Helen Keller

I mean...Helen Stellar:

LA shoe-gazers, Helen Stellar will bring their thick-grooved melodies to Molly Malone's on Fairfax tonight. The native-Chicago trio were recently tapped by Cameron Crowe to have their single, io (this time around), appear in his latest flick Elizabethtown. And if that wasn't enough reason to come down and check the fellas out -- we've got two magic words for you -- FREE BEER.



They're great boys, so check them out on MySpace and their Official Page. Plus they can see and hear and stuff.... neat!

Oh and, I'm DJing Mr.Keith Wilson's Star Shoes party on Friday night, so come by. Or I'll hunt you down!

MAH-STAH plan

OK, that's actually not the name of this song. It's Precious by Depeche Mode and I almost mistook it for Enjoy the Silence when hearing it on the radio a few moments ago. It's a very direct nod to the band's 80's sound, which is neither bad nor good, since I rock the pants off their old stuff all the time and Ultra is probably one of my favorite 90's albums. Dave's vocals sound excellent here and the track was produced by Ben Hillier who's worked with Doves and Blur, which means that the production on this song is gorgeous and it also means that I'm having a bollock over how exciting that is.

Another thing having a bollock is my computer, so you get to see this video while I just listen to the audio portion. Enjoy...errr...the Silence?

Also, this proves, once and for all, that the British have the best taste in music of anyone.

Lastly, is hell freezing over or is Spoon seriously in heavy rotation on KROQ? Were they that put off by Linkin Park's guarantee for the Weenie Roast that they've started kissing indie ass? At any rate, that's one point for Team Infinity/ClearChannel.

Death disco

I love music. If there's something that comes in as a close second to music it's art. I have had the pleasure of knowing some very talented artists.

Take Random, :-P <----- that's what he looks like in real life, we met up in NY. Besides going to a neat little art show downtown, eating Thai food in the dark, and getting tipsy to some disco in Williamsburg, I got to hear him retell various friends how he had spent the previous night in jail. See, Random and his friend Jed are Buff Monster and Seizer respectively and they were taken into central booking after a being caught wheat-pasting their logos in the East Village. Their work follows in the tradition of Shepherd Fairy's, Obey, who is basically the father of the wheat-pasting movement. He too has been arrested numerously for branding an aesthetic that has since wound up in everything from clothing, to concert posters, to movie ads.

Yes, the law is the law, and maybe not everyone has the same idea of what art is, but, in a city with a lot heavier problems the cops should probably concentrate on more important matters *ahem* terrorism *ahem* or that stabbing at Teany. Coincidentally this me at the Hotel on Rivington the night before that incident (I don't look scared to be on the LES. Do I?) .

Back to art, art is important and in the end the boys did get away with beautifying ol' Gotham with some nice work. Random and Jed are of course, nuts (by nuts I mean brilliant) and aren't purely satisfied with everyone seeing their work all over the place they have to risk life and limb to put it up in unimaginably high places. The pic on the right is half a Seizer print on the side of a building, look carefully. In case you were wondering, Seizer is Jed's face copied into a color block scheme to make it less central to himself and a little more open to interpretation.

Random's motivation on the other hand is boobs. Sometimes he feels inspired by ice cream and heavy metal, though I've never seen him eat anything dairy. But, mostly he likes boobs, a point never proven better than when I found myself painting a boob fountain for him at three in the morning. It'a a moment labeled as existential at best. The pic on the right is a Monster Siamese Twin.

So, that's most of what I can report for NYC right now. I took photos of lots of the food I ate - it was mostly Whole Foods sandwiches, tofu, and smoothies - why? Because you probably don't want to hear more art talk, so telling you about the Mapplethorpe exhibit at the Guggenheim and spacial sculpture would fall into that category. Alas, I suffer from technical difficulties, so no culinary treats.

I can, however, reveal that my car got hit and run two days ago for the second time in a year. It was the exact same damage as the last time, except this time there was no neighbor to write down the license plate of the criminal and then call the police. The bouncer at the restaurant/bar we were at did see the shmoe that did it and called me out in time to see this $!&*er parked a hundred yards up and then drive away. So let's pretend like I didn't just throw my hands up and start laughing hysterically, let's pretend that I took photos for insurance like last time and look at some pics of my driver's side mirror in pieces:

Anybody know where I can find a Focus driver's side mirror for cost?

If I can make it there...

I can make it back. Still in NY. Silly mother, booked my flight back to LA on the wrong day. I was at Newark Airport not a couple of hours ago trying to check in early for a flight that is tomorow!

But this brightened my day, cause it is the best headline ever!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope it's true.

OK, off to nap. When next we speak a picturesque blog about NY and how hard, literaly, it was to leave.

Late edition

It's exactly 11:59 pm as I start writing this, so I can only for one more minute say that I got to attend the premiere of Pretty Persuasion yesterday. Yup, exactly midnight now.

I'm not inclined to blog about this movie as, I guess, I'm trying to keep the subject matter here relevant more to music and low-budget film gems that are either relevant to music or I felt so close to I couldn't help but speak for them. But, because director Marcos Siega is so far most famous for his music video past (Blink 182, Kelly Osbourne) and I did actually think it was a very solid film for something that is going to wind up being mass consumed, you should read this interview with him: Nerve

Also, I got a chance to see Junebug this weekend and it was a light, touching picture. Go see it on a lovely Saturday afternoon, like I did.

Lastly, if there's anyone that has a screener or bootleg of Broken Flowers for the love of everything that's good please contact me - AIM:Mars411. I'm overreacting a bit, but I did actually cue-up for that movie twice at the Sunset 5 and both times it was sold out. If I knew this was going to happen I would have stopped to bug Jim Jarmusch when he came out of the same Last Days screening as us.

Help me doctor

This post should have been titled - "Scotchy scotch scotch, I love scotch". What was the deal with the guy next to me? He plopped himself into the reserved seats at the Sunset 5 and swigged from tiny bottles of cheap wine the entire film, wafts of which I had the pleasure of inhaling every time he knocked one back. The movie was 9 Songs and judging by the fact that Carlo Rossi wasn't there to be a careful auteur of frank sexuality and love as told through music and glaciology he could have had a much better, and cheaper, time going to the ol' XXX theatre. I think I'm still dizzy from the fumes.

Onto more prevalent matter, it's been a pretty good coupleof weeks in cinema. First Last Days opened and last Friday 9 Songs followed. Both are films I had waited a while to see, both are non-intrusive, low key, thankfully, uncomfortable glimpses into lives that are at all times underscored and/or narrated by music.


9 Songs - was a film I'd heard buzz on as far back as a couple of years ago and began reading official press on a year back. The reason for the buzz? The couple in the film has all real sex, oooooo...wow. Let's square this away now: this is not a big deal. Soft to hardcore porn is a readily available commodity in our time. Not to mention the fact that mass media has no problem selling us thinly veiled T&A all day, between trying to convince us to buy such wholesome family products as Lysol Cleaner and Cracker Jacks or whatever. So let's just take a heavy breath and get past our repressed sexuality and puerile, Ali G-like affinity for wanting to see a decent shot of him "putting it in".

In "Songs" Matt, played by Kieran O'Brien, is our leading man and is soft-spoken and reserved. Which is quite a turnaround from the childish, put-em-on-the-glasser O'Brien played in "Party People". Lisa, the female, is a significantly younger, unhinged American expat. Matt regularly cooks for Lisa, takes her on day trips, and to see shows at Brixton Academy, where they met. Lisa insists that they dance in their underwear and go to strip clubs in between their copious sexual sessions. Reading a few reviews before going into the film, I had the impression that I would encounter a dry, second-hand account of a sex-based relationship that never teems with substance or emotion. No so, the interaction between Matt and Lisa is often very intimate, funny, raunchy, and raw. The music of the shows they see serves to outline the ebb and flow between the characters, most notably by the last of the nine songs, Burns by BRMC.

But, the music is a second-hand player, just as it would be for any of us who's life consists around the daily tasks of iPoding, watching MTV, or going to shows. To take on a reductionism’s point of view for second, I would say that 9 Songs is mostly a home-video diary. Some shots are purposefully so shaky and come in so close that it's hard to believe a professional is holding the camera.

I do not purport to know why the director picked this subject matter or even the music he did, but the characters seem entirely familiar (I can immediately think of a Lisa or a Matt in my life) and the performances are unreserved enough to make you that perfect "I just thought about my parents doing it" level of uncomfortable. But, you are never repulsed or offended by what you see, because, the characters are essentially us, projected into a comfortable state with one another. That description might seem like a lot of artsy malarkey, but, take it from someone who can't sit still watching a movie at home, this film actually had my body parts falling asleep I was so at ease. If you still don't get it, here's another possible explanation, it could also be art for the sake of art. And that approach can't be argued with, cause most people don't know what that phrase means.

Last Days - was a let-the-indie-kids-start-loving-or-hate-it labor of love for director Gus van Sant and Sonic Youth-ers Kim and Thurston. Having tons in common with 9 Songs in terms of acting, the film lets the characters be real humans. You won't find any iambic-pentameter-like speaking riguer, no overacting to the camera either, just unscripted performances that are as blatently mellow as they are funny to watch. Though, the tripped-up style of main character Blake (a would-be Kurt Cobain) is a slightly exaggerated at times the forlornness he conveys is true and relatable (we've all fallen asleep sitting up in a slip and mud boots, right?).

A handful of very uncinematic characters enter Blake's home, first a Yellow Pages salesman and then twin Mormon bible-thumpers. Vignettes with both take a bit of "getting into" but provide a laugh that's desperatly needed in a film filled with very dark matter. Best of all, are the three odd minutes Kim Gordon, posed as a record executive, walks in to implore Blake to leave with her. Her delivery is dry and barely audible, but she gets the point across by asking Blake if he's told his baby daughter that he's a "rock and roll cliché".

For anyone expecting anything in the way of a "Kurt and Courtney" documentary or even van Sant's more mainstream features prepare to be disappointed. The film's pace is almost identical to that of Elephant, a film you either LOVED or had very "eh" feelings about, a cinematic style I predict the director is not done with.

...and now, some cool stuff as a reward for reading all that

A taste of the new Goldfrapp single
Ooh La La Pt.1 (Phones Re-Edit)

In anticipation of Cut Copy's new full length










and upcoming tour with Franz Ferdinand this is some goodness from their EP:
Future - Lo Med High
Future - the !!! Remix!!! - Lo Med High


These are some current faves getting spun:

And last, but in no way least, my crush for the next few months is Tim Sweeney













Sexy, huh?

Sunday morning

AdamRDGroup: michelle was like "maria is djing now too..." she said she has a feeling that youre going to make it huge in one of the things u do, like the right person will see you djing and just fall in love and back your career and all that
Me411: she really said that?
Me411: ur making it up
AdamRDGroup: no she said that
Me411: did she?
Me411: awwwe
AdamRDGroup: i was like "Yeah either that or her spaceship will come back to get her"
AdamRDGroup: ahAHhhahahahaha
Me411: ahahahahahahaha

Also, this was sent by a very funny Eric: http://www.weddingcrashersmovie.com/crashthistrailer/index.htm?id=80641

Plus, who knows a good exterminator or how to get your landlord (who promised to hire one) to answer calls on the weekend?

Corporate thinking

I was going to post about my new obsession, the Green Tea Creme Blended but the Starbucks corporation is a whore (surprised?) and locked all of the images on their homepage. Their loss. Instead I bring you a couple of pics of the stuff that matters most: music I am listening to -



















(been very into the blip-rock thing and feeling very sensitive-girly lately, Track 9 makes me weepy)

Of course if you dig any of the above or similar artist you can . Extra cool in my book is if you hit up the "cranky sales guy" and he's so impressed by your selections he doesn't actually send back recommendations that are the "other" albums by your favorite artists.

Also, props to LA.COM for one-upping me on the spelling of a post title:
http://www.la.com/blog/comments.php?id=1506_0_1_10_C20

Sometimes life is amazing, sometimes everyone you love is alive and happy for the minute and you have a great night where you go to a great show, get to see great friends, get perfectly buzzed, and pass out blissfully.

Then there are the days after where you wake up to hear really terrible news about terrorist attacks. So far I have heard from several people that were quite close to the bus explosion, and although the news keeps emphasizing that the British are being typically "stoic" I can't help but sense that it's just shock. I've known people within my circle of friends, family, and schools I've attended who have perished both in Israeli and WTC attacks and the only thing you can ever really do in those situations is to fully embrace what the tragedies meant and make sure you move on with life in a way that counteracts any possibility of something like that happening again. Me, I plan on doing many things, not the least of which is making sure to get out to the UK at the end of the year.