The Knife - Silent Shout

My favorite website is http://www.pitchforkmedia.com . It's the ultimate in who-gives-a-shit-ery, and every day doles out a fresh, hearty serving of deadly serious, self important, music news/reviews. They have this thing every month called, um, The Month in Techno, written by different djs. This month's one is a practically foaming at the mouth review of the Knife's Silent Shout. I downloaded the album a while ago, and it's fucking stellar. I like the way Pitchfork says 'fucking stellar' better though:

It's a dark pop masterpiece, certainly, armed with steely hooks so strong they could land a giant squid and still open a celebratory can of beer afterward

The pretension-filled fun-fest keeps going though:

But the real pleasure of Silent Shout is visceral, not analytic. I listened to it over and over, replay after replay, on a long drive through the Chilean desert, and despite its decidedly non-carbon-based vital signs-- not to mention its occasional foray into pirate territory: "One Hit" is the world's first electro sea shanty, and just listen to the lilting, Orientalist keys of "The Captain" and tell me with a straight face it's not all about opium trade on the high seas-- I couldn't imagine a better fit for the vastness that surrounded me.

This is why I want to be a dj. Any job that lets you listen to Sweedish-pseudo-techno on a long drive through the Chilean desert is a-o fucking k with me.


your can read the whole thing here: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/features/themonthin/techno/03-22-06.shtml

Finally, a reason for Myspace to exist

New Yeah Yeah Yeahs album, Show Your Bones, via stream, via Myspace. I can't shut up about it. It's obscenely adorable. I'm like a lovelorn ten year old Backstreet Boys fan.

http://www.myspace.com/yeahyeahyeahs


No one rocks a beer-soaked leotard harder than Karen O

V for who gives a shit

Geez, I feel stupid. I was all pumped to see V for Vendetta. Maybe not anything spectacular, but at least thought provoking, I thought. Nope. Completely stupid! It was like another comic book movie, and this time the superhero was a knife-flinging revolutionary in a mask who quoted Shakespeare. What kind of fucking revolutionary reveres Shakespeare, who is the definition of boring, white, literary convention?
And the big-brother/Hitler guy in the film was screaming an twitching and being mean. Yeah, okay we get it. I thought it would have been cooler to have the dictator be really civil to everyone and act all calm, like everything was hunky-dory, and kind of coo everyone into submission. It's creepier when people don't know they're being gagged.
The movie just flashed a bunch of pretty words (REVOLUTION! FREEDOM!) and blew some things up. Oh! Provocative! It was like some Frankenstein combination of Beauty and the Beast, Clockwork Orange, and 1984. But Clockwork Orange and 1984 (and maybe Beauty and the Beast too) meant something because I dont think you were supposed to take them literaly, but just kind of chew on them. V for Vendetta was more like THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!
The movie was not a complete bust though. During one of the most weepy parts, they played this song I love. It's this Cat Power cover of the Velvet Underground song I Found a Reason. Brilliant. They also slipped some Antony in the Johnsons in there. Points for trying on the soundtrack.




V for Velvet Underground. That would be a much cooler movie.

That's the last time you put a knife in me!

which tenenbaum are you?

http://quizilla.com/users/alainaisgod/quizzes/Which%20ROYAL%20TENENBAUMS%20Character%20Are%20You?

no idea how i found this. genius!


You Are Pagoda! Through your occupation, you have
become part of the Tenenbaum family. For a
while, you had been loyaly acting as a spy
for Royal, but once everything was worked
out, you were welcomed back into the family
again. Your best line in the film? Probably
"He has the cancer."

Which ROYAL TENENBAUMS Character Are You?
brought to you by

The Olympics: WHY?

I don't understand the Olympics.

Every two years a mostly fresh crop of muscle-y protein shake Olympic hopefuls compete to see who can run fastest, lift the heaviest object, land a triple lutz, etc. Okay, cool. You watch them on tv while they tell you the struggles the athletes overcame, the sacrifices they made, and the endless hours they trained. They usually play some sort of heroic-sounding trumpets in the background, too, and maybe even tell you how Coca-Cola is the official carbonated drink of the olympics. It's a nice little drama build.

But then, the athletes always fall, break an ankle, get some sort of horrible injury, or maybe just lose. A lot of athletes are bitterly disappointed when they get silver or bronze medals too, right? All of the time they spent training, a huge chunk, or maybe all of their lives, gone to shit. It's like instead of handing you a dimploma on your highschool graduation, the principal puts his arm on your shoulder and says "Uh, look... you're fourth in the class. And that's good, but we only give out dimplomas to the top three. Sorry. I mean, if you want to go back to first grade, you know, uh.. try again is what I guess I'm trying to say, sure. It's really your decision. I just want to let you know, as an aside, that i am just flat-out wowed by your accomplishments thus far. Don't let this be a blow to you. Because you've got something special. Don't forget that."

WHY?! To win a gold medal?! I mean, sure, hunky dory, go after what you want, but once you have that gold medal, what are you going to do? I mean, the satisfaction and fruition must be nice, but unless you get a cute little endorsement deal out of it, you have to get a job, right? What a let down that must be. I wonder if anyone ever pawned their gold medal.