Media Obscura: 5/4/08

Saturday, May 10, 2008

New CD Releases - 2008.05.13

New CD Releases

2008.05.13

Pick Of The Week:

The Black Angels - Directions To See A Ghost

A second fantastic album from The Black Angels. The track below is "You On The Run".

Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs

DJ Spooky - Sound Unbound

I still always search out whatever DJ Spooky does, but I've definitely been pretty passive about a lot of his recent stuff, and this is a good reason why. This is just another DJ mix (with 43 songs represented!). I know I can't expect a DJ to create non-mix CDs every year, but I just think it's been too long since we've seen one from DJ Spooky.

Dave Douglas - Moonshine

Duffy - Rockferry

Filter - Anthems for the Damned

Local H - 12 Angry Months

Old 97's - Blame It On Gravity

Rufus Thomas - Tiger Man

I love Rufus Thomas. This CD is billed as "Earliest Recordings". Looking forward to hearing it.

New DVD Releases - 2008.05.13

New DVD Releases

2008.05.13

This is an utter turd of a week. No Pick of the week.

Bon Cop Bad Cop

The Great Debaters

I don't care, this movie blows.

Youth Without Youth

TV Releases

Saturday Night Live - Season Three

I can't bring myself to make this the pick of the week by default, because I've only gotten about halfway through season 1 so far.

New CD Releases - 2008.05.06

New CD Releases

2008.05.06

Pick Of The Week

Firewater - The Golden Hour

I'm so excited that after a five year hiatus in writing new music, Firewater has returned with a new album. Luckily in that time a lot of bands that have an ethnic feel have achieved some popularity, including Devotchka and Gogol Bordello. Hopefully that will mean some level of success for the new Firewater project.

The song below is called "Borneo", it is the first track on the new album. Below that you'll find a great youtube link that gives you an idea of what the album is about.

Elvis Costello - Momofuku

Gavin DeGraw - Gavin DeGraw

Kayo Dot - Blue Lambency Downward

The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement

Shawn Lee - Miles Of Styles

The Long Blondes - Couples

OST-Iron Man

New DVD Releases - 2008.05.06

New DVD Releases

2008.05.06

Pick Of The Week

Steel City

Definitely a close call between this and several others, but in the end, I went with this one. Worth checking out.

2007 Academy Awards Shorts

I've only seen one of these shorts so far, so I can't really comment.

Bella

I always pay attention to the Audience Award Winner at Toronto, which in previous years included Amelie, Crouching Tiger, Hotel Rwanda and Whale Rider. I didn't think this one certainly didn't stand up to those, but it was definitely worth a look.

Delirious

I Really Hate My Job

All I knew about this film was that Neve Campbell was naked in it, but I just noticed that the fantastic Danny Huston is also in this.

I'm Not There

Military Intelligence And You

Really interesting and funny film. If you like political satire like The Daily Show or maybe The Onion, you should check this out. It doesn't have a lot of deep laughs, but it's pretty much non-stop chuckles.

MST3K: The Movie

I usually don't cover older films and re-issues, but c'mon, this thing is great.

Teeth

I really can't wait to see this.

TV Releases

The 4400 - Season 4

This show consistently got better and better. It's a shame it's over.

Music Releases

Michael Franti - Power To The Peaceful

Michael Franti is one of my rappers ever. He has been doing political action concerts on 9/11 for years. This documents the 2005 festival, and features Spearhead, Anti-Flag, Saul Williams and others.

Curtis Mayfield - Movin' On Up

I don't know anything about this DVD, but I love Curtis Mayfield, and video footage is fairly scarce, so this is exciting.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Breaking Records! - Mates Of State - Re-arrange Us

The fifth album from indie rock couple (cutest couple in rock music?) Mates Of State will arrive on May 20th from Barsuk Records. Below is the first single and video for "Get Better"

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Monthly Favorites - April 2008

DVDs

#1
Juno

#2
The Diving Bell & The Butterfly

#3
There Will Be Blood

#4
King Corn

#5
Cloverfield

CDs

#1
Black Keys - Attack & Release

#2
Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I - IV

#3
Cinematic Orchestra - Live At Royal Albert Hall

#4
Ike Reilly - Poison The Hit Parade

#5
Something I haven't heard yet.

I had a couple CDs that I thought were ok, but after looking through the list of cds that came out in April, there were so many that I want to hear, I assume one (or possibly any) of them would make a much better pick here. So, if you've got any of the following, please feel free to comment or E-mail with links, thanks.

Miles Davis - Miles From India
Abdel Hadi Halo & The El Gusto Orchestra of Algiers
Lettuce - Rage!
Stanton Moore - Empasis: On Parenthesis
Adrian Sherwood - Becoming a Cliche
Jordan Zevon - Insides Out