Chess 1426: Muddy Waters - "Rollin' Stone / Walkin' Blues" (1950)

Segunda referencia del sello Chess, dos temas recuperados de grabaciones para Aristocrat, la marca anterior de los hermanos Chess. Fueron grabados en febrero de 1950 y publicados con la galleta de Chess en junio del mismo año.

Sex Museum: "15 Hits that Never Were" (Locomotive, 2008)

15 temazos de Sex Museum, grabados en Septiembre de 2007 de la mano de Dani Alcover. Un recopilatorio de "grandes éxitos" (grabados de nuevo con el sonido actual de la banda) de r&r electrizante, con cierta revisión de lo mejor de Sex Museum en esta década (temas de Sonic, Speedkings y United), un par de temas antiguos (Two Sisters original del disco Natures Way y Black Mummy del Sparks), más una canción nueva (Wassa Massa). Este disco consigue unificar el sonido cañón y la energía a la que nos tienen acostumbrados en directo con el concepto de disco de estudio, el resultado tanto para neófitos como para seguidores no puede ser más revelador. Rock primitivo y sofisticado, lleno de honestidad y de mala leche, con clase y urgencia como sólo puede hacerlo quien lleva más de media vida tocando.

Biblioteca: George y Weedon Grossmith - "Diario de un don nadie" (1888-89)

Charles Pooter, narrador y protagonista de estas memorias, es un personaje gris que aspira a entrar en la alta sociedad, a la que imita en cuanto puede, venga o no a cuento. Al mismo tiempo, es un hombre perseguido por la mala suerte. De sus conflictos con el servicio, su esposa y su joven sobrino surgen algunas de las escenas más divertidas de un libro que mantiene al lector con una sonrisa a lo largo de toda la lectura.

La obra, escrita por George e ilustrada por su hermano Weedon, apareció por primera vez en la revista Punch entre 1888 y 1889, y fue publicada en forma de libro por primera vez en 1892. Es un clásico de la literatura humorística inglesa.

Joe Maneri: "Paniots Nine" (Avant, 1998)

The long-belated 1998 release of Paniots Nine (recorded, for the most part, in 1963), showed that multi-reedist Joe Maneri was anticipating today's "new music" by nearly 40 years, synthesizing jazz, classical, and ethnic influences. Maneri's influence has yet to have been felt to its full extent, however, as many of the musicians he has been teaching at the New England Conservatory, such as keyboardist Jamie Saft and trumpeter Cuong Vu, are just beginning to come into prominence. Seven of the eight tracks on Paniots Nine were cut in 1963 with Maneri on clarinet and tenor sax plus pianist Don Burns, bassist John Beal, and drummer Pete Dolger. On the final track, Maneri plays clarinet with Greg Silberman in 1981 at a concert of Jewish music. Some elements of his music that you'll likely hear even more of in the new millennium are his employment of microtones (the notes between the notes recognized in a Western scale) and his blending of jazz, free improvisation, modern classical, Greek, and klezmer sources. Combine this with Maneri's use of multiphonics, odd time signatures, 12-tone composition strategies, and atonal improvisation and you've got a complete package like no other. Maneri's still at least 10 years ahead of his time.

REVIEWER: Harvey Pekar, JAZZIZ Magazine Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc.

Earthless: "Sonic Prayer EP" (Gravity, 2005)

With two tracks clocking in at just under 40 minutes, Sonic Prayer is a molten mass of psychedelic guitar dirge, calling out the ghosts of Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Blue Cheer. Guitarist Isaiah Mitchell has been here before with the feedback-laced, wah-wah enhanced, hard rock-leaning Nebula, but with Earthless, he ditches conventional song-structure entirely. Instead, he uses the monumental beat kicked out by Clikitat Ikatowi and Hot Snakes' Mario Rubalcaba, and given slippery, heavy resonance by bass player Mike Eginton (ex-Electric Nazarene), to build pillowing waves of sonic sculpture -- now mesmeric circles, now knife-sharp bursts, now flame-licking explosions of electric guitar sound.

http://www.splendidezine.com/review.html?reviewid=1127472053406167

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: "The Firstborn is Dead" (Mute, 1985)

The Firstborn Is Dead is the second album released by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It was first released in 1985. Nick Cave took his obsession with the American South a bit further on this record, with its references to Elvis Presley and bluesmen like Blind Lemon Jefferson. The photography is by Jutta Heinglein.
The album's name is a reference to Jesse Garon Presley, the stillborn identical twin of Elvis Presley.

"Tupelo" is loosely based on the John Lee Hooker song of the same title, which is about a flood in Tupelo, Mississippi (Hooker's song appears on Original Seeds). Tupelo is the birthplace of Elvis Presley. Cave's song incorporates imagery of the birth of Elvis and the apocalypse at the second coming of Christ. However, the "Looky, Looky Yonder" motif that features in the song is derived from a song of the same name recorded by Lead Belly, usually found as part of a medley which Cave himself covered under the title "Black Betty" on his third album, Kicking Against the Pricks.
"Wanted Man" evolved from a song composed by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. Cave was granted permission to alter the lyrics. Cave's lyrics include references to his friends, such as photographer Polly Borland.
"The Six Strings that Drew Blood" is included on the CD version of the album, but not on the LP. It was the B-side of the "Tupelo" single and a re-recording of a song Cave originally recorded with The Birthday Party during the Mutiny sessions in 1982.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Firstborn_Is_Dead

History of Cinema: Titanic's Phantom Ride

Here's the famous sequence from "Titanic" known as The king of the world.
The phantom ride, a filmic resource and visual experience achieved by putting the camera on the front of a moving train, boat or any other vehicle (like a ghostly eye speeding through the air) was invented by George A. Smith in 1898.

Chancha Via Circuito: "Rodante EP" (ZZK, 2008)

Tercera entrega del "laboratorio de baile". Pedido a gritos por los bailarines y los catadores de nuevos ritmos, este primer trabajo de Chancha Vía Circuito (alter ego ferroviario de Pedro Canale) es una colección de cumbias que van de lo más introspectivo (al filo de un viaje chamánico) a lo festivo, cerca de la carrera loca de una locomotora en fuga. En preciso equilibrio, ciertos ritmos parecen haberse desplazado desde el altiplano hasta el GBA, para cruzarse con el vértigo de la urbe, la contemplación de la vagancia y el crujir de las articulaciones por debajo de los músculos calientes.

Amante del baile, nos brinda versiones ("Con la misma moneda", "Zorzal", "Día Libre") y participaciones de variadas latitudes (Jahdan Blackmoore, Princesa, Rancho MC, Poeta Inka y Kumbha Kethu) para melodías que vinculan al baile con el trance y otras situaciones tan celebratorias como respetuosas.

Factory Records Discography: "A Factory Sample" (1978)

FAC 2

VARIOUS: A Factory Sample

Dec 78

2x7": UK 1978 (Factory FAC 2) [silver gatefold sleeve]

[disc one - Aside]
2:50 JOY DIVISION - Digital
3:51 JOY DIVISION - Glass
[disc one - Beside]
4:57 DURUTTI COLUMN - No Communication
3:16 DURUTTI COLUMN - Thin Ice (Detail)
[disc two - Seaside]
1:43 JOHN DOWIE - Acne
1:53 JOHN DOWIE - Idiot
2:27 JOHN DOWIE - Hitler's Liver
[disc two - Decide]
3:15 CABARET VOLTAIRE - Baader Meinhof
3:28 CABARET VOLTAIRE - Sex in Secret

~ Everything
~ IS REPAIRABLE
~ EVERYTHING
~ IS BROKEN
Additional Notes:
A double E.P, with stickers. 5000 copies pressed.

The first record released by Factory. A real classic.

Filmoteca: Claude Lanzmann - "Shoah" (1985)

Shoah (del hebreo שואה, catástrofe) es una película documental del realizador francés Claude Lanzmann, estrenada en 1985, y de aproximadamente nueve horas de duración. Los subtítulos y testimonios filmados para el documental se publicaron por escrito en un libro con el mismo nombre, que fue traducido al castellano en el año 2003. El filme de Claude Lanzmann es un documental de historia oral, filmado a lo largo de cerca de diez años en diferentes continentes. Reúne testimonios, en primera persona, de víctimas, testigos y verdugos del exterminio de las comunidades judías durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Cada uno de los invitados a participar en el documental narra su personal vivencia de los sucesos relacionados con el Holocausto judío.

El formato de las intervenciones fue concebido por Lanzmann como una entrevista. El director interviene para evocar los recuerdos de cada invitado, en ocasiones preguntando por detalles técnicos (por ejemplo, sobre el número de vagones de cierto tren, o la capacidad de cierto horno crematorio), o por emociones y sentimientos, e incluso sobre detalles relativamente anodinos, pareciendo tener su papel una mera función fática (como, por ejemplo, cuando pregunta si había árboles en el gueto de Varsovia). Sin embargo, no es difícil interpretarlo como una falsa entrevista, en la que el director solamente pregunta u observa cuando el entrevistado no puede, o no quiere, seguir hablando. Es frecuente que los testigos se detengan a causa de un desmoronamiento psicológico. En esas ocasiones, Lanzmann insiste en el deber del invitado de seguir hablando.

Es importante subrayar, para destacar la peculiar naturaleza documental del filme, que la película no contiene imágenes de archivo ni banda musical. Toda la obra se estructura en entrevistas individuales o colectivas, en tiempo presente y en los más variados escenarios, o en visitas a los lugares donde ocurrieron los hechos tal y como se conservan en el momento de la grabación, estando presentes o no los testigos. El hecho de que no haya voz en off, salvo brevísimas intervenciones para aclarar lugares o hechos obviamente desconocidos para el espectador, recalca, por otro lado, que el filme se concibió bajo los planteamientos de la historia oral.

http://www.taringa.net/posts/tv-peliculas-series/1935950/Shoah-(La-Pel%C3%ADcula)-Documental.html

The Kitchen Cinq: "Everything But..." (LHI, 1967)

The Kitchen Cinq were a folk beat group from Amarillo, TX, who were heavily influenced by the British Invasion bands (the Dave Clark Five in particular) and West Coast folk-rock (Beau Brummels, etc.). They evolved from another local Amarillo-based group, the Y'Alls (who, in 1966, recorded the Beatles' "Run for Your Life," along with an original, "Please Come Back to Me," for the Ruff label).

In 1967, the Kitchen Cinq -- Mark Creamer (guitar/vocals), Dale Gardner (bass/vocals), Jim Parker (guitar/vocals), Dallas Smith (guitar), and Johnny Stark (drums) -- issued a total of five impressive singles and one album, Everything but...the Kitchen Cinq, which collected these tracks and added a few additional numbers, including covers of Neil Diamond's "Solitary Man" and Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Codeine."

The album and singles were recorded under the supervision of songwriter/arranger/producer Lee Hazlewood and released by Hazlewood's Hollywood-based LHI label (who also issued Safe at Home by Gram Parsons' International Submarine Band). Hazlewood also contributed the closing track, "Need All the Help I Can Get."

The band's jangly version of the Beau Brummels' "Still in Love With You Baby" was a regional hit in many U.S. cities. The Kitchen Cinq released a couple of singles on Decca during 1968, before Parker and Stark joined up with a U.S. touring version of Them. The remainder of the Kitchen Cinq re-formed as Armageddon, issuing an LP on underground label Amos in 1969.

~ Bryan Thomas, All Music Guide

Old 97's: "Blame it on Gravity" (New West, 2008)

Blame It On Gravity is the seventh studio album, and the first new album in 4 years, from alt-country pioneers Old 97's.

The album finds the band turning up the amps and returning to the satisfying crunch, with a mix of rock, punk, pop and classic country, that defined the band's sound on earlier albums. The band credits the new album's enthusiasm to their return to their hometown of Dallas to record, the first time since their initial independent release.

The band, still comprised of original members Rhett Miller, Murry Hammond, Ken Bethea and Philip Peeples, delivers what they believe is the finest album of their 15-year career.

History of Cinema: George A. Smith

George Albert Smith (4 January 1864, Brighton, England - 17 May 1959) was an inventor, a stage hypnotist, psychic, astronomer and magic lantern lecturer and one of the pioneer's of British cinema.

In 1896, Smith, of Hove, England patented a camera and projector system. He purchased a prototype cine camera from local engineer Alfred Darling, who subsequently made many contributions to the cinema technology.

Smith's neighbour James Williamson (1855-1933) also bought a movie camera. Williamson ran a chemist's shop which supplied photographic services and equipment. The neighbours created numerous historic minute-long films. Smith is credited with the invention of the 'close-up' and the first to use the double-exposure to achieve special effects in moving pictures. Smith went on to develop the first successful colour film process, Kinemacolor, but was virtually put out of business due to a patent suit filed by William Friese-Greene.

Selected Filmography:
The Haunted Castle, 1897
Photographing a Ghost, 1898
The Kiss in the Tunnel, 1899
As Seen Through a Telescope, 1900
Grandma's Reading Glass, 1900
The House That Jack Built, 1900
The Inexhaustible Cab, 1901
Grandma Threading Her Needle, 1902
Sick Kitten, 1903
Mary Jane's Mishap, 1903
A Visit to the Seaside, 1908

History of Cinema: Robert W. Paul

Robert W. Paul (3 October 1869–28 March 1943[1]) was a British electrician and scientific instrument maker and early pioneer of British film. He was born in Highbury, London, and his instrument making business was primarily based in London itself.

Paul began his technical career learning instrument-making skills at the Elliott Brothers, a firm of London instrument makers founded in 1804, followed by the Bell Telephone Company in Antwerp. In 1891, he established an instrument-making company, Robert W. Paul Instrument Company, initially with a workshop at 44 Hatton Garden, London, later his office.
In 1894, he was approached by two Greek businessmen who wanted him to make copies of an Edison Kinetoscope that they had purchased. He at first refused, then found to his amazement that Edison had not patented the invention in Britain. Subsequently, Paul himself would go on to purchase a Kinetoscope, intent on taking it apart and re-creating an English-based version along with partner Birt Acres. This camera, dubbed the Paul-Acres Camera, invented in March 1895, would be the first camera made in England.

History of Cinema: Francis Doublier (1878-1948)

Doublier was present at much of the very first Lumière film activity: he claimed to be in the first Lumière film, Sortie des Usines, riding on a bicycle and wearing a straw hat. Doublier's first major trip abroad was with Moisson to introduce the Cinématographe to Russia. Having passed through Amsterdam (where he established a Lumière show) Doublier arrived in Russia.

On 17 May 1896 films were shown for the first time in Russia when Doublier presented a Lumière programme at St. Petersburg that included such titles as Partie d'Ecarté and Arrivée d'un Train, but the first film show came after the first filming, for an equally important reason for going was to film the coronation of Tsar Nikolas II on 14 May. Special permission had to be sought by the French embassy from a suspicious Russian government before it was possible to set up a stand, from where Doublier and Charles Moisson recorded the first moving pictures in Russia.

They were also there two days later to record the presentation of the Tsar to his people, when a stand gave way, panic ensued and thousands were trampled to death. Doublier and Moisson's cameras faithfully recorded the scene, but the films were confiscated.

Biblioteca: Iván Turguénev - "Padres e hijos" (1862)

Padres e hijos es una obra sumamente trascendente para la historia de la literatura rusa. Se atribuye a esta obra una innegable influencia en la abolición de la servidumbre imperante en Rusia hasta 1861.

Hay en ella, además, una descripción de la confrontación de dos ideales, el aristocrático y el nihilista. Turguénev culmina en esta obra el perfil de sus héroes portadores de dos tipologías, de dos ideales contrapuestos en constante pugna: entrega y sacrificio de la propia persona contra el yo dubitativo sobre el sentido de la propia existencia.

History of Cinema: Lumière Brothers - "First Films" (1895)

Lapslap: "Itch" (Leo, 2008)

Based in Edinburgh, Scotland, Lapslap emerged from a desire to make well-formed music in realtime using computers and instruments. The group freely combines computer solos with instrumental trios and any combination in between: in one set, instrumentation can range from the purely acoustic piano/sax/horn to the completely electric laptop/laptop/synth. The music draws from traditions ranging from avant-garde classical, free improv/free jazz through to improvised electroacoustic/glitch.

History of Cinema: Woodville Latham

Major Woodville Latham (1837–1911) was an ordnance officer of the Confederacy during the American Civil War and professor of chemistry at West Virginia University. He was significant in the development of early film technology.
Woodville Latham was the father of Grey Latham and Otway Latham, owners of a kinetoscope parlor in New York City. In December 1894 Latham and his two sons formed the Lambda Company at 35 Frankfort Street, employing Eugène Lauste, a former Thomas Edison employee, as well as motion picture pioneer William Kennedy Dickson. Dickson would not leave Edison's employ until April 1895 and initially lent his expertise to the Lathams in secret.
The Lambda Company developed both a movie camera and prototype movie projector, the Panoptikon (eventually renamed Eidoloscope), which was demonstrated for members of the press on April 21, 1895. It was the first public demonstration of projected motion pictures in the United States.

Latham is notable for the invention of the Latham loop inside movie cameras and projectors, a significant development in the history of cinema because it allowed motion pictures to be continuously filmed and projected for a much longer period than Thomas Edison's kinetoscope. Shortly before his death in 1911, Latham testified regarding the 'Latham loop' at a patent hearing.

History of Cinema: Lumière Brothers

The Lumière brothers, Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas (19 October 1862, Besançon, France – 10 April 1954, Lyon) and Louis Jean (5 October 1864, Besançon, France – 6 June 1948, Bandol[1] [2]), were among the earliest filmmakers. (Appropriately, "lumière" translates as "light" in English.). They moved to Lyon in 1870, where both attended La Martiniere, the largest technical school in Lyon.[3] Their father, Claude-Antoine Lumière (1840-1911), ran a photographic firm and both brothers worked for him: Louis as a physicist and Auguste as a manager. Louis had made some improvements to the still-photograph process, the most notable being the dry-plate process, which was a major step towards moving images.

It was not until their father retired in 1892 that the brothers began to create moving pictures. They patented a number of significant processes leading up to their film camera - most notably film perforations (originally implemented by Emile Reynaud) as a means of advancing the film through the camera and projector. The cinématographe itself was patented on 13 February 1895 and the first footage ever to be recorded using it was recorded on 19 March 1895. This first film shows workers leaving the Lumière factory.

Wooden Shjips (Holy Mountain, 2007)

San Francisco's enigmatically named Wooden Shjips play a minimal, droning brand of garage-styled psychedelia with a noticeable '60s Krautrock influence. The band's vocals slip beneath waves of throbbing minimal rhythms, while fuzz tone guitar and shrieking organs jump to the foreground. When bandleader Ripley Johnson assembled the group in 2003, he wasn't interested in playing gigs or becoming famous; rather, his original intention was to find a group of non-musicians for the purposes of creating innovative music.

This is their first long player.

History of Cinema: Black Maria

The Black Maria (pronounced ma-RYE-uh) was Thomas Edison's movie production studio in West Orange, New Jersey. It is widely referred to as "America's First Movie Studio" and was built in 1893 for the purpose of making film strips for the Kinetoscope.

Edison conducted the world's first public demonstration of films shot using the Kinetograph in the Black Maria, with a Kinetoscope viewer. The exhibited film showed three people pretending to be blacksmiths.
The first motion pictures made in the Black Maria were deposited for copyright by Dickson at the Library of Congress in August, 1893. In early January 1894, The Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (aka Fred Ott's Sneeze) was one of the first series of short films made by Dickson for the Kinetoscope in Edison's Black Maria studio with fellow assistant Fred Ott. The short film was made for publicity purposes, as a series of still photographs to accompany an article in Harper's Weekly. It was the earliest motion picture to be registered for copyright — composed of an optical record of Ott sneezing comically for the camera.

History of Cinema: the Kinetoscope

The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device. Though not a movie projector—it was designed for films to be viewed individually through the window of a cabinet housing its components—the Kinetoscope introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic projection before the advent of video: it creates the illusion of movement by conveying a strip of perforated film bearing sequential images over a light source with a high-speed shutter. First described in conceptual terms by U.S. inventor Thomas Edison in 1888, it was largely developed by his employee William Kennedy Laurie Dickson between 1889 and 1892. Dickson and his team at the Edison lab also devised the Kinetograph, an innovative motion picture camera with rapid intermittent, or stop-and-go, film movement, to photograph movies for in-house experiments and, eventually, commercial Kinetoscope presentations.

History of Cinema: George Eastman

George Eastman (July 12, 1854 – March 14, 1932) founded the Eastman Kodak Company and invented roll film, helping to bring photography to the mainstream. Roll film was also the basis for the invention of motion picture film in 1888 by the world's first filmmaker and precedent inventor to the digital camera, Louis Le Prince, and a decade later by his followers Léon Bouly, Thomas Edison, the Lumière Brothers and Georges Méliès.

History of Cinema: WKL Dickson: "Fred Ott's First Sneeze" (1894)

A peep-show Kinetoscope film, not yet projectable, shot by WKL Dickson in Thomas Edison's Black Maria studio.

History of Cinema: Louis Le Prince - "Leeds Bridge" (1888)

Ésta es la primera película filmada de la historia, en 1888, por un francés afincado en Inglaterra.

SST Discography: Minutemen - "Paranoid Time" (1980)

SST 2:
Minutemen: "Paranoid Time EP"

Track listing:
1."Validation" (Tamburovich, Watt)
2."The Maze" (Boon)
3."Definitions" (Watt)
4."Sickles And Hammers" (instrumental) (Boon, Watt)
5."Fascist" (Boon)
6."Joe McCarthy's Ghost" (Watt)
7."Paranoid Chant" (Watt)

Personnel:
D. Boon - guitar, vocals
Mike Watt - bass, vocals
George Hurley - drums, backing vocals

Greg Ginn - record producer
Spot - engineer

Paranoid Time is the first EP, and first ever recording, by American hardcore punk band the Minutemen. It is also the second ever release by the SST record label, founded by Black Flag's Greg Ginn and Chuck Dukowski.
The Minutemen's first record occurred almost immediately after they opened for Black Flag in the Minutemen's hometown of San Pedro, California. Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn offered the group a chance to record and release a record, and a late night session at Media Art Studio in Hermosa Beach, California was booked.
The group recorded all seven songs in the order in which they appear on the record, with no overdubbing except for backing vocals by the group and drummer George Hurley's brother Greg. At the beginning of "Joe McCarthy's Ghost", bassist Mike Watt can be heard telling guitarist D. Boon and the Hurley brothers, "You just sing 'Joe McCarthy', want to do that?". A discussion between the four participants can be heard underneath George Hurley's previously recorded drum introduction.
Ginn later told the Minutemen how to put out a record, which spurred Watt and Boon to form New Alliance Records later that year.
The EP also appears as part of the My First Bells cassette (1985) and the Post-Mersh Vol. 3 CD. Two tracks from the EP, "Paranoid Chant" and "The Maze" appeared on the SST compilation The Blasting Concept, Vol. 1.
A sample of the intro to "Joe McCarthy's Ghost" can be heard on one of the radio ads compiled on the "Crass Commercialism" track on Black Flag's Everything Went Black album.
Early released copies of the EP were printed with black artwork. All other editions are green.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoid_Time

Filmoteca: Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn - "All Together Now" (2008)

Harry (Harriet) Dodge: Born 1966 in San Francisco, California; lives in Los Angeles, California.Stanya Kahn: Born 1968 in San Francisco, California; lives in Los Angeles, California



Duration 26 minutes, 34 seconds
With performances by:Lucy Blue Brady, Trinie Dalton, Lenny Dodge-Kahn, Cerus Dumas, Sean Dungan, Amy Gerstler, Matt Greene, Stanya Kahn, Eileen Myles, Gail Swanlund, Benjamin Weissman
Additional Camera by Keith Hennessy, Jeff Hockett
Additional Sounds by Bardo Pond, The Beatles, Boris, The Clash, David Bowie, The Dead C, Holger Czukay, Rick James, Pelt, Jessye Norman, Kinski, The Rolling Stones, Thrones, Yardbirds

Comets on Fire: "Avatar" (SubPop, 2006)

What we have here is pretty simple: Men with beards. Blistering blues-rock riffs. Songs that refuse to die.

On its fourth album, Comets on Fire takes the very foundation of rock 'n' roll (well, from the good years on) reheats it and serves it back up in gargantuan portions. We're talking the eight-minute solo-heavy opening track, which roughly approximates what it would have sounded like if the Stooges ever jumped on stage with the Grateful Dead. Produced just as well, too.

Yes, this Santa Cruz quintet that shares member Ben Chasny with Six Organs of Admittance might occasionally qualify for jam-band status, but give them some credit. Phish could never come up with songs as euphorically ugly as "Lucifer's Memory" and "Hatched Upon the Age." --Aidin Vaziri

Deerhunter: "Microcastle / Weird Era Continued" (4AD, 2008)

Qué modestia la de Deerhunter. Llamar a ‘Weird Era Cont.’ disco extra para regalar con su nueva obra, ‘Microcastle’, resulta casi insultante porque ese disco de regalo (que pretendía ser una sorpresa pero que se filtró accidentalmente en un post del blog de la banda) está lejos de ser un mero cajón de extras insulsos, demos o pijadas de ese palo: ‘Microcastle’ y ‘Weird Era Cont.’ conforman un disco doble. Mejor, un discazo doble.

Bradford Cox, el peculiar líder de la banda de Atlanta (su extrema delgadez se debe a que padece el síndrome de Marfan -no, no es una pose-), declaró antes de la edición del álbum que estaba cansado de los largos desarrollos que caracterizaban sus últimas canciones, ese ruidismo repetitivo casi elevado al drone que hipnotizaba en ‘Cryptogrames’. Que estaba más interesado en las “microestructuras” (sic). Y esa es la premisa de ‘Microcastle’/'Weird Era Cont.’, canciones concretas, con melodías claras, con gancho, siempre pervertidas por el afán experimental del grupo.

Deerhunter han conseguido una obra enorme, que no es sino un emocionante compendio, casi un manual de consulta, del out-rock norteamericano de los últimos cincuenta años: desde Bo Diddley, pasando por la Velvet, la psicodelia de 13th Floors Elevators, la no-wave, Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, Pavement, The Flaming Lips, Liars… hasta Deerhunter.

(Tomado de http://jenesaispop.com/)

Filmoteca: Rainer Werner Fassbinder - "Berlin Alexanderplatz" (1980)

La obra más importante de Fassbinder es, a su vez, una de las series de televisión más revolucionarias de todos los tiempos y la mejor adaptación posible de la obra capital de Alfred Döblin, 'Berlin Alexanderplatz'. La historia de un hombre, la de un continente, que, a principios del siglo XX buscaban una redención que nunca llegaría.

Año de producción: 1980

Actores protagonistas: Günter Lamprecht, Hanna Schygulla, Barbara Sukowa

Dirección: Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Guión: Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Crítica de Omar Khan para El País: http://www.elpais.com/articulo/arte/Tremendo/Fassbinder/elpepuculbab/20071201elpbabart_9/Tes

Su duración la hace monumental, pero en realidad las quince horas y media que dura Berlin Alexanderplatz (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1980) están dedicadas a reconstruir con terca minuciosidad apenas 18 meses en la vida de un hombrecillo, Franz Biberkopf (magnífico Günter Lamprecht), que ha salido de la cárcel en el veranio de 1927 con el propósito de convertirse en un hombre nuevo, alejado del compulsivo que le llevó a matar a Ida (Barbara Valentin), su amante, cuatro años atrás. En este sentido, tanto la novela de Alfred Döblin que le inspira como esta serie de televisión "en 13 partes y un epílogo", según reza el inicio de cada episodio, es una historia sobre la redención y la imposibilidad de ser un buen hombre en la corrupta República de Weimar, dentro del microcosmos social de Alexanderplatz, barrio berlinés obrero de los años veinte y más tarde punto de control de la Berlín dividida.

Fassbinder (Bavaria, 1945-1982) nunca fue un cineasta al uso, así que de él no podía esperarse una serie al uso y lo cierto es que procura nadar en la dirección contraria. Mientras las reglas de la televisión imponen que cada episodio es una unidad narrativa dependiente del todo, que debe saturar por una acumulación de acontecimientos que no permiten que la acción decaiga, Fassbinder usa el tiempo para escudriñar a fondo y sin restricciones, tomándose libertades como el cuarto capítulo (titulado Un puñado de gente en las profundidades del silencio), en el que la acción no avanza ni un milímetro, o incluir un epílogo de dos horas totalmente desconcertante que aparece desvinculado del estilo narrativo de la serie y da pistas que redimensionan el todo. A lo largo de sus 940 minutos penetra hasta la intimidad del personaje, lo revisa desde todos los ángulos, y también explora su entorno, ese barrio agitado, económicamente en crisis, y los personajes que se acercan a Biberkopf: Mieze, la niña prostituta que le ama (jovencísima Barbara Sukowa); Eva, una antigua amante (Hanna Schygulla, actriz fetiche del director) y Reinhold Hoffmann (Gottfried John), el hombre que le despierta sus más escondidos secretos homoeróticos.

"Lo crucial de Berlin Alexanderplatz no está en la historia sino en la estructura", había declarado Fassbinder en el momento de su emisión para enfatizar que en sus manos el libro no había perdido su esencia. Y es que la novela de Döblin ha pasado a la historia de la literatura alemana como un importante bastión del modernismo.