more randomness

So, I still have some music to discuss, and maybe I'll get to that, this week-end,but I've got some other entertainments, and arts to discuss.
As for Television- I've been watching a fair amount of Netflix- mostly House of Cards, which is absolutely fantastic, and well worth a subscription, in and of itself. Sure, Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright- but moreso, the writing which is tough and smart- there's a slight dip about two-thirds through, however, they stick the landing. It's like "This Town" as a TV show. Absolutely top notch political thrills with David Fincher adding really artistic touches- if I sound general and vague, it's because I don't want to give anything away. I'll just say that it's about the machinations of a political operative who seems like the inevitable result of our current political structure.
I also watched part of "Red State" which is Kevin Smith's attempt at a slasher/exploitation flick, and ye gads did it suck. It sucked so hard that I didn't finish it. So, I really can't spoil it. I can tell you that it's typical Kevin Smith over-articulate slacker protagonists meet Westboro baptist antagonists. Which almost sounds promising, except, well, it has no real excitement.
On Hulu, I've been keeping up with the Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and watching the odd episode of Drunk History, and i finished watching Moone Boy which was great fun. Now, I'm mostly watching Long Way Down, the season 2  of Long Way Around, the Ewan Mcgregor/ Charley Boorman travel show. I'm also watching season 7 of Burn Notice, but that's mostly for completion's sake.
Books, just one- the aforementioned "This Town" which is basically about how fucked up my government is. I may end up an Anarchist, at this rate.
I don't talk about food very much, but I do eat- On my recent trip, I ate at The Brown Hotel, and Toast on Market and at Crane's . All were excellent- in different ways. The Brown Hotel was excellent in old-fashioned "high dining"- like fine dining from the 1940's. Toast on Market was very much modern "Foodie" kind of restaurant, that got skewered so well on Portlandia. Crane's is the kind of super- authentic roadside mom-n-pop dining lauded by the likes of Alton Brown.  Did I have a favorite? Yup. I am a cliche, give me the Toast on Market style, any day. I'm a sucker for the (pseudo?) artisanal style all day long. But I'm totally down for it all. I'll eat at the fine places, the diners, you name it. I think each has its merits, but I am still a creature of my time and place, and I have to own up to having all the typical vanities of your modern hipster foodie...

The phantasmagoric Tilts

Ok, This post should be taken for entertainment purposes only. I mean no harm to persons living, dead, or undecided. I just think it's funny.
So, it has been brought to my attention that there is more to this Tilts record than what you may have been led to assume. That is, no, they are not simply a now defunct hard rock band. They are the results of dark magicks and occult rituals performed by secret covens of the rich and powerful.
Unknown to most, Ben Orr did not die in 2000, as many believe. Instead, he retreated into arcane mystic rituals, trying to create interdimensional party rock for the coming of the dark old ones. Towards this, he had been collecting genetic samples of various and sundry rock gods, for use in unspeakable experiments meant to make Yog-sothoth shake its hairy and tentacled nether regions.
So, first, he combined the sweat of Ted Nugent's soul patch circa 1989, right before Damn Yankees, with the skin flakes of Mac McNeilly from Jesus Lizard, thus creating a rock superbeast. He mated this slavering monstrosity with 100 would be groupies for Tom  Scholz who were disappointed that he'd prefer to invent the Rockman for use as Kurt Cobain's distortion pedal, and thus were primed to serve the dark master Ben Orr. This created the million headed demon known as "Super Ultra Mega", and when it found a cowbell formerly owned by Andy Parker of UFO, it developed a tumorous parasitic twin called "Mexiqo". But Yog-Sothoth was not yet pleased so The Evil Wizard taught it to play "Brown Sugar" by the Rolling Stones, as it was performed by Slint  and bootlegged by Larry Clark. This summoned the astral projection of Josh Homme's psyche through time and space from his medically induced coma and left his mojo there. Josh Homme's mojo then did a series of eight quick phantom power squats,gave a withering look at a portrait of Ron Wood, and  said the incantation "blooey" then exploded into pattern that resembled  Leslie West's mountain of a white boy afro. It helps, but whatever happened only Superstar Billy Graham knows. The psychic energy thus released curled up and congealed into a throbbing ball of solid groove that burned off  Jesse Hughes' mustache forcing him to borrow Bob Hite's merkin.  This struck Ben Orr as some kind of onanistic display so he referred to Hughes as a "Palm Reader" with a quizzical arch to his voice. Ritchie Blackmore was previously recruited as a Contractor to Her Majesty's forces to hunt down this speeding eight ball of groove, and finally caught it using a netting technique described by Chris Goss as an Ozark Bowtie. However, the trail left a gash of burning cheesey positronic disruption that ignited a previous experiment from Dr Orr's lab using DNA harvested from Eddie Van Halen's tongue during his cancer surgery, and the new creature instantly cloned then and there felt a burning hunger. Truly, it was Hot for Pizza. Chaos thus unleashed, as new interdimensional daemons and Angels were being created and destroyed in Nanoseconds, some of which might burn your plans, or might just ignore you for some sidepipin' ( the latter invented a new musical genre by the scraping of their skateboard wheels on Sammy Hagar brand Cabo Wabo tequila bottles- cocknoose bluesgrindcore) . Fortunately, it was precisely at this nexus point of chaotic cacao that The Right Reverend Billy Gibbons restored order by modifying his solo on Gimme all your Lovin, by replacing his legendary Peso pick with a Zloty, and toning it down by saying "Well, ok give me some of your Loving" . Placated,  the spirits and mutants decided to settle down in a small dive bar near Hereford, drinking Strongbow cider, and shouting "Tilts" at the pinball machine in the corner. Incidentally, it's this one.
( I know, I know- really freaking obscure. You didn't laugh once. It helps if you're drinking Wild Turkey and listening to the record)

Flaum Adger

Hmmm. I want to like Flaum Adger. Really I do. They basically sound like early- to -mid Gang of Four meets early-to-mid Dream Syndicate, and if that doesn't sound a bit intriguing, I'm afraid you may have stumbled across the wrong blog. However, as should be obvious, I can't say I'm all the way with them, yet. Somehow the "jam band" type of noodling doesn't sit so well with dry, harsh Gill-igan's island type solid state flat feedback guitars. The tentative vocals also seem a bit of a mismatch. Still, it's not bad, and when the groove locks in, it can remind you of some of the best stuff from the early 1980's. So, maybe they'll develop into something a bit more solid. One to keep an eye on?
Well, listen to a couple of tracks, at least, I might be way off base, here....

Infinite Void

I'm not really fond of Savages. Part of it is the arrogance and the ill-thought out lyrics, but the primary reason is that it's so old and tired, and predictable. The fact is, I've heard it done before, and I've heard it done better. I've also heard it done often. Our next exhibit- Infinite Void. They do neo-goth with loud, tight guitars, and alto female vocals. What they don't do is present themselves as either some form of ultimate ends, or even some new iteration. They're just a goth post-punk band. I prefer that I can even hear their nervous grasping in the playing- like a band that hasn't quite found their way, yet. That's far more exciting to me than a bunch of control junkies playing stuff that was tired 20 years ago, and trying to pass it off as somehow new. So, if you've been interested in the Savages hype machine, but mostly just want to hear a new goth band with guitars. Here you go, a better alternative.

Medicine- To the Happy Few

Medicine never really went away, since it's long been established that "they" are, essentially Brad Laner and friends. So, the only reason why people would consider this a "comeback" would coincide with the only reason why anybody would listen to Medicine. They are My Bloody Valentine clones- all the way down to when they'll release albums. However, I really, truly deeply love that sound. So, I'm ok with them being clones. Why not sound exactly like the best noise ever? But, I'm not stupid- I know Brad is basically hoping to cash in on MBV.If you're like me, you'll need none of this- I'm only writing for the few who might stumble upon this because of some search terms gone wrong, and who like My Bloody Valentine and wish there was something else by them. Here you go.