The month of January continues to churn out some great, great music as Beach House readies the release of their third LP, Teen Dream. Both Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand have made significant inroads into their spacey style of pop music since their self-titled debut in 2004, fronted prominently by Victoria’s powerful voice, which seems to have been picking up pieces of Grace Slick, Nico, and Janis Joplin throughout their last few records. So between backing up Grizzly Bear on “Two Weeks,” and pairing with Ed Droste for the motherfucking Twilight soundtrack, Victoria and Alex have been putting together easily their most polished and accessible album yet.
Teen Dream is a collection of slow-pulsed, starry, compact pop songs in a minimalistic style that’ll surely make you embarrassed to be rocking out to them – but the structure to these tracks is built just for it. First, a stock Casio beat. Then, a heartbeat, a bouncing keyboard riff of a couple of chords, and then Alex chimes in before Legrand overflows your headphones to get you swaying like a tree against sea breeze. Listening tothese songs can sometimes feel like slowly opening a dam ready to burst, letting the water crescendo in until you’re up to your eardrums in some really great mixed harmonies.Think 80’s synth meets Jefferson Airplane. Or something like that.
Gauzy, dreamy, spacey, droopy; whatever adjective you decide on, Teen Dream is worth the listen. The album’s first single, “Norway,” is easily one of the least memorable, outshined by the likes of “Zebra,” “Used To Be” and “Better Times.” Legrand sings lyrics like we experience abstract flashes of memories, pieced together by a thread of cohesion; just enough for us to follow, (”You mend to our minds and rush through our lives/We parted our lips and reached from inside”) while evoking images of shores and turning lame ass zebras into epic mythical creatures from ancient tales, (”Any way run, you run before us/Black and white horse, arching among us.”) It’s a project where Beach House have finally honed their sound into a more focused and believable consistency that is ready to be heard by a lot more pairs of ears. Catch the band tomorrow night at their record release party at The Bell House in B-Town, New Yawk. Teen Dream is out January 26th on Sub Pop Records, and hear them perform “Used to Be” and cover “Don’t Go Chasin’ Waterfalls” after the jump.
Posted by Monahan On January - 22 - 20103 COMMENTS
I didn’t want to do this again. But this durty gurl has stirred up quite the debate between me and my inner circle of friends. Some of them despise her and her trashy auto-tuned music. While others, including myself, don’t mind the glitter-covered chick and the catchiness of Tik Tok. And with just the right amount of alcohol, (by right amount I mean a lot), I might be so inclined to belt a wonderful karaoke rendition of the song.
If you read my previous post on Ke$ha’s Tik Tok, you’ll come away with the idea that I didn’t much care for her or her song. BUT, the more I heard it, the more it became entrenched in my mind. Kinda like how shit would get stuck to a wall if someone threw it. You don’t want it to be there, but it just is and you don’t wanna clean it up. You can’t deny the song’s appeal which has why it has been #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for multiple weeks and is still going strong. It has grown on me, and apparently a lot of other people. It’s kinda like if someone repeatedly farted in your face over and over. At first your like this sucks, but the more it happens, the more you start to like it. And the next thing you know, you love the stench of farts. THAT MAKES NO SENSE. Just like a good fart, the stench of Ke$ha continues to linger. Making its way onto the charts is her new single Blah Blah Blah featuring 3OH!3. 3OH!3 did that Hellen Keller song. I don’t remember the real name nor do I care. Take a listen…
Sorry. Don’t be fooled. This song is much, much worse than Tik Tok. Which makes it a terrible, terrible track. There are no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The auto-tuning is ridiculously over the top and makes her voice sound worse than it actually is. The 2 ass-wipes that are 3OH!3 add nothing to the song. Garbage. This song will not grow on me. Ke$sha could be headed into one-hit wonder land. I will cover no more Ke$ha songs. Goodbye you glitter-wearing, JD drinking, fart smelling goddess. We will always remember the little fun we had with you and Tik Tok. When’s the next Katy Perry album?
Posted by Anthony On January - 18 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
Summer is still forever away, but it’s bands like these that make it feel like those wonderfully slow July afternoons no matter what time of year it is. As the snow continues to fall in the middle of one of the coldest winters on record, Surfer Blood have been playing gig after gig up and down the east coast and through the heartland, bringing their hometown Florida sun along with them as they play songs off of their debut record, Astro Coast.
The boisterous opening chords on “Floating Vibes” hit you like the touch of hot asphalt on unsuspecting feet, and that theme sticks like melted ice cream for the duration of this perfectly paced album. Recorded in a small University of Florida dorm room, Astro Coast packs some serious top-down cruising anthems, coupled nicely with the sand-between-your-toes slow (sun)burning jams to create a much needed reminder that there’s very little to like about winter. The vocals are muffed, the guitars are echoed, and traces of early Weezer are all over these poppy songs, (listen to “Twin Peaks” while imagining Rivers in sandals and try and tell the difference) but really, that can only be a good thing. The songs often break into pieces built on different bouncing, grooving riffs that surround mellow pleas for romance (”I’m not saying I’ve earned love/But I can really use it now”), and killin’ time during hard times (”Why is everything such a chore?/I’m too young to be defeated/Let’s make fun at the video store”) while throwing around references to David Lynch and cocaine addictions. Astro Coast is a simple record with obvious influences, but sometimes that’s what we need when shit gets a little too crazy.
It’s a fantastic debut, one of the better albums I’ve heard in a while, and the chances of me listening to these songs in five months time are extremely high. Some upcoming shows include an in-store performance at Other Music in downtown Manhattan in late February, so check them out if you get a chance. Astro Coast is out January 19th on Kanine Records.
Well I guess they had to make it eventually. Judging from the fight scenes and dialogue in this trailer, I would say that its a pretty safe bet it will be worse than the last Street Fighter movie (Which is currently rockin a 4% on Rotten Tomatoes). Absolutely none of this looks remotely cool. In terms of story, it looks like a carbon copy of the video game. They took the story from a fighting game, which had little to no story to begin with. The only characters I can pick out from this trailer are Eddie Gordo, Yoshimitsu and Nina. And come someone tell me who the main character is supposed to be? Man this looks putrid. I think if they’re gonna make another movie based on a fighting game it should be Soul Calibur. Better characters, sweet weapons and bigger tits. I’m not even going to tell you the release date because you shouldn’t care. This is Iron Fist!
This young bitty hails from Montreal so anyone who thinks Canada never gave us anything, think again.
Misa started her career working as a barmaid in Cali and got into modelling in Septmeber 2006. She’s an odd but deadly combination of Dutch and Filipina, standing at 5′6″ with vitals of 34C-24-34. Usually I’m not a fan of girls with breast implants, but Misa is an exception, probably because she didn’t go overboard and definitely because she’s so damn adorable. She’s sort of under the radar now, but she’s only 22 so expect to see more of her as she picks up some steam. So far, her most notable modeling venture is a shoot she did for Maxim, check it out. According to her MySpace page, she eats Cap’n Crunch for breakfast.
This is a segment that we’ve been meaning to try out for a while, hopefully in the future you can expect to see video reviews coupled with this. What we do here is we play through the free demos on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. Once we get the video up and running you’ll get to see our stupid mugs and our actual reactions while playing the demo for the first time.
So let me kick this “Lite” version off with the demo for Dark Void, the upcoming Capcom game that allows you to “Fly Anywhere, Fight Everywhere.” The demo starts you up in the fourth chapter of the first episode. The protagonist, Will Grey, appears to be trying to repair something, gets fed up, and throws his wrench across the room. The wrench hits a prototype jet-pack sitting on the other side of the room. Right here a few things struck me as odd. Will’s voice and attitude bears a striking resemblance to Nathan Drake from Uncharted and the other guy in the cave with you, Atem, is like a watered down version of Sanchez from Assy McGee. On top of that, they seem to be in cave of some sort, right on the outskirts of an enemy stronghold, how they manage to have all this equipment with them is impressive and how the protagonist just discovers this jet-pack now is very weird. Oh yeah, and apparently there is a girl named Ava who is in some sort of trouble.
After all that is established Atem goes on to explain how dangerous the jet-pack is since it’s not finished yet, like that’s going to stop our hero. So you suit up and find your self on a cliff, this is where the fun begins. The jet pack can hover, boost you up and over things, and fly. The aerial combat isn’t half bad at all and actually reminds me of Crimson Skies, being able to do a series of evasive maneuvers using the analog sticks was big in that game. The pack also comes equipped with two high caliber machine guns, which are actually somewhat difficult to hit targets with. Aerial targets, however, can be hijacked after a pretty long sequence of quick-time events but it’s a useful tactic if you’re outnumbered. Hovering in combat can be useful too, allowing you to use your own weapons and grenades.
After doing some aerial acrobatics and taking down a handful of bogeys you have to land on solid ground. This is where the game took on a Halo sort of feel for me. The enemies are all wielding laser-based weapons that shoot varying sizes of blue bolts. After you dispose of them you can wield their weapons which are actually quite useful. Once you clear the main floor you must descend to the next floor to disable the shield generator. You encounter a new enemy here, they’re small beasts that jump at you and try to eat you… I think. Either way, the first one scared the shit out of me, I won’t lie. Once you realize what they are though they are easily disposed of. So you disable the sheild, evacuate the structure and then a cut scene plays featuring a massive machine that just blows everyone away and then the demo ends.
Before I review this bitch I also want to say that the story looks very heavily influenced by Mass Effect. The main enemy in the game, “The Watchers,” are ancient mechanical gods that aren’t completely mechanical and sentient. Much like the Geth and Reavers from Mass Effect, no? All in all though the game plays well. Having borrowed controls that have proven themselves from games like Call of Duty and Halo anyone who is a video game fan should feel at home. Hopefully the story is better than it appears to be in the demo, but for some reason I really doubt it will be. The visuals and sounds are nothing special but they aren’t bad by any means. I think what we’re going to have here is a game that is polished, playable, and enjoyable for a rent. You’ll get a few die hard fans but overall the game is average.
Here we go folks. 2009 was not really that badass of a year, but 2010 is shaping up as the year that will put some hair on your chest. Drinking steel reserve won’t. It’s pure urine. We already featured The Expendables, the most badass of them all, but here are a few more that will jack up the testosterone level.
Whoa, I didn’t see this one coming. You all know the A-Team. Thousands of rounds were shot at these guys and they were never hit. Thats how badass they are. When you think of the A-Team though what do you think of? Mr. T. It’ll be interesting to see how well the film does with Rampage Jackson in his famed role of B.A. Baracus. You can’t go wrong with Liam Neeson or Bradley Cooper though. Go and see it June 11th.
Its about time someone gave Robin Hood an edge to his game. Who better than Ridley Scott and Russel Crowe? This looks like a sweet combo of Gladiator and Braveheart. Epic as shit. We’ll all go see it starting May 14th. Green tights are a thing of the past. Lemme stick a sword through your heart instead.
Umm no, just playing dawg! Don’t see this movie you goddamn pansy.
Come on, the name of the movie is Kick-Ass! It’s about a bunch of kids, with no superpowers of any kind, who decide to become superheroes. On the surface, the premise sounds kinda lame, but then you watch this trailer featuring Hit-Girl, and they pile on the gratuitous violence and vulgar language. Kick-Ass indeed. Get in line on April 16th.
It’s a remake of the 1981 original. Here’s the synopsis: ‘The mortal son of the god Zeus embarks on a perilous journey to stop the underworld and its minions from spreading their evil to Earth as well as the heavens.’ Say no more. It has the guy from Avatar and Liam Neeson again! And a movie always looks more badass when you include a heavy fucking rock song in the trailer. Watch the gods beat on each other March 26th.
Posted by Anthony On January - 7 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
I go to the movie theater a lot. Ever since I was a kid, I always found these places to be important in the tiny scheme of things that a kid could see. Before the age of HDTVs and monster home entertainment systems, being taken to the cinema was something special – sitting down in huge, open rooms in rows with hundreds of strangers, being handed sweet and salty snacks that you had to eat before the movie was over (or else my mom wouldn’t bother buying them the next time) while being enveloped by incredible sound and color was nothing short of a spectacle. Then after the movie ends and the bright lights in the lobby melt your eyeballs, reality snaps back into place and you have a realization; so, wait, Flubber really doesn’t exist? There isn’t a Professor that’s as Nutty as that? Mr. Freeze isn’t from Austria?
That wall, that “fourth wall” that forever will divide the audience from the film no matter how hard film makers have tried to truly break through it is what every member of the audience runs straight into when the credits roll and you see how many stunt men it really took to create that awesome action scene. But that is the agreement between those in the chairs and those on the screen; make this suspension from reality worth my eleven dollars and I’ll agree to forget the taxes I still need to get done or the homework I still need to grade, spend insurmountable amounts of money for small bite sized treats and get lost for two or three hours. However, with budgets skyrocketing and box office numbers beginning to block the sun, one has to wonder, where does it all go from here? Where will Hollywood, the clear leader in film production throughout the world, push film making to in order to pull every last dollar from our hands? This question must be asked because in 2010, we’re surrounded by consumable media on every corner of society; instant Netflix, Redbox, video games, and the aforementioned and increasingly affordable home entertainment systems that make leaving your house to pay a third of your mortage to see Bruce Willis shoot someone again sound very, very unappealing.
Ok, so it’s not that expensive to go see a movie, but it’s still a hassle in a down economy…or so I thought. The recent record-breaking numbers coming from Hollywood films have been a product of these recession-like conditions and have sort of turned the movie theater into the best entertainment option in many parts of the country. The days of gawking at movie ticket prices seem to be over (but I will always rage at a $7 bag of popcorn) as the willingness to forget these ugly financial times has never been stronger. As a result, the demand for new ways to experience movies has paralleled the industry’s ticket sales, and with the turn of the new decade, Hollywood has delivered. In a big way.
In comes AVATAR, James Cameron’s decade-long labor of love. Originally planned to more immediately follow Titanic, studios balked at the insane pricetag Cameron slapped on the project, forcing him to shelve it. Well, it goes back further than that; the dude wrote the screenplay in like, two weeks in 1994, because, let’s face it, the story is pretty much lifted from Pocahantas, (which just so happened to come out that same year) but that’s not the point. The point is, Mr. Cameron had this in his head for fifteen years before it materialized into a tangible film in 2009 as he waited for technology to become advanced enough to meet his needs. If you need an example of impatience, look no further than this man, who couldn’t wait any longer for film tech to improve and decided to create his own motion capture equipment to film his own movie with. Damn. So four and a half years of designing, building and filming later, Cameron and the movie industry has given us, in my opinion, the most pronounced turning point in the short history of American films since technicolor. Until AVATAR, 3-D had been treated as a trite gimmick fit perfectly for amusement parks and nothing more, but what Cameron’s film accomplishes is more than just making things pop at you through the screen. Instead, the theater is completely filled with the movie. The cameras he had first hand in developing dissolves the fourth wall, as mid way through watching this, I had lost all track of time and place.
Yeah, this all sounds like I built a massive erection and ejaculated every ten minutes throughout this two and a half hour movie, but it’s an embarrassingly honest reaction. Seeing AVATAR in an IMAX theater is without a doubt the pinnacle of our capacity to make movies as close to reality as possible, and as I sat there watching, I blinked once or twice and began to think just how far this medium had come and how much further it had left. Cameron is using the same technology to release his next film, Battle Angel, in 2011-2012, as I’m sure he’s in absolutely no hurry to return to conventional film making. Perhaps this is going to become conventional film making. Perhaps $15 ticket prices make Hollywood suits smile wide enough to fund $300 million movies more often. The response to this film has been everything the hype had promised and then some – it’s a bonafide global phenomenon, earning, to date, over $735 million outside of the United States.
(a line for an IMAX theater in China. even communists love Cameron.)
I’m excited for the future of movies. I’m excited to see how far 3D will go, and how much more that fourth wall will dissolve. What I was exposed to a few nights ago in that IMAX theater was a movie that represented a new era for film making and a new direction for films. It’s no longer just 3D, it’s the integration of 3D while keeping the art of performance as alive as ever. It not only came a lot closer to perfecting the way three-dimensional films utilize the technology as seamlessly as possible, but it completely blurred the line between digital characters and what we perceive to be real. By the time you are half way into the film, the Na’vi no longer seem like digital animations, but real people – real actors who embody the model and not the other way around. I nerded out big time when this movie ended, the same kind of feeling I used to get going to the theater as a kid. As Roger Ebert said in his review for the film, “Watching “Avatar,” I felt sort of the same as when I saw “Star Wars” in 1977.” Just as Star Wars remains relevant to this day after it revolutionized science fiction, I’m confident that AVATAR will be looked at thirty years from now as the release that forced us to look at the genre differently, as we continue to eat our $7 dollar popcorn.
I didn’t want to do this again. But this durty gurl has stirred up quite the debate between me and my inner circle of friends. Some of them despise her and her trashy auto-tuned music. While others, including myself, don’t mind the glitter-covered chick and the catchiness of Tik Tok. And with just the right amount of alcohol, (by right amount I mean a lot), I might be so inclined to belt a wonderful karaoke rendition of the song.
