Sorry, been out of it for a bit...

Been working a lot as well as watching a lot of movies, so I haven't had time to post. I know, excuses, excuses. Well, you'll be disappointed to know that the only update I have is something you probably already know already: the trailer for King Kong

I was stunned when I saw it. It truly is an impressive trailer. It shows plenty of stuff to get people really excited about the film, but it doesn't give away too much. The only person who gets to talk at all in the trailer is Jack Black, who I'm looking forward to seeing portray a 1920s hot-shot filmmaker.

As for other news, I'm busy working on a new episode of Jump Cut Radio, which will hopefully be done by Thursday. The new version of iTunes comes with podcasting capabilities built-in and I was surprised to find that my show had already been added to the new podcast directory on the iTunes Music Store! If you're not a subscriber, now's the perfect time! Just go to the iTunes Music Store and search for Jump Cut Radio. Once you find it, hit Subscribe and the latest show will automatically download onto the Podcast page of iTunes. Easy, right?

If you're reading this at 2 AM ('cause that's when I'm writing it), lemme give you some loud music, courtesy of Extra Super Action Show, to keep you awake and alert! If that doesn't work, punch yourself in the face! That always seems to do the trick.

The Jackoffs, "Sucker" (MP3)

The Epoxies, "Need More Time" (MP3)

Iron & Wine @ Carrboro

Iron & Wine Poster
Originally uploaded by devpd.

Really awesome concert, I gotta say. Sadly, not many of my photos turned out good. Still, in my defense, I was too busy taking in the sublime melancholy of Sam Beam's music to worry about taking any photos. :-)

Opening act Band of Horses was quite awesome as well. Definitely have a Coldplay sense of anthemic yet simplistic rock structure, yet their lead vocalist has a Wayne Coyne-style voice thing going on. Am I trying too hard to sound cool? Sorry 'bout that. Here's some free music from both bands to make up for it:

Iron & Wine, "Woman King" (MP3)

Band of Horses, "Funeral" (MP3)

Flaming Lips, Strokes updates

So, after parusing the websites for The Flaming Lips and The Strokes, I was somewhat disappointed to hear that their new albums are not going to be released this year. Instead, both groups are pushing for an early 2006 release date. We'll see.

The singles for the new albums, however, will be making a slightly earlier debut. "Mr. Ambulance Driver," the lead single off the Flaming Lips' album At War With the Mystics, will be featured on the soundtrack to (ugh) Wedding Crashers, which will be released on July 12. The new Strokes single should be out by November.

The Flaming Lips are busy at work on other things, too. Their documentary, The Fearless Freaks is selling left and right at local music stores. They've got a new DVD coming soon which'll feature all their music videos for Warner Bros, including the new one for "Mr. Ambulance Driver." They're also still working on Christmas on Mars, which is tentatively scheduled for a Christmas 2005 release.

Alright, that's all I got. I'm off to the Iron & Wine concert. I'll hopefully have some photos of it for you tomorrow. Cheers!

Triumph at the Michael Jackson Trial

I'm sure this has been mentioned on countless other blogs, but I would like to point it out because I believe it has been a long time since I've seen Triumph the Insult Comic Dog do anything that I've laughed at. The joke wore off after a while and I am happy to say that, after watching this video, Triumph is back with a vengenance!

Triumph Interviews Michael Jackson Supporters (Requires QuickTime)

It also pretty much sums up my opinion over the now-closed Michael Jackson trial. Conan O'Brien is correct in calling it a "circus," and this video shows that the lunatic fringe was present and accounted for. I will say that Michael Jackson does have some serious psychological issues that need to be worked out, but if a jury was able to find him "not guilty" on all counts, the family that prosecuted him must've had many problems of their own. Feel free to discuss amongst yourselves.

Alright, for those of you who really don't give a fuck (and I can't say I blame you), here's some music to tide you over: NEW JAMIROQUAI!!

Why, yes, I do have a love for Jamiroquai. You got a problem with that? :-)

Steve's An Alright Dude

So, finally got around to watching Steve Jobs's keynote address at the Worldwide Developers Conference. Naturally, I skipped on ahead to the part where he shows off the new iTunes podcast capabilities! Kick-ass! What blew me away, however, was the new podcast created by Apple to play new music from the iTunes Music Store. Apparently, Jobs has found a way to create chapters in a podcast, complete with titles and album art for each chapter!! How can I do that for my show?

Anyway, here's where you can view Jobs' address.

Also, you need to see the new trailer for the upcoming Wallace & Gromit movie!! SEE IT. NOW.

Acid Zen Wonder Paint!

If anyone who visits my site listens to The Tragically Nameless Podcast, you'll know that for the last couple posts, I've basically been regurgitating stuff TNP host Deniz Rudin has been praising. Well, I don't care. The stuff he plugs is awesome.

Like Acid Zen Wonder Paint! Who knew that you could have so much fun with MS Paint drawings?? This site is one of the most random things I've ever found on the Internet. WARNING! Some of this material is not safe for work. (This means you, Mom.)

I am listening to the new episode of Jump Cut right now, making sure it's good and podcasty for you guys! That's right, I give every new episode of Jump Cut Radio my 200-point inspection to make sure you're receiving the finest quality podcast money can buy! And if you're not satisfied, simply return the episode for a full refund! No other podcaster can offer you this kind of deal, not even Adam Curry!

Save PBS!

I've never used this blog as my own personal soapbox (at least not in terms of political stances and community service pleas), but I received some e-mails from Common Cause and MoveOn.org informing me that a House subcommittee has voted to cut funding for public broadcasting, under the grounds that National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service has a "liberal bias" in their programming. Oh, give me a break. Are Republicans still upset over the "Travels With Buster" controversy?

I believe Democratic Rep. David Obey (Wis.) says it best. "Americans overwhelmingly see public broadcasting as an unbiased information source. Perhaps that's what the GOP finds so offensive about it. Republican leaders are trying to bring every facet of the federal government under their control. . . . Now they are trying to put their ideological stamp on public broadcasting."

So, in the interest of keeping shows that I've grown up with, like "Sesame Street," alive, I've added a button to the right side of the screen which takes you to this Common Cause page, where you can learn more about Congress' decision and how you can act out against it!

White Stripes review

I never understand why, when musicians spend a small amount of time creating an album, that their record labels advertise this fact. This kind of tidbit leaves the album ripe for criticism, especially if it doesn’t hold up to the musician’s past efforts (the typical review contains something like “This sounds like it was made in two weeks”). One album, Daft Punk’s Human After All, has already succumbed to this, and it was possible that the White Stripes’ new album, Get Behind Me Satan, would follow suit. Thankfully, this is not the case.

With every new White Stripes album, Jack and Meg take in even more musical influences and genre styles and apply their rules of lo-fi recording and straightforward songwriting, to craft a collection of songs that are throwbacks to the music of yesteryear, yet are strikingly original. With Get Behind Me Satan, the Stripes have concocted yet another stellar list of immediate and engaging music.

Don’t let the lead single “Blue Orchid” fool you. This album doesn’t rock as much as Elephant, the duo’s 2003 release that made the top of numerous Best Of lists. In fact, with the exception of two tracks (“Blue Orchid” and the Elephant throwback “Instinct Blues”), there’s nary an electric guitar to be found. Instead, Jack White ops for pounding pianos, marimbas, and bongos, among other unique forms of instrumentation. The strangest example comes in the form of “The Nurse,” which immediately follows “Blue Orchid” (there’s hardly any pauses between tracks, giving listeners barely any time to catch their breath). “The Nurse” contains the aforementioned marimbas as well as stuttering drumbeats that seem to go against the rhythm of the song entirely, making for a bizarre and, ultimately fascinating track.

Still, the best moments on Get Behind Me Satan are the most immediate and accessible ones, like “My Doorbell,” which grabs the listener and forces him (or her) to start pounding the nearest tabletop, pantomiming Jack’s forceful piano. Experience similar phenomenon while listening to “The Denial Twist,” which boasts not only the funniest track name, but some clever lyrics as well (“So now you’re mad, denying the truth/And it’s getting in the wisdom in the back of your tooth”). Once again, Jack White wears his inspirations on his sleeve as the piano returns for a finale on the Elton John-inspired “I’m Lonely (But I Ain’t That Lonely Yet),” but not before he performs “As Ugly As I Seem,” an acoustic guitar ballad that wouldn’t feel out of place on the White Album.

The White Stripes continue to excel in crafting albums that are immediately enjoyable to the first-time listener, and yet, continue to build upon themselves with each and every push of the Play button.

Devin Hearts Online Comix

I am now hooked on the kick-ass phenomenon called online comics. When the world's newspapers are overcome with "Blondie," "Cathy," "The Family Circus," and "Ziggy" comics that nobody laughs at, it's hard to find room for anything creative and humorous anymore. Thankfully, we've got the Internet. wOOt!

The comic I posted above is part of a series called Everyone Drunk But Me, a very funny "true story" comic about the artist's time spent as a foreign exchange student in Russia.

If you want more comics to distract you from any important work you may be doing right now (DiMattiaFilms.com is not responsible for any possible termination from your job.) check these other online comix out!

Avalon Alight
Boy on a Stick and Slither
No 4th Wall to Break
Nothing Nice to Say
Questionable Content

It's official.

The phrase "sizzle or fizzle" is gay. Incredibly gay. In fact, it's so gay, I'm quite sure gay people make it a point to avoid using this phrase.

You can see the latest example of why this phrase is gay on Rotten Tomatoes, a usually awesome review site which puts all online movie reviews into an easy, convenient, ratings system. Only problem is how the heck did Episode III get an 82% rating???

There's another new episode of Jump Cut on its way. I'll review Layer Cake, one of the best British crime dramas I've ever seen, plus I'll dig through the Jump Cut archives and unearth some old audio from me and Nathan's bygone days...something like that. :-)

Photo Qualms

Yeah, yeah, I have yet to post a new photo of the week. I'm working on it. In the meantime, if anyone has a cool photo they've taken (or knows a cool photo on Flickr that might interest me), please drop me an e-mail at devin@dimattiafilms.com! Muchas gracias!

Oh, and by the way, The King of Comedy is a very freaky movie. If you thought Martin Scorsese only made one creepy Robert De Niro film, think again. Which reminds me, I need to go out and get The Aviator on DVD. For some reason, even though I really enjoyed Sideways and, initially, I liked Million Dollar Baby (I have since changed my opinion, especially after seeing Paul Haggis' directorial debut Crash, which was 10X better), Martin Scorsese's ode to Howard Hughes has stayed with me the longest, leaving the deepest impression on myself. I tell you, I never much thought of Leonardo DiCaprio as an actor (I hated him in The Beach and I have no plans on seeing Titanic), but after seeing his performances in Catch Me If You Can and The Aviator, I'm looking forward to seeing what else he's got up his sleeve.

Alright, I think this concludes my movie rant for the week. Here's some free music for those who got this far:

Sufjan Stevens, "Casimir Pulaski Day"
(heartfelt acoustic track by Stevens, whose plans are to release 50 albums, one for each of the United States; Michigan's already out, and Illinois is ready for release)

The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers, "Against Pollution"
(an awesome live track from the Chapel Hill alt-rock group; you can download a bunch of other cover songs and live tracks from the band's music page)

Ladies and gentlemen I am floating in space

Found a used copy of this classic album by the band Spiritualized today and I am now on cloud nine (to the ninth power). If you're looking for a spacey, Beatlesesque, electro-pop masterpiece, you need to get your hands on Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space. You won't regret it.

New Jump Cut episode! Plus, Devin covers Massive Attack!

Just finished another episode of Jump Cut Radio, which you can either download here or stream from the official website!

Also, I've been noodling around with GarageBand for a couple weeks and made this cover of one of my favorite Massive Attack songs. I hope you enjoy it.

Devin DiMattia, "Teardrop"

Hopefully, it'll be posted on my 15 Megs of Fame page pretty soon, so you'll be able to rate the track and leave comments.

Speaking of cover songs, if you download the new episode of Coverville, you can hear host Brian Ibbott play my request, Travis's cover of "Be My Baby"!

My Early Bird "X&Y" Review

Okay, okay, first off, I am happy to report that the new Coldplay album does NOT suck. It is, in fact, quite anthemic and very enjoyable. Of course, this is merely first impressions. Suprisingly, I didn't much care for A Rush of Blood to the Head when I first got it. (I still think that "Amsterdam" is one of their worst songs)

Anyway, so my local music store had some early copies of the new album and I, being the rabid Coldplay fan that I am, immediately plunked down my cold hard cash for a taste of smooth Britrock goodness. Well, upon immediate consumption, X&Y is bittersweet. First off, the album's copy protected, motherf!@#er!! I've been lucky enough to not be a fan of band's that've released copy-protected albums so far, but not this time. Oddly enough, when I put it in my computer, iTunes recognized it, but it only revealed five or six tracks. I ripped those onto my computer with no difficulty, but I had to whip out Audio Hijack Pro to get the rest.

I was surprised to hear a completely different version of "Talk" than the version Scenestars leaked a couple months ago. Both have the Kraftwerk guitar riff and they both sound like finished studio versions, but the album version has completely reworked verses and a new chorus (the old chorus returns at the end of the song, though).

I'll talk more about the new Coldplay album, as well as my beef with copy protection, on the next episode of Jump Cut Radio.

PostSecret of the Week

All this and more at PostSecret, the premier grassroots art project.

quit the dreadfull job

Tired of browsing porno sites at 1 AM? Yeah, me neither. Still, if you're starting to get friction burn and would like to take a break, schlep on down to Spamusement, where Steven Frank illustrates exactly what it is those spam e-mail subject lines are talking about (one such example is shown above).

Thanxalot to Funtime Ben for the link! I promise I'll find some cool stuff ON MY OWN in the near future!

ChemBros Remixed!

Have I already mentioned this? I don't remember. Score tons of free remixes of songs from the excellent album Push the Button by the Chemical Brothers at chemicalbrothersremixed.com!

All Hail the Swim!

The creation of Adult Swim, as drawn by Howell Golson. Click on the pic to see all three panels of the drawing.

Thanks to Tiny Showcase for the link!

Iron & Wine, Woman King

I'm gonna try and see this group at the Cat's Cradle in Carborro, NC, this June, but until then, take a listen to this excellent EP from acoustic Sub Pop rockers Iron & Wine, who've gained some mainstream notice by having their cover of The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" featured in the film Garden State.

The Woman King EP is an excellent and affordable way to get acquainted with this group. Singer/songwriter Sam Beam expands on his traditionally minimalistic sound by adding layer upon layer of exquisite instrumentation and vocals. This is most evident in the opening title track, which you can download for free off the band's official website.

Also, the June Catbirdseat mix is now up, featuring music from Band of Horses (who'll be the opening act at the Iron & Wine concert), Sufjan Stevens, and a bunch of people I've actually never heard of!

'80s revival video time!

Found this great homemade music video for the song "Working for the Weekend," courtesy of Stereogum. Almost makes me wanna pull out the camcorder, whip up iMovie, and make a music video of my own. We'll see...

Born-Again Indie Music Fan

If you've parused the sidebar of my site recently, you might've noticed that I've expanded my "Top 5 of 2005 (so far)" to two seperate sections: one for mainstream labels and one for indie bands. Now, I'm not going to be playing favorites out of these two sections, but I would like to say if you want great music at a great price, click on some of the links in the indie list. I've actually received e-mails from the artists thanking me for buying their music!

In related indie news, I was over at The Catbirdseat and they mentioned this indie label called My Mean Magpie, which offers up entire albums of their artists' music FOR FREE!! How cool is that? I suggest you start by streaming their label sampler to find something you like. After listening to a couple songs by the group Toys for Elliot, I decided to download their 2-disc release, which cost me nary a dime, just a few minutes of download time.

If you guys liked that electronica song that sampled Sesame Street, you're bound to like this cover of a Sesame Street song by My Mean Magpie group Georgia, off their album Nothing New.

Spoon, Gimme Fiction

After many weeks deliberation, I finally went out and bought the new Spoon album. After obtaining said album, I have decided that I would've pre-ordered it months ago if the group had done the following two things differently:

1. Replaced the cover image with the image in the booklet of the Red Riding Hood character holding the decapitated head of the Big Bad Wolf.
2. Make "The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine" the lead single instead of "I Turn My Camera On"

But I digress. This is a great album. Britt Daniel has the uncanny ability to sound like John Lennon and Paul McCartney AT THE SAME TIME! This is especially evident in the opening track, "The Beast and Dragon, Adored" and "They Never Got You". While the album does seem to lose steam around the second half, the first half is filled with non-stop hits that infect your brain with their incessant catchiness. I've even started to enjoy "I Turn My Camera On," a song that, upon my first listen of it, I thought to myself, "Is this by that band that everyone's making such a big deal over?" Believe me; the hype is true.

Also, if you purchase the album (you know, with money, at a music store?) you get a bonus EP of outtakes and demos, so c'mon, go out and support the artists, por favor!