Static, Episode 12: Defected
Interview
“Letting Go”
“Will You Miss Me?”
Video of the Day: Hammarin and Robin, “Hell Knows I’m In Love”
These Swedes careen past sublime and plunge straight into ridiculous. By the way, I had that same one-speaker Panasonic boom box when I was 11.
Lost “Lost” Officially Rescheduled
KOCO just announced that it will broadcast the two-hour “Lost” season finale at 10:39 p.m. Saturday. The final half-hour of the finale was scuttled thanks to the beautiful weather here in the Pacific Northwest–er, Oklahoma City. And for all you obsessive types who cannot wait, there’s always this.
“Wilco (The Album)” Now Streaming at Wilcoworld (The Web Site)
Wilco (The Album) arrives in stores June 30. You want to go to there.
Video of the Day: Mos Def, “Casa Bey”
And behold, Mos Def exhibits unbelievable close-up flow over groove-tastic ’70s jazz samples. And “yacht hip-hop” is born.
Lost “Lost”: Reschedule Pending on KOCO Channel 5
As many of you already know as you studiously avoid all internet discussions of last night’s “Lost” episode, Oklahoma City lost out on the crucial final 40 minutes or so thanks to cataclysmic, Old Testament-style weather. I just placed a call to KOCO-TV Channel 5, and we should expect a rescheduling announcement later today. I will let everyone know just as soon as a decision is made.
New Starlight Mints: “Zoomba”
The new Mints disc, Change Remains, hits stores July 21. Here is your first taste, courtesy of the fine people at Barsuk — download “Zoomba” here.
(And a tip of the imaginary hat to Oklahoma Rock on this one).
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Music Review: St. Vincent, “Actor”
Rating: 90
A tempest encased in porcelain, Tulsa-born Annie Clark’s music as St. Vincent often sounds like the Great American Songbook under attack. Hers is a gift for crafting crystalline, classicist pop with nightmares lurking within, owing as much to George Gershwin and Irving Berlin as it does to art-rockers Kate Bush and Robert Wyatt. St. Vincent’s second disc, “Actor,” is filled with moments of exhilarating deception as Clark’s honeyed voice and perfect song structures routinely get ripped asunder by darkness.
This is most evident in the opening song, “The Strangers,” a tense beauty of domestic unrest. Clark sings of a lover becoming a stranger, punctuating the implied violence with the dark-angelic refrain, “paint the black hole blacker.” The line winds through the song like the spirit of a Big Band-era vocal group wafting out of a busted Philco radio. Elsewhere, Clark’s guitar skills go to work on the bursts of distortion in “The Neighbors” and the set’s most traditionally rocking song, “Actor Out of Work,” a direct lyrical punch aimed at a dishonest suitor.
Beautifully strange throughout, “Actor” reaches its apex with “Marrow,” as dulcet strings and choir give way to a brittle funk and Clark’s cries of help. Producer John Congleton’s ace touch on the song is allowing the listener to hear the clack of keys being struck on the synth, adding to the menace and confusion. Clark gives the performance of a lifetime on “Actor,” and yet St. Vincent’s show is only beginning.
Video of the Day: Love Is All, “Last Choice”
In Mr. Blockhead’s world, nothing is real and clearly nothing is easy to eat with those blunt forks. But that cat talking into the hamburger phone certainly looks organic, sentient, and possibly dangerous.
Anton Yelchin of “Terminator Salvation” on his love of gelatinous killing machines
“I think I saw them way too early. Like, I saw ‘T2,’ which came out in ’91, and I saw it on TV a couple of years after that, so I was about four or five when I saw it, and I was so into it. I was obsessed with it: I had all the action figures, I had a Terminator factory that made gelatin Terminators — hey, they put one out and I had it.”
See more of my interview with Yelchin in this Friday’s edition of Weekend Look.
Next week: Christian Bale.
