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Ben Watt recommended Alone at the Vanguard by Fred Hersch in Music (curated)

 
Alone at the Vanguard by Fred Hersch
Alone at the Vanguard by Fred Hersch
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Fred Hersch is a hugely respected jazz pianist who was diagnosed HIV-positive in the 80s. He didn't talk about it publicly until the 90s. Then in 2008, he got very ill, and fell into a coma, which he stayed in for two months. When he came round he'd lost all his muscle memory, which is obviously devastating when you're a jazz pianist. So he had to learn to play again. This record was only made three years later, unbelievably.

I find this album very emotional. It's partly the music, which is very beautiful, but it's partly about what he went through. Having had a heavy hospital experience myself, I know how that can affect you. I managed to get a contact for Fred after he made this, and I wrote to him to tell him how much it had moved me. We wrote to each other for a while after that, which was really special."

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Everything Sucks by The Descendents
Everything Sucks by The Descendents
1996 | Metal, Punk, Rock
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Kurt Cobain talked about punk a lot even though everyone spoke about Nirvana being a grunge band, which I found quite confusing at the time. So I asked a friend of mine’s uncle about what punk was and I went out and got the first Clash record and the Sex Pistols. I was kind of into that, and then the '90s American skate punk thing arrived in my life. It’s a complex record, but it’s a really fun, poppy record at the same time Green Day and The Offspring were the gateway bands and I got heavily into NOFX, Pennywise and all that stuff, but the record that really sticks with me is Everything Sucks. It’s fast, it’s hard, it’s heavy but it’s also melodic as well. It’s a complex record, but it’s a really fun, poppy record at the same time. I listened to it yesterday. It’s a masterpiece of punk rock. It was my gateway into underground punk rock"

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40x40

Pete Fowler recommended Hot Rats by Frank Zappa in Music (curated)

 
Hot Rats by Frank Zappa
Hot Rats by Frank Zappa
1969 | Rock
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Zappa divides opinion massively. Bottom line is, he's a dick. And you can't escape it. The years as they've gone on have been less kind to him. His later stuff is horrible – misogynistic, very jock-ish. He was famously anti-drugs, would fine band members if they used drugs. He was very showy too. I've got a bunch of his records and I never listen to them… apart from Hot Rats, which I just love. The cover is fantastic and deeply unsettling. The band playing it are insanely talented – Ian Underwood, Shuggie Otis… Beefheart. For me, the album is the first two tracks. 'Willie The Pimp' has one of my favourite guitar solos ever – it's completely mind-melting. Zappa had a really big following in Liverpool amongst casuals – I remember going up there in the '90s and seeing his name daubed on walls in emulsion. Considering how much he hated drugs, he really did seem to connect with stoners."

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Starship Troopers (1997)
Starship Troopers (1997)
1997 | Action, Sci-Fi
Do you know what? Starship Troopers is a 5 star film and there's nothing anyone can say to convince me otherwise.
It's 90s sci-fi at its absolute best.

It has a great cast - Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Michael Ironside, Clancy Brown, Dina Meyer, Neil Patrick-Harris, Jake Busey - none of them feel replaceable.
It has special effects that genuinely still.homd up over 20 years later, and also a fuck tonne of genuinely horrific practical effects - some of the violence in Starship Troopers is next level, in true Paul Verhoeven style.
It has a corny yet airtight script, it's suitably cheesy when it wants to be, and wonderfully satirical throughout.
It's also got a top tier score courtesy of Basil Poledouris.

I saw this film when I was in my early teens, a few years after it released and it has always stuck with me since. Starship Troopers is perfection, fight me.
  
Sharknado (2013)
Sharknado (2013)
2013 | Drama, Horror, Mystery
1
3.5 (18 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Jesus. H. Christ.
It's 2019, and I've finally sat down and watched Sharknado, after hearing many years worth of friends and even random people tell me how it's the epitome of a bad-good movie.
That, my friends, is just a big fat badly-rendered shark of a lie.

There is nothing redeemable about Sharknado. The acting from everyone is awful and the special effects are laughable (Easily worse than a late 90s music video).
There are some scenes that just baffle me with their inclusion. Nothing really makes sense, and all of this would be perfectly acceptable if it was indeed 'bad-good' or mildly funny, but any attempt at humour made me want to tear my ears off.

I would say a hard avoid on this one, but I'm going to persevere and watch the whole lot of them, just to add a review here. Will they get better as they go on? Pretty sure they can't get any worse!
  
    H8U by Liz Huett

    H8U by Liz Huett

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    Album Watch

    Singer/songwriter Liz Huett is following up her debut single “STFU & Hold Me” with the release...


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