Wolves in the Throne Room – Celestial Lineage (2011) [Southern Lord] // Grade: B+

I’m a hypocrite. When Oregon-based Wolves In the Throne Room released Black Cascade, their homage to the Cascade Mountains of their home state, I sang praises for weeks about it. Then I started to really listen to the album and after putting it on heavy rotation, I lost interest. Why? I still don’t know. Maybe because there were much better black metal releases that year, or because I felt like they were getting too much praise for too little work. Years later, I’m back into Black Cascade but I’ve yet to warm up to their Two Hunters EP. Again, I’m not exactly sure why.

This year, the whole metal industry has been salivating for the release of Celestial Lineage, the new Wolves album. People wondered what they’d cook up for this release and me being the cynical fuck that I tend to be when it comes to overhyped music, already had an idea what it would be like. Was I right? Kind of. Wolves makes such an effort to break up their music with angelic singing and other sounds, focusing on the composition more so, at least in my opinion, than on their actual music. Celestial Lineage has, in many ways, lived up to my preconceived opinion.

“Thuja Magus Imperium” begins with windchimes and a harmony sung by a women, straight out of Lord of the Rings. This creates a contrast that in my opinion, muddles the album as it morphs from this introduction to Wolves’ signature tremelo picking and distortion. And it’s like a beast escaped from a cage. This is a whole new Wolves. The writing has improved immensely, the drums, guitars and basslines are fucking sharp and before you know it, it’s a jam fest. Now if only this momentum would continue.

As a knife scrapes across a sharpening stone and monks chant, “Permanent Changes in Conscious” causes a break in time. A schism in perpetual motion. The music is gone and we’re left listening, waiting for an eruption of emotion. That brings along “Subterranean Initiation”, more blast beats, more tremelo picking and more Wolves on steroids. Again, their sound is dialed. Randall Dunn, the recording engineer really put in work here. More synths follow and you’ll find yourself turning up the volume to hear the thick layers that Wolves have created in “Rainbow Illness”.

Much like layers to the Earth’s core, Wolves found a way to create an environ in which their music flourishes. Black metal, in general is about atmosphere but they’ve taken it to a new level with Celestial Lineage. But here’s where their grip loosens. “Woodland Cathedral” is as you’d expect. More vacuum-forming emptiness. I envision particles floating in the air, surrounding redwoods when I listen to this track and I personally don’t think it’s a successful treatment for the album. Luckily, it only lasts for five minutes before the two last juggernauts of the album rear their heads.

“Astral Blood” is how I imagined the new Wolves to sound. It’s got power, emotion and enough breathing room for you to truly soak in their abilities as musicians. “Prayer of Transformation” follows with more of that sound. And as the album ends, I’m left half-fulfilled. What exactly did I just listen to? Why do I have audio whiplash? And where did all that space retreat to? One of the things that Black Cascade had that Celestial Lineage does not is a pace. It’s too fragmented and disorienting.

The moments that they give you to rest are too long and could essentially drop off the album entirely. In Wolves’ earlier work, they incorporated this into the tracks, giving it a much more engaging experience. I’m sitting here critiquing this album a little more than I normally would. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good but Wolves’ have risen to such an enormous figure in the BM scene that you have to greet with with a bit of cynicism. Then again, a new Wolves album is going to be better than 90% of the other BM releases. Except for Krallice.

Peace Punk Anarcho New Era ($47.00)

I remember back in the late nineties and early 2000s when St. Marks Place was the punk mecca it used to be instead of the Japanese restaurant mecca it is now. At this point in my life I’m more excited by a well prepared order of chicken katsu with curry than I am about finding a good place to buy patches. However there are days where I wake up and think,”Fuck, I’d really like to go buy some awesome patches for old bands and maybe some studs. I miss those shitty old carefree days where I didn’t care about food at all and I could eat ramen noodles twice a day and then spend my money seeing shows and buying forties and patches.

You see kids with like one or two patches nowadays on their clothes but it used to be that you’d go for ultimate patch saturation and just make a second layer of clothing on your coat or vest of patches. Maybe you’d be holding your ratty old pants together with crappy canvas patches. Maybe you’d put a patch on your grungy ball cap and BAM it was suddenly a Wu Tang cap. Where have all the patches gone? Long time passing.

Anyway, this is a re-do of our Peace Punk hat but now it’s on camo. I guess the idea of an anarchy symbol on a New Era is pretty funny. I dig it. If you hate it just get a patch for something you do like and put it over the anarchy symbol or whatever.

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We were actually just in Shanghai going over our Fall 12 production. We didn’t make it out to the 2011 Auto Show, but it looks like Shanghaiist did.

This would be the perfect photo for one of those “caption this photo” contests.

Danish director Lars von Trier wraps controversy around himself like a security blanket. Whether he’s declaring himself the greatest living director or sympathizing with Hitler, the man’s not afraid to provoke the uptight media (who deserve a damn good provocation). What’s great and interesting about his latest film, Melancholia, is that it doesn’t push anyone’s buttons. I don’t see how it could, at least. There’s none of the overt savagery toward mankind’s evil genitalia found in Antichrist, but what Melancholia does show is the end of the world, and these are in its opening minutes. It’s a very personal film about depression, which von Trier says crippled him for years. It’s also downright hilarious and this time, we’re laughing with the talking fox, not at him.

The film opens with a super-slow-motion montage of the end of the world: several intimate vignettes – almost like paintings (think the train scene from Antichrist) – show characters and ideas to come later in the movie as the planet Melancholia smashes into Earth. The rest of the film told in two parts: “Justine” and “Claire.” The first part is all about the wedding reception of Justine, played by Kirsten Dunst in what’s hands-down her best performance since Virgin Suicides. It’s through Dunst that von Trier exorcises the experiences he had with his own depression and she carries the weight with a truly confident performance. With the help of an excellent ensemble cast, von Trier shows how Justine’s deep depression affects the rest of her family, including her husband, played by Alex Skarsgard. Skarsgard tries to buy Justine some happiness with an orange grove he purchased; he doesn’t know what else to do for her. No one does.

Her brother-in-law, played by a shockingly impressive Kiefer Sutherland, is constantly reminding her how expensive the reception is. Her dad, played by John Hurt who gives a terrific performance for the short amount of time he’s on screen, drinks away her daughter’s depression. But it’s her sister, Claire, that is cut-off the most by Justine’s doldrums.

Played with some of that raw animosity we saw in Antichrist, Charlotte Gainsbourg (as Claire) is the family member most frustrated by Justine’s depression. Claire works very hard to sort of work with the depression to make Justine happy and not uncomfortable, but nothing works. Not even meatloaf! Watching Justine’s attempts is difficult, sometimes heartbreaking. It’s a painful but honest relationship to watch and the two actresses play off each other perfectly.

During the doomed wedding reception is where von Trier flexes his achingly dry sense of humor. He doesn’t take jabs at in-laws or anything easy like that. Instead, he pokes at how idiotic elaborate events (like wedding receptions for rich people) are. Events that are supposed to be fun celebrations usually turn into heaps of stress, and von Trier has a lot of fun with this. So much fun that he cast bizarro extraordinaire Udo Kier as the wedding planner. His brief role is funnier than the entire running length of most comedies that came out this year. von Trier previously showed a woman giving birth to a full-grown Udo Kier in his TV mini-series The Kingdom – an image permanently burned in my memory.

Things take a very serious turn in “Claire.” This is the end of the world, after all. Justine holes up at Claire’s estate after a planet (named Melancholia) that was hiding behind the sun shows itself. Scientists, including Kiefer, are predicting that the planet will harmlessly pass by Earth, while other theorists state that it’s going to hit Earth head on – bringing about the end of the world. This gives Claire debilitating anxiety. There’s three extreme emotions going on in the second part of the film: Claire’s anxiety, Justine’s depression, and Kiefer’s ecstatic enthusiasm for Melancholia’s “fly-by.” All three are played with a raw honesty that didn’t come from von Trier driving his female leads insane. As far as I know.

From its slo-mo prologue to the apocalyptic end, Melancholia is fucking beautiful. von Trier has switched cinematographers since Antichrist (apparently he wasn’t happy about the look of the film’s B&W opening) but every take of Melancholia is stunning. He’s not used to using so much CGI in his films, but the effects are awesome (seriously, see this on a big screen). The final shot of the end of the world is especially memorable.

While Dunst won best actress at Cannes for her performance, I’m gonna have to give it to Gainsbourg. Not to say Dunst didn’t deserve it – she’s absolutely amazing in the film – but I feel like Gainsbourg is just a better actress. Plus, playing anxious about the end of the world without coming off as hammy is more difficult than being chill and depressed about it. I’m not complaining though, every single actor kills it in Melancholia.

When you start a movie with the end of the world, you better have the stones to make the rest of it interesting. We know these characters are doomed from the jump-off, but we still need to care about them to sit through the rest. von Trier accomplished this and so much more. Melancholia is a brilliant and stunning film every minute of the way. It’s the first realistic depiction of severe depression I can remember ever watching and falls into that elite and glorious category of great, human-focused science fiction. The world’s gonna end someday, folks, the question is how are you going to handle it.

Melancholia hits U.S. theaters on November 11.

Big Troubles – Romantic Comedy (2011) [Slumberland] // Grade: C+

I’m one that believes that a good label’s output is perfect example of the greater than the sum of its parts saying, a synergistic sound if you will. In the 30-year case of Slumberland Records’ consistent catalog, it will stand the test of time more for its overall stride’s journey rather than the individual steps that created it. Knowing this, it’s sometimes odd when said label pushes forward specific bands and specific songwriters to the forefront, praising their individual talents like they were, well, better than the place they are coming from. Slumberland head honcho, Mike Schulman, has been known as a guy that doesn’t accept submissions or demos- if you are good enough, he’ll find you. Then, if you are that good, that established, why would you need to convince me and lead me along in thinking that your new thing is so perfect, so must-hear? This is the how Romantic Comedy, the second album from New Jersey’s poppers Big Troubles is prefaced. In their introduction the album, the label calls the release “brilliant” and “a masterpiece of modern pop” and it seems pretty convincing. Sure, this isn’t the fault of the band but it’s important to point out a bounding, glowing praise for an album that does in fact sound very much like the flurry of other releases the imprint’s already dropped.

Here to follow their fuzzy and jagged debut collection, Worry, this quartet’s new material is more mature and blithe to the key of Smiths fandom (and guitar) and melodramatic diary dumps. There’s not much in the way of singer Alex Craig’s encapsulating vocals throughout these 10 bouncy songs and the band want it that way. Egging on the annuals of dream pop, jangle, vintage indie rock and all those sound’s romantic melodramas, Romantic Comedy tells the stories you’d expect (love, loss, girls, etc.) without the cringe that makes it all sound too cheap; Slumberland is known for its brand and Big Troubles are hip to their loyalty. Produced by Mitch Easter (Let’s Active, Pavement, R.E.M.), what we end up getting from Comedy is decently giddy but far from any sort of  “masterpiece.”

The songwriting duo of high-school friends Alex Craig and Ian Drennan, their band’s sophomore effort’s best selling point comes in its lyrics. On-the-brain assertions mixed with well-planned jabs at the opposite sex creating lines of self loathe, it’s tunes like “Sad Girls” and it’s damn catchy hook, “I don’t want to love anymore and if I hear that word again, I’ll drill a hole in my head” that give you a taste of what to expect. An album standout, the song plays on like a casual, come-hither take on something off the Smith Westerns’ latest. Going through, some of what you’ll get here includes: Shy girls (“She Smiles for Pictures”), just wanting fun (“Misery”) living at your parent’s home while making future plans (“Make it Worse”) and sad songs and “masochistic remedy” while the world burns (“Minor Keys”).

Big Troubles channel both their labelmates (I’m sure you’ll cry those Pains of Being Pure at Heart) and influencers clearly to deliver a sophomore album with ease. The overall results might be expected but Romantic Comedy is no album-wide bunt in the wrong direction and is certainly worth some weight in dollar downloads thanks to a set of solid tracks like “Sad Girls” and “Misery” if you’re one for the singles shuffle. Slumberland has fostered and maintained a style of music like this so long and when they try and slip one by us calling it groundbreaking, that’s the only thing that seems like a move in the wrong direction.

Yuck’s debut album from this year is probably the album I’ve listened to the most. Totally reminds me of being a teenager again with how much it sounds like a 90′s indie rock album. I’m not 100% ready to call it my favorite of 2011 but It’s up there.

Yuck recently got together with Incase for their Room 205 concert series where they recorded a few live tracks. The one above is the latest for album standout “The Wall.”

We present the third and final installment of our Room 205 episode with Yuck, featuring a fantastically chaotic performance of “The Wall”. With tongues planted firmly in cheeks, director Michael Reich and set designer Tamarra Younis turned the space into a “lo-fi CGI” green-screened cube. Thereafter, editor Forrest Borie applied public domain footage of the Berlin Wall. Literal enough? Indeed.

Check out the rest of Yuck’s Room 205 performances over at the Incase website.

Over the weekend at Power-Con, L.A.’s He-Man and Thundercats convention, Mattel held a panel to talk about their 2012 MOTU Club Eternia releases. Amidst exciting reveals like Slushhead, Griffin, and a Goddess exclusively available at cons, they announced a drop that had my nostrils flaring with greedy nostalgia: a Stinkor that reeks of his original funk!

The first Stinkor figure figure, aka “The Evil Master of Odors,” was released in 1985 and was basically a Mer-Man mold painted like a skunk. But the plastic poured into the mold was mixed with the signature scent of hippies: patchouli oil – trapping the stank in Stinkor figures forever.

Mattel also announced the release of The Mighty Spector, a character rejected by Mattel 30 years ago. Spector was designed by Scott Neitlich, Mattel’s Associate Brand Manager, for the original MOTU create-a-character contest. The figure was designed from a sketch made by Scott 30 freaking years ago. Kind of fitting that Spector is a time traveler, amirite?

What I want to know is: anyone out there with the OG Stinkor figure? Does he still stink?

via Action Figure Insider

I was in SF back in April when this footage was shot. If you recall, that was only a month after Japan was devastated by a massive Tsunami. Rather than staying in Japan and worrying about problems they had no control over, Nasty and Marco (W-Base / Mishka DART) came to the States to shred with the fixed freestyle community. Make sure you check this one out. It takes a lot of heart to leave your home when it’s in shambles. The relief effort is still taking place in Japan. Donate here!

Horrid Red – Celestial Joy (2011) [Holiday/Brave Mysteries] // Grade: A-

In a pristine, pillared hall, hidden away from the gaze of mere mortals, atop a mountain that tears into the heavens is where Horrid Red stands proudly, surveying the ways in which humankind love and kill each other. The music of Bunker Wolf has always come off as somewhat exclusionary by nature, attributed in part to the staunch decision to abandon English lyrics ( and play however he wants, changing form and content on an album by album or even a song by song basis. One moment you’re enjoying what sounds like New Order sung in German and the next a low fidelity, pagan chant done karaoke-style through a blown monitor. Each album is lined with the occasional interlude,featuring classical piano or grieving synthesizer.

All of this can’t possibly mean anything to you without having personally shoveled through the extensive and varied compendium of recordings by the Der TPK, shorthand for Teenage Panzerkorps, camp. Wolf along with Edmund Xavier, Catholic Pat, Boy True, and some others, known to include Clay Ruby of Burial Hex, have built up around themselves concrete slabs of dreary, post-punk and adorned their fortress of melancholy with barbed-wire singing that cuts deep. I can’t say enough good things about these dudes.

FWY!, the solo project of Xavier that made it’s debut here not too long ago, is strictly minimal electronics whereas TPK punishes with feedback and harsh vocals that demand to be heard, and last but certainly not least there’s Horrid Red, their Pink Flowers and Silent Party EPs reviewed here, with a refined charm that resounds in the furthest reaches of the heart. Celestial Joy, their second album, has a more polished and cohesive aspect when placed against 2010′s Empty Lungs but, rest assured, the new-wavey algorithm is still close at hand. Horrid Red provides a refreshing substitute to listening to The Cure or Joy Divison cuts for the thousandth time, moaning on unabashedly as the California sun sets over Deutschland.

If tangible music just ain’t your thing, download this and every other release, past or present, from the aryan council of TPK at Burundi Cloud.

Nirvana – Nevermind (1991)

Vs.

Radiohead - OK Computer (1997)

In honor of Nevermind’s twenty year anniversary, and OK Computer’s fourteenth year anniversary from earlier this summer, I present to you this challenge. Two incredible albums. Two indisputable 90s classics. But what if only one could exist? You know the deal, share your opinion below in the comments section.