I got a little too excited I guess...

Sometimes I hate when I get too excited about posting "best of" month/year lists a few days before the actual month/year ends. Things fall through the cracks... and two songs that could have surely made my top five were released within the past couple days. Take this charming (as fuck) song by Sales, "Chinese New Year."


https://soundcloud.com/sales/chinese-new-year

Check out their other stuff too, it's all great. Also, screw soundcloud for not letting me embed songs on here.


Also, a track from my #4 most anticipated album of the year was released the other day, and it's really good.

So let that be a listen I won't learn! Be patient.

Here are other cool songs that you probably need to listen to:

Gorilla Vs. Bear is one of the better music sites around, and I get introduced to a lot of cool music from their website. Also, expect the 2nd part to my Oscar's post in the next couple days.

The Black Atlass EP

If you haven't heard of Black Atlass, I highly recommend checking his stuff out. He released an incredible ep a couple years ago and it's FREE. That's the link! You can't beat free!

But I've also just learned he has a new EP coming out on February 18th, called "Young Bloods EP." There a new single out for it too:

It's pretty fucking smooth.

Now, here's my incumbent oscar's blog, 2013! Not your mother's Oscar's blog. PART ONE

In case you were wondering, yes, I took "incumbent" from the thesaurus. And this isn't a speculation blog.

I know as well as many that the Oscar's don't really matter aside from increasing ticket/dvd sales and rentals. The Academy rarely gets it right with whatever they choose as "Best Picture" for any given year. That's not to say that any of those films that won were shit, they're usually good-to-great films (aside from Crash, which was garbage water printed celluloid). I think they have their place, they bring attention to some of the better foreign films and documentaries of the year (even if they wimp out in those categories too) as well as some of the domestic ones that the casual movie-goer would have originally avoided. I don't hate the Oscar's, I do think it's celebrating film more than say, the Grammy's do for music.

I'm not going to speculate who's going to win this year other than "Best Picture," we've already seen plenty of those posts. This isn't terribly original either, but I'm going to point out what they've gotten wrong in the last ten years as far as their big award goes... soooo, here goes nothing!

2013

12 Years A Slave
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
The Wolf Of Wall Street

This year I'm a bit torn, they already got something wrong by leaving Before Midnight and Inside Llewyn Davis out of the category. American Hustle is probably going to win (undeservedly so), I like it a lot but it was one of David O. Russell's weakest films. The Wolf Of Wall Street should win because it did a far more effective job executing what Hustle was about, as well as being better and more funny movie. To be honest, I wouldn't mind seeing Gravity win either. It was one of the best genre films I've ever seen and a technical masterpiece.

Verdict (what should win): The Wolf Of Wall Street. As far as American films go, I don't think there's a more relevant film nominated right now. Especially in a year full of films based around capitalism, greed, and excess (The Bling Ring, Springbreakers, American Hustle, The Great Gatsby, etc..), this one succeeds and still achieves more. And why award American Hustle when it's a Scorsese knock-off anyways? I love films that draw heavy inspiration from Scorsese's work, Boogie Nights is one of my five favorite films but American Hustle doesn't even compare to the best films in that category.

2012

Argo (bold means it won that year)

Amour
Beasts Of The Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Misérables
Life Of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook 
Zero Dark Thirty

I admit, this wasn't my best year either. I've still have yet to see Amour or Lincoln. The 2012 ceremony already failed by leaving The Master and Moonrise Kingdom out of the category. Half of films already nominated should have won over Argo, don't get me wrong, I liked the movie but I really doubt people are going to have thoughtful discussions about it 10-15 years from now. Shouldn't those kinds of films be the ones that win? Sure, you can't really predict if a piece of art will survive and be important years down the line, but it's also not hard to assume which ones probably will be. If I had to choose out of those based on what I enjoyed the most, Django Unchained should have won. It was more exciting and tense than Argo by a long shot, the script was better and it was probably the most fun out of any movie that year. Zero Dark Thirty was a better thriller than Argo was even. Still though... The Master.

What should have won: The Master (Hypnotic, gorgeous, surreal, and ambiguous. This is going to be one of those films that people will write about forever and lectures will be based around it.).

2011

The Artist
The Descendents
Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight In Paris
Moneyball
The Tree Of Life
War Horse

Geez, what an incredibly boring nominees list. Extremely Loud and The Help? Really? I love how they nominate these middle of the road, bland feel-good movies to get more viewers for the television broadcast and still fail to get people to watch the Oscar's. While Drive was my favorite film from 2011, the one that deserved it was The Tree Of Life. So there. I haven't seen The Artist though, so maybe my opinion would be different?

What should have won: The Tree Of Life (It was the most unique film experience of the year, it had dinosaurs and outer space. Not to mention Terrence Malick's uncanny ability to compose perfect shots that resonate and make you feel something more than any of the manipulative shit from the oscar-bait films.)

2010

The King's Speech
127 Hours
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone

Another tough year, everything nominated was excellent and one of the few times where they got most of the nominees right. Except for the winner. I really enjoyed The King's Speech but it's one of the most safe choices I've ever seen win. The Social Network, Winter's Bone, The Fighter, Black Swan and Inception were all vastly superior, by a lot. That why it's hard to choose, because I feel like at least four of these films nominated are important footnotes in cinema. But honestly, what movie from this year inspired more than Toy Story 3? For an animated film about talking toys and a second sequel, it was more honest and beautiful than anything that came out that year. This is a film that is universally loved and will be forever, and it's Pixar's best film (which is quite the feat in itself). I don't think there's been a more moving film since its release (maybe I'm a weirdo?) and I won't be surprised when it makes many appearances on the best-of decade lists when 2020 rolls around.

What should have won: Toy Story 3 (for all the reasons I explained above.)

2009

The Hurt Locker
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
Inglourious Basterds
A Serious Man
Up
Up In The Air

The Blind Side? Fucking really? Eh, I don't even have the energy to go into that right now but it's essentially everything that's wrong with the ceremony. As satisfied as I was initially when The Hurt Locker won, in hindsight they made the wrong choice. Now bear with me, I might change my mind as I write this blog because apparently I write what I think when I think it. YOU CHOSE TO RIDE THIS SINKING SHIP WHY JUMP NOW? The Hurt Locker is incredible. It's a truly unique war film, it's essentially a series of vignettes built around elaborate set-pieces that gradually become more and more nerve-wracking and scary, all credited to Katheryn Bigelow's fantastic direction. It's also a great character-driven film and Jeremy Renner does an amazing job.

Another unique "war" film came out that year too and it was Inglourious Basterds. While it's genes can be found in many other films like The Dirty Dozen and The Inglorious Bastards, Quentin Tarantino always has a knack for transforming his influences/homages into something that feels new and exciting. In a year where Avatar was the big movie "event" (at least that's what they were forcing down our throats), Inglourious Basterds is the one that really ingrained itself into people's minds (in my fantasy world, maybe?). Christoph Waltz's brilliant performance alone is more memorable than almost anything from Avatar. Don't get me wrong, I loved Avatar. If I was eight years old, it would be my absolute favorite movie and the technical feats that movie accomplishes are outstanding and groundbreaking. Yet, there's still District 9, a wholly original science-fiction film that's consistently riveting throughout it's running time and still manages to be a powerful social commentary on apartheid. And then there's the elusive A Serious Man, one of the Coen Brothers' best films and one of their most mysterious. This is pretty tough, I'm not sure which one of these will be the most celebrated years down the line. Hmm...

What should have won: District 9. If I was measuring films by what I enjoyed more, Inglourious Basterds would be on top. But District 9 feels like a modern classic. It blends practical and digital effects seamlessly (like my boy, Jurassic Park does) and it's endlessly rewatchable. Plus, things I already said above.

2008

Slumdog Millionaire
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk 
The Reader

Okay, first of all, where's Wall-E, The Dark Knight, Synecdoche, New York, and lot of other great films released that year? While I prefer the five nominees list and there's no reason to have it be larger, three of those films could be switched out with the ones I've mentioned. Slumdog Millionaire was fantastic and it deserved to win out of those films, it was a feel-good movie done extremely well (thanks to Danny Boyle) and never managed to feel like Oscar-bait. Synecdoche, New York was unrepresented at the Oscars which is almost insulting because it didn't even garner a nomination for Best Original Screenplay and it's one of Charlie Kaufman's finest work. Sure the film is a mess (which is intentional), but messy films sometimes are more interesting than the finely-tuned ones, take Magnolia as an example. I can't think of a more ambitious film released that year, or most recent years actually. Even if this is a cliched answer, the real winner still should have been...

What the winner should have been (redundant after that last sentence, I know): The Dark Knight. Even though the film has come dangerously close to over-saturation in pop-culture, I can't think of another massive blockbuster film that brought almost unanimous appraisal from audiences and critics alike. It harbors an exceptional performance from Heath Ledger, no one will argue that his interpretation of The Joker will be considered one of the great villains in cinema. Heavily-influenced by Michael Mann's Heat (seriously, watch them back-to-back, the pacing and atmosphere are similar), it's a compelling crime film that continues the effective examination of superhero pathos from Batman Begins. It's a rare film that's executed so well you can believe any of the plotholes or inconsistencies in the plot, unlike say The Dark Knight Rises. It's also one of those rare instances where a summer blockbuster based on an existing franchise feels like a singular vision from a filmmaker, and not just some product designed to make money (and it made a lot of money). It's an important film, critically and commercially, it helped raise the bar for mainstream film and it still resonates with audiences, which could be partially attributed to Heath Ledger's tragic death but it's also just one hell of a movie.

To be continued... I realized if I went back ten years, this would be too long so I'm splitting it into two parts.

JANUARY! (in review!!!!)

Ladies and gentlemen, here are my top five favorite tracks released in January...

I'm limiting it to songs released in January for the list... which is tough because A LOT of great music has been released this month, just look take a look at these cool songs and these rad songs too. Some of the songs in my list will certainly be on some best-of compilations later this year.

5. Liars - "Mess On A Mission"

4.  Real Estate - "Talking Backwards"

3. Damaged Bug - "Eggs At Night"

2. Yumi Zouma - "The Brae"

Seriously though, Yumi Brae is going to be big. She's crafted some perfect dreamy pop music. Can't wait for the EP to drop in a couple weeks. In fact, I'm calling it now Yumi Zouma is the best new artist of the year!

1.  Sun Kil Moon - "Ben's My Friend"

I didn't see in a movies released in January, so I can't really comment on that. The best film I saw all month though was definitely Martha Marcy May Marlene. It took me long enough to finally see it and it lived up to all the praise. So I guess my movie of the month is that!

Movie of the month:

Runner-up: Wake In Fright [1971]


Album of the month!

Willis Earl Beal, A Place That Does Exist (EP).

This is the release that really opened up Beal's music for me. It's a beautifully, understated folk album and I can already see it being on my best-of list at the end of the year.

Here's two other albums you probably should listen to as well...

Silkken Laumann, Not Forever Enough.


and...

Cities Aviv, Come To Life.

I'm bored now, ENJOY!

More good (new) songs to start your day with...

Hey everyone, just remember we're in a golden age of science-fiction in film. REDUX

I've decided to redo this post from a few weeks ago, some of the pictures I linked were broken so I wanted to redo it with microsoft paint. Anyway...

All of these films have been released in the last ten years. There's films I didn't mention like Attack The Block, Beyond The Black Rainbow, Vanishing Waves, Serenity, The Hunger Games, Cloud Atlas, Safety Not Guaranteed, etc...  I don't believe there's ever been a better decade of science-fiction than what we've seen in the past few years.

Hell, even a good number of popcorn films have been pretty good to great (Star Trek, Avatar (shut up, my inner-sever year old self thought it was great), Monsters, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, Cloverfield, Pacific Rim, etc.). Christopher Nolan's Interstellar is right around the corner, Godzilla, Snowpiercer, we have the new Star Wars saga to look forward to (eh?), Jurassic Park 4 (I'll watch the shit out of anything with dinosaurs), Guardians Of The Galaxy, Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes and I'm sure there are plenty of others I'm forgetting.

I'd say we're pretty lucky.

Here are some other favorite uses of songs in movies!

In no particular order, here are a few more awesome moments where a song is used perfectly in a film.



"He Needs Me," Shelley Duvall, Punch-Drunk Love [2002].

The song begins at 3:27, but if you watch it from the beginning it's far more effective.

"Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)," Nancy Sinatra, Kill Bill Vol. 1 [2003].

 "The Locomotion," Little Eva, Inland Empire [2007].

"Born II Die," Spice 1, Tales From The Hood [1995].

"Party Time," 45 Grave, Return Of The Living Dead [1985].

"It's A Sin," Pet Shop Boys, Bronson [2008].

My top 21 favorite use of song in film list (#10 - 1)

10. "Hurdy Gurdy Man," Donovan, Zodiac [2007].

I couldn't find the ending scene on youtube, but you'll just have to trust me. It sends chills down my spine every time. Because of this song, this ending scene successfully makes me feel something a lot of movies struggle and try too hard to achieve, it scares me.

9. "Across 110th Street," Bobby Womack, Jackie Brown [1997].

It's so hard to narrow it down to one song from this film, doing so means I'd have to leave out The Delfonics' "Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time," or "Strawberry Letter 23" by Brothers Johnson while Ordell Robbie is preparing to shoot Beaumont Livingston in the face. I decided to go with "Across 110th Street." The song is used both in the beginning and the ending, both effective. It's one of the most triumphant endings I've ever seen because of this song. I love the subtlety of Pamela Grier singing to herself in her car. It's a very personal moment and one of the best moments of victory I've ever seen in a movie.

8. "Save Me," Aimee Mann, Magnolia [1999].

The moment Melora Walters looks at us and smiles is enough to make this coal-hearted man weep. It's so fucking beautiful. Of course, to get the full effect of how powerful this scene is, you'd have to watch all three glorious hours of this film.

 7. "Head Over Heels," Tears For Fears, Donnie Darko [2001].

I had to update the list to 21 spots because I almost forgot about Donnie Darko. Like Tarantino or Guy Ritchie, Richard Kelly knows what songs he wants to use in a scene as he's writing it. I don't think I can exclude "Mad World" by Gary Jules either, so here's this scene...

6. "Stuck In The Middle With You," Stealers Wheel, Reservoir Dogs [1992].

Yeah, you knew this would happen. No one executes the use of songs in film better than Quentin Tarantino. This is one of the most iconic scenes in modern cinema. For a director like Tarantino, who rarely ever has "subtle" attached to his name, he pans away from the actual ear decapitation and makes the scene all the more effective for it.

5. "Sister Christian (Night Ranger)," "Jessie's Girl (Rick Springfield), "99 Red Balloons (Nena)," Boogie Nights [1997].

Aside from Goodfellas, I don't think a movie has captured the mania of coke-binging as well as Boogie Nights has. In arguably the best scene in the whole movie, these three songs perfectly highlight the mood shifts in this scene. It's strange, funny, and scary all at once. And that look cold-blank stare Mark Wahlberg gives as he's realizing the gravity of the situation he's in is phenomenal.

4. "Where Is My Mind?," Pixies, Fight Club [1999].

This could easily fit in my number one spot, if the choices below weren't so great. I don't care how many times I've seen this movie (though, it's been awhile), I still get goosebumps every time. It's one of those moments where my eyes well up, not because the ending is so powerful, but because it's a perfect moment in art. Even if the film wasn't great, I'd still respond to this scene very passionately.

3. Goodfellas [1990]. 

 Martin Scorsese has always had a great ear for music in his films, but none more than Goodfellas. I can't limit it to one song, so I'm choosing three because they're all equally great. Ones I left out that could easily be on this list, "Rags To Riches" by Tony Bennet, Derek And The Dominos' "Layla", or even "My Way" by Sid Vicious. These three songs are all flawlessly executed within the imagery and heighten the moments in the story.

a. "Then He Kissed Me," The Crystals.

b. "Atlantis", Donovan.

c. "Jump Into The Fire", Harry Nilsson.

2. Pulp Fiction [1994]. Much like Goodfellas, I can't narrow it down to one song from this film. Pulp Fiction has the greatest film soundtrack of all time, and every last song is used so effectively that gives every song new meaning. Every song from this film is now iconic because of how Tarantino uses it.

a. "Misirlou", Dick Dale & The Del Tones. I don't think anyone who's watched this film can forget that exact moment they hear this song used in the film. It perfectly captures the mood of the entire film. I didn't even mention the use of "Son Of A Preacher Man" by Dusty Springfield or The Revels' "Comanche."

b. "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon", Urge Overkill.

c. "Surf Rider", The Lively Ones. The best closing song in the history of film.

1. "In Dreams," Roy Orbison, Blue Velvet [1986]

I don't even know what to write for this, it's so damn perfect. This is the moment in the film when you start to believe anything can happen, and most importantly you fear what will happen next. Dean Stockwell's role, though sparse, is one of my favorite characters in film and he executes this perfectly as one, suave fucker would. This is a top three favorite scene in film and Roy Orbison's song is one of the reasons why.





Because I limited myself to only actual songs and nothing from original scores, I had to leave out some truly great stuff. I might construct a list like that sometime down the line, but I wanted to post at least one now. This is my absolute favorite moment when a film's scene is perfectly accompanied by its original score.

"Money Train," Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford [2007].

This is the most gorgeously shot moment I've ever seen in a film. You could know nothing about the film and enjoy this purely as visual art. The film's score is one of my top five favorite scores ever, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis are masters. You should probably just watch this.

Holy shit.

The first official trailer for Blue Ruin. And it looks really, really good.

My top 21 favorite use of song in film (#21 - 11)

Using songs in a film is an art, and surprisingly very few filmmakers do it well. Using a song in scene is supposed add to the scene, whether it's to juxtapose what's happening on the screen or to add another layer of what the scene is trying to convey. So here's a list of the best uses of song in film! I've made these choices  because every one of these scenes has burrowed themselves into my subconscious and are now defined by the song used in them. If you can't think of a particular scene in a movie without the track used in the moment, then you know it was effective. I'm leaving out original scores, but I'll proably just construct a list of those too sometime down the line...

21. "Blue Velvet," Sam Cooke, An American Werewolf In London [1981].

One of the best uses of soundtrack dissonances I've ever seen.

20. "Angel," Massive Attack, Snatch [2000].

19. "East Hastings," Godspeed You! Black Emperor, 28 Days Later [2002].

I couldn't find the scene, but it's used in the scene when Jim is wandering around the vacant streets of London and discovering the hopeless situation he's in. Danny Boyle is always great when it comes to using music, but this is my favorite.


18.  "Hip To Be Square," Huey Lewis And The News, American Psycho [2000].

If it weren't for Reservoir Dogs, this would probably be my favorite use of soundtrack dissonance. Christian Bale nails this scene. Also, Phil Collin's "Sussudio" is used rather well in the film too.

17. "A Waltz For A Night," Julie Delpy, Before Sunset [2004].

16. "Tiny Dancer," Elton John, Almost Famous [2000].

15. "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)," David Bowie, Inglourious Basterds [2009].

This is one of my favorite montages and David Bowie's song perfectly sets up the carnage that's in store. Also, this is the first of my heavily-saturated use of Quentin Tarantino's masterful talent of using song in film. But I'm pretty sure that was going to be obvious.

14. "Goodbye Horses," Q Lazzarus, The Silence Of The Lambs [1991].

13. "Nightcall," Kavinsky, Drive [2011].

12. "The End," The Doors, Apocalypse Now [1979].

That is fucking incredible, and that's how the movie starts. This song is now synonymous with the film and I can't imagine the two apart.

11. "In Heaven (Lady In The Radiator song)," David Lynch & Peter Ivers, Eraserhead [1977].

New Blue Ruin poster, get excited about revenge!

The poster for one of my most anticipated films of the year was just released. Blue Ruin. It looks fucking great. Which reminds me, I need to make a list of my most anticipated films of 2014.

Some cool songs to start your year off with...

https://soundcloud.com/subbacultcha-belgium/jessica-pratt-game-that-i-play

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geh8M74DR7Y#t=52Laura Groves - Waterfalls

This is a track by the one of the guys from Thee Oh Sees and it's awesome:
https://soundcloud.com/tellallyourfriendspr/damaged-bug-eggs-at-night

Ibn Inglor - Cold Storm

Perfect Pussy - Driver

My top ten most anticipated albums of 2014

10. Wild Beasts - Present Tense

9. Black Lips - Underneath The Rainbow

8. The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream

7. Grimes - tba

6. Real Estate - Atlas

5. Mac Demarco -  Salad Days

4. Cloud Nothings - tba

3. Beck - Morning Phase

2. Liars - Mess

1. TOOL - tba

I've been waiting nearly seven years for something new from TOOL. Even if the album turned out to be disappointing, I'll be happy when it's out. I'm obsessing over it like Jakey does the Zodiac Killer. It appears to be making progress, and 2014 sounds like the year it'll likely drop. If you hear me screaming and jumping around one day, it's probably because the first single was released.