BLOG YOU IN THE FACE!!!

"I won't put you in my documentary, buddy"

2007-12-18T06:59:00.000-06:00

Prove you're human

2006-07-13T20:39:00.000-05:00

Steady as She Goes

2006-05-15T02:12:00.000-05:00

In honor of me just hearing that Shellac are coming to Dallas for the first time in, like, ever on June 8th. I can't wait.

Hey

2006-03-25T01:51:00.000-06:00

[Something About Movie Trailers]

2006-03-24T23:18:00.000-06:00

Lady in the Water
This is how you make a great teaser. I've never been a huge fan of Shish Kabob's other movies but this really intrigued me so I went looking for more information about it. This was disappointing. A bunch of apartment residents helping a fairy get home. There is a much more interesting story in this teaser than that. Someone should tell it.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston
I've been waiting for this film for a long time. In fact, it had been so long since I heard anything new that I had pretty much forgotten about it until it debuted at Sundance last year. There aren't many other musicians around today who really need to make music in the same sense that other people need to breathe. His music is some of the most honest, guileless and intimate that I've ever heard and its always been ashame that many people (at least in America) just can't seem to get past the often ragged presentation to really hear it. The good part - maybe this movie will change that just a little. The bad - whether this film is well received or not, in 10 years or so there will probably be a big stinky hollywood biopic. Joy.

Marie Antoinette
Fantastic trailer. At this point I don't care about the dubious casting or anything else people have mentioned. This trailer is perfect. Everyone has been talking about the use of the New Order song and whether its inspired or silly. I think its great and it totally captures tragic/romantic teenage girl angle to the story that Sophia Coppola seems to be going for. Now, if the entire film turns to be full of pop songs, that's another story...

High Score
I'm conflicted. A film about a grown man trying to beat the world Missile Command record. I want to cheer him on through my tears of pity.

A Scanner Darkly
I dont get why the computer rotoscoping pisses some people off. Whatever problems Waking Life may have had, It looked amazing and just as alien and dream-like as it should have. The decision to use the same technique for Scanner Darkly is more of a leap but I think it looks wonderful. Reportedly, the film stays very close to the Philip Dick source novel, which would make it maybe the first and only Dick adaptation able to make such a claim.

And yeah yeah I know, Keanu is still doing the teeange surfer dude thing but it somehow works for me. Either he has become a much better actor over the years or I have just become more used to him. Probably a little of both.

"Its a beautiful thang, yall"

2006-03-24T22:47:00.000-06:00

"Monument to Pro-Life: The Birth of Sean Preston"

Even in the midst of labor, she still manages to make with a passable "do me" pose. Oh Britney, what would we do without you?

[Via]

Overlooked Films of the 90s

2006-03-19T02:25:00.000-06:00

The Online Film Critics Society's Top 100 Overlooked Films of the 1990s. This wouldn't be worth posting if so many of my favortite 90s films (overlooked or otherwise) weren't on it. Sure, I have a problems with a few of these... Lasts Days of Disco and That Thing You Do were overlooked for many valid reasons as far as I'm concerned... but so will everybody else. What surprises me is the number of great films listed that I really wouldn't consider "overlooked". Aren't movies like Glengarry Glen Ross, Babe and Miller's Crossing pretty much considered classics in certain circles at this point?

Whatever, I could close my eyes and randomly place a finger down anywhere on this list and pick a seldom talked about film (Heavenly Creatures, Bobby Fischer, Hard Eight, Pump Up The Volume, Fearless, The Ice Storm, One False Move, Sneakers, etc...) that I've watched way too many times and will never get tired of. I approve of this list.

Trail Her

2005-11-19T20:24:00.000-06:00

Apple have updated Quicktime and their trailer page. The new page is a little snazzier and puts more focus on the HD trailers they now offer. Apparently Apple are using a new format for the streams in Quicktime 7. All I know is that now the standard non-HD versions of trailers won't play correctly in Apple's player on my old computer. Thumbs down, Apple. Luckily they still play fine in VLC...

Superman Returns (teaser)
Yeah this is just a silly teaser and not a full trailer. Yeah the new Superman might seem a little wimpy at first glance... not to mention about the same age as the guy playing Superboy on television right now (and who was orginally considered for this film). Superman is a special kind of icon in American popular culture and the Superman movies (more specifically, the first two) are just as much a part the character as the comics. You can't really say the same thing about any other comics to film translations. This just looks majestic.

V for Vendetta
I like how this trailer walks right up to the edge of revealing one of the story's big twists. This looks better than anyone could have hoped, given the people involved. I don't know if Natalie Portman is the perfect person to play Eve but she pretty much renders any further discussion on the matter moot in the first few moments of this trailer. Hugo Weaving is V. We'll never see his face in the movie but... that voice. Perfect.

Alan Moore, who wrote the graphic novel upon which this film is based, has publicly disassociated himself from the film because he feels that he's been burned by Hollywood one too many times. From Hell, Constantine and The League of Extraordinary Gentleman were all also based on his comics and none of them met with his approval. V for Vendetta is written and produced by the Wachowski brothers. They love comics so much that they based their most popular film on one without ever crediting the source. That film was very good but four years later they choked when they tried to come up with two sequels on their own. This time they've decided to be a little more honest about their inspiration. The film is directed by James McTeigue, who has had a long and varied career as... an assistant director. There is no real reason to assume he did anything different on V. This is a Wachowski brothers movie. I really hope they haven't screwed it up.

Walk the Line
Big Hollywood autopilot biopic fluff. Johnny Cash was an interesting guy. Joaquin Phoenix has always seemed rather doughy and odd looking and yet he's still probably too handsome for the part. Reese Witherpoon annoys me more and more the older she gets, there is no logical reason for this. They're already polishing the Oscars... I smell a fix. This all seems amazingly hollow considering the subject. Of course, it was written and directed by James Mangold so it can't be that bad.

Final Destination 3
There was a scene in the first Final Destination that still ranks as one of the best shocking deaths on screen for me. Its the shot where the whiny blonde is hit by the bus just as she turns back to say something to her friends. The moment it happened and everyone around me in the theater screaming I was struck numb, dumb and confused in a way that I imagine is similar to how I would react if I had really just seen such a thing. Not that I ever really want to find out....

I didn't see Final Destination 2 until it showed up on cable so of course it was going to suffer in comparison. It tried to make up for its less interesting script and characters with increasingly elaborate deaths and increasingly more blood. In this film, once death has you in it's sights, you're pretty much guaranteed to just explode like a big chunky gore balloon at the slightest touch... but that touch only comes after you've been put through a Moustrap like sequence of near misses.

These are slasher movies without the corny contrivance of an actual slasher. Just round up a bunch of WB rejects, add a bunch of sharp and/or heavy objects, shake vigorously. There's nothing of value here. This new one will no doubt be just as silly and fun as the first two and that's the point.

Taxidermia
This is the new film from Hungarian director Gyorgy Palfi, who I've never heard of. His last film was called Hukkle. This is about a taxidermist. It reminds me of the films of Jean-Pierre Jaunet. That's all I know.

In other words I don't what the hell this but I'm really interested. Also I'm a little freaked out right now. Yay.

The Fountain (teaser)
Another teaser. Darron Aronofsky's new film about three men in three different times (all played by Hugh Jackman) searching for the fountain of youth... or something like that. He's been trying to get this film made for years. Now he's finally entering the home stretch. The rumors that Warner doesn't really know what to do with this movie could be both good or bad. I just hope I don't have to wait too much longer to find out.

Munich
Forget what I said before about Walk the Line and the Oscars. The one thing Oscar loves more than biopics is Steven Spielberg and his "important" movies. I don't know much about the events this film depicts. The trailer makes the film look like more a spectacle than I'm guessing it actually is. I'll see this and I'll probably enjoy it and feel like a sucker the whole time.

The Call of Cthulhu
An old fashioned black and white silent film produced by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, based on the Lovecraft story of the same name. It won the "Best of Show" and "Best Short Film" awards at the 2005 H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival (who knew?!). One of the few fan films that actually seems like it might not be a total waste of everybody's time.

Brick
Joseph Gordon-Levitt was in two of the most talked about movies at this year's Sundance Film Festival. The first to see release, in May, was Greg Araki's Mysterious Skin. Its one of the best films of this year and easily the best thing that Araki has ever been a part of.

The other is Brick, by first time director Rian Johnson, it comes out in March of next year. Its described as a "High School Noir" and really, that's all the description that's needed. This is one of those ideas that seems like it should have happened a long time ago. Chocolate in my peanut butter and all that. This looks unbelievably cool. I can't wait.

Goblin - Suspiria

2005-10-28T22:34:00.000-05:00

For a long time the only films I had seen that had any connection to legendary Italian horror director Dario Argento were Demons and Demons 2, two films that Argento wrote and produced during the mid 80's for director Lamberto Bava (son of Mario). Both films are grade-Z terrible. Usually, when a popular director is listed as "producer" on an unknown director's film (from Poltergeist to A.I.), it really just means "ghost-director". I figured the Demons films were probably a good indication of the gist of Dario. I made a point of scratching "See more Argento films" off my mental list of things to do right away.

Then I saw Suspiria.

This is where I'm supposed to talk about what a brilliant piece of horror it is and what a genius Argento is and how it totally changed my mind about him (blah blah blah), but not quite. It too is obviously the kind of film for which the classification of "B-movie" is just a lofty aspiration. The dialogue/dubbing/ is so atrocious that it makes the average anime dub job sound like the Mercury Theatre players in comparison. The gore, while nice and theatrical, is way too fake to be shocking and the ending is just laughable.

What it does have, though, is a gorgeous dream-like look, brilliant sound design and a genuinely scary sense of dread throughout (at least until the end). Suspiria is a wonderfully sensual experience. During those long sequences where no one is speaking and everything is bathed in some inexplicable green or red light, the only sound being far off whispers and moans... it all makes sense.

And then there's the score by italian prog-rock band Goblin, who have made a career out of scoring horror films, most with Argento. Suspiria wouldn't be half as effective without it.

This Halloween you should do yourself a favor and get ahold of a copy of Suspria if you've never seen it. If that's not an option then invite some friends over, break out the ouija board, light some candles and play "Sighs"... loud.

Goblin - Suspiria [MP3, 5.6MB, 128kbps]
Goblin - Sighs [MP3, 4.9MB, 128kbps]

Country covers of The Clash, The Stooges and VU

2005-10-28T19:35:00.000-05:00

The Country Cousins are a former side project of a guy who is a former member of a band called Lovecanal (...) and is now a recording engineer. These are hosted on his studio website and were posted on Hipinion a few days ago.

"there was a lot of drinking involved in these sessions. we basically jsut(sic) got ripped and did a bunch of country covers of punk and proto punk stuff."

The Country Cousins - "London Calling" [MP3, 4MB, 192kbps]
The Country Cousins - "I Wanna Be Your Dog" [MP3, 2.9MB, 192kbps]
The Country Cousins - "Femme Fatale" [MP3, 4.7MB, 192kbps]

www.fabsoundandmusic.com

1953 "The Tell Tale Heart" animated short

2005-10-27T21:08:00.000-05:00

[Via]

Charles Burns - Black Hole

2005-10-27T18:28:00.000-05:00

Last Spring, Cartoonist Charles Burns wrapped up his 12 issue Fantagraphics series Black Hole after more than a decade of work. It takes place in the Pacific Northwest in the 70's and involves a mysterious sexually transmitted disease that slowly mutates the teenagers it infects. The series showed up in the Comics Journal's list of "The 100 Comics of the Century" years ago when it was only at about the midway point. Now the whole thing has been collected in a big fancy hardcover from Pantheon. Cue press tour...

There's a nice feature on Burns and the book at The Baltimore City Paper.

There's also an interview with Burns at Book Standard.

Finally, Burns can be heard along with cartoonist Chris Ware discussing their work and comics in general on Open Source Radio.

Nintendo Revolution Controller Unveiled

2005-09-16T03:57:00.000-05:00

from Metafilter:

"This morning at the Tokyo Game Show, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata unveiled the unique controller for the company's upcoming video game console, code named Revolution. Legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto demonstrated the device to the press with a series of hands-on demos. While no full games have yet been shown on the system, the controller offers many possibilities for novel, accessible, and compelling game experiences."

This really does seem pretty revolutionary (har har). It uses two motion sensors next two the TV (or wherever I suppose) to sense where the handheld controller and any optional secondary devices are in realtime space. This is an idea that has been around for a long time and the gut reaction is that this might turn out to be just as awkward to use as everything else was.

On the other hand, if Nintendo is using this as the basic control scheme for the Revolution then its a good bet they've worked out all the kinks. I don't think this kind of thing has ever been attempted for anything except 2D games before... which may have been the problem with all those other paper-weights. This just makes sense. Nintendo is the only game company with any ambition left these days. Its depressing and exciting at the same time.

Oh yeah, I'm not even sure why this thing reminds me of the CD-I but it does. Gross.

I hope they plan to finally redesign that uncomfortable thumbstick before its released. They've been using it since the N64 and the thing's a beast.

Say You Want a Revolution - News Story @ IGN

Revolution Controller Mock-ups - Story @ 4 Color Rebellion from June

Omni Magazine

2005-09-09T02:22:00.000-05:00

While searching for something unrelated tonight I found this post on another blog about Omni magazine. I remember reading it religiously (I was a subscriber) every month cover to cover for years and years... even the bits I couldn't understand a word of. I remember tearing the circus freaks pictorial out of the 10th anniversary issue and throwing it away so I wouldn't have to look at it again. I remember, after not having read the magazine in a few years, seeing an issue in the high school library. It was a super slim issue that had the cast of Deep Space Nine on the cover or something. I knew then that the magazine's days were numbered. I don't know when exactly, but at some point in the last ten years I lost all my back issues.

This article from 1997 that talks about the move to an online only format. The Wikipedia entry says the print version ceased in 1995. I didn't even know it lasted that long. I just know I let my subscription lapse at a certain point in junior high and it became impossible to find.

now www.omnimag.com redirects to Penthouse

why did this magazine have to die?

Phoebe Gloeckner, Dan Clowes audio interviews

2005-08-03T20:55:00.000-05:00

This week's Studio 360 on WNYC has cartoonist Phoebe Gloeckner talking about her book A Child's Life and Other Stories being banned by the California Public Library. It's part of a larger show about decency that also features Penn Jillette talking about The Aristocrats, an actor who dubs over bad words in movies and a feature on Christians protesting the BBC's Jerry Springer Opera. Link

Also on WNYC, Leonard Lopate talks to cartoonist Daniel Clowes about his new book Ice Haven. Link

Clowes can also be heard discussing his book with Denny Smithson on KPFA's Cover to Cover. A busy one, that Clowes. Link

[Via FLOG!]

2 Hipinion related albums

2005-08-03T02:08:00.000-05:00

Hipinion V: Killfile 'em All
-Various Artists

Board is Life
-Gonzo

Two free, internet-only albums released within the last few months. Both related to the infamous(?) music site/message board Hipinion (a site that I post at regularly) in some way. One is uniformly well-recorded, well-played and amazingly boring. The other is ragged, messy and brilliant... but maybe only if you get the joke.

Killfile 'Em All is a compilation of songs created by Hipinion boarders. Its a follow up of sorts to last year's Our Board Could Be Your Life. They've been doing these things every so often since before the site was even called Hipinion and it was still just the formerly "official" message board of Pitchfork Media. Every other year or so, all the wannabes and critics who regularly post manage to stop choking on their own irony long enough to bare their own often flailing stabs at creativity to the harshest audience they know. Once the project is done, criticism is usually kept to a minimum. After all, this is just for fun, maaaan.

Our Board had a handful of surprises but it was not a good album by any measure. It was a ramshackle, mostly lo-fi affair full of half finished ideas for songs that was seemingly sequenced at random. None of that mattered though because it never sounded like it was trying to be anything more than a geeky vanity project. That's the big difference between Our Board... and Killfile - presentation.

The first thing you notice is the number of tracks; Killfile has 12 compared to Our Board's 18. The next thing you notice is the sound. The overall recording quality is much better than the last comp. The performances too, especially of those who contributed to both, are far superior. The compiler didn't just take anything that was submitted this time and it really shows. At this point its only fair to state that I submitted a track for Killfile but it wasn't accepted. After hearing the finished product, though, I have to agree that my little barely-a-song scrap really had no place in the set. Killfile sounds like real album and, as such, wants to be taken seriously. The only thing that's missing is good music.

The type of modern music geek who is obsessive enough to post on a board like Hipinion regularly is easy to caricature. Cranky, arrogant, opinionated... its all really about appearances. Its not so much what you know as what you can convince everyone else you know. Its about being the first to fall in love with something new and, more importantly, the first to get tired of it. Its about championing diversity... as long as "diversity" means "hip hop". So maybe it should come as a surpise that Killfile is such a lilly white, stereotypically "indie" affair but it doesn't. Killfile is the sound of a culturally confused, myopic demographic eating its own tail. In that way its fascinating, like cracking open the chest of some giant, blazer wearing, music blogging, Google branded automaton to get a peek at the machinery inside. Killfile is, quite literally, the sound of a Pitchfork nation.

Most of this is pretty bad. The untitled track by The Morphine Bandits that opens the album is actually kind of interesting until it collapses into standard pop-punk nothingness a couple of minutes in. Karenin's Smile's "Don't Break the Ice" shows that they have made obvious strides as musicians since the last comp. It's just that the chops have come at the cost of any sense of personality. Strictly Pretty Nurses have maybe the best track here simply because they don't try to impress anybody and just bash it out. Kozyra's "In Over My Head" is a pop song composed with the attention to detail of a model railroad enthuisiast, and its about as coma-inducing. At the very least, he finally knows how to place a mic... or hire someone who does

The interesting to good tracks (like the Nurses contribution) can be counted on a few fingers and only make the trash that surrounds them smell that much worse. The Acorn's "Darcy", "Watch Out" by Israeli Chaos and the garbled noodling by Duplo that closes the disc are all worth more than a few listens. Mai performs her cover of the Smiths "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" with the stilted, mannered overzealousness of a girl who has heard the phrase "What a lovely voice you have" a few too many times... but it can't ruin such a great song. Still, her performances of Radiohead's "I Will" (from Our Board...) and Underworld's "Born Slippy" (floating around the internet somewhere) are far better examples of her talents.

That's the generous sum... a few interesting songs that should probably be showcased somewhere else. The rest are just awful (Andrei... stop it). Inept, tuneless, boring (No Andrei, really... stop it) and altogether embarrassing (You too, Magritte). Plans are already underway for another comp. Whatever happened to "Those who can't create, critique"?

Wait, nevermind that last part.

And then there's Board is Life. The seeds of this album were sown in the "30 Songs in 30 Days" thread on Hipinion. As the name implies, It was a thread where boarders tried to write a song a day for a month. A poster named Gonzo posted a few songs written about other boarders and they quickly became the only things that anyone remembered from the thread. Gonzo promised a full album in the same vein but I dont think anybody really believed him. Then it came... and it was glorious.

What we have here is a double-disc, tongue through cheek concept album/opera, played mainly on guitar and keyboard, about the Hipinion board and boarding in general. Really, though, its about the same confused culture that Killfile 'Em All is by. This is an album about wasting your life, about feeling lonely, longing for connection, love, sex and death. Its a work that's so funny and so overflowing with creativity you barely notice how bleak and pathetic it all really is.

It could be argued that the reason this all works so well is that young, message boarding dweebs love nothing more than to talk about themselves. Anyone who takes even a passing glance at Hipinion knows this to be true. But it astounds that such an awfully recorded, seemingly one joke premise can be stretched out for two discs without even one real weak spot. Gonzo is obviously very talented.

Most of these (but not all) are named after and are about particular boarders. Each song is in a different style and every one of them is executed so perfectly and so hilariously that its difficult to single any out. "Val" is funny and insulting. "Schreiber" (about Pitchfork founder Ryan Schreiber) should probably be added to every college radio playlist ASAP. The reverb-soaked "Lostchild" tells the sad tale of "The loneliest boy in Brooklyn". "Rentboy" sounds about how one would expect a song with that name to sound. "Boardin'! (Original Cast Recording of the Hit Broadway Show)" simply has to be heard to be believed.

Tell you what. Just download the album, start listening to the opening "Board is Death" and see if you don't make it all the way to the closing "Board is Life" in one sitting.

Its obvious that a lot of work went into this but it never sounds labored. It all seems happen in one spontaneous rush. The distorted PC recording is partly to blame for this but also its that while Gonzo obviously spent a lot of time arranging and polishing each of these gems, he approaches the performances with an abandon that's exhilarating. His guitar playing is especially inspired.

But for all its brilliance, Board is Life will probably just sound like a big in-joke to outsiders. I'd like to think otherwise. I'd like to think that people who don't use the word "boarding" regularly would dig this but I might be too biased too see clearly. Still, from where I stand, Board is Life is the most worthwhile thing that Pitchfork and Hipinion have ever been responsible for and one of the best albums I've heard all year.

from "Hipinion V: Killfile 'Em All" -
Strictly Pretty Nurses - "Cecelia Girl" [MP3, 6.5MB, 320kbps]
Mai - "Please (Take 2)" [MP3, 1.8MB, 128kbps]
Andrei - "Dust Off" [MP3, 4.2MB, 192kbps]

from "Board Is Life" by Gonzo -
Gonzo - "Board is Death" [MP3, 4.2MB, 128kbps]
Gonzo - "Schreiber" [MP3, 2.8MB, 128kbps]
Gonzo - "Lostchild" [MP3, 4.1MB, 128kbps]

Download the album Hipinion V: Killfile 'Em All Here
Download Gonzo'z album Board is Life here
Download the 2004 Hipinion comp Our Board Could Be Your Life Here
www.hipinion.com

if the trailer's a'rockin'...

2005-07-18T20:49:00.000-05:00

A History of Violence
New Cronenberg. Yay. Ed Harris. Double yay. Viggo Mortensen always looks like he should be doing softcore porn on Cinemax but he's a good actor so he gets a yay too. Can't wait for this one.

King Kong
Jack Black's delivery is such that he will probably never be completely believable in a dramatic role. The shot of his face when he notices Naomi Watts' character is just silly. He's a funny man playing straight and that's perfect because this is a film that seems to have a good handle on it's own absurdity. Also, big monsters, big noises, gooood.

My only real problem is Watts as the damsel in distress. It is the most important flesh and blood character in the film and I'm not sure I buy Watts in the role. She's pretty and is a good actress but you have to believe that she is someone who could drive a giant monkey crazy with lust... this is key. I'm thinking of someone like Laetitia Casta (if she could act and speak english coherently), Gisele (ditto) or Jennifer Connelly. Oh well... we'll see...

Last Days
The last in Gus Van Sant's trilogy of minimal, factually-based films about death (see also Gerry and Elephant). This one imagines what happens in the last days of a tortured rock star's life. Supposedly, that rock star is a fictional character named Blake but anyone who watches 5 seconds of this trailer (or sees the posters for that matter) can probably figure out who it really is.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, I don't really cherish the idea of seeing people and events that were important parts of my youth being turned into movies... especially this person and this event. On the other hand, this looks and sounds so authentic its freaky. Also, the fact that this is a Van Sant film means that it will most likely be more subtle and tasteful than the possible film version of Heavier Than Heaven that keeps getting talked about. This is going to happen more and more the older I get. I should probably just get used to it like everybody else did.

There is something very powerful about the image of the scruffy, lonely guy in a dress wandering around his mansion with a shotgun... and the "another day.." line.

One thing that bothers me... I can see the point of having Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth in there but she really can't act for shit.

The Brothers Grimm
I haven't paid much attention to this movie until now and I'm intersted only because its a Terry Gilliam movie. The plot seems to be a coctail of other Summer movies (take a little Frighteners, throw in some Van Helsing, stir) but once again... its Gilliam. The "she's my daughter" exchange is funny. The "a tree! a tree!" one is not. We'll see.

The Skeleton Key
This excites me on some deep, reptillian, they-don't-them-like-that-anymore horror movie level. Why did Kate Hudson do this? I thought she had decided to go the "stardom means never having to do anything but romantic comedies" route. Anyway yay for her. I'm looking forward to this.

The Gits
This documentary follows the life of Seattle singer Mia Zapata, her band, the Gits, her brutal rape and murder in 1993 and the long, ultimately successful search for the killer.

Zapata was a compelling performer and its a heartbreaking story and one that's not as well known as some others (see above). That's really all that needs to be said. I really want to see this.

Serenity
Firefly is a perfect example of fanboy revisionist history and how you only want what you can't have. When the show was on nobody thought it was good. Yeah Fox ran them in the wrong order but no matter what order they would have been presented in the show still would have been bad. The "its in outer space but its like the old west (dude!)" premise probably wouldn't make to the air as an SNL sketch but here was an entire hour-long show all about it. Its a show that only made it past the pitch because of the success of creator Joss Whedon's Buffy and it was clear from the first episode that it was a turkey.

Then it gets cancelled and a dozen voices cry out in protest, but don't you get the sense that the loudest voice was Whedon's? A little internet cult develops, not because the show was good or they miss it but mainly because internet fans just love a cause. Whedon talks about a film that will tie up loose ends (whatever) and prove to a mainstream audience how great the show was but who was he really talking to? The general idea now is that Firefly was a great "lost show" but really...Whedon wanted this film to be made more than anybody else.

This movie looks dumb. It will be interesting to see exactly how many people (if any) go to see this after all the (admittedly small) fuss. Its worth noting that the name "Firefly" appears nowhere in the trailer. At least someone along the line was thinking clearly.

Manderlay
One day I'll get around to compiling a definitive list of reasons why all film schools should probably be burned to the ground. Its still forming so I can't really put pen to paper just yet but I know that Lars Von Trier will be on there somewhere. Some people don't like him because his work seems anti-american to them but I don't care about any of that. He's a clueless (read an interview with him sometime) stylist who's biggest "statement" to date has been exchanging one set of pretensions ("hey look at all the crazy shit I can do with my camera!") for another ("hey look how I barely use my camera!"). Boring. At least if his films were more obviously hateful (or if he'd actually been to America) it would be more interesting.

But pretension can be wonderful when it's entertaining and visceral (see Darren Aronofsky, early David Lynch). Von Trier's work is just lifeless because he really has nothing to say. The point is how he's saying it. Its like watching Bob Ross paint, except without all that cumbersome personality and jovial, hippy charisma.

Michael Dahlquist, 2 others killed in car crash

2005-07-15T18:05:00.000-05:00

from The Perfect Face For Radio:

"Yesterday around lunch time Doug Meis, the drummer for Exo and the Dials; John Glick, the guitarist for the Returnables; and Michael Dahlquist, the drummer for Silkworm all died in a car accident in Skokie. They were coming back to work from lunch and were hit by someone speeding while talking on a cell phone (which is now illegal in Chicago)."

What a waste. I'd like to be able to have some kind of point with this post but I don't except to say that this is very upsetting. Silkworm is one of my favorite my bands. Best wishes those who died and to the families they have left behind. Below is the first Silkworm song I listened to after I heard the news.

Update:
Apparenty the the woman who caused the accident was trying to commit suicide. She now faces three counts of first degree murder. Link

Update:
The Chicago Tribune has an in depth story online about the deaths in which Silkworm bassist Tim Midgett says the band is now over and that Dahlquist "can't be replaced". Link

Silkworm - "Xian Undertaker" [MP3, 5.7MB, 128kbps]

-Thread on the Electrical Audio forum-

-Thread on the Silkworm forum-

www.silkworm.net

www.tgrec.com

The Silver Arrows

2005-06-28T04:27:00.000-05:00

I've only just begun to pay attention to the Silver Arrows as they get ready to leave. They played what will probably be their last show for awhile a few nights ago before moving from Denton to New York... without the drummer, who's staying behind.

The band had a song on Pyramid Scheme's Long Con Compilation last year that I didn't really like at first but which really grew on me. They play a sort of energetic, snotty art-rock that sounds like it would be really fun live. I hope their next Texas show isn't too far away.

I don't think they have released much (or anything, really) beyond the Long Con track at this point. They have been recording all they can before they leave and posting the results on their site. The plan is to find a new drummer once they get to New York and, I guess, become indie rock sensations. I wish them luck and hope this isn't the end of this very interesting band. We know how this goes. Of course, they can always go back home to Denton again if it turns out the rest of the world sucks. It worked for Centro-Matic.

Silver Arrows - "Parade" [MP3, 3.5MB, 128kbps]

Silver Arrows - "Up and Down" [MP3, 2.4MB, 128kbps]

Silver Arrows - "Gonna Do Those Things" [MP3, 2.6MB, 128kbps]

>>----The--Silver--Arrows---->>

Silver Arrows @ MySpace

"Stay away from street RPS"

2005-06-28T03:06:00.000-05:00

the International Rock Paper Scissors World Championships Site has had this clip up for awhile. Its supposedly from the dvd Playing RPS to Win: Secrets of the Masters. The site doesn't refer to the dvd as "upcoming" anymore but gives no information about how to obtain one. I don't know what the deal is - I just know I want one really bad. This clip is maybe one of the best things I've ever seen in my life. If it's all a joke then its brilliant.

It's not a joke though, as far as I can tell, but until I meet a hardcore RPS enthusiast in person there will always be part of me that questions whether this is all some grand hoax or not. Either way, it's fascinating.

There's also a film that's supposed to see release in "Summer 2005". I have hunch it might not make that window. There's a site and a trailer.

And you might as well take a look at the site for the World RPS Society or the Rollingstone news story on these nuts. Here's hoping they they picket for Olympic recognition soon.

haven't been around lately

2005-05-11T18:44:00.000-05:00

Some of the mp3 downloads will be down until I can find a new place to host them. If either of the two people who read this thing have any ideas contact me.

Dinosaur Jr on the Late Late Show

2005-04-17T00:34:00.000-05:00

I never saw the original lineup of Dinosaur Jr or any lineup thereafter. I saw J Mascis and the Fog a few years ago and it was about as tossed off and sad as this (only much louder). I'm going to be a cliche and say that my favorite Dinosaur Jr record is 1987's You're Living All Over Me but I like all of them at least a little (the last few very little) and while I never saw the band perform, I've heard enough bootlegs and seen enough of these tv performances over the years to know that my one Mascis live experience wasn't a fluke; he's only ever been a really fantastic guitarist in the studio. Still, this is ridiculous. It's getting worse as he gets older. Lou and Murph do their best to keep up as Mascis fumbles his way through "The Lung". At least pick a song you can do decent rendition of if you're going be on national television. There are points during this performance when both Lou and Murph look like they are about ready to call the whole thing off so I wonder how long this tour will last.

Or maybe I'm just being a jerk... maybe it was just a bad night and the tour will be mind-blowing. I'll go see them if I get half a chance anyway. It starts off promising but after mascis stops playing so he can sing the first verse (?!), he never really recovers. At the very least, it made me want to listen to the album.

Dinosaur Jr - "The Lung" Live on the Late Late Show video clip (free registration is required to download the video)

icky pre-code goodness for $1000.00

2005-04-13T03:29:00.000-05:00

Link

[via]

many many music videos....

2005-04-13T02:32:00.000-05:00

Link

Because its late and what else are you going to do at this hour? Crazy stuff, that's what. [via]

a bunch of Nirvana covers at Copy, Right?

2005-04-13T01:59:00.000-05:00

Most of these are just awful. Nirvana is one of those bands that's hard to cover without sounding like a complete idiot (see Tori Amos). Steve Earle's version of "Breed" is the best mainly because he doesn't try to fix what isn't broken. Richard Cheese's "Rape Me" is hilarious. Herbie Hancock's "All Apologies" is nice but still somehow clueless. Sinead's is ok I guess.

Seriously though, why do people like Evanescence? I'm stumped.

Link

Slowpoke

2005-04-12T21:28:00.000-05:00

One of the many bands signed to a major label during the "alternative" 90's in a rush of excitement only to be forgotten about and dropped soon after. Slowpoke were always better at writing songs than albums and they only really began to find themselves at the very end, when no one was paying attention anymore and they were using another name.

Started by Arlington, TX med student David Gibson and a friend on a lark, the band released a single on Direct Hit ("Limestone Friend/Plays Clean No. 5") a year or two before signing with the Dutch East India owned fake indie Grass Records and releasing Mad Chen in 1994. The single was derivative post punk that would have sounded at home on any number indie labels at the time. Early Am Rep comparisons missed the point - the sound flirted with a sort of droned out, dazed hardcore that was closer to early Sonic Youth if only there wasn't really anything to compare it to. This sound came the closest to being fully realized with the song "Ice Minus" which appeared on the We're From Texas compilation in 1992. The music seems to flow by in a haze as if it's all just a big insinuation. While recording in a cheap studio may have had something to do with this, it was nevertheless pretty interesting and fairly unique.

Mad Chen evened out the dynamics and fleshed out and mellowed the noise to the point that the comparison that popped up most in the few reviews it got was the Afghan Whigs. Imagine that band with all the angst and none of the pretend soul. This is where the problem with cohesion first became apparent. Listening to Mad Chen all at once left little impression, it sounded phoned in (a deeply inferior re-recording of "Ice Minus") and very much of its time, like the least interesting parts of a million other bands rolled into one. The bland production, Dulli-esque vocals and sour relationship lyrics heavy on the gun imagery ("Shotgun in the house/'Keep it for protection'/Or so you say") could have been any band at that point in history. Hell, it could have been your band. Revisiting it a little at a time, however, reveals some pretty interesting songs tucked away. Overall it still seems a little too heavy on the overplayed angst, but tracks like "Lopez De La Gomez", "In Time For Celius", "Coral" and especially the fantastic closer "(Sudden Death) Overtime" show definate personality. Mad Chen is the kind of forgettable album that would have made a wonderful EP.

The band was sidelined for awhile after the release of Mad Chen by Gibson's schooling. When they decided they wanted to make another record, Grass, who were in the middle of the buyout talks that would turn them into Wind Up, kept putting them off... So Slowpoke began recording anyway. It was mentioned later in interviews that at least three albums worth of material were recorded during this period only to be set aside. By the time Grass finally sent the band into Fort Apache studios with producer Wally Gagel to work on a proper follow up the few people who even remembered who they were had probably figured they weren't together anymore.

A three song tape from the Fort Apache sessions began circulating among industry people and Slowpoke, a band that even the most versed underground music fan still knew nothing about, found themselves in the middle of a minor bidding war. Grass/Wind Up spent months trying to bilk this supposed windfall for all it was worth before finally giving in. In October 1996 Slowpoke signed with Geffen and were told their album would be in stores in no time. The only new material the band had released in the two years since Mad Chen was Belated Valentine, a split single with the Toadies on Grass. Slowpoke's contribution, "She Fainted", was easily their best work up to that point. They didn't even sound like the same band anymore. Gone was the reliance on manufactured rage and sound alike histrionics. The song is driven by bass and keyboard. This new Slowpoke was all about groove and melody.

The band spent another two years waiting for Geffen to release their album. In early 1998 a CD single was released by Geffen and Last Beat Records containing the album track "Am I Shade?", "Shouldn't Be Out Late" ( presumably a song from the post Mad Chen/pre-Fort Apache recording frenzy) and a 4-track demo recording of the closest thing Slowpoke ever had to a "standard", "You Can't Trust Me". "Am I Shade?" basically sounds like a beefed up, more grooving version of one of the better tracks off Mad Chen. "Shouldn't Be Out Late" is a noisy pop song with loping bass and jazzy piano breaks. The version of "You Can't Trust Me" here was described in one review at the time as sounding like "Sebadoh covering the Pixies" and well... that pretty much nails it. It seemed like Slowpoke were really coming into their own.

In April 1998 the album, entitled Virgin Stripes, was finally released with little promotion and support and promptly bombed. Apparently the only thing Geffen really did for Slowpoke was give them hairstylists and new wardrobes and take plenty of pictures. Sadly, the album is a bit of a letdown. There are some real standout tracks, like the opener "Railroad" with it's siren like lead guitar and "Hey! Alma Mater" with backing vocals from the girl from Fuzzy (?). The problems are the stifling radio-ready production and a general nondescript feeling. Slowpoke seems to have traded one formula (angry post punk wailing) for another (modern altera-rock emoting). The album does so little to distinguish Slowpoke from every other "alterative" rock band at the time that you really have to wonder if promotion would have made much difference. Where are the bursts of personality and style (not to mention the keys) found in "She Fainted" and "Shouldn't Be Out Late"? Where is a full band recording of "You Can't Trust Me" (one would show up much later on a local music compilation)? Even "Am I Shade?" seems less interesting in this context. Geffen reportedly sent Slowpoke back into the studio to do some more work on the album before releasing it and one can only guess exactly how much was added or changed. Was Virgin Stripes a brilliant record that was ruined by too much label tinkering or a lackluster effort given an uncalled for radio sheen?

Not that it's all bad. As I said there are some nice tracks, but they only make the rest of the album that much harder to take. It's another average album that would have made a great EP. The band hoped to be in the studio again within a year of Virgin Stripes release working on another record... after all, the songs on the record were pretty old at this point. That never happened, though. Slowpoke were kept out of the studio and handed their walking papers within a year. The song "Lorraine" was apparently a bit of a minor radio hit for awhile in Florida but it was too little, too late. It's ashame because a song like "I Can't See You Anymore" would have sounded great on the radio, for whatever that's worth.

After vanishing for a while, the band re-surfaced in 2000 with the name Prize Money, released the best album of their career on a small local label, played some shows and then quickly vanished again... but that's for another post.

Limestone Friend [MP3, 3.1MB, 128kbps]

Plays Clean No. 5 [MP3, 3.5MB, 128kbps]

(Sudden Death) Overtime [MP3, 2.1MB, 128kbps]

She Fainted [Mp3, 4.7MB, 128kbps]

Shouldn't Be Out Late [MP3, 4MB, 128kbps]

I Can't See You Anymore [MP3, 3.6MB, 128kbps]

-Old Geffen Records Slowpoke Site (via Internet Archive)-

-Last Beat Records Slowpoke Site-

Gert Wilden

2005-04-10T23:20:00.000-05:00

I remember about 1998 or so seeing a copy of the Crippled Dick Hot Wax reissue of the Gert Wilden Orchestra's SchulmaÌdchen Report in the vinyl section everytime I went to Borders. I didn't know anything about the album or Wilden except what I read from the sleeve. I kept wanting to buy it because it sounded really interesting and because the artwork was full of naked ladies. It seems like I must have almost taken the plunge every single trip I made to Borders... and I was making pretty frequent trips at that point because I lived in Fort Worth at the time and Borders was the closest thing to a cool record store anywhere near me. I would always end up putting it back and getting something else though, worried that I might not like it and it would be a waste. I honestly don't know what I was thinking. It was an LP so it had to have been at least half the price of most of the cds I was getting. Maybe the pervy cover had something to do with it. Whatever. It doesn't matter because since finally hearing it last year it has quickly become a recent favorite.

For those who may not know, SchulmaÌdchen Report (Schoolgirl Report) is a compilation of music Wilden composed for various German softcore films in the 60's and 70's. Every thing I've read about this record usually says something along the lines of "The best parts of these films was the music". I haven't seen any of the films, and I'm not really in a hurry to either, but the music is fantastic. The tone surprisingly varied for porno music. Yeah its sexy and playful, filled with swinging flutes and breathy feminine vocalizing in places that leave no doubt as to the time the record was recorded in or it's original intention. Other times it's downbeat and jazzy ("Soul Guitar", "Ecstacy Blues") or just flat out rocking ("Follow Me", "Dirty Boy"). Altogether wonderful. Crippled Dick is a really great label for this sort of thing. They are like the Criterion Collection for weird old foreign scores.

"Follow Me" [MP3, 192kbps, 4.2MB]

"Sexy Girls" [MP3, 192kbps, 3.6MB]

"Ecstacy Blues" [MP3, 192kbps, 3.4MB]

-Crippled Dick Hot Wax Records-

Captain Audio

2005-04-03T01:39:00.000-06:00

I'm sitting here listening to Captain Audio and thinking yet again how I love the two records they released so much more than the two they have released since moving to New York, losing a member, gaining another and becoming The Secret Machines. I'm sitting here wondering why it wasn't Captain Audio that got to be heard by everybody instead of "Captain Audio minus one". I'm sitting here being a local music fanboy.

I like Now Here is Nowhere just fine actually, though I think I like the EP that preceded it, September 000, a bit more. Its just that neither of those records just flat out excite me as much as My Ears Are Ringing But My Heart's OK and LUXURY or Whether it is Better to be Loved Than Feared. That feeling on the one hand that this band is totally formed and they can toss off perfect chaotic pop songs and moments of crushing beauty like its a bodily function... and at the same time the sense that these aren't just songs... these guys are actually trying to do something here... and they're slowly pulling it off, whatever it may turn out to be. The Secret Machines don't have that kind of depth, at least not yet, but they clearly aspire to it. Regina Chellew's absence definately leaves a hole.

Chellew released the fine album hitsthemiss in 2001 on Last Beat Records under the name Chao and has been promising another album and/or an EP ever since that never comes. Her website was offline for the longest time but now it's back with a UK address. It says she's playing in a band with former members of Bedhead and Comet now as well.

Part of the problem is/was Last Beat. I remember when the label was started with money from an inheritance by a rabid local music fan. I remember the interviews early on where that same rabid fan would talk proudly of her plans to run it as a farm label (her words) and get all the bands signed to majors and make everybody rich. Sure it all seemed a little fishy but they were putting out some great music at that point (Captain Audio, Comet, Pervis, Tomorrow People, rubberbullet) and most people figured that, at the very least, her master plan might mean a few more people might hear some of these bands. But all it ever got was a few cd reviews in Alternative Press and some minor label interest that went nowhere.

The only updates that have been made to the Last Beat site in forever, aside from the shrinking artist roster and vanishing albums (where did PiNKSTON's cds go?) is the return of Captain Audio to the roster, the relaunching of a Captain Audio page and what's surely a hefty repressing of their two records, which would certainly have been deleted as well sooner or later if Now Here is Nowhere had bombed. Now you can buy two of the finest records Last Beat ever released... and you should because they are also probably two of the most exciting records to come out anywhere in the last 10 years

Had Captain Audio been on Matador, they would have been huge. This fanboy is still holding out for a reunion.

Captain Audio - Take It Like a Pill [MP3, 4.6MB, 128kbpsVBR]

Captain Audio - Because of You [MP3, 4MB, 128 kbpsVBR]

Captain Audio - Star [MP3, 2.4MB, 128kbps]

Captain Audio - Know It All [MP3, 5MB, 128MB]

Chao - Gotta Go [MP3, 4MB, 128kbps]

Chao - Head Cold From New York City (demo) [MP3, 3.7MB, 128kbps]

-Captain Audio-

-Chao-

-The Secret Machines-

-Last Beat Records-

-Ace Fu Records- (also selling the Captain Audio records now)

Brian Singer's Superman video blog

2005-03-28T23:59:00.000-06:00

I find this way more exciting than any other production video blog I've seen. Maybe it's because it's... you know... SUPERMAN.

-Blue Tights Adventure Network-

Until the End of the World director's cut

2005-03-28T22:06:00.000-06:00

Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World is the kind of movie I'm just drawn to. I can remember showing it to friends and them saying it was too boring or too confusing. I never completely disagreed with this, it is a little stuffy and disjointed in places, but that never made it any less compelling for me. I guess it's just one those flawed films that still manages be rewarding on some emotional/visceral level. I haven't seen it years but I watched it many times on video before then. If you haven't seen it you should. At the very least you should watch the trailer at the end of this post and decide if you would like to.

Anyway I just found out that it was supposed to be an almost 5 hour trilogy instead of the single 2 1/2 hour film I'm familiar with (the home video cut). How could I have never heard anything about this before? I guess this is what happens when you fall in love with a movie and then forget about it before the age of google. After spending 14 years and and gobs of money (for him anyway) filming it, Wenders was forced to chop it up for release and the original cut has only been seen at a few film festivals until now. Apparently it's been released on dvd in Italy as a 3 disc set with a combined running time of 280 minutes and some really interesting sounding extras. There are "legal considerations" (???) that have kept it from receiving a wide release.

I only know any of this because a divx rip of the new set was just posted to a torrent site I frequent. Yeah yeah... downloading movies is bad. I want to buy this set... so when is it coming out in my country? The movie isn't even available on disc at all in America. Hopefully that's because whoever holds the reins is waiting to do it right.

Seriously, if this set isn't released in this country soon I'm gonna take a hostage. hell.

Until the End of the World - theatrical trailer (ugly asf file but it's all I could find)

-Wim Wenders official site-

-UTEOTW Fansite-

Terri Schiavo's Blog

2005-03-27T22:45:00.000-06:00

*blink*

This is still my favorite fake blog, though.

Baptist Generals

2005-03-27T19:05:00.000-06:00

The peel session version of "Feds on the Highway" kills the version on No silver/No Gold. It's so visual. I don't know what it's about but when I listen to it I get these images in my head of two fugitives on a hopeless trip across the country. That's probably way off but that's okay with me.

Baptist Generals - Feds on the Highway (peel session) [Mp3, 4.1MB, 192kbps]

-Baptist Generals-

-Sub-Pop Records-

Bedhead - The Rest of the Day/I'm Not Here 7"

2005-03-27T18:12:00.000-06:00

When I got this record in the Spring or Summer of 1994 I was staying with a friend in Dallas... I was 16 or so. At home in Fort Worth I had been listening to the local college station and reading zines because I had just discovered both. I got a guitar because that seemed like the thing to do. I'd had it for about a year but I hadn't really bothered to learn how to play yet. When my friend went off to work and I was alone during the day I would ride the bus downtown to go to the record stores. I didn't have a lot of city bus experience. Every one of my record hunting trips ended with me getting lost. I would get there alright... it was getting back that was the problem. The bus system mystified me. I would usually make it back to the house long after dark... exhausted... and run to listen what I had just bought.

Most of the record stores I went to seemed way to cool for me. Walking inside felt like sneaking into a porno shop... like any moment I was going to be singled out and asked to leave. It never happened of course, everyone was always nice. I was a just self-concious teenager. I never felt that way when I went to the Direct Hit Records storefront, though. I'd walk inside and instead of dyed and pierced trendy people everywhere, there behind the counter would just be the owner, Sean, tending to his baby. The entire store smelled of his cologne and to this day I can't smell Polo without flashing back. Polo makes me think of vinyl. It was a tiny shop but every time I went I'd spend hours going through every single bin just to make sure I hadn't missed anything. To be honest it probably took a couple of visits to the actually buy this record. I kept passing it up. I had read nothing but glowing praise of Bedhead in local zines and newspapers. I hadn't heard the first single a year earlier and the descriptions of the band that getting kept getting tossed around ("a deafening whisper", "like classical music played on guitars")sounded a little too different to my noise obsessed ears. Finally one day I picked it up and asked Sean about it. I knew it was put out by his label and I was standing in his store so the last thing I would get from him would be an unbiased opinion... but it didn't matter. I knew I was going to buy it, I just wanted a little push.

My first thought when I played it was something like "wow, I thought it would be low-key... but I didn't think it would be this low-key.". Then I realized I had the turntable on the wrong speed. After I fixed it and played it again I could just sit there. It was so beautiful... intimate. I had never heard anything like it before. I played that record so much I was afraid I was going to wear it out so I taped it and played the tape endlessly. As I got each of their albums, they would stay in my cd player for weeks at a time. There was a line in a review I read about one their albums that said something about how the moment you hear Bedhead your standards are raised just a little. Yeah. They were then and still are probably my favorite band ever.

I love their album Beheaded but I usually skip through the re-recording of "The Rest of the Day". It's just too clean, too tight. I'll always prefer the original 4-track recording on the single. "I'm Not Here" and the WhatFunLifeWas track "To The Ground" are the only two Bedhead songs that really sound like the Velvet Underground to me so I never really agreed with the constant comparisons.

My turntable has been out of commission for a bit so I didn't rips these files. I got them off Soulseek so the sound is a little iffy in spots.

A. The Rest of the Day [MP3, 4.9MB, 128kbps]

B. I'm Not Here [MP3, 2.7MB, 128kbps]

-Bedhead-

-Direct Hit Records-

-Touch & Go Records-

Bedhead - The Rest of the Day/I'm Not Here 7"

A bunch of people posting rare Kurtzman...

2005-03-26T00:43:00.000-06:00

This is an old thread on the Cartoon Retro forum of people posting rare Harvey Kurtzman cartoons. This stuff is really great. Strange that the main Cartoon Retro site is for members only but the message board seems to be open to the public. Why do I question these things? Nevermind... I take it back. [via]

More Crain stuff (live mp3's)

2005-03-21T17:40:00.000-06:00

Former Crain drummer Will Chatham used to have mp3's of the original vinyl pressing of their debut album Speed on his site. I was thinking about posting links to some of them because I thought it would be interesting to hear how they sound next to the new remaster. I guess it's understandable that they aren't there anymore but what has taken their place is pretty cool.

Crain - Live on WMBR, Cambridge, Mass. - April, 1992

neat.

Crain - Speed reissue

2005-03-21T16:00:00.000-06:00

Temporary Residence has just re-issued Crain's long out of print 1992 debut album Speed. The recording has been remastered by John Golden and this is the first time it's ever been available on CD.

Crain were one of a few bands to come out of that whole Louisville math-rock thing in the 80's and 90's that really mattered to me. I remember a couple of years ago being so frustrated because I couldn't any information about them anywhere online. Their early singles and debut album were released in limited quantities on tiny labels. They signed to major label Restless and released Heater in 1994 (this was the era when almost every band in the country got signed for 5 minutes) but they were dropped soon after and the album was deleted. They had pretty much vanished. Temporary Residence deserves many thanks for this. Now if someone would just get around to doing the same for Heater.

Recorded by Steve Albini's in his old basement studio, Speed is both more melodic and more raw than Heater (also recorded by Albini). The remaster is stunning.

Car Crash Decisions [MP3, 2.9MB, 128kbps]
Skinminer Pastel [MP3, 2.5MB, 128kbps]
Breathing Machine (Bonus Track) [MP3, 2.7MB, 128kbps]

-Crain Speed-

-Temporary Residence-

Everyday Heroes...

2005-03-21T00:32:00.000-06:00

A pic I took at the Wizard World Expo in Arlington last year or the year before (???). As my friend and I were leaving the show the nerd in the white shirt dropped his box of comics. Nearby nerds, sensing distress, rushed to his aid. It was a windy day. You can see the feet of a helpful she-nerd as she runs to catch some comics before they make it to the parking lot and inevitable destruction. When she came back and glared at me I felt like a goober for just standing there taking pics the whole time but I felt it would have been wrong to interfere.

Bridges & Blinking Lights

2005-03-19T03:29:00.000-06:00

Great music towns don't have much else going on. I say this having never been to any other great music towns except Denton. Denton is boring as hell. It makes sense. There is no other way to explain how so many great bands seem to spring to to life there fully formed, like they've been together for decades. What else is there to do but drink and play music? I don't know much of Bridges & Blinking Lights. The first I heard of them was the track "Halfway Home" on Pyramid Scheme's excellent Long Con Vol. 1 compilation. That song begins with muffled drums and toy guitars and explodes a few moments in. The melody almost seems like something that should by sung by hillbillies with jugs, not college boys with guitars. Dissonant by it's very nature, not in keeping with some aesthetic. It sounds live, spontaneous... even though it's not. What's that line in Airheads about only needing write to one classic song in your lifetime to live forever? "Your Brain and Your Heart" reminds me of something from years ago but I can't really place it. It reminds me of the first time I heard certain bands. Not that it sounds anything like them (although the opening bassline instantly takes me back to high school for some reason... I dunno... The Breeders maybe?) but it reminds me of the excitement of hearing them. That Christmasy feeling when you first hear a band that connects with you on some emotional/bio-chemical/whatever level. I really need to get their cds and see them play.

Halfway Home [MP3, 6.3MB, 128 kbps]
Your Brain and Your Heart [MP3, 5.2MB, 192 kbps]
Strings [MP3, 7.9MB, 192 kbps]
On the Wall (live) [MP3, 2.9MB, 128 kbps]

-Bridges & Blinking Lights-

-Pyramid Scheme-

trailerness...

2005-03-18T22:11:00.000-06:00

War Of The Worlds (teaser trailer #2
A hokey, old fashioned alien invasion story played completely straight with tons of gee-whiz special effects. Ready-made Summer blockbuster trash. Independence Day was fun in the theater but it seems almost too stupid now. Obviously I still wanna see this.

Rock School
The teacher seems like a big stinky douche. This should be interesting.

Sin City
This is reminding me more and more of a darker Dick Tracy... and that's not a bad thing at all. At the very least it LOOKS just like the comic. Frank Miller deserves credit for getting this thing made and for still retaining what is presumed to be a great deal of control over the finished product. Still, once you get past how cool it looks there are some flat out awkward moments in the trailers... and some of the casting is dubious, to put it mildly (Josh Hartnett? Hello?). One good sign - even though Miller shares the director credit with Robert Rodriguez, it's pretty obvious that Rodriquez handled the heavy lifting. One bad sign - throwing Tarantino's name in the trailer as "guest director" when his involvement is probably very small.

Palindromes
The trailer doesn't give much clue as to what the film is actually about. It's supposed to be a sequel of sorts to Welcome To The DollHouse. Eight different actresses play the lead character throughout the story. Whatever. I'm interested. Like all of Todd Solondz' films, Palindromes has been getting mixed reviews since it debuted on the festival circuit last year. People by and large have hated everything he's since Dollhouse but they always seem to talk about his films afterwards. If I didn't know any better I'd think that this quiet nerdy guy with his awkward character based films is the most consistently controversial filmmaker around today... but that can't be right. Can it?

Herbie Fully Loaded
Two questions:
1) How can Michael Keaton look at himself in the mirror anymore (or Matt Dillon for that matter)?
2) Why is Lindsey Lohan in a jumpsuit the whole time?

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (trailer #3)
I'm sure the geeks are going to find things to bitch about because this is based on one of the only books they've probably ever read (and it was probably only read recently in anticipation for the film) but nobody ever listens to those guys anyway. This looks great.

Masculine Feminine
Godard on the big screen. How could you not go? Here's hoping someone gets around to doing the same for Contempt and Band of Outsiders.

A Scanner Darkly
Recently, the most embarrassing thing about the constant embarrassment known as the Oscars is the still young animation category. It's quickly become the prize given to whatever CG movie made the most money in a given year while wonderful and/or technically superior films like Tokyo Godfathers, The Triplets Of Belleville and Waking Life don't even get nominated. Yeah the original Shrek was a lot better than I thought it would be (better than that trash Monster Inc., not even close to Toy Story 2) but I'd rather watch any of the previously mentioned films any day of the week. A Scanner Darkly is Richard Linklater's new film that uses the same computer rotoscoping technique he debuted with Waking Life. Not only has the method been obviously fine tuned since last time (it looks incredible) but it arguably makes more sense in the context of this story than it did for the earlier film. A Scanner Darkly is based on the Philip k. Dick novel about a drugged up narcotics officer who doesn't realize he is chasing himself because his brain/consciousness is split in two. There have been many adaptations of Dick stories over the years (it seems like there is a new one almost annually) and most of them aren't very good. Even the good ones (Blade Runner, Total Recall) bear little resemblence to their source material. If this is half as good and true to the book as the trailer makes it seem it will be totally worth it.

Red Eye
This looks like the kind of film that will seem a lot less interesting when I find out more about it. Wes Craven is one of those talented directors (like George Romero) who long ago got lost somewhere in genre oblivion. For a while he traded one genre (slasher movies) for another (winking, post modern slasher movies) but it's really all the same thing. A Nightmare On Elm Street and The Serpent and The Rainbow are still probably his best films. This trailer entices me if only because, at this first brief glance anyway, it's like nothing he's done in over a decade.

What Is It?
Apparently someone gave Crispin Glover a movie camera. Who knows? Maybe it'll be brilliant. I'm not asking for coherence. I'm just asking for something completely Crispin. Would it shock anybody if this just turned out to be his home movies? Probably not.

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith
This is all anybody ever wanted to see. After suffering through two god awful prequels and years of George Lucas second guessing himself and those who made him rich (exactly how many different versions of the original trilogy do we need?) he might have finally done it right. Part of the problem is that this is what the entire new trilogy has always been leading up to but Lucas never really had it planned out as fully as he always said he did. He had vague ideas and sketches but when it came time to do it he just started skimming. It's like we got the cliff notes without ever seeing the source material. He had a sense of something much larger (originally 9 films altogether, remember) and if he would have had the energy, or the willingness to let other writers and directors take the reins, it could have happened... and it could have been glorious. As it turned out, The Lord Of The Rings trilogy has pretty much rendered Star Wars moot. Now this trailer comes out. Not that Lucas even really cares what I or anybody else thinks but if he's actually done it, if the film is as perfect as this trailer, then all is forgiven (or something else fittingly geeky).
There are arguably only two great films in the entire series. I don't seriously think this will be the last Star Wars film and I hope this is a sign of good things to come. I also hope that he will let other directors (preferably ones who have have a bit more practice over the course of their careers) handle any future projects. Also, I hope that live-action Jedi TV series starring Mark Hamill becomes a reality because I'd probably rather watch that than any of the films at this point.
Not that it really has to do with anything but hi-def or not, some of the shots in the trailer look a little too video. I didn't notice that in the last movie.

Mirror Mask
Written by Neil Gaiman and directed by illustrator Dave McKean. It looks like one of their old graphic novel collaborations (Violent Cases, Mr. Punch, The Day I Swapped My Dad For 2 Goldfish, etc.) come to life... which is probably something that people will be saying a lot about this movie in the next year or so. Wouldn't it be something if the purest expression of a comic creator's vision ever put to film wasn't even really based on a comic book? This gives me a good feeling about the adaptation of Death: The High Cost Of Living that Gaiman has been trying to do for years, based on his own comic... but nevermind the Sandman movie. If Mirrormask turns out as good as it looks it kind makes doing a Sandman movie pointless. Of course, doing a Sandman movie always seemed kind of pointless anyway. So yeah, everybody wins.

Criterion Collection Holiday 2004 Gift Set... DRRROOOOLL....

2004-11-16T02:46:00.000-06:00

So Amazon is selling a package of every Criterion dvd released ever so far for five thousand dollars (except the out of print titles, of course). 282 of the finest films ever made (blah blah blah) and a good reason to never leave the house again. Even though the $4999.00 is marked down from the "list price" of 7500.00, it still seems high. You could probably spend less just buying them all off ebay or online stores. After all, it seems like the only people who really sell Criterion dvds for list price anymore are brick and mortars. Deep Discount DVD has what basically amounts to a "half off criterions" sale every few months. I'm guessing the main goal of an extravagant offering like this is just to draw attention to Criterion in Amazon shoppers' minds this holiday season. This is only for rich people/schools/libraries/etc.

Still, it sure would be nice to get that box in the mail.

neat trailers....

2004-10-28T13:02:00.000-05:00

Recent trailers that are interesting, exciting or just stick with me in some way...

Birth
This trailer reminds me of both Rosemary's Baby AND Eyes Wide Shut and even though the story seems to have nothing in common with either, I get the feeling it's intentional. The film is all pastels and greys and it looks really beautiful. Nicole Kidman was never a really great actress and as a movie star she's becoming more of an annoyance. She seems to be wearing out her welcome more and more for everyone but middle-aged women and lovers of gay kitch. Jonathan Glazer's last film was the "critically acclaimed" Sexy Beast four years ago... so Birth has that going for it. From the looks of it, This is one of those "psychological thrillers" that will either be a total snooty bore or fantastic... there's not really a lot of in between. At this point it looks really intriguing...

The Machinist
Another "psychological thriller", this one doesn't provoke the feeling of apprehension about it's quality that Birth does. This just looks like a great movie. This is the role that Christian Bale lost gobs of a weight for right before putting it back on again (and then some) to do Batman Begins. I'm looking forward to Batman but, as of this moment, I'm looking forward to The Machinist more...

Constantine
The film adaptation of Hellblazer, the long running Vertigo comic book (it started in the mid 80's) about the adventures of occultist/psychic-detective John Constantine. A couple of problems that fanboys have been whining about right from the start... 1.) Keanu is playing Constantine and he isn't blond or english like the character is supposed to be and 2.) the studio seemed intent on making this a PG13 film which is crazy to anyone who's ever read the often exceedingly violent comic. Well, Keanu may not look or sound much like Constantine but I can get over that. The fact that it's Keaunu at all is the real issue... but surprisingly he doesn't seem totally crappy in this. He even seems to be hinting at the facial expressions and overall physicality that the drawings of Constantine suggest. If anything, He just plays Constantine too nice... I always envisioned him a little smarmier. As far as the rating goes... this item on the Straight to Hell fansite seems hopeful. oh yeah, since the first link was just a direct link to the High Res version of the trailer here's the Med Res and Lo Res versions too....

Tarnation
The trailer for this alone is breathtaking. This is first time director Jonathan Caouette's documentary about his hard life and relationship with his mentally unstable mother. It's a jumble of film and video that seems to be edited in a much more stylized way than the average documentary... to great effect.

Dig!
Anton Newcombe is one of those guys who wants to be a "BIG ROCK STAR" so bad but everything he does ends up being contrived, obvious and forgetable. All he really has is the drug problem so he milks it for all it's worth. Rememeber when Truth Or Dare came and did really well and Madonna thought that meant she was legitimized but really it just meant that people liked seeing her exposed as the whiny, talentless diva she is? Well this looks like it's gonna be like that except about a roll and roll loser...

Undertow
This is the new David Gordon Green film. It looks much less muted (and maybe more conventional?) than his first two films, George Washington and All The Real Girls....

John Peel dies

2004-10-26T12:13:00.000-05:00

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | Legendary radio DJ John Peel dies: "Peel, whose radio career spanned 40 years, was on a working holiday in
the city of Cuzco with his wife Sheila when he suffered a heart attack."

No more Peel sessions. The cool old guys are dropping like flies. Can someone go over to Shatner's house and make sure he's ok just to be on the safe side.