"Cherry" by Chromatics

A new video for the song "Cherry" by Chromatics was released the other day. It was directed by Alberto Rossini, with additional footage shot by Adam Miller.



The song will be featured on the Italians Do It Better sequel compilation After Dark 2, along with a few other Chromatics songs. You can download the song for free from bandmember Johnny Jewel's SoundCloud.

New EP and new "Ice Age" video by How To Destroy Angels

"Ice Age" is another song from An Omen, the new EP by How To Destroy Angels. The song is a pretty big departure for the band stylistically. When asked about the song in a recent reddit Q&A, Trent Reznor said, "We were experimenting around with the juxtaposition of something familiar and almost folky sounding sitting in a very cold and sterile environment. (Lead vocalist) Mariqueen had this melody that would have been happy living in a Fleetwood Mac record, and we created this plucky accompaniment that sounded acoustic but was anything but. Then we put all that in the freezer."

There is also a beautiful music video for it, which is directed by John Hillcoat. Rob Sheridan is again featured in the video.



An Omen EP is out now, by the way. You can buy and download it from the band's online store, as well as many other places where you can purchase music. You can also listen to it for free on the band's SoundCloud, or on the player embedded below.

"Keep It Together" by How To Destroy Angels

I've been excited to hear new material from How To Destroy Angels. Two of the band's members are Academy Award winning film score composers Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor, who are also known for the band Nine Inch Nails. How To Destroy Angels' first release was an EP in 2010 that I enjoyed quite a bit. They also had a cover of "Is Your Love Strong Enough?" in David Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, a movie which Ross and Reznor did the score for. They have a new EP coming out called An Omen, which is sort of a sampler for the full length album that will be coming out some time in 2013. They have a new single called "Keep It Together" which will be on both the EP and the album, and there's a music video for it featuring the band playing the song in their beautiful studio.



One thing about the video that's very interesting to me is that the guy playing the French Connection is the band's art director / photographer Rob Sheridan. He's been a part of the band since the beginning, but I didn't really expect him to have a musical role in it, just a visual one I guess. I've been a fan of his photography and art for many years, but I believe this is the first time I've actually seen him playing an instrument. In my opinion he fits right in.

You can download their first EP for free or preorder their new EP on their online store. On the band's SoundCloud, there are two remixes of "Keep It Together" for free download as well. One by Factory Floor and one by TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek. You can also download the unremixed version of the song.

"Tears From Heaven" by Desire

I'm a huge fan of Desire, which is one of Johnny Jewel's bands. Their debut album is one of my favorite albums from recent years, and I've been very patiently looking forward to hearing more from them.

Yesterday they released a music video for the song "Tears From Heaven" which will be featured on the Italians Do It Better sequel compilation After Dark 2, along with another new Desire song called "The Nightshift". I am really looking forward to the whole compilation, and it should be out sometime soon. To hear the first After Dark compilation, check out the newly remastered version on Johnny Jewel's SoundCloud.

Anyway, I didn't post this yesterday because I wanted to post the Glass Candy song yesterday, being as though it was Halloween and everything. Like Glass Candy's "Halloween" video, the video for "Tears From Heaven" was directed by Alberto Rossini.

"Halloween" by Glass Candy

Happy Halloween!

Apparently last year I forgot I had a blog for several months and didn't post this song, so I'm posting it this year instead.

The song was written by Johnny Jewel's band Glass Candy as an homage to the classic John Carpenter movie, Halloween. It's perfect for Halloween mixes, and for Halloween party playlists. The video for the song was directed by Alberto Rossini.



To read the lyrics or download the song, go to Johnny Jewel's SoundCloud.

Werewolf Balls redux: Giving the people what they want.

I posted an entry on April 4th, 2011 where I wrote a little bit about an anatomically correct werewolf figure I found at a toy store. The figure was so detailed, with not much left to the imagination. You could clearly see the shapeshifter's shaft and bollocks bulging in its tight and torn blue shorts. Composing that sentence made me feel like I was writing a romance novel. Stephenie Meyer has got nothing on me.

About a year after originally posting the story I started noticing that my blog was getting a lot of page views from people searching on Google for phrases like "werewolf balls", "werewolf testicles", "anatomically correct werewolf", and my personal favorite, "what do werewolf balls look like". I've been seeing these phrases in my blog stats pretty regularly ever since then too. Maybe it has something to do with the popularity of Twilight. It all seems rather strange to me, but who am I to judge? These werewolf testicle enthusiasts probably don't do anyone any harm, right? So what do I care if they're into lycanthrope genitalia?

When I first wrote about this wolfman and his fantastical 'nads, I had no idea there was such a rabid fan base. That and also mostly the fact that my fellow shoppers and I didn't have a camera kept me from posting photographic evidence of this creature's bulge. When I started getting so many hits from people specifically seeking werewolf balls, I had the urge to give the people what they want. I was planning to make another post with photographs, but every time I went back to the store with my camera, they didn't have the werewolf toy. I had done some internet research and found out the company that makes the figures is Papo.

In my research I found some wonderful things. There were no specific mentions of the detailed anatomy of the figure, but there were sentences so funny that it's very possible the people who wrote them are in on the joke. For example, on one site there was a warning about the toy that said, "Choke Hazard - Contains Small Parts". Reading that had me laughing for several minutes straight. On the Toys "Я" Us website, I found a review of the figure that said, "I hope that Toys "Я" Us makes more products like this and makes them in other sizes as well, because I like werewolves in all sizes. Meaning small, medium, and large." I bet you do, buddy. I also found out how god damn expensive these figures are. In that original blog entry I called the werewolf toy cheap, and I guess I just assumed they were because they seemed like the kind of action figures poor kids get. These figures don't even have any articulation! I found several pictures of the figure, balls and all, but I really wanted to post my own photos, so I kept bringing my camera every time I went to the mall, hoping they'd restocked the werewolf figures. After so many visits to the mall without ever seeing another figure I was starting to wonder if the store had gotten complaints about the werewolf and stopped selling it.

Well, finally the other day I was at the mall, with my camera in tow, and on the shelf of loose Papo figures, there was a lone lycanthrope, junk and all. Rather than just taking photos of it and parting ways forever, I actually purchased it, adopting this bally werewolf to take home and raise as my very own. Besides just kind of wanting to own it after all we'd been through together, this way I could take my time during the photo shoot. I feel like I owe good photos to these people who pay visits to my blog over and over again looking for the goods. This is my gift to you, weirdos. I hope you appreciate it.

I hadn't noticed before that the blue shorts were unbuttoned. Maybe they changed the mold since I originally saw it. What a strange toy.

And now for the sexy close-up shot you all came to see...

The werewolf figure is now at home on my Halloween mood table.

Another new addition to the table is Cadbury Screme Eggs, and I'm very happy to add them to my Halloween experience this year.

Minecraft Halloween

I decorated my Minecraft house for Halloween!

I'm really looking forward to some Halloween fun in the new Pretty Scary Update. Witches, bats, pumpkin pies... Should be a great time!

Halloween mini paper lanterns.

I'm a big fan of paper lanterns. I love them. If I was a member of the Green Lantern Corps, my power battery would be a paper lantern. And all the other Green Lanterns would be jealous of me.

I have several paper lanterns, and there's one special one I'll write about sometime in the future. This post isn't for that lantern. This post is for Halloween mini paper lanterns, which I purchased at fiVe BEL°W.

One set with ghosts on them, and one that looks like Jack-O-Lanterns.

I love the ghost ones. I didn't know what to expect them to look like when lit up, but they look cool. The black paper looks great.

The Jack-O-Lantern ones are really special though. Paper lanterns and Jack-O-Lanterns are amazing ideas by themselves. Whoever put them together may have been a little less original and done something seemingly obvious, but they struck gold. Beautiful Halloween gold. These mini ones also throw Christmas lights into the mix, making them like some kind of supergroup. Halloween mini paper lanterns are essentially the Crosby, Stills & Nash of decorative lighting.

Let's take a look at some Halloween costumes.

I'm probably not wearing a costume this year as there aren't any parties planned and I don't have any good costume ideas this year anyway. I have been looking at costumes in stores though, and have taken pictures of a few that I'd like to share.

"Sexy" Halloween costumes seem to have gotten more and more popular over the years. I went to Spirit recently, and while they had many "sexy" costumes for women, these two stuck out to me:

Sexy Edward Scissorhands and Sexy Betelgeuse. I think they should complete the series with a Sexy Jack Skellington.

Hmm, you know, I have the DVD of Beetlejuice and an Edward Scissorhands action figure on my Halloween mood table.

Also at spirit, I found this Incredible Hulk child's costume.

It doesn't indicate it anywhere in writing on the package, but I think it's actually a sleepy child Hulk. Look at that ferocious yawn. You wouldn't like him when he's sleepy. Sleepy child hulk costume includes ripped purple pajama pants and for some reason a mohawk. I guess I see children with mohawks quite often these days though.

The final costume was found at a flea market.

It's an old Ben Cooper costume of the moustached Masters Of The Universe character Man-At-Arms. It's perfect if you love Masters Of The Universe and if you love getting your eyeballs sliced up by sharp plastic. Only one of those is true about me.

Halloween Mood Table 2012

Happy October! It's the 1st of the month, and I set up my Halloween mood table today. I got the idea from X-Entertainment several years back and last year was my first experience setting up my own. The Halloween mood table was also the post today on Dinosaur Dracula, the spiritual successor to X-Entertainment, which is in the middle of its first Halloween Countdown. If you're unfamiliar with the concept of a Halloween mood table, you can read about it there.

My table this year is a big improvement over last year's, and I imagine it will continue to get more awesome every year as I develop and hone my mood table skills. I again used the coffee table that I regularly have in my room, so during the Halloween season I am without a regular coffee table. As I'm sure you can see, it's clearly worth the temporary sacrifice.

I had the collectable LEGO minifigures on the table last year, but this year the Dracula is a Dinosaur Dracula. The Halloween takeout containers housed prizes I won for my GERTY costume 2 years ago, and I thought the containers were cool. Mmm, blog continuity...

There's a stack of season-appropriate DVD's, a skull candle holder, and Batman: Haunted Knight. I know Krang and Edward Scissorhands don't have anything to do with Halloween, but I knew they wanted to be in on the fun, and I think they fit right in. Pumpkin Pie and Spookylicious Pop-Tarts complete the ensemble. Oh, and there's the purple lights and the table cloth, which is actually a fancy scarf of mine.

A pretty special addition to the table this year is a pair of old computer speakers hidden underneath, which can be easily plugged into my iPod to play Halloween music like "Dead Man's Party" by Oingo Boingo,  "Halloween" by Glass Candy, and the All Hallow's EP by AFI.

UPDATE: Check out this entry to see a few more additions to the table.

I saw some truck nuts today.

So I guess I can cross that off my bucket list.

In case you don't know (and please excuse my own limited knowledge on the subject), truck nuts are a rubber or plastic pair of testicles that really classy people usually hang under their pickup trucks.

The pair I saw were on a four wheeler being pulled by a white van at a gas station. A very sloppy-looking guy emerged from the van and filled the four wheeler with gasoline. We made eye contact, and I think he could tell I was judging him. I was.

What's strange to me is that the truck nuts were hanging from a bar on the back of the four wheeler. To extend the visual metaphor, I was trying to decide what part of the anatomy that bar would be. It seemed to me, from the position it was in that it was the tail bone. So it was like the four wheeler had a scrotum hanging from its tail bone. It was just a really odd placement, in my opinion, and it made me glad my scrotum isn't located there. I feel like the location of the actual scrotum on the human body isn't that great either (not that I can think of a better place for it), but it's still much better than having one on your tail bone. And that's a fact.

LEGO Hip-Hip Troll

My Pretentious Troll didn't get much love. Is it because he's pretentious?

Sure he's pretentious, but he's lovable. Imagine what kinds of things he might paint. Is there a whole art community of fantasy creatures? Is there a dragon that does graffiti art on castle walls?

There's also a music scene of fantasy creatures. This is Hip-Hop Troll.

This guy is a combination of the troll and the Collectable Minifigure Rapper. I also gave him gold horns instead of silver.

What would a troll's hip-hop songs be about?

Chicago Splitscreen

I was looking through old photos of mine the other day and found these.

I took the top photo in Chicago during the summer of 2006. I took the bottom photo in Chicago during the autumn of 2008. The only two times I've ever been to Chicago. I didn't realized I had taken such similar photos on two separate trips until I was looking at old photos the other day. I did not intend to take two photos from almost exactly the same spot, but I guess both of these times I found myself in that spot and decided it was a beautiful view for a photo. There was a little bit of cropping done to reframe them since they didn't line up perfectly, but not much.

LEGO Pretentious Troll

If you liked the LEGO Dinosaur Dracula I made and put in the post yesterday, I think you might enjoy this too. You probably think it's a troll dressed as an artist for Halloween, but you're most definitely wrong about that. He's actually a very pretentious artist troll.

To put this guy together, I combined a troll with a few pieces from the so very pretentious looking Collectable Minifigure Artist, who I always thought looked like Brian Topp from the television show Spaced. Brian is also a very pretentious artist.

Hmm, I wonder what sorts of things a pretentious troll would paint...

Dinosaur Dracula's Halloween Countdown

I wrote about the X-Entertainment Halloween Countdown two years ago. This past summer, the creator of X-Entertainment, Matt, launched a new website called Dinosaur Dracula. It's basically the spiritual successor to X-Entertainment, but is clearly an improvement due to the recently hatched vampiric Tyrannosaurus rex (I love that I know how to spell that without having to look it up or even think about it) that the site has for a mascot.

Since it's early September, any reasonable human being could have expected this... Dinosaur Dracula's Halloween Countdown started recently, and since the site is new, this is its first ever Halloween Countdown. That's something pretty special. It has the renewed energy and magic of the new site, but since there have been so many Halloween Countdowns on X-Entertainment, Matt has had plenty of practice. And you know what they say about practice.

After seeing the Dinosaur Dracula action figure that Matt made in his post about Matchbox Con-Nec-Tors and seeing that he compared the toys to LEGO, I was inspired to make this LEGO version of Dinosaur Dracula.

I combined parts from the Collectable Minifigure Lizard Man and Vampire, and had to find one extra piece to complete it: a black minifigure head to go under the dinosaur mask. Matt mentioned in the Con-Nec-Tors post that despite the fact that one of the figures is an obvious Dracula, they called it a Vampire. Well, you may have noticed that the same goes for that LEGO minifigure. He's called Vampire, but he's obviously Dracula. These toy companies can't fool us.

I hope you enjoyed my LEGO Dinosaur Dracula. I know I enjoy it. Check out Dinosaur Dracula's Halloween Countdown. At this point, you don't have too much catching up to do.

"Default" by Atoms For Peace

For quite a while now I've had Atoms For Peace over in my Music I'm Looking Forward To In '12 section.

From what I understand, Atoms For Peace is a band that was formed by Radiohead's Thom Yorke to play material from his solo album The Eraser live. The band, named after a song from The Eraser (which is named after a speech given by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953), is made up of Yorke, frequent Yorke/Radiohead collaborator Nigel Godrich, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, percussionist Mauro Refosco, and drummer Joey Waronker. The live shows went well and they decided to take the collaboration to the studio.

The band's website launched yesterday with a video for "Default".



The song is the band's first single, and is available for purchase on iTunes. I like it. I was expecting their music to feel less electronic and more like a band, but maybe this isn't indicative of how the rest of the album will sound. Either way is fine with me as long as it's this good.

The debut album was expected this year, but now Yorke has said that it will be released next year. I guess I'll have to start a Music I'm Looking Forward To In '13 list now.

"And I Will Kiss" by Underworld (featuring Evelyn Glennie)

On my other blog, INT. A CINEMATIC MIND - NIGHT, I posted an entry about the 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony. The ceremony, entitled Isles Of Wonder, was designed by director Danny Boyle with music direction by one of my favorite bands, Underworld. I'm not that interested in sports, but the team-up of Boyle and Underworld was enough to get me to watch the ceremony.

After watching the ceremony, there was one specific part I wanted to post on here, but I couldn't find it on youtube. I've at least found the music now though. The music, named "And I Will Kiss" after part of a speech given by the character Caliban in The Tempest by William Shakespeare, was the score to a part of Isles Of Wonder which represented the industrial revolution in Britain. The song, composed by Underworld, features over one thousand drummers led by the percussionist Evelyn Glennie. It was pretty amazing to watch, and it's amazing to listen to as well. It's 17 minutes long, but it's definitely worth listening to the entire thing.

Neil Armstrong

August 5, 1930 - August 25, 2012

I know that I'm posting this late. I apologize. This is something I've been wanting to put here since the day he died, but I haven't really had the time to put the post together until today.

I felt speechless about the topic on the day it happened, and I feel the same now. So I'm taking a cue from one of my friends and posting an excerpt from the speech William Safire wrote for President Richard Nixon to give if the moon landing had failed, stranding Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. Obviously the speech was unused because the mission was a success, but part of the speech feels relevant and appropriate now.

"In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood. Others will follow and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied but these men were the first and they will remain the foremost in our hearts."

"Plague" by Crystal Castles

I don't intend for this to be a music blog, and don't really think of it as one, but when I have little else to post about and there's good music coming out, it kind of becomes one.

I love the band Crystal Castles. It's not a shocker if you've been reading my blog for a few years. I love their first two albums, which were both self-titled. I also love their version of "Not In Love" with Robert Smith doing vocals. The band has a new album coming out some time this year. I wonder if it will also be self-titled. Anyway, the reason for this post is that there's a song called "Plague" from the new album.



I'm really looking forward to hearing the rest of the new album.

UPDATE: "Plague" is a free download on the band's SoundCloud.

Secret Empire releases album Storm Command

I made a post a little over a month ago about Secret Empire announcing a release date for the album Storm Command. The highly anticipated album was finally released yesterday morning, right at midnight. I've just been too busy to post about it until just now.

I love that album cover. It will look great on my iPod. It can look great on your iPod too, because Storm Command can be downloaded for free from SoundCloud. Just use the widget below to download the 10 tracks. You can, of course, also stream it on there.



If you haven't seen them, or if you'd like to see them again, my previous post about Storm Command has a music video for the song "Alien (Burial)" as well as a short video about the making of the album. Check them out.

The Afghan Whigs playing "LoveCrimes" live

Remember my previous post about The Afghan Whigs covering a Frank Ocean song? Here's a video of them playing it live.



And if you want to download the studio version for free, check that previous post.

The Afghan Whigs cover "LoveCrimes"

As I've said before, I'm a huge fan of The Afghan Whigs, and a few months back I posted about them releasing a cover song. They released another new one recently. This time it's a cover of a song originally by Frank Ocean, called "LoveCrimes". Just like before, they released it for free on The Afghan Whigs website. You can stream the track at The Fader, or download it for free using the widget below.

 

I have a movie blog.

I'm a big fan of movies, and a few months back I created a movie blog called INT. A CINEMATIC MIND - NIGHT. It's just a place for me to post anything I want about movies, and maybe sometimes television. Several of the posts on it were actually originally on this blog, but then I moved them over when I created the other one, so if you've been a reader here for a while, many of the early posts on my movie blog will be familiar to you. Check it out.

I am an American.

Yesterday I met some children from Ireland who are staying with some relatives of mine. While spending time with them, I kept thinking about how they must have a fairly limited amount of experience with Americans, and how weird it is that I'm now personally a part of their general idea of Americans.

Storm Command by Secret Empire [08.01.12]

Way back, years ago, in the days of myspace, there was a musician named Connor Ragan, who started a music project called Secret Empire. Ever since I heard the first teaser he uploaded to his myspace page, and the full demo songs later on, I've been very much looking forward to his eventual album, Storm Command. Late last year, Secret Empire released a music video for one of the songs on the album called "Alien (Burial)". It's a great song, and I love the video. Check it out.



Storm Command is finally being released on August 1st, 2012. And I'm very excited. And it's going to be free to download! It was produced by Shaun Lopez. The very same Shaun Lopez that produced the most recent Deftones album Diamond Eyes, and that is one of the members of the band ††† (Crosses), which I am also a pretty big fan of.

Here is a short video about the making of Storm Command featuring Ragan and Lopez.



You can also listen to other songs from Storm Command, "Plastic Wrist" and "Oh Well" on youtube. And if you want to learn more, go to the Secret Empire website and facebook page.

UPDATE: The album has now been released. Go read this newer post to download the album for free.

The New School Approach To Parenting

When Patrick and I saw The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo back in January, although the movie was disturbing, the most disturbing thing about the experience was that a couple in the row behind us had a baby and a toddler with them.

At first I thought maybe we had gone into the wrong theater. And then I thought maybe they did, but the movie was starting and they still weren't leaving. Then I kept looking back during the more disturbing scenes of the movie to see if the parents were at least covering the kids' eyes, but they weren't. The kids were watching intently. Sometimes the baby would cry. At one point I heard the toddler ask "What is she doing?", referring to something Lisbeth Salander was doing in one of the more disturbing scenes, and I didn't hear her parents answer her. It was pretty distracting watching a movie like that knowing that a baby and a toddler are ten feet away from you.

Patrick and I saw Prometheus today, and at least I didn't notice any babies or toddlers in the audience. But a little while before the movie started, we were in Best Buy, and while I was looking at movies, I heard a guy behind me saying "If you don't stop actin' a fool, I'm gonna slap you!" I figured he was joking around with one of his friends or something, but I turned around to find it was a man saying it to a little girl, and he was pointing his finger right in her face. Great parenting, buddy.

The Afghan Whigs cover "See And Don't See"

The Afghan Whigs got back together this year to play some shows. Although I am a big fan of frontman Greg Dulli's other band The Twilight Singers, The Afghan Whigs are also one of my favorite bands, so I'm happy to see them back together.

It's unknown whether or not they are going to record a new album, but they have recorded a cover song, originally sung by Marie "Queenie" Lyons, called "See And Don't See". It was released yesterday for free on The Afghan Whigs website, making it the first new recording the band has released in over five years. You can download the song using the widget below.
 

The band will be playing the song when they appear on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday, May 22nd. It will be their first appearance on television in over a decade.

Maurice Sendak

June 10, 1928 - May 8, 2012

Most people who know me well know that I'm really into children's books, especially ones I grew up with. The books Where The Wild Things Are (which he wrote and illustrated), What Do You Say, Dear?, and What Do You Do, Dear? (both of which he illustrated, but did not write) were all a huge part of my childhood, and all made an immeasurable impact on the person that I've become.

Signs That Your Partner Is A Player

There's another one of those stupid articles on the front page of Yahoo.

I'd like to revise the list of signs. It now has only one, but it's a huge one.

1. If he walks around with his shirt collar like that, he is a player, and must be dumped immediately. The only reason a man should ever have his collar like that is if he's in the act of putting on a tie.

Adam Yauch

August 5, 1964 - May 4, 2012

His style was wild. He had gall. He had guile.

I can't be the only one to have noticed the resemblance - 2

Retribution Gospel Choir release free new EP

Alan Sparhawk's band Retribution Gospel Choir released an EP on Pitchfork for free. The Revolution EP has 4 new songs. It's a fun and quick listen at just over 10 minutes long. The only negative thing I have to say about the EP is that the cover art is pretty ugly compared to the covers of the band's first two albums.

Listen to or download the free EP by typing your e-mail address below.

 

New video for "Lady" by Chromatics

I can't be the only one to have noticed the resemblance.