Hunx & His Punx – Gay Singles (2009) [True Panther] // Grade: B+

For the past two years Seff of Gravy Train!!! has been slowly but steadily releasing a slew of 7-inches (and videos) under the Garage moniker of Hunx & His Punx. I’ve genuinely enjoyed every single one of these songs (and videos) and this compilation is not only a welcome addition for those in the know, but for those who haven’t yet been introduced to wonders of Hunx & His Punx.

Armed with a charming stage persona, a bratty voice and some of the most toe-tapping/sing-a-long inducing melodies, Gay Singles takes you through some songs of love, some break-up songs, some about Rock ‘n’ Roll and a whole bunch about stealing straight guys away from their girlfriends. The compilation is blissfully rich in rough and addictive 50′s/60′s rock & girl-group melodies, something that  shouldn’t come as a surprise when you learn that many of Hunx early singles benefited from having Nobunny as a co-writer… Something that surely rubbed off long after the two stopped writing together. Short and sweet, each song’s strength lies in the simplicity of execution paired with the sort of energy, heart and soul that a frontman, who above all else is a consummate entertainer (all of the time) can bring.

I was pleasantly surprised how cohesively and fluidly all of these singles played back-to-back-to-back. This truthfully could just as easily pass as an album and not a compilation, but either way it is one of best, satisfying and (most importantly) fun Rock ‘N’ Roll releases to come out this year.

Betts said three words last night which completely blew away the deceitful foundations of Don Draper: “Open the drawer.” I honestly didn’t think we were going to see the drawer confrontation until maybe the last two episodes. We’ve never seen Don so vulnerable and we’ve never seen Betty so in control. She seemed to be still riding the wave of anger which began with the pow-wow concerning her father’s house. When he realizes that she has already seen the contents of the drawer, he exhaled, and there was a brief shot of him unclenching his fist on the desktop. That small motion symbolized the death of Don Draper (at least in married life).

After being surprised with Betty’s confidence, Don then shocked me with his amount of disclosure. I’m pretty sure that he only fibbed about the army “making a mistake” and how he saw it as his way out of Korea. We know he switched the dog tags himself. But he spilled everything else about Uncle Mac, Anna, the whore, and, most painfully, his half-brother Adam. Betty had him up against the ropes up until that point, but after hearing how he drove his own blood to suicide, she proceeded to comfort him – even offered him breakfast the next morning. We’re left with an uncomfortable pseudo-acceptance and there even seemed to be a bit of relief on behalf of both Don and Betts. The cat’s now out of the bag, and we’ll see over the final two episodes what the score is.

Also, knowing Miss Farrell was still outside in Don’s car this whole time? Holy shit. It was true suspense waiting for her to knock on the door and blow up the Draper household.

JOAN SMASH! Greg would have been a miserable psychiatrist, huh? I’m not sure how I feel about him going into the army. We’ve already seen him devolve into a self-loathing, anger-projecting child a few times; does he really think he has the constitution for the army? There’s a good chance he’s not coming back if he he’s shipped to Vietnam. Mad Men isn’t a show that always goes for the emotional jugular – like say, Battlestar did – but something seems frivolous about a show that comments on the ’60s not killing a character that ships out to Nam.

Silver Fox Roger’s still got it. But he also had something else last night we usually don’t see from him: self-control around a woman.

Biggest LOL of the night: Peggy asking how to pause something that’s going on live. Psshht, women. Am I right, guys?

…

That thing up there is called the Succu Dry and no sir, I don’t like it. It has teeth and fangs, which I don’t want my Mars Explorer going anywhere near. I’m not trying to be a snob, I’ve bought a masturbatory-aid before (it was while I had a girlfriend, go figure), but…this has fangs. How any grown man could put his dick in this without laughing uncontrollably is beyond me. (via Gizmodo)

You know, I probably should have seen the ending to this week’s Dexter coming. However, it didn’t hit me until the final moments of the episode as Dexter creeped up Trinity Killer’s lawn. Holy fuck, this guy is going to have a family. And when it hit me, as I was as surprised as Dexter was. We both stood there like fucking dopes, with our mouths agape.

It makes sense though. Every season the viewing audience seems to be given a serial killer that is a comfortable foil of Dexter’s. Every time, they seem to differ just a little bit. Enough to keep them from being the “good” serial killer. You know, the guy we give the free pass for killing people and chopping them up.

Trinity serves as the shape of things to come for Dexter. Possibly. As Dexter is floundering in his attempt to balance being a father, husband, and blood-soaked serial killer, the Trinity Killer is apparently suffering the same balancing act. And even more odd, it seems like he’s doing a better job of it. Dexter’s sleeping on the proverbial couch and has his wife all up in his ass, while Trinity is welcomed home by a wife and kids.

Weird.

It raises a lot of questions, like, doesn’t this dude travel the country? The map of his murders crisscrossed the entire country. Does he create new families in every suburban nightmare he inhabits? Or is Miami his base of brutal operations? Questions abound! I was wondering how they were going to carry the Trinity Killer’s storyline across the entire season. I mean, he just completed his murderous Triforce, with a kapow to some barista’s dome piece.

So now what?

Trinity serving as the complete foil for Dexter should be enough for what, seven episodes or so?

I dig it though. I like how Trinity seems like a haunting possible-future for Dexter. He’s like Earth-2 Dexter. Where Dexter had everything but Harry to give him the Code or some shit. Because as usual, that seems to be the difference. Dexter kills just baddies, while Trinity is getting down and dirty slitting an innocent chick’s femoral arteries in bathtubs and crap.

Last night I got a chance to finally see the new Coen Brothers loosely-autobiographical flick, “A Serious Man”. I have to say that I have never been disappointed in a Coen Brothers joint and I am consistently impressed how they reinvent themselves. I think they do a great job of defining what good contemporary big budget film should be. However, I must admit that I was completely lost for the vast majority of the picture.

A Serious Man revolves around the very suburban and mundane life of family man named Larry Gopnik. Larry experiences a number of unfortunate events throughout the movie and tries to maintain composure and himself as a “serious man” while looking for answers to what it all really means from his local Rabbis.

This flick taught me just how little I know about Judaism. If you know as little as I do about it I would recommend seeing this movie with someone that does. I’m sure there were a hundred jokes and clever references that flew right over my head (as the obnoxious knee slapper beside me kept trying illustrate the whole movie). However, despite my obvious confusion I still really enjoyed it as it was incredibly well tied together with a very ‘Coen’ nervous tension throughout that kept me on the edge of my seat.

(**SPOILER ALERT!**) The ending is probably the best example of pathetic fallacy since Shakespeare and is absolutely epic. Jaws dropped and people were in serious discussion after it was all over.

All in all, I’m not sure exactly what I saw, but I know I liked it.

Now Available: Mishka 2010 Calendar!

Now officially available on our site is our 2010 Calendar shot by Ellen Stagg. Believe the hype as these calendars deliver enough material to fuel your fantasies as the long cold winter months approach us all.

If you were savvy and ordered during our pre-sale, well your calendars have already shipped on Friday, if not then it’s time to order away and let your mind run wild as you turn the pages.

It’s a good one to say the least!

Rain Machine – S/T (2009) [Anti-] // Grade: D

I buy into every bit of the hype behind TV on the Radio. It took me a little while to get into the band, but after a few live shows and some quality time with their discography, I stand amongst their legions of rabid fans, chanting their greatness. When I heard TVOTR’s Kyp Malone had a solo project in the works, I didn’t expect it to be anything less than great. Surprisingly, and sadly, Rain Machine’s self-titled debut is one of the year’s biggest musical letdowns.

Malone withdraws inside himself to create an album of intensely personal and socially-charged material as Rain Machine. His voice is as strong as ever and the instrumentation is largely acoustic reflections with heavy Americana influence. The makings of a fantastic album are hidden within Rain Machine, but Malone self-sabotages the release, allowing nearly every one of the 12 tracks to dissolve into nonsensical, stream of consciousness vocal experiments that are, at best, a difficult listen.

Rain Machine‘s undoing is the uncomfortable tension created by Malone’s inability to stay focused and consistent. “Desperate Bitch” goes on three minutes too long, a track with a beautiful kickoff and powerful lyrics that ends with a total collapse of the instrumentation. As a solo artist, Malone suffers from an inability to self-edit, and even the album’s strongest track, “Smiling Black Faces” doesn’t make it to the end unscathed. One minute of warbling falsetto looped with a flat, howling drawl, quickly destroys the previous five minutes of ambitious buildup. Save for the jangly instrumental intro, there is not a single track on this release that possesses the uniformity needed for merit.

Rain Machine can be best summarized as a frustrating listen. Malone withdraws into his own lyrics, and allows his psyche to take precedence over melody and consistency. Rain Machine is all over the place, but unfortunately, none of the places it lands at are very good.

*Minor Spoilers Ahead*

The above picture of Cavil unfortunately sums up my feelings on the very unnecessary Battlestar Galactica DVD movie, The Plan. I remember first seeing a promo for The Plan during season 4, and I thought seeing the attack from the Cylon perspective was a terrific idea. Ron Moore had sprinkled the idea of the Cylon Plan throughout the series, but it was never actually detailed. I always thought the plan was simply total human genocide! Nope. According to the movie, it goes something like this:

The attack on the 12 colonies was all Cavil’s idea and it was meant to serve another purpose besides genocide: it would resurrect the Final Five. Before the attack, we get a glimpse of what the Five were up to, and I though this was a pretty cool to see. Cavil even pays Ellen a visit at a strip club on Caprica (providing us our first instance of gratuitous nudity in the movie) and is disheartened to learn that she digs the humans. In fact, all of the Five are content with humanity. This makes Cavil grumpy.

After the attack, the rest of The Plan is essentially a glorified string of deleted/extended scenes from seasons 1 and 2. They use way more footage from the series than I expected, so sometimes it felt like watching a highlights episode. Time jumps ahead frequently and they use the old footage to let the fans know where we’re at.

Speaking of fans, The Plan is definitely not meant to rope in any new ones. It’s completely geared towards existing fans who I feel are going to be really split about it. Personally, I was really underwhelmed and I don’t think I’ll be buying it for awhile. It’s exactly how I feel about the Star Wars EU; some of the material enhances my enjoyment of the universe, some of it I just ignore. I’m not going to need The Plan in my life to enjoy BSG anymore than I already do. But if you’re a completist, obviously shell out for it.

I’m not saying it’s entirely a mess. It retains a lot of the themes of the series, and as the lead, Dean Stockwell (Cavil) was terrific. He essentially plays two Cavils: Evil Cavil and Not-So Evil Cavil. Not-So Evil Cavil is playing spiritual adviser to Anders and his group of revolutionaries on Caprica, while Evil Cavil is screwing Six on Galactica. Rick Worthy (Simon), who got minimum screen time during the series, really shines as a a version of Simon we didn’t see in the series. He’s living contently with a wife and child, and sees no point in destroying the human race. Him and Cavill have some great scenes together and I’m glad we got some back story on an originally barely visible Cylon.

Another great touch was showing how Evil Cavil was creeping around Galactica, manipulating Boomer throughout the first season. We see him egging her on moments before she sabotages the water supply in “Water,” his pep talk to her before she shoots Adama in “Kobol’s Last Gleaming,” and other nice early season tie-ins. The moment that made me smirk the most was the shot below… all of the Final Five are in it!!! But sadly, all of this does not make up for what is an unimpressive effort. I’m just going to leave it out of my personal BSG canon.

The Plan is out on DVD and Blu-Ray tomorrow, October 27, and will air on the SyFy Channel November 1.

This fixed gear thing is worldwide, just like Mishka. When we put out the D.A.R.T. team a few years back, it was hard to tell what the fixed gear and track bike scene would do and even more difficult to tell what the D.A.R.T. thing would do. Well, here we are, present day. The scene is huge and D.A.R.T. is getting some world-wide love!

Iave from Dodici reppin the sold-out D.A.R.T. New Era. Dodici is an Italian bicycle frame and component company. They make some killer rims and a gnarly track frame. Head to their blog and check it out. It’s great seeing the younger generation picking up where their older predecessors left off.

This weekend was the Pedal It Don’t Push It trick competition in Taipei City, Taiwan. Toku and Marco from W-base, a shop in Tokyo were flown out there to participate. Here’s Toku (eyes closed, dowh!) rocking his DART New Era. Picture via cogWei. Later that day Toku fell during the competition and landed on his heel, putting him in the same boat I was in my first night in Tokyo. Heel (heh) up buddy!

Big ups guys! Keep pushing what you’re doing!

The XX is easily one of my favorite bands at the moment, and one of the best new bands in recent memory. That being said I was even more bummed when this show kind of turned to shit.

On entering the beautiful hotel the first thing i noticed was that the place was already over packed and the party had just started. I made my way to the bar to top up on some party fuel before exploring my surroundings.

It was 12 fuckin’ bucks for a vodka cranberry (editor’s note: Welcome to Manhattan!). However the music was good and at this point there was still some room to move, so we headed for the dance floor.

On the way in to the main room I spotted my man here rocking the Capricorn T-shirt from Fall 09!

The crowd was stylish, the girls were hot and it was just about 1am when The XX was said to be taking the stage soon.

At this point the place is well beyond capacity and the ‘roided out staff watching over the crowd had now decided to take it upon themselves to thin the heard by becoming the biggest assholes they could.

Finally The XX took the stage. They set up in a small part of the space that had been kept dark the entire night. I unfortunately ended up all the way in the back and couldn’t see a thing. I did manage to at least get a picture of the band setting up, but other than that I stayed pinned to the back wall for about 3 songs which albeit a bit low, still sounded great. But i kind of hit my breaking point with the crowd by that point and decided to cut my loses and head out.

As I was leaving the cops were entering. You can’t tell from this picture but there were probably about 5 cruisers and 2 undercover cars swarming the scene.  Hopefully The XX’s show in 2 month at Webster Hall will go a little bit smoother. This was kind of a shitty way to end their long run of CMJ shows. If you haven’t heard The XX yet I recommend giving their new album a chance. This is one band that deserves all the hype they’re receiving. And if you don’t believe me, check the Bloglin review from a few months back.