rip

Lux Interior - singer for The Cramps....

pretty psyched

Yes Im a dork.. but I'm pretty excited for this.

a moment of silence please

Today is the 50th anniversary of the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. The day the music died....

rip

English folkie John Martyn.

Here is at Reading University in 1978

john lennon and yoko with frank zappa

not the best quality but still pretty cool.

sarah says goodbye

stupids

Stupids were a skate punk band from England. They got their start in the 80s. They never received a lot of noteriety, but what I find interesting about them and their "Peruvian Vacation" LP specifically is that you can see the mixing of metal and punk that would ultimately lead to the exterem music of bands like Napalm Death (see my earlier post). It's like seeing the creature that would become death metal take it's first steps on land. The songs are raw, the production is shitty but sometimes evolution isn't pretty. Natural selection may have done away with this band and skate punk in general, but you can still see their imprint on bands today.

a lesson in the history of grindcore

been listening to a lot of Napalm Death lately...

yet another elliott smith song

Miss Misery

little gold men

well the Oscar nominations have been announced.. What is the big deal about Benjamin Button anyway? I've seen it.. wasn't all that impressed. But on the other hand I'm glad that heath Ledger, Mickey Rourke, Meryl Streep and Frank Langella got nominations. I don't care about who wins, but as the saying goes "it's an honor just to be nominated"




. Best Picture: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Frost/Nixon," "Milk," "The Reader," "Slumdog Millionaire."

2. Actor: Richard Jenkins, "The Visitor"; Frank Langella, "Frost/Nixon"; Sean Penn, "Milk"; Brad Pitt, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Mickey Rourke, "The Wrestler."

3. Actress: Anne Hathaway, "Rachel Getting Married"; Angelina Jolie, "Changeling"; Melissa Leo, "Frozen River"; Meryl Streep, "Doubt"; Kate Winslet, "The Reader."

4. Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin, "Milk"; Robert Downey Jr., "Tropic Thunder"; Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Doubt"; Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight"; Michael Shannon, "Revolutionary Road."

5. Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, "Doubt"; Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"; Viola Davis, "Doubt"; Taraji P. Henson, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Marisa Tomei, "The Wrestler."

6. Director: David Fincher, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Ron Howard, "Frost/Nixon"; Gus Van Sant, "Milk"; Stephen Daldry, "The Reader"; Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire."

7. Foreign Film: "The Baader Meinhof Complex," Germany; "The Class," France; "Departures," Japan; "Revanche," Austria; "Waltz With Bashir," Israel.

8. Adapted Screenplay: Eric Roth and Robin Swicord, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; John Patrick Shanley, "Doubt"; Peter Morgan, "Frost/Nixon"; David Hare, "The Reader"; Simon Beaufoy, "Slumdog Millionaire."

9. Original Screenplay: Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River"; Mike Leigh, "Happy-Go-Lucky"; Martin McDonagh, "In Bruges"; Dustin Lance Black, "Milk"; Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon and Pete Docter, "WALL-E."

10. Animated Feature Film: "Bolt"; "Kung Fu Panda"; "WALL-E."

11. Art Direction: "Changeling," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "The Duchess," "Revolutionary Road."

12. Cinematography: "Changeling," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "The Reader," "Slumdog Millionaire."

13. Sound Mixing: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Slumdog Millionaire," "WALL-E," "Wanted."

14. Sound Editing: "The Dark Knight," "Iron Man," "Slumdog Millionaire," "WALL-E," "Wanted."

15. Original Score: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Alexandre Desplat; "Defiance," James Newton Howard; "Milk," Danny Elfman; "Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman; "WALL-E," Thomas Newman.

16. Original Song: "Down to Earth" from "WALL-E," Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman; "Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman and Gulzar; "O Saya" from "Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam.

17. Costume: "Australia," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Duchess," "Milk," "Revolutionary Road."

18. Documentary Feature: "The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)," "Encounters at the End of the World," "The Garden," "Man on Wire," "Trouble the Water."

19. Documentary (short subject): "The Conscience of Nhem En," "The Final Inch," "Smile Pinki," "The Witness -- From the Balcony of Room 306."

20. Film Editing: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Frost/Nixon," "Milk," "Slumdog Millionaire."

21. Makeup: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Hellboy II: The Golden Army."

22. Animated Short Film: "La Maison en Petits Cubes," "Lavatory -- Lovestory," "Oktapodi," "Presto," "This Way Up."

23. Live Action Short Film: "Auf der Strecke (On the Line)," "Manon on the Asphalt," "New Boy," "The Pig," "Spielzeugland (Toyland)."

24. Visual Effects: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Iron Man."

simply a great song

repo

Fri night I attended a screening of Repo! The Genetic Opera. I haven't seen anything like this since the glory days of Rocky Horror. I was one of the few people not dressed up as a character from the film. The audience sang along with every song and listened with rapt attention as director Darren Lynn Bousman, actor/writer Terrance Zdunich, and star Alexa Vega (better known as Carmen Cortez in the Spy Kids film franchise)answered questions. There was even a little burlesque show before the film. As for the movie. Over the top is a phrase that def comes to mind. Gorey, gothic and humorous this film is entirely ridiculous and that's the point. This one is sure to be a cult classic in the years to come.

hilarious clip

post office

Ok, so this is the first Bukowski novel I've read. Insanely readable, and in some spots all too easy to relate to What can I say? I have a fondness for stories about drunken losers. I'd rather read about them than some well off middle class idiots on Prozac. Give me booze and whores any day. I bet Hemingway would have liked this novel.

savory

Jawbox. The height of indie cool in the 90s.. Then they got signed by a major adn that was that...

glasvegas

The NME called Glasvegas "the best new band in Britain", and we all know the NME deal in hyperbole the way strippers deal in dollar bills, but if Glasvegas isn't the best band in Britain, they definitely are in the top 10. What gives them the spark of brilliance is the mixing of shoegazer-like ethereal haze with a genuine gift of pop sensibilities. To put it simply, the music is dreamy but grounded with melodies so it doesn't get boring or disappear up its own ass in art for arts sake. Never underestimate the power of well written pop hook. It's not necessarily a bad thing to write songs that get stuck in people's heads, is it?

sifl and olly

I miss this show

Rasl

Rasl is Jeff Smith's (creator of the legendary Bone series)new endeavor. And I gotta say I'm loving it. Just read the first trade paperback and it is a perfect mix of cinematic mainstream comic action and the respect of early comic greats like Jack Kirby that stuffy comic critics love so much. But if your expecting kid friendly adventure like Bone this is darker stuff.

mad world

my top movies of 08

Dark Knight




The Wrestler



Frost/Nixon



Doubt



Zack And Miri Make a Porno



Wall E



Hounddog



Iron Man



Man On Wire



Burn After Reading

Top 10 albums of 08

Slipknot - All Hope Is Gone




Santogold - Santogold




She&Him - Volume 1




Nas - N




Girltalk- Feed The Animals



Rupa and the April Fishes - eXtraOrdinary rendition




Weezer - The Red Album




Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend



Lil' Wayne - The Carter 3



Nine Inch Nails - The Slip

too bad

This silly little cartoon never went into full production..

ian and sylvia

I know they were a bit ahead of their time, but Ian and Sylvia are one of the few places where jazz, blues and folk meet and mange to be lame. They just can't be taken out of the context of the time they were around. I bet in the early 60s they were as hip as the strokes. Now they sound a bit like something aging people put on the cd player as a soundtrack to a shitty dinner party.

remember this video?

midnight nation

Reading Midnight Nation. A brilliant graphic novel steeped in metaphor in only the way a comic can. Telling the story of David a man who accidentally finds him self in the "land in between" inhabited by "people who fell threw the cracks", literally people who have been completely forgotten about in the world until they become invisible. How these people fell threw the cracks is what got to me. Afraid to take chances, but always blaming the world for their predicament and not themselves. They only have themselves to blame. I can say I can relate to this...

bitchin' camero

Although the Dead Milkmen are rarely regarded as classic, most children of the 80s who had at least a moderate fondness for them. I still have the intro to "Bitchin' Camero" memorized....
here goes...

- Hey Jack, what's happenin'?
- I don't know.
- Well uh, rumour around town says you mighht be thinkin' 'bout goin' down to
the shore.
- Uh, yeah, I think I'm gonna go down to thhe shore.
- Whadda ya gonna do down there?
- Uh, I don't know, p-play some video gamess, buy some Def Leppard t-shirts.
- Don't forget your Motley Crue t-shirt; y''know all proceeds go to get their
lead singer out a' jail.
- Uh huh.
- Can't wait to go down. Hey uh, were ya goonna check out the sand bar while
you're down there?
- Uh, what's the Sand Bar?
- Ah, it's a place that lets sixteen year-oold kids drink.
- Ah, cool.
- Ya hey, guess who's gonna be there?
- Uh, who?
- My favourite cover band, Crystal Ship.
- Wow.
- Yeah, they do a Doors show, you'd be reallly impressed, in fact, it goes a
little like this:

Love me two times baby
Love me twice today
Love me two times girl
Cause I got AIDS
Love me two times baby,
once for tomorrow,
once cause I got AIDS

- Uh...
- Pretty good Jim Morrison impersonation thhere. I hope those guys have a
good sense a' humour and don't take us into court.
- Uh, what's the court?
- Never mind that, the important thing heree...
- You mean the People's Court.
- The... Now, that's another story. The impportant thing here is that we get
to the part where you ask me how I'm gonna get down to the shore.
- Oh, how you gettin' down to the shore?
- Funny you should ask, I've got a car now..
- Ah wow, how'd ya get a car?
- Oh, my folks drove it up here from the Baahamas.
- You're kidding!
- I must be, the Bahamas are islands. Okay,, the important thing here is
that, uh, you ask me what kinda car it is.
- Uh uh, what kinda car do ya' got?
- I've got a bitchin' Camaro...

a short interview with joel peter witkin

coffin for head of state

I've been going through my music library and digitizing a lot of it. In doing so I came across my collection of Fela Kuti reissues. Fela was a Nigerian musician who spearheaded the development of Afro-Beat music, An amalgam of reggae, Cuban and soul that hit its stride in the 70's. My favorite of the bunch at the moment is "coffin For Head of State. An album that is one 32 minute song. It was written after Fela's mother was killed in a raid of his compound by police. It is confrontational, uncompromising and a middle finger to the government that tried so hard to silence him. No wonder he's still considered a national hero to the Nigerian people.

let sleeping corpses lie

Long before Rob Zombie was a mover and shaker in Hollywood he was the singer of New York industrial metal powerhouse White Zombie. They were all over MTV and radio in the 90s before Zombie decided to go solo and then get into film directing. Now those of us who remember watching the video fro Thunderkiss 65 on Beavis and Butthead have something to be excited about. Let Sleeping Corpses lie is a fours cd/one DVD box set that spans the bands entire career including soundtrack and noon album tracks. In fact nearly everything the band ever recorded is included here. From the scum punk stylings of the Gods on Voodoo Moon EP to the more polished Astro Creep 200. The DVD contains all the band’s music videos as well as a handful of live performances and a few easter eggs including the original White Zombie film starring Bela Lugosi. After listening to the box set and watching the DVD, it’s hard to believe these guys were New York art students and not a bunch of insane cannibal rednecks living in the middle of nowhere in Texas with only original film prints of bad grindhouse films and slaughter to entertain them. Sure it is all done tongue in cheek, but this music did have bite and an image that was over the top.

gift idea for a metalhead

How can you tell when extreme metal has infiltrated the mainstream? When there is a show that pokes a little fun at it on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. There are very few metal fans out there who haven’t seen at least one episode of this quirky series that tells the story of Dethklok, a death metal band so popular that it has become the world’s 7th largest economy. The complete second season is out now on DVD and makes the perfect gift for the discerning metalhead on your list. With musician cameos from the likes of James Hetfield, Angela Gossow, Mike Patton and Emperor and such classic moments as Murderface’s “Tittyfish” song, Dethklok’s foray into fashion design and a little trip to the amazon because it would be very “Cannibal Corpse”, this 2 disc set is chock full of both the hilarious and very metal. Don’t kid yourself, metal fans have a sense of humor. What could be better on Christmas then opening this putting it on the dvd player and cracking up a brew with that special Darkthrone fan in your life?

bastards of young

what a beautiful fuck you this was to MTV. I love the Replacements

dark reign

All right. I'm hooked. Secret Invasion is over in the Marvel universe. Make way for Dark Reign... A secret cabal of super villains calling all the shots? The story telling potential is astronomical. And here I thought quality writing in superhero books was on the wane. As the saying goes "bring on the bad guys". And just who are the Dark Avengers?? hmmm

rip

Odetta.. She won't be singing at Obama's inauguration after all.

crystal stilts

One thing proven by the rise of Crystal Stilts rise to prominence among New York's hipster elite is that the kids aren't tired of bands that sound like Interpol. Or to be fair, Joy Division. The band's new Album, Alight of Night, is a moody affair that had it come out in the 80s would have considered Goth. But it's come out in the new millennium, so let's just call it indie rock and move on. The lyrics are buried deep in the mix and soaked in reverb. Added to this the sea of guitar fuzz and you have a dreamy concoction. The only problem is that there aren't enough moments on the record to snap you out of the dream into the waking world. This isn't music for a party at your pad. It's music for a coffee shop between spoken word performers.

got a kick out of this clip...

chinese democracy

"We were in the jungle, there were too many of us, we had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we went insane." - Francis Ford Coppola.

This was Francis Ford Coppola talking about making Apocalypse Now. This could have just as easily come from Axl Rose when talking about Chinese Democracy. An album so long delayed and anticipated that it has become legendary. And now that the wait is over the only question to ask is "was it worth the wait". The simple answer is yes. This is a very balls out rock record. The songs are catchy and it's good to hear Axl's trademark voice. On the other hand the album is over produced and disjointed. The disjointed is easy to understand. He's worked over a decade on this list with enough musicians to populate a small country. Added to that Axl's own cultural sequestering it is no surprise there are times where he disappears up his own ass. As far as the overproduction... I don't mind when bands like Muse or My Chemical Romance does it, so why was it off putting on this album? Axl doesn't need all the bells and whistles . Appetite For Destruction was as straight ahead as records get. it was bare bones, hit you in the teeth and remains one of the best rock albums of all time. I'd like to hear what Axl could come up with if he didn't feel he had to hide behind all this musical clutter. Luckily though, the songs shine through that clutter and Chinese Democracy is an energizing album.

brilliant monologue

From Spike Lee's 25th Hour

if all goes wrong

Billy Corgan. Billy, Billy, Billy. What are we going to do with you? You reform your band (with new members)and get people all excited. You play residencies in San Francisco and North Carolina. But then play no old material. And then you bitch and moan about how nobody understands you and how fans should be willing and eager to hear your progression as an artists. Then you make a documentary all about an artist trying to stay relevant in today's world. You know what? You were relevant as an artist back in the 90s because you wrote songs that connected with the moment in popular culture. Sure culture changes, and to stay relevant is to keep giving those fans what they connected with in the first place. Give them the classics and they will accept the new.

wise up

I know that a lot of people found this scene cheesy, but I loved it. And I loved this movie...

torchwood

It's a shame American TV can't get away with some of the things the Brits can. Then more of our shows would be as good as Torchwood. The pansexuality of the characters just wouldn't fly on network tv here. And it's not like it has that much effect on the story lines... Beyond that. The writing is solid and dramatic. It seems like there are mini apocalypses in every episode that will probably make at least someone watching the show cry. I have a suspicion that there are people who watch this show that normally hate sci-fi..

the high places

The two things I've been listening to lately are Johnny Cash and cds of radio transmissions form Thailand. So, in a way, world music has been spending a lot of time on my ipod recently. Then I put the High Places cd in my computer.. A tantalizing mix of dreamy ethereal crooning and layered world rhythms. Sure this is all the rage right now among the hipster elite, but don't let that scare you away..

i miss

The smashing pumpkins when they were this good...

rip

Michael Crichton. He never got that much respect as a writer, but I did learn a lot from reading him. He was one of the few republicans i respect. I'll actually miss his "airport bookstore" novels...

who watches the watchmen?

It pays to be on DC Comics mailing list. Today in the mail I received the new hardcover edition of Watchmen. This is really a landmark in literature. Along with Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns and Art Spiegelman's Maus, Watchmen forced evolution on the entire medium. Sequential storytelling was no longer kids stuff. It was literature. Although the story takes place in the 80s and deals with a lot of cold war issues it has remained pretty timeless. I'm often asked "what graphic novel would recommend to someone who doesn't read comics?" My answer is always "Watchmen". This is the dark, seething underbelly of the human condition dealt to the reader with enough pathos and gravitas to make them forget they are reading about superheroes. This stuff too mean and cynical for you? There's always Archie. Or John Grisham. Trust me. This is every bit as dense and complex as Russian literature.

live at folsom prison

I've been listening to a lot of Johnny Cash lately. There is something very honest and sincere in his voice.. it's the voice of a life of struggle and triumph. But he also had a funny side. Check out "Live At Folsom Prison".. it is arguably the most important concert of his career and he even manages to crack a few jokes. Anybody who spends time with his music will find it hard to take. In fact it's hard not feel like you know him like a good friend after spending sometime with his music

quarantine

Saw Quarantine over the weekend. As horror movies go it was pretty scary. But what really got my attention was how much inspiration the last half of this film got form first person shooter video games. See it.. I think you'll agree.. I won't say cuz.. well I don't want to spoil it for you..

memories

Fugees' "The Score" was the soundtrack to an incredible summer. 1996. The sun, the old chevy, a girl sitting next to me. It's funny how even in your early 20s the summers seemed to last forever. Even though I almost died in a car accident towards the end, the summer of 1996 will always be one of the best of my life.

tell tales

Just heard Bob Dylan's Tell Tale Signs (vol 8 in the Bootleg series). These are all outtakes from Dylan's recent albums. As a general rule, musicians don't age well. Culture passes them by, they lose their fire and become complacent. Not Dylan. These songs are as good as his 60's material. And because of the expansive arrangement are musically more interesting than some of his earlier work. Always a challenging artist better than 90% of new artists out there today.