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24:In A New York Minute
Jack Bauer having 1440 New York minutes in the 8th season of 24. Trailer below.
30th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Kanye's Back In Business
That leaked Kanye West / Spike Jonze short is back online - available to buy from iTunes for a mere £1.49.
Making of below too.
29th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
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Ad Nauseum: Spotify
Nicely done ad for Spotify, which is currently running on TV in Sweden.
28th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: The Longcut
Nice old-school promo up for the new single Repeated from Chimp favourites The Longcut.
New album Open Hearts arrived a couple of weeks back, while Repeated in out today on Melodic.
26th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Street Skating
If there was ever an item suitable for our stupido column, it has to be this.
26th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Nikon Projector in Action
Check out the Helicopter Boyz making great use of that Nikon camera-with-built-in-mini-projector we talked about a while back.
And while I'm writing this Japan-centric episode of stupido, check out this awesome Marimba display from the Marimba Ponies.
23rd Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Weezer
Slightly dumb/fun promo up for the new Weezer single - (If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To. Welcome to Weezerville.
22nd Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Spiral Stairs
Just in time for the announcement of the Pavement reunion, check out Spiral Stairs new promo for Stolen Pills, from his new album The Real Feel.
22nd Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Pavement at Brixton
Pavement have added a London date to their scheduled appearance at ATP in May. Tickets available now to O2 customers, Friday onwards for everyone else.
UPDATE: They're now playing Brixton on the 12th too
Here's the PR:
Pavement announce London date and confirm first ATP acts
We are very excited to announce that the legendary Pavement will be playing at Brixton Academy on Tuesday 11th May 2010.
Tickets are on sale from 9am this Friday from www.ticketweb.co.uk, www.seetickets.com, www.gigantic.com, www.stargreen.com and www.lastminute.com. However some of you will be able to use a pre-sale for O2 customers from 9am on Wednesday, and there is also a pre-sale for Academy venue customers from 9am on Thursday.
ARTIST: Pavement
SUPPORT ACTS: tbc
VENUE: Brixton Academy
DATES: Tuesday 11th May 2010
TICKET PRICE : £25.00 +bf
VENUE ADDRESS: 211 Stockwell Rd, London, SW9 9SL
VENUE TELEPHONE: 020 7771 3000
DOORS: 7.00pm
AGE RESTRICTIONS: Under 14s must be accompanied by an adult and seated in the Circle.
Tickets On Sale Friday 9am
21st Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
U2ube
U2's 96,000 capacity gig at the Rose Bowl this Sunday is set to be streamed live on YouTube - in something of a first. Watch it here I guess.
21st Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
More New Tech: Apple and Sony
tuesday is a well known day for press releases, but they could have spread them out a bit. As well as the new Canon camera being announced, Apple have rolled out an all-new iMac line - with full HD or bigger screens, in a TV-friendly 16:9 format and a new 'magic mouse'. They also have an updated Macbook with a polycarbonate unibody and have updated the Mac Mini line with more power + storage - and have even debuted a server version, which could be perfect for that home media centre. Although so would the 27" iMac, which you could also use as a TV.
Meanwhile, Sony have rolled out a couple of new high-end HD video cameras.
New tech announcements also coming from Red Camera on the 30th.
20th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Canon 1D Mark IV
Canon has released another DSLR camera with HD video capabilities and up to 102,400 ISO film speed (!That's high!), this time it's from the top-of-the-range 1D line. Boring specs here. Great low-light film sample below....
20th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Kanye vs Jonze
There's a new Spike Jonze film online - and here he's collaborating with Swift basing rapper Kanye West. It's a slightly bizarre short, soundtracked by Kanye's track See You in My Nightmares. Kanye plays a drunk superstar.
See it here. Download it here. Looks like it was shot on one of those snazzy new Canon cameras.
19th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Spotify on 3
The 3 mobile network is bringing Spotify under it's wing, with their new Google Android phone including £240 worth of credit for a 24 month Spotify premium account. Quite an incentive.
19th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Map The Editors
Clever, if slightly pointless website up to promote the new album from the Editors. Using a hacked version of Google Street View, you can travel the streets and stumble accross the band hanging around in the sites that inspired tracks on the album.
editorsofficial.com/streetview/
16th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Arctic Monkeys - Cornerstone
Nice lo-fi promo up for the new Arctic Monkeys single - Cornerstone.
16th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
OMG! Sonic Youth on Gossip Girl. TTYN!
OMG! Not content with dirtying the name of THE Aaron Rose, TV show Gossip Girl now has its sites set on grunge godfathers Sonic Youth - who appeared in this week's episode, playing as a band AND with Kim Gordon performing the wedding of two of the lead characters wedding...
Videogum has the story.
14th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Live Dust
Lightning Dust's Infinite Light (review here) is looking like an album-of-the-year for me - and now they're bringing their live show to the UK.
Dates:
November 30: London, Bush Hall w/Early Day Miners 7.30pm, £10 adv - Tickets
December 1: Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach w/Early Day Miners 7.30pm, £8 adv - Tickets
December 2: Birmingham, Capsule 10th Birthday @ Town Hall w/Tunng, Six Organs Of Admittance - Tickets
December 3: Glasgow, Captains Rest w/Early Day Miners 8pm, £9 adv - Tickets
December 4: Manchester, Roadhouse 7pm, £8 adv - Tickets
December 5: Brighton, Lectern w/Early Day Miners 7.30pm, £8 adv - Tickets
The band also have a new video for track Never Seen, which you can download as an mp3 here, along with killer track I Knew here.
13th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Spotify: One year on
Some interesting thoughts from Spotify boss Daniel Ek.
I'm still using Spotify on my phone. Not quite the iTunes replacement I was hoping for, but I'm enjoying the legitimacy....
12th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Shoe In
No Age have their own skate shoes out - working with Chimp hero Ed Templeton (see Skate or Die here) to produce a shoe for legit skate brand Emerica. Sub Pop have the details.
12th Oct 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Live Doolittle
The Pixies are selling downloads/CDs for all of last week's live Doolittle outings. Get em while they're hot.
Check out Harris Pilton's near-perfect review here.
12th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Stockholm Syndrome
Nice film up at Vimeo from grizzly Swedish pin-up Julian Farrar, featuring his monster-sized drawings.
9th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Me & Orson Welles
Trailer up for the new Richard Linklater picture Me & Orson Welles, featuring a well-cast Christian McKay as the big man himself, Clare Danes and that kid from High School Musical as the 'me' of the title.
8th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Pavement For ATP 2010
The Pavement reformation continues - with the band set to curate ATP in 2010, and of course headline.
8th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Matthew McRomcomedy in Standing Room Only
The Huffington Post asks the difficult questions.
8th Oct 2009 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
More Unanswered Movie Questions
Obi-Wan is stupid - "because his idea of “hiding” Luke from his father is to take Luke to the planet where Anakin used to live, to the very house he used to live in, to be cared for by Anakin’s stepfather’s son and his wife, and, as if that weren’t already akin to hanging a giant sign reading “Future Jedi Here,” to give Luke his father’s last name! Because “Skywalker” is such a common last name that nobody could possibly make the connection … if they’re complete morons. Would it have been so difficult to call him “Luke Lars?”"
Wired investigates further.
7th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Fresh Vampire
There's a new track up on the Vampire Weekend website. Horchata is taken from January's new album Contra.
6th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: It's My Party
Don't ask, but I stumbled across this video for the Barbara Gaskin & Dave Stewart hit It's My Party from 1981. Could have been shot in 2000's Shoreditch.
5th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Red Cliff
US trailer up for 'legendary action cinema master' John Woo's latest - Red Cliff. Shot in China with assistance from the top level I believe.
The western release of this Chinese history epic is literally half the length of the original cut - running 148 minutes instead of 280. I wonder is there's a half-as-long cut of Face/Off floating around?
2nd Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Slow-mo Celebration
Great slow-mo / stop-motion film of China's 60th anniversary parade up at Vimeo, from The Guardian's Dan Chung.
2nd Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Flaming Lips - I Can Be A Frog
Nice, simple but effective video up for the new Flaming Lips track - I Can Be A Frog.
30th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Pearl Jam
Backspacer
Monkeywrench
With their 9th studio album, Pearl Jam have fully completed their transformation from over-looked geniuses to the band that everybody thinks they have been since Ten first stormed the charts in 1991. As a lifelong Pearl Jam fan, for some reason I had a pre-conceived notion of how this album would be. The hints were there from the last album and a live outing for some if the new material did not bode well. I can't tell you how disappointed it is to have my preconceptions at least partly confirmed.
Advance tracks Get Some and The Fixer certainly have hooks and catches, giving a certain radio-friendliness to them, much like any recent album from AC/DC or even The Rolling Stones - rather than the difficult-to-fit, anti-mainstream style that hung around grunge, making it so fresh and new in the early 90's.
Eddie Vedder injects the occasional attempt at enthusiasm with a whoop or a holler, while awkward drum fills patch the holes in the songwriting as the band try and add some urgency to the mundanity to most of the songs. Whether it was real or implied, much of Pearl Jam's attraction has long been built around the message, or implied narrative behind the lyrics. Here those messages are barely audible, instead opting for the gabba-gabba-hey enthusiam of bands like the Ramones - while Vedder's song writing and love-it-or-hate-it vocals are sadly underused.
There's an air of preparation here, as if song-writing duties have been distributed evenly amongst the rest of the band for some post-career nest building. I haven't seen the liner notes, but would suggest the faux Thin Lizzy of Johnny Guitar came from the pen of Mike McReady (update: wrong, it was Cameron & Gossard), while the Camero-driving pound of Get Some might be from bouncing bassist Jeff Ament (update: bingo).
There are a handful of highlights here, with Just Breathe providing a short break from the non-stop pace of the album's opening, although at best it sounds like an outtake from Vedder's excellent stripped-bare solo album. Unknown Thought and The End approach the band's full potential (both penned by Vedder), while Amongst The Waves manages to shake off its cheesy start to build into a decent epic.
This isn't a terrible album by any means - and judging by some surprisingly positive mainstream reviews I would suggest everything I like about the band is what turned the masses away. There are moments of promise amongst the riffs, but Backspacer's biggest curse is that it is just largely forgettable.
29th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 2.5 star reviews
Too Many Dicks On The Console
With I Told You I Was Freaky arriving imminently, the Flight of the Conchords are back in the news, with a TBC European tour and even three songs making it onto Rockband.
Meanwhile, Jermain has been out and about in character as Ronald Chevalier, from his new movie Gentlemen Broncos.
28th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: SMA Hobo Tour
Some nice home video footage of 1989's SMA Hobo Tour, with evidence that Jason Lee was a great skater. Mike Vallely and Jesse Martinez also feature, with Vallely riding his innovative double-ended board - a first.
Jason Lee is riding an SMA Jeff Hartsel - a model favoured by CJ.
25th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Top 10 Unanswered Questions in Geeky Movies
3. Gremlins: Feeding after midnight - Don’t get them wet; OK, fine. Don’t expose them to sunlight; sure, why not? Don’t feed them after midnight; um, how’s that again? If you can’t feed them “after midnight,” at what point during the day does it cease to be “after midnight” so you can feed them again? For that matter, how does the mogwai know what time zone it’s in? Suppose I get my mogwai in New York and then take a vacation to San Francisco — should I not feed my mogwai after midnight Eastern Time or Pacific Time? And what about Daylight Saving Time? Considering the consequences, these details seem pretty important.
This and other conundrums, discussed in Wired's Top 10 Unanswered Questions in Geeky Movies article.
25th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Lego Iggy Pop
Need i say more? Coming to a playground Xbox Rockband console near you soon.
Follow the links and you end up at this interesting Times article/interview, where Iggy offers some explaination for that "fucking embarrassing" insurance campaign he's currently fronting.
22nd Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Ad Nauseum: David Fincher
He might be selling Nike, but we've always got time for anything by David Fincher. Shot on a RED digital camera, by Emmanuel Lubezki - the man behind the magnificent The New World amongst others.
21st Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
How to open a bottle of Wine with a phonebook
Here's one from the 4 Hour Work Week files.
18th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Star Status: Jeff Bridges
How does the much-loved Jeff Bridges actually rate in the Chimpomatic Star Status Movie Maths Generator?
It's 10 points for a Hit, 5 for a Maybe and 1 for a Miss... No TV movies, just cinema releases to date.
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008) .... MAYBE
Iron Man (2008) .... HIT!
Surf's Up (2007) (voice) .... MAYBE
Stick It (2006) .... MISS
Tideland (2005) .... MAYBE
The Moguls (2005) .... MAYBE
The Door in the Floor (2004) .... MAYBE
Seabiscuit (2003) .... HIT
Masked and Anonymous (2003) .... MAYBE
K-PAX (2001) .... HIT
Scenes of the Crime (2001) .... MAYBE
The Contender (2000) .... HIT
Simpatico (1999) .... MISS
The Muse (1999) .... MISS
Arlington Road (1999) .... HIT
The Big Lebowski (1998) .... HIT!!!
Hidden in America (1996) (TV) .... MAYBE
The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996) .... MAYBE
White Squall (1996) .... MAYBE
Wild Bill (1995) .... MAYBE
Blown Away (1994) .... MISS
Fearless (1993) .... HIT!
The Vanishing (1993) .... HIT
American Heart (1992) .... HIT
The Fisher King (1991) .... HIT
Texasville (1990) ....MAYBE
The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) .... HIT
Cold Feet (1989) (uncredited) .... MISS
See You in the Morning (1989) ....MISS
Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) .... HIT
Nadine (1987) .... MISS
The Morning After (1986) ....MISS
8 Million Ways to Die (1986) ....MISS
Jagged Edge (1985) .... HIT!
Starman (1984) .... HIT!
Against All Odds (1984) .... HIT!
Kiss Me Goodbye (1982) .... MISS
The Last Unicorn (1982) (voice) .... MAYBE
TRON (1982) .... HIT
Cutter's Way (1981) ....MISS
Heaven's Gate (1980) .... MAYBE
The American Success Company (1980) .... MISS
Winter Kills (1979) .... MISS
Somebody Killed Her Husband (1978) .... MISS
King Kong (1976) .... MISS
Stay Hungry (1976) .... MISS
Hearts of the West (1975) .... MAYBE
Rancho Deluxe (1975) .... MAYBE
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) .... HIT!
The Iceman Cometh (1973) .... HIT
The Last American Hero (1973) .... MAYBE
Lolly-Madonna XXX (1973) .... MISS
Bad Company (1972) .... HIT
Fat City (1972) ....HIT
The Last Picture Show (1971) .... HIT!
23 hits, 16 maybes and 15 misses.
So that's 307 points out of a possible 540.
Jeff Bridges: you have scored 56.9%.
There's no doubting he makes some odd choices, and his huge work-rate brings him down with a lot of 'maybes' but even in a bad film he remains pretty much 90% watchable. If he worked at a Harrison Ford rate, he'd probably have a near-perfect record, with a serious hit every couple of years.
If you need any further convincing that The Dude is a very cool dude, check out his own great website.
If you dare make a purchase, you can do so here, allowing Chimpomatic to profit from his loss success. Check back soon for more Star Status movie maths. Same Chimp Channel, same Chimp Time...
18th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Gerhard Richter
I'm disappointed to learn that most of Gerhard Richter's Sonic Youth-inspiring candle series are less that 1.5m wide. I had been thinking how nice one would look filling out my living room wall.
18th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
The 4 Hour Work Week
I'm aiming for a new zen-like existence after reading Tim Ferris' excellent book The 4 Hour Work Week. In fact, I've been living such an existence for many months now, meaning I didn't get round to writing this up.
The basic concept of the book deals with streamlining your work life to make you more efficient, giving you time to pursue recreational ambitions and further yourself. Luckily, it just about stays on the right side of being a self-growth, believe-in-yourself type load of spiritual mumbo-jumbo and focuses on practical applications, many of which are easily done, most notably checking your emails only once or twice a day, turning down troublesome work and sub-contracting many tasks - even to the point of hiring an assistant in India.
A major focus is the 80/20 principal, where 80% of a lot of things is unnecessary waffle, while 20% is the useful core. I imagine it's applicable on chimpomatic too, with 20% of our readers being loyal followers, while 80% are just here for the early word on Torchwood.
Once you're on top of your game, the fun begins - letting you blow 80% of your time on more fun pursuits, with Ferris having become a kick-boxing champion, a speed swimmer and even built up 34lbs of muscle in 4 weeks. Check out his excellent website for occasional tips on speaking a new language in 1 hour, sleeping better, travelling the world with 10lbs of luggage, speed reading, never forgetting anything, holidaying by twitter, getting a good table at top restaurants and more.
Ferris has become something of an internet personality in the wake of the book's success, making maximum use of the likes of Twitter and Facebook to rustle up followers and crowd-source content for his next book - and even knock out a possible TV show, where he learns a new skill per episode. All that stuff can actually get a bit annoying, and he sometimes seems so obsessed with efficiency that the writing can be a bit dry ("Post reading time: 15 minutes" etc.), and his collaborations with Digg founder Kevin Rose tend to make one of the two seem strangely closed-minded...
17th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Augment Me
Some good-looking augmented reality apps on the slate from developer Across Air. They are listed as being available 'as soon as iPhone OS 3.1 launches', which happened last week. Apparently that update included some code-improvements that will enable all this future mapping technology to unfold...
17th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Pavement Reform
There have been rumblings for a while, but now it's official - Pavement are reforming.
Don't get your knickers in a twist just yet, as they are quick to caution not to expect too much. At this stage, it's for a series of shows and tours 'around the world' to coincide with some sort of anniversary (ten years since break-up - if that's an anniversary) and a 'greatest hits' record.
"Please be advised this tour is not a prelude to additional jaunts and/or a permanent reunion."
More details here.
17th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
PYO Books
Thanks to the Google Books service, which has digitized several million out-of-copyright books, you can now print your own editions. Throw in the $100,000 expresso printer and you can even pop into a book store and get a nicely bound version of an out-of-print rarity for around $10. Wired has the details.
17th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Listen To Folk
The forthcoming Monsters of Folk album - from Jim James, Bright Eyes and M. Ward - is up in full over at Myspace.
16th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
3D Printing
Printable trainers may still be a way off, but 3D printing is finally starting to make a bit more sense. Bruce Wayne used a computer to re-assemble and remove a finger print from a bullet in The Dark Knight, but CSI were way more up to speed with their tech, using 3D printing to sculpt a bullet - and then remove the finger print themselves.
Prototyping seems to be the main application so far, where silicon is used to build-up or cut out a precise 3 dimensional object based on detailed computer specification, and I did hear about 3D animators starting to use the technique to produce perfectly adjusted models.
With tech like this getting cheaper and cheaper it was only a matter of time before it becomes available to all of us and as Wired report, companies like Ponoko and Shapeways will begin to popularise the service. If only we can think of something to do with it.
16th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Hello, Nasty
The Beastie Boys re-release juggernaut continues, with masterpiece (aren't they all?) Hello Nasty getting a de-luxe remastering. This one also has a considerable amount of actual rarities on the disc two.
16th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Vampire Weekend: Contra
Details up for the next Vampire Weekend, which isn't set to be released until January 11th/12th 2010.
16th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Batman Returns
(dir. Tim Burton)
Warner Bros
THEN: The seemingly perfect casting of DeVito, plus 80's babe Michelle Pfieffer made this seem like the ideal follow-up to Burton's (at-the-time) phenomenal 1989 Batman re-imagination.
A change in scheduling moved the production from London's Pinewood back to Burbank in California, where a whole new Gotham took up 50% of the Warner Brothers back-lot, which at the time provided a mixed continuity. Little did we know the inconsistency of the future franchise.
NOW: With some of the pressure off after the success of the first movie, Tim Burton created a movie which fits far more homogeneously into his directorial cannon, thanks to the the skull-headed clowns, the Christmas setting and the disturbed strangeness of the penguin. Many of the problems from 1992 still exist - too many anatagonists, the dumb Max Shreck character (Christopher Walken), the doofus Penguin - but Michelle Pfeiffer pretty much plays the definitive Catwoman (with a sympathetic Selena Kyle origin story to boot). There's also no over-the-top Jack Nicholson to chew his way through the back-lot scenery and no shoe-horned Prince soundtrack.
In retrospect, the change of shooting location made for a massive improvement in the art direction of this second movie, without the visible location repetition that shrinks the scale of the first. The result is a surprisingly organic Gotham and a much fuller world. There are still many touches of the camp comedy of the TV show - which is bizarre, considering how dark and dirty Burton's Batman films seemed at the time.
Retroactive-praise aside, this is still way too long, pretty campy and extremely dopey for a superhero movie. Action and suspense-wise it offers virtually nothing, but it can certainly take some credit for paving the way for Christopher Nolan's far more thoughtful re-boot.
16th Sep 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3 star reviewsGil-Scott Heron
Suitably mysterious website up for Gil-Scott Heron's forthcoming new album - I'm New Here - out next year on XL.
15th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet