Ok, I’ll admit it, I haven’t been a hardcore fan of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World for years. I saw the trailer a couple months ago, thought it looked interesting and sounded familiar. In time I recognized Scott Pilgrim mainly from from geek conversations and a string of tweets from my local West Hollywood nerdery @meltdowncomics. Finally a couple weeks ago just before the TV trailer melee began I was able to read all 6 of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s books and they were nothing short of life-changing. His storytelling style is a multi-layered ADD blend of vintage video game humor and indie rock kitsch set against the background of the amazing maple mecca of Toronto. Needless to say I laughed my ass off while it burrowed it’s way into my heart. It’s not that often where you can read something that you just “get” and you feel like in some way it gets you back. So of course I’ll be seeing the movie on opening night Friday, August 13.
I’ve categorized this as “You Should Know:” but really, if you haven’t heard of Montreal fireball Melissa Auf der Maur then you need a serious lesson in Alt Rock history. After Kristen Pfaff’s overdose, Melissa became her replacement as bassist of Hole and in 2000 MAdM would replace D’Arcy Wretzky in Smashing Pumpkins until it’s initial dissolution. Her 2004 solo album titled simply Auf der Maur would go on to sell over 180,000 copies worldwide.
Now that you know who she is you should know that her latest SELF-RELEASED solo album Out Of Our Minds is a vibrant, layered work with touches of Kate Bush with newer hints of artists like A Perfect Circle, Azure Ray and Blonde Redhead. Her electro-rock orchestrations have a very epic swing and play into the delicate blasts of her voice. And it could be my stubbornly approaching 30 yrs-old ears but in songs like “Meet Me On The Dark Side” I still hear a bit of that 20th century “alternative rock” sound remaining in the songs structure which might actually be a welcome appeal to people of my generation and the Gen X’ers just before us. Of the 5 tracks I have been given to preview the standout is still the title track but a close 2nd is “The Key” which almost has a Queens of the Stone Age vibe, not so coincidentally. MAdM has also worked with them in the past. Album guests include Jordon Zadorozny (Sam Roberts), Chris Goss (QOTSA, UNKLE), Alan Molder (Depeche Mode, Smashing Pumpkins), Mike Frazer (Franz Ferdinand, ACDC) with a special duet with Glenn Danzig.
Out Of Our Minds is following the modern trend to remonitize music by appealing to hardcore fans by offering the solo record along with various other media in cost escalating tiers. Along with the solo record there is also an accompanying Graphic Novel by Brooklyn artist Jack Forbes as well as a 28-minute HD film, directed by Tony Stone which premiered at The Sundance Film Festival in 2009 and a vinyl picture disc (among other standard merch). All of this is set for release this March 23rd.
A free MP3 of the title track is available at xmadmx.com when you sign up for updates. Warning for sensitive listeners: In title track Out Of Our Minds, “Fire” and “Desire” lyrically interchange. But because she is a redhead, I think we can make an exception.
For Your Consideration: Evelyn Evelyn Sounds Like: Vaudvillians! For Fans Of: The Dresden Dolls, The Ditty Bops Album: Evelyn Evelyn
(Pre-Order Soon – March 30th Release – Eleven Records) Websites:Myspace.com/evelynevelyn | @EvelynEvelyn
Evelyn Evelyn is a conjoined-twin duo under the “production” of Amanda Palmer (The Dresden Dolls) and Seattle folk-minstrel Jason Wembley. 3 arms, 2 heads, 1 sound. Album and Comic book coming later in the year on Dark Horse Comics. They will be playing Boston and touring Europe before a summer US tour. It’s good to see weirdness and creativity hanging out shamelessly in the world.
Evelyn Evelyn Tour Dates:
April 12 – Boston, MA – ART Theater
April 12 – Boston, MA – ART Theater
April 17 – Glasgow, UK – Òran Mór
April 19 – Dublin, IE – The Academy
April 22 – London, UK – Koko
April 23 – London, UK – Bush Hall
April 24 – London, UK – Bush Hall
April 25 – London, UK – Bush Hall
April 27 – Paris, FR – L’Européen
April 28 – Amsterdam, NL – Melkwag
April 29 – Hamburg, DE – Kampnagel
May 01 – Berline, DE – Babylon
May 03 – Cologne, DE – Gloria
May 04 – Antwerp, BE – Arenbergschouwburg
May 16 – June 25 – Full tour of US and Canada. Dates posted soon!
For Your Consideration: One eskimO Sounds Like: UK Acoustic mellowness
with subtle electronic support and Animation! For Fans Of: Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, Gorillaz Album:The Adventures of One eskimO
(Warner Bros./Shangri La) Websites:Myspace.com/oneeskimo | findlittlefeather.com
One eskimO 2010 Tour Dates
2/04: New York, NY @ City Winery
2/05: Woodstock, NY @ Bearsville Theatre
2/08: New York, NY @ The Living Room
2/12: Akron, OH @ Akron Art Museum
2/13: Detroit, MI @ Winter Blast Festival at The Atrium at Compuware Corporation Building
2/25: Minneapolis, MN @ KTCZ Oake On The Ice Concert Series
3/04: Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre*
3/05: Madison, WI @ Majestic Theatre*
3/06: Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Cafe*
3/08: Denver, CO @ Odgen Theatre*
3/09: Aspen, CO @ Belly Up Tavern*
4/18 Indio, CA @ Coachella Festival
With Gomez = *
Luca Brasi sleeps wit the fishes…but you can sleep with the horses! Or your prize racehorse’s head at least! It sells here for $45 stuffed…$35 without fiberfill or FREE if you ask Don Corleoné on his daughter’s wedding day.
Brings new meaning to the phrase “going to the mattresses”.
I met Kate Micucci for the first time a couple years ago at a BBQ Joint in Chinatown LA that was having a comedy night and made her a “You Should Know:” artist just after I launched this incarnation of AvantTrash. I have a fetish for the Uke and this girl is the closest thing to a ukulele hero since Tiny Tim orAsian Babies. Besides that She and her partner in Garfunkel & Oates (Riki Lindhome) are both very funny and talented actresses to boot (You might recognize them from Scrubs or the remake of Last House on the Left). With G&O they write songs about a variety of brilliant subjects: 3rd wheel dates, Self-Esteem being low enough to date someone less than ideal, The smugness of pregnant women, and Douchebags (to name a few). Their lyrics blend a crass and beautiful truth with a much-more-than-folk sound coming from whichever 2 instruments they happen to be holding (Guitar, Uke, Keys…and Kazoos). It’s coincidental that tonight they made their debut on Jay Leno on the same night I made them the 7th day of Xmas (I’ve had all 12 days planned out for a month). I caught a preview of their Leno performance during their Holiday Spectacular at the UCB Theatre last week. They were even nice enough to give everyone in the theatre CD’s and DVDs…and candy. A fitting wrap up to the year is their video I posted last year around this time for “Present Face”. You may recognize a few more comedians in this video than you did last year, they aren’t the only ones that had a good 2009.
Good thing about the economy being in the can, less people exchanging awkward gifts.
According to Wikipedia, the 12 days of Christmas are supposed to be from Christmas Day to “The Epiphany” and not the 12 days leading up to the Holiday, but I’m pretty sure they made it all up anyway. So here at AvantTrash we are going to instead countdown our 12 favorite Holiday Memes and Videos!
Day 12 = 2002′s Ding Fries Are Done!
This dude always reminded us of our good friend and former roommate Russell.
Kanye West posted this trailer the other day and I can tell you that having seen the movie…not the same mood. Long ago and far away I was a graphic designer who worked on (amongst other projects) Key Art for Indie films. One of which was TAXIDERMIA (imdb).
Taxidermia is an Hungarian Indie about 3 generations of men, none of them what I would consider “normal”. I say this because my regular definition of normal doesn’t include pig-fuckers, competitive binge eaters or fetal taxidermists. This movie is not a jovial fantasy adventure like the trailer would have you believe. It is however a visually arresting, gritty and inventive piece of cinema for adventurous viewers. Should you consider yourself someone with a strong stomach for on-command vomiting, bestiality and flagrant obese lovemaking then you might enjoy Taxidermia. You sick fuck. I would not consider this a “date movie” no matter how much your date claims to like subversive foreign films. This is borderline horror.
I’ve seen Shep around L.A. a couple times but never said hi.
What do you say to someone that good?
He knows he’s good, his presidential portrait is hanging in the Smithsonian.
It’s like he took everything that Warhol ever said about Art but could never actually do and fucking did it.
Although it was revealed on a Bump I just heard from a friend of series creator Brendan Small that Metalocalypse will be back on [Adult Swim] for it’s 3rd season around November of this year. As us nerds will recall the season ended in an Empire Strikes Back down note with band manager Ofdensen in pretty bad shape and the questionable safety of the bands world-saving next album. Speaking of albums Dethklok’s Deathalbum IIis finished and will be released on September 8th.
In other [Adult Swim] news the similarly cliffhangered (cliffhung?) next season of The Venture Bros. will also pick back up in November.
Holy Goddamned Wow! This could have the potential to blow wads of crazy art juice all over Disney Digital 3-D glasses next March! Here are some production photos of Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway in the upcoming Tim Burton helmed “Alice in Wonderland” live-action flick.
