Shout-Out to Stereogum!

When I got my latest issue of Spin Magazine this afternoon, the first thing I noticed was the promise of a Kevin Federline interview on the front cover. OH GOODY! So, I decided to e-mail Stereogum to complain about Spin's new-found pandering to readers of celebrity gossip.

And guess what? They made a post about it.

Now, they did do a bit of editing to my e-mail, so I'll post it here in its entirely (for all you Stereogum completists out there):

From: Devin DiMattia
Subject: The Downfall of Spin
Date: April 25, 2006 12:00:30 PM EDT
To: info@stereogum.com

So, I don't know if you guys have seen the new issue of Spin Magazine, but they are definitely trying to pander to the crowd that reads shit like InTouch and Us Weekly by revamping their front cover to look like celeb gossip mags. Take a look:



Also, please notice the article on the left of the Spin cover that reads "'I Didn't Pimp Britney' Kevin Federline Speaks Out" Are they fucking serious?? Who reads Spin Magazine that would possibly give a shit? I swear, if it wasn't for the interviews with The Streets, The Flaming Lips, and Weezer in this issue (which, I should mention, are nowhere to be found on the cover), I would've cancelled my subscription pronto.

Devin DiMattia

I was hoping that they would've included a link to my blog, 'cause then I would've been able to say "DiMattiaFilms: As Linked To By Stereogum," but sadly, no dice. Ah well.

1 Cliche Down, 999,999 to Go

After viewing the latest episode of Lost, screenwriter John August (Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) has just condemned the use of air ducts as an escape route for protagonists in all forms of entertainment, be it movies, television, or...well, I guess just those two. I'd join in, but I haven't had time to write any screenplays, much less include air ducts in them. This does remind me, however, of a similar cliché as described by Dona Knight in Roger Ebert's Bigger Little Movie Glossary:

• Air Vent Escape Route. If the hero is imprisoned in a building owned by the villains, there will inevitably be an air vent cover that is not screwed in and is easily removed. The passageway will be large enough toaccommodatee any size person. The escape route will pass over the room where the bad guys are discussing the details of their diabolical plan, which the hero will now be able to foil.

What's your favorite movie that makes prominent use of the air duct escape route? Or just your favorite movie that has air ducts in them? I can't help but think of that great scene in Alien where Dallas is searching for the alien in all the air ducts of the ship, turns around, and BOOGA-BOOGA!!

Anderson AMEX Ad now on YouTube!

Thanks to my friend Alan Varner for sending me the link!

V-Dub in the House

I just found out last week that my screenwriting professor is related to actor Peter Stormare, and I asked him what was up with those hilarious Volkswagen commercials he's been doing? He told me that Stormare probably just did 'em for the money, but I still think they're funny as hell.

The Case Against Kanye

So, I was quite unimpressed with Kanye West's performance at UNCW last Saturday. Not only did he spend roughly twenty minutes of his set playing 30-second samples of songs he produced, he stopped several songs halfway through because the camera or spotlight wasn't on him or some stupid crap like that.

I couldn't believe it. I mean, I knew he was an asshole, but I never would have guessed that he would act as arrogant and as egotistical as he did to PAYING FANS.

He also needs to seriously lose the "I'm so underappreciated" schtick. You're the number one artist in America! Stop whining that you didn't win enough Grammys, jerk! I swear, I actually liked Late Registration, enough to put it on my Honorable Mention list of 2005. Now, I doubt I'll ever buy another Kanye West album. Congratulations, man. You've done an excellent job alienating your audience. I would like my twenty-eight bucks back.

The next day, I went to the Soapbox in downtown to see The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers for just five dollars. And they were GREAT. Plus, I actually got to meet the lead singer afterwards and chat with him. I also got to see another great band, Meredith Bragg and the Terminals, before Prayers and Tears, and after their set, I ended up getting to sit next to the bassist and drummer of the band while Prayers and Tears did their set. This is the advantage of being an indie music fan. You actually get to hang out with the people who are making the music!! And at no point during either band's performance did they ask for the spotlight to be on them or the camera straightened ('cause there wasn't a camera).

Here's a track from both groups for you to enjoy:

The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers, "Concerning Lessons Learned From the Aliens" (MP3)

Meredith Bragg and the Terminals, "My Only Enemy" (RealPlayer format, sorry)

Adding Album Art to your iTunes Library

This year, I embarked on the somewhat daunting task of adding album art to all the songs in my iTunes music library. Like most people, I used Amazon.com's database of album artwork as my source. But there are some albums, like Nina Simone's Anthology, where the artwork is ridiculously small, and it comes off very pixelated if you add it to iTunes.

Luckily, I stumbled across Josh's iTunes Album Art Grabber, which lets you search the database of high-quality album artwork directly from the iTunes Music Store! My only regret is that I wish I had found this website earlier. Now, I gotta replace all the crappy Amazon artwork I already added!

The Foam Monster That Ate Ellsworth Air Force Base

Click here for endless photographic entertainment!

Apparently, while testing the foam firefighting system at Ellsworth AFB, the mechanism that spits out the gallons and gallons of foam malfunctioned...and what happened is nothing short of mindblowing, and also funny as hell.

UPDATE: Pictures have been removed.

Crazy for Gnarls Barkley!

Gnarls Barkley, a soul group composed of vocalist Cee-Lo and DJ wunderkind Danger Mouse, have already exploded onto the airwaves in the UK. Their hit song "Crazy" became the first single ever to top the UK charts on the basis of download sales alone, while iTunes, in its infinite wisdom, has yet to put the single up for grabs on its U.S. store, prompting millions of soul-hungry Americans to download it illegally.

But, before you get yourself added to the RIAA's Most Wanted list, you can check out a couple of kick-awesome Gnarls goodies, free and legal. First, there's the new video for "Crazy," which can be streamed here. And when you're done with that, check out this hilarious live performance of "Crazy" from Top of the Pops!

UPDATE: Link removed.

Gnarls' full-length debut, St. Elsewhere, drops May 9!

Wes Anderson Takes AMEX

I finally got the chance to catch Thank You for Smoking last night (which, by the way, was a hilarious movie), and I saw a commercial preceding the movie that I found most amusing. Now, everyone here knows of my outright hatred for ads before movies, but I'm willing to make an exception for this one.

You know that American Express ad that M. Night Shyamalan did for the Super Bowl? With all the weird shit happening, but it turned out it was all in his head? (Oh, that M. Night! Always gotta have a twist!) Well, uber-awesome filmmaker Wes Anderson was tapped to do a similar ad, and the results are hilarious.

The ad also features Jason Schwartzman and Waris Ahluwalia, the Sikh dude from The Life Aquatic, filming a scene from Anderson's new "spy thriller" (complete with hilariously bad dialogue and random car explosions). Suddenly, the camera spins around to reveal Anderson who tries to deliver a monologue about the American Express card, but is constantly interrupted by pressing matters involving the film (my personal favorite was what type of gun to use).

It's a great ad, but so far, there's no sign of it on the Internet. Does anybody have a clip of this ad that they can upload to YouTube or Google Video?

Blog peer pressure is a dangerous thing...

So, I finally bit the bullet and added my "playlist" of music to the sidebar, which I've taken the liberty of calling my "Choice Cuts." These are albums I'm currently listening to either in my car, on my computer, or on my iPod (or, in the case of Picaresque, on my record player). Some are new releases, but some are albums from last year that I didn't get a chance to listen to until now. In anticipation of Zero 7's new album The Garden (which will hopefully see a May release date here in the States), I bought their last album, When it Falls, on iTunes for $9.90. Not a bad deal.

I also saw Ice Age: The Meltdown last night and, I gotta say, if it wasn't for the continuing adventures of Scrat and his attempts to snag an acorn, I would've hated the movie. I just didn't care about any of the characters this time around. I also think that this is the first time a children's film has made sex an integral part of the plot, and doesn't just use it as innuendo, a la Shrek. Granted, the film does have a generous amount of sexual innuendo, but when there's nothing on the surface of the story to disguise it, is it really innuendo anymore? I'm talking specifically of the relationship between Manny the Mammoth (voiced by Ray Romano) and Ellie (voiced by Queen Latifah), a mammoth who thinks she's a possum. When Latifah was interviewed on "The Daily Show," Jon Stewart showed a brief clip from the film and it was blatantly obvious to me that the film (or at least that scene in particular) was not trying to appeal to kids. No wonder computer animated films are in decline; they've lost their target audience.

If you'd like to see what Blue Sky Studios, the company that made the Ice Age films, made before they got picked up by 20th Century Fox, check out Bunny, which won the 1998 Academy Award for Best Animated Short. Fun Fact: Chris Wedge, the writer and director of Bunny, provides the voice of Scrat.

It's been a while, I know (aka The Free Music Bribery Post)

So, it's been, like, over a week since I posted anything on this site...and I apologize. Like the title of the post says, I want to post some kick-awesome music to make up for it. A lot of great albums have come out in the last two weeks and I was too busy soaking in their utter brilliance and majesty to be bothered writing anything in my blog. I've already been singing praises about The Flaming Lips and their new disc, At War With the Mystics, but I can't stress this enough: the album is great, better than Yoshimi and just a hair under the utter awesomeness that is 1999's The Soft Bulletin (which has also been re-released in 5.1 surround sound!) And while hits like "Mr. Ambulance Driver," "The W.A.N.D," and "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" are all utterly amazing, I have really fallen in love with this one song, "My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion." So pretty, so psychedelic, so Flaming Lips-ish. It could almost be seen as a sequel to Yoshimi's track "It's Summertime (Throbbing Orange Pallbearers)". Naturally, the Lips give "Autumn" its own subtitle, which reads "The Inner Life as Blazing Shield of Defiance and Optimism as Celestial Spear of Action." You'll just have to listen to it yourself.

The Flaming Lips - "My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion"
from At War With the Mystics

Also worth mentioning are the new releases from two of my favorite alt-rockers, Josh Rouse and Sondre Lerche. While Rouse takes his already brilliant brand of pop-folk into Spanish territory with his album Subtítulo, Lerche defies all expectations and delivers Duper Sessions, a surprisingly solid jazz album. Here are a couple highlights from both:

Josh Rouse - "Givin' it Up"
from Subtítulo

Sondre Lerche - "(I Wanna) Call It Love"
from Duper Sessions

And finally, the Tuesday before last marked the debut release from Band of Horses, the beautiful and utterly anthemic Everything All the Time. If you plan on buying this album, I strongly recommend that you actually purchase the physical CD, not buy it off iTunes or anything. I will admit, I am a sucker for cool CD packaging, and Everything All the Time does not upset. The liner notes fold out to reveal three color prints of photographs by Christopher Wilson. The three I got were of a telephone pole, a hand waving at an airplane passing by, and an antique-looking living room, which leads me to the question: Does everyone get the same three photos when they buy this album or do they change from copy to copy? Someone please provide me with the answer! In the meantime, here's one of my favorite new songs off the record:

Band of Horses - "Weed Party"
from Everything All the Time

Alright, I hope that more than made up for my absence. I promise it won't ever happen again...until it does.