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Monday, November 30, 2009

You Say Party! We Say Die! >> new tunes

The latest from the radically named You Say Party! is miles away from 2006's rebelious hyperactive song "The Gap." Two new tracks available from the album XXXX are like Cat Power fronting the Yeah Yeah Yeahs with the post-punk mood of Siouxsie and the Banshees. Yes, cause it's a girl singing. These tracks are as hot as those girls in the band. The Canadian group's third album is present in the U.S.A from Paper Bag records in February 2010, though it's already tops in Canada. -Kenyon

"There Is XXXX (Within My Heart)" and "Dark Days" are HERE.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

The Car (1977) "The car, he's in here!" HE! i love you car. You are so smart you were able to get inside that guy's garage. You are so much a better actor than those losers. Yes, Ronny "the ground was hallowed" Cox and James Brolin, who plays cat and mouse with a car from the depths of hell, while allowing his dumb girlfriend to get mauled by the car. Check out those sweet maneuvers by the car. Good job car. [rating: **]-Kenyon


The Thrill Killers (1964, black and white) [rating: no stars] Low-budget snoozefest about a bunch of escaped insane men terrorizing the locals. Unnecessarily long chase scenes were tacked on to fill the 70 minutes. In fact, (from wikipedia) "The original film was to focus around the three mental patients, but Steckler found that while directing the film (with little to no set script) that the film was not running long enough and therefore began to shoot scenes with him as Click." [rating: no stars] -Kenyon

Monster in the Closet (1986) Troma horror comedy with intentional movie cliches. The monster, which is actually kinda cool, hides in closets, grabs people and throws clothes out of the closet. After even the military can't stop the monster that soon threatens the entire world, the cameo-filled cast concludes that they must destroy all closets. [rating: **] -Kenyon

Bite Me (2004) Mutated spiders attack humans at a strip club. Embarassing acting and dialogue along with amateur monster effects makes this Z-grade movie awful in a bad way. Big waste of time, even when fast forwarding. [rating: no stars] -Kenyon

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Maps: Turning the Mind (Mute)
release: October 20, 2009
style: celestial electronic pop
similar: M83, Project Skyward
[rating: ***] The follow up to the debut We Can Create, Maps' Turning the Mind makes the obligatory leap in production from bedroom recording to studio, with Tim Holmes of Death in Vegas turning the knobs. While it doesn't have the same breathtaking effect of Create, this is a calm album about "mental states" and has its moments of upliftingness. Brit James Chapman, who grew up listening to Blur and Suede, blankets dreamsicle synths beneath his soft-spoken vocals. In addition, "Let Go of the Fear" is a great modern dance track. Yet something is missing, as Mind travels along Chapman's own safe level of comfort. Mute signed him based on potential. Chapman can do better. -Kenyon


www.myspace.com/mapsmusic

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Elefant > new tune + video.

Wowzer, it's not another song about a GIRL. oh wait....no, it's about a girl again. Some west coast dates later this month. New York date in January. Third album out eventually. See my interview with the drummer HERE. -Kenyon

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

The Bravery > new tunes

Stir the Blood, the third album from the Bravery is out December 1, 2009. This is an unusual release date, seeing as how proper albums never come out between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. But now that we got mp3s and junk, who cares?! The gloomy second single "The Spectator, " which follows the teaser "Slow Poison," is subdued compared to the rocking first album (one of the most underrated of 2005) and more fascinating than the sophomore slumping The Sun and the Moon. "The Spectator" is also on the soundtrack for Vampire Diaries (apparently another vampire-themed TV show). And that DROPS today. DROPS. The point is, so far Stir the Blood is wicked. -Kenyon

"The Spectator" - [mp3]

Friday, November 06, 2009

The Fourth Kind (2009) [rating: **] Unless you need to look at this as a case study on case studies for alien abductions, the Fourth Kind is best to be avoided as a movie with entertainment value. Being very interested in alien life and anything related to it, i was anxious for some "disturbing" images. But instead I was rolling my eyes regularly for at least the first 30 minutes, during cliche hypnosis scenes that were in annoying split screens with "actual footage." The sequence of events were equally train-wrecked. First I was wondering if it was just me not being smart enough to follow. But then i realized, no! This movie is just inept! It doesn't help that the acting by the kids who portrayed the children of Dr. Abigail Tyler, the center of the investigation, were as riveting as a cheap made for Lifetime movie. But this isn't even integral to the allegedly real story about fourth kind encounters in Alaska that disrupted the lives of so many people. So many holes and questions. Where to begin? Why is someone under hypnosis always awaken by the therapist just before they are gonna find an answer? How can a guy being hypnotised levitate and produce an alien voice (albeit when the video footage is conviently scrambled)? Can an alien possess a human? Why is the policeman, the only one that saw the alien ship over Tyler's home, never heard from again in the movie? If this is such an important story to tell, then why ruin it and embarrass the people on whom this is based? One of the most troubling sections of the Fourth Kind is when Tyler is recording her own voice, falls asleep, and then a minute later some aliens come in and abuse her. No way the aliens would come that quick and no way she would be in that deep of a sleep that quick. When she was later hypnotized, she was recalling what appeared to be her own abduction that happened prior to her daughter being taken. And yet she's yelling, "give her back!" Are they aliens? Or other? What is their purpose? We do not know. And the characters in this mess are too dumb to even think of asking. -Kenyon