I had a nice, relaxing weekend and now, just one day back in, things are going buck-nutty again. I need a vacation.

About half of the material on the Flaming Lips’ super-rare Yoshimi Wins! EP will be released in North American on April 22 as part of the seven-track Fight Test EP. The songs everyone wants, namely their Kylie Minogue and Radiohead covers, WILL be on the new release. Full details here.

np – Luna / Close Cover Before Striking

Willard. To sum up – shy, dysfunctional man befriends an army of rats who do his bidding. Man-rodent power struggles ensue. A time-old tale, really. While not an overt horror movie in the modern sense of the genre, there were some geniunely creepy and suspenseful moments. Crispin Glover, who could give Gary Oldman a few lessons on being twitchy, wears his first lead role like a second skin. Rookie director Glen Morgan infuses the whole film with a peculiar Victorian-esque feel despite it being set in the modern day – I likened it to a particularly sinister Roald Dahl story, Mark more accurately described it as an Edward Gorey cartoon come to life. I used to have a Gashleycrumb Tinies poster… W is for Willard, devoured by rats. It was an entertaining, unnerving and more than anything ODD movie. Anyone with a rat phobia is advised to stay far far away. I like rodents, and I was getting creeped out by the sheer volume of rats on screen – screw Star Wars, these rats were some of the most impressive and lifelike CGI I’ve ever seen. Particularly Big Ben – man, that thing was the size of a Buick.

I don’t think I want to get another hamster anymore.

The title of this entry came from the closing credits – some dude actually had this as his job title. The man has my envy for the rest of time – I can only dream of the day when I can put something that cool on my resume.

Non-rodent bits from the weekend. Went out for drinks with Andrea and Bryan Saturday – they were in town attending to wedding business. I hadn’t seen or even talked the them in almost three months, so that was nice. Did my taxes, and I have got to seek out an accountant – at present, I owe the government well over $3000. While that’s in line with what I should have paid if I had had taxes deducted from my total income last year, it’s still a bitter pill to swallow. Hopefully someone with a clue in these matters can save me some money. I got my DVD-ROM installed and working in my new computer, and wiped and reinstalled everything on the old machine which is now on its way home for my dad to use. Found an old guitar tab book of Motown classics used, which is cool just for finding new chord voicings.

np – Neil Halstead / Sleeping On Roads

Thank goodness for the weekend. This was probably the most intense and exhausting week I’ve had in ages – deadlines, dealines. All is well, all targets were met, everything is working, but that doesn’t make the trip any less arduous. I crashed last night around 10, was out cold by 10:40. Ladies and gentlemen, my Friday nights.

To reward myself for surviving, I cashed in at 1,000,000 Comix’s season sale – picked up an Ultimate X-Men trade paperback as well as the very first Hellblazer collection. It’s been ages since I’d read Hellblazer – I collected it for four of five years, but jumped ship when they switched writers and I decided I couldn’t afford it anymore. Constantine was and still is a terrific character though – the ultimate mage/con man/cad and all around rake. Having now finally read the original story arc, I have to go and haul the other 70 or so issues I have at home down here. There was some great stories in there. I’d even be tempted to pick up the title again, but seeing as how I’m about 100 issues behind now, there’s not much point.

And yeah, they’re making a Hellblazer movie. I’m not excited at all – in fact, I know for certain it’s going to suck. Never mind the fact that they’ve relocated John Constantine to Los Angeles and made him American, despite the fact that the seedy underside of LONDON is integral to both the character and stories. Never mind the fact that its being directed by Tarsem, whose sole movie credit is the all-style, no-substance J.Lo vehicle The Cell. Never mind that the scriptwriter of record also has only one feature to his credit, the Steven Seagal/Damon Wayans turkey The Glimmer Man. No, there are two simple words why the Hellblazer – sorry, Constantine (no ‘Hell’ in our American movie titles, please!) – will suck. First word, Keanu. Second word – aw hell, you don’t need the second word.

np – Otis Redding / The Very Best Of Otis Redding

np – Pavement / Slanted & Enchanted: Luxe & Reduxe

Val had this on her site a little while ago but I never got around to posting a link. But really, it’s worth sharing. George & Tony – the new Ike & Tina?

Bummer news on the Wilco front. The More Like The Moon EP is apparently no longer being released. The material will be divvied up between the I Am Trying To Break Your Heart DVD and the new album, out in the Fall. The only way to get it all now is to purchase the Australian special edition of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Grr. This is on top of the fact that the Columbia/Legacy Uncle Tupelo reissues have been delayed from their supposed release date this past Tuesday to sometime next month. The Rhino release of Anodyne is supposedly now out, on schedule, though I haven’t laid eyes on it yet.

np – Steve Earle / Transcendental Blues