Welcome Guest! Dec 04, 2024 - 01:35 AM  
Homepage  |  Downloads  |  FAQ  |  Forums  |  Gallery  |  WebLinks
Main Menu
Online
There are 55 unlogged users and 0 registered users online.

You can log-in or register for a user account here.
  
Shearwater, Lucius, The Heavy, Raveonettes, Dog Fence   Printer-friendly page   Send this story to someone
Monday, March 28, 2016 - 08:00 AM
Posted by: Karl

Karl

OUTER SPACES drops "I Saw You" ahead of their debut LP.

SHEARWATER stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

LUCIUS stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

THE HEAVY plays a twofer from the SXSW Radio Day Stage.

THE RAVEONETTES drop "Excuses" as the latest release from their singles club.

PETER BJORN & JOHN drop "Breakin' Point," the title track for their next LP. And there's whisting for the young folks.

999: "Homicide." You better believe it.

BOB MOULD talks to the New York Times about the state of punk and learning to keep things straightforward.

KEITH RICHARDS once threatened to knife Donald Trump.

JASON ISBELL talks to the Adelaide Review. (Thx, LHB.)

ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVERS IN THE DARK: Underrated?

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Batman v Superman easily tops the chart with 170MM, the best Warner Bros.opening ever.  That suggests it will recoup its 250MM production budget and 150MM marketing costs domestically, let alone with world wide grosses. As I speculated in Friday's review, the average moviegoer seems to be liking this much more than the c ritics.  Zootopia places with 23.1MM; it's still outpacing movies like Finding Nemo and FrozenMy Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 shows with 18.1MM, and may also survive bad reviews against a 18MM budget, though the older crowd for this one pays more attention to reviews.  Miracles From Heaven takes the fourth slot with 9.5MM. The Divergent Series: Allegiant is close behind, rounding out the Top Five with  9.5MM on a steep 67 percent drop; this could get painful. 

HUGH JACKMAN was filmed helping to pull children from a riptide at Sydney's Bondi Beach.

GARRY SHANDLING's spokesman says doctors believe the comedian died from a heart attack.

MILEY CYRUS & ALICIA KEYS will replace Gwen Stefani and Pharrell Williams as coaches for season 11 of The Voice.

BEVERLY CLEARY, the author who prought us Henry Huggins, Ramona & Beazus, and Ribsy is turning 100 soon.

MARIAH CAREY canceled her Easter Sunday show in Brussels in light of the recent terrorist attacks.

PAKISTAN: A suicide bomber killed at least 65 people, mostly women and children, at a park in Lahore on Sunday in an attack claimed by a Pakistani Taliban faction which said it had targeted Christians.

SYRIAN militias armed by different parts of the U.S. war machine have begun to fight each other on the plains between the besieged city of Aleppo and the Turkish border, highlighting how little control U.S. intelligence officers and military planners have over the groups they have financed and trained in the bitter 5-year-old civil war.

HOW ISIS laid out its plans to export chaos to Europe.

THIS JUST-COMPLETED DOG FENCE needs to be taller.

BIRDS use ALLIGATORS as bodyguards.

A SUSPECTED KOMODO DRAGON was captured in NYC.

PIZZA SQUIRREL: Chicago's answer to Pizza Rat. But it's not deep-dish.

2149 Reads

Byrds, Bob Mould, Andrew Bird, Bleached, Dead Tributes, Easter Bunny   Printer-friendly page   Send this story to someone
Friday, March 25, 2016 - 08:00 AM
Posted by: Karl

Karl

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

... with THE BYRDS!  Pretty much because I dig them as we turn into Spring (or Fall).  Let's start with a rare 1965 clip of their breakthrough smash cover of "Mr. Tambourine Man."  There are screaming girls, plus go-go dancers when they hit Shivaree for "All I Really Want to Do" and "Feel A Whole Lot Better."  Next up is a rare sync of "I Knew I'd Want You." There are even more dancers when they cover Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" for Shindig! on June 23, 1965, while I'm pretty sure that's Ed Wynn introducing "Chimes of Freedom."  You might recognize the voice introducing "Bells Of Rhymney" from poolside in August 1965 and "It Won't Be Wrong" from a corral in January 1966 on Where The Action Is.  BONUS:  Want a couple in color?  Here's "Turn, Turn, Turn!" and "Mr. Spaceman." DOUBLE BONUS: A rare 1967 sync of "Eight Miles High."

BOB MOULD advance streams Patch The Sky.

ANDREW BIRD advance streams Are You Serious.

BLEACHED advance streams Welcome The Worms.

GRATEFUL DEAD tribute tracks from The War On Drugs, Courtney Barnett, Bruce Hornsby, The National, and Phosphorescent, Jenny Lewis, & Friends are online.

CAR SEAT HEADREST shares “Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales" ahead of Teens Of Denial.

GOTOBEDS drop “Real Maths:Too Much" ahead of Blood//Sugar//Secs//Traffic.

WILLIAM BELL, of Memphis' iconic Stax Records, returns after 40 years with "Three of Me."

SOUL ASYLUM's near-breakthru, "Someone to Shove."

JEFF TWEEDY talks to FasterLouder about forming a band with his son, his disdain for the idea of "dad-rock", that time he worked security for Billy Corgan in the '90s, and the BS of nostalgia for Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album.

THE NATIONAL's Matt Berninger revisits a magical teenage year for Loud and Quiet. (Thx, Frank Yang.)

TEN ESSENTIAL LATE NIGHT ALBUMS, according to Treble. (Thx, LHB.)

THE FLAMING LIPS: Ten of Their Best.

NOW SHOWING:  This weekend's wide realeases are Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which is currently scoring 31 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, scoring 26 percent.

BATMAN v SUPERMAN, despite the 31 percent rating, isn't a terrible movie.  It is, however, a deeply frustrating one.  Whearas Marvel built its Cinematic Universe over a series of films, DC uses this one film as a launch point (to varying degrees) for its universe.  When it succeeds, it does so with gusto: Gal Gadot is terrific as Wonder Woman and makes me eager to see her standalone movie.  When it fails, as it does in three other respects, the viewer is left with largely useless exposition (and a demonstration of the superiority of the Marvel method by comparison).  And that exposition is on top of the already overstuffed sequelitis that infuses this film, as BvS is largely a sequel to and exploration of the consequences of Man of Steel. Again, sometimes this works well, e.g., an early scene depicitng the Lois Lane/Clark Kent relationship is simply lovely, though not necessary.  In other spots there is sheer pointlessness, e.g., there are two scenes between Lane and then-General/ now SecDef Swanwick that really could have been one scene. Indeed, direcor Zack Snyder probably could have cut a half-hour of running time, including half of a number of fantasy sequences, and had a better film. Ironically, given the uproar of casting Ben Affleck as Batman, he's one of the least problematic things in the movie, combining the already dysfunctional Bruce Wayne with the security impulses of Dick Cheney fairly well. Given that Batman's arc pays off better than Superman's, it's a shame that his final scene with Gadot is more exposition that lacks drama or intrigue.  Also, I had fewer problems than many with Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, a/k/a the even more evil version of Mark Zuckerberg from The Social Network.  Of course, one can take issue with that conception of Luthor, despite Eisenberg's execution thereof -- but that's more a problem with the script, the source of most of BvS's problems. The screenplay has interesting themes and perhaps better set pieces than Man of Steel, but a plot so convoluted, occasionally nonsensical (Luthor's main plan does not bear much careful examination beyond plot contrivance) and littered with disposables that the emotional payoffs suffer.  I suspect regular movigoers will be kinder than the general critical response; it's just a shame it was so flabby.

GARRY SHANDLING, comedian, actor, writer and producer, known for It’s Garry Shandling’s Show and The Larry Sanders Show,” died Thursday following a "medical emergency." He was 66. Heil Hydra.

PAUL McCARTNEY joins the cast of Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. No, really.

BETTY WHITE is being sued by her longtime live-in domestic worker for allegedly failing to pay overtime and not allowing breaks.

EMMA STONE, JONAH HILL & CARY FUKUNAGA (True Detective) will be adapting the Norwegian dark comedy series Maniac for Netflix.

WHY IS THIS SATURDAY DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHER DAYS?  Because ABC has its annual showing of The Ten Commandments, a grand spectacle featuring acting from Edward G. Robinson and Anne Baxter that is so over-the-top that Yul Brynner starts to look good by comparison.  And while Robinson's Dathan never actually spoke the line "Where's your Messiah now?" in the movie, it  -- like "Play It Again, Sam" (not spoken in Casablanca) -- has become part of a part of our culture. The line actually comes from Billy Crystal, originally a bit from the Oscars, iirc. It later turned up o­n The Simpsons, with Chief Wiggum playing Dathan to Ned Flanders' Moses.

IRAN: The Obama administration is expected to blame Iranian hackers as soon as Thursday for a coordinated campaign of cyber attacks in 2012 and 2013 on several U.S. banks and a New York dam, sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters.

THE EASTER BUNNY got into a brawl at a NJ shopping mall.

A PARROT is hanging out in the London Underground. Norwegian Blue; beautiful plumage.

MUTANT MAGGOTS Could Help Wounds Heal Faster.

THE PEEPS TOURNEY OF CHAMPIONS: The annual WaPo Peeps diorama contest meets March Madness.

2215 Reads

Charles Bradley, Margo Price, Hinds, Baby Gator   Printer-friendly page   Send this story to someone
Thursday, March 24, 2016 - 08:00 AM
Posted by: Karl

Karl

JON PRATT: Pate's frontman speeds up his bluesy "A Matter of Dues" in this month's solo performance.

CHARLES BRADLEY performs "Ain't It A Sin", "In You (I Found a Love)", "Lovin' You Baby," "How Long", "The World (Is Going Up In Flames)", and "Love Bug Blues" at Stubb's during SXSW.

MARGO PRICE played "About to Find Out","Tennessee Song", "Hands of Time", "Paper Cowboy," "Hurtin (On the Bottle)", "Desperate & Depressed", "Four Years of Chances", and "This Town Gets Around" at SXSW.

HINDS perform a twofer on the SXSW Radio Day Stage.

DAVID BOWIE: A previously unreleased early demo track has surfaced.

THE TEMPTATIONS: "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)."

PRINCE will publish an unconventional memoir next year.

THOSE DARLINS talks to SPIN about splitting in two after a decade of music.

WYE OAK talks to Stereogum about their ever evolving sound.

VINYL SALES in the U.S. brought in more money than the recording industry made from advertising on the free tier of services like YouTube and Spotify last year, according to the RIAA.

MALIK TAYLOR, the wry and agile rapper known as Phife Dawg, who as a member of A Tribe Called Quest brought left-of-center hip-hop to the masses, died on Tuesday from complications of diabetes. He was 45.

KATY PERRY & ORLANDO BLOOM were caught canoodling in Malibu.

MARIA BELLO has split from her girlfriend and taken up with a decades-younger boyfriend.

DAVID LETTERMAN and his Santa Claus beard are enjoying retirement.

THE JUNGLE BOOK drops an "Intro to Shere Khan."

BRIDGET JONES's BABY dropped a trailer online.

BATMAN v SUPERMAN: The critics speak. I'll be seeing it tonight.

PEE-WEE HERMAN gave a talk at the 92Y.

KEN HOWARD,  the tall, barrel-chested actor known for starring in CBS' late '70s sports drama The White Shadow, NBC drama Crossing Jordan and, more recently, for his appearances on 30 Rock as well as for his presidency of SAG-AFTRA, died Wednesday. He was 71. (He was also charmingly rediculaous as a German legislator in The Thorn Birds.)

BELGIUM: Western intelligence officials believe there are "more than a handful" of Islamic State terrorists connected to the Brussels attacks who are still at large and plotting more attacks, a U.S. official told Yahoo News.

IRAQ: The U.S. military has established the first all-American fire base in Iraq since the start of the war against Islamic State, a U.S. military spokesman said Monday.

A BABY GATOR takes its first breath.

A FREAKY WINGED FISH with glowing green eyes mystifies fishermen.

SHOOTING FROGS WITH LASERS: A cure for cancer?

THROWING A LARGE PYTHON is a sushi bar will get you arrested.

2196 Reads

Charles Bradley, Telegram, Parker Milsap, Pony, Tortoise, Puppy   Printer-friendly page   Send this story to someone
Wednesday, March 23, 2016 - 08:00 AM
Posted by: Karl

Karl

STEVE MASON (Beta Band) drops a pixilated viseo for "Alive."

CHARLES BRADLEY is advance streaming Changes.

TELEGRAM streams their debut, Operator.

PARKER MILSAP advance streams The Very Last Day.

TRASHCAN SINATRAS dropped two tracks from their forhcoming album.

HARRY NILSSON: "Everybody's Talking" on Swedish TV, circa 1969.

THE RAMONES: The New York Times recounts the making of their debut LP.

XTC: Andy Partridge talks to Salon about songwriting, painting and developing the "cruel parent gene" toward your own art.

THE JOY FORMIDABLE talks to TLOBF about their new LP, gender imbalance and the importance of independence.

PHIL COLLINS talks to The A.V. Club about his solo career, Live Aid, and The Ultimate Warrior.

MARGOT ROBBIE is developing and will star in a movie about Tonya Harding.

BATMAN v SUPERMAN: Frenemies, and a clash of visions.

THE KARDASHIANS face a 200MM lawsuit over their beauty line.

DAISY RIDLEY (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) may reboot the Tomb Raider franchise.

RICHARD BELZER is returning to Law & Order: SVU.

SARAH PALIN may become a TV courtroom judge?

BELGIAN counter-terrorism authorities are overwhelmed by the huge numbers of open investigations.  The New York Times provides ongoing coverage of the Brussels attacks.

BURMA: Aung San Suu Kyi has been nominated as a minister in Burma's government, after being barred from the presidency.

IRAQ: The U.S. military has around 5000 service members in Iraq, officials said on Monday, far more than previously reported, as the Obama administration quietly expands ground operations against the Islamic State.

A PONY, A TORTOISE and a PUPPY, eating together... mass hysteria!

A BLACK BEAR and a bear cub were spotted by residents in Fairfax County, VA.

TWO ZEBRAS got loose from a circus on Friday in Oakland and were seen running along a major East Oakland Road near the O.co Coliseum.

A 6-YEAR-OLD CAT with a taste for men's underwear is terrorising the streets of Hamilton.

1949 Reads

The sinus infection that will not die...   Printer-friendly page   Send this story to someone
Tuesday, March 22, 2016 - 08:00 AM
Posted by: Karl

Karl...still won't die, though I plan to return tomorrow. In the meantime, note that OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN's missing ex-boyfriend has been spotted in Mexico after eleven years.

1859 Reads

<   111213141516171819110111112113114115116117118119120121122123124125126127128129130131132133134135136137138139140141142142242342442542642742842943043143243343443543643743843944044144244344444544644744844945946947948949950951952953954955956957958959960961962963964965966967968969970971972973974975976977978979980981982983984985986987988989990991992993994995996997998999910091019   >

Home  |  Share Your Story  |  Recommend Us