Culture

WFMU was not the first freeform radio station, but it has expanded the freeform ethos like no other.

WFMU was not the first freeform radio station, but it has expanded the freeform ethos like no other. WFMU began on April 24, 1958 as a typical low-power campus station serving the now-defunct Upsala College in East Orange, New Jersey. A decade later, Upsala undergrad Vin Scelsa (later a New York FM fixture) introduced underground and psychedelic programming, and by the 1980s, station manager Ken Freedman and on-air fixtures like Irwin Chusid and Glen Jones were re-defining the eclectic, playlist-free approach into something unique and sometimes deeply bizarre. Today, WFMU broadcasts at 91.1 FM in northern New Jersey (and, as WMFU, at 90.1 in New York's Hudson Valley), but since the mid-1990s, wfmu.org (featuring live streams, podcasts and internet-only programming) has brought the station's innovative aesthetic to the world at large. Heavily influenced by past radio giants like Wolfman Jack and Jean Shepherd, as well as underground comics, indie cinema and weird cultural ephemera (showcased in the remarkable listener's guide/fanzine LCD in the 1980s and '90s and the popular online feature Beware of the Blog today), WFMU maintains a hip rock'n'roll spirit even while frequently broadcasting eclectic music from across the globe, stream-of-consciousness talk, and audio-verite experiments.

Tags: College Radio, DIY, Eclectic, Exotica, Freeform, Internet Radio, New Jersey, Obscure, Outsider Art, Radio, Underground, Weird,
Critical Works: The Best of LCD: The Art and Writing of WFMU
Inspirations: Ernie Kovacs, Esquivel, Half Japanese, Jean Shepherd, Lord Buckley, Psychedelia, Punk, R. Crumb, The Fugs, Wolfman Jack
Connections: Border Radio, Daniel Johnston, Ghost World (book), Hal Hartley, High Fidelity, Jim Jarmusch, Matt Groening, Peter Bagge, Re/Search #14: Incredibly Strange Music, Volume 1, Rodd Keith, Songs In The Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music, The A-Bones
Collaboratiors: Drew Friedman, Irwin Chusid, Laura Cantrell, R. Stevie Moore, Yo La Tengo
Facts: Born/Formed: May 31, 1995; Location: East Orange, New Jersey, United States; WFMU

Music
News

Hear all of Valtari.

At the beginning of the week, we brought you "Dauoalogn," a new Sigur Rós track from the forthcoming album Valtari, due out May 28. Bright and early this morning, KEXP played the LP in its entirety. If you're a Sigur Rós fan without an alarm clock, don't fret-- at 7 pm today, the epic Icelandic band will offer a stream of Valtari right here.

There's also no need to worry about time zone issues, as Valtari will stream at 7 pm no matter where you're located. In the mean time, enjoy another song from the upcoming record below.

Tags: album stream, experimental, Iceland, indie, music, new release,
Related Entries: Go, Sigur Rós plot first tour in four years, Sigur Ros premiere new track…with vampires!, Sigur Rós to release new album

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Electropopper puts on headphones.

English synth artist Victoria Hesketh, better known to the pop community as Little Boots, is back with a new cut entitled "Headphones." While there's still no news about a full-length follow-up to the 2009 LP Hands, Hesketh has been anything but quiet lately. In late 2011, she released the Shake Until Your Heart Breaks mixtape, and a few months back came the weepy Valentine's ballad "All 4 U."

"Headphones," which can be streamed below, has a sort of misleading title. Sounding rather reminiscent of Madonna's early dance hits, the upbeat anthem is more appropriate for disco floors than introverted bedroom listening.

Tags: dance, disco, electro pop, music, synth pop, United Kingdom,
Related Entries: Hands, Little Boots, Video of the Day: Friends, Rapprocher

Music
News

Download free remix EP here

UK electropop duo The Big Pink have announced a new series of summer tour dates in support of their second album Future This (4AD Records). Their label has also released a free download-only EP of remixes.

Following several festival dates across Europe in June and July, The Big Pink will play six North American dates in late July and early August, culminating with an appearance at Lollapalooza in Chicago on August 5. The full tour schedule is available at the 4AD website.

The remix EP includes reworks of the singles from Future This by AraabmuziK, Forest Swords and King Krule, as well as a new piece by Montreal-based experimental sound artist d'Eon.

Tags: duos, electronic, free downloads, indie, remix, tour dates, United Kingdom,
Related Entries: A Brief History of Love, Future This, Visions, Cover of the Day: YACHT do Brigitte Fontaine

Music
News

The original disco queen

Donna Summer, whose mid-1970s singles with producer Giorgio Moroder were probably the most influential disco records ever made, died this morning at the age of 63 following a lengthy battle with cancer.

Born LaDonna Adrian Gaines in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Summer began her musical career in New York in the late '60s. Offered a major role in the European production of the Broadway musical Hair, Gaines moved to Munich in the early '70s. While briefly married to Austrian actor Helmuth Sommer, she took the Anglicized version of her husband's surname as her stage name.

Summer began working with German producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Belotte in 1974, releasing a fairly conventional pop album called Lady of the Night on a small Dutch label. The following year, Summer and Moroder co-wrote a new song in the emerging disco style called "Love To Love You Baby." Summer was reluctant to record the song herself due to its overtly sexual nature, but Moroder insisted on releasing Summer's demo, which became a Top 10 hit across Europe. At the behest of Casablanca Records boss Neil Bogart, a 17-minute remix, featuring even more of Summer's orgasmic moaning, became her debut American release: the controversy stirred up by the song followed Summer for the rest of her life, even after she became a born-again Christian in the 1980s.

But it was Summer's next major hit, 1977's "I Feel Love," that would prove to be her longest-lasting contribution to pop music. The eight-minute single was the first disco hit to feature an entirely synthesizer-based backing track instead of the Philly soul strings that had hitherto predominated in disco. Not only did "I Feel Love" change the face of dance music forever -- it's a straight line from this single to techno -- but it also was instrumental in the creation of synth-pop: Brian Eno, The Human League, Sparks (who recorded two albums with Moroder as a direct result of hearing "I Feel Love") and many other acts have cited it as a key influence.

Summer went on to have many other classic disco and pop hits, including gems like "Last Dance" and "She Works Hard for the Money," until 1989's "This Time I Know It's For Real," her final chart hit. However, her passionate fanbase, particularly in the LGBT community, kept her a popular live draw for the remainder of her career. She's survived by her husband Bruce Sudano (a member of the '70s vocal group Brooklyn Dreams, who backed Summer on several songs) and three children.

Tags: disco, Germany, obituary, R&B, soul, vintage synthesizers,
Related Entries: Punk Funk 101, Seasons of My Soul, The Bee Gees, The Story

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The Al-volution

Comedy blog Splitsider has done parody and musical comedy nerds quite a favor by gathering all 45 videos Weird Al Yankovic has made in the last 30 years. Presented in chronological order from 1982's "Ricky" (in which comedian and cartoon voiceover artist Tress Macneille plays Lucille Ball) to the many videos from last year's Alpocalypse, it's both an excellent way to kill a slow afternoon at work and a handy guide to the chart fads of the MTV era.

After his initial low-budget clips, Yankovic smartly went after music's big guns, making his videos as close to quality level of the originals as possible. 1992's "Smells Like Nirvana," for example, was filmed on the same high school auditorium set as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and even had actor Rudy Larosa reprise his performance as the janitor. He also upped his game musically: the most impressive aspect of 2006's "White 'n' Nerdy" is that Al turns out to be a surprisingly decent rapper.

After the birth of YouTube, Yankovic adapted his style again, preferring to make several low-budget videos in a variety of formats (often releasing them online long before the record itself came out) rather than one expensive parody showcase. That knowledge of how his audience has changed is a big part of why Weird Al Yankovic is the only musical satirist since Stan Freberg to have a lengthy career.

Tags: fads, MTV, musical comedy, music video, parody,
Related Entries: Reggie Watts, The Tom Lehrer Collection, The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour, Archer

Books
TV & Film

Another Roth novel heads to Hollywood.

Philip Roth's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1997 novel, American Pastoral, is slated for the big screen, and Fisher Stevens has been selected as the film's cinematic shepherd. Most prolific as an actor and producer, Stevens has increasingly dabbled with directing in recent years, most notably co-helming the well-received 2007 documentary Crazy Love, which focuses on a bizarre real-life romance.

Of course, movie takes on Roth's work don't exactly have the best track record, including The Human Stain and Elegy (based on The Dying Animal), which both suffered from somewhat underwhelming execution, despite the presence of excellent actors. No word on Stevens' cast yet, but it's safe to assume that some big names will be in the running. In the meantime, Stevens is filming Stand Up Guys, a crime comedy with the intriguing lead pairing of Al Pacino and Christopher Walken.

Tags: actor, based on a novel, director, drama, literary adaptation, producer,
Related Entries: American Pastoral, Trailer of the Day: Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Cloud Atlas adaptation coming soon, A Single Man

TV & Film
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Culture

A look back at the classics

Before being invited to a Cabin in the Woods, we once explored the shocking secrets of the Bates Motel. Long before a Nicholas Sparks screenplay, audiences everywhere were swooning over the likes of Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart. Even though we have been transported to other worlds with special effects and computer-generated characters, George Lucas introduced us to an outer space that still has us mesmerized.

Classic films have paved the way for all the movies that have followed, setting standards in acting, direction, and storytelling. Regardless of how far film making has come over the years, the classics seen on this Pinterest board not only stand out for their posters but for their everlasting effect on audiences through out time.

Tags: classic, design, drama, film, horror, movies, posters, romance,
Related Entries: Jaws, The Seven Year Itch, The Seven Year Itch, Paris When It Sizzles

TV & Film
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Something wicked this way comes.

Dario Argento's bloody cult classic, Suspiria is getting a reboot from none other than director David Gordon Green.

No doubt Argento's films had their own sense of twisted dark humor, so we'll cross our fingers that Green will be able to successfully tap into his dark side. Playing the titular role of the American ballerina who goes abroad, Suzy, will be Isabelle Furham. Who has already proved her ability to terrorize audiences in The Orphan and The Hunger Games.

Joining Furham, is an exceptional international cast played by Swedish star Michael Nyqvist (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), French actress Isabelle Huppert, English, Academy Award-nominee Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs), and German actress Antje Traue (Pandorum). It seems the classic horror canon is the latest and trendiest genre Hollywood's been mining for material. Along with Suspiria, there are already a series of remakes in works that include Carrie, An American Werewolf in London, and The Birds. We suppose Eli Roth and the rest of his ilk just aren't cutting it for audiences anymore-- then again, Piranha 3D has just been released.

Tags: classic, Cult, Film, film, Horror, Italian, Remake,
Related Entries: Anthony Hopkins takes on Hitchcock, Chloe Moretz cast as Carrie, Evil Dead remake moves forward, The Cabin in the Woods

Music

Wistful, reflective piano jazz.

A moody monotone photograph through a window overlooking a rainy city street at night adorns the sleeve of Wisteria, and it perfectly captures the tone of wistfulness that permeates the album. Although this lineup of the Steve Kuhn Trio has never recorded together before, both electric bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Joey Baron have longstanding ties to the pianist: Swallow and Kuhn started out together in Art Farmer's rhythm section back in the early '60s (the title track is an old Farmer standard) and Baron has worked regularly with Kuhn since the '90s. The ballad-heavy set is perfectly balanced between melody and rhythmic exploration, never straying into either fern-bar soppiness or screw-the-audience self-indulgence. Swallow is in particularly fine form, whether taking the melodic lead on the reflective "Pastorale" or driving a peppy run-through of his own composition "Good-Lookin' Rookie." But really, this is Kuhn's showcase, and his playing is typically wide-ranging: from an exquisite take on Dori Caymmi's "Romance" that recalls Tommy Flanagan's limpid way with a ballad to the choppy bop bounce of the sprightly "A Likely Story," Kuhn is at his finest throughout.

Tags: ballads, contemporary jazz, jazz piano, modern jazz, piano trio,
Inspirations:
Connections:
Recommendations: Paul Bley, Intermodulation, Keith Jarrett, Closer
Facts: Released: May 01, 2012 (ECM Records); Duration: 67:25; Bassist: Steve Swallow; Drummer: Joey Baron

Music
News

Go Away For A While

Here at Critical Mob, we tend to think it's a fool's game to designate one particular artwork "The Greatest" of its form. It's just too subjective. But honestly, if you had to pick The Greatest Pop Album, you'd have to go a long way to beat The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds.

The thing is, a lot of myths have sprung up about this album since its release on May 16, 1966, some of them perpetuated by the band themselves and some fostered by some of the album's latter-day fans. First and foremost, the album is not the 180-degree turn from the Beach Boys' earlier records that it's often described as. Listened to in the context of its predecessors, the album is certainly a creative leap forward, much as Rubber Soul had been for The Beatles. (Brian Wilson routinely credits the American version of that LP, which emphasized its low-key folk-rock-influenced tunes, as the direct inspiration for Pet Sounds.)

But by spring 1966, The Beach Boys had already long since left the world of surfing and hot rods behind. Their 1965 albums Today! and Summer Days (and Summer Nights) had contained songs as lyrically reflective and compositionally advanced as these; heck, the non-LP 1965 single "The Little Girl I Once Knew" still sounds just plain weird in its construction. It's just that Pet Sounds lacked the tossed-off R&B covers and goofball filler tracks that larded even these more mature LPs.

Also, while Pet Sounds initially didn't sell as well as the band's previous albums, it's far from the commercial flop it's now routinely portrayed as. The album reached the Billboard Top 10 and charted four Top 40 hits: "Sloop John B" and "Wouldn't It Be Nice" hit the top 10, while "God Only Knows" and "Caroline No" (credited, weirdly, as a Brian Wilson solo 45) stalled in the 30s. Flop albums don't have four chart singles on them.

So moving away from the hype and the myths, what we're left with is the music, which is uniformly exquisite. And that unceasing level of quality is probably what's so impressive about: it's one of those rare albums that doesn't have a single bad song on it. Beyond the hits and beloved fan favorites like "Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)" and "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times," even the less-heralded tunes ("That's Not Me," the surprisingly cynical "Here Today") are choice.

Pet Sounds even makes a strong case for that oft-maligned institution, the instrumental: there's one per side, "Let's Go Away For A While" and the title track. The former, a two-minute idyll incorporating vibes, kettledrums, strings and a touch of Hawaiian guitar, is among Wilson's loveliest melodies, while the reverb guitar and Latin percussion showcase of "Pet Sounds" wouldn't sound out of place in one of Ennio Morricone's film scores of the era. (Wilson has claimed it was originally envisioned as a potential James Bond-type theme.)

The Beach Boys' credibility plummeted so thoroughly in the '70s, as the Endless Summer compilation retooled the creatively-spent band into a touring oldies machine and Wilson's well-documented mental problems turned into something akin to Southern California's Syd Barrett (if Syd was regularly goaded by his family and former bandmates into making periodic and generally painful comeback attempts), that Pet Sounds was all but lost for a generation or so. The endless hype about the then-uncompleted Smile didn't help, either. Nor, it must be said, does the fact that Mike Love oftens seems to be one of the biggest jackholes in rock history. But after the album was reissued on CD in 1990, a new audience found it, with seemingly hundreds of bands from The Apples In Stereo to The High Llamas taking inspiration from it.

If anything, after two full decades of indie rock huzzahs, the album may be in danger of falling victim to the Sgt. Pepper Curse: it's so revered at this point that someone coming to it cold after all the hype might not connect with it at first. But it remains one of the most important, influential and beloved albums ever, whether it's The Greatest or not.

Tags: 1966, anniversary, California, chamber pop, critical favorites, harmonies, icons, Los Angeles,
Related Entries: The Byrds, The Left Banke, Hawaii, Travellers In Space and Time

TV & Film
News

To the Wonder awaits release date.

Director Terrence Malick may not be a recluse, but he's notoriously press and camera shy and until recently not prolific when it came to making movies. Between 1973 and 2011, Malick made only five features. But since the release of The Tree of Life last year, he seems to be making up for the slow output.

Malick currently has three movies in various stages of production and one awaiting theatrical release. The finished one was untitled for some time, but was recently submitted to The Classifications and Rating Administration (CARA) and given a rating of R "for some sexuality/nudity." The film stars Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel Weisz, and is supposedly about a man who has an affair with a woman in Paris, then returns to his small Oklahoma town and gets involved with an old flame. Simple enough. But don't expect the actual film to be that cognitively straightforward.

The three other films currently filming or in pre-and-post-production are, Voyage of Time, starring Brad Pitt and Emma Thompson; Lawless (which will no doubt be retitled because of John Hillcoat's gangster drama of the same name), starring Ryan Gosling, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, and Rooney Mara; and Knight of Cups, which is reportedly tied to Lawless and shares the same cast.

Tags: domestic drama, film, filmmaker, movie, romance, unreleased,
Related Entries: Trailer of the Day: Ben Affleck’s Argo, Wes Anderson title card sequences, Terrence Malick, The Thin Red Line

Music
News

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Nas to headline

Rock The Bells has announced its 2012 lineup, with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony topping the bill with a full-length performance of their Eazy-E tribute album, E. 1999 Eternal.

The epic hip-hop tour, which has been held yearly since the Wu-Tang Clan headlined the inaugural event in 2004, will also feature performances from a bumper roster of artists that includes vintage rap acts Nas, Ice Cube, Salt-N-Pepa, Missy Elliot and Timbaland, plus hotly-hyped new generation artists A$AP Rocky, 2 Chainz, Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z's protege, J. Cole.

Touching base in San Bernardino (August 18 and 19), Mountain View (August 25 and 26) and New Jersey (September 1 and 2), hosting duties for thefestival will be held down by freestyle rap champ Supernatural and somewhat mush-mouthed Wu-Tang icon The RZA.

Tags: 2012, concerts, Hip-Hop, music, music festival, rap, tour, tribute album,
Related Entries: Bone Pugz, “First of the Month”, Michigan record store unearths J Dilla’s vinyl stash, Undun, R.I.P. Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch

TV & Film

Sure to delight Anderson devotees.

Wes Anderson and his twee sensibility return to live-action with the light but lovely Moonrise Kingdom. In 1965, on the mystical New England island of New Penzance unfolds the romance of two adolescent misfits. He's an orphaned boy scout (Jared Gilman) with survival skills and a keen ingenuity; she's a Sunday-shoe wearing bookworm (Kara Hayward) with a love of fantasy and a serious temper, and theirs is a love story told with tenderness and style. Seeking a romantic adventure, the pair run away into the woods, but her parents, his scoutmaster, the local sheriff and a troop of overeager khaki scouts are in hot pursuit! Painted in Anderson's signature color palette and peopled with quirky and oft befuddled figures, Moonrise Kingdom squarely hits those delicate notes of humor and humanity for which the filmmaker is well known. Generally the cast—particularly new ensemble member Bruce Willis—deliver bittersweet but sharp performances that add a wonderful depth to their thinly sketched characters. But while the child leads do look the parts, Gilman and Hayward's efforts to tackle Anderson's trademark deadpan delivery often fall flat. Nonetheless, Moonrise Kingdom is filled with warmth, color and charm, and beautifully captures the glorious but fragile thrill of young love. 

Tags: 1960s, adventure, boy scouts, Cannes 2012, comedy, infidelity, misfits, New England, orphan, romance, runaway, search party, teen angst, twee, young love,
Inspirations:
Connections:
Recommendations: Rushmore, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Where the Wild Things Are , Bored to Death, Submarine, Restless, The Secret World of Arrietty
Facts: Released: May 25, 2012 (Focus Features); MPAA: PG-13; Runtime: 94 min; Cast: Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Jason Schwartzman, Frances McDormand;

TV & Film
News

Four new series and sitcom switcheroos.

Hot on the heels of CBS announcing the demise of CSI: Miami, the primetime behemoth has unveiled its revised Fall lineup. Four new shows have been added to the schedule, and they should be right at home amongst the network's procedural mainstays (NCIS, CSI) and breakout comedy hits (2 Broke Girls, The Big Bang Theory).

Vegas, a western/crime drama starring Dennis Quaid and Michael Chiklis, will help fill out the Tuesday roster, and should succeed for at least half a season based on its high-profile leading man--not to mention the fact that it's set in the '60s. Another new procedural (but with the obligatory "twist") is Elementary, a contemporary and Americanized take on Sherlock Holmes starring Johnny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu, scheduled for Thursdays. Both dramas have snagged 10 p.m. slots, while the premiere legal drama Made In Jersey has been doomed to Fridays at 9 p.m.

On the comedy front, CBS has shifted Two and a Half Men to Thursdays (its huge audience will undoubtedly follow the sitcom anywhere) back-to-back with The Big Bang Theory in order to make room for the debut sitcom Partners, starring David Krumholtz and Michael Urie, in the coveted Monday night lineup. The network's decision to move its surprise winner 2 Broke Girls to Mondays at 9 p.m. certainly won't hurt Partners' chance for success.

Tags: CBS, comedy, drama, fall, lineup, network, procedural, series premiere, sitcom, tv,
Related Entries: NBC unveils new fall comedies, CBS Buys Louis CK’s Pilot, Parks & Rec gets renewed, Best and Worst TV of 2011

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Culture

Everybody dance now

Funny lady Ellen DeGeneres whose sweetly acerbic comedy has been entertaining fans for years is getting honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which is kind of like an Oscar for funny people. She'll join a list that includes previous recipients like Bill Cosby, Will Ferrell, and Tina Fey in an extravaganza at Washington's Kennedy Center that will later be broadcast as a TV special.

This will certainly come as a slap in the face of conservative groups like the One Million Moms, who earlier this year got into a huff when the openly gay comedienne was chosen as a spokesperson for JC Penney. It's hard to believe that someone so seemingly inoffensive could have stirred such anger. The fact that this award will further irritate her self-important, uptight critics would surely have pleased Mr. Twain himself.

Tags: award, comedy, controversy, gay, stand-up, TV,
Related Entries: Casa de Mi Padre, Tina Fey, Tina Fey nails Zach Galifianakis in Between Two Ferns, NBC unveils new fall comedies

Music
News

Full-band electric album due August 21

For most of its lifetime, Six Organs of Admittance has been Ben Chasny and an acoustic guitar. Chasny's no stranger to electricity, however -- he used to be in psych-noise act Comets On Fire -- and 14 years after his first solo release as Six Organs of Admittance, he's formed a full-band electric lineup. The resulting album, Ascent, comes out August 21 on Drag City Records.

Based on the opening track "Waswasa," Ascent is well-removed from the drone-folk spaciness that characterizes much of Six Organs' work: it's a noisy, riff-based heavy rock instrumental, taken at a faster tempo than you might expect: think Status Quo, not Black Sabbath. Dig out your denim jacket and have a listen below.

Tags: album preview, change of direction, experimental, instrumental rock, psychedelia, stoner rock,
Related Entries: Heavy Blanket, Wilderness Heart, Satori, H-p1

TV & Film
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The perfect writer for its tech-savvy subject.

In the recent film The Social Network, writer Aaron Sorkin helped humanize tech genius and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Now he has a similar task ahead of him with Steve Jobs, the Apple co-founder and chief executive who died of pancreatic cancer in late 2011, and whose biography written by Walter Isaacson was acquired by Sony to be made into a movie.

The Sorkin-penned project is one of two competing Jobs biopics, with the other set to star Ashton Kutcher. However, Sony's seems like the early favorite to be the superior Jobs movie, what with The Social Network writer's track record for smart, nuanced movies about brilliant people. A leading man has yet to be announced, but given the critical and commercial success of Sorkin's past works, including the baseball film Moneyball and the television series The West Wing, Sony's task of landing a top-flight actor likely just got easier.

Tags: Apple, biopic, business, computers, film, success, technology,
Related Entries: Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview trailer, Moneyball, The Newsroom trailer brings the laughs, The Social Network

Books
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From Hannibal to Hemingway

Just under a month into shooting for his upcoming film Hitchcock, Sir Anthony Hopkins has been announced as the lead in yet another biopic of an auteur - this time in the literal sense. Andy Garcia has cast the erstwhile Hannibal Lecter as Ernest Hemingway for Garcia's latest project, Hemingway and Fuentes, which will cover the relationship between the stormy author and a Cuban fisherman, Gregorio Fuentes, by whom Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea was inspired.

Garcia co-wrote the screenplay with Hemingway's granddaughter, Hilary, and will direct and star as Fuentes alongside Hopkins and Annette Bening, who will play Hemingway's wife at the time. With such inspired casting, it'll be tough waiting for this one, though I suppose we could learn a thing or two about patience from The Old Man and the Sea.

Tags: author, biopic, books, Cuba, fishing, friendship, literature, relationship, sea, writer,
Related Entries: Anthony Hopkins takes on Hitchcock, Hemingway’s softer side is revealed, Midnight in Paris, Howl

Music
Culture

"This is John Baldessari's coffee machine" even sounds cool

80-year old "Godfather of Conceptual Art" John Baldessari was the subject of six-minute bio headed by filmmakers Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman. The creative team picked the dulcet tones of Tom Waits to narrate the piece; Waits once lived in the small town of National City, California, where Baldessari was born in 1931.

An artist the stature of Baldessari (pun intended) hardly needs an introcution, though the clip serves as a fine introduction to his career. And well, anything narrated by Waits is going to sound cool.

Tags: art, biography, conceptual art, film, modern art, music, video,
Related Entries: Bad As Me, Tom Waits, New Sculpture and Works on Paper, Cloud City installation opens on Met rooftop

Books
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Farewell to a Latin American literary giant

Only a week after the unfortunate passing of author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, the literary world mourns the death of talented Mexican novelist, Carlos Fuentes, also at the age of 83. Throughout his life, Fuentes heavily influenced Latin American literature, and his work often gave insight into the living conditions, societal values, and history of Mexico and many other Latin American communities. 

Along with authors like Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa, Fuentes was a renowned product of El Boom, an explosion of Latin American literature in 1960's and 70's. Fuentes' 1985 novel, The Old Gringo, was the first Mexican novel to become a bestseller in the United States. In 1989 it was adapted into a Hollywood film starring Gregory Peck and Jane Fonda.

Like the great writers of our time, Fuentes knew he had a voice worth hearing. Through his political activism, newspaper articles, and most of all, his timeless novels, Fuentes lives on, across all borders. 

Tags: Activism, Author, Death, Film, Film adaptation, International, Latin American, Literature, Novel,
Related Entries: Daydream Nations: Has Magical Realism Lost Its Bite?, Maurice Sendak dies at 83, Stephen Colbert pays tribute to Maurice Sendak, Maurice Sendak documentary now on Hulu

Music
News

Posthumous ...Ya Know? coming May 22

A new record from Joey Ramone entitled ...Ya Know? is due for release next Tuesday (May 22) via Relativity Entertainment, and snippets of its 15 tracks are available for streaming at NME. Most of the material, compiled by Ramones cohorts Ed Stasium and Jean Beauvoir, sounds typical of the familiar Rocket to Russia-style sound, though "Party Line" starts off a dead ringer for the Ronettes' "Be My Baby" and "Merry Christmas ( I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)" is, well, a full-fledged Ramones Christmas song.

...Ya Know? is the second posthumous record from the storied Ramones frontman, who passed away from cancer in 2001. The first, Don't Worry About Me, was released in 2002 via Sanctuary.

Tags: album preview, classic rock, music, New York, punk,
Related Entries: Horses (Patti Smith), Siouxsie and the Banshees, Punk Funk 101, Sex Pistols bring back the Bollocks

Music
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A stones throw away

We praised the self-titled debut album from this psychedelic trio last year, so we can't wait to see what The Stepkids brings to a live stage.

Touring with Stones Throw labelmates Mayer Hawthorne and the County this spring, the group has also announced a whole line-up of west coast dates with Mates of State. Both groups share a love of harmony and hail from Connecticut, so they're a natural fit as tour mates.

Their blend of vintage soul and psychedelic funk places The Stepkids outside of the realm of the all encompassing "indie pop" label, in a most refreshing way. Their collaborations are always surprising, such as the music video for their single,  "Legend In My Own Mind", featuring comedians Wyatt Cenac, Kurt Braunohler, and directed by Tom Sharpling. Hopefully, this tour is just the start of things to come for the group this year.  

Tags: Funk, music, Psychedelic, Soul, Summer, Tour, West Coast,
Related Entries: The Stepkids, Freaking Out, World, You Need a Change of Mind, A Strange Arrangement

Music
News

The story of a medical martyr

Along with announcing a summer tour, Yeasayer also teased a new track off their upcoming untitled third record, titled "Henrietta". If the name sounds familiar it should. It's based on the story of Henrietta Lacks, whose life story was told in a best-selling memoir about how her cells were used to create vaccines after her death.

This is the first "new" material we've seen from the Brooklyn based experimental pop group since their Record Store Day offering, with two unreleased cuts from their Odd Blood recording sessions.

With the same scrambling synths and spastic energy, we're glad to see the band is carrying over some of their original sound to this new material. 

Tags: Avant Pop, Brooklyn, Electronic, Indie, music, Tour Dates,
Related Entries: Odd Blood, Yeasayer, Dark Was The Night, Xylos

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Troubled film gets another chance.

Writer/director Kenneth Lonergan's film Margaret had a notoriously problematic post-production history. It was filmed in 2005, but Lonergan was unable to fulfill his contractual obligations with Fox Searchlight to deliver a 120 minute cut. The studio agreed to let him construct a longer version, but years passed and Lonergan was still unable to finalize a release cut. Legal problems ensued and at one point the film was over three hours long.

A 149 minute version of Margaret, worked on by Martin Scorsese and editor Thelma Schoonmaker, received a brief, blink-and-you'll-miss-it release in fall 2011. Initial critical notices were soft and audiences were absent. But Margaret wouldn't go away. As more critics got a chance to see the truncated version, word spread that it perhaps wasn't a masterpiece but it was one of the best American films of the year, containing a richness of ambition, thoughtfulness, and moral complexity. It also contains arguably Anna Paquin's finest work and excellent performances from Mark Ruffalo, Matt Damon, and J. Smith-Cameron.

Thankfully, more people will get a chance to judge for themselves when Margaret is released on DVD and Blu-ray in July. The set will contain the 149 minute theatrical cut and the longer 186 minute version. We hope. Considering how wild things have been for Margaret, who knows what we'll actually get.

Tags: complex, director's cut, drama, DVD, epic, video,
Related Entries: New Charlie Kaufman adaptation, Restored gangster epic to premiere at Cannes, Scorsese and DiCaprio together again for The Wolf of Wall Street, Trailer of the Day: David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis

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A timeless pop classic

On May 15, 1981, Squeeze released their fourth album, East Side Story. At a lengthy 14 songs in 49 minutes, it's the band's most eclectic album, touching on R&B, country, psychedelia and rockabilly amidst Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford's characteristic new wave pop classics.

It was initially meant to be even more wide-ranging: the original plan was to record a double album, with each side produced by a different kindred spirit. Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney all committed to the project early on, but McCartney withdrew to work on his own next album and sessions with Lowe and Edmunds were unproductive, yielding only the Edmunds-produced sprightly opening track "In Quintessence." By contrast, Costello -- on a tight deadline due to other commitments -- proved something of a taskmaster, banning trips down the pub during session hours and bringing in vegetarian catering. The strictures got the band to knuckle down, and they completed the album with Costello and engineer Roger Bechirian (who would soon form the deliberately mysterious band Blanket of Secrecy) behind the boards.

With Costello in the midst of an experimental streak of his own, the songs include several that wouldn't have sounded out of place on the previous year's Argybargy -- including the antic "Piccadilly" and first single "Is That Love?" -- mixed with experiments like the "Eleanor Rigby"-like character study "Vanity Fair" (set to a string section conducted by superstar arranger Del Newman) and the disorienting, woozy "F-Hole," a tale of a drunken late-night hookup that leads directly into the straightforward country heartbreaker "Labelled With Love."

Difford's lyrics, always one of the band's strongest suits, are at their best throughout, with a touch less of the sardonic humor of earlier albums and a deeper emotional core. For the first time, ballads are a major part of the album, from the downbeat "Woman's World" to the dreamy-creepy "There's No Tomorrow." But it was the album's biggest departure that turned out to be the album's best-known song.

When cigar-chomping keyboardist Jools Holland left the band, new manager Jake Riviera (who also managed Costello and Lowe) recommended another of his clients, Paul Carrack, for the piano stool. Carrack's R&B roots are all over the album, most notably on the soulful "Tempted." Featuring his sole lead vocal on a Squeeze track, Carrack infuses one of Difford and Tilbrook's finest songs with both grit and a mature, world-weary eye that the eternally boyish Tilbrook couldn't have managed at the time. Buoyed by American FM radio play (and, in MTV's earliest days, a video featuring three gloriously gratuitous women gyrating sensuously just at the side of the stage as the band plays), "Tempted" came close to cracking the American Top 40 and remains one of the band's signature tracks even though Carrack left to join Lowe's backing band after this album's release.

Unfortunately, that lineup instability, coupled with intra-band tensions and the rampant alcoholism that was always in the background of Difford's lyrics, meant that Squeeze couldn't maintain these heights. 1982's Sweets From A Stranger was the group's weakest album since their John Cale-produced debut, and Difford and Tilbrook broke up the band at the end of that year to focus on a West End revue based on their songs, Labelled With Love, followed by a genuinely dreadful duo album hampered by really dodgy '80s production, weak songwriting and some then-fashionable dabbling in heroin (Tilbrook) and cocaine (Difford). Squeeze has been an ongoing concern since 1987, to varying degrees of success, but they've never matched this one perfect album. But then, most bands don't even get that.

Tags: 1981, anniversary, critical favorites, cult heroes, new wave, songwriting teams,
Related Entries: Critical Questions: Glenn Tilbrook, Critical 10: Squeeze’s Deep Tracks, Squeeze, Barney Bubbles

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Blog captures director's unique visuals

The 65th Cannes Film Festival begins on today and the opening film is Wes Anderson's latest, Moonrise Kingdom, starring Bill Murray, Francis McDormand, Bruce Willis, and Edward Norton, among others. Getting a new Anderson film is always exciting, but today's premiere (which we're covering) is significant since it's the first time that one of Anderson's films has been in competition for the Palme d'Or, the festival's highest prize.

Anderson fans can be an obsessive bunch and meticulously creative too. So while you wait for Moonrise Kingdom to be released in the U.S. later this month, check out Mirel Masic's Tumblr blog devoted to the Futura font title card sequences found in most of Anderson's films. Masic, who hails from the Netherlands, is posting screencaps from Anderson's work, starting with the short film Bottle Rocket onwards. Currently, Masic is up to The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

Enjoy all of the visuals at Wes Anderson Title Cards.

Tags: cannes, fan, film, font, obsessive, title cards,
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New single gets Andy Stott remix

Brooklyn dream pop duo The Hundred in the Hands are about to release their second album: Red Night will be out June 12 via Warp Records. As a teaser, singer-keyboardist Eleanore Everdell and guitarist Jason Friedman have put out a hazy, atmospheric video for Andy Stott's remix of first single "Keep It Low." A disorienting blend of Everdell's haunting vocals and nearly subsonic bass rumbles with a hypnotic percussion hook, it's one of those rare remixes that might actually be an improvement on the original track.

The Hundred in the Hands are leaving for a European tour later this week, opening in Moscow on May 18 and ending 17 dates later in Basel, Switzerland, on June 9. Six North American dates will follow, after which the duo jet back to Europe to play the German festival circuit through July and August. Full tour dates are available on the band's website.

Tags: Brooklyn, electronic, indie, male-female duos, music video, remix, tour dates,
Related Entries: Passed Me By, Bloom, Creatures Of An Hour, Dive

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When Marvel heroes aren't so super

First, let's just take a moment and pay tribute to the fact that something as dorky as this parody clip (below) can be understood and chuckled at by the general public thanks to Marvel constantly churning out their superheroes in films. Fellow geeks, we've finally made it!

With The Avengers currently cleaning house at the box office, Dutch animator Junaid Chundrigar has created Disassembled, a short, Robot Chicken-style parody featuring all of our favorite heroes playing pranks, injuring themselves, and generally failing miserably. Watching non-Avenger heroes like Spider-Man and Daredevil act like complete morons is a definite highlight, but what stands out the most is Chundrigar's unique animation style. This guy deserves to go places.

As always, keep your eyes out for the Stan Lee cameo.

Tags: animation, film, Marvel, parody, pranks, short, superheroes, The Avengers, video,
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The cinematic gladiator opens up.

On June 12th, Hollywood living legend Kirk Douglas will unveil his new ebook, I Am Spartacus! Making a Film, Breaking the Blacklist. In the publication, the actor recounts his time making the 1960 sword-and-sandals epic Spartacus, which was penned by blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and reluctantly directed by Stanley Kubrick. When Douglas insisted that Trumbo, working under an alias, receive proper credit for his work, it signaled a sea change towards ending the practice of blacklisting suspected Communists.

Of course, it's likely that Douglas won't have fond recollections of Kubrick--the pair had worked together on the lauded war drama Paths of Glory, but their relationship soured considerably on Spartacus, with the filmmaker later deriding the movie, even though it proved to be a resounding, Academy Award-winning success.

Meanwhile, it's impressive that the book exists at all, given that Douglas is 95 years old. Not bad for nonagenarian.

Tags: 1960s, actors, Communism, ebook, filmmaking, Hollywood blacklist, memoir, Red Scare,
Related Entries: Stanley Kubrick, Photo of the Day: Kubrick rides the subway, Photographer Milton Rogovin deemed dangerous by FBI, Howl

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Where electro pop and sci-fi meet.

Electro indie poppers Friends have just released the video for new single "Mind Control". The funky stomper of a track has a mini sci-fi film of a video that runs with the lyrics' brainwashing narrative - we get a little bit of John Carpenter-style paranoia, a little disturbing body horror that's reminiscent of David Cronenberg and some kaleidoscopic visuals that basically just look really cool.

"Mind Control" will be featured on Friends' upcoming debut album, Manifest!, due out June 5. They'll also hit the road for a three-week North American tour that month, beginning June 13 in Boston and wrapping up on July 7 in their native New York.

Tags: electro, funk, indie pop, music video, sci-fi,
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Music visionary turns 64

Brian Eno has had one of rock's most unexpected career paths. From the befeathered synth player in the first lineup of Roxy Music through his early solo career creating some of the finest art-rock albums of the era, he was already a singular figure. But in the mid-'70s, he embarked on two seemingly divergent paths that ended up encompassing nearly the whole of pop music.

According to legend, Eno was laid up in bed recuperating from a car accident in early 1975 when his friend Judy Nylon (half of the electro-punk duo Snatch) brought him an album of 18th century harp music. Eno and Nylon disagree on how exactly this happened, but Eno ended up listening to the album at an extremely low volume, and the combination of almost imperceptible melodies and the natural sounds of his environment led him toward what he dubbed ambient music. Obviously, Eno didn't invent the form out of whole cloth -- see Erik Satie, Terry Riley, John Cage and others for obvious influences -- but albums like Music For Films brought the concept into stronger focus and eventually led to the creation of ambient music and its various offshoots as an entire musical subgenre.

At the same time, Eno became one of the key figures of the post-punk era, overseeing influential albums by Devo, Ultravox and, most famously, Talking Heads, as well as 1978's No New York, the founding document of the downtown No Wave scene. During this era, he also collaborated on David Bowie's legendary "Berlin trilogy" of Low, Heroes and Lodger, but contrary to popular belief, these albums were produced not by Eno, but by Tony Visconti.

In the '80s, Eno's work (with his Canadian protege Daniel Lanois) on several of U2's albums brought him squarely into the heart of mainstream rock music; his more recent collaborations with Coldplay have kept him there. And, somewhat unexpectedly, a technique he developed with King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp in the early '70s, "Frippertronics" -- the creation of overlapping musical loops that the musician then performs live over -- is now a common technique in live performance, used by everyone from Tune-Yards' Merrill Garbus to British pop superstar KT Tunstall.

Rather than trying to sum Brian Eno up with a single song, here's a rare interview in which he discusses the inspiration behind 1978's Music For Airports. This record is particularly personal to me: in 1991, my mother suffered a massive stroke which left her largely paralyzed for the rest of her life. Hearing me play Music For Airports in the car as I drove her to a doctor's appointment, she asked if she could have the tape. (Bear in mind that my mother's musical tastes ran much more toward Ernest Tubb and Ray Price.) Music For Airports became a constant presence after that: she played the tape repeatedly in the portable cassette player she kept near her wheelchair, claiming that the four lengthy songs calmed her nerves.

Tags: ambient, art rock, icons, post-punk, United Kingdom,
Related Entries: Brian Eno, Talking Heads, John Cale, Happy Birthday, David Byrne!

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R.Kelly comes out of the closet

When R. Kelly does something, the world takes notice. Whether it's writing an opera, appearing in court, or in this case, releasing a single; the man knows how to command attention.

Dealing with such dramatic themes as bumpin, grindin, his new single, "Feelin Single" doesn't stray too far from his spectrum of seduction. Sampling another legendary summer jam, "Lovely Day" by Bill Withers, the single is much looser and disco inspired than some of his previous club hits. With plenty of Michael Jackson-styled "whoos" and a disco beat that Luther Vandross would be proud of, R-Kellz has another hit on his hands. The track will appear on his latest album, Write Me Back, which comes out this summer.

At 45, R. Kelly just seems to be getting better with age. After all, this is the man who managed to even make the Space Jam soundtrack sound sexy.

Tags: disco, music, pop, R&B, Sampling, single, Summer,
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The English thespian goes punk.

With his Severus Snape cloak officially hung up for good, Alan Rickman will reunite with his Bottle Shock and Nobel Son director Randall Miller to play Hilly Kristal in CBGB, a biopic about the founder of the iconic New York City nightclub. This could be a great opportunity for Rickman to distance himself from his go-to ominous persona that has followed his career since Die Hard. Then again, it would be great fun to see Hans Gruber going head-to-head with Joey Ramone.

Kristal opened CBGB in the early '70s, and the club quickly became home to then-unknown acts like The Ramones, Blondie, and Talking Heads. The venue became a mainstay in the punk rock community, and developed into a mainstream brand around the time of its closing in 2006.

Tags: based on a true story, biopic, CBGB, film, new wave, night club, punk rock,
Related Entries: André 3000 to play Jimi Hendrix, Memory Motel: Talking Heads Grow Up In Public, Dueling Miles Davis biopics in the works, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

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New video mimics 1967 TV special

UK singer-songwriter Kindness (aka Adam Bainbridge) has released his second video from his debut album World, You Need A Change of Mind. Even more so than the video for first single "Gee Up," "House" is basically an anti-video: even though the video is nearly seven minutes long, the song isn't performed in full.

Instead, Bainbridge opens the video with a word-for-word recreation of a famous segment from Leonard Bernstein's 1967 television special Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution, in which Bernstein waxes rhapsodic about the growing complexity of pop music before introducing Brian Wilson, who performs a spellbinding solo piano version of the then-unreleased "Surf's Up." Following his monologue, Bainbridge and a young boy sketch out the basics of the song with a pair of keyboards and a vintage Linn drum machine, then dance around a bare stage while a two-minute snippet of the song plays. Unlike the sometimes-painful attempts at sketch comedy in the "Gee Up" video, the interaction between Bainbridge and his young protégé is sweetly charming.

Kindness are playing two shows in the US this week, at New York's Le Poisson Rouge on Thursday, May 17 and at Philadelphia's Voyeur on Friday, May 18, before embarking on the European festival circuit for the summer.

Tags: dance pop, indie, music video, recreation, United Kingdom,
Related Entries: World, You Need a Change of Mind, Cover of the Day: Kindness, “Swingin’ Party”, Freaking Out, Within and Without

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Head in the clouds

Skyscrapers aren't the only structures that are breaching the clouds this week. The new Cloud City sculpture installation opens to the public today on the rooftop garden of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Created by Argentinan artist Tomás Saraceno, this soaring sculpture combining art and architecture looks like a work of science fiction. According to the Met, Saraceno's work was influenced by organic shapes in science and nature such as clouds, bubbles, bacteria, foam and social and neural communication networks.

Using interconnecting hexahedron-shaped modules out of glass and mirrors, he's created a kind of architectural house of mirrors that visitors can pass through.

With the mirrors reflecting the surrounding city horizon and sky, Saraceno aims to create a disorienting experience, where physical and visual boundaries are blurred. While he designed a similar structure for the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum in Berlin, this is his first exhibit in the United States. The installation will be on view for the next six months, taking New Yorker's rooftop envy to new heights.

Tags: Architecture, Art, culture, Design, Museum, Sculpture,
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Saturday morning symbolism

In the late 19th century, the Symbolists were obsessed with expressing mystical truths through cultural myths. Startuing June 9th and continuing till June 17th, Brooklyn artist and musician Adam Green is staging a Symbolist manifesto of his own at the Intercourse in Red Hook, Brooklyn called Cartoon And Complaint. His mixed media work draws inspiration from cartoon mythology-- Aladdin, in particular-- as well as tarot cards, crayon drawings, 9/11, and media technology. Green’s practice leaves no stone unturned, and he’s something of a home-grown impresario: he’s released multiple solo music projects, is a co-founder of The Moldy Peaches, made a free download out of his iPhone film starring Macaulay Culkin, The Wrong Ferrari, and has collaborated with Fabrizio Moretti and Binki Shapiro. 

Image credit: Aaron Stern

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Related Entries: Spike Lee returns to Brooklyn for Red Hook Summer, Seven Arts Fair comes to Williamsburg, Investigations of a Dog, How to Make It in America

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The Mindy Project is coming!

In her cute and funny collection of essays Is Everyone Hanging Out With Me? (And Other Concerns), comedienne Mindy Kaling laid out her personal quirks as well as her unrepentant love of romantic comedies. Since then, I've been pining for some sharp studio to give her the chance to revive the genre she loves--in spite of its overabundance of Heigl-centered dreck--and now FOX has come close, giving the green light to Kaling's romance-centered sitcom The Mindy Project.

In the series set to air next fall, The Office scribe/star will play Mira Kaviraya, a young Ob/Gyn whose looking to strike a balance between her demanding job and misadventurous love life. The Mindy Project co-stars Chris Messina, Richard Schiff, Bill Hader and Ed Helms. Check out its first trailer below.

Tags: battle of the sexes, comedy, dating, doctor, FOX, friendship, hospital, love, romance, romantic comedy, self-discovery, single girl, sitcom, TV,
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A dream team for charity

Good things happen when a charitable cause is involved. Thanks to an upcoming benefit for the Henry Miller Memorial Library, we'll get the privilege of hearing legendary composer Philip Glass perform with folk siren Joanna Newsom.

Along with covering some of each other's famous songs, they'll also be performing original material they've collaborated on. Of course rumors of a possible album are already circulating, but the least we can expect for now, are some live recordings.

Glass and Newsom will take the stage at San Francisco's Warfield Theatre on June 25 and tickets go on sale this Friday. We can only cross our fingers that Glass and Newsom will continue to make beautiful music together.

Tags: Benefit, Charity, Classical, Collaborations, Composer, Concert, Folk, music,
Related Entries: Have One On Me, Arvo Part, Dr. Dee, Charlemagne Palestine

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"You're tearing me apart!"

It's possible James Franco chose Rebel Without a Cause as the curatorial theme for his Rebel show at MOCA LA because he played James Dean on television: as an artist, Franco is somewhat addicted to irony. It’s more likely, however, that Franco refuses to sacrifice brains for celebrity and can’t resist taking jabs at it in a company town like LA. Rebel features work by artists similarly obsessed with LA’s vanities, such as Ed Ruscha, Terry Richardson and Paul McCarthy. Also making a guest appearance is filmmaker Harmony Korine, who has touched the hem of celebrity himself, and is offering a film short about rebellion of his own, Caput, a post-modern reenactment of the famous switchblade fight at Griffith Observatory, reimagined as a BMX machete joust.

Tags: art, film, james dean, james franco, LA, performance, photography, rebellion,
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