Daft Punk to Release Greatest Hits Album

After the failure of 2005's Human After All, an album I labeled one of the most disappointing of the year, Daft Punk will be releasing Musique 1: 1993-2005, a greatest hits compilation, which will include hits from their last three albums, as well as bonus remixes and, in a special edition package, a DVD featuring all of the videos, plus a couple never-before-seen ones.

On a personal note, I absolutely despise best-of comps that get put out after an artist's first two-or-three albums. It is such an obvious marketing ploy, designed to squeeze as much money as they can out of the consumer. Up until now, the main offenders have been people like Hilary Duff and Aaron Carter, people who don't even deserve to be called musicians. But Daft Punk?! C'mon!! I thought you guys had some class. I know Human After All was a misstep, but that doesn't mean you have to rush-release a best-of and then call it a day. That's not the Daft Punk I know.

The only reason I would be interested in buying this is for the bonus remixes and DVD, and I already have most of their videos, thanks to the Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze retrospective DVDs. As for the songs that made it onto this "greatest hits," it's got the obvious entries ("Da Funk," "One More Time," and "Robot Rock") but where are "Aerodynamic" and "Digital Love," two of my favorite songs off their second album, Discovery? They were singles, they had videos...what the f*ck?

This is What DiMattiaFilms Actually Believes

Even after ten years of gross-out humor and biting satire, South Park's still got it. Recently, two of their episodes have come under fire from two different religious organizations (or, in my opinion, one religious organization and one crock of sh*t): the Catholic church for the episode "Bloody Mary" and Scientologists for "Trapped in the Closet." Both episodes have been banned indefinitely, though it's pretty easy to pick up either of them on BitTorrent (don't tell the FCC).

But creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have not backed down. In fact, they upped the ante when they debuted their tenth season premiere episode "The Return of Chef!" even though Issac Hayes, who provides Chef's voice, left the show, citing its religious intolerance (probably because of the fact that he's a Scientologist). So, instead of giving someone else the task of doing Chef's voice, Parker and Stone simply re-cut Hayes' voice from past episodes and edited the snippets together into new dialogue.

It didn't stop there. In the episode, Chef returns to South Park only for the kids to find out that he's been brainwashed into becoming a child molester after joining the Super Adventure Club, an obvious reference to Scientology. After Chef dies an utterly gruesome, albeit hilarious death, Kyle remarks at his funeral,

"We can't let the events of the last week take away the memories of how Chef made us smile.... So, you see, we shouldn't be mad at Chef for leaving us. We should be mad at that fruity little club for scrambling his brains."

Feel free to interpret that dialogue however you see fit.

For more on the continuing South Park controversy (jokingly referred to as "Chefgate"), read the Scanners blog, written by the editor for Roger Ebert's website, Jim Emerson.

IN OTHER NEWS: This Sunday's episode of the Simpsons will have the show's first-ever live action opening sequence. That's right; everything that happens in the traditional Simpsons opening will be done by real-life people! Read the story here.

Music makes the world go round!

First off, I have no clue why Blogger has been acting so weird these last couple of days. I've tried republishing my blog, but to no avail. I hope after this post, things start to get back down to normal. Sorry for the inconvenience...

Anyway, moving on!

The new Flaming Lips album, At War with the Mystics, can now be streamed in its entirety at NME.com. I'm currently listening to the first track off it, "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" and already, it sounds like a side of the Lips I have never heard before...and would very much like to hear more of!

ALSO! Everything All the Time, the debut album by one of my favorite new bands, Band of Horses, gets released this Tuesday! Here's an MP3, "The Funeral". Another new album that arrives on the 21st is Josh Rouse's Spanish-tinged Subtitulo. Sorry, no free MP3s, but you can stream a couple tracks off his Myspace page.

Anyone know of any other albums that are coming out soon?

V for Vendetta, S for Shitty Sequels

Just got back from seeing V for Vendetta. I really liked it, though the jury is still out on what exactly it means, which is saying something since most Hollywood-made movies these days want nothing more than to shove a totally obvious plot device down your throats.

Case in point: the retarded trailers I was subjected to before the film. I've now gotten into the habit of arriving to movies five minutes late, so as not to have to sit through commercials, as I have already expressed my disdain for them. But these trailers for, among others, X3, Poseidon, and Take the Lead, the only non-sequel/remake in the bunch, but still just as contrived. If I see another film about a renegade teacher who takes a ragtag group of kids under his/her wing and BOOM! They become brilliant dancers/athletes/musicians...well, I'm not gonna see any of those movies anymore, so it's a moot point.

The worst offender, however, was the god-awful trailer (and inevitably god-awful movie) for The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Don't bother asking me why on earth someone would want to make a third Fast and the Furious movie, but looking at director Justin Lin's previous credits (which include the recent release Annapolis, which received an 11% from Rotten Tomatoes), it's not like he could do any worse.

With that being said, here are five upcoming films that actually look like they're worth the admission cost:

Thank You for Smoking: After being released in select cities today, this comedy starring Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, William H. Macy, Rob Lowe, J.K. Simmons and Robert Duvall will hopefully be receiving a wide release, especially once crap like Failure to Launch and The Shaggy Dog go away.

Inside Man: The new film from Spike Lee shies away from his usual topics and turns, instead, towards a bank robbery involving Clive Owen, Denzel Washington, and Jodie Foster. I'm trying to avoid any TV ads for the film, as I've heard they give away too much of the plot in them (damn marketing execs!)

Lonesome Jim: Steve Buscemi takes up the director's chair in this quirky comedy starring Casey Affleck and Liv Tyler.

Awesome: I Fuckin' Shot That!: This concert film starring the Beastie Boys was filmed mostly by fans who were handed camcorders before the show and asked to film during its entirety.

American Dreamz: Everything in American pop culture and politics is hit with biting satire in this film from the director of About a Boy and featuring an all-star cast including Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid, Mandy Moore, and Willem Dafoe.

Also, the movie I am most looking forward to this summer is none other than Robert Altman and Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, which will hopefully be seeing a release on June 9. It is one of my favorite radio shows (actually, it's my only favorite radio show) and Altman is one of my favorite directors. Let's hope this partnership bears fruit.

Jump Cut finally dies...

Well, it took them several months longer than it said they would, but Libsyn finally terminated Jump Cut Radio, and all episodes therein. So, if you didn't get a chance to listen to 'em, I have all the episodes on back order (i.e. on my computer), so if you want a couple, e-mail me and I'll see what I can do.

So far, no new podcasts are in the works, but I am looking into DJing for a college radio station in Greensboro this summer! Maybe I'll work out a new music podcast this summer, too...

ALSO!! In case you haven't noticed, new photos from my recent Spring Break trip to L.A. have been added to Flickr! Check 'em out and leave some comments, por favor!

Customer Reviews for Dummies

Sorry, I just have to get this off my chest.

A habit I've started noticing on the iTunes Music Store is the habit of referencing previous reviews when someone is posting their own review for a song/album/audiobook/film/whatever on the site. This, my friends, is a practice that must be stopped. I mean, seriously, do people not realize how stupid they sound when they write "The anonymous reviewer before me has no idea what they're talking about"? Let's hear what you have to say, okay, buddy? This is a review, not a message board.

I would also like to point out the following review by "dr. trey" of the new album by Matisyahu, Youth:

"EVRYONE [sic] SHOULD BUY IT...This is even better than live at stubb's.. after you buy it you will know what im talking about"

Um...what are you talking about? The whole point of customer reviews is that you will explain to us what makes said album so good/bad so THEN we will buy it! What I really can't understand is that, according to iTunes, "15 out of 18 listeners found this review helpful."

I guess you could say I'm doing the same thing, posting a review of reviews on my blog (which is, essentially, a personal site where individuals post reviews of stuff), but I'd like to think I'm more articulate than most. All I'm asking is that people treat customer reviews with the same respect that professional reviewers treat their own content. Don't say "THIS ALBUM SUXX!!" and leave it at that. Explain what you don't like about the album. Give any biases you may have against said album (for example, I would probably give a Kenny Chesney album a bad review, but it would be bias because I don't like country music in the first place). As always, don't shove your opinion down the reader's throats. Be courteous, like you're talking to someone you're just meeting for the first time.

Here's a final compare/contrast. First, we have a review from "Route66" in regards to the band Field Music and their self-titled debut:

"This cd has potential and should be downloaded by many but we'll just have to wait and see."

Now, click here to read a different review for the same album by one of my favorite podcasters, Funtime Ben.

Can you tell the difference? I hope so.

Flaming Lips Artwork Revealed!

Click on the image for a closer look.

I'm very excited about the new album from The Flaming Lips, entitled At War With the Mystics, and if this kickass George Salisbury-drawn cover is any indication, it should be a captivating affair. I already picked up the just-released single for The W.A.N.D., which comes with two very interesting b-sides.

Of course, both "The W.A.N.D." and another track, "Mr. Ambulance Driver" can be purchased online at the iTunes Music Store.

An Olympian's iTunes Playlist

North Carolina native, Olympic speed skater/music enthusiast Joey Cheek has his own celebrity playlist on the iTunes Music Store and it is very impressive. Anyone who likes Andrew Bird, Death Cab for Cutie, and Elliott Smith is alright in my book!

On the eels Live Album

I've never been all that big a fan of live albums, especially ones that release a DVD of the performance at the same time. The main reason I dislike them is that in typical marketing fashion, certain songs are relegated to the DVD exclusively, leading me to ask "Why not just put the whole performance on the CD? People aren't going to get the DVD because of the extra songs. They'll get it so they can watch the band perform as well as listen to it!" Coldplay had the right idea releasing Live 2003 as a CD/DVD combo, but they still stifled the CD release by hacking several songs off of it.

This leads me to the new live album by eels, a band whose excellent double album Blinking Lights and Other Revelations made my top ten list of 2005. The live album, entitled With Strings: Live at Town Hall, collects several tracks from that release, as well as a grab bag of songs from past albums like Beautiful Freak and Daisies of the Galaxy. Bandleader Mark Oliver Everett ("E") also tackles an intriguing trio of covers, from Bob Dylan's "Girl from the North Country" to Johnny Rivers' "Poor Side of Town," my pick for the best track on this album.

What's most impressive about this live album is that, despite the missing eight songs from the performance, it is masterfully recorded and edited together. Audio mixer Douglas Trantow should be applauded for making such an intimate recording of E's performance, as well as the performances by a pair of multi-instrumentalists and a very talented string quartet, that at some points, it almost feels like you're listening to a studio album.

Naturally, it wasn't until I purchased a physical copy of the album that I discovered the iTunes Music Store offering it for ten bucks, with three bonus tracks. Dontcha hate when that happens?

Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.

The latest news from the Associated Press:


Wow. Looks like Kanye West was right.

See the article here.