Grab Bag!

Is it laziness and lack of motivation or simply a lack of focus? I haven't posted in a while but I've had ideas floating in my head for some time. I'm going to tackle them all at once.

First order of business is a Guns N Roses update. I heard a song off of Chinese Democracy. I believe it was the title track. All I have to say is it sounds exactly like "The Everlasting Gaze" by The Smashing Pumpkins. Yes, we waited about fourteen years for a tired Pumpkins rip-off. I wasn't expecting much more than that anyway. Thanks Axl.

Revenge!

I wanted to write an entire post about revenge movies and how much I love them, but I don't mind relegating this topic to a few paragraphs. Last Friday I watched the film Hard Candy, featuring a pre-Juno Ellen Page. I wasn't expecting a revenge movie, but let me back up a bit. I consider a revenge movie to be one in which the main plot point or theme is revenge. This is not to be confused with a movie which has a "gotcha" ending like Michael Clayton. Such movies which fall into the revenge genre are Last House on The Left, I Spit on Your Grave, and the king of all revenge flicks, Kill Bill. In the case of Kill Bill there is pretty much no plot except a former assassin is seeking revenge on her former assassin friends for killing all the people in her wedding party and trying to kill her.

I guess it must be a vicarious thrill for me to see someone on the big screen carrying out revenge on those who did him/her wrong, but for whatever reason, I love these kinds of movies and Hard Candy certainly fulfilled this need for vengeance.

The synopsis of the film, courtesy of imdb.com is "A mature 14-year old girl meets a charming 32-year old photographer on the Internet. Suspecting that he is a pedophile, she goes to his home in an attempt to expose him." That and the promise of a masterful performance from Ellen Page was enough to get me to watch, but the movie delivered way more than promised. Yes, this movie could have been called "Ellen Page demo reel" but without spoiling anything, I'm going to give this film a high recommendation for tension which unfolds in unexpected ways, a revenge theme which unveils itself in a slow, satisfying style, and one of the most cringe-inducing "elective surgery" scenes ever committed to film.

Crystal Castles

If you're reading this, you are probably one of the three people who I know check out this blog (and I thank you guys, seriously). You also know how much I like Crystal Castles right now. I took the cd out of my car today, but I've taken it out before. This album is the only album in recent memory since Tegan and Sara's The Con that I just cannot, no matter how hard I try, stop listening to.


Get this album, asap.

They are, on first listen, just another electronic dance group. But after many, many listens I can testify that whether it is on purpose or not, they create soundscapes which bore their way into your brain like a bag of worms and fester there just long enough for the next track to change it up. Even their slow-tempo tracks are fascinating from start to finish. One of the things I love about them is that even though they have a main vocalist in Alice Glass, you cannot understand a word she says and I do not believe you are meant to. The vocals are more an instrument than a message for the song. For me, album of the year.

Football

Looking back at my baseball post, I see that is dated and irrelevant now, so I'll make this quick and disposable. I was telling a coworker today that I would actually be rooting for the Jets to beat the Titans on Sunday so that there would be no question that the Giants are the best team in the NFL. He posed an interesting argument: what if the Titans went 18-0 and met the Giants in the Super Bowl just as the Patriots did last year only for the Giants to beat them? Well, that would be totally awesome.

Love Will Tear Us Apart

On Tuesday I watched the film Control. It is a movie about Joy Division and their tragic lead singer Ian Curtis. I must say as I write these opening lines, I wish I was watching the movie again. I must admit I am not a Joy Division expert, I am a fan, and you may know my stance on thier peers in the style of late 70s early 80s synth goth. I will argue that The Cure and Echo and The Bunnymen while awesome, are really just darkly dressed pop bands, Joy Division truly delivered a bleak, barren sonic expression of life.

The film, thankfully, follows the cue of the band's music. It is both bleak and barren, but also beautiful. While it doesn't romanticise the rocker-suicide side of Ian Curtis, it sheds light on his personal demons. One feels sympathy for the man and his family without it being tugged out.

This film (directed by Anton Corbijn, the guy who made the "Heart-Shaped Box" video and pretty much every Depeche Mode video) is breathtakingly beautiful from start to finish and is a must see for anyone with even a casual appreciation of Joy Division.

Well, I'm going to wrap it up here. Thanks for reading.

November Rain

Don't ask me why, but I put November Rain by Guns N Roses on a mix cd that has been in my car for about the past three months. Its an mp3 cd, so there are about 150 songs on it. Ah, already I'm apologizing for this song, and that's the point of this post. It is just one of those songs, furthermore one of those bands, that you just can't really decide if you like, or if it is good.

Guns N Roses (GNR) were formed in 1985 and released their major label debut Appetite For Destruction in 1987. I was six years old in 1987, but I was pretty well aware of GNR at that time, even if most of their hateful lyrics went right over my head. I even wore this shirt a lot when I was in grade school.



Can you believe that? With all the guns shooting and knives and yes, a rose. I remember needles too, so either my memory is fuzzy or this is not the exact shirt. Either way, no fourth grader would make it in the door with this shirt on now.

Another funny GNR memory is when I was about that age I saw Axl Rose performing on television wearing an N.W.A. hat. I didn't know what N.W.A. stood for so I asked my dad. He obviously didn't think it appropriate to tell me the truth so he made up a slightly less offensive answer: "No Whites Allowed." Thats one of those things I can look back at now and laugh my ass off about, even though I didn't understand back then.

Of course by the time I got hooked on Nirvana et. al, GNR became the enemy. The Kurt/Axl feud aside, I remember a sound clip in the Nirvana film "Live, Tonight, Sold Out!" in which a music reporter quips that Nirvana are the Guns N Roses whom it is okay to like. I understand the comment, you can get all the aggression and rock and roll filth out of a Nirvana record that you can get out of a GNR record without the misogyny and homophobia in the lyrics. On the other hand, I think its okay to like anything, but thats kind of a different point.

Anyway its 2008 and every day for about a week, when the sports radio stations fade out as I'm about to come off the highway, I put on November Rain. At first it struck me as a really good song, then I thought it was really crappy. Now I can't decide, but I like it. The pros are that its a sweeping rock ballad with excellent guitar work from Slash. The cons are that the lyrics are stupid and Axl's voice just doesn't seem right for it.

So is November Rain a good song? Does it matter? Of course not. I just think GNR is a unique band for some reason.

One last point, the next GNR record, whatever it is called, is going to suck absolutely only for the reason of how long it has been in the works. Just think about it. It would be impossible to live up the anticipation (which has now all but dissipated), even if this album were as good as Appetite For Destruction. Everyone will say that it sucks, even if it is somewhat good. It is totally set up for failure.

Anyway just listen to November Rain and watch the awesome video.