It is definitely the season for a band reunion! So many bands are getting back together, whether it be for a one off occasion or something more permanent. This has been happening for a while, but it really hit me last night. Last night was a prime example of when "getting the band back together" is a fantastic idea. First up was Pangaea. These guys are a local Brisbane band who were formed around 1991 and haven't really done anything since 1997 (primarily because of their involvement in so many other bands - Ben Ely with Regurgitator and Dave Atkins with Resin Dogs). They could be described as funk reggae metal and they were awesome live. And they were awesome live again last night, supporting Helmet. They have even written some new songs which were on a par with their old stuff. Then Helmet came on and played a bunch of new songs - so far so okay. This band broke up in 1998 and got back together in 2004. Midway into the set, their original guitarist, a guy called Peter from Brisbane, Australia, came onto the stage and played a few old songs with the band, and the place just came alive. He was with the band from formation in 1988 until 1993. Besides the fact that the early songs from Strap it On and Meantime are just so awesome, you could tell that Page Hamilton and Peter were having a lot of fun and really enjoying reminiscing. It became a really good concert, especially when he came back in the encore to do their first ever single "Annoying Girl" to finish the show on a high (although probably the most childish song I've ever heard).
Def FX may also be reforming for a tour next year if there are enough "likes" on their Facebook page. This was one of my fave bands as a 17-18 year old, they do a great rock/electronica fusion with a kickass frontwoman in Fiona Horne. Hopefully they get enough likes for the tour, I will be there.
I can't even list all the bands that are reforming or have reformed and toured recently. Stone Temple Pilots was one we saw earlier this year and although the newer stuff is a bit 'meh' it was certainly great to hear the classic material. And this is what is at the heart of the 'reunion' movement. A hell of a lot of new music is just crap, it's so soulless, fake, done to be popular or make money or worse, just to gain fame. And I'm not just talking about pop and R'n'B which I can't stand anyway, in the post punk and emo genres there is a lot of crap too, as there was in the rap metal trend of the late 90s/early 00s. The fact is that the music of our (relative) youth often seems to stand up better than newer music. It is probably due to the rose coloured glasses effect, but hearing songs that remind you of a certain time in your life, usually when you were young/crazy/more carefree, just gives you a special feeling that people of a certain age don't get when Lady Gaga comes on. Maybe in 10 years time some people will have that special feeling about a Lady Gaga song, but I highly doubt it. I think Regurgitator (another band who took a break and came back again) said it best in their song - "I like your old stuff better than your new stuff". Although sometimes the magic can strike twice and the new music can be just as good or better.
The Soundwave organisers have certainly exploited the fondness for reunions, with a headlining spot on this year's Soundwave Revolution by Van Halen with David Lee Roth, not to mention Alice Cooper (did they ever really break up though - probably better filed under nostalgia than reunion) and Hole. Previous years have had Faith no More (probably one of my favourite reunion tours), Sunny Day Real Estate, the Get Up Kids, and my favourite reunion concert of all - Alice in Chains (they had a good reason to break up, but getting back together with their new singer was an inspired move).
Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of great new music out there. But you'll forgive me if I get excited about bands I used to love and soundtracked my youth getting back together and playing again. I don't care if it's a one off or a permanent thing with new songs coming out. I just want to feel that feeling one more time.... Even a few of my friend's bands, some of whom haven't played in almost 10 years, are toying with the idea of a one off show. High Speed Reason are playing Shed 5 at the Gold Coast in late July. Do I have to start a Facebook page to get Girls Germs and Bantha Fodder to give it a go as well? The Bantha boys have a massive hurdle with their guitarist being in Sydney so it probably won't happen, but you couldn't blame a girl for trying.
Share your favourite reunion tour with me...... And check out some Def FX songs on Youtube and like their facebook page so I get to relive my 17 year old days!
Friday 24 June 2011
Monday 20 June 2011
#11 Movie - Super 8
Super 8 is a summer (US) blockbuster that has no 3D, no superheroes, no franchise, not a sequel and no well known stars. However, this is a real cracker of a film. Written and directed by JJ Abrams (Lost, Cloverfield, Star Trek reboot) this is a tribute to his childhood and the movies of Steven Spielberg. Set in the summer of '79, the movie follows five 14 year old boys who are trying to make their own zombie movie on super 8mm film. They enlist Alice, a slightly older girl from school, to appear in the movie to give it more heart. We see the action through the eyes of Joe, whose mum has recently passed away leaving him with his Dad who is the deputy sheriff and a bit distant and obsessed with his work.
The movie-within-a-movie is going well as the boys and Alice are filming a big scene at a railway station out of town, until Joe sees a truck driving along the tracks and colliding with the train. The train crash is pretty spectacular, but what is the special cargo the air force were carrying on the train and are now trying to cover up the loss of? A mystery takes shape that the boys, Alice and Joe's Dad get involved in, as people start to go missing and strange things start occurring. Something strange and supernatural is going on here.
I'm not going to say anymore on the plot as it is revealed relatively quickly for a JJ Abrams production, although still slow enough to engage you in the mystery and suspense. Some bits are a little scary/gory so I wouldn't take any small children to see this, although it is probably fine for older kids say over 10. It really has that feel of a Goonies or ET (it was produced by Steven Spielberg), where kids hung out with the kids in their street, rode bikes and got into adventures. I felt the friendships were believable and a lot of humour comes out of their teasing comraderie and their dediction to "production values" in their film. I thought this movie had it all - action, humour, suspense, fun and a lot of heart. You really wanted to know what was going to happen next, and you wanted them to all be okay and finish their movie. Make sure you stay through the credits to see the finished zombie flick - it's quite funny. I really enjoyed this movie - I'd give it a 5 out of 5 except that the ending was a bit puzzling. So a 4.5 out of 5. Great fun.
The movie-within-a-movie is going well as the boys and Alice are filming a big scene at a railway station out of town, until Joe sees a truck driving along the tracks and colliding with the train. The train crash is pretty spectacular, but what is the special cargo the air force were carrying on the train and are now trying to cover up the loss of? A mystery takes shape that the boys, Alice and Joe's Dad get involved in, as people start to go missing and strange things start occurring. Something strange and supernatural is going on here.
I'm not going to say anymore on the plot as it is revealed relatively quickly for a JJ Abrams production, although still slow enough to engage you in the mystery and suspense. Some bits are a little scary/gory so I wouldn't take any small children to see this, although it is probably fine for older kids say over 10. It really has that feel of a Goonies or ET (it was produced by Steven Spielberg), where kids hung out with the kids in their street, rode bikes and got into adventures. I felt the friendships were believable and a lot of humour comes out of their teasing comraderie and their dediction to "production values" in their film. I thought this movie had it all - action, humour, suspense, fun and a lot of heart. You really wanted to know what was going to happen next, and you wanted them to all be okay and finish their movie. Make sure you stay through the credits to see the finished zombie flick - it's quite funny. I really enjoyed this movie - I'd give it a 5 out of 5 except that the ending was a bit puzzling. So a 4.5 out of 5. Great fun.
Sunday 12 June 2011
Help Wanted
Hey guys, I'm a bit needy and wanting to find out how to get more people reading my blog. To this end I've set up a poll on the blog to find out what you would like to see more posts on, please vote! Or you can leave a comment here - what sort of things would you like to read.
#10 Movie - The Hangover Part II
Have you been to see The Hangover Part 2 yet? No? Have you seen the first one? Yes? Well then you've kinda seen the second one. Yep, it's true what they are saying, the second movie is basically the same plot structure and rhythm as the first movie. I was a big fan of the first film and really looking forward to the second. However it is disappointing that they didn't do more with it given the new location and the characters they had already set up so well.
In this one, Stu is getting married to his girlfriend of 2 years in Thailand. Phil and Doug are going along but Alan definitely isn't invited after the hi-jinks last time. However, Alan ends up finding a way to get invited. Stu tries to get away with a "bachelor brunch" at home with no chance of another crazy night and it seems this strategy is going to be sucessful. Except we know it isn't, because the opening of the film is virtually identical to the first, with Phil making the call back to the girls to say that things have been messed up. From here the movie goes through the same pattern of discovering a missing friend, then unravelling the night before and trying to find the missing person in time for the wedding.
There are plenty of really funny scenes and Alan is again the idiotic man-child who has the "what the" lines. However I just didn't walk out thinking "I loved that" and I think the reason is that the first one was so surprising as it came out of nowhere, whereas this one just lost the element of surprise by copying the beats from the first movie. The jokes are similar and expected if you can remember details of the first one. Also there were only a few new characters introduced and most of those had very little screen time and no chance to get to know them. I'd still give it a solid 3 out of 5 but definitely a lost opportunity. I hear the third one is already in motion, let's hope they learn from this and make it different.
In this one, Stu is getting married to his girlfriend of 2 years in Thailand. Phil and Doug are going along but Alan definitely isn't invited after the hi-jinks last time. However, Alan ends up finding a way to get invited. Stu tries to get away with a "bachelor brunch" at home with no chance of another crazy night and it seems this strategy is going to be sucessful. Except we know it isn't, because the opening of the film is virtually identical to the first, with Phil making the call back to the girls to say that things have been messed up. From here the movie goes through the same pattern of discovering a missing friend, then unravelling the night before and trying to find the missing person in time for the wedding.
There are plenty of really funny scenes and Alan is again the idiotic man-child who has the "what the" lines. However I just didn't walk out thinking "I loved that" and I think the reason is that the first one was so surprising as it came out of nowhere, whereas this one just lost the element of surprise by copying the beats from the first movie. The jokes are similar and expected if you can remember details of the first one. Also there were only a few new characters introduced and most of those had very little screen time and no chance to get to know them. I'd still give it a solid 3 out of 5 but definitely a lost opportunity. I hear the third one is already in motion, let's hope they learn from this and make it different.
Monday 6 June 2011
MTV Movie Awards - who the hell votes for these things?
The MTV Movie Awards were held last night and all I can say is "who the hell votes for these things?" Okay the choice of nominees is relatively narrow to begin with but I just can't agree with 90% of the results. Here is a link to the website for all the nominees, results and "goss" - http://www.mtv.com/ontv/movieawards/2011/
So basically Twilight won almost everything and definitely won all of the categories it was nominated in. I don't know why I'm surprised by this but I am in a small way. MTV used to be cool but that was way back in the day. What happened? It now clearly caters for teeny boppers and people obsessed with celebrity culture - I haven't had Foxtel for quite a while but I have noticed that MTV spends way more time on "reality" shows than music these days. At what point do they change the name?
Anyhoo, the only awards I agree with are "Best Badass" and "Best Breakout Star" going to Chloe Grace Moretz for playing Hit Girl in Kick Ass. It is impossible to think that she didn't win "Best Fight" but of course Twilight had to win that even though that fight was fairly average. Christoph Waltz was unlucky to miss out on "Best Villain" from Kick Ass too (Tom Felton was barely in Harry Potter 7!). Ryan Reynolds is obviously too old to win the vote for "Best Scared as Shit Performance" for Buried, but I think he deserved it - did any of the other nominees have to act scared for the WHOLE movie? I have actually seen all 5 films nominated for "Best Movie" and I can say that Twilight Eclipse is the worst of the bunch, even though I enjoyed the books, liked the movie and thought it was a vast improvement on New Moon. I can't even pick between Inception or Social Network. Actually I feel sorry for The Social Network - overlooked at the Oscars after a late run by The King's Speech and Black Swan, and beaten out at MTV by Twilight. You would've thought the MTV voting audience would appreciate a film about Facebook a little more than they have (it won none of its categories)! However it was a fantastic movie and I think should've won "Best Line" for "If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you'd have invented Facebook".
The only good to come out of the awards was probably Reese Witherspoon's speech accepting her "Generation" award. Her commentary/advice on sex tapes and reality shows will probably fall on deaf ears though.
Who are these MTV/Twihard type people? Why can they not acknowledge that the Twilight movies are okay but really not great and certainly not deserving of the awards compared to the other nominees? Why do they find it acceptable to send public death threats to Justin Bieber's new girlfriend just for the offence of being Justin Bieber's girlfriend instead of them? What can be done to teach these kids about real reality and acceptable codes of behaviour?
So basically Twilight won almost everything and definitely won all of the categories it was nominated in. I don't know why I'm surprised by this but I am in a small way. MTV used to be cool but that was way back in the day. What happened? It now clearly caters for teeny boppers and people obsessed with celebrity culture - I haven't had Foxtel for quite a while but I have noticed that MTV spends way more time on "reality" shows than music these days. At what point do they change the name?
Anyhoo, the only awards I agree with are "Best Badass" and "Best Breakout Star" going to Chloe Grace Moretz for playing Hit Girl in Kick Ass. It is impossible to think that she didn't win "Best Fight" but of course Twilight had to win that even though that fight was fairly average. Christoph Waltz was unlucky to miss out on "Best Villain" from Kick Ass too (Tom Felton was barely in Harry Potter 7!). Ryan Reynolds is obviously too old to win the vote for "Best Scared as Shit Performance" for Buried, but I think he deserved it - did any of the other nominees have to act scared for the WHOLE movie? I have actually seen all 5 films nominated for "Best Movie" and I can say that Twilight Eclipse is the worst of the bunch, even though I enjoyed the books, liked the movie and thought it was a vast improvement on New Moon. I can't even pick between Inception or Social Network. Actually I feel sorry for The Social Network - overlooked at the Oscars after a late run by The King's Speech and Black Swan, and beaten out at MTV by Twilight. You would've thought the MTV voting audience would appreciate a film about Facebook a little more than they have (it won none of its categories)! However it was a fantastic movie and I think should've won "Best Line" for "If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you'd have invented Facebook".
The only good to come out of the awards was probably Reese Witherspoon's speech accepting her "Generation" award. Her commentary/advice on sex tapes and reality shows will probably fall on deaf ears though.
Who are these MTV/Twihard type people? Why can they not acknowledge that the Twilight movies are okay but really not great and certainly not deserving of the awards compared to the other nominees? Why do they find it acceptable to send public death threats to Justin Bieber's new girlfriend just for the offence of being Justin Bieber's girlfriend instead of them? What can be done to teach these kids about real reality and acceptable codes of behaviour?
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