Descendents to play Fun Fun Fun Fest

As if the bill wasn't already awesome, The Descendents join on for Fun Fun Fun Fest 2010! Hooray!

A Place We Like

Twin Shadow and Hooray For Earth combined their 80's aesthetic pop forces to create a great party jam for "A Place We Like." Although i try to keep you away from Pitchfork as often as i can, every once in awhile, their "forkcast" section (get it?) will post something ultra-groovy that i can't help but direct you to. So, for now, go there for this free download.

And i am outta here for the weekend. Happy Halloween! Have fun! Drink blood! Watch "The Walking Dead" on AMC! Hooray!

Top 5 Horror Movie Gore Scenes

In the spirit of Halloween, and because i'm a horror movie junkie, i proudly bring to you my Top 5 Horror Movie Gore Scenes. These are in no particular order and were chosen because they actually made me cringe...and that takes a lot (i'm as desensitized as any other 21st century thirty something). I recommend trying to find these on line, or hell, just go out and watch all the films in their entirety. Here ya go:

1. "Day of The Dead"
When the zombies attack en masse (as generally occurs), a soldier is cornered and torn to bits. Now, every good zombie movie has a great disembowelment scene, but Romero goes a step beyond here. As the undead begin to maul and tear their victim apart, a couple of stray hands go for the neck and begin to pull. As the guy screams and screams, his voice goes up an octave, and then into a high pitched squeal when the zombies finally pull is vocal chords out in a bloody mess. The moment is absolutely brutal, and the sound of the scream stays with you well after the credits roll. Kudos Mr. Romero.

2. "Hatchet"
Homicidal mongoloid Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder) runs after a fat woman in a track suit (Patrika Darbo), grabs her by her jaw and the top of her mouth, and pulls. He splits her head open wide like one of those old school Play-doh dentist sets! And with minimal CGI to boot! Bravo!

3. "Cabin Fever"
So many scenes in this movie, but i've got to go with shaving scene. After a flesh eating virus has begun ravaging her friends, Marcy (Cerina Vincent) decides she needs a good cry in the tub. And then she shaves her legs. As she's been infected herself, layer upon layer of skin and flesh peel back every time she moves the razor across her leg. Watch it with a group of girls. It's the best!

4. "From Dusk Til Dawn"
When the stripper vampires begin their attack, the gore and chaos is entrancing. Blood and body parts splatter everywhere. Go from a biker getting his throat pulled out, to a head bouncing along the floor, to a Mexican bands playing instruments made of bloody torsos and limbs. The sheer carnage of it all cannot be topped...that is until...

5. "Piranha 3D"
I really cannot decide what my favorite part is. Once the fish begin to swarm and eat, it's non-stop blood and guts. Chaos reigns as naked coeds get chomped, cut, and smashed to bits. When i really think about it though, top props has got to go to the girl who gets her hair stuck in a boats propeller. Everybody's expecting her to get pulled into the blades and hacked to death, but no! Director Alexandre Aja goes that extra step and has the propeller pull the girl's hair and her whole face off. I loved it.

So there you go. Happy Halloween everybody! Go watch some horror movies.

Crystal Castles with Robert Smith

Crystal Castles team up with The Cure's Robert Smith on vocals for a bitchin' reworking of Platinum Blonde's "Not In Love." It's available for free somewhere. Why don't you try with our friends over here.

These New Puritans

How am i just now finding out about These New Puritans? Where has England been hiding them? They're amazing, and i'm not sure how to really describe them. It's a weird hodgepodge of electronica, classical, pop rock, psychedelic rock, and some worldly influences. I love it. Especially check out the tune, "We Want War," and grab a free mp3 of the Forest Swords remix of "White Chords." Hooray! Now, go out and buy their new record, "Hidden."

The Walking Dead

It's not all about music here. Occasionally, i'll foray into other territories. And at last, one of my favorite comics becomes a television show starting on Halloween night. I love zombies, and Robert Kirkman's "The Walking Dead," is an ongoing masterpiece of horror and drama. It doesn't get better than this. High hopes, but Michael Rooker is involved, and that usually spells awesome.

New Waskerley Way

Newcastle's Waskerley Way have just released a new EP entitled, "Holly," and you can download it for free right here. These new jams (although a little more autumnal) follow in the footsteps of the excellent EP, "Cat Music," which was released earlier this year. You can still get it here.

TV Girl

Warm, inviting, sample-based indie pop rock can give you a serious happy if you open to it. And who doesn't like a happy every now and then? San Diego's TV Girl sample Todd Rundgren on their tune, "If You Want It," and yes, i do want it. Check it out and download it for free along with the rest of the EP at their bandcamp site.

Anything to take my mind off of football.

I just don't want them to know how broken i am

That about sums up Texas football this season. We LOST to Iowa St. Once you lose to Iowa St., you get kicked out of football. Boo-urns.

Go to explodingdog.com to see many, many more awesome pictures like this one.

Shy Child

So, the indie 80's thing is probably starting to grow a bit stale by now (even if i'm still digging on it...i did grow up with that kind of shit after all), but that's no reason to deny yourself something awesome. Thus enter New York's Shy Child. Yeah, it's retro. Yeah, it's dancey. And you have to go check out the video for "Dark Destiny (Gigantic/Wall of Sound)". It's outstanding. And the song's pretty groovy too.

Ariel Pink

Pinglewood.com has put together a groovy 36 minute mp3 of Ariel Pink songs. They're either remixed (Bullion), covered (Waskerly Way), or just songs by bands he's a fan of (Puro Instinct, Morbid Angel!). It's killer. You can listen or download here.

Pop Negro

Hello. I'm "Pop Negro," the latest album from Spanish musician Pablo Díaz-Reixa, or El Guincho. I draw from many influences, including Tropicalia, Rock & Roll, Afrobeat, and Dub. I am awesome and fun. You should check me out...but only if you're awesome and like fun.

Battlefield Baseball

No one does insanity like the Japanese do. They love hyper-kinetic films with illogical story structure, they dig on the old ultra-violence, and they love baseball. Put these three things together, and you get "Battlefield Baseball," or "Battlefield Stadium." (The box says one thing and the film says another...you see?! It's already crazy!) This is easily one of the weirdest movies i've ever seen. One character is inexplicably played by three different actors. One team is composed of green Frankenstein type creatures. A character breaks out into song for no reason to explain that he once threw a baseball through his father. And it goes on and on. Monsters! Cyborgs! Kung Fu! Baseball! Hazaa!

Shouldn't I Be Dead By Now?

Obsessions can be funny little things. I moved from Kevin Smith films to "The Evil Dead" trilogy, to Ewan McGregor movies, to Brit Pop, to psychedelic rock, "Lost," zombie movies, Mexican Summer Records, and then onto Italian horror films. With that came my love of cheesy, synth jams that remind me of Jamie Lee Curtis running down a hall, or some Italian bombshell getting her eye gouged out.

Model Man makes music like this...and i love it. Check 'em out on WT Records (home of the recently blogged about Pagan Future.)

Pagan Future

From 20JFG:

An ascending melody ripped from the unseen Rekall infomercial on transdimensional holidays to worlds made entirely of laser edged vectors.

A synth line like a long smooth shard of neon-flecked cyberpunk unease ripped straight from your favourite Reagan-era escapist dystopia.

The filtered hand-clap electro drumbeat that was to be so abused during its teenage years in the eighties it could do nothing but toughen up and emerge lean and vicious as techno.

All these things, like teardrops in the rain.

Anyway, Pagan Ritual are from New Orleans and make groovy 80's electro jams. Who would have thought this kind of thing would emerge from the bayou? Probably a combination of hurricanes and football victories. Buy the record here.

Umberto

Goblin-inspired, funky, groovy weirdness. Not Not Fun strikes again!

Teeth of The Sea

Everything that's awesome about prog rock. I can say no more. From Rocket Recordings.

Grimes

Go over to Arbutus Records to download the new "Halfaxa" album from Canada's Grimes. You can download for free, or make a donation, or order the CD. It's entrancing.

Gatekeeper - Giza

The dark 80's horror synth soundtrack that is Gatekeeper has a new EP due out in December from Merok Records. You can practically feel Snake Plissken staring you down through each song. And smoking. Always smoking. You can pre-order here.

The Black Ryder

Mexican Summer does it again with the new LP from The Black Ryder. The description on the record label's website says more than i ever could:

With auspicious sensual textured layers of melody and guitars, both Scott Von Ryper and chanteuse Miss Aimee Nash weave a densely rich tapestry of love, sex and death, mountains, oceans and astral travel. They indicate the way to the heart of life the centre of our humanity in ritual space, in crafted chords, in veiled waves of sonic tone and drone. Rich dangerous opiated swirling attacks on the third eye lysergic and lupine in equal measure. Once drawn in by this perfume its essence stays.

I would have just said, "it's pretty, droney shoegaze music...hooray!"

Working out again

I'm going to start the P90X workout today. I'm terrified and not excited in the least.

New music Tuesday

A whole lot of good stuff comes out today. New records from Zola Jesus (above), Esben and The Witch, Salem, Blank Dogs, Tamaryn (maybe), CFCF, Sufjan Stevens, and on and on and on. That makes me a happy panda.

I had friends on that Death Star or Chairman Meow

As with any music festival, the hipsters and kids were out in force, sporting throngs of ironic, funny, and absurd t-shirts...some of which actually did make me laugh. I particularly liked the one of a shotgun shell and a piece of bacon giving each other a high five. Does it make any sense? Probably not. Is it still awesome? Yes.

Here are a couple other shirts we saw that i dig:

Star Wars humor is going to attract my attention 99% of the time.

That's just funny. And, probably something i should have thought of.

ACL 2010: Day 3 (Turtles in Time)

Day 3 was more humid, but the crowds were much more manageable. We got there before noon to check out Warpaint. We were there so early, they wouldn't even sell me beer, so i had to drink stupid water instead. It was a fun day though. Gayngs cancelled due to some tour bus mishaps, and that made me a sad panda, but Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros turned out to be a great cure for the blues. And we fled the park before The Eagles could haunt us for eternity.

Winner of the day = Edward Sharp and The Magnetic Zeros
Runner-up = Warpaint

See all you mofos next year.

Warpaint

Warpaint

Warpaint

Foals

Devendra Banhart and The Grogs

Devendra Banhart

The Morning Benders

Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros

Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros

Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros

Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros

The Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips

ACL 2010: Day 2 (Electric Boogaloo)

Begin Day 2. So many more people. So many more beers. I had to miss some acts like Kinky, Matt and Kim, and MIA due to the logistical nightmare that is navigating yourself through a see of stoned kids and grumpy old fucks in lawn chairs. It's better to just find a good spot and glue your ass to it, especially late in the day. We did manage to see some good shows though, and while i missed it, Paige gave mad props to First Aid Kit. And by mad props, i mean she said they were good. We also got to see a baked kid unknowingly blow a mushroom cloud of pot smoke into a cop's face. The smile on his face was classic.

My winner of the day was LCD Soundsystem, and the very close runner-up was The Very Best (the best African techno you'll ever want to here!). Here's some pics from the day:

The Very Best

The Very Best

Bear In Heaven

Bear In Heaven

Black Lips

Black Lips (Yes, he spat on his guitar and then held it up so it would drop back into his mouth. Awesome, i know. Yet, my wife was totally grossed out.)

LCD Soundsystem

LCD Soundsystem

LCD Soundsystem

Muse

See Day 3 after i eat dinner! Hooray!

ACL 2010: Day 1

Bring on the criticism! Hazaa!

So, ACL 2010 has now come and gone, and left me with a sunburned neck, some dust in the back recesses of my nose, and some pics. The weather was hot, but beautiful, the sound seemed better at most of the stages, there were more bathrooms (hooray port-a-potties!), but the douche bag ratio was way higher than normal. And that's too bad. I blame The Eagles. Anyway, my winner for day 1 is The Black Keys. They fucking brought it. Runner-up goes to Sonic Youth. Here's some pics from Friday.

The Mountain Goats

Girls

Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys)

Patrick Carney (The Black Keys)

Beach House

Beach House

Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth)

Lee Renaldo (Sonic Youth)

Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth)

Come back tomorrow. I'll have recaps and pics from days 2 and 3. What else do you have to do? I mean really.