Korn Reacts to Fan's Death

I'm so over this story, but I thought I'd give you the final update. Actually, just look at it over here at NME.

Well, Korn confirmed my predictions. They simply offered their condolonces to the family, said they were appalled, and summoned any witnesses, totally avoiding the grander issue. That's okay, I guess. They should just stick to hard rocking/rapping or whatever it is they do, because that's what they're (not so)good at.

Thom Yorke Actually Doesn't Have Time for the Head of State

According to SPIN.com, Thom Yorke, in a post yesterday to Radiohead's deadairspace blog, denounced British Prime Minister Tony Blair, saying among other things, "We must throw Tony Blair out of office NOW." He concludes, "a vote of no confidence. or something. anything.." You can find the full text here.

Long ago, Yorke declared on the OK Computer track, "Lucky", that he didn't have time for the Head of State, even if that person were to come to Yorke in a moment of need. Fittingly enough, the Head of State (Tony Blair) did call for Yorke's help (or consultation) just several months ago ("Thom Yorke turns Tony Blair down"), yet was predictably shut down by the "freaked out" Yorke. Our lazy-eyed antihero "came out of that whole period just thinking, I don't want to get involved directly, it's poison. I'll just shout my mouth off from the sidelines."

It's a lot harder for me to lambast Yorke than it is for our humble editor, Pico (see his review of The Eraser, which ranked lower than horror flick The Descent), which is probably the reason why he asked me to write this piece. Basically, Yorke is all talk. Does his own concession to this effect really make the accusation any less biting? He would tell us that he is a musician first and foremost and that the music contains elements of paranoid fantasy, etc. etc. It is not a model for political revolution, etc. etc. etc.

Has Yorke forgotten the reason why he and everyone before him started writing politically relevant songs in the first place? It was all about the dream; it is all about the dream, that one day your opinions will leave the fairytale stage of rock 'n' roll and gain acceptance or support in the mainstream of political thought; that you might be able to influence the course of politics in your country or even the world. Of course, it's a pipedream for most and the political discourse contained within these rock songs is usually dismissed as 'youthful angst'. But when the call comes, when the people have spoken, when they have determined that "this is really happening", you step in and you do your best to divert the coming Ice Age. You don't write political songs to sell records or to 'get things off your chest'. You write political songs to achieve some purpose; to change minds. Clearly Yorke acknowledges the effect his words have on the public, however, he is unwilling to offer anymore guidance than that. Rather than become the figurehead of a movement (he is probably sure will fail), he sits on the sidelines and talks shit.

Okay, I get it, Yorke doesn't want to wind up like 1980's John Lennon; confused, angry, frustrated, and somewhat powerless. But as bad as things may have been for 1980's John Lennon, he was never afraid to not only "talk politics" but to "throw stones" as well.

I'm sorry Thom. And I'm sorry to you, the reader, for my excessive usage of Radiohead-related puns.

Perhaps the bigger story here is that after SPIN.com posted a report of Thom's blog entry, it was REMOVED! By who, I don't know, but has the mainstream finally tamed Thommy?

Some Upcoming New York Shows

Wed 8/09
8:00 PM Candi Staton, Stephanie McKay
Bowery Ballroom $25

Wed 8/09
8:00 PM Black Dice, The Woods
Knitting Factory(Main Space) $12a/$15d

Sun 8/06
4:00 PM or 6:30 PM Hazel Dickens, Bonnie "Prince" Billie, Captain Anomoanon
Joe's Pub $30

Fri 8/11
5:00 PM Sonic Youth, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Blood on the Wall
McCarren Park Pool $35

Sat 8/12
8:00 PM Throwing Muses, Bullseye, 50 Foot Wave
Bowery Ballroom $20

Sun 8/13
2:00 PM Deerhoof, Beirut, Apollo Sunshine, The Harlem Shakes
McCarren Park Pool free

Wed 8/16
8:00 PM X, Rollins Band, The Riverboat Gamblers
Nokia Theatre $40

Thu 8/17
7:00 PM Wu Tang Clan
Webster Hall $50

Thu 8/17
5:00 PM Iron and Wine, Low
McCarren Park Pool $32.50

Fri 8/18
9:00 PM Girl Talk, Cx Kidtronix/Deuce Gangsta, Professor Murder
Mercury Lounge $10a/$12d

Sat 8/19
2:00 PM Clogs, Excepter, Fern Knight, Blues Control
East River Amphitheater Free

Mon 8/21
8:00 PM Alog, David Grubbs, Matthew De Gennaro
Tonic tba

Tue 8/22
8:00 PM Stars Like Fleas, William Hooker 5tet, Shangai
Tonic Tba

Wed 8/23
5:00 PM The Shins, J. Mascis, Sam Jayne
McCarren Park Pool $35

Thu 8/24
5:00 PM Neko Case, Joanna Newsom, Martha Wainwright
McCarren Park Pool $32.50

Fri 9/08
8:00 PM Radio Birdman, The Rogers Sisters, Easy Action
Irving Plaza $22.50a/$25d

Fri 9/08
11:00 PM Comets on Fire, Soldiers of Fortune, Blues Control
Knitting Factory(Main Space) $12a/$14d

Sun 9/10
9:00 PM Dr. Octagon (aka Kool Keith), Beans, Mr. Lif
Bowery Ballroom $22

Sun 9/10 - Mon 9/11
7:30 PM Band of Horses, Chad Van Gaalen
Bowery Presents @ Webster Hall $17a/$18d

Korn Fan Dies

The hospitalized Andy Richardson, who was beaten at a Korn concert for trying to protect his pregnant girlfriend in a mosh pit, died yesterday. Police have only a vague description of the two men, and Korn have yet to release a statement.

This is Korn's chance to alter this sentiment--to change their live atmosphere and to preach something more positive--but somehow I doubt it. If they respond I think it will be a simple offering of the condolences.

The two (I guess we can now call them) murderers, must be flipping their shit. There are three kind of people in this world. The rare group who would feel nothing about this situation, who might even trick themselves into believing their decision was virtuous and that person had to die. It was a moral obligation. You know, the real psychopath types.

Then there are the ones who feel thoroughly guilty. "Holy shit. What have we done? What have we done to that man's
baby who lives inside the belly of his girlfriend?" Real overwhelming sense of dread, to the point where even if you're an atheist, you're like "I have to be going to hell or at least reincarnate as a roach. I will live through World War III as a roach, until there is nothing left but roaches feeding off the radiation-soaked dead." You can't sleep at night, and you start aging more rapidly. Hair starts to gray and fall out. Wrinkles form. The stress and guilt are so overwhelming that all you can do is turn yourself in. The time frame varies slightly for each person.

Lastly, there are the people who are just frightened by getting caught. They worry terribly. They know they fucked up, and the affects are similar to the previous group, except they do not concern themselves with the consequences of their actions for the people they affected, but only the consequences that will wound them. "I can't go to jail, man. I'm just a simpleton who listens to Korn. I can't stand up for myself." But they do. They have to stand up to survive, and they will, until they are reduced to the state of everyone else in that shithole of an institution. I think these two fall into this category. Word.

Life is Peachy for Korn Fans

NOT! Andy Richardson asked two unidentified men at a Korn show to mind the belly of his pregnant girlfriend and a mentally ill child who was in attendance with them in Atlanta. Apparently the two men were insulted by Richardson's cautioning, because after leaving the HiFi Buys Ampitheatre, they came back to beat the generous 30-year-old (boy)friend to a pulp. His mother, Gloria, claims that Andy is now brain dead and will not likely survive.

Not to make light of this devastating news, but all of the odds were against Richardson, and I'm surprised he hadn't foreseen disaster. Taking the two people he took to a Korn concert was not exactly the sharpest move. It could have been acceptable had he secured a comfortable place apart from the inevitable group of angry-for-no-real-reason-mosh-fucks. In the end, though, you only get the information that generates the most sympathy for the victim. The two left the arena and returned to beat the shit out of this guy. The victim had to have been really pissing these guys off to have inspired this in them, or maybe not. We don't know. Either way, these two guys should be put away for a very long while. What did this to them, though? Was it Korn?

My first rock concert was Korn in 1997. I was 12-years-old and I guess you could say it was the beginning of my long and loving relationship with live music. At the time, though, I was dooped. I like aggressive music, but Korn gives me this pedophile vibe--taking advantage of and soiling the purity of children. Their angst sells records to kids just as they reach that angsty stage and make them angstier. Fuck these puritanical shits who want to ban certain music, etc., but sometimes I feel as if bands like Korn have the ability to rile up something in you that shouldn't be riled. Anything could aggravate this thing inside of you if that thing is in large enough quantity, but bands like Korn make it trendy--trendy to package yourself in a metaphorical casket that you violently and without logical reason fight to stay in and simultaneously fight to get out of.

I was one of these kids, but I never had enough of that thing inside of me to flip, but I did see the worst side of me come out during this time and I attribute the way it came out to music like Korn's. Looking back on it, it was totally silly. Absolutely hysterical, but if I was the wrong kind of person, perhaps I could have ended up like those two pieces of shit at the Korn concert. It's not a band's responsibility to change themselves and their music to accommodate unstable egos, but couldn't they preach something else outside of their music? Establish their live setting as a safe place to vent (Dance your fucking asses off. Throw yourselves around, even, but know that in the end this is fun and the people around you are here for the same and there should be an overwhelming sense of harmony and love in the air despite what might appear to be violence); Tell us, Korn, that while we're a frustrated people, we could be happier if we didn't dwell so much on everything that's wrong and the hate we have bubbling inside our immature bellies.

Going through these rebellious periods of your life are so critical to your development, and your music taste could and maybe even should reflect this period, but I also believe that sometimes it's the music's responsibility to talk to us on some intelligent level. Instead of throwing back at us a darker and ballooned version of the belief system we already have for ourselves, these bands like Korn could discuss what's so hard about life, but not let us get so fucking angry about it. Stop aggravating that sense of dissatisfaction, or whatever it is, to the point of explosion, an explosion whose debris puts a guy in the hospital brain dead and close to death. To say that there aren't other variables would be just as stupid as the guys who actually put him in the hospital, but it seems almost too convenient that it happened at a Korn concert. Isn't a concert supposed to be a transcendent experience instead of a constant concern for your safety from those fucking assholes whose only intention is to drink some beers and whoop some ass (Don't forget this happened in Atlanta)?

The sad part of all of this is the guys in this particular situation were not kids, but apparently just as impressionable. It's arrested development. If a band like Korn still speaks to you on a truly emotional or intellectual level after your teenage years, I think you've got to step outside of yourself for a moment. As I get older, I get more and more calm and peaceful. Isn't that supposed to happen for all of us? Well, I apparently not for Korn fans.

Source: NME

About Fuckin' Time: Lohan Bitch-Slapped by Hollywood

Oh Shit! Take that you ginger-bitch, tryin' to be the freckled Paris Hilton and shit. I mean, you're not even completely talentless. Tryin' to stay out and party all night? We do it all the time but we're not filming the surefire hit, 'Georgia Rule'. So what am I talking about exactly?

Lohan received a letter from studio execs "via hand delivery and email" on July 26th, saying, among other things, "You and your representatives have told us that your various late arrivals and absences from the set have been the result of illness; today we were told it was 'heat exhaustion.' We are well aware that your ongoing all night heavy partying is the real reason for your so-called 'exhaustion'".

The fucking genius (with zero sarcasm) who penned this Shakespearean, diva-crushing anthem of a memo also went on to add, "To date, your actions on Georgia Rule have been discourteous, irresponsible and unprofessional. You have acted like a spoiled child and in so doing have alienated many of your co-workers and endangered the quality of this picture."

I say this should become the standard operating procedure for dealing with all Hollywood celebrities.

Source: http://thesmokinggun.com

It's Also Official: Darren Aronofsky Peaked With 'Requiem For A Dream'

Apparently, this is the second part of a two-part director fall-off series. We had high hopes for our favorite tweak-out director, Darren Aronofsky. If you were avoding his IMDB profile, you would have envisioned another surrealistic, yet reality-grounded film - you know some Requiem For a Dream / Pi sorta biznass. It's been six years since his last film, and I'm sure more than half of that time was spent working on The Fountain. I hope its worth it to him. If you sniff out the trailer you'll notice the sweat of struggle for a sweep at the Oscars - Lord of the Rings-steezly. The trailer suggests a Lord of The Rings breeds with Ghost (When can you ever say Patrick Swayze and Whoopi Goldberg in the same sentence!?) affair. This time around, we've got Hugh Jackman, who's yet to approach his artistic peak, and Rachel Weisz, who has come closer. This is one of nine upcoming Jackman films that will be out by at least 2007. Weisz only has three, so we'll see who shows who. Right?

The imagery looks stunning, but it's difficult to span a thousand years in what will probably be a three-hour movie. I'm just not very into the world of sci-fi, but maybe this will surpass my expectations, and Aronofsky will prove he's done everything but fall off. But come on, Hugh Jackman, immortal? Nahh.

The Fountain - Trailer

Axl Rose - Got the Sickness!?

Last night (July 30), a sick Axl Rose left the stage of Wembley Arena, which held Guns N' Roses last UK date of the tour. The bloated / boondocks-bar-hoppin' version of the vocalist who fronted a band that should have called it quits before or right after their first full-length, had apparently grown so ill by the end of the set that he had to leave. What is it now Mr. Rose? Your tummy? Nah. It's that blasted H-fix again. Eh, maybe, maybe not. Maybe, you couldn't let that cosmetic surgery of yours melt at the beams of stagelighting. Waxy-, sun-tanned by alcoholism-appearance must be maintained.

Whatever it was, it had Skid Row's Sebastian Bach take his place, and hairspray-wail Night Train and Paradise City. Come on, Axl. Your name is Axl, dude. Shouldn't that imply never letting your buried pussy get the best of you? You know, the little pussy that grew out of your clown's wig that you call pubic hair. Remember, when your taint started splitting as soon as you got called 'rock god'? I know how you like your chicken roasted just right before your big performance, and that you get violently sensitive whenever someone wipes at your mangina fluid, but temper tantrums were a thing of the past. Now it's just silly since you've been receiving your Medicare. It's come to this. The ex-con getting his even stinkier, sweatier pussy of a friend, Sebastian, to cover for him. Oh well, Axl, at least you can safely say Slash's head looks more and more like a Latin crotch every day, but at least his balls didn't get lost in it.

It's Official: David Fincher Peaked With 'Fight Club'

There are few moments from my high school days that I can actually recall with some clarity, yet one that sticks out like an ironic thumb is the awful year I spent learning about content and form; namely, that good art takes both into consideration. Of course, there are those acts that have made a living out of ignoring one or the other. There are also the acts that have made a living out of ignoring both, altogether, leaving the fate of their mindfruit to the demigods and sirens. For the record, I have absolutely no issue with acts/artists who do not consciously determine and/or synchronize form and content. I'm not going to sit around and type a blog about what "art" really is. We'll leave that to the freshmen visual art students at Parsons (sidenote: they should really open these forums to the public and allow pedestrians like you and me to watch from the sidelines--it would be better than anything playing at the Sunshine). But here's my problem: when good artists go bad.



David Fincher, director ("auteur", says the film school prof) of 'Fight Club' and far less notably, 'Panic Room', is slated to release an adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". In this sure-to-be typically time-bending adaptation, Fincher's boy-muse, Brad Pitt, "will play a character who ages in reverse." Sounds like a Fincher-worthy, pie-in-the-sky idea. Here's the catch; here's what's catching my panties and bunching them ever-so-chafingly underneath my grundle: the entire plot of the film (and the production, I assume) is based on the new Contour Camera System, designed by former Apple engineer Steve Perlman, which allows directors/photographers to capture a fully synthesized representation of an actor/subject. I'm sure you see where this is going...

I really don't want to go to a movie that's more of a trade-show advertisement for new technology than a piece of art for public consumption. We've already seen what happens when form dictates content: 'Matrix: Reloaded', 'Matrix: Revolutions', etc. What made 'The Matrix' so incredible was that the form bolstered the content and vice-versa. The story was great, the ideas were fresh, the acting was terrible (well, who gives a shit anyway), and the production quality was stunning. The Wachowski bros didn't create a scene in which Keanu Reaves could see in binary code and then develop a plot around that idea. It just seems like that's what's going on here with Mr. Fincher. If he really wants to get our attention, maybe he should try directing a movie that doesn't rely on innovative technologies to tell a story.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com

The Descent - Review

Rating: B-

Without exaggeration, my friend never has more than $10 on him whenever we go out. Why is that? Well, he’s a claustrophobic. It’s not very expensive to get around the city, unless of course you have an irrational fear of confined spaces. Getting on a subway is simply not an option, so if he’s got to be somewhere, it’s cab rides all the way. So, I suggested to him, “you should see The Descent, dude.” There was no getting him in a cab to see a movie about being trapped in a cave. Apparently, it would be just too frightening for him, but isn’t that what we look for in a good horror film? Aren’t those the guidelines—the purpose of them? To scare us? To exploit our deepest fears?

To pretend we don’t have a little claustrophobia inside all of us would be irrational. The Descent creeps around in search of that vulnerable space. It spots the fertile patch in your brain, and plants its infectious and crippling seed. It gets you lost in a dark and unmapped cave. You crawl through tunnels that just fit your body, and all of a sudden you get trapped. Time is limited, light is running low, and an exit, well, an exit might not even exist. You can’t tell me claustrophobia doesn’t at least poke at you in this situation.

The Descent sees six thrill-seeking women in this situation, but you quickly become the seventh friend who also has to endure the wicked eeriness of the cave and the hungry creatures that haunt it. In your theater seat, your teeth grind and you shield your face from terrifying scenes of realistic catastrophe, but all the while a great deal of The Descent’s nightmarish maneuvering is cheap and typical of the genre. The irony and foreshadows are painfully obvious and come off as Friday The 13thtriteness.

What panics you most is the sense of confinement that the characters essentially brought on themselves, and their inability to seek help or consult a guide. Though, as soon as The Descent explores catastrophe that is far from realistic, the film begins to suffer. The horror remains, but becomes artificial and loses its ability to terrorize the audience after the credits roll; had it never transformed into a monster movie—if these savage beasts were merely the hallucinatory affects of a cavernous episode—than I think we could have walked away stalked by the thought of caves forever. We get a nice taste of it, but as we hike through the film’s second half, we are only frightened by sudden visual bolts. We end up startled by something along the lines of an unsuspecting grab of the shoulder. You get that hearty jolt of fright but the dose dissolves soon after the film ends.

The Descent’s characters aren’t deeply explored, especially by the actresses who leave their characters paper-thin, besides the main character, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), who doesn’t take up enough camera-time. While each woman is critical to the plot, Sarah is the only character that you really feel for, but that’s all that’s necessary for the film. Her tragic history makes this more recent tragedy even worse for her and more interesting for us to watch. She is the most volatile character in the film, and at any moment she could lose her cool and put herself and everyone there along with her in fatal jeopardy. The others are there to move the story forward –the ones there to overestimate their capabilities so much so that they make the adventure an unwelcome dip into toxic waters, instead of the intended fun adrenalin rush. Unfortunately because of these stiff character roles, who survives and who doesn’t is too predictable, but the scares along the way kind of make up for it.

Examining a horror movie is a difficult assignment. The genre is ruled almost exclusively by craftsmanship that is less than perfect. It escapes that rule every so often (more so in the past with movies like Psycho and The Exorcist), but you’d be foolish to go into the theater expecting to see a horror flick destined to be a classic. Because I set my expectations low, I’m okay with just the roller-coaster-effect. In fact, I’ve recommended The Descent to some friends, but most of them know better than to anticipate Oscar-status. Get a little scared or a little disturbed. Eat some popcorn, sit back, and get claustrophobic.

Trailer