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Art Brut, Ted Leo, Cutout Bin, The Dark Knight, Moose!   Printer-friendly page   Send this story to someone
Friday, July 18, 2008 - 08:00 AM
Posted by: Karl

Karl

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with ART BRUT!  Courtesy of Moshcam, their debut at the Factory Theater in Sydney, Australia opens with a triple-blast of "Formed A Band," "Bad Weekend" and "Bang Bang Rock & Roll" before venturing into material from their second album. including "Pump Up The Volume," which is not a cover, btw.  But staples from their debut, including "Moving to L.A.," "Emily Kane" and "My Little Brother" appear later in the set.

APPLES IN STEREO bassis Eric Allen talks with Lumino about the band's summer tour, and with the Cedar Rapids Gazette about the "Colbert Effect." (Thx, LHB.)

TED LEO plays a new song and a Waterboys cover for the Bryant Park Project, before his performance at New York's River to River Festival.

RONNIE WOOD is in rehab, but his wife has fled England, amid reports that the Rolling Stones guitarist remains smitten enough with a a 20-year-old Russian waitress that he was going to try and sneak a mobile phone into rehab so they could still send kisses to each other.

THE MORNING BENDERS do the five free songs thing for Daytrotter, two previously unreleased (one of which is a Ronettes cover).

RADIOHEAD has made a video for "House of Cards" using lasers instead of cameras... and the band is soliciting interactive remixes using their computer code. Here's the "making of" video.

RAY DAVIES is well-respected by the Portland Mercury: "Let's face it: The man is a living legend-the chief songwriter behind the Kinks, simultaneously one of the biggest bands of all time and one of the most underrated..."

THE HOLD STEADY guitarist Tad Kubler vents a little to the National Post about the leak of the Stay Positive album: "And you spend a lot of time on the quality of the sound and mastering, and then people are out there listening to really sh!tty BitTorrent files that are corrupted and out of phase. And that's not how you want people experiencing your record. So it's frustrating, but it is what it is..."

NICK CAVE talks to the Telegraph about his compulsion to write.

CUTOUT BIN: From the Dead Milkmen to Linda Ronstadt, ftom the Aerovons to the Zombies, from the Sex Pistols to the Beautiful South, from Rush to the Pogues and more -- this Friday's fortuitous finds can be jukeboxed or streamed separately via the Pate page at the ol' HM.

THE DARK KNIGHT was as good as or better than Batman Begins -- in its own way.  The talk about Heath Ledger getting a posthumous Oscar nomination seems like a stretch to me, but Ledger does give a fine performance, transcending Jack Nicholson's 1989 star turn as the Joker.  Ledger's Joker is filled with the true psychpathology and terror this script demanded. Terror is key here, as director Christopher Nolan raises some very contemporary themes in the movie, though not in a didactic way, which is as it should be.  Some may find that Gotham City resembles Chicago too much in this sequel, in the sense that it is far less stylized than the Gotham of Batman Begins -- no futuristic train or specially dressed sets like the Narrows.  But I found it to be a good fit with the nature of this film.  Nolan and Maggie Gyllenhaal do whhat they can to make Rachel Dawes more than a damsel in distress, though they did not sell me on her relationship with Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent enough early in the film to get the full impact the movietries to draw from it.  Perhaps I should fault Eckhart, who I have liked in some roles, but who never seemed to define Dent.  Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine do their usual things with the smaller roles they get here, though Freeman gets a particularly choice scene.  Gary Oldman also excels, though he could probably excel reading the phonebook.  The Dark Knight is critic-proof, which makes it all the better that it is as satisfying as it is.  BONUS: Scientific American explains, "Why Batman Could Exist--But Not for Long."

NOW SHOWING:  In addition to The Dark Knight, currently scoring 94 on the ol' Tomatometer, this weekend's wide-releases are counter-programming the Bat -- Mamma Mia! is currently scoring 48 percent and Space Chimps is scoring 25 percent.

BEN AFFLECK & JEN GARNER pregnancy rumors are getting louder.

ASHLEE SIMPSON & PETE WENTZ reportedly are expecting a baby girl

LINDSAY LOHAN & SAMANTHA RONSON get the thumb's up from Sam's brother, producer Mark Ronson.

DENISE RICHARDS went to court Thursday morning, asking the custody judge for an emergency order restricting Charlie Sheen's access to their kids. The judge, who's sitting in for the regular judge on the case who is on vacation, put the matter off until Monday.

MENA SUVARI is set to wed music producer Simone Sestito. She was previously married to cinematographer Robert Brinkmann, whom she divorced over three years ago.

WHERE ARE THE WILD THINGS?  Something has gone very wrong with "Where the Wild Things Are," the much-anticipated Spike Jonze adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's book.

THE EMMY NOMINEES are led by 30 Rock and Mad Men, with 17 and 16 nods, respectively. That Mad Men -- an under-watched new drama on AMC (which was running no other series at the time) -- tops the dramtic noms is pretty impressive. Sarah Silverman's "I'm F****** Matt Damon" is up for the gold in the category of outstanding original music and lyrics. Silverman's video -- and her now ex-bf Jimmy Kimmel's response -- were both nominated for editing.

THE WATCHMEN teaser trailer that appears in front of The Dark Knight is now online, set to "The End is the Beginning is the End," by the Smashing Pumpkins.

ISLAMISM in the UK: The Times of London looks at "The hidden face of political Islamism."

THE STANS: Despite growing pressure on Pakistan to quell Islamic militancy, jihadist groups within its borders are, in fact, increasing their cooperation to attack US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, according to interviews with a wide range of militants, intelligence officials and military officers.

IRAQ: The New York Times has a balanced and interesting article on how Iraqis view proposals to get US troops out of Iraq. With violence in Iraq at its lowest level in four years and the war in Afghanistan at a peak, some US troops (mostly on their first tours) want to go where the fighting is.  It is still one of the most dangerous places in the world, but officials are determined to persuade tourists to return to the war-torn country.

MOOSE FAMILY has summer fun with the sprinkler -- hey, who doesn't?

A MISSOURI LAWSUIT alleges that Wal-Mart, local health officials and Cox Health Systems discriminated against a woman and her monkey. Everybody's got something to hide?

THE BIRDS are after the vicar of St Petroc's Church, in Bodmin, Cornwall.

GULLIVER the CAT travelled 300 miles from Scotland to Yorkshire on the radiator of a bus. Cute cat, too.

A GREY SHARK found with a hooked pole used to haul big fish on to boats wedged in his mouth was rescued and restored to health by divers off the Aussie coast.

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