April and May, 2009: While I was out...

POST COMPLETE!

Well, it's not perfect. But it's as good as it'll be. And I need to catch back up.

Okay, so I left off... April 12th? Really? Dear god. I've missed goddamn pirates and pig diseases... are you kidding me? Okay, 2009, let's get back up to speed.

MUSIC: REVIEWS

I've bought a bunch of albums since mid-April. Quick reviews:

DOOM, Born Like This: Don't get me wrong, there's quality on this album. But from one of the most awkwardly homophobic songs of 2009 ("Batty Boyz") to the flimsy duration (the 40-odd minutes feel like a ten), half of which is basically samples of old cartoons... The good moments here (and there are some) are buried very, very deep. Maybe I just don't get it.

Junior Boys, Begone Dull Care: I don't know why basically no reviewers have called this album what it is. It's a straight-up soul seduction album. It's smooth, achingly romantic, and backed with a vaguely slutty kick. These aren't selling points exactly, but they're reference points handled deftly by Junior Boys; the production is almost neurotically detailed, and by combing some appealing and catchy first-listen highlights with some satisfying nuances that reward repeated listens, the album's a formidable one-two punch.

Bat For Lashes, Two Suns: "Daniel" sucked me into the Bat For Lashes goth-pop musical whirlpool, and I really love it here. It's not all as immediately addictive as "Daniel," but everything is thoughtfully textured and intricately gorgeous. This is an album that's really worth spending time with.

Micachu, Jewellery: This album knocked me flat. The track I'd already heard ("Calculator") was a little weird, sure, but it's really the most straightforward pop song Micachu provides. The bizarre, arch compositions here are really refreshing and invigorating, and the tricks don't grow old; you find yourself singing along to some mildly questionable lyrics, which is really kind of cool.

Camera Obscura, My Maudlin Career: Maybe I'm in the wrong state of mind, but after three tracks of the exact same sounds repeated ad infinatum, this got pretty grating. Which isn't to say it's bad; it's actually a really solid album. It's just something that rubs me the wrong way, for whatever reason. Maybe this will change.

Wavves, Wavvves: I really dig this album. I mean, sure, it's about 50% solid songcraft and 50% noodling, but the noodling is oddly pleasurable and the solid songcraft really connects.

The Thermals, Now We Can See: This album is probably the most accessible thing I've purchased, musically, in 2009. The chords are strong, the vocals are at the top of the mix, the hooks are catchy... a lot of fun.

I also bought Dan Deacon's album; initial reactions include "HOLY SHIT WHAT" and "WAIT WOAH AWESOME" but I'm going to give it more time before I say anything definite.

Okay, so that's where I've put my musical dollars. I've also been listening to TreaZon's mixtape, Drake's mixtape, the soundtrack to Make-Out With Violence (still my favorite film of 2009, somebody please distribute this so I can share it with friends?) and a lot of chiptunes. But now, on to some musical news...

MUSIC: NEWS

These are arranged in order of significance, and/or awesomeness.

Cuban Linx II is coming out for real! Radiohead is recording a new album! Kudi is finally releasing an album! This is all such great news, but music is on the karma payment plan, so... oh. The Lucksmiths broke up. Damn.

Muse named their new album.

My sister turned me on to Idolator, and I'm digging it. They, like me, think the new Mew song is rad. Maybe a little too angular and maybe a little confusingly mixed, sure, but when it takes off it has a wicked groove. Which got me on a Mew kick, and damn, that voice is one of the best things on the planet Earth.

Drake's coming out with a video for one of my favorite tracks off So Far Gone, "Best I Ever Had." Those orchestra hits in the beginning are like cocaine. Ear cocaine. My ears are high as shit. Anyway, the video's going to be about the ladies.

Also vindicating its absurdly high playcount, "Make Her Say" (formerly "I Poke Her Face") is Cudi's next single. Good call. For fun, check out the illroots comments; evidently, if your song leaked over a month ago and you're waiting for more than a month to release your album, you are a fool.

Oh, and R. City is fresh. Find that tape.

I'm going to announce it here, once and for all: Coldplay ripped off MY song! (Shh, it doesn't matter that they clearly didn't, jump onboard!)

M.I.A. is all up in the news.

All Camel did was use popular indie musicians, against their will, to sell addictive death sticks. Now the poor guys are getting sued to hell.

Sufjan Stevens wrote a simple one-off song about Sofia Coppola years ago. And it's still kick-ass.

It's kind of weird to say there's a new J Dilla album coming out, but it's weird in the raddest possible way.

So I was okay with Asher Roth at first, because a lot of respectable folks endorsed him, and I was down for some lazy, goof-off hip hop. But uh... nah. No. No way.

Swine flu reared its ugly, fictional head and prevented a rad tour from going down.

David Letterman became an indie venue somehow. Honestly, this is just an excuse to post a Bat For Lashes video, and to feed my raging, out-of-control crush on Natasha Khan.

Grizzly Bear's new video is like an uncanny alley manifesto. Watch at your own risk.

Flaming Lips vs. Arcade Fire... ish.

Crystal Castles were involved in another controversial catastrophe. Surprise! (Note: There's a lot of loathing in the chiptune community directed towards Crystal Castles. I side with the chiptune musicians, considering, y'know, Crystal Castles plagiarized them in "practice" songs and stuff.)

Okay, that's not the most diverse set of blogs, but I think I covered everything major. Phew, it's time for some film stuff.

FILM REVIEWS

Star Trek
I saw this movie three times total; once in a preview IMAX screening hosted by Harry Knowles, then on opening night at the Drafthouse, and then with my father. I loved it each time. I'm a fan of pretty much anything Abrams touches these days, and he really balanced everything so well in Trek that you forget how sensitive a property it is, and how intense that burden of pop culture is. There are a lot of genuinely breathtaking moments, and there's a lot of fun hijinx to throw wrenches in the way of the Enterprise. The actors are well cast, the story is self-contained enough to be fun but has enough room to breathe... Honestly, even while watching movies I love, I often end up wondering eventually when they're going to end, and it's a feat when I'm wrapped up enough in the brisk pacing not to notice that two hours have gone by. It's just... really good.

Up
I cried, and I am not ashamed of myself for it. The opening sequence covers a lot of ground in that very Pixar way, that say-a-lot-with-a-little precision that makes their films universal. And lately, it's been utilized to cover more treacherous ground than childhood fantasy, which is impressive. This particular outing, though, really hits home. It's mature in its sensibilities; we are spending a good deal of time with an elderly man and his confrontations with nostalgia and death. But there's jokes too. It works. And Up makes its point: dreams are vital, but letting go of them when the time is right, that's vital too. I mean, people, this is a movie distributed by Disney; challenging the power of dreams even slightly is a big deal. End of the day, the movie is poignant, beautiful, and solidly accessible. It's the kind of movie I want to raise my kids on when I've got some of my own.

FILM NEWS

Same order as before... all things in order of badassness.

Cannes went down! Lars Von Trier freaked people out. Tarantino divided everybody's opinions. The best news of all? Chan Wook-Park made a huge bloody splash with Thirst (duh!) and now the movie has been picked up for release at the end of this July! Awesome!

District 9 looks incredible.

I'm very hesitant to jump onboard for Avatar. Lots of cool stuff coming out in a slow trickle, sure, but the marketing suggests that this film is the big new incredible thing and that's always cause for a little suspicion.

This micro-short Last Day Dream is fantastic. Give it some of your time!

Duncan Jones, who blew me away with Moon, is getting a new project underway about WWII.

My skepticism of Thor keeps getting peeled back. I love Hiddleston from Wallander (which really deserves your attention as well) and the casting is solid so far. Damn you, Branagh! Getting my hopes up!

I'm very excited for The Road, but this trailer seems to mishandle the themes I understand the movie to deal with. In a similar vein, The Book of Eli looks pretty solid too.

Mr. Nobody looks pretty great.

Nine wasn't even on my radar, but now I'm really intrigued.

Emile Hirsch and some other people are working on a Hamlet adaptation.

Robot Chicken writer tackles one of the most sacred films of all time... Short Circuit.

Stretch Armstrong really is happening, unfortunately.

NEWS

Oh god we are all so screwed ahhhhhhh

WEIRD

The Hipster Grifter is our new folk hero? Are you goddamn kidding me?

Billy Corgan falls further down a Citizen Kane-style black hole of self-involved misery.

Charles Hamilton got punched in the face.

Gooby is frightening. And maybe also is Satan. But the bigger story here is that this is the ultimate lesson in how to make bad trailers.

Nobody - NOBODY - messes with Dolph Lundgren.

Publicity stunts aside, my favorite part of this MTV controversy is Quinto's bemusement.

Andy Samberg is known for odd and awesome cameos, but a JJ Abrams keyboard solo? I feel like it's too early for Christmas...

Elderly people don't like new music. That's not a surprise. They run a vlog about it. That's a glorious, hilarious surprise. Also vlogging about indie music, Brian Williams and Russ Feingold. Honestly? Real talk? They both pull it off.

The drummer from the Shins runs a taco cart now.

PERSONAL

Okay, I've been inconsistent at blogging. But it's not like I've been experiencing so much 2009, so much culture, and stowing it away in hiding. The truth is, my life went through a series of big reshuffles and I frankly didn't have time to consume much more culture than Scrubs reruns and the Stewart/Colbert block. (Neither of which I am knocking, both of which I love) I went from finals week to crashing at my family house in San Antonio to lots of transit to living in a new apartment in Austin, all within about a month.

But I'm back.

Tonight, I sleep.

Tomorrow, I ride again.

Want a comeback?

It's coming.

Massive post sometime after a week. I've still been following this damn year, and I've still got some things to say.

If you're wondering where I've been, go to college, enroll in film classes, and see how the last month of YOUR first year treats you.

As for this week...

Got some ground to cover, but it may have to wait. School has me busy to the 1000th degree, and I am working out a technical error (my Firefox won't ctrl+save files anymore) so I may need to procrastinate updating a little more.

One thing to note: Anybody else find it a little ironically accurate that Pitchfork named decade-old Radiohead albums as their "Best New Music"?

April 12th, 2009

This blog post courtesy of the road between San Antonio and Austin, with special thanks to patient, automotively inclined fathers.

Peter Bjorn and John, Living Thing
Am I the only one on board for calling Peter Bjorn & John this generation's Dream Academy? Yeah, that's a weird assertion, I'm aware. I may be the only person who's even thought about Dream Academy in 2009. (Well, except maybe [frontman]) But think about it: very catchy singles deceive fans into disappointment on LPs where weird artistic leanings mask a core melodicism.
Okay, I was born in 1990, so maybe that was just MY experience with Dream Academy. And maybe it's just the accents. But it seems like the same experience we're all getting duped into with PB&J. Their singles are all catchy and melodic, but the albums are thornier, rougher, and dare I say more confusing. Honestly? I wish every band working in popular music was pulling the same trick.
Teaser bits "Nothing to Worry About" and "Lay It Down" were weird, sure - a fact emphasized in the surreal videos for the respective tracks. But they're nowhere near the heights of odd achieved on the album, some of which work perfectly (the smokey organ solo in "Stay This Way") and some of which fall a little short. (The title track seems like a grower, but remains eternally undercooked)
But even the shortcomings are refreshing, because paradoxically, they fall short by setting the sights too high. Post-"Young Folks," PB&J could have cruised along as sweet pop confectioners, or maybe even survived vampirically on licensing from their big hit, like more than a few one-hit-weirdos. (What a poignant observation, given Mix-A-Lot's square-butt McDonalds travesty) Indeed, the path ahead for this trio held no inherent challenges, so the fact that they've put out an album this challenging, unabashedly weird, truly surprising and simultaneously listenable, well, it's something we should all be impressed by.


Röyksopp, Junior
I won't lie: I've already missed two Röyksopp boats. Both of their LPs escaped my high school musicscape. Hence, I'm not coming into this review with the same degree of critical baggage - no questioning of whether [second LP] was a disappointing turn after [first LP]. No fretting about which vocalists do or don't appear. I've got a pretty clean slate, and you know what? I like what I hear.
Powerhouse single "The Girl And The Robot," which justifies the price of admission all its own, is the tale of the shittiest boyfriend ever, belted out over churning electro beats with aching honesty by Robyn, who really steps up to the plate on this one. That will be what draws most people in here, and while some of the rest of the album borders on electrofiller - I'm looking at you, "Silver Cruiser" - there are plenty of highlights. "Royksopp Forever" (where's the umlaut, boys?) skids along on dub beats until its strings reach a fever, at which point a pitch shift takes it all to the next level. Speaking of fevers, Karin Dreijer is a fantastic presence on record, where her patented dark sense of mystery is free to do basically what it did in The Knife - flourish - but with a glossier production to back it up. Lykke Li takes a different tack, getting a bit lost inside the Röyksopp beats rather than taking charge; supplementing instead of dominating.
With vocal skills this good, it's already a strong purchase, but Röyksopp isn't just a duo with good taste in female voice talent. Their beats slide, skip, and pound; their melodies arch and dip into territories at turns glitzy and tragic. Maybe Discodust has just been converting me, but this is solid, solid work. It's a great, addictive little package. Expect the playcount to get disconcertingly astronomical; be wary of your other MP3s getting jealous.


Editorial

To tweet or not to - oh fuck it.
Anyway.
This hubbub over Twitter's value doesn't seem to want to die down. People are still digging in their heels, claiming it's reductive, or foolish, or promotes less thought, or whatever the complaint of the week is. You'd think that after it played a key role in, you know, that election thing we had a few months ago, people would be a little easier on the little guy.
Well, not really a little guy, I guess. Twitter is pretty ubiquitous at this point; it seems like ages past when I was confused by the odd little box popping up alongside my favorite webcomics; now I'm pretty sure everyone from the Dalai Lama to Dick Cheney has participated in "follow fridays," tweeted about their weekend plans, started following a meme account, and rued the technical bumps and glitches along the way.
Everybody except me, that is. That's right: I've just now got one. I wasn't anti-twitter or anything, I just never took the time to start following people and set the whole enterprise up. I've got to say, I like it so far. I follow Aziz Anzari - who wouldn't, after his great Observe and Report Chik-Fil-A quote? And I follow Rob Corddry, whose comedy links and parental insights are oddly rewarding. And I follow the New York Times and Democracy Now, and I follow some friends too, just to keep up with whatever's up.
Like I said, I was never anti-Twitter. I don't understand this backlash against networking. Many of my friends have disavowed Facebook; my roommate even deleted his account. His reasons? "Facebook is inaccurate." He says the profile information on his account was all misleading. I asked him why he didn't just change it. Cue debate.
It's the same with Twitter. Critics say it's all pointless minutia, but it's only pointless if you can't utilize the tech. To wear out a tired cliche, garbage in, garbage out. Twitter is brief, sure, but brevity and idiocy hardly go hand in hand. If a Twitter account you follow just spews pointless trivia, you can, y'know, unfollow it.
It seems like this far out of the 1800's we ought to have figured out the simple lesson: technology isn't inherently anything. Twitter's not inherently trivia, Facebook isn't inherently inaccurate, the internet isn't inherently for pornography and piracy, etc. It's how you use technology that counts, and if you loathe the way it's used, well, you could always do it better yourself.
Oh well, I won't get too pissed. If I need to vent, I can just tweet about this later.

April 6th through 11th, 2009

It's pretty difficult to keep up with a year, I'm discovering. I'm already so far behind on so many rad albums and films! Sheesh.

MUSIC

Surprise of the month: Pitchfork gave DOOM an eight. Get your umbrellas; it will be raining fire and sulfur soon; Pitchfork (well, Breihan at least) has been more than unkind to the former MF in the past; it's safe to say we have an apocalypse in our forecast.

Also on Pitchfork, Health's super-rad track got nice words, the Justice-U2 lovechild/hellspawn got suitably kicked in the teeth, they praise the superfun Micachu and the Shapes track, and on the superb new Bat For Lashes single, they make the predictable - but damn accurate - Kate Bush comparison. They also did a sweet little Cobain post. Their linked Paul Anka cover is useful for fans of things that don't make sense and for those who still couldn't figure out the lyrics to "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Oh, and their St. Vincent video gets me all pumped for her upcoming LP.

TMT has sight gags galore. They also report on TicketsNow getting into some deep shit.

DiS has released a playlist of their favorite 40 songs of 09 so far. Maybe I should do something like that? Anyway, a worthy list. They also report on Radiohead vs. the RIAA and adore the promising Horrors.

Been away from Discodust longer than normal. The actual Delphic song is pretty cool, though I'm less wowed by the remix. They hype some rad and worthy Golden Filter remixes. Their CRJ tracks are vintage glory. Oh, and the FM Attack tracks are gorgeous!

FILM

First off, get this while it's there: The Water, a short by BSS's Kevin Drew, starring the ever-wonderful Cillian Murphy. The pacing is *ahem* glacial, but it's lovely nonetheless.

Moon has a trailer! One of my favorites from SXSW, and of the year so far, this trailer should excite moviegoers for this deserving flick.

/Film did my busy work for me while I was out. Highlights working backwards: Scott Pilgrim video blog, stepping up to the plate to defend the kickass Observe and Report, low-budget indie inspiration Hunter Prey's new trailer, and just to make me nervous, a Shadow of the Colossus film. That video game is one of my all-time favorites; screwing up the movie will possibly lead to gray hairs.

Lil Wayne has disappointingly filed an injunction against the documentary about his life.

AICN has a delightful Brothers Bloom trailer, some unkind words for dungheap Dragonball, and a badass new Public Enemies trailer.

WEIRD

Fever Ray on ABC via Pitchfork. It just feels so wrong.

Spike Jonze has a new film coming out. Also, starring Rogen and Samberg, a new Fast/Furious movie.

WORLD

Too much. I'll catch up on this soon.

PERSONAL

I'm in San Antonio suffering a surprise sore throat; time for the hospital tomorrow, whee. Editorial and reviews tomorrow.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 15
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 649 + two albums I refuse to first-listen while sore-throated
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, hanging out on my old desk.

Just so you know

There's a reason I've been silent. Several, really - quizzes, exams, essays, film projects, and the occasional hour of sleep. On the weekend I'll try and wrap up the week.

God I love the Röyksopp and PB&J albums.