Vomit and scratch
A fan from the 4AD forum, praising Psychocandy by the Jesus and Mary Chain:
You just want to throw it on the turntable, vomit on the floor, and then scratch something repeatedly.
Ha ha. A classic comment about a classic album.
Brian Eno famously said that only a few people bought the Velvet Underground's records, but all of those people were then inspired to start their own band. I remember someone from Slowdive once stated that the same could be said of JAMC and how they inspired the wave of UK shoegazer bands in the early '90s.
March 23, 2003 at 12:06 PM in Music | Permalink
DJ Shadow is back
You can download March of Death, a new DJ Shadow track, from former RATM man Zack de la Rocha's homepage.
It's rap-n-roll-n-turntablism done well. Still, given the dead-end limits of that genre, it can't help but sound like Linkin Park, albeit with a political consciousness.
March 23, 2003 at 11:56 AM in Music | Permalink
Hot new label
Ann Aimee looks very promising. Check out the short MP3 samples from the latest release, Noki Bay - sparkling, goosebump-inducing Detroit-flavored techno.
Noki Bay was produced by one of my favorites, CiM, whose debut album Reference is a must if you like melodic electronica.
March 11, 2003 at 02:51 PM in Music | Permalink
Stan Brakhage dead
Rest in peace.
The Brakhage Criterion DVD is on its way.
March 11, 2003 at 02:49 PM in Cinema | Permalink
Post-volleyball mutterings
In the land of the thin-skinned, I am king. Or at least an admiral.
I played volleyball tonight for the first time in a while. Volleyball is my favorite sport, mostly because it is the only sport I can claim to be reasonably good at. (Being 6' 3" helps, but as we've all seen, being tall only gets you so far in sports.) So I'm at the gym and we start playing. In the first set, I bump knees with two other people while blocking. I'm bruised but not so badly hurt. I do the polite thing to keep fellow players from worrying, and say I'm ok, even though I'm still grimacing in pain. And one guy I've never met turns and yells out loud, "everyone is doing fine, let's go back to playing."
Now, sports etiquette would suggest that, in possible injury situations, one should take at least a token moment to ensure everyone is truly doing fine - which means no one is hobbling around, grimacing in pain, like I am doing. But no: he ignores me and wants to get back to playing.
Which sets me off. Maybe Rude Guy genuinely thought I was fine. It doesn't matter. I tell him, "I'm glad you can judge and tell us how we're all feeling." Then, for the next two hours, I look for opportunities to needle him. I aim at him when I spike, and when he misses the ball, I yell, "dig that ball!" I line up to block him, and when he gets stuffed, I yell, "get that out of here!" Basically, for two hours, I act like a top-grade a-hole to Rude Guy.
I try to be good to the other players, which is my usual self on the court. I encourage them, make technique suggestions, get them excited during the set. But to Rude Guy - Mr. Lacking Sports Etiquette (Possibly) Who Ignored My Pain - I do my best impression of a jerk.
The man of my temporary obsession doesn't respond in kind, aside from the odd "yeah!" when he gets a ball by me. Mostly he looks for me when he serves or spikes, as I do with him. So both of us are doing the right thing - letting our playing do the talking - except I'm also letting my mouth do its share. And it's not as if I'm Michael Jordan, who can back up his famously nasty trash talk by, well, being really really good.
My volleyball friends have seen me like this before, so they roll their eyes and try to gently hint that I stop. But I can't, despite the now-familiar growing recognition that I'm just embarrassing myself and I'll spend the weekend regretting this incident. To quote Nick Hornby's confession from Fever Pitch, when it comes to playing sports, I am someone who can dish it out but can't take it.
As I leave the court, Rude Guy introduces himself. I apologize to him for yelling so much. He shrugs and says it's ok. Before I can tell him why I was mad in the first place, we have to walk away in separate directions. I feel tiny.
Someday I hope to grow up and be a good person with a big heart.
March 8, 2003 at 12:31 AM in Personal | Permalink
My spring break treat
Warp tour stop in Chicago, featuring Plaid, Prefuse 73, and Andrew Weatherall. (Tour details.) Catch them if you can - it should be a fun night.
March 4, 2003 at 09:00 AM in Music | Permalink
LOTR as HK flick
What if The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers were a Hong Kong action flick?
A little Photoshop magic casts Jet Li as Frodo, Tony Leung as Legolas, Andy Lau as Aragorn. (Thanks, Alex.)
March 4, 2003 at 08:39 AM in Cinema | Permalink
Blue Monday 20th anniversary
March 2003 marks the 20th anniversary of the release of New Order's Blue Monday, the best-selling 12" of all time. Despite its success, the band famously did not get rich off the song: Peter Saville's floppy-disk-inspired cover design cost too much and offset the profits, due to an expensive multi-colored strip on the side of the sleeve, which contains encoded information about the single.
I've listened to the song too many times and I usually skip over it on the best-of CDs. But there's no denying its importance in the New Order canon, showing the band in their full glorious synthpop mode for the first time. So, join me in celebrating the anniversary, and play it one more time. Just in case you don't have your copy of Substance close by:
New Order - Blue Monday (MP3, 9.5MB)
Update: Anil's sidebar link to this post reminded me that Kylie Minogue had performed a mash-up of Blue Monday and her Can't Get You Out of My Head at the Brit Awards last year. Here's the video:
Kylie Minogue - Can't Get You Out of My Head (The Brits 2002) (Real, 4.9MB)
