back to the lab, again

now posting over at The Lab, Again.

been a few years. i'm blogging again. this time at fat little monkey

yacht rock saturday: "magnet and steel" by walter egan

paraphrasin' wikipedia is like writin' the gambler

walter egan was a native new yorker who grew into a '70s soft rock cat. his stuff was produced by the fleetwood mac team. i got into "magnet and steel" through the boogie nights soundtrack. it really is one of those random, perfect, soft '70s pop landmarks. i would put it right up there with starland vocal band's "afternoon delight".

incidentally, boogie nights has an amazing, spot on soundtrack. that got me into the emotions. has there ever been a better song than this?:

Video Sunday: Massive Attack

In preparation for new Massive Attack stuff this year, I though I would post some promos of theirs that I haven't gotten around to. "Teardrop" is one of the most spine tingly dingly pop songs ever, and it has a striking video wherein a fetus sings Liz Frazer's unforgettable vocal. And, yeah, now it is the theme to "House":



"Inertia Creeps" is creepy. It is also one of the most awesome (and fairly prescient) interpolations of Aegean rhythms into beat pop.



Those two were from Mezzanine. This one, "Sly", is from Protection. Both rank among the best albums of the '90s in my brainbook.

Telefon Tel Aviv Review At 24SevenCities

Maybe you've heard about the death of Charlie Cooper, half of Telefon Tel Aviv. It is a shame. The new album Immolate Yourself is great. I reviewed it here on 24SevenCities. A sample:

"Each of Telefon Tel Aviv’s albums has its own distinctiveness, building upon its predecessor. Map of What is Effortless explored the light, experimental ambience of 2001’s Farenheit Fair Enough, and extended those devices to new operatic emotion. The new album Immolate Yourself builds on the more immersive, transcendent moments of Map of What is Effortless, creating a layered, sublime and sad experience. It marries textured ambience with wrenching, resigned sentiment."


Here are some more links to things I've written for 24SevenCities:

Afro Samurai Resurrection soundtrack review
Loer Velocity Uninfatuated EP available for free download
Revisiting Paul's Boutique
Rilly long liveblog about television
Talkin' 'bout Auto-Tune
Thoughts about Being There
RIP Charlie Cooper of TTA

Cuts Like The Knife: Video Sunday

So maybe this will be a regular thing, maybe it won't. Let me know if you enjoy it or not. There is nothing particularly new or hyper-relevant here, I just realized I had not taken the time here to slather the Knife all over a post. This came from finding this nifty flash video for "We Share Our Mother's Health" as remixed by Ratatat:



Silent Shout was an incredible album, and here is a cool, creepy video for my favorite song on it, "Marble House":



The previous album, Deep Cuts, was not too shabby itself. It is more pop oriented, and lacks the soul shuddering sparse creepiness of Silent Shout, but it is certainly a gem. Here, from Deep Cuts, is perhaps the Knife cut that you have most likely heard on a commercial (or covered acoustically by Jose Gonzalez). This is "Heartbeats":

You Say I'm Not A Party Girl?

Alright, hopefully I've snagged some Elvis Costello lyrical geeks with the post title. But how about the '90s indie comedy gem Party Girl? And how about the fabulous Parker Posey and her glamorous gams? (I've also heard that sparking debates about the relative hotness of cultishly adored actresses is good for the comments.) Anyway, Parker thoroughly won me over throughout the '90s and still holds me rapt today.

One could be cynical and/or accurate to call this her Adam Sandler moment. Posey is one of our most vital cultural treasures, but she's also rilly fuckin' funny playing an initially naive, adorably funny, childlike character who goes through a maturation process and winds up wiser but no less lovable. In this one, she reverses the cliche of the mousey librarian who lets down her hair and takes off her glasses to become a foxy swan. In this movie, she transitions from irresistable club pixie to responsible librarian/still-a-club-vixen-but-more-accountable young woman. Fair warning well researched by myself and friends in college over many viewings and discussions on various substances: this movie does not work if you do not watch it top to bottom (not a big task, its a breeze at 94 minutes). Catching it from the middle, this breezy but sociologically interesting indie comedy directed by the incomparably named Daisy Von Scherler Mayer just seems stupid. Maybe it is, but fuck that, check it from the beginning. Also a favorite of Yo-Ster.

Anyway, Party Girl was not only a cheerful fable both celebrating and criticizing the mid-'90s club scene. It was also one of the finest, American Graffiti style, attempts to capture the always changing dance music scenes of the period in a melodious soundtrack. PopDose has done us all the favor of collecting many of the big cuts featured in this great film comedy. Not sure you should click on it? You need the most powerful psychedelic available right now!

New 24SevenCities Posts

Hey kids,

I've been posting fairly regularly on the blogs for 24SevenCities. Please take a look at the whole thing, particularly if you're living around Southeastern Virginia. We're still building it, but it already looks pretty great and hosts a good amount of impressive content. I truly believe this has the potential to be the most high quality and relevant web/print resource in the area.

New content from moi:

Great Gig In The Sea
Mickey Rourke Is The Wrestler
Passing Strange
Daily Irrelevance

Blanton v. Maddrey (Fantasmo News)

If you haven't gotten the chance to lately, its a good time to take a look at Jim Blanton's blog for Fantasmo Cult Cinema Explosion. Pamela Vorhees herself, Betsy Palmer, has been confirmed for a phone interview on the upcoming Friday the 13th 1-3 night on February 6. Additionally, there is a very fascinating interview by Blanton of Joseph Maddrey, author of Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue, an examination of the American horror movie and its themes throughout history. Maddrey has recently adapted his text into a documentary currently getting submitted to festivals. Hopefully soon we'll get a chance to see it at Chesapeake Central Library. And don't forget that this Friday they are fixing up a double helping of Austrailian horror, heavy on zombies. I wish I could have gotten so much genre education as a kid with the semi-legitimate excuse of "I'm just going to the library." Here is one particular fruitful exchange from Blanton's conversation with Maddrey:

JB: You explore two primary concepts in the film, firstly that these films are reflections of the time and place in which they are made, and secondly that they involve the struggle of the individual or “outsider” with some type of threatening entity. As a lifelong horror fan, did these elements jump out at you initially or coalesce during your research? Were there any other aspects you found competing with these in developing your thesis?

JM: Growing up, I was constantly watching and reading about horror movies – always searching for things I hadn’t seen. (This was the age of mom and pop video stores, when finding the really good stuff took some legwork.) I kept a running chronological list of titles and that was how I started noticing thematic similarities among films from particular time periods.

When the book was published, a friend of mine who hadn’t read it yet said, “But did you write about why you, personally, are interested in horror films? That’s what I want to read about.” Of course, I hadn’t. Another friend read the book and commented that, while he understood my thesis, he believed that the true appeal of the horror genre was its universal themes – fear of death, fear of change, fear of the outsider, etc. So in conducting interviews for the documentary, I tried to pursue the historical, the personal and the universal.

There are countless other concepts that we might have explored in the documentary if we’d had more time. Ultimately, the challenge was not finding things to say, but narrowing the scope and creating a coherent narrative.

That got me thinking about why I keep jabbering about and seeking out horror movies. My first instinct is to state that film is the most important artistic canvas to me for storytelling and the expression of ideas. Film is so expensive, however, that often the raw, uncompromised, and frequently inscrutable instincts and feelings that penetrate from other mediums such as visual arts, literature, and music are severely muted by commercial concerns. Horror, however, with its lack of reliance on mainstream respectibility, broad appeal, or outrageous budgeting (not to mention its lack of attention or regard as "serious art") has constantly served as a forum for transgressive images, taboo subject matter, controversial ideas, and uncomfortably personal artistic statements. Horror is a place I go to see what I have not seen, be intellectually provoked, and be viscerally and spiritually shocked. It is among the most cathartic and challenging of genres.

Eugene Mirman Is The Real Love Guru

Eugene Mirman is truly one of the funniest and most unique minds out there. I had the pleasure of bombing before his show at Relative Theory a few years ago, and he was funny enough to make me forget my abject failure. I should send that to him as a blurb: "funny enough to forget your abject failure." That's why we're so into comedy anyway, right? This amazing guy has been chosen for the honor of the annual Valentine's Day relationship advice column, previously presided over by Sarah Silverman and Slug from Atmosphere, on the AV Club. If you have any love related questions that only an absurd and gifted comedian can answer for you, go ahead and send them to mirman@theonion.com. If yr lucky, he just might answer them for the whole internet to see!

Lily Allen Goes Straight To Hell

The espanol blog Revista 69 has posted a wonderful track by my current favorite brat, Lily Allen. This is a classy cover of the Clash classic "Straight To Hell", the song that M.I.A. built her amazing megahit "Paper Planes" over.

The Bug and Passing Strange on 24SevenCities

Sorry for my absence, space cadets, but I have not been up to nothing (not entirely, at least). I have posted a few fresh blogs for my new kickass writing home, 24SevenCities. Check them out and let me know what you think:

Review of The Bug's London Zoo

Thoughts on the Sundance Film Festival and Spike Lee's Passing Strange

Blogging at 24SevenCities

I am now live at 24SevenCities.com. Here are the first few posts:

Inaugurate With Me? ;)
Welcome to Bloggageddon

another inaugurager

Berk and Cornbread (there was going to be an appearance by a former member of Antipop Consortium, but then Beans and Cornbread had a fight, so Berk was kind enough to step in) will be spinning the hope fantastic at the Taphouse tonight from 10-2. I would like to expand my invitation for somebody to escort and pay for a night of democrabauchery with me and propose a waltz from the NOW soiree at the New Belmont to the hophip downthrow at Taphouse. How could you resist? No, really, how? That's the type of thing it would help me to know.