george booker

yacht rock saturday: "magnet and steel" by walter egan

2009-02-28T14:04:00.002-05:00

paraphrasin' wikipedia is like writin' the gambler

walter egan was a native new yorker who grew into a '70s soft rock cat. his stuff was produced by the fleetwood mac team. i got into "magnet and steel" through the boogie nights soundtrack. it really is one of those random, perfect, soft '70s pop landmarks. i would put it right up there with starland vocal band's "afternoon delight".

incidentally, boogie nights has an amazing, spot on soundtrack. that got me into the emotions. has there ever been a better song than this?:

Video Sunday: Massive Attack

2009-02-22T09:58:00.002-05:00

In preparation for new Massive Attack stuff this year, I though I would post some promos of theirs that I haven't gotten around to. "Teardrop" is one of the most spine tingly dingly pop songs ever, and it has a striking video wherein a fetus sings Liz Frazer's unforgettable vocal. And, yeah, now it is the theme to "House":

"Inertia Creeps" is creepy. It is also one of the most awesome (and fairly prescient) interpolations of Aegean rhythms into beat pop.

Those two were from Mezzanine. This one, "Sly", is from Protection. Both rank among the best albums of the '90s in my brainbook.

Telefon Tel Aviv Review At 24SevenCities

2009-02-18T08:27:00.005-05:00

Maybe you've heard about the death of Charlie Cooper, half of Telefon Tel Aviv. It is a shame. The new album Immolate Yourself is great. I reviewed it here on 24SevenCities. A sample:

"Each of Telefon Tel Aviv’s albums has its own distinctiveness, building upon its predecessor. Map of What is Effortless explored the light, experimental ambience of 2001’s Farenheit Fair Enough, and extended those devices to new operatic emotion. The new album Immolate Yourself builds on the more immersive, transcendent moments of Map of What is Effortless, creating a layered, sublime and sad experience. It marries textured ambience with wrenching, resigned sentiment."

Here are some more links to things I've written for 24SevenCities:

Afro Samurai Resurrection soundtrack review
Loer Velocity Uninfatuated EP available for free download
Revisiting Paul's Boutique
Rilly long liveblog about television
Talkin' 'bout Auto-Tune
Thoughts about Being There
RIP Charlie Cooper of TTA

Cuts Like The Knife: Video Sunday

2009-02-08T12:38:00.002-05:00

So maybe this will be a regular thing, maybe it won't. Let me know if you enjoy it or not. There is nothing particularly new or hyper-relevant here, I just realized I had not taken the time here to slather the Knife all over a post. This came from finding this nifty flash video for "We Share Our Mother's Health" as remixed by Ratatat:

Silent Shout was an incredible album, and here is a cool, creepy video for my favorite song on it, "Marble House":

The previous album, Deep Cuts, was not too shabby itself. It is more pop oriented, and lacks the soul shuddering sparse creepiness of Silent Shout, but it is certainly a gem. Here, from Deep Cuts, is perhaps the Knife cut that you have most likely heard on a commercial (or covered acoustically by Jose Gonzalez). This is "Heartbeats":

You Say I'm Not A Party Girl?

2009-01-31T15:36:00.004-05:00

Alright, hopefully I've snagged some Elvis Costello lyrical geeks with the post title. But how about the '90s indie comedy gem Party Girl? And how about the fabulous Parker Posey and her glamorous gams? (I've also heard that sparking debates about the relative hotness of cultishly adored actresses is good for the comments.) Anyway, Parker thoroughly won me over throughout the '90s and still holds me rapt today.

One could be cynical and/or accurate to call this her Adam Sandler moment. Posey is one of our most vital cultural treasures, but she's also rilly fuckin' funny playing an initially naive, adorably funny, childlike character who goes through a maturation process and winds up wiser but no less lovable. In this one, she reverses the cliche of the mousey librarian who lets down her hair and takes off her glasses to become a foxy swan. In this movie, she transitions from irresistable club pixie to responsible librarian/still-a-club-vixen-but-more-accountable young woman. Fair warning well researched by myself and friends in college over many viewings and discussions on various substances: this movie does not work if you do not watch it top to bottom (not a big task, its a breeze at 94 minutes). Catching it from the middle, this breezy but sociologically interesting indie comedy directed by the incomparably named Daisy Von Scherler Mayer just seems stupid. Maybe it is, but fuck that, check it from the beginning. Also a favorite of Yo-Ster.

Anyway, Party Girl was not only a cheerful fable both celebrating and criticizing the mid-'90s club scene. It was also one of the finest, American Graffiti style, attempts to capture the always changing dance music scenes of the period in a melodious soundtrack. PopDose has done us all the favor of collecting many of the big cuts featured in this great film comedy. Not sure you should click on it? You need the most powerful psychedelic available right now!

New 24SevenCities Posts

2009-01-27T12:45:00.002-05:00

Hey kids,

I've been posting fairly regularly on the blogs for 24SevenCities. Please take a look at the whole thing, particularly if you're living around Southeastern Virginia. We're still building it, but it already looks pretty great and hosts a good amount of impressive content. I truly believe this has the potential to be the most high quality and relevant web/print resource in the area.

New content from moi:

Great Gig In The Sea
Mickey Rourke Is The Wrestler
Passing Strange
Daily Irrelevance

Blanton v. Maddrey (Fantasmo News)

2009-01-27T12:07:00.003-05:00

If you haven't gotten the chance to lately, its a good time to take a look at Jim Blanton's blog for Fantasmo Cult Cinema Explosion. Pamela Vorhees herself, Betsy Palmer, has been confirmed for a phone interview on the upcoming Friday the 13th 1-3 night on February 6. Additionally, there is a very fascinating interview by Blanton of Joseph Maddrey, author of Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue, an examination of the American horror movie and its themes throughout history. Maddrey has recently adapted his text into a documentary currently getting submitted to festivals. Hopefully soon we'll get a chance to see it at Chesapeake Central Library. And don't forget that this Friday they are fixing up a double helping of Austrailian horror, heavy on zombies. I wish I could have gotten so much genre education as a kid with the semi-legitimate excuse of "I'm just going to the library." Here is one particular fruitful exchange from Blanton's conversation with Maddrey:

JB: You explore two primary concepts in the film, firstly that these films are reflections of the time and place in which they are made, and secondly that they involve the struggle of the individual or “outsider” with some type of threatening entity. As a lifelong horror fan, did these elements jump out at you initially or coalesce during your research? Were there any other aspects you found competing with these in developing your thesis?

JM: Growing up, I was constantly watching and reading about horror movies – always searching for things I hadn’t seen. (This was the age of mom and pop video stores, when finding the really good stuff took some legwork.) I kept a running chronological list of titles and that was how I started noticing thematic similarities among films from particular time periods.

When the book was published, a friend of mine who hadn’t read it yet said, “But did you write about why you, personally, are interested in horror films? That’s what I want to read about.” Of course, I hadn’t. Another friend read the book and commented that, while he understood my thesis, he believed that the true appeal of the horror genre was its universal themes – fear of death, fear of change, fear of the outsider, etc. So in conducting interviews for the documentary, I tried to pursue the historical, the personal and the universal.

There are countless other concepts that we might have explored in the documentary if we’d had more time. Ultimately, the challenge was not finding things to say, but narrowing the scope and creating a coherent narrative.

That got me thinking about why I keep jabbering about and seeking out horror movies. My first instinct is to state that film is the most important artistic canvas to me for storytelling and the expression of ideas. Film is so expensive, however, that often the raw, uncompromised, and frequently inscrutable instincts and feelings that penetrate from other mediums such as visual arts, literature, and music are severely muted by commercial concerns. Horror, however, with its lack of reliance on mainstream respectibility, broad appeal, or outrageous budgeting (not to mention its lack of attention or regard as "serious art") has constantly served as a forum for transgressive images, taboo subject matter, controversial ideas, and uncomfortably personal artistic statements. Horror is a place I go to see what I have not seen, be intellectually provoked, and be viscerally and spiritually shocked. It is among the most cathartic and challenging of genres.

Eugene Mirman Is The Real Love Guru

2009-01-24T17:05:00.004-05:00

Eugene Mirman is truly one of the funniest and most unique minds out there. I had the pleasure of bombing before his show at Relative Theory a few years ago, and he was funny enough to make me forget my abject failure. I should send that to him as a blurb: "funny enough to forget your abject failure." That's why we're so into comedy anyway, right? This amazing guy has been chosen for the honor of the annual Valentine's Day relationship advice column, previously presided over by Sarah Silverman and Slug from Atmosphere, on the AV Club. If you have any love related questions that only an absurd and gifted comedian can answer for you, go ahead and send them to mirman@theonion.com. If yr lucky, he just might answer them for the whole internet to see!

Lily Allen Goes Straight To Hell

2009-01-22T13:26:00.002-05:00

The espanol blog Revista 69 has posted a wonderful track by my current favorite brat, Lily Allen. This is a classy cover of the Clash classic "Straight To Hell", the song that M.I.A. built her amazing megahit "Paper Planes" over.

The Bug and Passing Strange on 24SevenCities

2009-01-22T12:50:00.004-05:00

Sorry for my absence, space cadets, but I have not been up to nothing (not entirely, at least). I have posted a few fresh blogs for my new kickass writing home, 24SevenCities. Check them out and let me know what you think:

Review of The Bug's London Zoo

Thoughts on the Sundance Film Festival and Spike Lee's Passing Strange

Blogging at 24SevenCities

2009-01-20T14:56:00.003-05:00

I am now live at 24SevenCities.com. Here are the first few posts:

Inaugurate With Me? ;)
Welcome to Bloggageddon

another inaugurager

2009-01-20T11:15:00.003-05:00

Berk and Cornbread (there was going to be an appearance by a former member of Antipop Consortium, but then Beans and Cornbread had a fight, so Berk was kind enough to step in) will be spinning the hope fantastic at the Taphouse tonight from 10-2. I would like to expand my invitation for somebody to escort and pay for a night of democrabauchery with me and propose a waltz from the NOW soiree at the New Belmont to the hophip downthrow at Taphouse. How could you resist? No, really, how? That's the type of thing it would help me to know.

Daptone Presents Thermal Pain By Tony Janda (A Streaming Podcast)

2009-01-19T17:40:00.003-05:00

Endorsed and posted by Daptone, so this should be soulful.

Chomp Into Pylon? (That's A Very Lame Post Title, I Feel Like Gene Shalit's Sucky Apprentice)

2009-01-19T16:59:00.005-05:00

Merry Swankster has done an awesome deed by ripping some Pylon and posting it. I reviewed their DFA re-issue, Gyrate+, for No Ripcord. They were the early-'80s Athens band that was everybody's favorite and made some kickass records but never broke through or sold like R.E.M. or the B-52s. Don't think they're jangly or kitschy. This is real, propulsive, visceral dance rock that was way ahead of its time and had more kinship with No Wave in New York and post-punk in England than their neighbors in Georgia.

We're All In The Same Gang (Starr)

2009-01-19T16:15:00.003-05:00

Hero Hill was kind enough to give us a snack pack of Gang Starr mp3s today, which is always a treat and a surprise. Why such a surprise? I don't know, man. Every enthusiast of the hip-hop thing I know loves them and has at least a few of their releases. They're one of the enshrined combos everybody agrees on, and yet they never went platinum or heavily penetrated the mainstream's attention. If you don't know them, click the link and get you some 3pms. DJ Premier is a pioneer of that beloved early-'90s embellished, layered sample & scratch sound that has weathered much better than most hip-hop trends. Guru IS the king of monotone with his own drone (his words bring winds like cyclones). They are also key in the effective use of jazz in hip-hop...Guru went as far as to do a series of collaborative pieces with hip-hop and jazz luminaries with the Jazzmatazz series, which paved the way for the Roots and this decade's explosion of hip-hop incorporated into live performance. Check it. Step Into The Arena. This is the Moment of Truth.

That Driving Beat

2009-01-19T15:36:00.002-05:00

Found a great vintage dance clip on youtube for this Willie Mitchell classic.

Hails To The Chief

2009-01-19T11:41:00.002-05:00

The AV Club have outdone themselves with this week's inventory. They have compiled 70 pop songs about American presidents with commentary, clips, all that good stuff (although they knock out 43 entries with a single write-up for a collection, which is mild cheating). The top ten were contributed by these artists: Devo, Stevie Wonder, The Legendary K.O., The Honey Drippers, Charlie Poole & The North Carolina Ramblers, The Byrds, and the first three tracks on Of Great And Mortal Men.

Lily Allen Remix

2009-01-19T10:08:00.003-05:00

Ohh Crapp just posted a nifty Death Metal Disco Scene remix of the adorably spoiled and snotty new Lily Allen single "The Fear". So, you know, click the link and listen to it in fabulous mp3.

New Junior Boys LP Due In March

2009-01-19T09:35:00.004-05:00

FactMagazine posted a few details on the new Junior Boys ablum, Begone Dull Care. Along with Hot Chip, Junior Boys' previous releases, So This Is Goodbye and Last Exit, have put them at the top of the dance/soul/pop Caucasian male duo heap. They put together the new one Foreign Exchange style, corresponding between Canada and Berlin.

The Mighty Boosh v. Adult Swim

2009-01-19T07:36:00.003-05:00

One of the best British comedy tips I got from my good friend and resident expert on the subject Ty Bliss was a surreal little series called The Mighty Boosh. Mixing the odd couple interplay of Julian Barrett and Noel Fielding with absurd, dada fantasy plots and whimsical musical interviews, their BBC radio show was a unique pleasure. They are up to series 3 on the television show that was spawned from that, which I have yet to fully experience. This should be remedied this year as they will premiere on the Adult Swim line-up, so stoners and insomniacs alike will have the pleasure of this cult gem from across the pond.

"Tundra Rap" via Condemned to Rock 'N Roll

Zombies Down Under

2009-01-19T04:33:00.002-05:00

Fantasmo will celebrate Friday, January 30th with a horrifying hilarious hybrid double feature of dimwitted hordes of monsters, that is the Living Australian Dead.

8pm Undead

Jim has been going on about Aussie horror on the Fantasmo blog, so I guess this is one of them aughts shockers the island has been doing so well. Back when I was a kid the only movies Australia exported were idiotic comedies about mentally defective enthusiasts. But who knows, maybe in Australia they were kitchen sink realist dramas.

10pm Dead Alive (Braindead)

Before Peter Jackson made his masterpiece Heavenly Creatures and the successful Lord of the Rings trilogy, he made himself a master of splatter slapstick with Bad Taste and this romantic comedy that may have more blood and flying limbs than any movie I've ever seen. Nobody ever forgets the lawnmower scene.

So all of this is happening at the Chesapeake Central Library. For free. Food, door prizes, folks, fun, etc.

New Doug Pray Documentary

2009-01-18T18:57:00.002-05:00

Doug Pray is shaping up to be the finest documentary filmmaker out there as soon as Errol Morris retires. Pray is a crackerjack editor (he cut the Hughes Brothers' great American Pimp) and a man who approaches his own documentaries as polished learning experiences that manage to both cram in copious information and stay fascinating throughout. His previous films, Hype, Surfwise, and especially Scratch are all essential.

At Sundance, Pray recently screened his new one, Art & Copy, which delves into the seedy world of dark magic that is advertising. The AV Club didn't care for it so much, but I still think I have to see this one.

Mastroianni

2009-01-18T18:28:00.001-05:00

Just a youtube clip I picked up off of Cinemension. Wasn't Marcello intoxicating to watch in black and white?

kanye remixes

2009-01-18T18:04:00.003-05:00

hey kids, just came upon a post on The Mixtape with some mp3s off the kanye remixtape by Benzi and Plain Pat, including Diplo's remix of "Flashing Lights". just thought you might want to take a look and a listen.

Let's Inaugurate

2009-01-18T16:38:00.002-05:00

On the first Obama day, I ended up at the New Belmont in time for the acceptance speech. Joyous tears all over the place, there was a new atmosphere of belonging and congregation and unity. It was us, we won, Virginia was finally a blue state, and we all seemed to shed our bitterness and pretension and feel the joy of being together. I hugged and kissed people I'm usually an utter dick to.

This new optimistic feeling seemed to last up until the next pay period or wave of bills or uncle kicked you out so you have to enlist in the army then stay at the Union Mission until you ship off. Let's get that New Love feeling going again.

New Belmont is having another extra special Tuesday for the inauguration. Tidewater NOW, HROC, andPhem will be representing, so there should be a friendly atmosphere of pansexual, smart, aware cats getting loose and sentimental, not to mention a lot of women, 30% or so of which might be interested in boys. Damn I wish I wasn't so brokeded. Anybody want to give me a ride and buy my drinks?

Ladies?

Obama. Yes We Can. Etc.