I have no internet until September 23rd, which means the increasingly popular Cure for Bedbugs will be postponed for like a month. Fun fact: almost every visitor to Cure for Bedbugs was referenced from an MSN or Google search for the ACTUAL cure to bedbugs. Here's a hint: There is no cure for bedbugs. Try cortizone. But this site will provide you entertaining fodder for particularly itchy moments. Trust me, I had them.
OK, news of the day.
1) SMOOSH!
QUICK! GET THESE GIRLS A PRODUCER BEFORE THEY FIND THE FIERY FURNACES EP!!
A tip from a guy who shouldn't be giving "tips"...11 and 13-year-old girls should not be playing to balding male hipster audiences. You should be on Radio Disney, and trust me girlfriend(s), you will not get there with this shit. It is NOT GOOD.
Smoosh Official Site
Stream "Massive Cure"
2) HOT!
Robyn - Robyn. The 2005 comeback. The CULTURAL EVENT. Why did I not post this before? This is, barring some bizarre accident/amazing find, the best pop album of the year.
Robyn Web Site
I will post at least four tracks from this album on the blog when time and internet access permits. It is phenomenal.
3) Konichiwa, Bitches!!!!
See you in a month. Remember, there is NO CURE FOR BEDBUGS.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Friday, August 19, 2005
Skye-fried, eh?
Well, too bad. MORE SKYE!
My new desktop wallpaper!
1) Last Friday (Tuesday), I was so busy bitching about the abundance of "Buzz on Maggie" footage in the new Skye Sweetnam video that I failed to notice this clip...
Nice.
2) I still say that "Billy S" is much smarter than some people (ahem) give it credit for. To shed further light on this destined classic, here is a mild brain-melter courtesy of Wikipedia:
3) Skye has already proven that she can cover Blondie no sweat. So today's Skye Friday! Pop Quiz! is: What cover should Skye Sweetnam totally dominate next??
Point of comparison: Skye Sweetnam - Heart of Glass (Blondie cover)
Choices:
A) The Arcade Fire - I'm Sleeping in a Submarine
B) The Dismemberment Plan - Following Through
C) The Crystals - All Grown Up (note: Skye turned 17 on May 5th, making this cover HIGHLY APPROPRIATE, nudge)
D) ABBA - I Let the Music Speak
E) Van Morrison - Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)
F) Talk Talk - After the Flood
(Hint: There is only one correct answer. The answer will be revealed next SKYE FRIDAY.)
My new desktop wallpaper!
1) Last Friday (Tuesday), I was so busy bitching about the abundance of "Buzz on Maggie" footage in the new Skye Sweetnam video that I failed to notice this clip...
Nice.
2) I still say that "Billy S" is much smarter than some people (ahem) give it credit for. To shed further light on this destined classic, here is a mild brain-melter courtesy of Wikipedia:
Volio
Her first single, Billy S., was the center of attention when many teenagers posted the lyrics online as Meet Juliet or my Volio as opposed to Meet Juliet or Malvolio. The word Volio has since developed a cult following as an example of a mondegreen (a misheard and misinterpreted song lyric).
...This common mistake soon spread across the internet on various lyric-based websites, despite Volio not being a word or a phrase. As a result, many intenet users have adopted this word as their own, giving Volio its official definition as "a polio-infected Swedish automobile". This definition views the word Volio as a hybrid combining the disease polio and the Swedish Volvo, a make of car.
It is now commonly used in internet slang to refer to any lyrical typo or misunderstanding.
3) Skye has already proven that she can cover Blondie no sweat. So today's Skye Friday! Pop Quiz! is: What cover should Skye Sweetnam totally dominate next??
Point of comparison: Skye Sweetnam - Heart of Glass (Blondie cover)
Choices:
A) The Arcade Fire - I'm Sleeping in a Submarine
B) The Dismemberment Plan - Following Through
C) The Crystals - All Grown Up (note: Skye turned 17 on May 5th, making this cover HIGHLY APPROPRIATE, nudge)
D) ABBA - I Let the Music Speak
E) Van Morrison - Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)
F) Talk Talk - After the Flood
(Hint: There is only one correct answer. The answer will be revealed next SKYE FRIDAY.)
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Bwahahahaha
Thank you for shopping at Half.com. We have processed your order request and have notified the seller.
Order Information
Aquarium (CD, Release Year: 1997)
Aqua
Price: $0.95
Condition: Like New
Hoku (CD, Release Year: 2000)
Hoku
Price: $0.75
Condition: Very Good
Josie And The Pussycats (CD, Release Year: 2001)
Original Soundtrack
Price: $3.88
Condition: Very Good
Teen Spirit [ECD] (CD)
A*Teens
Price: $0.75
Condition: Brand New
In The Zone (CD, Release Year: 2003)
Britney Spears
Price: $1.50
Condition: Good
The ABBA Generation [ECD] (CD, Release Year: 2000)
A*Teens
Price: $0.99
Condition: Good
**
We're writing to confirm your purchase of the following Amazon Marketplace items:
1 of Britney [ENHANCED] [Audio CD] Spears, Britney [$1.00]
1 of Pixel Perfect [SOUNDTRACK] [Audio CD] Various Artists [$1.75]
1 of Oops!... I Did It Again [Audio CD] Spears, Britney; Britney Spears [$0.50]
1 of No Secrets [Audio CD] No Secrets [$3.80]
A PREEMPTIVE THANK YOU TO MY NEW ROOMMATES FOR DANCING ALONG WITH ME TO ALL OF THIS AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME (CHEAP) MUSIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PS - Toy-Box - Fantastic is still only available through import, and quite expensive.
EDIT: PPS
Deerhoof live at 12 Galaxies in San Francisco 5/8/04 (two tracks were featured on Bibidi Babidi Boo, which I can't link to for some reason...is it gone forever? If so, I'll post it again later.):
Deerhoof - Panda Panda Panda
Deerhoof - Dog on the Sidewalk
Deerhoof - Flower
Deerhoof - Desaparecere
Order Information
Aquarium (CD, Release Year: 1997)
Aqua
Price: $0.95
Condition: Like New
Hoku (CD, Release Year: 2000)
Hoku
Price: $0.75
Condition: Very Good
Josie And The Pussycats (CD, Release Year: 2001)
Original Soundtrack
Price: $3.88
Condition: Very Good
Teen Spirit [ECD] (CD)
A*Teens
Price: $0.75
Condition: Brand New
In The Zone (CD, Release Year: 2003)
Britney Spears
Price: $1.50
Condition: Good
The ABBA Generation [ECD] (CD, Release Year: 2000)
A*Teens
Price: $0.99
Condition: Good
**
We're writing to confirm your purchase of the following Amazon Marketplace items:
1 of Britney [ENHANCED] [Audio CD] Spears, Britney [$1.00]
1 of Pixel Perfect [SOUNDTRACK] [Audio CD] Various Artists [$1.75]
1 of Oops!... I Did It Again [Audio CD] Spears, Britney; Britney Spears [$0.50]
1 of No Secrets [Audio CD] No Secrets [$3.80]
A PREEMPTIVE THANK YOU TO MY NEW ROOMMATES FOR DANCING ALONG WITH ME TO ALL OF THIS AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME (CHEAP) MUSIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PS - Toy-Box - Fantastic is still only available through import, and quite expensive.
EDIT: PPS
Deerhoof live at 12 Galaxies in San Francisco 5/8/04 (two tracks were featured on Bibidi Babidi Boo, which I can't link to for some reason...is it gone forever? If so, I'll post it again later.):
Deerhoof - Panda Panda Panda
Deerhoof - Dog on the Sidewalk
Deerhoof - Flower
Deerhoof - Desaparecere
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Alone in the Dreck
Oh! What a pun. Actually, the double-feature (or feature-and-a-half) of Alone in the Dark (the half) and Downfall (ugh, the whole...the whole fucking whole) proved surprising on several counts.
1) Alone in the Dark: The reviews are more interesting than the movie, except for a few choice bits of dialogue that I will transcribe below, thus saving you the trouble of even considering watching this. I bet anyone and everyone five dollars that at least three Ithaca College sophomores spend over one thousand dollars to do the five-minute version of this film, sans CGI. Or maybe not, the kids are ca-razy for those After Effects these days.
2) Downfall: The first German film to depict Hitler's final hours was somehow theoretically worse than Alone in the Dark (whose creators' only real sin was total incompetence). Masterfully crafted as a narrative, Downfall is still an effrontery to the dignity and intelligence of anyone who might want to acknowledge the fall of Hitler's regime and the end of WWII respectfully, somberly, and thoughtfully (the film is lacking in all three categories). It's also downright offensive to Jews and Russians, who are conveniently ignored and dehumanized, respectively. Note to filmmakers: both groups suffered far greater losses and weren't Nazis. I think this is as close as we'll get to the German version of Black Hawk Down.
Honestly, what was the point of making this film? What are we supposed to take away from it? Are we not really supposed to feel anything, just observe (which we aren't, given the incessant, manipulative visual and aural cues -- aside from which, ambiguity is not the same thing as profundity, or even pointfulness, which should really be a word)? Is the "point" simply that Nazis are people, too? Hey, I knew that already, and so does anyone else who might have even the remotest interest in seeing this film. Oh, and I also knew Hitler was a vegetarian.
There is absolutely no reason this film should have been made, except maybe for the combined total of two minutes of interview footage with Hitler's secretary, Traudl Junge, that bookend the film. Here, I'll save you the trouble (again): She's sorry she did it and she didn't realize it was THAT many dead at the time. The footage is from Blind Spot by Andre Heller, a film I will now actively seek out. This seems to be the only usefulness of Downfall's existence, but then there are movie guides out there, too.
If this is the best the Germans can do with their own disgraceful history, they may want to leave it to French documentarians. Or leave it to books. And don't get me started on the appropriation of Holocaust imagery -- some of it from other (better? equally unnecessary?) narrative films about the end of the war. THIS IS HISTORY!!! THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED!!!
3) Hey, I just remembered Cold Mountain exists. Please disregard previous rant. Also, if you really did skip that huge #2 up there, the New Yorker said it better (shock!).
Yeah, Nazis are assholes. Further proof straight from the horse's reunited fatherland...
4) OK, now the good stuff. From Uwe Boll's totally-not-at-all-Ed-Wood-like-but-actually-just-really-awful Alone in the Dark:
***
***
***
***
***
***
We'll end on a high note -- let there be Blood, Sweat and Tears for all! (This song is dedicated to today's physical. ...Too morbid?)
Blood, Sweat, & Tears - And When I Die
1) Alone in the Dark: The reviews are more interesting than the movie, except for a few choice bits of dialogue that I will transcribe below, thus saving you the trouble of even considering watching this. I bet anyone and everyone five dollars that at least three Ithaca College sophomores spend over one thousand dollars to do the five-minute version of this film, sans CGI. Or maybe not, the kids are ca-razy for those After Effects these days.
2) Downfall: The first German film to depict Hitler's final hours was somehow theoretically worse than Alone in the Dark (whose creators' only real sin was total incompetence). Masterfully crafted as a narrative, Downfall is still an effrontery to the dignity and intelligence of anyone who might want to acknowledge the fall of Hitler's regime and the end of WWII respectfully, somberly, and thoughtfully (the film is lacking in all three categories). It's also downright offensive to Jews and Russians, who are conveniently ignored and dehumanized, respectively. Note to filmmakers: both groups suffered far greater losses and weren't Nazis. I think this is as close as we'll get to the German version of Black Hawk Down.
Honestly, what was the point of making this film? What are we supposed to take away from it? Are we not really supposed to feel anything, just observe (which we aren't, given the incessant, manipulative visual and aural cues -- aside from which, ambiguity is not the same thing as profundity, or even pointfulness, which should really be a word)? Is the "point" simply that Nazis are people, too? Hey, I knew that already, and so does anyone else who might have even the remotest interest in seeing this film. Oh, and I also knew Hitler was a vegetarian.
There is absolutely no reason this film should have been made, except maybe for the combined total of two minutes of interview footage with Hitler's secretary, Traudl Junge, that bookend the film. Here, I'll save you the trouble (again): She's sorry she did it and she didn't realize it was THAT many dead at the time. The footage is from Blind Spot by Andre Heller, a film I will now actively seek out. This seems to be the only usefulness of Downfall's existence, but then there are movie guides out there, too.
If this is the best the Germans can do with their own disgraceful history, they may want to leave it to French documentarians. Or leave it to books. And don't get me started on the appropriation of Holocaust imagery -- some of it from other (better? equally unnecessary?) narrative films about the end of the war. THIS IS HISTORY!!! THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED!!!
3) Hey, I just remembered Cold Mountain exists. Please disregard previous rant. Also, if you really did skip that huge #2 up there, the New Yorker said it better (shock!).
We get the point: Hitler was not a supernatural being; he was common clay raised to power by the desire of his followers. But is this observation a sufficient response to what Hitler actually did? “Downfall” is an expensive, full-scale re-creation of life in the bunker. Himmler, Goebbels, Speer —- they are all here, the entire fascinating, loathsome crew of commanders, mad visionaries, and toadies (all brilliantly acted), but never has the Nazi era seemed so close to banality or, in an odd way, to reassurance. ...The attempt to re-create Hitler in realistic terms has always been morally and imaginatively questionable, a compromise with the unspeakable, and it still is.
Yeah, Nazis are assholes. Further proof straight from the horse's reunited fatherland...
4) OK, now the good stuff. From Uwe Boll's totally-not-at-all-Ed-Wood-like-but-actually-just-really-awful Alone in the Dark:
***
[Christian Slater talks to a boy who looks about 12 but is apparently supposed to be 6]
Boy: My mommy says there's nothing to be afraid of in the dark.
CS: Your mother's wrong, kid. Bein' afraid of the dark is what keeps most of us alive.
***
[In extraneous voice-over]
CS: Just because you can't see something doesn't mean it can't kill you.
And then...
CS: Fear is what protects you from the things you don't believe in.
***
[Old man on ship who is about to be arbitrarily bludgeoned with a pipe expounds on Native Americans]
Man: The Abkani was the first people to use gold to house their valuables. They believed it had the power to contain evil spirits. Nowadays we can't even remember why we valued gold in the first place.
***
[Slater on the phone]
CS: I need you to look up some information.
Man: Well, they'll kill me if they find out. [Beat] But lemme check...
***
[The results of the deadly info search]
Man: Nothing much in common, except they all grew up in the same orphanage. Yours.
***
We'll end on a high note -- let there be Blood, Sweat and Tears for all! (This song is dedicated to today's physical. ...Too morbid?)
Blood, Sweat, & Tears - And When I Die
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Vicarious XTC Listening Experience!
...And Skye Friday (read: Tuesday)!
Apologies to Skye Sweetnam...
Because of traveling obligations, I was unable to participate in Skye Friday!, but here is a strangely juxtaposed picture tag line on the Skye Sweetnam.com message board.
Also, the new video for "Just the Way I Am" which premiered on the Disney Channel a week or two ago. Too much whatever bug thing tie-in footage! Not enough Skye! Not her best by a long shot, but Marshall Mathers WISHES he could have written this song instead of that piece of screamo crap that's long since defenestrated from public consciousness. Remember, you can't spell EMONEM without EMO.
Skye Sweetnam - Just the Way I Am Quicktime video
Preemptive apology to my reading audience for the following...
Now that Emily is gone gone gone (gone), I'm listening to XTC to make myself feel better, and it's working. In fact, it put me in SUCH a great mood that I realized that everyone in the world would be better off right now if they were also listening to XTC. So I am going to post three favorite tracks from English Settlement, and then we can theoretically listen to XTC together! In fact, to better aid your pleasurable listening experience by making your life seem more like my life, which is great, I will even describe my surroundings.
-I'm in my room in my parents' house.
-There is a CD stack next to me with David Banner's Mississippi on top. There's also a promo of the Giant Drag album, which I finally listened to after seeing them in a club. I wasn't feelin' it (I was having an off night, so it makes sense that Giant Drag was, too...did you know that no one has worn an undershirt since like 1997?) but the album is OK.
-I just took a sip of two-day stale Deer Park bottled water at the start of the first chorus of "Senses Working Overtime." It was great!
-I am looking at three vials of Humalog brand insulin. In fact, I think I'd like some insulin right now. Four units. Yes, that hit the spot. Hey, does anyone want to start a diabetic posse and call it D-Unit?
-I am now perusing Sean Frasier's masterful poetry collection "Dingleberry and Other Poems" from 2003. An excerpt:
Other information that will be helpful in your XTC listening experience:
1) My favorite ABBA album of the moment is The Visitors.
2) I laughed reading this essay on Dan Auerbach's website.
3) In the Realms of the Unreal is the best movie I've seen this year. I'm aware that technically it came out last year.
4) I've been to Prague and here is my proof!
Apologies to Deerhoof's #1 Fan, David O. Russell
I'm also sorry that I did not post those promised Deerhoof live tracks the other day. I will attach them randomly to a future post on this page, which I can guarantee will have nothing to do with Deerhoof. Also, I decided yesterday that The Runners Four is awesome. Now that's what I call critical analysis!
XTC - Senses Working Overtime
XTC - Melt the Guns
XTC - It's Nearly Africa
XTC - Fly on the Wall (Note: Travis Morrison once cited this as one of his favorite songs.)
Because of traveling obligations, I was unable to participate in Skye Friday!, but here is a strangely juxtaposed picture tag line on the Skye Sweetnam.com message board.
Also, the new video for "Just the Way I Am" which premiered on the Disney Channel a week or two ago. Too much whatever bug thing tie-in footage! Not enough Skye! Not her best by a long shot, but Marshall Mathers WISHES he could have written this song instead of that piece of screamo crap that's long since defenestrated from public consciousness. Remember, you can't spell EMONEM without EMO.
Skye Sweetnam - Just the Way I Am Quicktime video
Preemptive apology to my reading audience for the following...
Now that Emily is gone gone gone (gone), I'm listening to XTC to make myself feel better, and it's working. In fact, it put me in SUCH a great mood that I realized that everyone in the world would be better off right now if they were also listening to XTC. So I am going to post three favorite tracks from English Settlement, and then we can theoretically listen to XTC together! In fact, to better aid your pleasurable listening experience by making your life seem more like my life, which is great, I will even describe my surroundings.
-I'm in my room in my parents' house.
-There is a CD stack next to me with David Banner's Mississippi on top. There's also a promo of the Giant Drag album, which I finally listened to after seeing them in a club. I wasn't feelin' it (I was having an off night, so it makes sense that Giant Drag was, too...did you know that no one has worn an undershirt since like 1997?) but the album is OK.
-I just took a sip of two-day stale Deer Park bottled water at the start of the first chorus of "Senses Working Overtime." It was great!
-I am looking at three vials of Humalog brand insulin. In fact, I think I'd like some insulin right now. Four units. Yes, that hit the spot. Hey, does anyone want to start a diabetic posse and call it D-Unit?
-I am now perusing Sean Frasier's masterful poetry collection "Dingleberry and Other Poems" from 2003. An excerpt:
Dingleberry
Face to face
with a soccer mother
speaking French,
feeling like everything
is a weight on a
hair.
"What's the score?"
She replies with a
smack to my mouth
and a tongue-kiss
that tastes of Capri-Sun
and Scope.
Color me brown
soccer mother
and dingle dangle from me.
Other information that will be helpful in your XTC listening experience:
1) My favorite ABBA album of the moment is The Visitors.
2) I laughed reading this essay on Dan Auerbach's website.
3) In the Realms of the Unreal is the best movie I've seen this year. I'm aware that technically it came out last year.
4) I've been to Prague and here is my proof!
Apologies to Deerhoof's #1 Fan, David O. Russell
I'm also sorry that I did not post those promised Deerhoof live tracks the other day. I will attach them randomly to a future post on this page, which I can guarantee will have nothing to do with Deerhoof. Also, I decided yesterday that The Runners Four is awesome. Now that's what I call critical analysis!
XTC - Senses Working Overtime
XTC - Melt the Guns
XTC - It's Nearly Africa
XTC - Fly on the Wall (Note: Travis Morrison once cited this as one of his favorite songs.)
Thursday, August 11, 2005
RADIO DIZZY ME
New developments: I’ve been listening to Radio Disney pretty regularly these days, and just started tracking the playlists with personal notes. Comcast cable (which I hope to continue in the fall) has 24-hour RD on channel 540 (in Boston, not sure what it is in Ithaca) and I’ve really been enjoying it. It’s like reliving a teen-age I didn’t allow myself, what with the Radioheads and the At the Drive-Ins and whatever else sowing the seeds of major post-adolescent depression when the bubble burst and I realized that hey, this music kind of makes me want to kill myself a lot. Note to future apartmenteers: Please do not play downer indie music at the dinner table. It just makes the stir-fry experience kind of gloomy.
On the list to purchase: more 60s bubblegum, more early 70s Motown, late 90s to early 00s teenpop.
So Radio Disney is part of all that. And it also intrigues me for another reason: this article that I’ve now linked to at least half a dozen times (if it wasn’t, then now it is) presents a kind of pop music utopia, seemingly appealing to 12-year-olds and 12-year-olds at heart (which would be me, I guess) but actually objectively being the ideal radio station, collapsing pop history into kaleidoscope of no-filler all-sugar bliss. Diabetics must live vicariously in these matters.
I’m going to print my RD musings here, because they have to go somewhere. I’ve avoided a corporate interpretation of the RD phenom for now, in part because unveiling the CORPORATE MECHANISMS of pop seems at cross-purposes of visceral enjoyment, and because it’s a bit too self-righteous a stance for me, someone who still occasionally buys his clothes at the South American abortion-forcin’ GAP, to embrace honestly. I would like to do some research into the ties to major music labels (as you’ll see, every other song is a Disney OST tie-in, but there are other weird under-the-table cash deals, not payola per se, undoubtedly happening here…not sure if it was like this in 2000).
My general thoughts on Radio Disney in 2005 can best be expressed in a patented awkward metaphor: RD c. 2005 is the Leninism to RD c. 2000’s theoretical Marxist utopia. Not a dystopia, exactly (strong words, especially considering I wasn’t actually listening to RD in 2000 myself and am only going on highly caffeinated second-hand accounts), but certainly a compromise. Let’s go more into detail.
August 8, 2005, 9:00 PM (half hour block)
Quad City DJs: Space Jam
Gwen Stefani: Rich Girl
Bowling for Soup: Almost
Crazy Frog: Crazy Frog (Axel F) [#3 of top 3 of the night]
Akon: Lonely [#2 of top 3 of the night]
Thoughts: A warm-up study session. My notes are focused on the Bowling for Soup track. I’d never heard of this band until sometime maybe last year, though I’d seen their albums a lot in Best Buy etc. and thought they seemed kind of schmucky. And they are—I still think “Almost” is a pretty boring song. It was a special request track on Emily’s sister Alissa’s graduation mix (note to self: interview Alissa about her music, because she’s cooler than you and can really shed some light on these things). What’s interesting about this song’s ubiquity is that it seems to appeal primarily to 16 to 17 year-olds. The subject matter certainly caters to mid- not pre-teens (something about that night when we were 16)…but I wonder if this isn’t similar to the Seventeen mag tactic of marketing to 12yos by making them wish they were a few years older. Even if this is the case, it seems to go against MMS’s Radio Disney Dreams, which is a pop format not only catered to, but actually dictated by tweens. Making them want to grow up is, in a Foucauldian sense, a form of subjugation and imposed docility. Where, say, Skye Sweetnam says REBEL NOW YOU CRAZY GIRLS, Bowling for Soup politely asks tweens to wait till they're older to have their cathartic rock-rebel moments. Bowling for Soup in particular whore themselves hardcore on the non-stop commercial barrage that is Radio Disney Comcast edition (were the commercials this ridiculously saturating in MMS’s time frame?). Less worth noting but still kind of interesting (courtesy Comcast fun facts): Bowling for Soup did a (presumably straight? Has to be unironic, at least) cover of “Baby One More Time” and a cover of “Summer of ’69.” Also, what the hell is a “Radio Disney edit,” and why does every other song have one?
August 10, 2005 2:00 PM half hour block
Gwen Stefani: Rich Girl
Kelly Clarkson: Breakaway (Princess Diaries OST)
Destiny’s Child: Independent Woman Pt. 1 (Charlie’s Angels OST)
Crazy Frog: CF Axel F
Lil Romeo: My Cinderella (Princess Diaries OST)
I’m willing to forgive the innumerable OST tie-ins and ignore the simple cash-in argument to a certain extent, because anyone who’s met a member of RD’s key demographic knows that the movie tie-in is essential to exposure…everyone likes The Princess Diaries, so it makes sense they’d cull a shitload from the OST. I’m still not sure how I feel about “Rich Girl,” which I definitely like, but still feel…sort of indifferent to. What single is that from LAMB, like five? My roommate caught shades of inappropriateness in choice of “cover,” with the slightest (slightest) hint of anti-Semitism. I don’t totally disagree, but it’s tepid enough not to be worth caring about s’much. More Crazy Frog. I still like it. I’m just glad that we finally got the right order (ring tone to club, not vice versa) and can now concentrate on a never-ending stream of these kind of booty-shakable club novelties. Hampton the Hamster is still going strong on RD as well (he’ll pop in later). “Breakaway” is too ballad-y, not enough rawk. “Behind These Hazel Eyes” is on right now in the other room. Much preferred…I think I’ll buy Breakaway now. Also must-purchases are these seemingly infinite volumes of Radio Disney Classics or whatever, which are like the NOW series but much better. I would assume.
August 10, 7:30 PM (hour block)
More notes now, so I’ll go track-by-track.
B5: Dance for You
- contains a Bad Boys shout-out...pretty innocuous, B5 seem to be one of the many 5-oriented RD bigwigs. More research later.
Yellowcard: Ocean Avenue
- very recently I wouldn’t have thought of giving this song a chance. This is the first time I ever even heard it, and it’s not all that bad, kind of boring. Another lyric to the effect of “hey things were crazy when we were 16!” seems out of place here. From Comcast: Ryan Key cites Ben Folds Five as his favorite band. I’m still pretty sure I hate Ben Folds in all his incarnations, but heck, maybe I’ll give it another chance? Still, Folds was made by late high school/early undergrad audiences, not 12 year olds, which makes me innately distrust exploring the oeuvre more in depth.
Phil Collins: Two Worlds (from Tarzan OST)
-BOOOOOOOORING. Now I’m going to call corporate tie-in bullshit, on the whole soundtrack. This song is ridiculously nap-inducing. Holy shit it’s on in the other room RIGHT NOW! Oh wait, that’s Train. Same difference. Soft rock snoooooooooooze.
INTERLUDE: “Mom and Pop Karaoke”: “My Mom” (not my mom) sings “Hound Dog.” The real crime here is that it doesn’t actually segue into the Elvis (or Lilo and Stitch) “Hound Dog”!!!!! Instead we go right to:
Weezer: Beverly Hills
-OK, Weezer fanboydom (which was just me being a huge poser in high school anyway) aside, this song seems kind of like a waste of space. Was “I Love Rock and Roll” really so great that we needed a snarky redux version that improbably waters down the best part (the rhythm section) and replaces the second-best part (the vocals) with some faux-confrontational Rivers (wink)-whining about rich people (I think)? Maybe we did. I still appreciate Rivers as a scumbag loser kind of ashamed of himself, as opposed to this scumbag loser who…isn’t. The DJ’s 72 year old neighbor loves this song, maybe we’re seeing a new demographic developing here. Another RD edit.
Mr. C and the Slide Man: Cha-Cha Slide
-now this I can get down with. Oldie but a goodie (I guess) in the RD world, it reminds me of the canned crap we used to learn square-dancing to in elementary school. Which for some reason reminds me of middle school chorus where we learned the white white white doo-wop classic “My Sha-La-La-La Locker’s Stuck.” I personally delivered the “rap” intro about my gerbil getting the flu. Comcast sez: this song was made for DJ Casper’s (ha!) friend’s aerobics class. My sister would never blast this at her spinning lessons, but I can kind of dig it at home. Nice arbitrary Charlie Brown shout-out.
INTERLUDE: Happy Birthday! and Various Shout-Outs. Speaking of shout-out, there’s something really weird about hearing these kids giving an official “shout out” to friends and family…they all actually start with “I’d like to give a shout out to…” in squeaky, nervous pre-pubescent voices, leading to such lines as “I’d like to give a shout out to my sister and Daddy and Mom” and, the closer, “I’d like to give a shout out to my friend Kevin. I hope he hears this, because we’re gonna be hanging out in the back yard until sundown or dinner, which is pretty soon.”
COMMERCIAL: A commercial for the US Mint. It’s about buffalo preservation or something. What the fuck?
Hampton the Hampster: The Hampster Dance
-this song will never die. MUST check out Radio Disney Jams Vol. 1 to ~17.
Ashlee Simpson: Pieces of Me
-booooooring. There’s just no hook for me to really hang on to here. Or am I missing something? I wasn’t really paying attention.
Avril Lavigne: Sk8er Boi
-OK, I officially kind of like this song. This is one that I’ve consciously avoided since whenever it came out, but it’s catchy and it has a melody. And it isn’t as overwrought as “Complicated,” which is an unfortunate standard for Avril to have set for herself. What the hell is up with this video (forget the song name) where she’s “not ready yet” and some skeez is trying to bang her in what looks like a dorm room. Then they steal the Bjork on rising platform move from that “Oh So Quiet” Spike Jonze video where everyone passed out from heat exhaustion. Fun fact: Avril: “I can write a song a day” (!).
Akon: Lonely
-Lukewarm about this song. I believe this album was #1 for at least two weeks according to the TESCO albums chart by my flat in London.
Lindsay Lohan: First
-I like this song. But the most notable thing about it is that it was voted Best Song to Watch Your Dad Sing To at the 2004 Radio Disney Awards. Note to self: Watch and/or attend the 2005 Radio Disney Awards. Hope I didn’t miss ‘em.
Jesse McCartney: Beautiful Soul (Cinderella Story OST)
-where did Jesse McCartney come from? Florida? Tell me it’s Florida. Back to Google I go.
The Click Five: Just the Girl
-these guys are Red Sox fans. I don’t remember what the song sounds like, remember it not being that interesting. I turned it off when Emily came in the room because it felt too much like it’d be scoring a private moment in a WB (strike that: Family Channel) romcom. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but Emily didn’t approve.
That’s all for now. For sticking around through all that, I will post a few songs by Nick Sylvester’s favorite band the Decemberists. I mean, Deerhoof. Live from Galaxies in San Francisco. That will happen Sunday, because I'm leaving for Philly now.
On the list to purchase: more 60s bubblegum, more early 70s Motown, late 90s to early 00s teenpop.
So Radio Disney is part of all that. And it also intrigues me for another reason: this article that I’ve now linked to at least half a dozen times (if it wasn’t, then now it is) presents a kind of pop music utopia, seemingly appealing to 12-year-olds and 12-year-olds at heart (which would be me, I guess) but actually objectively being the ideal radio station, collapsing pop history into kaleidoscope of no-filler all-sugar bliss. Diabetics must live vicariously in these matters.
I’m going to print my RD musings here, because they have to go somewhere. I’ve avoided a corporate interpretation of the RD phenom for now, in part because unveiling the CORPORATE MECHANISMS of pop seems at cross-purposes of visceral enjoyment, and because it’s a bit too self-righteous a stance for me, someone who still occasionally buys his clothes at the South American abortion-forcin’ GAP, to embrace honestly. I would like to do some research into the ties to major music labels (as you’ll see, every other song is a Disney OST tie-in, but there are other weird under-the-table cash deals, not payola per se, undoubtedly happening here…not sure if it was like this in 2000).
My general thoughts on Radio Disney in 2005 can best be expressed in a patented awkward metaphor: RD c. 2005 is the Leninism to RD c. 2000’s theoretical Marxist utopia. Not a dystopia, exactly (strong words, especially considering I wasn’t actually listening to RD in 2000 myself and am only going on highly caffeinated second-hand accounts), but certainly a compromise. Let’s go more into detail.
August 8, 2005, 9:00 PM (half hour block)
Quad City DJs: Space Jam
Gwen Stefani: Rich Girl
Bowling for Soup: Almost
Crazy Frog: Crazy Frog (Axel F) [#3 of top 3 of the night]
Akon: Lonely [#2 of top 3 of the night]
Thoughts: A warm-up study session. My notes are focused on the Bowling for Soup track. I’d never heard of this band until sometime maybe last year, though I’d seen their albums a lot in Best Buy etc. and thought they seemed kind of schmucky. And they are—I still think “Almost” is a pretty boring song. It was a special request track on Emily’s sister Alissa’s graduation mix (note to self: interview Alissa about her music, because she’s cooler than you and can really shed some light on these things). What’s interesting about this song’s ubiquity is that it seems to appeal primarily to 16 to 17 year-olds. The subject matter certainly caters to mid- not pre-teens (something about that night when we were 16)…but I wonder if this isn’t similar to the Seventeen mag tactic of marketing to 12yos by making them wish they were a few years older. Even if this is the case, it seems to go against MMS’s Radio Disney Dreams, which is a pop format not only catered to, but actually dictated by tweens. Making them want to grow up is, in a Foucauldian sense, a form of subjugation and imposed docility. Where, say, Skye Sweetnam says REBEL NOW YOU CRAZY GIRLS, Bowling for Soup politely asks tweens to wait till they're older to have their cathartic rock-rebel moments. Bowling for Soup in particular whore themselves hardcore on the non-stop commercial barrage that is Radio Disney Comcast edition (were the commercials this ridiculously saturating in MMS’s time frame?). Less worth noting but still kind of interesting (courtesy Comcast fun facts): Bowling for Soup did a (presumably straight? Has to be unironic, at least) cover of “Baby One More Time” and a cover of “Summer of ’69.” Also, what the hell is a “Radio Disney edit,” and why does every other song have one?
August 10, 2005 2:00 PM half hour block
Gwen Stefani: Rich Girl
Kelly Clarkson: Breakaway (Princess Diaries OST)
Destiny’s Child: Independent Woman Pt. 1 (Charlie’s Angels OST)
Crazy Frog: CF Axel F
Lil Romeo: My Cinderella (Princess Diaries OST)
I’m willing to forgive the innumerable OST tie-ins and ignore the simple cash-in argument to a certain extent, because anyone who’s met a member of RD’s key demographic knows that the movie tie-in is essential to exposure…everyone likes The Princess Diaries, so it makes sense they’d cull a shitload from the OST. I’m still not sure how I feel about “Rich Girl,” which I definitely like, but still feel…sort of indifferent to. What single is that from LAMB, like five? My roommate caught shades of inappropriateness in choice of “cover,” with the slightest (slightest) hint of anti-Semitism. I don’t totally disagree, but it’s tepid enough not to be worth caring about s’much. More Crazy Frog. I still like it. I’m just glad that we finally got the right order (ring tone to club, not vice versa) and can now concentrate on a never-ending stream of these kind of booty-shakable club novelties. Hampton the Hamster is still going strong on RD as well (he’ll pop in later). “Breakaway” is too ballad-y, not enough rawk. “Behind These Hazel Eyes” is on right now in the other room. Much preferred…I think I’ll buy Breakaway now. Also must-purchases are these seemingly infinite volumes of Radio Disney Classics or whatever, which are like the NOW series but much better. I would assume.
August 10, 7:30 PM (hour block)
More notes now, so I’ll go track-by-track.
B5: Dance for You
- contains a Bad Boys shout-out...pretty innocuous, B5 seem to be one of the many 5-oriented RD bigwigs. More research later.
Yellowcard: Ocean Avenue
- very recently I wouldn’t have thought of giving this song a chance. This is the first time I ever even heard it, and it’s not all that bad, kind of boring. Another lyric to the effect of “hey things were crazy when we were 16!” seems out of place here. From Comcast: Ryan Key cites Ben Folds Five as his favorite band. I’m still pretty sure I hate Ben Folds in all his incarnations, but heck, maybe I’ll give it another chance? Still, Folds was made by late high school/early undergrad audiences, not 12 year olds, which makes me innately distrust exploring the oeuvre more in depth.
Phil Collins: Two Worlds (from Tarzan OST)
-BOOOOOOOORING. Now I’m going to call corporate tie-in bullshit, on the whole soundtrack. This song is ridiculously nap-inducing. Holy shit it’s on in the other room RIGHT NOW! Oh wait, that’s Train. Same difference. Soft rock snoooooooooooze.
INTERLUDE: “Mom and Pop Karaoke”: “My Mom” (not my mom) sings “Hound Dog.” The real crime here is that it doesn’t actually segue into the Elvis (or Lilo and Stitch) “Hound Dog”!!!!! Instead we go right to:
Weezer: Beverly Hills
-OK, Weezer fanboydom (which was just me being a huge poser in high school anyway) aside, this song seems kind of like a waste of space. Was “I Love Rock and Roll” really so great that we needed a snarky redux version that improbably waters down the best part (the rhythm section) and replaces the second-best part (the vocals) with some faux-confrontational Rivers (wink)-whining about rich people (I think)? Maybe we did. I still appreciate Rivers as a scumbag loser kind of ashamed of himself, as opposed to this scumbag loser who…isn’t. The DJ’s 72 year old neighbor loves this song, maybe we’re seeing a new demographic developing here. Another RD edit.
Mr. C and the Slide Man: Cha-Cha Slide
-now this I can get down with. Oldie but a goodie (I guess) in the RD world, it reminds me of the canned crap we used to learn square-dancing to in elementary school. Which for some reason reminds me of middle school chorus where we learned the white white white doo-wop classic “My Sha-La-La-La Locker’s Stuck.” I personally delivered the “rap” intro about my gerbil getting the flu. Comcast sez: this song was made for DJ Casper’s (ha!) friend’s aerobics class. My sister would never blast this at her spinning lessons, but I can kind of dig it at home. Nice arbitrary Charlie Brown shout-out.
INTERLUDE: Happy Birthday! and Various Shout-Outs. Speaking of shout-out, there’s something really weird about hearing these kids giving an official “shout out” to friends and family…they all actually start with “I’d like to give a shout out to…” in squeaky, nervous pre-pubescent voices, leading to such lines as “I’d like to give a shout out to my sister and Daddy and Mom” and, the closer, “I’d like to give a shout out to my friend Kevin. I hope he hears this, because we’re gonna be hanging out in the back yard until sundown or dinner, which is pretty soon.”
COMMERCIAL: A commercial for the US Mint. It’s about buffalo preservation or something. What the fuck?
Hampton the Hampster: The Hampster Dance
-this song will never die. MUST check out Radio Disney Jams Vol. 1 to ~17.
Ashlee Simpson: Pieces of Me
-booooooring. There’s just no hook for me to really hang on to here. Or am I missing something? I wasn’t really paying attention.
Avril Lavigne: Sk8er Boi
-OK, I officially kind of like this song. This is one that I’ve consciously avoided since whenever it came out, but it’s catchy and it has a melody. And it isn’t as overwrought as “Complicated,” which is an unfortunate standard for Avril to have set for herself. What the hell is up with this video (forget the song name) where she’s “not ready yet” and some skeez is trying to bang her in what looks like a dorm room. Then they steal the Bjork on rising platform move from that “Oh So Quiet” Spike Jonze video where everyone passed out from heat exhaustion. Fun fact: Avril: “I can write a song a day” (!).
Akon: Lonely
-Lukewarm about this song. I believe this album was #1 for at least two weeks according to the TESCO albums chart by my flat in London.
Lindsay Lohan: First
-I like this song. But the most notable thing about it is that it was voted Best Song to Watch Your Dad Sing To at the 2004 Radio Disney Awards. Note to self: Watch and/or attend the 2005 Radio Disney Awards. Hope I didn’t miss ‘em.
Jesse McCartney: Beautiful Soul (Cinderella Story OST)
-where did Jesse McCartney come from? Florida? Tell me it’s Florida. Back to Google I go.
The Click Five: Just the Girl
-these guys are Red Sox fans. I don’t remember what the song sounds like, remember it not being that interesting. I turned it off when Emily came in the room because it felt too much like it’d be scoring a private moment in a WB (strike that: Family Channel) romcom. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but Emily didn’t approve.
That’s all for now. For sticking around through all that, I will post a few songs by Nick Sylvester’s favorite band the Decemberists. I mean, Deerhoof. Live from Galaxies in San Francisco. That will happen Sunday, because I'm leaving for Philly now.
Monday, August 08, 2005
Deadpan Alley
Now that we've all absorbed the meta smorgasbord that was the previous post (and scratched our heads and concluded that the Saunders article is great at least which is all I was really hoping for), I'll return to some more tangential fare. First, ABBA!
1) ABBA News: There are three dates to remember for rabid ABBA fans (rababbas?), a group that now includes me. I'm guessing this obsession will last longer than my one-week Afropop "phase," which I abandoned after realizing how much music there was to process and how embarrassingly little I was actually committed to processing it. I did find this blog, though, Benn loxo du taccu, with frequent mp3s from the world of contemporary African music.
*This month (that's August for anyone who doesn't keep up with these things so much... hi, Matt!), the three of Agnetha Faltskog's solo releases for Polar will be reissued on CD. I still highly recommend Tio Ar Med Agnetha for a general overview of her work, and will post a track from that compilation later today.
*On September 26th, the ABBA 1977 concert/tour film ABBA: The Movie will be released on DVD.
*In November, the most extensive compilation of ABBA material ever collected will be released. This includes nine CDs of the band's entire studio output and two DVDs of music videos (I'm pretty sure it's all of them) and concert footage.
2) I saw Broken Flowers the other night and was incredibly disappointed. I won't go too into detail, particularly as most people probably haven't seen it yet and I don't want to give away the plot, but I will outline my biggest problem with the film.
I'm a big Bill Murray fan, though I've remained critical of some of the work that he's been good in (I'm not sure he's ever given a bad performance, at least I'm not aware of one). I dislike most of Wes Anderson's films, and truthfully could do without Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic, although I do enjoy Rushmore, if only for Murray's performance. Further background: Loved Lost in Translation, loved Murray in Coffee and Cigarettes, love most of the Jarmusch films I've seen.
Broken Flowers doesn't work for me because Jarmusch has taken Murray's trademark deadpan and systematically pared it down to just about nothing. This kind of solemn facelessness has worked for more effusive personalities; I think that Jack Nicholson's work in About Schmidt exemplifies the stripped-down aging actor performance. But this approach doesn't work for Murray because when he's really good, he's about an inch away from complete blankness already. What's so exhilirating about Lost in Translation, for me, is how much life Murray finds in the smallest gestures, facial tics, and slight expressions. Broken Flowers even strips Murray of (most of) those small mannerisms, and instead of further realizing a bittersweet but uncompromisingly sad depiction of middle age, Murray's performance, for one of the only times I can even recall, seems completely false. He feels uncomfortable not only as his character (which is to be expected), but with his character. It feels like Murray doesn't know who Don really is -- he doesn't inhabit Don as effortlessly as his Anderson and Coppola precursors, and the film slowly breaks down and unravels because of it.
If this were explicitly the "point" of the film (and indeed themes of regret and confrontation are clear, but never satisfyingly explored), the performance might work. But Broken Flowers is evasive and oblique where it should be evocative, and frustratingly cryptic where it should be merely ambiguous. The actors simply aren't given enough to work with, though they admittedly do all they can with a script that feels spare to the point of total barrenness. Jarmusch wanted to work with Murray, and even had him signed on for a completely different project before realizing it was a dead end. Instead they pursued what became Broken Flowers, a film that began its life as two scene sketches Jarmusch had been kicking around for a while. The haphazard and impulsive writing process shines through, and the film as a whole feels unfinished and unsure of itself.
I hope the two collaborate in the future, because I was intrigued enough by the few moments of Broken Flowers that seemed to rise above the overwhelming bleakness and obscurity to think a future Murray/Jarmusch pairing could yield something more substantial.
Also, I obviously don't blame anyone involved in the film for this, but the press for Broken Flowers is one of the most misguided newspaper/magazine/online hype campaigns of recent memory (OK, not as bad as Million Dollar Baby), and the general critical consensus on this film will likely do a major disservice to anyone interested in seeing it based on these reviews and fluff pieces. The most blatant offenses: To say Broken Flowers is even remotely related to Lost in Translation in any way except Murray's involvement is just plain lazy, and to suggest that this film is "accessible," even by Jarmusch's standards, is also ridiculous. If anything, this is one of the least accessible Jarmusch films I've ever seen -- I have no idea what to do with Murray's performance, and I get the sneaking suspicion that neither did the director or the actor. And no way in hell will Murray be considered for an Oscar for this performance, even as an "apology" for Lost in Translation, not that that's really important.
All in all a major disappointment, but still provocative enough to be worth seeing, especially for diehards of Murray or Jarmusch. Take my snark with a grain of salt and go see it anyway -- also, it has the distinction of being one of three films made in 2005 in which Morgan Freeman was in no way involved, although at least two of the previews will feature him if you needed a fix.
3) Speaking of movies, here's a bad one, as opposed to a compelling but disappointing one. A record low on the Tomatometer! This is the funniest thing I've read all week...these blurbs are like poetry. I will not be seeing this film, even accidentally.
4) Speaking of things that make me smile...free Arcade Fire show in Central Park!!! I'm so there.
Agnetha Faltskog - "Fram för svenska sommaren"
The Arcade Fire - "Laika" ringtone 1 (complete), "Laika" ringtone 2 (chorus) [courtesy this post at Us Kids Know, the AF fansite...also, this is cool.]
1) ABBA News: There are three dates to remember for rabid ABBA fans (rababbas?), a group that now includes me. I'm guessing this obsession will last longer than my one-week Afropop "phase," which I abandoned after realizing how much music there was to process and how embarrassingly little I was actually committed to processing it. I did find this blog, though, Benn loxo du taccu, with frequent mp3s from the world of contemporary African music.
*This month (that's August for anyone who doesn't keep up with these things so much... hi, Matt!), the three of Agnetha Faltskog's solo releases for Polar will be reissued on CD. I still highly recommend Tio Ar Med Agnetha for a general overview of her work, and will post a track from that compilation later today.
*On September 26th, the ABBA 1977 concert/tour film ABBA: The Movie will be released on DVD.
*In November, the most extensive compilation of ABBA material ever collected will be released. This includes nine CDs of the band's entire studio output and two DVDs of music videos (I'm pretty sure it's all of them) and concert footage.
2) I saw Broken Flowers the other night and was incredibly disappointed. I won't go too into detail, particularly as most people probably haven't seen it yet and I don't want to give away the plot, but I will outline my biggest problem with the film.
I'm a big Bill Murray fan, though I've remained critical of some of the work that he's been good in (I'm not sure he's ever given a bad performance, at least I'm not aware of one). I dislike most of Wes Anderson's films, and truthfully could do without Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic, although I do enjoy Rushmore, if only for Murray's performance. Further background: Loved Lost in Translation, loved Murray in Coffee and Cigarettes, love most of the Jarmusch films I've seen.
Broken Flowers doesn't work for me because Jarmusch has taken Murray's trademark deadpan and systematically pared it down to just about nothing. This kind of solemn facelessness has worked for more effusive personalities; I think that Jack Nicholson's work in About Schmidt exemplifies the stripped-down aging actor performance. But this approach doesn't work for Murray because when he's really good, he's about an inch away from complete blankness already. What's so exhilirating about Lost in Translation, for me, is how much life Murray finds in the smallest gestures, facial tics, and slight expressions. Broken Flowers even strips Murray of (most of) those small mannerisms, and instead of further realizing a bittersweet but uncompromisingly sad depiction of middle age, Murray's performance, for one of the only times I can even recall, seems completely false. He feels uncomfortable not only as his character (which is to be expected), but with his character. It feels like Murray doesn't know who Don really is -- he doesn't inhabit Don as effortlessly as his Anderson and Coppola precursors, and the film slowly breaks down and unravels because of it.
If this were explicitly the "point" of the film (and indeed themes of regret and confrontation are clear, but never satisfyingly explored), the performance might work. But Broken Flowers is evasive and oblique where it should be evocative, and frustratingly cryptic where it should be merely ambiguous. The actors simply aren't given enough to work with, though they admittedly do all they can with a script that feels spare to the point of total barrenness. Jarmusch wanted to work with Murray, and even had him signed on for a completely different project before realizing it was a dead end. Instead they pursued what became Broken Flowers, a film that began its life as two scene sketches Jarmusch had been kicking around for a while. The haphazard and impulsive writing process shines through, and the film as a whole feels unfinished and unsure of itself.
I hope the two collaborate in the future, because I was intrigued enough by the few moments of Broken Flowers that seemed to rise above the overwhelming bleakness and obscurity to think a future Murray/Jarmusch pairing could yield something more substantial.
Also, I obviously don't blame anyone involved in the film for this, but the press for Broken Flowers is one of the most misguided newspaper/magazine/online hype campaigns of recent memory (OK, not as bad as Million Dollar Baby), and the general critical consensus on this film will likely do a major disservice to anyone interested in seeing it based on these reviews and fluff pieces. The most blatant offenses: To say Broken Flowers is even remotely related to Lost in Translation in any way except Murray's involvement is just plain lazy, and to suggest that this film is "accessible," even by Jarmusch's standards, is also ridiculous. If anything, this is one of the least accessible Jarmusch films I've ever seen -- I have no idea what to do with Murray's performance, and I get the sneaking suspicion that neither did the director or the actor. And no way in hell will Murray be considered for an Oscar for this performance, even as an "apology" for Lost in Translation, not that that's really important.
All in all a major disappointment, but still provocative enough to be worth seeing, especially for diehards of Murray or Jarmusch. Take my snark with a grain of salt and go see it anyway -- also, it has the distinction of being one of three films made in 2005 in which Morgan Freeman was in no way involved, although at least two of the previews will feature him if you needed a fix.
3) Speaking of movies, here's a bad one, as opposed to a compelling but disappointing one. A record low on the Tomatometer! This is the funniest thing I've read all week...these blurbs are like poetry. I will not be seeing this film, even accidentally.
4) Speaking of things that make me smile...free Arcade Fire show in Central Park!!! I'm so there.
Agnetha Faltskog - "Fram för svenska sommaren"
The Arcade Fire - "Laika" ringtone 1 (complete), "Laika" ringtone 2 (chorus) [courtesy this post at Us Kids Know, the AF fansite...also, this is cool.]
Saturday, August 06, 2005
WWW.BLOGSPAT.COM
Well, I was looking for an excuse to expound on…anything, really, and Ross gave me an excellent one with this post, which is a fascinating read. Not to turn this into a tennis match (what’s wrong with tennis?) but I’m going to go point by point here because there’s a lot of provocative stuff. I’ll leave out March of the Penguins, which is actually very good. Sorry I had to be so silly about it in my analysis. Still don’t like the narration.
OK, let’s go.
The following deals with this article, which I just can’t link to enough. Here, I’ll do it again, and then one more time.
Ross sez:
I’ll start with a minor quibble here: Saunders’s article is from 2000, not 2005, and aside from the fact that Radio Disney itself has probably changed a lot naturally, the times they are a-changin’, pop-wise. If anything, the teen-pop boom Saunders suggests was even bigger (more hyperbolic?) than expected, to the point that no one over the age of 12 seems to understand the irony in praising “Toxic” but holding on to an ingrained loathing of the preceding stuff that reigned in 2000 (what’s wrong with “Drive Me Crazy,” and why is it not as good of a pop song as “Toxic”? I stretched a thin misogyny/ preaching-virginity-but-not-really! argument to its breaking point during the domination of “Hit Me Baby One More Time,” and only now realize that 1) it’s a pretty good song after all and 2) “Toxic” was a diversionary tactic to help downplay the doozy of The Virgin Britney in her latest single, which frankly doesn’t bother me at this point. So she believes in Jesus a bunch, power to her).
Kelly Clarkson and recent Britney Spears (OK, maybe just "Toxic") have crossed over to the crabbiest of rock-y music crit personalities AND still have the 12-year-olds (and the teens who were 12-ish in 2000), who are snickering at everyone. Yes, the practice could seem “badly executed” (read: repetitive and boring) but only because all of the “good” stuff (anything not c. 2001 and beyond) was thrown out to pave the way for more Jesse McCartney and Jump 5 and…Bowling for Soup? Akon? What the fuck is going on here? There’s so much of this stuff, so much teen-pop, and pop-pop (not Pop Pop), and every other kind of pop…seriously, it’s more twisted than Metal Mike could have imagined, and I think I love it. Or maybe I’ve just crossed the line into blatant misanthropy because too many people have talked shit about me on their blogs.
Next:
I’m ignoring the next un-copied part about comparing these bands to ___-revivalists (I totally agree, but Ross already hand-wrung appropriately with a subjectivity statement...when will everyone realize that music isn’t about aesthetic evaluation anymore, it’s about THEORETICAL AUDIENCES and CA$H MONEY!). I just want to say that the Zombies sound really good right now for some reason. Right now being right now in my life, not right this second because SOME people are trying to sleep around here.
I don’t know if a proper definition of rockism would actually allow for any genre or band or whatever to be “inherently opposed to progress,” it’s more a reflection of how one-time dominant types of music move from individual aesthetic preference (not necessarily rockism) to ingrained prejudice exemplified by institutions rather than individuals. I won’t try to make a Bon Jovi fan dig M.I.A. (maybe Bon Jovi fans do dig M.I.A.), but rock is still at the center of the discourse on popular music, which seems unfair in light of other types of music that, when you think about it (hip-hop) are more popular anyway. This is changing, but that’s because it’s easier (or maybe “faster” is more appropriate) to uproot genre-ism (hey, remember jazz?) than, oh I dunno, racism. Not that I would ever dream of comparing the two.
Dude, a million people read this blog now. I could MAKE or BREAK Jesse McCartney if I wanted to, but I don’t. I do wish the A*Teens were back on the charts, though. Let’s lobby for that.
Oh. What? I agree with these things: 1) There is no theoretical “other people.” 2) We are all “we,” which is why it’s always OK to use inclusive pronouns in critical writing, and actually preferred (i.e. “We like the new Jamie Lidell album a lot but we’re not sure how we feel about Wolf Parade yet”).
But I think ultimately the breakdown of genre into nothingness is oversimplifying, if not exactly false…there are also extra-musical concerns not related to matters of aesthetic choice, calling into question a “we like what we like ‘cause we like it” argument and adding more importance or relevance to genre distinction as a cultural, not strictly aesthetic, separation. One contentious example is the inherent racism in supposed aesthetic preference informing rock-oriented tastes, which is why when hip-hop specifically (as opposed to Beatle-rock vs. Not Beatle-rock) enters this debate things get more complicated.
Radio Disney does exhibit, if not a progressive, at least a seemingly color-blind approach to artist selection, as opposed to [insert local classic rock station] or [insert last remaining alternative rock station on the planet]. There are prejudices and institutional influences that run deeper than aesthetic preference, I think, though this opens up issues a bit too intense for this blogspat. I also disagree that consumers of music criticism are “second-level organisms.” The proper phrase is “second-rate.”
With the passage of s’more time (I wrote my first blurb when I got home from the movie) we’re kind of agreed on this. One reason I didn’t write more about Murderball is not because it’s been written before, but because there isn’t so much to write. I wasn’t kidding when I said I wanted it to be longer and more difficult; I’m getting really sick of these “entry level” documentaries (Super Size Me, F-9/11) that seek to open up a broad, vaguely controversial subject without really confronting anyone to think and act significantly differently, which would probably affect ticket sales, so I sort of see the point. Still, Control Room seems to have done fairly well. Can we have more documentaries like that, please?
Murderball actually takes a turn toward less hey-let’s-follow-these-guys-around style filmmaking at the end with (very) young quadriplegic veterans of the war in Iraq, but too briefly to be anything more than mildly pertinent. A further post about my cautious stance on the “documentary boom” from a doc theory viewpoint will probably come out sometime after I explain why Gus Van Sant is such a Vansanthole. I still like Gerry, though.
Wow, that was long and difficult...it would have made an excellent documentary! I don’t have any penguin pix, but I’ll have some ABBA news (and an Agnetha Faltskog track) to help retroactively lighten up the room a little later this weekend.
OK, let’s go.
The following deals with this article, which I just can’t link to enough. Here, I’ll do it again, and then one more time.
Ross sez:
“the theory as hyperbolated [by Saunders] in that article is more appealing than the practice as apparently actually executed, but that's to be expected.”
I’ll start with a minor quibble here: Saunders’s article is from 2000, not 2005, and aside from the fact that Radio Disney itself has probably changed a lot naturally, the times they are a-changin’, pop-wise. If anything, the teen-pop boom Saunders suggests was even bigger (more hyperbolic?) than expected, to the point that no one over the age of 12 seems to understand the irony in praising “Toxic” but holding on to an ingrained loathing of the preceding stuff that reigned in 2000 (what’s wrong with “Drive Me Crazy,” and why is it not as good of a pop song as “Toxic”? I stretched a thin misogyny/ preaching-virginity-but-not-really! argument to its breaking point during the domination of “Hit Me Baby One More Time,” and only now realize that 1) it’s a pretty good song after all and 2) “Toxic” was a diversionary tactic to help downplay the doozy of The Virgin Britney in her latest single, which frankly doesn’t bother me at this point. So she believes in Jesus a bunch, power to her).
Kelly Clarkson and recent Britney Spears (OK, maybe just "Toxic") have crossed over to the crabbiest of rock-y music crit personalities AND still have the 12-year-olds (and the teens who were 12-ish in 2000), who are snickering at everyone. Yes, the practice could seem “badly executed” (read: repetitive and boring) but only because all of the “good” stuff (anything not c. 2001 and beyond) was thrown out to pave the way for more Jesse McCartney and Jump 5 and…Bowling for Soup? Akon? What the fuck is going on here? There’s so much of this stuff, so much teen-pop, and pop-pop (not Pop Pop), and every other kind of pop…seriously, it’s more twisted than Metal Mike could have imagined, and I think I love it. Or maybe I’ve just crossed the line into blatant misanthropy because too many people have talked shit about me on their blogs.
Next:
“think how exciting and fresh pretty much any poppy/garage/whatever rock song from the sixties still sounds these days”
I’m ignoring the next un-copied part about comparing these bands to ___-revivalists (I totally agree, but Ross already hand-wrung appropriately with a subjectivity statement...when will everyone realize that music isn’t about aesthetic evaluation anymore, it’s about THEORETICAL AUDIENCES and CA$H MONEY!). I just want to say that the Zombies sound really good right now for some reason. Right now being right now in my life, not right this second because SOME people are trying to sleep around here.
“doesn't mean the beatles et. al. heralded a substantive change in the nature of that progression - they were a part of the continuum like anything else, not a monolithic, static, platonic thing inherently opposed to progress and change (that would be the rockist angle).”
I don’t know if a proper definition of rockism would actually allow for any genre or band or whatever to be “inherently opposed to progress,” it’s more a reflection of how one-time dominant types of music move from individual aesthetic preference (not necessarily rockism) to ingrained prejudice exemplified by institutions rather than individuals. I won’t try to make a Bon Jovi fan dig M.I.A. (maybe Bon Jovi fans do dig M.I.A.), but rock is still at the center of the discourse on popular music, which seems unfair in light of other types of music that, when you think about it (hip-hop) are more popular anyway. This is changing, but that’s because it’s easier (or maybe “faster” is more appropriate) to uproot genre-ism (hey, remember jazz?) than, oh I dunno, racism. Not that I would ever dream of comparing the two.
“and since we [critical authorities] don't count”
Dude, a million people read this blog now. I could MAKE or BREAK Jesse McCartney if I wanted to, but I don’t. I do wish the A*Teens were back on the charts, though. Let’s lobby for that.
“if you read one review you read them all, and you become a consumer of music criticism, a second-level organism. we think we're just talking to ourselves, and the theoretical other people aren't paying attention, but actually we're the silent majocracy, and there are no other people, we're all "we," and therefore we each have to decide on our own what we want to listen to. there is no such thing as genre.”
Oh. What? I agree with these things: 1) There is no theoretical “other people.” 2) We are all “we,” which is why it’s always OK to use inclusive pronouns in critical writing, and actually preferred (i.e. “We like the new Jamie Lidell album a lot but we’re not sure how we feel about Wolf Parade yet”).
But I think ultimately the breakdown of genre into nothingness is oversimplifying, if not exactly false…there are also extra-musical concerns not related to matters of aesthetic choice, calling into question a “we like what we like ‘cause we like it” argument and adding more importance or relevance to genre distinction as a cultural, not strictly aesthetic, separation. One contentious example is the inherent racism in supposed aesthetic preference informing rock-oriented tastes, which is why when hip-hop specifically (as opposed to Beatle-rock vs. Not Beatle-rock) enters this debate things get more complicated.
Radio Disney does exhibit, if not a progressive, at least a seemingly color-blind approach to artist selection, as opposed to [insert local classic rock station] or [insert last remaining alternative rock station on the planet]. There are prejudices and institutional influences that run deeper than aesthetic preference, I think, though this opens up issues a bit too intense for this blogspat. I also disagree that consumers of music criticism are “second-level organisms.” The proper phrase is “second-rate.”
“so i walked into murderball instead. man, i don't know. i gotta say. certainly it's a cool subject... and zuppan's a character. but... well, it turned out to be a pretty mundane and at times embarrassingly simplistic movie.”
With the passage of s’more time (I wrote my first blurb when I got home from the movie) we’re kind of agreed on this. One reason I didn’t write more about Murderball is not because it’s been written before, but because there isn’t so much to write. I wasn’t kidding when I said I wanted it to be longer and more difficult; I’m getting really sick of these “entry level” documentaries (Super Size Me, F-9/11) that seek to open up a broad, vaguely controversial subject without really confronting anyone to think and act significantly differently, which would probably affect ticket sales, so I sort of see the point. Still, Control Room seems to have done fairly well. Can we have more documentaries like that, please?
Murderball actually takes a turn toward less hey-let’s-follow-these-guys-around style filmmaking at the end with (very) young quadriplegic veterans of the war in Iraq, but too briefly to be anything more than mildly pertinent. A further post about my cautious stance on the “documentary boom” from a doc theory viewpoint will probably come out sometime after I explain why Gus Van Sant is such a Vansanthole. I still like Gerry, though.
Wow, that was long and difficult...it would have made an excellent documentary! I don’t have any penguin pix, but I’ll have some ABBA news (and an Agnetha Faltskog track) to help retroactively lighten up the room a little later this weekend.
Friday, August 05, 2005
Skye Friday!
You know you're psyched for this.
It's that time again, for the first time! SKYE FRIDAY is that glorious day of the week when I post a Skye Sweetnam song for everyone to download and enjoy. With any luck, I'll find material from other sources than Noise from the Basement in the coming weeks and months of SKYE FRIDAYS.
But this post would be incomplete without a few other random musings, which have been much more cathartic than big clunky travel pieces lately.
1) I finished my ABBA article for the Ithacan. Here's hoping it publishes without a hitch (I devote like 150 words to Agnetha alone). I'm still thinking of titles for my column...right now the frontrunner is "Pop Wash," though I'm very open to less stupid suggestions from my friends, who should really try commenting more because it makes me feel good about myself. Below I've posted the current stuck-in-head song off of the two-disc ABBA comp I bought yesterday in a fit of ecstasy. I think that the Bumblebees could cover it with Cathy Bumble on vocals.
2) According to Teh Fork (yeah, again), Annie is doing the next DJ Kicks installment!!!!! I would host the recently Fluxblogged live recording of "The Wedding," but it's still available at the other site.
3) Don't you think it's time for someone to bring more Jon Bougher acoustic gold to the inter-world? I do. Below is a track from his seminal 2003 album Why Did the Dinosaurs Die?, apparently dedicated to me.
SKYE FRIDAY SPECIAL: Skye Sweetnam - "Sharada"
ABBA - "Lay All Your Love on Me"
Jon Bougher - "Diabetes"
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
King of Carrot Crap (Parts 1 and 2)
Hey, look at what Pitchfork tells me I just missed!
More randomness:
Part 1 of 2) I forgot to post a link to You Ain't No Picasso which is where I ripped both the Ted Leo and Mountain Goats covers. Here are several counter-examples (MG, Superwolf sort of), major reaffirmers (Unicorns, Rilo Kiley...twice?), and forgettable sort-of-proves-my-point-but-who-really-cares choices (pretty much the rest) to the other day's rant. Pretty good blog, with mucho Sufjan coverage (hm, Illinois is conspicuously absent from Sufjan's homepage...HEY AWESOME INDIE ROCKERS, UPDATE YOUR WEBSITES PLEASE).
Part 2 of 2) Had a conversation about the New Pornographers the other day and for some reason had a pang of guilt about writing this stupid review of the latest Limblifter album (NP drummer Kurt Dahle's brother Ryan's band) from like six months ago, even though I'm pretty sure I was right.
So to otherwise make amends and rehabilitate the innocence of the genuine feelings, here is some Limblifter music courtesy of the website...I thought I had this album on my hard drive but I guess not. Check out "Drug Induced," which I like both in spite of and because of the first line. Also a Neutral Milk Hotel song to help nurse the wound (whatever, like I go to concerts anymore) and a song by Lovers Band, because they're from Athens and they're on Orange Twin and they might play a Buzzsaw show if we actually decided to ask them at some point.
Limblifter - I/O (free streaming)
Neutral Milk Hotel - "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" (final performance)
Lovers - "Now That You're a Ghost"
First Brian Wilson finished Smile. Then Jandek played live. And now, Jeff Mangum, the elusive, fragile and possibly downright batty mastermind behind Neutral Milk Hotel, has made his first major public appearance in years, joining Olivia Tremor Control last night at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City.
More randomness:
Part 1 of 2) I forgot to post a link to You Ain't No Picasso which is where I ripped both the Ted Leo and Mountain Goats covers. Here are several counter-examples (MG, Superwolf sort of), major reaffirmers (Unicorns, Rilo Kiley...twice?), and forgettable sort-of-proves-my-point-but-who-really-cares choices (pretty much the rest) to the other day's rant. Pretty good blog, with mucho Sufjan coverage (hm, Illinois is conspicuously absent from Sufjan's homepage...HEY AWESOME INDIE ROCKERS, UPDATE YOUR WEBSITES PLEASE).
Part 2 of 2) Had a conversation about the New Pornographers the other day and for some reason had a pang of guilt about writing this stupid review of the latest Limblifter album (NP drummer Kurt Dahle's brother Ryan's band) from like six months ago, even though I'm pretty sure I was right.
So to otherwise make amends and rehabilitate the innocence of the genuine feelings, here is some Limblifter music courtesy of the website...I thought I had this album on my hard drive but I guess not. Check out "Drug Induced," which I like both in spite of and because of the first line. Also a Neutral Milk Hotel song to help nurse the wound (whatever, like I go to concerts anymore) and a song by Lovers Band, because they're from Athens and they're on Orange Twin and they might play a Buzzsaw show if we actually decided to ask them at some point.
Limblifter - I/O (free streaming)
Neutral Milk Hotel - "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" (final performance)
Lovers - "Now That You're a Ghost"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)