1) Raised By Wolves – Raised By Wolves – Voxtrot

Voxtrot’s first EP is quite a bit more twee than their latest, but the title track’s still got quite the bounce in its step. I love Ramesh Srivastava’s phrasing tricks, cramming words in one line only to draw them out in the next for emphasis. How can you argue with a song that claims “we were young, we were dumb, we raised by wolves” ?

2) I Want To Love You in My Room – Death in the Garden, Blood on the Flowers – Irving

Irving’s sexup song seems so preposterous that I’m almost positive that it’s a parody. I’m equally sure that its grinding rhythms and breathy delivery still causes wild audience gyrations.

3) Find a Way – Free To Stay – Smoosh

SMOOOOOOOOOOOOSH. Dunno if this track is indicative of their new release, but “Find a Way” is more pop than the quirky material from She Like Electric. Chloe has a pretty sweet drum fill to kick the song off too.

4) Shores of California – Yes, Virginia – Dresden Dolls

The “punk cabaret” of the Dresden Dolls takes on a latin lilt as Amanda Palmer muses about the universal theory of love completely sucking.

5) Beautiful Dreamer – Bring it Back – Mates of State

More rock duo action with the Mates of State. It’s a midlife crisis, carpe diem sort of anthem, although it’s a bit hard to tell with everyone singing all at once.

6) Smiley Faces – St. Elsewhere – Gnarls Barkley

My favorite track off this album, mostly because it’s the only one where the bassline moves with any quicks or purpose. The rest of the album seems lackadaisical in comparison.

7) Just Drums – The Loon – Tapes ‘n’ Tapes

Oddly, the mini-drum solo is the weakest part of the song. If you’re gonna call it “Just Drums,” the drums should kick more ass! The rest of it is pretty good, like a lo-fi Franz Ferdinand b-side.

8) Comeback Kid – Pikul – Silversun Pickups

Embracing the big shoegazy guitars of the early 90s, the Silversun Pickups seem ahead of their time, in a backwards giant recycle of rawk sort of way. In a few more years it wouldn’t shock me if everyone’s giving My Bloody Valentine shoutouts instead of Wire.

9) Turn Into – Show Your Bones – The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

What’s that squealing instrument in the middle of the song? That shit freaks me out. It’s like they’re sitting on a baby.

10) Knock Loud – Canadian Amp – Neko Case

swooooon. I’ve never heard the original by Canadian Sook-Yin Lee, but this one must be better. Surely there can’t be someone singing better than this?

11) The Henney Buggy Band – The Avalanche – Sufjan Stevens

This is an outtake? There’s thousands of skinny kids in tight t-shirts that would lose a toe to write something like this.

12) I Hear The Bells – Haughty Melodic – Mike Doughty

Veronica Mars, no! I know Logan sounds dreamy as he’s going on about epic romances but he’s really drunk and kind of pathetisad if you’re really paying attention. Oh, and Veronica? I like this song too.

Posted in Mixtape 2 Comments »

Jim Emerson’s 102 Movies You Have to Watch To Be Considered Movie-Literate

I put a star next to anything I’ve seen. I mean really watched too, not the kind of fake “Yeah I’ve seen that” and look at the wallpaper maneuver you give when some jackass asks “you’ve never seen ‘FILL IN THE BLANK?” like he was challenging you to a duel. I did OK, but clearly I have an aversion to the French. “It’s a Gift” by Norman Z. McLeod shocked me by being the one movie I haven’t even heard of. Oh hey, it’s a WC Fields movie. Ryan, almost certainly sitting underneath a framed poster of “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” right now, must be laughing at this list, since he saw all of them before he learned to pee standing up.

* “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968) Stanley Kubrick
* “The 400 Blows” (1959) Francois Truffaut
* “8 1/2″ (1963) Federico Fellini
“Aguirre, the Wrath of God” (1972) Werner Herzog
* “Alien” (1979) Ridley Scott
* “All About Eve” (1950) Joseph L. Mankiewicz
* “Annie Hall” (1977) Woody Allen
* “Apocalypse Now” (1979) Francis Ford Coppola*
* “Bambi” (1942) Disney
* “The Battleship Potemkin” (1925) Sergei Eisenstein
“The Best Years of Our Lives” (1946) William Wyler
* “The Big Red One” (1980) Samuel Fuller
* “The Bicycle Thief” (1949) Vittorio De Sica
* “The Big Sleep” (1946) Howard Hawks
* “Blade Runner” (1982) Ridley Scott
“Blowup” (1966) Michelangelo Antonioni
* “Blue Velvet” (1986) David Lynch
* “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967) Arthur Penn
“Breathless” (1959 Jean-Luc Godard
* “Bringing Up Baby” (1938) Howard Hawks
* “Carrie” (1975) Brian DePalma
* “Casablanca” (1942) Michael Curtiz
“Un Chien Andalou” (1928) Luis Bunuel & Salvador Dali
“Children of Paradise” / “Les Enfants du Paradis” (1945) Marcel Carne
* “Chinatown” (1974) Roman Polanski
* “Citizen Kane” (1941) Orson Welles
* “A Clockwork Orange” (1971) Stanley Kubrick
* “The Crying Game” (1992) Neil Jordan
* “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951) Robert Wise
* “Days of Heaven” (1978) Terence Malick
* “Dirty Harry” (1971) Don Siegel
“The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” (1972) Luis Bunuel
* “Do the Right Thing” (1989) Spike Lee
* “La Dolce Vita” (1960) Federico Fellini
* “Double Indemnity” (1944) Billy Wilder
* “Dr. Strangelove” (1964) Stanley Kubrick
* “Duck Soup” (1933) Leo McCarey
* “E.T. — The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982) Steven Spielberg
* “Easy Rider” (1969) Dennis Hopper
* “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980) Irvin Kershner
* “The Exorcist” (1973) William Friedkin
* “Fargo” (1995) Joel & Ethan Coen
* “Fight Club” (1999) David Fincher
* “Frankenstein” (1931) James Whale
* “The General” (1927) Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman
* “The Godfather,” “The Godfather, Part II” (1972, 1974) Francis Ford Coppola
* “Gone With the Wind” (1939) Victor Fleming
* “GoodFellas” (1990) Martin Scorsese
* “The Graduate” (1967) Mike Nichols
* “Halloween” (1978) John Carpenter
* “A Hard Day’s Night” (1964) Richard Lester
“Intolerance” (1916) D.W. Griffith
“It’s a Gift” (1934) Norman Z. McLeod
* “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946) Frank Capra
* “Jaws” (1975) Steven Spielberg
“The Lady Eve” (1941) Preston Sturges
* “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962) David Lean
* “M” (1931) Fritz Lang
* “Mad Max 2″ / “The Road Warrior” (1981) George Miller
* “The Maltese Falcon” (1941) John Huston
* “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962) John Frankenheimer
* “Metropolis” (1926) Fritz Lang
* “Modern Times” (1936) Charles Chaplin
* “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (1975) Terry Jones & Terry Gilliam
* “Nashville” (1975) Robert Altman
* “The Night of the Hunter” (1955) Charles Laughton
* “Night of the Living Dead” (1968) George Romero
* “North by Northwest” (1959) Alfred Hitchcock
* “Nosferatu” (1922) F.W. Murnau
* “On the Waterfront” (1954) Elia Kazan
* “Once Upon a Time in the West” (1968) Sergio Leone
“Out of the Past” (1947) Jacques Tournier
“Persona” (1966) Ingmar Bergman
* “Pink Flamingos” (1972) John Waters
* “Psycho” (1960) Alfred Hitchcock
* “Pulp Fiction” (1994) Quentin Tarantino
* “Rashomon” (1950) Akira Kurosawa
* “Rear Window” (1954) Alfred Hitchcock
* “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955) Nicholas Ray
* “Red River” (1948) Howard Hawks
“Repulsion” (1965) Roman Polanski
“The Rules of the Game” (1939) Jean Renoir
* “Scarface” (1932) Howard Hawks
“The Scarlet Empress” (1934) Josef von Sternberg
* “Schindler’s List” (1993) Steven Spielberg
* “The Searchers” (1956) John Ford
* “The Seven Samurai” (1954) Akira Kurosawa
* “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952) Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly
* “Some Like It Hot” (1959) Billy Wilder
* “A Star Is Born” (1954) George Cukor
* “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1951) Elia Kazan
* “Sunset Boulevard” (1950) Billy Wilder
* “Taxi Driver” (1976) Martin Scorsese
* “The Third Man” (1949) Carol Reed
“Tokyo Story” (1953) Yasujiro Ozu
* “Touch of Evil” (1958) Orson Welles
* “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948) John Huston
“Trouble in Paradise” (1932) Ernst Lubitsch
* “Vertigo” (1958) Alfred Hitchcock
* “West Side Story” (1961) Jerome Robbins/Robert Wise
* “The Wild Bunch” (1969) Sam Peckinpah
* “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) Victor Fleming

Posted in Moving Pictures 8 Comments »

Has anybody else watched their Criterion Mr. Arkadin DVD yet? I was told that the titular character, played by Orson Welles, is basically Harry Lime by another name. And yet, the moment he comes on screen, all I can think is how much I want a croissanwich.

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Live in Concert / RecCenter Studio
Petra Haden

April 1st, 2006

It’s probably starting to feel a lot like the early 90s again for Petra Haden, who’s getting her career back in high gear after it was delayed by a bad car accident a few years ago. Oh look, she’s garnering major props for her cover album of The Who Sell Out. Oh look, she’s one of the merry rogues of the Decemberists. Oh look, she’s on The West Wing playing with the Foo Fighters. All of a sudden, she’s EVERYWHERE.

On this April Fool’s evening, Haden teamed with local hero and BFF Mike Watt to present an array of sensational music. The pair may seem like an odd couple, but it was Watt’s idea to record the Who record as a tribute to D. Boon, and it was Watt that gave Haden the 8-track recorder and the impetus to cut it together. Tonight, Watt would open with bassist Kira Roessler as Dos, the dual bass outfit that is now in its 20th (!) year with their 3rd album on the horizon. Dos albums aren’t releases as much as they are anniversaries. Despite being two punk legends, Roessler and Watt’s outfit is mostly experimental, instrumental, jazz, pushing at the boundaries of what bass guitars can and should do. It’s all very loose and fun, even if they don’t settle into convincing grooves often. Dos works best when Roessler takes the mike and sings, grounding the music with sweet calming vocals.

After Dos finished, Watt stayed on stage and was joined by Haden to do a short set of covers. Haden stayed on the jazzy tip by knocking out a killer version of “Angel Eyes” (not the Jeff Healey song, but the Ella Fitzgerald standard) and then another piece from “Porgy and Bess.” Then it became Ike and Tina time, as Haden and Watt tried their best to do “Funkier than a Mosquito’s Tweeter,” which was tough with just a bass and a violin. Also, Petra Haden is about the least funky lady you can find, so a lot of the fun was her struggling along with her awkward WhiteGirl charm. It wasn’t as crazycool as her cover of Thriller, but it was fun nonetheless.

Petra and the Sellout Choir were the main event, and of the three times I’ve seen them, this was by far the best. Being up close I could hear the all the different voices in the choir swarm around me, but still differentiate all the voices and pick apart the harmonies and arrangements. Tonight, they sang an assortment of “The Who Sell Out,” but also played three songs from Haden’s first solo record Imaginaryland, including a beautifully complex Bach arrangement. To close out the show, the choir premiered their version of the Beach Boys “God Only Knows.” There were a few false starts before they hit the right cues, but when it got on track it was heavenly, as powerful and pretty as the original while carrying its own brand of ethereal magic.

Wow.

Petra Haden and the Sell-Out Choir will be performing again May 25th, 2006 at The Troubadour

Posted in From Blown Speakers No Comments »

Live in Concert / El Rey Theater
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!

March 23rd, 2006

Hipsters’ choice Clap Your Hands Say Yeah invaded L.A. with their first headlining tour, complete with ginormous tour bus. New bands should really still be rocking the econovan, but the Clap’s control of their own distro and wildfire internet talk has given them a well-earned economic advantage. Since the band is so new, I went to the show keeping my expectations low.

The sold-out crowd was significantly more charged than I was, anticipating a show to match the buzz. For the most part, the band was on and delivered. If you’re not a big fan of the singer’s David Byrne/Jeff Mangum voice, the live experience will not work for you, as it’s more nasal and whinging than on record. I don’t mind it so much, and the band itself sounded much better live than on record. The band is much bigger than on the primitively recorded CD, with swarming guitar washes and charmingly bouncy bass riffs.

When the Clap played material like “Lost and Found” and “Yellow Country Teeth,” they were better than the hype, sounding like a band that could take on a festival or arena crowd with ease. The big problem with the band is that just don’t have enough material. They only have a handful of upbeat crowd-pleasers, and stretching those out across the set makes it all lag. After four or five songs, the band really didn’t have any more magic bullets to save the show. For their encore, the band went with their carny talk album intro, which was fun, but not really the stuff of encores.

Since I went in with my head down, the band exceeded my expectations, especially for the first 30 minutes. If they can get their second album in order they’ll be able to have a killer show setup by the time they hit L.A. again.

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In Concert – Vista Theater
Jenny Lewis With The Watson Twins

February 2nd, 2006

Anyone headed to the Jenny Lewis/Watson Twins show at the Orpheum tonight? If their record release show a couple of months ago at the Vista Theater was any indication, tonight should be magic.

For anyone unfamiliar, the Vista is actually a movie theater located in Sunset Junction, with just enough of a stage to fit a makeshift band. It was an odd place to hold a show, but it had a great vibe, with plush seating and plenty of legroom. Each audience member was handed a program with lyrics and information, like it was a high school talent show. The ladies came out dressed in long elegant gowns, color matched, of course. Each little touch reassured you that this wasn’t your average rock show, but something more like Lewis’s version of an Opry concert.

Musically, it was virtually identical to the record, sparse in production but packed with emotional power and graceful harmonies. “Run Devil Run” and “Born Secular” showed off the choir like effect of the three voices the best, while Lewis featured on lovely tracks like “Melt Your Heart” and “Happy.” Tracks like “Charging Sky” lacked a little oomph without a full band, but guitars from Johnathan Rice and Farmer Dave gave enough textural changes to keep things interesting. With a slim list of songs to choose from, the show was augmented with a wry reading of “Met Him on a Sunday” by the Shirelles and a rousing version of traditional “Cold Jordan” to close the show.

It wasn’t a perfect show though. There were some feedback issues that had to be surmounted. Also, this being Rilo Kiley home turf, it seemed some of the audience was a bit too familiar with Ms. Lewis, to the point of being a touch rude. Dude, we all know she used to be in movies, but there’s no need to yell “TROOP BEVERLY HILLS” in between songs. Lewis also told a story about watching Kill Bill in the very same theater, but it was ruined by someone yelling the punchline before she was able to even start.

On the way out, ushers handed out rabbits feet with a tag commemorating the album and the concert date. Now, how often does that happen? Anyone headed to the show tonight probably shouldn’t expect too many souvenirs, but maybe you’ll be surprised anyway.

Posted in From Blown Speakers 1 Comment »