Tuesday, March 29th, 2005

Yeah We Know

Billboard reports that the resurrected Dinosaur Jr will make their television debut on The Late Late Show on April 15 and I believe the first official performance of the reunion? I think we can be assured they’ll play something OLD. I doubt I’ll stay up to watch it, I’m an old man, I need my sleep, but I’ll certainly try to track it down after the fact. Still no word on North American tour dates, but doing anything on this continent is certainly a start. You may note, however, that there is now a DinosaurJr.com, for all your reunion needs. The reissues of the first three albums came out last week courtesy of the good people at Merge.

Ze Arcade Fire grace the cover of the Canadian edition of Time this week (See cover here, via Arcadefire.net, courtesy me), and the accompanying story uses the band as a case study for examining the indie scene in Canada as well as previewing their picks for the most-anticipated independnet Canuck releases of 2005 and a couple of primers on what it is to be “indie” including an essay by Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning on the unbearable lightness of indie. What’s not online (and the feature will probably only be available for a week or two) is their “Five That Matter” piece, which picks Metric, Stars, The Organ, Death From Above 1979 and The Dears as the next big things to bust out of Canada. Of course, depending on what your frame of reference is, you could argue all five of these acts already HAVE busted out, but from Time’s POV, they’re probably sensible picks. I like how they’re mostly from all across Canada (though the Maritimes does get shut out) except Metric, who wave the ex-pat, no fixed address flag. Thanks to Arcadefire.net for the info. I’ll have your copy of the magazine in the mail this week.

CMJ has a sort of feature/review on NME reports that The Tears have pushed back the release of Here Come The Tears from May 2 to sometime in June.

Miss Modern Age points us at a cover of Blondie’s “Call Me” done by two guys I’ve never heard of and Saturday Look’s Good To Me’s divine Betty Marie Barnes. Totally lo-fi but totally awesome.

I’ve got a review of Matt Mays & El Torpedo’s new self-titled album over at Torontoist. Mays was NOW’s cover artist this week and is at the Horseshoe tonight for a free CD release show.

Ain’t It Cool is declaring that the villain in Spider-Man 3 will be Sandman. That’s… a little disappointing. While Thomas Haden Church would be a good fit for the part, Sandman seems so b-list. If this is the last Spidey movie, it’d have been good to see him go up against someone epic. Like Galactus.

So I’d pretty much given up watching Alias this season, I just fell behind too many episodes what with it being on opposite The West Wing and it really didn’t grab my interest after the first three episodes or so, too much of the same old same old. But now Soaring With Eagles points me to this TV Guide letters column where they confirm that they’ve finally convinced Lena Olin to return on May 25 for the season finale as Sydney’s supposedly-dead, probably-still-evil, awesome-nonetheless mother. MAN. So, do I just ignore it all and wait for the season 4 DVD this Fall? Or fire up bit torrent and try and catch up? I mean, West Wing is done after next week, so I could watch the last two months of Alias in real time… Hmm. Oh yeah, can anyone reassure me that this season doesn’t actually suck? That’s also a key factor.

24, back on schedule. Aaaah. Talk talk talk. Come on, I was promised scenes of violence that would be disturbing to some. DISTURBING! Jack’s kick-fu while chained to a wall doesn’t do it. Did they mean the mini-scalping of Behruz off-camera? That’s not disturbing. Nice touch with the stealth fighter – anyone want to lay bets what the endgame plan for that doodad is? There’s the obvious scenario, of course… just where is Air Force One right now anyway? Though I hear that thing’s got mad evasive skills… But I digress. Not as exciting an episode as I’d hoped, but what’re you gonna do. As as an afterthought… I wonder how many people Curtis gets to torture in a regular day?

np – Pinback / Summer In Abaddon

By : Frank Yang at 9:15 am
Category: Uncategorized
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  1. brads says:

    Unfortunately this season of Alias does, in fact, suck.

    And yeah, 24 was hella boring last night.

    I’m still on a high from Sunday’s Carnivale finale, though… so all other teevee seems relatively weak at the moment.

  2. Paul says:

    Curtis isn’t very good at his job if torturing is his job, I don’t think. Either that, or he’s only gone up against weak-willed people who spill the beans because potential pain is implied.

    All except for Heller’s son. That guy held out surprisingly well.

  3. tankboy@aol.com says:

    betcha they go after ctu.

    either than or zombie-nina and franken-sherry attack jack in tandem!

  4. monkeyinabox says:

    Boy, CTU even uses the cool-colors CDRs. Design and style sure matters when it’s terrorist prevention. If they want a twist so shocking next week, kill off Jack and put Chloe in charge. That would be jaw dropping. :)

  5. caley says:

    Hey, just thought I would drop a line to let you know that I finally got around to listening to that Decemberists cover and it is my favourite thing going right now. Especially when he gets the crowd to sing the chorus, then goes "That fucking sucked!"

  6. jason says:

    regarding the two guys on the "call me" cover…they’re in the excellent pas/cal who were on the same label that put out the first stars record stateside (le grand magistery). worth checking out. many will recognize their stuff from a commercial that features their songs that goes "come on, let’s go"

  7. Frank says:

    thanks jason. Alls I know is they record songs with Betty Marie Barnes whilst baking birthday cakes, so they have my undying respect right there.

  8. kitty says:

    mr. chromewaves, if arrested development gets picked up next season (OH PLEASE GOD PLEASE) can you write about that show instead of 24? that would be awesome!

  9. Frank says:

    hmm, interesting idea though I don’t know how much fun it would be to point out the absurdities of a show that’s fundamentally and deliberately absurd…

    BUT – did you notice the plot thread in this week’s episode about dealing with the order reduction? Nice little jab at FOX, that and the Family Guy ads on tonywonder.com, which I’m disappointed they didn’t actually take the trouble to make live – FOX does own the URL, in case you were wondering.

  10. Jamie says:

    I watch it every week and I still think it sucks.

  11. JOSH says:

    Looks like Dinosaur Jr may do a "surprise" show at Spaceland in Los Angeles. J Mascis and the Fog are booked there on 4/16, the night after The Late Late Show appearance. The show isn’t even up on the Spaceland calendar, but Ticket Web has it listed emphasizing the appearance of "VERY SPECIAL GUESTS". Ticket Web also reveals the show is already sold out of pre-sale tickets, without ever having been advertised via the venue site. But J’s got it up on his sight and he’s also pimping the "VERY" special guests aspect.

    Spaceland usually retains a small bundle of tickets to unload at the door the night of the show, so if you live anywhere near LA all hope is not yet lost.

    More here:

    http://…/

    http://…/

  12. dd says:

    setting the tivo!

  13. Jack B. vs Jack from Alias says:

    re: Alias this season. Absolutely episodes 2 through 12 were forgettable and not require, but the last 4 or 5 have been great.

  14. Matt says:

    I agree that having Sandman as the next villain is kind of disappointing, but keep in mind they already have Harry becoming the second Green Goblin, Doc Connors who they may or may not decide to turn into the Lizard (as he did in the comics) or do anything with John Jameson (who later became Man-Wolf in the aforementioned comics). I was sort of hoping they’d let Raimi put his spin on Venom but that may have to wait now. :(

  15. kitty says:

    yeah, the "22 to 18" thing and family guy jab was funny! i wasn’t hoping you’d write about all the absurd and funny stuff that happens; i was thinking you could write about all the running gags, references to past events (sometimes they are not fully realized until the second viewing) and the story lines and brilliant writing, e.g. the use of foreshadowing and motifs!

    *starts blog*

    actually, the difficult thing, IMO, would be to find faults and criticisms in the show, which you seem to find a plethora of in 24.

  16. Bryan says:

    The film rights to the Venom character are owned by New Line, Sony makes Spider-Man films, so you have no one but yourself to blame for getting your hopes up.

  17. Five One Seven says:

    One thing I noticed about the show is that Chloe is the only one capable of delivering the absurd exposition. The scene where she confronts Audrey outside of CTU’s Surgical Wing (huh?) was so believable. Audrey lookied like she wanted to kill her. So funny.

  18. Frank says:

    I think they’re deliberately playing up Chloe’s "bluntness" too much, and it’s too contrived. I mean, when she’s comes out and says she knows she’s like that, it’s not so funny anymore.