Entertainment, Femmes, Lists, Music

CD Review: Blood Visions

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Artist: Jay Reatard
Title: Blood Visions
Year: 2006

1) Blood Visions– 9.5- Perfect opener: loud, fast, simple catchy, a great foreshadow to everything else Jay would later do on this album and beyond.

2) Greed, Money, Useless Children– 9.2- Quick, little catchy number. Employs the classic Reatard pop technique of slowing down the guitars and drums and simply shouting one line repeatedly, in this case- “Greed, Money, Useless Children.” It is clearly effective and we see this over and over again.

3) It’s So Easy– 9.7- Lyrically this is classic Reatard. Apathetic… to the point of not caring when your friends die haha.

4) My Shadow– 10! Arguably the band’s greatest offering (actually “See/Saw” is my favorite!) or at least a major fan favorite. And it’s not hard to see why. The song begins with simple and slow, but menacing guitars then erupts into a heavy motherfucker with Reatard hollering MY SHADOW at the top of his lungs! The best track on this album by far.

5) My Family– 9.2- Funky guitars, spooky/disturbing lyrics, it works for me! Displays Jay’s bizarre interaction with the other humans or “assholes” haha in his life. This theme continues on this album and throughout his current discography.

6) Death Is Forming– 9.0- The classic Reatard technique is exemplified on this track. See #2 I dig how he evolves “Death is Forming” into “Forming Death” haha.

7) Oh It’s Such A Shame– 8.5- Decent, nothing wrong with it, but for some reason, just doesn’t stand out.

8) Not A Substitute– 8.8- Another typical Reatard track…. actually a bit shorter, but it works here.

9) Nightmares– 9.5- Excellent Pop song, sounds more like a track off Matador Singles ’08 or Watch Me Fall. Fabulous love/hate song. The lover Jay speaks of causes him to have horrible nightmares, yet he keeps “Searching” for her. Good Stuff

10) I See You Standing There– 9.0- Jay Stalker haha. Just listen to the lyrics to understand what I’m saying. Musically, very catchy and endearing. I especially love the final line, which is shouted extremely fast: “DON’T MOVE!” ahaha.

11) We Who Wait– 9.0- Great sing along. You could march this one haha. Once again we see lyrics containing themes of isolation and generally misanthropic thoughts.

12) Fading All Away– 9.9- Amazing! Hilariously savage. Lyrically this is a extremely malevolent tune about an apparently psychopathic/sociopathic/schizophrenic miscreant who will go to no end to kill his victim because of “the voices in my head.”

13) Turning Blue– 8.2- Eh, it’s a decent track, but comparatively it’s just ok. For some reason it doesn’t do all that much for me.

14) Puppet Man– 9.2- Cool, catchy, funny, somewhat short.

15) Waiting For Something– 9.9- Sums up Jay’s outlook on the people around him and his situation at the time. Waiting for something bigger to happen and get away from all the "creeps" surrounding him. Perfect title for the brief documentary on him, which I advise all fans to check out!

Grade: A: A fantastic example of modern punk music with undeniable pop hooks and elements of noise rock. One can hear glimpses of the incredible (noisy) pop Jay and his crew unleash in their future material.

Chris

Music, News

Radiohead’s EP Wall of Ice

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From NME:
Radiohead are strongly rumoured to be releasing a new EP next week.

The move comes after a new song ‘These Are My Twisted Words leaked’ earlier this week and fansite At Ease reported that source files of the track revealed that the title ‘Wall Of Ice’ was found twice with a release date set for August 17, 2009.

The site now claims that there could be up to four tracks on the EP and that a weblink has surfaced which leads directly to Radiohead’s online merchandise store, a similar tactic the band used to release their last album ‘In Rainbows’.

Apparently it’s going to be called Wall of Ice and apparently it’s going to be released in two days. That’s just the buzz on a bunch of music sites.

And apparently this is the cover art:

WOI

Books, Drugs, economics, Entertainment, Femmes, Films, Food, Lists, Music, Politics, religion, Soccer

My Favorite Directors Sucka!

4 Comments

1) Quentin Tarantino- Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill Vol.1 (2003), Kill Bill Vol.2 (2004), and Death Proof (2007)

2) Steven Spielberg- Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. (1982), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Hook (1991), Jurassic Park (1993), Schindler’s List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998)

3) Stanley Kubrick- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1987)

4) David Lynch- Eraser (1977), Blue Velvet (1986)

5) Martin Scorsese- Taxi Driver (1976), The Last Waltz (1978), Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), Gangs of New York (2002), No Direction Home (2005)

6) Francis Ford Coppola- The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979)

7) Richard Linklater- Slacker (1991), Dazed and Confused (1993), The School of Rock (2003),

8) Kevin Smith- Clerks (1994), Mallrats (1995), Chasing Amy (1997), Dogma (1999), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), Clerks II (2006), Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008)

9) Spike Lee- Do The Right Thing (1989), Malcolm X (1992)

10) David Fincher- Se7en (1995), Fight Club (1999)

11) Danny Boyle- Trainspotting (1996), 28 Days Later (2002), Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

12) Gus Van Sant- Good Will Hunting (1997), Elephant (2003), Milk (2008)

13) Christopher Nolan- Memento (2000), Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008)

14) John Waters- Pink Flamingos (1972), Serial Mom (1995)

15) Cameron Crowe- Almost Famous (2000)

16) Frank Capra- It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)

17) Alfred Hitchcock- Psycho (1960)

18) Brian De Palma- Carrie (1976), Scarface (1983)

19) Oliver Stone- Platoon (1986), Born On the Fourth of July (1989), JFK (1991), The Doors (1991), Natural Born Killers (1994)

20) Paul Thomas Anderson- Boogie Nights (1997)

21) The Coen Brothers- Raising Arizona (1987), Miller’s Crossing (1990), Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

22) Darren Aronofsky- Pi (1997), Requiem For A Dream (2000), The Wrestler (2008)

23) Jason Reitman- Thank You For Smoking (2005), Juno (2007)

24) Sam Raimi- Evil Dead (1981), Evil Dead II (1987), Army of Darkness (1993), Spiderman (2002, Spiderman 2 (2004), Spiderman 3 (2007)

25) Robert Zemeckis- Back To the Future (1985), Back to the Future Part II (1989), Back to the Future Part III (1990), Forrest Gump (1994), Cast Away (2000)

26) Mark Romanek- One Hour Photo (2002)

27) Rob Reiner- This Is Spinal Tap (1984), Stand By Me (1986), The Princess Bride (1987), Misery (1990)

28) Milos Forman- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), Amadeus (1984), The People vs, Larry Flynt (1996), Man On the Moon (1999)

29) John Hughes- Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), Weird Science (1985) Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987), Uncle Buck (1989)

30) George Lucas- American Graffiti (1973), Star Wars (1977), Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)

31) Sidney Lumet- 12 Angry Men (1957)

32) Mike Nichols- The Graduate (1967)

33) Sam Mendes- American Beauty (1999)

34) John Carpenter- Halloween (1978), The Thing (1982)

35) James Mangold- Girl, Interrupted (1999), Walk the Line (2005)

36) Steven Soderbergh- Erin Brockovich (2000), Ocean’s 11 (2001),

37) Bryan Singer- The Usual Suspects (1995), X-Men (2000), X2 (2003)

38) Judd Apatow- The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005), Knocked Up (2007), Funny People (2009)

39) Todd Phillips- Hated (1994), Road Trip (2000), Old School (2002)

40) Michael Moore- Roger and Me (1989), Bowling For Columbine (2002), Sicko (2007)

41) Michel Gondry- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

42) Wes Anderson- The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

43) James Cameron- Terminator (1984), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

44) Tony Kaye- American History X (1998)

45) Zach Braff- Garden State (2004)

46) Robert Rodriguez- Desperado (1995), Sin City (2005), Planet Terror (2007)

47) Tim Burton- Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985), Beetle Juice (1989), Batman (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Big Fish (2003)

48) Amy Heckerling- Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982)

49) Larry Clark- Kids (1995)

50) Mary Harron- American Psycho (1998)

51) Richard Kelly- Donnie Darko (2001)

52) M. Night Shamylan- The Sixth Sense (1999), Signs (2002)

53) Kevin Booth- American Drug War (2007)

Eh, probably others lol.

Chris

News

Les Paul (The Man) Dies

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From AP:
NEW YORK — Les Paul, the guitar virtuoso and inventor who revolutionized music and created rock ‘n’ roll as surely as Elvis Presley and the Beatles by developing the solid-body electric guitar and multitrack recording, died Thursday at age 94.

Known for his lightning-fast leads, Paul performed with some of early pop’s biggest names and produced a slew of hits, many with wife Mary Ford. But it was his inventive streak that made him universally revered by guitar gods as their original ancestor and earned his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the most important forces in popular music.

Paul, who died in White Plains, N.Y., of complications from pneumonia, was a tireless tinkerer, whose quest for a particular sound led him to create the first solid-body electric guitar, a departure from the hollow-body guitars of the time. His invention paved the way for modern rock ‘n’ roll and became the standard instrument for legends like Pete Townshend and Jimmy Page.

God rest his soul.

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