C.A.T: The Bends

Radiohead – The Bends (1994)
Frankly, I’m surprised it took this long for Radiohead to finally get a added to our classic album library. I mean, I’m all about these guys, they’re like my favorite band. I’m pretty sure Colin’s all about them too, and John and Nancy seem to accept them.

After the success of “Creep” and Pablo Honey, and before the experimentation of OK Computer, Radiohead turned out a brilliant rock epic called The Bends. While you can hear the band’s growing interest in electronic sound, this album is entirely guitar-driven.

Lead singer Thom Yorke pours his angsty heart out over each of The Bends‘ 12 tracks, making himself a hopeless cripple. These melancholy lyrics blended Jonny Greenwood’s meladic guitar genius create an amazing experience that surely influenced the sound of bands like Coldplay. This album is sometimes gentle, sometimes intense, and always astounding.

Normally I’d go through the track order, but I don’t really feel like that would accomplish anything in the case of The Bends. Each song’s a winner. In my iTunes library the lowest score I gave any of them was 4 stars.

Honestly, what more can I say than when I awarded this my top album of the Ninties? It was Colin’s number two. There are few records out there that I get more enjoyment out of then The Bends. If you honestly don’t like it, well, then I don’t know how to help you.

Favorite Tracks: “Just,” “Bullet Proof… I Wish I Was,” “Black Star,” “Street Spirit (Fade Out)”

Weekly Mariner Wrap-Up

Well Spring training is upon us and I thought I would take this opportunity to start a new tradition here at Cat Fancy. From now on every Sunday (I was going to do it yesterday but my internet would not let me log in) I will do a wrap up the past weeks events in the world of Mariner baseball. Everything from minor acquisitions and blockbuster trades to clubhouse quarrels and how the team is doing at the present moment.

Griffey

Well this topic just will not seem to go away. At the end of last week it seemed to be a done deal and all of the major news sources were reporting the deal as good as done. But right at the last minute The Atlanta Braves stepped into the mix and Junior is supposed to make his decision Tuesday. This really sucks for those of us that wanted the Kid to return because how can we beat Atlanta geographically. With such proximity to his house in Orlando and their Spring training facility being IN Orlando I feel that all of that outweighs the nostalgia factor in Griffey’s mind. I have yet to remove my number 24 jersey this week and am keeping hope alive.

Ryan Rowland-Smith’s Decision

The southpaw from the southern hemisphere has decided he will stay with the Mariner camp in hope to secure a spot in the M’s five man rotation and not pitch for his country of Australia in the upcoming World Baseball Classic. He has been wrestling with the decision for a while and has finally made up his mind after Wak told him he could not do both. In my opinion he has no chance to make the rotation because of Jarrod Washburn being the number one priority to trade come the July 31st deadline and we need to strut him out with and improved defense and hope some sucker of a team will give up something for him down the road. I love RRS and he has proven that he deserves to start, but he is not going anywhere and we need to get value for these pieces before we can let the kids start.

Josh Fields Finally Signs

Josh Fields was our first-round pick in the amateur draft last year and FINALLY signed. He and his agent demanded a $2 million signing bonus while the Mariner’s were sticking firm to the MLB recommended $1.5 million slot bonus. They finally met in the middle and he is expected to start workouts with the team tomorrow.

Fields was a closer at the University of Georgia and was said by many Major League scouts to be MLB ready. He hits the high 90’s on the radar gun and has a devistating curve ball. A lot of people questioned the M’s front office for taking a reliever so high in the draft, but if Dr. Zoinks thinks it is a good pick than I am on board.

Beltre/Putz Don’t Like Ichiro

There has been a flurry of reports across the Seattle newspapers over the last couple of days regarding the clubhouse chemistry and how it has to change this year. For me personally I am sick of these story lines and am ready for the “New Day, New Way” stuff to begin. Larry Stone and Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times both have their prospectives and I guess it is interesting but I think players should be blaming people like Yuni and Cairo, not the best player on the team.

Well that is all I can think of for now. Keep on the lookout tomorrow morning for where Griffey is going.

The Sleeper

The Reader

As of today I can finally check off the last film of my oscar ballot after seeing Stephen Daldry’s The Reader. Definitely the film I was least looking forward to seeing after the Best Picture nominations were announced, The Reader was exactly what I expected. A slow, brooding tale of taboo romance sparked with occasional interesting turns and solid acting. It somewhat balances out here and there and I somewhat enjoyed the latter half despite the fact that I really had no interest in the subject matter

Based off the 1995 novel “Der Vorleser” by Bernhard Schlink, The Reader depicts the lives of German Lawyer Michael Berg (Played by both David Kross and Ralph Fiennes) and Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet) a lonely illiterate woman later tried of war crimes for her time as a guard at Auschwitz. The story is essentially told in three parts; the first presenting a young Michael’s relationship with Hannah in 1950s Berlin until her disappearance, then Michael’s years a law student following Hannah’s trial and prison sentencing in the 60s and the last half following an adult Michael keeping contact with the imprisoned Hannah by sending her tapes of recorded stories (as he used to read to her when their relationship began.)

Now forbidden romance stories aren’t really my cup of tea, so naturally I was bored to tears during all the “intimate moments.” Meaning I basically had little to no interest in the first half of the film. The trial portion was rather interesting and I rather enjoyed seeing German actor Bruno Ganz pop up but it still suffered from some rather slow spots. Not to mention that whole tone of the film was quite solemn and ultimately depressing which never really settled very well with me.

Kate Winslet was pretty good and definitely deserving of a nomination. It appears that she’s the frontrunner this year being that she’s pretty much due for a win. Plus she wore aged makeup in the latter half of the film to downplay her appearance and I have this theory that making your lead actress less attractive in a movie often guarantees an Oscar win. Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron, Marion Cotillard, Hilary Swank dressed as a boy and if all goes according to plan Kate Winslet will walk away with the gold this year.

So in conclusion The Reader was kind of boring but it had it’s moments and was well made. I wouldn’t of nominated it but it certainly wasn’t terrible.

The Gospel According to Spinal Tap

It’s been a nice little holiday weekend enjoying Valentine’s Day and President’s Day and what not. Though I hadn’t really been inspired to write much of anything on the blog lately, until today. I was doing my daily browsing on Yahoo News and was quite shocked to find that legendary mockumentary rockers Spinal Tap have headed back into the studio. With plans to release a new album this year, this will be the groups first studio album since 1992’s “Break Like the Wind”. Rumored tracks are a successor to “Gimme Some Money” titled “Gimme Some More Money” and possibly a recording of “Warmer than Well” which Tap performed at 2007’s Live Earth. Being that This is Spinal Tap is one of my favorite comedies of all time, I’ll definitely check this out when this rock and roll creation hits the shelves.

For your amusement here’s a video depicting Spinal Tap’s 2007 reunion for Live Earth

An Auspicious Date

It’s Friday, the 13th of February. Normally, people are afraid of this accursed date, this month it is a day of celebration, as this blog has turned a whole year old.

So, good people, rejoice and bask in the glory of the blog today, and how far we have come.

That’s all.

T3: Most Anticipated Movies of 2009

Remember when I did this a year ago? Yeah, a year ago (Saturday). Well, it’s time to do it again. Uh, I think John said This Side of the Truth isn’t coming out this year any more, so I guess it doesn’t get to make the list.

10. Public Enemies

July 1

Michael Mann, the Great Depression, the FBI, Johnny Depp, Christian Bale. I hope I don’t need to give you any more reasons to get excited for this July release. Now, sure Miami Vice sucked hard, but that shouldn’t even enter into the equation. Because this sounds sweet.

9. Star Trek

May 8

There is so much about this film that can go wrong. The guy they’ve got playing Kirk doesn’t seem like a better choice than Matt Damon, but what do I know? I’ve only seen the trailer, but what’s that shit going on about Kirk being like a troubled youth and all that nonsense? I don’t know, maybe that works for the character. What I do know is that I love me some sci-fi and we certainly do not get enough of that out of Hollywood. To Hollywood: if you make a movie with spaceships or giant robots (probably even Transformers II: Sequel to a Bad Movie with a Worse Title) I’ll probably go see it.

8. Up

May 29

I’m not entirely sold on this concept yet, but Pixar always delivers so I’m sure I’ll enjoy it. This is the story of an old man (Ed Asner) who flies his home to fulfill his deceased wife’s last wish. While that’s pretty much all I know now, I’m sure this film will be both heartwarming and completely charming.

7. Funny People

July 31

John will agree with me when I say Adam Sandler can be quite good when he doesn’t stick to his usual played roles. It looks like he’ll be breaking the mold here in the Judd Apatow-directed film about a dying stand-up comedian. It features Apatow regulars Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Leslie Mann, and it will probably be pretty good. Pretty, pretty good.

6. Inglourious Basterds

August 21

Will this really come out? Really? Because I feel like we’ve been waiting for a pretty damn long time now. Quentin Tarantino is simply one of those directors that you have to follow because you know each project is going to be interesting. I hear this one pays homage to war movies and spaggheti westerns. The cast is insane. Sign me up.

5. Where the Wild Things Are

October 16

This might just make a hell of a movie. Spike Jonze is directing, and the cast includes Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini and Forest Whitaker. A project this ambitious is certainly something I’m going to want to see. And I do.

4. The Fantastic Mr. Fox

November 6

What can I say, I like me some Wes Anderson. It’s got George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray and even more great talent. It’s based on a Roald Dahl book. It’s claymated. Really, how can this disappoint?

3. Ashecliffe

October 2

Don’t even remember what this is about. When Martin Scorsese makes a film, you just go see it. That’s how it works. I’m guessing Leo DiCaprio’s in it. You know, cause he’s like the new Robert De Niro. It’ll be good.

2. Watchmen

March 6

The trailers for this film certainly have captured the attention of America’s youth, like 300 before it. Hopefully it can live up to that movie’s faithfulness to the source material. Watchmen certainly is among the most celebrated graphic novels in the history of the medium, and a lot of what makes it great will be lost in translation. But if they can capture just a pinch of its brilliance, we’ll be in for quite a ride. Woo, Jeffrey Dean Morgan!

1. Avatar

December 18

Seriously, this film has been in development for like a decade. James Cameron says it is going to be this generation’s Star Wars (even though we already have that, it’s called Attack of the Clones). Now, we don’t know much about the film’s premise, or its rising star Sam Worthington, but after all these years I can’t wait to finally see if this can live up to any of its hype.

It’s a Livin’ Thing

I thought I’d heard the last of Peter, Bjorn and John for awhile after their 2008 limited instrumental release Seaside Rock but they’re back already with a more conventional release titled “Living Thing” due out March 31st… Well conventional in that it has lyrics. I went on to Youtube to check out some of PB&J’s new tunes (Hmm “PB&J” like Peanut Butter and Jelly, I never noticed that) and I got to tell you this definitely not what I expected. Two songs have been released with official music videos and man are they bizarre. The Leadoff single is “Nothing to Worry About” accompanied by an equally bizarre video. Where PB&J have been known in the past for a more mellow Indie style on songs like “Let’s Call it Off” or the popular “Young Folks” (You know that whistling song), these new songs are little harder to classify. Both make use of beats and heavy percussion, but these two songs are far from conventional indie rock.

I’ve listened to each song a handful of times and actually I’m quite intrigued. They’ll assuredly take some getting used to for some fans, but I kind of like this unexpected turn for this Swedish trio. I’ve already got “Nothing to Worry About” stuck in my head and “Lay it Down” is nice and poppy even with it’s strangely vulgar chorus hook. Who knows what the rest of the album will sound like but I’ll keep an open mind and definitely check it out. Either way, I’m glad to see there’s another album for me to check out this spring. There’s already U2’s new album in March, a new Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ album due out April 13th and some other stuff I’m keeping my eye on.

Here’s the latest from Peter, Bjorn and John

Nothing to Worry About

Lay It Down

While I’m on the subject of music videos and what not, U2 has a new video out for “Get On Your Boots”. It’s a real trip, I’m all bout this song now.