You Will Join a Cult

I used to be obsessed with movies. When I was a kid, before imdb, rottentomatoes, and online movie trailers, I would pour over thick movie guides and entertainment weeklies trying to find things that would tickle my interest. Then, eh, movies kinda started not taking the same risks they used to take and then music went and filled in that gap. I pretty much watch 2-3 movies in the theater a year now, and I usually can only come up with one movie each year that I would strongly recommend. This post is intended to break up some of the monotony of the mp3s postings and let me talk about something else. Blah, no one reads this blog anyway.

Anyway, welcome to Distracted by Movies (tm)!

Here's a few flicks I've seen in the past year that are totally worth checking out if you are sick n tired of the Hollywood turd-machine.

1) House: It was at the point in this movie where the young Asian woman gets assaulted for 5 minutes by flying mattresses that I knew I had made an excellent choice.



This movie features: a floating head biting a girls butt; a killer fluffy kitty that looks like its from those Fancy Feast commercials; a piano that eats people; a man inexplicably turning into a banana-man; an incongruous 70s psychedelic pop soundtrack; and a million other visual non sequiters. Petition your local cinema to acquire this nu-cult gemstone.

2)In Bruges: This movie is seriously like the best movie I've seen in the past few years. I think it's destined to become a late night cult favorite too.




Features: A midget dressed in a schoolboy outfit getting it's face fully blown off by a shotgun blast; Collin Farrel as a good actor; tons of funny suicide jokes; cocaine use and guns being used to casually gesticulate or scratch heads; and children being murdered in churches followed by funny visual gags. Oy vey, rent this from your local mom-n-pop DVD mailing service, now!


3) The Room: Look, if you haven't seen this, get on it. And make sure to bring tons of friends. The easiest film in the world to make fun of.



Features: Tommy Wiseau's bubble-wrap, crater-ridden ass; Music and lyrics by Tommy Wiseau; Mr. Wisseau attempting to speak but more sounding like he's chewing something large; 6 million dollars in production values; A legion of fans that will put the Rocky Horror Picture show out of business.

God Bless the Aeroplane

One of the best mixes I've heard in a while. Just stellar:

Aeroplane "Chart Mix" January 2010 by Aeroplane

Let's Look Inside a Crazy Person's Mind

There are certain high points I hit on the internet where I'm staring at my web browser and whatever is on it and I'm like "uh huh, this pretty much smashed everything else to smithereens". Lately, I've been feeling like the smashing to smithereens--while once too far and between--is now almost happening frighteningly too fast.

Here is a brief collection of things I've seen the past few months that I feel like might be front runners for "The Perfect Entertainment" that David Foster Wallace alludes to in Infinite Jest. I feel like these things kinda capture the zeitgeist pretty well, with just about a thousand layers of different things going on to the point it comes at you like a weird, hypnotic scream:

1) Earth vs. Funk. The aural and visual equivalent to getting Nickleodeon slimed while on a pep-pill buzz. This video is like some futuristic, insane homage/parody of the evolution of the internet, completely with bizarre, bargain-basement flash animation, obscure pop culture (Colin Mochrie's disembodied head?), and an unparalleled manic intensity. Be prepared to feel like you live inside a cartoon dreamworld after this one.

2) The Anger of Bonobo Violent. Upon rewatching this, it doesn't have quite the same impact as it did on me several months ago, and I'm kinda like "ho hum, dubstep, wampity wampity, who cares" now, but the editing and music on this video is scary intense, but kinda a fun rush too.

3) Die Antwoord. There's just a lot going on here too. They're from South Africa, and kinda make me want to move there to explore whatever the hell this art scene is. Also, this one about being in love with a Ninja is pretty great. It's kinda like Chris Cunningham meets Michel Gondry, or something like that.

4) Johnny Depp in China. This clip features: Crazy Japanese culture Bizarre yet adorable children; Hitler moustaches; Out of control music and choreography AND; an increasingly awkward American celebrity by the name of Johnny Depp. The clip starts out innocent enough, with a cute japanese kid wearing a Jack Sparrow outfit waving at Depp, and then the insanity hits the fan pretty quickly. Watch it.

CFCF-Come Closer

This track is just amazing. Sexy and dark and head-bobbingly awesome, I can't think of anything I'd more rather hear at the beginning of a DJ set in a dimly lit club. Kinda like a cross between Junior Boys and Burial:

CFCF-Come Closer

Ready for Summer?

Seasonal Affective Disorder has started effecting everyone, and I plan on changing that with a little bit of summer time rap. Feel free to bump these out of your boom boxes underneath those rain-soaked awnings or inside your winter cave; music can make the seasons change, baby! Here are some standout sunshine rap trax:







PS if anyone has the Deniece track that is sampled on this, I would love to have it. Pretty hard to find, for some reason, despite it's sampling ubiquity.

Beach House

Beach House have a really amazing album coming up, and are also going to be playing with our favorite glo-fi dude Washed Out in Nashville at the end of April. Here's a fantastic track from their forthcoming Teen Dream. Wonderful melody over a complicated yet simple chord progression. Sounds like Grizzly Bear a bit too much, maybe, but you probably can't go wrong ripping those dudes off:

More Nashville Stuff: Non-Jersey Shore Edition

So first off, I'm new to this city, so anything I post here about the goings-on is bound to be old hat amongst the cool kids, but here's some stuff I'm into:

1) JEFF The Brotherhood: These guys are probably like the Nashville equivalent to Portland's Starfucker (Ahem, I mean PYRAMID). Not so much music-wise, but in terms of the precipice of popularity they are currently resting upon and how many boners bloggers around here seem to be sporting over them. They have a new music video here, which isn't like the next On To The Next One mega-production, but a pretty good visual equivalent of what I think they're trying to get at sonically. House parties, slightly psychedelic slo-mo, aura of nostalgia and sentiment; a very simple video for a pretty darn good song.



2) Natural Child: These youngsters remind me of the Black Lips, since they look a little ratty but sexy too and they play jangly, who-gives-a-fuck guitar rock like champs. Gonna go check 'em out soon.

3) LOCAL SHOWS! We have some pretty decent shows coming here, finally. Of Montreal rides in on their psychedelic unicorn February 6th at the Cannery (the same night Girls play at Exit/In, way to go shitheads). Passion Pit plays Vanderbilt April 24th, so get ready for some insanely high-falsetto vox coming from the campus that day. Then, of course, those bepolo-ed light and catchy indie-rockers Vampire Weekend will be hitting up the Ryman April 5th.

Cool, man. Now we just need a good electronic/dubstep independent promotions company around here like Portland's Abstract Earth Project (who brought around the likes of Skream, Joker, Rusko, Nosaj Thing, Flying Lotus etc. to Stumptown before they were super-huge) and we can truly call this place Music City. Right guys?