January 2013

There were 24 posts published in January 2013 (this is page 2 of 4).

At War with the Mystics

Mystical Weapons – Mystical Weapons

I didn’t truly appreciate Sean Lennon’s musical talent until his superb 2006 solo album Friendly Fire. Finally, the son of a legend had stepped out of his father’s immense shadow and found his own voice. Yet Sean hasn’t reached the same level since. Sean’s various side-projects haven’t come close to the level of songwriting that he reached on Friendly Fire. Mystical Weapons is his latest endeavor and again it’s another experiment lacking any material with real staying power. Accompanied by Deerhoof drummer Greg Saunier, Mystical Weapons is an improvisational, instrumental, two-piece that really goes places. I only wish they were places I wanted to go.

Though Lennon is the guitarist and Saunier is the drummer, neither are confined to those roles. Mystical Weapons features a whole cluster of feedback heavy guitars with buzzing beeps and boops. The sounds produced may raise an eyebrow or two but there’s little in the way of actual composition. I should have been warned when I read “Improvisational” but there’s good improvisation and there’s boring improvisation. 70s Krautrock band Can would be an example of good improvisation. Can did plenty of noodling but always kept down a steady groove. They were also a classically trained and highly versatile group. Lennon and Saunier are good but they’re no virtuosos. Mystical Weapons is music anyone could make with the right gear.

The best moments are when Mystical Weapons leaves conventional instrumentation behind. “Mechanical Mammoth” is the most unusual yet most intriguing. I have no idea what instruments I’m listening to but they work and don’t work together in such a way that it draws you in. Unfortunately, too much of the material is either either fuzzy guitar or dissonant piano, both set to scattered jazz percussion.

I’m sure there’s an audience for Mystical Weapons but it’s not me. I feel the same way about avant-garde music as I do avant-garde filmmaking. It can be interesting when someone distorts visuals and themes, but it will never be as interesting as a well crafted story. Just as musical experimentation will never be as good as well crafted songwriting. I know Sean has it in him, hopefully he revisits the sensitive-pop stylings of Friendly Fire again someday.

Favorite Track: “Mechanical Mammoth”

T3 44: Top 10 Movies of 2012

Well, you’ve seen our individual lists. Now it’s time to see just who was the closest to guessing our overall top 10 movies of 2012. Now don’t worry, we tried to avoid getting to deep into spoilers and most of the movies in consideration are at least somewhat well-known. You shouldn’t have any hesitation going into this podcast. Certainly, there is nothing to be afraid of. Not in a world where shaved bears are on the prowl.

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Colin’s Top 10 Movies Of 2012

2012 was a really great year for movies, as there were a lot of ones I really enjoyed that I won’t even give an honorable mention, unlike Skyfall, The Deep Blue Sea, and Argo.  However, at this point I’m pretty much spent as far as talking about 2012 movies.  I already reviewed a lot of these movies in addition to talking about nearly all of them on this week’s podcast, and on top of that Sean and John have already talked about most of these movies on their own lists.  So at this point, I can’t think of any reason why I would need to talk about these movies that you already know my opinions on.  So basically I’m just gonna–

Ow!  Fuck!  I seem to have just been hit in the head with an unidentified blunt object.  Uh oh.  It feels as though I’m coming down with a severe case of amnesia.  Oh god, oh man, oh god, oh man!

Wait, what is this list in front of me?  Looks like a top ten movies list.  Well, I guess I might as well write about these movies that I can’t remember anything about.  I mean no one’s gonna notice if I bullshit my way through this.  Right?

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John’s Top 10 Movies of 2012

What a year! And Miraculously, I saw almost everything I wanted to see. The only exceptions being; Wreck-it-Ralph and This is Not a Film. Films I liked but not enough to make my top ten include; Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Cabin in the Woods, The Dark Knight Rises, Django Unchained, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Moonrise Kingdom, and another one that wasn’t easy to eliminate.

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Sean’s Top 10 Movies of 2012

The movie industry needs to change. We have all these great ways of delivering content nowadays, and yet it still sucks trying to see movies that aren’t the AAA release of the last few weeks. In December, I really wanted to catch up with some of the big movies of 2012. First I checked Netflix, but their selection of 2012 movies was limited to movies that were super indie and out of theaters by early summer. Red Box wasn’t much better. Then I looked at Amazon, which had a slightly better selection, if I wanted to buy Blu Rays or pay the DVD price for a streaming rental. This sucks. Don’t make me want to pirate things!

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Top 10 Video Games of 2012

Well, it got weird. In 2011, we talked about how strange it was that we still didn’t have any news regarding a new Xbox or PlayStation, that this console generation was starting to outstay its welcome. Sure, 2012 gave us the Wii U and the PlayStation Vita, but neither of them scratched the new console itch. Then many of the big games of 2012 got delayed to 2013 (Bioshock Infinite, where art thou). So what became of the year? Well, PC definitely became my platform of choice, as it probably always should be anyway. And I ended up playing lots of games in genres I usually don’t care too much about – and being pretty impressed.

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The Vault: Manuary

Cobra (1986)

If there was ever a soulless, cash-in, it’s Cobra. “What’s the laziest possible vehicle we could give Sylvester Stallone?” At least that’s what I thought. Turns out Stallone wrote the screenplay himself. Apparently, he had the uncontrollable desire to tell a story about a police officer named Cobra who mercilessly guns down criminals on the streets of Los Angeles. Could there be a more generic setup for an action movie? Why would the police allow another officer to constantly kill human beings with no repercussions? Because crime is disease, and Cobra is the cure.

Marion “Cobra” Cobretti (that’s actually his name) is an officer who works for the LAPD in a division known as the “Zombie Squad”. What is the function of the Zombie Squad you ask? The Zombie Squad is who you call when a situation gets too tough and you just need a guy to go in there and kill someone. I mean, he drives a car with a license plate that says “AWESOME”. Bizarrely, the division appears to be made up of just Cobra and a guy named Gonzales (Reni Santoni). The division is put to the test when a group of Neo-Fascists led by a serial killer, the Night Slasher (Brian Thompson), unleash a crime wave across the city. How can Cobra end this violence? With more violence!

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