<![CDATA[CHUD.com - A Movie Website and SO MUCH MORE. - Blogs]]> http://chud.com/articles en-us N/A nicknunziata@gmail.com Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:34:01 EST 20 <![CDATA[200 Words on Singularity]]> http://chud.com/articles/blogs/2143/200-Words-on-Singularity.html 200 Words is a daily burst of ideas, thoughts, or impressions on media, film, and filmmaking. The goal is nothing more or less than conversation.


11/20/09

In an IBM research center, there sits a supercomputer that was recently benchmarked, computating a simulation of the human visual cortex. This equates to somewhere around 1.5 billion neurons and 9 trillion synapses- more processing power than a cat’s brain. This feat required an acre-sized data center employing almost 150,000 processors. Consider for a moment, that an acre-sized computer 20 years ago couldn’t even match the capabilities of an iPhone. We’re heading somewheres folks.

There is little value I can bring to the singularity conversation in so short a space.  What I wanted to mention was that from time to time I like to sit back and appreciate the fact that, without a doubt, we are living in a time that will see as much or more change in the human experience than any other moment in the history of our species.  Looking at the almost frighteningly predictable curve on which human communication technology has progressed, it becomes clear we are nearing the asymptotic conclusion of our exponential race towards… whatever.  I’m not expecting Terminator or The Matrix, Bradbury or Asimov. That’s the delightful thing about real progress- it’s always unexpected, even when completely inevitable!

Put this in your eyes:





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Sources | Super-Computer Article
]]> no@spam.com (Renn Brown) Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST http://chud.com/articles/blogs/2143/200-Words-on-Singularity.html <![CDATA[Bloggunhymen - Who cares what psyciatrists write on walls?!]]> http://chud.com/articles/blogs/2142/Bloggunhymen---Who-cares-what-psyciatrists-write-on-walls.html 12 Monkeys for the first time in several years. I had forgotten about the themes revolving around psychiatry and just remembered the movie as being about an inevitable time loop that I always regarded Bruce Willis as being too dumb to figure out in time, even though the audience had it down maybe 3 quarters of the way into it. That being said, I always enjoyed the movie a lot especially for its gleefully insane Brad Pitt. Anyway, if you haven't caught the flick in a while, you really should. My favorite Gilliam movie by far.

I am a person who is rather distrustful of psychiatry. I often think especially that, at least in Canada, child psychology/psychiatry is truly diabolical. These fuckers stake claims on our children's behavior like it's the wild west. Every year, new disorders are popping up and hyper kids are given a laundry list of mental afflictions ranging from ADHD to "Conduct Disorder". If I were a kid in this era, I'd be so strung out on ritalin, lithium, and what-have-you that I'd hardly be a person. I'd have a list of "disorders" as long as my arm. And yet I have grown up to be a pretty normal guy. Explain that, eggheads!

Not to mention that pills seem to be the answer to everything. Sometimes I'm sure pills really help people. Other times I think it's like performing brain surgery on a paper cut.

For all my criticisms, I do believe in the traditional clinical psychology in which you sit down with a trained counselor and talk out your problems. You might be able to get the same results from an insightful friend without paying $100/hr+ but at least the method is sound.

Where 12 Monkeys gains a shade of relevance is in a great couple of lines spoken by Madeline Stowe.

"Psychiatry--it's the latest religion. And we're the priests--we decide what's right and what's wrong--we decide who's crazy and who isn't... I'm in trouble, Owen. I'm losing my faith."

Consider me an agnostic.
]]> no@spam.com (Evan McCoy) Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST http://chud.com/articles/blogs/2142/Bloggunhymen---Who-cares-what-psyciatrists-write-on-walls.html <![CDATA[Neaux Possible Way- Getting Personal, My DVR tells All]]> http://chud.com/articles/blogs/2141/Neaux-Possible-Way---Getting-Personal-My-DVR-tells-All.html
But I do consider the DVR to be just like a woman’s purse or man’s wallet, or one’s cell phone call history or personal internet history. You can learn a few things about a person, and I expect CSI or Psych to use this bit in one of their shows (Psych might have already done this).

Anyway, I shall share with you the contents of my living room DVR, because I have nothing to hide. I’m innocent.

Currently at 50% Full
Monster Jam- 3 episodes- The “Big A” episode has been tagged as "do not delete". Grave Digger wins that one and my son cries when Grave Digger doesn’t win. He’s almost 4 years old.

Imagination Movers- 5 episodes- It’s an entirely new season of Rich, Dave, Scott and Smitty, and at some point I will need to delete some of these.

The Fresh Beat Band- 4 episodes-My son might watch a lot of TV but this show makes him get off his butt and go-go. It’s Kickin’.  (Ki-Ki says that. A lot).

Sukiyaki Western Django- One day I will get around to watching this movie.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Choo Choo Express- Keeping it on the DVR is cheaper than buying the DVD. It’s Christmas themed so I’m thinking I’ll delete it December 25th.

CSI Miami-Monday Night’s Episode- The show has new life with the addition of comic-relief character CSI scientist, Walter. He’s from Louisiana and is quite funny. Besides Horatio is still a badass.

Naruto Shippuden- No Comment. Believe it.

Fringe- Observer Episode currently unseen.

So what does this say about me? First, it shows my son controls the living room TV. Secondly, I haven’t given up my love for anime or asian films. Thirdly, it assumes the wife watches more tv in the bedroom, and that would be a correct assessment. It also shows that my son doesn’t know how to work the remote (or why would I have Sukiyaki Western Django on the TV!). Finally, it does in fact show my current state of life. We use the tv as a big source of cheap entertainment at night. We are as broke as everyone else in this economy, and tv is an easy fix.
(And yes I’m probably rotting my son’s brain.)

What does your DVR say about you?
If you have taken the time to read this rambling of a post, why don’t you mosey over to the CHUD forums and gshare your DVR list. We might just dissect it and overly scutinize you! Join my little thread HERE.

Again. Thanks for reading.
]]> no@spam.com (David Simoneaux) Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST http://chud.com/articles/blogs/2141/Neaux-Possible-Way---Getting-Personal-My-DVR-tells-All.html <![CDATA[Slow-Motion Quick-Draw #94 – World’s Greatest Dad.]]> http://chud.com/articles/blogs/2140/Slow-Motion-Quick-Draw-94-a-Worldas-Greatest-Dad.html

 

Continuing with my effort to write about some under-recognized nuggets of cinematic goodness from the past year, I come to World’s Greatest Dad.  This movie is one of the most daring comedies of the year, and it is conclusive proof that you can never entirely write off anyone. 

 

World’s Greatest Dad was written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, who has actually had a very successful TV directing career (on Chappelle’s Show, among others) but will probably always be best known as the annoyingly “Grover voice” comedian from Police Academy 2 and Hot To Trot (the ‘80s movie with John Candy as the voice of a talking horse.)  It stars Robin Williams, the comedian of remarkable energy and career longevity who has been harshly derided for his choice of projects for the past couple of decades.  I have always liked Robin Williams, but it is admittedly impossible to defend the majority of his cinematic output.  For someone that talented, there’s a lot of shitstains on that resume.

 

In this movie, Robin plays Lance Clayton, a failed novelist who is stuck teaching poetry at the high school level.  He’s a single parent whose teenage son Kyle is a perverted, mean-spirited little asshole.  When would-be tragedy befalls the Claytons, Lance finds an opportunity to have his words heard on an increasingly larger stage.  I’m keeping the description as vague as I can, but trust me, this movie goes boldly to some dark, dark places.  It’s pitch-black satire that was amazingly prescient for this past summer, in the way that our modern culture’s tendency to sentimentalize the recently departed went into hyperdrive.  (Specifically, World’s Greatest Dad made me think of Michael Jackson and the way he went from a creepy, nose-less, possibly kid-fondling freak to a beloved, prodigiously talented national icon in the span of one morning.  Death was Michael’s single greatest career move.)

 

World’s Greatest Dad is unusual in its eagle-eyed observations of human (mis)behavior, and interestingly enough, as nasty and cruelly funny as it is, there are rare moments of weird and tender sweetness flavored in throughout.  Robin Williams is at his sad-faced best, and Daryl Sabara as his lost little shit deserves tons of credit for being willing to be so unlikable onscreen at such a young age.  Bold performances both.  I’m not at all reluctant to proclaim that Bobcat Goldthwait has a masterly command of comedic tone here; he navigates dangerous thematic terrain without ever losing audience interest or empathy.  Between this and his earlier feature Stay (released as Sleeping Dogs Lie), he’s got something of an auteur career going:  He has an uncanny ability to craft believable story development from shocking and disgusting inciting incidents.  He also has a way with music cues – the climactic double-whammy of “Under Pressure” by Queen & David Bowie and “Tiny Spark” by Brendan Benson provide a bizarrely exuberant backdrop for the thrilling liberation of self-destruction.  In a way I was reminded by the brilliant use of “Where Is My Mind?” by the Pixies at the end of Fight Club – there’s a similar nihilistic optimism at work here.  World’s Greatest Dad, like Stay (which felt like a strong warm-up exercise for the polish of the newer movie), both relish in the freedom that is found through truth-telling, as risky and potentially destructive as it can be.  Sometimes you have to tear it all down to feel truly refreshed.

 

World’s Greatest Dad is coming to DVD on December 8th.  Watch it with your dad.  (I did with mine!  Only a little awkward.)

 

http://twitter.com/jonnyabomb

 

]]> no@spam.com (Jon Abrams) Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST http://chud.com/articles/blogs/2140/Slow-Motion-Quick-Draw-94-a-Worldas-Greatest-Dad.html <![CDATA[200 Words on Kip Thunder]]> http://chud.com/articles/blogs/2138/200-Words-on-Kip-Thunder.html 200 Words is a daily burst of ideas, thoughts, or impressions on media, film, and filmmaking. The goal is nothing more or less than conversation.


11/19/09

The Adventures of Kip Thunder and Jeff represents the most effort I’ve ever put into… well, anything really. Originally slated only as a Producer, it was standing in a 20,000 sq’ warehouse surrounded by meager piles of wood and an even flimsier construction plan that I had to step up to fill in gaps that needed to be filled. The film’s primary production designer had designed lovely sets and a solid approach to building them, but it became clear that none of us had a real clue what we were getting into.

Fortunately I was gifted with ample time (or at least willingness to abandon other pursuits) and years of watching my father be competent at nearly everything.  It took some blood, sweat, and tears, but I slowly discovered there had been more osmotic absorption of skills over the years than I’d realized. In the end we put together a pretty incredible set, I think (for very little $$$).

What we started with:



Completed Engine Room:



The alien "Director" character:



Some Engine Room detail:



Me. wiring up a fan:



Filming in the Bridge:



Bridge detail:



Propaganda poster I made for the Storage Room set:



My favorite picture (me playing pilot).

]]> no@spam.com (Renn Brown) Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST http://chud.com/articles/blogs/2138/200-Words-on-Kip-Thunder.html <![CDATA[Why can't you see, E? You belong with me, E.]]> http://chud.com/articles/blogs/2137/Why-can039t-you-see-E--You-belong-with-me-E.html So, Twilight:New Moon (Not to be confused with Twilight:Newman) comes out tomorrow. It may not be cool to say so, but I'll probably be checking it out in the theater. Maybe the dollar theater, since I'm not in a frenzy for it.

I was introduced to the Twilight phenomenon the same way I'm introduced to many blips in the pop culture radar; from an Entertainment Weekly left on top of a friend's toilet. I giggled at the too serious looks, the ridiculous coifs and the over-the-top makeup. I filed it away under "uninterested". Then, a couple of months later, girl friends of mine in the target age range (late teens, early twenties) start to recommend this book to me. While highly doubtful, I'm never one to turn down a recommendation, and dove right into the book Twilight. Easily one of the worst books I've ever read. When I brought my book report back to the girls, some of them even responded with "Oh, yeah, the FIRST book isn't very good! But once you get into it, the series is really great!". Interestingly enough, I haven't met a Twilight fan yet who actually likes all four of the books; they always have at least one that they really hate (Usually New Moon).

After that, the infamous "Fuck This Face" blogs on CHUD, which was some of the most hilarious and spot on stuff that I've read on here. The movie came out, and I heard good reviews from the people who loved the books, but they were obviously never to be trusted again. So I didn't see it in the theater, had no interest, but as almost a joke decided to watch it on video with my girlfriend, who also despised the book. Surprisingly enough, we both actually enjoyed it.

Granted, this was not a difficult book to improve on, but they really did improve on it in every way. Gone were the endless, tedious monologues. They introduced the villains right away, instead of throwing them randomly in at the end; this added a bit more suspense to the piece. The photography by Elliot Davis was pretty, as was the scenery. The score by Burwell was solid, if a bit familiar sounding (The Spanish Prisoner, maybe?). And Catherine Hardwicke (Of whose movies I'd only seen Thirteen and The Nativity Story, and hated both) did a good job of grounding the ridiculous story in a certain degree of day to day reality. And the special fx. . . Well, it was done on the cheap, and they were serviceable.

Vampire romances have been done to death (Har har har!), but I liked the somewhat fresh spin here. This isn't for the goth kids; they have Lestat and White Wolf Larping. This is for the girls who are too timid to be goth; the ones who classify themselves as "edgy" because they have a Jack Skellington clock, or something.

If most vampire romances have a tinge of violent sexuality lurking beneath the surface, this is clearly the pro-abstinence version of that story. And I think that's cute. Not because I'm a staunch advocate for abstinence, but simply because it's something that I haven't seen before. Clearly this book is the product of a repressed libido. But is that inherently bad? The novel Dracula comes off as highly conservative through modern eyes; anti-women's lib, pro-religion, anti-semetic, anti-Darwinian, etc. It's as much fun to read between the lines as it is to read the lines themselves, and I feel the same way about Twilight.

The movie, not the book. Because the book was just too damn painful. ]]> no@spam.com (Phil Dean) Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST http://chud.com/articles/blogs/2137/Why-can039t-you-see-E--You-belong-with-me-E.html <![CDATA[Neaux Possible Way- Hockey Battle for Last Place]]> http://chud.com/articles/blogs/2136/Neaux-Possible-Way--Hockey-Battle-for-Last-Place.html
But will the NHL world be happy with the Hurricanes earning the title “The Best of the Worst”? Toronto fans might not like losing a #1 stat.

Here are my reasons that Carolina should win the title of “The Best of the Worst”.

1) The Hurricanes have just recalled their SECOND goalie for tonight’s game. Yes. Our #1 and #2 goalies are injured. We now have a new goalie Manny Legace under contract. We have also called up Justin Peters from the Albany River Rats for a back-up goalie. Have you done the math? That is 4 freakin’ goalies on one team. (Note: Cam Ward was put on Long Team Injured Reserve today)

2) More Injuries! Eric Staal has been our franchise player. He’s been slow this year. He’s been injured and out of the line-up for a while. Staal is not expected back until December. Our #1 Goalie Cam Ward is out after being sliced by a skate. One of our better defensemen, Joni Pitkanen injured and out for at least another week. Bruiser Scott Walker will be out at least 2 weeks as well. The Carolina Hurricanes have been dealing with almost an injured player a game.

3) We tied a franchise record of losing 14 games IN A ROW. We have not won a single game on the road.

4)We lost to Toronto on Nov 6th to earn the title of Last Place once already.

Certainly we are the worst team, right?

Not necessarily. Our possible starting goalie Manny Legace looked sharp in the Canes previous game by going against 6 shootout snipers for Montreal.

Carolina Hurricane call up Brandon Sutter has been lighting the lamp on a regular basis and has pretty much cemented his spot on the roster. Many fans including me think the team needs to rebuild around this future NHL all-star. He is that good.

We have great offensive talent. Jussi Jokinen is stellar and now holds the only title of having the highest number of shootout goals in the NHL with 25. Tuomo Ruutu is hot again. Samsonov and Whitney are key veterans who continue to get points in assists.

We also play at home tonight and are on a 4 point streak.

So why do I want us to lose? Honestly, I don’t. I like our team and every player on it. I want us to get our act together and go on a 14 game winning streak. But with the way the Hurricanes have botched up this season, so early in the season, we need this title of Best of the Worst. If we are on the bottom AGAIN, just maybe the General Manager will make a big move, whether it be a trade of a big player, more waivers, or a firing of a coach. We need something to happen this week to send a message.

I’ll end with a bit of Hurricane History: The Carolina Hurricanes won the Cup in 2006. We went on a tear last year in the playoffs and took down giants like the NJ Devils and Boston Bruins. We shattered a lot of dreams in 2009 including our own as we were spanked against the Penguins in the Eastern Division Finals. We do cool things, and yet we don’t get much respect. For Example: we brought sexy cheerleaders to the sport of hockey. We even tailgate before hockey events. We Hurricanes Fans have a lot of fun, but losing is not very fun.

]]> no@spam.com (David Simoneaux) Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST http://chud.com/articles/blogs/2136/Neaux-Possible-Way--Hockey-Battle-for-Last-Place.html <![CDATA[Being an Introduction to my blog, and a rambling series of half-formed thoughts from there on out.]]> http://chud.com/articles/blogs/2135/Being-an-Introduction-to-my-blog-and-a-rambling-series-of-half-formed-thoughts-from-there-on-out.html
Now that I've got this whole thing off to an embarrassing start I might as well make a few observations:

1) I have become terrible at getting out to see movies.  I feel terrible because of this, and sometimes feel like a fool for reading and posting at a movie website as often as I do.  I think I'm going to take some drastic steps to rectify this fact.  Don't worry or anything, but if you happen to turn on the news and see that some nut has passed out in a theater from exhaustion, malnourishment and dehydration, but couldn't afford medical attention because all his money was spent on movie tickets and concessions (add caffeine overdose and salt poisoning to that list of symptoms) please send cash to which ever hospital I have been admitted to.

2)The Gold Line in Los Angeles now extends into East L.A.  This pleases me, though I don't live in L.A. proper (East or otherwise).  Congrats Los Angeles, it's taken you 20 years to develop half as good a mass transit system as you used to have 50 years ago (this is more GM's fault than anything, but still) !

3)There is simply too much music.  I've discovered recently that I'm able to appreciate far more in the way of musical styles than many people I know.  Any sense of satisfaction I might derive from this is cancelled out by the fact that my brain is currently trying to sort between and balance interests in Hip-Hop, Jazz, Indie music, Classical Music, Contemporary Classical Music (minimalist, post-minimalist, post-post-minimalist and otherwise), and a backlog of albums and artists of various genres from the past 40 years.  As I write this I'm contemplating switching from a CD of Leonard Bernstein compositions to the unreleased Danger Mouse/Sparklehorse album, or possibly the Them Crooked Vultures album (a surly part of my brain is shouting something about The Style Council).  I think I am going insane.

A few things that have been on my mind of late:

1) The relative qualities of the various cinematic takes on Batman, especially comparing The Dark Knight and Batman Returns.  I've made a post today mentioning this, and I imagine it might very well become a blog post at some point.

2) The musical, its relation to Opera, and its status in the world of film.

3) Mozart's Requiem.  I recently purchased three separate completions of the Requiem (he dies before finishing it after all) at Ameoba's classical music sale.  I think I have a problem.

4) Politics.

5) How I need to go get the new Star Trek blu-ray.  This is admittedly less of a preoccupation of my time than the other things I have listed here.

CD's that might be worth checking out:

1) Them Crooked Vultures.  This album is pretty damned solid, and has some great rhythm section work.  John Paul Jones and Dave Grohl were born to play together.  Josh Homme isn't too shabby either.

2) The Cribs: Ignore the Ignorant.  This one popped up on my radar mainly because of Johnny Marr.  Yes, this is yet another indie band he's joined up with, but it's about as far from Modest Mouse as you can get.  Real good, straight up guitar rock that has a touch of The Smiths in it courtesy of Marr.

3) John Adams: Naive and Sentimental Music.  Admittedly not everyone's cup of tea.  John Adams is a current composer of Classical Music that might be described as post-minimalist, though that doesn't really begin to cover it, as his sense of melody works on a higher level than most composers working off a minimalist base, still the basic rhythmic pulse is there to varying degrees, so a subset of minimalism it is.  This piece is effectively a symphony in three movements played by the LA Phil, conducted by Essa-Pekka Salonen.  It's several years old but I've been listening to it recently and thought I might as well throw it up here.  For what it's worth, Adams is probably the best American composer since Bernstein.

Well that's all I've got right now.  Sorry for the rambling, but a brain dump seemed to be in order.  I promise that future entries will be more focused and concise, and less like the portrait of a man losing his mind.  If you've made it this far, thanks for reading.  Hopefully this hasn't scared you off from reading my stuff in the future.
]]> no@spam.com (Billy Youngblood) Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST http://chud.com/articles/blogs/2135/Being-an-Introduction-to-my-blog-and-a-rambling-series-of-half-formed-thoughts-from-there-on-out.html <![CDATA[Them Crooked Vultures]]> http://chud.com/articles/blogs/2134/Them-Crooked-Vultures.html
Hell Yeah!!!

Cheesy reaction? Maybe. But a more seriously well-deserved exclamation perhaps has not been sounded since, oh, maybe since QOTSA's Rated R or Led Zeppelin's second album were released to rabid fans. In fact, if I were to tell you that at one point, when the Clavinet lead in track #6 'Scumbag Blues' came on I jumped from my seat and pumped my fist in the air would I be risking a slew of justified mockery?

Probably. But I could care less. In case no one's noticed I am a music junkie/snob/fanboy extraordinaire and to have a collaboration like this, that rocks this damn hard, well, I'll take the jabs and then some. Because simply put, Them Crooked Vultures RULES!!!

Thirteen tracks. Let's start there. If you were to ask the cut I'd imitate Joe Cabot's Thing-like voice and say, 'Juicy Junior. Reeeaaal juicy!' We've got Homme on guitar and vocals, Grohl on the skins* and John Paul Jones on Bass and various keys. JOHN PAUL JONES!!! Other than being one-forth of possibly the greatest rock band of all time (yeah, I mean that) this guy is one of the meanest masters of the thick-stringed axe to ever live. Everyone in Zeppelin was top tier** but the rhythm section - Bonzo and Jonesy were, along with Moon and Entwistle, among the archetypal powerhouses we would see influence bands like The MC5, The Jesus Lizard, and even some sludgier stuff like The Melvins and Helmet.

I'd be lying if I didn't say that to a degree the album sounds like the new QOTSA album. The recording technique especially reminds me of Era Vulgaris - a lot of room on the drums and vocals, and more than you'd usually hear on the guitars of a modern rock album. My theory since Era has been that Mr. Homme has gone back to eating hallucinogenics and playing his guitar in the desert and this has influenced his approach to capturing the feeling of that massive desolation on his records. The influence of Kyuss' heyday generator parties and the Desert Sessions is always felt in Queens, but these last two efforts, it's a major part of the sound. Neither Era nor Vultures sound like anything else Homme's done in Queens and I for one like the mutation. But to say that Vultures sounds like the next logical Queens album also undermines it, because there is A LOT of JPJ and Dave Grohl on this thing.

For one the clav's (is that the Hohner Clavinet?), organs and bass effects scream of Zeppelin. That aforementioned bit in Scumbag Blues is so reminiscent of Zep's Trampled Under Foot it's a thrill. But then there's the riffage. Some is classic Homme, that Kyuss-and-beyond-sci-fi sound, but some is also trilly and very English - reminiscent of Jones' 1999 mind-fuckin' solo album ZOOMA. And the Zep comparisons don't stop there either, because Grohl plays his drums really hard here - obviously the man is no Bonzo (not an insult - who is?) but he tries and sounds great doing it here. Again, lots of room on the kit in some tracks and you can hear the way he is just beating the hell out of the skins. It's common knowledge that Bonzo was often mic'd from far away, like outside the room and down the stairwell far away, and that's what Grohl is going for here.

People complain all the time that there's no good rock music any more. It irritates me more and more because I often feel like I would go broke if I actually tried to buy everything that comes out every year that is good. Of course a lot of those folks who complain have been singing the same lazy song since, oh, let's say 1994, when a certain band ceased after its front man's suicide. Those are the folks that, in reality, really aren't all that into music - they were at the time because it was the boom wave to be so and this constant complaining is their way of getting out of saying that they're really just too lazy and fickle to love music enough to go out and FIND the good stuff. Lot's of great bands out there working their asses off folks, but the trick is you've gotta find 'em. In most cases radio and/or empty-v aren't going to give them to you. In the case of TCV they will because it's a band comprised of modern legends. Just remember, maximum volume yields maximum results.

I'll leave you with my a quote of my favorite non-Morrissey lyrics in quite some time:

"On the good ship Lollygag- LSD and a bloody pile of rags" - track #9, Interludes with Ludes.

Nice. Who says poetry is dead?
.................

* Where he belongs. Sorry, I respect the hell out of the man, I mean, who in 1994 would have thought the drummer from Nirvana would have gone on to do anything,  but I couldn't care less about the foo fighter's sometimes sappy, often crappy style of radio-rock.

** Even though Plant's sometimes masturbatory oo's, ah's & ah-pushes could get a bit embarrassing while driving around with my parents in their wood-paneled Chrysler Mini-van listening to the box set that introduced me to them in 1990.
]]> no@spam.com (Shawn C. Baker) Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST http://chud.com/articles/blogs/2134/Them-Crooked-Vultures.html <![CDATA[Neaux Way Possible- Open Your Ears!]]> http://chud.com/articles/blogs/2133/Neaux-Way-Possible--Open-Your-Ears.html In my spare time, I'm usually looking at international music websites (lots of British, Japanese and Korean fansites and record label sites) trying to find new and interesting music, because the American rock scene continues to bore me. I take the good with a lot of the bad, but occasionally I find a few spectacular bands that are on the verge of greatness.

Here is my top 5 list of the best rock songs, records or bands I have heard this year outside of the U.S.

1) The Bawdies-
If you haven’t heard of the Bawdies, I think you might very soon. If there was a Japanese rock band ready to take the world by storm, it would be these guys. They have a retro 50’s and 60’s sound, they sing in English, and their older material almost mimics the Beatles. Now before you roll your eyes, you NEED to hear the lead singer, ROY’s voice. You’ve never expect this voice to come out of this dude. It is deep and raspy and leans the group more towards The Strokes than the Beatles. Their current release is “It’s Too Late” and will be off a forthcoming major label release. Watch them at the Victor Music Channel on youtube.

2) Doimoi-
I’m championing this Japanese band because I love their second album “Dialectic and Apocalypse” (released in October) to bits and pieces. It is in constant rotation in my car, and I think the song “Olympic” is one of the best songs of the year.  Doimoi makes me happy. They represent and bring back the 90’s rock music from hard rock bands that were just a little harder than grunge and different enough to be alternative from the alternative. For Example: Clutch, Helmet, and Primus and the darker tracks and deeper cuts of Soundgarden, STP, Quicksand and the Foo Fighters.These bands will never get heard on your standard classic rock stations on the radio today.  Doimoi takes all of these sounds in and spits out a wonderful 30 minute blast of record. Take a listen to Doimoi’s single “Olympic” at their myspace and cry a tear of joy.

3)Your Gold, My Pink-
It’s very hard to describe this Japanese quartet, except noisy and fun rock. The first single off of their 7 song CD “Parade” is “Are you sensitive” and it will put a smile on your face. Watch their video and tell me this band isn’t having fun?
Maybe echos of Nirvana and The Vines? I’m not sure, but I like it. “Parade” hit Japanese shelves in October and you can listen to many tracks off the album on their myspace page.

4)13 Steps-
This is a Korean hardcore band that seems to show their love of Pantera in 1:30 seconds. Watch “Against All” on youtube now and try not to flinch.

5)Ogre You Asshole
Yes, this band was named after a line from Revenge of the Nerds, and these guys are currently Japan's indie darlings. They just released a new album in October entitled "Fog Lamp", and it is on my christmas wishlist this year. Take a look and listen a their first single "headlight".


That is my top 5 list of great asian rock for the year, and if you like what you hear, by all means, visit yesasia.com or Amazon of Japan's English site and open your ears to some new music.

]]> no@spam.com (David Simoneaux) Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST http://chud.com/articles/blogs/2133/Neaux-Way-Possible--Open-Your-Ears.html