Our "What's In My Bag?" series won a Webby Award today for Best Online Film & Video: Variety Show! We were up against some brilliant, funny, and thought-provoking shows by SoulPancake (who won the People's Voice Award in our category), Conan O'Brien, MIT and Fandango. It's amazing that our little series - of which we are so incredibly proud, don't get me wrong - would be nominated with those folks, let alone honored by the Webby judges with the win.

If you're not familiar with the Webbys, it's an annual international award that's been dubbed "the Internet's highest honor" by the New York Times. Some of the other winners this year include The Onion which won its 18th and 19th Webby for Best Humor Website; The Creators Project which won a Webby (and a People's Voice Award) for Best Art; Pinterest which won a Webby (and a People's Voice Award) for Best Social Media; and Dumb Ways to Die which won for Best Viral Video. Additionally, the Webbys have named Amoeba faves Grimes the Artist of the Year and Frank Ocean as the Person of the Year. See all the winners here. 

Our amazing “What’s In My Bag?” series has been nominated for Best Online Film & Video: Variety Show in the prestigious Webby Awards!!! We’re the underdog facing stiff competition from Conan O’Brien and Rainn Wilson. Not to mention MIT and Fandango rounding out the field. Please vote and help us win the People’s Voice Award!

Voting ends Thursday, April 25 and you can only vote once. It’s super quick and you can log in easily via Facebook, Twitter or email. Vote here.

Described by The New York Times as the "Internet's highest honor" and presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), the Webby Awards are the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. We are very proud of this series (now in its sixth season) and are incredibly honored to be nominated. It sounds cliche, but it is also so very true.

Thank you for voting! And for watching, subscribing, sharing, liking, commenting, reblogging, tweeting, and generally helping us get the word out!

British electronic musician Bonobo (aka Simon Green) released The North Borders this week, his highly anticipated follow-up to 2010's Black Sands. Bonobo stopped by Amoeba Hollywood recently to do some record shopping. He picks up a few world music albums, the Jim O'Rourke project Loose Fur, two LPs for potential sampling featuring harps and folk instrumentation, the new Toro y Moi LP, Anything in Return (which I'm also loving right now), and a few more things.

My favorite moment from this video happens right at the end. He selects the new Johnny Marr album, The Messenger, in part because he saw Mr. Marr's episode in which he bought Bonobo's album. (Johnny Marr actually came into Amoeba that day looking to buy Black Sands and we coincidentally had it playing in the store.) Fast forward a few years, now we have Bonobo, having seen Johnny Marr buy his album in the same store, on the same series, and Bonobo is returning the favor. The WIMB circle of life, or as one person on YouTube called it, "the What's In My Bag Karma game." Pretty cool!

A new 3-song EP of synth-heavy funky goodness is making its way around the interwebs today. The project is called Tuxedo, and other than being from the West Coast, that's about all we know so far.

They haven't revealed their names but it sure sounds like Mayer Hawthorne, especially on the track "Do It." Given his proclivity for dressing FLY, being in a group called Tuxedo makes perfect sense. A few people in the Twittersphere are suggesting the other person involved is Seattle producer Jake One. Guess we'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, the Tuxedo EP is available for download on Soundcloud.

Bring on the jams!

photo © Kevin Estrada / kevinestrada.com

I had the amazing good fortune to be among the audience at the Hollywood Palladium last night to witness Justin Timberlake's return to the stage after a far-too-long absence from music (it's been nearly six and a half years since his sophomore solo album, Futuresex/Love Sounds [RCA, 2006]). But nothing in his set, his performance or his voice, gave any indication of just how long it had been since he'd put on a show like that. 

Starting just after 11:30pm, he opened with "Like I Love You" and continued to play songs from his two previous albums, as well as a handful of new ones from the forthcoming album, The 20/20 Experience (due out March 19 on RCA, but available as a pre-order now on Amoeba.com in both CD and LP formats). He even worked in two cover songs, most surprisingly "I Need You Tonight" by INXS. I never would have thought of that song choice for him, but he pulled it off and made it his own. Given his background in soul music, his other cover, "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" by The Jacksons was the type of song I would have expected him to perform. I don't intend that to disparage the choice - far from it - but rather to highlight the pleasantly surprising INXS pick. It would be amazing to hear a recorded version of that cover (hint, hint Mr. Timberlake!).