Sunshine and Lolipops… and so much more. One of the finer pop acts around, give these (magic) kids some much deserved eartime.
———
Speaking of Magic Kids…they are this week’s Band of the Week! Chris “compares them to Beat Happening. They are truly both themselves. Like Beat Happening, they make unabashedly upbeat coy (sometimes cheesy, but in a good way) music in music scenes that are oft-macho.”
Crazy Shit. Audiences nearly died from viewing The Exorcist on the silver screen in 1973. It became one of the main reasons I could not sleep well from ages 10-12 when it was re-released in theaters in 2001. Almost forty years later and it is still a gut wrenching tour de force. Speaking of which, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
P.S. Glen you need to see this!
Okay, so I do this annually and if this looks similar to the post I made last year that is because it is! well, for the most part- not much has changed. Here we go:
Films (in no particular order):
1) It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
2) A Christmas Story (1983)
3) Home Alone (1990)
4) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
5) A Christmas Carol (in any of it’s versions, specifically 1951. I usually attend the play, as I will be in less than a week; one of the few plays I enjoy seeing)
6) The Santa Claus (1994)
7) Edward Scissorhands (1990) (okay, so only towards the end of the film this is applicable, but for me it gets me in the mood)
8) The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) (I suppose this is more apropos for Halloween)
9) Bad Santa (2003)
10) Die Hard (1988)
TV:
1) The Simpsons- Most of their Christmas specials are worthy, but specifically, “Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire” (1989)
2) South Park- Same deal as above, but especially “Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo” (1997)
3) Family Guy- “A Very Special Family Guy Freakin’ Christmas” (2001)
4) At least one Johnny Cash Special
5) Dr.Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1964)
6) Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer (1964)
7) Frosty The Snowman (1969)
8) It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia: A Very Sunny Christmas (2009)
9) A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
10) SNL- various skits
Literature:
A Christmas Carol By:Charles Dickens (1843)
A Story A Day Till Christmas Various Authors (1985)
The Catcher in the Rye By: J.D. Salinger (1951)
I usually end up viewing (or reading for that matter) only half of these! But, either way, I have a lot of work to do and I recommend others to watch/read them too. I would recommend music, but that will take too long. I’ll save it for another day. To kick things off, here’s Adam Sandler in a classic SNL skit. It’s too bad that Youtube doesn’t have the actual video, oh well.
Inspired by Glen’s post here is my list of the greatest concerts (16 damn I saw 21 last year, I’m slacking!) I had the pleasure of seeing in Twenty Ten; if I see anymore I will add them accordingly.
A+ :
1) Black Lips and Box Elders at the Middle East Downstairs- March 25 (best concert ever!)
A:
2) No Age and Needy Visions at the Middle East Downstairs- November 16
3) Wavves, Cloud Nothings, and Young Adults at the Great Scott- June 22
4) King Khan & the Shrines, Gentlemen Jesse and His Men, and Red Mass at the Royale- October 13
5) Deerhunter and Real Estate at the Royale- October 16
A-:
6) Deerhunter, Kurt Vile, and K-Holes at Royale- October 13
7) Nobunny and Maine Coons at the PAs Lounge- June 29
8) Spoon, Deerhunter, Strange Boys at the House of Blues- March 27 (formerly an A show)
B+:
9) Girls and Dum Dum Girls at the Paradise Rock Club- April 1
10) Those Darlins, Strange Boys, and Gentlemen Jesse and His Men at T.T. the Bears- September 17
B:
11) Harlem and Girlfriends at the Great Scott- April 25 (formerly a B+ show)
12) 1964 the Tribute at the Merchantsauto Stadium- August 16 (formerly a B+ show)
B-:
13) Uninhabitable Mansions and the Big Big Bucks at the Middle East Upstairs- May 7 (formerly a B show)
C:
14) Kurt Vile, Real Estate, and Sore Eros at Harpers Ferry- July 23
N/A: I don’t grade my friends’ bands, but in any case I had fun at these shows.
15) Silhouette Rising and The Scouflaws at the West Side Social Club- July 2 (I actually saw countless SR shows, but I can’t remember any of the exact dates except this one)
16) Gold Star Morning at Bull McCabe’s- October 30
I feel like I’ve been away from KLYAM for a while 5-6 days, too long. I’m back and ready to ROCK AND ROLL!… or something similar.
IMDB reviewer OChrist’s feelings on this piece of work are pretty much mine exactly:
(LINK) So Harmony Korine (a great name for a gangster’s moll) was able to replicate the look of a crappy 8th generation VHS videotape? That’s some feat. So he got a bunch of irritating exhibitionists to unconvincingly disguise themselves as old people and then set them loose to hump trashcans and break old TV sets? Bravo. The only true accomplishment here is getting intelligent people to A) masochistically sit through this non-movie and then B) actually try to critique and interpret it like it’s something more than the pathetic indulgence of someone who has so much contempt for his audience that he makes Marguerite Duras look like Nora Ephron.
So when Chris ends up doing his review for this, he’ll be attempting B).
Exciting news from Nobunny <3s u:
“Nobunny/Cramps DVD is SOLD OUT! Stay tuned for blood, bunnies,beer, and things getting weird in the NOBUNNY movie! Out Easter 2011!”
Christmas in Baghdad, it can be such a drag
Don’t wanna come home in a body bag
No candles, no cheer, just all violence here
Well I hope I can see you this year
Not a reindeer in sight; this ain’t no holy night
They’re putting up a hell of a fight
Guess there’s nothing we can do about it
Learn jingle bells in arabic
Hope I can make it home alive
‘Cause I’m sure missing Christmas time
Not a chance of snow
Pretty sure my heart beat will go
But please don’t let that bullet go
Face down in the sand
Fighting strangers in a foreign land
Well I hope that you can understand
Back with another edition of Who did it better? They were not around a while but Joy Division was and remains one of the most influential and sometimes copied bands of all times. This time we are looking at the first track off their debut album “Unknown Pleasures” (sadly they only have two albums due to the suicide of lead singer Ian Curtis, the rest band would later reform under the name New Order)
Here is Joy Division’s ‘Shadowplay’:
Next is the Killers:
Lastly here is a Silversun Pickups version:
For me nothing comes close to the original Joy Division version, but the two covers aren’t without their own certain charm. Of the two though I like the Killers version a bit better though.
Band: The Liminanas
Release: 2010
Label: Trouble In Mind
1. “Darkside” – B-
2. “Down Underground” – B
3. “Je ne suis pas tres drogue – B-
4. “Funeral Baby” – A-
5. “Chocolate in my Milk” – B
6. “Tigre du Bengale” – C+
7. “Mountain” – B-
8. “Je suis une go-go girl” – A-
9. “Berceuse pour Clive” – B
10. “Tears” – B-
11. “Tigre du Bengale” – B-
12. “Got Nothing to Say” – A
Comments: To quote insound.com’s description of this album: “This LP has a very cinematic feel.” As a result, a lot of the songs feel pretty orchestrated and calculated. Don’t let some of the English titles fool you — this is mainly a French affair. Like I’ve mentioned in previous posts, my knowledge of French is very minimal. I don’t know what they are talking about, but that’s okay…I’ve never been all that good at/interested in interpreting lyrics anyway. “Funeral Baby” is the band’s first attempt at no frills garage-pop and the result is an awesome song. It reminds me of Davila 666, but from the South of France. As far as the rest of the record is concerned, it’s an all-together different approach to music making. There are some semi-instrumental tracks and other consistently weird rockers. Album closer “Got Nothing to Say” is a favorite from this. “Tu m’a dit que tu t’es “okay” — “You told me that you are okay” — is what I think is repeated, BUT this does not matter!
Grade: B (84)
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 