Music You Should Listen To: She & Him

Actor Zooey Deschanel teams up with musician M. Ward to form She & Him, a duo determined to create old-time folk mixed with modern pop sensibility. Listen to "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?"  from their debut album. It is extremely catchy and musically interesting.

http://www.last.fm/music/She%2B%2526%2BHim

Movies: Choke

Tonight I was lucky enough to be able to attend free screening of the new movie Choke, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk (author of Fight Club) and directed by actor/director Clark Gregg. This movie is very funny and very twisted. It follows the life of a sex-addicted colonial re-enactor and his relationship with his friend, his co-workers, and his mother. It is a very sexual movie so you probably shouldn't see it with parents, children, or small animals. It will definitely generate some conversation. Anjelica Hustin gives a moving performance and Sam Rockwell is the man (perhaps even godlike?)

Go see it when it opens muthalickas!

Mashed Up

It seems like anyone who is anyone knows about mash-up sensation Girl Talk, who will be playing several shows in the Boston area soon, turning peaceful college campuses into dance parties. However, not many people have heard of Deskhop, a similarly shirtless mash-up artist who is just about on par with Girl Talk. Mixing typical pop and rap hits with rock samples from the likes of Audioslave, Muse, and Blue Oyster Cult, Deskhop creates fun dance music that is also extremely listenable, something that could not be said for Girl Talk's previous effort, Night Ripper. Deskhop's new album is available for free download at his website here.

Movies: Speed Racer

Wachowski brothers for the loss. LSD Racer was caught somewhere between kid movie and comic book movie without either palpable plot or substance.

Music You Should Listen To: Shivaree

Today I have chosen to highlight one of my favorite groups, a group that is widely unknown and unappreciated. Today, on an adventure to Newbury Comics I was lucky enough to score a copy of Shivaree's I Oughtta Give You a Shot in the Head for Making Me Live in this Dump for only $3 (along with a vinyl copy of OK Computer for $25). Released in 1999, their debut features their most popular song Goodnight Moon, which was featured in Kill Bill Volume 2. Led by Parsley Ambrosia, my favorite female vocalist, Shivaree makes music that sounds like a film noir soundtrack mixed into pop music. Their songs can be mysterious, gentle, and beautiful, dramatic, sinister, and dark, or bouncy, witty, and funky. Highlights of the album include Bossa Nova, I Don't Care, Goodnight Moon, Daring Lousy Guy, and Idiot Waltz.

Also be sure to check out I Close My Eyes (which I suggest that you buy the Breach EP version from iTunes because the album version on Youtube and Last.fm aren't as good) and Little Black Mess on Who's Got Trouble and Flycatcher on Rough Dreams.

Shivaree also has a new album entitled Tainted Love: Mating Calls and Fight Songs 

which is a collection of covers available for streaming here.

 http://www.last.fm/music/Shivaree

Movies: Burn After Reading

If I were to attempt to describe what happened in this movie, it would mean that the Coen Brothers had utterly failed in gang-raping my senses. However, blsdfjshsfjsdkglfg. This movie is stupid, silly, sad, smart, funny. Go see this movie. "It's a clusterfuck."

Brad Pitt for the win.

and the loss :(

Good Music You Haven't Heard Yet

From the green depths of New Hampshire comes Indie-Folk songwriter Kyle Oppenheimer, a friend of one of my new college friends. Oppenheimer's compositions boast multiple instruments and sound like a mixture of Neutral Milk Hotel and I'm From Barcelona. Go to his myspace and check out some of the songs and the video of Yuri Gagarin Stole My Thunder. You'll enjoy it, I promise.

get some!

Movies: Hamlet 2

Hamlet 2 is a comedy about the parody of a tragedy that is making a sequel to a tragedy. It's dry, stupid, dry, and ridiculous. It was funny, but was it good? "It's irrelevant."

Well, the important thing to remember is that "no matter where you go, it's going to be better than Tuscon."

Four Men

Today I will be highlighting a little-known comedy-folk group. While anyone with a life is aware of the folk-comedy-rap-hyphenated-crossover duo Flight of the Conchords, I and a select few have found a comedy outfit that predates Bret and Jemaine by a decade. A few weeks ago, during a trip to Boston, we stopped at Planet Records and found a miraculous deal. 5 mystery CDs in a package for only $1. How could we resist? Well, excited as we were to unwrap our early Christmas presents, we soon saw why these CDs were selling at that price. Most of the CDs were terrible death metal groups or extremely poor rock bands. However, one gem was found in this pile of crap that can only be described as a used adult diaper filled with shards of glass and evil. This gem was a demo CD by The Foremen. While there were only 3 tracks, it was definitely worth 20 cents. The highlight of the disk was a non-album track by the name of Christmas is Pain, which is joyously pessimistic Christmas tune sung as a Bob Dylan protest song from the 60's. This biting satire really puts Bob Dylan in his place, and shows that imitations can be better than the original.