Ah, October 31st, the night of the year when the ghosts and goblins come out from their seclusion and freely roam the streets, extorting candy from weary homeowners. Nothing scarier than that!
Anyway, as part of my attempt to get into the spirit of the holiday, I was thinking of discussing some of my favorite scary movies. That having been done several million times by now, I'm taking a road slightly less traveled:
Music for Halloween to Creep You Out and So Forth
(As chosen by a jaded hipster doofus for other jaded hipster doofi, which means no Iron Maiden)
Liars - They Were Wrong So We Drowned - This one's an obvious choice. It's a concept album about witches, for Christ's sake, but it's not one that features lots of harmonizing metal guitars and such, instead propelled by feedback and noise, and sloppy pounding drums.
Scott Walker - The Drift - This one puts Liars to shame in terms of how unsettling it is. It's insane to me that this guy used to make big gushy pop songs, while he now makes creepy avant-garde soundscapes with about as much connection to the concept of "pop music" as Enya does to the world of heavy metal. The Drift is actually unlistenably weird if I have it on by myself in the dark. Especially gut-wrenching: the part in "Jesse" where all the atonal strings suddenly drop out of the mix and Scott is left alone wailing "I'm the only one left alive!" for half a minute.
Bela Bartok - "Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste" - You know all those parts of The Shining where Jack Torrance is creeping around with that crazy gleam in his eye in that "calm before the storm" way, and there's that slim, vaguely atonal music that fits so perfectly with the mood that you barely notice it's there until it jumps out at you? That's the third movement of this.
Godspeed You Black Emperor! - f#a#oo - "We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine, and the machine is bleeding to death."
Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers - "Monster Mash" - Zombies, the Wolfman, Dracula (and his son), and Frankenstein all in one place?! In 1962, terror reached heights previously experienced only by Abbot and Costello!
And with this idea having reached its "hilarious" novelty entry, it's clear I'm out of ideas, although I did have a pretty easy target that I passed up, being that Kevin Federline's album was released today. Michael Jackson's "Thriller" is not included because I get tired of that song overshadowing the eight better songs on the album of the same name (even though it's almost ridiculous to think of "Billie Jean," "Beat It," and "P.Y.T." as being overshadowed by anything in the world of pop music).
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
More lazy quickie album reviews...
Some of these I should have written about months ago. I don't care. Here we go:
Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass - I thought Mogwai were a lock for the year's funniest album title with Mr. Beast, when along came Yo La Tengo with this sentence that looked for sure like it had to be a joke. Sonically, the album is all over the place in a way that they haven't been since 1997 (when you-know-what landmark album was released), but Yo La Tengo are about as good at ten minute guitar freakouts as they are at three minute pop gems and subtle, introspective ballads. It makes from some strange juxtapositions here and there ("Daphnia" into "I Should Have Known Better," which isn't a cover of the Beatles song, is particularly jarring), but all of it works.
Paul Simon - Surprise - Paul Simon is not exactly en vogue among the nation's youth, or anybody under the age of 50, probably, but I love him just the same. Even so, who could have seen this coming? That it's his best solo album since Graceland is a given, but that doesn't quite express how good it is, even if it's an appropriate comparison, since, like Graceland, it comes as a somewhat radical reinvention and a new direction for an artist who needed one. And this from a guy that pretty much everybody thought was over the hill after Rhythm of the Saints was released. Surprise is quite a... well, you know.
Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds - I'll admit it! I like it! Ok, I like the first half, really, and most of that credit should probably go to Timbaland, who still has a great flair for making some very weird things sound very accessible. The best moments are fascinating because the in-your-face sexuality is betrayed by the weird, robotic, and sometimes abrasive grooves. Seriously, "Sexyback" is not sexy at all, but I love it anyway for the heavy distorted disco beat and those weird filtered vocals. Meanwhile, "My Love" is probably the coolest song I've heard all year, and "Love Stoned" is a great experiment in how the same words can change meaning with context. The lyrics are often laughably bad, and the second half drags to the point where I can barely finish it in one sitting, but it's a lot more than I ever expected from the star of *NSYNC.
The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America - Blah blah blah liquor blah blah blah anthem blah blah Springsteen. I never thought I'd see the day when it would be hip to be influenced by Bruce Springsteen, but here we are. I will gladly welcome it. This is big, huge rock and roll done right, and everybody needs a fix of that once in a while. And if it eventually results in a few more hipsters with whom I can talk about the genius of "Jungleland," I have no problem with that either.
Zero 7 - The Garden - I honestly can't recall whether or not I've talked about this one on this blog before, which seems about right. Jose Gonzalez (the man with the most generic Hispanic name in the world) is a great fit for Zero 7, and Sia Furler is still churning out her soul-by-numbers, but they've lost their charm since Simple Things as they've veered away from down-tempo jamming and more toward faceless adult contemporary pop. That said, "You're My Flame" and "Futures" are still great, and their version of Gonzalez's "Crosses" is about as good as the original, which was outstanding itself.
Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass - I thought Mogwai were a lock for the year's funniest album title with Mr. Beast, when along came Yo La Tengo with this sentence that looked for sure like it had to be a joke. Sonically, the album is all over the place in a way that they haven't been since 1997 (when you-know-what landmark album was released), but Yo La Tengo are about as good at ten minute guitar freakouts as they are at three minute pop gems and subtle, introspective ballads. It makes from some strange juxtapositions here and there ("Daphnia" into "I Should Have Known Better," which isn't a cover of the Beatles song, is particularly jarring), but all of it works.
Paul Simon - Surprise - Paul Simon is not exactly en vogue among the nation's youth, or anybody under the age of 50, probably, but I love him just the same. Even so, who could have seen this coming? That it's his best solo album since Graceland is a given, but that doesn't quite express how good it is, even if it's an appropriate comparison, since, like Graceland, it comes as a somewhat radical reinvention and a new direction for an artist who needed one. And this from a guy that pretty much everybody thought was over the hill after Rhythm of the Saints was released. Surprise is quite a... well, you know.
Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds - I'll admit it! I like it! Ok, I like the first half, really, and most of that credit should probably go to Timbaland, who still has a great flair for making some very weird things sound very accessible. The best moments are fascinating because the in-your-face sexuality is betrayed by the weird, robotic, and sometimes abrasive grooves. Seriously, "Sexyback" is not sexy at all, but I love it anyway for the heavy distorted disco beat and those weird filtered vocals. Meanwhile, "My Love" is probably the coolest song I've heard all year, and "Love Stoned" is a great experiment in how the same words can change meaning with context. The lyrics are often laughably bad, and the second half drags to the point where I can barely finish it in one sitting, but it's a lot more than I ever expected from the star of *NSYNC.
The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America - Blah blah blah liquor blah blah blah anthem blah blah Springsteen. I never thought I'd see the day when it would be hip to be influenced by Bruce Springsteen, but here we are. I will gladly welcome it. This is big, huge rock and roll done right, and everybody needs a fix of that once in a while. And if it eventually results in a few more hipsters with whom I can talk about the genius of "Jungleland," I have no problem with that either.
Zero 7 - The Garden - I honestly can't recall whether or not I've talked about this one on this blog before, which seems about right. Jose Gonzalez (the man with the most generic Hispanic name in the world) is a great fit for Zero 7, and Sia Furler is still churning out her soul-by-numbers, but they've lost their charm since Simple Things as they've veered away from down-tempo jamming and more toward faceless adult contemporary pop. That said, "You're My Flame" and "Futures" are still great, and their version of Gonzalez's "Crosses" is about as good as the original, which was outstanding itself.
Friday, October 13, 2006
One more thought about Cory Lidle...
You don't need me to tell you how strange and tragic Cory Lidle's sudden passing was. Instead, I'll leave you with a memory of my favorite moment during Cory Lidle's tenure with the Phillies.
It was a game earlier in the 2006 season against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Cory Lidle wasn't even pitching (I don't remember who was). It was a fairly normal game, when Julio Lugo of Tampa Bay attempted a bunt that rolled foul, and suddenly the home plate umpire turned toward the Phillies dugout and waved his arm, ejecting somebody, and Cory Lidle ran out on to the field screaming about something.
I've watched thousands of baseball games in my brief time here on this planet, and I can't ever recall a player getting ejected from a game he wasn't playing in in a non-brawl situation. We found out after the game that apparently Lidle took offense to Lugo attempting a bunt hit with two outs when his team had a four run lead and yelled at him from the dugout.
And that's why Cory Lidle was one of my favorite Phillies during his time here. He wasn't a Cy Young pitcher (though when he was hot, he bore a very strong resemblance to Greg Maddux), but he knew how to play the game, he knew his role, he was always open and honest (even if it got him into trouble, as it did mere days before his death), and he called bullshit when he saw bullshit. Baseball could use more guys like Cory. He'll be missed.
One more thing: while we're on the subject of the passing of former Phillies, condolences are in order for the family of Johnny Callison.
It was a game earlier in the 2006 season against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Cory Lidle wasn't even pitching (I don't remember who was). It was a fairly normal game, when Julio Lugo of Tampa Bay attempted a bunt that rolled foul, and suddenly the home plate umpire turned toward the Phillies dugout and waved his arm, ejecting somebody, and Cory Lidle ran out on to the field screaming about something.
I've watched thousands of baseball games in my brief time here on this planet, and I can't ever recall a player getting ejected from a game he wasn't playing in in a non-brawl situation. We found out after the game that apparently Lidle took offense to Lugo attempting a bunt hit with two outs when his team had a four run lead and yelled at him from the dugout.
And that's why Cory Lidle was one of my favorite Phillies during his time here. He wasn't a Cy Young pitcher (though when he was hot, he bore a very strong resemblance to Greg Maddux), but he knew how to play the game, he knew his role, he was always open and honest (even if it got him into trouble, as it did mere days before his death), and he called bullshit when he saw bullshit. Baseball could use more guys like Cory. He'll be missed.
One more thing: while we're on the subject of the passing of former Phillies, condolences are in order for the family of Johnny Callison.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Remember several months ago, when Cory Lidle was famous mostly for being thrown in with Bobby Abreu in that infamous trade to the Yankees?
Those days are just about over, I would think.
It's really bizarre, because I was reading about the crash, before they knew who the pilot was, and was shocked that an airplane flew into a building in Manhattan. Then I refreshed the page to see if anything had been updated, and saw that not only was the pilot somebody I'd heard of, it was somebody I knew a lot about, and had been rooting for for a couple years. It was somebody I'd seen pitch in person plenty of times. So weird...
Those days are just about over, I would think.
It's really bizarre, because I was reading about the crash, before they knew who the pilot was, and was shocked that an airplane flew into a building in Manhattan. Then I refreshed the page to see if anything had been updated, and saw that not only was the pilot somebody I'd heard of, it was somebody I knew a lot about, and had been rooting for for a couple years. It was somebody I'd seen pitch in person plenty of times. So weird...
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