Television can have a hard time keeping our attention. Unless it’s sports. Or a very compelling story.
Luckily, ESPN has managed to package both into the downright awesome documentary series 30 for 30.
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Concert films are one of the best documents a great band can have—without it, the timeless cool of Robbie Robertson would probably have been lost to history—but for one reason or another, the last decade hasn’t produced very many good ones. Blame MTV or celeb culture or the fact that you can find video of a Radiohead gig on YouTube any time you want, but not too many acts seem interested in producing a Gimme Shelter-style time capsule.
But it looks like The National has a better idea. This Saturday, they’re playing a semi-intimate gig at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and they’ve brought along a little extra help. D. A. Pennebaker, the groundbreaking documentarian and (more importantly) the man behind Don’t Look Back will be filming the gig and streaming the whole thing live to YouTube, where it will live for a month before disappearing from the web forever. Granted, it’s a little early to be planning your Friday diversions—but this one should be worth remembering.
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Aging hipsters have been kicking around the margins of the scene since the 60s—a little too tired to dance and a little too grizzled to expect a rock band to change their life—and for all the flack they take from the younger generation, they’re among the more interesting people at any given party.
All of which is to say, the new LCD Soundsystem album is pretty damn good, and we’re coming around to James Murphy as a skinny-tie-wearing, 80s-dancing icon for our times. As it turns out, adulthood doesn’t just mean a square job and a fear of hangovers.
He’s more curmudgeonly than anyone else making dance music—but thanks to an extra decade or two, he’s pretty damn good at it. Give him the right backing track, and he even comes across as wise.
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You might not remember, but MTV was once a pretty exciting place. (We’re a little foggy on it ourselves.) Something about the convergence of grunge, the first flush of cable and the timeless rock-star cool made for one of the more exciting spots on TV. But we’re pretty sure they still had cubicles.
This short from The State sums it up quite nicely, and after their spectacular flameout on the network, they should know better than almost anyone. They’ve been dropping vintage video clips onto their Vimeo page all week to promote their newly dropped DVD, but nothing sums up the flightly hipness and frustration better than the sketch that starts halfway through. Just skip through until you see the intern chuckling nervously, too worried to say what he really thinks of his boss.
Naturally, it never found its way onto MTV’s site…
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We’ve always had a soft spot for 70s funk. Something about the trumpet hits, skipped beats…and occasionally the band’s matching suits.
All of which are reasons to be glad Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings are sticking around. Their new album’s arriving next week, and we’re happy to say it’s almost exactly what you expect. (The curious can listen in here.) If they can keep this up, we should be in for quite a decade.
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Score one for the album form. Pink Floyd just won a case against EMI guaranteeing their albums can never be broken up. Translation: If you want to put “Money” on your next mixtape, you’ll have to pick up the whole album. No singles, no solo mp3 sales, and no compromises.
It’s good news for anyone who’s worried about the long-player surviving into the internet age. (iTunes LP certainly wasn’t doing anyone any favors.) We suggest breaking out your copy of Animals in celebration—and don’t feel bad about skipping the filler.
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At the risk of coming off as music bloggers, we’re pretty excited about all this Black Keys business.
Blakroc’s been getting quite a lot of play around these parts, but they’re due for a triumphant return to form. Better yet, the duo trekked down to Alabama’s Muscle Shoals to record it, which might be one of our favorite places in America.
Tragically, we’ll have to wait until May for anything more than speculation. But we’ll think of this as a summer preview.
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File this one under “sign of the times.” The music landscape is pretty fractured, but nowadays a good—make that great— rock album is enough to bring together Rza, an off-stage Jonas brother and, for some reason, Jake Gyllenhaal. Bravo, gentlemen. And extra points for the Lennon shirt.
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We’re always up for tales of rock ‘n’ roll debauchery, so we’re more than a little excited for The Runaways. So much so, that we’re going to pretend we’ve never heard of this Twilight business.
Even if it’s not a masterpiece of film (and the jury’s still out), we’ll be happy if it means getting the band’s catalog back into the world’s DJ crates. If you haven’t bothered, you might be in for quite a surprise. This one, for instance, is a hell of an album, and the beautiful-girl-gone-badass look doesn’t hurt one bit. Their sound is more Cheap Trick than Ramones—under other circumstances, we might even describe it as cock rock—which should make it the perfect soundtrack for tales of booze, drugs and music-industry shenanigans.
At least until someone gets around to filming the Blondie story.
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It’s a new year, and while Carson Daly is beginning to bear an eerie resemblance to Dick Clark, it’s not all the same. If you happened to be huddled around a television Thursday night—quaint, we know—you may have been interrupted by the terrifying new Jay-Z video, “On to the Next One.” It’s a new year, all right…
Making a play for Kanye’s “Mad Bomber of Rap” crown, Hov piles up quick cuts, soundstage lighting circa ’96, and a genuinely unnerving amount of corpse makeup for a black-and-white spectacle of post-Gaga pop music. Trent Reznor might have something to say about its self-proclaimed freshness, but it’s certainly a long way from “Heart of the City,” and even farther from “Auld Lang Syne.” 2010 is in for some pretty wild dance parties.
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The music issue of the Oxford American is a pretty reliable source for forgotten gems from the early days of rock ‘n’ roll—not coincidentally, they tend to be southern—and the latest issue digs up a gem from one of our favorite forgotten corners: rockabilly.
The gentleman in question is Larry Donn, a would-be Jerry Lee Lewis figure who cut a few good singles and a few more great ones, but got lost among the cultural upheavals of the 60s, and is resurfacing these days as a cultural curio on the European circuit. Thanks to the magic of mp3s, his early stuff is trickling back into circulation, but the original 45s are among the more valuable rockabilly vinyls on the market. For now, we’ll stick with the digital version.
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Trivia and geekery have flourished on the internet since the DARPA days, but one species of obsessive may be finally getting his flash-enabled due: the cratedigger.
WhoSampled (hat tip) is a site specializing in tracing rap samples to their original sources. So if you type in “D’Evils,” and you get pointed back to the Allen Toussaint song where the piano riff began life. And if you were wondering exactly how many producers had taken cuts from Isaac Hayes, this would be the best place to find out.
It’s trivia, and not obviously useful, but we wouldn’t be surprised if a few 90s rap fans were accidentally converted to the gospel of 70s soul.
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Following in the footsteps of Radiohead’s USB box set earlier this year, the Fab Four’s catalog is being digitally repackaging into a handy USB drive, concealed in this plastic apple along with a few mini-documentaries, rare photos from the archive and digitally enhanced liner notes.
It’ll set you back nearly $300—thanks to the usual New Medium price hike—but it’s handier than carrying around a dozen jewel cases. Still, we might hold out for the Stones’ tongue drive.
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Old Hollywood had its share of great directors, but genuine iconoclasts are in surprisingly short supply. So when one like Samuel Fuller pops up in the archive, we tend to take notice.
From the 50s on, he was a reliable source for brutally effective flicks delivered in the most direct style possible. He became a French new wave favorite a little later, but he’s only now getting his due as one of the great macho filmmakers Hollywood ever produced.
A collection of some of his lesser known works hit shelves yesterday with a gem called Underworld U.S.A. bundled up inside. The movie’s a standard issue mob revenge story—as in, “My name is Tolly Devlin. You killed my father. Prepare to die”—with Cliff “Uncle Ben” Robertson in the icy central role. It’s high-grade pulp, make no mistake, but it’s got the kind of paranoid edge that makes good pulp into great film. And if you’re looking for a lost gem to fill out your DVD collection, it’s hard to find a better one.
Michael Jackson’s posthumous single, “This Is It,” debuted online Monday, but after a little legal wrangling, it looks like it’s going to be a grand comeback for more than just Jackson. In what has to be the unlikely pop culture development of the new millennium, jinglemeister Paul Anka will be taking home half the royalties, thanks to a co-writing credit.
Apparently “This is It” was originally planned for Anka’s 1983 album, but Jackson slipped away with the demo tapes after they were recorded. We’re not surprised he ran off…but we’re a little surprised Anka got him in the studio at all. Jackson was still riding a shockingly long string of #1 singles and Anka was certainly no McCartney.
With due respect to the man who wrote “My Way,” it looks like Jacko held him in higher esteem than just about anyone in Los Angeles—and we have no idea why. If you’re so moved, you can dig through Anka’s back catalogue to try to figure it out, but we prefer to chalk it up to creative eccentricity.
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If you need a bit of piano pop and existentially troubling cinematography to tide you through the weekend, the new video from Au Revoir Simone is premiering here at noon on Sunday, and the man behind the camera is none other than David Lynch.
Which means it’s guaranteed to make you smarter.
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We’re always on the lookout for late summer grooves, and My Morning Jacket’s Jim James just turned us onto one of the best ones we’ve heard in quite some time. In BlackBook’s summer roadtrip roundup, he recommends scoring a southern drive with a single song played over and over: William DeVaughn’s “Be Thankful For What You’ve Got.” And after keeping it on repeat for a solid 20 minutes, we’d have to agree.
The only problem? They forgot to provide a playable version. Luckily, we’re happy to oblige. Sunroof not included»
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She & Him may have a lot to answer for.
On the heels of her widely tolerated Anywhere I Lay My Head, Scarlett Johansson is prepping an album with soft-rock crooner Pete Yorn. The album was recorded before Ms. Deschanel ever connected with M. Ward, but the pair decided to keep it under wraps until the time was right. But now that ScarJo’s making preliminary rounds for Iron Man 2, the iron is most definitely hot, and the magazine circuit is willing to oblige. Sadly, the only leaked tracks have been conveniently muted, but curious parties can still check out the promo trailer. Fair warning: it’s a tease»
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As you may have noticed, John Hughes is in the midst of his very own posthumous cultural moment, which means gushing remembrances, critical reconsiderations and, best of all, dance remixes. Luckily, his fans have good taste.
Eclectic Method—the same folks who brought you the Tarantino mixtape—have turned their attention to the auteur of 80s angst, and the result is five minutes of iconic clips chopped and pulverized into a danceable nostalgia salad. It focusses mostly on The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (yes, including “Twist and Shout”), but that leaves them with enough whistles, screams and off-key clarinet for a full-scale multimedia symphony.
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Unfortunately, we were stuck a time zone away from the madness that is Lollapalooza, but our Windy City correspondent Chris LaMorte was able to keep us up to date with a few snaps and a few dispatches.
Our favorite t-shirt came from this gentleman, whose shirt details some of the more memorable eyeglasses of the past few decades. (For the record, we’re most partial to Mr. Fellini.)
As for the bands, here’s a quick roundup a few of the more memorable acts»
Full albums have had a rough time lately for lots of reasons—unlike mixtapes, they cannot convey how you really feel—but the shift to mp3s and iPods certainly hasn’t helped. Luckily for Pink Floyd fans, Apple’s getting ready to throw them a bone.
Jobs & Co’s upcoming tablet computer is being hailed as a potential savior for the album format because of its easy display of ancillary materials like virtual booklets, liner notes, and pictures of Brian Eno. All that extra swag will supposedly convince the youth to listen to long-players the way God intended, but we’re not so sure. Last time around, the industry didn’t have rap skits to deal with.
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We’ve gushed about this before, but we thought you might be due for a reminder. Starting today, the entire televised output of The State will be available on DVD, just in time for Bastille Day.
It’s a very conceptual breed of comedy, but the familiar faces (if not names) and cred factor should make it worth picking up even if you aren’t a comedy nerd. And the appeal of $240 worth of pudding is pretty much universal.
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For anyone who was worried (500) Days of Summer was going to be a soufflé of hipster melancholy…here’s a Smiths cover! For the soundtrack of the upcoming flick, Zooey & M. turn in a retro version of the maudlin Mancunian waltz, about what you’d expect given their track record. And based on what we’ve seen of the film, we’d guess it captures the mood almost exactly.
The trailer for The Beatles: Rock Band just debuted at E3, and it’s one of the more outright spectacular game trailers we’ve ever seen. Anyone interested has heard all the songs a few dozen times, and the Rock Band routine is hardly news, but the back half of the trailer suggests a level of tripped-out visuals that’s more in line with the Cirque du Soliel.
Which makes a certain amount of sense.
There’s no shortage of campy Japanese imports these days, but the pioneers still have a bit of kick in them. For instance, our old friend Mr. Racer…
Speed Racer has finally made it to Hulu (via Autoblog), with 51 of the 52 American episodes just uploaded to the increasingly monolithic network video site. It’s every bit as over-the-top as you remember it, even if recent years (and a certain Wachowski Brothers film) have made the sensory overload a bit more manageable.
Now the question is, how soon can they get the Hanna-Barbera catalog up there?
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