The nicest thing you'll hear today

Hey cynics, here's something to put a smile even on the most wretched of your faces.

My friend Jessica lost her job recently (wait, that's not it, you ghouls) and sent a mass-text out to her contacts as to said fact. Unfortunately, one of the numbers she had was old, and so the text was received by a stranger named Gwen.

Gwen called back, and her voicemail message is (woah woah) the sweetest thing you'll hear today.

[download Gwen's voicemail]

(Thanks for letting me post this, Jessica!)

More Statcounter fun

Someone in Norway put "coke.no/summer" into Google, presumably looking for some summer-themed promotion from Coca-Cola, on its Norwegian website. Somehow that linked to my post about the Hold Steady from last year. Fair enough. So, they followed through to my site, must have though "oh, this isn't what I was looking for"...

...and then clicked the same link ten more times in fifteen minutes. I appreciate the hits, but even I know my writing isn't that good.

(click to enlarge)

Let's go out and find some trouble

The best thing to come out of Wimbledon since The Crazy Gang, Jamie T has a new EP out today. His first new music since Panic Prevention - a favourite here - is led off with Sticks n' Stones, a song that doesn't see Jamie doing anything drastically different from before, which suits me just fine. The tune has two choruses, though, which throws me just a little. But then I'm easily confused.

Saw some video footage of Jamie and the gang performing the song at Glastonbury on Friday - second to Doves on the Peel Stage is not bad at all - and I can't wait to hear the rest of the EP. Album #2, apparently called 'Kings and Queens', is due later in the year.

Warning: Video contains clowns.



[Jamie T official / myspace]

That's my new favourite camel

For an hour and a quarter, The Brothers Bloom is totally ace. A well-plotted con-man flick with great performances, funny dialogue and great cinematography and imagery. Some have criticized the similarity in look and sound with Wes Anderson's films but I thought it worked really well here. OK, sometimes the quirkiness is overplayed, but I confess, I laughed at loud when Rachel Weisz was rapping and DJing. And I can see why the idea of a hard-drinking, mute Japanese explosives expert seems like it's trying too hard to be eccentric, but it plays just fine here.

The relationship between the principal characters is well set-up and feels pretty natural and uncontrived. There's a very sweet opening segment that shows the brothers as younguns, which sets up what follows nicely. And if you didn't already know, the film is writer/director Rian Johnson's follow up to Brick, which gave high school noirs a welcome kick in the pants a few years back. So far, all swell.

Problem is, like similar themed films, there's too much going on. The final act takes things in a different direction - is someone after the Brothers, or is it all another job? Even they don't know. It gets pretty convoluted toward the end, with there being a new "a-ha!" reveal every few minutes. It reminded me of 'Matchstick Men' from a few years back, which I thought was a perfectly okay film which threw in about six new twists in the last fifteen minutes.

So 'The Brothers Bloom' grabbed me, kept me, but lost me before the end.

De Rosa are no more

Here's yet more sad news from the world of music, though I suppose that a sense of perspective dictates that it's not the saddest news of the week. Still, fresh off the release of their ace second album 'Prevention', Scotland's De Rosa have split up.

This is what Chemikal had to say about it.

It's always hard to break the news of a band calling it a day and in De Rosa's case it's particularly galling because they were so fucking good. Having announced it on their Twitter account it's now our turn to mourn the end of a band who were at the very top of their game.

De Rosa's music was as complex as it was melodic - it exercised the head as well as the heart and their live performances could be as thrilling as any we've ever seen. Great bands are hard to come by - especially ones as literate and engaging as De Rosa - so they will be sadly missed and we can only hope that they go on to release music in some other guise in the near future, they know where we are if they do. A great, great band.

It's a pity.

Here's two delgados talking about it on the new podsketch, and download the highlight from their new album below.

[download De Rosa - Flight Recorder]

The train will invariably come to a halt

It's knee-jerk hyperbole hour here at AYGH towers. I've already peed my virtual pants over the merits of Arming Eritrea, and today its parent album hits stores, both actual and computer-oriented. And dare I say it, Future of the Left's 'Travels With Myself and Another' is the best album of 2009 so far. Yes, I'll say it.

Where 'Curses' saw the band trying to find its voice, 'Travels..' is gloriously focused. It's also hilarious, righteous, rocks like a ten-tonne bastard, and - here's the revelation - has some tunes you can hum the next day.

Witness 'Throwing Bricks at Trains', a song with more melody than anything they've put out before, and with harmonies! 'Drink Nike' has a chorus - not just one sentence (cf "Sausage on a stick", "why put the body where the body don't wanna go?") but an actual, straight-up chorus. 'Chin Music' spins from a fuzzy, accelerated verse to a delirious payoff. And 'Lapsed Catholics' discusses the 'Shawshank Redemption', making this arguably the first rock album of the year to tip a cap to Frank Darabont. They still play their "bass-tuned-all-the-way-down" card, on tracks like 'You Need Satan More Than He Needs You', so this isn't a complete reinvention. They've just smoothed some - some - of their edges and honed themselves into a leering powerful machine.

There's a great interview with Falco over at DiS, where he talks a British inferiority complex when it comes to bands that rock. With 'Travels With Myself and Another', the band has reached the potential we all knew they would. In a perfect world, they'd become massive after this. It's not a perfect world, but this is a damn-near perfect album.

[Future of the Left official / myspace / buy 'Travels...' US / UK]

I am just a bitter boy

Hey guys, here's the final update of this little wave of prolific-ness. It's mostly a heads up: some of my pals in Tallahassee play in a band called The Woods and they've got a new EP that's out today, and can be yours for free. So go and check it out - five tracks of pastoral simplicity. It's folk music, it's Americana, it's music for when you're looking out of the window in the morning with a cup of tea and appreciating the view before it gets to 107 degrees later. NB: this may just be what I do. They also have a new video up for their song 'The Final Breaths of Main Character'.

All the above can be found by clicking here.

Hit them on myspace too, won't you?

Not at the table, Carlos

It blows my mind, in an entirely good way, that a film starring this guy was number one at the US and UK box offices. I love Zach Galifianakis, have done for ages, and it's so nice to see him getting some props. He ain't gon' email you! So I finally got to watching The Hangover last night, and it's even nicer to see ZG steal the show.

As you've probably heard by now, the film concerns three guys in Vegas who lost their pal overnight and are struggling to piece together what happened over the last twelve hours. Simple enough premise, and to its credit, this is not a film where you can say "I saw that coming a mile off!" because things get sillier and crazier. I don't know if The Hangover is a film I'd rush back to see again, and some have talked about its less-than-ideal portrayal of women and minorities. And while I've got my critical hat on, the much-discussed cameo from professional crazy person "Iron" Mike Tyson seemed like a for-the-sake-of-it pop culture gag, which wasn't as funny as the Dairy Milk ad that also featured 'In the Air Tonight'.

But Zach and Ed Helms make up for all the deficiencies. Hopefully, both will get higher profile roles after this. Zach's song about friendship, and a speech about forming his Wolfpack were clear highlights, and there are enough car crashes, nude men, nude women and wild cats to keep everyone smiling. The best thing about 'The Hangover' is that it really is a comedy about the people, rather than the circumstances - so it rarely feels contrived. And to bring it back to him once more, Zach Galafianakis' Alan is actually quite sweet beneath all the stupidity.

If you haven't seen it by now, you're unlikely to go and see 'The Hangover', but if you're studying for a Bar Exam and you need a laugh, there's little better to offer this summer. So see it. Just don't wear this t-shirt - the only people who'll think you're cool or funny, are people that you don't want to think that you are cool or funny.

[download Gomez - Hangover (live)]

Metal on metal

I've always admired the seige mentality of heavy metal fans. Let me give you an example. My friend Tom has, for many years, been such a person. Grown out the hair, plays in a pretty successful band, dresses in leather, gets excited about going to Donington, etc. Like most fans of that type of music, he knows it's not - and is never going to be - cool, and frankly, he doesn't give a hoot. There's the attitude of "this is what I love, balls to the world" that I think is pretty cool, and that's at the heart of the documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil, which is about a band called Anvil and the tribulations endured by the band Anvil. Did I mention that the group is called Anvil?

Anvil is composed of Lips and Robb Reiner (really), two guys in their 50s who momentarily flourished in the early 80s, then watched as their peers Bon Jovi and Scorpions sold bajillions worldwide, and nothing came of them. Following them around a European tour in 2007, having taken a month off from their jobs in Canada, you see how far they've fallen, and also how much they still believe in the band. It's impossible not to sympathize with them as they play to six people in Prague, miss trains, get lost and sometimes don't get paid. The lengths to which they go, and their refusal to throw in the towel and say "well, maybe it's not to be", is inspiring and also moving.

Well worth a watch, and yes, they do wind up at Stonehenge at one point.

You're winning me over

For a change, today I'm going to write about a new album from a Scottish band. Imagine that. At this juncture, I might as well rename this site something like Aye Tunes. Oh, wait. From Glasgow, We Were Promised Jetpacks have not only a terrific name but, in 'Quiet Little Voices', one of the catchiest singles I've heard all year. Comparisons with the Futureheads will abound because of the "woah-oh-ohs" that everyone ought to shout along with. And, happily bucking the trend I've mentioned before, 'Quiet Little Voices' isn't even the first track on the record.

What of the rest of their debut album, 'These Four Walls'? Two words: Drums and Accents.

Oh, you want more words than that? They remind me of the great Northern Irish band Jetplane Landing, not just because of the aeronautical themed band name, but both like to meld riffs with massive choruses and songs that go in about six different directions. 'Short Bursts', for instance, begins with drums being rolled down a hill, then some chords hammered in isolation, then just a pounding wall of sound for a minute, then the repeated instruction to sit back and loosen your ties, and then back to the rolling drums, then some vocals over those drums, then he shouts "We'll teach you to die!" and then the wall of sound for another minute. I love how the opener, 'It's Thunder and It's Lightning' kicks things off, with a really plaintive discussion of walking before running, quite delicate, and then those bastard drums kick in and shake things up like a snowglobe.

There's a lengthy track called 'Keeping Warm' towards the end, which is nice enough as a gently building instrumental, but it lost me before its eight minutes were up, and then the album closes, quite literally, with 'An Almighty Thud'. Well, that's the name of the track, but musically it's anything but - the album's only moment of quietness, just Adam Thompson's voice, an acoustic guitar, and some feedback. I do like albums that end peacefully, and so the change in gears is welcome, but I wish there'd been a little more variety in the record prior to the last song. I don't mean within each song, where there are plenty of shifts and speed-ups. But a couple more slow songs might make their next album a bit less exhausting. Maybe I'm just getting old.



[We Were Promised Jetpacks official / myspace]

Make it for yourself

I'm by no means the first person to write about this new single from the San Francisco band Girls, but I'd wager that I am the swarthiest. 'Hellhole Ratrace' is ostensibly about the high speed of modern living, but it's told really calmly, with uplifting lyrics, a gentle melody, a vocal that sounds like Elvis Costello, and some nice harmonies in the background. The tune stays in one gear throughout, though the feedback builds and builds, and that suits it just fine. Snag the single, watch the video, and hear a couple more tunes at their myspage. Just don't try Googling them, the results may not be work-appropriate.

[download Girls - Hellhole Ratrace]

Give it to me, Andrew Ridgeley

Since I don't listen to the radio much anymore, it's very infrequent that I hear a song without immediately knowing what it is. The magic of hearing something in passing and then trying to hunt it down is mostly lost now. Last summer, I always heard the same catchy-as-hell tune every morning when my clock radio went off, and it took me ages to figure out that it was 'Hot N Cold'. Man, I spent ages trying to figure out what it was.

Similarly, last night while listening to the Comedy Death Ray radio show, I heard a song that was pretty silly but actually quite funny, and worth looking into. It took some work, but it was a song by R.O. Manse, who's got an album out on AST Records. Comedy music is really hit or miss, but this song - a moderate hit in Denmark - definitely made me chuckle. The project is the brainchild of Chip Pope, and features a little help from various L.A. comedy types, including Natasha Leggero and her incredible English accent. Don't know about the rest of the album, but in the meantime, check out Ladyboy. And try not to think of Alan.

[download R.O. Manse - Ladyboy]



[R.O. Manse facebook / myspace]
[Buy 'R. O. Magic: The Best of R.O. Manse']

The greatest shakedown

Posts on here are once again few and far between, as you may have noticed. This is not - entirely - as a result of the pure and unbridled contempt in which I hold all my readers, but because I'm studying for the Bar Exam, which I'm taking at the end of July. If I pass it, I'll get to chuck an "esquire" after my name and charge everyone hundreds of dollars for the privilege of talking to me. So, as you can imagine, I want to get it right on the first crack.

That said, there is plenty of new music out there worthy of your attention. Today, I wanted to write a little about two albums that recently were released in the UK, which I am lazily lumping together because the bands are from the same country, have both been written about favourably on this site before, and frankly, have a similar sound to one another. Though both albums are accomplished and deserve their own attention, and though music is not a competition, I'm going to pit them against one another for no reason other than my own personal convenience.

In the red corner, My Latest Novel, with their follow up to 2006's 'Wolves', a previous fave here. For the new one, 'Deaths and Entrances', the band has stuck with the formula which worked so well the last time out - massive arrangements, huge strings, a million things going on, layered, harmonised vocals and, for want of a better term, sweeping grandeur. There's less musical variety on offer than was on 'Wolves', and as a result, it can sound a bit samey at first, but I've played the album a few times now, and it definitely seeps in. There's much to admire but some changes in pace would definitely have been welcome, especially in the second half. I'm thinking specifically of the playfulness on songs like 'The Job Mr Kurtz Did' or 'The Reputation of Ross Francis' from the first album - where they kept it small.

The tremendous opening track, 'All in All in All is All' can be downloaded for free here. Do that. Also, see if you can't hear some Arcade Fire in 'I Declare a Ceasefire'. In a good way.



Edinburgh's Broken Records, meanwhile, also have a new album, with the equally dramatic title 'Until the Earth Begins to Part'. I wrote about their EP more than a year ago, and now they've followed through with the album, delivered under the hype and burden of being called "the Scottish Arcade Fire" by people who really should know better. Broken Records have the temerity to name a song 'If Eilert Loveborg Wrote a Song, It Would Sound Like This', and yet the song itself is not absolute pretentious dogshit. The album is conspicuously uneven, though - while 'A Good Reason' still bounds along like a demented gypsy wedding, songs like the title track seem to be BR on autopilot. Start quietly, and then gradually build to majesty. They do the trick well, but they do it repeatedly. They do the same on 'A Promise' and 'Wolves', the latter a song apparently and confusingly named after My Latest Novel's debut album. Crazy. The potential is clear here, but a little more ambition would have gone a long way.



[My Latest Novel official / myspace / buy 'Deaths and Entrances']
[Broken Records official / myspace / buy 'Until the Earth Begins to Part']

Pizza ready for some football... for free

I had a lovely Memorial Day weekend, seeing lots of relatives after a long time, spending some time in NYC, and going to a funny comedy show at the UCB Theater. On the plane back to Florida, I caught the second half of the Champions League final - it sure was nice seeing Thierry Henry with a winner's medal, and Christiano Ronaldo crying. All in all, a great little getaway.

Had to come back down to earth somehow, though, and that happened when I got back to my house here in Gainesville, to find that we'd been burgled over the long weekend, and my laptop and external hard drive were both stolen. The computer was literally the only thing of value that I owned. Cue calls to the cops, my immigration lawyer - it had scans of important legal documents on there - the bank, etc. At the moment, I'm using my roommate's laptop, while I wait for my newly ordered Lenovo IdeaPad to arrive. 

The one good thing that happened upon my return home was the arrival of Team Submarine's new CD, Correctamundo! It's hilarious and has really lifted my spirits this week. Steve (or is it Gareth LC! ?) and Nate are based in NYC, and have a great set which you ought to check out post haste. References to Nazis, Jay Leno, Garfield - the cat, not the slain President - and the film 'Failure to Launch' abound. They have a great chemistry and play off each other very well. See them share embarrassing stories about each other, make prank calls, prepare for a college tour, and address weightier topics like abortion. 

The album is a mere $7 from their website, and as the clip below will illustrate, you should drop that money at once. Highly recommended!

"You just opened up a whole bucket of owls, now you've gotta let them fly."

Summer Jobs (Live) - watch more funny videos

How can we continue with better things behind you?

According to my download stats, you guys don't like the song 'Witness' by the delgados as much as all their others. What's up with that? Still, it's interesting to see how many downloads each individual song from the live vault has been getting.

(click to enlarge)

Something bigger than the heartache

I know, I know. It's been at least nine days since I last wrote about a Scottish band, so I'm addressing that imbalance right now. Got the new De Rosa album 'Prevention' in the post the other day (thanks, Stewart!) and not shockingly, it's really good. Martin Henry's voice, and the folksy arrangements here remind me of King Creosote, but there's a more sinister undercurrent to 'Prevention'. One song, 'It Helps to See You Hurt', sets the tone - really bitter lyrics but over incredibly lush backing. 'A Love Economy', which opens the album, is particularly ace, so listen to it below. 'Flight Recorder', an album highlight, builds and builds to a beautifully tense finale. 

The band recently played some dates supporting Doves, and you can see a musical similarity for sure. Bringing in drum loops and a load of extra orchestration definitely helps the album. On a day like this, when it's pissing down with rain all over Florida, 'Prevention' is the perfect accompaniment. I'd say it's better than the Cure, but that would be a horrific joke, so probably best to avoid that. 

[download Chemikal Underground - Podsketch #5] Contains two De Rosa songs, including a Kate Bush cover.

[De Rosa official / myspace]

[buy 'Prevention' UK / US]

We are being gathered in, at gloaming

All I really knew about Of Time And The City is that it was Mark Kermode's favourite film of last year, and that in theory it sounded very dull. Various images of Liverpool, mostly in black and white, compiled like a slideshow, with some voiceover commentary from writer/director Terence Davies. No explosions, spacecrafts or Adamantium? No thanks!

But I gave it a shot, because the Good Doctor went to the same school as me, and I generally agree with his opinions. The film is definitely not for everyone, and that one sentence description above is not too far from the truth. And yet, there's a lot to admire in there, but you have to be okay with very slow pacing and long stretches of silence or Davies' beloved classical music. Also, you really have to hear the man's voice, it's majestic - like a more world-weary and rugged David Attenborough. He speaks so wistfully of times gone by, of an age when football wasn't venal - his word, not mine - and when hometown heroes the Beatles ruined popular music and fashion. "John, Paul, George and Ringo: they sounded like a firm of suburban solicitors". 

One sequence was particularly moving - a montage of images from the Korean War, interspersed with footage of the Queen's coronation in 1952, set to 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother'. Beautiful stuff. The insight into Davies' own life and youth is interesting too, but I was more keen on his broader opinions about the community and the way it isn't what it used to be. 

Like I said, Of Time and the City is not an easy film to enjoy, but if you seek it out, you'll get a warm fuzzy feeling from it, I hope. 

Studios use search engines too

People often come to this site after Googling "Gene Hackman - Gay?" or some variety thereof, and I imagine they always end up disappointed when they get to my review of 'Borat'. But last week, someone came here using the same search string... from Fox Studios. Oh boy. 

(Click picture to enlarge)

Live vault: the delgados

I'm back at my parents' place for a few days, and so that means I could play around on my old computer, and thereupon found this ace live set to share with you. Don't remember where I got it from, or why 'No Danger' isn't part of it, but it's great quality, and features the best songs from arguably the band's two best albums. And, I'm in a good mood - graduating law school on Friday - so here it is!

Speaking of, listen to the newest Chemikal podsketch where I get a shout out.

Files are no longer up - sorry if you missed out.

[01 - Knowing When to Run]
[02 - Everything Goes Around the Water]
[03 - Accused of Stealing]
[04 - The Actress]
[05 - Reasons for Silence]
[06 - Aye Today]
[07 - Don't Stop]
[08 - 13 Gliding Principles]
[09 - Witness]
[10 - Pull the Wires From the Wall]
[11 - Blackpool]
[12 - American Trilogy]
[13 - The Past that Suits You Best]

Shut it, Love Actually

It's hot and muggy here, so a good time for some shorts: 

- Nick Cave wrote a script for Gladiator 2, which shockingly enough, was not utilised. But it sounds mental and amazing. 

- Last couple of weeks of The Best Show have been suitably superlative. Guest spots from Todd Barry and Martin Short; great calls from Sticks, and last night the truly amazing: an interview with "Hate Pit" mainstay Kevin Smith. Jaws dropped. Why aren't you listening yet?

- Today is my last ever day as a law student. How should I celebrate? (Not accepted: breaking the law)

- Hope of the States are dead. Long live The Northwestern, featuring Sam and Simon from HOTS. Two songs are on the myspage, and suggest that they're keeping the 'Left' sound, with three guitarists and nobody providing the "orchestral armageddon" that I so loved. But these new songs are definitely promising - eager to see what comes of them. Go here for a free download (in WMA format?!)

- Yes, I'm aware that the season is over. I don't want to talk about it. 

- When oh when oh when will 'In The Loop' be here so I can watch it? (Clip has some language that might be unsuitable for puritans or people at work)

Fistful of Fives: Videos

OK, so the Fab Five Friday for today involves music videos. Always hard to narrow it down to just five great ones, but I've tried to avoid the most obvious and oft-mentioned and celebrated and notoriously batshit insane candidates in order to bring to light some that you may not have seen before. Keep an eye on Half Deserted Streets and Your Beard is Good for more on this topic. 

Roots Manuva - Witness (1 Hope)

Like Roots, I wasn't too good at sports as a youngster. Unlike Roots, I have never - yet - showed up to my old school in an expensive car and won all the events at sports day. Great video, really funny, low budget, and the song is STILL unimpeachable.



Royksopp - Remind Me

OK, some people might think that this is just a glorified Microsoft Access demo, but it's more fun than that. A series of presentation graphics undercut by the old Geico commercials music. Haven't given the new Royksopp the attention it deserves. Soon!



Bjork - Bachelorette

I figured, I could get away with one Michel Godrey video in here. There's a trillion to choose from. (Close runners up: Come into my World and Star Guitar. Obviously the well-choreographed, meticulously arranged ones do it for me). Bachelorette is just so ingenious that Stephen Hawking watched it and got jealous. (This may not have happened). One day, Bjork found a book in the woods, and then shit got real.




Pulp - This is Hardcore

Some days, you wake up and think, "I've gotta shoot a seven minute film noir with fantasy dance sequences, lots of shadows, screaming, plaintive glances towards something off-camera, and at least one murder routine, all to accompany a song about men that are addicted to pornography." This was one of those days.



P.J. Harvey - Good Fortune

Maybe this video isn't too remarkable to anyone else, but I really love it. Something about Polly walking around east London singing directly to camera and being really carefree.. It's sexy as hell. And the song, from her career-best 'Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea' album, isn't bad either. Even though it's about New York, and not London. Pfft.

She used up all her lives

People that are better informed than I am assure me that summer is almost here. I wouldn’t know, since I’ll be studying for the Bar Exam without relent from May to July, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. And since the summer is – allegedly – imminent, it’s time for songs that are seasonally appropriate. I don’t know why summer jams always bring to mind cars without tops, but for some reason they do. Also, Los Angeles has always seemed a very fitting place for this kind of hot weather tune, that’s probably just because Entourage is set there. Sure enough, today’s video is from Army Navy, an L.A. band. I didn’t know of them before, but apparently they had a couple of songs on the Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist soundtrack. Was that movie any good? The tune is fun, light, bubbly, and has bits where it gets quiet, so the fast bits seem faster. I’m great at description. Here’s the video, featuring Paul Scheer from the Human Giant and Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story, the world’s greatest paintball movie. Put on your suntan lotion and enjoy.

[download Army Navy - My Thin Sides] from insound.com



[Army Navy myspace / buy their s/t album]

Declining society and over-saturated culture

This incredible year for Scottish music* rolls on, and this time, it's the return of the Incredible Sulk. Stereogum are giving away a new track, 'Carry Me', from Malcolm Middleton, so I strongly suggest you go over there and listen to it. Great to be writing about Malky again on AYGH. 'Waxing Gibbous' is out on June 1st, and according to one early review, it's more 'Into the Woods' than 'A Brighter Beat', sadly for me. 

And here's a Girls Aloud cover to sweeten the deal. And he's got some other girl band songs on the website. 

[download Malcolm Middleton - Call the Shots]

* Phantom Band, Aidan, Lord Cut Glass, Broken Records, My Latest Novel... That'll do for now.

I know my own worth

My two favourite songs of last year, 'Kriss Kross' and 'Constructive Summer', were both opening tracks on their respective albums. There's clearly something about front-loading a much-anticapted new-release with a stone-cold stunner that really appeals to bands. (Four hyphen-linked words in one sentence? I'm a genius.) Clearly hip to this technique, Future of the Left are back, and their song 'Arming Eritrea', which kicks off new record 'Travels With Myself and Another' (out in June) has made it to "Samir's favourite song of 2009 so far". 

'Curses' was certainly not a shabby record, but new tune shows a noticeable progression. Also, they aim to mislead, beginning all quiet and noodly. But close your eyes, count to twenty, and sure enough, Falco's bark will bring you back down to earth. There's a chorus, some melodies, more structure than many of the 'Curses' songs, and a killer outro. I listened to this seventeen times in a row on headphones yesterday. Listen to the song, and a couple of other newies, in raw live session form at The Futurist here. 

God, it's good to have them back. 

[download Future of the Left - Arming Eritrea]

[Future of the Left official / myspace / buy 'Curses']

Oh, and single 'The House that Hope Built' has a video. Here it is. Falco ditched the beard.

Character work

I don't watch a lot of television, but in order to keep up with the sites Half Deserted Streets and Your Beard is Good, I've been asked to come up with a list of my five favourite characters currently in shows currently airing. Turns out: 

a) I don't watch many dramas.

b) I watch a lot of shows that don't have characters. (The Cougar is not a character).

So here's my list. 

1. Tracy Jordan, 30 Rock: Who Dat Ninja? The character has nothing at all to do with the actor. Nothing at all. 

2. Maurice Moss, The I.T. Crowd: It's not currently on, I know, but it will be back. And Moss is the flippin' greatest. One time, when expressing surprise, he said "Chairman Wow!" And Richard Ayoade is also great as Sabu on the Boosh, or as a music video director. 

3. Ron Donald, Party Down: Party Down airs on the Starz network, so nobody watches it. Pity, because it's really, really funny. And Paul Rudd is involved! Ken Marino plays Ron, the boss, who would rather open a sandwich franchise and is by some distance the least functional of the entire group. I especially enjoyed the time he set an American flag on fire.

4. Kenny Powers, East Bound and Down: Again, this show has been picked up for a second season, so it'll be back. Danny McBride brought a great mix of sadness and insanity to the past-his-prime baseball star demoted to teaching school kids physical education. The intro alone is enough to draw you in. 

5. Nelson Muntz, The Simpsons: Schadenfreude. 

I laughed like a dog with glee

Short post today: Here's a new song from Lord Cut Glass' upcoming debut album. This song, along with another from LCG, was featured in the newest Chemikal Underground podsketch. The song is ace, a barnstormer with quiet parts too, and brass and pianos and a lyric about a drag queen. 

Did I mention that Lord Cut Glass is Alun Woodward? The singer from my favourite band ever, the delgados? Perhaps I should have. 

[download Lord Cut Glass - Even Jesus Couldn't Love You]

[Lord Cut Glass mypsace / Chemikal Underground]

A person of interest

As the former Marshall Mathers ably demonstrates in his new video, making fun of ubiquitous celebrities doesn't really take a whole lot of skill, and has surely reached fish in a barrel status by now. This is why I didn't like the show Best Week Ever for a long time. A bunch of comedians I've never heard of making Lohan/Spears jokes? No thanks. This is why I was so impressed when I heard Paul F. Tompkins on The Best Show, and then on his album 'Impersonal', and became a big fan. And now, very similar lightning has struck twice, with the very funny new CD from BWE contributor John Mulaney, entitled 'The Top Part', which just came out last week. 

He takes in a lot of topics, and is consistently funny, especially when nerding out with his Law and Order routine, a story where he chases a woman through a subway tunnel late at night, and best of all, the closing anecdote about playing Tom Jones on a diner jukebox. His delivery reminds me of Michael Ian Black's, but Mulaney has a more easygoing manner. The anecdotes flow naturally, and he's likeable enough to make you want to listen. The only celebrities that get a mention are Donald Trump and Jerry Orbach, so there's no hipper-than-thou pop culture snarkiness, which suits me just fine. Instead, he talks about the Biblical story of King Solomon, which is much funnier. Go to John's site and watch the clip of him on Conan for a good summary of jokes that made the CD, and you'll enjoy it. 

[download John Mulaney - The Salt and Pepper Diner]

[Buy 'The Top Part' from Amazon / Comedy Central]

[John Mulaney official site / myspace]

On Wrestlicious

You know when you see a video and it leaves you with far more questions than answers? If you make it past the fake quiz thing at the beginning, you're in for a treat. After seeing this, I had to do some research, and found out that: 

- Wrestlicious is coming to Fox in the fall of this year. 

- Hey, it's Jimmy "Mouth of the South" Hart

- I always love it when rap songs have the most contrived lyrics ever. Cf.

- The guy behind Wrestlicious is a 19 year old, that won the lottery in South Carolina, and this is what he wanted to do with his money. 

- This is a direct quote: 

As reported over the weekend, the new Wrestlicious promotion is being funded by a 19-year-old by the name of Jonathan Vargas that won the $35 Million Powerball Jackpot this past May. Following his momentous triumph, Vargas opted to take the lump sum payment of $17.3 million. Vargas has plans to appear on the all-women's wrestling show as a character by the name "JV Rich", the laid back and affable Rapper/Owner of Wrestlicious. Regular features on the program will include "JV's CRIB", a look at the goings-on inside JV's mansion frequented by the girls of Wrestlicious. 

- Based purely on this demo reel/music video, my early favourites are the army girl and the fifties diner girl for no reason other than they are the most insane.

- Draculeta is scary.

- I'll probably watch at least one episode of this when it comes out. 

- I can't wait.

Reasons to be Cheerful

There's a great post on the AV Club at the moment where its writers discuss the things that always make them laugh. And, never wanting to miss a bandwagon, here's my list of nine things that are never not funny to me, each more predictable (or as predictable? No - more predictable) than the last.

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1. Father Ted s3e3: 'Speed 3'

Hard to pick one moment from Ted, or indeed from most of Graham Linehan's sitcom career, but this episode from the final season really stands out. It has all the best things of the show: Dougal being stupid, Mrs. Doyle being adorably creepy, Jack yelling at everyone, and Ted being Ted. BUT this one also features Pat Mustard, the greatest one-episode character they've ever had. From his swarthy entrance to his karmic fall from grace to his demonic, Jeremy-Irons-in-Die-Hard-With-A-Vengeance style retribution, Pat Mustard is hilarious. Also, this episode has some hairy babies and a reference to Gene Hackman, and I endorse that. Can't embed any video files here, sadly, but I suppose you could just watch the whole ep at YouTube beginning here.

2. The Simpsons s9e20: 'The Trouble With Trillions'

Blah blah blah, isn't as good as it used to be, etc etc. According to the great site Eye on Springfield, this episode is from the last season that the Simpsons was still funny. Not sure I agree with that, but even so, this one is great. Not regarded as one of the all-time classics by most, but for me, it's got the most laughs: a joke about High Definition TV in 1998; Lucius Sweet; Homer and Burns working as a team; the trip to Cuba; Milhouse's shirt falling off.. There are literally three hundred and sixteen other funny parts to this episode of television. "Montgomery Burns, you are under arrest for grand-grand-grand-grand-larceny."

3. Scharpling and Wurster: G.G. Allin references

This one will shock and amaze any of you that have never met me before, never been to this site before, or never been in the same town as me before. Next, it's very hard to narrow down the shows appeal to just one thing, but I'll give it a go. The recurring references to the late Kevin Allin initially caught me off guard, but now I feel like I know him and his body of work very well. Whether it's Philly Boy Roy talking about driving GG around in a cab, superfan Bernie Taupin, or most memorably, a guy called Trip who was imagining 'Planet GG' - complete with skyscraper, biopic and reality show; it's amazing how much comedy mileage Tom and Jon can get out of a pretty obscure punk rock singer.

4. The writings of Charlie Brooker

Charlie's TV work on Screen Wipe, and now News Wipe, is stellar and insightful, but it's his column in the Guardian that always kill me. So when I found out that these columns have been compiled into two books, I was delighted. Read his thoughts on Justin Timberlake and enjoy.

5. "You Know How I Know You're Gay?"

It's more than just Apatow movies - 'Role Models' was my fave comedy of last year as you know - but that school of comedy almost always gets me. It doesn't even bother me that a lot of it is just references, as exemplified in the clip below. Once these guys start riffing, it's going to make me laugh. Saw 'I Love You Man' a couple of days ago, and didn't really have a lot to say about it, but my biggest laugh was when someone calls someone "Broseph Goebbels". Couldn't find a clip of the original scene from '40 Year Old Virgin' but this one does the trick just fine. Though my favourite punchline to that is still "You like Coldplay".

6. Arrested Development s2e4: 'Good Grief'

An obvious choice, and it seems like most of the AV Club writers went with something from the show. This episode features my hands-down favourite moment of the series - Tobias trying to console Michael with his speech delivered as John Wayne, before screaming "Where the fuck are my hard boiled eggs?" and storming off in a huff. Also, this is the one with all the Charlie Brown sad-sack walking, "I have Pop Pop in the attic", "I will be the corpse of my dead father!" and the obligatory Anne Frank joke. I'm really not too stoked about the AD movie, I can't see it matching the quality of the show, and it could never match everyone's expectations, so it's bound to disappoint. Prove me wrong, Hurwitz!

 

7. Statler and Waldorf

Last week, I called into aforementioned Best Show on WFMU to talk about how I don't want to see a Jason Segel-written Muppets feature. Not that I have anything against Segel, but I have too much love for the Muppets to see any further harm done to them, after some less-than-stellar flicks in the 90s. This past Valentine's Day, the Mrs and I went to the Jim Henson exhibition. This is what my desk looks like. I absolutely sincerely list 'The Muppet Movie' as one of my all-time top five movies. And there is nothing that the cantankerous eldery duo can do, that I won't find funny. This includes their short lived movie-review web show. They were recently on Jimmy Fallon's show, actually heckling Jason Segel, which gives this paragraph a weird sense of circularity.

8. Shaun Williamson on 'Extras'

Only in a small role, Barry from Eastenders steals every scene he's in. Despite my best efforts, I couldn't find the clip of him showing his acting range, the one where he and Smerch sing 'Mustang Sally'. But this one is terrific too. Something about his face, coupled with the lines he's given, always get me.

9. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost

Notice the boolean. Pegg AND Frost. On their own, results may vary. But put the two together and it's rarely short of comic genius. I can't write about my love of Spaced any more because the Internet actually issued a restraining order. But I could watch Spaced, Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, and even their commentary tracks, once every month from now until 2060 when I'll be almost eighty years old. Here's a clip of them from earlier this year, promoting a charity fundraiser, and still being funny as bells.

There was no sound

Like 90% of the bands who are big on the internet and not necessarily in real life (IRL, sorry), I was aware of Deerhunter without necessarily knowing anything about/by them. But last night they played, for free, walking distance from my house, so I went to check them out. It was in the same ballroom as the Cursive show a few years back, on the third floor of the Union building. First observation: Bradford Cox, the singer and guitarist looked like, as one concertgoer observed, he had been ravaged by consumption. The guy did not look healthy at all. Later he would explain that, indeed, he was quite unwell. No mind, the guys still made a sufficient racket. I must say: in the hour-or-so they played, there was maybe twenty-five minutes' worth of really good music, where they sounded ace. The majority of their set, though, was a mess of feedback, droned-out noise with a krautrock drumbeat keeping it going. You could see people in the crowd looking at each other, going "huh?". I guess there's something to be said for making music that defies expectations, that is different or avant-garde, but we only sporadically saw stuff that fit that category, such as on 'Calvary Scars', which they finished with. Otherwise, for the most part, ho and indeed hum.