The Riff: March 2007 Archives

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March 30, 2007

Party Ben's Top 10 Stuff & Things, 3/30/07 - NYC Special!

Hello from New York! I'm here for a DJ gig, and so I figure why not make this Party Ben Top 10 a special New York edition. Unfortunately I’ve been here just 18 hours at this point, so it’ll be only slightly New York-y; plus due to limited computer time, I got no pictures and few links. But you’ll get the idea. Start spreading the news:

10. Put the Needle on the Record, WFMU/91.1FM, Fridays 3-6pm
Host Billy Jam has Bay Area roots, and his radio show (on while I’m typing this) has a Cali eclecticism. Right now he's veering from weird avant-classical to Grandmaster Flash

9. The guy at the Red Flame diner who ordered anchovies on toast (“no butter!”) like it’s not the most insane thing ever in history
Maybe I’ll order, I dunno, monkey toes on tree bark. Actually the best thing was when he asked for decaf, “very hot please,” and the waitress goes, “What, it’s as hot as it is, you want me to put my finger in it?”

8. NY1’s breathless coverage of the chocolate Jesus
Oh, no! Scandalous sculpture! Let’s ask people on the street what they think about this controversial work of art! “Uhh, I dunno, I guess it’s okay;” “Ehh, to each his own,” “Can we eat it afterwards?”

7. AirTrain to LIRR from JFK
Charging $5 to exit the AirTrain is a little awkward, but it takes like 8 minutes, then you hop over onto a Penn Station-bound LIRR train for another $5, and you’re there in 20 minutes, even in rush hour. Total time from the moment of landing til I was happily ensconced in my hotel room on 45th: 53 minutes; total cost: $12

6. Wax Audio – “Maiden Goes to Bollywood” (mp3)
This Australian mashup producer (now living in Greece) is another “rising star” in the world of bastard pop, and this combo of Iron Maiden and Bollywood singer Sunidhi Chauhan is both hilarious and inspiring

5. TV on the Radio, live at the Fillmore, San Francisco, Wednesday 3/28/07
They’re a New York band, does that count? Not quite as transcendent as their stunning performance at the Independent last year, but still great; the encore where openers The Noisettes came on stage to bang various percussion instruments along with them was cathartic and awesome

4. Low – “Murderer” (from Drums and Guns on Sub Pop)
While this brooding and minimal Minnesota trio have been moving towards a more experimental sound for years, this album is still a bit of a leap, with most tracks using strange loops and machine beats. On this song, frontman Alan Sparhawk asks God to use him as a killer, with both personal and political overtones

3. Ed Banger showcase at the Hiro Ballroom, NYC, Thursday 3/29/07
The Paris label is probably putting out the best, and most rockin’, electro in the world right now, and while the event was a complete mob scene, just hearing Justice play records was worth it

2. Blonde Redhead - 23 (New album on 4AD out Tuesday 4/10)
The New York trio return with their most accessible album to date. Without losing their Sonic Youth-y edge or cinematic strangeness, they’ve made the songs more immediate and hypnotic. Highlights include the shoegazey title track and the more straightforward “Publisher”

1. Drinking after 2am
If you actually live here, maybe you start to think of it as a horrible temptation or a mockery of your workaday lifestyle, but when you’re just hanging out, not having to worry about grabbing your last beer by 1:50 is such a relief. What? It’s 3:47? I’d like another vodka tonic please. No problem! The night, she is young!

March 29, 2007

Bush Coming Out of Your Closet?

What's scarier: your overstuffed closet or Bush's agenda? Manhattan Mini Storage poses that question in a series of political ads posted on Upper West Side phone booths and subway cars.

The ads, one of which features an suitcase-toting elephant, aren't as racy as they might seem, given the demographic they're targeting: the UWS was the largest NYC Democratic contributor in 2004.

There must be at least a few GOPers living there, though, judging by the outraged bloggers who apparently don't like Bush being associated with anyone's closet.

—Jen Phillips

March 28, 2007

Timbaland Previews Shock Value on MySpace

“Producer’s producer” Timbaland has posted the entirety of his upcoming album Shock Value on his MySpace page, so we can listen to all 17 tracks in lovely 96kbps hi-fi sound a whole week early. Cool! But unfortunately, a first listen is somewhat disappointing. The already-leaked (and already five-starred) “Give It To Me” is a highlight, as is “Scream,” a dramatic 4-chord number featuring a Pussycat Doll on lead vocals, as well as “Board Meeting,” a party-starter bringing longtime collaborator Magoo back on board. I'm a fan of “The Way I Are;” with its trance-y keyboard line, it's clearly a musical sequel to “My Love." But other tracks veer a little too close to self-parody, like the Justin Timberlake-featuring “Release,” which is so close to “SexyBack” it just makes you want to listen to that (far superior) song instead. The much-hyped rock collaborations are a mixed bag: “Time” brings in Joy Division ripoffs She Wants Revenge for a middling freestyle/goth mashup that’s slightly redeemed by a lovely instrumental section, and on the Fall Out Boy track “One and Only,” listening to Timbo try to imitate the rapid-fire vocal style of pop-punk’s greatest irritants is pretty painful, although the oddly “Promiscuous”-reminscent chord structure of the chorus is kind of intriguing. I'd like to listen to track 13, featuring the long-lost Hives, but they seem to have uploaded "Time" to its slot. An accident, or is it not ready for prime time?

What’s most disappointing is the news that apparently the track featuring M.I.A. is, uh, MIA, only appearing on the import version of the album. Thanks to the intertubes, though, we can hear it now (mp3 link via Idolator and Discobelle). With its odd chants, psychedelic echoes, gargantuan retro synth bleeps, and the usual effortlessly sexy/political vocal from M.I.A., it’s both avant-garde and instantly accessible, and why anybody thinks the US can’t handle it is beyond me. Too bad.

March 27, 2007

Time Caught in Act of Dumbing Down the News for US Readers

Blogger Paul Schmelzer has been busy raising questions about some of the nation's widely read periodicals when it comes to the selection of their cover stories—namely the difference between Time's April 2 U.S. and International editions. While the international cover features a story about Pakistani religious extremists filtering across the border of Afghanistan "with the intention of imposing their strict interpretation of Islam on a population unable to fight back," the US edition of the publication features the story, "The Case for Teaching the Bible." Schmelzer wonders why Time isn't giving the U.S. the same edition that the rest of the world is seeing on newsstands. The choice can't only be about marketing and keeping newsstand sales up in the U.S. Something's a little fishy here.

This isn't the first time that a major US news weekly has pulled this trick of presenting the news differently to US readers than it does to the rest of the world. Last September, Newsweek gave international readers a cover story about the Taliban and US readers a cover featuring photographer Annie Leibovitz, in essence replacing with a hard-hitting news story of international importance with a much lighter celebrity piece. In the case of both the Time and the Newsweek cover story cover-ups, the stories were related to coverage of the Taliban. Is marketing getting in the way of the serious news in the U.S.? Or is the media afraid to tell Americans what they don't want to hear? Only Time can tell.

—Rose Miller

March 26, 2007

U2 Can Give to Charity

OK, so Bono's "Red" campaign tanked, but you have to give it to those U2 boys for their commitment to charity. Guitarist the Edge has donated one of his favorite guitars to be auctioned for charity. An April 21 auction in New York City will take bids on more than 200 items to benefit Music Rising, a charity the Edge founded to benefit New Orleans musicians. You can ogle the items here.

Return of the Single?

Today's Times explores an interesting change in the record industry brought on by the digital revolution: the resurgence of the single. Long overdue, I say. Even those as youthful (ahem!) as myself will remember buying 7" singles well into the 80s; it was a cheap, fun and easy way to grab your favorite new Eurythmics song. But with the advent of the CD, the whole point of a single seemed to go away -- there's 70 minutes of room on the dagburn things no matter what you do, so why not fill it full of fluff, call it an album, and charge $12 for it?

This is, of course, not to predict the demise of the album (like one of the music consultants the Times quotes), nor whitewash the digital world. 128-kbps mp3 files, for instance, have always seemed to me like medium-quality "trial copies," requiring any serious audiophile to pick up the CD or vinyl after buying something on iTunes. But, again, the ability to do this at all should be welcomed by the industry (faced with ever-shrinking venues to promote its product) and by artists, since both edgy and mainstream bands could benefit from a more flexible approach from labels. Whether we'll see more singles released without accompanying albums remains to be seen, but in the meantime, wish Apple luck at keeping the price at 99 cents.

March 23, 2007

Top Ten Stuff 'n' Things, 3/23/07

Let me be clear: liking this stuff (and these things) in no way causes anyone to be hip. I don't know how to be hip and never have. I know some of the hip people, but when we hang out it's always kind of awkward, because I'm clearly not one of them. My T-shirts are like, at least two steps behind the times, and I make mashups for Pete's sake. So not hip! But don't worry about me! It's fine!

10. Groove Armada – “Get Down” (Calvin Harris Mix) (from their BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix)

This track from the UK duo’s upcoming album is a bit dull in its original form (although see the amusing bunny-riffic video here); this mix ups the intensity just enough. Listen to it on their site here

9. DJ Moule – "Sympathy for Teen Spirit" (Rolling Stones vs. Queen vs. Nirvana) (via the Bootie Top 10)

This French producer is one of my favorites; this time he layers Mick Jagger and Kurt Cobain over Queen’s disco beat with surprisingly coherent results

8. El-P & Cat Power – "Poisenville Kids No Win / Reprise (This Must Be Our Time)" (from I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead on Definitive Jux)

The new album from this Brooklyn hip-hop producer has guest stars like Trent Reznor and Aesop Rock, but he morphs into Portishead when Chan Marshall sings along

7. Ginger Snaps (in the cookie aisle)

Who first thought, “let’s dig up that weird spicy root and bake it in a cookie?” Because, I love you. Here’s my thing: get a tub of vanilla frozen yogurt, let it soften up a bit, then use your ginger snaps as crunchy, delicious spoons. Repeat until eyes roll back into head

6. Digitalism – “Pogo” (mp3 via Fluo Kids)

The always-solid German electro duo venture even further into the rock-oriented sound that they’ve just hinted at on previous tracks like the brilliant “Zdarlight”

5. Neil Young – “Old Man” (from Live at Massey Hall 1971 on Silver Bow)

This just-released live concert CD captures a solo Young with perfect sonic clarity at a fascinating moment in his career. “Old Man” is everybody’s favorite but here it takes on new life

4. Amerie – “Gotta Work” (mp3 via Idolator)

Her 2005 single “1 Thing” was one of my favorite tracks of the year; she’s back with another brassy number that will give Beyoncé a run for her money

3. J Dilla – “Nothing Like This" (from Rough Draft on Stones Throw)

This track from the long-awaited reissue of Jay Dee’s first solo album is awe-inspiringly strange: more like goth-rock than hip-hop, a distorted, backwards monster

2. LCD Soundsystem – “Someone Great” (from Sound of Silver on DFA)

The most immediate and purely electro track from the New York producer’s excellent new album, like the Chemical Brothers covering the Human League

1. Willie Nelson (and former UN ambassador Richard Holbrook) on The Colbert Report, Tuesday Night, Comedy Central (video here)

I thought the gay-conversion segment on The Daily Show couldn’t be outdone, but then Colbert manages to up the ante, with this awe-inspiring setup. Richard Holbrook!!! My head wants to ‘splode!!! God bless America, and God Bless Stephen Colbert

Tip to Thieves: Rolexes Engraved "Paris Hilton" Are Not a Good Idea

It's Friday afternoon and this blogger is going to indulge in a brief moment of "I'm smarter than you." (It's a blogger thing.) Not that I'm such a genius, but I think if I were an LAX airport employee and were going to steal some stuff from passenger luggage, I would avoid luggage belonging to celebrities. Chances are, they'll have one of their people report the theft, and chances are city officials will investigate since Los Angeles' very existence depends on its being celebrity-friendly. So, you see, I am smarter than the 8 luggage screeners and 3 others being charged with stealing jewelry, expensive watches, and cigarettes from Paris Hilton and the singer Keyshia Cole.

What an amazing Friday! I'm veritably high on myself right now.

March 22, 2007

More Neato Viddys on the Intertubes

That's right, stop working, it's okay. Just put down the phone/spreadsheet/spatula, put off that meeting/budget/drive-through order for five minutes, and watch some teeny-tiny new music videos. Your boss/client/hungry children in SUV can wait.

Mute Math – "Typical" (via YouTube Most Viewed)
IN which SXSW standouts with a big U2-y sound (and possible Christian Rock background?) film entire video in reverse

Low – "Breaker" (via Stereogum)
In which lead singer Alan Sparhawk tries to eat a whole chocolate cake, and, um, that’s pretty much it

Simian Mobile Disco – "It’s the Beat" (via Yahoo Music UK)
In which an inhabitant of a cartoonish black-and-white world gets hit with a color bomb accompanied by some French electro

Lily Allen – "Alfie" (via me just looking it up)
In which the Brit pop starlet tells us about her stoner brother, who is also, apparently, a puppet

Bonus! Queens of the Stone Age – 45-second preview of stuff (via Silent Uproar)
In which the California rockers provide some teases of new material on their upcoming album, Era Vulgaris; wait til very end for Nirvana-like power riff

Banner year for reunion tours

Reunion tours by popular rock bands are equal parts excitement and gloom. And 2007 is stacking up to be a riveting year rife with disappointment.

The gravitational pull of the chance to see one of your favorite bands -- or one of an era's most popular bands -- one last time is powerful. You want to be a part of something big, privy to an historical moment that you can talk about for years. "I was there," you'll say. Or if you're lucky, "And they rocked."

But the mere premise of reuniting for one last hoorah is inherently nostalgic, and that makes the whole thing feel potentially sad and outdated, with a hint of camp. It brings into question the true meaning of rock music: is it here to inspire, destroy and give the middle finger to all things bland, or is it here simply to entertain and encapsulate past moments in our lives?

2007 could provide answers. This year's list of bands reported to be reuniting for strings of live performances is substantial, and diverse. It includes The Police, Van Halen (recently canceled), Genesis, Sebadoh, Rage Against the Machine, Iggy and the Stooges, Smashing Pumpkins, Crowded House, and the UK band Squeeze.

Bloggers are keeping a running tally of who's performing and who's not, and trying to determine whether certain bands have sold out or not. Mojo's Party Ben is all over Sonic Youth's recently announced reunion tour, and another blogger is buzzing about the Meat Puppets plans to reunite.

Sell-outs or not, big-show ticket prices upwards of $200 will surely guarantee fat paychecks for many of the artists, who will soon leave their respective tours and go back to what they were doing before: Disney Tarzan soundtracks, 16th Century lute songs and primetime television for some; punk and indy music side projects, film soundtrack scores and political activism for others.

While band reunion season is in full swing, the opportunity is there to pick a favorite piece of music history and go rock out for a night. And chances are, you will get exactly what you’re looking for.

--Gary Moskowitz

Sonic Youth Brings Back Daydream Nation

Sonic Youth (the legendary New York band Motorbooty magazine once called “definitely sonic, if no longer youthful”) is planning to perform special shows in seven cities this summer, at which they’ll play their 1988 album Daydream Nation in its entirety, reports Pitchfork. Besides the fact it's kind of like The Beatles saying they're reuniting and playing all of Revolver, there are at least three more reasons this is cool:

1. Bringin’ it back. This album came out 19 years ago! I (thank God) and most people I know were barely out of our New Wave diapers at that point. Could we have been expected to cut English class and go to New York to see Sonic Youth perform these songs? No we could not. So, now we get our chance.

2. Slow on the uptake. More than almost any band, Sonic Youth makes music that rewards repeated listenings over time. My first exposure to der Yoof was seeing “Shadow of a Doubt,” an uncharateristically pretty song, on MTV’s “120 Minutes" back in 1986. I bought the album (EVOL), but my poor 15-year-old ears weren't really ready for the rest of it. It was only a couple years later (after some stoned viewings of the full-length video to 1990’s Goo) that I went back and realized how great the other albums were. As life goes by and, ahem, “takes its crazy toll” (I’m quoting them), Daydream Nation means different things to me.

3. Well-adjusted. While Sonic Youth has, in the past few years, delved into obscure, avant-garde experimentalism, their latest album, Rather Ripped, proved they don’t mind sounding like the band they were 15 years ago, either. Unlike, say, Radiohead, whose neurotic relationship with their own musical past means you won’t ever see them perform “Creep,” Thurston, Kim & crew seem to like their old songs. At the “Ain’t No Picnic” festival outside of LA in 1999, all the band’s gear was stolen, including their uniquely tuned guitars. But instead of cancelling, they borrowed Sleater-Kinney’s gear and performed a set of “classics,” which turned out to be one of the highlights of my concert-going life (snif). You know that these performances will be anything but perfunctory.

Hooray, Sonic Youth. Tour dates are here.

More Rich Urbanites Bring Pretension to Living Simply

In today's New York Times (where else?) there's yet another story about super-rich urbanites sacrificing delivered meals and cab rides in the name of environmentalism. Meet the Beavens: Colin, 43, a writer of historical nonfiction; Michelle, 39, a writer at BusinessWeek; and Isabella, 2, who live together in their Eames-furnished, "elegant prewar on Lower Fifth Avenue" that Michelle bought in 1999.

The Beavens are doing their darndest to live an entire year with No Impact, meaning no waste. They will only eat organic food grown within 250 miles of Manhattan, will make no trash except compost, will use no paper (including toilet), and have unplugged all their household appliances. However, Michelle will continue using her Kiehl's and Fresh moisturizer, laundry will be done by machine, and the cleaning lady (thank you Jesus!) gets to keep using the vacuum.

It's admirable that the Beavens are trying to reduce their impact on the earth, albeit, only for a year. But it's annoying that their No Impact lifestyle is possible only because they have the enormous funds and spare time to do so.

Who would have the time to make bread from scratch if not Mr. Beaven, who writes during the day? Who has the money to buy and eat only organic food from the Farmer's Market? Who would clean their apartment, if not their hired cleaning lady? One can't help but wonder if the experiment wouldn't be more interesting and more applicable to most Americans if the Beavens were not rich, married Manhattanites, but instead a single mother living in the burbs? Or if the Beaven's actually left Manhattan (horrors!) to live on a farm (double horrors!) in Ohio?

Albeit, the Experiement will reduce the Earth's wasteload, if only a little, and will make for interesting reading. As the Times puts it, the Experiment "...may seem at best like a scene from an old-fashioned situation comedy and, at worst, an ethically murky exercise in self-promotion." Touche, The New York Times, touche.

—Jen Phillips

March 21, 2007

Say It Isn't So: No, It's NoSo

Whether it's the ultimate reaction to Web 2.0 or a hypocritical, post-modern, flash mob-inspired game penned as art, NoSo is yet another trendy, techy art project. But this doesn't mean that it isn't intriguing, fun, and hopelessly ironic in true hipster form. NoSo is a response to the ubiquity of online social networking produced by Christina Ray of Glowlab. It's about the ironies of connecting on the social web and the way there isn't always much social in this web. According to official project language, "NOSO offers a moment of relief to the technology wearied." But, ironically, being predominantly a web-based project, it is still tech-centric.

Last Friday marked the project's opening event at Southern Exposure gallery in San Francisco at which there were a few ground rules: "no networking, no texting, no cellphone use, no laptop use, no downloading, no blogging, no vlogging…etc." Yet the project is about networking. You can set up a user profile on the NoSo site where you get to choose an online ID and trendy silhouette reminiscent of those made popular by Apple's iPod ads to represent your online personality. To complete your NoSo profile, the site provides prompts like "Where I do NOt live" and "NOt my favorite music."

Only one portion of the project actually takes place in cyberspace. The part that is concretely grounded on real turf sounds a lot like flash mobs (maybe flash NObs?). The NoSo site publishes information about the time and location of said anti-socializing meet-ups, which consist of a few people walking into a pre-determined location such as a cafe or park, snapping a few photos on a digital camera, then uploading them to flickr tagged as "nosoproject." If this isn't an act of participating in the social web, I don't know what is. But at least the project makes us think about what it means to live in this age of ubiquitous internet technology.

—Rose Miller

Radical Knitters Stitch for the Senate to Bring Our Troops Home

Charitable knitting during wartime is an American tradition the art project Stitch for Senate is carrying on in an effort that combines art, patriotism, and resistance. The project that was launched this week, on the four year anniversary of the Iraq war, was organized by professor and electronic artist Catherine Mazza. It encourages knitters to create helmet liners for every US senator, as a call to support the troops by bringing them home. Mazza would like to encourage more dialogue about the war, and since the knitting circle has a history as a site of discussion, she chose a knitting-based project, as she explains this article. The collaborative nature of the project means that you, too, can participate.

—Rose Miller

"The Unit": Nearly as Violent as "24"

It occurred to me last night while desperately trying to find something besides "The Unit" on TV: "24" has taken a lot of heat for the violent tactics of its agents, but no one is talking about "The Unit." Why just last week, the black ops unit that gives the show its name rescued a young woman from a cult, and took her sister along to help. When they found the young woman in bed with the cult's leader, the sister killed him in a fit of rage. The unit concealed her crime to protect their cover, even lying to the local police officer who investigated. My best guess as to why the show doesn't get more attention is that it's incredibly boring, and sexist to boot. (The show spends half its time focusing on the wives, who talk almost exclusively about how important their husband's work is.)

March 20, 2007

"Captivity" Campaign is Nobody's Fault

Los Angeles area residents were not amused this week after billboards went up around the city featuring a young woman pictured in various unsavory scenarios including "Abduction," "Torture" and "Termination." The icky ads were part of a campaign for an upcoming horror flick called "Captivity," but, garsh, turns out it was all a horrible mistake! The production company, After Dark Films, said that the "wrong files" were sent to the printer, who then apparently went ahead and just made a bunch of billboards without asking anybody, and besides, we were all in Las Vegas when it happened! After Dark CEO Courtney Solomon went so far as to issue a statement saying that he, personally, "wasn't going to go with this campaign," since it was "OTP," which is Hollywood-speak for "over the top," I can't believe you didn't already know that.

Anyone who's ever worked at even the lowliest ad agency, production house, or print shop knows there is no possible way anything ever gets done without about 10,000 proofs, endless back-and-forths, and everyone from the board to the receptionist signing off. Whether they knew the campaign would immediately be taken down, or were just completely clueless, it's hard to fathom how it could have actually been a mistake.

But, hooray! It turns out everyone, everywhere is wrong about everything: Solomon says that, sure, the movie has a woman in a cage, but really, it's "about female empowerment." So, parents everywhere, get your young daughters to LA, quick, so they can be empowered by the billboards before they're taken down this afternoon!

March 19, 2007

Neato Viddys on the Intertubes

There'll be no Viacom product on the YouTube these days, for sure, but that doesn't make no nevermind. We can still, er, dance if we want to. Or at least stave off the Monday blahs with some music videos. Here's five I like:

Tracey Thorn – "It’s All True" (via ArjanWrites)
In which the former Everything But the Girl vocalist delivers a lovely melancholy retro-dance number in a room full of choreographed office workers

Travis – "Closer" (via Stereogum)
In which the nice-enough Brit songsters go to work at a grocery store, and apparently Ben Stiller is their boss

Gus Gus – "Moss" (via ClipTip)
In which animated Icelanders (uh, Icelandians?) pass along a lovely rose of happiness to everyone they meet

TV On the Radio (featuring David Bowie) – "Province" (via MTV.com)
In which a female soldier lip-synchs, and some obtusely symbolic stuff happens, and it’s actually weirdly affecting and (I assume) anti-war somehow, even though I’m not exactly sure what it all means

Bonus: Timbaland – Shock Value Preview (via Pitchfork)
In which the mad genius hip-hop producer plays us some beats from his upcoming album

Oh, Goodie, Another Bad Review for Black Snake Moan

I blogged a while back about the surprisingly positive reviews the repulsively salacious film Black Snake Moan was getting, with the only exception being the New York Times (that's why I still defend the Times, mostly). The Nation calls attention to yet another hypersexual version of the sexual-abuse victim the movie sets the viewer up to rape all over again:

The icing on this particular cake is a PR campaign featuring a barely clad Ricci...kneeling at Samuel Jackson's feet, accompanied by the soft-porn slogan "Everything Is Hotter Down South."

And, like the New York Times, The Nation takes issue with the particular mix of race and gender in the movie. First of all, let's remember that the hot young thing is chained to the radiator to cure her of nymphomania—which doesn't actually exist, and certainly doesn't cause sweats and chills of oh-so-hot-it-looks-like-an-orgasm kind Christina Ricci's character suffers in the film.

But I digress. Here's The Nation:

The two most powerful symbols of slavery in Black Snake Moan are writ large on Rae's body: the chains around her waist and the rebel flag on her T-shirt. These images evoke the specter of white wrongdoing but also reframe her enslavement--which is supposed to be OK because Lazarus is black and Rae is white…What makes the movie truly offensive is that it employs race to peddle its brand of misogyny....

Misogyny, you ask? Really? Yeah, really. Here are two reviewers' actual edited reviews, published on actual newsprint stolen from some trees in Oregon:

Brewer's camera leaves the viewer free to savor the bared body of a victim of sexual abuse and rape tied to a radiator. And savor the male critics did. "All this envelope-pushing misogyny goes down relatively easily," claims New York Post's Lou Lumenick, who could "practically smell the sex and sweat" in what he dubs a "not insignificant contribution to global warming." Todd McCarthy of Variety predicts that the movie "will find its most eager audience among college-age guys hot to ogle the young star in some very raw action."

So the film's claim to cure the woman of her nymphomania is an excuse for men to eroticize a young someone who's been so abused she no longer has any meaningful form of consent to give. Who has the problem, again?

Fratellis Release Single on USB Stick

UK trio the Fratellis have released their new single, "Baby Fratelli," on cute little USB memory sticks today, reports NME. 7000 of the things were made and sent around to HMV stores in the UK. In this era of digital downloads, any physical manifestation of a single seems oddly regressive, especially for a band whose main American claim to fame is being on an iPod commercial. But those little USB drives are so cute and teensy, and so fast with the up- and downloading and all. The drives are not, however, eligible for inclusion in the top 40 charts. Apparently UK band Keane have also put out a limited-edition USB drive release. Whether artists releasing USB singles are required to be derivative and boring has not yet been determined.

March 17, 2007

Moscow's New Mall Elicits Communist Nostalgia

UK architect Norman Foster's design for a complex overlooking Red Square in Moscow gets a bit of a slam in Thursday's NY Times, unless "glorified mall" is a compliment. The massive project will be the biggest development in the Russian capital since the fall of the Soviet Union, and departs from Foster's usual ground-breaking designs, settling on a kind of neo-classical cheese. What's interesting is the building it will replace: the legendary Hotel Rossiya.

solid; border-color:#000000;">Once the largest hotel in Europe, the gargantuan concrete Rossiya ("Russia") covered a whole city block and contained 3,000 rooms. I stayed in the Rossiya in 1987 during a student trip to Moscow (and what was then still called Leningrad). I was 16 years old and had heard the rooms were all bugged, so my roommate and I wrote each other notes whenever we felt our conversations were "sensitive" (like, when we wanted to talk about how we thought the rooms were bugged). Surreality abounded; an engraved metal sign in the lobby described some hotel rules or features in perfect English, except that every instance of the word "is" was spelled "iz." My post-modern sense of design hadn't yet been honed by Wallpaper magazine, or I would have probably been more impressed with the restaurant: a gigantic, multi-level wedge-shaped space with a ceiling covered in gold-painted cylinders of varying length, from which hung massive golden starburst chandeliers. I seem to remember light blue carpet, too. Today it could have been the coolest ironic nightclub in the world.

The Rossiya is now almost completely demolished, and I'm oddly nostalgic, although as the Times notes, it's best not to be sentimental about architecture in Moscow. The city seems bent on replicating the worst mistakes of capitalism while erasing any evidence of Communism, leaving a kind of Tsarist Disneyworld. The Times ends the article optimistically, noting the emergence of Russian architectural preservationism and the historical accuracy of some aspects of Foster's plan. But one look at the under-construction Federation Tower (whose promotional lighting has inspired Muscovites to call it "Mordor Disco") and I can't help but feel a sense of vertigo, as Moscow hurtles down a path to who knows where.

March 16, 2007

Party Ben's Top 10 Stuff 'n' Things: 3/16/07

Everybody loves top ten lists, right? No? Well, I do, and I figure what better place than the Riff for a weekly Top 10 list of stuff I like, which will probably be mostly music, but might also include TV shows, or books, or even snacks. Let's get stupid, I mean outrageous:

10. Javiera Mena – "Al Siguiente Nivel" (mp3 link)

Via my escaped-to-Buenos Aires compadre Disco Shawn, it’s a 23-year-old Chilean singer/songwriter who’s just made the jump to electropop. The chorus on this is what makes it, a breathtaking swirl of keyboards and harmonies that I feel compelled to sing along to despite having no idea what the heck she's saying.

9. Audion

This Michigan-based techno producer, otherwise known as Matthew Dear, accesses peak-time party insanity through the seeming mathematical purity of his tracks, which take a simple equation and then let it play out to a logical but brain-melting conclusion. He’s on tour, at Mezzanine in SF on 3/17, Vancouver on 3/31.

8. Saul of the Mole Men (Sunday nights @ midnight, Adult Swim)

Anyone whose young mind was blown by Sid & Marty Krofft’s psychedelic kids' shows like “Land of the Lost” or “Lidsville” will recognize the surreal, lo-fi ridiculousness of this grodier, sillier takeoff.

7. Human Beatboxen! (via BoingBoing.net)

First there’s this one, from Frenchican Idol or something; then there’s this one, which is also in France, on the Metro even, and there’s so much more, and it’s all great.

6. Various Artists – Stones Throw: 10 Years

This 25-track comp is the biggest value on iTunes right now: only $7.99 for some of the finest underground hip-hop of the last decade from the likes of Peanut Butter Wolf, Madlib, and J Dilla.

5. Peter Bjorn & John – “Let’s Call It Off” (from Writer’s Block on Wichita)

Handclap mania! Proving the anti-PB&J; blogs are at least somewhat overenthusiastic, this album track sounds like drunk Swedes trying to remember the 80s. Oh, wait.

4. Elastica vs. The Gossip – “Standing in the Way of Connection” (A+D mashup) (mp3 link)

Full disclosure: Adrian & Mysterious D are my buddies and DJ co-conspirators, but they sure put together great tracks, and this one will make your indie haircut friends have seizures.

3. The Shins – “Sea Legs” (from Wincing the Night Away on Sub Pop)

Coming on like Air or Zero 7, the Shins let the hypnotic bassline take center stage on this groovy album track. There's funky '70s-style synth solos! And lead singer James Mercer kind of sounds like Morrissey sometimes!

2. Uffie – “Hot Chick” (12” on Ed Banger, France)

This blast of electro would be great even without the R-rated rap from this up-and-coming French gal. As it is, it recalls both classic Miami freestyle and new female rappers like M.I.A or Spank Rock’s Amanda Blank.

1. Arcade Fire - “Oceans of Noise” (from Neon Bible on Merge)

Somehow connecting Springsteen, “The Man Who Sold the World,” and Chris Isaak, this track is a highlight from the Canadian band’s new album. See if you can get through the quasi-Norteño horns at the end without getting a lump in your throat.

March 14, 2007

Attention: Head Cases, Golden State Geeks, and Book Club Mavens...

Dennis Cass, MoJo contributor and author of Head Case: How I Almost Lost My Mind Trying to Understand My Brain will be reading Thursday night (March 15th) at 7:30 pm, at Books Inc., in Mountain View, CA. Riffer DJ Party Ben and I (aka, the rest of the Carleton mafia) will be there.

Dennis is a funny, funny man, and oh so multimedia. You can get a preview here.

Read Dennis' take down of pop neuroscience in MoJo here, and for some classic Cass—a humor piece on book clubs—go here. Cass on Bush's Whoopers of Mass Destruction is here.

To check out subsequent Cass book tour dates in NYC, DC, and Mpls., or to read his blog, go denniscass.com.

Center for American Progress' Campus Progress Launches New Iraq Campaign and Film Project

Campus Progress, the campus arm of Washington-based think-tank the Center for American Progress, has just launched two new programs, the Iraq Campaign and the Iraq Film Project, both geared toward changing the course of the war through advocacy and education. Campus Progress is offering grants of $200-1,000 to students working on Iraq advocacy and education campaigns on their college campuses. The group is sponsoring the Iraq Film Project, whereby Iraq movies can be screened on campuses nationwide, "as a means of intensifying and enhancing [the] debate on the war, and engaging young people in a search for the right course going forward." They are dedicated to assisting students who want to plan an event and have award-winning films available, like The War Tapes and Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (read the Mojo review of the film here), as well as speakers available for the events. Several schools including Lehigh, Princeton and Amherst have already planned screenings for their schools. To get involved or for more information, click here.

For a comprehensive look at the situation in Iraq, read Mother Jones' new report, "Iraq 101" in our current issue. And for a look at other activism happening on campuses nationwide, check out our 13th annual roundup of campus activists here.

March 13, 2007

Arcade Fire Misses #1 Spot; World Somehow Goes On

Ten days ago I ventured a prediction (or, really, a wish) that Arcade Fire could hit #1 with their new album Neon Bible. It was all very exciting. Upon the album's release on March 6th, it shot straight to the top of the iTunes charts (where it remains) and indie rock geeks like myself around the world held their breath. Well, sorry, geeks. The official Billboard charts won't be posted until Thursday, but HITS Magazine online is reporting (registration required) that the Fire will land at #2, behind the late Notorious B.I.G., whose Greatest Hits sold nearly 100,000 copies to Neon Bible's 83,000. Not really even close, but dead rappers win every time, so there's no point crying into your vintage T-shirts over this. And besides, take solace in this consolation prize: Arcade Fire managed to kick American Idol reject Daughtry down to #3.

[Update, 3/15/07, 1:30pm]
Billboard magazine is reporting that the battle between Biggie and Arcade Fire was a little bit closer: 99,000 to 92,000 copies, with 30% of the latter's sales coming from digital retailers.

Everyone Else Is About To Have A Great Time at SXSW

And you're not. Well, I'm not either, so, uh, wanna go get a beer with me, and cry into it? Actually, my impressions of the Austin music festival (kicking off tonight) had been tarnished in the past few years by some unpleasant stories of desperate battles to get into the most hotly-tipped shows, even if you'd paid the $600 walk-up fee for a badge. But an industry friend’s recent description of the festival as “better than Coachella” made me wish I was going again. The festival is sold (mostly by attendees to their bill-paying bosses) as a “proving ground” for new bands, who then emerge with the momentum to conquer America. That sounds nice, and while bands like Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party put on great shows in recent years, their stars had been rising long before they set foot in Austin, and it’s not like a poor performance there would have stopped the hype. So, really, SXSW is just a big party, but attended almost exclusively by music geeks, and since the great unwashed has become more and more intrusive at Coachella in recent years, I see the appeal.

Rolling Stone has a good roundup of some of the bands most likely to see overcrowding and mayhem at their Austin performances, and subsequent press overload the next week. From their list, the excellent Peter Bjorn and John and The Gossip seem most likely to get the breathless post-festival “best show ever” reviews. I don't quite get the crazed adoration of retro trio The Pipettes, and I’m personally a little tired of Girl Talk getting so much attention for his haphazard laptop silliness (when my friends do it so much better). But, those will definitely be hot tickets. To that list of potential SXSW highlights, I’d add Glasgow rockers The Fratellis (from the iTunes commercial), one of the first US shows from Damon Albarn’s new project The Good the Bad and the Queen, and a set from the UK electronic combo Fujiya & Miyagi. But who knows: last year I heard it was an off-the-schedule secret DJ set by the Presets in a barn in the middle of nowhere that was everybody’s highlight. Sigh. Well, if you’re not there but want to to join in the fun from a distance, check out Hypebot’s helpful links on how to pretend you're there, including the festival’s official online update toolbox and local station KUT (90.5 FM) which you can listen to online. Grab a beer and some barbecue, and it’ll almost feel like the real thing.

[Update, 5:52pm] Well, shut my mouth about Peter Bjorn and John. Via Gawker, it's a blog dedicated to convincing the world that they're "not a significant band." They're organizing a "Stop Peter Bjorn and John" rally. I still like them, but this is pretty hilarious.

The Man Finally Catches Up With Stay Free!

This is a bummer. The great 'zine Stay Free! is about to stop publishing. If you're not familiar with SF!, then you've been missing out on a fun, intellectually curious indie mag that walks the fine line between critiquing consumerism and mass media and appreciating pop culture. It came out sporadically, but each issue was packed with smart interviews and articles on advertising, psychology, conspiracy theories, and pranks. It also did some great ad parodies, assuming the culturejamming mantle shrugged off by Adbusters when it decided that a sense of humor can't break windows at Starbucks. Sadly, the financial woes that have beset the rest of the words-on-dead-trees biz have affected SF! as well, and so it's going blog-only after its next issue. It's a shame—I'll miss having issues show up unpredictably in my mailbox. But you can still read—and buy—back some issues here. The Stay Free! blog is still worth checking out, too. But it just won't be the same...

March 12, 2007

True Rainbow Colors Shining Through

MTV and the gay TV network Logo are sponsoring a concert tour to drum up support for gay rights. After all, you've been drumming along to gay bands' tunes for years. Think Erasure ("Sexuality"!), the Indigo Girls, and Rufus Wainwright. These groups will perform, but the tour's headliner is long-time friend-of-the-gays Cyndi Lauper, whose song "True Colors" gives the tour its fitting name. The 15-city tour kicks off in Las Vegas on June 8 and ends in Los Angeles on June 30. (June is Gay Pride month.) Other performers include gay icons Debby Harry and Margaret Cho and lesbian favorite The Gossip. She bop, I bop, you bop!

Movie Big Success! War Good! Freedom Not Free! Hey, Do You Work Out, Bro?

All weekend, the Drudge report breathlessly screamed the headline, as if putting it in a big enough typeface could prove W. right and destroy the liberal peacenicks forever: BOXOFFICE BLOODBATH!!!!! That’s right, it was a massacre in the cinema, and I don’t mean like when Divine asked “who wants to die for art” in "Female Trouble." I mean "The 300," the latest in a long tradition of things whose name is a dramatic combination of a number and a “The." The movie broke some box office records this weekend, and, if I may join in the thematic word play, pillaged over 70 million smackeroos from the chain wallets of our nation’s slack-jawed youths. What does it all mean? Isn’t America supposed to be weary of warmongering, tired of knuckleheaded pseudo-freedom fighters, sick of meaningless video game-style violence? Sure. We’re over Applebee’s and fast cars too. H. L. Mencken, you just have to keep being proven right, don't you. Oh, you.

I haven’t seen the damn movie, but I have seen a blog post referencing a dramatically-lit “feature” from Men’s Health on the manly exercise habits of one of the stars. Lift tires, make muscles big for movie! Also the snarky reviews in the liberal media have been pretty entertaining. Hilarious, even. Is this the only way I can enjoy anything these days: by scrounging around in the sarcastic reactions to it? Well, no-one ever lost money overestimating my desire to look at rippling torsos on the internet or read witty put-downs of popular culture.

March 9, 2007

Maxed Out: A Financial Horror Flick

Maxed Out, a new documnentary on the dark side of the debt industry, opens today in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, D.C., and other cities. I haven't seen the film, which is getting good reviews, but I just reviewed the companion book written by the director, James Scurlock, in our current issue. It's a good read—it feels wrong to describe a book like this as entertaining, but it's a surprisingly readable look at how the financial industry is taking millions of Americans for an expensive ride. It's packed with disturbing tidbits like this: Low credit card balances actually hurt your credit rating, and if you're one of the lucky few who can pay off your bills each month, you're what's known in the biz as a "deadbeat."

More Indian-American Art in the Spotlight

Speaking of Indian immigrants to New York and literary tales of global migration, the Indian-born novelist Kiran Desai won the National Book Critics Circle award for fiction yesterday, with her book, The Inheritance of Loss.

U.S. v. Bush: The Movie?

The movie rights to U.S. v. Bush, Elizabeth de la Vega's pseudo-nonfictional legal thriller about a hypothetical criminal case against George W. Bush, have just been sold. In the book, a U.S. attorney lays out the case against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Co., accusing them of having defrauded the nation by leading us to war through “deceit, craft, trickery, dishonest means, and fraudulent representations, including lies, half-truths, material omissions, and statements made with reckless indifference to their truth or falsity.” Just imagine that line coming from the mouth of a rumpled, crusading federal prosecutor driven by the lonely belief that we're a nation of laws, not men, dammit! Only Hollywood can bring this to life, becasuse as we know, real U.S. attorneys like this get replaced with Karl Rove's former intern.

The book has been optioned by Robert Boris, director of the Rob Lowe classic Oxford Blues, and the writer of 1973's Electra Glide in Blue (tagline: "He's A Good Cop. On A Big Bike. On A Bad Road.") I only hope that he takes some liberties with the source material, which is set entirely in a grand jury room, and writes in a scene where Dick Cheney takes the stand and delivers the equivalent of Jack Nicholson's "you can't handle the truth" speech from A Few Good Men. Especially the part where Cheney, his temper rising, lectures the smart-ass prosecutor that "I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it." Then he threatens to rip the prosecutor's eyes out. I'd watch that.

Read our recent interview with de la Vega here.

March 8, 2007

Public Environmental Art for Children, Oh My!

Today the Washington Post turned its arts coverage to two hot topics at once: the environment and children. Who can resist miniature environmentalists with purple paint smeared across their mouths who spout perfect sound-bites like little PR spokespeople?

Fifty people participated in a public art project called Vote for Art last Saturday in Takoma Park at which they painted over 2006 campaign signs with fresh slogans, largely environmental, to post in their yards on Arts Advocacy Day, next Tuesday. The Post’s article quoted 6-year-old Sasha Schneer, who was completing a piece of anti-car publicity, as saying, "I'm trying to convince people to stop using the products that are polluting." It’s not that I disbelieve his sincere conviction that pollution is bad. It’s just that he is almost certainly regurgitating phrases he has heard his parents exchange in the recent past—and to the national media, no less!

When I was only a few years older than Schneer, destruction of the rainforest and the prospect of global warming used to keep me awake at night. So I am sure that he comprehends environmental degradation on some rudimentary level. And hey, at least the media is letting us know that some of the next generation cares about the state of the Earth—and that someone is giving them the language to let others know why it matters.

Arts organizations in other towns might take a bit of inspiration from this project. When I was a kid, I remember my classmates uttering phrases like “recycling is stupid” while throwing trash around the classroom. I could have used a little bit of Schneer’s vocabulary to help me let my classmates know why there are a few smart reasons to recycle.

--Rose Miller

Internet Radio In Danger?

For those of us who have become… ahem… frustrated with the trend towards consolidation and conservative playlists at regular, over-the-air “terrestrial” radio, the internet has been a life-saver. Whether it’s random amateur stations, AOL’s XM-assisted collection of channels, or ghosts of once-terrestrial frequencies like WOXY, internet radio has offered a whole world of musical choices. But all that could be in jeopardy. Music blog Idolator has pointed out that new royalty rates just decided on by the Copyright Royalty Board would put most internet broadcasters out of business.

Full disclosure: I’m an employee of LIVE 105 (CBS Radio), and we, like all stations, pay fees to the record labels for broadcasting their music. The fee structure is such that (most) stations can continue to be profitable businesses. But as Business Week points out, the new rates for internet stations could add up to over 100% of revenue. That doesn't sound very profitable. The kind of unfortunatetly-titled website Save Our Streams has been set up in anticipation of the coming internet radio silence (perhaps they could also double as a prostate-health awareness site?) and has links to a variety of news stories on the issue.

So, what’s a new music junkie to do? Allow me to suggest the apparently unregulated world of podcasts! It seems nuts, but there’s a whole section on iTunes full of free – and great -- new music, and if you’re like me, the promise of listening to a new DJ mix on the iPod is the only thing getting you to the gym in the morning. Check these out:

And Did We Mention Our Disco?
Currently featuring electro DJ sets from the excellent Simian Mobile Disco and Rory Philips

Stones Throw
The LA hip-hop label’s got a short-but-sweet tribute to J Dilla

Mad Decent
Diplo’s eclectic selections from Baltimore House to Baile Funk

Erol Alkan / Club Trash
The world’s premier electro-skronk DJ and remixer features recent sets from himself and guests at his ground-breaking london club night

Beatport Burners
The online dance music store features the biggest tracks of the moment

See if those don't give you an extra jolt of energy on the treadmill...

Mira Nair's The Namesake Opens Tomorrow

Looking for a good movie to see this weekend? Check out The Namesake (opening tomorrow), Mira Nair’s film adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri’s best-selling novel of the same name. The film tells the story of Ashima (played by the wonderful Bollywood star Tabu) and Ashoke (Irfan Kahn), immigrants to New York from Calcutta, and their son Gogol (Kal Penn), named (for reasons that can’t be revealed in this blog post) after the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol. The unfortunate trailer makes The Namesake look like the story of a son whose Indian parents don’t want him to date a white girl (I guess they thought it would help sell tickets?), but the movie tells a far more interesting immigration story.

Nair eschews a neat and tidy view of immigration and instead displays it in all its messy contradictions. This family is in many ways quaintly American—their clean suburban home, Ashima gluing sparkles onto home made Christmas cards—yet the parents cringe at the easy informality of their children, and the action shifts equally between India and the United States, creating a palpable sense of what Nair calls “living between two worlds.”

Fans of Nair’s other works (especially Monsoon Wedding and Mississippi Masala) may be surprised by this film’s more somber tone, but as in those other films, Nair shows a keen eye for interpersonal relationships and presents a touching portrait of familial love and the complex emotions of immigration.

For more on The Namesake, read my interview with Mira Nair here. (She gives a great interview.)

--Amaya Rivera

Michael Jackson: No Regrets

It turns out there's at least one person in the world who's as unwilling to admit mistakes as President Bush. That person is Michael Jackson. Having spent most of his time abroad since being acquitted on child molestation charges in 2005, the bizarre star appeared at a $3,500-a-head party in Tokyo on Thursday dressed in a Roberto Cavalli suit that looked strangely like pajamas (click the link for a picture). He told the AP: "I've been in the entertainment industry since I was 6 years old. As Charles Dickens says, 'It's been the best of times, the worst of times.' But I would not change my career" despite "deliberate attempts to hurt me."

Fantasy Rape or Erotic Dream?

Dolce & Gabbana pulled an ad today after women's groups in Italy and Spain alleged that the ad depicts a "fantasy rape" and thereby promotes violence against women. Dolce & Gabbana counter that the ad was meant to portray an "erotic dream" (presumably among consenting, of-age dream avatars). What do you think?

I say neither. Looks like your standard, creepy pseudo sensual D&G; spread to me--too unemotional to be either violent or particularly erotic. Lesson: never make love to a model.

March 7, 2007

NPR Does Indie Rock--but Not That Way!

Usually, when National Public Radio attempts to cover indie rock, I writhe in pain and vicarious shame (Stick to the grammar games, Liane Hansen. Please!). However, tomorrow's "All Songs Considered" will happily unite two of my great loves: weekday NPR and Connor Oberst from Bright Eyes. According to Pitchfork, Oberst is hosting tomorrow's show, which means he'll be spinning tracks from Bright Eyes' upcoming album, Cassadaga, which is due out April 10, as well as some of his favorite classics.

Updatde: If you miss the radio appearance, Cassadaga is now streaming on Saddle Creek's site.

"Purple Hearts" Photographs of Wounded Soldiers

In March 2004—a year after the war in Iraq began—Mother Jones published a photo essay of wounded soldiers by Nina Berman. Unfortunately, Ms. Berman has been busy since then and has compiled an entire exhibit called "Purple Hearts." That exhibit is now on display at Columbia University in Manhattan (funded in part by George Soros' Open Society Institute). Ms. Berman will be participating in a panel discussion tonight. If you're in Manhattan, go. If you're not, check out the photographs we ran—they're seriously powerful stuff.

Brangelina to Adopt Again...and Again

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt plan to adopt another child—this time a boy from Vietnam. Normally, Vietnamese adoptions take 4 months or more, but, for Brangelina, officials think they can power through the application process in less than 3 months. Jolie and Pitt already have three children. Be careful—they've expressed interest in adopting your unborn child, too.

March 5, 2007

More Music Recommendations (For People Who Still Buy CDs)

Hey, my last roundup of albums-to-watch-out-for turned out pretty well, didn’t it. Everybody’s got Arcade Fire Fever! Although now that I’ve heard the Ken Andrews CD in its entirety I may have to rescind that recommendation (sorry Ken--too syrupy). But let’s not look back in anger. Let’s look forward… in anticipation, at some more CDs coming out soon-ish, along with a brief description, similar artists, and pertinent links. Let that raga drop:

Tuesday 3/6/07:

!!! - Myth Takes (Warp)
NY dance-punkers get funkier and more focused
For fans of: The Rapture, Can, dancing in basements
Stream three tracks at their MySpace page here

RJD2 - The Third Hand (Definitive Jux)
Ohio hip-hop producer morphs into multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter
For fans of: Moby, Brian Wilson, chilling on rooftops
Again, stream three tracks at his MySpace page

Tuesday 3/20/07:

J Dilla - Ruff Draft (Stones Throw)
Re-release of hard-to-find first solo effort from late hip-hop innovator
For fans of: DJ Shadow, Marvin Gaye, having your life changed
Everybody’s got a MySpace page!

Tuesday 3/27/07:

Timbaland - Shock Value (Interscope)
Studio genius takes center stage with high-profile guests
For fans of: Missy Elliott, Nelly Furtado, bringing sexy back
Stream the first single, “Give It To Me,” here

Tuesday 4/10/07:

Blonde Redhead - 23 (4AD)
NY art-rock trio gets shoegazey (again)
For fans of: My Bloody Valentine, Serge Gainsbourg, the pot
Grab an mp3 of the first single, “23,” here

Tuesday 4/24/07:

Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare (Domino)
Hyped (and hyper) Brit foursome gets serious on sophomore album
For fans of: Franz Ferdinand, The Jam, dancing to electropop like a robot from 1984
Here’s a blog where somebody posted an mp3 (recorded from the radio) of a new song, “Brianstorm” (sic)

Hollywood's Lost Its Shine

Okay, it's official now. The Los Angeles Times has announced that movies have lost their magic. A recent Zogby survey confirms what has been evident for a long time, that people are going to see fewer movies and plan to see even fewer movies in the future, because tickets cost too much and there are better alternatives. The LA Times says that, surprise, Hollywood no longer captures the nerve center of American Life and that movies don’t elicit “firestorms” as they once did, because they’ve got a lot more competition. Online opportunities to date, role-play, network, gossip, blog, and post and watch video and audio make it increasingly unnecessary to spend money on a movie theater ticket, whether you get stadium seating or not.

Blogger Bill Damon suggests that movie theaters try offering better food, reserved seating, and returning 3-D films to the big screen. Blog site “the kid’s alright” suggests that when a newcomer like Jennifer Hudson wins an Oscar, maybe it’s a sign that people are hungry for new inspiration in film. With this, I agree.

Is it crazy to think Hollywood can simplify and make cheaper films with smaller crews and smaller casts, and stop paying top stars millions of dollars per picture? The fact that actors like Brad Pitt agree to do Babel for lower fare is one small piece of evidence that even the biggest stars can be lured into meaningful projects. There’s no good reason why a film like Mission Impossible III needs to cost $150 million to produce, is there? $150 million will operate Kansas City Southern’s entire international railroad company this year and the President's budget proposes that we spend $150 million on biomass research in hte coming year.

Filmmakers aren’t totally asleep at the wheel, though. Unique and original stories (Babel, Little Miss Sunshine, Brokeback Mountain, Crash, The Constant Gardener, Hustle and Flow, The Squid and the Whale) that challenge audiences have the capacity to ignite some new firestorms.A nd when I say firestorms, I don’t mean gore-fest storms of hellfire. I have no quantitative data to back my theory, but I swear there are more horror flicks being produced post-9/11 than before. Every time I go to the theater or rent a DVD there is always at least one preview for another screamer about saws, tourists, a dreaded video tape or my new favorite – a ventriloquist. Why are filmmakers obsessed with fear, panic, death, pain, suffering and torture? Let’s move on to greener, better-scripted, more efficiently-funded motion picture pastures and get excited about the movies again.

–Gary Moskowitz

In the Red: Bono's AIDS Ad Campaign Tanks

Bad news for Red, the Bono-inspired, star-studded ad campaign to sell Gap t-shirts, and—oh, yes—raise some money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Despite all the hype, its total contribution to the Fund so far has been a paltry $18 million. A Global Fund spokesman explains to Ad Age that this was to be expected: "Red has done as much as we could have hoped for in the short time it has been up and running.... The launch cost of this kind of campaign is going to be hugely frontloaded." Translation: Most of the money raised has been blown on ad budgets by Gap, Motorola, Armani, Apple, and other companies that are taking a cut from selling Red stuff. To give you a sense of just how big the corporate cut is, for every special edition Red iPod nano sold, Apple donates just $10.

This isn't the first time an altruistic corporate campaign has been revealed to be too good to be true—we collected some other examples in our November issue. But there's an easy way to not get snooke(red)—cut out the middleman and give directly to the Global Fund. Visit buylesscrap.org to find out how.

March 2, 2007

Seinfeld: "Documentarians Not Funny." Documentarian: "You Too."

The statute of limitations for post-Oscar bickering is about to run out, so now's the time to get in some last licks. I'm gonna avoid the just-how-tacky-was-Ellen minefield. So let's focus on another bland and unmemorable Oscar presenter—Jerry Seinfeld. Seinfeld seems to have ticked off at least one filmmaker during his presentation of the Oscar for best documentary. John Sinno, a nominee for the great Iraq in Fragments, just wrote an open letter (not online yet, but posted in full after the jump) to the Academy, criticizing Seinfeld for calling his film and the four other nominees "incredibly depressing":

While I appreciate the role of humor in our lives, Jerry Seinfeld’s remarks were made at the expense of thousands of documentary filmmakers and the entire documentary genre. Obviously we make films not for awards or money, although we are glad if we are fortunate enough to receive them. The important thing is to tell stories, whether of people who have been damaged by war, of humankind’s reckless attitude toward nature and the environment, or even of the lives and habits of penguins. With his lengthy, dismissive and digressive introduction, Jerry Seinfeld had no time left for any individual description of the five nominated films. And by labeling the documentaries “incredibly depressing,” he indirectly told millions of viewers not to bother seeing them because they’re nothing but downers.

OK. Maybe it was a bad call to get a guy whose comedy is about "nothing" to introduce films that are about capital-S something. But let's be honest—this year's docs were really depressing. But that's why we like documentary films; they're a needed, if downlifting, reality check. And if it makes Sinno feel better, even the documentary about Seinfeld was a downer. If you ever want to see the story of a man with a moribund career and no interior life to boot, check it out.

An open letter to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

I had the great fortune of attending the 79th Academy Awards following my nomination as producer for a film in the Best Documentary Feature category. At the Awards ceremony, most categories featured an introduction that glorified the filmmakers’ craft and the role it plays for the film audience and industry. But when comedian Jerry Seinfeld introduced the award for Best Documentary Feature, he began by referring to a documentary that features himself as a subject, then proceeded to poke fun at it by saying it won no awards and made no money. He then revealed his love of documentaries, as they have a very "real" quality, while making a comically sour face. This less-than-flattering beginning was followed by a lengthy digression that had nothing whatsoever to do with documentary films. The clincher, however, came when he wrapped up his introduction by calling all five nominated films "incredibly depressing!"

While I appreciate the role of humor in our lives, Jerry Seinfeld’s remarks were made at the expense of thousands of documentary filmmakers and the entire documentary genre. Obviously we make films not for awards or money, although we are glad if we are fortunate enough to receive them. The important thing is to tell stories, whether of people who have been damaged by war, of humankind’s reckless attitude toward nature and the environment, or even of the lives and habits of penguins. With his lengthy, dismissive and digressive introduction, Jerry Seinfeld had no time left for any individual description of the five nominated films. And by labeling the documentaries “incredibly depressing,” he indirectly told millions of viewers not to bother seeing them because they’re nothing but downers. He wasted a wonderful opportunity to excite viewers about the nominated films and about the documentary genre in general.

To have a presenter introduce a category with such disrespect for the nominees and their work is counter to the principles the Academy was founded upon. To be nominated for an Academy Award is one of the highest honors our peers can give us, and to have the films dismissed in such an offhand fashion was deeply insulting. The Academy owes all documentary filmmakers an apology.

Seinfeld’s introduction arrived on the heels of an announcement by the Academy that the number of cities where documentary films must screen to qualify for an Academy Award is being increased by 75%. This will make it much more difficult for independent filmmakers’ work to qualify for the Best Documentary Feature Award, while giving an advantage to films distributed by large studios. Fewer controversial films will qualify for Academy consideration, and my film Iraq in Fragments would have been disqualified this year. This announcement came as a great disappointment to me and to other documentary filmmakers. I hope the Academy will reconsider its decision.

On a final note, I would like to point out that there was no mention of the Iraq War during the Oscar telecast, though it was on the minds of many in the theatre and of millions of viewers. It is wonderful to see the Academy support the protection of the environment. Unfortunately there is more than just one inconvenient truth in this world. Having mention of the Iraq War avoided altogether was a painful reminder for many of us that our country is living in a state of denial. As filmmakers, it is the greatest professional crime we can commit not to speak out with the truth. We owe it to the public.

I hope what I have said is taken to heart. It comes from my concern for the cinematic art and its crucial role in the times we’re living in.

John Sinno
Academy Award Nominee, Iraq In Fragments
Co-Founder, Northwest Documentary Association

Will Arcade Fire Hit #1?

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I can’t believe I’m typing this, but it seems entirely possible that Arcade Fire, the iconoclastic Canadian underground indie-rock mega-combo, may ride a wave of publicity to the top of the US charts this Tuesday (3/6) with their sophomore album Neon Bible. They just performed on SNL (also, apparently, doing an off-stage number right after the show just for the studio audience) and they’re all the blogs can talk about. They also remain one of two bands who have ever made me, ahem, misty-eyed at a live performance. (Okay, fine: the other was Low. All those other times, I just had something in my eye, really.)

New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones was a little late to the party on the Fire, but makes up for it with a fine article this week. He follows the band around to their recent London shows (lucky!!!) and admires their lo-fi tendencies by saying it’s “hard to imagine” them ever using a cordless microphone. I found that reference kind of amusing: capping off the aforementioned tear-inducing performance (at Coachella in 2005), lead singer Win Butler unplugged his mic and threw it in a high arc out over the massive crowd (see that at the end of this video here). It sounds silly now, but it was a heart-stopping moment, capping off probably the greatest live show I’ve ever seen in my life. I guess that doesn’t really count as a “cordless mic,” though, does it.

I’ve heard Neon Bible (like anyone with DSL has at this point), and it’s great. There probably aren’t any breakout hits (like “Rebellion (Lies)” from their debut album Funeral) but that seems kind of the point: the new songs unroll at their own pace, like hymns, without hurrying to a pop “hook." This is a band who adamantly refuse to license any music (even, apparently, for Oscar-winning, if supremely hacky, directors), and who are so DIY, they can manage to screw up a charity single upload. Nothing against Norah Jones, but if they knock her off the #1 spot, it will be kind of exhilarating.

Finally, a Bad Review of "Black Snake Moan"

A Bible-fearing black man—named Lazarus, no less—chains the impossibly thin Christina Ricci's character to a radiator, and for the rest of the film, she roams around almost completely naked fighting off "fits" of nymphomania—when she's not tearing into men like a she-devil.

Sound like a meaningful film, or a cheap excuse to watch a little S&M; with a moral (not all black men who chain women to radiators are bad!)?

After reading Feministing's comments last week, I'm inclined to believe the latter. But I've watched in horror as respectable publication after respectable publication has given the movie a decent review.

First, here's Feministing:

Ricci told MTV her character is "a girl who suffers physical flashbacks to a childhood rape. Some women and young girls freak out, panic, and need to cut themselves. [My character] needs to cause herself the same kind of pain when she has panic attacks by having anonymous sex."

Sounds like being chained up in only her underwear and then preached to is exactly the kind of healing process this character needs.

The creepiest thing about the movie, or at least its marketing, is that it's not only about selling Ricci's body. It's about selling the idea of sex with a girl who's been abused and who's clearly got a lot of problems. There's even an interactive feature (if you click on "experience" in the upper left corner -- click here for a screenshot) that allows you to drag two pills across the screen and then watch a video of Ricci collapsing. Now she's yours for the violating!

(By the way, the little line of pills in front of Ricci's mini mini-skirt also look strangely like a female cum shot.)

And here are the "uplifting human drama" reviews.

Salon:

Lazarus comes to realize that she has the "sickness." She's writhing, burning with fever: In her delirium, she dashes out of the cabin, ready to do herself harm. So he chains her to his radiator to rid her of the demons that control her. That's the gimmick of "Black Snake Moan," a gimmick that leads us, like a trail of manna bread crumbs, to the movie's soul. "Black Snake Moan" is ultimately about damaged people helping one another to become their best selves…. Its characters are stereotypes at the beginning, but our focus sharpens as we watch them: They sneak out of the roles we've assigned to them and become people instead.

Washington Post:

But human they are, and that point is driven home in the film's final scenes, which bring the volume level down and unfold with surprising tenderness and emotion. If "Black Snake Moan" is uneven, that's because Brewer has set himself to a higher degree of difficulty than most emerging filmmakers, telling stories rarely seen on screen, with equally rare characters and settings. Craig Brewer is definitely up to something, and it's gratifying to watch him explore new cinematic territory with such conviction and assurance.

Well, thank god the New York Times has stepped up to call bullshit:

Underneath the surface of racial and sexual button pushing, behind the brandished guns and bared breasts, is a heart of pure, buttery cornpone. Like “Hustle & Flow,” “Black Snake Moan” joins a dubious stereotype of black manhood to an uplifting, sentimental fable.… Really, though, the character, played...by Samuel L. Jackson, is a tried-and-true Hollywood stock figure: the selfless, spiritually minded African-American who seems to have been put on the earth to help white people work out their self-esteem issues..."Black Snake Moan" is a provocative title, but a more accurate one might be "Chaining Miss Daisy to the Radiator in Her Underwear."

One morning Lazarus finds [Rae, Ricci's character], badly beaten and barely clothed, at the side of the road near his house. He takes her home, washes her wounds and fetches her some medicine. (Only later will it occur to him to fetch her something to wear besides the white underpants and chopped-off T-shirt the camera prefers to see her in.) When she tries to jump on him, he grabs his Bible and flees into the yard, leaving the Good Book open to the verse (missing in my copy) about chains and radiators as instruments of righteousness.

The Times review concludes that the movie produces "not a moan or a howl, but a slow, anxious groan." You just can't try to tell a morality tale about how sexual abuse is damaging and then invite the viewer to lust after the character. The moral of that story is: Hollywood has been doing that since Chinatown—but at least that movie knew what it was doing.

March 1, 2007

Byline: Angelina Jolie?

Angelina Jolie, the famous film star, adoptive mom, and UN Goodwill Ambassador, has a new title to add to her resume: journalist. Or at least, that's what the Washington Post seems to think. Ms. Jolie recently penned an op-ed for the Post about her work in Darfur.

The first thing that struck me was, why is a celebrity writing on Darfur? Doesn't WaPo have actual, trained reporters to do those kinds of things? I trust the Washington Post because I assume its writers are well-versed in their fields and have years of experience writing for the media. Having celebs—and I'm sorry, but that's what Angelina Jolie is—write may boost your circulation, but it just furthers the trend, seen on News Wars, of media outlets pushing themselves as entertainment, rather than reliable sources of information.

Speaking of reporting, even though Angelina is a UN Goodwill Ambassador, she can't get into Sudan. A camp in eastern Chad is as close as she can get, the UNHCR told her, because aid workers are increasingly at risk of attack. However, Ms. Jolie did talk to some refugees who asked for better accommodations and war crimes trials for the men who raped, tortured, and killed their families.

"Accountability is a powerful force," Ms. Jolie wrote. "It has the potential to change behavior -- to check aggression by those who are used to acting with impunity. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), has said that genocide is not a crime of passion; it is a calculated offense. He's right. When crimes against humanity are punished consistently and severely, the killers' calculus will change."

The writing sounds more fit for a rubber-chicken fund-raiser dinner than for the Washington Post, but all snarkiness aside, it is brave of Ms. Jolie to leave the sheltered, pampered world of Hollywood and schlep all the way to Africa to witness the aftermath of a violent genocide. And it is admirable that she is working hard to bring awareness to the issue. More than that, it's sad that it takes a movie star to shine a light on the situation. Peace treaties, as Angelina points out, have repeatedly failed. If Angelina, the Tomb Raider, can't make our government sit up and take action, who can?

--Jen Phillips

John Amaechi on Being Gay in Pro Sports

John Amaechi, the former NBA player who came out earlier this month, only to be publicly bashed by fellow NBA alum Tim Hardaway (whom the NBA then reprimanded), conducted an online chat with the Washington Post earlier today. He has a lot to say about gay issues and life in pro sports. Here are the most alarm-sounding comments.

Amaechi was asked whether he thought black or white communities, the US or the UK were more homophobic. His reply:

I don't think that Europe and the UK is a utopia, but governmental backing of homophobia doesn't exist in the same way it does in America. As for the white and black communities, I think they have a disconnect that is being manipulated by people for political gain. I think both regional and national elections are being won on the back of trumped up bigotry.

Asked whether any of his former teammates had contacted him since he came out, he said, "I have heard from some former teammates from college but not from the pros."

Global Warming...Are You Ready?

Diesel shoppers surely are. I can't believe I missed this. Diesel's new ad campaign for their Spring/Summer '07 collection, is out, and my oh my, just wait until you see what they have in store. The campaign is based on the premise of whether or not you (their client) are ready (Read: Do you have the right clothing and accessories?) for the hot temps of global warming. Yes, this is for real. There is even a video which warns of the dangers associated with a warming climate, but urges fashion lovers not to distress, and instead take action (of course, in the form of bolstering your wardrobe with warm-weather essentials). You really have to see it for yourself.

Keep up on the latest news about global warming at the MoJo science and health blog, The Blue Marble.

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