DELTRON 3030 RECOMMENDED: Various Artists ‘Adventureland’
The marketing campaign for this movie lied to me! It wasn’t the fun loving goofball comedy that I was expecting. Instead the movie was full of broken hearts, broken homes, and broken promises. I was bamboozled! I’m guessing it tested poorly so the studio decided to do some re-shoots, adding in the multiple punches to the groin that were peppered throughout the movie. I lost count but there were at least five separate fist to balls in there. Comedy Gold. Needless to say I was a bit letdown by the movie. Even still I gave this movie three stars in my netflix account…. all based solely on the power of the kick ass soundtrack. Top to bottom it is chock full of goodness. The true test of a soundtrack’s skill is if it effortlessly blends the obvious hits (“Your Love,” “Just Like Heaven,” “Rock Me Amadeus”) with some lesser known neglected songs (I’m in Love With a Girl, Modern Love, Don’t Want to Know if You Are Lonely”. It’s like making a killer mix tape. You want to rope them in with something they know, then when you have them entranced with a sense of security and familiarity you drop the knowledge on them. Two people in film today stand out in my eyes for soundtrack mix tape building: Tarantino and Cameron Crowe. Their consistent mixing excellence makes them the measuring sticks for all other Hollywood mix tape makers. Whoever worked on Adventureland’s mix is now right up there with them. The movie single handedly made me go home and download a few albums I probably already should have had: (more…)
SIRIA’S AUGUST PLAYLIST
You may notice there are a lot of songs from the 90’s on this month’s playlist. I may have been born in the 80’s, but it’s the 90’s music I clearly remember. The ironic thing is most of the music I would be fine with never hearing again is from the 90’s. This is the decade where record labels seemed to have handed out record deals like candy. I can’t even begin to tell you how many musicians I’ve met who were part of those signed bands. Some were hot for a minute or two, while others seemed to have gotten shelved and no promotion. Others are still getting paychecks from their 90’s fame.
Anyhow, I turned August into a “let’s listen to 90’s rock and alternative during the day” month, mainly because I am driving a Volvo from the 90’s until my car is ready (at this point it better be getting an overhaul and come back as a freakin’ Murcielago or Aston Martin) so I decided to fully embrace this decade. I went as far as to question my sanity and ask myself can I really just listen to 90’s music for a whole month?
Well I did it and there was a lot of good music I hadn’t listened to in forever and some I’d never even heard. This playlist may not be reflective of my last statement as it doesn’t necessarily show the cream of the crop and includes many mainstream acts, but it’s what played at 2:05 pm.
Sponge – “Molly (Sixteen Candles)”
Since this is Sponge’s second appearance on one of my playlists it may seem like I’m a huge fan. In reality aside from this song and “Plowed,” I’m not sure I know any more of their songs. I do like both of those a lot, so maybe I should re-visit some Sponge.
Dirty Filthy Mugs – “Tony and Vinny”
This is a local band. I saw this band play at Blue Star Cafe. I noticed Notes From Vivace also had one of their songs on his list, as well as another band they played with A Pretty Mess. These bands shared the stage with our friends of Pu$$y-Cow. It was a great show. I love my punk rock and these guys definitely knew how to bring it reminding me of Swingin’ Utters (with whom they’ve shared band members apparently). A bunch of us girls were overdue at another party and figured we’d stay for just a song or two, but after one song decided to catch a whole set. If you can get a bunch of drunk non-groupie type girls to stick around for your set as well as a bunch of guys who either play in punk rock bands or are used to seeing quality bands play, you’ve definitely got something.
On a side note: The bands on this bill are all owed big kudos as “dysfunctinal” was the theme of the evening, beginning with a no-show from the promoter who initially put the line-up together. None of these bands knew each other prior to this show, yet showed no hesitation to help each other with sound (there was no sound guy as well), mic stand malfunctions, and stood in the audience for each other’s sets. Seeing this happen is what makes me want to continue putting on music shows as time allows me. I hope seeing and experiencing stuff like this makes bands realize they don’t need promoters to put shows together for them. DIY people.
Seven Mary Three – “Cumbersome”
I actually really like this song and the lyrics
Barefoot Bride – “Swallowed”
A very common question that I received in the year 2005 and I’m sure bookers across LA did as well was “There’s these A&R people coming to check us out and we need to put on a showcase, can you help us?” I would like to see how much money was “expensed” by record label people in ‘05. Bands were being sweet talked, boozed, and shmoozed left and right. Record label execs would show up in limos and towncars to check out the bands packing the clubs. It was a fun year, but also a telling sign of the implosion that was coming. Few of those bands that were constantly asked to put on these “showcases” got record deals. I saw many a frustrated band dealing with this. Some did and were shelved.
Anyhow, this band featuring some nice OC guys had some of the biggest underground hype among A&R from various labels, they worked hard as did their management just like many other bands. They usually packed their shows and had cute girls showing up at all of their shows. Anytime, I hear one of their songs or other bands that I’m friends with that were getting all of this kind of attention it makes me think back to that crazy year. A year when everyone was having more fun than maybe we should’ve and bands were working hard at changing their own destiny.
Here is their video for “So Bad”
(click on the link for the rest of the playlist) (more…)
AMANDA JONES’ AUGUST PLAYLIST
Ms Amanda Jones’ August Playlist:
Joan Baez / Bob Dylan – “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright”
So for reasons that I are especially “special” to me at this moment in my life – this has been a song on perpetual loop on my Ipod. I think I’ve listened to it about 100 times in the last month. The interesting thing is that as a child my mother would play folk music constantly – and I hated Joan Baez – hence a punk rocker was born. Now, however I’m older and a lot of what I heard when I was a kid I play all the time! This is one of those songs. The lyrics are uplifting for a melancholy song:
It aint no use in calling out my name babe/ Like you never did before
It aint no use in calling out my name babe/ I can’t hear you anymore…
Equally beautiful is Dylan’s version. If you’ve never heard it and you want to see songwriting at it’s best – take a listen.
Great Northern – Remind Me Where the Light Is
I got to see this band at Pershing Square with some friends – one of which has been talking about this band for what seems like years. Well he was right! They really are fantastic. They can create a beautiful atmosphere with their music.
I bought the record (which came with a digital download) because it sounds like it would be great on my record player. I especially like, “Story,” “Houses,” and “Fingers”….but the whole album is worth it! (more…)
Fetch Me My Box of Soap!
A year or two, back when Myspace was still the place hip young trendsetters went to look at grainy webcam pictures of girls in bikinis, Get Set Go had a pretty sizeable presence on that quintessence of social networking. More than “pretty sizeable,” actually–it was huge for an indie rock band without the backing of empty business suits stuffed with money and cocaine (I guess the technical term is “A&R people). We had fifty thousand friends (only about 25% of whom were robots made of spam and pictures of boobs) and well over a million plays on our little embedded jukebox thingy. Hell, if we’d lived in Myspace instead of the real world, we’d've been hand-fed bitmapped pictures of grapes by callipygian spambots all day, and slept on .gifs of posturepedic adjustable mattresses lined with paypal account numbers. (more…)
The Art of Finding Your Parked Car…
How many times have you found yourself wandering a parking lot? Circling it, once…twice, blood pressure rising, sweat beads forming, all the while muttering “I swear my car was parked here, I left it right here.” Only to discover anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour later that there is a whole other section/floor/level that looks identical to this parking area differentiated only by a letter/number. When you finally discover this and see your car there (usually the last car remaining in that section) parked, waiting patiently and innocently as if tauntingly greeting you with “Why are you so upset? I’ve been here the whole time, right where you left me!”
In the time between a traumatizing similar scenario in the Disneyland parking lot during a family vacation as a child (where not only was the car lost, but so was I after wandering off on my own to locate the lost car…even then I thought I could do everything myself) and present day, I’ve had a few of those “bad endings to a great day/night” moments. The last noteworthy one being at Angel’s Stadium a few years ago.
It seemed no matter what methods I employed to avoid this scenario from occuring the attempts seemed futile and the end result was the same (and let me just say that the shoes I normally wear are not usually appropriate footwear for an impromptu Aids/Autism/Breast Cancer 5K walk/run marathon training session).
Some of those methods I was sure would work have included (but aren’t limited to):
Counting on my Photographic Memory – Really, it’s astounding how well this serves me most of the time. “We are parked in the purple section with the yellow trim in Section 3G” It turns out parking lots are immune to this special overly developed skill of mine.
Using Landmarks – This really is a subcategory of the Photographic Memory trick. “We are parked in the purple section with the yellow trim, past the soda machine, but before the escalators, right by the speed bump, next to the black Honda Civic in Section 3G.”
Somehow, sometimes inexplicably all of these landmarks disappear. Just like Ninjas. Or worse an argument ensues. “We were by the bottled water machines and the elevators.” “No, it was the soda machines and the escalators, you idiot!” Unfortunately, since neither party will usually let it rest, both of these options have to be explored resulting in wasted time and bad moods.
Verbalizing/Saying the section out loud to your friend(s) – This one is great because from the get go you establish solidarity against the parking lot as well as a level playing field. You both have the info. So when it comes time to find the car you’re golden, right? One of you will remember the info right? Hopefully. However, two $50 Blue Margaritas and three $20 beers later paired with exiting on the opposite side of where you entered because that bathroom line had a shorter line and we all know how you get in lines (this isn’t about me, remember?!) and neither one of you may even recall who drove in the first place. However, you can always yell at them. “I gave you the info, why couldn’t you just remember?!!!” Pot, just leave the kettle alone. (more…)
Notes From Vivace’s August Playlist
The Faraway Places - ”The Sun Goes West”
The New Pornographers – “These Are the Fables”
Tegan and Sara ” Back in Your Head”
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