Pre-seasonal Weather

In a somewhat dramatic turn of events, the new Why? album Eskimo Snow has been leaked nigh on two months prematurely. Described by Yoni Wolf as "really the least hip-hop out of anything I've ever been involved with. I mean, they feel like song-songs with-- I don't want to say a typical verse-chorus structure, but they're song-songs" - it is destined to be interesting at the very least...

Bounce your morals round as to whether to download it, I'm not going to give you links, don't be a scab, make sure you pay for it, eventually.

Reviews to follow in the near future...

Someone Still Loves The Missouri Cardinals...

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin (SSLYBY) are a band much listened to by myself over the last couple of years. Hailing from the Springfield, Missouri, they epitomize the heartfelt lyricism of their lo-fi indie rock niche. Their songs are simply lovely in many, many respects.

So on finding that they had just recorded an anthemic rock song for their local minor-league baseball, the Missouri Cardinals, an eyebrow was definitely raised...

But here it is, have a listen, and see what you think...

http://www.catbirdseat.org/catbirdseat/sslyby-cardinalrules.mp3

as taken from catbirdseat.org

Yo Gabba Gabba!

To be honest, I don't really watch all that much television anymore. I'm not exactly sure as to whether it's a symptom of the fact I have less time or rather the pervasive lack of anything worth watching (a generalization, I'll concede).

Suffice to say that it's rare, rare indeed that I find myself completely and utterly enthralled for half an hour of television that I didn't set out to watch, yet, such is the power of Yo Gabba Gabba! Sure it's a kid's show, but it's a kid's show that will produce the coolest generation of kids ever to have graced us with their presence.

Hosted by the orange-jumpsuit-clad-figure seen above, the enigmatic DJ Lance Rock, who represents a godlike figure to the other characters (and god knows, I'd worship him), Yo Gabba Gabba manages to wrap the run-of-the-mill moralistic lessons integral to a children's show in music which would not seem at all out of place on your ipod.

The Yo Gabba Gabba! phenomenon has attracted guests such as Jack Black, Murray from Flight of the Concords, etc. as well as a phenomenal spectrum of musical talent with bands such as The Shins and Of Montreal both appearing.

Here's Of Montreal's contribution, in video-from-the-show form. So have a listen, and see if you can't catch the show at some point, it's definitely far more entertaining than most of the other crap on tv...

Okkervil River flowed in concert.

This is way overdue, but time is relative, so suck it.

In the not too distant past George and I ventured to Billboard, to cast our scrutinizing gaze over the musical banks of Okkervil River.

In deference to a short precis, my one adjective for them would be pathetic.

Not pathetic in the modern wearing-a-two-piece-denim-suit-and-thinking-it's-cool kind of sense, but more in the traditional full-of-emotion meaning of the word.

Okkervil River, played with an energy that resonated harmoniously with whatever song they were playing - Their rocky songs were rockier and punchier and their slower songs more considered and heartfelt. Their set showed glimpses of the true artistic flare of a band that have time and time again produced consistently enjoyable music, and I would excessively recommend that any of you, should you get the chance, go see them live.

Jonathan Boulet

killing all your trees and family / living in your dreams and influent speech

I'm in a good mood, this guy is amazing, 20, and from Sydney, I can hear many a band and genre in here, but in short, it's a pop-ier version of the synth of Animal Collective/M.I.A, with the general feeling of the Ruby Suns, but more gentle/relaxing/happy.

A Community Service Announcement - Jonathan Boulet

GO:
www.myspace.com/jonathanboulet

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Mexichno

Straight out of Mexico, [insert swine-flu joke here] - Los Amparito - [insert upside-down question mark]. It has been likened to El Guincho, which I believe This Guy may be bringing to your ears soon, and I don't mind it one bit, especially the remix. It is an electro-percussive-heavy project from "Pepepe".

Las Miradas De Magaly - Los Amparito

And smuggling the tribal beats of Brothersport south-of-the-border in this great remix:

Brothersport - Animal Collective (Los Amparito Remix)

Further listening:

http://www.myspace.com/losamparito
http://www.myspace.com/pepepepepepepepepe
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synth degrees of separation

More stuff and shit?

Now honies play me close like butter played toast

Because I've been listening to a lot of Biggie lately:

Juicy (Brooklyn Go Hard Mix) by "DJ Digital Dave" - what a name...

And just in general:

OLD (1979)

Down In The Park - Gary Numan & Tubeway Army

Sorry for shit indirect linking - I really wanted to put it up and it was nowhere.

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The Boat That Rocked (read:sucked) - A Review

The Movie That Sucked...HA!

Spoiler Warning: This movie is about to be wrecked like the boat at the end. Oh...sorry.

I saw this last night, and it was "not good". It is, as you can see, The Boat That Rocked, written and directed by Richard Curtis who wrote and directed Love Actually. It's long, doesn't follow any sensible structure, self-validates, and is bad. It's pretty much Love Actually, but loosely based on the true story of a 'pirate' radio stations (illegal, right, but also on a boat!!11, but that's why it's called 'pirate'!!!1 so, like, triple-etymological-entendre???4) off the coast of Britain in '66, and instead of love it's focused on music, and despite an ensemble cast doesn't really involve many layers of story, and instead of working as a movie, it sucks.

So in that regard, it's not actually like Love Actually at all - except for the ensemble cast element, and the comedy part. Pretty much, there's this main character, "Carl", they call him, who sort of shares screen time equally with the other eight or so characters, making him not that main, and he is expelled from his school before the opening credits; ends up on this boat, of which his godfather Quentin (Bill Nighy) is the captain, and it's a pirate radio station. And Carl doesn't have a dad. Turns out Carl's dad was this old DJ you see once or twice. Okay, then.

So, anyway, Carl has a love interest, Marianne, played by "Talulah Riley" - so she says - who is Quentin's niece, or something. Anyway, comedy of errors, blah blah predictable somethings - she then sleeps with a fat DJ instead of Carl when he's fallen in love with her from "the first moment he saw her", boohoo, what a scrag, etc., move on, you think - oh, but the movie listens, and the movie does; Marianne disappears for about 90 minutes of real-time after she's broken Carl's heart, and then she returns, and...all is well, no complications whatsoever. ... ...

What. The. Shit. Who and why are you, Richard Curtis? What did anyone gain from her sleeping with that fat DJ if there was no playing out of a complication and resolution between her and Carl? What was the point of this movie? Why have her as a character? Why, come to that, make this movie at all? Why did I get charged adult price for this shit when I've still got my devil-may-care youthful vibrance? Why did a film which was all a bit of a non-event need over two hours to run its course?
No reason, or, Because someone screwed something up, are the answers to most of these questions, if you interpret 'screwed' liberally.


Katherine Parkinson and Chris O'Dowd from The IT Crowd were involved somewhat, good for them, on the big screen, but thank god Richard Ayoade was not bought so easily; like a raffle ticket. We didn't win.


Curtis - "Fool" to his close friends and family - said that this movie wasn't about the literal events around pirate radio ships in the 60's - good, because otherwise they sucked - but rather it was for "entertainment purposes" only. That's why it wasn't called a documentary - thanks for clarifying, Richard! "Oh, watch as I recreate a periodic atmosphere, hey; clothes and haircuts, music and sex - I'm so ruthless with my stylising and nuanced visionary balls." Richard Curtis was entertaining himself by making this film.

Yes, it looks good, and yes there are some funny moments, like with the government officials played by Kenneth Branagh and Jack Davenport (boy, can that guy not get away from movies to do with ships - see below), but aside from the occasional "fun" moment, every other scene of the movie seemed a non-sequitur and didn't progress or promote any kind of storyline, or really develop characters or whatknot. Like the scene where "The Count" challenges "Gavin" to a game of "chicken" where they both end up climbing 50 "metres" or so up the mast, and then walk out over the edge of the boat on a beam, and jump into the ocean. Oh, the adrenaline. Be still, my heart. What did that scene add. That wasn't a question.

Jack Davenport: A Man Who Really Fuckin' Loves His Ships.

Mary Bryant (2005), Pirates of the Carribbean (2007), The Boat That Rocked (2009)

=

And there was (probably still is) a character called "Thick Kevin" - who is possibly based on Richard Curtis - but we are invited to laugh at him in the same way that the characters in the movie do. Presentational. That's not fun for anyone. What was the point? To draw us out of the film so we can realise how nothing in it quite has a point? Why was he there? Why, why, why.

Everything in this movie was a self-validating circle.
Cyclical like a wheel, only it finished. And wheels don't. Because they go places.
Unlike this movie.

The End.

....but otherwise it was okay.

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or something

Long story shortened; was listening to Triple J, heard a song, searched fragmented lyrics, found out it was Roll Bus Roll by Jeffrey Lewis, of whom I had never heard before, he wrote a Senior Literary Thesis on the graphic novel Watchmen and here are some songs. He seems to have been ampersanded onto the front of several little outfits, the songs are like stream-of-consciousness a bit like Why? at times, but not too complicated, sing-song-y, not-quite-folk, with some humour/societal comment, etc. "Anti-folk", they call it. A bit interesting.


I investigated, and liked; Don't Be Upset off the album City and Eastern Songs.

Don't Be Upset - Jeffrey Lewis

and I Ain't Thick It's Just A Trick from 12 Crass Songs

I Ain't Thick It's Just A Trick - Jeffrey Lewis and The Jitters

so much anti-materialist pain behind his eyes...
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More like 'Bad Summer'

I thought the album For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver (pronounced bon-ee-vair, not bon eye-ver) was great, and most of it was recorded in a cabin in Wisconsin, that's not a joke, would I lie to you?

And I know the EP Blood Bank is several weeks old in news terms now, but I was thinking of posting something about this live bootleg of a Postal Service thing which I found but then didn't think was that enthralling, whereas saying something contrary to what you maybe think always is!!!114

That auto-tuning thing - which I think is called auto-tune - is heavily present on this one track called Woods, and as such, you sure as hell can not see (as in, listen to) them (that is, the woods) for the trees (that is, the auto-tuning). Like the idiom, are you following? It was used in The Wolves (Act I and II) - off For Emma - at 2:55 or so and then again at whatever other corresponding spots it is, and it's just a bit...bad..I find.

The title-track is okay, the vocals for some reason sounding more and more in my mind like TV On The Radio's except with those sensibilities rooted in a Wisconsin cabin. But if you remember that Imogen Heap of crap song from The OC about 2005 which played when something major happened to the residents of Orange County - nuclear fallout or something, I can't remember - well it's like that, and it just doesn't do much for me - sort of like sci-fi roleplaying.

Blindsided - Bon Iver
off For Emma, Forever Ago

Woods - Bon Iver
off Blood Bank

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