There is a new Nas album out this week, but that is about it. Nothing much else for me to share with you. The big albums might not be coming out every week, but the big summer movies continue to come out. Both the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight, and the movie version of the musical Mamma Mia! come out this weekend. As a huge fan of both Batman and ABBA, I will be seeing both of these movies as soon as I possibly can. The week after this weekend is the release of the new X-Files movie, I Want to Believe. Some people may not like that they keep making movies out of old TV shows, but I would much rather see an X-Files movie with the actual cast than a remake 10 years down the road starring new 20- something actors in the roles of Mulder and Scully. You know it is going to happen. They did just remake Get Smart into a new movie with new actors, and Hollywood seems to be constantly turning old TV shows into new movies. But they usually don't work out so well-- The Dukes of Hazzard with Jessica Simpson and The Beverly Hillbillies with Jim Varney are two bad examples. It did have both Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton in the cast, so I guess it wasn't all bad. Still, sometimes these remakes work out beautifully, like the big screen adaptations of Charlie's Angels. I also have to admit that I like the Brady Bunch Movie as well, and I am looking forward to the Wonder Woman and A-Team movies. I just hope they don't make Jake & the Fatman or Head of the Class into big screen movies. But a Murder She Wrote movie is not such a bad idea. I bet it would actually make some fantastic money among the senior set. Unfotunately I think they waited too long to make a Golden Girls movie. The Get Smart movie actually worked. I know there were a few people out there that did not like it or decided to not give it a chance, but I think Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway could do no wrong. Without them in it, I seriously doubt I would have even seen it.

I still remember the first time that I ever heard Yaz. My cousin was driving me and my brother back home from my grandparents' house. It was 1982 and I was 8 years old. She was playing the Upstairs at Eric's cassette on her tape player. I immediately fell in love with the album even though I had never heard of them before. I had to ask her what it was. Luckily I was only 8 years old and didn't yet get embarrassed about not knowing the name of a band. I think I made my mom buy it for me as soon as I could find it. I really wasn't old enough to have seen them in concert anyway, but they never came to the U.S. for a tour anyway. Yaz put out a second album, You and Me Both, in 1983. They broke up before they even had a chance to tour the UK with that album, so the world has really been waiting 25 years for this reunion! A couple years later I became a huge fan of both Depeche Mode and Erasure. I soon realized that Vince Clark was in all these bands and he quickly became one of my musical heroes. Not only did he help to create Depeche Mode and their debut album Speak and Spell, but he also went on to help create all of the Erasure albums with Andy Bell. I will go so far as to say that the world of new wave and electronic dance music might be a bit different if it were not for Vince Clark. He influenced tons of Industrial and electronica artists, even if they may not want to admit it. 

There have been so many new albums out in the last couple months, and we have some really exciting things to look forward to as well -- new albums from Ratatat and Beck next week, and a new box set from Yaz next week as well, which I will most likely be talking about. Yaz is also playing in Los Angeles next week and you know that I will of course be there. I have never seen them before and I am sure that this will be my only chance. There is also this new album next week from Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine and Patti Smith! I am very curious. Not exactly two people that I would expect to work together, but I love them both! Should be interesting. July 22nd is the date that the Dead Can Dance reissues finally come out. It breaks my heart a little bit that those albums have not been in print for a little while. I imagine some young kid coming into the store, trying to explore the world of Dead Can Dance and only finding the greatest hits sort of collection. Luckily, we have the used CDs in the meantime. I can't imagine my life without these Dead Can Dance albums and am happy to know they will soon be joining us again in record store land. There is a new Faint album on August 5th as well as the solo debut from Conor Oberst from Bright Eyes. But this week there is really nothing out in the land of music. At least nothing for me. There are new albums from G-Unit, J*Davey, Alkaline Trio, Deltron 3030, and Earlimart, but they are not exactly the albums that get me excited. It has been a while since there has been a week like this, but I guess it is bound to happen every once in a while, so I am forced to move my attention to DVDs-- and there is one excellent TV show out on DVD this week that I absolutely love. If you have not seen Mad Men yet, now is the time!

It seems like I just talked about Sigur Ros on the blog, but that was way back in November when they released their live/unreleased stuff sort of album. I just can't talk enough about how much I love this band. This week they are putting out the brand new full length album full of all brand new songs. The album is called Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust. For those of you that do not speak Icelandic or Hopelandic, this translates into "With A Buzz In Our Ears We Play Endlessly." As you can imagine, the new album is fantastic. After all, it is a new Sigur Ros album. How can it not be great? But it is a bit of a departure from what we have come to expect from these guys. While still managing to very much be a Sigur Ros album, it comes off as being a bit more of a pop record I think, but in a Sigur Ros kind of way. Don't worry, it is still weird. The opening song and single is "Gobbledigook." The song includes a lot of hand claps, and I am a big fan of the hand claps. It is a nice way to start the album, but it really gets me with the second song. This is the kind of Sigur Ros song that I fall in love with. I have no idea what they are signing about but it just doesn't matter. It is like some huge classical anthem that you just fall in love with. It speaks to you without the words. I don't even really think of the vocalist as a singer. His voice is just another instrument in the band. The song has a lot going on. It sounds like a full orchestra and a choir of young Icelandic singers, and it's all brought together by Jonsi's beautiful voice. It is that voice that first made me fall in love with the great Sigur Ros, and it is that voice that keeps me a loyal member of the Sigur Ros fan army. His voice is like the most beautiful instrument in the world. I know I sort of sound like a cult member, but they really are that good.

It is now officially the week of Coldplay. I knew the album would be huge but it has seriously done better than anybody's expectations, and the week is not even over yet. It will for sure be the Sex & the City of the summer. Everyone is expecting it to do well, but this is just craziness. I think it might end up being the biggest debut at Amoeba ever. However, the most exciting release of the week for me would have to be the new Joy Division Documentary. Control really left me wanting more Joy Division in my life, and now I can finally have it.

There has not really been a good Joy Division documentary yet-- a least not one that I have seen-- so it is nice to finally have one on DVD. I just got the DVD yesterday but I have not had a chance to watch it yet, so I can't exactly talk all that much about it, but it is "Fantastic" according to Russ Fischer from Chud.com. This is the quote on the back of the DVD. I really hate quotes on the packaging of DVDs. At least CDS usually have little quotes on stickers on the outside of the plastic. I know they are great marketing tools but it really ruins the artwork. I should be happy at least they put the quote on the back of the DVD. I would think that they could get a quote from somebody more well known than chud.com... but I guess not. I had not really heard of chud.com, so this quote did not influence me to buy the dvd but it did make me check out their website. I might now be a fan of chud.com. I had been looking for some other movie blogs to check out and I think I might have found one. C.H.U.D. stands for Cinematic Happenings Under Development. It seems to be a website/blog for comic book and sci-fi/horror nerds, but I will have to do some more investigation. I do believe them though. I bet the DVD is fantastic. It includes the documentary with all the surviving members of Joy Division and also 75 minutes of additional interviews.