Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Holy Mindfuck Batman!


Every single movie that has come out in the past two years have been hit or miss for me but mostly miss. They're either completely shitty or fucking amazing. I hated Transformers. The countless explosions and visual effects don't make up for the awful plot line and script. I loved the Iron Man movies. I hated Alice in Wonderland and I thought Wolfman was hilarious (in the way that all the Twilight movies are hilarious). The amount of money put into these films is ridiculous and what's even more ridiculous is the fact that those people shellin out the money for the movie don't have any sense of how shitty the script is. 

That said, Inception is probably the best film I've seen all year. The plot is incredibly interesting and there's twists everywhere. The story is told perfectly from the foreshadowing of the start to the cliffhanger ending. The acting is phenomenal. Leonardo DiCaprio and Marion Cotillard give Oscar worthy performances and Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are fantastic, as usual. It definitely makes you think; I've been told you should see it more than once to fully understand it. But I've always been a firm believer in that the best kind of movies are the ones that make you think (I still love Hannibal because of this fact). 

Also, if anyone has seen The Runaways, let me know if it's worth the money. I don't want to waste money on Kristen Stewart but I love Joan Jett. 

Bomb the Music Industry!: The Documentary

A woman by the name of Sara Crow Goldstein is been making a documentary about Bomb the Music Industry!, the philosophies of Jeff Rosenstock, and the current DIY scene in the United States. Up until now she's been paying for the film out of her own pocket but to go any further with it, she needs help. She started a kickstarter project and it's one of the only projects that I wholeheartedly support. I have an immense love for all things Rosenstock and so I naturally will love this documentary. But for those who need more convincing, the documentary will be a deeper look at digital downloading and donation based downloads. Bomb were one of the first to give their albums away for free online (yes before Radiohead) and the documentary will go further into how the idea came about and why Rosenstock made the decision to have all his music be free. Plus it'll be nice to see some live footage of Bomb thats not shitty youtube videos.

Donate here
Bomb the Music Industry website

Monday, July 12, 2010

The Please & Thank Yous- Mind Yr P's & Q's

So I promised these guys when Mind Your P's & Q's first came out that I would happily post a review. Five months and dozens of listens later, I'm finally getting around to it. Mind Your P's & Q's is a big improvement from their last release Thank Yous... (a compilation of live tracks and demos). The vocals are better, the hooks are bigger, the drums are more creative, the bass lines are more melodic and the lyrics are ten times stronger. The Please & Thank Yous play with such energy and such emotion that it's hard not to like them. Their sound is much more distinguished. They play pop-punk. Not the shitty Boys Like Girls pop-punk. The good pop-punk (think early The Promise Ring and The Ergs!). The Please & Thank Yous are all about simplicity and it works for them. I would highly recommend this album to any music fan. Sorry it took so long to tell you how awesome you are guys. 

Key Tracks: "Be A Tree...Che?" "Speaking Of The Devil" "Fucking Honestly"

You can download the entire album for free here.

FIrst Impressions & Rock 'n' Roll Problems

For the few that read my old blog, only Brian Fallon knows why you stuck with me this long and for the new readers, hopefully you'll have enough patience and staying power to read more than one post. My last blog (bnos) focused on music rarities that I felt needed to be shared with the world. That's all fine and dandy but this one's going to be different. Sure, my main focus will still be music and sure, I'll still go off on rants and tangents but now I won't be confined to talking about just rarities. If this blog were my world, it'd be my oyster. Hopefully I won't get sick of the smell like the last one and the world won't end.

Now that introductions and explanations are taken care of, I'd like to take the time to say that I really love the Hold Steady and their amazing new album just brought that love to heights few have known. If I was Sting, I'd be singing "Every Breathe You Take" to the Hold Steady's new album. That's right, I stalk that shit. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love their old music but the main reason I listened before was of the piano and with the departure of Franz Nicolay (their piano player/multi-instramentalist) I was convinced I would hate this album. I will never doubt this band again. There isn't a song I don't like and it fits together perfectly. The album is called Heaven Is Whenever and I highly recommend checking it out if you haven't already. Oh, and if this album gets better with time, Craig Finn may have a new stalker fan on his hands. Here's a song from the album to give you a taste and a video of their appearance on the Colbert Report.

The Hold Steady - The Sweet Part of the City by stucky





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