Despite my feelings on past Mayer Hawthorne remixes, I am pleasantly surprised. Staying with the smooth groove of the original, and not heading into harsh break beats, Classixx have taken a cue from Paul Hardcastle’s “Rainforest” by matching smooth instrumentals to a prominent drum beat. Congratulations, Classixx you’ve made a remix better than the original song.
PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (1974)
I’m a “De Pologist”. I make no bones about it. To me, director Brian De Palma has made some of the most thrilling and artistic bits of pulp filmmaking that have ever graced the silver screen. And out of all of the batshit insane ideas he’s ever helmed, his 1974 acid rock opera is the most deliriously entertaining.
Phantom of the Paradise was De Palma’s fourth major film; following two bits of forgettable drivel (Hi Mom (1970) and Get to Know Your Rabbit (1972)), the ingenious Margot Kidder, Siamese Twin mindfuck Sisters (1973) established him as one of the most sought after up and coming directors in the business. But when the studios weren’t sure what to make of De Palma’s strange screenplay, he started shopping the idea to record companies. Finally, he was able to bankroll the film after an A&M executive introduced him to Paul Williams who was, at the time, an A-List composer with hits like The Carpenters’ “We’ve Only Just Begun” on his resume.
Originally, De Palma wanted Williams to write all of the music for Phantom, but after getting to know the artist, De Palma thought that the composer should take on the part of nerdy songwriter Winslow Leach. At first, Williams agreed, but then he decided that he could not be menacing enough when Winslow becomes The Phantom and instead agreed to play Swan, the nefarious, almost all-powerful record producer.
Williams’ portrayal of the midget looking, floppy haired, large tinted glasses wearing Phil Spector clone (in fact, in early drafts, Swan’s name was “Specter”), is the scene stealing performance of the film. And when Phil Spector’s representatives got a hold of De Palma’s screenplay, they demanded he change nearly all traits of the character so as to not resemble their client at all. But De Palma kept the character the same in all but name. But Phil Spector wasn’t the only influential musician that demanded changes be made to the film.
(More After the Jump)
Its that time again. Time to hang it up for the week and get loose tonight. You got the weekend to put your feet up, get those oils nice and hot and fry your ass off. Chicken, turkey, cheese sticks, corndogs, ice cream… Fry. It. Up.
GET DOWN!
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I was going to write up an entire review of Hot Chip’s new record, One Life Stand, but found that my feelings leaned toward the mixed/negative (the first half is great, but the second half falls completely flat for me). And negative reviews are just not what we do here at Hood Rich.
However, the album contains a master class in how to write a lead off track. “Thieves in the Night” is thus far my favorite song of 2010. Hands down. No contest. A six minute bit of dizzying electro-soul, I completely spazzed out when I threw Side A down on the turntable and THIS is what came out of the speakers.
“Happiness is what we all want…”
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So I got a track from awhile back. I used to jam to this quite a bit.
Above is a picture of Madonna kissing some lady. Madonna is the one in the black clothes.
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I took a roots of rock and roll class in college. It was awesome. The professor was mad smart, we learned all about how racism basically shaped modern music, and we got to watch Mr. Burns’ favorite Al Jolson movies. The best part was that it forced me to listen to Bob Dylan, which pretty much forever changed how I view music in the 60s and onward.
However, my most distinct memory of the class is probably of this douchebag who sat in the back. I’m not going to mention him by name. But, man, did he suck. Our professor asked him who he thought the Beatles of our generation would be. The douchebag’s response? The Strokes. And it’s not like he made this comment in 2002. This was 2007, when pretty much everyone knew that The Strokes had made one good record and that was it. What the fuck was wrong with this dude?
Now, The Strokes were not, are not, and never will be the Beatles. It’s just absurd to suggest otherwise. However, had he made this comment in 2002 instead of 2007, there wouldn’t have been as many people in the class laughing at him (Everyone laughed at him. Everyone. It was one of the most satisfying experiences of my college career). And the reason that people wouldn’t have laughed is because Is This It is a fucking remarkable record. Continue reading…
Bad ass (yet kinda emo) garage punks, Japandroids have released the first of of their newly announced singles series. “Art Czars” is a left-over from the sessions that produced their amazing debut, Post Nothing, and I can attest to having already seen it performed live (late last year at a small Philly venue called The Barbary). It’s a pretty sick, anthemic (duh) pit of fuzzed out punk. Polyvinyl’s going to release the 7″ on April 13th, and it will include the cover of the Steve Albini written industrial jam, Big Black’s “Racer X”.
WIND MACHINE!
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Ghostly International is starting to become one of my favorite music labels.
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Just listen, sonny boy. Great Isaac Hayes sample by the RZA, including a few original words from the man himself. Isaac Hayes: singer, sex symbol, scientologist. Who’d have thought.
On a related note, I love me some Ghostface. I’ve said before that I feel he’s in the top 4 of Wu-Tang lyricists, and it’s on full display on I Can’t Go To Sleep from the fantastic 3rd studio album The W. Kudos to you, Mr. Killah.
I’m tired today. Had a long weekend. Forgive me for the shortness. I’ll be back for more once I get some goddamn sleep tonight. It’s one of those days where you ponder quitting your job just so you can go home and sleep for the day. That wouldn’t be a positive move for my future. Still, it’s pretty tempting.
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…these guys are famous.
Die Antwoord
Katy Perry (boobs) twittered about them. So did Fred Durst (I guess from whatever lawn he was mowing that morning). Pitchfork wrote a few thousand words about them. Can I ask one queston:
“What the fuck?”
Seriously, I think that’s all that needs to be said. This guy:
Ninja?
…wrote a song called “I’m A Ninja”. I’M A NINJA! No, sir, you are not. Ninjas are cool. You look and sound like Chumbawubma on a meth binge.
Irony, you have gone too far.
Enjoy your week…
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