Archive for June, 2008

The Death Set - “Around the World”

Monday, June 30th, 2008

What kind of drugs are the kids in Baltimore on these days and why am I not doing them?

The Death Set will be coming to Minneapolis on November 3rd at First Avenue opening for Girl Talk.

“Around the World” is off The Death Set’s excellent debut Worldwide, out now.

CSS - “Rat is Dead”

Monday, June 30th, 2008

I like the direction CSS is talking their sound. Their new record Donkey is due out July 22 via Sub Pop.

Haley Bonar - “Green Eyed Boy”

Monday, June 30th, 2008

Live at the studios of 89.3 The Current.

(Thanks Listenerd)

Favorite New Films: My Winnipeg

Monday, June 30th, 2008

I’m not a huge fan of Guy Maddin. While it’s great that someone out there is still making films in the expressionistic silent film style, I’ve never felt his work has had much soul. But now Maddin’s turned completely inward for his self-described ‘docu-fantasia’ My Winnipeg, a blending of fact and fiction that’s both hilarious and heartbreaking.

The film is told through strung-together tangential thoughts as Maddin tries to leave his hometown of Winnipeg by train, haunted by the city and his past as he does so. In order to grasp a greater understanding of what’s led him to this point, Maddin hires a fake family to reenact pivotal moments of his childhood. Mixed in with these are stories of Winnipeg itself that range from truth to local myth to outright, whimsical lies.

This could easily be seen as a comedy of sorts, but the film’s deeper layers show when Maddin rants and raves about what has happened to the city he’s known all his life. Old buildings steeped in memory are closed and torn down, building up a new Winnipeg devoid of the personality now only faintly remembered through his tales. It’s a feeling all too familiar in this modern world where history means nothing to booming consumer culture, and Maddin attempts to grasp onto what was lost and what it all meant.

My Winnipeg - Trailer

Alkaline Trio - “Help Me” (official video)

Monday, June 30th, 2008

Featuring Kat Von D.

Stupid non playable MTV videos. We’ll replace this with the youtube clip once it pops up online.

“Help Me” is off of Agony & Irony which hits stores tomorrow.

Tours: Girl Talk

Monday, June 30th, 2008

Girl Talk - 2008 Tour Dates:

07.11 - Boulder, CO - Fox Theatre
07.12 - Aspen, CO - Belly Up
07.23 - Victoria, BC - Sugar
07.24 - Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom
07.25 - Seattle, WA - Capitol Hill Block Party
07.26 - Portland, OR - Roseland Theater
08.03 - Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza
08.08 - Jersey City, NJ - All Points West Festival
08.09 - Philadelphia, PA - Starlight Ballroom

10.10 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
10.11 - Baltimore, MD - Sonar
10.13 - Carrboro, NC - Cats Cradle
10.14 - Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
10.15 - Knoxville, TN - Valarium
10.16 - Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse
10.17 - New Orleans, LA - House of Blue
10.18 - Houston, TX - Warehouse Live
10.20 - Austin, TX - Emos
10.21 - Dallas, TX - Palladium Ballroom
10.23 - Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theater
10.24 - Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theater
10.25 - Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theater
10.27 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore Auditorium
10.28 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore Auditorium
10.30 - Salt Lake City, UT - In The Venue
10.31 - Denver, CO - Ogden Theater
11.01 - Lawrence, KS - The Granada Theatre
11.03 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
11.04 - Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall Ballroom
11.05 - Urbana, IL - Canopy Club
11.06 - Nashville, TN - Cannery Ballroom
11.07 - Louisville, KY - Headliners Music Hall
11.09 - Cincinnati, OH - Bogarts
11.10 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom
11.11 - Pontiac, MI - Eagle Theatre
11.12 - Toronto, ON - Koolhaus
11.13 - Montreal, QC - Club Soda
11.14 - Foxborough, MA - Showcase Live

The Bronx - “PR Rules”

Monday, June 30th, 2008

Another new Bronx track. This one from the mariachi album.

Jason Schwartzman on HBO

Monday, June 30th, 2008

Jason Schwartzman has signed on for HBO’s new comedy show Bored to Death, playing a struggling alcoholic thirtysomething writer in Brooklyn. Following a painful breakup, he decides to emulate his heroes from the novels of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett and takes out an ad pretending to be a private detective and starts taking cases.

Filming starts in September. On a side-note, HBO has also greenlit the dark comedy show Hung, to be directed by Alexander Payne.

Jason Schwartzman at Borders

Favorite New Films: DVD EDITION

Monday, June 30th, 2008

Now that the year’s half over, I thought I’d take a look back at the best films of 2008 that bypassed theaters and went straight to DVD. Because it’s unfair to not include these films on a ‘Best Of’ list just because they didn’t hit theaters, I count them in the year that they were available to first be seen as long as there’s only a one or two year difference from when it was originally made. Okay, here we go . . .

5 Centimeters Per Second

The best film I’ve seen all year. Makoto Shinkai strings together three connected short films about love, loss, and nostalgia in perhaps the most beautiful animated film I’ve ever seen.

Appleseed: Ex Machina

Another gorgeous anime, this time an intense sci-fi cop thriller. Far superior to the Appleseed movies preceding this, the insane action sequences are balanced well with a surprising amount of quiet character scenes.

Nightmare Detective

Legendary director Shinya Tsukamoto’s nihilistic horror film about a cop surrounded by brutal suicide cases who feels an outside force is at hand, and brings in a ‘nightmare detective’ who can walk in dreams to help. Tsukamoto’s most accessible film to date is also one of his best.

Ploy

This is even trickier to categorize . . . it hasn’t reached the U.S. in any form, and may not ever. In this case, if the film looks to not be reaching our shores, I count them in the year that the bootleg becomes available as long as it’s only a year or two difference between its foreign release.

This new film from the director of Last Life in the Universe that takes place in the early morning at an upscale hotel as a relationship slowly falls apart. A few scenes steal heavily from Lost in Translation, but the dreamy mood of the piece is quite unique. You can watch it HERE.

Summer Palace

The film that got its director banned from making films in China for five years due to the first full-frontal nudity in (mainstream) Chinese cinema and using real footage from the Tiananmen Square incident, this follows college students around that time in history dealing with love against a backdrop of political unrest.

Quantum of Solace

Monday, June 30th, 2008

Can’t wait to see Mathieu Amalric as the villain.

Quantum of Solace is released November 7.

Ryan Adams on AOL Sessions

Monday, June 30th, 2008

La Cienega Just Smiled

You Will Always Be The Same

Chin Up, Cheer Up

Sweet Lil Gal (23rd/1st)

Them shit’s are about six years old but I haven’t had much else to post in the past few days so I wanted to throw something up. Plus they fucking slay and just showed up on the interweb a few weeks back. These are some of the baddest ass versions of some of the baddest ass Ryan Adams tunes I’ve heard. Now don’t say I never did anything for you.

Thanks to “Wonderwall” on the Ryan Adams Archive for pointing out that Taparoo101 posted these.

Favorite New Music: Girl Talk

Monday, June 30th, 2008

Girl Talk - Feed the Animals

Girl Talk
Feed the Animals
Illegal Art
2008

myspace.com/girltalkmusic

Pushing the envelope of mash-ups (Jay-Z vs. Radiohead or Eminem vs. Yael Naim, etc.) and making Top 40 rap fun to listen to again.

DOWNLOAD HERE (Pay what you want).

Curious what all the samples are Girl Talk uses? Wikipedia to the rescue HERE.

Koo Koo Kanga Roo at Nomad World Pub

Monday, June 30th, 2008

Koo Koo Kanga Roo - Flyer by Smoke Bomb

My friend Gaurkee and I are starting a design studio. We’re hoping to work with bands doing promotional material and websites. (Because there aren’t enough people doing that in Minneapolis already. Ha.)

Anyway, above is our first stab at a band flyer. It’s for our friends in Koo Koo Kanga Roo. They have five shows coming up. All of them are in July on Thursday nights at the Nomad World Pub and they are free. I recommend checking them out if you’re looking for something fun to do.

I should also mention that you can download KKKR’s new record for free over on their website HERE.

Koo Koo Kanga Roo

Sigur Ros & Bjork - “Gobbledigook” (Live)

Sunday, June 29th, 2008

Cute.

Jay-Z - “Wonderwall” (Glastonbury 2008)

Saturday, June 28th, 2008

Gotta give Jay-Z props for being creative about the Noel Gallagher/Glastonbury beef. He opened up his Glastonbury set today by singing along to the Oasis classic.