Graymatter Weekly—August 3, 2009

GRAYmatter

weekly

August 3, 2009

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the best new music, dvds and video games at Graywhale this week music

Cobra Starship blasts off to hipster heaven.

dvds

games

page 4

Paul Rudd and Jason Segel reluctantly bro down in I Love You, Man

page 6

buy fresh, buy local

Twelve playable Joes make GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra a total blast

fatfin.com

August 3, 2009

graymatter weekly music

quickhits //

Modest Mouse No One’s First and You’re Next cd $6.99 (til friday!)

Wa r n e r

Here’s the long-awaited compilation of vinyl singles, containing B-sides from the group’s last two albums. The sixth and final song on the EP, “King Rat,” was immortalized in a video directed by the late Heath Ledger, but no word if it’s included here. Either way, it’ll be fun catching up via this stopgap. Other cuts include “Autumn Beds,” “Guilty Cocker Spaniels,” “Satellite Skin,” “The Whale Song” and “Perpetual Motion Machine.”

more new music this week

Amanda Blank I Love You

Tantric Mind Control

D ow n tow n

S ILENT MA J ORITY

So far this Philly girl is best known for special appearances with the likes of M.I.A., Santogold and Spank Rock—the latter of which via the mindblowingly raunchy Bangers & Cash NSFW jam “Loose.” She claimed that her full-length debut was influenced by Madonna’s first record; while the mix of jarring, tell-it-likeit-is hip-hop and dark electro (“Shame On Me”) is decidedly more modern, she’s off to a good start.

Nobody’s 100 percent certain about the dissolution of the original Days of the New lineup, but really, there are only two possibilities: Either frontman Travis Meeks fired the men who would go on to form Tantric, or they left willingly. Either way, they’re acquitting themselves nicely in this melodic post-grunge project, now on full-length number four. The versatile five-piece assembled this 12-track assault with the help of former Creed touring bassist Brett Hestla.

cd on sale aug 4

cd $11.99

Awaken Demons , The Mirror Benson, Doug , Unbalanced Load Curtis, Catie , Hello, Stranger Duke And The King , Nothing Gold Can Stay Fruit Bats , The Ruminant Band Hopes Die Last , Six Years Home Iron Age , The Sleeping Eye Japandroids , Post-Nothing Keeping Secrets , The Rescue Kool Keith , Lost Masters Collection Let's Get It , Digital Spaces EP Lightning Dust , Infinite Light Man Must Die , No Tolerance For Imperfection Mayer, Nathaniel , Why Won't You Let Me Be Black?

Medeski, Martin & Wood , Radiolarians III Nightmare Of You , Infomaniac Ocean , FluXion Plastiscines , About Love Solillaquists Of Sound , No More Heroes Suicide City , Frenzy Thrill Of A Gunfight , The Struggle, The Rebirth, The Beginning Anew Tides Of Man , Empire Theory Wildbirds & Peacedrums , The Snake

coming next week

Assjack Assjack

Behemoth Evangelion

Winds of Plague The Great Stone War

curb

m e ta l b l a d e

c e n t u ry m e d i a

Hank Williams III can do it all.

His live shows veer unpredictably between rockabilly, country and pummeling heavy metal. Fans of the latter have been waiting ages for the latter to spill into his recorded output, and III doesn’t disappoint on Assjack’s long-awaited s/t debut. He deftly handles vocals, instruments and production, blasting down heretofore unexplored roads with the likes of “Tennessee Driver,” “Wasting Away” and “Doin’ What I Want.”

On this Polish death squad’s prior record, The Apostasy, frontman Nergal waxed rhapsodic about his disaffiliation from the Catholic Church.

Turns out that that process entails a lot of red tape, so he and his cohorts aren’t quite independent yet. They keep things nice and sardonic on this ninth full-length, as “evangelion” loosely translates to “spreading the word of God.” Expect a more organic approach, courtesy of producer Colin Richardson.

Winds of Plague are probably not what the Scorpions had in mind, but hey, “change” is a pretty abstract term, no? The symphonic deathcore outfit has been steadily improving since their 2002 inception, but only recently decided to get all prolific on us, unearthing Century Media debut Decimate the Weak just last year. This follow-up explores well-trod metal concept album ground— war—except at the end, we’re all using stones, Lottery-style, hence the title.

cd $9.99

on sale next week

on sale next week

the best new music, dvds and video games at Graywhale this week

After Midnight Project , Let's Build Something To Break Augury , Fragmentary Evidence between the trees , Spain Cavo , Bright Nights, Dark Days Dark Tranquility , Yesterworlds (early recordings) James, Jessie , Jessie James May, Imelda , Love Tattoo Nelson, Willie , Lost Highway Rhythms Del Mundo , Classics Rolling Stones , Jump Back: Best Of 1971–93 Showbread , The Fear Of God Smith, Mindy , Stupid Love Swashbuckle , Back To The Noose Ternheim, Anna , Leaving On A Mayday Used , The Used (2LP) Various , Monster Ballads- The Ultimate Set Wolf, Patrick , The Bachelor Your Demise , Ignorance Never Dies

August 3, 2009

graymatter weekly

music

Anchor & Braille Felt

Yim Yames Tribute To

wo o dwat e r r e c o r d s

Ato R e c o r d s

You can’t blame Stephen Christian for wanting to cool off a bit. As frontman of spiritually-inclined alt-punk band Anberlin, he exerts plenty of energy spreading his personal gospel. For Anchor & Braille, he enlisted the help of fellow Floridian, Aaron Marsh of Copeland. Although the project began as a relatively low-key affair, featuring mainly acoustic instruments and piano, Christian has since expanded it into a full band on both wax and stage.

Sub in j’s for y’s and you’ve got My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James going somewhat incognito. Although Beatle great George Harrison passed on from cancer in 2001, James is paying tribute now with an EP of covers. These solo and acoustic cuts mainly consist of material from Harrison’s classic All Things Must Pass, and are truly must-hear material. Some proceeds will go to the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary.

Greymachine Disconnected

Julian Plenti Julian Plenti is Skyscraper

cd $9.99

Party All the Time cobra starship blast off to hipster heaven

A

u dac i ous pa st e l s p e r m e at e their logo and apparel. They employ a keytarist and rock shutter shades. They’ve snared a Gossip Girl starlet to sexify their emo-crunk raveup video for “Good Girls Gone Bad.” We can’t help but wonder if Cobra Starship’s kids are gonna flip through the family photo album (okay, Flickr account) 15 years from now and regard their folks with the bafflement that Bret Michaels and Vince Neil’s Cobra Starship progeny did. Lame old mom and dad with their Hot Mess ratty Fall Out Boy shirts used to be… cool? Clearly, on sale next week Cobra Starship are a band of the moment, and they f u e l e d by r a m e n are seizing it. After breaking onto the scene with 2006’s “Bring It (Snakes on a Plane),” the NYC quintet buckled down and really busted out the (after)party jams for Hot Mess. Which is interesting, as anything-goes frontman Gabe Saporta is an expat of the decidedly sexless emo act Midtown. Hey, you’re only young once, right?

cd $11.99

Hydra Head Records

In the ever-expanding realm of art-metal, this is as super as a supergroup can get.

Aaron Turner, mastermind of metalgaze overlords Isis, hooks up with the guy basically responsible for the genre, Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, a zillion others) to create unsettling drone/doom landscapes.

Diarmuid Dalton (Broadrick’s longtime collaborator in Godflesh and Jesu) and Dave Cochrane of Head of David also lend their singular talents.

Be very afraid.

cd $6.99

cd $11.99 M ata d o r

In further strange alias news, sub in Paul Banks for Julian Plenti and you’ve got the frontman of Interpol issuing his first solo album. If you’re expecting the Ian Curtis style brooding that defines Interpol, you may be in for a surprise, as Banks alternates between restrained folk introspection and perky art-punk jams. There’s plenti (sorry, couldn’t resist) of good vibes in ditties like “Girl on the Sporting News” and “Fun That We Have.”

August 3, 2009

graymatter weekly DVD s

games

quickhits

Flight of the Conchords The Complete Second Season

dvd $18.99 Wa r n e r

In case Garden State and Juno haven’t made it abundantly clear, indie rock has been fully integrated into mainstream comedy. (Then again, mainstream tastes are more “indie” than ever; the lines are as blurred as they’ve ever been.)

It helps to explain the popularity of Conchords, depicting the surreal comic struggles of two New Zealand “guitar-based/ digi-bongo/a cappella/rap/ funk/comedy/folk” expats in big, bad NYC.

Obsessed

dvd $17.99 blu-ray $24.99 Sony Pictures

If you’ve seen Fatal Attraction, you’ve seen Obsessed. Well, that’s not entirely accurate—Ali Larter doesn’t boil any bunnies in this one. She just seduces a co-worker… who happens to be married to Beyoncé.

Evidently Ms. Larter hasn’t seen Beyoncé’s last couple videos, because there’s no way she would’ve knowingly risked incurring the wrath of the metallic power glove. This is trash of the highest order, ludicrous and hilarious.

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Season Three

dvd $12.99

Wa r n e r H o m e V i d e o

Awesome show, great job is right, when you’re talking about the April Fool’s edition, in which our heroes aired Tommy Wiseau’s modern cult classic The Room in its mind-blowingly inept entirety (with bars over the awful nude scenes). Don’t expect that in this season three package— just equally hilarious, willfully disjointed bits about testicle implants, blizzards, damaged nipples and Wiseau himself cameoing in “Pig Man.”

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra X360, PS3, PSP, PS2, Wii, DS

[EA]

Twelve playable G.I. Joes (yes, Snake-Eyes!), four playable Cobras (yes, Storm Shadow!) and an infinite amount of lives means EA’s cartoon-totoyline-to-movie-to-game port is faithful to the Yo Joe! universe. Remember, no one dies and Cobra troopers have terrible aim. Essentially a 3D action-shooter along the lines of Contra, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra should have us acting like the 12-year-old boys we really are.

Madden NFL 10 X360, PS3, PSP, PS2, Wii [EA]

Mutant Chronicles The Lost Episodes

dvd & blu-ray on sale aug 4

m ag n o l i a h o m e e n t

The Punisher and Hellboy, in the same movie? That’s right, director Simon Hunter unites Thomas Jane and Ron Perlman in this future shocker. Based loosely on the popular RPG of the same name, Chronicles pits a group of soldiers against a machine that converts innocents into mutants, transforming Earth circa 2707 into a post-apocalyptic nightmare zone. John Malkovich and Sin City’s Devon Aoki also join in on the fun.

I Love You, Man

on sale next week Wa r n e r H o m e V i d e o

Some guys just aren’t guys’ guys. They never made those four or five buddies they can reliably, say, do Vegas with.

Paul Rudd plays that guy here; he needs a best man for his wedding and auditions suitors with a series of “man dates,” winding up with Rushloving goofball Jason Segel.

Of course, it’s generally ideal to select somebody you’ve known for more than a few weeks to hold onto the ol’ ring, and Segel proves to be reliably unhinged.

Race to Witch Mountain

dvd $17.99 blu-ray $26.99 Wa lt D i s n e y V i d e o

You’d think this would be a ride—it is a Disney movie, after all—but it’s actually based on the mid ’70s young adult novel/action flick Escape to Witch Mountain. Perhaps it will one day fulfill its destiny as a rollercoaster; until then, it can rest with abetting Dwayne “don’t call me the Rock, jabroni” Johnson’s maturation into family-friendly action beefcake (since nobody liked Walking Tall). Telepathy, alien flora, mouthy cabbies—what’s not to love?

the best new music, dvds and video games at Graywhale this week

John Madden’s longtime gridiron franchise continues to roll on in Madden NFL 10. The game is the same, but the animation and mechanics have been overhauled to stun virtual pigskin fans.

Online multi-player has also been improved.

Now, nine players can gang up and tackle pesky running backs and fleet-footed wide receivers.

Hey, now! You’re an all-star!

also available Wolfenstein X360, PS3 Phantom Brave: We Meet Again wii