So…I’m admittedly late to the game on this one. But I’m willing to bet most (not all…calm down die hards up in Greenville and Concord) of you Avett Brothers fans are newer than you think as well. I’ve been hearing a buzz about brothers Seth and Scott for the last year and half or so, as they’ve been making quite a name for themselves with their bluegrass, folk-rock, alt-country, genre spanning sounds. However, these guys have been touring and putting out albums since 2000, so, again, I don’t feel that bad about just getting around to writing about them. Hailing from Concord, NC, or Greenville, NC (depending on whom you ask) the Avetts give you up-beat, almost punk-like, folk-country and then instantly flip it around and practically move you to tears with soulfoul ballads that could pass as the pinings of the traditional country raconteurs. I like variety in a band – and these guys have plenty of it. Get ready to start appreciating the banjo.
PCC2C recently received an advanced copy of GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra for Wii, (even though we didn’t get it until after the game had come out – but that’s fine with us) so I handed it off to friend of the show, and resident video game expert, JB. It’s nice to tackle a new medium here on the show, as I don’t think we’ve ever done a piece on video games, other than mentioning that Rock Band and Guitar Hero are extremely awesome. This is his review in its entirety:
GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra is made by Electronic Arts (the king of sports-themed video games). For the Wii console, the game allows two players to play together and take on Cobra while using an array of GI Joe characters. Play starts with the ability to select either Duke or Scarlet, and more players become available after you reach certain point thresholds. From there, you can choose any two characters to attack a particular level (based on their specific attributes). I’ve only tried the first mission so far, so perhaps there are other things that I’m missing.
Things I liked: I thought the sound was good (had the actors from the movie), good use of “background noise” from other GI Joe characters as you explore levels. I also liked the fact that the storyline was different from the movie–same characters, but different plot. The cut scenes were pretty high quality, as well.
Things that weren’t great: The graphics were OK, but I think other Wii games (Ghostbusters, Resident Evil) have made better use of the system. I think that is due to the fact that certain games are designed just for the Wii, while others are designed for other systems and then ported to the Wii. This looks to be one of the latter. The functionality is fine (can move with the nunchuk and the controller), but it doesn’t make full use of the Wii’s capabilities, as the aforementioned games do (i.e. point-and-shoot, etc.). Finally, from what I can tell, this is a straight shoot-em-up game, without the occasional puzzles that make games like Resident Evil more enjoyable, in my opinion.
I think of a movie. You try to guess it in the comments section. As always, the above picture is a clue. If there are no correct guesses, I will update the post with a hint.
UPDATE: Neal, Congratulations, you have guessed the movie! The correct answer was Racing Stripes, a movie that I’ve never seen before. I thought Neal would get it this week because of his deep love for zebras and also horseracing. So congratulations Neal, you are the big winner this week.
I apologize for the lack of postings recently, but our East Coast Office has been experiencing intermittent internet problems and our West Coast Office has been on hiatus. The interweb is back in full effect so now you get to experience all of the glory of what I think is cool. I know, I know.
I went to a concert earlier this week featuring White Rabbits and Firey Furnaces. Let me just say that while this was billed as a double headliner event, White Rabbits did take the stage first. Mistake. Their energy and showmanship is tough for any act to follow, let alone a band (Firey Furnaces) that revels in its emo status to the point that they seem detached and irritated about playing live music. White Rabbits incorporate extra drum kits, blazing piano solos, and two-part lead harmonies, while the Firey Furnaces enjoy some creative, but frenetic, guitar play, wildly changing tempo and general apathy. A weird pairing – Firey Furnaces should have gone first. I found White Rabbits to be not only superior live performers, but they just simply have better songs. Maybe just my personal taste, but probably not. Thing number one that I think is cool: White Rabbits in concert.
Here is a trailer for a new documentary about Calvin & Hobbes, more accurately, about fans and their appreciation to strip creator, Bill Watterson. Calvin & Hobbes had a profound impact on me, not just as a child, but through my high school years and well into my evolvement into a young adult as well. An evolution that is still far from over. The strip’s beauty is that everyone (people of all ages, backgrounds, beliefs) can relate to it. The strip meant as much to me as a child as it did when I was in college – just for different reasons. Kids relate to Calvin’s distaste for school and his parents authority. Adults relate to his relationship with the world, yearning for carefree days spent running through the woods armed only with imagination, but realizing that things don’t always turn out as you’d planned. To Watterson’s credit he didn’t stop there. Most cartoonists would give anything to have created such beloved characters who spouted life lessons and quipped genuinely hilarious one-liners. Watterson went further and completed the trifecta: he brought you into Calvin & Hobbes’ world with unmatched artwork and creativity. It’s the perfect comic strip. Watterson became upset with the corporate nature of success and retired from comics in 1995. To call him a genius is not overstating the facts and I anxiously look forward to this documentray and the chance to show my own thanks. Thing number two I think is cool: Calvin & Hobbes
Here’s a new trailer for Mike Judge’s upcoming comedy Extract. Movie looks great and it has Mila Kunis – whom I love. Thing number three I think is cool: the movie Extract. Thing (person) number four I think is cool: Mila Kunis.
Check out the robot in this new video from Jer Coons. He’s a new pop singer who’s currently on tour, coming to Charlotte’s DoubleDoor in October, and has a video where he mocks people who wear multiple collared shirts and has a fight with a robot. The robot part is pretty awesome. Thing number five I think is cool: the robot fight in Jer Coon’s new video.
The last and final thing I think is cool, comes by way of PCC2C regular-reader CC. It’s the website hunch. Take a short profile quiz and then ask hunch to make recommendations for you in all kinds of fields: movies, books, food etc. Thing number six I think is cool: letting websites make decisions for me so I don’t have to think. It would have ranked higher if the name of the site was “thinkingforyou.com”
Today on The Spotlight is Scottish indie mainstay, Camera Obscura. Though they’ve been around since 1996, the band didn’t release their first album until 2001, with the help of some friends from the group Belle and Sebastian. Those Scots stick together. Since then they’ve released another three and gone through enough band members to fill out two additional groups. Bluesy, folksy, mellow – whatever you want to call them, these guys are great songwriters and the song below is twinged with just enough country that it would make even a Hank Jr. fan proud. Enjoy.
Friend of the show, JB, was able to snap this picture of one of nature’s rarest creations: the father/son simultaneous 3 wolf t-shirt display. Truly one of Mother Earth’s great marvels, this spectacular showcase of sartorial blindness and total disregard for common sense is only observed in the most isolated of habitats, where all of the necessities of the wolf t-shirt wearer can be met. A place like the food court area at a mall in Cincinnatti, Ohio. As JB points out, the above picture, much like the footage of bigfoot or snapshots of UFOs, has just the right amount of blurriness to fuel a debate as to whether such a phenomenon actually occurred. Who says you have to go outdoors to observe nature’s majesty? Respect…
It’s time for indie rock to step aside and allow its sweeter, peppier little sister, indie-pop, to shine. We all knew she would grow up one day and that day has finally come. You growns up and you growns up and you growns up. Matt & Kim are here to provide you with that rock & roll infused, hip-hop inspired indie-pop. The two met at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn (of course – does any new U.S. indie-music come from anywhere else?) and have created quite a buzz with their stripped-down, high-energy, dance tracks. Very stripped down. Matt Johnson plays the keyboard and sings, and Kim Schifino plays the drums and sings. That’s it. You may recognize their track Daylight from the newest Bacardi commercial, but below I’ve provided something a little more…explosive.
I saw Man on Wire in theaters last year and right afterwards, I said it was the best documentary of the year and it went onto win an Academy Award. I’m telling you this because I want you to be impressed. I also wanted you to know that I had the same feeling after I saw The Cove last Friday. This should win an Oscar for best documentary and I urge everyone to see it, you will not be disappointed.
The Cove is about a group of activists that go to a tiny village in Japan in the hopes of exposing the selling and killing of thousands of dolphins. For whatever reason, I was not necessarily pysched to go see this movie. A movie about saving the dolphins was not at the top of the priority list for me. My list goes something like this, #1 cookies, #2 Carolina Basketball, #7 Showers, #12 sleep, and way down below, #532 dolphins.
I heard it was a good movie, but I thought a whole movie about saving some dolphins would get a bit taxing. But I was mistaken. This is a riveting film that literally left me speechless after it was over. Clocking in at 92 minutes, the film never drags, never fails to be informative, but yet does it in a way that doesn’t come off as preachy, overly bias, or just plain boring. For a good portion of the movie, it even takes on this Mission Impossible type of vibe which is really entertaining. I don’t want to mislead you, there are some pretty harrowing moments, and there is one scene that will probably stay with you for some time. But, it’s an important film, a film that deserves to be seen, especially over some of the current fluff that’s out in theaters right now. I’m looking at you GI Joe, Paper Heart, and 500 Days of Summer. I promise you will enjoy it. That’s a popcoast2coast guarantee.
Today is a sad day indeed for the film world – especially for fans of the arts of screen writing and comedy. John Hughes was a prolific talent and established himself as a cinematic tour-de-force in the 1980s by creating some of the most memorable and enjoyable films from that era. Unfortunately, he passed away from a heart attack yesterday at the much-to-early-age of 59. Most people immediately associate Mr. Hughes with The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but may be surprised to know he is also responsible for National Lampoon’s Vacation, Planes Train and Automobiles, and Home Alone. Point being – the man is a legend. He had a knack for really honing in on the dynamics of teenage life and capturing the angst and insecurities of those formative years and combining them with just the right amount of comedic exaggeration. His abillity to find true comedy in the structure of the American family and the trials of the “every-man” (or usually in Hughes’ case – the “every-teenager”), is unmatched and will probably never be replicated with the same degree of success. He claimed to have written The Breakfast Club over the course of one weekend (awesome), and his style is an inspiration to aspiring screenwriters everywhere. I will miss his ability to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary and his loving portrayal of life in the 1980s, but I’m thankful he left us such a fantastic, and hilarious, legacy.
