Archive for 2003

In The Next World War…

You know, I think Badger has an interesting point here:

So when is Radiohead going to raise their head? I just remembered with all of this anti-war stuff spewed by Massive Attack and Blur comes with the release of new albums. Radiohead’s album will be due this summer. They are missing their chance to declare the impending war immoral just because their release date is too late.

To Hear My Words, And They’re Diamond Sharp

Malkmus’ EW dis frenzy has landed him in the New York Post’s Page Six gossip column! (Thanks Todd!)

Destroy Your Record Collection, It’s For Your Own Protection

The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower “Attached To The Hip”

Black Box Recorder “The School Song” – Oh my God! It’s like Grant Morrison’s Emma Frost with a disco beat!

Beach Boys “Til I Die” (extended alternate version)

A Friendly Reminder

It’s not too late to donate to WFMU’s marathon pledge drive. You don’t have to pay right away if you don’t have the money right now, and you don’t have to break your bank to support freeform radio. Even a small $5-10 donation would be helpful, and if you donate during one of your favorite programs, that shows the people at WFMU that you support that show and what they’re doing. If you’re not already listening to WFMU, you really ought to check out their program playlists and realaudio archives, which go back a few years now and continue to build up each week. It’s a wealth of information, music, and culture that is just waiting for you to discover it, and your donation helps to keep this valuable audio resource online.

The Frenzy Continues!

There’s another dis-packed interview with Malkmus in today’s Sunday Times.

On Kate Bush: “It seemed to be like it’s the 19th century, like she was an aristocrat riding her horse to the studio, but they weren’t doing that now, it’s the Seventies and she’s like, ‘Oh, maybe I’ll make an album’ and ‘Oh, she’s so artistic’, all this baggage attached to it, it’s like an E. M. Forster novel.”

On Pink Floyd: “Hmm, let’s add some bells. Erase it. OK, let’s do it again, little slower, speed the tape up, put those tapes away, don’t worry I’ve got one year, it doesn’t matter. Let’s take the Rolls to London and go see that Nicolas Roeg movie. Oh no, let’s not. I’m going to fix this guitar tone for a couple of days . . . I’ll do this guitar solo. Beeoowwng! There, that guitar solo took a week to do.”

On Kurt Cobain: “Was Kurt the Messiah? Naaaoo! He was, like, a spoilt, cute, little guy, a good yeller who made that big, overproduced album that got huge. People have been feeding off that carcass for a long time.”

Other than those quotes, the article is almost completely pointless.

Malkmus Dis Frenzy!

There’s a very entertaining Stephen Malkmus interview in this week’s Entertainment Weekly, they seem to caught him in either a very silly or very cranky mood. Here’s the best part, cutting out the first half of the interview which isn’t nearly as interesting:

If your new album were a movie, what would it be?

Aliens. Sigourney Weaver comes back with short hair and all’s well at the box office.

You’ve cut your hair?

Yes, I have. It’s shorter than on the last album’s cover. It’s, like, parent-supported length. It’s a pretty massive move. Like if Eminem came back with dreadlocks for the next album.

If the album is Aliens, who is the alien?

Joe Piscopo. I think he represents mediocrity on Saturday Night Live, and I want to take him out. And I want to take out that Jimmy Fallon antitalent. I’m mad at Jimmy Fallon for being average and getting so much credit just because he’s cute. He better not show up backstage.

You’re starting a rap feud.

A beef! They’re called beefs!

Can you write a rap couplet about Jimmy Fallon?

I’ll only do so much to get in EW.

What’s the last terrible movie you’ve seen?

James Bond. Die Another Day. Tired premise, awful sexual-innuendo banter that’s not funny, and no sexy girls. Halle Berry is so in love with herself that you can’t even get a piece of her, you know? When you see the previews, you think “Well, this is gonna be junk entertainment, but it’s gonnna be okay. I’ll get my junk here.” But you didn’t even get that. It was just, like, so awful.

Your old band’s early records are getting deluxe reissues, and you’ve embarked on a solo career. Does that make you the indie-rock Sting?

Yeah, Sting and I are often mentioned in the same breath. (laughs) No, I’m not much like him. He’s one of my least favorite guys. He grosses me out. I hate that world music he makes. He’s just so successful. It’s like he’s got hovercraft shoes, blowing through the world without any problems. He’s Mr. Good Life. If there’s ever a movie, and he needs, like, an evil anti-Sting that he fights, I’ll be that guy. I’ll take him and Jimmy Fallon out.

Actually, you have a song on Pig Lib called “Us.” Maybe you’re the indie-rock Peter Gabriel.

I’d rather be him. He dresses up like a flower. Though he’s kinda weak too, you’ve got to admit. He also has a sort of English-rock-aristocracy attitude that has no underdog in it. I can’t really support him.

I Know It’s Hard For You, My Baby

I fear that I may have waited a little too long to write about Morvern Callar. Though a lot of memorable scenes and images are still fairly fresh in my mind, my initial flush of excitement about it has fallen off. Most of the things I would have wanted to say about the way the film looks and sounds have already been articulated far better than I probably would have written them by Todd here and here.

One of the things that I find very remarkable about Morvern Callar is the way the story’s tone subtly shifts about halfway through from being quiet, brooding, and morbid to becoming something of a dark comedy in the third act. Thinking about it right now, I can’t think of anything else I’ve seen or read that pulls that off without ever seeming disjointed. I’m also quite impressed by Lynne Ramsey’s visual storytelling skill in addition to her eye for composition and framing. Much of the first half hour is wordless, but is told with a flair for style and narrative economy that stood in stark contrast with the narrative mess of All The Real Girls, which I had seen earlier in the day. I’m sort of glad that I saw those two films in the same day, to see the difference between how an aspiring amateur and an inspired professional differ in telling a story on film.

Of course, one of the major draws of Morvern Callar is the superb soundtrack and the way it is integrated into the film. Since Todd has already discussed this, I’ll just note that it felt really…cool, for a lack of a better word, to hear a lot of songs which I already loved in the film. I was aware that the film had a number of Can/Holger Czukay songs on its soundtrack before I saw it, but I didn’t know which songs. When Can’s “I Want More” was played very briefly early in the film, I got a nice jolt of joy since that has always been one of my favorite Can songs, and I’ve always thought it was very underrated and neglected. It was also fantastic to hear one of my favorite Broadcast songs, “You Can Fall”, halfway through, even though I must admit that I didn’t immediately recognize it. The soundtrack album is quite good and very listenable as an album in its own right, but it does unfortunately lack The Mamas and the Papas’ “Dedicated To The One I Love”, which plays over the end titles to very good effect.

Girl, I’m Not A Piece Of Meat. Stimulate My Brain!

If you’re a fan of The Best Show On WFMU, you’re probably familiar with the comedy of Andy Earles. Andy is the man behind characters such as The Depressed Office Worker, Kevin, Samson, and Tanner Wildgrass. In comparison to the more flamboyant and sleazy characters of Jon Wurster, Earles’ comedy is considerably more subtle, drawing humor from pathos, depression, and very lowbrow culture. In addition to what he does on The Best Show, Andy is one half of the comedy team which created Just Farr A Laugh: The Greatest Prank Phone Calls Ever, one of the few comedy records genuinely worth paying for and unquestionably the finest prank call disc ever made. Well, actually, it might be the only good prank call disc ever made.

One thing you need to know before listening to these clips from the album is that you probably won’t appreciate them right away. You need to hear them a few times to get the full effect, and it certainly does help if you understand the numerous obscure cultural references being made. I can’t promise you that you’ll enjoy it, but I can promise you that if you do like it, you’ll love the whole record. And if you want the record, you really ought to buy it directly from Failed Pilot, because a) they deserve your money and b) the liner notes really are half the fun.

These first two are a set – you need to hear “Barbara: A Realistic Portrait” first before you move on to “Barbara’s Husband Clears The Air”

“Bedroom ETA” – This call is notable for the fact that Andy manages to sing about half of Jermaine Stewart’s “We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes” off in an obnoxious falsetto without any interruption from the guy on the other line.

“Just Farr A Laugh: The Yogurt Machine” This one is jam-packed full of quotable bits. I will only spoil one of them for you: “Ice cream is a whole ‘nother sonuvabitch…I’m serious. Night and day.”

“Tim Butler, An Old Flatmate Of David J’s” – Featuring the worst fake British accent of all time, and a victim who remains strangely passive in spite of Butler’s belligerance.

In other Best Show news, a photo gallery full of shots taken by the webcam at last night’s special WFMU fundraising marathon is up on Friends Of Tom. The most exciting thing about the gallery is that you get to see plenty of images of special in-studio guest Philly Boy Roy!

I Was In A Three Piece Band, And There Were No Strings. Only Wings.

I don’t understand it. Why does nearly every band on the Everything Is Ending Here: A Tribute To Pavement record slow down and mellow out the song that they are covering? And why do more than half of the songs sound as if they are being sung by the same guy doing a Dean Wareham impression? I can’t understand why all of these bands feel the need to suck the joy out of a lot of these songs, and make them sound like drab Will Oldham-style depresso indie folk. Not even the most boring version by the most boring band can take away the essential quality of the songs themselves, but it’s not for lack of trying for some of these folks.

By far the most frustrating version on the record for me is Silkworm’s take on “And Then (The Hexx)”. They chose to record the original version of the song which I prefer, and they made the song more folky and far less stoner metal which is fine by me. The guitar performance is stunning – they really nail the song from start to finish. Unfortunately, the singing is terrible. Just pathetic, really. Flat, passionless, and dull like that Crash Test Dummies guy on tranquilizers. I cringe just thinking about it. And they get the lyrics all wrong! I just want to grab the guy and shake him, correcting him that the big vocal climax of the song goes “she knows what it’s like to be 45 and 53” NOT “he know why I let you be 45th and 53rd”! In print that may not look like a huge difference, but say it out loud. The second version just rips the melody out of it completely. Maybe I’m thoroughly unreasonable about this. Maybe I’m just very uptight about people recording really halfassed versions of my favorite songs. But this just isn’t right. Someone needs to tap some of these people on the shoulder and remind them that they will likely never write anything in their careers half as good as the weakest Pavement song. They need to show more reverence to the source material, if just by getting the fucking melody and the words right.

Also, did all of these bands just choose to ignore the fact that Pavement rocked fairly often and were almost always very fun? I mean, even the band who did “Unfair” slowed it down to a mid-tempo ballad! It’s cute, but it’s still all wrong. One of the few songs that is allowed to rock at least half as much as the original is Magoo’s cover of “Perfume-V”, but they mess around with the tempo by drastically slowing the song down before launching into the chorus, which completely wrecks the accelerating effect of the original. By the time they get to the “like a docent’s lisp…” outro, the song sounds like it’s about to nod off. This just isn’t right! “Perfume-V” should zoom right by you!

All three versions of “Here” sound as if they were performed by people in various states of exhaustion. Number One Cup’s take is the best, but it sounds like a James ballad, which maybe isn’t the best thing that could’ve been done with the song. Lunchbox’s version is just an uninteresting mess, and I can barely contain my deep loathing of the Tindersticks version of the song, which was already commercially released prior to this compilation. There is nothing good about the Tindersticks version. Nothing. It is perhaps the worst recording of a great song that I’ve ever heard. Malkmus should sue.

It’s not all bad, though. Plenty of obscure little indie bands do a serviceable job of playing the songs as straight as they can while lacking in charisma or energy. El Goodo’s “Trigger Cut”, Airport Girl’s “Cut Your Hair”, Saloon’s “Shoot The Singer”, Oranger’s “Winner Of The”, Micevice’s “Feed ‘Em To The (Linden) Lions”, Lenola’s “Kennel District”, Panty Lion’s “Baby Yeah” – they’re all okay, if a bit uninspired. Other bands who recorded misery-pop versions of the songs have some limited success with that formula. Tiger Wood’s version of “Ell Ess Two” sounds like the best Toad The Wet Sprocket song that was never written; Appendix Out’s version of “Frontwards” is true to the spirit of the original in spite of sounding far more ordinary; and Fuck’s “Heaven Is A Truck” is perfectly acceptable.

The bands who try to experiment with the songs are mostly hit or miss. Solex tries to write entirely new music for “Shady Lane”, but the vocal melody just sounds forced and awkward. Future Pilot AKA Vs. Colditz’s version of “Range Life” is drastically slowed and features what I believe are Japanese lyrics, but it just sounds like a dreary mess devoid of the song’s spirit entirely. C-Kid’s dark electropop version of “In The Mouth A Desert” works for me though, mostly because the song lends itself to that style fairly well.

There are a few unqualified successes on the record, such as Bardo Pond’s version of “Home”, which is the only song on the compilation that I think could really come close to matching the original in terms of quality. Of all the songs in the Pavement catalog, they chose the perfect song for themselves to play, it suits them so well. Quickspace’s cover of “We Are Underused” is very interesting, and adapts the song into their unique sound without sacrificing much of the original besides altering the deliverary of the chorus. Fivehead’s version of “Circa 1762” at the end of the second disc works well mostly because they stay so faithful to the original, which really ought to be a lesson to the rest of these bands. There’s nothing particularly special about Fivehead, but they surrender themselves so completely to the spirit of the song that it works nearly as well as the Pavement original.

Spinning Gently Out Of Time

I’ll be very blunt about this: All The Real Girls is a mess of a film. It’s not completely bad – I think that it could definitely be edited into a halfway decent 30 minute short film; but left to the devices of its writer/director David Gordon Green, it is padded out with unnecessary scenes and pointless selfindulgence which ultimately makes the film come across as the work of an amateur with some signs of potential.

All The Real Girls is the story of Paul, a somewhat charismatic jerk from a small rural town somewhere in the south. Paul eventually ends up in a relationship with his best friend’s younger sister Noel, who has just returned from her stay at an all-girls boarding school. Understandably, many of the characters in the story are wary of Paul’s intentions because of his reputation for sleeping with nearly every attractive girl he meets and eventually breaking all of their hearts. The relationship carries on until Noel has a moment of drunken infidelity, and Paul reacts in the most selfish and wrong-headed way possible.

The plot isn’t anything special, but it makes a virtue of its banality by letting the story play itself out naturalistically for most of the film. The best parts of the movie are the scenes in which Noel and Paul interact with other under less than dramatic circumstances, and the film keeps it focus squarely on the dynamics of those two characters. Green has a gift for capturing realistically awkward conversational rhythms and letting his inarticulate characters communicate themselves mostly through subtext. However, when the characters have to actually say what they really mean it usually just ends up sounding like like bad poetry or Oscar-reel histrionics. There’s plenty of parts in the film which don’t feel natural at all; scenes which either seem stilted due to the limitations of the actors, Green’s direction, or the script’s reliance on indie/art film cliches.

It’s hard not to be distracted by Green’s selfindulgence, as he sabotages his story by cluttering it with one-dimensional supporting characters who are never developed or have any particular relevance to the main plot but fill up a significant chunk of screen time. Other characters, such as Noel’s brother Tip or Paul’s mother Elvira, who both have larger roles in the film, are absent for so much of the film that when they both have their requisite breakdown scenes at the end, it’s hard to care very much about them. Tip is crucial to the story, but is never given enough screen time to develop beyond being anything more than an angry, depressive drunk. Why should the audience care if the guy has just knocked up some girl he barely knows when we barely know him? The same goes for Elvira – though it’s very sad that she is broke and lonely, and that Paul is almost completely inconsiderate of her emotions or her livelihood, is there any reason for her histrionics other than to tug at our heartstrings?

The pacing of the film is rambling to say the least. The scene-to-scene flow seems jagged and incongruent, and many scenes begin and end abruptly as if someone was watching the film on DVD and was occasionally advancing foward out of (understandable) boredom. Green does himself few favors by including a handful of selfconciously ‘arty’ scenes which do nothing to advance or enhance the narrative. The most egregious example would be the scene in which Paul and Noel converse while leaning on each other’s bodies so that they form a square with the floor in the middle of a lane at an empty bowling alley. It’s nothing more than a visual nonsequitor which pulls the viewer out of the story momentarily so that the hand of the filmmaker can be foregrounded. There’s another scene late in the film in which the story stops dead in its tracks so that we can watch Paul and his friends race cars around a homemade Nascar track. It seems to me that Green simply wanted to shoot that scene for the fun of it, and not because it advanced the story or characters at all. It’s almost as if Green was conciously cramming all of these pointless scenes and characters into the film so that if he was never again given the money to make another film, he would have been able to say that he at least stuffed as much as he could into All The Real Girls. I can imagine the man ticking off a checklist: Time-lapse montage of sunsets – check. Retarded kid – check. Dumb redneck sidekick – check.

Another problem that I have with the film is that Green’s professed desire to keep the film out of time results in a movie in which the characters and events seem entirely removed from the context of the contemporary United States. No one in the film shows any interest in culture or the world outside of their miserable little town, which I find hard to believe given that the story seems to be taking place somewhere between now and the mid-70s. There’s no evidence of television, music, newspapers, movies, sports, fashion, or any other kind of distraction save for drinking at social gatherings and bars. The absence of chain stores is made very conspicuous. Are we really to believe that this town is so incredibly dreary that nobody does anything other than work, mope, drink, and fuck? That may be a reality of a town like this, but it does seem a little too convenient that every character in the film would be equally uninspired and dull, and I am deeply suspicious of a filmmaker who would go out of his way to create a film full of such thoroughly joyless characters.

Other People Write Blogs Too, You Know…

Chris Conroy and Shroom from Milk Plus both remind me of why I definitely don’t ever want to pay to see The Hours. They confirm every bad feeling I’ve had about the movie based on what I’ve read and having seen that awful, awful, AWFUL trailer a few times over. Which is good, because I was starting to think about throwing my hands up in the air and seeing the film anyway, just so I could chime in on conversations about it. Thanks, guys.

The Adaptation blog on Susan Orlean’s site reports that the DVD of the movie won’t include any bonuses in favor of higher quality sound and visuals. This is very unfortunate. As whoever writes that blog (Susan herself? Jason Kottke?) notes, Adaptation is a film that would lend itself to bonuses rather well, and it’s too bad they won’t be doing anything with it. It’s not the biggest shock to me, though – Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman didn’t include a commentary track for Being John Malkovitch, so it makes sense that they wouldn’t for this film either. It probably is a better decision to keep the film free of a commentary track and let it speak for itself, as not to push one interpretation of the film on the viewer.

Songs For You

Theoretical Girls “Theoretical Girls”

Sally Crewe and the Stolen Moves “Forget It”

Hint Hint “Harry’s Ass Is A Picnic”

Juggaknots “I’m Gonna Kill U”

He Actually Titled One “Good Song”!

The entirety of Blur’s new album Think Tank is available here. (Thanks to Paul for the tip.) Early opinion of what I’ve heard – sounds like it could be a grower, but boy is it repetitive. They almost all sound exactly the same, as if Damon just wrote a dozen variations on “Mellow Song” from 13. “On The Way To The Club” is the only song that I immediately like a lot, and that’s mostly just because it sort of sounds like “19-2000” from the Gorillaz record.

Note: I think the titles are messed up on that Blur tracklisting. The song listed as “Battery In Your Leg” features the lyric ‘gene by gene’, and the song listed as “My White Noise” features a line about “a battery in your leg”, so I’m pretty sure track 14 is “Battery…” and 13 is “Gene By Gene”, and I would think that 12 is in fact “My White Noise”.

Coming soon to the blog, probably on Monday evening – I’ll write about All The Real Girls (I hated it) and Morvern Callar (I loved it), Just Farr A Laugh, and possibly Six Feet Under and X-Statix. I’ll definitely be posting some brand new MP3s too. Stay tuned.

Elsewhere In Bloggyville…

* It Came From The Sea: Your Disco Needs Them. (Them = Nikon and kicking_k)

* E Crunk over at Spizzazzz has created an excellent hip hop DJ mix and you can download it here. The bit mixing “Addictive” with “Work It” is sublime.

* Chris has resumed blogging, and he’s written an amusingly brutal review of the Daredevil movie.

My favorite bit:

Jennifer Garner is utterly lacking in personality — it’s one thing to play Elektra as something other than the stone-cold ice-queen she is in the comics, but you’d better replace it with something other than a vacant stare and a fat-lipped smile. When she puts on black leather and starts trying to kick ass, it’s almost laughable, since her every previous scene has been shot with a nice-girl reverence so pathetic you’d expect clip art of kittens and bunnies to be superimposed around the border of every frame while the My Little Pony theme song plays in the background.

You’ve Gotta Cultivate What You Need To Need

There’s a long feature article about Sonic Youth in Entertainment Weekly this week. If you know much about the band, the article isn’t very special or interesting – there certainly isn’t anything mentioned or said that I haven’t read before. The article basically gives an outline of their career to date, focusing on how individual and uncompromising the band is, and how they are fairly down to earth, easy going, responsible people. Overall, the article (written by David Browne) sells the band as good, talented, smart people, but I would have preferred it if he had written about the music a bit more. I don’t think the writing gives the reader much of an impression of what the band’s music sounds like except for in very vague implications of artistic growth and in mentioning the relative pop appeal of Goo and Dirty in comparison to their earlier releases. I’m not sure how effective this feature will be in inspiring EW readers to purchase a Sonic Youth record, but I certainly hope that many of them do.

I’m Making Very Sexy Installments

Yeah, yeah, Ryan, we get it – you hate fun. Let it go, man.

Let’s Hear It For The Gorch

Oh lord. Why must I be so broke?

This is the special Best Show premium for listeners pledging a minimum of $60 to WFMU during the show next week:

8 PM – 11 PM

Tom Scharpling’s The Best of the Best of the Best Show Volume One: A laff-packed compendium of The Best Show on WFMU! Tons of super-exclusive never-before-aired hilarity! Highlights include The Gorch’s audio tour diary and Soundtrackappella live at Maxwell’s! It’s The Best CD of the 2003 WFMU Marathon! Full length CD.

I think I may skip out on my movie weekend to have the cash handy for this. I’ve got to do it for The Gorch. If I had a steadier source of income right now, I wouldn’t think twice about this – I’d give WFMU a lot more than $60 if I had the money.

Automatic Bzooty

Well, I’m boring today. What are other bloggy types up to lately?

* Chris has written a post about Morvern Callar, which is a film that I’d really like to see. Unfortunately, the only place currently showing the film in NYC is a tiny theatre which only shows it in the late evening, making it very difficult on my schedule. However, MoMA is screening Citizen Ruth as part of an Alexander Payne retrospective, and I’d like to see Far From Heaven, so I think I may bite the bullet and just go in and see all three on Saturday. Maybe.

* Big Sunny D has written quite a bit about New X-Men #137

* Oh my God! Dan Emerson hates About Schmidt! Wait…maybe not?

* Kevin Keenan writes about the possibility that Jack White is wronging a copyright holder by quoting a section of Citizen Kane for the lyrics of “The Union Forever”. I’m not certain, but I think that Citizen Kane is technically in the public domain now, though most copyright privileges are claimed by the owners of the rights to distribute the film on DVD. It’s a tricky issue. I think that Jack White may be able to make a good argument for fair use, though.

* Nate Patrin defends himself from the scary zealots over at Popjustice. Seriously, those Popjustice kids seem to have absolutely zero grasp on reality. Can’t they just enjoy their pop music without the bizarre persecution complex?

Let’s Hear It For The Boy

Since I’m not very happy with the quality of the Jicks MP3s on offer in the previous post, and because Mike B of the Acid Casualties Jicks site is promising higher quality MP3s of the show next week, I’m not going to bother with the last two songs of the set. I’ll keep the MP3s of the show here til Mike gets his version online.

The Air Is Like Perfume From Vikings

Thanks to “allenc” and KEXP, here are MP3s from last night’s Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks Noisepop Festival set. I don’t have the last two songs of the show just yet because when I got to that point in the show, I was getting a lot of net congestion and rebuffering, so I’ll have to try again later. Hopefully the last two songs (“Church On White” and “1% of One”) will be available here tomorrow. I did my very best to keep the sound quality as high as I could, but there’s not much I can do to fix the compression.

01. Jenny & The Ess Dog

02. Phantasies

03. Water And A Seat

04. Dark Wave

05. Vague Space

06. (Do Not Feed The) Oyster

07. Animal Midnight

08. Vanessa From Queens

09. Sheets

10. Never My Love

11. Witch Mountain Bridge

12. Jo Jo’s Jacket

13. Us

(sorry, I’ve removed them now.)

Rubbing The Scabrous Flakes Of Sinister Conspiracy Off Yr Pointy Gargamel Chin

Jody may indeed be going “batshit insane”, but she speaks words of truth. If I spent as much time dealing with some of the knuckleheads she regularly engages with over on ILM, I’m sure I’d be batshit insane by now too, at least in regards to her subject matter.

What Do Giving It Up And Chewing On Foil Have In Common?

Shudder To Think “X French Tee Shirt” – Inspired by what Russ and Paul have written about Shudder To Think’s Pony Express Record in the past week, I’m offering an MP3 of one that album’s finest songs for those of you who may not be familiar with the record. “X French Tee Shirt” was a modest hit at the time of the album’s release, it was briefly in MTV’s “Buzz Bin” rotation and played on the more progressive alt-rock radio stations across the US. These days, this song would not have a prayer of getting that kind of airplay; it just goes to show how incredibly conservative radio has become since the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

The Dirtbombs “Livin’ For The City” – I found this via Vic Funk, whose track record for recommending excellent songs has been consistently spot-on for as long as I’ve known him. (Well, aside from Julie Doiron…) I’m pretty sure that this is the best Stevie Wonder cover that I’ve ever heard.

The Delgados “Mr. Blue Sky” – Normally I think that The Delgados are pretty boring, but I’m very fond of this cover of the currently ubiquitous ELO song which I discovered via this ILM thread.

If it weren’t already being offered on her own website, I’d put up an MP3 of Laura Cantrell’s “All The Same To You”, which I’ve been enjoying quite a bit lately. If only all of the crossover pop country music in the world were more like this, and a whole lot less like Shania Twain and Faith Hill. Laura, as many of you probably know, is the proprietress of WFMU’s Radio Thrift Shop and has the prettiest southern accent that this northern lad has ever heard.

Otis Redding “Try A Little Tenderness” – The ‘definitive version’, recorded live at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. This is an amazing live recording, the studio recording of this song really doesn’t come anywhere close to this version.

…and special for Luke:

Morrissey “Jack The Ripper”

When Barbara Holds My Pride, I Have Always Risen To The Occasion

For those of you enjoying the new Osymyso “Bushwhacked” mp3s, I’m putting up mp3s of the original “Bushwhacked” and a similar cut-up made out of George H.W. Bush speach fragments. I acquired both of these from the Boom Selection_Issue 01 compilation.

Explain This To Me:

In tonight’s episode of SNL, they managed to not only get Christopher Walken to host, but also have Will Ferrell in two sketches, extended cameos from both Britney Spears and Steve Martin, and a walk-on from Jim Carey. However, two weeks ago we were stuck with the Matthew “Dipshit” McConaughey as a host, and two weeks from now we have to watch them attempt to make Salma Hayek funny. Couldn’t they have spread tonight’s talent out a bit? Martin hasn’t hosted in at least six years, Britney’s surprisingly good, Will is a god, Carey’s a funny guy, and hell, Dave Grohl would probably have been a great host himself. Someone needs to slap the booking agent at SNL. McConaughey, Hayek, Nia Vardalos, a race car driver, John McCain — is this meant to be some kind of demented challenge for the cast and writers? I’m being unfair to the race car driver, he did alright; and having Al Gore on was a risk that paid off (who knew that he had a flair for dry humor?); but this is just ridiculous.

Despite All My Rage

I saw Old School today, which isn’t really much to write about – it’s funny but formulaic. Will Ferrell is great in it. It’s got a lot of very funny bits in it, but nothing that made me laugh quite as hard as the trailer for Willard.

You see, Willard is a creepy guy who lashes out at those who have wronged him by commanding an army of rats to do his evil bidding. Full stop, that’s the story – a twisted man and his evil rats. And for most of the trailer, the chorus of The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” is looped as the soundtrack. “Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage!” Seriously. I was cracking up – they just couldn’t get more obvious and over the top. Well, I guess they could, if the lyrics were instead “despite all my rage, I am still gonna sic my army of evil rats on you!”, but thank God they chose to hold back a little bit.

I’m not dismissing the possibility that Willard may be a good movie, even though the concept seems thoroughly ridiculous. I remember the trailers for Donnie Darko being awful too; I was convinced for a very long time that it wasn’t worth seeing. There’s a very good chance that there’s a lot of intelligence in this film that isn’t coming through in the trailer, which is perfectly understandable. Still, it’s a movie about a scary unsympathetic guy and his rats. It seems like there’s only two possible ways it could turn out: a spectacular failure, or a cult classic. Since it is being released in March, a major studio dumping ground for bad films, I’m wary that it may be the former.

I am now informed that this is a remake of a film from the 70s, which really makes a lot of sense. I did not realize that the Michael Jackson song “Ben” was in fact from a soundtrack to a film about rats. It just never seemed weird to me that Michael Jackson would sing a love song to a rat, he’s a kooky guy. Thanks to Steven for the heads up.

Go Home And Die

This is absolutely necessary listening/viewing. Osymyso strikes again.

It’s barely even an exaggeration of the truth, really. That’s the most painful part of it.

Mocking The Earnest Is Unfair

“At one time, Peter might have only been remembered for his ability to transform his body tissue into an organic, steel-like substance. But after his final selfless act he was remembered as something even greater: a hero to all of mutantkind.”

Susan Snorts And Has Hallucinations

Here’s an excellent interview with Meryl Streep from the Wall Street Journal. (Via the Adaptation blog on Susan Orlean’s site.)

Here’s the best bit, also quoted on that blog:

“What we do now is withhold films from most of America, which is shocking. And what do we withhold? The best films. If you live somewhere 30 miles out in mall-land, you can’t see all the great movies. Same with the rest of the world: We export the crap. And then we wonder why everybody hates us and has a distorted picture of what Americans are. We should export the best movies we make.”

This is one of my personal bugbears lately; I can’t stand that most of the nation is subject to this system of film distribution which is an insult to the intelligence of the average American. I think that it is a big problem that most of the best films are withheld from the majority of theatres. It’s crass, it’s elitist, it’s bad business, and it’s ultimately very damaging to the culture. When most people go to the movies, they usually just pick a movie from the handful on offer, and if you only offer people junk, they’ve got no choice. A film like Adaptation isn’t for everyone, but it does have a large niche audience that is dispersed throughout the nation. Every film doesn’t have to be in every cineplex, but there are smaller movie theatres nationwide which really should not have to wait months on end for the chance to show a film that’s by then old news in NYC and LA. I hate that when I consider moving to other parts of the country, one of the things that goes through my mind is “well, if I go away from NY, I won’t get to see new movies anymore.” That’s very unfair.

There’s A New Thing Going Around

For Brandon and Russ:

Otis Redding “Shake!”

Otis Redding “Try A Little Tenderness”

Harness The Beauty And Power

Excellent/entertaining posts on other people’s blogs that you really should read if you haven’t already:

* Amy’s tragic love letter to 50 Cent on Lot Vogue.

* All of Andrew Earles’ recent entries on Failed Pilot, especially 2/13, 2/11, and 2/05.

* 30 concise movie reviews written by some guy named Hoffman, presented as a blog-within-a-blog on Freezing To Death in the Nuclear Bunker. Jody’s review of Rosemary’s Baby is a must-read too.

* Phantroll discusses The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” over on Waking Ear.

* Paul writes about Shudder To Think’s Pony Express Record in the 2/18 post on The Rub.

* Jack Fear writes about Blue Crush, of all things, in his 2/14 entry.

* Kevin explains why Ted Leo and Loose Fur are good so that I don’t have to over on Deviated Septum.

* Dan mocks the thoroughly witless Tom DeLay.

* No Rock And Roll Fun on Avril’s trouble with big words.

They Can’t Get You At 11:01

New MP3s.

Aimee Mann (featuring Tom Scharpling) “Wise Up” (recorded live on last night’s Best Show.)

Loose Fur “You Were Wrong”

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists “Ballad of the Sin Eater”

A Very Special Request!

Please head on over to Friends Of Tom and vote against Officer Tom in the poll on the bottom! Even if you don’t listen to the Best Show, do it!

My Most Obnoxious Post Ever

Oh my gosh! ILM in snobby hipster shockah!

Remember how when Wowee Zowee came out in 1995, and Pavement were getting their first real backlash, and everyone was trashing the album? And now, eight years later, it’s quite popular to say that Wowee Zowee was the best Pavement album? (And of course, it is!)

Well, I think it’s probably a good bet that people in eight years time will be falling all over themselves to say how much they love Pig Lib.

History is a circle, my friends.

Timelessness = Better than timeliness.

Edited to say – I can’t believe that I’ve posted so much to ILM today, under my own name, no less! I chalk it up to being snowed in, bored by an unusually dull Barbelith, and a desire to interact with a board full of people who aren’t so willing to agree with or defer to me. I hope that this doesn’t become a habit, though. There are some very aggravating people over there, and the macho pissing contest vibe that some of the posters have really puts me off.

Pazz & Jop Update

This is one of the reasons why I think Glenn McDonald is a cool guy. He is capable of making the Pazz & Jop poll vaguely interesting, which isn’t the easiest thing to do.

This thread on I Love Music about Glenn’s statistical findings is pretty much a distillation of everything that I dislike about that message board, particularly the remarks by Sterling Clover.

Also, I’ve since been filled on how the Pazz & Jop polling is conducted, so I have to take back some of my remarks about the selection of those being polled from my earlier post.

My Bloggy Valentine

Here’s two dreamy, mellow instrumentals for you all to enjoy. The Yo La Tengo song is taken from their upcoming Summer Sun LP, and the Shimmer Kids Underpop Association tune is taken from last year’s The Natural Riot.

Yo La Tengo, “Let’s Be Still”

Shimmer Kids Underpop Association, “October Century”

…and for Grant:

The Carpenters, “Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft”

You Eat It With A Chocolate Fudge Spoon

If you’re looking for some hilarity, I strongly recommend the newest Jon Wurster skit from this past Tuesday’s Best Show, which you can listen to here in realaudio. To get right to the bit, you’ll need to advance to the 29 minute mark. Wurster calls in as Jarrett “the weight loss kid” from Dessert Town, a “weight-loss themed” restaurant with an all-dessert menu. Wurster’s hilarious as per usual, but I’m more impressed by Tom Scharpling’s performance as the straight man in this sketch, especially when he’s digging into The Mighty Chocolategeddon with joyous abandon. I don’t want to spoil the skit for anyone by giving away any more of the jokes, but the sketch does tie in with a previous Wurster routine in a very clever way that will be amusing for hardcore Best Show fans.

It’s A Fact That I’m The Seventh Son

Soulseek’s back up, folks.

I downloaded a copy of a vinyl rip of the forthcoming White Stripes record, and from what I’ve heard so far, it’s pretty good. However, I’m not quite sure what I think about “There’s No Room For You Here”, which is apparently just a rewritten version of “Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground” from the previous LP. It’s the same chord progressions in a different order, and with completely new lyrics/vocals. It’s a pretty audacious thing – are they attempting to plagiarize themselves? Are they remixing their own song? It’s not uncommon in blues or raggae for many different songs to come from the same riffs and progressions; are they trying to make some kind of point about this? Is this just a selfreferential game? I’m genuinely intrigued. If anyone knows anything about this, please email me.

Hear the song for yourself here.

Good News: The Axis Of Evil Will Be Destroyed!

Thanks to ace Sun reporter/Barbelith mainstay Grant Balfour, I have been written into the cover article of this week’s (Feb. 18th) issue of The Sun. I really wish that I could scan the article, but I just don’t have tech. The cover article is about Nostradamus’ war prophecies, and here’s an excerpt:

According to Dr. Matthew Perpetua, a historian and Nostradamus scholar with the Malkmus Prophecy Institute in Paris, France, the showdown between George W. Bush and the twin threats of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il is more than just saber-rattling.

It’s a prelude to the greatest war ever seen.

“I” go on to explain Nostradamus’ vague prophecies, which predict an incredibly bloody and devastating 27 year war.

“Of all the bloody prophecies in Nostradamus – who foresaw the Nazi holocaust and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – this is by far the most threatening, the most filled with death,” says Perpetua. “It’s impossible to say what the ‘red hail’ will be, but it is definitely a weapon of mass destruction, quite likely biological in nature, and capable of reaching every corner of the globe.”

However, we shouldn’t give in to despair. There is a happy ending, according to Dr. Perpetua:

“Significant in this quatrain – and possibly, hopeful – is the reference to the left hand,” says Perpetua. “The left side, in Latin, is the ‘sinister’ side, or the side of evil and betrayal. It appears that Nostradamus is here reassuring us that the worst damage of the conflict will fall upon the aggressors, those who make the evil choice of striking against the innocent. The Axis Of Evil referred to by President Bush will be destroyed forever.”

I Killed The Village Voice With My Big Fucking Dick

I realize that the Pazz And Jop poll is an excercise in bland concensus by definition, but jeezy creezy, it’s boring this year. The only records on the albums list that even slightly surprise me are the relatively high placings of Elvis Costello and Solomon Burke, and the not-shocking-but-slightly-unpredictable inclusions of Linda Thompson, The Mekons, and Orchestra Baobab.

Thankfully the web version of the P+J poll includes the full ballots of each contributing writer, which helps to break up the stifling monotony of the poll results. Many of the writers who were involved are pretty awful by my standards, but there are some bright lights in there. Here are some links to ballots by some people whom I like and/or respect:

Andrew Earles (Who managed to slip a Best Show in-joke into his list, god bless him!)

Nate Patrin

Tom Ewing

Douglas Wolk

Stephen Thompson

Keith Phipps

Nathan Rabin

Glenn McDonald

One thing that really bugs me about the critics chosen for the poll is that the selection of critics who are primarily bloggers seems so incredibly arbitrary. Why exactly is Josh Kortbein chosen over, say, Paul Cox or Kenan Hebert? If you’re going to include a writer like Glenn McDonald who has no desire to be published outside of his own website, why not include Thomas Inskeep, Fred Solinger, Badger Minor, or Joe Macare? Gosh, why not even throw in the folks from Spizzazzz? As horrible as the majority of them are, where are all of the Pitchfork writers? I fail to see why any club that would let a writer as annoying and lacking in talent as Amy Phillips have a vote would reject a guy like Ryan Schreiber.

Tomorrow And Tomorrow

Given that the majority of what I have read in the press about the fourth season of The Sopranos has been mindless drivel written by lazy people who were wondering why the show wasn’t pandering to them with cheap shocks and pointless violence; it is always nice when I stumble upon the odd article written by someone who understood the story and paid attention to the details. Matt Feeney definitely ‘gets it’ in this analysis of season four from The National Review.

Sweeney links to some weak analysis written on Slate, and there’s a lot of talk there about the show being in decline, which is obviously a popular opinion. I just can’t wrap my head around that concept – I think that the first two seasons of The Sopranos are adequete exposition and set up for the meat of the story but are generally lacking in comparison to seasons three and four, which I think are much more exciting, subtle, and thoughtful. HBO has begun rerunning the first season, and watching those episodes feels awkward to me – it’s very high quality, but it is so obvious that the writers were still feeling things out and hadn’t found the voice of the show yet. The first two seasons are also more typical of what people expect from television drama – the storyarcs are clear and have tidy resolutions, Tony and his captains are portrayed more like anti-heroes who are in conflict with obvious villains (Uncle Junior, Livia, Mikey Palmice, Richie Aprile), and the ethnicity of the characters is played up occasionally for novelty. I think the first season is far more populist in that it can function as a working class fantasy: Tony outwits his elders, rises from middle-management to leadership, he triumphs over his enemies, and has some success in dealing with his neuroses. The third and fourth seasons aren’t exactly the stuff of romantic daydreams. Carmella becomes more defined as a character and creates greater conflicts for Tony which become irreconcilable differences which cannot be dealt with in any of the ways which come easily to him, and all of his nemeses from his work life are valuable to his livelihood. The story becomes significantly more complicated, and resembles all the bits of life that I think most people do not want to be confronted with in entertainment.

One guy from the Slate article has it right:

We expect the characters to follow “arcs” that are programmed in our brains from years of television, film, and theater, and the writers repeatedly defy these expectations. In a New York Times interview, David Chase made the point that he attempted to create an atmosphere that resembled the way people actually interact: They talk past each other; they don’t listen to one another; conflicts are not resolved; forces of inertia and entropy triumph over our desire to tie up loose plot ends. The fourth season has been stellar, for the most part, far better than anything else we have seen or probably ever will see on television. The marriage held together, like many marriages, through a concerted effort at self-deception on the part of both spouses. The final episode was about the ultimate fate of that form of self-deception.

They Wuz Robbed

I try not to concern myself with industry awards too much, but it really does annoys me that Adaptation and About Schmidt have been snubbed for the Oscar for Best Picture category while two mediocre films (Gangs Of New York and The Hours) and an incredibly awful one (The Two Towers) are nominated in their place. Were it up to me, these are who I would pick to win the major categories given what the Academy has nominated this year:

BEST PICTURE

Chicago

Gangs Of New York

The Hours

The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers

The Pianist

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Adrien Brody, The Pianist

Nicolas Cage, Adaptation

Michael Caine, The Quiet American

Daniel Day-Lewis, The Gangs Of New York

Jack Nicholson, About Schmidt

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Chris Cooper, Adaptation

Ed Harris, The Hours (note: I feel the need to mention that I believe Ed Harris to be the single worst ‘serious’ actor in the world. I loathe the guy.)

Paul Newman, The Road To Perdition

John C. Reilly, Chicago

Christopher Walken, Catch Me If You Can

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Salma Hayek, Frida

Nicole Kidman, The Hours

Diane Lane, Unfaithful

Julianne Moore, Far From Heaven

Renée Zellweger, Chicago

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Kathy Bates, About Schmidt

Julianne Moore, The Hours

Queen Latifah, Chicago

Meryl Streep, Adaptation

Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago

DIRECTING

CHICAGO – Rob Marshall

GANGS OF NEW YORK – Martin Scorcese

THE HOURS – Stephen Daldry

THE PIANIST – Roman Polanski

TALK TO HER – Pedro Almodóvar

MUSIC (SONG)

CHICAGO – “I Move On”, John Kander and Fred Ebb

8 MILE – “Lose Yourself”, Eminem

FRIDA – “Burn It Blue”, Elliot Goldenthal and Julie Taymor

GANGS OF NEW YORK – “The Hands That Built America”, U2

THE WILD THORNBERRYS MOVIE – “Father And Daughter”, Paul Simon