End of the Month Music Bitchfest - June 2014

Nine Inch Nails
It occurs to me that, if Reznor doesn't want NIN live to be seen as a nostalgia act, something he's said numerous times in recent interviews, then maybe going on tour with another band that was really huge in the 90's and who is also celebrating the 20th anniversary of one of their biggest albums might not be the best way to avoid that.
Unless, of course, he doesn't play anything from The Downward Spiral.
Picture it: a Nine Inch Nails show without "March of the Pigs", "Closer"* or "Hurt".
Aside from the shows they did before the album came out, has that ever happened?
I'll just answer that right now: no, no it has not.
Just like hardly a show has passed since With Teeth was released that didn't feature "The Hand That Feeds" right before "Head Like A Hole".
If Reznor wants to completely avoid his upcoming live shows been viewed as such, he would have to reinvent what Nine Inch Nails live is. He did a pretty amazing job with Tension; even if the tools he used to craft the experience were a bit well worn, it worked. Switching the duties and number of people sharing the stage with you while you play "Terrible Lie" isn't reinvention though.
I guess we'll see in a few weeks how Trent Reznor is redefining "reinvention" this summer.
Frankly, I wish the tour were already over so he can focus on the stuff for Gone Girl.

Also, "someone" from the NIN camp confirmed that the Tension Blu-ray is still happening, but that they're making it bigger and better etc. by putting footage from other legs of their recent tours on it.
I'm cool with that...after they've re-released The Fragile.**

Eels
The new video for "Lockdown Hurricane" appeared online and, in my mind, has a whole lot in common with their video for "Spectacular Girl", specifically just how much the song and video have nothing to do with one another and that both star a superhot girl. 
And guns.
Enjoy?

They Might Be Giants
A pleasant surprise from TMBG this month. Just yesterday, they released their entire first album played live. Consider me mollified regarding the release (and inherent concept) of Idlewild.
Here's the link. It's totally free and won't result in any spam.
Something fun, if you're interested: listen to the first album, and then see how much (or how little) it's evolved in their minds over the past 28 years.
Crazy stuff.

Beck
Seeing this fellow tomorrow night amidst a crowd of hundreds of sweaty mooks.
Predictions: several guitars, a tiny bit of breakdancing, nothing at all from Midnite Vultures, and for him to close with the seven minute version of "Where It's At", which will include him cajoling the audience into yelling "Oh la la Sassoon!"
How can someone so funky be so predictable?


And, in an oddly Coil-related turn, this month I spent some time with the new Electric sewer age release, Bad white corpuscle, and should have a review of that up soon, as well as Peter Christopherson's Time Machines II, which wins the award from most baffling and awesome packaging of an album that I have ever received.
Review (and, probably, pictures) coming soon.

Now scoot.





* Yes, yes, I know he cut it from the setlist for NIN/JA and Wave Goodbye.

** YOU HAVE SIX FUCKING MONTHS TO GET THIS OUT IN TIME FOR THE 15TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GODDAMN ALBUM. I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER FUCKING FIVE YEARS.

A review of "Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes" on the PS4

First things first: yes, it's incredibly short, but I'm one to take my time, so I'm all right with that.

There's nothing bad about it, it's a perfect evolution of the series and if The Phantom Pain is going to function like a next gen Peace Walker (with a huge amount of small, modular missions), then I'm more than happy, as long as there aren't any of those goddamn filler missions, like taking down the chopper, okay, now take down the GREEN chopper, okay, now, take down the GREEN chopper with brown spots).
I don't think I've spent more time on anything more frustrating in recent memory.

However, I loved hunting for the different POWs and building and expanding Mother Base.

I still think Snake Eater is probably the best game in the series and Peace Walker goes right up there with it, it's basically Snake Eater 2. So, another continuation is fine with me...if this is the last. Things are getting a bit crowded. I mean, I know that Big Boss is supposed to be a legendary mercenary and that we need to establish this legend...but they're running out of years in which to do it.

Back to GZ; the issue for me isn't the length of Ground Zeroes, but, rather, the length of time between it and Phantom Pain. Kojima has promised the game will be out "before the end of 2015".
Yes, there were tears.

As of right now, I've played the main mission four times, once taking my time and clocking in at around 100 minutes, the second, going for all the XOF patches and cassette tapes, the third, a speedthrough, clocking in at just under half an hour (and scoring an "S" rank!) and the fourth time just to rescue the escaped POW in order to get Chico's 4th tape.
I also did the two bonus missions "Deja Vu" and "Jamais Vu" a few times because they were so goddamn fun. Anyone complaining about there not being enough stuff here hasn't been trying hard enough. The Foxdie freak out in the prison cell? The MGS quiz? The weird, little logo erasing challenge? It's a compact and delicious slice of pure MGS.

The other four missions start to feel a bit redundant, try as they might to mix things up. I mean, they're not awful, I love that Kojima's put himself in the game again, but, yeah, it does feel stretched thin.
By the time I out it down, I had "S" ranked all the normal missions and completed all the hard ones. I am only missing one trophy, which I'm not going to bother with. After finishing GZ, I picked up Peace Walker again. When I put that down, I had cleared all the missions with B's and A's not to mention a handful of S's, so I have the stealth camo and bandana...which means I am now God.
Let's see how long that fucking Chrysalis lasts against Invisible Snake with infinite rockets.
You fuck.

A review of "Watch Dogs" for the PS4

Finished Watch Dogs for the PS4.

Here's some thoughts.

The game designers must have been overjoyed when the whole NSA thing happened while they were making this game.

As a voice actor, I allowed to say this: dude doing Aiden Pierce is fucking horrible. I want him to just clear his throat and take a little sip of water EVERY TIME HE OPENS HIS DULL, FUCKING MOUTH. 

I am impressed with how he managed to sound both nasally and gravely at the same time. Must have been harder than Tuvan throat singing.

Facial animation and hair looks like top-of-the-line PS2 graphics.

Then there's Lisbeth Salander. Who is in the game. Because Ubisoft thought no one would notice?

Also, B-Real (from Cypress Hill) is in the game. With dreadlocks.

Driving: what is worse, drinving on a road made of ice in a car made o glassor vice versa? Whichever is worse is what it's like to drive in this game. In an open world game where you need to drive, make the driving good.

Regarding the soundtrack: why haven't we seen a GTA or Saints Row or Watchdogs where the player can use music from their hard drive as a custom radio station?

It's 2014.

I remember some games on fucking PSOne where you could take the game disc out and have your own CD playing instead of the game's soundtrack. How has this technology devolved?

The moment when "C.R.E.A.M." by Wu Tang starts playing though...I don't think I ever realized how much old school Wu mitigates things.

After getting past how it looks and diving head first into the side stuff, I had fun.

This game could have originally been the future Assassins' Creed we're never going to get. 

Like so much. 

The ctOS towers are the viewpoints, the maps are both just as choked with stuff, the pointless and interchangeable clothes, the different types of weapons, the number of times I tried to take someone down silently and ended up standing on the box I was hiding behind because THE FUCKING BUTTON FOR TAKING SOMEONE DOWN SILENTLY AND CLIMBING UP ON A BOX IS THE SAME FUCKING BUTTON.

I really liked the Gang Hideouts.  Since I'm bad at games, I enjoy being able to pure stealth. The camera puzzles are also a great touch

Jordi is fun. Should have been more Jordi.

Lucky Quinn's teeth are their own character.

The digital trips. You can feel the time and love put into them. If Ubisoft were more bastardy than they already are, I could see them releasing these as some separate thing.

While I don't know/love/enjoy at all a lot of the music, I love the way you obtain it, love it.

At one point, hours in, there was still a lot of stuff to do. Was it all fun or worth it? Meh. 

There's more I could say, but the overall feeling is as follows: some of the interactions and mechanics, the stealth and camera systems were great, a lot of fun, but most everything else was not.

And, while the credits did an admirable* job of planting at least a dozen seeds for the inevitable flood of yearly sequels, I want nothing to do with any of them.

I can't think of a more forgettable game.

Wu Tang can only ameliorate so much.

* Read "desperate".

A review of Damon Albarn at Irving Plaza on June 8th, 2014 -OR- Damon Albarn Threw So Much Water At Me

Damon Albarn & The Heavy Seas

There’s something about being in the presence of Damon Albarn that’s even more exciting than being in the presence of Trent Reznor or Thom Yorke. I consider all three in a class of their own as far as musicality and innovation, but Albarn is taking more risks and just seems to be having more fun. And that’s what it should be about, in the end.

Damon Albarn + a melodica = Gorillaz

On the evening of June 8th, I saw Damon Albarn and the Heavy Seas perform so much more than just tracks from his melodic, melancholic debut solo album, Everyday Robots. I mean, technically, Blur, Gorillaz, The Good, The Bad & The Queen, and Rocket Juice & The Moon are all Damon Albarn, so, technically, they all fall under the purview of Damon Albarn. I guess what I’m saying is that no lawsuits were handed out? 

No, I’m saying that this was so much more fun than I was expecting. The same appeared to be true for Albarn, who had a smile on his face the whole night and, between tossing what seemed like several gallons of bottled water at the crowd (mostly at me), said how happy and grateful he was to be playing for us. He also reminisced about climbing on the lighting grid the last time he played Irving Plaza, with Blur, back in the early 90’s.

Albarn & Vic Mensa doing "Clint Eastwood"

Stand out moments for me included all the Gorillaz stuff (I’ve never caught them live), but specifically, “El Mañana” and “Kids With Guns”, the latter just exploded off the stage, “You & Me”, “The History Of A Cheating Heart”, one of my favorite tracks from Everyday Robots, which Albarn played lovingly on his guitar while sitting on a piano, and “Mr. Tembo”, during which a choir joined the band on stage, as I had been hoping. Even though over half the set consisted of tracks not from Everyday Robots, this was still, undoubtedly, a Damon Albarn show, replete with the quirk, dedication and energy he brings to all his myriad musical endeavors.

If you have a chance to see him, I would highly recommend it.

Damon Albarn, locking eyes with me and deciding exactly how much water to throw at me. 

Videos, album ordering options (the deluxe version has some cool stuff on it, including a track-by-track breakdown of the album and four songs performed with a string quartet) and everything else can be found on Albarn’s official site.

A review of "Witching and Bitching" ("Las brujas de Zugarramurdi")

Thanks to the largesse of one Philip Maniaci, I have just returned home from a screening of Álex de la Iglesia's Witching and Bitching*.

After a riveting and beautifully edited opening credit sequence, the film starts out as a slick and snappy heist romp, featuring a wonderfully choreographed and executed robbery which involves a disturbingly gratifying moment when Spongebob Squarepants gets utterly annihilated by automatic weapons fire, ** and then takes a pretty sharp left, transitioning into a genuinely freaky horror flick with a fantastic and epic third act, in which the chaos is palpable and truly unsettling. Did I forget the men vs. women metaphor that underscores the whole film? Because there’s that as well.

The casting is perfect: the Mother, Maiden, Crone trio of Carmen Maura, Carolina Bang and Terele Pávez (especially those last two), each terrifying and compelling in their own specific fashion, the cordial, well-spoken monster played by Javier Botet and the corrupted, chilling innocence of Enrique Villén’s El Inadaptado Socia. ***

Overall, Witching and Bitching feels like a funnier, smarter and more subtle From Dusk ’Til Dawn. It exudes a stylish feel as thick as blood or the fog in the forests of Zugarramurdi. If you’re a fan of the skillful combination of horror and humor (Shaun of the Dead, Drag Me to Hell, Zombieland, Army Of Darkness) then you should probably check this out. 

Witching and Bitching is coming to theaters June 13th as well as VOD and other digital outlets.

* Las brujas de Zugarramurdi in the original Spanish.

** Living in New York City and having seen such abominations cluttering up Times Square...well, you understand.

*** Literally, “the social misfit”.

A review of "Rigor Mortis"

Take elements of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, Jacob's Ladder, the Hellblazer comics, Silent Hill and put them into a blender with a healthy dollop of pure, original Takashi Shimizu and your resulting beverage will be Rigor Mortis.

Also blood. Lots and lots of blood.

The residents we meet in the gray and eldrich apartment complex which serves as the backdrop for the film include a jolly yet nosy superintendent, a sweet old tailor and her cantankerous husband, the newest tenant, a washed up actor…and a necromancer, albino anime boy whose mother suffers from PTSD and a former vampire hunter turned cook.* You in yet?

Before things get overly dark, there’s a wonderfully refreshing edge of quirky, black humor that sets this apart from your typical American horror film where everyone is taking everything so seriously that the audience has no choice but to giggle. But, as I said, things do get pretty dark.

Every shot is arresting, an absolute portrait and there’s a moment or two of fantastic, horrific, nightmare imagery. Throw in a score and sound design that settles on the viewer like damp cobwebs and you have an atmosphere so thick you couldn’t cut it with an axe.

It’s not a perfect horror film though. They’ve trotted out the old “children’s scary drawings as plot devices” trope, one character who starts out sympathetic just ends up seeming evil, and, at times, I felt as if I were missing something, whether it was bad editing or just lost in translation, I couldn’t say, but only once or twice did I find myself actually taken out of the movie because of it. Perhaps if they had done a better job explaining the rules of this world/apartment complex.

Then again, the two lines: "Oh? So you know that vampires are afraid of glutenous rice?” and "The cigarettes I smoke are made from ashes of the unborn” probably should have tipped me off that this is a culture I will never fully understand. One thing is for sure: I have never seen a horror movie with as much martial arts in it. There’s some pretty spectacular supernatural combat in this, specifically towards the end.

If you’ve enjoyed the Ju-On films (yes, this film features creepy, stop-motion nightmare chicks, smoking and climbing on walls) and Shimizu’s other works, you’re going to enjoy this.

And now, I’d like someone to open a Kickstarter to raise money to hire Juno Mak and Shimizu to direct the next Silent Hill film. It makes too much sense, you guys.

There’s actually a part, towards the end of the film, where you can hear the air raid siren….

Anyway.

Rigor Mortis will be in select theaters and available for digital download on June 6th.

For more info, head to the Rigor Mortis official page for theaters, trailer and other stuff.

* The explanation for which is just delightful.

A review of Hamilton Leithauser's "Black Hours"

“Listen…the summer’s coming…”, a hopeful, forward facing lyric, juxtaposed by a slow and sorrowful piano and string section; nothing new here from the lead singer of the Walkmen…but then, the beat comes in, and things start to feel a bit like a cabaret.

This is the first surprise of many on Black Hours, a title that certainly doesn’t refer to the sound of this album.

Maybe half of Black Hours could be mistaken for Walkmen tracks, but the other half? Wow. Who’d have thought the words “jaunty marimba” would ever be used in association with Hamilton Leithauser? There’s the hand claps and honest-to-goodness harmonica of “Alexandra”, a track that’s almost too bright, the jaunty marimba of “The Silent Orchestra”, the ramblin’ Old West feel of “I Retired”, which actually features a “sittin’ ‘round the campfire” singalong portion towards the end, and “I Don’t Need Anyone”, which goes more along the lines of “I don’t need anyone…because I can accomplish anything on my own!” as opposed to “I don’t need anyone…because people will always let you down and, in the end, abandon you. I will die alone.” For the purists, though, there are tracks like “St. Mary’s County”, “5 AM” and “Self Pity”, which opens with a hollow, whistling sound, and then becomes the closet thing to a Walkmen song on here.  

Black Hours feels like Leithauser turning that smoldering, brooding energy for which the Walkmen are so well known outward; it’s just as intense and beautiful, but brighter: sunlight instead of moonlight. Fans of Walkmen will either love this because of how far from Walkmen Hamilton goes, or they’ll hate it for the same reason. Hopefully the former, because this is a really solid record. It’ll be interesting to see if the light on Black Hours makes an appearance on the next Walkmen album (if there is one), but, even if it doesn’t, there’s more than enough here to go around.

End of the Month Music Bitchfest - May 2014

Nine Inch Nails

NIN began the European leg of their tour, added some new old tracks ("Closer" and one or two others) and a new intro combining "The Downward Spiral" and "The New Flesh". Plus, a new stage set up that resembles a portable Tension. The bits and pieces I've seen look very interesting and I hope they carry this over to the U.S., perhaps with some better song choices.
And, speaking of the US, it was announced that Soundgarden will precede NIN on their tour.
Which is good because it means I can skip them, but bad because of the clusterfuck exodus.
One thing is for sure: I will never see Death Grips perform live.
And I'm kind of okay with that, as everything I've heard from them sounds like either people or machines trying to poop.

Beck

Gearing up to start his "ALL OF THE GUITARS/NONE OF THE STRINGS"
world tour later this month.
In a month, I'll let you know how his Central Park set was.

They Might Be Giants

Well. They released Idlewild and mentioned, again, that they're working on those two new albums, so...more soon, I hope.

Cake
So, remember that thing about Cake releasing all their albums on vinyl, including their unreleased live album?
I put in my order for said live album and a t-shirt that was bundled with it. I never received an order confirmation so I sent the people distributing it a message informing them.
They sent back "ordr cnfrmd! thx!".
I took that to mean that everything was cool, so I sat back and waited for my record.
A few days later, a package arrived, but, it wasn't what I'd ordered, the single live album on vinyl...it was the whole set of all their albums on vinyl, including the live album and t-shirt. I checked my bank account to see if I had been charged for this thing that I hadn't planned on buying but, no, they'd only charged me for the single record.
Guys...if you want me to start writing about you again, while this is a really solid start, the best way to go about it is to write and release some new music.
I really, really appreciate the thought though.

Eels
Saw Eels just last night at the Apollo Theater *.
After a most intriguing and incongruous performance from the dark, electronic, and sullen Chelsea Wolfe, who performed songs (read "dirges") from her latest release, Pain Is Beauty **, Eels took the stage. While this was, again, not my favorite Eels show, the audience was treated to yet another original instrumental line up, featuring a xylophone, melodica, cello and upright bass and trumpet along with some guitar, drums and E on piano. The end result was like listening to a version of Daisies of the Galaxy from some alternate reality. A very beautiful, mellow show, which included E poking fun at himself for the darker tone of the songs he was playing at the start.
Highlights included excellent new interpretations of "Fresh Feeling","My Beloved Monster" and "I Like Birds", as well as It's A Motherfucker", "Last Stop: This Town" (I'd love to hear the original arrangement live some day), and "A Daisy Through Concrete".
And E going into the crowd and hugging individual people for a good minute or two.
This show also had one of my favorite openings I've seen thus far: E, standing in a lone spotlight, singing Leigh Harline's "When You Wish Upon A Star".
Absolutely. Heartbreaking.

After the show, I hit upon something explaining why I'm more excited about Eels' live shows than any of my other favorite bands: with Eels, nothing is impossible. With other bands there are certain songs they have to play and certain songs they will never play. Nine Inch Nails will never play "The Perfect Drug" live. They Might Be Giants will never play "Nightgown of the Sullen Moon" live. *** Aside from "I Like Birds" and "My Beloved Monster" (each one different every time I've seen them), I don't think I've ever heard a single song played at every show, and never twice in a row. It's because Eels doesn't have a "Head Like A Hole" or a "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)", or, rather, they do. It's "Novocaine For The Soul", but E made it very clear to folks that he's not planning on being restricted by what the audience wants to hear. If he plays "Novocaine", it's going to be on his terms, or not at all. The first and only time he's played anything closely resembling the original 1996 version was just last year. And guess what...hearing it live was fucking incredible. Because the song is amazing and because fans have been waiting for almost twenty years to hear it in such a fashion.
Who knew that patience really does pay off?


And that's about it.
I'm seeing Damon Albarn this Sunday at Irving Plaza, so that should be pretty amazing.
More on that after the fact.

* Am I required, by law, to say "world famous" after "the" and before "Apollo"? Because everyone who works there apparently is.

** Yes, my tongue was firmly in my cheek while typing that album title.

*** Except for the one time they played it in 1995.