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Brick d. Rian Johnson
This was really great. The whole film-noir-in-a-high-school thing is done with total sincerity and seriousness. I never once felt like it was too gimmicky or lame or whatever. I was just totally wrapped up, enthralled by their slang, by the complex plot, and by the excellent acting by almost everyone. Very well done by Rian Johnson, who pulled off his dream project excellently. Very thrilling. Sometimes difficult to understand, but nonetheless very engaging.

Howl's Moving Castle d. Hayao Miyazaki
I loved Miyazaki movies for the creativity that is put into every scene. The bus that was shaped like a cat, the birds made out of paper, etc. are all really great. Can his movies sometimes become suffocated by the focus on wonderful, fantastic images? Howl's Moving Castle proves they can. The actual storytelling was put behind the incredible sights and although they are very entertaining to see, such as the door that with the turn of a dial can take you anywhere, they made the actual plot difficult to follow. Something about a magician that doesn't want to fight in a war as a bird and he has a curse on him or whatever. Of course, Miyazaki put some of his most crazy ideas in this movie. He just didn't spend enough time developing the dialogue and the plot.

After Life d. Hirokazu Koreeda
This was a pretty interesting concept, but it had a somewhat negative affect on me while viewing the film. Basically it's about one of many stations where the dead arrive to choose only one memory from life to have a special crew recreate on film for their eternal viewing. Unfortunately they did not actually spend a lot of time on the film making part, which was what I was waiting for in anticipation. I did enjoy watching the people reminisce on old memories, from a man who only wishes to remember a childhood memory because he's had a boring life to a meticulous pilot who wants to remember flying through the clouds. The memory that you want to relive for eternity is essentially your idea of heaven. Really this is a movie that shows how a person's idea of heaven and how they explain it can tell a lot about them. The film making scene was really great, and it was touching to see the dead people so enjoying reliving their memories. I kind of disliked how it abruptly shifted to a love story near the end, but this was a good movie.

A Man Escaped d. Robert Bresson
Very straightforward. Bresson had a singular focus on what story to tell with this movie, and he did it well. I thought a movie about a man trying to escape from prison in Nazi-occupied France would be boring, but it was actually very gripping. Whenever he was writing, or removing the boards from his door, or doing something else risky, I was absolutely terrified for him. The last scene, which is about 15 minutes long, is a completely suffocating experience for me, because I was too afraid for him to even breathe. Although there isn't much of an underlying message with this film, Bresson captured the intensity of prison escape perfectly and great acting by the guy who played Fontane made this a completely enjoyable film.

Stroszek d. Werner Herzog
Herzog is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors. Prior to this I've seen Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo, both excellent, albeit very similar films. This was very different from those two as this is not exactly about a maniac wrapped up in visions of the great and impossible. Instead, Bruno S. nicely plays the lost man in Germany who decides to move with an old man and a prostitute to rural America, in order to run from some pimps that are harassing him and also to find a purpose for existence by making lots of money. The part of the movie in America is so great as it follows Bruno and Eva getting established with a home, a bank and getting acquainted with a new, "better" life. I can't really tell much more, but there is beauty in watching the progress of Stroszek's life in America. I think Herzog's message with this movie is that unless we accept the unexplainable circumstances of life, we will always remain outsiders. The last scene in the film is beautiful. Herzog says he did not know the metaphor he was making with this scene, but he knows there is one. I don't believe him, because it is one of the most powerful, haunting scenes I've ever seen. My dad hated this movie but loved Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo. I think this rivals both. This is truly one of the best films I've ever seen. (Cool note: Herzog and his cameramen actually strapped themselves to the hood of the car the actors were driving in, on the freeway, to film some driving scenes. With just their belts. Werner Herzog is so awesome.)

I have to say I downloaded it just based off of a Pitchfork review I just read of it, but that aside, this has to be one of the most exciting surprises of this year. Girl Talk - Night Ripper is just so amazing. I love all mash-ups, which is why I got this album which is a collection of 16 mash-ups on steroids/speed/crack whatever it's so a;sglkjak;lmbe;bawemoawbmobwmeaocn;klasmdoe;iawmoeps it's just so fun trying to catch all of the songs that this guy uses! My head is exploding, and I haven't finished listening to the album yet.

Beautiful. Jim's Steaks, then we went straight over to Club Polaris and I met the guy who runs R5 Productions! Then we saw Hrvatski but only for about 5 minutes. He was really good, but I didn't really have any idea what he was doing on his laptop. I'm going to try to find some Hrvatski recordings.


Hrvatski

Then Lightning Bolt started to set up on the floor behind us and I had no idea what was going on. They talked for a while, then started playing, and you could tell that the audience loved them. Everyone was having fun, so much dancing/swaying. I got paint on me from two guys that were covered in green/red paint, I got bruises from people kicking me in the legs from dancing. Teenagers climbed the pillars to get a better look at the action, fat guys danced like crazy, an old man stood in the back looking unamused, and Lightning Bolt just rocked. I loved the Brian Chippendale's mask that he wore. They were obviously excited to be playing with the Boredoms though.


Some kid during Lightning Bolt


Brian Chippendale standing up and chatting with the crowd. See the two kids on the pillar?

Then Boredoms played. It's difficult to describe, but it was intense. I was pushed around between huge sweaty guys and by the end of it I was very nearly dehydrated. Three drum sets were set up on stage, and eYe was just unbelievable. In the beginning he held up these two orbs that glowed and made this awesome, harsh noise. His energy was just incredible throughout the whole concert, and half the time I was just dazed/euphoric from how amazing they were. Throughout their set, I slowly pushed my way up until I was at the very front, several feet away from the drummer wearing the hat. I couldn't believe how the three drummers at times could be playing in perfect unison, then at other times be perfectly complementing each other with different parts. At one point, eYe and Yoshimi started singing to each other incomprehensibly. It was the most beautiful thing ever. There were two encores. After the second encore, eYe politely, quietly said thank you and promptly left the stage after bowing to the audience. It's as if he's unaware how much his music affected us; if I could make music that could, as Riff Market said to me after the concert, walk the line between beauty and pain (maybe this isn't what he said, I was a little too dazed to listen well), I wouldn't be nearly so modest. When we left Club Polaris, we went straight to the gas station and downed huge bottles of Gatorade and water. It was the most exhausting concert I've ever been to. After that, all other music just sounded pathetic.


eYe holding orbs.


Yoshimi singing.


eYe singing.

Sleater-Kinney just broke up, and I need to see them in concert. Anyone want to go with me to Portland, Oregon to see their last show on August 11 at the Crystal Ballroom? Money is not a factor, as one cannot put a price on seeing Sleater-Kinney. This will be like a spiritual journey for me, as Sleater-Kinney's break up is by far the most upsetting break up (of any kind) that I've ever been through, and it will put some closure on the situation for me.

One of the best rock groups of our--no, all time has unfortunately announced an "indefinite hiatus" in a concise statement on their website:

After eleven years as a band, Sleater-Kinney have decided to go on indefinite hiatus. The upcoming summer shows will be our last. As of now, there are no plans for future tours or recordings.

We feel lucky to have had the support of many wonderful people over the years. We want to thank everyone who has worked with us, written kind words about us, performed with us, and inspired us.

But mostly we want to extend our gratitude to our amazing fans. You have been a part of our story from the beginning. We could not have made our music without your enthusiasm, passion, and loyalty. It is you who have made the entire journey worthwhile.

With love and thanks,
Sleater-Kinney



Losing Sleater-Kinney is like losing a cousin, to me. Sleater-Kinney has created music that can easily be ranked among the best music of all time and frankly, they rocked harder than any other band of their time, male or female.

Their talent is by far most evident in their now final album, "The Woods", an album that has changed my life, and, in strongest testament to the power of their music, has warranted repeat listens in continuous rotation since I first bought it about a year ago. "The Woods" is an amazing album, which I gave a score of 9.3 in my August 1, 2005 blog. Since I've bought the album, I've fallen in love with every element of the music. Carrie Brownstein's fierce, amazing guitar-playing speaks amazing volumes and a great range of styles. Corin Tucker's voice perfectly suits the music by displaying ferocity, anger, helplessness, sarcasm, humor, and everything else while not making a big deal of her feminine voice, rather focusing on the emotions and lyrics. What strikes me most about the album, I think, is the raw emotion that feels like it is just shooting out of the speakers. The instrumentation is very simple, with just guitars and drums (no bass), but the music still speaks exponentially more than most other music. "The Woods" is my own "Back In Black", and is my go-to choice whenever I need to listen to an album that rocks, front to back. Remember when I made that list of my top ten albums of last year? Sleater-Kinney only made ..7, but today, half a year later, in retrospect, it deserves more like ..3 or ..2. "The Woods" is undoubtedly a classic, and I have no doubt I will be listening to it years and even decades from now. Unlike most albums that lose their relevance and become forgotten within years, "The Woods" will still be just as ear-shattering, just as bare, just as purely emotional as it is today. Years from now I will put "The Woods" on my stereo, and when I first hear the screech of the feedback immediately followed by the fierce wail of the guitars, I will be just as blown away as I am today. Years from now critics will be acclaiming "The Woods" as the "real thing", an album that truly was great apart from those albums that were mistakenly celebrated along with it. Years from now Sleater-Kinney will be remembered as one of the best bands of our time, a band that truly changed lives through their music.

Most importantly, years from now kids will be discovering this band called Sleater-Kinney and it will change their lives and they'll regret that they never were around in Sleater-Kinney's time and the legacy of Sleater-Kinney will only be remembered by old folks like me and I'll cry about their break-up and I'll recall their glory days. I only wish I could've seen Sleater-Kinney before this. I have to finish this before I break out in tears. Goodbye Sleater-Kinney, you were one of the truly great bands of our time.

70. Kanye West - The College Dropout
As much as I dislike Kanye West these days, there is no denying the incredible power of this first album. Even though there are just as many bad tracks as there are great ones, the fact that it has 21 makes this okay. Despite the terrible skits and poor pacing of the tracks, the amazing beats and Kanye's excellent rapping make several of the tracks just monumental. And unlike many other rappers, I don't get angry when I listen to Kanye. Rapping about issues like his own self-consciousness makes this a rap album that I enjoy in more than one way.

69. Pixies - Surfer Rosa
Steve Albini might just have made this album as good as it is. With trademark focus on instrumentation with vocals something of a background sound, the whole album just sounds really bare. The screaming vocals of Black Francis are a perfect fit with Joey Santiago's screeching guitars and Kim Deal's distinctive bass that holds everything together. The best thing about this album is that it sounds so fun, so human. Any album with both "Where Is My Mind?" and "Gigantic" has to be amazing anyway.

68. The Velvet Underground & Nico
Wow, this album has to be one of, if not the most influential album of all time. Almost every genre of music these days owes a lot to The Velvet Underground's famous collaboration with Nico and it has to be good if Andy Warhol is producing the thing! Pretty much every track is amazing and what is great about them is that they can cover so many different styles of music while still being distinctive. But the best thing about the album is that even though it was made almost 40 years ago, it hasn't lost anything over the years - a sign of a classic.

67. Explosions In The Sky - The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place
Everyone's favorite post-rock band's most popular album. In such an alienating genre, it is amazing how Explosions in the Sky can still garner a wide following, even from people whose favorites include not Mogwai, Do Make Say Think, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, but rather Death Cab For Cutie, Sufjan Stevens and Rilo Kiley. Granted, Explosions in the Sky can be nothing like other bands in the post-rock genre, but their appeal could be mainly due to the sheer beauty and brilliance of their music. Songs like "Your Hand In Mine" and "First Breath After Coma" show off their distinctive tremolo style (that is now hugely imitated by many lame post-rock bands) that is so evocative and inspiring it brings me close to tears. Screw fight songs and rap music, this is what gets me pumped up for sports.

66. Built To Spill - There's Nothing Wrong With Love
I don't always like indie rock, it can all sound the same, but Built To Spill has created the perfect indie rock album right here. It doesn't really defy conventions or anything, but each song is more or less perfectly crafted and they each sound pretty amazing. So many classics like "Big Dipper", "Car", and "Dystopian Dream Girl" are perfect for putting on mix tapes and stuff just because they have great lyrics, melodies and Doug Marsch's amazing guitar skills don't hurt either.

65. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Remember when Pitchfork gave this a 10.0? It doesn't quite deserve that but it comes close, and in a sense, it is "perfect". This actually was one of the first "alternative" albums that I actually listened to, after Weezer's discography and the Fountains of Wayne self-titled. This album really covers all of the bases from weird and seemingly nonsensical "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" (I probably just have no idea what "I am an American aquarium drinker/I assassin down the avenue" means), to sad and depressing "Jesus Etc." (strangely relevant to it's 9/11/01 release date - "Tall buildings shake/Voices escape singing sad sad songs"), and even upbeat and infectiously poppy "Heavy Metal Drummer". There's a good reason that this album turned me on to indie/alternative music. It's because it's great and is seemingly flawless, to my ears at least.

64. The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage Vol 1
My brain seriously was turned inside out by this album. Maybe I need to listen to it on shrooms or acid or something, but I get so freaked out and amazed whenever I listen to this CD. In one sense, it is just as poppy and catchy as the also-great "Dusk At Cubist Castle", but it is a serious departure from the light-hearted tone of that album. This album seems almost dark and mysterious in comparison. It is very very hard to describe but it is so psychedelic and just makes me think that it would make much more sense if I take some kind of drug while I'm listening to it. However the craziness that it immerses you in is really an experience to be had. I don't know if what Will Cullen Hart said about it making sense after listening to it 50 times because every song is involved with each other is true, but if it is, man, this has to be the most brilliant thing in the world.

63. Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure
I am a big Roxy Music fan. Bryan Ferry's amazing voice definitely lends itself well to the music, and with this being Eno's last work with Roxy Music, it has to be amazing. The album excels in both the slower tracks and the faster, more energetic ones, but I really have to give the edge to the tracks where Roxy Music really shows off its energy. "Do The Strand" is such a great track, and "Editions of You" has to be one of the best pop songs of all time. It might not be really obvious, but there is definitely influence from Roxy Music on the U.K. rock bands of today, especially from tracks like these. I mean bands like Franz Ferdinand, Art Brut and Maxïmo Park. Of course none of them, except perhaps Art Brut, can say they are as good as Roxy Music were.

62. Black Dice - Beaches & Canyons
THANK YOU JONNO FOR THIS ALBUM. IT IS AMAZING. Christmas 2005 was the best in terms of music for me, just because I got this. Black Dice has changed everything that I used to think about music. I could go on an on about how amazing they are and how they can virtually create entire environments from their music. Each album is totally different, and this one is perfectly indicated by its title. This album DOES sound like beaches and canyons, I don't understand how they do this, but Black Dice, with their 3 or 4 members, recreate the experience of traveling through a canyon and then landing on the beach to experience the beautiful sound of the waves and the ocean's roar. This could be a lyric-less concept album. Like a bird flying over the ocean, the beaches, and the canyons and back again.

61. The Microphones - The Glow, Pt. 2
There isn't much to this album besides guitar, vocals and the occasional drums. It is really great though, I love Phil's great whisper of a voice and the lo-fi buzz of the entire experience. Each song is sung as if it was a real personal experience for Phil, in the first person. The album feels less like a musical collection of individual tracks as songs, and more like a journal, recounting the experiences of a single man that is written as he goes along and is unearthed many many years later, in a lower quality, but the stories and recollections are all still there, all just as real and just as breathtaking. I'm tired. I need to lie down.

I'm going to the concert with Riff Market. It'd be still cool if someone can come, but now I'm definitely going. This is going to be awesome!! I'll have a real Philly cheesesteak while seeing the band that sounds like the taste of a billion cheesesteaks!

Does anyone want to take me or come with me to Philadelphia on Friday June 30th for a concert at the Starlight Ballroom at 8:00 PM? The bands will be the Boredoms, Lightning Bolt, and one other TBA. This is going to be the greatest concert (not including festivals) of the summer and I absolutely NEED to go. Let me remind you that the Boredoms will only be playing one show on the east coast, and that is here. I need a ride, I need to go, I need to see this event. Contact me ASAP if you can do it. More info at http://www.r5productions.com/shows.html

Best album: Liars - Drums Not Dead
Best single: The Rapture - W.A.Y.U.H.
Best unexpected rap: Islands - Where There's a Will There's a Whalebone
Best album not out yet: The Arcade Fire - Untitled
Second best album not out yet: Excepter - Alternation
Best noise album: Terrestrial Tones - Dead Drunk
Best video game music album: The Advantage - Elf-Titled
Best difficult-to-get album: Final Fantasy - He Poos Clouds
Saddest album: Grandaddy - Just Like the Fambly Cat
Most beautiful song: Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming of Places Where Lovers Have Wings