Before some other hipster asshole gets to tell you any different, I'll jump the gun and inform everyone that the new Yeasayer album, Odd Blood, is really cool. Especially cool when compared to their last release, which I kind of hated. This new one is a crazy psychedelic disco pop record straight out of the '80s. It's fucking weird, but so groovy and fresh, it's hard to sit still.
The Animal Collective comparisons are inevitable. Don't get hung up on them. They both have the psychedelic thing going on, but take their inspirations from different decades and play radically different styles of pop.
Bonnaroo announcements today. I doubt I'll care much about the lineup, but I am enjoying this totally absurd announcement system of refreshing their myspace page every six minutes with one new band.
Oh, and although it's still a month a way, there's a chance that the new Titus Andronicus disc might be one of the greatest things you'll hear all year.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Superbowl party!
I'd be lying if I said last night's New Orleans Saints victory over Peyton Manning wasn't one of the most exciting nights of my life. Holy fuck, it was awesome.
Besides partying all weekend in preparation of the biggest event in television history, I also found the time to catch up with one of the movies I missed out on last year.
Hong Sang-soo's Night and Day was a film just barely released, and mostly ignored, last year by IFC, which seems to be sadly becoming a tradition in the U.S. (His wonderful Woman on the Beach got a similar release and lack of reaction late 2008). Night and Day is a hilarious story of a buffoonish Korean man, Kim, who flees to Paris when he might be arrested for smoking marijuana. He entangles himself in various relationships with other Korean girls in Paris, trying to get rid of his long gestating sexual frustration, while having emotional phone conversations with his wife back home almost every night.
The whole thing is sublimely ridiculous. Not one character appears to be emotionally stable. The conversations Kim has with each of these girls is borerline desperate, and his little quirks, such as carrying his belongings in different colored, little plastic bags everywhere he goes, are so unnerving and strange that they become laugh out loud funny.
The extremely long comedy is mostly about the sexual id of a fish out of water type, but Sang-soo makes every conversation and moment feel necessary. He gets a lot out of his richly observed and detailed characters. This and Woman on the Beach have firmly established Sang-soo as a great director of human emotions in my book.
His newest film Like You Know it All has been playing festivals for almost a year already, and was a favorite at Cannes and Toronto. I'm really hoping it finds its way to a theatrical release and gets Hong Sang-soo the attention he clearly deserves.
Who Dat!
Besides partying all weekend in preparation of the biggest event in television history, I also found the time to catch up with one of the movies I missed out on last year.
Hong Sang-soo's Night and Day was a film just barely released, and mostly ignored, last year by IFC, which seems to be sadly becoming a tradition in the U.S. (His wonderful Woman on the Beach got a similar release and lack of reaction late 2008). Night and Day is a hilarious story of a buffoonish Korean man, Kim, who flees to Paris when he might be arrested for smoking marijuana. He entangles himself in various relationships with other Korean girls in Paris, trying to get rid of his long gestating sexual frustration, while having emotional phone conversations with his wife back home almost every night.
The whole thing is sublimely ridiculous. Not one character appears to be emotionally stable. The conversations Kim has with each of these girls is borerline desperate, and his little quirks, such as carrying his belongings in different colored, little plastic bags everywhere he goes, are so unnerving and strange that they become laugh out loud funny.
The extremely long comedy is mostly about the sexual id of a fish out of water type, but Sang-soo makes every conversation and moment feel necessary. He gets a lot out of his richly observed and detailed characters. This and Woman on the Beach have firmly established Sang-soo as a great director of human emotions in my book.
His newest film Like You Know it All has been playing festivals for almost a year already, and was a favorite at Cannes and Toronto. I'm really hoping it finds its way to a theatrical release and gets Hong Sang-soo the attention he clearly deserves.
Who Dat!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
I have finally finished all of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and its equally great spin-off "Angel".
It took a long while, but it was damn worth it.
I watched everything in the order it aired on television, so I ended with a whole season of "Angel". It has to be one of the greatest endings/wrap-ups of a whole universe that I've ever had the pleasure of viewing.
It took a long while, but it was damn worth it.
I watched everything in the order it aired on television, so I ended with a whole season of "Angel". It has to be one of the greatest endings/wrap-ups of a whole universe that I've ever had the pleasure of viewing.
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