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My UZI weighs 7 and 3/4
The 20 year quest to find a baseball cap big enough for my supersized head drew to a conclusion yesterday. Thanks to hip hop's current penchant for flat beaked lids with the stickers left on (??) and the added bonus of the New Era cap store's upsizing machine, I managed to get a 7" 5/8 Houston Astros cap (my team of choice, although I've since spotted a yellow 'C' on black variant for the Chicago Cubs. Go chimps.) and have it up-sized one notch to 7" 3/4. Bingo.
6th Feb 2008 - 4 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
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Frreeze!
While not quite grinding Grand Central to a halt, this flash-mob type event shows a bit of originality...
If that link's down, check the YouTube clip.
4th Feb 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
The Zeitgeist
The Hype Machine has a round-up of all the most talked about tracks and albums from each month last year and the year as a whole. Think we covered/ignored nearly all of them, in a surprising display of on message-ness.
4th Feb 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Citizen Steely Dan
It's got to be a mistake, but iTunes has Citizen Steely Dan on sale for £7.99. All the classic era albums on what was a 4 CD box set. Had a similar thing a few years back when they mistakenly labelled the ZZ Top box as a sampler and sold that for £8.99. That's now back up to a track-only price of £62.41.
3rd Feb 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Free Check Up From Clinic
Clinic's new single Free Not Free is available today - for free of course. Head over to www.clinicvoot.org to download it.
Check out the video below.
1st Feb 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Did You Yahoo?
After merger talks didn't pan out, Microsoft has made a hostile takeover bid for Yahoo! the old-school search engine. $44.6 Billion in change is the number....
1st Feb 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
25 Years From Now
As part of PC World magazine's 25th anniversary they have a crystal ball article looking back and then predicting what tech the next 25 years might hold...
Nanotech processor? Check.
Minority Report style gesture input? Check.
Paper thin screens? Of course.
A desktop factory to download and build your new laptop? Check. ....except you probably won't need a laptop.
1st Feb 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Best Laid To Rest
3 foot dragonfly?
10 foot sea scorpion?
Volkswagen-sized beetle?
Check out Wired's 10 Best Extinct Animals.
1st Feb 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Walk The Plank!
Looks like arch pirates The Pirate Bay may have finally had their ship overrun. After failing to buy Sealand last year, the plundering scallywags have been charged with a raft of offenses by the Swedish courts. They could face up to two year's in jail and fines of up to £200,000 ....but at this point it seems a trip to Davy Jones' Locker is not on the cards.
1st Feb 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Dates with a Blonde Redhead
Blond Redhead are back on the road, touring last year's awesome album - 23.
April 9th, Voxhall, Aarhus, Denmark
April 10th, Pumpehuset, Copenhagen, Denmark
April 11th, Debaser Malmo Sweden
April 13th, Debaser Medis, Stockholm, Sweden
April 14th, Rockefeller, Oslo, Norway
April 17th, Bataclan, Paris, France
April 18th, Auditorium, Bourges, France
April 19th, Pukkelpop Indoor Festival, Hasselt, Belgium
April 21st, Shepherds Bush Empire, London, UK
31st Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Do You Know Juno?
Hot on the heels of twenty-something pregnancy movie Knocked Up comes another smart-mouthed teenage pregnancy movie - Juno. It's hitting cinemas next Friday and is currently shooting high scores over on IMDB, as well snagging 4 Oscar nominations.
Check out the trailer here, or here if you're an HD lover with copious bandwidth and time to kill at work.
The links with Knocked Up don't stop there, as it stars Michael Cera who starred in Seth Rogan's own Superbad. The IMDB tag continues with director Jason Reitman - son of Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman.
The movie has it's own Youtube page where you can upload a video of your own colloquial idiosyncrasies and be in with a chance of winning an iPod Touch. Post them in the comments here too and you'll be in with the chance of winning a hamburger telephone - similar to the iPod Touch, but it can make phone calls too. Don't ask, just do it.
31st Jan 2008 - 5 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Video: Mountain Goats
Nice one-take video up for the new Mountain Goats track Sax Rohmer #1. Ace Norton directs, who also directed the Aesop Rock video 'Coffee' which also featured chief goat John Darnielle.
"Physically painting the words was the easy part because we had about 3 other artists helping out on set. Figuring out the plot and path of the camera was a bit tricky. Since the entire video is one shot, we had to be very precise with the size and distance of each word. To further perfect it, we actually shot the entire video at half the speed so we could match up the lyrics in perfect time. Needless to say there was a ton of pre- planning involved..."
31st Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Do You Ween?
As suspected (and duly noted by Mr Fingerbangst), eclectic superstars Ween are playing a London date while over for the ATP Festival.
ATP CONCERTS BY ARRANGEMENT WITH CAA PRESENT: An Evening With Ween
May 8th. Don't miss it.
30th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
TFLCode
Mike Figgis has adapted the shooting style of his film Timecode for an ad about showing a bit of respect on the bus. The ad is from TFL, by way of agency M&C Saatchi.
Watch it here.
Read more at Creative Review.
30th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
How Much For Your TXT?
G Thing has an interesting investigation into the true cost of text messaging. If you were sending an average mp3 by text message you'd be looking at a cost of around $5000.
30th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Tindersticks
Tindersticks are back with a new line up, new album and new myspace page - where you can download the track The Flicker Of A Little Girl.
Their first new album in five years, The Hungry Saw is out April 28th.
30th Jan 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Wayback Machine
I can guarantee that this is going to keep you busy for a while. Since 1996, archive.org have been taking snapshots of the web and archiving them for use via their Wayback Machine.
A quick search for chimpomatic brings up our 2001 'coming soon' page which ran for a good couple of years if I remember correctly.
Gizmodo had the article that got me started and they go on to reference this MSU page, which has a pretty good round-up from the likes of Apple, Google and McDonalds.
30th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Cat Power
Jukebox
Matador Records
Following her recent mainstream success with The Greatest and her rollicking cover of Stuck Inside of Mobile on last year's I'm Not There soundtrack, Chan Marshall AKA Cat Power returns with a whole album of covers - something of a sequel to 2000's aptly titled The Covers Record.
This swirling unfocussed blur of technically prefect renditions ranges from the bonifide classics like New York, New York through Hank WIlliams' Rambling (Wo)man, Dylan's christian-era I Believe In You and even including a re-working of her own Metal Heart from the album Moon Pix. The backing band pulls together another list of legendary performers - including Spooner Oldham, Teenie Hodges and Larry McDonald, as well as more contempaorary players like Matt Sweeney and Jim White.
With Cat Power's appeal seemingly moving beyond music and into fashion and celebrity it all feels a bit like an indie version of X-Factor. Like someone at the Karaoke bar with a bit of talent, it's impressive but not as fun or impassioned as a group singalong to Freebird ...and certainly doesn't fulfill the promise of hear earlier records, or the power and subtlty of songs like Cross Bones Style. WIth the low-key ethic of earlier albums like You Are Free polished away into oblivion, Chan Marshall could well be heading towards a 200 night stint in Vegas, especially now that Celine Dion has called it a day.
Marshall often adds her own lyrics to covers - as Dylan would do and even Led Zeppelin would to to Dylan with In My Time Of Dying. While this can inject a more interesting twist, it only highlights what's wrong with this record. While covers have always been an integral part of Cat Power's repertoire - and undeniably part of her live presence - it's the original material that works best here. With Song For Bobby, she tells of meeting long-time idol Bob Dylan and it's that personal touch that gives the song something more than just being an interesting rendition.
Seeming little more than a minor diversion as Chan runs for President, this album might just tide you over until she gets back to the main event.
30th Jan 2008 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 2 star reviewsMore Minutes
In a possible response to sluggish sales, from Feb 1st O2 are bumping up the details on their iPhone monthly plans. While the cheapest deal is still £35 per month, you now get 600 minutes, 500 texts, unlimited data and unlimited access to The Cloud's 7500 hotspots. That's actually a relatively good deal....
29th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Schhhhh...wing!
Schweppes are attempting a re-brand to put them in pole position as a 'soft drink for adults' - as we're clearly too old for Coke. The plan involves bank-rolling a bunch of 'adult' (no, not saucy) short films, which you can watch over at www.schhh.eu/shortfilms. The website's a little clunky (try CR instead), but the films aren't bad.
While the funding of upcoming talent like this can't be criticised, it seems a little mis-guided as an advertising gimmick. At least those BMW films had a string of A-lists stars and directors to snowball the PR, and each film had some pretty explicit product placement in the form of a brand new shiny BMW.
29th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Let's Dance!
Think most chimps are still reeling from too much Koolaid at Saturday's party, so here's some video entertainment. Above, Wacko Jackson teaches you how to moonwalk and below, Brett teaches you how to express anger in the form of dance. Flip!
28th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Steve Carrell Gets Smart!
Can't say I was a fan of the original Get Smart!, but hopefully the 40 Year Old Virgin Steve Carell can elevate this latest remake beyond the lofty heights of Naked Guns 1 through 33 1/3.
Check out the trailer here.
26th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Cutting The Wire
Many reviewers from top media outlets assured reporters that they would start watching the Peabody Award–winning show just as soon as the first season reaches the top of their Netflix queues.
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25th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
No Quantum Leap
The catchily titled Bond 22 has finally got a proper name. According to the BBC it's 'Quantum of Solace' - taken from an Ian Fleming short story.
Bad guy Dominic Greene has "the smile of Tony Blair and the crazy eyes of Nicholas Sarkozy", while the producers have also confirmed it will be action packed and pick up within an hour of the end of Bond 21 (Casino Royale to you).
24th Jan 2008 - 4 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
American Sondance
American Son is getting some good write ups at this year's Sundance festival:
Aint-it-cool
Variety
Cinematical
Indiewire
24th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
London's Kerning
NB Studio's London's Kerning print has had a second edition printed due to popularity. You can buy it, and a bunch of other cool stuff at Blanka.
23rd Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Year Of The Chimp
We're having a party this weekend and you are invited.
Chimps 71, BC and CSF are ticking another year off the calendar, so bring us a present.
The Strongroom
120-124 Curtain Road
London EC2A 3SQ
8pm
Chimps on the decks all night.
23rd Jan 2008 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Yeasayer
Fleetwood Mac-alikes Yeasayer have added another ICA show for their upcoming tour:
05-Mar Birmingham Bar Academy 0844 477 2000
06-Mar London ICA 0870 400 0688
08-Mar Glasgow King Tuts
09-Mar Manchester Night & Day 0870 400 0688
10-Mar London ICA 0870 400 0688
22nd Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Oscars '008
The Oscar nominations are out, although if this pesky writer's strike isn't resolved there may either be a non-scripted Plan B or even an unannounced doomsday scenario.
There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men lead the charge - with 8 nods each.
22nd Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
A New Jacket
A freshly shorn Jim James has announced a June 10th release date for My Morning Jacket's as-yet untitled new studio album. The release will be supported by a few live shows in the US, culminating in the recently advertised Evening With My Morning Jacket show at Radio City Music Hall.
21st Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Paris Fashion Weak
We're all over Paris fashion week at the moment, reporting live from Menswear Autumn/Winter '008 if you're interested. The following information should not be considered as the opinion of Chimpomatic.com, but trousers that are tailored a little short (or 'halfmast' as we would say in the old days) seem to be in and waistcoats seem to be fairly prolific - in an English gentleman style tweed for example.
Obviously, we're more interested in the food, the booze and the parties - all of which have been in abundant supply. The oysters and rumpsteak of La Coupole hit the spot and we snagged Jean Paul Satre's and Simone de Beauvoir's favourite table.
The highlight of the trip however has to be the Viking themed restuarant Nos Ancetre Les Gaulois (Our Ancestors, The Gauls), which provided an all-you-can-eat buffet of smoked sausage, followed by a huge basket of raw veg and a slab of steak - all washed down with a help yourself barrel of house red. Boom.
If that wasn't enough, cabaret was provided by a Welsh ex-pat with a guitar. Check surveillance for a video of Stairway To Heaven.
The dude on the bottom right managed to sleep right through a Destiny's Child/Ed Rush mash up, not to mention the 'art' installation playing on the screens.
21st Jan 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
What else are you gonna do up there?
The Japanese team that are heading up to the International Space Station have decided that launching a paper airplane down into the Earth's atmosphere is their lab project of choice.
The origami glider ... will be subjected to wind speeds of Mach 7, or about 8,600 kilometers (5,300 miles) per hour.
A large spacecraft such as the Space Shuttle can reach speeds of up to Mach 20 (over 15,200 mph) when it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere ....the much lighter origami aircraft, which the researchers claim will come down more slowly, is not expected to burn up on re-entry.
Links
www.pinktentacle.com
www.oriplane.com
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20th Jan 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
BBC iPlayer on your ....TV
With the Flash version of the iPlayer software proving to be far more useable that the subscription version, the BBC are looking to roll out the project to other platforms such as Virgin Media (slated for Spring '008) or the Apple TV.
The notes of "a simple upgrade from either analogue TV or your first generation DTT/Freeview box to an open hybrid DTT/IP box" don't look likely to impress anyone who's just been convinced to get a Freeview box however.
20th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Radar Music Video Awards
Much less mainstream than MTV, the Radar Music Video Awards have their selections online over at their YouTube page, with The Heavy's Coleen taking the "Qoob TV Student Award" for their animated clip, so simple and fun my three year old child could have done it. And I mean that in a nice way.
20th Jan 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Speed Jobs
Tired of the hype machine? Daily Mahalo have a quick round up of Steve Jobs Macworld speech, slimmed down to 60 seconds. Better and better and better.
If you've got time on your hands, you can watch the director's extended cut here .....streaming live in HD. Boom.
20th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Videotape(d)
For anyone who didn't manage to get into the Radiohead show at Rough Trade 93 Feet East (er, like everyone) it's all online over at YouTube. 'No Surprises' there.
18th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Doomsday
Yahoo! have got the scoop on brit director Neil Marshall's Doomsday trailer and it doesn't look great. While the idea of Brit Sci-Fi has had gained some momentum recently, cheap looking effects and shocks aren't going to help him join the cult ranks of breakout director's like Tarantino / Richard Kelly / Eli Roth / Edgar Wright.
17th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
IMDB, brought to you by....
My IMDB surfing was rudely interrupted by a full screen ad today, complete with "click to skip this ad" before I got to the page I was after - no doubt the Death Proof page.
While ads seem to be the near inevitable way that sites will be make to make money (ahem), this is a particularly obtrusive species. Although if they aren't obtrusive, maybe nobody clicks them.
17th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
P-Pik-Up-A-Picnik
The online photo-editing world is moving on fast. Since our last report, Flickr have enlisted the badly-spelt help of Picnik to offer built-in photo editing to their excellent photo sharing service. Broadband speeds and the modern browser have helped make it a not too unpleasant experience.
The forthcoming online version of Photoshop still promises to beat all-comers and has been spotted in the wild.
17th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Got My Fonebak Back
Got a nice cheque for £17.73 from Fonebak today, for an my old Nokia 7610 (once a near dream aquisition) that I sent off for recycling in one of their freepost envelopes. Money for old rope.... It was dusty, dropped calls and the 9 key didn't work.
17th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Sons 'n' Daughters
Just in case you can't/didn't/won't get into tonight's mini free Radiohead gig, in second place we have Sons and Daughters doing a little show at Durrr on January 21st. Except it's £4. Or £6. But they've got a new album coming and it's quite good.
16th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
New Clinic
Following 2006's Visitations, and 2007's compilation Funf, Clinic are back with a fifth studio album.
'Do it!' is a summer album, a warped technicolor celebration. Pop music and severe cut-ups going from melody to acid psychosis to acoustic, usually in the same song. A skewed pop amalgam of Motown, Exuma, deep lounge and The Balloon Farm (amongst many).
Recorded by Clinic and mixed by Jacquire King (Tom Waits, Kings Of Leon, Archie Bronson Outfit).
The album's out on 7th April 2008, preceded by down 'Free Not Free' / 'Thor' on 1 February. A
16th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Site Maintenance
We're updating the back-end of the site over the next couple of days, so bear with us if things aren't quite working properly...
15th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Cave Singing
Matador's latest band The Cave Singers have a pretty crazy video up on YouTube for their debut single Dancing On Our Graves.
15th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Death of HDDVD
With Warner Bros officially jumping ship from HD-DVD to Blu-Ray, it seems that the format war is close to an end - with HD-DVD looking likely to go the way of Betamax.
Universal and Paramount are the only big studios still supporting the format and speculation has it that Paramount has a specific clause in their contract to allow them to also leave if Warner Bros do. So there.
With movies downloading sure to become as big as music, it may be a fairly short lived victory.
14th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Last Day At The Office
With Bill Gates stepping down from running Microsoft this year, his final keynote speech at this year's CES Expo in Las Vegas featured the usual video, but with a higher calibre of cameo than usual. From Wired:
One of the long-standing traditions of CES is the Bill Gates keynote address, which always includes a funny video aiming to humanize the ol' Zune Brother #1 for a general audience. This one, though, is probably one of the best because it captures the essence of the man at the top of the mountain, with famous friends calling in, including a Presidential candidate whose name ends in -illary.
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Bill Gates has been uninstalled.
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11th Jan 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Killer Remix
Attention remixers. You can have a crack at remixing The Kills' Grazia friendly new single U.R.A. Fever at www.midnightboom.com. New album Midnight Boom is out March 10.
11th Jan 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
The Death Set
It's not just great TV coming out of Baltimore these days. The city's raised profile seems to have given birth to a rising music scene - hopefully keeping the kids off the streets of Hamsterdam. Ninja Tune's own Counter Records label have harnessed the power and signed electrifying band The Death Set.
Turning their backs on the traditional stage, the band set up in the dancefloor to kick out their brand of frantic disco punk ....like a post-rave Minor Threat. Check out You Tube for some surveillance, or check them out live when they play Bardens in Dalston on February 15th.
They have a four track single - MFDS - out February 11th and a whopping 18 track album (which clocks in at 26 minutes, Ian Mackaye would be proud) out in April.
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11th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Unwired
The bad guys seem to have found a clever way of beating FBI wire taps - just don't pay the bill.
11th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Save The Clocktower!
There was a big turn out in Walthamstow this past weekend, as campaigner's led by the aptly titled McGuffin Society gathered in an attempt to save the old cinema. Katherine Green has written an article about it for the BBC website and taken some photos.
10th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet