|
Saturday, March 30, 2002
My review of Jolls Holland's cd (you know, the one with George Harrison's last song) has been posted for the weekend...
Gotta mention the new cd by Departure Lounge, called Too Late To Die Young...it needs a few listens, but when it eventually grabs, you, wow. Early contender for top ten albums of the year? Mayhaps. More on that soon...
Thursday, March 28, 2002
My review of the great new Joey Ramone cd is now up...
Took a quick listen to the remastered version of Megadeth's Killing Is My Business...And Business Is Good! today, and was completely floored. It's like hearing it for the first time. Astounding improvement in sound quality.
Tuesday, March 26, 2002
I have to write this down for posterity: This past Saturday, with car repairs going longer than expected, I had to find a way to return a dvd I rented (Patton, to be exact), in an egocentric attempt to keep my decade-plus long streak of no late charges ever intact. So, I thought I'd take the bus. Simple enough, it's just a fifteen-minute drive by car to the video store & back, so how hard could it be? Four hours, five buses, and about six kilometers of walking later, I returned home a broken, broken man. Thank you, Saskatoon Transit. Thank you.
My paperback copy of The Corrections arrived today, and after waiting months to read the book, I jumped right in. A quarter into the book, and I'm flabbergasted, stupefied at how great it is. Wow. Believe the hype with this one...it's gutbustingly funny in similarly dark fashion as Martin Amis' wicked The Information, one of my favourite books of all time.
One more Oscar comment before I put this to rest for another year...During the filmed interviews with famous people talking about their favourite movies, there was one snippet that had Catherine Deneuve talking about how much she loved Marilyn Monroe in The Misfits, and she said something eloquent, something to the effect of how earthy and radiant Monroe looked. Then, right after that, Britney freaking Spears comes on and says how she loved Pretty Woman, 'cos Julia Roberts was, like, sooo pretty (to which I replied, "Shuuuut uuuuuuuuuppppp!!!"). That's the Academy Awards for you...people who personify grace, class, and artistic integrity are always upstaged by artificial, starlet tarts.
The excellent columnist David Poland had a choice quote yesterday, one that dared to say what people are too politically correct to say: "After Halle Berry sobbed publicly and gave her memorable, but mind-blowingly egocentric, 'I am the vessel' speech, did she really have to go on to list her agents, publicists, lawyers and manicurist? Is her idea of Black equality to be as much the Hollywood ass-suck as the White girls and boys?"
Monday, March 25, 2002
Last night, the horrifically long Academy Awards had a few pleasant surprises, but the addle-brained voters, as per usual, chickened out in the end. Thankfully, I had an exciting Oilers-Canucks game to watch during all the lulls...
The list of winners is here, but I suggest you take a look at James Berardinelli's exhaustive (and exhausted) 'live' recap.
Sunday, March 24, 2002
Every year, on the eve of the Academy Awards, the Independent Spirit Awards are held, and unlike the Oscars, they recognise quality filmmaking. This year, Memento, In The Bedroom, and Ghost World won awards (including Steve Buscemi for Best Suporting Actor...now that's more like it!). The full list of winners can be seen here.
On the Russ Meyer front, I watched Common Law Cabin tonight. Yet another late-60s 'fable', this one was very tame, for the most part watchable, but nothing really special either.
Saturday, March 23, 2002
Been a lackadaisical week...
Jim De Rogatis has written a brilliant article about The Velvet Underground's first album, as part of his Great Albums series. Read it. I think I'll pop in that cd right about now...Suuunday morning/Briiiings the dawn in/It's just a restless feeling/by my side...
The Number One singles from the week of my birthday, eons ago, courtesy Album Vote:
UK:'Band Of Gold' - Freda Payne
USA:'I'll Be There' - The Jackson 5
Australia:'(They Long To Be) Close To You' - The Carpenters
Ugh.
Gotta mention Badly Drawn Boy. Yes, Damon Gough's back, returning with his much-anticipated (erm, by me, anyway) soundtrack to About A Boy, the Hugh Grant movie based on the great Nick Hornby book. I've heard most of it already (doesn't come out until April 9), and it could very well have the staying power to make my year-end best-of list. It sounds more focused than Bewilderbeast, more acoustic, more laid-back, and really works well on its own, acting sort of as a concept album, with the lyrics inspired by the book. The two best songs are 'Something To Talk About', and the wispy-gentle 'Silent Sigh', whose video is now available for viewing online.
Another song I can't get enough of these days it 'What I Found', by New York's The Brought Low. Lame name for a band, but what a sound they have...instead of the usual indie rock thing, they sound more like early 1970s blue-collar rock, like Grand Funk or Foghat. Totally unpretentious stuff with loud, loud guitar. Speaking of De Rogatis, he was right on the money when he compare them to Stillwater, the fictional band in Almost Famous.
One more great tune: 'Push It', by Soulwax, which combines Salt N pepa's 'Push It' with The Stooges' 'I Wanna Be Your Dog'. Almost 'A Stroke of Genie-us' good...
Sunday, March 17, 2002
Saw Monster's Ball on Friday, and was blown away. Powerful film...not just a story of Southern racial bias; that would have been too obvious. Instead, it's more of a story of two people who have both gone through very tough times, and who desperately need each other right at that moment. The film starts off telling two parallel stories, then both stories intersect...one review I read compared Monster's Ball to the fiction of Raymond Carver, and I couldn't agree more. A simple story about simple people, with an ending that's both vague and life-changing (for the characters) at the same time. The last shot of the movie, on those front steps, is dead-on perfect, and Halle Berry's answer to Billy Bob's question, on its own, is worthy of a Best Actress Oscar. This is another movie I'll be pulling for next Sunday.
Still more Russ Meyer. Friday was the classic exploitation flick MotorPsycho. Very good, basically the same formula as Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!, only with the roles reversed. It's interesting how three women on a killing spree is seen as a camp classic, while three men on a killing spree seems a lot more disturbing. MotorPsycho is a very good movie, but the violence against women, if I may wax PC, is disturbing. The bad guys do get their comeuppance, though, thanks to the heroics of Alex ("I'm Moe Greene") Rocco. Just a side note...I find Haji annoying. She was the weakest one in FPKK, and weak in this one. How can she be Cajun with a weird accent like that?
Saturday's Meyer movie was the surprisingly enjoyable Good Morning...And Goodbye!. A goofy morality play, like Finders Keepers Lovers Weepers, this one was ten times better, thanks to some fabulous opening and closing narration, and the awesome performance by Alaina Capri. She delivers those venomous lines as well as Edy Williams does in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, with the same snarly mouth. Love it. Alas, she was in only one other Meyer film, Common Law Cabin, which is on next weekend...
Friday, March 15, 2002
My review of last year's outstanding Super Furry Animals album (the third large review I've written of it), is now up...
Thursday, March 14, 2002
I highly recommend downloading Elbow's utterly uproarious cover of that Charlie's Angels song that Destiny's Child did. They totally deconstruct it, making it some kind of warped xylophone-driven Fishbone song. It's totally stupid, and needless to say, I like it a lot.
Out here in barren, puritanical Saskatchewan, we don't have a huge choice in radio stations, but my own choice in the car is the rock station from Prince Albert. The rock station here in town isn't very good ("Here's fifteen CD's...start yourself a radio station!"), and they refuse to play good new stuff, but up in Prince Albert, they're likely to play stuff like System Of A Down and the odd other good tune (when they're not filling in the 40% Can-con quota with Canadian drivel). Yesterday, after they played 'Last Night', by the Strokes, the dj said they were a hot new band from the UK, which made me chuckle. I don't blame her for assuming that they're British...that's symptomatic of the current state of mainstream American rock music. Today, if it sounds good, your gut instinct tells you it's British.
Why won't rock radio play the New Pornographers? If there's any band from Canada who deserves to be heard ten times a day it's them...I've had that CD since November 2000 and I'm still not sick of it.
Tuesday, March 12, 2002
Happy 80th birthday, Mr Kerouac. Wish you were here.
Friday's Russ Meyer movie is Motorpsycho, one I've been wanting to see for years...should be fun.
Been revisiting the early Megadeth albums these past few days, namely their first five albums. It's interesting to hear how their sound progressed, especially now, with the post-Behind The Music perspective we now have. Watching that show, it was awful to hear how, in 1988, when kids like me considered Megadeth to be among the elite, highest order metal bands of the day, Dave Mustaine & Co. were so messed up by drugs that they were practically broke. Around then, I considered So Far, So Good...So What! to be somewhat of a masterpiece, an intricate, politically aware record that brought progressive metal to new heights...funny how fourteen years can change your perspective.
Their 1985 debut, Killing Is My Business...And Business Is Good never impressed me waybackwhen. The production was brutal (Mustaine wasted half the recording budget on drugs), with the guitars and vocals completely drowned in the muddy mix. Plus, back in the mid-80s, most cassettes didn't come with lyrics, so we kids had no idea what the heck Mustaine was growling, and the terrible quality of the recording only made it worse...needless to say, I didn't listen to it very much at all. However, listening to it today, despite the terrible quality, it's actually quite enjoyable. I cannot wait to hear the remastered version that just came out.
The first Megadeth album I ever bought was actually Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? in the fall of '86. There were no videos out from it yet, and no radio airplay (of course), and I had never heard them before...the thing that made me buy it was the title, the only time I've ever done such a thing. I appreciated its darkly humourous title, and once I got to know the music, I grew to love it. Today, I think it's their best album, and despite the internal strife in the band at the time, the unimpressive production (though a huge improvement from Killing...), and the stupid cover of 'I Ain't Superstitious', it has that familiar feel for me personally, and instantly takes me way back. The whole old shoe thing. The songs are just ferocious ('The Conjuring'...wow), the guitar work virtuosic, and the late Gar Samuelson's drumming is amazing. And that title track...that first time I heard it, I was floored (the video, which made the tune quite popular, didn't come out until well after I bought the tape). So simply stated, a testament that metalhead kids like me had brains in their heads...there are only a few songs you'll hear when you're young that are like a punch in the chest, and 'Peace Sells...' was one of them. As for the rest of the album, it's flawed, but it has more staying power than any of Megadeth's other albums. I love it to bits, and I have to buy the cd...my old tape is so worn that it won't play properly anymore...
As for their other stuff, 1988's So Far, So Good...So What! aged badly. It's bitter, very bitter, and somewhat dated ('Hook In Mouth', especially). 1990's Rust In Peace was my favourite album of that year, but now, aside from its classic title track, the rest is only pretty good. Technically and lyrically it's their best, but I find the sound to be too tinny, not meaty enough. On the other hand, Countdown To Extinction sounds great, but by then, Megadeth had taken the more middle-of-the-road route, something that made my taste for the band sour in a big way. Today, the album sounds very good, especially 'Sweating Bullets', a psychotic little tune I have a new appreciation for.
A side note: most of the links I've been using above come from the phenomenal Realms Of Deth website, an indispensible Megadeth info archive.
Monday, March 11, 2002
My review of Andrew WK's goofy new CD is up today...
I can say, with all confidence, that Lagaan is the best, nay, the greatest Epic Bollywood Historical Cricket Musical I have ever seen. Seriously, what an incredible movie...a simple enough story, about an 1893 Indian village who pays a tax in grain to the English twits, but during one dought-stricken summer they are challenged to a cricket match to decide whether they'll avoid the annual tax or have to pay triple the amount. Of course, they don't know anything about cricket, so they have to learn (perhaps a theory as to how India became a cricket superpower?), they're led by a young renegade, there's a rebellious English woman to help teach them, there's dissension in the village, there's a love triangle, and on and on and on...It sounds cliched, and essentially it is, but it has a lot of heart. Plus, lots of colourful, lengthy Hindi musical numbers, which are quite something. The movie is like a cross between Dr. Zhivago (it really takes its time telling a simple story), The Full Monty, and an old 1930s musical. Plus, you don't have to know anything about cricket; the last hour-plus is the climactic, three-day match, and it's tremendously exciting, and by the end of the movie, you wind up with a firm grasp of the sport's rules. It's incredibly long (almost four hours), but it's rewarding as all get-go, immensely fun to watch. It's nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards, and I'd love to see this one win.
...And continuing on the Russ Meyer front, I saw a couple more flicks. Lorna, made in 1964, is the first of Meyer's black & white Southern Gothic films, and for the most part, it's enjoyable. Except for the incredibly annoying theme song (something I could hear Tom Servo singing constantly, had Mystery Science Theater 3000 lampooned the movie). Really dumb story of a bored frustrated housewife in rural Podunk, USA, her dimwitted husband, and an escaped convict. The one big difference between this and Meyer's other films is the title character's complete weakness. Lorna Maitland's character lacks the strength of the typical Meyer protagonist, and winds up paying for her adultery. Maitland is still good in the film, but she's better as the sassy farmgirl in Mudhoney.
Also in the movie is a creepy, insane preacher who interrupts the story every so often to condemn the characters and the audience. Obviously Meyer stuck in these rants for the requisite Socially Redeeming Content, but they're actually very tongue-in-cheek, and very funny. Dig this:
Do you know where this road leads? Give ear! All ye inhabitants of the world, both high and low, rich and poor together. Do you indeed speak righteousness? Do you judge uprightly, all ye sons and daughters of men? Or do you do unto others as they do unto you? And do you judge as others judge? And woe to the hypocrite. …for as you judge, you shall be judged! And if you condemn, you are condemned! …who will stand up with me against the workers of iniquity? None? Then, pass on. But there is no return.
Meyer had to be killing himself laughing as he wrote that...
Also saw Finders Keepers, Lovers Weepers the other night. Completely forgettable soap opera story, unfaithful husband, unfaithful wife, coupla crooks, comeuppances dealt. Yawn. Not Meyer's best...completely lacking in any humour.
Thursday, March 7, 2002
Wanna hear what will wind up as one of my favourite songs of 2002? It's by Marianne Faithfull, of all people. 'Sliding Through Life On Charm' is off her new cd Kissin' Time, and was written by the genius himself, Jarvis Cocker. He wrote the song from Faithfull's point of view, using her own memoirs for inspiration, and the result is a droll, world-weary, drily nasty, four-minute bit of vitriol and regret that sums up Faithfull's career in stunning fashion. Marianne said recently that the lyrics in 'Sliding...' are words "I would have said if I'd had the courage, if it hadn't been beaten out of me in the Sixties." The lyrics are startling all the way through, and Faithfull sings them in her wonderfully shaky voice (am I the only one who likes her latter-day singing?) like the grand dame that she is. All of Cocker's trademarks are present, from the 'Common People' melody, to those fabulous lyrics, to the spoken-word ending, but Faithfull's presence and conviction makes the song all hers, especially in the song's finest moment:
"I wonder why the schools don't
teach anything useful nowadays
Like how to fall from grace
And slide with
elegance from a pedestal I never asked to be on in the first place."
Spectacular.
Another great song that appeared on the net these past few days is the new one from Doves. 'There Goes The Fear' won't be released until April 15, and their new cd, entitled The Last Broadcast, won't be out in Canada until early May, but if this shimmering song is any indication, it'll be every bit as good as Lost Souls. What I like what Doves do in songs like these is they just keep going that extra minute or two. They're not believers in the three-minute quickie tune...instead, when they have a nice melody, they just let the listener sit back for a while and simply bask in it. 'There Goes The Fear' is six or so minutes of wondrous melodies and shimmering arrangements, the type of song U2 wishes they could still write. With songs like these, Doves deserve to be superstars. Can't wait to hear the entire album...
...And speaking of Doves, in a way, the new episode of Six Feet Under the other night featured Lamb's 'Heaven', which has Doves' guitarist Jimi Goodwin playing on it. Love that song, and it was nice to hear it on the show (which rules, by the way)...it was one of my top faves from 2001.
Wednesday, March 6, 2002
Another great poet is gone...John Wieners passed away on March 1. An alumnus of the infamous Black Mountain College, he was part of the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance in the late 1950s, not one of the core avatars of the movement, but was still influential. Out of the poets from that time who were on the Beat periphery, Wieners was one whose work I really enjoyed...he wrote some gorgeous stuff. I could never find his book of Selected Poems in bookstores, so I only know the stuff that has appeared in anthologies and the internet. There's a web memorial up now that's worth a look. For those unfamiliar with John Wieners, here's one of his more well-known poems:
A poem for record players
The scene changes
Five hours later and
I come into a room
where a clock ticks.
I find a pillow to
muffle the sounds I make.
I am engaged in taking away
from God his sound.
The pigeons somewhere
above me, the cough
a man makes down the hall,
the flap of wings
below me, the squeak
of sparrows in the alley.
The scratches I itch
on my scalp, the landing
of birds under the bay
window out my window.
All dull details
I can only describe to you,
but which are here and
I hear and shall never
give up again, shall carry
with me over the streets
of this seacoast city,
forever; oh clack your
metal wings, god, you are
mine now in the morning.
I have you by the ears
in the exhaust pipes of
a thousand cars gunning
their motors turning over
all over town.
6.15.58
Tuesday, March 5, 2002
The Allen Ginsberg Trust has put together an official Ginsberg website, with articles, poetry, video & audio clips...it looks a bit amateurish right now, but there's some great stuff on the site, including a nifty Ginsberg Flash cartoon at the beginning. It'll be fun to see what else appears there in the future...
How on top of things is Rolling Stone Magazine? In their March 14 issue, they mention how quoteunquote 'hot' bootleg remixes are, and single out Freelance Hellraiser's A Stroke Of Genie-us. Struck me a bit odd, since, if my foggy memory serves me well, I've had the mp3 since last stinkin' October! And at the time I thought I was behind on things. But Rolling Stone's four months late. Oooohh, they're so cutting edge. Perhaps in three months they'll be reporting on Kylie's 'Blue Monday' remix performance at the Brits...
Monday, March 4, 2002
Here's a very good article from yesterday's Observer, about Paris, San Francisco, the Beat writers, contemporary boho writers, Shakespeare & Co., and City Lights Books. Terrific reading.
Saw In The Bedroom yesterday...it's a real subtle shocker of a film. The plot twists really threw me for a loop, and there are about three of them...luckily, I only read on review, and didn't read about the plot twists, something that, I found out today, some critics were stupid enough to give away. The less you know about it, the more stunning the experience will be. It's as quiet a movie as you'll ever see, but it keeps you on the edge of your seat all the time. The best way I can describe it without giving anything away is that it's the type of movie where a simple slap in the face is the most shocking moment of physical violence in a movie full of both physical and psychological violence. Powerful, with a really unsettling conclusion.
Saturday, March 2, 2002
Yesterday, if I may paraphrase Kent Brockman, Oasis mp3 fever reached a fevered pitch as the fevered downloading of 'The Hindu Times' spread like wildfever...
For what it's worth, I like the song. No real change for Oasis...in 'The Hindu Times', it begins where 'Who Feels Love' left off, but it's a more upbeat, thrumming bassline type of song. Same Eastern influences/ripoffs, more Harrsion than Lennon-McCartney. Same old stupid lyrics, something like, "You're in my brain/flowing through my veins/you're my sunshine/you're my rain"...hey, we've all given up on asking Noel Gallagher for some lyrical depth, so it's easy to let it slide. Typical Oasis, something I have no problem with.
More Russ Meyer...I saw Eve and the Handyman Friday night, and oh my, what a goofy little movie it is. It has to be the most harmless of all of Meyer's work, just clips of Eve Meyer dressed as a private eye following the aforementioned handyman. The movie's nothing but a succession of awful, awful vaudeville-styled jokes, but the jokes are so bad, and the buildup to every ultra-lame punchline was so long that I couldn't help laughing. The final "Strump Brushes" denouement was so stupid that I just bust my gut...the whole thing is like a silly cartoon, with some choice lines, like, "My mind was like a hot rod on the drag strip of inspiration." How can you not love that?
|
Jan 01 archive
Feb-May 01 archive
June-Aug 01 archive
Sept 01 archiveThe Best Of 2001
Feb 02 archive
|
