John Hughes’ world of Shermer, Illinois was a microcosm of place and time you either knew or wanted to be a part of. It’s comfortable familiarity mixed with the pop edge of the time was a shock to the system in a celluloid atmosphere filled with movies like “Porky’s”, “Hardbodies” and “Hot Dog : The Movie”. Who on earth knew teenagers living in the Reagan excess of the 1980′s had thoughts beyond the next girl they were going to bag or how they were going to get the best keg in town? John Hughes to me had a rebellious streak in him towards the mundane in life that he was never able to shake, and thus expressed via humor & humanity in his films until the banality of the industry he worked in became too much for him. He had a deep understanding and respect for teenagers, and as Judd Nelson said after Hughes’ passing, he treated them not as children but as developing adults. That respect he showed made his target audience look at themselves and each other differently and more highly of themselves through his movies. When Ferris Bueller takes the day off from school to enjoy a beautiful sunny day with his friends, just like any working adult needs to do once in awhile, it resonated with an entire generation. When Andie fell for Blane in “Pretty in Pink” or Keith fell for Amanda Jones in “Some Kind of Wonderful” it showed kids were already looking past their parent’s comfort zone of whom they should fall in love with or even associate with. When big bully Andrew Clark shows his vulnerable side along with all his other detention-mates in “The Breakfast Club” it brought to light that despite their surface differences they realized they all had more in common with each other through the stories and experiences they’ve had than they could have ever imagined. Like most towns and cities, from the outside looking in it’s safe and normal, but digging deeper the people are far more complex, their stories are vibrant, the soundtrack to their lives is far weirder than the average radio station and everything is better because of it all. Turn on cable and flip around the stations and if you come across a John Hughes movie it becomes very hard to change the channel again. His movies are funny and intelligent, existing in a world of bright lights, incredible music and a positive view of the generation that lied ahead. Despite the greatness of the 80′s in my view, it didn’t have a lot of voices, but John Hughes was one of them. He wrote “Sixteen Candles”, “The Breakfast Club”, “Weird Science”, “Pretty in Pink”, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, “Some Kind of Wonderful”, “Planes Trains & Automobiles”, “Shes Having A Baby”, and “Uncle Buck”, all of which he directed except for two. His list of accomplishments is much longer, but these are “quintessential John Hughes”. They may not be “Apocalypse Now” or “Gone With The Wind”, but they are of a greatness all their own for which they will live on for generations to come. As he wrote for one famous character, “Life moves fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” In my view, American cinema should consider John Hughes as one of it’s most influential and important directors. Rest in peace, Mr Hughes.

RECOMMENDED for ‘pushing the envelope’ and/or just great performances …
-Be Kind Rewind
-Jar City
-Synedoche, New York
-There Will Be Blood
-W.

AND THE AWARD FOR NOT NEARLY AS BAD AS SOME WOULD LIKE TO MAKE IT OUT TO BE (but still not that great) …
-The Happening
-Valkyrie

“15 Step’s clattering beats, the unsettling electronic pulse behind House Of Cards -­ are pressed into the service of fantastic melodies: the closing Videotape proceeds at the pace of a Soviet state funeral, but the tune is so glorious, it sounds graceful rather than lethargic, dreamy rather than dreary. Radiohead sound like they’re enjoying themselves.” – The Guardian

“By turns danceable, blissed out romantic, familiar and new, it’s technologically and musically fascinating. Its juxtaposition of orga and mecha is one of its many well executed contradictions. Packed but sparse, thrilling, complex, innovative, simple. Without even a dud bar never mind a filler track, In Rainbows is more than any fan could hope for.” – Music OMH

maikaʻi aʻe mele
15 step | all i need | reckoner | jigsaw falling into place

Video for ‘Jigsaw Falling into Place’ :

2 | BJÖRK | Volta | One Little Indian/Atlantic

“Much of the album is moved along by the sounds of ships’ horns and bells, gulls’ cries and flowing water. Björk moves leisurely into Asian and African landscapes (famed kora player Toumani Diabate contributes there), as well as the tribal trip-hop that’s become one of her touchstones. Though the powerful yet childlike voice and yearning lyrics are much the same, the experience is more earthly than mystical this time.” – LA Times

“Despite the much-anticipated hook-up with super-producer Timbaland, this is not Björk ‘going hip-hop’ or having a late-breaking pop reinvention – ‘Volta’ is something much grander. It’s an album defined by its identity crisis – dizzily slipping, as it does, from metal-electronica one moment to spooky chamber-pop the next. Its range is stunning, but then you’d expect nothing less from an album that features a 10-piece, all-female Icelandic brass section, the drummer out of Lightning Bolt and the deep texture of Antony Hegarty’s voice (he appears on two tracks, including the stunning ‘My Juvenile’).” – NME

maikaʻi aʻe mele
earth intruders | wanderlust | i see who you are | innocence | declare independence

‘Declare Independence’ / Live @ Glastonbury / England / June 2007 :

3 | STUDIO | West Coast | Information Records

“A fifteen-minute instrumental opus that glides through reggae-tinged post-punk guitar shots, glistening keyboard runs, opaque sheets of ambience, and intricate maps of interlocking rhythmic elements, it sets a high bar for the 40 minutes of shimmering, reverbed, hypnotic, and fabricated (in the best possible way) postpunk / disco that follows. There’s a little bit of dub, a smidgen of Krautrock, a whole lot of post-punk, and more than a touch of disco and early ‘90s British and European dance pop in West Coast, all handled beautifully and coalescing into something that, if not unique, is certainly laden with enough individual character as to stand out. Studio’s debut album is one of the best of both 2006 and 2007.” – Stylus Magazine

“Their debut provides a solid argument that fun, uplifting, danceable music isn’t necessarily at odds with trail blazing experimentation.” – Coke Machine Glow

maikaʻi aʻe mele
west side | self service | life’s a beach

Promotional video :

4 | OFFICE | A Night at the Ritz | New Line/Scratchie

“A Night At The Ritz is a fairly impressive debut that features track after track of excellent pop hooks and melodies that are sure to become engrained in your mind after only a few listens and often jump back and forth between sounds of the past and present.” – Absolute Punk

“Songs like “Dominoes” and “The Big Bang Jump” won’t appeal to the people who have had their arms crossed at shows for the last five years, but the people who like to uncross their arms and shake their asses will appreciated these pop gems.” – The Tripwire

maikaʻi aʻe mele
the ritz | company calls | wound up | the big bang jump! | q & a | dominoes | possibilities

Video for ‘Oh My’ :

5 | I LOVE YOU AIRLINES | Fairytale EP | The Ineffable Mr Wright

Here’s what I wrote on iTunes: “a glittery driving colorful beat of an EP. lyrics are clever & unique and the vocals show signs of a star on the rise, in a just world of course. try keeping these songs out of your head, it’s impossible, and each listen reveals a whole new level of melodies you missed the last time. is it a concotion of curve, method man, bananarama, and just a dash of divine? perhaps.“

maikaʻi aʻe mele
march 4th | a mean one | CPR | mi amore

6 | !!! | Myth Takes | Warp Records

“Here it is, then: the soundtrack to your summer house party par excellence, signed, sealed and delivered a good few months early just ‘cause it’s that good. Get your dancing practice in now – come the longest days of the year you’ll be wearing many a sole down to Myth Takes. You’ll be sitting on the bus, in front of the telly, on a park bench, at your mother-in-law’s, it doesn’t matter – you’ll dance to these songs like you’ve never danced to any band with guitars – gasp! – before. Pump the first ten minutes of Myth Takes into any club in the country, in any backwater town full of squaddie fucks and fuck-about forty-somethings, and the floor will go crazy.” – Drowned in Sound

“Of all the dance-punk revivalists, !!! has been the most consistently interesting and challenging, not to mention the group most likely to fill the dancefloor on indie rock night. Not too many bands even in heyday of the initial wave of dance-punk released records as full of energy, intelligence, and ferocious funk as this.” – All Music Guide

maikaʻi aʻe mele
must be the moon | heart of hearts | yadnus | bend over beethoven

Video for ‘Must be the Moon’ :

7 | A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS | S/T | self released

“Any metaphor works, really; the guitars bleed with magma (fire and brimstone!), oozing blood (human offerings!), and of course, the shrill swipe of jet engine blades (vrrrrrrr!). And yet, and yet, for all the noise there are songs underneath. Almost laughably poppy ones in fact, with a refreshingly nineteen-eighty-something holographic quality.” – Lost at Sea

“A Place to Bury Strangers are a precious gift for those of us who will always carry a torch for the delirious rush of pre-1990s Jesus and Mary Chain, and the glistening chill of late Joy Division. Add in a little Cure circa Pornography and this debut is quite a treat.” – Pop Matters

maikaʻi aʻe mele
to fix the gash in your head | i know i’ll see you | breathe | another step away

Video for ‘To Fix the Gash in Your Head’ :

8 | PANDA BEAR | Person Pitch | Paw Tracks

“The artwork of Panda Bear’s third solo album is full of clues. The front sleeve is a paddling pool fantastically packed with children and animals (tiger, seal, gorilla, leopard, koala and, yes, panda). Inside the booklet, there are further brightly coloured photographs: kids on stilts facing a sky mad with fruit bats and flying foxes, a boy in a kilt and a crocodile head-dress dancing a jig, a pigtailed girl riding a gondola through a sky swirling with feathers. These images set you up for music that’s tribal, ecstatic yet eerie, brimming with child-like wonder. And that’s exactly what Person Pitch delivers.” – Observer Music Monthly

“60s influences are numerous throughout Person Pitch, from its soaring psychedelic vocal melodies to shimmering layers of guitar and percussion, the panoply of clicks, whirrs and other less readily identifiable blurs of sound that streak its length situate Panda Bear’s fourth solo album squarely in post-techno territory. The result is an album as rich as it is strange.” – BBC

maikaʻi aʻe mele
comfy in nautica | bros | search for delicious

Video for ‘Comfy in Nautica’ :

9 | INTERPOL | Our Love to Admire | Capitol Records

“Our Love to Admire fleshes out the dark edges of Interpol’s sound to create a polished, muscular-sounding record that teems with life and bristling potency.” – Observer Music Monthly

“Our Love To Admire borrows much of its nervous energy from several obvious English forebears: Echo And The Bunnymen, The Cure, Kitchens Of Distinction, Psychedelic Furs and early Banshees, as well as Joy Division and The Chameleons. The key difference is that Interpol, as Americans, aren’t hampered by the low-key provincialism that stifled the ambitions of much British post punk. Our Love To Admire – their first album for a major label – suggests that Interpol are primed and ready to complete the leap into the arena circuit, a move that Echo And The Bunnymen, for instance, never felt comfortable with. It’s a majestic, grandiose, machine-tooled album, subtly orchestrated with gothic pianos and doomy organs.” – Uncut

maikaʻi aʻe mele
pioneer to the falls | the heinrich maneuver | all fired up | rest my chemistry

Video for ‘The Heinrich Maneuver’ :

10 | THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE QUEEN | S/T | Virgin Records

“this is an utterly on-target wartime opine, a masterful musical guerrilla action that finds Blur’s Damon Albarn, the Clash’s Paul Simonon, Verve guitarist Simon Tong, and Afrobeat godhead Tony Allen breaking ranks to create a near-perfect sonic snapshot of London under Blair’s blowback blitz.” – Austin Chronicle

“The music, however lean, is the most poignant vision Albarn’s devout Anglo-centrism has offered: a beautifully dark, boozy, overcast dream of London, cinematic in its scope and careful in its craft.” – Village Voice

maikaʻi aʻe mele
80′s life | kingdom of doom | nature springs | three changes | the good the bad and the queen

‘Kingdom of Doom’ / Live @ Camden Roundhouse / England / February 2007 :

11 | I LOVE YOU AIRLINES | A New High EP | The Ineffable Mr Wright

Or maybe it was said best by my friend who manages this band: “I Love You Airlines is PT Barnum’s most opium-inspired kaleidoscopic carousel, replete with 2000 chartreuse bells and sapphire whistles, 13 sousaphone blowing cheetahs and 1 accordion playing Ganesh…it’s 3001 brass pipes bubbling and belching the symphony a caffeine-fueled Phil Spector composed on the Mighty Wurlitzer that appeared in last night’s dream dreamt by Dali, dictated by Roald Dahl: the sonically-glimmering soundtrack to a Post-modern filth fantasia starring Dawn Davenport sashaying through the ghetto of the East Village dripping head to toe in diamond-studded Chanel, shot in glorious Technicolor by John Waters and projected on a huge screen suspended high above Cinderella’s Castle in Walt Disney World on a balmy, 72 degree night in late November….the southwesterly breeze carrying fuchsia flamingo feathers down to the Gulf of Mexico…and beyond…..“

maikaʻi aʻe mele
diamond disguise | dial you in | glitter sky | the snow leopard

……………..

VERY HONORABLE MENTION

Air France : On Trade Winds EP
Blonde Redhead : 23
Burial : Untrue
Celebration : The Modern Tribe
Dinosaur Jr. : Beyond
GusGus : Forever
Kristin Hersh : Learn to Sing Like A Star
The Horrors : Strange House
MyMy : Songs for the Gentle
Ulrich Schnauss : Goodbye
Sigur Ros : Hvarf/Heim
White Rabbits : Fort Nightly

……………..

SOME GREAT TRACKS, BUT JUST A FEW

Battles : Mirrored
The Birthday Massacre : Walking with Strangers
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club : Baby 81
Ghostland Obervatory : Paparazzi Lightning
Wolf & Cub : Vessels

sometimes he’s a bit humble (just sometimes, trust me), so i wanted to recognize this. so joe, you win the 2006 GhostLife Job of the Year Award. its in the mail …

whats next, Jerry Bruckheimer? (sorry, did that make you sick?)

www.inlandempirecinema.com
www.davidlynch.com

Ahhh yes, another film from one of my two favorite directors, David Lynch (the other being Woody Allen, fyi!). If you dont know much about him, well he created ‘Twin Peaks’, and wrote and directed ‘Mulholland Drive’, ‘Blue Velvet’, ‘The Straight Story’, ‘Lost Highway’, ‘Wild at Heart’, amongst others. All beautiful, odd, mesmerizing and hilarious movies, and ‘Inland Empire’ is no different, although it’s probably more comparable to his first film ‘Eraserhead’, as it has almost the same surreal dark vibe to it, combined with this aura and look of experimentation. Its a long movie, a strange trip through a neverending maze of offbeat humor, electricity, violence, love & tension, and an amazing performance by long time Lynch collaborator Laura Dern. The supporting cast includes Justin Theroux, Harry Dean Stanton, Grace Zabriskie (Laura Palmer’s mom!) and Jeremy Irons, and features cameos by Mary Steenburgen, William H Macy, Diane Ladd, Nastassja Kinski, Naomi Watts and others. If youre up for something different and fresh, I can’t recommend this great film enough!

TRAILER (1 Minute) :

“Laura Dern, in a monumental performance that holds the line of humanism even as reality and illusion blur” – Rolling Stone

“a work of profound, unnerving impact. The way to watch it is to skip uneasily along its surface and steel yourself for those moments when Lynch pulls you into the vortex. More than any working filmmaker, he knows the dreamlike power of undertow. “Inland Empire” may be the most aggressively surreal feature film ever released to movie theaters in this country, and it’s possibly close to the movie David Lynch carries around in his head.” – Boston.com

“One of the few films I’ve seen this year that deserves to be called art. Dark as pitch, as noir, as hate, by turns beautiful and ugly, funny and horrifying, the film is also as cracked as Mad magazine, though generally more difficult to parse.” – New York Times

Film director David Lynch, a longtime practitioner of Transcendental Meditation, has formed a foundation that will encourage schools to use the technique in the classroom. “It’s knowledge in terms of the self and it works wonders in the kids,” he said.

The David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace will raise money for TM peace groups and provide scholarships for students taking part in meditation programs.

He met some of those students during a visit to Maharishi Vedic City in rural southeast Iowa, considered the spiritual center of the TM movement in the United States.

“I’m convinced there are hundreds or thousands of kids who will see the truth of this and want to take part in one way or another,” he said.

The meditation technique involves sitting comfortably with the eyes closed for 20 minutes, twice a day, according to the Web site of the Transcendental Meditation Program. It helps students overcome stress and perform better in the classroom by using their entire brain, rather than just a portion of it, Lynch said.

Barry Markovsky, a sociologist at the University of South Carolina, has spent years studying the Maharishi movement and Transcendental Meditation. Although he said meditating can be good for students, he’s skeptical of the group’s insistence that only their method is beneficial.

Lynch, who directed such films as “Mulholland Drive,” “Elephant Man,” “Blue Velvet,” and “Wild At Heart,” is currently working on a film in Los Angeles called “INLAND EMPIRE.”

___

On the Net:

David Lynch: http://www.davidlynch.com/

University of South Carolina: http://www.sc.edu/

Maharishi Vedic City: http://maharishivediccity.net/

Transcendental Medication Program: http://www.tm.org

story courtesy of The Associated Press