Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Free EP that doesn't suck : Black Kids - Wizard of Ahhhs



Trust me. everybody loves it. Except you. You haven't heard it yet.

But you will. Oh, you will.

The album sounds like the bastard child of the Cure and Sunset Rubdown, if that child was conceived on a garage floor with 50's doo-wop gold standards playing in the background. I feel like I stretched that analogy a little thin. But that's what they don't pay me the big bucks for.

...Anyways, go to their myspace and download this immediately.

Black Kids On Myspace
Pitchfork Review: Wizard of Ahhhs EP

Holy Hail - Cool Town Rock

Ran across this video for Holy Hail's new single "Cool Town Rock" on Gorillavsbear.com.

I only sort of dig the song, but I liked the video enough to post it here. Has an aestheic like weird sketches in a 70's era graphic artist's journal. But whatever. just watch it.



Listen to 3 more tracks on their myspace:
Myspace.com/holyhail

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Advance Screening of No Country for Old Men

I was invited to an advanced screening of No Country for Old Men, the new Cohen brothers film based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, and I have to say I was pretty impressed with the film. And by pretty impressed, I mean it was fucking awesome. I loved the slow, panning desert cinematography, the spare and realistic dialog, the dry humor all. Perhaps the strongest element in the film, however, was the absolutely terrifying main antagonist, Anton Chigurh, wielding a silenced shotgun (?) and a penetrating captive bolt cattle stunner.

Best movie i've seen in a while. I'd write a full review, but screw that. Just go see it.

"Call it... Friendo."



4.5/5.0 Highly Recommended.

Think about it. A vicious homicidal psychopath who performs the coup dé grace with THIS. The ultimate badass indeed.

Monday, October 15, 2007

This Holds no Relevance



"There is that dimension where there is neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor wind; neither dimension of the infinitude of space, nor dimension of the infinitude of consciousness, nor dimension of nothingness, nor dimension of neither perception nor non-perception; neither this world, nor the next world, nor sun, nor moon. And there, I say, there is neither coming, nor going, nor stasis; neither passing away nor arising: without stance, without foundation, without support [mental object]. This, just this, is the end of stress."

—The Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta

2 rad songs for your party-mix-auto-reverse-tape-cassette.




Knife [Girl Talk Remix] - Grizzly Bear

Paper Planes - M.I.A.

"All I wanna do is (BANG BANG BANG BANG!)
And (KKKAAAA CHING!)
And take your money"

Truer words were never spoken.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

So About that Ghostface Concert...

So the show was OK, and Ghostface more or less killed. He's got skill and he's been doing this for years. I'd expect nothing less.



...But the opening act, Witchdoctor, was so abysmally bad that he threatened to ruin the concert before it even began. His lame, obvious rhymes and poor flow (as well as his constant plugging of his new album during his set) only served to suck the energy right out of the room and ruin the rest of the show. I almost laughted out loud when he started rapping about being "real" when at the same time he seemed to embody every bad cliché of modern rap. Not only was his material bad, but he lacked any kind of stage presence, and seemed to fade into the background when his "crew" came onstage. He just looked uncomfortable up there, and had to rely heavily on the also mediocre talents of his douchtastic entourage (I'm looking at you, lanky white guy in the velour track jacket, baggy jeans and "Tigger" flat brimmed baseball cap).

There were times when Witchdoctor tried to get the energy of the audience back, predictably resorting to cheap lines like "Everybody here love getting HIGH!?" or "Raise your lighters in the air, everybody get their motherf*cking lighters in the air!" I felt like I was watching a bad comedian trying to get a cold audience back on his side with inane comments about everyday life. Except instead of "Yeah, I hate airplane food too, I can really relate to this guy!" the desired reaction was "Yeah I love getting mad wasted too! this guy's totally awesome!". It's the oldest cop-out in the history of stage performance and a clear indicator of a complete lack of ability. Yeah. We all like getting drunk, but when you can't rap to save your life, who really gives a shit?

There are artists who are talented, but exist beyond the mainstream by virtue of the fact that their material is too sophisticated or different to sell lots of records. Then there are others who simply lack the talent to break into the music scene. From his performance, I can only guess that Witchdoctor falls in the latter category. But hey, I could be wrong.