BY RICHARD SUPLEE GEEK SPACE CORRESPONDENT ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is about the spy organization (formerly run by Samuel L Jackson’s Nick Fury) in the Marvel Universe that deals with threats such as aliens, mad scientists, evil robots and randos with superpowers. OK, from here it gets complicated so pay attention. Recently the created-to-help-but-since-turned-evil robot Aida (Mallory Jansen), with the help of her mad scientist creator, created an alternate reality inside a virtual world. A virtual world, called The Framework, was intended for terminally ill patients to upload their minds into where they will live long, happy post-corporeal lives. […]
REVIEW: New Pornographers Whiteout Conditions
The New Pornographers are coming up on 20 years with no discernible diminishment of their power to amuse and enchant. Ringleader Carl Newman envisioned the latest New Pornographer’s album, Whiteout Conditions, as a bubblegum krautrock record that would move at 160 BPM. He told bandmate Dan Bejar about the project, but Bejar had to bow out in order to focus on a ‘quieter’ and ‘weirder’ Destroyer album that had already been in the works. The boys aren’t broken up; the logistics just didn’t line up for this one. Even without Bejar, the album delivers The New Pornographer’s unmistakable prismatic power-pop sound. […]
ON TV: The Importance Of Being Kenan Thompson
HUFFINGTON POST: But after six years of working at SNL without ever quite thriving in it, Thompson finally found something in “What Up With That.” It was bizarre and disorganized and unlike anything else on the show. And it was a hit ? and his hit to boot. “Once it happened once, I was like, ‘Oh, this is a great formula,” Thompson said. “Then when we did it the second time, I was like, ‘Oh, I can do this.’” “What Up With That” gave Thompson confidence, and it gave SNL writers an understanding of his greatest strength: his ability […]
TRAILER: Starlight (Feat. Iggy Pop)
SPIN: In the ensemble-cast film, Iggy plays an angel-like figure who watches over a mysterious, grotesque circus–all lust, greed, and violence behind-the-scenes–situated on the banks of the North Sea. Think of a French art-film amalgam of Wings of Desire and Freaks (or Carnivale) and maybe you have a bit of the picture. Watch the new trailer below, and look for the on-demand/Blu-Ray release on May 9. MORE PREVIOUSLY: Review Of Jim Jarmusch’s Stooges Documentary PREVIOUSLY: Iggy Pop @ The Academy Of Music
BEING THERE: Chairlift + Kristin Kontrol @ UT
Photo by JOSH HELTA-PELLER/KOALA FOTOGRAPHY If the name Chairlift doesn’t ring a bell, search your memory banks for “Ch-Ching” and/or “Bruises,” both of which appeared on Apple commercials and probably burrowed into your brain. Still don’t recognize them after a quick Google search? Well, that’s too bad, because the band’s breaking up, and their show at Union Transfer on Friday night was their second-to-last. There’s good news, though, and it’s twofold; 1) we live in a digital world in which their music can be easily accessed, and 2) the art-pop duo is breaking up on good terms, so that bassist/drummer […]
INCOMING: Mad Scientists
WASHINGTON POST: Saturday’s March for Science is political, but not partisan. So say the organizers, who insist that they can walk that fine line even in an era of ideological rancor and extreme polarization. “We’ve been asked not to make personal attacks or partisan attacks,” said honorary national co-chair Lydia Villa-Komaroff, in a teleconference with reporters. But Villa-Komaroff, a cell biologist who will be among those with two-minute speaking slots, quickly added: “This is a group of people who don’t take well being told what to do.” The Science March, held on Earth Day, is expected to draw tens of […]
ONE YEAR GONE: Purple Reign
NEW YORK TIMES: Last August, when Angie Marchese became director of archives at Paisley Park, the rock star Prince’s studio and residence, one of the first things she did was to get rid of all the candles. Festooning nearly every room of the compound, they came in all sizes, shapes, colors and scents (including a few of Prince’s own aromatic blends). “We replaced all the real candles with artificial candles,” Ms. Marchese said in an interview this week in an anteroom at the compound, as her team prepared for a series of events marking the one-year anniversary of Prince’s death […]
EUREKA: A Q&A With Bill Nye, The Science Guy
BY JONATHAN VALANIA On Friday April 21st, Bill Nye — bow-tied science communicator, advocate for reason and critical thinking skills, wouldbe astronaut, bane of creationists and climate science denialists, not to mention superstitious kooks and cranks of every ideological stripe — returns to the small screen with Netflix’s Bill Nye Saves The World. To mark the auspicious return of reason and fact to American airwaves, we present this encore edition of our 2014 interview with Dr. Nye. DISCUSSED: Why he believes in evolution and you should too, Carl Sagan, marijuana, why he wouldn’t sign up for the one-way trip […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When U Can’t
DAVID BIANCULLI: The 1996 Coen Brothers movie Fargo was so good, and so original, that when the FX cable network announced it was making a new version for television, I expected it to be awful — especially since the creator of the adaptation was Noah Hawley, a writer-producer who hadn’t really done much. But Hawley’s Fargo wasn’t a straight remake — it was a sly and fond salute, capturing the mood and spirit of the original movie without borrowing any of its specific plots or characters. Billy Bob Thornton starred as a malevolent hit man and Martin Freeman was […]
Q&A: Simon Tam, Frontman/Founder Of The Slants
BY MAX ABRAMS The Slants claim to be the first all-Asian-American rock band in the secret history of Asian-American rock bands, and they wear that title like a badge of honor, even when it might work against them. Based out of Portland, Oregon, The Slants have been blasting out high-energy synth-pop-punk since their inception 11 years ago. With a long track record of working hand-in-glove with Asian-American advocacy groups and repping Asian-American identity politics in their music, The Slants were shocked and righteously annoyed to learn that the federal government refused their application to trademark their band name, claiming […]
BEING THERE: Why? @ Union Transfer
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER/KOALA FOTOGRAPHY Why? is a band that I usually appreciate most while drinking alone in some dimly lit room, curled up in a ball, leaning into masochistic tendencies I picked up as a teenager. A musical project that started out as sound collage experiment, and evolved over the years into a white-guy-rap, post-rock, indie-pop amalgam, Why? won me over with Yoni Wolf’s nasal-vocals that never shied away from taboo subjects like suicidal ideation or masturbating in the bathroom at the art museum. The authenticity of Yoni’s voice in Why?’s bizarre, genre-fluid music engendered the band with a […]
INCOMING: The Last Jedi
Like the teasers for The Force Awakens, this doesn’t reveal much plot. Out of context battles between The First Order and The Resistance are shown but other than X-Wings, TIE Fighters and stormtroopers shooting each other, we know nothing. Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) tries to escape a Resistance base alongside his orange robot ball and Finn (John Boyega) is still asleep in some medical pod. Luke Skywalker’s (Mark Hamill) whispery Obi-Wan-esque voiceover as he trains Rey (Daisy Ridley) in the ways of the Force and presumably the Jedi is the bulk of the trailer. I say presumably because Luke says […]
JESUS & MARY CHAIN: Mood Riser
Nothing says ‘Happy Easter’ like the goddamn Jesus & Mary Chain, amirite? From the excellent new Damage And Joy. Adds a little Sabbath-ian sweetleaf to the usual psycho candy. And we all get stoned and enthroned. Go loud or go home. PREVIOUSLY: Q&A W/ Jeus & Mary Chain Frontman Jim Reid PREVIOUSLY: How Fresh Air Critic Ken Tucker Hated On Psycho Candy And Wound Up On The Wrong Side Of History