Best of 2011: Music

Alright, alright alright! That's that for 2011. It can go fuck itself now kthnxbai! But before it does, there are BEST OF lists to create! And worst of lists as well. I mostly do thsoe for movies, but i'll be holding off for a while since there are still some movies I have yet to see that I want to. Some that will probably end up on the best of lise(like Steven Spielberg's War Horse) and some likely to go on the rubbish list(Pirates 4, which I have here and have been dreading to watch). So I'll compile those lists when I am good and ready. Maybe around Oscar season! One list I CAN do now, is my BEST OF MUSIC 2011 list. This year was FAR better than 2010. I got into a whole slew of new artists this year, and a lot of old veterans returned with stunning new albums. I compiled this list by simply looking at all the music I bought this year, and figuring which ones got the most repeated play in my stereo, and which ones made me piss myself upon listening. So here's what stood out in year 2011!

10.  Primus - Green Naugahyde
Primus returned after a decade long retirement with it's original members back in formation, and deliveed an album that wasn't quite it's old style, but something new! This pissed fanboys off who still live in 1990. But for me, it was a breath of fresh air. Had just enough of the old Primus sound with a modern day tinge to make the band relevant again after such a long hiatus. Hopefully this reformation stick and they stick around for good this time.

9. Apparat - The Devil's Walk
Of the many new bands I got into this year. All thanks to a crucial scene from season 4 of Breaking Bad(that song was called Goodbye). I loved it so much I went and checked out the rest of the groups music and was instantly hooked. Very addictived, and unique sounding with a hint of sadness throughout.

8. Devin Townsend - Deconstruction
This was one of two albums the metal mastermind released this year. The other album, Ghosts, was great on it's own, and is the polar opposite of this album. Where that album was a melodic, almost etheral sounding piece, this album was insanity from top to bottom. It never reached the speeds of SYL's City(to this date, Devin's most perfect album), but what it lacked in an all out speed assault, it made up for in sheer insanity. This is what music sounds like if it were made from an insane asylum. Yet the entire thing is focused, and never derails. You can see exactly what Townsend was going for. And he succeeds in getting it. A parody of a metal album that just happens to be a fantastic fucking metal album.

7. Big Black Delta - BBDLP1
This was the most unique sounding album I got this year. A strange hybrid of classic 80's sound with modern day techno surrounded with all sorts of distortions. It's a controlled chaos at it's best and something entirely it's own.  May this be the first of many albums this guy puts out.

6. Diary of Dreams - Ego:X
One of the most reliable bands I listen to, this German darkwave group releases what is actually it's most accessible album to date. The dark, brooding nature of this band remains in tact, but the songs are tighter and leaner. Be interesting to see what the next album sounds like.

5. VNV Nation - Automatic
VNV Nation return with what is thier most bombastic album since Futureperfect. They also prety much abandon all hint of thier original darkwave sound and go full eletronica. Mastermind Ronan Harris adds a lot of depth to the sound on this album, and each song essentially comes off like an anthem of sorts. This is shit that is meant ot be played live. Also, it's an unapologetically positive album, with barely a hint of gloom in the lyrics, siding instead for the positive. It sounds like the album Harris has been wanting to make for a decade but has held back for whatever reason. This is him saying fuck it and going all out. It's one of this bands finest albums to date.

4. IAMX - Volatile Times
One man band IAMX, comprised of former Sneaker Pimps member Chris Corners releases his 5th album under this name, and like all the previous albums, it bears very little resemblance to his pevious albums. Each IAMX album is very much it's own sound, caryring only vague hints of a stand alone style. What you get is a unique blend of electronica, indie rock, and even some cabaret to go along with it. Fueled by Corner's near flawless voice, each IAMX album is freakishly addictive. I havent heard one yet that's failed to deliver, or make my top 10 list the year it's released.

3. Junius - Reports from the Threshold of Death
This is the album that should finally bring this band the attention they deserve. It's thier best one yet by far. A tight, hard rocking album with enough psychedelic in it, you'll feel like your floating in space. The lyrics are brilliant, the songs are addicting as all hell, this is stuff that should get FAR more exposure. This is one of those bands that deserves hype. I sure as shit hope they finally get it.

2. Machine Head - Unto the Locust
The best metal album of the year. Machine Head's last album was 2007's masterpiece, 'The Blackening". It was one of THE best metal album released for the decade. It's mix of raw aggression and emotion combined with melody was something to behold. Finally, the band returns with its's new album. And while it doesnt top The Blackening(nothing really can), it is, never the less, another masterpiece. The band go for a more bare bones sound this time around, and lose none of the punch. The rage and emotions are all still intact, many times even elevated, and most of the songs feature choruses that will have you singing along hwile banging your head. This album solidifies Machine Head as one of the very best metal bands around today. They are really on thier own level at this point.

1. ASP - Fremd
I've been only casually into this band for about 2 years or so, listening to a bunch of random songs here and there, but finally made the effort to pick up thier albums earlier this year. Had to import most of them, amazon took care of the rest. What struck me is just how much I ended up getting into them. They're a German goth metal group with flourishes of electronics and classical instruments, extremely catchy melodies, all lead by the singer who'se deep baritone drives each song. More surprising still, this band has essentially filled the void for me left by the loss of Type O Negative. They are similar in some ways, though not by too much. But  i've become addicted to thsi gorup and devoured all thier albums. This past October they released thier new one, and it's the best of the bunch. Heavier that previous albums with more focus, it's a perfect summary of the group and a perfect example of why I've taken to them so much. Dripping with melody, brooding darkness and the singers unique voice, this was the album that played the most times in my stereo, and will continue to do so well into 2012.

So there's the top 10. Honorable mentions also go out to the following:

Gary Numan - Dead Son Rising
Skinny Puppy - Handover
Leaves' Eyes - Meredead
Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Soundtrack
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
Jesu - Ascension
16 Volt - Beating Dead Horses
Dope Stars Inc. - Ultrawired
TV On the Radio - Nine Types of Light
Nero - Welcome Reality
DarkDriveClinic - Noise In My Head

Some good stuff heading our way in 2012 too. New Queens of the Stone Age album! A newly reformed and rejuvinated Ministry returns! And most unbeleivable of all, CELLDWELLER will finally release his new album in March! Yes I can't believe it either but it's set and ready to go. he even recorded 5 extra songs for the album. And just at the very end January, the brilliant Mind.In.A.Box return with thier 4th album. Thier previous album was a tangent from thier normal style. It was a love letter album to old video game systems of the 80's. This new album is a return to form. It's destined to be right near the top of my best of list for 2012. We'll see what else makes the cut this time next year! Adios.

Movie review: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

 

 

For a year now I've had to hear about how remaking the Swedish "masterpiece" The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a travesty upon humanity! That it could never be improved. I didn't care much for this. The American version was going to be directed by David Fincher, who is one of the best living directors today. So I just had a wait and see attitude. So this past week, I breezed through the book, saw the Swedish version, and just now have seen the America version. And it is now beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the American version is about one million times the better film. It isn't even fair to compare it. The American version improves on the Swedish film in every single possible aspect. Everything. This includes acting, direction, the story telling, style and most of all, how closely it follows the novel. so if you have never seen the Swedish version, don't. It isn't even worth it anymore now that we have this one. If you have seen the Swedish version, watch this one. Especially if you are a fan of the book. I will from here on out bitch slap anybody out of existence who lies to me and claims the Swedish version is better. That's an insult to my intelligence and to modern day cinema.

 

So with that out of the way, lets get to the film. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, based on the book of the same name, centers on a disgraced journalist who is hired by a rich Swedish industrialist to investigate who in his family killed his niece nearly 40 years ago. As he digs up answers and new puzzle pieces, he'll seek help from a hacker named Lisbeth Salander. She of said tattoo. the two investigate the murder and find themselves in increasing danger, and also form an unlikely emotional bond with each other that starts to break away Salander's otherwise ice cold demeanor.

 

The BEST thing this film does that the Swedish version butchered, is properly build and legitimately establish the friendship and bond between the journalist and Salander. Their chemistry they have is fantastic, and the two characters feed off each other effortlessly. As a result, this movie is essentially about 2 entirely different things that just to happen to tie into each other. On one hand you have the investigation into the murder, and on the other you have Salander's evolution as a character. Lisbeth Salander is the real star of the show. She's a fantastic character. A self reliant, ice cold emotionless creature, who appears almost zombie like at first. We witness as she endures one truly horrific event, which I wont spoil, and then the brilliant and cheer worthy way in which she retaliates. Once she meets the journalist, we see as her standard icy demeanor is slowly chipped away, showing that beneath it all is an actual vulnerable person who has real feelings and real emotions. One complaint that I can see lodged at this movie, is that the movie goes on well after the crime aspect is resolved. But to dismiss these scenes would be folly. They resolve Salander's story, which is just as vital to the movie and it's where the movie gets it's heart and soul. It elevates it above being a standard fair crime/mystery film into something more personal, and the film's melancholy ending is simply pitch perfect. Exactly as it was in the book.

 

As Salander, actress Rooney Mara(she who dumped Mark Zuckerberg at the beginning of The Social Network) is perfect. She expresses herself with only cold stares and body movements, and her dead end stares can send daggers in your direction. She is the embodiment of the character as described in the book. Then when the character finally starts to show some humanity, she again captures it beautifully. It's an excellent performance, one that should please the books fans.

 

As far as an adaptation goes, it's impossible to imagine this being better. There are only a few slight changes, nothing truly major. Mostly just to move the story along a bit faster. But they do manage to stuff in as much of the investigation of the mystery as possible. This is no surprise since director David Fincher loves that kind of stuff. He's a director in which the smallest of details mean just as much as the actual story. He actually manages to add a few nifty, yet demented flourishes throughout.(just wait til you see where he decides to place the song Orinoco Flow by Enya. I'll never think of that song the same again.) And the subject matter of the book was right up his alley. This is now yet another masterpiece of a film that can be attributed to him. It's excellent on every level. including the soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, That soundtrack, which I think is easily better than the one they did for Social Network, manages to be haunting and foreboding and yet serene all at once. There are some seens which come off more intense than they normally would be just with the sounds Reznor and Ross apply to it. They deserve another Oscar for it.

 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a fascinating film. It's morbid, haunting, gleefully dark and bitter sweet all at once. It rises above standard fair crime story by focusing just as much on the relationship between two complex characters, and going full through with their emotional arc as well as resolving the story at hand. A near perfect adaptation of the book, David Fincher has nailed this one better than anybody else ever could. It's the best movie I've seen in 2011.

 

A+

Movie review: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

 

I would be hard pressed to say Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is better than part 1. This may be one of the rare instances where I can't pick one over the other. Both have strengths the other doesn't. Part 1 for instance, has a better over all mystery, and is actually a lot more humorous. Part 2 however, features far better action sequences and a decidedly better villain. That of course, being the great James Moriarty. Holmes' deadliest nemesis. I'd say the cat and mouse game Moriarty and Holmes play against each other is the key reason to see this film.  Moriarty is the intellectual equivalent to Holmes, except he has none of the moral fissures which keep Holmes in check. This makes him not only extraordinarily intelligent, but deadly as well. He's played brilliantly by Jared Harris (from Mad Men and Fringe). Harris at no point goes over the top with the character, and manages to give him an aura of grace and class mixed in with pure sadism. He's the perfect foe for Robert Downey Jr.'s manic Sherlock Holmes. Jude Law is also excellent as the rational Dr. Watson, the anchor that keeps Holmes from ruining himself too much.

 

As stated, the action sequences in this one far outweigh the ones seen in the first one. They are filmed with a sense of true danger and a focused hyper activity that someone like Michael Bay could NEVER get right. One particular sequence set in a  forest is particularly intense. The film does as sequels usually tend to do, make everything bigger, faster, and add more explosions than are often necessary. But in this case, it doesn't feel like an exhaustion. The best scenes are when Holmes and Moriarty are face to face, trying to figure out who has just outwitted who and how. Also, the film's finale goes to a completely unexpected place, though if you are familiar with the original books, you'll recognize immediately what is going to happen and how it's going to end. It was a nice surprise, one I didn't expect the film makers to attempt.

 

So while the action is bigger and better, and the villain top notch, the film's darker tone can almost seem out of place given the comradery you associate with these films and with Downey Jr.'s take on the character.  As a result, the tone of the film sometimes seems off balance. But that's a minor gripe, and it certainly doesn't become enough of an issue to ruin anything. So if you liked the first one, you are sure to like this one. And if you didn't like the first one, you probably WILL like this one more. The faster pace and grander action sequences will keep you entertained. 

 

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is a perfectly serviceable sequel. Doesn't change the world or warrant any wards, but as mindless, fun entertainment, you can hardly do better than this one of the first one. Recommended.

 

Grade: (A-)

Trailer Park: Battleship!

You know what's worse than a shitty, unwatchable Michael Bay directed Transformers movie? A clone of it. Behold BATTLESHIP!

Whats this WHATS THIS???I mean GAH goddammit aaahhhhhhhhh................

THIS is why movies are FLOPPING! Look at that! It looks like someone just ejaculated onto a computer screen and turned it into CGI, packaged it put the name BATTLESHIP on it cause YAY a boardgame, and there's your movie.

What exactly is the point anymore of movies like this? I get more out of video games! And with better stories even. I was thinking for a bit this year that maybe I was just becoming old and cynical. But no!! The only movies I did end up liking this year would be dscribed as rubbish by true cynics! Things like X-Men : First Class and Captain America and Rise of the Planet of the Apes! I loved those! THEY HAD SOUL AND STORY!!!!! Mass piles of unwatchable shit like Transformers 3: Dark Side of Michael Bay's Asshole, did not. They were noise, surrounded with enough computer generated masurbation so that any mindless dork wouldn't notice they were being raped for 2 and a half hours. Thats what this dung heap looks to me. Ugh! Dare I say, for every movie coming out in 2012 that I am itching to see, there be 70 that make me run away in terror. This one here is right near the top of that list! This thing was sunk before it even began.

Long overdue

I haven't updated this in some time. Hasn't been for lack of anything to write about. I've just been distracted by shit. Some of it my own mental apathy. Other's include life itself. And some of it was reading through the first three books of the Songs of Ice and Fire series, which is what the Game of Thrones show is based on. Those took up a lot of times since each one averages about a thousand pages. I'm all Songs of Ice and Fired out for the moment though, and am rushing through Girl With the Dragon Tattoo before it hits theaters. Just aren't enough hours in the day for all things. I haven't even finished Batman Arkham Asylum nor started Uncharted 3. I intend to take care of both of those during the Christmas break. And also, hopefully, post more here. I do intend to keep a steady flow of postings throughout the next year. I just gotta keep in mind, whenever I feel a rant coming on, I'll make sure to run to this here blog and plant it down. Why should rage be self contained! But for now, let's get the moth balls off this blog by posting a weekend box office update!

Fuck it. Nah fuck it. Here's what you need to know about the box office as of late. Everything, EVERYTHING that has come out since Rise of the Planet of the Apes has either bombed, disappointed, or barely broken even. The sole exception was Twilight. But just about everything else has been a mess. Reason is simple. Studio's aren't releasing anything anybody gives enough of a shit about seeing. Especially in this economy. Especially in this age of netflix and pirating. Why waste the time and money? The biggest concern for Hollywood is that their core, always reliable audience(young males) are no longer flocking to the movies. Mainly due to the fact that they have plenty of OTHER shit to do. Like video games which have grown this year. So don't expect much noise from the box office for a long while. You can only serve shit enough times before people finally taste it.

And speaking of shit, it's fun to see the Republican party has continued to grow more deeply insane over the last few months. The debates have become side shows, and Obama looks almost like a lock for re-election mainly due to the fact that the republicans have gone batshit and aren't even hiding the fact anymore. I mean when one of your leading candidates is a sexually harassing pizza guy, you have fucking problems. But this is a post for another day. When I have enough energy to run it down. For now, just know, the blog is back. I'll try to keep it up to date a bit better than I have, and let's see where the future takes us!

Also gotta start compiling my best of 2011 lists. Those should be fun.