The Tides Have Turned

It's funny the relationship technology has with music. When it comes to recorded music the state of technology, technique, and trend overwhelmingly decide the current musical climate. Aesthetic is simply irrelevant. In the 1970's instrumental rock music and balladry were king. The thick, fuzzy hum of the rudimentary studio technology perfectly suited the type of records that were popular of the era. Instrumental rock music continued its streak of popularity until the early 1990's when the DAT analogue recording era was made obsolete by precise, lossless digital recording and thus the manipulation of such. With the new age of audible clarity and experimentation gave rise to digital pop music that was an escalation of what we had seen in the later half of the 1980's with pioneering popular acts such as Madonna, The Police, and Michael Jackson's solo career, which mostly hedged their bets between instrumental recording and synthetic flourishes signaling the new age in recording. In the 90's when digital recording improved in both capability and ease of recording technology began to dictate that if you recorded instrumental rock music with the latest technology the result wasn't nearly as impressive as if you played to the strength of the technology and created more precise, synthetic pop soundscapes. Suddenly attempts to record instrument country or rock with the new technology did not benefit from the technology from the air, and sounded too safe and sterile. Thus continued the steady decline of the genres in popular culture. It's not the people disliked the concepts or cultures involved any more, but the recorded products did not benefit from the current climate and the genres had failed to successfully adapt to the changes.

The reason I bring it all up is because, of late, I have noticed that with the most current country recordings (notably recordings by Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith, and Vince Young) that country music has successfully adapted to modern recording techiques. I listen to these new records and am simply enamored with their ability to make instrumental recording in the modern era regain its blistering instrumental professionality and impressive vocal qualities. I never gave up on the idea of country, but I never dreamed that Nashville would solve the riddle of instrumental music and pop recording technology before popular rock. It's a strange and gratifying world when Country and Rap, perhaps the country's two most maligned cultures, sit undeniably atop the current musical landscape... like adult versions of pure pop, with all the musical success in complexity and recording techique, but with true-to-life cultural relevance. In music history books rock music will be a footnote in the early 21st century. Perhaps next decade will see a return. One can only guess. There are no less people interested in the concepts, but the quality of the products will determine the public opinion, and that lies in the hand of the recording technology and the engineers, as always.

The Hobbit gets greenlit

The biggest Hollywood news of the week just hit with an announcement that The Hobbit, being shot in 2 parts back-to-back for separate release, has been greenlight! Furthermore, in the wake of Guillermo Del Toro leaving the product, it will be directed by Peter Jackson! Even though he specifically said he would not be directing The Hobbit! This is great news for fanboys everywhere as we all want that perfect PJ-Tolkien set sitting perfectly upon our DVD shelves in their glorious extended formats... making even the glorious Star Wars original trilogy seem somehow less impressive. I can't wait to see that fucking dragon in The Hobbit. Silmarillion is legitimitely unfilmable, so for all intensive puposes we have our perfect Tolkien set finally within reach, and PJ can do no wrong with this material. If Del Toro gets At The Mountains Of Madness made then this couldn't have worked out better. Movie bliss.

Eastbound & Down episode 4 on Sunday...

And in the words of Metallica... Nothing Else Matters

Spider-Man update

Rhys Ifans is confirmed to be playing Dr. Curt Connors AKA The Lizard... I'll take it! Good move by the studio on not rehashing a villian from the previous movies. Particularly Green Goblin, although the inclusion of Gwen Stacy as a character insinuates they'll have to have a Green Goblin at some point. If they nail that particular death scene it could make the rehash worthwhile, but I'd give Lizard a whooooooole lot of screen time if I were them. And please, Vulture or Kraven next movie! I'll settle for Electro or Mysterio.

And I was determined to hate this Spider-Man reboot...

Boy am I starting to hate seeing super hero origin stories in the theater. The idea of a Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man 4 with Ben Kingsley as The Vulture sounded so fucking sweet. And then the shit hit the fan. Now we have a totally new Spider-Man reboot on our hands, one made from scratch and completely outside of the guidance of Mr. Raimi. My immediate reaction was FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK. But I'll be damned if this thing doesn't start sounding sweeter and sweeter. First they caught my attention by casting The Redhead Chick From Superbad as Gwen Stacy (that's right, GWEN STACY... not Mary Jane Parker, but GWEN FUCKING STACY... finally somebody is sticking to the script). But now they have announced Rhys Ifans will play the as-yet-unrevealed villian. Fucking brilliant! I love this guy! He originally caught my attention in Charlie Kaufman's avante-garde ensemble comedy Human Nature, and I liked his performance in it so much I continued to watch weird ass movies he came out with like Danny Deckchair. I think this is potentially the most inspired villian casting since, dare I say, Heath Ledger. Not that we should expect such a dark, deep dramatic turn from Ifans in this picture... this picture will from all signs carry a lighter tone. It's Spider-Man. Spidey has a lot of real-world problems, but you can't really get but so dark with the character. He's no Batman or Punisher or Daredevil. He's your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. And the great part of the Rhys Ifans casting is that I can't really picture him as playing Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, OR Venom. So that most likely means we will be getting villian that hasn't appeared in a big screen movie! Even in spite of the reboot status! Brilliant! I can actually weirdly picture him as The Vulture! If the villian is Vulture then it wouldn't be too far fetched for me to hope for a Spider-Man Reboot Part 2 with Kraven The (Fucking) Hunter! Let's hope this is half as good as it sounds.

Arietty: The Borrower

Looks to be the best studio Ghibli film since Spirited Away. And from what I can tell, and in lines with my taste for american children's literature, I believe I will probably enjoy it a lot more. I still rate Princess Mononoke, Castle In The Sky, and My Neighboro Totoro higher than Spirited Away, although I'll admit the animation is superior in the latter film.

Lil Wayne's EP is pretty amazing for something slapped together by his label while he is in jail. There are at least 3 powerhouse pop recordings on here that I find it hard to believe they were just sitting on... Right Above It [Ft. Drake], Gonorrhea [Ft. Drake], and I'm Single. Also notable are That Ain't Me [Ft. Jay Sean] is notable as well as What's Wrong With Them [Ft. Nicki Minaj] (on which she absolutely destroys the hook, sounding a lot like Rihanna. With this chorus and her leaked single Right Thru Me she has become an irrefutable pop presence even outside of rap). If this 10-track EP were trimmed of its weaker moments it wouldn't be THAT far shy of a Gaga-calibur EP (Fame Monster being the new gold standard for the format in my book. That EP had bigger singles than most peoples' albums.) Okay I take that back. Nothing is Gaga-calibur. But Wayne's better pop recordings are about the closest damn thing from an engineering/sound production standpoint as well as vitality and creativity on the vocal track. The two biggest pop icons of the decade in fine form for 2010.

Also, the whole 2012 is retarded and I can't wait for Y2K Jr. to just be done with so people will shut up, but damn I love that titular track from Jay Sean. It's like the cornier 1999. Also the Willow Smith mash-up with Nicki Minaj being passed around is < the Miley Cyrus/Biggie mash-up from last year. By far.

And I guess I hope my Packers whoop the shit out of the Redskins tomorrow, but I wish the Redskins well in the rest of the season. Hope Shanahan and McNabb can pull the out of their Snyder/Zorn-induced slump this year.

Also, FUCK, I want to see Let Me In so bad. Love some Matt Reeves. Only other thing of interest in the cinema for me right now is The Social Network, which I only want to see for the Fincher aspect, as I hate Facebook in general. But I hear he's done some amazing things from a directorial standpoint with a story I could otherwise care less about. I just hope Disney's live-action remake of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea is still his next project.

Speaking of next projects... Sam Raimi's Oz prequel is now his official next project! Can't fucking wait. And he plans to follow it up with a live-action fantasy film set in the Warcraft universe. After Spider-Man 1 & 2 (we'll forget 3, I know it wasn't his fault) and Drag Me To Hell, old Sam really is clawing his way up to my favorite current working director's list.

Kenny Chesney

The two things I am most excited about this week are the Packers v Redskins game on sunday and Kenny Chesney's album. I understand how much of a Redneck this theoretically makes me but I'm just keeping it real, man. That shit is ridiculously good. I like it in all the same ways I appreciate pop rap... it's authentic genre music (which makes it legitimate culture in my book) with sophisticate pop engineering values. Wikipedia him. He is country as shit. He played high school football. Yet he has the oratory presence of a true country entertainer, as much as George Jones or Garth Brooks or anyone else. Dude is the real deal. I like that Easton Corbin too. Country has been a half-decent detour until Wayne gets out. Or a second Lady Gaga album... whichever comes first.