Category: Music

This publicity stunt is making me thirsty

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

The Long Blondes disc Someone To Drive You Home starts off well but takes a dive around song #3. It gets up off the mat for song #8, but quickly falls back down again.

.:.

My cold has pretty much left my sinuses and moved on to my throat. I’m a pretty hack machine right now. On the plus side I worked from home today (so as not to spread my illness around) and am getting a bunch of stuff done that I just can’t seem to get to in the office.

.:.

I’m not totally sure what to make of the Michael Richards thing. I saw the clip and the apology, and maybe I’m just cynical, but I kinda think this is a stunt. Richards’ career is in the tank. He’s never managed to break out of the “Kramer” stereotype. He looks at Mel Gibson, who got tons of free press over his drunken anti-semitic tirade (and who’s essentially gotten off scot free after doing a pile of apologetic interviews and talk show appearances) and thinks, hey, I can do that. Maybe the guy in the audience was a plant, maybe Richards just seized on the first black person he saw; either way, he knew it would get him attention.

Maybe it really is as Richards says, and it was all just a colossal fuck-up. Either way it’s deplorable. But I can pretty much guarantee you Michael Richards will get a primetime interview and some morning show appearances out of this. In a world where OJ nearly gets on TV talk shows and bookstore shelves saying “If I Did It”, anything is possible.

[tags]long blondes, someone to drive you home, michael richards, mel gibson[/tags]

Fun with Yam and Sharp

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A few things we found out last night while testing out the new TV and stereo:

  • Raptors games in hi-def look freakin’ amazing. The Lakers uniforms were so yellow it got hard to look at, and you could see every tragic after-effect of all that surgery on Dyan Cannon’s face.
  • The New World looks stunning on the new TV (and sounds equally stunning in surround sound) but not stunning enough to keep me from nodding off. Star Wars Episode III looks awesome too.
  • If I put the sub-woofer on anything higher than -5, the neighbours will likely kill me.
  • I can’t get the universal remote to control the amp — maybe the codes in the book aren’t made for this new model? — but I did accidentally stumble across the code to control my Soundbridge.
  • Speaking of the Soundbridge, even 128-bit MP3s streamed across a wireless connection sound brilliant on this stereo. The guy who came to set it up was surprised how good it sounded, considering what poor sound you get when you plug an iPod into a real stereo.

[tags]new tv, new stereo, sharp aquos, yamaha, definitive speakers, the new world movie, star wars episode iii, roku soundbridge, raptors, lakers, dyan cannon, hdtv[/tags]

Adverse to human health and happiness indeed

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The Bush administration has appointed Eric Keroack head of the federal Office of Population Affairs, which is responsible for federal family planning program and budgets. Dr. Keroack is also the medical director of A Woman’s Concern, “an organization that opposes premarital sex, contraception and abortion.”

My guess is that this is Bush’s way of saying “fuck you” to the Democrats, who can do little about this, if anything at all.

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Making a Johnny Cash / Neko Case concert CD doesn’t make much sense. Then again, maybe it makes all kinds of sense.

.:.

If you haven’t checked out today’s Daily Dose of Imagery, you really should. In general, if you don’t look at that site every day, you really should.

[tags]bush, eric keroack, office of population affairs, johnny cash, neko case, daily dose of imagery[/tags]

Since when does "card" rhyme with "world"?

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

More musical pain: corporate bonding a la David Brent. [via]

.:.

The 2007 rock n’ roll hall of fame nominees have been announced: R.E.M., Van Halen, The Stooges, Patti Smith, The Dave Clark Five, Chic, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Joe Tex and The Ronettes.

The first five I agree with. Grandmaster Flash and The Ronettes I could live with. I have no freaking idea who Joe Tex is, so I’d be surprised if he/she/they made it. If Chic gets elected, I will make it a goal in life to visit Cleveland and piss on the hall of fame, nay, on the very essence of rock n’ roll.

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I watched Cinema Paradiso (imdb | rotten tomatoes) over the weekend. I liked it a lot; I’m really annoyed that I read an article several months ago giving away the last scene (the article was about films that make men cry, and this was a popular choice), but it was still very worthwhile. Highly recommended, unless you’re my mother or Stanzi, in which case you’ll cry for the last 20 minutes.

[tags]bank of america, rock n’ roll hall of fame, cinema paradiso[/tags]

Marianne's a bitch

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If you love Bob Dylan, or even like his music, or even if you know who he is, do not watch this. ‘Cause you will feel dirty. [via]

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The more I listen to Regina Spektor’s Soviet Kitsch, the more I like it. I liked her more recent album Begin To Hope immediately, and liked it even more with each consecutive listen. Soviet Kitsch took a few more listens, but I’m there now. I love the lo-fi approach to songs like “Poor Little Rich Boy” where it actually sounds like she’s using a drumstick to tap out quarter notes on her piano stool as she plays.

[tags]bob dylan, regina spektor, soviet kitsch, begin to hope[/tags]

What would Mallory Keaton say about Senate finance reform?

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Tonight was the screening of Babel (imdb | rotten tomatoes) to which I won a free pass last week. It was, like the last Iñárritu film we saw — 21 Grams — intricate, even delicate in how it displayed human frailty and trauma. It was compelling and well told; we didn’t really notice that it was 2.5 hours long.

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Sadly, the same can’t be said for a film I watched earlier in the week. Slacker (imdb | rotten tomatoes) may be a cultural document, but it feels badly dated fifteen years on. I actually stopped it 1/3 of the way through; it was alternately getting on my nerves and boring me. I wish I’d watched it in 1991, but I truly had no idea anything like that was happening in the world in 1991. I was in cultural Siberia.

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I downloaded two new albums from eMusic: Dust Bowl Revival by Ox and Quiet Waters by Woolly Leaves. Both are alt-country/folk style, and quite mellow. Ox is a band my brother turned me on to, and they do some mean Woody Guthrie covers; Woolly Leaves are the band of a member of The Constantines.

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After giving it an honest-to-goodness try to see what all the fuss was about, I deleted my MySpace account this morning. I found it both a popularity contest (which I want no part of) and an entry-level blogging tool (which I have no use for). On top of that, it looks like it was designed by a drunk guy in 1998. MySpace is the AOL of our decade; it’ll be dead (or massively repurposed) soon enough. Good riddance.

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What would Alex P. Keaton say about stem cell research? Forget that; what would Jennifer do? Or Nick? Or Andy? Or — God help us — Skippy? By the way, whatever olympic-class fuckwit asked Michael J. Fox that question should be sterilized. No sense keeping those genes in the mix.
[tags]babel, inarritu, slacker, ox dust bowl revival, woolly leaves quiet waters, constantines, myspace sucks, alex p keaton, michael j fox[/tags]

I told everybody when I came out the wilderness

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

The new Be Good Tanyas disc Hello Love is good. The new Walkmen disc “Pussy Cats” Starring The Walkmen, a tribute to the Harry Nilsson album, is not good at all (unless you’re a Harry Nilsson fan, maybe). The new Bonnie Prince Billy disc The Seedling is good, but not great. If you can, find the stripped-down demo version of the title track; it’s much better than the final studio version. Raw = better.

[tags]be good tanyas, hello love, walkmen, pussy cats, bonnie prince billy, the seedling[/tags]