1. “Miner” – A 2. “Eraser” – A+ 3. “Teen Creeps” – A++ 4. “Things I Did When I Was Dead” – A 5. “Cappo” – A+ 6. “Keechie” – A- 7. “Sleeper Hold” – A++ 8. “Errand Boy” – A- 9. “Here Should Be My Home” – A++ 10. “Impossible Bouquet” – A- 11. “Ripped Knees” – A++ 12. “Brain Burner” – A++
Comments: Truly one of the more outstanding records that the 2000s saw. It exemplifies the power of a near-perfect meshing of raw punk, noise, and melodic pop. The first three songs all have their heavy moments and these heavy moments define this record. Even a softer, more atmospheric number like “Things I Did” serves as a terrific change of pace tune. No Age can pull this off so effectively. An even more ambient tune is “Keechie.” From reading KLYAM you guys have probably figured out ambient usually isn’t my thing, but meaningful and fitting ambiance is a rare art. No Age produces rare art. The five tunes that I gave A++’s too. Those are all-time favorite heavy hitters. Check ’em.
Here is a little poem I wrote for Creative Writing class Senior year describing some of the No Age show Glen, Ben, and I attended at Wellesley College in April ’09.
Here Should Be My Home
Glen had insisted there was a concert that night
We searched for THIRTY minutes for the music center
I was beginning to think my comrade wasn’t too bright
This was clearly not our place
Yet, we found a student
That was able to solve our case
It was an all Girls school
I could pretend to be a student
But, I’d look like a fool
We were told we needed to know someone to get in
But, with my impeccable, boyish charm
I was able to coax the sweet girl at the door to grant us admission
There was No Stage
For No Age
But, the boys managed to put on an amazing show
Filled with loud, fast, Punk songs
But, no atmospheric songs
Because Randy Randal
Told me that it was too much for the band to handle
Full Title: Halloween Director: John Carpenter Year: 1978 Comments: Halloween gave us the classic teen slasher flick. Sure, Texas Chainsaw and others came before this, but Halloween cemented the staple in cinema. Essentially if you drink, smoke, and fuck when you can you will perish at the hands of the killer, in this case the ruthless Micheal Myers. Sure, he may not speak… at all, but that’s precisely what makes the character/film chilling. Not to mention, John Carpenter’s eerie music, easily one of the finest/scariest themes of all time. This is a classic and essential for the Halloween season every year.
Grade: A
Full Title: Dazed and Confused Director: Richard Linklater Year: 1993 Comments: If you have read my previous list of ABSOLUTE Favorite Films, then you would know this is number two for this guy. Dazed is the kind of film that gets better each time you see it until you have seen it a gazillion times like me, but I still appreciate it nonetheless. I associate this film with time, joy, and one’s perception of how much you enjoy your stay on earth and how this perception alters overtime. True, this is a party/hangout flick, the best of it’s kind as one Quentin Tarantino would agree. But, there is so much more going on than that. The tone of this film may be light hearted and certainly euphoria inducing (always cheers me up and makes me ready to party hardy!), but if you look closely the characters themselves do not realize this or outright disagree with this. At one point, Pink pronounces “if I ever refer to these as the best days of my life, then remind me to kill myself.” Their attiude toward life seems to contrast the tone of the film itself. It’s as if the film is speaking to us, saying: these were the good old days when you had no responsibilities and your only worry was which party you were going to next. Top priorities? Getting Aerosmith tickets, when they were still cool. But the characters do not realize this and sadly we never do either in our own lives. We don’t appreciate the good times until their long gone. Perhaps even editing out the bad stuff! It’s funny when I first saw this flick I was ten, way too young to appreciate or understand the significance of the story or should I say the insignificance of the story. I often hear Dazed Detractors (poor souls) comment that the film has no point or purpose, that the movie simply ends. This is true, but that is the point exactly. Dazed perfectly captures a slice of teenage life and in most days, nothing out of the ordinary occurs. At age ten this simply went over my precious skull and while watching the first half of the film I actually thought it was supposed to be some sort of afternoon DARE TV special against drugs! A few years later (age 13) I saw it again and I loved it. I would say this is the best time to turn people on to this flick, just as they are finishing up Junior High and becoming Highschoolers, just like Mitch. This got me so excited for HS. Sadly, as much fun as I had, it was never as righetous as the activity presented in Dazed, is anybody’s? Now I am in college and not too far from “That’s what I love about this High School girls, I get older they stay the same age.”
Grade: A+
Full Title: Kids Director: Larry Clark Year: 1995 Comments: Much like Dazed, Kids focuses on one day in the lives of the youth of America, where drinking, smoking, and fucking seems to be their only concerns. Yet, while Dazed has an atmosphere of joy and let the good times roll, this film has anything but. Most likely the characters in Dazed will go on to lead fine lives as upstanding citizens, but these kids are doomed for failure, incarceration, and certainly death. Clark takes then teen Harmony Korine’s painfully accurate screenplay and gives it the adult perspective we see in the film. As with Dazed the tone of the film seems to contrast with the attitude of most of the characters. The main players (literally) are Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick) and Casper (Justin Pierce) and both are quite satisfied as total assholes that will take advantage of anyone they can, they see nothing wrong with this, yet the film never approves of their behavior nor does it totally condemn them either. Instead, the film simply speaks for itself. Lastly, for my money, Kids has some of the most natural dialogue ever written. Most folks believe it is improvised, but in fact it is nearly all scripted. The fact that it appears ad libbed only speaks to the brilliance of Korine’s script. After all, as Clark stated, Korine’s screenplay is “from the inside, from the point of view of the kids.”
Interesting bands, for a lack of a better phrase, always seem to open for No Age! First time I saw them electro/psychedelic group High Places and tropical punk band Abe Vigoda opened. The next time I got to see two bands signed to Dean’s PPM: one-man psych-band (at the time…now I believe it is a duo) Soft Circle and New York dark-wave/electro bunch Silk Flowers. Finally, the third time I got to experience fun dance vibes from Lemonade (who coincidentally will be opening for Delorean this Saturday at the Middle East Downstairs) and the now much more appreciated Beets from Jackson Heights! So what about the bands who will be playing tomorrow?
Lucky Dragons From: Los Angeles Music Style: Electronic
Needy Visions From: Weymouth, Massachusetts Music Style: Garage/psych rock Sounds: Awesome!
Pittsburgh rapper Wiz Khalifa will be at the Paradise Rock Club to play two shows next Sunday. The first is at 5:30 and is all ages. The second is at 9:30 and is 18+.
Somewhere between The Jesus and Mary Chain and the Pixies lay My Bloody Valentine, a band formed in Dublin, Ireland that would be shoegazing, before it was in vogue. With two genius albums (and when I say genius I mean genius) “Isn’t Anything” and their masterpiece “Loveless”, behind them the band broke up in 1997 after years of lack of creative output all hope was loss for a followup to perhaps one of the greatest albums of the 90’s (“Loveless” was released in 1991). But after ten years apart the band reformed in 2007, playing a handful of shows and again sparking rumors of another album, we can only hope.
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 