Hard Boiled Update 11-20-08

Some cool items in this week.

fm3 - Buddha Machine Vol. 2 The first version came out in 2005 and now we have the second incarnation of the Buddha Machine. They look like small radios, but the only sounds are 9 musical loops. Turn it on and leave it on and listen to the loop drone and distort as the batteries run down (it takes a long time). The new model has different loops from the first and adds a Pitch Bend that allows you to speed up or slow down the loop. Very fun.

Hush Arbors - s/t CD On Ecstatic Peace

King Midas Sound - Cool Out 12" On Hyperdub.

Sam Taylor-Wood - I'm In Love With A German Film Star 12"
Cover of the Pet Shop Boys. On the German Techno label Kompakt.

Cloud One - Atmosphere Strut 12"

Shindig #7 New issue

Shindig #6 Last issue.

Fennesz - Black Sea CD On Touch. Finally a new Fennesz record.

People Like Us - Phizmiz 45 New Touch 45, part of their limited edition 45 series.

Deadbeat - Roots & Wire CD On Wagonrepair Records.

XLR8R - New issue

Yeti - #6 One of my favorite zines, that comes out once a year if we are lucky. Articles and interviews with Times New Viking, The Clean, Sun City Girls, Luc Sante, Crystal Stilts and more. Comes with a cd with The Clean, TNV, SCGs 20 other artists.

Cotti/ Mr Party - Dem Fi 12"

Chefal & Cluekid - Sub Scoa 12" Dubstep

Vivian Girls - Tell The World 45 New tracks from the band sure to be on many people's top 10 list.

Wilderness - (k)no(w)here LP/ CD

Parts & Labor - Receivers LP

Deerhunter - Microcastles CD With the bonus disc.

V/a Birmingham Sound Vol. 2 Second collection of from the vaults of Neil Hemphill.
Good Southern soul music from the 60's and 70's.

Benoit Pioulard - Temper On Kranky Records.

The Wire - new issue with Antony & the Johnsons on the cover.

V/a - Young Disciples CD The lates Numero Group reissue centering on soul from
East St Louis.


I also have recently gotten in a good number of used copies of recently released celebrity biographys in hard cover.
I imagine the Tony Curtis autobiography would make a good Christmas gift for someone's mother.

Thanks
Mark

Street Kings and The Condemned movie reviews

Street Kings (2008) Directed by David Ayer
For fans of James Ellroy's books, the plot of his original screenplay will be very familiar. There is no mystery as to why someone gets shot in a hold up and Keanu adds to his collection of clueless characters. That said his acting is not bad in the movie. The cast is full of familiar faces, and some of the non-actors take on different than normal roles, i.e. Cedric the Entertainer as a drug dealer. And to his credit I did not recognize John Corbett. Not a bad movie but it is one thing for Ellroy to reuse themes like police corruption, it is another for him to reuse a key scene from earlier works.

The Condemned (1976) Directed by David Chiang
This Shaw Brothers dvd has sat on the shelf waiting to watched for a long time. Now that the election is over and I don't feel the need to watch the news channels as much I can get back to watching movies. The dvd cover for this film has kept it from the top of the pile as I had bought it online thinking it was a kung fu movie and the cover shows David Chiang in modern clothing in a prison and the description was not encouraging.
The movie does have a surprising amount of kung fu and some special effects. In a move likely inspired by Sunny Chiba's Streetfighter we see x-ray renditions of blows, but done in a low budget way. Instead of using actual x-rays the film has clay skeletons against a dark background that snap and crumble as the blows land.
This is not the movie to use to convert people to the ways of the Shaw Brothers studio but it was much more enjoyable than I thought it was going to be.

Hard Boiled Update 11-10-08

Amplifier Machine - Her CD On 12K.

V/a - Delta Dandies CD Collection of big bands from Nigeria from the 1940's and 50's.

Flaherty/ Nance/ Moore - s/t CD New noise cd from Thurston Moore and friends.

Luke Vibert / Simmonds - Rodulate 3xLP On Rephlex.

Xela/ North Sea - Elect Vol. 1 LP Split LP limited to 300 copies.

Girl Talk - Feed The Animals CD I am almost sold out of this and so let me know if you want one
as they are sold out from the distributor.

La Dusseldorf - s/t CD One third of Neu, finally available domestically.

Stop Smiling #37 - The DC issue with George Pelecanos or Slim Charles from the Wire on the cover.

Bixobal #5 - Interviews and articles about rare psych, noise and punk.

Boduf Songs - How Shadows CD On Kranky.

Mountains - s/t CD Reissued from 2006

Mountains - Sewn CD

Samiyam - Return 12" On Hyperdub.

V/a - Love Peace Poetry Turkish Psych LP Back in stock.

Forsaken - Last Saloon 12" Dubstep.

Thanks
Mark