Trailer Park: August

Trailer Park is a monthly post where we feature trailers for the upcoming months movie releases.

The final month of the summer blockbuster season is here. Come next month we'll be neck deep in indie flicks and crap movies that weren't good enough for the summer. For now we end the summer season with a couple more amazing blockbusters (hopefully) in Inglourious Basterds and District 9, a crap movie that apparently WAS good enough for the summer in G.I. Joe, and a whole slew of other stuff. So let's get into it.

The 7th

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

I feel sorry for people that grew up watching GI Joe. It must be hard watching their childhood milked for everything it's worth. I was a Ninja Turtles fan, so I didn't have to deal with that at all.

Paper Heart

I can't decide whether I really want to see this, or couldn't care less about it. It'll probably at least interest my wife and maybe be one of the very few movies I get her to go see with me.

Cold Souls

I mentioned this movie previously in my Synecdoche post. Mainly that it was Kaufman-esque, but a lot of people are saying it comes way too close to being a Kaufman film. There is a reason I like Charlie Kaufman though, and if this movie is like his movies then I will probably love it just like I loved Stranger Than Fiction.

Other Releases:
Julie & Julia
A Perfect Getaway
I Sell The Dead

The 14th

District 9

Oh man I hope this movie is as amazing as I've hyped myself up to believing it is.

Other Releases:
Bandslam
The Time Travelers Wife
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
Ponyo
Taxidermia
Spread
It Might Get Loud

The 21st

Inglourious Basterds

I think I still trust Tarantino, though I almost fell asleep watching the girls in Death Proof gab about the guys they liked. Still, I have high hopes for Inglourious Basterds. And to sweeten the pot its out on Avatar Day, a day in which 15 minutes of James Cameron's Avatar will be shown for free in all IMAX 3D and other select 3D theaters around the world. So make yourself a little day of movie experiences. Unfortunately I have to go to a wedding. Laaaaame.

World's Greatest Dad

This may be the first Robin Williams movie in years that actually looks interesting. Although considering what they didn't put in the trailer that I already know, I'm worried I might have had the movie spoiled already. Either way, it looks like a good dark comedy.

Other Releases:
Shorts
Post Grad
The Baader Meinhof Complex
Casi Divas
My One and Only
X-Games 3D: The Movie

The 28th

Taking Woodstock

I would apologize for putting a clip with an intro but Demetri Martin is hilarious and it was all I could find embeddable. I kind of like this sticking real clips of historical events into the movie to make it all blend together. Looks pretty interesting.

Big Fan

Seems like the writer of The Wrestler has come up with another great sports drama. I'm glad to see more movies like this instead of all the cookie cutter sports movies about the underdog who comes through in the end or whatever.

Other Releases:
The Final Destination
Halloween II
The September Issue
Still Walking

Moon's Contribution to Hollywood

For quite awhile Hollywood has been passing on sci-fi flicks instead favoring fantasies. In the last year or two that seems to have begun changing, something which I wrote more in depth about here. Moon is a sort of wary toe in the water for the film industry. Despite the big success of Star Trek it's still not quite clear whether audiences will flock to sci-fi as eagerly as they did the countless amounts of fantasies before they grew tired. So Moon, with a scant budget of around 5 million, is a test with little risk.

Unfortunately as I write this Yahoo lists the box office at 3.3 million, and with a June 12th release it is in its 7th week in theaters. I'm sure a lot of this is due to a very limited release, so much so that it took 6 weeks for me to find it available any closer then 2 hours away. Still, it could also be due to a fundamental difference in sci-fi movies.

While Star Trek was easily described as an action thrill ride, Moon is a very different type of sci-fi, the slow dramatic type. It doesn't weave an overly complex story, but it's definitely not the action packed one that some people might equate to anything sci-fi.

So the question is, will it do well enough to get more sci-fi movies green lit? I don't doubt that it will eventually make back its $5 million investment, even if it's not until the dvd release, but will the slow drizzle of income turn off other studios from films like it or will they realize that it could have simply been the poor advertising and release schedule that hurt it? Hopefully they do as I'd love to see more films like Moon. It's pretty amazing what Duncan Jones managed to do with such a small budget. If you haven't been able to catch it then be sure to get out there and correct that before it's too late.

July Music Wrap-Up

The Music Wrap-Up is a monthly summary of my favorite and other notable new releases. The songs are for sampling purposes only and will be removed the next month. Artists or labels notify me with any complaints and I will remove the song as soon as possible. Please support these musicians as that's the reason I'm featuring them in the first place.

July is chock full of great music, and I'm not even going to skimp you on any of it. I could put only one song from each band up to save space, but I'll stick with two each, and I'll even throw in a third from Discovery as a tribute to the recently departed King of Pop. The great releases come in all varieties this month, from electronic to dance to punk to a sort of southern rock, but they are all excellent. Someone said on twitter, "Thus far, 2009 has been a great year for music, a horrible year for film, and a pretty good year for games", I don't know if I agree with him on films unless we're only counting the big budget blockbusters, but he is certainly right about music. If July isn't packed full enough for you, theres even more great stuff coming in August and beyond. Stay tuned for all your music sampling needs.

Discovery

Osaka Loopline



So Insane



I Want You Back



The collaboration between Vampire Weekend's keyboard player and Ra Ra Riot's singer/songwriter, Discovery is a side project that drew lots of anticipation. They certainly do well to differentiate the music, being an electronic band instead of the indie pop sort of sounds of their respective bands. I'm glad to see members of two great bands already experimenting with music so soon after their first releases. I wasn't too enthralled with it at first but its since grown on me immensely and has become one of my favorite new albums.

Big D and the Kids Table's Fluent in Stroll

Fluent in Stroll



I,I,I



Most likely my summer cd of 2009. It perfectly accents any cruises down to the beach you might be taking.

I Come to Shanghai

Your Lazy Eye



Another Sunday Morning



Probably my biggest surprise of the year so far, I Come to Shanghai smacked me right across the face with radness. My head nearly blew up when I heard this cd. Inside jokes and interview with one half of the band can be found here.

Portugal. The Man's The Satanic Satanist

Lovers in Love



Mornings



Portugal. The Man is one of my favorites. Laid back grooves that are easy to get lost in, and serve as great background to menial tasks. Yet at the same time you can belt out the lyrics along with the music and have a great time just tapping your foot with a big smile on your face.

The Dodo's Time to Die

Longform



Two Medicines



One of my biggest surprise discoveries of last year, The Dodo's surprise again by returning so soon with another amazing cd. If you haven't heard this band, check out both of their releases. They have quickly become one of my favorites. Their entire new cd Time to Die is streaming here, I'm not sure for how long though.

Against Me's The Original Cowboy

A Brief Yet Triumphant Introduction/Cliche Guevarra



Unsubstantiated Rumors



Before Against Me went to record As the Eternal Cowboy for real, they recorded these quick demos. It's nice to see the variation in some of the songs, a lot sound more like their live versions, but it's probably something only appreciated by the die hard fans.

RX Bandit's Mandala

My Lonesome Only Friend



Hope is a Butterfly No Net it's Captor



RX Bandits are kind of fading on me. Progress was the last cd of theirs I listened to and I love it, but apparently I missed 2 cds in between that one and the new Mandala yet they seem pretty much the same to me. It's really good music but it's just not catching me like it used to.

Dead Weather's Horehound

60 Feet Tall



Treat Me Like Your Mother



I'm going to be embarrased by some of the words I use to describe this band but here goes, Dead Weather makes a sort of dirty southern rock. Sorry but I had to say it, thats what it sounds most like to me. Of course almost everyone will hear about this band because of Jack White being a member but even if you hate his previous work you might find something to love in this. At least listen all the way through these songs, 60 Feet Tall takes a sharp turn in direction halfway through.

Cobra Skull's American Rubicon

H.D.U.I. (Honorary Discharge Under the Influence)



Overpopulated



I've already written about this cd here, so I'll take this time to explain that H.D.U.I. is a true story of a soldier that the singer met. I'll just quote the singers explanation: "As a Marine, he felt he had been used in the invasion of Iraq with no other purpose than to take control of the country's oil. One day he decided that he had had enough, so he got a little drunk and did some donuts in the dunes until he was pulled over and charged with Driving Under the Influence. He received an Honorary Discharge. He did not have to return for a third tour and he was allowed to keep his G.I. bill, which was the main reason why he and many other young people join the military in these uncertain economic times."

Rock Band Network and the Indie Scene

We've posted previously about the new ways bands are using to try to be profitable in this age of torrents and p2p programs (here, here and here), but one way neither Dan nor I have mentioned was music games. The record industry has been paying an increasing amount of attention to this new possibility for profits. Not only have musicians handed over master tracks for use in games like the Guitar Hero series or the Rock Band series, but bands such as Aerosmith, Metallica and soon The Beatles have signed up for entire games to be created around their music. Aerosmith have made statements that Guitar Hero: Aerosmith was more profitable for them then any of their cds, so obviously music games are a viable market.

But what does that mean for an indie band? Well Rock Band publisher Harmonix has just recently announced its answer to that: Rock Band Network. Basically it's a means for any band to put their songs into the game and program a note chart for each instrument with the tools provided. Then the song is sent off to be reviewed by a team of people at Harmonix and possibly released online for digital purchase, the artist getting a cut of each download purchase.

This could be one more weapon in the indie bands constantly evolving arsenal to make money. Many questions remain to be answered though. How easy the programming process will be for the band, how many submissions the team at Harmonix can actually handle, what will make it through the review process, and whether or not a small band can make a profit from this whole ordeal are questions that we will have to wait to find the answers too. Rock Band Network is set to launch in August, and I will be keeping a close watch on it to see if the bands I love will submit and ultimately make it through the whole process.

Video Round-Up

Video Round-Up is a monthly post that collects an assortment of videos from around the web. Whether they be music videos, creative viral marketing, just plain cool, or just plain ridiculous, they will all be found on Video Round-Up every 15th.

The Mars Volta - Since We've Been Wrong

This is more of a behind the scenes of the album recording process, but its a well edited one. I like when the drums kick into full gear and the picture flashes to full screen.



District 9 Viral Video Marketing Campaign

The amazing part about this viral marketing campaign for the upcoming movie District 9, is that apparently people have actually been calling the number to report alien sightings. I love stuff like this.



Jurasic Park Dinosaurs stop by to say Hey!

This is entirely stupid, yet some of them make me laugh everytime.



Jonathan Mann - I've been trying to sneeze for 24 hours

Jonathan Mann, also known as The Game Jew, has been writing a song every day for 186 days! I haven't been following it too closely, but I check in from time to time. This one amused me.



The Sound of Animals Fighting -
Another Leather Lung & I, The Swan

I'm a big fan of TSOAF, but they can be extremely pretentious. Their music, while great, isn't as revolutionarily original as they would like to tell you at every opportunity. But if you ignore all their talk and just listen to the music then they are a great band. I only wish that all the members would put this project in their number 1 spot as I'm not a fan of any of the respective members other bands, except RX Bandits. Anyway, here are some music videos they just released for 2 songs on their last cd The Ocean and the Sun, the first one is much better but they are both pretty interesting.





5 Second Videogame Videos

A design website by the name of greyscalegorilla is doing a five second project with a theme of old school video games. There are hundreds of great videos over HERE but I can't figure out how to embed any except the ones that were embedded on bitmob. That's alright though because those were really good as well. So I leave you with some 5 second game videos. Enjoy!

Old Video Games from Citizen Spain on Vimeo.

Old Video Games from Lawrence Digges on Vimeo.

TETRIS- 5sec VideoGame Contest from Eugene Chu on Vimeo.

Artist Spotlight: Bibio

Artist Spotlight is an occasional look at one of our favorite artists. Music samples are used in an effort to further show how good the featured artist is. Any and all copyrighted material will be removed as soon as possible upon request.

This week I'm focusing on the musician Bibio. A friend of mine recently got me into him and ever since I've been hooked. Bibio has a very unique earthy feel to most of his music. He likes to record sounds from the field, meaning anywhere outside. He then incorporates this into his music along with other strange samples that go so well with the music. Bibio's new album Ambivalence Avenue sees Bibio going in a new direction. His past albums were more mellow and acoustic sounding. Ambivalence Avenue does have instances of this kind of sound, but he also throws in some synthesized-out dance grooves that work well to mix up the sound of the album.

I have featured a couple songs from two of his albums. His newer album, Ambivalence Avenue (2009), and also Hand Cranked (2006). Hope you enjoy!



Ambivalence Avenue - Ambivalence Avenue

Ambivalence Avenue - Haikuesque (When She Laughs)

Ambivalence Avenue - Cry! Baby!

Hand Cranked - Maroon Lagoon

Hand Cranked - Aberriw

Batman Was Silly Part 17: The Final Cover

Well ladies and gentleman, it seems as though my resource of silly Batman covers has run out. It's had a good run though. I can still see the look on Batman's face all those times his identity was almost uncovered by a bunch of random zany characters (including his aunt). All of the random places Batman and Robin visited (the jungle for example). The very helpful thought bubbles explaining what the hell is going on in the scene on the cover (like when Batman was all grown up, yet still wearing his batsuit). And who could forget those covers that had nothing to do with any story (Batman and Robin penny-farthing anyone?). And last but not least all of the strange creatures that have invaded Gotham (a large furry insect like monster with flippers for example). As much as I hate to not have any more covers to share with you all, keep an eye out for more possible Silly shenanigans. Also if you have any ideas regarding Sillyness feel free to post them in the comments.

(Click on image for full size)

Batman was later arrested by the ASPCA

I Come to Shanghai/Robert Ashley Interview

There's a lot of good music that just recently came out, but little did I know I would be playing a band I hadn't even heard more then any of those other new releases. That band is I Come to Shanghai, and their brand of psychedelic pop has infected my brain. As I type this I have the song 'Pass the Time' swimming in my head, and it's usually accompanied by 'Your Lazy Eye', 'Houses on the Shore', or 'Another Sunday Morning'. My wife is probably about ready to kill me as I've been singing 'Salvation is a Country Club' throughout the house for the past week.

Obviously I really like this cd, and I wanted to write something about it so that more people might check it out. The problem was I couldn't think of much else to write except that I really like the cd. It's full of infectious psychedelic pop songs that never get old, that's really all you need to know. So I contacted one half of the band, Mr. Robert Ashley, and asked for a brief interview. He kindly obliged.

If you want to hear the music for yourself, you can download it from icometoshanghai.com for any price you wish to pay, including nothing. That means there's no excuse not to try it out, and if you download it for free and really love it then go back and donate some money.

Do you and Sam essentially write your own songs, or is their collaboration between you on each others songs?

Sam and I both write our songs independently, though we sometimes ask each other for opinions on specific word choices and lyrics, etc. But the songs we show up with individually always end up being massively transformed by our arranging and recording process. We're pretty much not satisfied with a song until it's radically different than the thing we started with, and that's the bulk of our collaboration.

The lyrics from what I can tell seem deeply personal. For example, 'Salvation is a Country Club' seems to be about your struggle with wanting to accept God but not being able to believe in him. Are these your inner struggles in song form or just scenarios you've created?

A little bit of both. I don't want to explain too much about the lyrics. There is a shortage of mystery in the world today.

Our country seems to accept religion as the norm and not being religious is a taboo. Does that make you wary of writing songs like 'Salvation is a Country Club'?

I grew up in a fairly religious town in Texas, but my mom was an atheist. Not in the Richard Dawkins in-your-face sense. Just a non-believer. I got used to talking about my lack of religious faith from an early age. Not that I didn't try to get some.

You're a huge Beatles fan, and the cover of the album features you in a Sgt. Pepper like uniform. Is it safe to assume that's the biggest influence on the sound of your music?

I think the biggest influence on the sound of our music is the limitations we had to work around. I can't remember the number of times we came up with an arrangement for a song only to realize that Sam's rickety old turn-of-the-century piano just wasn't going to cut it. Or that we just couldn't get a good enough XX sound. We were constantly working around a serious lack of equipment and expertise, and those limitations were a huge influence on what we ended up with. That said, the Beatles are kind of the high water mark. Eno's up there as well.

I can't decide whether 'I Watch You Sleep' is sweet or extremely creepy. Any thoughts?

I certainly wouldn't want to decide for you.

We live in a day and age when there is almost no mystery behind our favorite artists. If we want to know more about them we just go to wikipedia, google them, or follow them on twitter and we immediately learn everything about them, including what they ate for lunch. Considering the bio for I Come to Shanghai is 3 sentences long, is that former mystery something you are consciously trying to create?

Yeah, definitely. We would hate to ruin everything by saying too much. Our natural urge is to say as little as possible. Plus, you can't write a bio for your own band without feeling like a pathetic asshole.

So few people consume their music the way they used to these days, which is the whole album from start to finish. Considering there are 2 writers for ICTS is that hit single mentality something you're sort of forced into, or do you pay attention to the album as a whole while writing the individual songs?

We started out focusing on individual songs, but our choices in which songs to go with (and what the order should be) were very album-oriented. At the end of the day, we hope it works in shuffle or as an album.

How has the pay-what-you-want means of album sales worked out so far? Do you feel like this is the future of distribution for smaller indie bands that might not be able to get a record deal? Do record labels even matter for a band in this digital age?

People have been very generous with donations so far, so it's been swell. I can't say I really understand anything about the way the music business works today, but what we're doing right now works for us. And after spending last week doing nothing but printing out shipping labels and taping them to mailers, I'd say a record label probably has its advantages.

How much do you plan on concentrating on the band now that the cd is released? Will there be a tour? Can we expect another cd in a year or two?

The band is our highest priority. We'd love to tour eventually. Right now, we're just working on getting a two-man live show together that has some of the album's depth. We certainly plan on following up quickly. A year-and-a-half or two years from now would be nice.

Any music you've been thoroughly enjoying lately?

Sam and I both discovered Future Days by Can recently (ok fine, he played it for me first). I'd heard Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi plenty of times before, and they were interesting, but they never got to me. Future Days knocks me out. It's somewhere in between Eno's Another Green World and Cellar Door Sessions-era Miles Davis. Badass drumming, amazing sounds, very laid-back, and surprisingly tuneful.

Since it's all I've thought about for the last month, do you have any name suggestions for our site?

Have you considered myheadblewupfromradness.com?



I might need to check out that Can cd as I'm in the same boat with not getting into the other 2 so much and then forgetting about them. But I'm really excited to know that this wasn't a one-off experiment, and there'll be more music in the future. Hopefully in 2 years I'll be writing about the new I Come to Shanghai cd. Maybe that post will be going up on myheadblewupfromradness.com, we'll have to wait and see. I want to thank Robert Ashley for giving his time to a small site like ours.

Synecdoche, New York

I know I'm pretty late to the party on this one but I recently bought and watched this and wanted to write about it in an attempt to maybe peak some more peoples interest in it. There are some movies you put in when you just want to mindlessly watch something, this is not one of them. Synecdoche, New York is a movie that takes a lot of effort and thought to get something out of it, but its things like this that are always the most rewarding in the end.

Synecdoche is Charlie Kaufmans first attempt at directing one of his own unique scripts. The writer behind such eccentric movies as Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kaufman definitely offers a different vision of movies. So much so that the term Kaufman-esque has already been coined and used on such films as Stranger Than Fiction and the upcoming Cold Souls. Let loose on his own work, with the directors chair and final cut, could have been a disaster, and in some eyes it probably is.

It all depends on how much you want to put in. Synecdoche is metaphor layered on top of metaphor layered on top of metaphor layered on top of metaphor. Its an amalgamation of every single one of a paranoid mans fears throughout his entire life. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Caden Cotard, a man inordinately obsessed with death, or maybe he thinks he is dead. His last name also happens to be the name of a syndrome with which the sufferer believes themselves to be dead, or putrefying, or has lost his/her own blood and internal organs.

Really it doesn't matter though, you can come to a million different conclusions on why Caden believes the things he believes. At the core, the movie is about time. The first scene, which takes place in what Caden believes and acts like is a day, really is almost 6 months long. We hear news reports of holidays coming and going and see newspaper headlines changing as Caden goes about his life blissfully unaware of how quickly it's slipping by. One of the other characters in the movie, Hazel played by Samantha Morton, buys a house that's currently on fire, it takes the rest of her life to burn. Everything in the movie plays with time.

It's possible for every scene to affect someone in a different way. I listened to a lot of discussions on the movie after viewing it and everyone had a particular scene that moved them the most. None of them mentioned the one that really shook me. One in which Caden attempts to track down his daughter, countless years having passed for her but almost no time at all having passed in his mind. He's found her from a magazine cover she appeared on, covered in tattoos, yet when he confronts her lover who won't let him see her he forgets how long has passed and screams "She's 4, she's a 4 year old".

It can be a bitterly depressing movie, that leaves you in a reflective mood for quite awhile after. But even so Kaufman still peppers in some genuinely funny writing. I haven't even mentioned the main plot of the movie, in which Caden attempts to create a play that slowly becomes his life, with actors playing actors in the movie and a warehouse so big that he eventually recreates all of New York within the warehouse that's within New York. Like I've said, it doesn't matter, its all a thick layer of metaphors, and could be interpreted in a myriad of ways.

If you like that sort of thing like I do, then dive right in. Here are some resources to help you out of your post Synecdoche watching funk:
The Life of the Mind Pt. 1
The Life of the Mined Pt. 2
Roger Eberts Review
/Filmcast Discussion
Creative Screenwriting Magazines Kaufman Interview

A Genre Full of Bittersweet Memories

They say certain songs can take you back to a time and place once forgotten. For me a whole genre is increasingly returning me to entire relationships with people I'm no longer close to, whether it be because of a mere drifting down separate paths in life, or a hostile situation left unresolved. Every morning I wake up at 7 am, I open my dresser drawer, and I dig to the bottom of my shirts. Down past the nice, unripped shirts, all the way to the torn and tattered. I pull on my Screeching Weasel, Jello Biafra, or NoFX shirt, the ones with big holes in the armpits and tiny ones spotting the front, and I go running. The bands whose shirts I once coveted and wore with pride, are now my workout clothes.

Music used to be meaningless to me, I could care less about it. It was only through the guidance of people I looked up to, a relative and a good friend, that I was introduced to punk. When you're low on the social ladder you tend to idolize and want to be other people that actually pay you attention and that you see as cool. Punk music fell hand in hand with this process, since those I looked up to liked it, so did I. It was my gateway into the world of music, but ironically as your musical tastes mature, so does the company you keep.

I find it harder and harder to separate my fondness for the old punk bands I used to love, with the bittersweet memories of those I've moved on from. Screeching Weasel, Dead Milkmen, and 88 Fingers Louie are all reuniting for Riot Fest in Chicago this year, and I have both an urge to go see them as well as a sinking feeling about the memories these bands bring back. I probably won't go, but I can't help but miss that time of my life, and want to return to it a little bit.

Doing Whatever They Can to Survive

We all know that the print industry is hurting, countless magazines have gone under in the last year or two. I'm beginning to worry about my Paste subscription as it seems to be getting smaller all the time. So how should they stay afloat? I've heard a lot of suggestions by former EGM staff while reflecting on the death of their magazine. Stuff like making it more premium, increasing the quality of paper its printed on and putting more work into making a nice thick superior product that people will want to pay for. What are they doing to stay afloat? Pestering the hell out of their customers.

It first started with my subscription to the previously mentioned EGM. It was set to expire with the December issue and since I didn't have much expendable income around that time do to the holidays I had resolved to let it expire and perhaps resubscribe later. Soon I got a letter saying that my subscription was automatically renewed, and that I should now send them the money I owe them. That was weird since I had recieved it as a gift more then 2 years ago and the giver had paid with a check so automatic renewal wouldn't have been much of an option. So I thought nothing of it, I figured it must have been a ploy to dupe people into just resubscribing without thought and that if I ignored it then they'd get the hint that I wasn't going to.

Upon showing up to my parents house (where my subscription was still being sent) one day however I went to grab my mail and realized there was a small pile of letters from EGM (or whoever handles their subscriptions, I forget who now). The last of these letters claimed that this was their final warning to me and if I didn't pay that more drastic measures would be taken. I was pissed off at this point and responded as such in email form. Only then did they apologize and say that any extra issues sent to me were my gift. Of course there were no more issues of EGM as news broke of their shutting down soon after this whole ordeal, so I'm not sure if it would have been solved differently had EGM been healthy and successful still.

Within the last month though, I got dealt another annoyance in this manner. We were repeatedly getting calls from Conde Nast, Wireds parent company, at least every other day. Eventually I answered so I could end them. The woman on the other end of the phone relayed to me their excellent offer if I were to resubscribe to Wired right then. My subscription wasn't even close to expiring, and I had no interest in giving her my credit card number so that I'd get a charge at some random time after I had already forgotten about it. Now I love my Wired magazine, I read it almost front to back every month. I have every intention to resubscribe, but I want to send in a payment myself when I'm sure I have the money, not be charged whenever they decide to renew it.

I explained to the woman that I didn't want to resubscribe right then and I would send in one of the cards when I wanted to. The response was a repeating of their offer, and that she would go ahead and do that now. I was kind of peeved at this point and told her no I did not want their offer, and I in no way wanted any sort of automatic renewal. Instead of backing down to this she tried to force me into it again! At this point I told her that she was talking her way out of my resubscription and I wasn't interested in any offer they had, and hung up.

I write this rant now though, because I am going through this yet another time. My wife has received issues of a magazine she has never even heard of, along with letters claiming she owes them money. So this is a third company, using the same shady tactics to try to trick people into just handing over money. I completely understand that they are in a tough spot right now, and I sympathize. Working for the newspaper industry means I've seen my pay cut several times, I've seen my routes dissolved into nothing and been forced to scramble to take new ones that might be available, and I've seen my list of customers grow shorter and shorter everyday. I know how it feels to be working in a slowly dying industry, but I would sympathize more if they were taking different approaches to finding a solution. Approaches that weren't deceiving their very own customers.

At this point I almost welcome their demise, because they've pissed me off one too many times. Fortunately I know better than to blame the people behind the magazines I read, it's not their fault that their parent companies are doing this to their customers. Unfortunately a lot of people might not realize this, and might get annoyed enough to just outright cancel their subscriptions. The companies that own these magazines see this scenario as a loss on their annual reports, but the people who work their asses off everyday to put these magazines out see it as no more job to go to everyday. So who's really losing here?

New Full Length District 9 Trailer!

Hell yes! I had somewhat of an idea of what the movie was going to be like, but this new trailer introduces things that I did not see coming. This is without a doubt my most anticipated movie this year. Besides James Cameron's Avatar (which I will write about soon). District 9 is directed by Neill Blomkamp who was attached to direct the Halo movie that is now on hold for an indefinite amount of time. The movie comes out August 14th. Feast your eyes on this awesome trailer! And as always thanks to firstshowing.net.

Cobra Skull's American Rubicon

Now onto another of today's many releases, Cobra Skull's American Rubicon. I first heard about this band when I was hopping around different band websites looking for tour dates. One of the Lawrence Arms members had written a post about how their recently released debut cd Sitting Army was one of the best punk albums he'd heard in years. I told the singer of Cobra Skulls about my means of discovering them later when I saw them open for Against Me (on this same note I take credit for the fact that Rubicon doesn't have Cobra in every song title as I encouraged him to end that joke now before it got out of hand) and he sounded shocked that Lawrence Arms even knew who they were. They seem to regularly be surprised at things like this, but the attention they continually get is well deserved.

I had words like 'fresh' and 'original' written in my notes for this post, but before my second play through ended I thought of something. I don't think that the appeal of Cobra Skulls is in originality, but more in extremely well crafted songs. A lot of Rubicon has familiar sounds that I can't quite put my finger on, but one that I have is the songs 'Rebel Fate' and 'Thicker Than Water' that remind me a lot of earlier Green Day. It's probably their ability to take the best parts of punk from over the years and make their sound out of them that puts these guys above the rest of the stuff out there, but the occasional inclusion of spanish lyrics helps them stick out as well.

Every year a giant pile of new punk bands emerge, but I just can't get into any of them like I did when I was in high school. As my musical tastes mature I tend to only follow the punk bands that I listened to in my youth. There's some magical formula to Cobra Skulls however that has hooked me. American Rubicon isn't entirely the evolutionary jump that I was hoping for from them, but its still an excellently crafted album that I'm thoroughly enjoying, and I'm looking forward to hearing what they come up with next.

Big D and the Kids Table's Fluent in Stroll

Ska music borrows from many different genres; reggae, dub, punk. One ska band could sound completely different from another and still call each other ska. Big D and the Kids Table have decided to confuse things a little bit more by inventing a new genre of ska that they call stroll. It is in their own words a blend of hopscotch, double dutch, soul, ska, and reggae. It is in my words a truly infectious album full of songs perfect for summer time consumption.

Big D's last cd, Strictly Rude, was an exploration of the smoother, more laid back side of ska. With Fluent in Stroll they have turned it completely around and made a poppy, upbeat record that is completely impossible to be angry or sad while listening to. There is a brief minute or so dip into a blues sound on the song 'Known to be Blue' but almost every song on here will make you tap your foot or outright get up and dance.

So many ska bands are just a pop punk band with a horn section, and then they only use the horns for brief accents. If they have an original sound to them then they stick too closely to that sound and release album after album with no experimentation. Big D and the Kids Table on the other hand, constantly change up their sound. From the fast punk ska on Good Luck, to the more poppy ska on How it Goes, to the dub heavy Salem Girls, to the laid back Strictly Rude, and now to the upbeat Fluent in Stroll, they have never stopped reinventing themselves. I was initially dissuaded by this fact when I heard Salem Girls, but as I grow older I appreciate it much more. My musical taste is constantly maturing and something tells me that Big D will always be maturing along with me. Maybe one day when I'm 50 I'll be listening to the new jazz cd that they've put out. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Batman was Silly Part 16: Caveman at Large

What better way to cure a hangover from some 4th of July celebrations than with a new silly Batman cover? If your answer was drink lots of water and take an advil or two than you are probably right. But this is a close runner up. This weeks cover deals with a reoccurring theme of cavemen or at least prehistoric doings. Except this time Batman and Robin are at least in their own time period. We are also reminded of the time period when these comics were made and how this country was a lot less sensitive towards racial profiling. I mean, what, just because he's a caveman he automatically finds caves wherever he goes? Tisk tisk DC comics. I expected more out of you. Just make sure those wanna-be cavemen from Geico don't see this.

(Click image for full size)

Finding Batman's Batcave: So easy a caveman can do it

Artist Spotlight: The Paper Chase

Artist Spotlight is an occasional look at one of our favorite artists. Music samples are used in an effort to further show how good the featured artist is. Any and all copyrighted material will be removed as soon as possible upon request.

I just saw The Paper Chase perform for my third time a few nights ago. Despite the recent release of their fifth full length cd, there wasn't more than thirty or so people there. It bothers me a little how unknown they still are even with all their talent and creativity, so I'm going to attempt to explain why they are quite likely my favorite band.

I first heard of Paper Chase several years ago in a thread on a forum that people were recommending music. They were simply described as "for fans of the weird". Somehow that was enough to intrigue me, and I downloaded their God Bless Your Black Heart album. From the first song Said the Spider to the Fly with its pounding keyboard I knew they were definitely unique, but by the end of the cd I was almost entranced.


John Congleton, the lead singer/guitarist/mastermind behind most all of the writing, has a way of molding crazy stories into the dark and eerie atmosphere that the music creates so well that the entire album is an experience that must be taken from start to finish. I was quickly hooked, and had bought both of their older releases. Congleton doesn't tell happy stories, he writes about frustration with society, cheating lovers, murders, and most recently the apocalypse, but the intricate layers of sounds that swirl around his twisted stories fit so perfectly.

Thick, chugging bass lines, sharp, squealing guitar, and creepy sound clips from any and everywhere all create deep, complex music that takes multiple listens to hear everything. When asked to bring in some our my favorite music for my music professor to listen to and talk about, I chose the opening 2 tracks off of Now You Are One of Us, which had just come out. Even before the second track had started up, he was staring at me in a wide eyed look of terror. Afterwords one of the other students pointed out the amount of dissonance that occurred because of all the layers of sound going on at once.

The professor nodded and said that it sounded like they were using that for an artistic expression, and I defended that a bit by explaining their concept albums. He said that their music sounded very complex and intricate but that if he had to listen through a whole album that he would probably become so depressed he'd kill himself.

I don't really take that as an insult, with how dark the stories behind their cds are they certainly should make equally dark sounding music. It's definitely not for everyone, but it's the sort of music I gravitate toward. If you're the same way, then check them out. Here are some choice tracks from their last 3 releases.

God Bless Your Black Heart - Said the Spider to the Fly

Now You Are One of Us - You're One of Them Aren't You

Someday This Could All Be Yours - This is Only a Test (The Tornado)