Vanilla Ice — apost-modern ironicist
We think not — but check this out for yourselves
Anthony Augustine


Vanilla Ice’s Tax Rap —www.youtube.com/user/TurboTax — While K-Fed may have gotten all the press for his fast-food slinging Super Bowl ad, North America’s original white rapper is back with his own clip for Turbo Tax. Promoting a contest in which users submit their homegrown rap demos about taxes and try to pocket 25 grand, I still can’t decide if Ice’s rap is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen or the perfect post-modern parody. You decide, because after 25 viewings, I’m still not sure. My favorite line has to be “I tour around the world, spit my lyrics for dinero/ pay my taxes on time/ do your budget, make the payroll.” Who says he can’t hold his own as an MC?

8 Important Lessons from '80s Cartoons—tinyurl.com/yuql2x — Unless your parents were hippies who thought TV would rot your brain, chances are you spent some time on Saturday mornings watching cartoons. While you may have thought all that time in front of the tube would have been a waste— along with preparing you for a career in consumerism due to the endless stream of toys and cereal ads you were exposed to — cartoons on TV also teach a number of important life lessons. You may not agree that the Smurfs contained a subversive socialist message, but it is hard to deny that G.I. Joe didn’t teach you that “knowing is half the battle.”

Arcade Fire Live— tinyurl.com/2p59he — Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible is arguably the most-anticipated Canadian album of 2007. The much anticipated follow-up to 2005’s Funeral will be in stores on March 6. Recently the band performed for five consecutive nights to promote their new release at New York's Judson Memorial Church, launching a busy tour schedule that will see them play the already sold-out Coachella festival in California along with spending some time in Europe hitting the summer festival circuit. The album has already been leaked on peer-to-peer networks and has been showing up on blogs almost daily. Although the band is streaming the album on MySpace and has released two tracks on iTunes, not much can prevent a leak before the release date. Catch an interview with the band and a live recording from their recent stint in New York on these NPR audio clips.

Year Zero— tinyurl.com/23sw9u — After rewiring his sound for 2005’s With Teeth, Nine Inch Nails’ frontman Trent Reznor is back with a new concept album called Year Zero that is set for release on April 17. Using guerrilla marketing company 42 Entertainment, Reznor has developed a viral campaign that includes leaked tracks on mysterious flash drives left at concerts around the world (the first was found in a bathroom in Lisbon, Portugal) and a series of interconnected websites painting a bleak Orwellian future. There are even photo-static images woven into the track My Violent Heart that can be viewed using a program capable of viewing spectral information.

Anthony Augustine is a freelance music, technology and pop culture writer. He can be heard every Tuesday morning at 9:00am on Hot 103 discussing the web. Got a site you think he should see? E-mail him at anthony.alloneword@gmail.com.