Just to save you some cash, if you bought the Danny The Dog soundtrack by Massive Attack, it’s the same thing as the Unleashed soundtrack. Unleashed has two bonus tracks, one by RZA, but that’s the only difference. Don’t be dumb… like me.
Category: entertainment
Mike Doughty – Haughty Melodic
Don’t do anything else. Go out and get this album right now. It’s amazing. It’s gorgeous. It’s better than anything he’s ever done before. It’s better than any Soul Coughing album (although individual Coughing songs are stellar, their albums were wholly uneven affairs). Every song on this album cooks with an intensity that was missing from most of Skittish and Rockity Roll. This album has some songs that match and exceed those stellar Coughing gems, and some that will stick in your head forever.\
Busting Up A Starbucks is angry, raw, bluesy and powerful. Mike reaches deep, and drops his voice to a growl. The driving drums propels each verse to the hypnotic and kick-ass chorus, where the Morphine-esque sax kicks in and whirls your head around.\
Tremendous Brunettes is a ton of fun. A beautiful piano line driving the song forward, with an unexpected, but perfect, guest appearance by Dave Mathews rounds out the fun. Yes, the song is as funny as the title would lead you to believe. It’s great fun. It sounds almost like a sea shanty, is as much fun, and will keep you singing along at the top of your lungs on the way home.\
His Truth Is Marching On is a better anthem than Move On (and I friggin’ love that song). This one is larger, a personal plea to a higher power for that connection that’s missing. The lyrics are rock solid, punching and will take you in. It’s good stuff.\
Thanks to Jodi Chromey for letting me know the album was out. Go get it. Go. Now. I mean it.
TNT + NBA = Whore!
Is anyone else annoyed at the combo movie/basketball ads showing on TNT during playoff games? Not only are they lame tie-ins for the movies, they’re super lame promos for playoff basketball, which really doesn’t need a whole lot of help.\
And as an added bonus, they’re some of the most forced, weak and painful stretched metaphors for the playoffs I’ve ever seen. They’re so bad they make Bill Walton’s frequent hyperbole and crap pontificating seem almost palatable.\
TNT, come on. Charles Barkley + Jeremy Irons + Crusades + Detroit != Compelling Advertising. Get a clue.
Ben Folds – Songs for Silverman
I’m not one to rush out and buy an album the day it comes out. There are a few folks I make exceptions for, and Ben Folds is one of them. His new album came out 4/26, and here I am on 4/27 reviewing it.\
It’s very good, better than The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner and not quite as good as Rockin’ The Suburbs. It doesn’t have the one kick-ass rocker on it like Suburbs does, but the songs are all good, with three or four great ones.\
Landed is my favorite song of the moment. It has the poignancy of Brick, but rocks a little bit harder in the chorus and bridges. It’s an amazing piece of work. It’ll rip your heart out while you’re tapping your foot.\
Give Judy My Notice is an homage to 70’s ballad rock that hits its target square in the face. This being Ben Folds, it’s better than any of its source material, and gets is some good lines even though it’s a breakup song that sounds oddly like a sitcom theme.\
Go out right now and get it. You won’t be sorry.
Oscars Impressions (Cuz Everyone Else Is Doing It)
I think the Academy should make a new rule: the music starts playing when the lawyers get thanked. Nothing good ever comes after the lawyers get thanked. Really. The same could be said about publicists. Nothing against either profession, but after an award winner’s gone through family, the director, co-stars, producer and studio it all starts to get sketchy and people stammer, trying to make sure they go through the litany of people who had some effect on their career. Send them flowers.\
And is it just me, or is Chris Rock the best host the Oscars have ever had? He’s not overly reverential and says a lot of the stuff we’re all thinking. And Jamie Foxx? He wanted this so bad. You could see it on his face while Charlise Theron was reading the names. His speech was so much better than the one at the Golden Globes. The bit about his grandmother was great.\
And wow, the show tonight is really moving. I skipped an hour to watch Carnivale (I mean, didn’t you?!), but it’s moving right along. We have what, two awards left?\
Thank You and Goodnight!
Go Now, Today, Cuz It’s Cool!!!
Salon has gotten some of the Oscar-nominated shorts and can show them online today only!! Go, Now, Watch, Enjoy!!!! I just watched Gopher Broke and it’s awesome. Can’t wait to check out the other ones (while I’m not working, of course).
Start The Day With A Good Cry
I swear, this almost never happens to me. This morning, before work, I cried uncontrollably. It was like floodgates opened, and all the liquid in my body left through my eye holes. Did I have an emotional breakdown because of all the things I can’t tell you about? Nope, it was those damn boiler onions. I was throwing a roast in the crockpot, and for some reason, those little onions hit me wrong. I couldn’t open my eyes for almost five minutes, the sting was so bad. That almost never happens to me, especially with those little onions (now, white onions are a whole different story).\
It wasn’t all bad… now my eyes feel great, perfectly refreshed and ready for a long day of staring at a monitor.
Everybody Come Down
The Delgados’ Everybody Come Down makes me think of little kids running around, uncontrollable in their joy and energy. It builds tempo, has those great jangling guitars, and relentless beat. It reminds me of Max when he gets beaned up (or Tim).\
It also sounds a little like The Breeders Cannonball, but better and more fun.\
The rest of the album (Universal Audio) is great too. Very well put together pop rock, with some really punchy lyrics.
From One Nerd to Another
Battlestar Galactica is coming back. Next week, they’re playing it on NBC, and on Sci-Fi. As a nerd who grew up as a huge Battlestar fan, PLEASE watch it. If you don’t watch it, at least TiVo it. Consider it a personal favor to me. I’ve seen the first five episodes (thank you, SkyOne and BitTorrent) of the new series, and it’s awesome (or, as Napoleon would say, sweet). It’s very well made, is a lot of fun, and seeing those Vipers again is like being seven all over again.\
If we support good sci-fi, the networks will make more of it. The last great sci-fi show to be on a regular network, Firefly, died too soon. Let’s not let the same thing happen to this one (and if anyone wants to come over next week, the Battlestar mini-series should show up – I missed it the first time it was on because I was out of the country).\
I’m begging you. Please watch it or TiVo it. Come on, for me?
Shake That Thing
I think I need to start a new playlist for songs that make you feel like you’ve just snorted two eucalyptus cough drops. You know the ones… make you wake up, no matter what state you’re in. They make you tap your foot, bounce your head (either up and down or side to side), and feel that rush of blood through your body. You’re alive as soon as that song starts, and awake until the final power chord.\
My latest addition to that list is Saturday Morning from Eel’s Shootenanny!:
Saturday morning.\
Who’s going to play with me?\
Six in the morning, baby.\
I got a long day ahead o’ me\
…\
Nothing’s ever going to happen ’round here,\
unless we make it happen.\
Sleep away the day if you want to,\
But I got something I gotta do.
You will get up and shake it, whether you got it or not. To round out this particular list:
- Uh, Zoom Zip – Soul Coughing
- I See You Baby – Groove Armada (Fatboy Slim Mix) – There are a whole bunch of Groove Armada or Fatboy songs I could put in this list, but I won’t.
- Back in Black – Living Colour’s cover of the classic.
- Breathe (like an Aphex Twin) – The remix of Prodigy’s techno heinie-shaker, without the slightly annoying lyrics
- That Song from Kill Bill – You know the one, where Ren is walking down the hall with her posse. It’s too darn short, but boy, it’ll wake the dead.
- Super Bon Bon – Soul Coughing (again)
- Shake Your Coconuts – Junior Senior – I could have put Move Your Feet in here, but this song cracks me up every time I hear it (and I go into conniptions when Max sings along).
- No Sleep Till Brooklyn – Beastie Boys – Another conniption song. When Max was learning how to talk, he’d sing along with the chorus. There’s nothing funnier than a two year-old, at top volume, from the backseat: “NO SWEEP TILL BWOOKWYN!!!!”
- Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day – Morcheeba – Starts a little slow, but the porn-bass is really really catchy.
- Rockin’ the Suburbs – Ben Folds – Come on, how can you not hop up and shake your pale ass to this one? Another great conniption song. Max knows this whole album… “WOCKIN’ DA SUBURBS!!!”\
Ok, enough of this fun. You can get all of these songs from from the Apple Music store if you’re too lazy to look ’em up. Really, you can.