Deathcab - two bands that have always had a great pop sound to them, without sounding recycled or dull. It also doesn't hurt that they're from Washington, like me, and that the drummer in Daphne is really hot, but that's taking me a little too far off subject....

Anyway, check out the video from So You Think You Can Dance below.  Unfortunately the dancer, Nathan Trasoras, is only 17, so he can't compete in this year's competition and has to wait until Season 6. However, by the time his turn comes, I'm confident that he will be able to thrive, and I would be shocked if he wasn't one of the left dancers left next year. Beyond his great musical taste, he seems to be born with the most natural ability to pirouette that I have seen in quite some time. 

Daphne Loves Derby on MySpace

Listen to Pollen and Salt in full on Last.fm

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

So before I get ahead of myself, I have to let you all know that I'm changing some things up here. Because of a combination of my way too crazy school schedule this term and the inconsistency of awesome music in pop culture, I've decided to get rid of the "Pop Culture Song of the Week" column, and just post about songs whenever I hear something awesome on TV, in a movie, or other places. Hopefully this will motivate me to actually write more often. Now that this little item of news is out of the way, I give you the "Pop Culture Song of the Moment" - "Houses" by Great Northern as heard in last night's episode of 90210, "Zero Tolerance."

With prom season being in the air, it was only fitting that last night's episode of 90210 would be prom-themed. In a tip of the cap to the original series, the episode was titled "Zero Tolerance" (if you haven't seen the original's classic prom episode, you gotta do that now!).  Anyway, I won't get too much into the details of the episode, other than that I love how they used Silver (again). She's such an awesome character, and her ranting Prom Queen acceptance (an award she turns down), where she talks about how she hates conformity and everything else that prom stands for, was awesome. 

As everyone arrives at the prom and all the photographers swarm for pictures on the red carpet, the forceful and confident song "Houses" by Great Northern plays. The driving drum beat and bass line really give this song a strong sense of urgency, which fits the controlled chaos of the scene well. I've blogged about this band before, and I've been listening to Remind Me Where the Light Is constantly since it was released two weeks ago. Check out the scene below (song starts about 15 seconds in).

Check out Great Northern at MySpace

Song of the Week

Another week has gone by, and Ugly Betty has delivered another great episode and another great ending song again! 

This week's song is "Layers" by Asobi Seksu, and it plays just as Betty 

re-unites baby William with her rightful parents, Christina and Stuart. In a sad turn of events that I didn't want to see happen, Christina tells Betty that she and Stuart are returning to Scotland to raise baby William there, just as the lush vocals of "Layers" begin tugging at your tear ducts.

I'm not going to lie, I definitely cried a little during this ending...somehow 

it reminded me of the ending of Edward Scissorhands when the beautiful theme music plays and Kim explains that she knows Edward is still alive because it never snowed before he came. The tune has some similarities, and I guess I just got caught up in the emotion. Check out a video clip of this poignant scene below:

Asobi Seksu on MySpace