That’s right Klaymers, King Khan is returning to Boston with his Sensational Shrines on October 13 at the Royale! I’m highly anticipating this event considering the last Shrines show I saw was one of the finest concerts my eyes have had the privilege to witness.
New thingy-magiggy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/52386315@N02/
Photos by Paul.
Artist: Beat Happening
Full Title: Beat Happening
Year: 1985
Label: K
Track List
1) Our Secret– 8/9
2) What’s Important– 9
3) Down At the Sea– 9
4) I Love You- 8
5) Fourteen- 8
6) Run Down the Stairs– 9
7) Bad Seeds (Live)- 5
8) In My Memory-8/9
9) Honey Pot- 8
10) The Fall- 7/8
11) Youth- 8
12) Don’t Mix the Colors- 8
13) Foggy Eyes- 8
14) Bad Seeds– 9
15) I Let Him Get to Me- 8
16) I Spy– 9
17) Run Down the Stairs– 9
18) Christmas- 7/8
19) Fourteen- 8
20) Let’s Kiss– 9
21) 1, 2, 3- 7
22) In Love With You Thing- 7/8
23) Look Around- 8
24) Untitled- Ungraded
Comments: This is the unflinching, incredible debut from the seminal “twee pop” group Beat Happening. You can call it twee, lo-fi, noise, etc. but ultimately it is Punk Rock- at its finest. In this record, BH, known for their amateur quality/attitude, are at their most primitive; the production is about as lo-fi as it gets before it becomes simply rubbish. On this LP, most songs are astonishingly decent pop tunes, with passion taking the front seat over musicianship. One can hear a lot of 60s surf rock influence as well as the outsider feel of The Shaggs and Half Japanese. Lyrically, most numbers are innocent in nature- “Down at the Sea,” ” Run Down the Stairs,” etc. There are also more than a fair share of love ballads- “Our Secret,” “I Love You,” “Honey Pot,” and the classic “Let’s Kiss.” Admittedly, not every track is good and some do suffer from the lack of “quality” recording and perhaps would have sounded better with a finer studio. My two favorite tracks are definitely “Bad Seeds” ( the guitar riff reminds me of the music in the James Bond Films; a very bad ass song!) and “I Spy.” All in all, this is a pretty nice debut from Beat Happening and it certainly is amongst the annals of “YOU CAN DO IT TOO!” records.
Grade: B+
“Bad Seeds” with clips from Over the Edge (1979)
Full Title: Inception
Director: Christopher Nolan
Year: 2010
Comments:
Let me begin by stating that Hollywood, the mass media, and the film viewing community as a whole seriously needs to stop hyping films up as the next big thing or the “greatest film since…” I walked into this movie expecting to see something on par with the likes of Nolan’s previous work, The Dark Knight (2008), which I had a massive hard-on for, but alas, like many overrated pictures these days, it did not come close to delivering the wonderful package I anticipated. Seriously, nearly everyone on IMDb and several other patrons had built this up as one of the greatest movies of all time and blah blah blah. Well, for me the first half of this film was decent and had an interesting premise: A man can create dreams in other people’s minds and interact in them. I really dug those first few times they illustrated how the dream process worked i.e. when Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) shows Ariadne (Ellen Page) the tricks of the trade. Overall, the acting is pretty good and the plot holds my attention for the first half. Once they start the actual “job,” the inception, I’m totally severed from the story. I simply felt bored and lost all concern for the characters. SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!
The movie became too confusing with dreams within dreams within dreams within his dream within her dream to the point of extreme ridiculocity. And my friends and I noticed various similarities between this and Shutter Island (2010), DiCaprio’s previous film. Mainly because of the whole alternate reality/dream like world and the attempt to be with one’s deceased wife again and take care of their children. We questioned whether it was pure coincidence or directly capitalizing on the success of Shuter; I think a little bit of both. All in all, I felt really dissapointed about this flick and at the same time I acknowledge it’s not my cup of tea and perhaps I didn’t fully understand it.
Grade: B
Full Title: Bill Hicks: Agent of Evolution
Author: Kevin Booth with Michael Bertin (Ghost Writer)
Year: 2005
Comments:
I pride myself on the many subversive books I read and let me say, I tend to find the best of these bunch to be those of the autobiography, biography, memoir, etc. variety. It’s really neat to see how someone became the subversive, influential character they are/were. This book in particular is special for two reasons: 1) The subject is my hero and main influence, stand up comedian/social critic, Bill Hicks. 2) This work is written by his best friend and collaborator, Kevin Booth (Sacred Cow Productions) and contains various passages by close friends and several other vital figures in Hicks’ life/career. So, with those credentials, this read is easily one of the most personal and intimate experiences one can find from a book. We see how Hicks was raised in a Southern Baptist Prison and how he escaped through his window, out into the Comedy World via the Comedy Workshop in Houston, Texas. As he hits the stage life, he transforms from excessive teetotaler to excessive drinker with cocaine and various other substances serving as side dishes. After years of constant partying, Bill realizes his life and career needs a 180 turn and he snaps into sobriety. Instantly (it seems), he takes his comedy to new levels, the humor itself is the same, but with a sober mind he can perform more and execute his revolutionary message stronger than ever. Sadly, he never hits it big in his homeland, though his career did grow and he became quite popular in the UK. Even more depressing, in 1993, Hicks was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died shortly after. As readers we realize, yes it was a tragedy that he died soooo young, but what would have been more tragic was if he did nothing with his life and kept his thoughts to himself and went about his day. Instead, Hicks was outspoken and stopped at nothing to change as many minds as he could; forcing people to think for themselves, as stated in the Outlaw Comic documentary. Bill may not have waken everyone up, but for those who did hear his call, he changed everything. It wasn’t just “is what the govermnent doing bad?” It was, “the government is a bunch of lying, stealing, murderous cocksuckers- here’s why- now show me how I’m wrong.” To which a neanderthal redneck would respond, “You’re UNAMERICAN!” End of argument. Overall, I can’t say anything negative here, except maybe the fact that many of the guest writers, friends and such, drag on a little bit and repeat what others said, but other than that, this is a fantastic and informative read. We see an up close look at one of the greatest minds in all of art and entertainment through the eyes of his loved ones. What more can you ask for?
P.S. the tales of Acid/Mushrooms tripping are mind blowing and fascinating, to say the very least.
Grade: A, KLYAM RECOMMENDED
1) Box Elders- Tiny Sioux
2) Hunx and His Punx- Cruising (officially released!)
3) Wavves- Post-Acid
4) Harlem- Friendly Ghost
5) Mark Sultan- Misery’s Upon Us
6) Hunx and the Punkettes- Lovers’ Lane
7) Happy Birthday- Girls FM
8) Strange Boys- A Walk On the Beach
9) Silhouette Rising- Flight
10) Scouflaws- Stupid and Catchy
Full Title: Stop Making Sense
Director: Jonathan Demme
Starring: Talking Heads and various special guests
Year: 1984
Set List:
1) Psycho Killer
2) Heaven
3) Thank You for Sending Me an Angel
4) Found a Job
5) Slippery People
6) Burning Down the House
7) Life During Wartime
8) Making Flippy Floppy
9) Swamp
10) What a Day That Was
11) This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)
12) Once in a Lifetime
13) Genius of Love
14) Girlfriend is Better
15) Take Me to the River
Encore:
16) Crosseyed and Painless
Comments:
Stop Making Sense? When did the Talking Heads ever make sense?! Haha, of course their brand of weirdness, a “good” weirdness is exactly what made the Talking Heads, the Talking Heads. The other night I had the pleasure of revisiting this 1984 classic via a screening at the Sommerville Theater. I had been a fan of the live CD Stop Making Sense for years, but never got around to seeing it’s cinematic coutnerpart. Well, what better a venue than the Sommerville Theater?! And it was. The sound was a tad lower than desired, but besides that it fit really well for this presentation. Now to the film itself. David Byrne kicks things off with the TH classic, “Psycho Killer,” just Byrne himself gently rocking out on acoustic guitar with a tape player. As the song reaches its final moments, Byrne stumbles to the beat. He fake trips then catches himself, then again and again; fitting perfectly with the music. Next, the nerdy, neurotic singer is accompanied by his bandmate, Tina Weymouth (who is looking rather attractive here) on bass. The two launch into an impassioned, acoustic version of “Heaven.” And with each song another member hits the stage to join the circus. It should be noted that the Talking Heads put on an extremely entertaining show with incredible energy, charisma, and showmanship, without any of the big theatrics, i.e. light shows, back drop videos, etc. (at least in the first half of the film), oft-seen in such concert films. This speaks volumes for how well they can captivate an audience with just themselves as the visual stimulants; essentially less is more. They use a lot of light humor in their approach, such antics as the “Running Man” dance; at one point Byrne acutally runs around the whole stage at full speed! We also see him playfully push a lampshade back and forth, each time catching it at the last second just as it is about to hit the floor, amongst other weird, but amusing stunts. Byrne and crew seriously dance their asses off as the tunes become heavier and funkier. Songs that stood out in particular included “Burning Down the House,” “Life During Wartime,” and “Once In a Lifetime.” Perhaps they stood out to me because they are some of the bigger songs and/or some of my favorite TH numbers, but either way the performances were near perfect. Without a doubt, the most iconic moment in the picture is when we see the fabulous frontman in his lovely “Big Suit,” once again a bizarre, humorous, and ultimately memorable element of the Talking Heads’ craft. All in all, there is very little to nothing I can say bad about this movie. My one complaint, (a very small one) is that at some points it drags a bit on some of the tracks I am less enthusiastic about, such as “What a Day That Was” and “Girlfriend Is Better.” I feel like it wouldn’t have hurt to do some time truncating in these areas. Probably just me, but in the long run, this didn’t really harm my opinion of the performance. In short, for concert films this is top notch and certainly sets the bar for competition.
Grade: A/A-
Full Title: Get Him to the Greek
Director: Nicholas Stoller
Year: 2010
Comments: First off, I must admit, I did not anticipate this film to be a Summer Blockbuster/Must See Comedy of 2010 to begin with. I did however, anticipate that this movie would be pretty funny, with me laughing out loud numerous times. A comrade of mine informed me that GHTG was the funniest movie since the Hangover (2009), which I really liked, but thought was overated itself. With those possible credentials, I gladly accepted an invitation to see the flick. Sadly, my expectations were not satisified. Before I start my critique, I will give y’all a little synopsis. So basically, we follow up on the exploits of Forgetting Sarah Marshal’s (2008) decadent Rock Star character, Aldous Snow (Russel Brand). Initially he and his wife are clean from drugs, but after the release of an embarassing flop album, he dives right back into the frenetic lifestyle, he enjoyed before. Essentially, his life and career are in shambles; he needs a revival. Enter Aaron Green (Jonah Hill), a hip, young worker at Pinnacle Records and an enormous fan of Aldous. Aaron works for a corporate thug (P. Diddy) that only cares about marketing, image, and record sales, in other words, Diddy plays himself. And so this slick shit is looking for something big, to boost record sales. Aaron suggests asking his hero, Aldous Snow to do a ten year anniversery show of his classic, Live at the Greek album. The idea seems plausible; the only problem? Making sure Aldous arrives at the show. Thus a dream (or so he thinks) comes true for Aaron, for he is to be Aldous’ babysitter for a few days, untile he GETS HIS ASS TO THE GREEK. Wild, substance induced, adventures and minimal hilarity ensue. Now, that’s a really brief plot description and I trimmed out various, important details, so if you are looking for a full summary, look elsewhere! Ok, as I stated previously, I only laughed hard a few times and in general did not feel as amused as I should have. The premise works, but they do not take it in the right direction. They clearly suffer from the modern comedy syndrome of trying to throw too much shit at the wall and only half of it sticks. A lot of ideas are displayed here, but with very little substance to support them. The film should have abandoned its emotional elements and made a straight up, raunchy comedy. Not to say there are no raunchy jokes, there are plenty, but the film does not consistently stick with this style of humor and instead jumps around, leaving the viewer with a feeling of “where are they going?” A comparison to the Hangover, as made by my friend, is pretty far off, but just for a minute, let’s look at the two films and see why last Summer’s comedy was superior. Firstly, the Hangover never got too caught up in having a moral or creating a drama, etc. and smoothly provided an entertaining, hilarious ride for all of us. Secondly, the Hangover stuck like glue to its premise and amused the audience with one, wacky, unpredicatable moment after another, keeping your attention the whole time. Initially, GHTG appears to follow the same suit, but instead drags, stops to focuse on other plot details, and merely unleashes a couple of said wacky scenarios. A dedicated/enthusiastic fan only has three days to chase his heavy drinking and drugging Rockstar idol around, as he crawls to the most important concert of his career. Wow, what a great premise.There’s so much more they could have done with this and I’m positive the flick would have been infinitely better if they eschewed all the other aspects of the story. Just imagine if they took that concept and doused it in some chaotic humor of the Hangover variety. Well, they did not and so I found this film to be merely average. Not bad. Not good. Just average.
Grade: C
Artist: The Scouflaws
Label: Dakota Dog Records (aka Self-Released)
Hometown: Wakefield, MA
Year Formed: 2007
Members:
Andrew Tobey- lifting (according to Facebook page)/ Keyboards/Vocals
Frank Price- making banana sandwiches (FB)/ Vocals/ Lead Guitar
Alex Carney- professional Mathematician/Chauffeur (FB)/ Bass/Vocals
Evan Healey- attracting the ladies (FB)/ Drums
Matt Sandorse- existing (FB)/ Guitar
Sounds Like: Pop Punk (good Pop Punk, not whiny, pussy bullshit Pop Punk) a la Descendants, early Green Day meets Garage Rock and eats Andrew W.K. guitar riffs (at least on “Stupid and Catchy,” at least to me)
Top Songs: Crazy Desert Island Cats, Stupid and Catchy, Punch
Top Recording: Demolicious (2010)
Live Shows: HIGH ENERGY, jumping around, leaping off drum kits, sometimes shirtless, and of course FREE CAKE!!!
Website: http://www.myspace.com/thescouflaws
Artist: Silhouette Rising
Label: Self-Released
Year Formed: 2005
Members:
James DiNano- Drums/Lyrics
Cory Jackson- Vocals/Guitar/Lyrics
Dan Ward- Bass
Joel Ward- Lead Guitar
Rob DiNano- Piano/Vocals
Sounds Like: I can’t point to any particular artist that they sound like, which is a great and truly rare quality. If you have an open mind when it comes to music, then you can easily find something in their work that satisfies your ears. With that being said, on their Facebook page, they cite artists as diverse as Thrice, Bon Iver, Gonzales, and Pink Floyd as influences. So, if you are a fan of the above, then I’m positive you will dig SR.
Top Songs (In My Opinion!): Behind Closed Doors, Riverside, Perseverance, A Failed Attempt, Conversations
Top Album: Promises (2010)
Final Note: SR is playing a show in Salem on July 23rd, for more details, check out their Facebook page.
Website: http://www.silhouetterising.com/
P.S.: “Space explorations, bubble baths, So You Think You Can Dance competitions, and reenactments of “Lord Of The Flies”- “Band Interests,” from their Facebook Page.
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 