SOUND team: Their capitalization still confuses me.

Greatly enjoyed the SOUND team / Cold War Kids show at TT's a couple weeks back, in addition to the Bloc Party / Mew /Secret Machines show at the Bank of America Pavilion a couple days later. More people were actually at the SOUND team show for CWK, who have been touring the shit out of Boston of late. They've got a guitarist who bounces around like a mixture between Gabe Andruzzi of the Rapture and Flea and a lead singer who looks like a combination of Joaquin Phoenix and Woody Harrelson. Which really isn't relevant to the music, but I'll throw it out there anyway. Mulley had told me about "Hospital Beds" but it's not exactly my cup of tea. That said, their opener "Hang Me Up to Dry" was incredible before they settled down a bit. Turns out the album version isn't nearly heavy enough, but I'm hoping they do a new mix of it (ie turn up the guitars, turn down the vocals) or something for their eventual album.


Cold War Kids: good times.

It's funny in a way how Bloc Party went from a cool indie band playing Paradise to playing Avalon to playing the Pavilion. Normally somewhere along the way you become kind of lame, but BP have managed to become vaguely mainstream in a way that has yet to disturb my "sell out" sensors. Part of the fun of the last show was that it was a very similar setlist to what they had previously played, with little room for new stuff. The real test will be what the next record sounds like, but at least "Two More Years" was very good, though it looks unlikely to make the second album.

Cold War Kids / "Hospital Beds"
Mew / "Apocalypso" (left-click yousendit)

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Why Do Beautiful Women Sometimes Marry Unattractive Men? I say who cares, so long as they do.

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The Knife: It got weird

I really want to like The Knife's Silent Shout, but after months of hearing random tracks and then last week listening to it at Newbs' I'm officially giving up. I really liked what I had heard from siblings Olof and Karin Dreijer's previous album Deep Cuts but then they had to go all weird with voice distortion and spooky little synthesizers. Goodbye melody and pop sensibility. Fortunately the boys from Ratatat have salvaged at least one track, as shared by kissatlanta. The best way to describe it is that it sounds like The Knife, remixed by Ratatat. This is why my insight is free.

The Knife / "We Share Our Mother's Health [Ratatat Remix]"

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Metric might not be the most interesting band around, but Emily Haines is nothing if not a great frontwoman. I can't say I was all that interested when I heard she was doing some solo work, so I was pleasantly surprised by what's floating around on the internet in advance of her album's release on September 26th. The sound is heavy on piano, but in general very layered and orchestral, somewhat evocative Aimee Mann. Kwaya Na Kisser provides the following:

Emily Haines / "The Lottery"

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Major League Baseball has little problem with players cheating for the last two decades, but the Brewers announcing an addition to the Sausage Race? No mas to the chorizo!

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There's little doubt that Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly is one of the more visually engrossing films of the decade. Using a technique called rotoscoping--where animation is drawn over live action film--Linklater creates a realistic but disorienting sense of reality. The technique has been used since the beginning of film, including more traiditional animated films such as Snow White. However, rather than feel like an animated film that looks realistic, A Scanner Darkly looks more like real life that's been partially animated.


Rory Cochrane: also known as that squirrely guy from Dazed and Confused

All that said, it's about much more than the visuals. Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson and Rory Cochrane all turn in rather brilliant performances as addicts of Substance D, the drug that has brought the near future to its knees. Keanu Reeves even manages to competently play the central role of Bob Arctor, a police detective who is investigating himself (don't ask). It's easy to criticize the film for trying to overthink or outright confuse its audience, but that's also the fun.

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I don't know what's more amusing--a lawyer saying that her client getting caught masturbating in a library is a "blessing in disguise" or watching the cheesetached defendant attack the newsteam that got him in trouble in the first place.

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YIKES: "Caution: Retards in Area"