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Freedom
stumbled across this description for a 2000 TV show called Freedom:
"After a plane is flown into the White House killing the president of the United States, the US is taken over by United States military forces. Four soldiers who do not go along with the takeover work with a wider resistance movement against the military government, in order to restore the Constitution and freedom to the people."
anyone ever see it?
11th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Google Map Monopoly
Looks like Monopoly is coming to a Google Map near you, with a new online version of the game allowing you to play across the entire world and let you buy your own road.
The official site isn't isn't live yet, but there's a blog - and Wired have seen a demo.
UPDATE: It's now live, but overloaded...
11th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Beck - Time Bomb
the internet hates a vacuum: no video for Beck's new single? don't worry, some DIY ones will appear soon enough
11th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Remember The Word
90's post-pub entertainment show The Word pretty much set the pace for a lot of music in the 90's, introducing a load of new bands (Nirvana, The Lemonheads, L7, Oasis, Smashing Pumpkins and Cypress Hill amongst others), thanks to music booker Jo Whiley and creating a lot of controversy with the likes of Snoop Dogg, Johhny Rotten, Shabba Ranks and audience participation section The Hopefuls (snog a granny anyone?).
The show was axed after 5 series in 1995, but it lives on through a pretty well-packed channel on YouTube - although I had to dig around to find Eddie Vedder drinking bile beer for the Jim Rose circus. So that's why no one likes Pearl Jam...
Get The Word here.
10th Sep 2009 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Brief Interviews With Hideous Men
based on the David Foster Wallace book Brief Interviews With Hideous Men is the directorial debut from American Office star John Krasinski, and stars Will Arnett, Bobby Canavale, Dominic Cooper, Max Minghella, Timothy Hutton, and Julianne Nicholson.
10th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
At Home With Bob Pollard
Nice at-home-with-Bob-Pollard type article over in the Spin archive.
"I like these old solid-state cassette players for recording - they get a good, bright guitar sound. When Guided By Voices were on TVT, they'd make us go to a studio to make the demos, then a bigger studio to record the album, a process I really don't understand."
10th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Van Morrison
Not sure if it's down to YouTube sorting out their deal with PRS or what, but Van Morrison's been filling up his Official Exile Films page with more gems from the vaults, like this super tight Street Choir jam from 1974 in Montreux
10th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
New iPod Time (again)
the Nano now comes with video so you can film your awesome pals being totally awesome. looks like they're going after that Flip point/shoot/youtube market
10th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Big Pink
A Brief History of Love
Big Pink eh? Classics like ‘The Weight’ and ‘This Wheel’s on Fire’ comprised an impressive first album by The Band and in retrospect, while the songs are more divergent than their eponymous...
Hang on, where am I? This isn’t Mojo magazine. Any comparisons to Robbie Robertson’s folk-rock outfit can stop there. We’re talking Neo-Shoegaze baby, we’re talking Shoetronica, we’re talking 'bout Nu Gaze. Sonic cathedrals of noise are all the rage again right now… though when I tried playing my M83 album in the whispering gallery at St Paul’s, I was rudely ejected.
The hype machine for 4AD’s new signing is starting to crank up like a string of Kevin Shield’s effects pedals and if you listen to the radio you’ve probably already heard The Big Pink's single ‘Dominos’ – a catchy FM friendly stomp that equates girls who have inner-ear balance issues to pizzas or South London-based Indie labels.
‘A Brief History of Love’ is a big sounding album. Vast swathes of sound echo wash over you, all fizzing noise and blankets of warm guitar under sweeping skies of analogue static, with a backbone of drums and epic machine-made beats. It makes for a good headphone listen, although I imagine they’ve got other spaces in mind, like playing to the sunset crowd on the Other Stage at Glastonbury – you can pretty much see the light show in your head during the more climactic moments.
More than a few times it brought to mind School of Seven Bells’ album ‘Alpinisms’, which has a similar intricate yet expansive production. Ultimately though, that became my problem with this record, in that ‘A Brief History of Love’ kept coming out unfavourably in comparison. School of Seven Bells minus all the clever sounds would still make for a very weird and interesting listen, with their crystalline harmonies and strange poem-like lyrics. If you strip out The Big Pink’s shimmering soundscapes, what’s left?
Underneath what’s fair to say is an immaculately produced record, I kept on finding The Verve (on the slow, moody ones) or Kasabian (on the meaty, beaty ones). Lyrically, the word ‘baby’ seems to come up quite a lot. But what do I know? I don’t imagine School of Seven Bells sell that many records, while Kasabian definitely do. The Big Pink will probably become immensely successful and next year, as I’m flicking channels and come across their sunset Glasto slot on the BBC iPlayer, I’ll be able to say “I told you so”.
10th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3 star reviewsSearch
Airline Seat Review
With marmot and I heading off to NYC for a team tour in December, I stumbled across the handy V-Flyer website, rating every seat of the plane for access, TV viewing angles, lean-back-potential and more.
9th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Bitter Sweet Loog Oldham
never actually got round to listening to the Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra version ofthe Stones' The Last Time that The Verve borrowed for Bitter Sweet Symphony... so here it is
9th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Massive Attack w Tunde From TVOTR
yup, Pray For Rain basically does sound like what you'd expect from TVOTR's Tunde jumping into the Massive Attack guest vox spot. Kip from TVOTR has been busy with his Rain Machine project too - Pitchfork have got a download of Smiling Black Faces
9th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Where The Wild Things Are: Spike Jonze Interview
interesting piece talking to Spike Jonze about getting the Wild Things project off the ground, his early skate/BMX history and losing two cameras on the Sabotage shoot
9th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Air - Sing Sang Sung
new Air album on the way - Love 2 - in October
9th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Various Artists
Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs Of Mark Mulcahy
Mezzotint Records
Covers compilation Ciao My Shining Star brings together a broad range of bands to cover the songs of influential musician Mark Mulcahy - with the aim of raising money to support the artists and his daughters after the tragic death of wife and mother Melissa Mulcahy.
Mulcahy and his prior bands Miracle Legion and Polaris were never big names in the UK (I've seen him once, supporting J Mascis & The Fog in 2001), and as a result the featured acts are predominantly American. It's the haunting keyboards of Thom Yorke's cover of All For The Best that are attracting most of the attention however, with its electronic Postal Service-like atmosphere serving as a reminder of the differences between Radiohead proper and Thom Yorke's solo career - all electronics and twitchy breaks.
The National also make their song their own, though Ashamed Of The Story I Told is more direct and immediate than their own work, Further contributions come from Dinosaur Jr, Frank Black, Mercury Rev, Ben Kweller and Josh Rouse amongst others. Mulcahy's talent seems to be his thought provoking lyrics, which no doubt was a big part in attracting such a wide range of admirers - and in the light if his family situation, those lyrics often seem touchingly poignant.
While many of the bigger names are up front on the album, there are many gems tucked away. However, as is often the case with these covers compilations, it's perhaps too easy to get people involved and the album does run a little long - muddying the lines around what were the highlights, while not inviting too much replay. In the digital age however, a chocolate box of covers like this is born to be cherry-picked for a playlist.
9th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3 star reviewsSpotify: Doves – Instrumentals Of Rust http://open.spotify.com/album/4yA7gq7jKaTxjNbDZqEkgp
8th Sep 2009
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Beck's Record Club - Songs Of Leonard Cohen
seriously, is Beck just having the best time at the moment? for the next round of his Record Club project, he's roped in Devendra Banhart, MGMT, Andrew Wolfmother and a dude from Little Joy to have a go at Leonard Cohen's Songs Of Leonard Cohen. apparently it was either that, or Ace Of Base...
8th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Neil Gaiman's Bookshelves
via the always excellent BoingBoing: nice insight into Neil Gaiman's mind here w Shelfari's shots of his bookshelves. don't think he's gone colour-coded like some chimps we could mention
8th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Adventures Of Power
New air drumming comedy Adventures of Power - starring Ari Gold - yup, he's got the same name as Jeremy Piven's character in Entourage - and also, confusingly, Adrian Grenier - aka Vince from Entourage...
8th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Mercury Judge Jude Speaks
Jude Rogers, one of this year's Mercury judges, on what the prize is actually about... with bonus interview with our favourites, The Invisible.
8th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Cap'n Claypool
It's not often that the old salty dog steers his electric tugboat towards these shores, but cap'n Les Claypool will be making an appearance at the Islington Academy on the 8th March 2010 playing all manner of weirdness from his newest rekkid Of Funghi And Foe - where the Tom Waits influence grows ever more present. Sou'Westers mandatory.
7th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Re-worked album covers
Some nice work over at the Becks Music Inspired Art page on Flickr, where people have re-worked classic album covers.
Update from CSF: I like the Paul's Boutique meets 5 Boroughs mash-up
7th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Scorsese Mob TV Series for HBO
Martin Scorsese's on board for a new HBO Prohibtion-era mob drama - Boardwalk Empire - with Steve Buscemi, Kelly MacDonald, Stephen Graham and Michael Kenneth Williams (Omar!) all in the cast. Should be ready sometime in 2010
7th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Spotify For iPhone Is Here
In the app store now. Test drive coming soon, on a day pass if possible.
UPDATE: Day pass is not possible, so I guess a more thorough test is coming soonish.
UPDATE: I'm up and running - just need to remember to use it now. I have two invites if any struggling citizens in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, France or Spain are on the sniff.
7th Sep 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Sufjan Stevens: The BQE
Sufjan Stevens hasn't quite finished his project to record an album for every State in the US, but that doesn't mean he's slowed down his work rate. The next album The BQE is "a grand creative franchise-incorporating movie, symphony, comic book, dissertation, photography, graphic design, and a 3-D Viewmaster® reel" based on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway - a road in New York. It's all out in October, and is an all-instrumental affair
#chimp71
#Books&Comics
#Film
#Music
#Photography
7th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Youth In Revolt
Youth In Revolt might get round the problem of having Michael Cera riff off his Arrested Development character in every film - here he does that, but also creates a super-obnoxious alter ego who's nothing like him. Que Cera, Cera etc
7th Sep 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
