Late December, 1963...

I've read those Englsh dramas to-OO, they're Cru-OO-l

Lou Reed is a very grumpy dude when it comes to money vs. art. Understandably so.

I went and saw him on 4/20 in Northampton, and he did a GREAT job.

+++

I'm hypothetically on Spike's side in the Clint vs. Spike debate, but I'm not sure he needed to point to Clint's films to explain his own. Eastwood's films did focus on the white-only battalions, which were still segregated during WWII, but I'm not sure that the law of "presence of an absence" so much applies to Clint's film as it does to the photography of the War, which is what Clint's first of the two films (Flags of Our Fathers, that is) was inspired by.

I'm in favor of free speech and artistic dialogue, so Spike's my man. Plus, it's not like Clint has been especially gracious about other people's films.

Remember when he criticized Peter Jackson for using special effects in a FANTASY film? And when he tried to act as though Mystic River, as a star-studded melodrama, was somehow handicapped at the Oscars? PUH-LEEZ.

Just a thought.

Nate

We can make it better, tell me (readers) wouldn't that be sweet?

It's time for me to admit something to all of you...

I really enjoy "The Sweet Escape" by Gwen Stefani.

I'm so, so sorry. Akon & T-Pain have control of my heart, and I just can't help it.

Nate "Dawg" Tyson

Mr. Carter, tell me where you been

Two thoughts...

1) Obama/Clinton. If you care about this at all, please visit VOTEBOTH to sign your support for a "unity ticket." Unlike many young liberals, I did not cannibalize Hilary at the first opportunity, I believe that she could be one of the great modern statesmen, and the backlash against her is both unfair and unwarranted. I supported Obama's nomination, but not at the expense of Clinton's presence in the campaign. Please sign if this matters to you at all.

2) Just got Lil Wayne's Tha Carter 3, like all college-age white kids, and it is awesome, as expected. After Da Drought 3 last year, as well as an entire aborted version of this LP, Weezy still's got shit to surprise us. He's really awesome. Just admit it.

Nate

just watch it, please

MGMT - "Time to Pretend"

This is the second best single of the year, behind "Hitten".

Nate

If you see the cause of what you've done, feel free to do it all undone

Today I made a mix of some of my favorite songs of 2008 so far. Here's a tracklist for y'all curious little buggers.

Nate's (Practically) the End of the 1st Qtr of 2008 Mix

01. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - "Cold Son"
02. Holy Fuck - "Lovely Allen" (album version)
03. High Places - "Hello"
04. The Mountain Goats - "San Bernardino"
05. Dodos - "Ashley"
06. The Notwist - "The Devil, You + Me"
07. No Age - "Sleeper Hold"
08. Fleet Foxes - "Your Protector"
09. Boris - "となりのサターン"
10. Blank Dogs - "RCD Song"
11. Animal Collective - "Cobwebs"
12. Cornelius - "Gum " (Prefuse 73 Flavor Burst Gum Rock Remix)
13. Mount Eerie - "Domesticated Dog"
14. High Places - "Sandy Feat"
15. MGMT - "Time to Pretend"
16. Kelley Polar - "Entropy Reins (in the Celestial City)"
17. The Mai Shi - "I Get Almost Eveything"
18. The National Bank - "Taste of Me"
19. Hercules & Love Affair - "Hercules' Theme"

It's a pretty good mix, if I do say so myself. The end is rather catchy.

Nate

A monthly feature? Say it ain't so: 5 Things I'm Digging This Month

5 Things I'm Digging in May of 2008

[For fan's of my early LJ work, this might remind some of the monthly "Cool List" I used to do...basically, you're on-the-nose with that one. But back then, Woody Allen, Lou Reed, and David Bowie had permanent joint-residence at the top of my lists. That is no longer true, because this list is only in reference to RECENT pop culture happenings. I'm sorry for any disappointment this may cause any old school fans of my internet ramblings {i.e. Marj}]

5. Wolf Parade - "Grey Estates"/"Kissing the Beehive"
Both of these are tracks from the upcoming Wolf Parade LP, At Mount Zoomer. Krug's stuff tends to catch me quicker than Boekner's contributions, but Boekner's "Grey Estates" was the first song to truly catch my ear on my first listen-through the whole album. Both songs are great, but the whole album strikes me as more of a grower than their debut, so we'll see what my favorites are by December/January come EOY-list-Season. "Grey Estates" is a more familiar-sounding song than "Kissing the Beehive," but both show the growth of the band's songwriters. Spencer Krug always gets the credit between the two, with Dan Boekner's songs usually sidelined. But, for me, Boekner's tendency toward urban epics [I'm thinking "Grey Estates," "This Heart's on Fire," and "Shine a Light", specifically] in conjunction with Krug's freak-pop sensibilities [I'm thinking "Fancy Claps," "I'll Believe in Anything," and his side-project Sunset Rubdown's Shut Up I am Dreaming, among other things] define Wolf Parade's sound and "feel".

4. Iron Man doing so damned well at the box office
Well, Iron Man did better this weekend than (almost certainly) anybody expected. What does this mean for me? Robert Downey Jr. is fucking back for good! Woo! No more "what if he snorts all my coke" from movie execs when his name comes up. Way to go Robby.
Ahem. And, you know...other things excite me about this too. I'm not a huge fan of the comic book, but Marvel's recent Civil War storyline has gotten me somewhat familiar with his paper and ink incarnation. The HUGE financial success of this movie just makes it more likely that The Incredible Hulk will do well, and, regardless of quality, both films' success would make large cinematice comic book cross-overs more likely. You know we've all been waiting for someone to pull this off right, and if Marvel makes the studios enough money, they'll eventually let them cross-over profitable franchises. As I understand it, there are cross-overs between Iron Man, Hulk, and the rumored/upcoming Nick Fury film; what with Tony Stark (IM's alter-ego) appearing in Hulk, Nick Fury (in the form of Samuel L. Jackson) appearing [and firmly introducing the concept of S.H.I.E.L.D. to movie-goers...finally] in Iron Man, and god-knows-what going down during the possible Nick Fury or Avengers flicks.
I think that this creation of a cohesive cinematic Marvel universe is a GREAT move, mostly because it [hopefully] will create a somewhat measurable standard of quality for Marvel's future films (good-bye throwaway shit like Daredevil and Ghost Rider?) and allow for more substantial cinematic adaptations of comic book sagas without having to tie them to specific actors or characters [especially useful in the case of contract/continuance disputes]. If Marvel can get over the hump (and Iron Man's success may indicate that it has) of having to sell specific characters in their films (i.e., running the risk of running out of recognizable/profitable faces), then they can really let the story-telling creativity flow in the future.
Imagine a world in which comic book movie franchises don't have to start with stangnant origin stories, and can instead develop characters already "created" onscreen. We've seen this done woefully with Elektra, but Daredevil isn't much to start with. Hopefully, these theoretical spin-offs would fit into larger, multi-film, intercinematic story arcs. Cross-overs that are not framed simply as X vs. Y, but have complex, involved storylines, could sustain the popularity and creative juices of comic book films as a genre well past this or the next decade.
Of course, Iron Man's success could be more of an indicator of Marvel's newly minted cinematic Brand Name. Maybe I can look forward to having the annual BIG MARVEL MOVIE(S) usher me into old age.

[PS: The only problem with all this is that X-Men: The Last Stand blew so goddamned hard it fucking hurts every-single-time-I-think-about-it...oh God, my eyes are bleeding from sheer X-Men fanboy fury. I know that Magneto and Wolverine spin-offs are lined up for 2009, but the whole franchise seems tainted. I can't trust future films within this franchise after Last Stand ignored almost every character's established traits and personality. And I'm not talking established in the comics, I mean character stuff set up within the first two films. Brett Ratner, the film's director, expects me to accept that Rogue was put through all the henious shit of the first two films only to voluntarily give up her powers cuz she doesn't want to blue ball Iceman? {no pun intended} Really? Thanks, I'm glad that was the character arc of one of comic history's greatest heroines. Don't even get me started on the unnecessary sidelining of Professor X, Magneto, Cyclops {permanently, in this case}, Jean Grey (well, sorta necessary here and in Magneto's case, kinda), and Mystique by film's end. I would have loved to see Rebbecca Romijn's Mystique lead an incarnation of the Brotherhood of Mutants in future spin-offs, or perhaps just generally achieve the same level of canonized awesomeness as her comic counterpart. Not to hate in RR's portrayal in any way; I am a big fan. {Oh, and for the haters, yes, RR was PERFORMING. People get nominated for/win Oscars for playing mutes, and they don't have to communicate through a second skin of make-up. I was more impressed with Rebecca Romijn's performances in the X-Men films and Femme Fatale than either of Charlize Theron or Halle Berry's Oscar-winning de-glams.} I'm hoping that there are more spin-offs of the X-Men franchise coming down the pipe, assuming the success of the not-yet-named Magneto project and the un-cinematically titled X-Men Origins: Wolverine. What's frustrating about those two films is that they are exploring the early years/non-X-Men time for each character, which means that the narrative of the central films will not continue until another, non-Origin spin-off. That is somewhat annoying, considering the heavy/nearly invsible teasing at the very end of Ratner's film {his occasionally successful use of tiny comic book references was his one saving grace as a director, he also, unfortunately, didn't know when to quit} that hints at Xavier surviving Jean's deadly telekinetic-exfoliation and Magneto regaining his powers {though I do wonder where Magnus got the metal chess pieces he was using in the park; I have yet to run into a set of those.})

[PPS: On the subject of Samuel L. Jackson's rumored casting as the titular character in the upcoming Nick Fury film: I am fully in favor of it. Like 100% awesome, in my book. You see, I am actually far more familiar with the "Ultimate" version of Nick Fury than I am with the traditional Fury, who is a crotchety old white man. Some fans are calling shenanigans on the casting, but I don't have any true affection for Caucasian Nick Fury, and Sam Jackson needs an action role that isn't literally written for him to flesh out. My phrasing there is a bit ironic, considering the main reason that I agree with the casting: the Ultimate Marvel version of Nick Fury is visually based on Jackson, and in an issue of The Ultimates {the "Ultimate" Avengers, basically}, Fury says he would want Jackson to play him in a film adaptation of The Ultimates' exploits. This may seem corny, but it is enough to settle the matter for me. Besides, I'm not sure we'll be seeing this Nick Fury film in its current rumored form. I think we're gonna end up with a film adaptation of either The Avengers or The Ultimates. I think Marvel may be wiser to use The Ultimates, and try to tie their new franchises close together, and to their current, fresh line of comics. This way, as Marvel's sales rise, the distinction between the original and Ultimate versions will become public common knowledge, and then the film's may be granted more experimental breathing room with characters. Besides, the cinematic Marvel universe more resembles Ultimate Marvel in its modern origins. Of course, with the retconning of Ang Lee's Hulk with Edward Norton's least-favorite-movie-to-promote-of-all-time, and the possible future retconning of the Spider-Man and X-Men films to explain the absence/change of characters/actors, the cinematic Marvel universe will have more "alternate versions" than the comic book world. Of course, that is not true. NOTHING will ever contain more alternate universes than the Marvel Comics multiverse...except, possibly, the theoretical real-life multiverse, String Theory and whatnot.]

3. Earth's The Bees Make Honey in the Lion's Skull, The Notwist's The Devil, You + Me, & El Guincho's Alegranza!; 3 great essay-writing albums.
Evidently, Earth's earlier albums were heavier and more, you know, lively. Or so says this markedly subpar review of the band's show in Chicago this past Friday. I haven't heard their back catalog (just got a couple of older albums, tho...I am muy, muy siced to listen) but I'm willing to bet that they haven't just decided to start sucking, just for the Hell of it. Either way, their 2008 release, The Bees Make Honey in the Lion's Skull has been played on my iTunes somewhere near 60 times in the past two months; so I'm a big fan of this album. It's melodic, long-winded, and really charming. Out of all the albums I play when people are studying in my room, this one has earned the most fans outside of academia. It's 7 tracks long, but every track is decently long, falling in the middle ground between 5 and 10 minutes, and every note seems to come at just the right moment. It's definitely my favorite Spacey Stoner music of the moment.
However, The Notwist and El Guincho's new albums have also wrapped themselves around my brain, especially due to their heavy rotation during the last month of school, and all the study sessions therein. The Notwist's album isn't particularly ground-breaking, and they don't really show any intentions of adapting their sound based on current fads in music. They still sound a little bit like a more optimistic, organic Radiohead [I am not implying that Radiohead is "inorganic", but their take on a similar mix of rock and electronic influences is a lot colder, less rooted in familiar territory than The Notwist's], but they have not diminished in creativity or listenablity as far as these ears can tell. This album is a lot more guitar/instrument based than Neon Golden, but it maintains the same mood as that earlier album.
El Guincho, according to AllMusic, is Pablo Díaz-Reixa, who ran away from home at age 14 to pursue a career in sports, but ended up an internet success story. Or that's how NBC4 would begin things. It seems that this kid ended up becoming a musician, and joined his cousin's band, Coconut. Díaz-Reixa was "inspired while on tour", code for "saw someone else do it first", to blend samples of psychedelic, calypso and tropilcalia from older South American records with his own percussion. This stuff is like Panda Bear's secret party time side-project, which makes sense, seeing as Person Pitch, the album this most sounds like, was made after Panda Bear moved to Portugal. Whatever cultural appropriation is going on here, it sounds fantastic.
Checking these albums out is a requirement for friends of mine from now on.

02. Studying Angels in America; or just the looming shadow of my future academic work in general
Having studied the play all-too-briefly in my US Lit Since 1960 course this semester, I was immediately taken with the academic dissection of Tony Kushner's play. I already have pages upon pages of notes on this play, and I NEVER, NEVER, NEVER take notes on anything. Long story short, I can see myself becoming a scholar of the play, or at least writing a dissertation on it for a Graduate degree. Maybe I should become a Doctor of American Theater.
Anyways, the play is just brilliant, and every glance I take at its pages just makes me want to write another thirty or forty pages about it. Unfortunately, I have never seen it performed, and have no intentions on doing so until a particular professional production tickles my fancy. Ah well. At least I have a pretty-darned-good (but juuuust shy of great) movie adaptation to fall back on. Besides, I'm not sure any interpretation of the diner scene between Belize and Louis would do justice to my love for Kushner's writing itself.
I hope that I end up writing things that people want to read. New things. New thoughts. Or at least, new angles on things. That would be nice. Kushner's got that down.

01. Academic Journal Articles, especially my access to them through the school
I'm tired, so I won't say much, but I will leave you with a few titles to ponder. Keep in mind, I used 3 out of four of these as sources on my final papers this semester:
Clover - "Her Body, Himself - Gender in the Slasher Film" - 1987
Bishop - "Raising the Dead - Unearthing the non-literary origins of zombie cinema" - 2006
Hesmondhalgh - "Post-Punk's Attempt to Democratise the Music Industry - The Success and Failure of Rough Trade" - 1997
David & Munoz - "Heads and Freaks - Patterns and Meanings of Drug Use Among Hippies" - 1968

My conclusion? I am a nerd. Thank you.

Nate

just a thought, really...

All recent hype aside, No Age is a damned good band. I have been really into droney, spacey, sludgy, fuzzy rock recently, and it appears that this sound is thriving across the globe. Take 2008 alone; there's been some great fuzz goin round.

Here's a sampling of some good fuzzed-out rock, drone metal stuff, and noise music from the year so far:
Earth – The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull
Times New Viking – Rip it Off
Boris – Smile
No Age – Nouns
Blank Dogs – On Two Sides
Fuck Buttons – Street Horrrsing
Goslings – Occasion
Natural Snow Buildings – Laurie Bird
Ocrilim – Annwn

All of these are good records, if you're into what they're selling, which not everybody is. Looking over this post, I have to wonder when I stopped enjoying lyrics.

Nate

...you are a runner, and I am my father's son

Oh lordy!

Why the blasphemous exclamation, you ask?

Well sir, I just got my hands on the new Wolf Parade LP, At Mount Zoomer. To paraphrase the infamous "Coast to Coast," I was so shocked, I almost dropped my glass of lemonade.

This album should definitely silence some haters who called shenanigans on their over-"indie-ness" on Apologies to the Queen Mary. This release is much more subdued, less bouncy, poppy stuff. They sound like a band moving their career forward, not a trendy flash-in-the-pan trying to maintain sub-cultural relevance.

And that is an undeniably good thing.

As for the songs, "Grey Estates" is an early favorite, but I'm only on listen number one. I should have more detailed thoughts soon.

Nate

PS:
Sub Pop's press release for the album is actually worth a look. I definitely think the claim that the album "never feels labored or fussy" is totally legit. This album is 100% less affected than their first LP, which I absolutely adore. But I have been known to love fussy art and entertainment.

PPS:
Sub Pop has the best corporate slogan I've ever seen: "We're not the best, but we're pretty good"

"what's this tribal shit?"

I'm more than a little late onto the bandwagon with this alum, but I have been unable to stop listening to El Guincho's Algranza!. It's technically a 2007 release, but it has only really become a thang in 2008.

Anyway, this thing is great; El Guincho is a Spanish electronica/sample based musician who dabbles in a whole lotta musical cultural appropriation, but there's little pretension whatsoever, and I would imagine Spanish roots are a lot closer in spirit to the sound of the album than, say, a hypothetical Western Mass college student's version of this album would be.

Check it out:

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?adna1jqwjxj

Nate

Listin the ways I looove you

A Music Thought and a List!

The two best albums I've heard in a long time: No Age's Nouns & Blank Dog's On Two Sides. Both are great, noisy, lo-fi genius. Listen to them if you can.

+++

And, because I feel like it.

The Ten Best Comedies of the 2000's (so far)

10. Mean Girls (Mark Waters, 2004)
09. The 40-Year Old Virgin (Judd Apatow, 2005)
08. Adaptation. (Spike Jonze, 2002)
07. Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2001)
06. Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright, 2004)
05. The Man Without a Past (Aki Kourismaki, 2002)
04. About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, 2002)
03. Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (Danny Leiner, 2004)
02. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (John Cameron Mitchell, 2001)
01. Wet Hot American Summer (David Wain, 2001)

++++

Oh, and check this place out! Whoa.

Nathaniel

allergies

With beautiful weather having a arrived here in Amherst, I can't help but be in a cheery mood. So here are some good Spring Jams for y'all.



MGMT - "Time to Pretend"





Vampire Weekend - "Walcott" (live)



Blank Dogs - "Leaving the Lights on"

Nathaniel

free shit? hell yeah

Mostly because both Matt and Marjorie have told me me how much they listen to "Hitten", I have decided to use my blog for semi-illeg@l purposes (the coded spelling throws off the feds, or so I'm told...by terrorist cells and child pornographers).

So, ladies and gentlemen (ie, Matt & Marjorie), I present Those Dancing Days' self-titled EP for the cost of pressing on that "Free" option and then following the directions afterwards. Have fun with all that!

link: hxxp://rapidshare.com/files/108108835/Those_Dancing_Days_EP.zip.html

If you are anybody who downloads this and likes it, please make sure to go to a show, or buy a shirt, or write them a nice email or something. I don't wanna rip the little guy off with this blog. I love these guys; they're cute, and they've got one maybe-masterpiece pop gem in the can, plus two of the members kinda look like my lady friend. She's Swedish too!

++++

By the way, I downloaded Hannah Takes the Stairs today, so I will now officially be able to form an opinion on all this mumblecore bullshit.

We'll see. I have my doubts. Things from New York generally suck.

Nathaniel "T-Bone" Tyson

GREAT Mountain Goats song

This is one of my favorite songs of his ever. God it's good.

"I got two big hands and a heart pumping blood!"

Nathaniel Tyson

an article, you say? i'll slap together some ten year anniversary thing...wait...twenty years? fuck.

Well folks, I might have an article in the upcoming edition of The Climax (the Hampshire student newspaper).

In case I don't get approved, or any Tyson purists want to see the un-copy-edited article, I will gladly provide the original text...now.

How long ago IS ten years, exactly?

The other day, as I was watching Dazed and Confused I was thinking about growing up in the 00s, as opposed to the 70s. It is strange to be approaching the end of this decade so soon. It feels as if we haven’t had time to shape our culture, or to define who we are and what time we are growing up in. As it has been discussed on campus recently, it has been twenty years since the Dakin take-over. But twenty years seems so much longer ago in the abstract.

You know what occurred just ten years ago? How about the release of Saving Private Ryan, and the popularity of “Whatever” by Godsmack? “Rosa Parks” by Outkast and Cruel Intentions. There’s Something About Mary and “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls. Makes you think, no?

So, in the spirit of nostaligia, I decided to look back at the past ten years, and revisit an album from each year that we can look to in order to see our progress as a generation…or something to that affect. Except they’re all chosen by me…so I’ll just ignore any cultural implications, sound good? Great.

1998: Cat Power – Moon Pix
Long before The Greatest in 2006, Chan Marshall was really, really, really crazy and drunk all the time. Or at least that’s what the press would have you believe. But even if that’s somewhat true, she was still capable of producing some of the best music around. The younger, rougher Chan will be familiar to fans of her newer material, but might appeal more to those who think her sound is a little polished and same-y these days.

1999: Boredoms – Vision Creation Newsun
Perhaps you’ve heard of these crazy Japanese noise/prog/whatever rockers. They are highly influential in nearly every experimental music scene one can imagine. This album is one of their few proper releases, but it is a doozy. They’ve recently started touring around again, and where just around here, playing a relatively quiet show in Northampton.

2000: O Brother, Where Art Thou? – Soundtrack
When this came out, it was one of the weirder cultural phenomenons at the time. It won Best Album of the Year at the Grammys in 2001. In beat Radiohead, Outkast, Eminem, and Paul Simon. Weird, right? Anyways, the Coen Brothers are acknowledged geniuses, as is T-Bone Burnett, and bluegrass was bound for a comeback. So really, the success of this was fortold in the stars. But we all love it, right?

2001: Radiohead – Amnesiac
The point is that Radiohead is so canonized that they released the stuff that they didn’t think was good enough for their last album, and critics still slurped it up like it was free Slurpee day at 711. My similes are usually better, I swear.

2002: The Mountain Goats – All Hail West Texas
Because I had always had a burned copy of this CD, I hadn’t realized until the other day that the subtitle for this album is “fourteen songs about seven people, two houses, a motorcycle and a locked treatment facility for adolescent boys.” John Darnielle’s albums are often very literary in their construction and this one is no expcetion. But where The Sunset Tree is autobiography, and Tallahassee and We Shall All Be Healed are full novels, All Hail West Texas is a series of short stories that all tie together in Darnielle’s fictional, literary universe. In some ways, this album is Darnielle’s best; on it, he’s hitting hard and often, never reaching a lull, and the lo-fi recording strips everything down to the basic necessities: his voice and his guitar.

2003: M83 – Dead Cities, Red Seas, and Lost Ghosts
I’ve heard it said multiple times that this is one of the seminal albums of the 00’s, and I am pretty sure I agree. As far as epic, heart-pounding electronica goes, you won’t find anything as good as this album, even in M83’s later work. The band was a duo during the making of this album, and they split soon after, and it seems the albums have followed the law of diminishing returns as a result.

2004: Jens Lekman – When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog
Mr. Jens Lekman is one of my recent heroes. This guy balances sincerity with irony like only the Swedes can do, and he does it with some catchy tunes. If Lou Reed was more about disco samples, violins, and short reflectons on bananas from 711, he might sound like this. His album last year (Night Falls Over Kortedala) got him more attention and press, but that was only because people took a while to pick up on just how great this album was.

2005: Love is All – Nine Times the Same Song
I know that our Arts & Entertainment editor, Joshua “Moshua” Schneider, would support he in calling this one of the better “garage rock” (though I hate that term, for the most part) albums of the past few years. Lead singer Josephine Olausson really charges through this album about love, television, movie marathons, and angry night spent waiting by the phone. Kevin Barnes has covered “Make Out Fall Out Make Up” on recent tours, and the album got a proper US release in 06. But they still remain relatively unknown stateside.

2006: T.I. – King
This may not be the masterpiece of southern rap, but it seems like a definite pinnacle. Fans will argue that his older stuff was far more distinct, and they might be right. But this album is so consistently catchy, memorable, and listenable, that I can forgive some artistic concessions for a wider audience. Plus, I mean, c’mon, who doesn’t like “What You Know?” In an era in which everyone complains about lyrics taking a backseat to production, nobody takes the time to appreciate a good radio hit that manages to combine great beats and good rhymes.

2007: Radical Face – Ghost
The album is the work of one guy (who is also involved with Electric President [I don't care what his name is, frankly]), and it is evidently something of a concept album about haunted houses, or at least songs that sound like they could be about a haunted house. It's a fantastic winter and fall record, but it has moments of momentous pop bombast that keep the album from a strictly downer status. But honestly, bullcrap aside, the music is just really beautiful and sad and haunting. And it's kind of funny that I choose the word 'haunting', but it's not a joke. It's one of those albums that becomes especially personal the more you listen to it.

So, yeah, it's a bit of a throwaway piece, but we needed to fill some space, evidently. Plus, we already have someone to talk about movies, and various people to discuss TV. So, I write about music. I plan to never attend a newspaper meeting, and provide articles to as many issues as possible. But next article, I'm not writing about albums or doing capsule reviews. Unless that's what the people call for. Because I'm a whore.

Nathaniel Tyson

PS: yeah, that's right, two pictures of Jeff in a row. guess I'm in love.

Best Single of 2008

Those Dancing Days - "Hitten"

So, this video just got a release as a single, officially. It was on Those Dancing Days' s/t EP from last year, but now it's getting an actual release.

It's genius. Listen to it. Please.

Nathaniel Tyson

collected observation

Today, I present to you, a brief glimpse into the truly disjointed mind of one, Nate Tyson.

whole lotta nonsense. 1st ed.

I just read that Laura Linney is playing Abigail Adams in the John Adams TV movie that I was completely unaware of until five minutes ago. Paul Giammati is evidently playing John Adams. Good casting, but I wish Ian Holm had been given the role at some point before he was ancient. He woulda tore that up. Or Terrance Stamp. (By the way, my favorite portrayal of John Adams is Mr. Feeney's [William Daniels] in the film version of 1776, which was a musical.) Point being, that Laura Linney is a funny duck, because I think that she is one of the last of the old school female movie stars. She only takes somewhat pedigree roles, she is usually offered almost every serious female role that fits her age (I'm sure), she is classy and private, and she almost always plays the famous wife. She is the master of being the famous dude's wife. She is the go-to gal for that.

++++

There is a British website that will give you music festival tickets for sperm donations. I shit you not. It is called Sperm for Tickets, which shows a frankness I respect. I wish I lived in Europe. But only for this purpose. Otherwise? Screw you guys.

++++

White people like me like The Wire a lot. And now it's over. But Lost has started kicking extra butt to make up for it.

Sometime soon, I will have a retrospective on The Wire (I would just do a review of the final episode, but I want to put some larger effort into this). I'm considering of doing a brief piece on the closing montage, but other than that, no Wire until I do a larger piece. I ahve to keep myself to this.

I just can't accept that it's over. Oh...Bubbles...Michael...

++++

...speaking of Michael, Lost's big boat-oriented reveal last night was somewhat anti-climactic just because everyone and their mother had predicted it. But the show still manages to reel you in, doesn't it?

This season has had a noticeable effect on people who watch Lost in my room. Some have never seen the show, some stopped watching half-way through Season 1, some gave up as recently as the end of last season. But all of them are completely (re)hooked after watching the recent stuff in my room. That kinda says something.

++++

That Dodos album is pretty great the more I listen to it. This, Earth, and Times New Viking are a pretty strong trio. There are tons of other good albums so far this year, but those three are special.

I'm also really digging the recent albums from Ocrilim, Natural Snow Buildings, the Teenagers, Boxcutter, and the Fleet Foxes.

++++

Animal Collective had a new EP released this week. It's called Water Curses, and it's pretty great. The tempo is definitely toned down, and the sound is thicker and spacier than most of the material on Strawberry Jam. Both those things are good indicators for the future, if you ask me. This may be my favorite thing I've heard so far this year.

Am I becoming predictable? I love Animal Collective, but I'm not a fanboy. I mean, Sung Tongs is one of my top five records of the decade probably, and Panda Bear was my #1 last year...and I just talked about the Dodos, who sound a little like 'em.

Whatever. Great band.

++++

I had a piece in The Climax this week. It featured excerpts from this post.

The only editing that upset me was the disappearance of the quotation marks around the phrase "get relaxed" (which had replaced "get high" in my draft for the paper) in the Earth review. They didn't remove the quotes from "the law" earlier in the article, so it was obviously a moral decision to not include a gentle, non-explicit weed joke in the student newspaper.

Sigh. It wouldn't matter, except that a somewhat tongue-in-cheek joke now reads like a banal observation.

++++

I love you all. Thelma Ritter is amazing in Pickup on South Street, and Paul Reuben's performance in Pee Wee's Big Adventure is an overlooked comedic masterpiece.

Nathaniel

myeah, you see, myeah

Something I'll bet you'd never find yourself thinking about (unless you are a Berkley film major, or me, or probably two of my professors):

What exactly were the subversive social codes incorporated into film noir movies of the 1940's & 50's?

Well, I'm not exactly thinking about that either, but I am prepping for a final paper on the modern femme fatale of neo noir, so I have film noir on the brain.

(I'm thinking about looking at Julianne Moore in The Big Lebowski, Carrie Anne Moss in Memento...any others?)

My teacher sent me a huge listing of academic articles on film noir, and I just feel that I need to share a few of the titles and authors that sounded awesome. You know, just in case you ever get the urge to find out more about this very specific genre of crime/detective film for some reason. Seems likely, non?

Really, check it out if you like film studies at all. Or American studies, ya know? Great resource, etc.

Some articles/essays that sound pretty neat:

Lott, Eric. "The Whiteness of Film Noir." In: National imaginaries, American identities: the cultural work of American iconography / edited by Larry J. Reynolds and Gordon Hutner. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, c2000.

Telotte, J. P. "The woman in the door: framing presence in film noir." In: In the eye of the beholder: critical perspectives in popular film and television / edited by Gary R. Edgerton, et al. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, c1997.

Thompson, Peggy. Hard-boiled: Great Lines From Classic Noir Films San Francisco: Chronicle Books, c1995.

Avila, E. "Popular culture in the age of white flight: Film noir, Disneyland, and the cold war (sub)urban imaginary." Journal of Urban History, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 3-22, 2004

Broe, Dennis. "Class, crime, and film noir: labor, the fugitive outsider, and the anti-authoritarian tradition." Social Justice Spring 2003 v30 i1 p22(20)

Davidson, Michael. "Phantom Limbs: Film Noir and the Disabled Body." GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 9, no. 1 (2003): 57-77

Jensen, Paul. "The Return of Dr. Caligari: Paranoia in Hollywood." Film Comment 7:4 (1971) pp:36-45

Kotsopoulos, A. and Mills, J. "Gender, Genre, and Post-Feminism." Jump Cut, June 1994, 39: 15-24

Lenz, Kimberly. "Put the Blame on Gilda: Dyke-Noir Vesus Film-Noir" Theatre Studies, 1995, N40:17-26.

Lott, Eric. "The Whiteness of Film Noir." American Literary History v9, n3 (Fall, 1997):542 (25 pages).

Smith, S. "Godard and Film Noir: A Reading of 'A Bout de Souffle'" Nottingham French Studies, 1993 Spring, V32 N1:65-73.

Walker, Deborah. "From Honest Thief to Media Sociopath: American Culture Through French Film Noir."

Willson, Robert F., Jr. "A double life: Othello as film noir thriller." Shakespeare on Film Newsletter (11:1) 3, 10.

Younger, Richard. "Song in Contemporary Film Noir." Films in Review v45, n7-8 (July-August, 1994):48 (3 pages).

and, my favorite:

Covey, W. "The Genre Don't Know Where It Came From: African American Neo-Noir Since the 1960s" [With Films Cited]. Journal of Film and Video v. 55 no. 2/3 (Summer/Fall 2003) p. 59-72

("African-American neo-noir discourse is a vital part of neo-noir studies, not just a marginalized addition. Born in the late 1960s and revised starting in the 1990s, black neo-noir, a series of mystery thrillers focusing on African-American detectives and police officers, has helped to revitalize the popular filmmaking discourse of film noir. Critical work on black neo-noir is both recent and sparse, resulting in, at best, a gap in noir criticism, and, at worst, indicating confusion about the significance of these films. As conceptual metaphors, African-American neo-noirs help represent and illustrate black experience, and constitute a semiotic terrain that merits the critical attention of the academy. By establishing where today's loose-knit genre of the African-American neo-noir comes from, critics can recognize that African-American films raise a host of complex political, social, and cultural questions in relation to film-noir discourse." [Art Index])

++++

Also, one of my favorite jams of 2008 has evidently pricked some other ears; Holy Fuck's "Lovely Allen" (both the original and a new No Age remix) got some press and airplay from Pitchfork recently.

I'm torn here.

It's great, because the song rules, and I'm happy it's catching on. But it sucks, because it is one of my favorite jams of the year, and now, w/ Pitchfork's polarizing stamp of approval, some degree of backlash against the song is inevitable. The fact that the remix isn't immediately grabbing doesn't help. In fact, I've only bothered with it once.

Whatever. It's silly to worry about these things. I know that. The internet sucks. Not actively, all the time, but kind of inherently...s'only natural.

I really have no right to even bring this whole thing up; it's not like I'm doing much to distance myself from that whole internet journalism scene, right?

Nate Thaniel

The awful feeling of electric heat...

My Politics in Pop Culture course is pretty amazing, and one particularly great thing about taking it is my professor's selections of topical links for the week's readings.

This week, our class will focus on the representations of Latinos in modern pop culture, especially in the context of the political scapegoat issue of immigration. Susana (my prof) has some choice links for the topic, two of the best appearing on the MediaMatters website:

Boortz: Non-English-speaking Latinos are "the ones with sombreros" and "bandoliers full of bullets across their chest"

Savage called Latino advocacy group "the Ku Klux Klan of the Hispanic people"

I don't read MediaMatters enough, but I think I'm gonna start checking in there more often. Seems like they've got some articles to really get a gentleman's gorge risen high on up there.

(Speaking of the whole "makes my gorge rise" turn of phrase: the first few times I ever heard the term, it was being used to refer to sexual criminals or pedophiles, so I also thought that the speakers were saying that pedophilia rocked their world. Funny, huh?)

++++

So, tonight, hopefully, I will have my review of the series finale of The Wire. I might just save it for tomorrow, though. I don't want to accidentally spoil something for both of you guys reading this. I also plan to do some major Lost writing.

As for my non-TV blog plans, I want to do a brief review of Persepolis soon, as well as a look at The Best Years of Our Lives (which I'm watching for da SOMB). I am also considering some retrospective looks at the 2000-2007 movie era. Some greatest performances stuff, maybe. Who knows?

I also want to start posting more new, more up to date, music stuff...maybe even a podcast?

++++

There are also some upcoming projects of mine that are based in, get this...the real, physical world. Not the internet!

What could these ventures outside of the USS Blog possibly include?

I am glad you ventured to question my truth voice. My responsibilities are as such...

I should have a music column in the upcoming issue of the school paper, The Climax. That means that this week, both The Climax and Nick's Blunder Bust shall be stained a putrid shade of awesome by my pen. I am considering submitting some photography to The Omen as well. Might as well get some of my stuff out there.

In one of my first LJ posts ever (I have looked back through em a few times...they date back to 2002 or 2003), I declared my intentions to spread across this great globe like a charming, red(-headed) death. I just want my longterm fans to know that the whole project is still in the works. No worries.

++++

In another case of an awesome heads up from a friend: a few weeks ago, my mom pointed my towards the National Portrait Gallery's new Hip-Hop portrait exhibition/showcase, the interestingly (not sure how I feel) named Recognize!

This is why I rule so hard. In case you've been wondering. I got raised by that lady.

The exhibit is definitely worth looking at.

So do it.

++++

I just remembered about a fun time waster I read about maybe a week ago. It's called The Black Cab Recordings. It's a British internet venture in which a strange (but awesome) assortment of lesser known artists ride around in the back of a British taxi cab. Playing their strange assortment of lesser known hits. The passenger/singers include Daniel Johnston, Spoon, Okkervil River, St. Vincent, Bill Callahan (Mr. Joanna Newsom, formerly Smog), Langhorne Slim, The New Pornographers, and a myriad of really not famous British artists who seem like they could be neat.

I have yet to watch any of the videos on the site, but if I discover in the future that one of these is particularly awesome, I will let y'all know.

I don't know about ch'all, but I know that I'm excited to see the St. Vincent one the most.

Nathaniel Tyson

this is how you spell "hahaha destroy your hopes"

I have yet to watch last night's Lost, but comments will be coming on that.

brief music ramblings

Upon further listens, I have decided that I really, really, really love that Earth album. I also like the new Gnarls Barkley way, way more than I thought I would. I keep forgetting that I kinda like their style a lot.

Los Campesinos have grown on me quite bit as well.

(right now, I'm listening to Neon Neon's Stainless Steel, which is ridiculously awesome)

Nathaniel Tyson