also out this week...


the full length album by the Love of Diagrams "Mosaic."
I love this album! Ever since I first heard their ep a couple of months ago, I have been obsessed. And patiently waiting for the release of the full length. While this is their first album out in the US, they have one previous in their native Australia, "The Target is You."  But it is all about Mosaic.

Love of Diagrams have been around since 2001, but are finally making their way to a US audience. The band is made up of two awesome ladies, Monika Fikerle and Antonia Sellbach, and one dude, Luke Horton. I don't know what it is, but I love bands with both dudes and ladies singing back and forth at each other. It just makes the songs more interesting by combining two different perspectives.

You can easily mistake them for a late 70s/early 80s no wave band. They have the post punk sound of similar bands like Erase Errata. Bands like these often do not hide their influences, it seems to have gotten to a point where bands are torn apart for being too obvious with their influences. But I really think it has almost reached a point where everything has been done. Every band name has been taken and every sound reinvented. But I don't really care about any of this.

Love of Diagrams simply makes me wanna dance and gets me more excited than most bands have the ability to do. It 's the kind of album I want to start over before it's even finished the first time. They have a great raw energy on this album, similar to early Siouxsie albums. You seriously need to go check out this album. You can always start with the ep, if you a scared to commit to an entire album.
Here is a video if you need some more convincing....

OK...there are some exciting new release out today for you all...


First up is the new Blonde Redhead "23" and it has nothing to do with that horrible new Jim Carrey movie that already disappeared.  It's been about 3 years since their last album "Misery is a Butterfly." This is their second album for 4AD. However, it has much more in common with the album before "Misery" which was "Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons." "Misery" was a bit forgettable. Still good, but it did not remain in my head for days later after listening to it.  I still can just think of "Melody" for just a second and conjure up all the great amazing and tragic memories all tied up with that album. I seriously listened to that album every day for months. It was just that good.


Blonde Redhead has always been good. The band is made up of Kazu Makino and the scary twins Simone and Amedeo Pace. I only say scary, because twins tend to scare me, although I am also strangely intrigued by them.  The band is usually made up of just vocals, drums, and guitar.  The vocals are amazing on their albums.  I often have to go read the lyrics to be able to follow along.  The songs alternate between male and female vocals,  kind of like a combination of Versus and Dead Can Dance. It's amazing to have an album this good, seven albums into their existence. Again, I find myself addicted to Blonde Redhead. I can't stop listening to this album. It quickly draws you in and there is really no going back.

So I went and saw Grindhouse on Friday at the Bridge. And I knew that I was gonna like it. But I was seriously blown away by how good it was. 10 minutes into the first film by Robert Rodriguez "Planet Terror" I wanted to see it again and was already getting excited about owning the DVD and watching the uncut version. I am a big fan of all the movies that these guys are in love with. It was so great to see them do an excellent job of replicating these movies. There have been so many horrible remakes of horror movies the past couple of years. It has almost made me not want to see these kind of movies anymore. Always so disappointing. But like 28 Days Later and Shaun of the Dead, I was totally surprised at how great these movies were. I am a big fan of Freddy Rodriguez from Six Feet Under. It was so great to see him in a completely different role in Planet Terror. He was awesome as the hero of the film. Rose McGowan is awesome as well. She has great roles in both films, but really outdoes herself as a one-legged stripper in Planet Terror. It was so great to see both Tom Savini (makeup artist for many of the 80s greats: Martin, Dawn of the Dead,  Friday the 13th, Creepshow, etc.) and Michael Biehn (star of two of my favorites Terminator and Aliens) as two cops in Planet Terror. The movie was nonstop action and gore. Like nothing I have seen in a long while.

Finally!!! Twin Peaks season 2 is now available. It just came out this week. It has been over 5 years since season 1 came out on DVD! Like many of you, I sold my vhs box set years ago in anticipation of the release of this show on DVD. I am so excited I now get to revisit my favorite show and watch it all from the beginning. David Lynch is a genius and was really able to show the world just how brilliant he was with this amazing ground breaking television show.  Season 2 originally aired in the 1990/1991 season. While the 1st season only had 8 episodes, season 2 had a full season of episodes with 22. This was the year it was nominated for some Soap Opera Digest Awards.

Sheryl Lee was nominated for best death scene as Maddie Ferguson. And I have to agree...she was amazing. She was brilliant in her second role in the series as Laura Palmer's strangely almost identical nerdy cousin. Kyle Maclachlan and Piper Laurie were both nominated for outstanding acting. The show was nominated for outstanding Prime Time Show. It won no soap opera digest awards but did walk away with a couple golden globes. Amazingly the soap opera digest awards still happen. However last year was the first year it was not televised and it went straight to magazine. Not a good sign for the future of the awards show.

I seriously have watched this show a lot. It aired on Bravo many nights for many years late night. Most of those nights I was watching it. If you are a fan of any of the serialized TV shows such as Lost or Prison Break and have never watched this show...you seriously need to do so right now. This was the best thing ever on television. I have yet to see anything come close. The cast was also one of the best. Unfortunately it seems to be somewhat of a curse for its cast. Nobody on the show has ever done anything near as good since this show went off the air. Besides maybe Kyle Maclachlan's role in Showgirls and Lara Flynn Boyle's in Happiness. Most of the cast has been mostly seen in small TV roles or Lifetime movies of the week.

OK everybody, it's april. I'm not sure how 3 months already passed by this year, but they did. Today is a tuesday, which means another street date. So every tuesday I'm gonna discuss the new releases that are coming out. At least the important releases. or at least what is important to me. Which may not be important to you. But it should be. As far as music goes, there is not a whole lot out today.

But most important is the new album by jarvis cocker "jarvis." I have loved jarvis for a long long time now, but i have to admit that I had not paid much attention to him lately. After pulp broke up in 2002 I never thought jarvis would be able to put out anything near as interesting or fun as those pulp albums. Back in the 90s I wore out my old pulp albums: "His 'n' Hers" (1994), "Different Class" (1995), and "This is Hardcore" (1998). These 3 albums have all been reissued as deluxe versions. They are available now as imports but i'm sure they will be out soon domestically. Especially now with the domestic release of his excellent solo album.



It's been over 12 years since "different class" came out. Seriously, one of the best albums of the 90s! I danced many nights at pop scene to pulp along with blur, oasis, and suede. This album made pulp huge stars both in their native england and in the U.S. and this album blew me away. It was just one of those albums you can't get enough of. I could never hear mis-shapes, common people, or disco 2000 too many times. and it seemed like most friends I had at the time agreed with me. This album came out when brit pop was one of the most popular styles of music. They were on the cover of all the music magazines and everyone was talking about them.  1995 was the year blur's "great escape" and the oasis album "(what's the story) morning glory?" came out. suede's "dog man star" was released the year before, just as jarvis is now releasing his solo album ...