Search Results - "The Long Blo"
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2003
Post-mortem of last night’s show:
The Good – Elephant Micah, all the way from Richmond, Indiana, were really good. Nice blend of Varnaline, quiet Sebadoh and Son Volt – wonderfully laid back midwestern folk, too. I happily bought one of their CDs. We were also pretty good, especially in light of the 10-month layoff since our last show. I made a few gaffes, some a little obvious, but I’m allowed. The cello sounded very good and there was a tightness that had been rather fleeting in rehearsals. Good stuff. Also, a better than expected turnout for a rainy Monday night, especially since many folks decided to wait for the Wavelength show on August 3 to show their support. I got to see some friends whom I haven’t seen in upwards of a year and a half for whatever reason. Also nice to meet some folks – namely Graig and Carla – whom I’d only talked to through blogs and email before. Thanks for coming, guys.
The Bad – The first band cancelled, or more accurately, we figured they cancelled when they just didn’t show up. The ‘promoter’, whom none of us had spoken to or even knew was involved with this show, who a) took over the door, b) jacked up the price of admission when he saw it wouldn’t be a huge crowd (my sincerest apologies to everyone who had to pay $7 to see just two bands) and c) disappeared with all proceeds from the door before we finished our set. The next hour was spent hassling the management at the club to try and find the guy, as they had no idea where he was either.
The Ugly – We were ready to open up a case of Happy Tree Friends on the promoter when he was finally tracked down at another club. Since he said he was coming straight back to settle up, it let the rest of us haul the gear back to the rehearsal space. I didn’t get to bed until 2:30 (see previous post) and got up at 6:30. Needless to say, I am not terribly awake or alert this AM. Also filed under ‘ugly’ is my right index finger. Trying to draw blood while hammering away on your guitar may seem like a good idea at the time, but it’s really not. And I didn’t even manage to do it – just a nasty blister.
So after a long layoff, we’re back into the live performance end of things and it feels good. We need to get some more material, continue rearranging some of what we’ve got and figure out how to get shows while working around the asshole factor that seems to be endemic to the club scene here in town. I begin to understand the kvetching that goes on with bands around here.
There are some pictures from last night that’ll go up here and on the Lake Holiday website when I get them processed, probably tonight. And by “processing” digital camera shots, I mean photoshopping our heads onto Whitesnake’s bodies.
np – Elephant Micah / Your Dreams Are Feeding Back
Thursday, July 17th, 2003
Cinescape lists their 10 best comic book movie adaptations (1 through 5 and 6 through 10) with the 10 worst to follow. Wow, that’ll be a tough list to complete…
Death: At Death’s Door is a Sandman-related graphic novel by Jill Thompson done in manga-digest format. It takes place concurrently with the “Season Of Mists” storyline, wherein Lucifer resigns his stewardship of Hell, answering the question of “what happened to the damned when they were exiled from Hell?” – apparently they went to hang out at Death’s place.
I’ve never really liked any Sandman spinoffs that weren’t scripted by Neil Gaiman. I find he’s the only one who has a true ear for his characters, and At Death’s Door doesn’t prove me wrong. Jill Thompson deliberately crafts a light-hearted, humourous story but at the expense of some long-established characterization, particularly for Despair. It just doesn’t feel right that something so whimsical should be intended as being a true account of the events around “Season Of Mists” – it just doesn’t fit. Nor does Thompson have an expert feel for the manga style of art she tries to emulate – it comes off exactly as what it is – like a westerner trying to imitate the Japanese artistic style with middling results. All in all, it’s not a bad read, but unfortuately doesn’t earn itself a place in the Sandman mythos.
Details of the third Amos House charity compilation have been revealed. Again, a terrific lineup of talent for a good cause. I enjoyed the first two much more than I normally do with compilations – this one looks to be as good or better. After all – Wilco, Spoon, Wheat, Elf Power…
Beulah must be taking career advice from Robert Svehla’s agent. In conversation with Pitchfork, they are saying they may or may not call it quits after Yoko, depending on how well it does, sales-wise. They had previously reported they were splitting up after touring to promote the record this Fall, then retracted that and said they were staying together for all eternity. It seems they’ve finally found their balance sitting on that fence. There’s also an item on their website addressing the sale of advance copies of Yoko on eBay and the downloading of the new album. Personally, I have had the opportunity to download a copy of the album but have decided against it, waiting for the official release. I like the tingle of anticipation. Still waiting on official word of tour dates this fall with John Vanderslice.
Fark photoshop fun with boardgames. Better have a clean pair of Depends handy before going through these.
np – Rilo Kiley / The Execution Of All Things
Sunday, July 13th, 2003
A little bit of grist for the long-dormant My Bloody Valentine rumour mill… the Blisscent mailing list offered up the following tidbit:
My Bloody Valentine Back in the Studio after 12 Year Hiatus
Sometimes news comes down the grapevine that’s so good you have to spread the word. Otherwise it would be an injustice to humanity. When word came to those of us at Under the Radar that My Bloody Valentine have been holed up in a Berlin studio we couldn’t quite believe it. After all, the band hasn’t released anything in twelve years. Being the dutiful rock journalists that we are we sought confirmation on the rumor only to be foiled again. Our source on this bit of breaking news wishes to remain strictly anonymous. But he did confirm the buzz.
My Bloody Valentine is finally back in the studio. As it turns out an MBV box set is due out sometime this winter and Kevin Shields, Colin O’Ciosiog and Bilinda Butcher are back in the studio to re-record a few songs for it. No, there will not be a new MBV album, but the band is re-recording 5 songs they had abandoned for the Glider EP. Originally the Glider EP was to be a full-length album, but due to pressures from the record company Shields decided to only release five songs as an EP because the other material wasn’t ready to see the light of day. The left over Glider songs were shelved and Shields and company moved on to the never-ending Loveless sessions. As many of you know, after Loveless the band went their separate ways (for whatever speculative reason) and those leftover Glider songs remained on the shelf….until now. Although there has been no confirmation on whether or not vocalist Debbie Googe is also in on the new sessions it is a bona fide fact that My Bloody Valentine will release Glider as a full-length album contained within the new MBV box set, if all goes well.
Woo hoo!
np – Teenage Fanclub / Grand Prix
Wednesday, July 9th, 2003
First off, I should say that I never liked The Hulk. As a lifelong comic book geek and long time Marvel zombie, I read pretty much everything and yet I never liked the Hulk. I could never understand how such a ridiculous character lasted more than a handful of issues or avoided being relegated to the scrap heap behind Stan and Jack’s House Of Ideas. But someone out there must have liked him, cause he’s endured for well over three decades now. So if anyone besides Ang Lee had been in charge of the film version of this dreadfully dull comic book, I wouldn’t have even given it a second thought and just kept walking. But it was Ang Lee, and thus my curiousity was piqued.
And… I really enjoyed it. Yes it was long, yes it was slow in parts, but necessarily so. Would it have been better if Banner got turned into the Hulk in the first fifteen minutes, with no reason beyond “oh, freak accident! Shit happens” and then proceeded to tear shit up for the next ninety minutes? Nonsense. You want stupid mindless pyrotechnics, Bad Boys II opens in a few weeks. Instead, we got a story with remarkable depth, especially considering the source material, and when shit got blown up, it was ferocious and necessary. On the technical side, the CGI was far more convincing than I’d expected, particularly the Hulk’s facial expressions. At almost no point did I think, “man – look at those effects!” – I just accepted it. This is of equal credit to the effects wizards and the director for making a film that was strong enough to not rely on the CGI to make or break it. And the editing and wipes really were as cool as everyone has said.
And I missed the Lou Ferrigno cameo, but caught the Stan Lee one. Which is odd, since they were the same cameo.
Saturday, July 5th, 2003
Russian Ark is some piece of filmmaking – a 90-minute, 1-take continuous shot through the Hermitage Museum is St Petersburg, Russia. Taken on it’s technical merits alone, it’s amazing, and if I had anything more than the most rudimentary knowledge of Russian history, I’d probably be able to comment on the confusing narrative component of the film. But I don’t, so I can’t, but reading up on the articles on the film’s website is helping me fill in those gaps and provide some context for what I’ve seen while the movie is fresh in my head. What I can say is that the closing ballroom scene is one of the most remarkable things I’ve seen on screen in a long time. If you’re not up on your Russian history, however, I wouldn’t recommend going to see this as it doesn’t make the slightest attempt to let the non-scholar understand what’s going on. Unless you’re prepared to accept great gobs of confusion and resultant boredom as part of the viewing experience, which I was.
Robert Smigel’s cartoon about corporate media monopolies was aired once on SNL, and then removed from later airings. Hmm, wonder why? But thanks to the wonders of the internet, you can see it here.
There’s a complete Britt Daniel live show from the 40W Club in Athens, GA from 2000 available here.
np – Richard Thompson / The Old Kit Bag
![[Valid RSS]](http://www.chromewaves.net/images/interface/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed"){kind=small}