Editor’s Note: I now have Netflix and a suddenly overwhelming need to document every movie I rent.Scattered thoughts on Citizen Kane after the jump. Director Orson Welles’ transformation from a dashing, electric young publisher to a broken, lonely old man is, as one of our favorite rappers would say, some serious Benjamin Button’s shit. The [...]
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Deeper Into Movies: “Citizen Kane” (1941)
New Music: Real Estate – “Beach Comber”
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Album:Teen Dream
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Track:Beachcomber
As a lifelong Southern Californian, it’s hard not to link songs about surf with the Pacific coast — but Real Estate’s “Beachcomber” shies away from the sun for a jangly trip to the Jersey shore (though not, for better or worse, Jersey Shore). The New Jersey band’s lo-fi, forlorn sound has earned them comparisons to [...]
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Critical Backlash: Simon Reynold’s Notes On The Noughties
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Artist:Simon Reynold
A brief counterpoint to Simon Reynold’s basically good Notes on the Noughties piece today, which is right about the effects but not the cause: He argues that the proliferation of good music — boosted by the cheapness of new recording technology — and cool-hunting blogs has diminished the possibility of consensus on new albums. Well, [...]
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First Look: Pants Yell! – “Received Pronunciation”
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Get it from wherever you want, but it would be foolish to pronounce Pants Yell!’s latest album as anything other than “great.” Received Pronunciation marks the band’s debut on reawakened twee giant Slumberland Records, and they picked the right record to start on. It’s their best yet, a crisp collection of simple, deadpan guitar pop [...]
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Deeper Into Movies: “Fantastic Mr. Fox”
I was left ambivalent by Wes Anderson’s last effort, The Darjeeling Limited — a movie alternately palpably emotional and adrift in its own myopic quirk (and reviewed by me here). Fantastic Mr. Fox is a return to form, and really, a new form for the director: stop-motion animation, which under his precise eye is a [...]
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Last Look: Miranda Lambert – “Revolution”
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When I listen to Miranda Lambert’s Revolution, I don’t hear Nashville. I don’t hear Tobey Keith — or even Taylor Swift. I do hear the frayed alt.country of Ryan Adams’ Cardinals, and on songs such as the feedback-fueled “That’s The Way The World Goes ‘Round,” even the punk roots of Uncle Tupelo. To be sure, [...]
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The Week In Rawk, 12.06.09: I Drink My Wine From A Porcelain Cup
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Destroyer photo by David GreenwaldRawky Awards: The 2009 Rawky Awards are here! Go vote. Jams: A great new live Destroyer track; New Buffalo is back as Sally Seltmann; Deerhunter and Atlas Sound’s latest albums reviewed (spoiler: they’re so good). News: Jon Brion’s up for a Grammy; eMusic surprises with one of the best end-of-decade lists; [...]
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Deeper Into Movies: “Scarface” (1983, Dir. Brian De Palma)
Editor’s Note: After a flurry of Black Friday and new apartment-inspired purchases, I’m now the proud owner of a 46″ flat screen TV, a Blu-ray-ready Playstation 3 and a Netflix subscription. Which means I’ll be watching a hell of a lot more movies and hopefully blogging about them regularly in this column. Future installments, this [...]
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Interviews: Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman
Interviews and shaky camera work (my first time, sorry, cinephiles) performed by yours truly at the Fantastic Mr. Fox Los Angeles premiere at the AFI Fest. The longer print versions are here and here; my video after the jump.
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Last Look: Atlas Sound – “Logos” / Deerhunter – “Rainwater Cassette Exchange”
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The last time I wrote about Deerhunter, somebody told me I had penis fingers. (I’m hoping the commenting crew will step its game up this time around.) That was two years ago and my fingers are as penis-y as ever, but having blissfully ignored the band and frontman Bradford Cox’s Atlas Sound side-project ever since, [...]
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Jon Brion: 2010 Grammy Nominee
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The Grammys have long been a (much-deserved) punching bag for people who don’t buy their music on sale at Wal-Mart, but I’d be remiss in not noting that Rawkblog hero Jon Brion has been nominated in the Production, Non-Classical category for his work on Dido’s Safe Trip Home. As for the Album of the Year [...]
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Best of the Decade: eMusic’s Suprisingly Great List
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eMusic’s best of the decade list is, at once, interesting, broad enough to please us indie kids but idiosyncratic enough to excite, and the product of actual taste — not a number-mashing staff vote. At least so it appears. A few missteps, of course (seriously, fuck Bon Iver and his ever-steadier place in the hipster [...]
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2009 Rawky Awards: The Ballots Are Open!
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Columbia PicturesIt’s here, ladies and gentleman: The 2009 (and second annual!) Rawky Awards. You didn’t let me down last year, so I expect similarly smart choices this time around. Voting will be open for one week only, with the polls closing at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, December 10 — so no dithering. Not even you, [...]
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Camera Obscurist: Flight of the Carpenter Bee
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Artist:The Camera Obscurist
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Track:Flight of the Carpenter Bee
Photo by David GreenwaldTim Hardin – “If I Were A Carpenter”: mp3More Photography: Camera Obscurist | Photography Portfolio
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Best Of 2009: Gorilla Vs. Bear’s Top 25
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A lot of credit goes to Gorilla Vs. Bear for always being ahead of the curve but more importantly, staying true to his own taste, track after track. His year-end list should turn you on to some undersung but worthy gems. Also, nice to see dude bust out the prose! Go forth.
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New Music: Sally Seltmann – “Harmony To My Heartbeat”
You already know Sally Seltmann. She wrote Feist’s “1234″ and, as New Buffalo, made two great records — one of them the 35th best record of the decade, in fact. Now she’s stepping out under her own name with a new album, Heart That’s Pounding, due this spring. “Harmony To My Heartbeat” picks up where [...]
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New Music: Destroyer – “Chinatown” (Live)
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Dan Bejar hasn’t left us wanting since the release of 2008’s underrated Trouble in Dreams. The chief Destroyer embarked on a solo tour this spring, released the epic Bay of Pigs EP, and in an October solo show in Montreal, debuted another new track — the surprisingly personal “Chinatown.”“This is a song I wrote about [...]
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The Week In Rawk, 11.29.09: Thanksgiving Edition
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Dispatches from a week I mostly took off:Real talk about the state of music criticism. A sweet live Toro Y Moi video. An Elliott Smith documentary is beginning to make the rounds. Live-Tweeting the American Music Awards.[Turkey photo by David Greenwald]
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Real Talk On The State Of Music Criticism
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Christopher R. Weingarten of hero-Twitter @1000timesyes lays the smack down about music writing 2K9 in an Eye Weekly interview: There’s not enough interest in music to warrant an economy based on writing about it… If you hire someone who’s really bright and incisive, they’re still not going to get enough Google traffic as someone who [...]
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Video: Toro Y Moi – “Blessa” (live in San Francisco)
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Toro Y Moi – “Blessa” (live in San Francisco) from Jordan Bee on Vimeo.A pair of semi-official Toro Y Moi albums have been circulating this year — a summer compilation and tour release My Touch. Both have showcased the emerging genius (yes) of South Carolina native Chaz Bundick, class president of Chillwave ‘09. With 2010’s [...]
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