Attention tedious electronic musicians: Get signed by DFA, hang out with James Murphy and your music will finally be tuneful and tolerable.
See Mystery Lights by YACHT
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Now the story of Eminem who, in his old age and his riches gone, revisits 8 Mile to find his lost talent and the flow he never had…
Relapse by Eminem
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My urine see paralyze your ability with space codes/electrodes you’re ready for a pap smear/Wax in your inner ear, doodoo in your outer ear
Dr. Octagonecologyst by Dr. Octagon
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A beard can be a sign of maturity.
Abbey Road by The Beatles
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As their best album, one can’t keep thinking of “Dig!” but behind that drama there is songwriting and musicianship. Also: Heroin.
Take It from the Man by The Brian Jonestown Massacre
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Luckily, no matter how over-produced and polished this album is, you can still hear the smirk at the side of Robinson’s mouth.
Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson by Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
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Review: Star Trek
Originally posted on tylerball.net on May 11th, 2009
It has yet to be proven that you can ‘reboot a franchise’ and completely impress Tyler Ball. Star Trek was very visually satisfying, and I applaud the art directors for making it look slick and the editors for keeping the flow. So why is it that only those who twiddle knobs and draw things the only ones still showing up with talent in the realm of the Hollywood Blockbuster?
I know I shouldn’t expect much from an action film in the writing department, given their recent track record. What happened to the stoic, reserved quality of the science-fiction heyday1 when you could demonstrate the values of friendship, bravery and leadership to the viewers without punching them in the face with it?
But no, our Spocks and Batmen must exist in a vacuum, where laughable lines are delivered without any of the smirk of a Bond or a Tarantino. Hell, even Bond has turned up turned up his sarcasm in recent years so his audiences can be in on the joke. Instead, in our theatre we had laughter at its once iconic dialogue. Is that the goal of the franchise reboot? To make a mockery of the source material? I’m no more a Trekkie any more than an Olympic swimmer, but I get the feeling they take their favourite fiction pretty seriously.
Sure, the original Trek was very cheesy, but I get the feeling the styrofoam aliens and camera-shake photon hits were what everyone loved about the show. In the context of a multi-million dollar, shiny, serious production, this dialog is silly. I found myself longing for some imperfection I could associate these defined characters with, for some lovable puppets instead of the hideous uncanny valley nurses and bar-goers in the film. Hell, they could’ve just kept it 60’s with the human equivalent.
Well, thank Kahn for Simon Pegg, whose gentle unfurling into Scotty on Hoth was welcome. He displayed the sort of experienced nonchalant-ness I expected from his character, contrasting nicely from the silly grimaces on everybody else’s face.
I realise I’m definitely ignoring TNG as a source of inluence, but when I was in my formative years2, I had way too many Legos on the floor to be captivated by that shit. To me that show was ever-furrowed exchanges between Data and Worf, Riker entangled in Troi’s spandex and Picard ordering shit from the bar. I swear they weren’t even on the Bridge for a quarter of the show, just a lot of conversations over plexiglass tableware. Correct my if I’m wrong, because I got my Levar Burton from Reading Rainbow. Also, this movie didn’t concern these characters despite how much better/worse or influential TNG is to the creators of this film.
I blame the holes in this film on two things. Firstly, J.J. Abrams is an over-hyped conceptualizer. I seem to enjoy his concepts3 but his directing style seems to centre on handsome people gritting their teeth at each other. I’ve never been trapped on a fucked-up island, been a spy, ran from Cthulhu or whatever the hell Fringe is. However, I’m not convinced people in those situations use that much enunciation.
Secondly, and more importantly, is that movie studios don’t reboot franchises to drastically redefine genres. They do it to make money for godsakes. J.J. Abrams has proven to be pretty good at making money these past few years, and he was the right choice. You would have thought that he could have made something interesting out of all his conceptualizing.
2 prosthetic Spock ears out of 5, Bilbo Baggins.
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1 Think Alien, Blade Runner, the first two Star Wars films. ↩
2 Like, 6 when it ended. ↩
3 Lost is an example where the concept–at least for the first bit–outweighed the outcome. ↩
You don’t need a band, a label, a big budget, physical release or DRM to make music. Anybody who forgets that isn’t making anything good.
Out of It by Brad Sucks
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The inverse correlation between the grittiness of Dylan’s voice and the airiness of his subject matter is something to behold.
Together Through Life by Bob Dylan
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After hearing and playing the ‘blgd abt’ remixes for ages, it’s worth it to go to the source for something a rung lower on the ironic scale.
Pop Up by Yelle
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