Freitag, 18. Jul 2008, 3:42

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q297/Le_THieN/ua2008vol7.jpg

Disclaimer: This month’s free association space is going to be filled with an excess of extraneous drivel that you may or may not be interested in, so if you’re just here for the usual goods, use the on your tidy browser and search “JULY” so you can skip past the ensuing wall of text.

For those of you who have already made the intrinsic observation that this month’s header image is not really all that different from last month, I firstly have to point out that I’m terrible at Photoshop. Photo-editing is a trade I picked up solely to spruce up these journals, so my expertise doesn’t extend much farther than having preset image dimensions and slapping on text wherever it’s convenient. If anyone out there who is more adept at this sort of thing wants to volunteer their talents for future endeavors, then by all means. Also, I apologize for featuring quite possibly the ugliest freak-folk band ever in this month's header image, but I can't help it if I'm really lookin' forward to some new Espers material.

Anyway – Ryan, one of my three roommates, has recently developed an interest in writing reviews and approached me a couple of weeks ago with the idea of a collaborative blog. It’s an entertaining notion for a number of reasons – the most prevalent would have to be that out of everyone I’ve ever lived with at college, Ryan superficially seems like he resembles me the least in terms of personality and lifestyle. Regardless, I’ve had the opportunity to spend these last 5 years to really approximate the depth of the overlap of our interests and tastes (especially with music and comic books), and the results have been pretty astonishing. That’s not to imply that we necessarily like all the same things. On the contrary – it seems like we butt heads more often than not when we start dissecting the minutiae of certain segments of the arts. What’s important, though, is that we both tend to approach art criticism with a similar, analytical (although some of our friends might accuse of being overly so) frame of reference.

Currently, we have chosen to tentatively title the blog Best of Both Worlds for our first few trial entries. It’s an inside joke referencing a particularly terrible superstar collaboration between Jay-Z and R. Kelly from a few years ago, but we’re hoping to cultivate some sort of readership by playing off any inherent difference in opinion we might have. I suspect Ryan and I will be dealing with film, music and comic books primarily; I don’t dedicate blocs of my spare time toward non-fiction like I used to, so Ryan will probably take up the bulk of any existing book commentary. We’ll see how this plays out in the coming months. There’s not much to look at right now, but if any of you are interested in checking it out, you can take a look at Ryan’s first entry here.

This blog opportunity also doubles as an outlet to get my writing out to more people. Until I see exactly what this new revamp of Last.FM spells for the future of journal connectivity between users, spending on average 3-5 hours on an entry only to have 2 or 3 people read it just isn’t cutting it for me anymore. Plus, I’ve discovered that dedicating this space to free-associating with various other things knockin’ around in my head goes a long way with keeping my fluctuating interest in music invigorated – even if no one here is particularly interested in what I have to say about politics or the latest box-office powerhouses.

My last few Upcoming Attractions installments have featured recurring meanderings regarding things like movies and politics, so I’m going to see what splitting up these thoughts into distinct categories does. There’s definitely a double-edged sword aspect to this: while it might help me to organize my thoughts more coherently, it also eliminates all free association elements by assigning specific groupings to thoughts that I might not even necessarily have regarding a category on a certain day. As always, we’ll see how this plays out.

• Politics
Things are just as slow with the presidential coverage as the election looms ever closer on the home front, but luckily the international pulpit saw some significant developments in the Darfur controversy over the last few days. According to The New York Times, a prosecutor representing the International Criminal Court has actually mobilized to formally request the proper seizure and arrest of Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir, for “genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity” that have transpired over the course of the last 5 years in the Darfur territory of Sudan. As a primer for those of you who might intentionally ignore international current events, the situation in Darfur can probably be best summarized as the worst case of a true, ongoing humanitarian crisis. In a nutshell, insurgent factions of have sprung up in opposition against the Sudanese government over the existing oil in the region. It’s widely believed that al-Bashir, in a reactionary stance, contracted the services of the Janjaweed (an Afro-Arab militia) to quell the rebellion through their brutal brand of structured violence. Hundreds of thousands of people – most of who are believed to be indirectly related to the conflict at best – are estimated to have been raped, tortured or murdered by these mercenaries.

This is substantial news for a number of reasons, but I’m mostly still stunned that – in the midst of a repulsive amount of apathy and cynicism that’s been tossed back and forth between pundits and casual observers alike – the very notion of another regime actually being punished for the blatant perpetuation of human rights contraventions has even been able to crystallize in such a volatile political climate. I’ve heard most of the counterarguments regarding U.N.-sanctioned military intervention, but to me they’re all weak-sauce variations of the same, unpersuasive themes. Detractors claim that the Darfur conflict is overblown and sensationalized; that the situation is not as severe as the liberal media depicts. Pragmatists argue that mounting any sort of offensive against the Janjaweed will upset the convoluted web of diplomatic relations with all parties directly involved in the Sudanese arms and oils trade.

Then there are people who just flat out don’t give a fuck. The retort usually consists of some argument pertaining to the fact that “Americans have better things to do” – which, considering the state of our economy and the colossal $1-billion-a-day deficit that we’re drawing from in order to fund our GOP circle-jerk in the Middle East, is a fair argument that conservative-minded foreign policy experts like the Republicans enjoy trumpeting. It should be noted though that being at a (self-inflicted) disability to properly uphold universal human rights for everyone is one thing – subconsciously conditioning the American public at large to not even be aware of the issue, however, will always stay with me as one of the Bush Administration’s most tragic failings.

Have I already mentioned that November can’t come soon enough?

• Television
I’ve been following the entirety of Season 2 of America’s Best Dance Crew, and I’m surprised at how entertaining it’s been so far. Kaba Modern and the JabbaWockeeZ were, hands down, the best 2 crews from last season, and it’s really been difficult for many of this season’s crews to follow suit after the trail they blazed. Regardless, I’ve taken a great liking toward this season’s premiere B-boy crew, Super Cr3w. They fall short of the JabbaWockeeZ in terms of technical precision, but they have a real knack for creative concepts and entertaining choreography. The following is a video of their performance from Episode 3 – the challenge for the week was to craft an entire concept around the song each crew was assigned:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3uUICsITNo

This is, for many obvious reasons, indubitably their best performance yet and arguably the sickest set of the season thus far. ABDC is easily the most entertaining reality show on the air right now.

• Film
I’ve been seeing a lot more movies lately. Last year, I think I seriously saw only 7 ’07 flicks, and I feel like I’ve already seen twice as much at this point in the year. I dedicate so much time to music that there’s seldom any room left for even half-hearted film analysis – luckily, Moore, OK is one of 4 cities in the entire country fortunate enough to be blessed with a recently-opened Warren Theatres establishment. That only is impetus enough to go out and watch more movies, even if most of it has been popcorn garbage.

I caught Wall*E with my roomies Kyle and Ryan and our friend Sarah during opening weekend a couple of weeks ago. Pixar has a strong track record for putting out kids’ movies that are literally entertaining for all age groups, and Wall*E – for all intents and purposes – extends that streak. The movie’s storytelling gimmick should be pretty familiar to everyone by now: it features the quotidian exploits of a lone maintenance robot on an abandoned Earth in a virtually dialogue-free first half. Obviously, the absence of words leaves visual cues with the bulk of the workload to carry; luckily, the ideas and emotions are admirably simple and beautifully conveyed.

Wall*E unfortunately loses a bit of its luster when human characters are introduced to the mix, and that’s where the story slowly begins to devolve into a somewhat middling, computer-generated affair. This isn’t to say that the movie became unwatchable after this point, but there was something inherently less captivating once the setting was shifted on-board a prototypically sterile spaceship full of overweight humans.

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience, although I’d be hard-pressed to rank this anywhere near Pixar’s best efforts.

Hellboy II: the Golden Army marks my third excursion into the superhero genre in the last couple of months. Director Guillermo del Toro has a very distinct visual approach when it comes to source material involving otherworldly mysticism and weird science genetic anomalies. This puts del Toro right at home with the Hellboy franchise, which has always been oriented towards a mix of science and magic and religion with gothic overtones. The imagery is fascinating and provocative throughout, and Ron Perlman’s portrayal of Hellboy as a playfully irresponsible, loose-cannon government agent makes for a welcome diversion whenever del Toro’s bizarre vision threatens to alienate the audience.

What causes it to ultimately fail however is del Toro’s over-dependence on the actual comic book canon of the franchise itself. More often than not, the plot advances itself in seemingly inexplicable directions without even so much as 2 seconds worth of dialogue to explain what’s going on. People who have previously read the comics (including myself) might not feel these effects, but the strength of a successful comic book adaptation ought not to depend so heavily on mythos previously established in an entirely separate medium. Hellboy II was equipped with all the proper trappings to be a solid, accessible flick from beginning to end, but the film is eventually unraveled by glaring holes in logic – as well as a teeth-pullingly bad case of a classic deus ex machina copout finale.

Insert any variation of unbridled excitement for The Dark Knight here.

• Comics
As far as I know, DC Comics still blows.

♫ JULY

1 July
1. G-Unit – Terminate on Sight
2. Vanessa Hudgens – Identified

8 July
3. Beck – Modern Guilt
4. Daedelus – Love to Make Music To

[Anyone who’s ever read any of my journals will know that I’m pretty resistant when it comes to production that is Danger Mouse-related; at best, he’s a precocious, fleetingly interesting producer whose sensibilities gravitate toward left field for no other sake other than to be unconventional. With that being said, it’s with a heavy heart that I admit that Beck’s latest benefits greatly from Danger Mouse’s heavy editing hand – the majority of the affair is very listenable and clocks in barely over a half-hour. Beck’s last two installments tended to be deluges of sonic meandering, but Danger Mouse manages to restore a sense of immediacy and uniformity that’s been missing for a long time. It’s too early for me to approximate where Modern Guilt sits in the Beck discography, but I can’t imagine you’d actually be doing yourself any wrong by checking this out.]

15 July
5. David Banner – The Greatest Story Ever Told
6. The Hold Steady Stay Positive
7. Nas – Untitled

[Although it was probably against my better interests, I was hoping against all odds that David Banner would turn an album full of catchy, mindlessly fun radio singles and club anthems. What I got instead was his misguided stab at pop culture relevance and superstardom, and the end product is one of the absolute worst hip-hop records of the last 2 years.

The Hold Steady’s latest bored the snot out of me.

It’s worth mentioning that, although I enjoy Illmatic like everyone else, I am by no means a fan of Nas. I like precisely 2 albums by the man (his debut and Stillmatic), and I firmly believe that everything else he’s put out in-between both these records have been complete, unlistenable garbage. Nas is notorious for having a terrible ear for beats, and that makes my job a lot more irritating since I generally listen to music for texture and sonic aesthetics; lyrics take a distant second place on my list of priorities. No amount of minstrel-like ingenuity can override the distractions of a dour and shitty track, something that characterizes the overwhelming majority of Nas’ catalogue. Having more street cred than your peers running wild over in the hipster-hop scene doesn’t give you a pass to be just as lazy as them.

Untitled alternatively represents Nas’ most enjoyable effort since Stillmatic: a savvy marriage of a perfectly acceptable selection of beats and Nas’ trademark penchant for layered lyricism and supple wordplay. As always, Nas sometimes loses sight of his ability to rein in his passions, he often gets unnecessarily heavy-handed with his messages, but that only occasionally detracts from the overall satisfaction of the record. Even at that, Nas – with assistance from Busta Rhymes – demonstrates one of his most multifaceted political approaches ever with his clever hand at satire with the Mark Ronson-produced ‘Fried Chicken’. The inherent genius behind this track really comprises the bulk of my delight with the record. I heartily recommend this to everyone.]

22 July
8. Miley Cyrus – Breakout
9. Dr. Dog – Fate
10. Espers – Espers
11. Nine Inch Nails – The Slip
12. Zack de la Rocha – Zack de la Rocha

♫ AUGUST

5 August
13. The Faint – Fasciinatiion
14. Hawthorne Heights – Fragile Future
15. Mike Jones – The Voice of the Streets
16. Ne-Yo – Year of the Gentleman
17. Conor Oberst – Conor Oberst
18. Re-Up Gang – Clipse Presents: Re-Up Gang

12 August
19. Michelle Williams – Unexpected

19 August
20. Lykke Li – Youth Novels
21. Ice Cube – Raw Footage
22. Nelly – Brass Knuckles
23. The Verve – Forth
24. The Walkmen – You & Me
25. Young Jeezy – The Recession

[You & Me by The Walkmen is pretty solid on the first go-through. Way, way more listenable than their last effort.]

26 August
26. Missy Elliott – Block Party
27. The Game – L.A.X.
28. Solange Knowles – Sol-Angel and the Hadley Street Dreams
29. Pretty Ricky – 80s Babies

♫ SEPTEMBER

9 September
30. Calexico – Carried to Dust
31. Kimya Dawson – Alphabutt
32. Ben Folds – Way to Normal
33. Ray LaMontagne – Gossip in the Grain
34. Parenthetical Girls – Entanglements
35. Robin Thicke – Something Else
36. T.I. – Paper Trail
37. Tricky – Knowle West Boy

[Best to my knowledge, Calexico has never really turned in what I would consider a bad album. I’m constantly impressed by their level of musicianship as well as their penchant for multi-instrumentalism, so I’m pretty eager to hear what they’ve got in store.

If I recall correctly, Kimya Dawson is that really terrible tart who was all over the Juno soundtrack, so I’m more looking forward to thrashing her record.

Ben Folds is a long way from relevant these days, and his last excursion or two into the studio have yielded some less than memorable results. Luckily, he’s always been a solid and enjoyable artist on the whole, so I’m more than willing to afford him some benefit of the doubt on this one.

I was in no way a fan of the last Parenthetical Girls record, but I feel compelled to give it another go.

It took me a long time to get around to listening to Robin Thicke’s debut, but I was pleasantly surprised by the results. He’s gone on record in an interview or two recently to state that he wants to deliver something new and fresh on the next go. That’s pretty much a stock answer in most interviews these days, but there was something persuasive about his conviction that I’m inclined to take a leap of faith with. Hopefully he manages to channel his current disenchantment with the R&B scene into something spectacular. If not, I guess we’ll all just have to make do with having our thumbs up our asses while we mark time for the next John Legend joint.

I read something on MTV a few nights ago that just about ruined my night: a recent collaboration between T.I. and Fallout Boy is currently contending for a spot on the final cut of Paper Trail. Granted, Fallout Boy can occasionally be catchy, but this seems more like a gratuitous exercise in genre-blending for the sake of doing so. It doesn’t help that the track is described as “somber” and “emotional.” There’s only so much of Patrick Stumpy’s wailing that I can take before my brain starts hemorrhaging. In more related T.I. news, I have officially heard 7 different songs that might end up on the final product. My favorites so far are the Drumma Boy-produced ‘What Up’ and ‘Swing Ya Rag’ by Swizz Beatz. None of these quite approach the same monolithic stature of ‘What You Know’, but I’m still holding out nonetheless.

Tricky’s new album is very good.]

16 September
38. Fujiya & Miyagi – Lightbulbs
39. Morissey – Years of Refusal
40. Mya – Liberation
41. The Pussycat Dolls – Doll Domination
42. Raphael Saddiq – The Way I See It

23 September
43. Cold War Kids – Loyalty to Loyalty
44. Common – Invincible Summer
45. Dido
46. Keri Hilson – In a Perfect World
47. Kid Sister – Dream Date
48. Kings of Leon – Only by the Night
49. Mogwai – The Hawk is Howling

[Cold War Kids were absolutely horrendous at last year’s Austin City Limits, but when have I ever been opposed to second chances? Things have been pretty quiet on the Common front; even the delays barely register as a whimper in the blogosphere. Dido needs to get on the ball with this Jon Brion-helmed record of hers. I finally heard Keri Hilson’s lead single the other day, and I couldn’t help but be a tad bit disappointed. Kid Sister is the latest talent in a long line of Kanye West-approved MCs, but I do remember having my attention caught the first couple of times I heard her last year. It’ll be an interesting record, for sure. I don’t really have much to comment on with Kings of Leon or Mogwai, other than I despise 2-dimensional indie blues and post-rock.]

24 September
50. Everlast – Love, War and the Ghost of Whitey Ford

29 September
51. Mercury Rev – Snowflake Midnight

30 September
52. Ani DiFranco – Red Letter Year
53. The Nightwatchman – The Fabled City
54. T-Pain – Thr33 Ringz

[After closely following the trajectory of Ani DiFranco’s career for the last 8 years, it felt strange to have to wait an actual 2 years for the first signs of new material to surface. Anyone familiar with DiFranco knows she’s a self-made success story: she reportedly started her own record label in ’88 or ’89 with $50, and has self-released full-length LPs almost every year for the last 20 years she’s been on the grind. She’s a decidedly less fiery, liberal presence these days, and her records are actually mellower and more interesting as a result. Red Letter Year is supposed to feature a slew of collaborators, and most of my favorite Ani cuts usually feature full band arrangements (to this date, nothing beats the all-star assemblage of Ani, Andrew Bird, Noe Venable and Todd Sickafoose on one track). Needless to say, I’m really looking forward to this.

Tom Morello seems like his primed for Round 2 of Adult Acoustic Contemporary Wank Sessions. He’s getting to be just as senile as Chris Cornell, or – even worse – Fred Durst (his level of middle-aged absentmindedness must be seen to be believed).]

♫ OCTOBER

6 October
55. Annie – Don’t Stop

7 October
56. Deerhoof – Offend Maggie
57. Oasis – Dig Out Your Soul
58. Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping

[Rapping telegram for Noel Gallagher! Rapping telegram for Noel Gallagher!:

SUCK ON DEEZ NUTZ

Glastonbury ’08!

–Jigga]

14 October
59. I’m from Barcelona – Who Killed Harry Houdini?

21 October
60. The Sea and Cake – Car Alarm

28 October
61. Deerhunter – Microcastle

NOVEMBER

4 November
62. Lindsay Lohan – Spirit in the Dark

[Can’t be any worse than any of Hillary Duff’s stabs at radio supremacy. And normally, news that The Neptunes will be handling the bulk of the production chores would be relieving, but I’m not so confident anymore now that they have to their credit one of the worst albums of 2008 with Seeing Sounds.]

~ TO BE ANNOUNCED ~

A
63. A Camp
64. Paula Abdul
65. Lily Allen
66. Ambulance LTD
67. Antony & The Johnsons – The Crying Light
68. Melissa Auf der Maur – Out of Our Minds
69. The Avalanches

[Has anyone ever seen clips of Lily Allen & Friends online? It’s really quite awful.]

B
70. Sophie Barker
71. Basement Jaxx
72. Beyonce
73. Big Boi – Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty August 2008
74. Big Kuntry – My Turn to Eat
75. Blur
76. The Boy Least Likely To
77. Michelle Branch – [i[Everything Comes and Goes
78. Built to Spill
79. Laura Burhenn
80. Busta Rhymes – Blessed
81. ButtonHead

[Not to cry wolf, but I smell a monumental delay of Big Boi’s solo joint ‘til mid-autumn. Michelle Branch is back in the studio for her new solo album, and she’s bring a little bit of her roots sensibilities she honed in The Wreckers. I’m really dying for this to be a left-field alt-country blowout.]

C
82. Isobel Campbell
83. Neko Case
84. Cassie – Connecticut Fever
85. JC Chasez – Kate
86. Ciara – Fantasy Ride
87. Leonard Cohen
88. Chris Cornell
89. Bill Cosby – State of Emergency

[*deep breath* Okay. So Timbaland has apparently produced the entirety of Chris Cornell’s upcoming third solo album. This is perilous news for a couple of reasons: Timbaland currently sucks, and Chris Cornell currently really sucks. Cornell’s been on a gradual songwriting decline since the inception of Audioslave, and his last solo disc was characterized by the prototypical sophomore slump in every way imaginable. With the exception of Flo Rida’s ‘Elevator’, everything that’s been in Timbaland’s sole production credit since the scattershot Shock Value has been nothing short of abysmal. And that’s not even the worst part – Timbaland claims that his studio sessions with Chris have yielded some of his best work ever. It was sort of jarring to hear what Timbaland regarded as rock ‘n roll on the last five tracks of Shock Value, so I have no idea what to expect other than something catastrophic. Still, I’ve got my fingers crossed for this one.]

D
90. Britt Daniel
91. Dave Matthews Band
92. Dells
93. Doves
94. Dr. Dre – Detox

E
95. Eagles of Death Metal – Heart On
96. Eve – Here I Am

F
97. Fabolous – Working Hard, Playing Harder
98. Final Fantasy – Heartland
99. Franz Ferdinand
100. Fugees

G
101. Garbage
102. Goo Goo Dolls
103. David Gray

H
104. Imogen Heap
105. Hot Leg
106. Whitney Houston

[So it appears Justin Hawkins is out of rehab and eager to get back to recording again. The Darkness were good (vapid) fun, but I can’t imagine what he has in store in the future that wouldn’t be aping Freddy Mercury all over again. Plus, Hot Leg is a terrible band name.]

I
107. India.Arie – Testimony: Vol. 2, Love & Politics

J
108. Ja Rule – The Mirror
109. Michael Jackson
110. Jay-Z
111. Jem – Down to Earth

K
112. R. Kelly – 12 Play: Fourth Quarter
113. Dawn Kinnard

L
114. Lady GaGa – The Fame
115. Jenny Lewis – Acid Tongue
116. Lil Jon – Crunk Rock
117. Lil’ Kim
118. Ludacris – Theater of the Mind

[My roommate and I unanimously agree that She & Him sounds precisely like the album Jenny Lewis should have made with her debut. Let’s see if she can deliver on the second go. Also, Good Charlotte is apparently slated to appear on Ludacris’ next record. And I thought Fallout Boy was a ill-advised artistic decision.]

M
119. Shirley Manson
120. Massive Attack – Weather Underground
121. Metric
122. Janelle Monae – Metropolis
123. My Bloody Valentine
124. My Chemical Romance

[We’ve almost officially heard from both Tricky and Portishead – will Massive Attack finally emerge and complete the Trip-Hop Trifecta of Power in 2008?!]

N

O
125. Karen O
126. OK Go
127. OutKast

P
128. Hayden Panettiere
129. The Pixies
130. Lisa Marie Presley
131. George Pringle
132. The Prodigy – The Last Gang in Town

R
133. Rahzel – Greatest Knockouts: The Album, Vol. 2
134. Kate Rogers Band – Beauregard

S
135. Nicole Scherzinger – Her Name is Nicole
136. Shiny Toy Guns – Season of Poison
137. Jessica Simpson – Do You Know?
138. Sisqo – The Last Dragon
139. Slim Thug – Boss of All Bosses
140. Rachel Stevens
141. The Streets – Everything is Borrowed
142. Sunday Munich – Flood

T
143. Timbaland – Shock Value II

U

V
144. The Vines – Melodia
145. Sara Watkins

W

Y
146. Yeah Yeah Yeahs