Saturday, October 31, 2009

HALLOWEEEEEN

Go figure that my mind waits til the night before Halloween to process the fact that tomorrow is Halloween. All of a sudden I'm excited and in the spirit...lets do this!

Hair has been re-bleached...thrift store purchases torn and shredded and ready for blood application...and a new mix to listen to in the car on the way to Chico!

This isn't entirely well thought out, and this is just from my current collection of music...if i had time to track down most of what i had before this would be a longer and probably more diverse list...this was mostly going for certain sounds or certain feelings that i associate with Halloween...and the first is a little blatant...ENJOY!

"Halloween" - A.F.I.
"Whats a Girl to Do" - Bat for Lashes
"Operate" - Peaches
"The Bridge" - The Knife
"The Killing Moon" - Echo and the Bunnymen
"Hypnotised" - The Faint
"Out of the Abyss" - Judgement Day
"Bloody Murderer" - Cursive
"Get Confused" - Fischerspooner
"Tesko Suicide" - Sneaker Pimps
"Pretty Mess" - Femme Fatality
"Love Will Tear Us Apart" - Joy Division
"Like a Pen" - The Knife
"Humming" - Portishead
"Skin of the Night" - M83

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Some Songs and the Impending Halloween Weekend

This blog is dedicated to slightly creepy songs/videos as Halloween approaches.
Not quite sure what i'm gonna be doing, what i'll dress up as, but i love the holiday, the stories that come with it, and candy aint half bad either.
Not much else to say right now, so on to the videos!

One of my absolute favorites is the Donnie Darko inspired video for Bat for Lashes' "Whats a Girl to Do?" The video greatly compliments the tone and beat of the song.



Next up is "Pretty Mess" by Femme Fatality. The song is pretty violent in tone and the "narrative" of the video reflects the tension and crazed pace of the song. Definitely one of my fave unknown electro groups.



The first Cursive song i ever heard was "Bloody Murderer," and i was way into the story elements and the energy and creativity of the song. Its dark, and angry, and amazing!



This song is from the Queen of the Damned soundtrack and vocalized by Jon Davis of Korn. While the movie wasn't exactly an award winner, they did a pretty decent job with the music. The video is heavily inspired by Nosferatu and i love that sort of visual asthetic!



The last video i'll post has a similar vintage feel to the horror movies of old...its Judgement Day's "Out of the Abyss"! These are some swell gents that make glorious music that sounds like it belongs in a horror film!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Quite a Weekend...

I'm gonna start this post with my Thursday (October 8th) night. I went to the Boardwalk in Orangevale and saw Touche Amore, The Dear Hunter, Fall of Troy, and THURSDAY. Now, I've seen Thursday before, at the Warfield in San Francisco. They're a band that I've listened to since sophomore year of high school. Classic teenage angst scenario. But there's a power behind their music that I've always hung on to, and their socially/politically driven lyrics keep it interesting. I'll wrap up the San Francisco show as being...lackluster. But the Boardwalk show was very intimate, and VERY powerful, left me wanting more. Definitely one of the best shows I've been to! The live rendition of "Between Rupture and Rapture" was hard enough to send chills down my spine and make everyone in the room move, in one way or another.
Having listened to Thursday for so long, you start picking out symbols used repeatedly. One that particularly stands out is anything that documents time; clocks, watches, calendars...which leads me to my favorite Thursday song, "Jet Black New Year."



I worked friday...blah.
Saturday, had some friends visit from Chico. We went out and somehow managed to synchronize a transition from "having a good time" to "what happened last night?" After a couple hours at Press Club, we came back to the house where my downstairs neighbors invented a "night club" of their own. Sorry guys, VIP only. HAH.


After piecing together our lives this morning and making a tasty breakfast, me and the gang went to see Zombieland. It was one of the most gratifying movies I've ever seen. Everything about it made me happy in one way or another, and none of it really felt over the top in a blatant way. It did a very good job of making you quickly attached to characters you know little to nothing about, with most of them not even using their real character names. It's always an odd feeling when you find violence lending itself to physical humor, and laughing hysterically at the meeting of baseball bat and brains. Zombies are the only horror icon I've ever really had nightmares about, and the movie definitely fed my brain things that my subconcious will use against me at a later date. I laughed a LOT. Very fun movie, one of my faves this year! I'll probably see it again before it leaves theaters!

And at the close of this Sunday eve, I think I've developed my second head cold in a month. Nyquil is my friend.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Blogging?!

Well, I thought it was time to give this a try. I don't know how much good this will be to other people, but I definitely wanted to start this for myself, as a way to process WHY I like the things I like. Lets see if it works?



The first thing I wanted to post is "Splinter" by Sneaker Pimps. I've been listening to them a lot.
When I hear this song  I focus in on the lyric "Does it take the fireworks to make you look in wonder?"
I'm not sure what it is about that lyric that draws me in, but I think part of it is knowing someone a little too detached for their own good, and trying to get them to see more than whats at face value...or maybe I'm digging too deep, you be the judge.
The minimal guitar with the ethereal electro elements give a cinematic feel to the song and paired with Chris Corner's vocals makes for a nice dark lullaby. Definitely one of my faves right now





Secondly, I would like to mention how much I loved the trade paperback of Catwoman: When in Rome. I remember seeing a couple of the individual issues in the store and thinking "Oh I'll wait for the collected edition" then kinda forgot about it. I came across it and snatched it up. Its very clever, and the art is stylish in a noir fashion, true to my internal concept of how Gotham City and its inhabitants should be. It takes place between the events of Batman: The Long Halloween and Batman: Dark Victory (which I have yet to read). The creative team of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale understand what Batman and his Rogues Gallery is all about.
Tim Sale's covers and pinups for the mini-series and trade paperback were influenced by French fashion illustrator Rene Gurau, and his respect for the artist are reflected very well while still retaining his own style and adding to the personality of Selina Kyle.
It's fun, smart, and leaves you wanting more...guess I gotta go pick up Dark Victory eh?