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Promo Promo: The Black Keys
Bikinis and a singing dinosaur. What's not to like?
21st May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
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The Big Picture: Mt St Helens Volcano
The Big Picture has a topical round up of photos - documenting 1980's huge volcanic eruption of Mount St Helens in Washington state.
#CSF
#CurrentAffairs
#Photography
19th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Spike Spends Saturday With...
Nice series of films up at Vice Magazine's VBS.tv, with Spike Jonze interviewing various people of interest.
The owners of the fahsion store Opening Ceremony is a highlight - particularly with their stereophonic talking trick.
Other interviewees include Maurice Sendak, M.I.A and Kanye West.
18th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Lesser Spotted Spotify
Spotify's evolution continues, with 2 new additional variations of the app launched in the wake of their recent social media beef-up.
Spotify Open seems to be replacing the default free version of the app, and this new iteration will allow 20 hours per month of streaming - supported by ads.
Spotify Unlimited is a mis-leading title for a version that allows unlimited, ad-free streaming, but no access for mobiles. £4.99 a month.
Spotify Premium remains the most full-featured version - and the only one which allows unlimited, ad-free streaming and mobile phone use. £9.99 a month.
18th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP: Ronnie James Dio
Further to the Six Degrees post, I've just read that Black Sabbath super-sub Ronnie James Dio has passed away, aged 67. RIP.
17th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Six Degrees of Black Sabbath
Like an automated version of the Six Degrees game you can play counting the clicks between items on IMDB, Six Degrees of Black Sabbath will link two artists together ...though not always in exactly 6 clicks.
I have yet to defeat it.
17th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
John Frusciante vs Omar Rod-Lop
Pay-what-you-like album up from John Frusciante and the Mars Volta's Omar Rodriuez Lopez.
Recorded on 4 track a few years back, it's not always pretty - but can be pretty awesome.
17th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Forties - Amigos
A stellar slice of 90's skateboarding for today's episode of Skate or Die. I've been digging around for this one for ages, so great to finally find it buried away on the defunct Google Video.
Arty pixel-vision, jazzy music and best-of-all hair-raising downhill skating on the streets of San Francisco.
Forties: 'Amigos'.
14th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Jeff Bridges HD
Some interesting stats on the lack of Jeff Bridges movies available in High Definition. Strange, considering his seemingly solid box office appeal and recent Oscar confirmed status.
All this is really just an excuse to pull a couple of quotes from the man when he recently picked up a handful of awards for his movie Crazy Heart.
On The independent Spirit Award: "Now THIS is really gonna tie the room together".
On The Golden Globes: "You're really messing with my under-appreciated status here".
14th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Unofficial Titus
I like the idea of this unofficial Titus Andronicus compilation - put out by fans, with possibly some vague approval / no protest from the actual band.
Download Feats of Strength here. It rounds up a load of b-sides, rarities and live tracks, incluidng a cover of Weezer's Say It Ain't So.
13th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
LCD & The National on Jools Holland
LCD Soundsystem and The National were among the acts on Jools Holland's live show last night. Watch that on iPlayer here or catch the finished show tomorrow night on BBC 1.
12th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Hair Lift
Got a lot of hair lying around? Donate it to Matter of Trust's Hair Lift program, which is collecting hair from salons all around the world to help soak up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
This is no joke. I might shave my biker tash just to chip in.
Via BBC
10th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Big Picture: Vietnam 35 Years Later
A typically outstanding collection of pictures up at The Big Picture, documenting the 35th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.
This one caught my eye. Look how neat those protest signs are!
10th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: The Fall - Bury! PTS 2+4
Nice slow-mo pro-mo up from The Fall's new album - Your Future Our Clutter
7th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Rollins and Danzig Forever
Love the sound of this mini comic - Henry & Glenn Forever, documenting the fictional civil partnership between Glenn Danzig and Henry Rollins. Hall & Oates are their neighbours.
Via Ian C Rogers
7th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Ken Loachtube
YouTube are still creeping towards feature film distribution - and Ken Loach is the latest director to get his catalogue online. Watch Kes, Poor Cow, Cathy Come Home, Riff Raff and more here in their entirety.
7th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Pavement Ist Rad! Tomorrow at The Windmill
Don't miss tomorrow's Pavement Ist Rad gig at Brixton's Windmill, featuring Spanish indie legends Men Called Him Mister.
BBQ at 5.15. Bands covering Pavement all day. Tickets here. Look out for the chimps.
7th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Crank 2: High Voltage
We've totally missed the boat on this one, as I caught the end of it on TV last night - but thought it was worth a few bytes of your time for a couple of reasons:
1) It's the loopiest concept I have seen in a long time
2) The production is also bonkers, shot entirely with hand-held consumer video cameras - mostly at super-fast shutter speeds of 1/1000 or 1/2000th of a second
Check it out here. The trailer's probably enough for most people.
5th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: The American
Trailer up for the new George Clooney/Anton Corbijn thriller The American. Clooney plays the American.
4th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Ian MacKaye and The Solitary Arts
Great piece up at Fistfulayen regarding the contribution of skateboarding to many people's world view (mine included). The article is in reference to an Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat/Fugazi) interview done for The Skateboard Mag. Interesting, as MacKaye's world view was itself was an inspiration to many skateboarders and pre 'alternative' music US-punk fans (me again).
"I think when skaters walk down the street, they’re looking at it with an entirely different grid in their minds .......To this day I swim to the bottom of swimming pools just to check out the transition."
Via Fistfulayen, via Atiba Jefferson, via The Skateboard Mag
4th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
New Wolf Parade
Wolf Parade have a new album out in June, entitled Expo 86. Sub Pop have the details, including where you can download two of the new tracks - the killer synths of Ghost Pressure (which could possibly lead to a gig writing the next Shakira single) and the slower-burner What Did My Lover Say? (It Always Had to Go This Way).
Looking forward to this one.
4th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Cruise Missile To Go
An enterprising Russian company seems to be attempting to solve the age-old problem of how to conveniently move your cruise missiles around without the unwieldy bulk of an aircraft carrier. Their solution is a not-quite-pocket-sized shipping container - catchily titled the 'Club-K'.
It's not too clear how far in development this is, but it's far enough along to warrant the handy graphic simulation that the company have produced (above). No big worry though, Venezuela and Iran are the only countries to have so far professed an interest.
Maybe we need to get Jack Bauer of of retirement already.
30th Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Emotional Chimp News
Chimps feel death and mourn in the same way as humans, according to a new report....
Via BBC News
29th Apr 2010 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Jeff Tweedy Solo Show Alert
After foolishly missing Jeff Tweedy's last solo appearance in London in favour of a Bob Dylan show (review here), we are at last able to make amends.
Tickets on pre-sale right now for the Wilco main-man's solo show at Islington's Union Chapel on June 30th. See you down the front.
29th Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Titus Andronicus - A More Perfect Union
Promo up for one of Titus Andronicus' most Springsteen-channeling songs - A More Perfect Union. As noted in the YouTube comments "The lead singer looks like one of those 3 villans from Superman 2".
28th Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Spotify 0.4.3
It's still a long way off even a 1.0 release, but Spotify is getting a major upgrade today - bringing a load more iTunes-like functionality.
Major features include the ability to import and play the music on already on your computer, share your playlists and likes publicly, integration with Facebook for playlist sharing and starring of tracks and an auto-playlist from those tracks.
All the details here.
Of course, all this is moot if iTunes turn around with a similar offering - quite likely since their purchase of the US equivalent of Spotify, Lala.
27th Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
East London Line Re-opens
Every hipster chimp's dream day has arrived. With the re-opening of the East london Line today, partying in Hoxton and New Cross on the same night is an easy reality.
The updated line will run 7am until 8pm from New Cross Gate to Dalston Junction - until the official re-opening on May 23rd when it will run full hours, 12 times an hour. The final route will run all the way down to Croydon, for that essential IKEA trip.
Surprisingly enough, this opening is well ahead of the original 'late 2010' schedule. Thanks Ken!
Via BBC
27th Apr 2010 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
My Pen! And other Kids in the Hall Highlights
Stumbled across a gold mine of Kids in the Hall highlights on YouTube, including My Pen! (above) and The Ham of Truth (below).
Their new show Kids In The Hall: Death Comes To Town has screening in the United States of Canada already. Not sure if/when it will show up in the UK.
Here's more old clips... Wait. No habla english?
26th Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Don't Talk To Aliens
"Don't talk to aliens" is Stephen Hawking's advice in a piece over at The Times.
"If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans".
26th Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Get your own Space Shuttle
With retirement approaching, NASA is looking for homes for it's 3 remaining Space Shuttles. Contenders include that big aircraft carrier that was in I Am Legend, the Johnson Space Center in Houston (a family favourite) and 'Plant 42' where they were built.
Get your proposal into NASA as soon as possible.
23rd Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Band of Horses: Evening Kitchen
Band of Horses channeling their inner-Fleet Foxes on this exclusive clip for the BBC Later website. They were on Jools Holland Live last night, and will be on the main show this Friday ....hopefully with ampilfiers and only one singer.
22nd Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Best sequel news ever - with Robert DeNiro
I'd overlooked any previous talk of this, but it seems there's a sequel to the DeNiro/Martin Brest classic Midnight Run in the works....
IMDB has a holding page, while Slashfilm has a bit more info. It turns out there's already been 4 DeNiro-free TV spin-off movies...
21st Apr 2010 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Band of even more horses
The never-ending mp3-a-thon continues. Download MP#3 - Factory - from bandofhorses.com now, in exchange for your email address.
It's another disturbingly 'mellow' number.
20th Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP: Guru from Gangstarr
Sad news that Gangstarr's Guru has passed away, following his heart attack + coma in March.
Via NME
20th Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Star Wars on Blu-ray
Does anyone actually buy Blu-ray? Or still watch Star Wars?
Not-ultimate-but-a-bit-more-editions of all six movies coming soon according to AICN.
Mainly just a reason to post this fan-edit that re-assembles the missing Luke-in-Happy-Mondays-hat / Biggs-on-Tatooine scenes. These were in my Star Wars book and I remember being very confused when they weren't in that first VHS edition. Geek out.
20th Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Spike Jonze vs LCD
Promo up for the new LCD Soundsystem single Drunk Girls, co-directed by Spike Jonze and James Murphy. Fun video, but sadly the song falls into the annoying 'Beats. On. Repeat.' category of the band's catalogue.
19th Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Drunk iPhoning
It seems like some Apple doofus dropped his iPhone 4.0 prototype in a bar in California recently ...and now tech-snitch website Gizmodo have it.
They have a major piece running on their site about the specs and features of the TBA next-generation of the iPhone. It's something of an aesthetic update on the last couple of models, comes with more storage, both front and back facing cameras - the main one of which is bigger and with a flash.
Tons of better pics and video on the Gizmodo website.
19th Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: The Ghost Writer
Roman Polanski's run of great movies again looks unlikely to continue, with this clunky looking thriller for The Ghost Writer, starring a host of Brits doing terrible Brit accents (Ewan MacGregor and Kim Cattrall, I'm talking to you).
16th Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Vote!
If you were voting for the policies and not the man, where should you actually place your cross? Take the Vote for policies poll and you'll find out, although judging by the attached chart it could be true that Green voters like doing online polls....
16th Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Double Black Mountain
Perennial chimp favourites Black Mountain are playing the T In The Park festival in July and will follow the monster festival with two tiny shows at London's Lexington (tickets here).
See you down the front.
Even better new comes from their blog: "The band are currently putting the finishing touches to their third album, the follow-up to 2008's acclaimed 'In The Future'."
15th Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Anatomy of a car crash
Nice article from Wired about film maker Arev Manoukian's career-launching short film Nuit Blanche, which saw him get picked up by the William Morris Agency.
14th Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Time Tube
Nice YouTube mash-up at Time Tube, which pulls together clips related to your search word and places them on a contextual timeline. 'Barack Obama' is a good place to start.
14th Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Band of Horses vs The National
The highly-anticipated new albums from favourites The National and Band of Horses seem to be in something of a space race. BoH followed The National's free Bloodbuzz Ohio download with an mp3 of their own - Compliments. Now both bands have loaded up a second preview - Laredo from Band of Horses and Afraid of Everyone from The National.
The National definitely have their man in space first, but let's hope Band of Horses are holding something back for the moon landing. So far it sounds somewhat predictably like a low-key-down-home-jamming-round-the-campfire album... An up-to-$99 campfire album, judging by their new self-selling website.
14th Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Star Wars Uncut
The crowd-sourced remake of Star Wars is 'finished'. The film stiches together scenes from hundreds of fan-recreated elememts to fill out the entire original original movie. Better than Attack of the Clones ....but it's not even widescreen.
That's the trailer above and a scene called 'The Escape' below. See more on the project's website.
Via Wired
13th Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Spotify Plus
The developer community is building around Spotify's platform - as noted by their recent community awards. Playlistify was the overall winner, allowing you to convert an iTunes playlist into a Spotify one. Minus the songs they don't have - which is still proving to be their weak link.
You can see a Spotify clickable export of the Chimpomatic master library here. Although it's a couple of months out of date. Will send word down to the tech basement requesting an update.
13th Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
World Tour of Japan 2010
It's long overdue, but I've slung up a load of photos from me and BC's recent Japan tour - mostly inane photos of Japanese stickmen, but also a few other bits and some snow videos. Enjoy.
12th Apr 2010 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP: Malcolm McLaren
Sex Pistols manager and misc trouble maker Malcolm McLaren has died, aged 64.
8th Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Not-so-secret menu
In-n-out Burger's previously 'secret' menu is now official. Though you still need to know it from memory if you expect to get your burger "Animal Style".
Also confirmed - there is no such thing as "Monkey Style".... in a burger at least.
2nd Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
iPad Review
Pretty thorough video review of the iPad up (via PCMag). The latest Apple gadget launches in the US in the next couple of days. Whispers say it'll be the end of the month for the UK launch.
1st Apr 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Monsters of Folk
Two nice promos up for Dear God, the album highlight from last year's Monsters of Folk album. The video above was directed by Laura Faggioni, while the one below was fan-made, and the winner of a competition run by the band....
31st Mar 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet