By Jack Silbert on May 14, 2019
EPISODE #330: HATE
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
The Beths — “Future Me Hates Me”
Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers — “I Hate Chicago”
Ballboy — “I Hate Scotland”
Wilco — “I Hate It Here”
The Vaselines — “I Hate the 80s”
Thee Headcoats — “(We Hate the Fuckin’) NME”
Mudhoney — “Hate the Police”
The Lemonheads — “Hate Your Friends”
The Gotobeds — “I Hate My School”
Sloan — “I Hate My Generation”
Hank Williams — “My Love For You (Has Turned to Hate)”
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts — “I Hate Myself for Loving You”
The Posies — “I May Hate You Sometimes”
Les Brown & his Orchestra featuring Doris Day — “Celery Stalks at Midnight” (r.i.p. Doris Day)
Jack’s Aquarium podcast is proudly recorded in Hoboken, NJ.
Posted in internet radio playlists | Tagged Ballboy, Doris Day, Hank Williams, Joan Jett, Laura Jane Grace, Lemonheads, Les Brown & his Orchestra, Mudhoney, Sloan, The Beths, The Gotobeds, The Posies, The Vaselines, Thee Headcoats, Wilco
By Jack Silbert on May 10, 2019
3.5 stars out of 5
OMG it’s the final final final — don’t be a sucker, it’s not the final anything. Sure, maybe some actors’ contracts are up and besides, nobody wants superheroes who are too long in the tooth, so… “Endgame.”
This is a mostly very enjoyable movie but by no means whatsoever is it a great movie. (The tag-team directing Russo brothers are certainly not the Coen brothers.) I imagine it’s best for an audience — and admittedly it’s a sizable one — who has watched every single movie in the “Marvel Universe” (a registered trademark of Walt Disney Inc.), and perhaps multiple viewings. A really nice aspect of the previous Avengers flicks was that they caught up us casual viewers on key details from any movies we’d missed. But in Endgame, it feels like many moments would only resonate for those who’ve been paying overly close attention lo these many years. When a female character threatens bad-guy Thanos, he replies, “I don’t even know who you are,” and I was thinking, “Right there with you, brother.”
What works? The comic-book action stuff. Zap! Blammo! Fighting and flying and exploding and teamwork, vengeance, good vs. evil, and saving the universe. Another thumbs-up goes to much of the humor, especially when Paul Rudd and/or Chris Hemsworth are onscreen. Less successful are the “dramatic” scenes, which I’ll blame on the mediocre-to-shoddy writing. It’s the sort of screenplay with hack lines such as “Uh, am I the only one seeing this?”
Individual things that annoyed me: Is Audi the official car manufacturer of the Avengers? And did we need a lingering shot on a Ben & Jerry’s container, as well? Also, hey, it’s pouring rain, so this might be a real good time for Hawkeye to take off his hood. Later, in a big battle, there’s a “girl power” moment that struck me as tacked-on and pandering, and I even felt a twinge of racism when Black Panther is basically used as Walter Payton.
As the movie reaches its climax, I was feeling better about it… but then the plot keeps going… and then going some more (with some late lapses of logic tossed in for good measure). That’s the problem with having 18 storylines; you don’t know where to conclude. As a result, we non-mega-fanboys have to sit there for three freaking hours. End this game, fer crissakes! Ah well, see you all in a year, year and a half for Avengers: A New Beginning.
Posted in movie reviews | Tagged 10s movies, super powers
By Jack Silbert on May 7, 2019
EPISODE #329: TALKING
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Run-D.M.C. — “You Talk Too Much”
Betty Hutton — “Can’t Stop Talking”
Cheap Trick — “You’re All Talk” (early version)
Wild Flag — “Endless Talk”
The Music Machine — “Talk Talk”
Jackie Wilson — “Talk That Talk”
Bruce Springsteen — “Talk to Me”
Jean DuShon — “Talk to Me, Talk to Me”
Harry Nilsson — “Everybody’s Talkin'”
The Beach Boys — “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on my Shoulder)”
The Yardbirds — “I’m Not Talking”
Rogue’s March — “Shut Up and Drink”
David Berkeley — “Love’s the Only Thing That Shuts Me Up”
Portishead — “Silence”
Jack’s Aquarium podcast is proudly recorded in Hoboken, NJ.
Posted in internet radio playlists | Tagged Beach Boys, Betty Hutton, Bruce Springsteen, Cheap Trick, David Berkeley, Harry Nilsson, Jackie Wilson, Jean DuShon, Portishead, Rogue's March, Run-D.M.C., The Music Machine, Wild Flag, Yardbirds
By Jack Silbert on April 30, 2019
EPISODE #328: MY 2019 WFMU RECORD FAIR DJ SET
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
The Fleshtones — “Destination Greenpoint”
The Incredible Casuals — “Records Go Round”
Big Eyes — “Back From the Moon”
Pinact — “Seams”
The Fastbacks — “Everything I Don’t Need”
Liquid Liquid — “Optimo”
Pylon Reenactment Society — “Messenger”
Stag — “The Bedazzler”
Sunshine & the Rain — “It’s All in Your Mind”
Joy Cleaner — “My Psychic Dent (Is Acting Up Again)”
Resounding No — “Hexed Pet”
The Mice — “More Than I Can Talk About”
Heavenly — “Sperm Meets Egg, So What?”
Bruce Springsteen — “Where the Bands Are”
Jack’s Aquarium podcast is proudly recorded in Hoboken, NJ.
Posted in internet radio playlists | Tagged Big Eyes, Bruce Springsteen, Fastbacks, Fleshtones, Heavenly, Incredible Casuals, Joy Cleaner, Liquid Liquid, Pinact, Pylon Reenactment Society, Resounding No, Stag, Sunshine & the Rain, The Mice, WFMU
By Jack Silbert on April 25, 2019
2.5 stars out of 5
I first saw Elle Fanning in 2006’s I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With. Next, I singled out her strong performance in my review of Super 8 in 2011, and then in Trumbo (2015) I noticed she was growing up. I figured the first time I’d see her as the lead in a film would be Woody Allen’s A Rainy Day in New York, but I don’t know when we’ll be able to see that. So instead I’m stuck with Teen Spirit.
It almost works. The set-up is compelling enough: Fanning is Violet, a 17-year-old on the Isle of Wight who balances working the family farm with her Polish single mother, waiting tables and washing dishes at a sad restaurant, and being a regular teen at the local high school. But Violet — she loves to sing. In her bedroom, she mimes and writhes to No Doubt. Violet sneaks off at night to sing at an (equally sad) bar. And when she sees that an American Idol-type audition is coming to the island, her interest is piqued.
Unfortunately, the story can’t rise above its Cinderella clichés. Violet meets a sweet old Russian drunk who was actually a world-class opera singer, huh! He help but she must work! Vlad is Mr. Miyagi and Mickey though he looks like Artie Lange. Plus, you wouldn’t believe it but there’s some dirty business behind the scenes of the reality competition.
Writer/director Max Minghella is the son of top director Anthony Minghella, and the script seems to honor the Isle of Wight immigrant community that his dad grew up in. But Max does not yet have his father’s skill, and the screenplay definitely could’ve used a strong revision. The filmmakers brought in a top composer/producer, Marius de Vries, to handle the music, and I did like the natural way the soundtrack was often whatever was playing in Violet’s earbuds. However, the newly written songs are auto-tuned pop garbage; I kept waiting for the film to point out the absurdity that a so-called “singing contest” was based on such by-the-numbers pap. Nope, that’s not what this story is about. And, adding insult to injury, there’s also the worst imaginable cover ever of “Teenage Kicks.”
Kudos to Elle Fanning; she tries. I guess this isn’t her first role with a British accent (a “posh” one this time) and it’s believable, but she also has to speak a little Polish. And yet the casting of Rebecca Hall as the slimy TV producer only reminded me that Hall, formerly Vicky in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, is also in A Rainy Day in New York, which is likely a decidedly better film than this one.
Posted in movie reviews | Tagged 10s movies, Elle Fanning
By Jack Silbert on April 23, 2019
EPISODE #327: FRIENDS
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
The White Stripes — “We’re Going To Be Friends”
The English Beat — “Best Friend”
Talulah Gosh — “My Best Friend”
Queen — “You’re My Best Friend”
R.E.M. — “All the Right Friends” (1983)
The Wedding Present — “You Should Always Keep in Touch With Your Friends”
They Might Be Giants featuring Brian Dewan — “I Found a New Friend”
The Field Mice — “Fabulous Friend”
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band featuring Alejandro Escovedo — “Always a Friend (live)”
Allo Darlin’ — “My Sweet Friend”
The Millennium — “I Just Want To Be Your Friend”
The Beach Boys — “With a Little Help From My Friends (live)”
The Rolling Stones — “Waiting on a Friend”
Nothing Painted Blue — “Rock and Roll Friend”
Jack’s Aquarium podcast is proudly recorded in Hoboken, NJ.
Posted in internet radio playlists | Tagged Alejandro Escovedo, Allo Darlin', Beach Boys, Brian Dewan, Bruce Springsteen, English Beat, Field Mice, Nothing Painted Blue, Queen, R.E.M., Rolling Stones, Talulah Gosh, The Millennium, The Wedding Present, They Might Be Giants, White Stripes
By Jack Silbert on April 22, 2019
4 stars out of 5
I’m sort of an R-Patz completist, so you knew I was going to see this film. OK, actually, the only thing I’ve ever seen Robert Pattinson in before was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in which he portrayed Cedric Diggory, and I didn’t know that until about 3 minutes ago.
And, despite the fact that I saw this movie on the birthday of director/co-writer Claire Denis (April 21, which I only learned 4 minutes ago), I’m even less familiar with her work. However, I’ve known her name since 1996, when one of my fave bands, Tindersticks, did the soundtrack to her film Nénette et Boni. That’s one of at least 4 Tindersticks soundtracks to Denis movies that I own.
So, really, it was the combination of kinda knowing Pattinson and kinda knowing Denis and me really digging artsy sci-fi that brought me to High Life. And yup, main ‘Stick Stuart A. Staples is back with the music; R-Patz even sings the tune playing over the end credits, with instrumentation by Tindersticks. The story preceding that song is a bit of an interstellar head trip.
Pattinson plays Monte, an accidental astronaut. We soon learn that he’s raising a baby girl, Willow, on an otherwise deserted, somewhat broken-down spacecraft, making the best of their meager resources. Seems like Monte got a raw deal, so how did he get here? Flashbacks teach us that the crew of this ship had been death-row inmates, recruited to be outer-space guinea pigs in some freaky insemination experiments. (No doubt inspired by the real-life moral question of using prisoners as test subjects.) In charge of the science is Juliette Binoche, an incarcerated baddie herself, but at least a baddie with some background in biology — oh, and some “issues.”
Put it all in a blender and it’s a tone-poem mix of sex and control and redemption and birth and death and survival and hope. Clear cinematic antecedents include Gravity, Duncan Jones’ Moon, and of course 2001, but High Life is without a doubt its own beast. And a very good watch, if you don’t mind your sci-fi on the slower… quieter… more thoughtful side.
Posted in movie reviews | Tagged 10s movies, Claire Denis, Robert Pattinson
By Jack Silbert on April 17, 2019
EPISODE #326: WORLD LANDMARKS
in honor of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, which caught fire on April 15, 2019
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Stade de France crowd, 2007 Rugby World Cup — “La Marseillaise”
Morrissey — “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris”
Eels — “In Our Cathedral”
Rose Melberg — “Golden Gate Bridge”
Public Service Broadcasting — “Everest”
XTC — “Statue of Liberty”
Chisel — “Looking Down at the Great Wall of China”
Hilly Eye — “Grand Canyon”
The New Pornographers — “Colosseums”
Radiohead — “Pyramid Song”
Charlie Poole & the North Carolina Ramblers — “White House Blues”
Spinal Tap — “Stonehenge”
Jacques Dutronc — “Il Est Cinq Heures, Paris S’veille”
Wimp Factor 14 — “Rebuilding Europe”
Jack’s Aquarium podcast is proudly recorded in Hoboken, NJ.
Posted in internet radio playlists | Tagged Cathedral of Notre Dame, Charlie Poole, Chisel, Eels, Hilly Eye, Jacques Dutronc, Morrissey, New Pornographers, Paris, Public Service Broadcasting, Radiohead, Rose Melberg, Spinal Tap, Ted Leo, Wimp Factor 14, Wimp Factor Fourteen, XTC
By Jack Silbert on April 9, 2019
EPISODE #325: LIMB LOSS AWARENESS MONTH
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
The Jesus & Mary Chain — “Amputation”
Laura Veirs — “Wide-Eyed, Legless”
Guts Club — “Metal Arms”
Mickey & the Soul Generation — “Iron Leg”
Pat Jordache — “Phantom Limb”
El Vez — “The Arm of Obregon”
The Roadside Graves — “The Snake and How He Lost His Legs”
Bob Dylan — “Full Moon and Empty Arms”
Liquid Liquid — “Zero Leg”
The Wedding Present — “Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm”
pronoun — “Til Your Legs Give Up”
Wilco — “A Shot in the Arm (remix)”
Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band — “Noises for the Leg”
The Shins — “Phantom Limb”
Jack’s Aquarium podcast is proudly recorded in Hoboken, NJ.
Posted in internet radio playlists | Tagged Bob Dylan, Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, El Vez, Guts Club, Laura Veirs, Limb Loss Awareness Month, Liquid Liquid, Pat Jordache, pronoun, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Roadside Graves, The Shins, The Wedding Present, Wilco
By Jack Silbert on April 6, 2019
4 stars out of 5
I have only the vaguest childhood memories of Dumbo. Thanks to the “Disney Vault” philosophy and what age you were during re-releases in those pre-home video days, you might be too young, too old, or just right for various animated classics. I’m not sure whether my family went to the 1972 theatrical re-release (age 3 for me) or the 1976 one (age 7), but all I remember is a cartoon elephant, nighttime, and train cars. That Dumbo himself couldn’t talk didn’t exactly lodge him in my memory either.
So I likely would’ve skipped this live-action remake were it not for the involvement of Tim Burton. The only Burton-directed film I haven’t seen in theaters was Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, and that was only because I was 1 month into a 3.5-month hospital stay. (I eventually did see the movie, and yes, I dug it.) Of course, Burton’s trademark is the dark and twisted, and this take on the gravity-defying pachyderm is decidedly neither of those things. It’s sweet; it’s light. But somehow he still manages to make it work.
I checked the summary of the 1941 Dumbo on Wikipedia, and this new version does hit all the significant plot points. However, the story is recast in the human world. It’s 1919, and Danny DeVito (the first of a few pleasant sights for It’s Always Sunny fans) is prepping his old-fashioned traveling circus to leave its winter home in Florida. (The journey of the circus train later allows for some lovely cinematography.) Who better than DeVito to play a low-rent businessman surrounded by freaks that he cares about?
Into the mix comes the circus’s former star horseman, Colin Farrell, back from the War, missing his arm, his two kids, and his late wife. A younger Clooney might’ve been ideal in the role, but I enjoyed Farrell with a cowboy accent. Due to budget cuts, the horses are gone, so he’s assigned to, uh, elephant duty. Soon we meet the new baby with the very big ears, Dumbo.
Later we meet Michael Keaton, very funny as a charismatic circus impresario. He wants in on the Dumbo phenom. It was then I wondered if the screenwriters were biting the oversized Mickey hand that feeds them. Because Keaton’s big idea (he’s an idea man, after all)? Instead of the circus coming to the people, the people could travel to the circus, with added attractions — which looks suspiciously like Disneyworld or Disneyland. But the concept is ultimately framed in a negative light, as Keaton’s greed overwhelms the simple circus folk until something’s gotta give.
This is clearly a movie for kids and it truly succeeds on that level. It’s a story of missing a parent but finding family where you can, of believing in yourself, of underdogs banding together to achieve a goal. There’s a strong pro-girl and pro-STEM message — even pro-prosthetics. And of course there’s the classic Dumbo message that being different isn’t only OK, it can be magical. For me personally, this might’ve been a 3.5 star movie, but I’m giving it a “family 4.”
Posted in movie reviews | Tagged 10s movies, Disney, Tim Burton
Jack Silbert, curator