My in-laws are an interesting bunch. They are all wonderful singers, but they rarely listen to music. My father-in-law spends every Sunday listening to either musak or bluegrass, but beyond that, they don’t really appear to be that interested in music as anything other than a means to pass the time while driving across town.

For instance, my sister-in-law, who lives next store, almost never listens to music. Her husband owns 2 CDs (Loreena McKennit and Jethro Tull) and, until recently, that was the family music cachet. However, her daughter has just been given the Carrie Underwood CD and, I assume out of the principle that nature abhors a vacuum, she apparently listens to it all the time.

Based on the principle that I am the most vocal member of the family regarding music not meant for church or barbershop quartet, my sister-in-law has asked me to make a few CDs for my niece so that she will have something else to listen to. (more…)

MALE
1) Jude Law in Alfie
2) Brad Pitt in Fight Club
3) Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones series
4) Peirce Brosnan in The Thomas Crown Affair
5) George Clooney in Ocean’s Eleven

FEMALE
1) Audrey Tautou in Amelie
2) Uma Thurman in the Kill Bill series
3) Kiera Knightly in Pride and Prejudice
4) Cameron Diaz in Charlie’s Angels
5) Gwyneth Paltrow in The Talented Mr. Ripley

I’ve been exploring the music that is being called freak folk or psych folk or avant folk or psych-Americana or New Weird America or whatever, which is being made by artists that are being called hippies. Artists frequently cited as forebears include Syd Barrett, Vashti Bunyan, and John Fahey. Like most labels, these ones are kind of silly and aren’t perfectly appropriate for all of the artists that get grouped under their umbrella; some of these artists aren’t very folky at all and some of them aren’t very freaky or psychedelic, and I don’t know that all of them are very hippie-ish. But they do share a bit of a hippie vibe and some musical weirdness of one kind or another, and they’re often not many degrees of separation from Devendra Banhart (who I would call a hippie). So, appropriately or not, for the duration of this post let’s group these hippies together and call their music freak folk. (more…)

I don’t have a band spotlight this week, since I’ve been on vacation. But we haven’t had a new-acquisitions post for awhile. What’s new for you?

Here are my newest loves:
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I’ve spliced together clips of songs to see how many you can all identify. This batch of songs are all clips of (brilliant) soft rock tunes, mostly from the 70′s.

I’ll give you a day or two to make your guesses, then I’ll post the answers. There are clips from 17 songs this time. I’ll be surprised if all of these songs aren’t at least somewhat familiar to you. Some of the artists might be harder to recall than others, though.

Song clips are in the radio.blog: “Name These Soft Rock Tunes”

NOTE: You might want to listen and make your guesses before reading the comments, or other people’s guesses might spoil your fun.

UPDATE: I’ll paste the answers in down below. If you haven’t had a chance to make your guesses, don’t click on the “more” link until you have!
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1) Lucky Charms
2) Cap’n Crunch: Crunch Berries
3) Golden Grahams
4) Honeycomb
5) Frosted MiniWheats

If Cracklin’ Oat Bran is considered a sugar cereal then it’s #1.

The next Cinemasochist theme: “Swords and Sorcery.” Let’s have it folks, name the worst of ‘em.

Here’s your chance to go medieval on my ass, I suppose. I’ll post a poll from your suggestions in a day or two.

UPDATE: as a special treat, I will watch and review BOTH Quest of the Delta Knights AND Hercules in New York. Enjoy!

People have been raving about Most eXtreme Primate for years, and at last I know what all the hype is about. (more…)

The title of this book gives the impression that within its pages you will find the reasons that Krispy Kreme will help you lose weight, badmouthing other people strengthens them and playing Halo makes kids more intelligent. (more…)

I watch two news shows on TV: The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. And I’m not ashamed of that fact. (more…)

They’re remaking THUNDERCATS. It looks terrible. Read about it here.

I am NOT even kidding.  SNAKES ON A PLANE, baby, SNAKES ON A PLANE.  SNAKES ON A PLANE rocks.  SNAKES ON A PLANE rolls.  SNAKES ON A PLANE delivers. (more…)

Those of you with Netflix, here’s a little secret: NBC has prereleased the pilot episodes of a couple of its new Fall series onto DVD for Netflix viewers only. Learning this, I rented the new Aaron Sorkin show, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, as well as the pilot for Kidnapped.

The good news: it’s not bad! (more…)

I’ve spliced together clips of songs to see how many you can all identify. This batch of songs are all clips of songs by the Police.

This week’s tune-naming was inspired by a documentary I recently saw about the Police called, Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out. It consists of home movies Stewart Copeland shot of the band over the years with a super 8 camera. It’s really interesting. It doesn’t give all that much info about the band or their history, but it does give an inside glimpse of what it’s like to be constantly on tour for years, with fans swarming you everywhere you go.

It’s narrated by Copeland, but because he’s shooting the footage, he’s rarely seen in the film. One scene he shot during a photo shoot of the band, and the footage he takes is juxtaposed with the photos that are being taken of him aiming his super 8—it’s pretty cool. But I think my favorite footage of the whole movie is when he sets the camera up on a tripod and shoots himself doing something. Like swimming in his pool. Or playing his drums live on stage—during a song, he’ll turn and talk into the camera’s mic while playing, then have to turn back and sing into the PA mic, then say something to the camera again.

Anyway, good movie for Police fans, or super 8 fans.

I’ll give you a day or two to make your guesses, then I’ll post the answers. There are clips from 15 songs this time.

Song clips are in the radio.blog: “Name These Police Tunes”

NOTE: You might want to listen and make your guesses before reading the comments, or other people’s guesses might spoil your fun.

UPDATE: I’ll paste the answers in down below. If you haven’t had a chance to make your guesses, don’t click on the “more” link until you have!
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1) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
2) Arrested Development
3) Seinfeld
4) Airplane
5) So I Married An Axe Murderer

Runners up:
– Princess Bride
– Austin Powers
– Zoolander
– Office Space
– The Big Lebowski
– Tommy Boy

Formed in 1999, Comets On Fire is a radically dangerous mix of psychedelica and straight-up Rock that blisters your ears and fries your bones. Their latest album, Avatar, showcases their best work to date – adrenaline, sheer loudness, but mixed with comtemplation and slow songs. Ethan Miller, Comets’ vocalist and lead guitarist, was kind enough to answer some of our questions about the band. (more…)

Does early 90′s REM (Out of Time, Automatic for the People, Monster, and New Adventures in Hi-Fi) suck? I say no, it doesn’t. In fact, I think they did some of their best work in the early 90′s. But other fans of 80′s REM say that it does, indeed, suck. This KB thread about overcoming snobbery in which anti-REM snobbery abounds has got me curious. I wonder if people’s differing takes on the early 90′s REM question is influenced by how they came to be familiar with the band. So I made a poll to come to an unquestionably definitive answer. Take it. (more…)

I’ve spliced together clips of songs to see how many you can all identify. This batch of songs are all clips of kickass girl singers.

I’ll give you a day or two to make your guesses, then I’ll post the answers. There are clips from 16 songs this time. There’s one or two that are more obscure than the rest.

Song clips are in the radio.blog: “Name These Kickass Girl Tunes”

NOTE: You might want to listen and make your guesses before reading the comments, or other people’s guesses might spoil your fun.

UPDATE: I’ll paste the answers in down below. If you haven’t had a chance to make your guesses, don’t click on the “more” link until you have!
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During lunch today it occurred to me that this summer’s movie crop has yielded two of the best movie titles in recent memory: Snakes on a Plane and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. (There could have been three, if M. Night Shyamalan had taken Ivan Reitman’s suggestion and titled his latest snooze-fest Chick in the Pool.) 

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My votes go to:

Guns’n'Roses – Live and Let
Sheryl Crow – Sweet Child of Mine

But the winner is….Xiu Xiu’s cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.” Listen in the radio.blog.

NOTE: this is “most fun” not “most influential”

1) Halo 2 (Xbox)
2) Tecmo Bowl (Nintendo)
3) Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64)
4) James Bond, Goldeneye (Nintendo 64)
5) Contra (Nintendo)

Runners up:
- Yars Revenge (Atari)
- RBI Baseball (Nintendo)
- John Madden Football (any year, any platform)
- Ikari Warriors (Nintendo)
- Super Mario Brothers 3 (Nintendo)
- FIFA Soccer 2006 (Xbox 360)

This week’s Band Spotlight features Pelican, a Chicago band that can be described as ambient, uplifting, sad, heavy, and mellow all at once. Read on to learn more about them, in their own words—in this case, the words of Laurent Lebec, guitarist.
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I’m not too snobby about much when it comes to music, and if you ever hear me talking snobbily, chances are I don’t mean it all that seriously.

However I was very serious in my RHCP snobbery.
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I must admit I have watched this show on the Fuse channel.  It truly does not belong on TV.

Or really, this planet.

I am so ashamed.

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Man, this is an unappetizing week. THE WINNER: Most Xtreme Primate.

Saints and angels preserve us.