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Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich
Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich
1998 | Classical
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I heard this through a journalist, Michael Azerrad, he's a good guy. We started direct messaging on Facebook or I met him, I don't know what happened, and he said, ""You should listen to this"" and then I got it. He said that you're either going to love it or it'll feel like you're getting punished by having water dripped on your head! And I said, ""Perfect, I'll do that!"" It's incredible; once again, I watched it on YouTube, him performing in Japan, like, ""Fuck, really?! You can do this live?!"" Also, I just like the atonal thing of it and what they get from composing. It's very neutral. I actually used it, it's a total influence, you can totally hear it, on 'Birthday Video', it's on Weeds. I layered a lot of guitars and to my surprise, a lot of these noises start coming through, these sympathetic notes, and I was like, ""Wow-whee! This is cool!"" Totally taken from him, I hear it plain as day. I also got his box set, it's great. He's always got some kind of concept to it. He wrote one for what it would be like on a train ride to the Holocaust [Different Trains], to reach finality. He's got all these studies, drums, all sorts of percussion, but ...18 Musicians, I love it, I listen to it in my bunk in the bus!"

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Kick Inside Soundtrack by Kate Bush
Kick Inside Soundtrack by Kate Bush
1990 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Well, it’s got ‘Wuthering Heights’ on it, that’s the big song… But it’s one of those albums that made me realise that there is more than one way to skin a cat, you know, because I always used to feel slightly inadequate about my voice. I always wanted to sound like Steven Tyler or Bon Scott or someone like that... but actually I sound more like Kate Bush! I didn’t really acknowledge that before and then when I was listening to that stuff I thought that she makes a lot of the same choices I would make, melodically and stuff – and possibly presentation-wise! I discovered this around 2003. We’d already made our album by the way – we didn’t copy hers [laughs]. But it made me feel better about everything really. It’s hard to go and record stuff or go out and perform when you’re having a confidence crisis. But listening to that made me feel a million times better. There are beautiful songs on this. She’s a beautiful songwriter. I actually heard a rumour that at 18 she had that record ready to go but the record label wouldn’t let her because they thought it would destroy her, because it was so powerful it would engulf her and she would drown in her own success… [laughs] but I don’t know how true it is. So I’ve bought everything that she’s ever released now and I’m still researching it, but that’s where you start isn’t it?"

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Kim Gordon recommended Bay Head by Gunn-Truscinski Duo in Music (curated)

 
Bay Head by Gunn-Truscinski Duo
Bay Head by Gunn-Truscinski Duo
2017 | Psychedelic, Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Even though this album is instrumental it kind of feels like there are lyrics telling a story. But I couldn't really tell you what the story was. It isn't the same as certain atmospheric music. I can kind of understand their telepathic instinct with playing with Bill - there's a certain communication there. With Gunn-Truscinski Duo, their songs are worked out but then they do improv within that, I guess. - Kim Gordon I've known those guys for so long that I've gotten to see them grow and change as a duo. I think I set up one of their earliest shows. I've known John (Truscinski) since we were 18-years-old, so we've been playing music together since we were kids. So I've got to see the band develop like that and on this new one, I just feel like they're really stretching out in these really interesting ways and approaching the compositions differently than the first two records do. It's just exciting to hear them keep working. I don't want to speak for them but I'm pretty sure it's all written in advance, but with little moments, especially live, that they can stretch out and play with. They have really good chemistry. As usual with music like this, the record is partial ideas of what they can do live. Seeing them live, they've been playing together for a really long time and they can push at different points and it's really cool to see."

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Runaway Boys: A Retrospective '81-'92 by Stray Cats
Runaway Boys: A Retrospective '81-'92 by Stray Cats
1997 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

Stray Cat Strut by Stray Cats

(0 Ratings)

Track

"Then we became rockabillys and got really into the Stray Cats, This was about 1982. It was my brother and his mates who started brushing their hair up, and me and Sice joined in. It felt like years at the time, but it was probably for 12 to 18 months we became rockabillys. We had our hair piled up, baggy trousers and crepe shoes. I still love the Stray Cats. They had this cartoon image - their hair was much bigger. I had such a crush on Brian Setzer, he's a great singer. But the guitar playing is phenomenal. The B-side is called 'Drink That Bottle Down' - I think it's live in Newcastle - and you've got the double bass player Lee Rocker shouting these blues. It really is a racket, but the guitar playing is unbelievable. The variety and dexterity and fluidity - the ferocity of his guitar playing is wonderful. I was into them for a couple of albums, but by the third album we kind of gave up. My brother got deeper into it - he started getting into psychobilly and all that, The Sharks, Tall Boys, The Meteors, The Milkshakes - all that Klub Foot stuff. And there was a psychedelic wave - The Purple Things and The Vibes - and it all got really strange. I was out of it by then. I think 'Relax' came out and I was back in the modern world."

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The Maze Runner (2014)
The Maze Runner (2014)
2014 | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi
There's absolutely no excuse to not have utilized the actual maze more (we get like three action scenes in it?) but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a ball with this otherwise thoroughly fun and often thrilling popcorn entertainment. Dylan O'Brien is tremendous in it, even when it wears the dystopian YA format a little too prominently. For a while I couldn't tell if the simplicity helped or hurt this in the end - I mean on the one hand this has precious nothing to say about the implications of its brutal story/world, but then again on the other it 110% forgoes the usual heavy-handed yet jejune moralizing that normally sugar-coat these films. I'm sure you could have found a decent medium between the two but Wes Ball's direction is sturdy, and I kind of like the idea of all these random 18/20-somethings nonchalantly trapped in this ludicrous scenario who just see this giant, mechanical deathtrap maze as a way of life lol. So I had more than enough fun with it. Try to picture a 2014 blockbuster "Lord of the Flies" without the obvious symbolism meets a market-tested 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘝𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘨𝘦 where a bunch of extras get PG-13-ed to death by huge mechanical alien spiders. Plus no one even takes their shirt off I mean that's *gotta* be a first for one of these.
  
Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening
Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening
Sana Takeda, Marjorie M. Liu | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
10
9.2 (6 Ratings)
Book Rating
This novel follows Maika Halfwolf, a teenage girl who suffered immensely after her mother’s death. She has lost one hand, but because of some science experiment, she is possessed by something very powerful. I loved the mysterious and unique characters, that fit perfectly in this strange world the author created. I really liked Maika as well, she is a very strong female protagonist, and her journey is very violent but eventful.

The narrative is quite complex and layered as well. There are many things happening in this comics at once, and it is definitely an adult book, it contains plenty of bloody killings and swearwords. The plot travels to the past, explaining some of the events, and there are these useful lectures from the professor Tam Tam, explaining many things in the book, and it is told by a cat! 😀 It has plenty of twists and turns and was an absolute pleasure to read.

So, to conclude, it is not a surprise that this series keeps winning many awards, the artwork is magnificent and the storytelling is impeccable. The characters are unique and mysterious and I loved the first book greatly. I know there will be 18 issues combined into one book and it will be released in July, and I will be saving hard to get it, it is too good to miss. 🙂 If you like fantasy comics, cats and very beautifully created characters, this book is definitely for you! Enjoy. 🙂
  
The Phantom of the Opera (2005)
The Phantom of the Opera (2005)
2005 | Drama, Horror, Musical
I have to admire the spectacle but I found this to be mostly didactic, repetitious as a musical (there's only like 3.5 good songs and the rest are just unendurable variants of the exact same one) and nearly nonexistent as a romance. I do admit this almost works as a total campfest, Gerard Butler totally butchering these classical-inspired ballads that require flawless vocal range is actually pretty hilarious. On the flipside I spent most of the time in complete awe of how astonishing Emmy Rossum is in this, only 18 years old at the time and effortlessly nails every formidable note not to mention looks the part seamlessly. This is through and through her movie, every inch top to bottom. I should also add that the movie looks extraordinary - the sets, the costumes, the makeup, the cast, all of it. But would some fucking choreography every now and again kill these people? The stakes, too, are paper-thin - things just happen without delving too deeply (if at all) into the consequences/implications of them so a good chunk of scenes just pass through without making any sort of effect. Lastly this gets docked extra points for ruining the best part of the musical by making it too obvious that Christine was going to give The Phantom the ring from the start of that moment. I have seen much worse, though; this would have been noticeably better if they'd just gotten more people who could sing.
  
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Colin Farrell recommended Paris, Texas (1984) in Movies (curated)

 
Paris, Texas (1984)
Paris, Texas (1984)
1984 | International, Drama, Romance
8.8 (4 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"The whole feel of this film was something that woke me up to cinema in a way. Before this film it was very much an Amblin world for me. Lots of Indiana Jones and John Hughes and Willy Wonka (the original) and Van Damme action movies and Richard Pryor comedies like Brewster’s Millions, etc. Then a friend introduced me to Paris, Texas. The aching loneliness and sense of lost love that pervades the film from the arid desolation of the desert landscape to the haunting strings of Ry Cooder’s soundtrack just blew me away. Maybe I was 17 or 18 when I saw it, but it stayed with me, and I go back to it about once a year. It also has one of the most honest portrayals of the loss of love between a couple, and the inherent danger within the nature of obsession. This lost love is broken down for the audience in what, to me, is possibly most quietly powerful monologue ever delivered in any film I’ve seen; when Harry Dean Stanton’s character, Travis, finally sits with the woman he loved and lost, and he recounts their story to her. Travis has to turn the chair around, so he’s facing away from her while he speaks. I assume because it’s too much to look at her while he’s expressing where and how such love disintegrated. Yeah, it’s a beautiful, beautiful film."

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