arc of time

right, so i am a day early but what the hell? i didn’t do pow this week do i figure its all right. plus i am frustrated from my bonked run (see previous post), and blogging helps so what the hell.

for our cd this week, i really want to pick the john squire cd time changes everything, which just arrived in the mail this week. the solo effort from the former stone roses guitarist is phenomenal, and i can’t believe i had never heard of it before (then again i was pretty much messed up for most of 2001.) i have to thank pandora for putting it in front of me (thanks, tim!). can’t stop listening to it and i would love for it to be pick of the week, but amazon wants 33 bucks for the thing, so i really have to recommend you pick up a copy on ebay like i did for around $18. it’s good piano-infused indie rock.

so this week’s pick of the week has got to be the new offering from bright eyes, cassadaga. the latest from the sage of omaha, connor oberst, is much more i’m wide awake, tt’s morning than it is digital ash in a digital urn but i would actually call it more country than the folk and singer-songwriter vibe that dominated wide awake.

of course, it being bright eyes, the lyrics are densely complicated commentaries on society, politics, relgiion and human relationships. i think it was a paste magazine review i read that said only connor could write an upbeat country jam with lyrics like this –

but when great satan’s gone
the whore of babylon
well she just can’t sustain
the pressure where it’s placed
she caves

that coming from the tune four winds (youtube video here) which is a pretty phenomenal jam. actually every song is good on this one with if the brakeman turns my way and classic cars being my favorites. this is by far bright eyes’ most produced album and while something is certainly missing in the move away from the lo-fi recording style, it kinda cool to see what connor can do with full instrumentation and top notch production. it works, and while different, it’s always nice to know connor refuses to allow himself to get comfortable in one genre or style.

okay, your dvd this week is the aforementioned shaun of the dead. me and i watched this on dvd after seeing hot fuzz in the movie theatre a few weeks ago. we laughed so hard at it that we i almost immediately put shaun of the dead in my netflix queue. the movie is the first offering from british comedy duo, edgar wright and simon pegg, and is a spoof on the zombie genre. it’s not a spoof in the scary movie mold, but rather intelligently written, acted with classic english understatement and almost insanely well directed.

i think the movie contains the greates single shot i have ever seen. there is a shot where the main character, shaun, leaves his house to go to the convenience store to buy something. he goes all the way to store, buys his paper and come all the way back without ever noticing that everyone around him is a zombie. every time he would see one he gets distracted. it’s perfectly acted and directed as well as shot, with the whole 3-4 minute segment comprising one camera shot.

amazing.

anyway, pick it up. well worth it.

and that my friends is picks of the week.