And here you have it, good people. Let it be sounded from the highest mountain top, the much-anticipated lineup for Coachella 2011 has finally been announced. As per usual, make sure to check Coachella’s official site for last minute additions and/or cancellations, as well as ticket information.
The Twin Atlantic boys are gearing up for world domination. Check out there latest song, Edit Me. I have to say, after a long quiet Winter…this is wildly refreshing.
Latest Thing The Decemberists return with The Crane Wife, which some are already touting as their best album yet…punk legends Social Distortion are back to facing Hard Times…Gregg Allman of the Legendary Allman Brothers and Steve Lukathur put their best blues riffs out, and a band called Tennis shows more balls with Cape Dory. For the metalheads, Testament re-releases Live at the Fillmore…hasta la vista, baby…
Gregg Allman – Low Country Blues
Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers - Teenage and Torture
Social Distortion – Hard Times And Nursery Rhymes
The Decemberists – Crane Wife
Braids - Native Speaker
Ian Axel – This Is The New Year
Young Prisms – Friends For Now
Testament – Live at the Fillmore
Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde
Tennis - Cape Dory
Robert Pollard - Space City Kicks
Neon Quartet - Catch Me
Lady Lazarus - Mantic
The Script – Science & Faith
Steve Lukather - All’s Well That Ends Well
Stratovarius – Armoury
I wasn’t scared to go into the Museum of Death until I called to talk to the owner J.D. Healy to schedule an appointment for my visit. “Do you know what you are getting yourself into? Have you been here before?” are not usually words that I am used to hearing when calling to schedule a museum tour. J.D. went on to tell me how fabulous his museum was but wanted to make sure that I was aware of the fact that some of the pieces inside are a bit intense and that people do pass out in the middle of their tour from time to time. Long story short, this conversation resulted in a slew of mixed emotions on my part. On one hand I was jumping at the chance to conquer my fears of whatever might lie inside and on the other hand, I basically spent the entire week before my visit a tiny bit on edge.
If you haven’t already heard the rumblings, The Electric are shaping up to be one of this year’s hottest collab projects. Featuring Ninja Tune beat aficionado DJ Vadim, soul singer Sabira Jade and Chicago’s MC Pugs Atomz, the group is releasing their debut full-length, Life Is Moving, on March 14 through Vadim’s Organically Grown Sounds. The group has kindly offered to debut the video for their first single, “Beautiful,” right here in the ChinaShop, so feast your eyes and ears on some soothing sounds. Then pop on over here to cop the single.
Filmed over nearly three years, WASTE LAND follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world’s largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of “catadores” — self-designated pickers of recyclable materials.
Muniz’s initial objective was to “paint” the catadores with garbage. However, his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives. Director Lucy Walker (DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND, BLINDSIGHT, COUNTDOWN TO ZERO) has great access to the entire process and, in the end, offers stirring evidence of the transformative power of art and the alchemy of the human spirit.
The award winning film is currently screening at selected venues across the country and aboard including an open screening at Pepperdine University this Friday, Jan 21.
Check out the trailer to this inspiring film below.
At first listen, “Papertoys,” sounds a lot like something my cheap-ass uncle came up with for Christmas one year. In reality it’s “The ultimate community based art form,” says artist/animator Castleforte. He’s the creator of NicePaperToys.com. Which is the web o’verse’s first and only papertoy social network on which users can exchange, collaborate, and download templates of characters for personalization. It’s paper airplanes, meets origami, meets Kid Robot. Take a peek.
Blackline Comics’ Misery City #1 follows the film-noirish tale of gumshoe Max Murray, sort of a cross between a supernatural Sam Spade and William Burroughs, and one who doesn’t have to go looking for trouble: merely whore-hunting or even crossing the street unleashes the undead upon him.
But best of all is Detective Murray’s ornery, matter-of-fact narration as he confronts a 50-foot tall zombie skeleton that bursts out of a desolate city road: “If I wasn’t shaking like my wife’s vibrator, I would’ve seen its weakness sooner.”
5. Color Kid: A DC Comics superhero, Color Kid wasn’t quite good enough to be in The Legion of Superheroes, so they made him a member of the Substitute Legion of Superheroes. It’s a little like substituting Go-Bots for Transformers, or Hydroxes for Oreos.
POWERS: Can change the color of anything. ANYTHING, you hear? Specifically, switch the color of the ground and the sky to confuse his flying opponents. Take that.
Why he shouldn’t be in movies: I changed my mind, he should. According to his online biography: “In the 1985 Legion of Substitute Heroes comic, he was temporarily known as ‘Color Queen’ after being exposed to Granderian Gender-Reversal Germs.”
Read on for the last 4…
And how is everyone doing on this fine Friday? Doubtless even better now that you’re reading this gloriousness, no?
So the first single off Watch The Throne, the collaboration album between Jay-Z and Kanye West, “H.A.M.”, was released this week and it’s such a let down. The beat, produced by 19 year old Lex Luger, (I know, ridic.) is gorgeous but Kanye’s first verse doesn’t flow with it at all, Jay’s was good but nothing spectacular… I don’t know, I guess considering the immense talent these boys possess, I expected something better. Paws crossed the rest of Watch The Throne is far better. Check it out for yourself below.