Track of the Day - 12/31/11

The Waterboys - "This Is the Sea"

Well, it's New Year's Eve here at The Casualty Report (and elsewhere, but who cares about anything else, right?) and that means it's time for another Track of the Day! Today's track goes all the way back to 1985 when British band The Waterboys released their album, This Is the Sea. I actually first discovered The Waterboys through random sampling of my parents' CD collection when I was about 11 years old, and I've just recently reconnected with the group.*

This Is the Sea fits into a fairly small genre dubbed "Big Music" that had a surge in Scotland in the 80s, and the title track is perhaps the "biggest" song on the album, filled with lush, naturalistic instrumentation that builds and crashes alongside the water imagery in the lyrics. It seemed like an appropriate choice for the new year, as 2011 was a pretty tough year for me, and statistically speaking, you as well (actually, according to the Blogger tracking stats you have a high chance of being a very confused German that stumbled on this site by accident, so I don't really know how this past year treated you) and the song deals a lot with putting the past in perspective and moving on to the future. So, here's wishing you a happy new year, and let's make 2011 the river, and 2012 the sea.

Previous days' connection: Yeah, both tracks had Karen O. in them. All of you imaginary readers missed out on an easy chance to win some great imaginary prizes with that one. This connection is a bit harder, so here's a hint: it has to do with a repeated lyric in "This Is the Sea." Good luck!




*Fun (or not) sidenote: My musical tastes as a wee lad were very strange, in retrospect, as I combined the shitty pop of the time with completely random music from my parents. I might have been the only person whose stereo system would alternate between R.E.M.'s Monster, Ryan Adams' Gold and The Waterboys, and Backstreet Boys and Pokemon 2 B A Master. I also really liked Rusted Root. What the fuck.

Track of the Day - 12/22/11

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Cheated Hearts"

Ok, the connection between today's track and the last is so obvious I feel a bit like I cheated (see what I did there?), but I've just been in a Yeah Yeah Yeahs mood the past couple weeks. "Cheated Hearts" is off their 2006 album Show Your Bones, an excellent record that I much prefer to their debut Fever to Tell (and an opinion shared by virtually nobody else). The track builds beautifully behind driving drums and Karen O.'s powerful vocals, and seems to me to be one of the most cheerful-sounding and optimistic breakup songs out there - not to mention it just sounds fucking awesome.

Previous day's connection: Couple options here really, as Santigold and Switch from Major Lazer have done a bunch of work together: Santigold is featured on the Major Lazer track "Hold the Line," and Switch has remixed tracks off Santigold's self-titled debut album.

Random Topics - How Hyperbole is KILLING THE INTERNET

As I trekked across the majestic lands of the Internet this fine evening, I discovered this article from the blog Boing Boing, which interrupted my appreciation of the night's sojourn and left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. That's what she said?

Anyway, the entry is a reprinting of a plea from a group called Fight for the Future concerning the Protect IP Act, an anti-piracy bill making its way through Congress. Here at The Casualty Report I normally like to keep things focused on the things that really matter, like fantasy books and movie trailers, and I try to avoid blogging about political matters because I have the fear that it will cause me to break out in boils and spout insufferable vomitus to everyone I come across. But 1) This particular matter is somewhat related to the stuff I cover and 2) This rant of mine isn't so much designed to talk about the substance of the bill, but rather the manner in which its opponents choose to argue.

Random Topics - Worldbuilders 2011

Just a quick post to spread the word about author Patrick Rothfuss' awesome annual charity drive, called Worldbuilders. I wrote about it last year, but in brief: Worldbuilders was started by Rothfuss, and gives people who donate money to Heifer International via his site a chance to win some cool prizes - mostly genre novels, but there is always a lot of great stuff in the mix. If you're feeling charitable or just want a chance to snag some new books, check it out!

Music Review - Cults

Cults
Cults
In the Name Of/Columbia Records

The debut album from the young New York-based duo of Brian Oblivion (why can't my last name be something like 'Oblivion'?) and Madeline Follin, Cults, is an impressively polished and confident release considering the band's inexperience. Wikipedia classifies Cults as an "indie-pop" band, and while that might be true, it's not incredibly helpful - I think of the duo as belonging to something of a 60s girl-pop revivalist trend, following recent acts like Best Coast, Dum Dum Girls, and The Pipettes. Cults definitely has a retro, summery feel to it, but beneath much of the innocent sounding pop music there are somewhat darker lyrics and conceits than it's bubbly surface would indicate.

TV Review - Doctor Who (S3.1)

Doctor Who
"Smith and Jones"
Writer - Russell T Davies

The first proper episode of series three, "Smith and Jones" should feel mighty familiar to those who have seen the opener of series one, "Rose," as we are introduced to the Doctor's new companion, Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman). While the episode was far from the best that the show can produce, it provided a largely entertaining introduction that provides some hopeful signs of more good things to come.

TV Review - Torchwood (S1.1)

Torchwood
"Everything Changes"
Writer - Russell T Davies

Welcome to the start of my coverage of Torchwood, the spin-off of Doctor Who! I'm excited to see what Torchwood has to offer, as I'm pretty much going into this without any knowledge of where the show will go or really what it's like. My first impression, based on series opener "Everything Changes," is that the show seems to be playing the Angel to Doctor Who's Buffy right now - it takes a slightly darker, less overtly comical tone than its progenitor and it has the potential to tell some different types of stories in the same universe. Another realm of similarity to Angel is that both shows start with episodes that are well-constructed and promising, while simultaneously seeming a bit timid and inconsequential.

TV Review - Doctor Who (S3.0)

Doctor Who
"The Runaway Bride"
Writer - Russell T Davies

I've decided to start reviewing the third series of the revived Doctor Who for a couple reasons. First, it's a really good show that's well worth discussing, and second, I've decided that if I have to write about each episode it might slow down the pace I'm watching them - because I have a confession to make: I've become a Doctor Who addict. I sped through the first two series with a rather alarming alacrity (alliteration!), and it might be a good idea to have a little more time to think on and savor the show - also, it'll do wonders for my sleep schedule. With that said, I'm really excited to start writing about the series - and I've also decided to cover spin-off series Torchwood alongside Doctor Who, so we'll see if my appreciation and addiction spreads to that as well.

Film Review - Super 8

Super 8
Director: J.J. Abrams; Writer: J.J. Abrams
Paramount Pictures

This review will likely be on the short side, since it's been quite a while since I actually saw Super 8, but I feel like I owe the movie at least a little bit of my time since it was one of my favorite films of the summer. Every review of Super 8 is required to mention the debt it owes to Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the oeuvre of Steven Spielberg, and with good reason - the movie looks and feels like a throwback to that era in a number of interesting ways. That being said, Super 8 is also unmistakably a J.J. Abrams flick, and the melding of the two styles works quite nicely, delivering a not-quite-transcendent but very compelling experience.

Random Topics: So I Went to the Movies...

I went to go see Super 8 earlier this week (look for a review of that soon), and I thought I'd write a little bit about my favorite part of going to the movies: the previews. Alright, maybe that's a bit of an overstatement, but I really do love watching trailers at the theater.



Above is a trailer for Real Steel, which is apparently about boxing, but with robots. The sheer fucking stupidity evident in this trailer absolutely astounds me. I mean, am I crazy, or does this not seem like the dumbest fucking movie ever? I like Hugh Jackman as an actor, and director Shawn Levy also helmed Big Fat Liar (with Frankie Muniz, Amanda Bynes, and Paul Giamatti - and is exactly as awesome as that sounds), but how in the hell did anybody think this was a good idea. From the trailer, it's got some real promising signs of awfulness: cliche feel-good underdog drama, extremely annoying and terrible child actor (named fucking Dakota Goyo, for fuck's sake), a plot based around robots punching each other. Ugh.



On the other hand, the above trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 got me so unbelievably excited for the final film. Until, that is, the very end of the trailer, where it invites me to "complete the journey in 3D" - the trailer that I saw at the theater then proceeded to assure me that the journey could also be completed in 2D in "select theaters." Fuck that. I don't for the life of me understand how people could think that the prospect of seeing a blurrier, gimmicky version of a film would be an exciting idea - one worthy of touting. I read that as a giant 'fuck you' at the end of a trailer that, as I said before, made me really want to see the movie. I'll acknowledge that I'm ranting and nitpicking here, but it's my blog, so I'll feel free to make an ass of myself as much as I want, thank you very much.

Track of the Day - 6/29/11

Santigold feat. Karen O. - "Go"

Here's a relatively new track from Santigold, a.k.a. that one person with that song in that Bud Light Lime commercial who sounds a lot like M.I.A. but is actually a totally separate individual. In all seriousness though, I enjoyed Santigold's 2008 self-titled debut a great deal, and if you haven't heard it you should absolutely check it out. It's all the fantastic production and exotic vocals of M.I.A. without the crazy politics! "Go" doesn't seem like a huge departure for Santigold, and while I'm still a little ambivalent about the guest spot from Karen O. (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs), the song has a captivating and somewhat menacing sound that's hard to not enjoy. Santigold is supposed to be releasing a new album pretty soon, so look out for that as well.

Previous day's connection: Both The Very Best and Major Lazer are composed of pairs of DJ/Producers; Radioclit and Diplo/Switch, respectively. And while technically Radioclit is now broken up and thus was not acting as a duo for the creation of Super Mom Mixtape, I don't really care, because I can do whatever I want. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.


But don't actually smoke, that shit kills.

Film Review - The Hangover Part II

The Hangover Part II
Director: Todd Phillips; Writers: Todd Phillips, Craig Mazin, Scot Armstrong
Warner Bros. Pictures

Man, it's been a while since I actually saw this movie in theaters, and my memory of it isn't all that great. If I had any journalistic ethics or anything like that, I probably wouldn't try to review the movie now. I think, however, that the reason I can't remember a lot of the gags from The Hangover Part II has less to do with the amount of time that's passed since my viewing it and more to do with the overall mediocrity of Todd Phillips' sequel, so fuck it - here we go.