Welcome Guest! Mar 19, 2024 - 10:58 AM  
Homepage  |  Downloads  |  FAQ  |  Forums  |  Gallery  |  WebLinks
Main Menu
Online
There are 100 unlogged users and 0 registered users online.

You can log-in or register for a user account here.
  
Vampire Weekend, New Malkmus, The Kinks, Glowing Cats   Printer-friendly page   Send this story to someone
Monday, December 17, 2007 - 08:00 AM
Posted by: Karl

Karl

VAMPIRE WEEKEND perform "I Stand Corrected" -- a track from their upcoming album -- on Indie 103.1FM.  They were also on MTV recently, defining "crunk," and talking about David Byrne and blog buzz.  Bassist Chris Baio talked to Eye Weekly about the band's misleading name and turning their buzzworthy CD-R into a debut album.  Singer-guitarist Ezra Koenig tells the Boston Herald about the influence of his parents' record collection.  In the Guardian, Dave Simpson notes the band is just one of several seemingly influenced by  the exuberant and often polyrhythmic sound of African "hi-life."

BEST OF 2007:  Vampire Weekend has a Top Ten list at Filter, as does The National's triple threat, Aaron DessnerPitchfork had some of their favorite artists name their own for the most recent Guest List feature.

SHARON JONES and the DAP-KINGS performed a concert from WXPN and the Fillmore at the TLA in Philadelphia on Friday, so you can stream the whole gig on demand via NPR.

STEPHEN MALKMUS and the JICKS have a new album coming in March; the advance track is "Baltimore."

ROBERT POLLARD:  Pitchfork rounds up all things Bob, including a duo of releases due in January and February.  ALSO: Fmr GbV guitarist (and sometimes Pollard collaborator) Doug Gillard talks to Harp magazine about his work on movie soundtracks.

DAN FOGELBERG, the singer and songwriter whose hits "Leader of the Band" and "Same Old Lang Syne" helped define the soft-rock era, died Sunday at his home in Maine after battling prostate cancer. He was 56.

THE KINKS' video for "Father Christmas" from The Old Grey Whistle Test isn't hi-quality, but I know my former roomie Dale will want to see it.  BONUS:  Here's a faithful cover from OK Go.

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED offers a streaming holiday mix, including a sneak preview of the upcoming Magnetic Fields album.

MISSION OF BURMA is playing a January benefit for the people of Burma (and presumably not the gov't of Myanmar).

THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS:  A.C. Newman wants those who call his band dorky or geeky to take a look in the mirror.

JENS LEKMAN talks to Harp magazine about his new album and his first kiss.

AMY WINEHOUSE has reportedly wants a festive season binge before entering a  one-week rehab and detox treatment course in Israel.

I AM LEGEND, based on the 1954 sci-fi novel by Richard Matheson (adapted twice before  -- with Vincent Price as The Last Man on Earth and Charlton Heston as The Omega Man) is unfortunately like all too many modern remakes.  The film takes advantage of modern technology to create a far more impressive post-apocolyptic world than its predecessors.  But once you have absorbed that world, the movie devolves into a not-so-impressive zombie flick.  And, as Amber Taylor notes, gratuitously inserts Big Pharma as a villain.  Will Smith is competent playing Will Smith in generally-serious mode.  The German Shepherd who plays Sam apparently gets no credit, but certainly should.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE:  Will Smith was Legend at the cinema, with a shockingly large 76.5 million this weekend -- Smith's biggest opening evah and the biggest opening for a December release evah.  That's right; bigger than LotR, bigger than Narnia. That's ginormous.  Alvin and the Chipmunks also did a surprisingly big 45 million -- about twice as much as studio estimates.  The Golden Compass tanked 65 percent to earn nine million -- ouch!  Enchanted dipped to fourth with six million, but I wonder if it may yet stage a comeback once word-of-mouth gets out on Alvin.  No Country For Old Men inched into the Top Five with three million, a mere 29 percent drop made possible by those Golden Globe noms.  Fred Claus skidded 51 percent to make 2.3 million.  This Christmas was right behind on a 54 percent drop, though it has already made 46 million on a 13 million budget.  Atonement moved into ninth place on an expanded release, making 1.8 million and a 15K+ per screen average.  August Rush rounds out the Top Ten with 1.7 million.  Juno made it to eleventh place on just 40 screens, with 1.4 million -- a whalloping 36K per screen average.

HELENA BONHAM CARTER & TIM BURTON have welcomed their second child, a daughter to joins four-year-old Billy.

BRITNEY SPEARS was denied admittance to the Four Seasons Hotel and disinvited from being a guest judge on Fox's American Idol.  OTOH, she was named Us Weekly's Worst Dressed Celeb of the Year, which has to count for something.

LINDSAY LOHAN used her celebrity to try and get Hannah Montana tickets for a friend's kids.  And it looks like she could get a gig with director Quentin Tarantino.

JESSICA SIMPSON:  Blonde Ambition, costarring Luke Wilson, will be hitting a handful of theaters in Simpson's home state of Texas before going direct-to-DVD.

RUPERT EVERETT calls Robert De Niro, Robert Redford, Diane Keaton, Woody Allen and Al Pacino "all just tragic parodies of themselves."  And George Clooney's Ocean's 11 series "a cancer to world culture."

HUGH GRANT outraged diners at a chic West End restaurant by openly snogging a mystery woman while a friend caressed her thigh.

ALEC BALDWIN offers to hold the 2007 Golden Globe Awards at his Manhattan apartment, to avoid problems with the writers' strike.

REESE WITHERSPOON and VINCE VAUGHN are not seeing eye-to-eye on the set of their new new film, "Four Christmases."

THE DARK KNIGHT trailer is online at one of the movie's viral websites, with plenty of shots from LaSalle St. in Chicago.  I can also confirm that the first six minutes of the movie -- shown in front of the IMAX version of I Am Legend -- is as good as others have said it is.  UPDATE:  Speaking of which, someone was very, very naughty.  Hope you get there before the lawyers do!

TERROR in the US:  Two men accused of plotting behind prison walls to launch Jihad-style attacks on military sites, synagogues and other targets in 2005 pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiring to levy war against the United States.

TERROR in the UK:  Investigators examining the bungled terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow six months ago believe the plotters had a link to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.  While officials stopped short of saying that the plot originated with Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, or was directed by the group, they did say it was the closest collaboration they knew of between the Iraq group and plotters outside the Middle East.

TERROR in ALGERIA:  Two convicted terrorists who had been freed in an amnesty carried out the suicide bombings at UN and government buildings that killed 37 people, an Algerian security official has said.  Hey, you can't just lock terrorists up indefinitely; that would be, y'know, not nice.

IRAQ:  Oil production is above the levels seen before the US-led invasion of the country in 2003, according to the International Energy Agency.  Britain's weekend handover of Basra province will have a limited effect on security in Iraq's biggest oil region because rival Shiite warlords and local officials have been wielding the real power in the area.  Basra's police chief says the Brits left the city in chaos, though this was the subject of debate back in October also.  In addition, the Iraqi Army now has four brigades and an Iraqi Special Operations Forces battalion in Basra province... though the police chief might argue that is part of the problem.  Elsewhere in the south, Shiite leaders are reimagining Najaf as a new hub of Shiite political and economic power, not just for Iraq but for the entire Middle East.  Iran is playing a significant role in the plan, which would further weaken the Iraqi central government.  Kurdish leaders rule out a Kurdish state but stress they want a continued US presence in northern Iraq and a strategic alliance similar to that between the Washington and Baghdad.  More than 20 Turkish planes took part in airstrikes early Sunday against Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, Turkish media reported.

GLOW-IN-THE-DARK KITTIES!  Just in time for the holidays!

MONKEYS AMOK in New Dehli, as the Indian government is cracking down on thousands of roaming monkeys after the deputy mayor reportedly died while fending off monkeys.  Let's go to the video.

A PUPPY in Cambodia teaches a drunken man not to urinate through the owner's fence.

SHARK 1, Kangaroo 0.

CRINKLY the UGLY SWAN may finally have a girlfriend.

3340 Reads

Comments

Display Order
Only logged in users are allowed to comment. register/log in
Home  |  Share Your Story  |  Recommend Us