Today, we’re headed into Basement Jaxx’s pimped out den of iniquity to see what they’ve got. The UK house music duo got their start at a night club in Brixton in the mid’-90s, but by the turn of the millennium, their shizzle was landing in commercials and on the soundtracks of cinematic tour de force’s like Bend it Like Beckham.

So does that make them, like, totally lame? Mmm, not so much. Especially if you take their various forays into po-mo land with collaborative installations at London’s Tate Modern museum and their work with the likes of Yoko Ono and Lightspeed Champion.

Their maximalist musical style, boldness and simultaneous ability to evoke “potent sadness…open-hearted plea[s] for affection and understanding” amid a potpourri of “fun, uptempo party tunes” summarizes their raison d’etre.

At first glance, they look like suits who are ready to sell out to the highest bidder–but after about, oh, one second of careful concentration, you realize they’re flipping the bird at that concept (literally in some cases).

So who, and what, are they–really? Just two regular hipster dudes who liked Metallica when Metallica was still cool. Oh, and they may have a slight addiction to video games. So, yeah; two regular hipster dudes.

Oxfam America talked to Thao Nguyen of Thao with the Get Down Stay Down on the issue, and we’ve also interviewed hundreds of musicians about the political and social issues surrounding climate change and the green movement. Hear from Peasant, Lightspeed Champion and My Brightest Diamond on the subject. Link to our blog, share our videos, just get moving!

Where do we begin with this dapper gentleman, this…Lightspeed Champion? The colorful palette from which he dips his idiosyncratic brush before painting his chiaroscuro portrait of life is multi-hued indeed. The British composer and songwriter is a musical chameleon (is he dance-punk? A classicist? A soul man?).

Not that it really matters–whether he’s penning comic books, dressing up like Princess Leia, striking dour poses with lawn furniture, writing for the Chemical Brothers, or strapping on a Bill Cosby ski sweater circa 1982 and some sort of headgear that appears to be the stitched together from the hide of some sort of wily urban mammal, Lightspeed Champion is an all-around ass-kicking wonder.

And to be fair, he may be just as confused as the rest of us. When contemplating whose ass he’d most like to kick (why does he spend time contemplating such things? Even he isn’t sure), he’d totally choose Screech’s over Bob Dylan or Kurt Cobain. Why? This is not a query one can pose to a man who regularly straps a dead raccoon (rat? rerret?) to his head and goes about his business.

Thankfully, we’re not alone. Though they may have a rep for eating crappy food on the road, there are actually a whole new crop of musicians who know their way around the kitchen, as well as the issues surrounding the food industry to boot.

These are the types who like to hit pots and pans after they clean up on stage, or at least know where to find the best eats in every city. Perhaps someday you’ll be lucky enough to attend one of their dinner parties, but until then, enjoy their culinary expertise.

5. Lightspeed Champion was trying to be all healthy by setting a personal Subway goal, but things really took a wrong turn after drinking too much Coca-Cola. The sandwiches were fine, if a little soulless, but his teeth had bigger complaints.

4. Ever wonder where your food comes from? You should. Brendan Canning of Broken Social Scene reminds us that there are serious political issues behind every banana you peel or fast food item you grab in a hurry. Not to mention that kids who grow up eating whatever whenever aren’t the healthiest.

3. Oxford Collapse goes straight for the meaty stuff with a trip to Lousiana for some specialty boudin sausage, before hitting some not so healthy BBQ spots in Alabama. As for their fellow vegetarian tour mates? Yawn.

2. Nellie McKay contends vegetarians do it better, because they treat everyone and everything better. Obviously animals are being slaughtered to satiate your palate, but don’t forget about all the people who work in terrible conditions, not to mention the damage agriculture does to the Earth.

1. As for The Futureheads, well, they know exactly what their taste buds are after. When at home in Glasgow, they go straight for the good stuff (or not so good, depending on the strength of your stomach): the almighty Scotch egg. When in the States, they love some good old fashioned fizzy soda, particularly root beer. Everything in moderation, right?

Even as a fatkid, part of me finds this statistic slightly disgusting…and slightly awesome at the same time! Consider the numbers. Our standard nutritional information is based upon a 2,000 calorie per day diet. So 4,500 calories is enough food to feed one adult for two days. That’s also the equivalent of feeding four small children (or perhaps eating four small children as that would seem the only way to account for the ridiculous number of calories ingested, but that’s a different story altogether).

And this isn’t the crazy part. The crazy part is you know we’re going to do it all again in the coming weeks because this is Americ–land of the indulgent ones, and we just have that little self control. Isn’t it grand?

Save your dieting for January folks. These are the types of stories I want to hear!

Seriously, and Charlie lives up to her name. She’s still FLY AS HELL.

But maybe don’t eat so much of something that you end up like this.

I get it. We all have to learn our lessons one way or another, but losing body parts or my soul is where I draw the line. Even I have limits.

Look, let’s face it, man will never acquire awesome superpowers like the X-Men or Superman possess, at least not in our lifetime. And even though I’ve persistently petitioned science to quit trying to cure basically incurable diseases and instead work on altering them to give us superpowers, they just don’t seem to want to listen to a 27 year old with half a master’s degree in TV/Radio (I’ll finish someday).

So instead of sulking in superpowerless misery, knowing full well that we’ll never fly without a seat under our asses, I say we take a page from Luther of North Mississippi Allstars and start celebrating some very ordinary talents as superpowers. Like the aforementioned double-jointedness of Luther’s fingers. Or my incredible ability to blog and get paid for it while sitting in only my cereal-stained tightie whities. In fact, if you look at the world around you in the right way, you’ll see that almost everybody has some sort of superpower that you just didn’t know about. Here’s my list of best indie-rock superpowers that you never knew existed:

• Lightspeed Champion – Awesome power of lightning-fast digestion
• Steve Poltz – Can turn any traditional Church hymn into a punk/hardcore song. Also possesses the ability to piss off massive amounts of Christians in one fell swoop.
• Donna De Lory – Much like The Scarecrow from Batman Begins, possesses amazing powers of illusion and trickery. However, they only seem to work on Madonna.
• The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players – Sewing, and making me feel awkward
• Bon Jovi – Ability to suck supremely, and make it on this list even though they’re not indie.

Last night the UI crew and I got to check out the Domino Records Showcase at the Antone. First of all, getting into that place was an adventure in itself. An eclectic stew of underdressed hipsters, Too-cool-for-school rock snobs, intrigued locals, drunken label reps, indie rock chicks in way-too-tight pants (yay), and indie rock boys in way-too-tight pants (yuck) combined to form a line that stretched around the corner. And with good reason: our friends Lightspeed Champion and The Kills were on the bill, and they fucked the crowd’s proverbial asses raw like Eliot Spitzer at a swanky brothel.

Next up was the Afro-Punk showcase at Vice, and it did not disappoint either. The Noisettes really caught the Shark’s ear, as he viciously chugged some delicious Lone Star lager.

We ended the night just missing The Oaks performance at The Wave (damn Mountain Standard Time messing with out East Coast sensibilities), but still managing to catch DieDieDie put on a killer show, before retiring to our chambers for some much needed rest.

Today was a nonstop day of shooting, marketing, and socializing at the convention center. More to come soon! Gotta clean up!