Summertime Sundry
Posted on June 3, 2005 at 1:24 pm | No Comments
“Life is grand, and I will say this at the risk of falling from favor with those of you who have appointed yourselves to expect us to say something darker…” – CVB
A perfect seventy degree day here in Boston, the sun shining, and the Sox are on the radio here at work. Amie called just to say ‘hi’, and I’ll be making music with friends tonight. Got no complaints, and that’s sayin’ somethin’. Right now, I’m knockin’ wood, and I guess I’m not the only one… David Ortiz’s bat just knocked a walk-off home run to beat the O’s. And things get even better.
June’s always a good month, when Boston calms down a bit as students leave town for the summer. Traffic eases a up little, the temps climb, the TV season’s over, the outside time increases. Livin’ is easy as I get ready to log off, leave work, and head home to Aim, our pets, the grill, a Corona with lime, and then off to rock practice. Yeah, summertime…
So obviously I decided to let the live Nada Surf & Rilo Kiley mp3s keep focus for an extra week, ‘cuz they’re just that good. I’ll be cooking up something else for Monday, although the rest of next week might be a quiet one; I’ll be bunkered down in a suburban classroom for five days of twelve-hour training classes. Ouch.
Lemme try and quickly clear out my links-list before I head out for the day…
The Mundane Sounds record label has just released the fourth volume of their entirely free-n-downloadable New Music Sampler, so get grabbin’, because it’s only up for a limited time. 15 tracks, including songs from The Lucksmiths, Edith Frost, Piano Magic, and the yow!-inducing Colin Clary.
I get a fair amount of random, unsolicited music-related promo emails & mp3s here at the ‘Nac, and every once in awhile one of them really hits the spot. Case in point: an message about the NYC-based band Dirty On Purpose, who are playing TTs on June 16th with Rogue Wave. Their ‘Sleep Late For A Better Tomorrow‘ EP is a keeper, all catchy, sparkly guitars, soft male & female vocals, and really nice production. Grabbed me from the get go, and I’ll be at the show for sure. Head to their site for a couple mp3s, including one from the EP another from their 2003 demo. Just click the pick.
More fine free music: My Mean Magpie has made the entirety of pop duo Georgia’s ‘Nothing New (Deluxe Edition)‘ album available for download, and it’s so worth the bandwidth. 19 mostly-sweet songs, including Beat Happening & Eric’s Trip covers as bonuses.
While you’re downloading, how about some new Robert Pollard (ex-GBV) demos? (thanks to hold my life).
Following up on the news that Nada Surf would be releasing their next record in September, they’ve posted more details on their website
“Produced by Chris Walla (DCFC) and Nada Surf, the record is scheduled for release on September 12th in the UK/Europe (City Slang) and September 20th in the US (Barsuk). Plans are being made in other territories as well.
The track listing is:
1. Concrete Bed
2. Do it Again
3. Always Love
4. What is Your Secret
5. Your Legs Grow
6. All is a Game
7. Blankest Year
8. Comes a Time
9. In the Mirror
10. Armies Walk
11. Imaginary Friends
(Thanks for the heads up, catbirdseat)
Shame on me for not spotting this top-notch David Gedge/Wedding Present/Cinerama fansite, Something and Nothing, until now.
Bookmarked for personal reference: a guide to Boston Area Pool Halls (via universal hub)
Fans of online & syndicated comic strips should definitely check out Tapestry Comics, a directory of RSS feeds for online panel-pushers, including Alien Loves Predator, Dilbert, Peanuts, Penny Arcade, PvP, User Friendly, and many more. It’s far too easy to get your favorite daily strips through your feed reader.
That reminds me, my preferred RSS reader, Sauce Reader, finally released version 2.0. I’m looking forward to checking out the new features when I finish up this post. (edit to add: Don’t upgrade just yet… the new version was re-coded from scratch, and it’s riddled with bugs. Back to the previous version I go.)
Really looking forward to Brian Wood’s upcoming graphic tale (with Riccardo Burchielli) entitled DMZ. He offers up a preview of the first cover here. There’s not a lot of info yet (like a release date or story length), but hopefully soon.
Ah, sweet sweet nostalgia, how is it you simultaneously comfort yet cheapen? Case in point, Matt’s recent post, where he mentions the upcoming on-stage reunion of the entire Breakfast Club cast on MTV (it’s not a real reunion unless Carl the Janitor is there too). That slightly sickens me, and yet, I’ll be compelled to watch it. Curse you, EmpTyV! Then there’s that whole ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time‘ NBC thing, which we TiVo’d and haven’t watched. Believe me, I’ll literally have nothing better to do when I finally get around to watching it.
If it’s old Loverboy action you want, you’re much better off watching this. So uncomfortably hilarious.
And if it’s rehashed 80s-era songs you want, might as well just look forward to the High School Reunion disc that arrives this fall. People like Kristin Hersh, Matthew Sweet, Vic Chesnutt, & John Strohm covering old songs by bands like Echo & the Bunnymen, Tom Petty, Jackson Browne, & the Pixies. Not much of this lineup really smacks of ‘newer vs. older’, but more of a ‘not-quite-as-old vs. older’. Kinda cool how Kristin Hersh gets away with covering her friends and longtime 4AD labelmates (doing the Pixies ‘Wave of Mutilation‘). Really looking forward to hearing that one.
Some great new sources (to me, anyway) for downloadable live recordings: The Pure Live Gigs community, and a guy named Bryan’s personal site, the subtley named Bootlegs! Bootlegs! Bootlegs!.
I love me some Alex Robinson comics. I was a big fan of his award-winning Box Office Poison, so I’m excited to hear about his long-awaited next project, Tricked, which is due in August on Top Shelf. Four years in the making, and a massive 352-pages. Very nice.
If you were one of the lucky ones who caught a preview screening of Joss Whedon’s Serenity film, one of the best parts of the experience was seeing Whedon’s filmed introduction. Relive it by reading this transcript (and don’t worry, there’s no spoilers in there). Any fan of Whedon’s work will get a kick out of what he has to say. “If this movie matters to you, let somebody know. Let everybody know. Make yourselves heard. If you don’t like the movie, this is a time for quiet, silent contemplation.“
Amie and I saw Matthew Vaughan’s British crime film Layer Cake last weekend, and it was ace. Lovedlovedloved it. I actually liked it more than Guy Ritchie’s like-minded Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels or Snatch. I was pretty comforted to know that the next X-Men movie would be in this guy’s hands… until he quit the project just a few days later. Latest rumor is that Vaughan wasn’t going to get enough time or budget to do the movie the way he wanted to do it, which doesn’t bode well for whoever fills his shoes. And if it ends up being Brett ‘Rush Hour’ Ratner (I can’t believe I’m saying this), then I’ll actually be looking forward more to Vaughan’s next film than I will be to X3.
Even though it’s summer, and the standard TV seasons are now a memory, there’s still a few things to keep the tube and TiVo warm while we’re hangin’ outside…
On Tuesday, June 7th, HBO runs a marathon of the entire second season of Deadwood. The uninitiated should record it, Netflix the first season, and overdose on wild western awesomeness. What are ya, lily-livered? There’s this documentary on PBS’s Independent Lens program called Double Dare that looks good, too, so I’ve just added it to my machine’s ‘To Do’ list. It’s the story of a couple of stuntwomen that’s been playing at film fests and getting some good feedback. (hey, thanks for the tip, Erin) The rest of the summer TV schedule deserves some attention, as there’s a bunch of returning shows worth watching. I’ll be grabbing the new seasons of Battlestar Galactica (July 15th), The 4400 (June 5th), Six Feet Under (June 6th), Celebrity Poker Showdown (Aug. 18th), Rescue Me (June 21st), and yes, I’ll even give Real World: Austin a one-or-two episode tryout. I just can’t help myself. There’s some potentially promising new stuff, too, like Angel/Firefly writer Tim Minear’s The Inside (June 8th). Minear’s the writer/creator, and the staff includes other talented Whedon-verse scribes like Jane Espenson and David Fury. Other stuff I might watch: HBO’s The Comeback (June 5th), the Into the West mini-series (June 10th), (maybe one episode of) the bound-to-be-bad Rock Star: INXS thing (July 11th), and the docu-show 30 days, hosted by Super Size Me director/star Morgan Spurlock (June 15th).
That’s plenty o’ TV to tide me and similarly-minded masses over until the fall, when all this goes down. Yup, that’s the whole fall 2005 tv schedule… and it looks a might weak, don’t it?
… so now it’s Friday afternoon and I’m back at the keyboard, hoping to fire off this post before the weekend hits. Tonight we’re heading to the Brattle for that screening of Hal Hartley’s new movie, The Girl From Monday, and the man himself will be there hosting it. In the presence of greatness, can’t wait to see and hear Mr. Hartley in person.
Tomorrow night brings another Charlene show at TT the Bears, this time we’re playing with Ohio’s (via NYC) The National, Pela, and Cotton Ponies. We’re on around 10 if you’re looking for somethin’ to do.
I’ll leave you with this: Today is Free Donut Day at all Krispy Kreme locations. Too bad I don’t eat those little circles of heaven anymore, right? Y’know, I really shouldn’t have looked at that picture, I can practically smell the glazed goodness… hmmm… and the double K is right across the street, beckoning me. I’m clearly having a Homer moment… must… fight…
Friday Sundry
Posted on May 27, 2005 at 1:23 pm | No Comments
Greetings from Boston, aka ‘waterworld‘. When will the sunshine arrive and release us from this constant cloud-covered hell? I thought the old addage started ‘April showers…’, not ‘All-of-May showers…’. Yeesh. I mean, I’m a fan of rainy days, but only to a point.
Ok, enough about the weather then…
So we saw the second ‘Serenity‘ preview last night, another early look at Joss Whedon’s big-screen continuation of his too-short-lived ‘Firefly‘ sci-fi tv series. It’s not out until September, so the cut we saw was supposedly rough, using temporary music, although it looked to me like most of the effects were finished. I can only assume that there will be lots of tweaking with color balance and contrast in the months remaining, as the lighting swayed between too dark, just right, and too white, but the story and dialogue were more then enough to overcome any visual shortcomings. It’s like the anti-Episode III… substance holding you when style comes up short (ironic that the movie includes a subtle yet very direct Star Wars homage… look for it). If only Lucas had paid Joss to script-doctor ‘Sith’, because boy did that dialogue need some serious medical attention. But I digress. Don’t get me started on ol’ George.
‘Serenity’ is pure Whedon, all whip-smart words, unexpected emotional punches, and weighty-action bits mixed in together. Unlike the Star Wars prequels, there’s a real sense of danger to the characters… their actions have consequences, the villians are a real threat, and most of the comedy comes as a relief from building tension. There are lots of laughs, but they’re never forced. It’s just a brilliant script, with lines still popping into my head this next morning. And Joss has such a great cast to deliver it all, people who believe in the material, who really connect with one other, parts of an ensemble that has become more shipmates than castmates. Whedon isn’t afraid to pummel them, though… he’s not comfortable with the status quo, with everyone being safe for sequels. He goes for broke, and comes up aces.
I so hope this movie finds a broader audience, if only for the selfish reason that I want to see these characters a whole bunch more. But it might be tricky convincing the mainstream that this world is one they want to visit; you want to build hype, to let people know that there’s a reason this movie exists (i.e. the enthusastic Browncoats that have packed these previews), while at the same time not having them dismiss it as something too genre-bound and clicky (see the declining Star Trek movie audience). Put your average non-sci-fi-geek movie goer in the middle of the crowd last night, and they’d assume they were transported to the middle of a comic convention. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a more extensive hive of freaks and nerdery. And I mean that in the most affectionate way, of course. A bit of pot, kettle, etc.
I’ll be seeing it again opening weekend, and pestering my friends to do the same… won’t be the last time it’s mentioned on this site. If there’s another screening between now and Sept. 30th, you should really check it out… they just don’t make ’em like this any more, and it’s a damn shame.
For those who missed Firefly during it’s first and only season (and haven’t picked up the fantastic DVD set), there’s really good news: The Sci-Fi Channel is running the entire series (and unlike Fox, in the right order), airing them every Friday starting July 22nd, before new episodes of the excellent Battlestar Galactica. A perfectly planned build-up towards the movie.
Will my diminished opinion of the Star Wars universe keep me from catching the massive ‘Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination‘ exhibit at Boston’s Museum of Science when it opens in October? Probably not. I mean, if those first two prequels weren’t enough to keep me from seeing number three, then I’m in for whatever they throw at me. Nostalgia is an unstoppable force.
So when Amie and I saw Revenge of the Sith, I was amazing that there was not one. single. commercial. Not one. Couldn’t believe it. But I also couldn’t believe the number of trailers we saw: TEN. Yes, a new record. Ten complete movie previews, which I admit was far easier than suffering through a Fandango promo or a cheesy Diet Coke singalong. Count ’em: The Da Vinci Code (nice cast), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (no thanks), Fantastic Four (sadly, looks terrible), Stealth (urk), The Chronicles of Narnia (promising), The Wedding Crashers (maybe), Batman Begins (yes please), The Pink Panther (why Martin why!?), War of the Worlds (please be good), and Serenity (head buzz, every time). A solid 20 minutes or so. In the days before the internet, before I’d seen most of ’em already, I woulda been pretty into that.
Ok, now this is high-larious. If you’ve seen ROTS (a better acronym, there is not), you know that the (second) most cringe-worthy moment is Darth’s forced-perspective “NOOOOoooOOOOOO!” near the end. An instant classic. Well, you’ve gotta listen to this mini-mash-up that uses Liam Lynch’s ‘United States of Whatever‘ and Vader samples. Just awesome.
Miss Mary’s second solo album is out! ‘Ready 2 Pop‘, the long-in-the-works followup to 2000’s ‘Hey Blue!‘, is now available on Stereorrific Recordings, and you can sample/buy it over at CD Baby. The enhanced disc has 10 new songs, a couple demos versions, and throws in a couple of videos (hang around for a hidden track, too). It’s a more rockin’ affair than Hey Blue!, and it’s better for it.
Mary has also started up her own little web-based handmade-crafty shop called Hollypop, and the site just barely went live. Head over to check out some stylin’ totebags, purses, clothing, and other assorted accessories. Go Mary Go!
Boston comic book (sorry, ‘graphic novel’) fans take note: On Monday, June 13th at 7pm, the Friends of the Brookline Library will be hosting a free talk from author Steve Weiner entitled ‘The Rise of the Graphic Novel‘. From their website…
“Graphic novels are exploding off bookstore and library shelves, and into movies, college courses, The New York Times Book Review, and onto the coffee tables of the cognoscenti. What’s fueling the explosion? Where did all the excitement come from? Steve Weiner, a comics historian and children’s literature specialist, answers these questions in his talk, ‘The Rise of the Graphic Novel‘. From the Bronx tenements of Will Eisner’s ‘A Contract with God‘ to the holocaust vision of Art Spiegelman’s ‘Maus‘ to the teenage angst of Dan Clowes’ ‘Ghostworld‘, you’ll journey into the heart of the graphic novel revolution.
It takes place in Hunneman Hall in the main building of the Brookline Library.
I’ve never read ‘Everything is Illuminated‘ by Jonathan Safran Foer, but I’ve heard it’s a love-it-or-violently-loathe-it type of novel, with little room for the inbetween. Makes me wonder if the upcoming movie adapatation will do the same. I’m a fan of actor Liev Schreiber, who’s directing this time around, and I’m curious to see how Elijah Wood pulls off a lead role post-LOTR (if you don’t count Hooligans, which is playing film fests).
What I’m more interested in, though, is seeing former/fellow Burlington, Vermont dweller Eugene freakin’ Hutz in his first acting role. If his name doesn’t sound familiar, maybe his band, Gogol Bordello, will. I heard he was in the movie and figured it was a small role, maybe with the band playing in one scene. Well, these pictures show it ain’t so. Second billing, baby. He’s the one fingering Frodo right here. Crazy.
Movie poster here. In-progress official site here.
Ten word TV season finale reviews…
Alias: Almost has me back. Cheap crash cliffhanger. More evil Sloan.
Lost: Not enough payoff. A freakin’ ladder? You’re so on probation.
Deadwood: Little less politics. I miss angry Bullock. Swijjin still rules.
I had much, much love for Portastatic, but lost track when Mac went through that little Brazilian fling. This news, however, has me back. A new album in August, and more of a full-bandy affair. I actually like the first couple Portastatic albums more than what Mac’s main act, Superchunk, was doing at the time, so this sounds right up my alley.
I’m thinking about a movie sometime this weekend (shocker). Should it be Layer Cake? Unleashed? Anyone have any thoughts on either of those two films to share? Sell me.
So John Squire wants the Stone Roses to reform, eh? Tell ya what, if it’s just to play the debut album start to finish, maybe as part of the Don’t Look Back series, then I’m there. Otherwise, um, don’t look back.
Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers collaborating on a movie apaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are?! How did I not hear about that?
There’s a new library in Harvard Square, and it’s exclusively for ‘zines. Guess I’ll put the Papercut Zine Library down on my ‘must visit list’.
I’ve been meaning to mention this for a bit, and a recent post over at Chromewaves reminded me… lucky American Analog Set fans (who also happen to be in New York) can stop by a Brooklyn bar called Commonwealth (corner of 5th Ave & 12th st.) to hear their entire finished-yet-unreleased album, ‘Set Free‘. AmAnSet is label-less at the moment thanks to the closing up of Tigerstyle, but won’t be for very long… I’ve heard the whole record, and it is far and away their best collection of songs since 1999’s ‘The Golden Band’ (and to varying degrees, I love everything since). It’s a new peak for them, and labels should be falling at their feet. If it comes out this year, it may just top my best of.
David Gedge of the Wedding Present presents some ‘music you should hear‘ over at Amazon. I’m with him on about half of those.
Thanks to My Mean Magpie, who thanks Lacunae, for pointing out a brand new, completely free, entirely downloadable His Name Is Alive EP entitled ‘Summer Bird‘, available at their site. Says it’s for ‘a limited time’, so get over there.
Stream a new Son Volt song called ‘Bandages & Scars’ from their upcoming ‘Okemah and the Melody of Riot‘ album, due on July 12th.
Allow me to draw your attention to a place I discovered through a comment left here at the ‘Nac: Ryan’s Aural Fixation live music photography site. Some amazing live and still shots of a range of artists, from the well-known to the obscure to the inbetween: Cinerama, Postal Service, Trash Can Sinatras, Lucksmiths… so much fantastic work in there. There’s even a shot of Craig from Summer at Shatter Creek, which leads directly into this next bit…
Would you like a really nice, limited edition Summer at Shatter Creek poster print, signed by Craig & Emmy, courtesy of Fingerprints music in Long Beach, CA? Be the first one to drop me an email (address on the left) with the subject ‘SASC’, and it’s all yours. Congrats to Michael in Louisiana, who won the poster.
Alright, my long weekend looms, time to check out. I hope everyone who’s been listening to the Bradcast (my new random streaming radio station) has been digging it… I get a little thrill every time someone makes a request (via aol im: bradcast), so keep ’em coming. To listen, just open this URL in Winamp or iTunes. If you can’t get on, it’s either full or will be back up soon enough.
So far I’ve been streaming for about three weeks straight, nearly 24 hours a day, and it’s up to track number 8,473 out of a total collection of roughly 23,000 songs. In another five or six weeks I’ll randomize it all again and start over. I can’t imagine the days before I was able to do this… having all my cds wired into my workplace is a revelation. Glad I can share it.