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(10/13/11 1:02am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It’s difficult to tell how serious the Dallas natives in Absu are about their eyeliner-drenched, occultist take on black metal.On one hand, it should be easy to dismiss a frontman who calls himself Proscriptor and introduces songs about magic(k) spells with on-stage numerological rants. On the other hand, no one is making blackened thrash with quite the same intensity and sincerity as the Texan trio. “Abzu” is Absu’s sixth LP and perhaps its most complete yet. From the ripping drum intro and King Diamond-like scream that opens “Earth Ripper” to the closing strains of 14-minute closer “A Song for Ea,”the album doesn’t relent for a moment of its 36-minute duration.Even when the highlight of album “Circles of the Oath” brings acoustic guitar into the equation, something evil stirs beneath the surface, and it never lets on whether it’s winking at us or not.Despite middle tracks “Abraxas Connexus” and “Skrying in the Spirit Vision” not being quite as gripping as the rest of the record, “Ontologically, It Became Time & Space” earns those points and more back for “Abzu” on the strength of its title alone.Next time Absu tours, Proscriptor will just have to explain what the hell it means.
(10/06/11 1:49am)
The '90s gave us pogs, neon tights, flannel shirts and Radiohead. What's still relevant today and what should we leave behind? WEEKEND decides.
(10/06/11 1:27am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>There is perhaps no more quintessentially ’90s movie than Cameron Crowe’s “Singles.”The 1992 romantic comedy is set in the thick of grunge-era Seattle, and its four principal characters embody everything that was great (and terrible) about that time in our nation’s cultural history.The film itself doesn’t hold up today as much else but a nostalgist’s wet dream, but its Billboard-dominating soundtrack is still an excellent portrait of a sadly bygone period in mainstream rock.In keeping with the grungy setting of “Singles,” the soundtrack features cuts from Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins, all of whom were in the midst of platinum-selling recording careers and near the peak of their popularity.The soundtrack also includes a few tracks that aren’t making the classic rock radio rounds in 2011. “Overblown” by Mudhoney, “Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns” by Mother Love Bone and a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “The Battle of Evermore” by the acoustic Heart side project The Lovemongers never tore up the charts, and they almost certainly never will.But why not?It’s easy to assume the cream always rises to the top with a movement as ineffably huge as grunge, but beyond the genre’s perceived Big Four (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden), there’s plenty more great Seattle anti-hair metal. The “Singles” soundtrack includes what may be the best grunge song ever recorded in Mother Love Bone’s “Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns.” Included in Cameron Crowe’s “Say Anything” as well as “Singles,” the eight-minute epic never charted, relying instead on overwhelming critical acclaim to keep from being relegated to the dust bin of pop history. Mudhoney’s “Overblown,” too, is a fascinating study in what-could-have-been. Lacking even the shared members pedigree of most of Seattle’s other early ’90s acts, the quartet carved (and is still carving) a niche in grunge that has led to an intense cult following but only miniscule mainstream success. “Overblown” is the groovier, dance-inspiring counterpoint to the more typically depressive grunge of the Big Four. Despite their radio-ready combination of heavy grunge aesthetics and foot-tapping songwriting, Mudhoney has yet to score a charting single.Perhaps the most inexplicably cult grunge band of the early ’90s is Temple of the Dog, whose lone release features both Soundgarden crooner Chris Cornell and Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder. It’s a bit presumptive to create a supergroup while the band’s lending members were still in the early stages of becoming super, but “Temple of the Dog” is an essential grunge album, and the lack of any tracks from it on the “Singles” soundtrack is baffling.And if all this somehow doesn’t illustrate that continued relevancy of the music from “Singles,” a band calling itself Citizen Dick after Matt Dillon’s fictional band in the film played a set entirely comprised of cuts from the soundtrack at Bloomington’s own Bishop last Halloween. They even projected the film behind them, so maybe the soundtrack isn’t the only relevant part of Cameron Crowe’s first and most heartfelt ode to grunge after all.
(10/05/11 9:47pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Josh Davis (aka DJ Shadow) rocked the music world with his 1996 debut release “Endtroducing.”With a masterpiece of an LP constructed entirely of samples of rarely heard recordings, Davis did no less than bring the American mainstream its first serious dosage of the rarities-obsessed hauntology movement.Unfortunately, DJ Shadow doesn’t really deal in hauntology anymore. At least not in a serious way.“The Less You Know, the Better” is a typical hip-hop album relative to the basement-rummaging greatness of the DJ’s past.Guest vocal appearances from Talib Kweli, Tom Vek and Little Dragon’s Yukimi Nagano make the record a horse of a far different color than the early Shadow discs that sampled an interview on drumming released by the Standard Oil Company of California.Davis finds some success with the effectively creepy “Sad and Lonely” and “(Not So) Sad and Lonely,” and “Give Me Back the Nights” is a harrowing piece more reminiscent of Anaal Nathrakh than any past DJ Shadow material.The conventional nature of much of the rest of the album is what makes the brilliance of “Endtroducing” feel like an even more distant dot in the rearview mirror.
(09/29/11 3:44am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>1. “Raging Bull” (1980)Jake LaMotta would take a beating in the boxing ring to combat his devastating inner turmoil of jealousy, anxiety and an unbridled craving for abuse and conflict. Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull” is the most elegant, visceral, brutal and stylish sports movie ever made, and it’s all to depict the tragic beauty of a self-beaten soul.2. “Hoosiers” (1986)Although no one is sure what a Hoosier is, this movie embodies everything good about our state. From Gene Hackman speeches to last-second shots, “Hoosiers” will forever be a favorite son to those of us that call Indiana home.3. “Field of Dreams” (1989)The tagline should actually be “If you watch it, tears will come.” Perhaps the greatest baseball movie ever made, “Field of Dreams” will leave you thinking about much more than just a game.4. “Rocky” (1976)In many ways the forerunner to the modern sports underdog film, the timeless story of a low-level Philadelphia boxer who gets a shot at the championship remains powerful and heartwarming, thanks to Sylvester Stallone’s all-in portrayal of a simple man trying to seize the opportunity of a lifetime.5. “Remember the Titans” (2000)Denzel Washington plays the perfect tough-love coach in this heartwarming story of integration and a high school football team in Virginia in 1971.6. “Million Dollar Baby” (2004)The simple message of being able to find a champion in anyone with real heart speaks to how a film can overcome, with grace and tenderness, even the worst melodrama. Clint Eastwood’s marvelously acted boxing movie “Million Dollar Baby” does just that and becomes a lovely and touching masterpiece.7. “Breaking Away” (1979)Putting “Breaking Away” on a list of top sports movies to Bloomington viewers could be considered pandering, but even without the local connection, it’s one of the top cycling movies out there. Complete with us versus them rivalries, a stunning last-minute comeback and even Dennis Quaid in jorts, it should not be ignored by sports fans.8. “The Wrestler” (2008)Randy “The Ram” Robinson puts himself through so much abuse in the wrestling ring, but outside it is where he feels most hurt. Darren Aronofsky’s gritty, yet tender drama “The Wrestler” finds both pain and love through the violence of the sport, and Mickey Rourke’s tortured performance is utterly heartwarming. 9. “Chariots of Fire” (1981)Running on the beach to the operatic, electronic score by Vangelis is now a cliche, but it fits this British period piece’s victorious feel. “Chariots of Fire” is the best, if one of the few, movies about running ever made, and there’s something riveting about a sprint through the Cambridge courtyard.10. “Space Jam” (1996)How could a movie with Michael Jordan, Wayne Knight, Bill Murray and the Looney Tunes not be a rollicking good time? Tailor-made to be nostalgic for all generations, “Space Jam” is a goofy, quintessential ’90s retelling of Jordan’s return from retirement.11. “Moneyball” (2011)This Brad Pitt-starring film from “Capote” director Bennett Miller is only a baseball movie inasmuch as “The Social Network” is a Facebook movie. The story of Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane’s unorthodox approach to scouting players is an essential look inside a brilliant, iconoclastic mind.12. “Caddyshack” (1980)Basically an excuse to put Bill Murray, Chevy Chase and Rodney Dangerfield on screen together that happens to be set at a golf course, “Caddyshack” mercilessly roasts country-club culture through a combination of one-liners, gopher puppets and general ridiculousness.13. “Rudy” (1993)How can you not root for the little guy who once proclaimed, “Goonies never say die”? As far as unlikely hero stories go, “Rudy” is as good as it gets. Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!14. “The Pride of the Yankees” (1942)This film about the life and career of Lou Gehrig could be the very definition of the word “melodrama.” That’s no strike against it, though. Gary Cooper’s poignant depiction of a common man who rose to the highest level of America’s pastime only to have it stripped away early by a terminal illness is heart-wrenching and brilliant, and his recreation of Gehrig’s “luckiest man on the face of the earth” speech is one of the finest monologues in classic cinema.15. “Hoop Dreams” (1994)When Steve James began gathering footage of Chicago high school basketball stars William Gates and Arthur Agee for a half-hour PBS special, he had no idea it would result in a 171-minute documentary. It’s a good thing it did — the film was hailed by Roger Ebert as “the great American documentary” and has been accepted into the National Film Registry.16. “Slap Shot” (1977)Paul Newman is the most lovable actor-turned-salad-dressing-peddler of all time, so it’s no wonder his turn as a rough-and-tumble player-coach for a minor league hockey team in this classic comedy is as endearing as it is enduring.17. “Friday Night Lights” (2004)More so than the TV show it spawned, this adaptation of H.G. Bissinger’s classic book offers the most genuine depiction of Texas high school football seen on film as it chronicles the 1988 Odessa Permian Panthers and the undersized underdog team’s struggles to raise the spirits of their downtrodden, football-obsessed town.18. “A League of Their Own” (1992)Madonna, the ultimate girl power symbol, takes on the world of professional baseball in this classic American tale of the struggle for the first female league.19. “Cinderella Man” (2005)This is the story of Great Depression-era boxer James J. Braddock and how the supposedly washed-up fighter lifted America’s spirits with his surprise run to the heavyweight title. Russell Crowe is solid as Braddock but outshined by Paul Giamatti’s timeless performance as Joe Gould, the boxer’s manager.20. “The Sandlot” (1993)This all-time favorite epitomized the tradition of backyard baseball. “You’re killin’ me, Smalls” will forever be ingrained in our daily lexicon, and we will always “fear The Beast.”
(09/21/11 10:33pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>More than most bands, Wolves in the Throne Room’s ethics and aesthetics dominate perceptions of them. The black metal outfit’s two permanent members, brothers Aaron and Nathan Weaver, make their home on a communal farm outside Olympia, Wash., and their lyrics and album artwork all evoke the Cascadian landscapes that surround them there. For “Celestial Lineage”, Wolves in the Throne Room returns to those themes, but the album also marks a significant expansion of the band’s sonic palette. For example, “Celestial Lineage” has seven songs, though no other Wolves release has had more than four. Opener “Thuja Magus Imperium” recalls “Cleansing” from “Two Hunters,” with Jessika Kenney’s liturgical vocals giving way to nearly 12 minutes of vicious black metal, while “Woodland Cathedral” lets her sing a song without any intervention from Nathan Weaver’s tortured howls for the first time. “Astral Blood” makes good on the Weavers’ promise that “Lineage” would be the stargazing complement to the earth-obsessed albums of their past. “Subterranean Initiation” sees the brothers cast as warrior monks, offering pseudo-Gregorian chants to the sky.Even when “Celestial Lineage” isn’t breaking down barriers, it’s perfecting what the band has spent a demo, four full-lengths and an EP honing. It’s the biggest Wolves in the Throne Room album, but also quite possibly the best.
(09/21/11 10:17pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>World music is perhaps the most intimidating genre of all for musical neophytes. Even its name seems to imply an unconquerable vastness. With an entire world of music to explore and so many disparate sounds falling under the tag, finding a starting point is problematic.The best approach to world music is to become indoctrinated in phases. A lot of things that fall under the world music banner are rooted in traditional western styles but have a distinct local twist. This is among the most accessible music in the genre.The 2010 compilation “Brazilian Guitar Fuzz Bananas” is an excellent example of this. The bands featured on the double LP take popular American genres like psychedelia and funk and shake them up with Portuguese lyrics and tropical percussion. The resultant genre, sometimes called tropicalia, made its way onto countless 7” releases in the 1960s and ’70s. Those recordings languished for decades in boxes in studio basements until World Psychedelic salvaged them all for the “Fuzz Bananas” compilation. Another point of entry for world music comes from the obsession of one of rock’s biggest icons. Peter Gabriel is best known for his work with English prog rockers Genesis and solo hits like “In Your Eyes” and “Sledgehammer,” but one of his biggest passions lies in world music. His founding of the World of Music, Arts and Dance in 1980 marked the first truly bold commitment of a viable mainstream rock star to a genre still elusive to most Americans and Brits. The organization has grown into a worldwide recording collective and series of world music festivals not unlike Bloomington’s own Lotus Fest. Gabriel’s world music obsession culminated in a record called “Big Blue Ball.” It’s not credited as a Peter Gabriel album, and that’s fair. He served as more of a curator for the project, bringing in world music luminaries like Natacha Atlas, Papa Wemba and Hossam Ramzy for three recording sessions in the early ’90s that finally made it to record store shelves in 2008. For an even more accessible look at Gabriel’s love of world music, “Signal to Noise” from his 2002 album “Up” features the late, great Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. It remains one of the best songs Peter Gabriel has ever recorded.One crucial world music subgenre was bred mostly in the United States. Afrobeat fused American styles like jazz and funk with traditional Nigerian Yoruba music. Its top purveyor, and one of the most important figures in world music history, is Fela Kuti. Kuti was born and raised in Nigeria but cut his chops in the smoky club scenes of London and Los Angeles before eventually relocating to his birthplace. His visionary Afrobeat sound has spawned thralls not only in Nigerian music but American music as well, including Staten Island’s excellent Budos Band, who played The Bluebird Nightclub in the spring.After these entry points, there’s a whole, erm, world of world music out there to explore. Music is one of the most basic things that can unite a community, and you can assume that if there’s a nation of people, they have a native music and have found ways to blend it with international styles. With such a wealth of music to discover, the best thing to do is simply dive in.
(09/15/11 12:43pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>John Moe is, by all accounts, a normal guy. The Minnesota public radio
host and author is a husband, father and trusted name in technology
reporting.
On Twitter, though, he’s a crucial voice for bizarre meta-comedy,
relentlessly making hilarious non-jokes about Tony Hawk’s
skateboard-centric plans for fixing the economy, literal and figurative
boat explosions and parodied lyrics to the “Ghostbusters” theme song.
The “Ghostbusters” spoofs have grown into their own phenomenon, known affectionately by the ubiquitous hashtag: #Ghostcatchers. “It’s just this thing,” he half-explained in a tweet last month, and that’s about as clear as he can make it.
Moe chatted with WEEKEND about #Ghostcatchers, Twitter as a medium for
comedy and how the forward march of technology has made Bulgarian
trip-hop as accessible as Duran Duran.WEEKEND: For a technology
journalist and radio host, you interact with an awful lot of comedians
on Twitter. How did you become a part of that circle?
John Moe: I’ve been a humor writer for a long time, going back to my
work with McSweeney’s, and I’ve made a lot of friends with funny people
over the years.WKND: Do you believe Twitter is now a legitimate medium for comedy?
JM: Well, anything’s a legitimate medium. Road signs can be a medium for
comedy. I don’t believe there’s some sort of test to determine if
comedy is legitimate. The thing about Twitter is it has a lot of people
doing interesting things, and that’s because of the low bar of entry.
And any art form with limitations put on it thrives as people find their
niches and do their own thing. Performance art, for example, is so
boundless that it’s hard for people to narrow it down, whereas something
like driftwood animal collection is such a small niche. What I’m really
saying is driftwood animal collection is superior to performance art.
WKND: How did you come up with #Ghostcatchers?JM: When did
“Ghostbusters” come out? 1984? I came up with it in 1984. I saw the
movie and that song by Ray Parker, Jr. is so ridiculous that we
immediately started doing these parodies about it. And it’s not just the
lyrics. It’s the exclamation points, the boundless enthusiasm of the
whole thing. There’s always something funny about being enthusiastically
wrong.
WKND: If you’d been doing this since 1984, how did you decide to bring it to Twitter?JM:
It was one of those things that I thought was too stupid even for the
unbelievably low bar of Twitter. I’m really honestly not trying to
impress people. I just write down things I think are funny. But I didn’t
think I could even put “Ghostcatchers” on there. It was just so stupid.
But then one night I got on there and fired off five or six of them in a
row, and Paul F. Tompkins started re-posting a lot of the things I was
writing, and it brought me hundreds of new followers. And it just became
this thing. Paul’s unswerving allegiance to it was another layer of
comedy, too. He would just retweet every single one I posted. Now
there’s an account called @stayingpuffing that’s dedicated to it, and I
started making the shirts, and those are selling. For whatever reason,
it’s really caught people’s imagination. On the other hand, I’ve been
getting a lot of unfollow emails, too. (Laughs)
WKND: Do you think the speed of the technology you’re using to disseminate it is why it’s taken off?JM:
Oh, definitely. When I was growing up, there were a handful of bands
out there. There was Quiet Riot, Iron Maiden, Duran Duran, and they’d
have an album every year or every couple of years, and these kinds of
bands were the only ones who could do it and distribute it because it
was so expensive. But now if you want to hear Bulgarian trip-hop, you
can just get online and get it in abundance. There’s no superbands
anymore. So communication and social media have totally changed the way
this stuff is consumed.
WKND: What’s your favorite #Ghostcatchers tweet?JM: The one that
I think seemed to catch on the most, it was about a week after I
started this and I told Paul (F. Tompkins) that I didn’t know how many
more places I could take this. There’s only so many lyrics in that song!
And he told me I just have to blast through, so I came up with “If
there’s something strange! In your neighborhood! Your neighborhood is
strange! DON’T LIVE THERE!”
(09/15/11 12:24pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>If Twitter is the best new arena for forward-thinking comedy, these
eight hilarious feeds are the Dream Team, if the Dream Team never had
Christian Laettner. Follow and be amused:
@NeilHamburgerAmerica’s Funnyman assassinates corporations and pop stars and retweets his enemies.Lay
flowers on the graves of those killed by your noxious menu items.
@BurgerKing: What’s your favorite thing to do outside when it’s sunny?
@MeganAmram Self-deprecating dream chaser issues one-liners designed to elicit groans and gasps.I just found out my cat has Feline AIDS. Now I regret us sharing needles. :(@JohnMoeTech writer and radio host starts bizarre trends, usually entirely by accident.
You see a ghost! With a fedora and machine gums! Who should fugeddaboutit? Ghost mobster fighters! #Ghostcatchers@RobDelaneyViral comedian mercilessly bombs Twitter with sometimes political, sometimes offensive and always funny quips.
My uncle Alan suffered a traumatic brain injury & tells people he’s a
“jeep.” What I mean is, he’d make a better President than Rick Perry.@MichaelIanBlackOnetime “The State” comic plays hashtag games and makes observations that a very perverted Jerry Seinfeld might.
Baseball pitchers lick their fingers more than porn stars about to rub one out.@shelbyferoCollege freshman offers hysterical observations that make us youngsters think we can do this too, though we obviously can’t.
Ugh I hate seeing two guys hold hands or two girls hold hands or a guy and girl hold hands or anyone happier than me.@PFTompkins Moustachioed
podcast host and comedian keeps his followers up to date on his gym
life between his obsessive retweets of John Moe.
There’s a guy at the gym that looks so much like Arthur Ashe, it makes
me worried that we will not be released from exercise even in DEATH.
(09/13/11 1:22am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>John Sayles is a true American original. Whether as a Hollywood gun-for-hire, a novelist, a historian or an auteur filmmaker, Sayles has always carried with him a fiercely individualistic vision. For many, he is the definition of independent cinema. This and much more is why Jon Vickers, director of the IU Cinema, brought Sayles to campus last weekend to take part in a showcase of five of his best films — “Amigo,” “Matewan,” “The Brother from Another Planet,” “Honeydripper” and “Lone Star.”“John Sayles’s visit is very important to the IU Cinema because he is known for being synonymous with independent American cinema,” Vickers said. “Being independent, he’s able to say what he wants to say, and he’s able to take on the issues that mainstream or studio-financed filmmakers cannot because it goes against the system.”Sayles’s involvement in the series kicked off with a screening of his most recent film, “Amigo,” Thursday night. He introduced the movie, which explores tension between opposing forces in a small village occupied by U.S. troops during the Philippine-American War. Afterward, he took part in a brief Q&A.“This is a movie that came out of an empty place on the screen,” Sayles said. “This is only the third American movie ever made about the Philippine-American War.”Still very much absent from American art theaters, Sayles opened “Amigo” in the Philippines first, where it has done moderate business (“We opened the week between ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Transformers,’” Sayles said) and received mostly positive reviews.With its brilliant ensemble cast and careful verisimilitude, “Amigo” is a befittingly excellent film about a dark chapter of American history that has gone mostly unmentioned in cinema.Sayles also spoke at the screenings of “Matewan” and “The Brother from Another Planet” on Friday. “Matewan” is considered by many critics to be Sayles’s finest movie, and watching the beautifully restored print the cinema was able to acquire from the University of California Los Angeles makes it easy to see why. It’s a visual feast depicting events surrounding the labor wars in West Virginia mining country in the early 20th century. The film was introduced by department of communication and culture professor Gregory Waller, who said he has taught the film in classes since shortly after its 1987 release. Waller is a longtime admirer of Sayles’s work.“If you look at his career, not too many people are true independent filmmakers making films for wide release,” Waller said. “He has an enormous amount of integrity.”“Matewan” played to a sold-out theater, and the post-screening Q&A session saw Sayles speaking more politically than at any other event of the weekend.“It’s important that we remember why there are unions, and what it’s like when there aren’t,” he said to thundering applause. During his time in Bloomington, Sayles also gave a lecture at the cinema, spoke at a graduate class and attended a luncheon with IU faculty and film students. At the lunch, Sayles spoke about what he has learned after more than 30 years in the industry to the students at the table. He emphasized that there’s more to making movies than knowing movies, and he encouraged the aspiring filmmakers to gather as many valuable life experiences as possible.“Watching every Quentin Tarantino movie qualifies you to make Quentin Tarantino movies, but it doesn’t mean you know something about the world,” he said.
(09/09/11 6:48pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Much of humanity’s best art has resulted from grief and agony. The creative explosion that followed the devastation of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 provided evidence of this. Filmmakers, musicians, writers and even comedians coped with the impact of the attacks by continuing their craft in its wake. For the world of showbiz, it was the ultimate non-surrender. Here’s a look at some of the best art from the last decade made with the memory of 9/11 squarely in the rearview mirror:“United 93”Too soon, audiences said to the film’s intense re-creation of the events of 9/11. But now is the right time to experience Paul Greengrass’ real-time suspense story. He depicts 9/11 as no more than a normal day, free of heroes and villains, and leaves us only with the basic human acts of courage, fear and strength from these unfortunate victims.-Brian Welk“25th Hour”In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Barry Pepper look out their penthouse as Ground Zero looms in plain sight. Spike Lee shows in “25th Hour” that New York was never the same after the attacks. Despite uncertainty and a newfound identity crisis in the city, these survivors remain rooted to their home and each other.-Brian WelkSteve Earle, “Jerusalem”Earle’s tenth album is a sobering look at America and the world post-9/11. On “Amerika V. 6.0 (The Best We Can Do)” Earle uses his best Rolling Stones impression to expose the cash-hungry elitism of the so-called American Dream, while the controversial “John Walker’s Blues” is an objective look at John Walker Lindh’s vilification. The most powerful moment, though, is the closing title track’s message, not of despair in the Middle East, but of hope.-Max McCombsBrian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris, “Ex Machina”In the 50-issue comic book series “Ex Machina,” Mitchell Hundred (as costumed crime-fighter The Great Machine) stops the second plane from hitting the World Trade Center’s south tower using his superpower of communication with machines, and he is later elected mayor of New York City. Remaining ever sensitive to the tragedy, Brian K. Vaughan’s multi-genre “what if” story raises important questions about politics and dependence on government in post-9/11 America.-Vanessa TorlineThe Daily Show with Jon Stewart, “September 20, 2001”Jon Stewart doesn’t always do pathos, and when he does, he often makes us wish he would go back to playing the buffoon. But on his first episode back after the attacks, the “Daily Show” host tearfully delivered a nine-minute monologue that concluded with the powerful sentiment that the new view from Lower Manhattan in the absence of the World Trade Center is the Statue of Liberty. “You can’t beat that,” he says, and, of course, he’s right.-Brad SandersSleater-Kinney, “One Beat”While not a full-on concept record, the excellent sixth album by Washington riot grrl trio Sleater-Kinney is firmly rooted in post-9/11 reflection. Unlike the country music cheerleaders who dropped countless flag-waving singles in the wake of the tragedy, Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker trade verses on “Far Away” and “Combat Rock” that channel the pain of the attacks while looking to the future with a sadly prescient uncertainty, not mere vengeance.-Brad Sanders
(09/08/11 12:15am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It feels a bit strange to be writing about Pulp’s “Common People” for a column built around the premise of uncovering music that too few people have heard.After all, the single rocketed to No. 2 and came from an album (the 1995 masterpiece “Different Class”) that went quadruple platinum and spent time at No. 1 on the albums chart. Well, in England, anyway.In America, “Different Class” hasn’t even gone silver and never so much as sniffed the Billboard 200. “Common People” is probably best known for the cover version Ben Folds and William Shatner semi-seriously recorded together in 2004. The song has only recently begun to penetrate the national consciousness through its retroactively favorable critical reputation, best demonstrated by Pitchfork naming it the second-best song of the 1990s in a piece last September.Impressing the critics is a step in the right direction, but it isn’t nearly enough. There’s something extraordinarily universal about “Common People” that continues to elude Americans. We’ve opted instead to encapsulate the Britpop era with the dull sentimentality of Oasis’ “Wonderwall,” a before-their-prime Radiohead’s pseudo-grunge anthem “Creep” and the vague understanding the dude from Gorillaz used to sing for Blur.To be fair, “Common People” is pretty damn English. Its lyrics tell the story of a Greek elite who comes to London’s St. Martin’s College to study sculpture, meets our protagonist and insists that he could teach her how to “live like common people.” What follows is a vicious indictment of this kind of class tourism and a snapshot of the stubborn pride that comes with being raised in the working class. The English class system is more rigid and comes with more baggage than America’s, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that these lyrics didn’t spell a hit for Pulp in the U.S.There’s also the matter of lead singer Jarvis Cocker’s linguistic idiosyncrasies. While he’s undeniably one of Britpop’s best and most charismatic front men, Cocker’s lyrics have never shied away from unabashedly English turns of phrase, and his trademark baritone delivery does nothing to mask his Sheffield accent. The song’s chorus alone contains references to apartments as “flats” and cigarettes as “fags,” the latter of which was probably enough to keep it off some American radio stations.Despite all that, “Common People” deserves far more attention from American listeners than it gets.First and foremost, the music is brilliant. Bass, guitar and synthesizer trade variations on a simple, catchy theme that continues to shapeshift and expand throughout the anthem’s duration. The melodies vary in intensity with Cocker’s voice, which opens the song with a whisper and ends its last chorus with a howl, all directed at the slumming Grecian whose dad could pull her from her roach-infested apartment when the protagonist’s most certainly could not.The denouement is just as perfect. After the dust has cleared from Pulp’s tirade, the melodies resolve, the first bridge is revisited and some semblance of closure is attained. It’s a singularly triumphant moment in a song full of them, a perfect final act for the greatest six-minute opera ever composed.Most importantly, at the end of the song, the common people prevail. It’s difficult to imagine something more American in today’s political environment. We romanticize the little guy and bury the elitist. Every presidential candidate paints himself as the narrator of “Common People,” and none wants to be outed as its villain.In spite of its British class system implications, Cocker’s lyric is a universal one.We all “dance and drink and screw because there’s nothing else to do,” and if we don’t, we say we do. Pulp got that — got us — and we as Americans didn’t validate it.It’s time we fixed that.
(09/07/11 11:13pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>With barely a decade of professionally released music under his belt, Zach Hill has managed to drum for more than 60 LPs, EPs, splits and compilations.The quantity of his work belies its quality. Hill is no rent-a-drummer. His inventive, aggressive approach to his craft has made him arguably the best drummer working today, and none of his projects highlight his talents more than Hella.“Tripper,” the group’s first effort since 2007’s “There’s No 666 in Outer Space,” returns to the all-instrumental sound of its early career. Hill’s always-excellent drumming is as prominent as it’s ever been in this stripped-down context, but following the densely layered brilliance of “Outer Space,” “Tripper” seems to be missing something.Much like the Mars Volta when they followed “Amputechture” with “The Bedlam in Goliath,” Hella has replaced long-form, avant-garde expansiveness with sharp, concentrated bursts of chaos.The result is the most furious Hella record but far from the most interesting one. What could have been another art rock masterpiece is instead a mere showcase for its players’ formidable skills.
(09/01/11 12:44am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Despite the ethereal gleam that tends to coat its guitar and synthesizer, the best shoegaze has always been dominated by a subtle, longing darkness.In that regard, Sweden’s I Break Horses has missed the point somewhat with “Hearts.”On a debut LP that often sounds more akin to Strawberry Switchblade than cited influence Slowdive, the duo has captured the dreamy synth melodies of the shoegaze genre but little of its otherworldly atmosphere. That makes “Hearts” an entirely listenable but rarely exciting album. The reverb and repetition that made the great records by Chapterhouse and My Bloody Valentine so entrancing pass as merely pleasant here. As background music, “Hearts” often works, but its failure to be gripping calls attention to a weak point of so much second-tier shoegaze. The best bands in the genre were able to use the subdued nature of the music to their advantage, pulling every imaginable emotion from the sound in perfect measure and to powerful effect. Unfortunately, the members of I Break Horses, like so many of their nu-gaze contemporaries, settle for mere prettiness and double the vocal reverb in an attempt to compensate for the lack of emotional depth.
(08/24/11 10:58pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After his Oscar-winning turn as hard-living singer Bad Blake in 2009’s “Crazy Heart,” the new release of country music by Jeff Bridges, produced by T-Bone Burnett, should come as no surprise.Just as predictably, the resultant album — Bridges’ second full-length and first in 11 years — isn’t exactly essential. There tends to be something indulgent about a person who has conquered one field tackling another, and Bridges is no exception. There are several truly excellent cuts of true-blue, ’70s-informed country (“What a Little Bit of Love Can Do,” “Slow Boat,” “The Quest”). But too often the record feels like a bonus disc to the “Crazy Heart” OST featuring its star singing the songs that didn’t quite make the cut. Given that that’s how several of the songs on the album originated, it’s perhaps best to stick with the original excellent soundtrack. Jeff Bridges is a talented musician, but his second album doesn’t display that nearly as much as the two hours that earned him an Academy Award.
(08/24/11 10:44pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>At face value, the shimmering electric guitars of shoegazers such as My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive couldn’t seem further from the wounded lyricism of Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska”and the early recordings of Bob Dylan, but The War on Drugs has successfully combined these disparate sounds within a fairly traditional rock ‘n’ roll framework to create one of the best albums of 2011.Across 47 minutes of era-mashing rock, the Philadelphia act tackles love and loss, life and death and acoustics and electronics with equal fervor. In a way that few records in this retro-obsessed indie climate do, “Slave Ambient” is heart-wrenchingly genuine. It turns to the past for musical reference points, but everything on the album comes from frontman Adam Granduciel’s soul — not the soul of a past life or some abstract, ancient rock ‘n’ roll soul that he uses The War on Drugs to channel.By transcending his influences without ever disrespecting them, Granduciel has crafted an indie rock masterpiece with “Slave Ambient.”
(08/24/11 10:38pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The corner of the hardcore punk genre that lies tangential to metal is populated by some of the most disgusting music on the planet, so it’s fitting that the scene has come to be known as ‘crust.’ In the past few years, the crust virus has been multiplying quickly, giving rise to an excellent new crop of acts that owe their debts equally to Poison Idea and Motörhead. All Pigs Must Die, a supergroup including members of Converge, Bloodhorse and The Hope Conspiracy, is one such band, and “God Is War” is their pulverizing debut.At only eight tight tracks of D-beat fury, “God Is War”is one of the most concise crust punk experiences of the past few years, and as a result, the intensity levels remain consistently high. With so little time, though, the album is sometimes plagued by a lack of sonic variety. Perhaps for music this visceral that isn’t the worst thing in the world, but for now it stands between All Pigs Must Die and a masterpiece.
(08/24/11 10:22pm)
A look at some of the finest albums released on local indies
(08/24/11 10:06pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Though Bloomington is well-known among Indiana natives as an arts oasis, the number of independent record labels here per capita is even higher than one might expect. Ever since Gulcher Records started dominating the post-punk ’70s from its Bloomington offices, the city has been a minor hub for interesting, forward-thinking releases by dedicated independent labels. Here’s a look at 10 labels that set the agenda for the local indie distro scene:Auris ApothecaryFounded in: 2009Specializing in: Obscurity and hand-made formats to parallel their taste for do-it-yourself ethics Key bands: Unholy Triforce, Eddy Price, Hail Architeuthis!BluesanctFounded in: 2002Specializing in: Releasing records from a cartel of experimental and ambient music enthusiasts Key Bands: dREKKa, Elephant Micah, VollmarCrossroads of AmericaFounded in: 2006Specializing in: Bloomingtonians — their bands are commonly on local calendars and found at house parties near you Key bands: husband&wife, Sleeping Bag, Alexander the GreatDead OceansFounded in: 2007Specializing in: Flanking sister labels Jagjaguwar and Secretly Canadian with a fresh crop of indie bands Key bands: Akron/Family, Destroyer, The Tallest Man on EarthEradicatorFounded in: 1996Specializing in: Representing grimy, gritty rock bands (when it isn’t preserving Krypton)Key bands: The Perennials, The Horribly Wrong, Jerk AlertFlannelgraphFounded in: 2010Specializing in: Getting a new business off the ground with forward-thinking releases like the charity compilation “The Holidays Don’t Have to Be So Rotten” Key bands: Mike Adams, Osteoferocious, Chad SerhalIn the FridgeFounded in: 2008Specializing in: Disseminating interesting new music to IU undergraduates — something they should know a lot about since they started the label as undergraduates themselvesKey bands: Eric Radoux, the Elegant Bachelors, the CosmeticsJagjaguwarFounded in: 1996Specializing in: Making whatever a jagjaguwar is the new king of the jungle, with hits like Bon Iver’s latest releaseKey bands: Bon Iver, Black Mountain, Dinosaur Jr.Plan-It-XFounded in: 1994Specializing in: Do-it-yourself acts who adhere to the label’s mantra that “if it ain’t cheap, it ain’t punk”Key bands: Ghost Mice, Halo Fauna, Defiance, OhioSecretly CanadianFounded in: 1996Specializing in: Supplementing a strong rock ‘n’ roll roster with bold signees like stand-up comic Tig NotaroKey bands: The War on Drugs, Gardens & Villa, Tig Notaro
(08/24/11 4:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>I recently finished reading “Retromania: Pop Culture’s Addiction to Its Own Past” by English rock critic Simon Reynolds. It left me both enlightened and incredibly frustrated.I was frustrated partly because what Reynolds writes throughout the 450-page tome is true — the 2000s were largely infertile for radically new forms of music, and the scenes with the most overlap between critical acclaim and commercial appeal (the garage rock of the White Stripes and the indie folk of Fleet Foxes) were inherently backward looking — but also because it never seemed like Reynolds really settled on what he thinks about the state of music today. More frustrating still — I don’t think I have, either.In “Retromania,” Reynolds ostensibly rails against a pop world obsessed with what’s already been done that seeks at every turn to recreate it, but he also describes certain retro movements in almost sexual tones. He knows the rush of digging through used record stores to find that elusive, out-of-print LP and the chills that run up one’s spine when a hauntology producer samples some nearly-forgotten radio advertisement or public service announcement. He isn’t above nostalgia, but he’s still worried that it’s put music in a state of suspended animation. All things considered, I suppose I feel mostly the same. 2011 is a great time to be a music fan. YouTube, iTunes, SoundCloud and Spotify have changed the business in a way that’s uniformly beneficial to the consumer. But they’ve also given unprecedented access to a seemingly limitless back catalogue of music, which has in turn created a generation of musicians obsessed with the sounds of the past. The notion “there is nothing new under the sun” dates back to biblical times, but rock ‘n’ roll always seemed to be the one enterprise that defied it. Today, that exceptionalism feels threatened.This biweekly column, then, might come off as a bit enabling. In it, I’ll be unearthing and extolling the virtues of music that hasn’t received the exposure it deserves. This will, indeed, sometimes mean digging through pop’s dusty archives. I’ve come to terms with this, even if I still can’t make heads or tails of where music will go from here.Like Reynolds, I don’t think the past is valueless. I merely hope the future doesn’t succumb to complacency because the past does offer so much. That doesn’t stop me, as an enthusiast, from wanting to suck the marrow from every last bone of musical history. That’s basically what this column will be about. There are plenty of diamonds in the rough of pop history, and now it’s time to find them, give them a good polishing and show them off.There will be only one prerequisite, and I think a lyric from Pulp’s “Party Hard” sums it up best: “Before you enter the Palace of Wisdom, you have to decide: Are you ready to rock?”