Beastie Boys Hit the “Sauce”
It’s not Tadlock’s Glasses: The Beastie Boys announced Monday on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” that they will release their new disc in September. The title? Hot Sauce Committee.
And here they are with The Roots on “So What’cha Want?”
Former Wilco member Jay Bennett dead at 45
Jay Bennett, the former Wilco member whose contentious relationship with Jeff Tweedy was both a source of great musical ferment during the Being There/Summerteeth days and formed the dramatic center for the documentary I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, died Sunday in Urbana, Ill. He was 45.
Cause of death is not yet known. Bennett had sued Wilco earlier this month for breach of contract. Jeff Tweedy released the following statement on Wilco’s site:
We are all deeply saddened by this tragedy. We will miss Jay as we remember him — as a truly unique and gifted human being and one who made welcome and significant contributions to the band’s songs and evolution. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends in this very difficult time.
Christian Bale: Leader of the Resistance
Bruce Wayne slips in and out of shadows with little chance of detection. John Connor of “Terminator Salvation” eludes the all-knowing electronic eyes of the Skynet killing machines. But Christian Bale cannot get in and out of Bartlesville without someone noticing.
In October, Bale sightings caused a stir in Bartlesville when a barista at a local Starbucks served the “Terminator Salvation” star a grande chai latte. When The Oklahoman asked Bale why he visited the town, the 35-year-old actor grinned widely.
“What do you mean?” Bale asked. “That’s offensive to Bartlesville. Who doesn’t want to go there? Are you from Bartlesville?”
Once he ascertained that this reporter was from Oklahoma and not a foot soldier in a TMZ.com-deployed army of Midwestern paparazzi, Bale offered slightly more information.
“I was there… for … doing a little bit of location scouting and getting ideas for something that… might … happen,” he said.
There would be no more elaboration, but Bale carefully chooses what he does and what he says these days. “Terminator Salvation” director McG said Bale was his immediate choice to play John Connor, humanity’s savior in the battle against treacherous technology. Bale was not so easily swayed.
“When people look at the franchise mythology and think that it’s over, you’ve got to come back with something that knocks people out,” Bale said. “I didn’t think it was there, but that was not just me — it was everybody. I felt like the franchise was done, so when I first got sent it, I didn’t have any interest. Then I sort of got a creeping idea that there was something good that could be told here. And if that was going to happen, then absolutely.”
After copious script doctoring and assurance that a fourth chapter in the saga was worth telling, Bale signed on. “Terminator Salvation” dramatically shifts away from both the darkly humorous tone and time-traveling conceit of the first three films, spending its entire time in the foreboding wasteland of California in 2018, when John Connor is rallying humanity’s resistance fighters in a great push against the machines’ genocidal war.
Bale said the film met his expectations, but he won’t fully know its impact until millions of moviegoers agree to sit in the dark and see it communally. It is that kind of experience.
“I saw a few different variations, like any movie goes through, but ultimately the last one I saw, I felt satisfied,” he said. “The public will decide — this is not a movie that you watch as a personal, two o’clock in the morning viewing. It’s not something which is gazing into the human soul and speaking to you in that way. It’s a movie that’s meant to be watched with a lot of different people, where you get that common energy. Movies like this … it’s a lot like sports. That’s what I loved about seeing ‘T2,’ and I thought we had a chance here.”
Although Bale is guarded with his answers and cagey about future projects, that protective armor makes sense. Since “The Dark Knight” became the biggest hit of 2008, Bale was in the news for allegedly assaulting his mother and sister in London. Then in February, audio surfaced of Bale lashing out at “Terminator Salvation” director of photography Shane Hurlbut. He acknowledged the effect that Internet-based scandal reporting has on his life, but Bale said he keeps such parajournalism at a distance.
“My life is much happier when I ignore that,” Bale said. “As for other people, it’s their choice. If they want to embrace that, they’re probably going to sacrifice enjoyment of the movies. But it’s their choice. If that’s what they love looking at … I don’t get it. It is what it is.”
So, information is parceled out as needed. The Internet Movie Database includes something called “Untitled Batman Project” in Bale’s 2011 filmography, but Bale will neither confirm nor deny that he will be wearing “Dark Knight” gear in the near future.
“After making a number of blunders, I’ve learned that I don’t answer that question until (director) Christopher Nolan answers that question,” he said.
And after that question is answered, perhaps the mysteries of Bartlesville will be revealed.
Random 10 for May 22, 2009
1. TV On The Radio, “Dancing Choose.” Oh, the horrors of being unable to attend a great show. But a combination of home improvement-related stress and resulting pocketbook-related stress made this a no-go. Rub it in my face — I can take it.
2. Cat Power, “The Greatest.”
3. Yes, “Does It Really Happen?”
4. Flying Lotus, “RobertaFlack.”
5. The Joy Formidable, “Cradle.” You don’t know The Joy Formidable? They picked up right where your precious Belly and Throwing Muses left off.
6. Ween, “Fancy Pants.”
7. Consonant, “Who Touches You Now?”
8. Ane Brun, “Rubber & Soul.”
9. Animal Collective, “Guys Eyes.”
10. Echo & the Bunnymen, “The Killing Moon.” Ah the gloom, the glorious, glorious gloom. A modern classic in the dark arts.
DVD Review: “Eddie Murphy Delirious: 25th Anniversary Edition”
Rating:94
Almost no one enjoys “Eddie Murphy Delirious” like men who were teenagers in 1983. They were getting away with something when they watched “Delirious” on HBO or made cassette copies of its tie-in comedy album, “Comedian.” Murphy, then only 22 years old, struck a match to their nice vocabulary and good behavior with his flawless comedic delivery, prolific profanity and toxic taste. As Murphy said in his classic segment “The Barbecue,” “Now that’s a fire!”
“Delirious,” now reissued for its 25th anniversary, is packed with such catchphrases, and Murphy, parading around Washington, D.C.’s Constitution Hall stage in a bright red leather suit he bought off the rack just before the show, made every single joke land on a bull’s eye. Granted, he starts the show with some noxious gay jokes that don’t pass the smell test 25 years later, but everything else surprisingly feels fresh thanks to Murphy’s impeccable, uproarious comic timing and great impersonation skill.
It’s been over two decades since Murphy performed stand-up, and the tradeoff for a recent string of forgettable family films stings now. But the second disc in this commemorative collection includes an interview in which Murphy, now 48, shows signs of the old magic. He tells interviewer Byron Allen that he is considering a return to stand-up, and Murphy could do far worse. If someone doesn’t put wheels under this idea, he might make “Meet Dave 2” instead.
Static, Episode 14: Dr. Pants
Interview
“Doppelganger Rock”
“It All Depends”
Video of the Day: Royksopp featuring Robyn, “The Girl and the Robot”
This is a gleefully dumb, high-style clip, but it just made me wish I had one of these putting the final touches on my house. Killer Giorgio Moroder-style synth-pulse rhythm on the song, though, so I’ll forgive the awkward techno-eroticism.
Music Review: Passion Pit, “Manners”
Rating: 86
Passion Pit delivered its first wet kiss with last year’s “Sleepyhead,” an intoxicating psychedelic electro-dance song with at least five stellar hooks backing Michael Angelakos’ histrionic falsetto. Right on cue with a batch of tracks that equal or top “Sleepyhead,” the band’s full-length debut, “Manners,” is a catchy catalog of ’80s funk-pop flourishes, regal techno ballads and Angelakos’ expert facility for wrangling killer earworms.
Top of the pops for “Manners” is “The Reeling,” an ebullient disco raver accented by a children’s chorus and the kind of beats that were made for strobe lights. “Little Secrets” contains some of the best Rick James-style funk keyboard work this side of a Chromeo disc, and when Passion Pit dials down the beats-per-minute with “To Kingdom Come,” Angelakos displays a stylistic range to match his vocal ability.
Above all else, “Manners” is top-shelf fun, a collection of undeniable melodies filtered through equal parts ’80s new wave and modern psychedelia. Like label mates MGMT before him, the 21-year-old Angelakos’ obvious fondness for synth-funk candy coupled with enviable musical instincts and a taste for woozy atmospherics, is venturing into a trippy new cosmos for freak-pop.
Video of the Day: Tortoise, “Prepare Your Coffin”
Movement about buildings, dancing about architecture, rocking about motorcycles. Beacons of Ancestorship arrives June 23.
Preview: Christian Bale on “Terminator Salvation” and Vaguely Explained Visits to Bartlesville
In October, Christian Bale sightings caused a stir in Bartlesville when a barista at a local Starbucks served the “Terminator Salvation” star a grande chai latte. When The Oklahoman asked Bale why he visited the town, the 35-year-old actor grinned widely.
“What do you mean?” Bale asked. “That’s offensive to Bartlesville. Who doesn’t want to go there? Are you from Bartlesville?”
Once he ascertained that this reporter was from Oklahoma and not a foot soldier in a TMZ.com-deployed army of Midwestern paparazzi, Bale offered slightly more information.
“I was there… for … doing a little bit of location scouting and getting ideas for something that… might … happen,” he said.
For more on Bale, check out Friday’s Weekend Look section, NewsOK and this space.
