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Whitney, Liam Gallagher, Black Uhuru, Lil' Bub RIP   Printer-friendly page   Send this story to someone
Tuesday, December 03, 2019 - 08:00 AM
Posted by: Karl

Karl

GLAM XMAS:  Wizzard's awesome "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day" and Slade's "Merry Christmas Everybody" (1973's UK Xmas No. 1) are your Twofer Tuesday.

WHITNEY visits The Current.

LIAM GALLAGHER visits World Cafe.

BLACK UHURU plays a Tiny Desk Concert.

REGINA SPEKTOR shares “One Little Soldier.”

RICHARD ASHCROFT covers "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."

 

DOLLY PARTON sang "Jolene" on TV lask week, icymi.

THE LAST WALTZ, undubbed. Well, two-thirds of it, anyway.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS ALBUMS, according to Rolling Stone and Paste.

BILLIE EILISH didn't know VAN HALEN. A kerfuffle ensued.

IRVING BURGIE, a songwriter whose adaptation of the traditional Jamaican folk song "Day-O" became one of the definitive calypso songs of the 20th century, died on Friday. He was 95.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at the Bee Gees' iconic disco smash "Stayin' Alive."

 

TAYLOR SWIFT, on intellectual property and the weirdness of Cats.

KATE MIDDLETON spent two days quietly getting some work experience on a maternity ward of a major London hospital.

SHELLEY MORRISON, a character actress best known for playing the feisty maid Rosario Salazar on “Will & Grace,” has died at 83.

JOHN WATERS picks his Top 10 films of the year.

THE BEST TV SHOWS of the 2010s, according to Uproxx.

SHOULD SUPERMAN be "relevant"? Neil Gaiman thinks not.

 

LIL BUB, one of the internet's most famous and distinctive cats, has passed away.

AN 18000-YEAR-OLD PUPPY buried in a lump of frozen mud has been found in Russia. Scientists hope it can help explain the connection between dogs and wolves.

THEMBA THE LION, caught sneezing.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT wages war on Christmas.

1374 Reads

Prince, New Releases, Indie Basement, Kacey Musgraves, Orphan Cow   Printer-friendly page   Send this story to someone
Monday, December 02, 2019 - 08:00 AM
Posted by: Karl

Karl 

U2 cover "Merry Christmas, Baby (Please Come Home)."

PRINCE: Hear his 1999 outtakes.

NEW RELEASES: Pitchfork will point you to Ducks Unlimited, TEETH, and more.

INDIE BASEMENT will point you to Stereolab, Breathless, Woolen Men, and more.

THE KACEY MUSGRAVES CHRISTMAS SHOW: Hear her duets with Lana Del Rey, Zooey Deschanel, Fred Armisen, Leon Bridges,and more.

 

BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB get a little psychedelic in "Everything Else Has Gone Wrong."

BECK is Home.

THE GOOD LISTENER: Have All The Good Songs Been Written?

MOJO's Top 75 Albums of 2019.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at Player's extremely memorable soft rock confection "Baby Come Back."

 

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE:  Frozen II repeats atop the chart with 85.3MM on a mere 35 percent decline, and it might prove to be stronger if the estimates overestimated the snowstorm in parts of the country.  Knives Out places with 27MM, and 41.7MM since opening last week; the calendar shapes up well for it to find legs on good word of mouth.  Ford v Ferrari shows with 13.2MM on a mere 16 percent drop, which makes 100MM domestic a realistic target (which won't hurt come awards season). A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood also showed legs, taking the fourth slot with 11.8MM on a mere 11 percent drop; it's hard to judge this one, given budget estimates between 25MM and 45MM.  The debut of Queen & Slim rounds out the Top Five with 11.6MM (15.7MM since opening last week), which should be fine against a 20MM budget.

FORD v FERARRI has been needled as a "Dad movie," and perhaps it is, but a very good one.  Sports movies are usually about characters overcoming obstacles, and here the characters hold your interest. While most of the focus will be on Christian Bale's performance and transformation into Ken Miles, and Matt Damon's less flashy, but skillful turn as Carroll Shelby, Catriona Belfe gets the most out of her supporting role as Mollie Miles -- and without her, the audience would be much less investsed in Bale's character.  Plus, James Burton's cover of "Pork Salad Annie" gives me chills.

KNIVES OUT: I may never entirely forgive Rian Johnson for The Last Jedi (even if I'm always a softie for Star Wars), but he scores here with a welcome, original property in the form of a genre that's laregly disappeared from the big screen: the whodunit.  It's a semi-comic homage to the Agatha Christie adaptations that I saw with my Mom when I was a kid that never slides into parody.  Ana de Armas, who I quite liked in Blade Runner 2049, is at the center of the filmand could be accused of playing it a little too straight even for the straight role.  But the rest of the large and talented cast is having so much fun that you can't help but join in, even when they occasionally overdo it (looking at you, Daniel Craig).

KID ROCK went on a drunken rant about Oprah.

E.T.: Henry Thomas reprises his role as Elliot alongside the alien character for Comcast's new four-minute ad called “A Holiday Reunion.

JOHNNY DEPP  is producing an unauthorized musical about Michael Jackson told from the perspective of the King of Pop's iconic glove.

AMERICA'S GOT TALENT hosts had complained about the show's toxic culture.

 

THIS FUZZY ORPHAN COW likes the beach, and anywhere its human is.

A CURIOUS BEAR opens an SUV door and hops in.

A LITTLE GIRL falls in love with an ill shelter pit bull.

A QUESTION OF TASTE in Thai contest to name baby pygmy hippo.

1151 Reads

Faves 2019   Printer-friendly page   Send this story to someone
Wednesday, November 27, 2019 - 08:00 AM
Posted by: Karl

Karl

THE HOLIDAY WEEKEND STARTS HERE... with FAVES 2018!  I occasionally hear from folks who want to know what music -- from among all of the posts I do here -- I recommend.  To some degree, I recommend all of it, unless I expressly write otherwise (e.g., it's not my thing, but it might be yours).  With the holiday shopping season upon us, I have tried to make a list of reasonable size.  It's an unordered list. I likely will have overlooked something that I really dig.  And note these are my faves; I'm not purporting to list the "Best" albums of the year.

THE REPLACEMENTS:  Yes, Dead Man’s Pop is a deluxe box set sort of thing, but it's The Replacements, so obviously it's goingto be on my list.  And this one in particular because it features a new and improved mix of Don’t Tell a Soul that strips out the late-80s production tropes, thereby presenting the material in a manner much more consistent with the real band, additionally evidenced by the included live tracks from the era.  One can fault any number of box sets as exploitation, but this one has real purpose (even if "purpose" was never opne of the Mats' strong suits).

NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS: Ghosteen generally received the highest of critical accolades, and generally considered the third in a trilogy of Cave's meditations on mortality in the wae of the tragic death of his son.  I'm always a bit reticent when it comes to celebrating the "suffering produces great art" trope, because on some level it puts fans in the position of rooting for suffering.  But the suffering here was not of Cave's own making and the proof of greatness is in the songcraft.

BOB MOULD: It would be tempting to call Sunshine Rock a return to form, but also a bit unfair.  In the first place, Mould is very good on a pretty consistent basis, so much so that he can be taken for granted, which is what makes his exceptional efforts get the "return to form" tag.  Secondly, as the title implies, this is about as happy a Mould as we've heard over the decades, so it's not even really "form," lyrically.

LANA DEL REY is someone whom I have tended to appreciate more in theory over the years than love in practice,hoping she could reach her high point more often. On Norman Effing Rockwell!, she manages it by embracing the Laurel Canyon singer-songwriter aesthetic, with the help of pop impressario Jack Antonoff at the board --  which I was going to call "unlikely," but maybe not so much.

JENNY LEWIS, otoh, is someone whose material I have tended to like on average more than Del Rey's, going back to the Rilo Kiley days.  Yet On The Line finds Lewis reaching a new level of artistic confidence, enough so that maybe the PR about it representing her getting her life more together might be more than puffery.

RAPHAEL SAADIQ:  Longtime readers know I love those vintage soul sounds; the passing of Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley in recent years has created a bit of a vacuum in the subgenre.  Rapael Saddiq isn't even really doing it anymore.  But on Jimmy Lee, he takes a serious turn in the larger tradition of early 70s Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, another entery in the "suffering fuels good work" file. Not what you might have expected it back in the day from a member of  Tony! Toni! Toné!, but then again, you might not have expected it from Gaye or Wonder, either.

SHARON VAN ETTEN: Remind Me Tomorrow is a bit of a summation of her career, reatining the indie folk influences of her earlier work, but expanding her sonic pallette with from trip-hop iand electronic influences with an assist from producer John Congelton (at her direction, natch).And her lyrics remain at least as sharp as ever, despite having taken a bit of a break for television and parenthood.

WEYES BLOOD: Titanic Rising has all sorts of New Age-y and 90s musical touches. And yet I like it, so it's good enough to overcome all that in my mind.

THE NATIONAL continue to carry the banner of big indie rock and they continue to evolve, if not as drastically as R.E.M., U2, or even Radiohead in their respective heydays.  I Am Easy to Find expands the band's palette with female voices, a move that might be dismissed as a male band's nod to wokeness if it didn't succeed as well as it does.

THE RACONTEURS perhaps carry the banner for more mainstream rock in an era where on my more curmudgeonly days I contemplate rock becoming a receding genre like jazz.  Help Us Stranger melds Jack White's crunch and Brendan Benson's melodicism like a peanut butter cup (though that metaphor unfairly discounts what The Greenhornes' rhythm section brings to the mix).

BARONESS: I confess I knew nothing of them when Gold & Grey came out, but to call it the sort of great hard rock album I didn't think was being made anymore undersells the all the moments where psychedelia, prog and even Americana infuse themselves into the proceedings.

BIG THIEF: Is 2019 the year this band emerged as the sort of artistic force that will define the coming era?  Or is it merely the year where a band hit its peak productivity, releasing two stellar LPs, U.F.O.F. and Two Hands, only to cool off (as Ty Segall seems to have done).  When I was younger, I would be consumed with those sorts of questions, while now I'm just thankful for whatever we get.

PURPLE MOUNTAINS: The self-titled debut is also last album we're likely to hear from the late David Berman, formerly of Silver Jews.  As such, it's again tempting to read too much into the darker passages, as the vagaries of life may not be reflected in the grooves.  I prefer to focus on the fact that he picked up where he left off lyrically, wjhile perhaps leaning on his more mellow side musically to create a terrific set of songs.

THE LONG RYDERS: Don't call it a comeback, but Psychedelic Country Soul is a thoroughly comfortable continuation from a band which had largely faded from the scene, if never truly defunct. I might have said the same of Deserted, the latest from The Mekons.

EDWYN COLLINS: What I said about the Long Ryders, but across the pond.  You can't help but root for a guy coming back from a debilitating stroke, but Badbea earns its praise without sympathy votes and with all of it's pseudo-Bowie flourishes. Others in this category would include Where The Action Is, from The Waterboys, which veers back toward rock (with even a callback to "Church Not Made With Hands"), and Humanworld, by Peter Perrett (of The Only Ones).  In fact, I'm listenting to that Waterboys LP again right now, and I think maybe I should have led with it.

DEVENDRA BANHART: Ma is some distance from the"freak folk" of his earlier work, but maturity isn't always a bad thing, even in rock music.

THE HOLD STEADY: Thrashing Thru the Passion didn't get the buzz it should have with keyboardist Franz Nicolay rejoining the fold, perhaps because it wasn't as anthemic as an LP like Boys & Girls in America.  But this one benefits from a looseness that recalls their even earlier days as a loose, rollinking bar band.

Anyway, that's a fairly representative sample. On another day, maybe it would be Angel Olsen, Bill Callahan and Deerhunter.  Or Mikal Cronin, Wilco, and Whitney.  Or Local Natives, White Denim, and Kim Gordon. Or...

A CHARLIE BROWN THANKSGIVING:  It's always somewhere on the net.

WKRP: "Turkeys Away," in its entirety. And here's the turkey giveaway by itself.

THANKSGIVING:  George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation (1789).  It was controversial at the time.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases are Knives Out, which is currently scoring 95 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; and Queen & Slim, which is scoring 86 percent.

10781 Reads

Pete Yorn, Carly Rae Jepsen, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Bobcat.   Printer-friendly page   Send this story to someone
Tuesday, November 26, 2019 - 08:00 AM
Posted by: Karl

Karl

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS play "Birdhouse In Your Soul" with the Doc Severenson Orchestra. Add a cover by the The Choirs YYJ for Twofer Tuesday.

PETE YORN visits The Current.

CARY RAE JEPSEN plays a Tiny Desk Concert.

RODRIGO Y GABRIELA visits The Current.

PENELOPE ISLES visits Morning Becomes Eclectic.

DELLA MAE plays the AmericanaFest Day Stage.

 

IGGY POP's officially unofficial video for "Sonali" is directed by Mac DeMarco.

KATHLEEN HANNA is still saying what others won’t.

THE TOP 40 PUNK LPs of the 2010s, according to Paste.

THE TOP 40 FOLK LPs of the 2010s, according to Paste

THE NUMBER ONES looks at the Bee Gees' 'Saturday Night Fever' disco ballad "How Deep Is Your Love," the song that kicked off the group's truly dominant period.

 

STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER is a bit shorter than anticipated.  ALSO: J.J. Abrams talks Palpatine and "Maclunkey."  And here's a clip from the film.

KIM KARDASHIAN WEST, on her decade of multi-platform fame.

R KELLY's lawyer has denied new allegations aimed at the singer by his long term girlfriend, Joycelyn Savage.

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE & JESSICA BIEL plan to move on from embarrassing photos of JT holding hands with a co-star.

FERGIE & JOSH DUHAMEL reached an amicable divorce and child custody deal after two or three years of wrangling.

THE "DAD MOVIE" HALL OF FAME: Nominations are considered.

THE IRISHMAN has a new featurette online.

 

A BOBCAT jumps over a river with a single leap... almost.

SPIDERS can be trained to jump on command.

A WOMAN patiently befriends a stray cat.

HOW DID THE DUCKS CROSS THE ROAD? With the traffic light.

1202 Reads

Jon Pratt, Jeff Tweedy, Titus Andronicus, Kelsey Waldron, Sheepdog   Printer-friendly page   Send this story to someone
Monday, November 25, 2019 - 08:00 AM
Posted by: Karl

Karl

JON PRATT returns with a loop-y instrumental, "Jeanine Brushes the Mississippi Mud From a Stray Cat in Paris."

JEFF TWEEDY visits KEXP.

TITUS ANDRONICUS visits KEXP.

KELSEY WALDRON visits World Cafe.

ANDREW BIRD shares a version of "Manifest" as a duet with Erika Wennerstrom of Heartless Bastards.

 

THE BEST PEARL JAM SONGS, ranked by Steven Hyden.

HARRY NILSSON & LEONARD COHEN Are Releasing New Albums, Whether They Like It Or Not.

THE TOP TEN NYC SONGS of 2019, according to Paste.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at Debby Boone’s secretly dark "You Light Up My Life," which in late '77 topped the Hot 100 for 10 weeks — longer than any other record in history at that point.

 

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE:  Frozen II dominates the chart with 127MM, the biggest debut for  Disney Animation and the third best animated opening ever (behind Pixar's The Incredibles 2 and Finding Dory). It's also the 5th biggest November opening behind a Hunger Games and three Twilight flicks.  It did 223MM in overseas markets, for a worldwide total of 350MM.  Ford v Ferrari places with 16MM on a 49 percent drop from its debut; its 103MM worldwide gross (roughly its production budget) suggests success for the studio (Fox/Mouse), but the upcoming holiday weekend may really tell the tale.  A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood shows with 13.5MM, which is fine against a 25MM budget.  21 Bridges debuts in the fourth slot wih 9.3MM, which is iffy against a 33MM budget, given less-than-fresh reviews.  Midway rounds out the Top Five with another 4.7MM but is going to have problems recouping its 100MM production budget.

MICHAEL J. POLLARD,  who rose to fame in the 1967 hit film Bonnie and Clyde as C.W. Moss, the dimwitted gas station attendant who became a criminal accomplice, and went on to a long career as a Hollywood character actor, died on Wednesday at a hospital in Los Angeles. He was 80.

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE gets hands-on with new co-star Alisha Wainwright during a night out; sources say it's nothing.

R KELLY's alleged sex xlave turns on him.

TONY ROBBINS has been accused of sexually assaulting a high schooler at a summer camp.

MICHAEL JACKSON is getting an official biopic.

JULIA SWEENEY is coming to terms with Pat.

DAYS OF OUR LIVES is renewed for a 56th season.

TeaTV lets people watch seemingly pirated content from HBO or Netflix for free with ads.

 

AN AERIAL VIEW OF A SHEEPDOG as it demonstrates fluid mechanics.

A FLORIDA DOG put a car into reverse and drove it in circles for nearly an hour.

A WOMAN patiently befriends a stray cat.

MALAYSIA's last Sumatran rhinoceros dies.

1162 Reads

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