A Cross the Universe

I know this has been around for freakin lightyears,but it is without a doubt one of the best live albums I have ever heard.D.A.N.C.E and The Party (featuring Uffie) are quite unsurprisingly the album's best vocal numbers,but the live take on Stress (an already INSANE track-plus I really loved the video) is violent,fast,excellent.

That said,this past week I stumbled upon something truly valuable-Polyester Records,a music store in Brunswick that offers the most impressive array of cds I've ever seen.For one they had all of the YYY's and The National's albums and EPs,and the new Bon Iver EP and I went home with two purchases-the HIV/AIDS funds awareness compilation Dark Was the Night (new Feist,Spoon and Sufjan songs are irresistable-though I was surprised to find that the album's highlight was a song by Yeasayer,a band I'm definitely intrigued to find out more about) and,something I've been searching high and low for a long time-the YYYs live DVD Tell me which Rockers to Swallow (Live in San Fransisco).Polyester Records has opened a new store in the CBD,and I strongly encourage everyone to check out their collection.From their website:

Polyester Records is proud to announce we have opened a brand new store in the heart of Melbourne. Located at 288 Flinders Lane (between Degraves and Elizabeth Streets) the store is Polyester Records’ second store, and a new edition to the city landscape.

This year our Fitzroy store celebrated its 20th anniversary against the backdrop of an uncertain music industry future. We would like to thank everyone that has supported the store over the years, it is greatly appreciated. Your support gives us the confidence Melbourne will embrace a new independent record store. Your love of music, loyalty to the store and support over this time demonstrate the demand for local independent alternatives.

Polyester believes Melbourne music fans are a passionate lot, and more and more people are discovering the great depth of music available outside the world of Top 40. The new city store will continue the strong tradition of Polyester Records Fitzroy. We will continue to specialise in local music, imports from all around the world, a vast vinyl selection, unsigned artists, tickets to local concerts and customer order requests. We will also continue providing RRR & PBS subscriber discounts.

Polyester Records City – Opening Hours
Monday to Thursday: 10am - 6pm
Friday: 10am - 8pm
Saturday: 10am - 6pm
Sunday: 11am - 5pm

Polyester Records can now be found at the following locations:

288 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. Phone: 03 9663 8696
387 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. Phone: 03 9419 5137

We can’t wait for everyone to see the new store, so we hope to see you soon!

Off to watch the week's Lost (Locke,how I've missed you!).

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Bat for Lashes "Daniel"

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Rick Owens Funnell Leather Jacket

(via Selectism)

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a search for new beginnings

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coraline

Flee!
Flee while there's still air in your lungs
and blood in your vains
and warmth in your heart.

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First posters for Tarantino's 'Inglourious Basterds'

(from Empire)

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a healing glow

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YYY's-"Zero"

Zero - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

First single ZERO from their upcoming album,my first impression:Very Siouxsie x New Order.Its no 'Maps' or 'Gold Lion',but the 80s feel and Karen O's letting loose really makes it worthwhile,I like it but I have much higher expectations for the new album.They really need to inject more of that animalistic energy (ie Rockers to Swallow,Y Control),a couple semi-ballads won't do any harm but I miss seeing them go wild.

For this song,guitarist Nick Zinner wasn't allowed a guitar and had to manage synths instead.

"When Karen orders, 'No guitars for Nick!' it makes you approach things in a different way," Zinner says in the cover story of SPIN's March issue (on newsstands next week). "Our producer was flabbergasted," drummer Brian Chase adds. "He was pleading, 'Nick, you're the best guitarist we have in rock'n'roll right now and here you are, playing all these synths.'" (Full article on SPIN).

It's Blitz! arrives April 14.

(via Stereogum)
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Beth Ditto for LOVE

(via NYMag)

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Commes Des Garcons "Glossy Black" Wallets

(via Highsnobiety)

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fainting spells

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Blitz

From YYYs Myspace comes this week's best news

A little madness in da SPRING

Blossoms blooming? bees getting nasty with birds? temperature getting higher and higher and YYYs dropping our big fat album in your laps?? THAT IS CORRECT our new record IT’S BLITZ! Hits the shelves on APRIL 14th US APRIL 13th UK!! But on it’s way first is ZERO the new yeah era track release on APRIL 6th!! Oh lord there’s no stopping us now!!!!!!!!!!!!LUV YYYs

Track listing:

1. Zero
2. Heads Will Roll
3. Soft Shock
4. Skeletons'
5. Dull Life
6. Shame and Fortune
7. Runaway
8. Dragon Queen
9. Hysteric
10. Little Shadow

don't stray
my kind's your kind
i'll stay the same

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Inglourious Klum

-Watchmen has an official release date for us,its March 5.I'll trade any dirty job to see it then.

-Santogold changing her name to Santigold,not at all confusing.What I hate it is that NASA song with Kanye,Lykke Li & Santi-with such a crazy lineup on one song,they couldn't even do half a decent one.

-Saw Revolutionary Road the other day,liked it as a whole.Never was a fan of Dicaprio (though I like The Beach),he tends to overact so easily.Kate Winslet was splendid,though it wasn't too relatable when she went all Stepford wife in the last few scenes-and Michael Shannon was a total scene-stealer (never thought he could do comedy so well),overall I thought it was an interesting observation on how a dream brought a couple together,but finally broke them apart.

-Watching Van She at Roar Sounds@Zoo tonight,pretty sure they'll be damn fantastic.

-First teaser for Tarantino's Death Proof follow-up,Inglourious Basterds. (via Firstshowing)



During World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "the Basterds" are chosen to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris that is targeted by soldiers.


-Aniston and Batemen to star in a movie,can't possibly not watch."The Baster" centers on a neurotic and insecure man (Bateman) who finds out his best friend (Aniston) wants to have a child through artificial insemination. He surreptitiously replaces her donor's semen with his own and is then forced to live with the secret that he is the child's real father." (Variety)

-Finally,Heidi Klum on GQ Germany March issue (via Egotastic).Her body looks strange and alien,but with that kind of smile you could get away with anything.

*If you haven't got the chance to contribute to the Bushfire appeal but want an easy way to,shop in Coles tomorrow (Friday,13th),all profits go to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal.

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Night was Dark

1. Had a whole plan for the night.Nap,nachos,possible continuation of nap,more nachos,then tv.After loading the laundry,I settled on the sofa to find The Biggest Loser on.So instead I put on some socks and got down to the gym,where the treadmill faces the Melbourne Central pinnacle and I imagined myself to be Mel Gibson racing to save the human race.

2. "There was no musicality in that routine".Ha?

3. Can't wait for Dark Was The Night.Feist and Sufjan on one record,uh oh.

4. All this Watchmen hype is ridiculous,I don't know much about the comic but the movie version of Rorschach looks superb.A video journal on his mask,I'll do anything to catch an advanced screening of this movie.
4.5. Exclusive Jack-Kate portraits on EW.No clues there I think,but how awkward is this pose they're in?

5. There was this guy in St Kilda whose hair was so blonde I think it hurt my eyes.It was like someone put a glowing jellyfish on his head or planted the sun right there.Maybe he was a spirit or something,otherworldyish.

6. Love the family-oriented Mcd ads.Still not eating that rubbish though.

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Rachel Getting Married

Managed to squeeze into an early screening at Nova yesterday.

Did not like this movie.Its far too self-indulgent to be an effective family drama,a big chunk it lies frozen in a static state where people do nothing but argue and throw tantrums.Here's the basic plot:Rachel's (Rosemarie DeWitt) about to get married and on the day of the rehearsal dinner,her sister Kym (Anne Hathaway) graduates rehab and returns home to find her presence unwelcomed.People have shouting matches and rehash old disputes,they cry in bathtubs and stress about how horrible their lives have been.

What I hated most about it was the wedding itself,I can see what it was aiming for but it all seriously fell apart.Having Asians,Blacks and other cultures mixed into a heavily Indian-themed wedding,while having them say silly,profound things over dinner and embrace each other turns out like a bad joke taken too seriously.It was all too jarring,and there was absolutely no chemistry to be felt anywhere.The inter-racial bride and groom stood out especially,they appear together in almost every scene-hugging,kissing-but they could not be more disconnected,little of that love and emotion translates on screen and it doesn't help that Rachel's part was very badly played.DeWitt smiles all the time and that's all she does,as if all that smiling constituted for actual acting.The wedding itself felt like a cheap,fake affair with the Indian theme an obvious novelty and all the dancing at the end felt like an overextended tourism promo.

Anne Hathaway embodies the character completely,all that selfishness and awkwardness around people.But by the end Kym unveils herself to be a bundle of too many personal fuck-ups and thin cliche's-I don't believe she's a solid reason to actually watch this movie,or that an Oscar win is deserved.There's barely a story to cling on,and at the end nothing is resolved and nothing changes-(*spoiler)-Kym..just goes back to Rehab.A movie that shows little promise (watchout for Debra Winger's too-short,but affecting turn as the detached,unfeeling mother),but some re-casting and more focus on Kym would've made this recommendable,almost.

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Stream

Myspace is streaming Lily Allen's 'It's not Me,It's You'.

KLIK

It'll probably be taken off very soon,but I'll definitely getting the album when it comes out mid-Feb.

1. I cannot understate the shock I felt when Lost's time-travelling bug messed up the island to the point where Jin encounters a still-pregnant Rousseau.I love how things are falling into place and the past and present collide,we get nuggets of the most memorable and heart-stopping moments from the first 2 seasons.Kate helping Claire's giving birth,Rousseau's manic distress call that went on loop,and Locke's discovery of the hatch.The left-behinders are slowly getting that fatal nosebleed,I hope by next week Faraday informs them about constants.

2. Cold War Kids @ Palace were fantastic,many old people in the audience.Not that the two are in any way related.Bring your buckets by the dozens,bring your nieces and your cousins.

3. I feel some part inside of me waking up,like its always been there but a huge blow left it unconscious for years.Its a new sense of humor,a decisiveness,a contemplative voice that knows not to stray too far,a realistic daydreamer if there's such a thing.

4. Rachel getting Married takes twelve eternities to get here.

5. Deerhunter's Microcastle a cool soundtrack for balcony-philosophizing.


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its like the taj mahal of fake 50s diners

1. The Office is going through a resurrection,I clung on despite the unimpressive episodes earlier and its finally paid off in the past 2 eps.I don't know who the writers were for these ones or if they were in fact different writers from before,but last week's was excellent and the most recent easily falls into my All-time favourite Office episodes.*baby spoilers ahead* Angela throwing her cat (SAVE BANDIT!),or Michael's roasting party-all reminiscent of the show's first few seasons,when you didn't know whether to laugh or cry.I thought the Jim-Pam story was going to turn out flat,but the final line and Pam's execution made it one hell of an emotional moment.It was creepy,funny and sad all at once.This week's best lines:

Dwight: A lot of ideas weren't appreciated in their time.
Michael: Electricity.
Dwight: Shampoo.

Michael: Nobody should go to work thinking "Oh,this might be the place I die today". That's what a hospital is for...an office is for..not dying..an office is a place to live life to the fullest..to the max..and office is a place where dreams come true.

Oscar: I consider myself a good person,but I want to make this man cry.

Michael: Meredith,you've slept with so many guys you look like one.

And Kelly listing people she'd make out before she made out with Michael Scott,a list that includes Kevin,a candle and Lord Voldermort.The whole sub-plot with the Jack Black movie was just too good,too damn good.

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