Monthly Archives: February 2010

Edgar Wright Offers Glimpse of Scott Pilgrim Soundtrack

Edgar Wright has given us a sneak peak of the soundtrack to his highly anticipated adaptation of the Scott Pilgrim series thanks in part to one of the bands featured on it, Metric. The song is called “Black Sheep” and was a song the band started working on in their sessions for their newest record, Fantasies. According to the band, they were recruited by Wright to do the tune for the soundtrack with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich fulfilling those duties for the song. You can hear the song on Metric’s Facebook page. Scott Pilgrim author/artist Bryan Lee O’Malley has confirmed that the song is that of Clash at Demonhead, the band of Scott Pilgrim’s ex-girlfriend, featured in the poster above. Wright had previously posted a picture of himself alongside Godrich and Broken Social Scene, so this is shaping up to be a soundtrack that equals the awesome levels of the film (we’re assuming/hoping).

UPDATE: Edgar Wright has tweeted that Beck is also going to be on the soundtrack, and even more names are coming.

UPDATE 2: According to /Film, Beck will be providing the music for Scott Pilgrim’s band Sex Bob-omb and Broken Social Scene for Crash and the Boys. Sounds insanely awesome!

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Ben Linus, John Locke to Become Suburban Hitmen?

Of all the pairings on Lost, the best is Terry O’Quinn as John Locke/Smokey and Michael Emerson as Benjamin Linus. Fans that will be sad to see two go their separate ways when the show ends need not fret another moment! From TV Guide:

Terry O’Quinn, who plays Locke/Smoke Monster, tells me he is shopping around a bible for a TNT-type show that would pair him back up with his real-life chum and on-screen foe, Michael Emerson (Ben) – as suburban hit men juggling family issues. Though Terry asked me not to spill show specifics, he has spoken with Lost creator J.J. Abrams about the project and says, “I really hope this works out because Michael would be in his prime in this. We’d play kind of awkward partners.”

“It’s very sweet of him,” says Michael. “I’m all in favor of it. Any reason to work with Terry again.”

I would watch that show endlessly. This is a story we’ll be following closely.

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TUIW Conversation: Lost – “Lighthouse”

Each week, after taking a couple days to digest the episode and read what the blogs are says, we’re going to have a TUIW Conversation about Lost to try and unpack the episode, bounce theories off each other, and see if we can’t figure out what’s going on with our favorite group of TV castaways (sorry Gilligan!)

Jonah: All right, Michael, we’re a couple days removed from “Lighthouse,” which has been surprisingly controversial within the Lost community. I’m sympathetic to the notion, especially following last week’s mindblowing episode, that not as much was going on this week, especially for a Cuse/Lindelof episode. But I think that those people are kind of missing the point. This is still a season of Lost, even if its the last one, and they still need to take their time and put the pieces into place (and then immediately smash those pieces with a stick). Unlike Battlestar, which kind of lost the plot towards the end, what’s happening with these early episodes of Lost doesn’t make me think the writers are stalling or have no idea where its going…rather they’re positioning the dominos so it will be all the more satisfying when they’re knocked down. This week we saw just how wide-reaching the effects of the alternate timeline are (from changing when and where Jack got appendicitis to bringing Dogen, of all people, to the same LA recital as Jack to ensuring that there would be another Shepard with daddy issues in the world), got some more insight into what Jacob’s deal is, and caught up with Claire; not to mention the fact that, as an hour of television, it was affecting and funny. Were you satisfied by “Lighthouse” or am I going too easy on it? Are people pulling the ripchord just when things are getting interesting?

Michael: I was pretty satisfied. I think the big issue fans are running into has to do with ABC promoting every episode as “the final episodes!” We still have 13 hours of Lost left to go, and “Lighthouse” moved us towards the end, but didn’t put us immediately there. I think this is an episode that will seem much more significant when you go back and watch the season as a whole. It was about Jack starting to believe that he was on that Island for a reason. He had to be broken down to the lowest possible state before he could go back to the Island, and it’s going to take something more than Hurley being messenger for the ghost of Jacob to convince him of what he’ll need to do. Noel Murray had a good suggestion that Jack smashing the mirrors in the Lighthouse had less to do with Jack turning into the Hulk, and more Jack resisting the truth that there is a bigger reason as to why he’s there other than coincidence. I’ve always found it strange that Jack just wanted to go home and forget about everything that has happened. Of the Oceanic Six, he’s the only one who went back and did exactly what he did before. He’s resisted that there is something bigger there, and Lighthouse was about him starting to realize that. Moving on, what do you make of crazy Claire? Is she Rousseau 2.0 or a completely different beast?

J: Another interesting point about Jack smashing the mirrors raised by the AV Club comments section: it signifies even more that Jacob’s endgame is at hand. If his plan was for Jack to smash the mirrors, he must not be planning on bringing any more candidates to the island, so this is it. An interesting thought, for sure. As for crazy Claire, I’m intrigued by these first insights into the Infection. Claire remembers who she was and has the same basic objective as old-Claire (her bayybee), but she’s obviously way more violent and nuts. I’m still curious what the relationship is between Smokey and the Sickness. Is it related to Smokey’s nature? Another manifestation of the light/dark duality? Or are the infected just easier for Smokey to manipulate? Either way, with her, Smokey, and Sawyer headed for the Temple (which Sayid is also inside), I’m a little worried for the people still inside. What I can’t figure out is whether or not the Rousseau allusions (crazy Jungle lady, looking for her child, convinced the Others have the kid) are simply another sly way of tying season 6 back with season 1 or if there’s greater significance to it. Is there something more to the Claire/Rousseau connection? And what did you think about AlternaJack, his AlternaSon, and the super-random Dogen cameo?

M: I think we need maybe one more episode with Claire to see if there’s a definite Rousseau connection past the craziness, so we’ll see. As for AlternaJack, I actually thought that was a great storyline. If that kid is 13-15 in 2004, that means he was born way before Jack married Claire Dunphy, so that means there was a past for Jack that is completely different than the one we know. I’m excited to see where that goes. I think the Dogen interaction was meant to be more than a random connection. All of the other meetings of the characters in the FlashSideways have been similar to the relationships on the Island, so I’m thinking it’s more than chance that Dogen and Jack were in the same place. I keep coming back to the thing with Jack’s appendicitis. He seemed completely confused by the scar, almost in the same way he thought he recognized Desmond on the plane. Do you think this is Jack starting to have vague recollections of the Island? Are we getting closer to a convergence of timelines? What else stood out for you in “Lighthouse.”

J: I think the convergence may be approaching, and I’d bet it’ll be Jack who is the first one to actually become aware of it. The appendicitis was a big clue (and how weird is it that the island can affect when he has his appendix taken out?) and remember that Jack and Kate shared a moment in the airport too (which didn’t really happen with Kate and Sawyer or Claire). What else stood out for me? Well, probably the Lighthouse itself. Upon further examination, it turns out that the mirrors also showed the place where Jin and Sun got married and the church where Sawyer’s parents’ funeral took place. Note that those are both where Jacob touched them, so why Jack’s childhood home and not a hospital vending machine? I’ll go out on a limb and say that’s where Jacob touches AlternaJack, hastening the combination of the two timelines! Then there’s the fact that we learned that the Kate has a number (51) and isn’t crossed off. Also that 108 is “Wallace” (and, let’s get this out of the way: WHERE’S WALLACE, STRING????) which could mean that the whole 108 thing is misdirection from Jacob, or that Wallace is someone important we haven’t met, or (my new favorite crazy theory) Wallace=Smokey. Either way, do you think Jacob was serious when he said he was bringing someone else to the island? Who could it be? And what else did you notice?

M: Well I think the leading contender is definitely Desmond. Not only did we get a glimpse of him in “LA X,” but we had Eloise Hawking’s cryptic “the Island’s not done with you yet” comment from last year. Is it also too crazy to suggest her or Widmore, or even Aaron? Those are the only three people that have actually be on the Island that are still on the mainland that we know of, and it seems strange to just drop them and move on. There’s also Ji Yeon, but she seems a little more distantly connected than the others. What about Sawyer’s daughter? That seems like another thread that is too significant to drop, but maybe it isn’t. Perhaps it’s also a ruse by Jacob to get Jack and Hurley to the Lighthouse, a scenario that wouldn’t surprise me either. As far as anything else, we haven’t even mentioned the fact that Claire has vowed to kill Kate, who is actively looking for Claire. We know Claire is on Smokey’s side, so I’m interested to see Sawyer’s reaction to Claire’s desire to kill ol’ Freckles. Thanks to a super lame promo from ABC, it’s hard to tell what we’re going to get next week, but it’s a Sayid episode, so expect something big. Until then though, avoid infection, because if there’s one thing that will kill you on that Island, it’s infection.

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Thom Yorke Names Band, Announces Dates

When the Coachella lineup was announced, it featured “Thom Yorke and ?????,” as his backing band didn’t have a name. That backing band, which features Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, Beck/R.E.M. drummer Joey Waronker, percussionist/multi-instrumentalist Mauro Refosco, and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea now has a name: Atoms for Peace. Yorke made the announcement on Radiohead’s Dead Air Space blog, (“hope you like the name.. it seemed bleedin’ obvious”) and also threw in a few dates the band will be playing with Flying Lotus opening. Dates below:

Thom Yorke and Atoms for Peace:

04-05 New York, NY – Roseland Ballroom
04-06 New York, NY – Roseland Ballroom
04-08 Boston, MA – Citi Wang Theatre
04-10 Chicago, IL – Aragon Ballroom
04-11 Chicago, IL – Aragon Ballroom
04-14 Oakland, CA – Fox Theatre
04-15 Oakland, CA – Fox Theatre
04-17 Santa Barbara, CA – Santa Barbara Bowl
04-18 Indio, CA – Coachella

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LCD Soundsystem Finish New Record

For anyone that follows LCD Soundsystem James Murphy on Twitter, you know the last few months have been brutal on him as he’s been working to finish the untitled third LCD Soundsystem record. Well yesterday, he tweeted: “mixing last song right now to send to the amazing bob weston to master. meaning, record DONE. i hope people like it.” He even goes on to elaborate on the band’s website saying, “looks like we added another paris gig. oh, and something else. the fucking record is done.” No release date has yet been set, but this should be right up there at the top of the best music of 2010, which is shaping up to be an amazing year.

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Conan Returns Through Twitter!

Conan O’Brien has returned to the world through a now verified Twitter account! With just one tweet and within 24 hours, he’s already got a quarter of a million followers. That first tweet?

Looks like Conan took one of our suggestions of things to do during his time away from TV. Perhaps he should start looking into a couple of the others?

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Lost – “Lighthouse”

Jack Shepard. Doctor. Leader. Kind of a douche. For the last six years, Jack has ostensibly been the main character of Lost, all while taking every opportunity to petulantly refusing to look around him and realize that, hey, this island is a pretty special place. That’s why I took Jack as the frontrunner in the candidate sweepstakes last week, and also why I was not in the least surprised to see him react to being confronted with something magical and mysterious by smashing it with a stick. The time has nearly come for Jack’s redemption; he’s just not quite ready yet.

But let’s back up. Tonight’s mostly excellent “Lighthouse” was Jack-centric, even though on the island it took prodding and manipulation to get him to do anything. After a quick check-in at the Temple (Sayid’s still infected, Jack’s still puzzled, Dogen’s still kind of cool in a mysterious way), Jacob pops by to give Hurley detailed instructions on his next mission. Hurley sets off to do it, but Jacob reminds him that he needs to grab Jack first, leading to the priceless business of Hurley trying to play it cool (actually, pretty much all of Hurley’s stuff was spot-on tonight, like when he told Dogen he was a candidate and he could do what he wanted). Jack doesn’t want to come (even Hurley knows its ridiculous to try and talk him into doing something) till Hurley uses Jacob’s secret code phrase: “you have what it takes” (anyone else think Hugo was just making that up at first? Because I kind of giggled to myself before seeing Jack react to it).

Off the island and through time, AlternaJack gets home from the airport still missing Christian Shepard’s body. He grabs at his appendix and asks his mom about having it removed (she says it was taken out when he was 8 or 9, but you and I remember Juliet having to do it in “Something Nice Back Home”). Then he goes to a private school to pick up his kid! Yes, AlternaJack has an Alternakid who is, frankly, kind of an AlternaAsshole too. He’s distant and near silent when around Jack, despite his new HD TV to watch Red Sox games on, and just wants to get through their monthly visits (also, I’m totally losing it. Was Julie Bowen in one of the pictures we saw with Jack? Or was there no hard evidence that AlternaJack married the same person RegularJack did?).

AlternaJack goes his mom’s house to help her look for Christian Shepard’s will and, after talking through some father issues, they find it…only to discover that he’s left a lot of money to someone named Claire Littleton (we’ll come back to her later). Jack goes home to reconnect, but his son is missing. Jack calls a bunch of times and goes to the mother’s house (she’s not there, presumably because she’s with her other family) where he figures out that the kid is playing a big audition for a conservatory. Not only do they reconnect and make amends (notice that, just like AlternaLocke, AlternaJack is not only more at peace to begin with, but he settles the biggest problem in his life almost immediately after getting back from Australia), but it turns out that Dogen and his son are at the recital!!! What? Why?

The real action, this week, was back on the island, as Hugo and Jack go on their adventure. After leaving the Temple and running into Kate (still looking for Claire), they come across Shannon’s old inhaler and the caves! Its a nice bit of symmetry, since Jack first stumbled upon the caves in “White Rabbit,” this episode’s season 1 mirror. They also come across the skeletons (Hurley theorizes that maybe they’re 815ers) and Christian Shepard’s coffin.

From there, its onto the titular Lighthouse, an old building (it looks like its from the same time period as the Temple and the Statue) sitting on the shore. Jack breaks down the door and they go up to start setting the light to 108 degrees, which Jacob told Hurley to do so they could bring someone (Desmond?) to the island. But, they don’t get past 23 when Jack notices something. He realizes that not only is his name written at 23 degrees (his number on the cave wall last week), but the mirror shows his childhood house, confirming that Jacob has been keeping tabs on him and explaining how Jacob knew that Jack’s father used to tell him that he didn’t have what it takes. Jack switches to Hulk mode and demands answers that Hurley can’t give so Jack does what he does best: destroys an important piece of island mythology.

Its all good, though, because Jacob’s real plan all along was to show Jack how important he was. Jacob explains to Hurley that, while he could just talk him into coming back, Jack is going to have to realize what he must do on his own.

But I’ve saved the best for last. It turns out that, while most of the 815ers spent the last three years being miserable or shacking up with Juliet, Claire spent it taking Awesome Pills. Replacing the nice-but-kind-of-bland Claire from Seasons 1-4 is a Rousseau’d-out badass who kills Others. Claire rescues Jin from the trap and takes him back to her tent, along with an Other who was just pretending to be dead. We get some insight to what’s been happening for the last three years. Claire was infected and has clearly turned into someone a little less stable than when we last saw her. She was taken to the Temple and given the same battery of tests they gave Sayid, but she escaped. She believes the Others have Aaron and will kill them all to get him back.

She stitches up Jin (if there’s one thing that will kill you on the island…its infection) and interrogates the Other, but kills him when he insists they don’t have Aaron. Jin can only watch as he realizes that this Claire is different from the one he left behind. He also tells her that Kate was raising Aaron, but backtracks after he realizes she was crazy; a good thing, since Claire says she’d kill Kate if it were true. But it hasn’t been so bad for Claire; she has had her father and her friend to hang with – the latter of whom, Smokey, pops by at the end.

So I thought the Claire stuff rocked, while the business with Jack was pretty good. This season seems to be about redemption and exorcising the demons of your past, and it seems our characters have started taking steps to do so. This episode, more than the others so far, seems to be about the Losties finding their way. AlternaJack finds a way to communicate with his son; Kate decides her purpose is to reunite Claire and Aaron; Hurley discovers the confidence to get past Dogen and lead Jack; Claire gets directions to the Temple; and regular Jack finds out that his dad can’t tell him what he can’t do. The destination is still far away, but the path is illuminated. Not bad for an episode titled “Lighthouse.”

Jonah’s Score: 78

TUIW Grade: B+

Some Theorizing:

-Hurley and Miles playing Tic Tac Toe…priceless.

-At the end, Jacob tells Hurley that something very bad is about to go down at the Temple, no doubt involving Smokey and Claire. I’m a little worried for Miles, who is not a candidate and doesn’t have much to do.

-I already said in the recap that I think Jacob wants to bring Desmond to the island, however Lostpedia says that there already is a Candidate 108: “Wallace.”

-That being said, the lighthouse could still function as a lighthouse. And maybe that has something to do with the bearing that its safe to enter the island from.

-While we’re talking about the candidates, Lostpedia says that you can see “Austen” in the Lighthouse at 51 degrees and she didn’t appear to be crossed out. But why would Smokey not mention it if Kate was still a candidate too? Maybe the cave is where Smokey’s been keeping tabs on what Jacob’s been up to, while the Lighthouse is where Jacob keeps track of the candidates?

-The skeletons came back, and clearly the writers want us thinking about them again, so, any guesses? I’ve been leaning towards Jin and Sun recently, but maybe the skeletons aren’t the Losties at all. Maybe they’re Jacob and the Man in Black, or some earlier iteration of them.

-I was disappointed we didn’t get a Christian Shepard appearance this week. It seemed like they wanted us thinking about him too.

-Dogen in LA? Seriously, WTF?

-According to the Season 1 flashbacks, next week should be Sun-centric. After that, however, is where things kind of fall apart, since the one after that would need to be Charlie-centric.

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New She & Him – “Theives”

This afternoon brings us a new track from She & Him, the grammatically incorrect duo of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, from their new record, Volume 2. The newly redesigned Stereogum (which looks great btw) has the track “Thieves,” which carries the torch of the band’s dulcet sounds from Volume 1. Check it out below. They also have a bigger tour schedule, including an appearance at Coachella, where those of us at TUIW will likely see them. Those dates too are below.

She & Him – “Theives” [MP3]

She & Him on Tour:

03/15 – Los Angeles, CA @ Largo at the Coronet
03/18 – Austin, TX @ Cedar Street Courtyard (Merge Records Showcase, SXSW)
03/20 – Austin, TX @ Auditorium Shores (Ground Control Touring Showcase, SXSW)
03/25 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre
03/27 – Savannah, GA (Savannah Music Festival)
03/29 -  New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
03/30 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
04/15 – Pomona, CA @ The Glass House
04/16 – Indio, CA (Coachella)
04/26 – Madrid, ES @ Joy Eslava
04/27 – Barcelona, ES @ Sala Apolo
04/29 – Paris, FR @ Alhambra
04/30 – Berlin, DE @ Lido
05/01 – Copehagen, DK @ Vega
05/03 – Stockholm, SE @ Kägelbanan
05/04 – Oslo, NO @ Cosmopolite
05/06 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
05/07 – London, UK @ KOKO
05/08 – Minehead, UK @ All Tomorrow’s Parties
05/31 – Quincy, WA (Sasquatch!)
06/11 – Manchester, TN (Bonnaroo)

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Our Long National Nightmare Is Over: New Hold Steady Record in May

Break out yr Budweiser and get your “whoa-oh-whoa-oh-ohs” ready, The Hold Steady – purveyors of bar-soaked, Springsteen-influenced, highly literate rock and roll – are coming back with their fifth album after a nearly interminable two year hiatus, reports Pitchfork. The album, titled Heaven is Whenever, is due in May and could be quite a departure for the band:

I think this is a guitar heavy record. But I would NOT say this is a heavy guitar record. The main objective being not to make the same record as the one previous. I love Boys and Girls and Stay Positive. But they have a very similar feel and sound.

Pitchfork has a tracklist and tour itenerary (including a US tour through cities more like the ones they sing about than the typical indie rock tour). For those of you keeping score at home, that means we can add Heaven is Whenever to potential new records from LCD Soundsystem, The Arcade Fire, and The National. Have I mentioned 2010 is awesome?

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Introducing Top of the Bleachers

Have you ever found yourself thinking, “gee, I’d love to hear those guys from TUIW talk about sports!” Well now you can! Yes, we’ve added a sister site to the TUIW community, Top of the Bleachers, where we take on sports in a way the internet has never seen! Check it out!

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