The quote that is tonight's title is normally attributed to Elvis Costello (although it is typically followed by a parenthesized note giving possible credit to Frank Zappa). The lack of certainty on this point seems ironic in its own right. But when you've got your headphones on and you sit down with the sole purpose of writing about the music that injects itself into your ear, this phrase becomes the bitter pill that you must swallow before proceeding to fill the page with similes that liken music to a cherry blossom sky or a razor blade smile. It is true that writing will never succeed in capturing what you are experiencing. Even the best music writers, those who through their turns of phrase actually conjure up cadence and sweet imagined melodies never manage to play me the actual tunes before I have heard them for myself.
So it is a lost cause, but one that we will all continue to pursue in the name of rock n roll. Because sometimes, you get close -- you find that one hammer of a phrase that seems to nail it indisputably. And suddenly, dancing about architecture makes perfect sense.
And with that, here are tonight's offerings:
Annuals - Frelan Mas
"There's a garden outside of my door.." is how this song begins, with birds chirping and children playing and when it kicks in you suddenly find yourself there with the band playing hopscotch and twirling around the barnyard in some lush lilthium-induced stupor. Beautiful music that you don't want to end.
Annuals are currently on tour with Manchester Orchestra and will be arriving in Vancouver on November 11th at the Plaza. Other listings can be found here.
Manchester Orchestra - Brother
Annuals - Where Have You Been
As well as touring together, the two bands have released a Split 7" EP on which each band performs cover versions of the other's songs. Brother and Where Have You Been, posted above, are samples of what has come out of this collaboration. Each band approaches the other's material very differently with Manchester Orchestra sticking to a pop driven acoustic take while Annuals layer together a more electronic interpretation. AND, for those of you out there with mad mixing skills, Purevolume.com is hosting the official MANNUALS MASHUP CONTEST and awarding an Epiphone guitar, merch and music to the best mashup of the two bands' tunes.
Drones - Shark Fin Blues
There is something timeless in the sound that the Drones have going on here. With a voice that seems to barely hang on throughout the song -- hell the entire band threatens to tear apart at the seams -- the Melbourne group always manages to keep it together creating music that is immediate and raw; qualities that are rarely heard in these more polished and sterile times.
So it is a lost cause, but one that we will all continue to pursue in the name of rock n roll. Because sometimes, you get close -- you find that one hammer of a phrase that seems to nail it indisputably. And suddenly, dancing about architecture makes perfect sense.
And with that, here are tonight's offerings:
Annuals - Frelan Mas
"There's a garden outside of my door.." is how this song begins, with birds chirping and children playing and when it kicks in you suddenly find yourself there with the band playing hopscotch and twirling around the barnyard in some lush lilthium-induced stupor. Beautiful music that you don't want to end.
Annuals are currently on tour with Manchester Orchestra and will be arriving in Vancouver on November 11th at the Plaza. Other listings can be found here.
Manchester Orchestra - Brother
Annuals - Where Have You Been
As well as touring together, the two bands have released a Split 7" EP on which each band performs cover versions of the other's songs. Brother and Where Have You Been, posted above, are samples of what has come out of this collaboration. Each band approaches the other's material very differently with Manchester Orchestra sticking to a pop driven acoustic take while Annuals layer together a more electronic interpretation. AND, for those of you out there with mad mixing skills, Purevolume.com is hosting the official MANNUALS MASHUP CONTEST and awarding an Epiphone guitar, merch and music to the best mashup of the two bands' tunes.
Drones - Shark Fin Blues
There is something timeless in the sound that the Drones have going on here. With a voice that seems to barely hang on throughout the song -- hell the entire band threatens to tear apart at the seams -- the Melbourne group always manages to keep it together creating music that is immediate and raw; qualities that are rarely heard in these more polished and sterile times.
Labels: Music, The Payola Chronicles
Experts predict website posts may slow down considerably after purchase of new toy
Thursday, October 25, 2007
The End...Now in Technicolor!
Found on/blatantly stolen from my friend Leigh's site, the description says it all: "taken of the television."
Found on/blatantly stolen from my friend Leigh's site, the description says it all: "taken of the television."
Labels: Film
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Great Counterculture Logos - Part 10
The Black Panther Logo by Ruth Howard and Dorothy Zellner.
"Alabama was notorious for using the so-called "literacy test" to deny Blacks the right to vote. In truth, the state's "education system" was so abysmal that many Blacks and poor whites were illiterate or semi-literate. But the white power structure made sure that illiterate whites were allowed to register and vote regardless.
Because so many illiterate whites were unable to read the names of the political parties or candidates on the ballot, Alabama law allowed each party to have a picture symbol, and all candidates were listed on the ballot in a column underneath their party's symbol. You could vote the straight party ticket by simply marking your "X" underneath the symbol without bothering to puzzle out the names or offices of the actual candidates. The symbol of the whites-only Democratic party was a rooster, so illiterate white voters were instructed to "Vote for the rooster."
Thus, when the Lowndes County Freedom Organization got their independent political party on the ballot, they had to chose a symbol. They chose a black panther."
More here
The Black Panther Logo by Ruth Howard and Dorothy Zellner.
"Alabama was notorious for using the so-called "literacy test" to deny Blacks the right to vote. In truth, the state's "education system" was so abysmal that many Blacks and poor whites were illiterate or semi-literate. But the white power structure made sure that illiterate whites were allowed to register and vote regardless.
Because so many illiterate whites were unable to read the names of the political parties or candidates on the ballot, Alabama law allowed each party to have a picture symbol, and all candidates were listed on the ballot in a column underneath their party's symbol. You could vote the straight party ticket by simply marking your "X" underneath the symbol without bothering to puzzle out the names or offices of the actual candidates. The symbol of the whites-only Democratic party was a rooster, so illiterate white voters were instructed to "Vote for the rooster."
Thus, when the Lowndes County Freedom Organization got their independent political party on the ballot, they had to chose a symbol. They chose a black panther."
More here
Labels: Great Counterculture Logos, Sixties
Monday, October 22, 2007
A New Violent Conception of Life and History
"Today we give birth to a new violent conception of life and history, which exalts the battle against ... the toadies of false power, slaves to the global market. You wanted just a red carpet; we want a city entirely in vermilion..."
– Excerpts from the statement made by the Neo Futurist group Azionefuturista after they threw a bucket of dye into the Trevi Fountain on Friday colouring the water red.
“We will fight with all our might the fanatical, senseless and snobbish religion of the past, a religion encouraged by the vicious existence of museums. We rebel against that spineless worshipping of old canvases, old statues and old bric-a-brac, against everything which is filthy and worm-ridden and corroded by time. We consider the habitual contempt for everything which is young, new and burning with life to be unjust and even criminal.”
– Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Manifesto of Futurism
February 20, 1909
“The art of Pio Diaz and Thyra Hilden is not aggressive and destructive, they do not demolish what cannot be replaced. Their art is a symbolic burn, their fire is an illusion...By projecting live burning flames on the Trevi Fountain and other famous architectural monuments, the artists interact with cultural icons and provide us with a statement to make us feel the power of destruction and consider the aggressiveness of culture.”
– Line Rosenvinge on artists Thyra Hilden & Pio Diaz who projected flames onto the Trevi fountain in 2005
“After gorging himself on various coloured foodstuff. Jubal Brown enters the Museum Of Modern Art in New York and projectile vomits blue over Composition in Red, White and Blue by Piet Mondrian.”
– Art Crimes
"Today we give birth to a new violent conception of life and history, which exalts the battle against ... the toadies of false power, slaves to the global market. You wanted just a red carpet; we want a city entirely in vermilion..."
– Excerpts from the statement made by the Neo Futurist group Azionefuturista after they threw a bucket of dye into the Trevi Fountain on Friday colouring the water red.
“We will fight with all our might the fanatical, senseless and snobbish religion of the past, a religion encouraged by the vicious existence of museums. We rebel against that spineless worshipping of old canvases, old statues and old bric-a-brac, against everything which is filthy and worm-ridden and corroded by time. We consider the habitual contempt for everything which is young, new and burning with life to be unjust and even criminal.”
– Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Manifesto of Futurism
February 20, 1909
“The art of Pio Diaz and Thyra Hilden is not aggressive and destructive, they do not demolish what cannot be replaced. Their art is a symbolic burn, their fire is an illusion...By projecting live burning flames on the Trevi Fountain and other famous architectural monuments, the artists interact with cultural icons and provide us with a statement to make us feel the power of destruction and consider the aggressiveness of culture.”
– Line Rosenvinge on artists Thyra Hilden & Pio Diaz who projected flames onto the Trevi fountain in 2005
“After gorging himself on various coloured foodstuff. Jubal Brown enters the Museum Of Modern Art in New York and projectile vomits blue over Composition in Red, White and Blue by Piet Mondrian.”
– Art Crimes
Labels: Art, Signs of Our Time
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Ang Lee Takes His Next Chapter From the Book of Wong Kar Wai
Outside our local theatre tonight: a moody noire-like coming soon poster with a war-era Chinese tinge to it and actors Tony Leung and Wei Tang eyeing each other coyly from across the frame. All of which immediately made me think, "Right on, a new Wong Kar Wai flick." But it turns out that it is in fact for Ang Lee's film Lust, Caution.
I am certainly not the first person to have made the WKW connection. Beth Accomando over at KPBS matched up the two images above and writes in her review of the film:
"Focus Features has given the film an ad campaign that makes it look like a moody Wong Kar Wai film. Wong is the Hong Kong director who’s made the rapturously romantic films Chungking Express, In the Mood for Love, 2046 and Fallen Angels among others. Lust, Caution even stars one of Wong’s favorite actors, Hong Kong’s Tony Leung Chiu Wai, a man with deliriously sad eyes. But if the ads lure any Wong fans to the film, they will be sadly disappointed. Wong has a sure handle on what he wants his films to be and to do, there’s no artistic caution on his part. But Wong’s films are not interested in sex as much as they are interested in love. He’s interested in that giddy emotion that can consume people. Lee on the other hand, doesn’t know if he’s interested in the sex, the romance or the passion."
"Rapturously romantic"...love that turn of phrase. Interestingly, the romance in Wai's In the Mood for Love is hardly spoken and never consummated; and yet it is one of the most passionate and sexually charged films that you will ever see. Lee's Lust Caution on the other hand has gained notoriety for its NC-17 rating, which suggests that in the latter film there has been far less restraint. In the end, the marketing angle has worked on its intended audience as I am pretty psyched to check this movie out when it finally makes it into our neighbourhood theatre.
Outside our local theatre tonight: a moody noire-like coming soon poster with a war-era Chinese tinge to it and actors Tony Leung and Wei Tang eyeing each other coyly from across the frame. All of which immediately made me think, "Right on, a new Wong Kar Wai flick." But it turns out that it is in fact for Ang Lee's film Lust, Caution.
I am certainly not the first person to have made the WKW connection. Beth Accomando over at KPBS matched up the two images above and writes in her review of the film:
"Focus Features has given the film an ad campaign that makes it look like a moody Wong Kar Wai film. Wong is the Hong Kong director who’s made the rapturously romantic films Chungking Express, In the Mood for Love, 2046 and Fallen Angels among others. Lust, Caution even stars one of Wong’s favorite actors, Hong Kong’s Tony Leung Chiu Wai, a man with deliriously sad eyes. But if the ads lure any Wong fans to the film, they will be sadly disappointed. Wong has a sure handle on what he wants his films to be and to do, there’s no artistic caution on his part. But Wong’s films are not interested in sex as much as they are interested in love. He’s interested in that giddy emotion that can consume people. Lee on the other hand, doesn’t know if he’s interested in the sex, the romance or the passion."
"Rapturously romantic"...love that turn of phrase. Interestingly, the romance in Wai's In the Mood for Love is hardly spoken and never consummated; and yet it is one of the most passionate and sexually charged films that you will ever see. Lee's Lust Caution on the other hand has gained notoriety for its NC-17 rating, which suggests that in the latter film there has been far less restraint. In the end, the marketing angle has worked on its intended audience as I am pretty psyched to check this movie out when it finally makes it into our neighbourhood theatre.
Labels: Asian Cinema, Film, Wong Kar Wai
Friday, October 19, 2007
Art I Pass By On My Way To Work - #11
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Separated at Birth?
Wow. Today's post at daily dose of imagery bares an incredibly uncanny resemblance to Jeroen Witvliet's Structures series!
Wow. Today's post at daily dose of imagery bares an incredibly uncanny resemblance to Jeroen Witvliet's Structures series!
Labels: Art, Jeroen Witvliet, Photography
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Keep Your Eyes Open
Glen E. Friedman got his start in photography shooting images of the legendary Z-boys skating backyard pools. From there he would go on to take some of the most definitive portraits of early hip hop and hardcore punk pioneers including the Beastie Boys, RunDMC and Black Flag and as a result is considered to be one of the most important photographers of his generation.
Just released this past month, Friedman's new book, Keep Your Eyes Open, chronicles his pictorial relationship with the band Fugazi, possibly one of the most important bands to have ever entered this writer's eardrums.
Says the website:
"KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN: The Fugazi Photographs of Glen E. Friedman was released by Burning Flags Press exactly 20 years [after Fugazi's first concert on September 3, 1987]. The 112-page, 9 x11 hardcover book presents the best of Friedman's unparalleled photographic documentation of Fugazi's members in almost 200 color and black & white images captured by Friedman onstage and off between 1986 and Fugazi's last U.S. concert in 2002. As Fugazi's Ian MacKaye explains, 'While most photographers were taking photos of Fugazi, Glen was making photos with us.'"
As a final note, while surfing the web on this topic, I also came across this footage of Fugazi performing Turnover outside of the White House in 1991 at a protest against the first Gulf War. Incredible.
Glen E. Friedman got his start in photography shooting images of the legendary Z-boys skating backyard pools. From there he would go on to take some of the most definitive portraits of early hip hop and hardcore punk pioneers including the Beastie Boys, RunDMC and Black Flag and as a result is considered to be one of the most important photographers of his generation.
Just released this past month, Friedman's new book, Keep Your Eyes Open, chronicles his pictorial relationship with the band Fugazi, possibly one of the most important bands to have ever entered this writer's eardrums.
Says the website:
"KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN: The Fugazi Photographs of Glen E. Friedman was released by Burning Flags Press exactly 20 years [after Fugazi's first concert on September 3, 1987]. The 112-page, 9 x11 hardcover book presents the best of Friedman's unparalleled photographic documentation of Fugazi's members in almost 200 color and black & white images captured by Friedman onstage and off between 1986 and Fugazi's last U.S. concert in 2002. As Fugazi's Ian MacKaye explains, 'While most photographers were taking photos of Fugazi, Glen was making photos with us.'"
As a final note, while surfing the web on this topic, I also came across this footage of Fugazi performing Turnover outside of the White House in 1991 at a protest against the first Gulf War. Incredible.
Labels: American Hardcore, Music, Photography
Friday, October 12, 2007
Friday Tunage
Life has been somewhat chaotic as of late with the wife in Uganda and myself hitting the ground running at a new job. Meanwhile, the mp3's have been piling up in my inBox like a February snowdrift. So it is time to do a little cleaning house. Which is easy when the music is as it is: all over the spectrum and all bloody good. Perfect for a Friday post.
Robber's On High Street: Crown Victoria
These guys immediately reminded me of Spoon, which is never a bad thing. Just good rock really, with a perfect combination of retro 60s and 70s AM radio and a cool fresh feel. This track is off of their second album Grand Animals on which the band worked with Italian film composer Daniele Luppi, (Danger Mouse, John Legend) and the album was mixed by Jeff Lipton (Beach Boys).
The Forms: Knowledge in Hand
There has got to be something in the Brooklyn water that is producing such great sounds from bands like The Forms. Their self titled 2nd album is currently only available on pre-order from iTunes so in the meantime, enjoy this lead off track and if you dig what you hear, check out Stereogum's brilliant tribute album to R.E.M's Automatic for the People for which The Forms contributed Ignoreland.
Innerpartysystem: Don't Stop
I will admit that the vocals on this tune didn't immediately do much for me. But the backing track is killer and every listen is bringing me a little closer to jumping up and disco moshing with the living room furniture. The album, The Download EP is available on iTunes but even better, check out their website.
Nicole Atkins: Party's Over
Love the groove on this track. Makes me want to just drop everything and drive headlong into the mountains. A little Stevie Nicks perhaps? A little Roxy Music? There is definitely something in the guitar sound that is taking me back a bit but I can't quite place it. Either way, I look forward to hearing more from her.
Puscifer: Queen B
Probably the strangest of today's offerings, this track by Puscifer is off of the album "V is for Vagina" which apparently is cumming soon ... I probably don't need to say much more about that. Puscifer is a side project of Maynard James Keenan of the band Tool. Keenan describes it as "a playground for the various voices in my head," "a space with no clear or discernible goals," and "where my Id, Ego, and Anima all come together to exchange cookie recipes." Check out their youTube page for a better, if not a little disturbing, sense of what this is all about.
Robber's On High Street: Crown Victoria
These guys immediately reminded me of Spoon, which is never a bad thing. Just good rock really, with a perfect combination of retro 60s and 70s AM radio and a cool fresh feel. This track is off of their second album Grand Animals on which the band worked with Italian film composer Daniele Luppi, (Danger Mouse, John Legend) and the album was mixed by Jeff Lipton (Beach Boys).
The Forms: Knowledge in Hand
There has got to be something in the Brooklyn water that is producing such great sounds from bands like The Forms. Their self titled 2nd album is currently only available on pre-order from iTunes so in the meantime, enjoy this lead off track and if you dig what you hear, check out Stereogum's brilliant tribute album to R.E.M's Automatic for the People for which The Forms contributed Ignoreland.
Innerpartysystem: Don't Stop
I will admit that the vocals on this tune didn't immediately do much for me. But the backing track is killer and every listen is bringing me a little closer to jumping up and disco moshing with the living room furniture. The album, The Download EP is available on iTunes but even better, check out their website.
Nicole Atkins: Party's Over
Love the groove on this track. Makes me want to just drop everything and drive headlong into the mountains. A little Stevie Nicks perhaps? A little Roxy Music? There is definitely something in the guitar sound that is taking me back a bit but I can't quite place it. Either way, I look forward to hearing more from her.
Puscifer: Queen B
Probably the strangest of today's offerings, this track by Puscifer is off of the album "V is for Vagina" which apparently is cumming soon ... I probably don't need to say much more about that. Puscifer is a side project of Maynard James Keenan of the band Tool. Keenan describes it as "a playground for the various voices in my head," "a space with no clear or discernible goals," and "where my Id, Ego, and Anima all come together to exchange cookie recipes." Check out their youTube page for a better, if not a little disturbing, sense of what this is all about.
Labels: Music, The Payola Chronicles
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
It's a Beautiful Day
Monday, October 08, 2007
Dylan is not there
In a recent interview with indieWire, director Todd Haynes states that the notion of a fixed personal identity is a lie; that "it is something that we are always working on and abridging and using outside influences to keep changing." No where is this theory better exemplified than in his new movie, I'm Not There, in which his subject, Bob Dylan is played by six different actors including Cate Blanchett and 13-year-old African-American actor, Marcus Carl Franklin. Ultimately, the movie becomes as much a study of identity for the filmmaker himself -- of all of us for that matter -- as it is of one of America's greatest songwriters. As Robert Sullivan writes in his cover article in yesterday's New York Times' Magazine:
"Todd Haynes’s Dylan film isn’t about Dylan. That’s what’s going to be so difficult for people to understand. That’s what’s going to make “I’m Not There” so trying for the really diehard Dylanists. That’s what might upset the non-Dylanists, who may find it hard to figure out why he bothered to make it at all. And that’s why it took Haynes so long to get it made. Haynes was trying to make a Dylan film that is, instead, what Dylan is all about, as he sees it, which is changing, transforming, killing off one Dylan and moving to the next, shedding his artistic skin to stay alive."
More from Haynes on the making of "I'm Not There" can be found here and here and here.
In a recent interview with indieWire, director Todd Haynes states that the notion of a fixed personal identity is a lie; that "it is something that we are always working on and abridging and using outside influences to keep changing." No where is this theory better exemplified than in his new movie, I'm Not There, in which his subject, Bob Dylan is played by six different actors including Cate Blanchett and 13-year-old African-American actor, Marcus Carl Franklin. Ultimately, the movie becomes as much a study of identity for the filmmaker himself -- of all of us for that matter -- as it is of one of America's greatest songwriters. As Robert Sullivan writes in his cover article in yesterday's New York Times' Magazine:
"Todd Haynes’s Dylan film isn’t about Dylan. That’s what’s going to be so difficult for people to understand. That’s what’s going to make “I’m Not There” so trying for the really diehard Dylanists. That’s what might upset the non-Dylanists, who may find it hard to figure out why he bothered to make it at all. And that’s why it took Haynes so long to get it made. Haynes was trying to make a Dylan film that is, instead, what Dylan is all about, as he sees it, which is changing, transforming, killing off one Dylan and moving to the next, shedding his artistic skin to stay alive."
More from Haynes on the making of "I'm Not There" can be found here and here and here.
Labels: Auteurs on YouTube, Film, Music, NY Times
