http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Thu, 25 Aug 2005 22:45:24 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/25/224524.php Capn KenI want to like everything The Fleshtones do. They are, after all, the Godfathers of modern Garage Rock.So it pains me to report that the 'tones new album, Beachhead, is mediocre at best. The songs are formulaic, the performance uninspired. After 30 years of pounding out the beat, maybe the guys are just spent. We are talking men in their '50s taking on the task of high-energy pop/rock, after all. I last saw The Fleshtones live two years ago, and although their ages were showing, they still had it. They had, in fact, the best show exit I've ever seen. Armed with wireless gear, Peter Zaremba, guitarist Keith Streng and their bass player headed into the crowd. Drummer Bill Millhizer picked up his floor tom and followed. They made their way through the crowd and out the front door, crossed the street, got into a car and drove off - playing and singing the whole time until they were out of wireless range. Classic. So if The Flestones come to a seedy rock club in your town, go see them. But if you want to experience their true glory, pick up their "Living Legend Series" CD and check out classics like "Cold, Cold, Shoes", "Shadow Line" and "Right Side of a Good Thing." Music34830@blogcritics.org Thu, 25 Aug 2005 22:45:24 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/22/103119.php Capn KenIf the Earth were a good and decent place, The Woggles would rule it. A hard-charging, high-energy throwback '60s garage band is just what this world needs. For any of you with small children who may be confused by this post, I'm not writing about The Wiggles. It's Woggles. The Woggles hosted a benefit show Friday night for the family of Billy Bass Wolf, a member of the great Japanese rock band Guitar Wolf who died of a heart attack earlier this year. The fact that The Woggles would make the effort to raise a few dollars for a musician's family halfway across the globe speaks to the tight-knit nature of their musical circle. The show itself was a standard Woggles firestorm. The Professor (aka "Mighty Manfred" from Sirius' Underground Garage) slung himself across the stage, snaked his way through the audience - but, thankfully, didn't attempt the barstool-to-bar leap that left him flat on his back at their last EARL show - and generally got everybody happy. A good number of people at the show were out-of-towners who'd followed opener The Dexateens from Alabama, so the reaction of the young girls not used to The Professor's antics was classic. Puzzlement and fear eventually gave way to uncontrolled Go-Go dance moves. Typical of a Woggles outing. East Atlanta's EARL is pretty much The Woggles' home court, so the show was also full of Atlanta scenesters, which upped the energy for audience-participation numbers such as "Push" and "Red Light, Green Light."Also on the bill were The Subsonics, another Atlanta act best described as a cross between The Cramps and The Strokes. Buffi Aguero - who fabulously plays drums standing up - is like an anti-Gwen Stefani and her presence is worth the price of admission. Overall, the show was a good gathering of three bands with little in common except a cause. ED: TAS Music34600@blogcritics.org Mon, 22 Aug 2005 10:31:19 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/19/100256.php Capn KenI've been itching to see Kings of Leon live since stumbling across them just over two years ago. Until recently, however, the boys have spent most of their time in the U.K., where audiences were quicker to embrace a throwback/progressive Southern rock outfit than American audiences have been. I had no interest in seeing them as the opening act for U2, but they've been headlining their own tour in the U.S. this summer. And last night they stopped at The Tabernacle in downtown Atllanta. The venue: The Tabernacle is an old Baptist tabernacle that was briefly a House of Blues during the Atlanta Olympics and is now a medium-sized live music venue. A fitting place for the Kings to play, seeing how they are the sons/nephew of a Pentecostal preacher. I've been disappointed in the sound quality there in the past, especially when a "popular" band is playing. I think management sometimes simply turns down the volume to avoid hassles from parents after all-ages shows for "popular" acts. Thankfully, the sound for the Kings show was great, filling the room with rich guitar tones and creating nice pressure waves from the bass. The performance: What struck me most about the Kings set is how tight they were live, at least on the songs that are part of their regular set. Listening to their records, the band comes across as a kind of loose, free-wheeling bunch (I won't say "jam band", but the vibe is kind of like an Allman Brothers record). But their set was clean and powerful. At times the boys played with little emotion or energy, but at other times they cut loose and were really feeling the music. Perhaps that's a reflection of their Pentecostal roots. Near the end of the set, the boys appeared to venture off the set list, and it showed with a little more sloppy play (not that there's anything wrong with that). The set: The Kings opened with Molly's Chambers, one of their original tunes that appears both on the Holy Roller Novocaine EP and Young and Young Manhood LP. The driving guitars and bass make for a great show-opener. They then drifted quickly into a long run of cuts from Aha Shake Heartbreak, including the hit The Bucket, which they played probably seven or eight songs in. To me, it's a test of a band's worth to see how they treat their hit song live. Saving the hit up for the close of the show comes off as having a lack of confidence in your overall material. Throwing it out early says a band is determined to not be defined by the hit. And I like how the Kings handled both The Bucket and songs from Aha Shake Heartbreak in general. The Aha Shake songs are the ones most of the audience knows, so the boys met that demand by running off a number of them early in the show. Then, with the stuff people expected to hear out of the way, they went back and picked up their favorite tunes from Youth and Young Manhood. They closed the regular set with Trani, a slow, rambling five-minute cut from Youth and Young Manhood. That was a bold choice for a closer. The song builds up to a furious finish, and they took advantage of that live, but it was still an unexpected but good choice.For the encore, they opened with Holy Roller Novocaine, followed by what must be a new song (and it was good) before closing with Slow Night, So Long, which to me is the best cut from Aha Shake Heartbreak. With the encore, the set ran about 1 hour, 15 minutes. The verdict: A really solid show. The Kings did a really good job of translating the vibe and emotion of their records to a live show. Unfortunately, the Kings' five-week run of U.S. shows is about to wrap up (Asheville, NC 8/19 and Nashville 8/20). From there they head, of course, back to the U.K. Music34445@blogcritics.org Fri, 19 Aug 2005 10:02:56 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/17/122539.php Capn KenI tend to watch TV news to watch the media, not the "news". The truth is, what passes for "news" on TV is typically not.So I loved this moment that happened on CNN's American Morning today. Miles "I'm not an anchor" O'Brien was talking to a local official from Crawford, Texas about the disruption being caused by the protests outside of President Bush's ranch. He wanted to learn more about what kind of problems all the people cause down there in Texas. But the guy he was talking to broke topic and let Miles know he was inclined to tow away the CNN broadcast truck, which was apparently parked in the roadway. It's a 30-second clip, and well worth checking out. CNN threatened with tow Culture34304@blogcritics.org Wed, 17 Aug 2005 12:25:39 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/16/095844.php Capn KenCNBC has been doing a great job with long-form programming of late. Their business specials on Wal-Mart and eBay earlier this year were great pieces of in-depth analysis on the companies. Their latest production - Las Vegas, Inc. - lacks a bit of the depth that made the Wal-Mart and eBay specials so compelling, but it brings to light things about the business of Vegas that I've not learned on the countless Vegas specials I've seen on the Travel Channel, TLC, A&E or other networks (everybody's obsessed with Vegas these days). I don't want to spoil some of the surprises, most of which revolve around the amazing uses Vegas moguls have for psychology and technology, but to hit just a few of the highlights:After 30 years in town, Steve Wynn applied his obsession for the distance between table-game chairs, the height of ceilings and other design details in development of his new namesake casino. (As an aside, I've been to the Wynn casino and don't see the appeal. But I'm not his target audience). The former Harvard B-school professor running Harrah's knows an awful lot about his customers and leverages his database in amazing ways. The owner of the Palms has made a science out of sex. Overall, a very enjoyable and educational 44 minutes of television. CNBC has a tendency to scatter replays of their specials across their schedule for weeks or even months, so if you want a real behind-the-scenes look at how the business of Vegas works, consult your TiVo Guide. Video34235@blogcritics.org Tue, 16 Aug 2005 09:58:44 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/14/123653.php Capn KenThe single greatest event in the history of my city happened about a month ago - an IKEA store opened here. OK, that may be a bit overblown, but to listen to the buzz here in Atlanta, you'd think it's not far off from the truth. We'd been warned to not venture to IKEA on the weekend. But yesterday, thinking perhaps the mania had died down a bit, my wife and I decided to attempt it. We didn't even make it to the parking lot. Turning in to the IKEA part of Atlantic Station - a huge new mini-city built on the site of an old steel mill - we encountered lines of cars coming from all directions, several "parking lot full" signs, about a dozen off-duty cops directing traffic and a sign pointing would-be shoppers to the "IKEA Shuttle". It took us about 30 seconds to decide "no, thanks" and skip out of the gridlock. It was a very smart decision, by the way, for the Atlantic Station folks to tuck IKEA away in the back of the development. It has its own entry and exit roads and kind of its own little loop around the store. And it's isolated from the rest of the place, meaning the IKEA gridlock shouldn't affect the rest of the stores, homes and offices. Smart.The store is close enough to my office that I could hit it at lunch hour, so I may give that a shot someday. But the experience of just trying to get close to the place made me wonder how the hell it could be worth the hassle. Sure, cheap Scandinavian furniture is a good thing, I suppose. But can any of you who've managed to get inside an IKEA say for sure it's worth this kind of hassle? I just don't get it. Culture34152@blogcritics.org Sun, 14 Aug 2005 12:36:53 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/11/165809.php Capn KenYou may have heard of The Dan Band as "the wedding band from Old School". If you've seen the movie, the band's fabulously inappropriate version of 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' likely stuck with you. So when I heard that the band from Old School - in the form of The Dan Band - actually existed, I thought it would be cool to get the full-form Old School experience. Unfortunately, The Dan Band isn't quite the same as the Old School wedding band. "Dan" has seen fit to create what he sees as a high-concept, lowbrow act centered around singing female anthems in dude mode. It's amusing for about 10 minutes, and then it gets repetitive. Imagine if you and your friends had worked out a really tight karaoke act and you have the live incarnation of The Dan Band. In my mind, the great thing about the wedding band scene from Old School was the seeming normality - cheesy musicians in tuxedos playing what would seem like a typical bad wedding song but littered with f-bombs and sexual gestures - of the situation. And The Dan Band loses that, as they try very hard to be a specific creation (a guy in a mechanic's outfit and two nerd guys dressed in matching nerd attire ... um, OK). Sure, I understand that just trotting out the yellow tuxedos and being the "wedding band" might not get you much of a career, but I'd have preferred that to "Dan" in this slightly modified version. At the least, they should stop billing themselves as the "Old School" band. Because, even if you find it amusing, it's not the same thing. Music34040@blogcritics.org Thu, 11 Aug 2005 16:58:09 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/05/130156.php Capn KenNOTE: This is a book review, not an advocacy piece for the FairTax.Libertarian radio talk show host Neal Boortz and U.S. Rep John Linder (R - GA) released their national retail sales tax manifesto - The FairTax Book - this week. Both men acknowledge the goal of the book is to raise awareness of the FairTax idea, which both have supported for many years. But the book - thin at 182 pages - treads too close to Boortz' "I'm right, and you're a moron if you don't get that" tone to be given serious consideration as a thoughtful advocacy of the tax reform proposal. Perhaps it's that Boortz couldn't manage to separate his "talk-show" tone from his "author" tone. The book's early chapters trace the history of income taxes in America, the burdensome requirements of tax compliance in the U.S. today and the negative effect the current income tax system has on our economy. It then moves into specifics of the FairTax plan and its promised benefits before answering some common skeptical questions about the plan and urging readers to act. To be sure, there is a problem with our current income tax system, and the FairTax proposal has some intriguing benefits. And for someone unfamiliar with the plan or who has heard the anti-FairTax propaganda, it might serve as a good basic primer. In the end, though, the complex economic dynamics of the current system and the proposed FairTax would have been better explained by somebody other than Boortz. Maybe if the writing had been handed over to somebody like Steven Levitt (Freakonomics) who can handle economic topics with the right balance of information and engaging style, the end result would have been more satisfying. Books33675@blogcritics.org Fri, 5 Aug 2005 13:01:56 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/11/03/041120.php Capn KenCNN, as most everybody knows, is standing firm on not calling Ohio for Bush this morning. But if you look at their elector count, they are calling two states that other organizations have yet to call. CNN is basically alone in calling Wisconsin for Kerry and Nevada for Bush. Looking close at the numbers, it's hard to understand the logic. In Ohio, which CNN says is "too close to call", Bush has a lead of 136,000 votes, with 100% of precincts reporting.In Wisconsin, which CNN is basically alone in calling for Kerry, Kerry has a lead of 13,293 votes, with 99% of precincts reporting.In Nevada, which CNN is also basically alone in calling for Bush, Bush has a lead of 20,505 votes, with 99% of precincts reporting.All of the states in question have provisional ballots to count, Ohio is the only one with 100% of precincts reporting and the leading candidate in Ohio has a margin of 100,000 votes more than in Wisconsin or Nevada.How is it that CNN - which says it's not calling Ohio out of an abundance of caution - is willing to call these other two races before everybody else when they are closer than the race that Fox and NBC have already called? Politics21806@blogcritics.org Wed, 3 Nov 2004 04:11:20 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/09/30/114855.php Capn KenI just finished the first spin of The Clash's London Calling, Legacy Edition, and for true Clash fans, it's a must buy. I emphasize the word "true" above, because the extras included in the Legacy Edition are rough bits collected before and during the recording of London Calling that function more as a historical archive than "bonus tracks". The extra CD in the package has the legendary Vanilla Tapes, the band's demo/rehearsal cuts of tracks that ended up on London Calling. These cuts were assumed to be lost until Mick Jones discovered his set of tapes early this year. The cuts are rough and often ugly. Some are very, very early instrumental-only versions of London Calling classics (such as "Paul's Tune", which is the band's attempt to develop the rhythm for what would be come "Clampdown"). Also included is a DVD called The Last Testament, which is really a re-edited collection of homemade videos and other material shot during the London Calling sessions. Think of the Legacy Edition as a portable Clash museum. The definitive historical source for one of the greatest albums ever made. People who are hearing "London Calling" for the first time on Jaguar commercials are better off saving $15 and buying the standard CD. But for people like myself, who already own London Calling on LP and CD, the Legacy Edition is $25 very well spent. Music20474@blogcritics.org Thu, 30 Sep 2004 11:48:55 EDT