THE NILES LESH PROJECT - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
SIMONA HALEP - ROMANIAN TENNIS WONDER
Current Junior French Open Champion
SIMONA HALEP WORKINGIT OUT
THE NILES LESH PROJECT - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
BEA ARTHUR - 1922-2009 - Funniest Woman Ever !
Bea Arthur - AP news story
Bea Arthur - My favorite comediene. She had the best delivery and comic timing ever. Anyone who aspires to learn comedy should study her work because she was the best I have ever heard at delivering a punch line. Perfectly served every time!
Her double takes were the perfect retort to many stupid questions
The topics that were covered on Maude were breakthrough for comedy television, when is the last time the lead character from a sitcom discussed the possibility of getting an abortion...and was still able to make it funny !
The opening title sequence and theme song are still awesome 30 years later
Here clips from two of my favorite episodes
MAUDE'S GUILT TRIP
Maude dreads the visit from old Aunt "Tinki"
Maude's Desperate Hour
Maude thinks that a workman that she insulted is coming to kill her
Bea Arthur's work on the Golden Girls as Dorthy was equally brilliant, but she will always be Maude to me...Right On Maude !
Ok and for the adventurous click here to see Bea Arthur naked !
Neatorama's 5 things you did not know about Bea Arthur
THE NILES LESH PROJECT - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
33 Variations
33 Variations is a new play by Moisés Kaufman, the man who brought us The Laramie Project. Now, 33 Variations is more of standard well-made play, whereas Laramie is more of a theatre-documentary of sorts, made up of soundbites Kaufman collected when he visited the town where Matthew Shepard was murdered.
Starring the formidable (and totally hot, still) Jane Fonda, Kaufman's new play tells the story of Dr. Katherine Brandt, a musicologist with a specialization on Beethoven, who is dying of Lou Gerig's disease.
Fonda as Barbarella; Fonda, present day: still hot.
Dr. Brandt is obsessed with Beethoven's interpretation of Diabelli's waltz. When asked to write one variation on the piece, Beethoven ends up writing an astounding thirty-three separate variations. And, if he'd had this way, and his health, he most likely would have written more. What was it about he waltz that obsessed him so? And why was he so determined to finish the variations when he was dying, and had more pressing compositions like The Requiem and the Ninth Symphony to consider?
Fonda is, unbelievably, 72 years old, and her presence at the beginning of the play seems to suggest a very, very young fifty. To cast Fonda in a role that calls for the character's severe physical degeneration only highlights the total and utter devastation of this illness. As a professor, it is most heartbreaking when Dr. Brandt points out to her research companion, that her tongue has stopped working. Communication, in this play, in life, is everything.
But then there's the art, and the music. She travels to Germany against the advice of her doctor's nurse, played by Colin Hanks, who, predictably, falls in love with Dr. Brandt's hardened, worthless daughter, played by Samantha Mathis. Mathis, a washed-up movie star from the early nineties, should have promise. But as I watched her in the play, I realized this is something I'd been saying her entire career. Honestly, Mathis cannot act. She is not an actress, and her failure in this role really damages the mother-daughter tension in the play.
I want to like you, Mathis. But, I just can't. Colin Hanks does a little bit better job of being the comic relief-y goofball of the play, but being Tom Hanks' kid won't save you every time, Colin. If you really want to be an actor, you've got to learn how to be comfortable onstage. So do some more theater, and get back to me.
Overall, this play is entertaining, and heartfelt. But let's get real here, Kaufman. You've basically just written another version of W;t, and inserted Beethoven for John Donne . . . hence the semi-colon in its title. (W;t tells the story of a John Donne scholar, also a mature, formidable lady, dying of ovarian cancer). I suppose, if I hadn't seen W;t, I would think 33 Variations a damn good piece of work. But the fact of the matter is, I have seen it, and dammit Kaufman, you've just borrowed a bit too much. Unfortunately for you, Margaret Edson is smarter than you, and she's written a better play.
33 Variations surely has its moments. The set design is beautiful, and in one moment, during an x-Ray, Dr. Brandt leans back in exhaustion to find herself leaning against Beethoven himself.
Yes, he's in the play. For the most part, it works. Occasionally, it's annoying. W;it doesn't engage in these sort of shenanigans, and without comic relief, it can become totally depressing. But there, I've said it: 33 Variations isn't very original.
That said, it's still worth seeing for Fonda's performance. She has completely committed to this character, physically and emotionally, and to watch an actor like Fonda at the top of her game at her age is like watching an aging all-star athlete beat the hopeful young underdog. There's certainly something inspirational about this, and Dr. Brandt's final monologue, which reminds us that the whole point of a variation is to pick apart a theme, to see where each route leads, is the whole point of living. That it's about each moment. The details.
For us healthy people, this remains a very important message.
Overall, this play is entertaining, and heartfelt. But let's get real here, Kaufman. You've basically just written another version of W;t, and inserted Beethoven for John Donne . . . hence the semi-colon in its title. (W;t tells the story of a John Donne scholar, also a mature, formidable lady, dying of ovarian cancer). I suppose, if I hadn't seen W;t, I would think 33 Variations a damn good piece of work. But the fact of the matter is, I have seen it, and dammit Kaufman, you've just borrowed a bit too much. Unfortunately for you, Margaret Edson is smarter than you, and she's written a better play.
33 Variations surely has its moments. The set design is beautiful, and in one moment, during an x-Ray, Dr. Brandt leans back in exhaustion to find herself leaning against Beethoven himself.
Yes, he's in the play. For the most part, it works. Occasionally, it's annoying. W;it doesn't engage in these sort of shenanigans, and without comic relief, it can become totally depressing. But there, I've said it: 33 Variations isn't very original.
That said, it's still worth seeing for Fonda's performance. She has completely committed to this character, physically and emotionally, and to watch an actor like Fonda at the top of her game at her age is like watching an aging all-star athlete beat the hopeful young underdog. There's certainly something inspirational about this, and Dr. Brandt's final monologue, which reminds us that the whole point of a variation is to pick apart a theme, to see where each route leads, is the whole point of living. That it's about each moment. The details.
For us healthy people, this remains a very important message.
Boobs - The Musical ?
Boob Music - Watch today’s top amazing videos here
Bonus - Woman Sends Stripper as Stand - in to Class Reunion !
THE NILES LESH PROJECT - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
NEW PORN RULES!! ROXY JEZEL
NEW PORN RULE!!!
ROXY JEZEL MUST STOP DOING BORING
UNINSPIRED VANILLA CRAP!
There was a time when the mentioning of Roxy Jezel's name would make my penis grow to immense proportions. I can't think of a performer as beautiful as her that does the scenes she has done. Kelly wells, Anette Schwartz, Belladonna have all done rougher work but they can't touch roxy on the looks part. Gianna Michaels, Amy Reid, Jayden James are all 10 times hotter than Roxy but their scenes are boring and played out.
Roxy has that perfect combo of hots and letting guys beat the crap out of her, you gotta love it.
But there's only one problem.....
She only makes bullshit porn now!
Here are the names of some films Roxy made back in the good ole days....
- 5 GUY CREAM PIE
- ASS CREAM PIES
- CUM FILLED THROATS
- FUCK MY ASS AND MAKE ME CUM
- ANAL SUPREMACY
- 10 MAN CUM SLAM
- ROXY LOVES PAIN
-MAX FACTOR
and now....
HOUSE WIFE 1 ON 1
I HAVE A WIFE
JENNA LOVES DANIEL
JUST FACIALS
PIN UP PERVERSIONS
-
Some of her highlights include.
A gangbang for Red Light District where I swear to god 10 guys cum in her ass and pussy after the scene.
A great scene with Max Hardcore where he gags her until she pukes and he pisses on her while she struggles to hold back the tears.
A gangbang for Diabolic where they choke her so many times she passes out several times. At the end of the scene she gets choked, passes out, comes to and just starts sucking the first dick she see without even thinking about it (I need to watch this scene now!)
Roxy please stop doing vanilla bullshit on Naughty America and Brazzers, Porn Pros, and start getting back to the good ol days?
Pretty please....
NEW PORN RULES!!! LEAH LUV
NEW PORN RULE.... LEAH LUV MUST SHAVE OFF THE STUPID HEART!!!
Okay darling... it's been years....
The dumb heart needs to go. I would just love to see one scene with your furry flounder in all it's all its glory. If I wanted to see gimmiks I would watch anything by John Thompson.
You remember that day you got home from work to notice your girlfriend braided her hair? Remember how hot she looked? Remember how you took upstairs and fucked her brains out that day. Fast forward 3 years later... AND SHE STILL HAS THE FUCKING BRAIDS IN!!!! This is the same situation. I find it funny that this broad spends all that time before a scene going to the trouble to make sure her cum soaked pubes are in the shape of a heart yet those hideous braces seem to be no prob.
Don't get me wrong Leah, I would beat up that ass in a second. But that silly looking pube heart takes away very much from you vag scenes.
please shave.
The Stanley Cup as a Love Interest ???
This is great time of year for hockey fans(Go FLYERS!). The NHL PLayoffs are in full gear. There are 16(well 15 now that St Louis is out)battling for the best trophy in all of sports - Lord Stanley's Cup ! The Stanley Cup however seems to have a life of it's own. The cup will tour to the home town of every player on the NHL champions team. The cup also has become a celebrity and an object of much affection!
THE NILES LESH PROJECT - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2009
THE NILES LESH PROJECT - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Listening Party, April '09
While I await Amazon's delivery of the new Pet Shop Boys album, here are some quickie reviews of what I've been listening to over the last few weeks thanks to a recent influx of new music CDs at the library...
KONK
Sound of KONK: Tales of the New York Underground 1981-88
Soul Jazz Records, 2005
KONK answer Wild Cherry's entreaty and the (mostly) white boys do indeed play that funky music. Though I loathe the much-lauded (underservedly for the most part except for James Chance) post-punk No Wave period in '80s New York City, I was pleasantly surprised by this compilation. Most of those No Wave guys were avant-garde (i.e., "bullshit") artists who made noise as opposed to music, but the tunes here are afrobeat dance-friendly instead of headache-inducing. Some interesting pop cultural tidbits via Wikepdia: KONK's Richard Edson (Lounge Lizards) played drums on the first Sonic Youth record and had acting roles in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing and Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise, while trumpeter Shannon Dawson not only played in Jean-Michel Basquiat's band Gray but is the Uncle of uber-hottie Rosario Dawson. (Oh, and Konk is not to be confused with the sophomore album by The Kooks or with The Kinks' record label, though I made both those mistakes when I saw this on the New CDs rack!)
THE ASTEROID #4
An Amazing Dream
Rainbox Quartz, 2006
Great star/shoe-gazer psychedelia for a rainy day by Philly-based indie rockers who sound like San Francisco's melodious Sneetches on chemical enhancement. Bonus points for covering a Church song ("To Be In Your Eyes," from 1982's dreamy The Blurred Crusade) and for a psychedelic rewrite of "Hey Joe" called "Into the Meadow." I think the name refers to Vesta 4, the biggest 'roid in the asteroid belt. If you like The Church, Brian Jonestown Massacre (they opened for BJM) or just mellow music to fall asleep to, this one's for you. I'd probably buy this if I did heroin. No I wouldn't - I'd steal it!
TOUMANI DIABATE
The Mande Variations
Nonesuch, 2008
My musicologist (and filmmaker) friend Michael Lawrence turned me on to this guy. Apparently, Mali's Kutta Toumani Diabate is the world's greatest player of the kora, a 21-string harp-lute that looks like a cross between a gourd and a sitar and is used extensively by peoples in West Africa. This is very relaxing background music, very zithery, like something you'd hear in a Mideastern restaurant, possibly while watching a belly dancer. Somehow it makes me yearn for grape leaves and hummus.
THE BAD PLUS joined by Wendy Lewis
For All I Care
Heads Up, 2009
The Bad Plus is a collective made up of bassist Reid Anderson, pianist Ethan Iverson, and drummer David King that Rolling Stone has called "as badass as highbrow gets." Here they are joined by vocalist Wendy Lewis, a former bandmate of King's in The Happy Apples. Basically, the highbrow part of the band's description refers to the fact that they're classically trained musicians (smarties who can read music) and the badass part means they cover rock songs (typically written by dummies who can't read music), like Nirvana's "Lithium," Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb," the Flaming Lips' "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate," Heart's "Barracuda," Wilco's "Radio Cure," Mission of Burma's "Lock, Stock and Teardrops," Yes's "Long Distance Runaround," the Bee Gees' "How Deep Is Your Love," and so on. Worth a listen as a curio (I have to admit I really like the dissonant bebop intro on "Long Distance Runaround" but Wendy Lewis' cocktail drone soon grates on the nerves), but this strikes me as strictly an academic exercise for the hipster crowd. Besides, this idea's been done to death. Didn't Tori Amos cover Nirvana like 17 years ago? (And the Bad Plus themselves covered "Teen Spirit" on their previous release!) That said, the best track on this CD is an Iggy cover - Iggy Stravinsky, that is (Igor's 1947 classic "Variation d'Apollon"). Personally, I think this album would have worked better as The Bad Plus Minus Wendy Lewis - For All I Care.
MORRISSEY
Years of Refusal
Attack Records, 2009
I haven't had listened deeply enough to deconstruct the lyrics in their entirety, but after a couple of run-throughs in the car CD player, I'm toasting this as the best Morrissey album since 1992's standard-bearer Your Arsenal (which was the best since Moz's fab 1988 debut Viva Hate) - and arguably his best ever. Morrissey certainly thinks his 9th solo record is his "strongest" work to date. One thing's beyond discussion: Mozzer's voice has never sounded better or more confident and his backing band (new guitarist Jesse Tobias - who replaced Alain Whyte, guitarist Boz Boorer, bassist Solomon Walker and drummer Matt Walker) totally rocks out from the opening anti-meds salvo "Something Is Squeezing My Skull" to the final chords of Moz's status update "I'm OK On My Own." There's not a bad song on the 12-track CD, this depite losing guitarist Alain Whyte who still contributes five the 12 songs here ("Something Is Squeezing My Skull," "Mama Lay Softly on the Riverbed," "When Last I Spoke To Carol," "It's Not Your Birthday Anymore," and "You Were Good In Your Time"). Fortunately, Boorer still supplies tunage ("Black Cloud," "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris," "That's How People Grow Up," and "One Day Will Be Farewell") and new boy Jesse Tobias pens three strong compositions in "All You Need Is Me," "Sorry Doesn't Help," and "I'm OK By Myself."
Once again produced by Jerry Finn (You Are the Quarry), Years of Refusal was recorded "live," which gives it a great, poppin' fresh energy to the sound, with "Black Cloud" especially lively thanks to guest guitarist Jeff Beck's licks.
Despite the usual aesthetic laments (no one loves him except "stone and steel" so he's "throwing his arms around Paris"), I suspect Morrissey is actually - dare I say it? - having fun. After years of refusal. Sure, he taunts his critics with "You don't like me but you love me/Either way you're wrong/You're gonna miss me when I'm gone" and "You hiss and groan and you constantly moan but you never go away/And that's because all you need is me" but he seems to be reveling in his arsenal of hiss, groan & moan rather than complaining about it. Good grief, the man even sings "Whoopee!" at one point.
Good times, all around.
Oh, and about the cover: the baby in Morrissey's arms is Sebastien Pesel-Browne, son of Morrissey's assistant tour manager Charlie Browne. At first I thought maybe Moz was going through a Madonna-Angelina Jollie baby adoption mid-life crisis phase. We can rest assured.
MGMT
Oracular Spectacular
2008
I'll probably hate these guys in a month or so, but for now I love the song "Time To Pretend"...maybe probably cuzz I've heard it a million times as the theme song of cable TV's Sundance Channel. I've read and seen band interviews that didn't wow me as far as them being geniuses (or fashion plates: one guy dresses all gypsy-rocker like Steven Tyler/Jimi Hendrix and the other is nondescript with non-commital facial hair and dumb hats) but the one singer sounds exactly like Marc Bolan (always a good thing) and they seem to have listened to a lot of T. Rex, Sparks and early Ultravox (never a bad thing) and to have watched some good movies (the "Time To Pretend" music video contains references to Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1973 cult film The Holy Mountain), and on this one song have captured the essence of the Rock Star Dream; along with the Byrds' "So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star," this should be part of the Rock Star 101 curriculum for any aspiring musician:
I think these guys are a duo (I can't tell them apart - all these skinny young indie rock guys look the same to me with their funky fedoras and Aerosmith head bandanas and tight-fitting black jeans), but the band's real tight and I especially love the drum sound - good drummer whoever he is. The other standout tracks on the CD NME named Best New Album of 2008 include: "Weekend Wars," which starts off like Tyranorsuarus Rex before the middle eight morphs into a Sparks song...The funky "Electric Feel" sounds like it would fit in nicely on Beck's Midnight Vultures, which is to say it sounds just like early '70s Sly & The Family Stone...and "The Youth," which starts off like John Lennon circa the New York City years (guess it the other dude singing, the one who doesn't sound like all fey like Bolan), then goes into a dreamy chant...and "Kids" is an infectiously catchy singalong set to a simplistic Fischer-Price keyboard riff...whole CD kinda reminded me of Hot Chip if they listened to less Kraftwerk and more Sparks. Speaking of which, I read somewhere that since they're a duo, they studied the music of other famous duos, like Hall & Oates, early (pre-electric) T. Rex, Sparks and, well, Kraftwerk is basically Ralf and Florian. It all makes sense.
FRANK SINATRA
Seduction: Sinatra Sings of Love
Frank Sinatra Enterprises, 2009
As the BBC's Michael Quinn observed, "Few popular music catalogues have been re-worked so rapaciously as that belonging to Francis Albert Sinatra. His 50-odd albums – from 1946 Columbia debut, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, to the second volume of Duets on Capitol nearly five decades later – have spawned well over 2,200 compilations, with barely a handful of them worthy of serious attention." That last comment certainly applies to this compilation, which was compiled by Sinatra family archivist Charles Pignone for Rhino Records just in time for Valentine's Day 2009 and features glib liner notes by The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Living author Bill Zehme, one of those latter-day Frankie-Come-Lately hipsters who laud Sinatra for his surface bling (broads, booze, '60s Schwing) - everything, in fact, but his artistry. God I hate shallow too-cool-for-school drivel like that...is it too much to put out a compilation with actual information about the music, like who what or where played the song and what album or session it was from?
Listening to this CD, I surmised that it's mostly from his '60s period at Reprise - though "It Had To Be You" dates from 1979's Trilogy LP - with the bulk of these versions available on the excellent 1963 release Sinatra's Sinatra ("Witchcraft," "All the Way," "Young At Heart," "The Second Time Around," "They Can't Take That Away From Me," and "How Little We Know" - all keepers). 12 of the songs were arranged by Nelson Riddle, six by Don (father of pop star Nikki) Costa, three by Billy May and Neal Hefti, and two by Quincy Jones.
Of course, as a Sinatraphile, I fell for it and checked out this latest entry in the never-ending Sinatra reissues catalog from the library because it had some songs I was unfamiliar with, namely "Prisoner of Love," an alternate version of "My Funny Valentine" and "This Happy Madness." Well, "Prisoner of Love" is fantastic - I had never heard it before and it's the pick of the litter here...
Written by Leo Robin and Russ Columbo and originally recorded in 1932 by Russ Columbo, "Prisoner of Love" appeared on Sinatra's very underrated 1962 Reprise LP Sinatra and Strings (recorded with arranger Don Costa). It was a big hit for Perry Como in 1945 and later was covered by - of all people - James Brown and His Famous Flames in 1963 (The Godfather of Soul always had excellent taste; I recall an interview in which he cited Sinatra as one of his favorite singers). Though, like Sting's "Every Breath You Take" "Prisoner of Love" is kind of a scary sell as a "seduction" song as it's really a borderline stalking tale of obsessive love.
The lovely "This Happy Madness" is actually from the 1967 Sinatra album he did with the Brazilian Cole Porter, Antonio Carlos Jobim (which I should have picked up on by the song's parenthetical title Estrada Branca) and arranger Claus Olgerman - an album that proved he could handle legitimate bossa nova/jazz stylings just as comfortably as his popular singing and swinging.
The alternate "My Happy Valentine," features the bel canto singer's textbook glissando near the end whereby he shows off what he learned about breath control all those years ago watching Tommy Dorsey. Singing "Stay little valentine, stay - " he holds the note for what seems like an eternity before effortlessly gliding into the finale " - each day is Valentine's Day." He first recorded this song at a 1953 Capitol Records session with Nelson Riddle that was released on the album Songs for Young Lovers (1954), so I'm guessing this is from those sessions; given the lack of liner notes, we'll never know. It was a staple of Sinatra's live performances and can be heard in that context on 1962's excellent Sinatra & Sextet: Live in Paris album. But if you want a great alternate version of a Sinatra song, how about the lesser known "Night and Day" ballad version Sinatra cut with Don Costa from Sinatra and Strings? Though Frank recorded the Cole Porter gem five times, most famously as an uptempo number with Nelson Riddle on 1956's A Swingin' Affair, some consider this to be his best interpretation.
I guess this is a fine intro to Sinatra for the kind of people who buy these kind of compilations at the Starbucks checkout counter, but for Sinatra lovers, it's frustrating to encounter a release of songs with a tenuous connection to "seduction" (I mean, what else did Sinatra sing but love songs?) that seem rushed to market. And, as far as songs that seduce, how can you leave out Cole Porter's "You're Sensation" from the High Society soundtrack? ("Making love is quite an art/What you require is the perfect squire, to fire your heart!") I'd even drop trou for Old Blue Eyes if he serenaded me with that! Still, in these end times of soul-less, show-off-y American Idol singers, it's refreshing to hear what a singer with passion, command and respect for The Song can do when he borrows a tune from the songsmith and artistically interprets it. Sinatra was the best, even if this compilation isn't always.
KONK
Sound of KONK: Tales of the New York Underground 1981-88
Soul Jazz Records, 2005
KONK answer Wild Cherry's entreaty and the (mostly) white boys do indeed play that funky music. Though I loathe the much-lauded (underservedly for the most part except for James Chance) post-punk No Wave period in '80s New York City, I was pleasantly surprised by this compilation. Most of those No Wave guys were avant-garde (i.e., "bullshit") artists who made noise as opposed to music, but the tunes here are afrobeat dance-friendly instead of headache-inducing. Some interesting pop cultural tidbits via Wikepdia: KONK's Richard Edson (Lounge Lizards) played drums on the first Sonic Youth record and had acting roles in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing and Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise, while trumpeter Shannon Dawson not only played in Jean-Michel Basquiat's band Gray but is the Uncle of uber-hottie Rosario Dawson. (Oh, and Konk is not to be confused with the sophomore album by The Kooks or with The Kinks' record label, though I made both those mistakes when I saw this on the New CDs rack!)THE ASTEROID #4
An Amazing Dream
Rainbox Quartz, 2006
Great star/shoe-gazer psychedelia for a rainy day by Philly-based indie rockers who sound like San Francisco's melodious Sneetches on chemical enhancement. Bonus points for covering a Church song ("To Be In Your Eyes," from 1982's dreamy The Blurred Crusade) and for a psychedelic rewrite of "Hey Joe" called "Into the Meadow." I think the name refers to Vesta 4, the biggest 'roid in the asteroid belt. If you like The Church, Brian Jonestown Massacre (they opened for BJM) or just mellow music to fall asleep to, this one's for you. I'd probably buy this if I did heroin. No I wouldn't - I'd steal it!TOUMANI DIABATE
The Mande Variations
Nonesuch, 2008
My musicologist (and filmmaker) friend Michael Lawrence turned me on to this guy. Apparently, Mali's Kutta Toumani Diabate is the world's greatest player of the kora, a 21-string harp-lute that looks like a cross between a gourd and a sitar and is used extensively by peoples in West Africa. This is very relaxing background music, very zithery, like something you'd hear in a Mideastern restaurant, possibly while watching a belly dancer. Somehow it makes me yearn for grape leaves and hummus.THE BAD PLUS joined by Wendy Lewis
For All I Care
Heads Up, 2009
The Bad Plus is a collective made up of bassist Reid Anderson, pianist Ethan Iverson, and drummer David King that Rolling Stone has called "as badass as highbrow gets." Here they are joined by vocalist Wendy Lewis, a former bandmate of King's in The Happy Apples. Basically, the highbrow part of the band's description refers to the fact that they're classically trained musicians (smarties who can read music) and the badass part means they cover rock songs (typically written by dummies who can't read music), like Nirvana's "Lithium," Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb," the Flaming Lips' "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate," Heart's "Barracuda," Wilco's "Radio Cure," Mission of Burma's "Lock, Stock and Teardrops," Yes's "Long Distance Runaround," the Bee Gees' "How Deep Is Your Love," and so on. Worth a listen as a curio (I have to admit I really like the dissonant bebop intro on "Long Distance Runaround" but Wendy Lewis' cocktail drone soon grates on the nerves), but this strikes me as strictly an academic exercise for the hipster crowd. Besides, this idea's been done to death. Didn't Tori Amos cover Nirvana like 17 years ago? (And the Bad Plus themselves covered "Teen Spirit" on their previous release!) That said, the best track on this CD is an Iggy cover - Iggy Stravinsky, that is (Igor's 1947 classic "Variation d'Apollon"). Personally, I think this album would have worked better as The Bad Plus Minus Wendy Lewis - For All I Care.MORRISSEY
Years of Refusal
Attack Records, 2009
I haven't had listened deeply enough to deconstruct the lyrics in their entirety, but after a couple of run-throughs in the car CD player, I'm toasting this as the best Morrissey album since 1992's standard-bearer Your Arsenal (which was the best since Moz's fab 1988 debut Viva Hate) - and arguably his best ever. Morrissey certainly thinks his 9th solo record is his "strongest" work to date. One thing's beyond discussion: Mozzer's voice has never sounded better or more confident and his backing band (new guitarist Jesse Tobias - who replaced Alain Whyte, guitarist Boz Boorer, bassist Solomon Walker and drummer Matt Walker) totally rocks out from the opening anti-meds salvo "Something Is Squeezing My Skull" to the final chords of Moz's status update "I'm OK On My Own." There's not a bad song on the 12-track CD, this depite losing guitarist Alain Whyte who still contributes five the 12 songs here ("Something Is Squeezing My Skull," "Mama Lay Softly on the Riverbed," "When Last I Spoke To Carol," "It's Not Your Birthday Anymore," and "You Were Good In Your Time"). Fortunately, Boorer still supplies tunage ("Black Cloud," "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris," "That's How People Grow Up," and "One Day Will Be Farewell") and new boy Jesse Tobias pens three strong compositions in "All You Need Is Me," "Sorry Doesn't Help," and "I'm OK By Myself." Once again produced by Jerry Finn (You Are the Quarry), Years of Refusal was recorded "live," which gives it a great, poppin' fresh energy to the sound, with "Black Cloud" especially lively thanks to guest guitarist Jeff Beck's licks.
Despite the usual aesthetic laments (no one loves him except "stone and steel" so he's "throwing his arms around Paris"), I suspect Morrissey is actually - dare I say it? - having fun. After years of refusal. Sure, he taunts his critics with "You don't like me but you love me/Either way you're wrong/You're gonna miss me when I'm gone" and "You hiss and groan and you constantly moan but you never go away/And that's because all you need is me" but he seems to be reveling in his arsenal of hiss, groan & moan rather than complaining about it. Good grief, the man even sings "Whoopee!" at one point.
Good times, all around.
Oh, and about the cover: the baby in Morrissey's arms is Sebastien Pesel-Browne, son of Morrissey's assistant tour manager Charlie Browne. At first I thought maybe Moz was going through a Madonna-Angelina Jollie baby adoption mid-life crisis phase. We can rest assured.
MGMT
Oracular Spectacular
2008
I'll probably hate these guys in a month or so, but for now I love the song "Time To Pretend"...maybe probably cuzz I've heard it a million times as the theme song of cable TV's Sundance Channel. I've read and seen band interviews that didn't wow me as far as them being geniuses (or fashion plates: one guy dresses all gypsy-rocker like Steven Tyler/Jimi Hendrix and the other is nondescript with non-commital facial hair and dumb hats) but the one singer sounds exactly like Marc Bolan (always a good thing) and they seem to have listened to a lot of T. Rex, Sparks and early Ultravox (never a bad thing) and to have watched some good movies (the "Time To Pretend" music video contains references to Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1973 cult film The Holy Mountain), and on this one song have captured the essence of the Rock Star Dream; along with the Byrds' "So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star," this should be part of the Rock Star 101 curriculum for any aspiring musician:"I'm feeling rough, I'm feeling raw, I'm in the prime of my life.
Let's make some music, make some money, find some models for wives.
I'll move to Paris, shoot some heroin, and fuck with the stars.
You man the island and the cocaine and the elegant cars.
This is our decision, to live fast and die young.
We've got the vision, now let's have some fun.
Yeah, it's overwhelming, but what else can we do?
Get jobs in offices, and wake up for the morning commute?"
I think these guys are a duo (I can't tell them apart - all these skinny young indie rock guys look the same to me with their funky fedoras and Aerosmith head bandanas and tight-fitting black jeans), but the band's real tight and I especially love the drum sound - good drummer whoever he is. The other standout tracks on the CD NME named Best New Album of 2008 include: "Weekend Wars," which starts off like Tyranorsuarus Rex before the middle eight morphs into a Sparks song...The funky "Electric Feel" sounds like it would fit in nicely on Beck's Midnight Vultures, which is to say it sounds just like early '70s Sly & The Family Stone...and "The Youth," which starts off like John Lennon circa the New York City years (guess it the other dude singing, the one who doesn't sound like all fey like Bolan), then goes into a dreamy chant...and "Kids" is an infectiously catchy singalong set to a simplistic Fischer-Price keyboard riff...whole CD kinda reminded me of Hot Chip if they listened to less Kraftwerk and more Sparks. Speaking of which, I read somewhere that since they're a duo, they studied the music of other famous duos, like Hall & Oates, early (pre-electric) T. Rex, Sparks and, well, Kraftwerk is basically Ralf and Florian. It all makes sense.
FRANK SINATRA
Seduction: Sinatra Sings of Love
Frank Sinatra Enterprises, 2009
As the BBC's Michael Quinn observed, "Few popular music catalogues have been re-worked so rapaciously as that belonging to Francis Albert Sinatra. His 50-odd albums – from 1946 Columbia debut, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, to the second volume of Duets on Capitol nearly five decades later – have spawned well over 2,200 compilations, with barely a handful of them worthy of serious attention." That last comment certainly applies to this compilation, which was compiled by Sinatra family archivist Charles Pignone for Rhino Records just in time for Valentine's Day 2009 and features glib liner notes by The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Living author Bill Zehme, one of those latter-day Frankie-Come-Lately hipsters who laud Sinatra for his surface bling (broads, booze, '60s Schwing) - everything, in fact, but his artistry. God I hate shallow too-cool-for-school drivel like that...is it too much to put out a compilation with actual information about the music, like who what or where played the song and what album or session it was from? 
Listening to this CD, I surmised that it's mostly from his '60s period at Reprise - though "It Had To Be You" dates from 1979's Trilogy LP - with the bulk of these versions available on the excellent 1963 release Sinatra's Sinatra ("Witchcraft," "All the Way," "Young At Heart," "The Second Time Around," "They Can't Take That Away From Me," and "How Little We Know" - all keepers). 12 of the songs were arranged by Nelson Riddle, six by Don (father of pop star Nikki) Costa, three by Billy May and Neal Hefti, and two by Quincy Jones. Of course, as a Sinatraphile, I fell for it and checked out this latest entry in the never-ending Sinatra reissues catalog from the library because it had some songs I was unfamiliar with, namely "Prisoner of Love," an alternate version of "My Funny Valentine" and "This Happy Madness." Well, "Prisoner of Love" is fantastic - I had never heard it before and it's the pick of the litter here...
"For one command I stand and wait now
From one who's master of my fate now . . .
She's in my dreams, awake or sleeping
Upon my knees to her I'm creeping,
My very life is in her keeping . . .
I'm just a prisoner of love."
Written by Leo Robin and Russ Columbo and originally recorded in 1932 by Russ Columbo, "Prisoner of Love" appeared on Sinatra's very underrated 1962 Reprise LP Sinatra and Strings (recorded with arranger Don Costa). It was a big hit for Perry Como in 1945 and later was covered by - of all people - James Brown and His Famous Flames in 1963 (The Godfather of Soul always had excellent taste; I recall an interview in which he cited Sinatra as one of his favorite singers). Though, like Sting's "Every Breath You Take" "Prisoner of Love" is kind of a scary sell as a "seduction" song as it's really a borderline stalking tale of obsessive love.
The lovely "This Happy Madness" is actually from the 1967 Sinatra album he did with the Brazilian Cole Porter, Antonio Carlos Jobim (which I should have picked up on by the song's parenthetical title Estrada Branca) and arranger Claus Olgerman - an album that proved he could handle legitimate bossa nova/jazz stylings just as comfortably as his popular singing and swinging. The alternate "My Happy Valentine," features the bel canto singer's textbook glissando near the end whereby he shows off what he learned about breath control all those years ago watching Tommy Dorsey. Singing "Stay little valentine, stay - " he holds the note for what seems like an eternity before effortlessly gliding into the finale " - each day is Valentine's Day." He first recorded this song at a 1953 Capitol Records session with Nelson Riddle that was released on the album Songs for Young Lovers (1954), so I'm guessing this is from those sessions; given the lack of liner notes, we'll never know. It was a staple of Sinatra's live performances and can be heard in that context on 1962's excellent Sinatra & Sextet: Live in Paris album. But if you want a great alternate version of a Sinatra song, how about the lesser known "Night and Day" ballad version Sinatra cut with Don Costa from Sinatra and Strings? Though Frank recorded the Cole Porter gem five times, most famously as an uptempo number with Nelson Riddle on 1956's A Swingin' Affair, some consider this to be his best interpretation.
I guess this is a fine intro to Sinatra for the kind of people who buy these kind of compilations at the Starbucks checkout counter, but for Sinatra lovers, it's frustrating to encounter a release of songs with a tenuous connection to "seduction" (I mean, what else did Sinatra sing but love songs?) that seem rushed to market. And, as far as songs that seduce, how can you leave out Cole Porter's "You're Sensation" from the High Society soundtrack? ("Making love is quite an art/What you require is the perfect squire, to fire your heart!") I'd even drop trou for Old Blue Eyes if he serenaded me with that! Still, in these end times of soul-less, show-off-y American Idol singers, it's refreshing to hear what a singer with passion, command and respect for The Song can do when he borrows a tune from the songsmith and artistically interprets it. Sinatra was the best, even if this compilation isn't always.
KRISTEN DALTON - MISS USA 2009
MISS USA 2009 KRISTEN DALTON - PHOTOS AND SWIMSUIT VIDEO
THE NILES LESH PROJECT - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Still Katatonic After All These Years
Thanks Hon: Thee Katatonix 30th Anniversary
Thee Katatonix
UK Spud, 2009
Excellent singles compilation highlighting local band's glorious mid-'80s neo-psychedelic period.
Forward into the past...
Adolf Kowalski just mailed me this latest "new" Katatonix CD - a collection of choice singles (and one new "bonus" track) by my old band's best lineup of Kowalski and Mr. Urbanity and various bass players and drummers (but mostly "Beautiful" Tony Belle on bass and "Big" Andy Small on the skins) - in honor of the 30th anniversary of the group's founding in 1979...(though the groundwork for the band was set in motion, amidst puffs of hemp and gulps of Blackberry brandy, in the fall of 1978 in Towson State University's wooded "Glen" - where freshman Ross "Adolf Kowalski" Haupt, freshwoman Katie "Katatonic" Glancy, and jaded junior Tommy "Gunn" Warner decided Punk Rock was the answer to their dying-of-boredom-in-the-'burbs collegiate blues - we didn't start playing out until our debut/debacle at Towson's Oddfellows Hall in April 1979.) Katie Katatonic and I (Tommy Gunn) are not on this CD at all, and that's why I like it...in fact, though Adolf probably didn't appreciate it at the time, Katie and I did him a big favor by quitting Thee Katatonix at the end (literally, as it was New Year's Eve) of 1980. When we stopped playing music, that's when the band really started to play music. (I'd like to think the Thanks Hon title is a subconcious salute to the Tom and Katie bailout. If so, you're welcome - we did it all for you!)
That Year's Model: Katie Katatonic, Tommy Gunn and Adolf K. in 1979
Adolf, for one, grew as a songwriter when he started playing with real musicians. And he started playing with a real good one named Charlie Gatewood (pictured right), a Peabody-trained guitarist who had been playing in rockabilly and reggae bands before he started going to see punk shows (like the Katatonix) at the Marble Bar and succumbed to Adolf's considerable charms (we all did - that's why Katie and I ultimately had to leave; otherwise, we'd still be driving around in Adolf's station wagon playing gigs well into our 50s! Adolf was a born salesman...in fact, the first time I met him in the TSU Glen he was dressed in his afterschool Macy's salesclerk duds - I'll never forget he wore a navy blazer with green plaid pants!). 
Goodtime Charlie became "Mr. Urbanity" - Charlie claims I gave him this nickname based on his urbane culture vulture background (he read French Symbolist poets and knew how to tune guitars, which made him a Rhode Scholar in my eyes) - and initially played bass (a little Hofner, like McCartney) with the new "The Name But Not As Lame Kats." I honestly wish I had stuck around the Kats to be in that lineup, because I would have liked to have been one of the boys in this edition, but Katie and I were a package deal and, personally, I was frustrated with not recording; I wanted something to show for all the gigging; ironically, our 1979-1980 Edition Kats tunes would not make it onto vinyl until we moved on. It was as a trio (Charlie, Adolf and new drummer "Big" Andy Small) that the Kats released their first EP in 1983, which featured two Original Edition Kowalski-penned tunes "Valentines Day" and "Basket Case" as well as the new "Joie de Vivre." I dunno what started the French song title kick (see also "Maison le Rock"), but I liked it.
Then, in 1984 the new Kats, with Charlie firmly entrenched as lead guitarist and augmented by new bass player St. Anthony (he cured a ham), released Phase 1 of their psychedelic-makeover mission statement: Divine Mission. Though the sound was still predominantly punk during this transitional period (songs like "Beltway Beat" would have fit in our set lists from 1980), you could feel Mr. Urbanity's influence. His blistering lead guitar work refurbished the old Kowalski-Gunn chestnut "Fungus" as a psychedelic rave-up while the Urbanity-Kowalski two-guitar attack and vocal harmonies on "End of An Era" recalled the Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle formula circa the Buzzcocks' most progressive pop record, 1980's A Different Kind of Tension. Though credited to Kowalski/Urbanity/Small, I suspect Adolf was the driving force behind the album's best cut (and my 2nd all-time Kats fave song), "Maison le Rock," especially lyrically ("She's a junked-out girl/Like shoveled snow/But she was something to eat/She spent all my dough" - love it!). Still, Urbanity's "Shake Shake" and "Chain Letter" signaled a new sound and lyrical direction; small wonder they were the lead-off tunes on both sides of the album, etsbalishing a precedent that would be hard to shake (or shake shake). 
By 1985, the punk-to-neo-psychedelic transformation was complete and singles like Charlie's A-side "Daisy Chain" were getting heavy rotation on WCVT, no doubt benefitting from a nationwide psych revival spearheaded by LA "Paisley Underground" bands like The Dream Syndicate, Three O'Clock, and Rain Parade. This was the band's Golden Era, with national tours, TV appearances and regular radio airplay and...I hate to say it, but the fact is, it was Charlie's songs ("Daisy Chain," "We Need a House," "Book of Love") that led the way and propelled The Great Leap Forward musically. Good as Adolf's songs were ("Not Excited," "Something For You") - and they were now incorporating retro-sounding keyboard parts as well as guitar power chords - they still seemed rooted in the old cock-rock punk 'tude; maybe this was because to these ears, it sounded too much like what I was familiar with the first go-round '79-'80. Adolf was a frontman and showman par excellance and this was always his band, so it took someone special to make him share the spotlight; Charlie was that person, and to Adolf's credit he let him shine. The result was a more perfect union of songwriting.Thanks Hon: 30th Anniversary
Which brings us to the 30th anniversary platter on UK Spud which, just like 1984's Divine Mission, is "produced by money and Thee Katatonix."
Once again Mr. Urbanity bats leadoff, opening with the best song Thee Katatonix ever recorded, "Ordinary Sunday"; it also sets the track template as, from this point, Urbanity and Kowalski alternate songs until Adolf's 11th "bonus" track at the end.
1. "Ordinary Sunday" (Urbanity) *****
"Ordinary Sunday" was the tune with which they made their TV debut on Baltimore's latenight dance show Shakedown - I can still recall going to the TV party over at WCVT DJ Rod Misey's apartment (this was in the days before Tivo, when you actually had to stay up late to see shows on in the wee small hours) to watch Charlie and Adolf rock out in with their matching Gibson SG guitars, their faces hidden by cascading hair and their skinny-ass torsos draped in beads and psychedelic shirts. Charlie especially was the picture of cool, looking like Cramps voodoo guitarist Bryan Gregory as he blew the hair away from his face to deliver his biting opening refrain "I was coming undone, because of an experience..."
"Ordinary Sunday" on Shakedown TV show
Charlie's poetic imagery is delivered in stream-of-conscious shotgun blasts - "Late afternoon by receding shoreline, near the scene of an accident, Perfumed bedroom/ black shoes/you're doomed, keep in mind it was an ordinary Sunday...late afternoon by imposing skyline, industrial forefront of our hometown, smokestack/water black/black pool/we're cool ...keep in mind it was an ordinary Sunday..." Bathe yourself in local color; you may never pass this way again.
2. "Crown" (Kowalski) ***
Nice intro and great soloing between the verses highlight this bitter love song in which Adolf laments that he's the King of Sorrow Tomorrowland and wears a crown of thorns around his heart (ouch!). I like the lines "Oriental schoolgirl flash a smile at me, while she holds her boyfriend tight, she knows I think of her at night, but she crossed me out because I'm white" (double ouch!).
3. "We Need A House" (Urbanity) ***
A long, layered guitars-and-synths intro leads into a song about alienation that continues to mount tension, like Led Zep's "Kashmir," as Charlie explains to his daughter Eleanor, "...we need a house with a little room outside the rooms inside, one that we could hide away in a day or two..." Home fires burn while the world passes outside.
4. "Something For You" (Kowalksi) ***
Adolf's Farfisa-sounding organ dominates this mid-tempo ballad...
5. "Mexican Hat" (Urbanity) ***
Peppy oddity with interesting bridge.
6. "Not Excited" (Kowalksi) ****
Once again Charlie and Adolf's guitars evoke the pop-punk Buzzcocks sound (always a good thing) on this non-stop rocker that's interlaced with organ riffing.
7. "Book of Love" (Urbanity) *****
"I want to read the book of love/I want to know the things you've done between the covers/I don't want to read the story between the lines..." Great psych anthem with Charlie even throwing in a teasing reggae riff on the bridge (it reminds me of Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers' "Egyptian Reggae") and a kick-ass middle eight leading into Adolf's organ solo. Along with "Daisy Chain," perhaps the band's greatest uptempo tune, driven along nicely by Andy Small's big beat. Infectiously catchy.
"Book of Love" live on SFTV
8. "Home Alone" (Kowalski) ** 1/2
"Don't go home alone, we gotta have a bone..." Cock-rock bragadaccio ("You know we like them, we like the little girls...") about the boys in the band getting take-out. Nice work if you can get it. Redeemed by the dueling guitars slugfest. Originally appeared as B-side of the "Daisy Chain" single.
9. "Daisy Chain" (Urbanity) ****
"People come and go, there's some things we may never know/We all sleep, but no two dream the same..." Perfect pop, peppily-paced, with cool solo and backing chorus - all clocking in at 2 minutes and eleven seconds. Deceptively flower-powery until the "Hope you choke on your beautiful daisy chain" end.
10. "F*** You" (Kowalski, 2008) ***
Adolf takes the old Kowalksi-Gunn number "Stretch Marx," beefs up the guitars and disposes of my disposable lyrics (no loss there!), replacing them with this fricative-friendly snarling retort to any and all Kats kritics. A rose by any other name, still smells as sweet...
11. Super Groovy Bonus Track (Kowalksi, 2009) **
Interesting guitar motif anchors this introspective brooder that finds Adolf moaning like Ghost Host. "I'm a changer rearranger...I've been observed, I've been observed..." Far from super groovy, but then again, as Adolf K.'s previous ditty advised, if youse don't like it: "F*** You"!
Related Links:
Thee Katatonix website
Saturday, April 18, 2009
INOCHI - What it Means to be Alive ?
It think the basic message here is that: For a robot to be truly considered alive it must lust after young Japanese girls- WTF ! & awesome at the same time
THE NILES LESH PROJECT - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2009
THE NILES LESH PROJECT - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2009
OPRAH, ASHTON KUTCHER & TWITTER - Effectively End Civilization As We Know It
Golly it was only last week when I though Twitter was so cool, now it has been drug beneath the greasy wheels of the Hollywood dream machine Oprah and Ashton Kutcher the polar ends of the who gives aFuck universe have usurped the masses yet again !
Ashton Kutcher's 1,000,000 followers
Oprah Tweets !
This refreshingly poignant tweet from Shaquille O'neal has my vote for greatest tweet ever !
Way to take it to the hole Shaq
Oprah is a noob and must learn not to bring that weak shit in here !
Be afraid be very afraid !
THE NILES LESH PROJECT - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2009
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)