oh, as long as I'm talking about TV

TNA wrestling is still the best of the major TV-deal wrestling. I think a firm argument can be made for Ring of Honor, and other Indy federations being better, but, between The McMahon's horrific WWE, and the merely cringe-worthy TNA, TNA wins.
I still watch TNA every once in awhile, and I even see a decent match or two. My belief in TNA pretty much evaporated when the Hogan/Bischoff thing occured, but they still deserve some respect for a few things:
1. They're doing an Anti-bullying campaign. Granted, I think bullying is an over-hyped distraction from real issues, but still far more enlightened than Wrestling ever needs to be.
2. They're doing a storyline about the very real dangers of concussions in contact sports. That's pretty brave, considering their past treatment of workers- they're actually making themselves the "bad guys", here. In the storyline, evil management (TNA) doesn't care about the health of the wrestlers, while one brave wrestler stands up for another wrestler who's injured. It's classic wrestling storytelling, but done very edgy, because the health of the workers has been a thorny issue for pro wrestling for a very long time.
3. Some of the on-air talent are the best in the business. My favorites are Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Daffney, Eric Young, Hamada, Kurt Angle, Mick Foley, Ken Anderson, Raven, Samoa Joe,Sarita, Tara, and team 3-D.
4. It's the last taste of real pro-wrestling we're likely to ever see. The WWE has decided (probably more profitably so) to go for more of a Saturday-morning live action cartoon for kids, and the rest of the world is opting for more realism, via mixed martial arts. The whole world of quasi-athletics from America's Vaudvillian sideshow past is going away, and TNA is showing the last vestiges. That's worth something to me.
5. They're really trying to keep the product priced income-appropriate. I appreciate that, and so should you!

TV Night!

I write about a lot of music, here, and neglect other stuff. I think that might be because I listen to at least 2 CD's per day, and read about a chapter of a book per day, and play an hour on a video game a day. I might watch an hour of TV, I might not. So, that means, in a given week, as far as pop culture goes, I'll have maybe 1 book, maybe 1 video game, maybe 3-4 TV shows, and 7-14 Cds to talk about. It's just the way I am. On top of that, not everything is worth talking about. However, Sunday night TV is worth talking about, now.
I might have mentioned before that I love Boardwalk Empire. If not, I'll just say it's by far the best TV show on, right now, and it's a better TV show than anything since first season Lost, and 2nd Season Rescue Me. That makes it the best thing on TV in the past 5 years. Some episodes are as good as any movie I've ever seen, so if things keep up, it might end up as the best TV show, ever (Currently, I think Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner takes that honor). However, since last week, I'm a fan of the Walking Dead. The comic books were good, the first episode of the TV show was better. Yes, crucify me, now, geeks! I'm going to spell it out for you- watching real people act out imaginary scenes of people trying to retain their humanity in inhuman extraordinary situations trumps ink depictions of the same, any day of the week, and twice, this sunday. Make no mistake, that's what the show is about- how to hang on to things that make you a human being, no matter what. In these times, that's far, far more important than cool points, no matter who you are. So, yes, sundays are now TV night for me!

I agree with Mike Huckabee, once

Maybe it will only be once. I bet it will only be this once, but Mike Huckabee and I agree about Torche.
That a conservative preacher from Arkansas would truly like a gay-friendly stoner-pop band kinda defies logic, so I have a feeling it's not Huckabee, but if it is, I guess a stopped clock can be right, and hilariously so, twice a day....

Some new bands I've been checking out

Not really reviews, because I'm still really blown away by the new Killing Joke, and everything else is just "what else I'm listening to", but-

The Scaramanga Six. They're not really a new band, but I've only recently gotten around to them. They play a gothic, glammy kind of hard Alt rock. It sounds very influenced by the Damned and Rocket from the Crypt. Yes, that is an odd combination, but even Odder, the choruses tend to have a melodrama worthy of Muse. So, if you like really over-the-top glam rock, with a droning undercurrent, and plenty of cheesy B movie evil, they might be your cup of velvet.
The Eastern Wave Jake Brown is a former hardcore bass player. So, this strange combination of post-hardcore, shoegaze, and experimental electronic shouldn't sound so familiar. But it does, and it feels comfortable to me. Seems like a sludge metal band with a lot of the aggression tuned out, mixed with a particularly lo-fi dreampop band. Like, bits of The Rum Diary and Isis mixed with a heavy A R Kane.
Capsula I still love Spain, and I still dig trashy garage Rock, and Capsula are the latest iteration on that particular pattern. They've got a lot of punky drive, with some psychedelic aspirations, so I'm hearing a lot of 13th floor Elevators, which is often a good thing. When they get their drone going, they get sexy, though, which I haven't heard since Sonic Youth decided to get poppy mid-career.
The Medics But, I'm still a Dutchman. They're goofy, and derivative (Franz Ferdinand, Hot Hot Heat and The Strokes) but some of the remixes are fun in a lo fi, glitchy kind of way....

Good Bye Ari

So, I just read that Ari Up died. Strangely mixed feelings on that. On the one hand, I sad that someone around my age died so young, and I feel bad for her family, and for any suffering she may have endured. On the other hand, I never really cared for her music, and I think some of her persona and Art was a tad bit wrong-headed. Oh, it's a fine line between appreciation and appropriation, so I wouldn't exactly level charges at her- but there's something about her use of Caribbean music that seemed a bit...colonial. Yes, I completely understand how it might be that I've got a problem with white girls, but I don't think that's it, because I'm not similarly skeeved by loads of others- from Debbie Harry to Lady Sovereign. That would also be my defense if people bring up my love for the Clash- however an additional, and better defense is that the Clash never played rap, never played rockabilly, and never played dub, straight. Everything they did, they did fully aware that they were white, skinny little liberals- that's the whole point of several of their songs. Comparing White Man in Hammersmith Palais to Ari Up's last single- Lazy Slam speaks volumes, I think. Compare and decide for yourself. I might be full of it, I don't know, but I do prefer The Clash, any minute of any day.

Nostalgia and its discontents

Listening to the new Killing Joke got me thinking about some media from days gone by. Specifically, I was thinking about how I used to blast Requiem from Killing Joke's first album ( which I had on Vinyl, to date this) so loud that the synth-heartbeat pulse would literally cause the walls to vibrate. That got me thinking about other bands I would blast on my stereo, and movies I would dig up at the video store ( to this day, I think I'm the only person who ever rented Forbidden Zone at the Hastings store. Strangely, there's now talk of a sequel....)
This is why I was re-listening to Big Black, and watched Natural Born Killers again.
Big Black, on the one hand, is the reward for nostalgia, like this. That strange three-dimensional guitar sound, and fast, oddly timed pounding beat still have the unsettling visceral kick that they did back in 1985. The lyrics are still as abrasive as ever ( I don't think anyone in their right mind could ever really get used to a song like Jordan, Minnesota ). However, with the added quarter century of experience, I can appreciate some of more subtle art- the funk references in some bass figures, the use of treble to imitate blades, the underlying moralism in doing songs about such antisocial topics (for those who don't know- no one, ever, had darker lyrical topics than Big Black. If you cannot deal, I wouldn't blame you) and the layering of minimal lines to maximal effect. Atomizer, for example, more than holds up- it actually sounds better to me now, than it did back then.
Natural Born Killers, on the other hand, falls apart under scrutiny after fifteen years. Certainly, some things hold up- Woody Harrelson still manages to exude menace, charisma and and goofy charm without any seeming effort, the sound track music is tasteful, and evocative, the desert southwest is beautiful beyond words, and so on. But the flaws mount up, quickly. The biggest flaw is in the sound. I warn you right now, if you like the movie, my next sentence may ruin it for you. The sync on the sound is slightly off, and it makes obvious that whoever they had recording the sound on location screwed up BIG TIME, because almost all dialogue and most sound is dropped in, re-recorded in studio. It's like an animated movie- you can actually hear the room's natural reverb on most of the voices. The next big flaw is how ham-fisted Oliver Stone's direction is. I'm not just talking about heavy-handed, didactic approach in shoving his political agenda at you- I mean his literal direction. The guy blocks scenes like it's an off Broadway production. People face the camera for no organic reason, and there's only interaction between the audience and the actors, not the supposed characters. In several scenes the kissing is so awkward based upon the blocking that you can see Juliette Lewis licking Woody Harrelson's cheek, while he is clearly sucking air.However, the performances themselves are pretty uneven. As I said before, Harrelson does a great job, but Juliette Lewis simply cannot sell the character, and her accent is awful. Robert Downey is simply high and doing a Saturday Night Live style riff on Robin Leach and Geraldo Rivera. I mean, it says something that Steven Wright gives one of the more believable performances! Finally, the plot is just soul-less. The characters learn nothing more than that killing isn't fun, forever- but in small doses- hey, it'll get you what you want. Stone, as per usual, is pushing his point (HEY, WATCHING TOO MUCH TV IS BAAAAAD) to the exclusion of anything resembling humanity. If you have to watch a movie about two young lovers who overcome the odds after becoming celebrities over a mass murder, watch Love and a .45. It even has the same "artistic" touches like the psychological backgrounds, and multiple film stocks- but done is a much more coherent and human way.

Killing Joke

Not a review. A fan's note- Killing Joke have a new record out. First one in quite awhile with all original members. It's quite good, I think. Killing Joke has two paths, if you ask me- everything leading up to Outside the Gate ( which is not a "real" Killing Joke record) and then, everything after.
If you're a big, long term fan, I think you'll agree with me. The band that made "The Wait" and "Love like Blood" seems to be the same band, but a band that would seem to have little to do with the band that recorded "Millenium", and "Democracy" and "Asteroid". Both are good bands, but quite a bit different. This new one has more to link it to Killing Joke Mk1 than Mk2, in my opinion. I rather like that. Don't get me wrong- I loved songs like "Savage Freedom" and "White Out" and "The Death and Ressurection show", but nothing like I like songs like "Requiem", "Wardance", "The Hum", "Butcher" and my all time favorite "Primitive". This new one has the latter-day metallisms and paranoia, and techno elements- all of which are OK, but mostly it has the apocalyptic anthemic feel of the first three records- which is what brought me to the gathering.
I'm not going to try to sell you on the record. Honestly, either you have tastes similar enough to mine that you'll love it, instantly, or you probably won't see the point, and will think it sounds really awful- in which case I bet you like an awful lot of music I wouldn't like. That's fine, and I'm not judging, but it does confuse me why you'd be reading this, then.

A small amount

I don't think I can do a full review or anything, but I've also been digging Boston's long-dead Milligram. But, in case you don't know- they played a metallic post punk with both Stoner and hardcore tendancies. The end result would not be out-of-place on Am Rep or Touch and Go, so it always confused me that they were on Small Stone.
Here's another interesting thing about them- I enjoy the lack of fidelity on their records- they were recorded so hot ( meaning overloaded and distorted) and raw that it actually increases the aggressiveness.

More under-the-radar Pop

I've been listening to a lot of music, as per usual, and here are two bands that I've put together in my head- Bloodthirsty Hippies and Coin under Tongue. Both have a vague neo-80's cult pop sheen to their music. The B-Hippies remind me of mid-80's gothic-pop post punk, like what The Damned and Siouxsie were up to around 1985. It's a slightly more expanded sound, incorporating more psychedelia (though not to a "Stoner" degree) with a much more lo-fi aesthetic. It's fun pop, and sometimes gets in some punkish quality art into the mix.
Coin Under Tongue, meanwhile seem to be re imagining late-70's, early-80's post Punk ( Gang of Four, Bauhaus, No Wave) as a kind of sludgey Big Rock. Kind of like what would happen if Big Black had been more Led Zep fans, and less Killing Joke fans. That means snappy, trebley bass lines, with tons of feedback guitars, but plenty of spidery reverb-drenched arpeggios as well. I prefer them to the Bloodthirsty Hippies, a bit, but miss the pop elements that Bloodthirsty Hippies bring, mostly in the vocals which are a kind of snotty talk-sing, like if Rik L Rik were to try to do Mark Smith. Actually, the vocals remind me a lot of Steve Bjorkland of Breaking Circus, but the music doesn't support the voice as much.
Here's a way of understanding the degree of appeal- I could see the Bloodthirsty Hippies in a middle position on a bill with The March Violets headlining, and Red Scare supporting, and I could see Coin Under Tongue across town in a middle position gig with Ink-era Effigies headlining, and Flour opening. If you don't "get" those references, you might not enjoy the bands....

Next Flaming Thing

There is a phenomena amongst aging ex-punks. Many are simply nostalgic for the time when they were relevant, and others try to assert that relevance by announcing that such-and-such is the "new Punk rock". I have fallen prey to both, from time to time, and I would hesitate to characterize myself as an aging ex-punk ( that's not ego- I mean that I was never cool enough to qualify as a punk. I long ago figured out that the guy operating the sound board is simultaneously the least cool guy in the building, and the one with the most control. Seemed like a good fit for a petty little Trotskyite like I was). However, the tangent from this phenomena that I most closely fit is a constant neophiliac need to find the new "what's next". In a way, it fits with hiphop better- the need for things to be "fresh". Yes, that makes me sound like some follow-fashion monkey, hardly a dignified position for a forty something, but if modern life takes anything from us, it takes our dignity first.
Still I cling to antiquated notions like dignity, and protocol and manners, so I try to retain what I'm able to retain. The only values I can surmise in searching out the new "what next" are open-mindedness, innovation and (here's that word again) relevance. If the trend fails one of those values, I might enjoy it as a "guilty pleasure" but I will note it as such ( oh, and lest we get too neurotic, "guilty pleasure" is simply common parlance for things that please you emotionally,but not intellectually. Music is not a purely intellectual venture, however trend-watching and cool-hunting are purely intellectual pursuits). So, while I might really like some Neo-new wave band, there's nothing inherently open-minded in playing spot-the-influence, the innovation would be minimal and while it might be entirely relevant to fashion trends, it's already limited into a cul-de-sac of a known form. Meanwhile, some noise band would be off-the-charts in innovation, and therefore demand large amounts of open-mindedness, such figures would also limit the relevance- if only 12 people hear it, it's not relevant.
Again,please understand that this is about the limited practice of trying to discover the next trend, or pattern. This is only tangentially about musical value. So, as much as I might love a band musically, it might not ever fit as "the next big thing" (the same goes for Tv shows and books, and so on. For a quick and dirty- I think Burn Notice probably will go down as the trend maker in TV shows. I'm already seeing shades of it in everything from the new Hawaii 5 0 to established shows like the CSI franchises. But, I wouldn't say that Burn Notice is high Art on TV. That, I'm reserving for Boardwalk Empire, which you really should be watching. However, as High Art- and expensive Art- I don't expect to see a ton of shows following it)
So, with that as format, I think I've found one. Now, saying I've found doesn't mean I'm the first- I think one of you reading this may have even tipped me off- but I'm saying that I made the connection that Torche may very well be the next big thing. They fit all criteria in spades- The mixture of indie pop, sludge/doom metal and neo-psychedelia virtually requires that anyone who listens must listen with an open mind, and the innovation of combining theory (which is what the "bomb string" a string tuned to the lowest discernible note is- theory) with pop format (3 minute verse chorus bridge structure) has not been explored in this fashion. Plus,aligning with extreme metal, as opposed to the psyche or Punk scenes is more more relevant than the other way around- put it this way- People who read Magnet religiously are going to have to adapt to the tastes of Revolver readers a lot more quickly than Decibel readers will have to adapt to Paste's tastes... Torche has a cult following, and thermonuclear glowing reviews, and genuinely well constructed songs, and ear pleasing tonality. They're all set. I'd be really surprised if they didn't get a scene following them. If they can get a song into rotation on rock radio, or get an album into Wal Mart, I bet Torche will be in the position The Eagles of Death Metal were in two years ago.