Potential costume idea

Michael Nesmith in Head

All right! Yes! Fort Awesome part ??: the returning!

So my final year of university happened and so did Halloween. I am not quite done with school  yet of course, but I thought I'd drop in:
I've been a horror movie fiend these past few weeks, Here's an itinerary(I'll get more into em as soon as  I can)

Dead Zone- Excellent, Christopher Walken needed an oscar nomination
Pet Semetary: God awful except for Fred Gwyne
American Werewolf in London: Fantastic, Cronenberg's the Fly owes a lot to this movie with the psychological torment of the main character and the body horror

 and next, I'll be watching:
The two other Hammer Horror Dracula  films ( Christopher Lee-Fuck yes!)
House of The Devil (an 80s style Horror movie from three years ago)
Friday the 13th
Return of Frankenstein(with Peter Cushing!)
So look out for those! :D

Are you bored of 77 punk?

Then check out some of this
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Happy Birthday by Altered Images

It's so damn stupid a song, it's brilliant.
Take a nice listen right 'ere
Here's what the lead singer, Clare Grogan looks like nowadays. Very Thatcherish, yes?

Short review of Man who fell to earth

good cinematography and good acting from Bowie. It's basically a more depressing, sexual version of Edward Scissorhands.

The Ramones- the accidental first parody of a boy band

Sorry Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett but the Ramones were the first band to satirize the manufactured pop stuff since the lead three members seemed to parody the archetypes accidentally, think about it.

1)Joey: So sensitive that the poor man had OCD

2)Johnny the tough guy to the point of being a racist, controlling asshole

3) Dee Dee-the "wacky" guy who was obsessed with nazis and even fantasized about killing his girlfriend in a song. Also illiterate as any account on the making of Rock n Roll High School will tell you(took him 50 some takes just to get the word Pizza)

4)Tommy/Marky: the straight man who tried to keep everyone together although Marky was an alcoholic for a while and well, with people like the above going at each other's throats(for good reason, granted, Johnny stole Joey's ladyfriend and married her), who could blame him?

This is fucking brilliant

Just watch it and tell me I'm wrong

Just a note

When choosing to what Coldplay Scientist cover to listen to, go with the Aimme Mann one because Willie Nelson and his voice is a letdown.
In the meantime, here are some of my other favorite female sung covers:

Colin Farell's ex sings a Smiths tune (Much better than it sounds, believe me)
Neko Case sings some Tom Waits, probably far better than Scarlett Johansen

Sia sings Radiohead, although here, the violins are the standout part.

This is an issue

Gorillaz are going to have converse shoes in Feburary of 2012. The problem?
Nike as usual, has pretty big sweatshop issues, especially in the case of Converse.

Damn it

Everyone needs to hear some Flying Burrito bros/Gram Parsons right fuckin now!

my 9/11 tenth anniversary playlist and why

1) New York State of Mind- Billy Joel:Yes, this was far, far too overplayed in the month or so after the attacks, but listening to it in its original form, it's a soft solitary, sad ode to his favorite city. I picture a young Joel standing on an apartment's roof looking out over the city with a beer in hand just as the sun goes down. He's come a long way from Hollywood whether it was for a gig or to visit his best girl, but now he gets to unwind from the long tedious, likely heated drive and savor the metropolis in all its charm. I don't care what a dickish slate writer says, Joel's all right here. Basically, the calm before the storm as it were

2) A Pair of Brown Eyes-The Pogues: My Boy Shane seems to have predicted certain tragedy about 16 years before it occured, but I'm not trying to spout any conspiracy theories here: Shane says the song was about talking to a war veteran in a pub just as the narrator was going through a breakup, but this song could easily apply to 9/11 too, besides, who didn't want to drink and cry for a few hours after watching all the news coverage?

3) Two silver trees-Calexico: This is from the Nevver blog and it has a nice haunting melody and whispering to it, capturing the specter of death and paranoia that hung over the city and nation for weeks afterward

4) All is Violent, All is bright: Another meloncholy piece courtesy of the Nevver blog, a bit cheesy with the guitars at first, but then it gives off a good tense industrial vibe

5)Hallejuah- Jeff Buckley: I don't think there's any explanation necessary for this one, although I sort of prefer John Cale's version better if only for the vocals. But this is very beautiful on its own, especially the guitar solo.

6) This Mess we're in- PJ Harvey and Thom Yorke: I haven't listened to PJ Harvey that much, but she works nicely with Yorke's (good and emotional, mind you) wailing though I have to give the prize for vocal work here to Yorke, he's the hero of this tragic love story and does a hell of a job with it. A good mix of mourning and fear here; I picture a man stumbling from the wreckage and squinting through the sobbing, confused crowd trying to find someone, anyone he can clutch on to for help.

7) Oh Comely-Neutral Milk Hotel: from the one and perhaps only both surreal and heartbreaking album ever. The lyrics seem absurd, but with the acoustic guitar and Jeff Mangum's strained voice? god damn. Just get Aeroplane Over the Sea, seriously.

8) I really feel(Lunar Flex) Drum Club; Another ominous industrial sounding track, complete with middle eastern chanting. Very primal scream like like except slower and apocalyptic. Listening to this, you can picture a taxi slowly moving through a wrecked city.

9) The National Anthem- Radiohead: I could see this song used in a Bourne Identity film, it's a perfect five minute summary of a panic attack with Thom wailing a mantra about large crowds(everyone's around) and attempting to hang onto sanity(Hanging on). My most favorite Radiohead song ever is probably Idiotique for it's almost pogo-esque beat against bleak lyrics, but this may very well be at a close second(well, okay, second place is probably Paranoid Android). I guess then you could say Kid A is an electronic, paranoid version of Aeroplane over the sea?

Todd Haynes' Superstar a mini review

Movie's
Kudos to the effort and the amount of Barbie dolls that it took , but overall, it just feels very tasteless and well, campy. I understand his attempt to present 70s light pop as literal plastic and obviously how society's ideals of beauty translates to barbie dolls and thus anorexia, but all in all, I was unimpressed.

thoughts on Straight edge

Well, only one question really: where the fuck were the lady straight edge bands?!!!

Question

Is what Nicki Minaj is doing all that different from the works of Wu Tang clan or RZA?

Punk and the swastika

for a certain somebody
Okay so some of the punks back then were kinda dumb,but they were young and could relate to the feeling of being in Nazi Germany(oppression of labor unions, Powell,etc.) Did I mention that Johnny Rotten had a great love of Reggae and Siouxsie would later fully speak out against racism? Read the whole feature, it's a tad bitter in places, but it's a lot more complicated than just "punks wearing swastikas are ultimately racist!" Was it a stupid gesture? Yes. Was it somewhat, perhaps a tiny bit understandable in context of their surrounding environment? Also yes.

call me fucking stupid

But I'm actually kinda happy a hip hop artist with D.I.Y. internet Roots won an MTV award And anyway, couldn't A tribe called quest also be grouped under the White hipster fanbase genre of rap? Methinks there's a bit of ageism going on here.

thoughts

Imperial Bedroom: It's a much less unnerving version of Pinkerton set in a jazz bar. Poor lil Declan mopes and mulls over whether to talk to a girl, scolds himself for not being the right type and regrets past loves that went sour. And he's not at all sarcastic about it; he's quite, reserved and,well, sad. It's quite a far cry from the sarcastic Costello many were used to on his earlier stuff. While it lacks the agonized wail of a Gordan Gano, say, Imperial Bedroom is the best damned Jazzy emo precursor out there. Get of yer ass and get it.

Crazy Rhythms: The rhythms aren't crazy, but they're good. Pitchfork called this geek rock and I'd agree in some respect; Loveless love, Moscow Nights and Original love deal with the yearn of no longer being a virgin,but most of the time, this record sounds like a really good garage band tuning up and practicing, giving it all a nice suburban "we're rocking out to beat ennui" vibe.

Assesments

Mission Of Burma: Like the Minutemen, they aren't so much punk as acoustic rock and as much as I hate to say it, this didn't draw me in. The guitars on All world cowboy romance were quite impressive, but overall it didn't have the catchy hook of a "Shit from an old notebook" or the smooth softness of "Do you want New Wave or do you want the truth"

Young Marble Giants: Now this? Incredible- these guys flirted with everything from pre 8 bit noises on "The Taxi"(Seriously, these guys coulda been video game composers if they wanted to) to simple guitar pop on "Wurlitzer Juke box" t0 the60s spaghetti western guitar sound on " Choci Loni" and the lady's voice makes it all even more unnerving. No wonder they didn't record another album, it probably couldn't top this one! Bravo kids, bravo!

Next up: Imperial Bedroom and Crazy Rhythms.

In which I peruse selections from the Pitchfork various best album of the (insert decade here)

I went to bed early last night and with not much to do, I decided to check out Pitchfork's picks for best albums of the 70s, 80s, and 90s- here's the ones picked out as most intriguing either due to a lyric sample or description alone:

80s:
Imperial Bedroom-Elvis Costello: apparently, this was quite the personal album. Oh, and I have to thank him for producing Rum,sodomy and the lash of course.
Fear and Whisky-Mekons- described by Eric Carr as a " drunken redneck lecturing on socialist economic policies" I am in!
Signals, Call and Marches- Mission to Burma: Academy fight song is a catchy sonovabitch(okay, it's not on this album, but still) and That's when I reach for my revolver packs an emotional wallop(why the fuck hasn't it been used in some remake of Hamlet?) so why else wouldn't you want to listen?

Crazy Rythyms- The Feelies: Being impressed with their cover of Paint it Black,making the sitar filled classic into a low key yet rallying cry for raining on people's parades(I assume) and their original Boy with Perpetual nervousness, I decided to check out the rest of their album. Oh and Brendan reid says they were a precursor to Weezer only obviously not as creepy as River Cumuo(let's hope)

And don't the Kids just love it- Televison Personalities:Pitchfork sez these guys invented Twee, but to me, stuff like This Angry Silence or Part time punk highlights something darker: it's basically a much sadder version of Charlie Brown. Twee's actually more cheerful even when it talks about relationship problems

Colossal Youth-Young Marble Giants: The final Day is a short, disturbing gem, and apparently, the morbidly fascinating idea of the apocalypse haunts the rest of the album too:

Though the album's spare, perfectly placed strokes of guitar, bass, organ, and voice would have more of an effect on mopey slowcore types and basement four-trackers, the ineffable thing about the Giants' music was how simultaneously haunting and cheery they could be. "Eating Noddemix" is music for brushing your teeth to the morning after an apocalypse, and the inimitable "Wurlitzer Jukebox" is a dance track for the last man on earth, with a geiger counter relentlessly ticking out the beat. Om, baby, yeah. --Brendan Reid

Brushing teeth?A Geiger counter? Oh Boy!

E2-E4-Manuel Göttsching. The last name alone sold me

70s:

Band of Gypsies- Jimi Hendrix: Never heard this one, nuff said.

A tribute to Jack Johnson-Miles Davis: Not a fan of boxing,but this somehow intriguied me

Historie de Melody Nelson-Serge Gainsbourg: Apparently a very creepy album about Serge's ladyfriend. Sounds like another precursor to Pinkerton

I'll do the 90s list tomorrow, but today's selection I chose to download Young Marble Giants' Colossal Youth and Misson Of Burma's Signals, Calls and Marches. My reviews will come soon.

Book O Mormon

Didn't get to see the musical,but I got the broadway cast recording and shall be listening to it. Methinks "Fuck you, God" may very well be on par with that of The Pogues' gallows humor, vulgar semi religious anthems such as Sickbed of Cuchulain or Sally Mcleanne, but we shall see.