The Criterion Collection

Oh. my. god. You can watch all of the Criterion Collection movies on the Criterion Collection website, criterion.com. Wow. That's a lot of "criterion". ha! Although.. it's not free... but definitely cheaper than shelling out $30.00 or more for the actual dvd releases.

I would highly recommend Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's "Black Narcissus", as pictured above, starring Deborah Kerr and Jean Simmons, among others.

Throwing Muses

I love how dirty-American-80s-teenager they look in this photo. I saw Throwing Muses for the first time ever... and I cried of course... because I always cry at good performances of music that has been a part of my life for a really long time. Throwing Muses has been around forever... but they haven't released an album in 7 years... so I was, naturally, a little skeptical of what the performance was going to be like. I've seen Kristin Hersh solo three times... and 50 Foot Wave once. I don't really like 50 Foot Wave that much; I always wanted them to be more like Throwing Muses.

Luckily, one of the things that is so great about Kristin Hersh is that she maintains very separate sounds for all three of these projects. It was an amazing concert... even if Tanya Donnelly wasn't there... and the bass player is way more attractive than I could have ever expected.

Upon revisiting Throwing Muses, I've realized that there is an impeccable timelessness to their music. It's always been weird and it always will be weird. The song structures and sounds aren't particularly representative of any musical era or trend. Their songs could have been recorded yesterday and people would think it's new. So. For the love of Throwing Muses, here is a conglomeration of their songs that I particularly enjoy.

from Untitled, 1986
Green

from House Tornado, 1988
Marriage Tree

from The Real Ramona, 1991
Golden Thing
Graffiti
Not Too Soon

from Limbo, 1996
Serene
Tar Kissers


from wikipedia: "Throwing Muses are an alternative rock band formed in 1981 in Newport, Rhode Island. The group was originally fronted by two lead singers, Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donelly, who both wrote the group's songs. Throwing Muses are known for performing music with shifting tempos, creative chord progressions, unorthodox song structures, and surreal lyrics. The group was set apart from other contemporary acts by Hersh's stark, candid writing style; Donelly's pop stylings and vocal harmonies; and David Narcizo's unusual drumming techniques eschewing use of cymbals. Hersh's hallucinatory, febrile songs occasionally touched on the subject of mental illness, more often drawing portraits of characters from daily life or addressing relationships."

Bang Bang Machine

Bang Bang Machine - "Geek Love" radio edit
Bang Bang Machine - "Geek Love" 12" version

This song is so irresistibly nineties. It's one of those beautifully disturbing songs: kind of light and fluffy Cocteau Twinsy to start out with and then it builds to this intensity where they throw in some spoken word dialogue from a 1930s movie about Freaks. Very epic... and just a hair cheesy... but good nineties cheesy... and it doesn't seem cheesy until you've listened to it twenty times in a row like I have. For "indie credibilty", it was ranked #1 on John Peel's "festive 50" in 1992. Peel said about Bang Bang Machine, "Even if they never made another record, they'll have achieved more than most of us do in our entire lives". Ooh!

"never to be in love": like a geek. Geek Love is based on a novel by Katherine Dunn of the same title... it's supposed to be really good... all about freaks, like siamese twins and circus people and stuff.

The Big Pink

The Big Pink - "Too Young To Love"

This nugaze band has recently been signed to 4AD, which is fitting seeing that 4AD was one of the first labels to release shoegae records. It's a bit like the guy from Animal Collective fronting Curve. The beats sound especially similar to Curve's "Chinese Burn", although "Too Young To Love" is a lot less intense.

There are some Cure and This Mortal Coil influence in there somewhere as well. Pretty great. Their new single: "Velvet" has a killer video.

The Joy Formidable

The Joy Formidable - "Ostrich"

To continue my current "nugaze" kick, here is something from The Joy Formidable, a London group who have released their debut album for free on their website, to continue the Radiohead "in Rainbows" trend that Courtney Love has been talking about doing also. However the "free download" songs are all in wma format. bah. Also, their video for "Austere" was banned from youtube because it shows people's faces while they're masturbating... check it out at their website. That's pretty cool. Maybe they're a bit "nugrunge" as well. Has anyone coined that term yet?

Crystal Stilts

Crystal Stilts - "Converging In The Quiet"

I love that shoegaze has entirely returned to popularity... they call it "nu-gaze" now. Kind of like "Nu-metal" isn't that funny. Crystal Stilts aren't really creating any new sounds, but they're recreating the Jesus & Mary Chain with the most skillfullness. They're adding to the existence of "Psychocandy" rather than merely imitating it. I hate imitators. Should I go see them Saturday? hmm... yes.

Shout Out Out Out Out

Shout Out Out Out Out - "Guilt Trips Sink Ships"

Delightful. There's lots of man robot voicedness and an early 80s disco/punk feel. This is from their second album "Reintegration Time", available on triple gatefold vinyl! I am certain they are sampling something from The Human League's "Dare" album... but I'm having trouble figuring out exactly what song it is... maybe "Things That Dreams Are Made Of"? The title, "Guilt Trips Sink Ships", is a pun on the popular WWII era American propaganda poster tagline "Loose Lips Might Sink Ships" to keep housewives from spilling info to commies about all the info in her sweet sailor-husband's love letters. Maybe it's not so much a pun, but more of a reversal on the meaning of the "loose lips" line. The ships are going to sink either way, because some lonely American housewife has been guilt tripped into thinking that if she were to have loose lips the ships will sink. Guilt trip, or loose lip, that ship is going down. Either way her sweet 18-year-old husband is doomed.

Another topic, for another day: "loose lips" doesn't exactly make me think of speaking... just saying. Oh, how terminology changes.

Human League - "The Things That Dreams Are Made Of"