The National - High Violet

The beauty of Ohio based, The National is it grows on you like good pair of rainbow sandals. At first you think to yourself, this is just stiff and awkward, there is no way i could spend more than an 30 minutes with these things.  But before you know it, you stick with them, and they become the most comfortable, feet pleasing, article of clothing you own!  This is no understatement, and about 1 million socal OG's and 10 million wannabe's will vouch for me.

So, with The National you might at first think, is this guy serious?  his voice sounds like Brendan Frasier covering some Leonard Cohen classic.  Please get this picture out of your head. I am so sorry I did that to you.  Anyways, the National have been around for about a decade and they continue to bring solid indy alt-rock albums that are polished enough for old folks, but edgy and complex enough for the most pessimistic hipster.  The 5th installment and their latest, High Violet (2010) is close to a masterpiece.  They continue the great songwriting and devastating, understated lyrics but have really matured with exceptional instrumentation and complexity.  Each song is filled with layers of drum work, electic guitar, epic piano and then layers and layers of texture coming from i'm not sure what.  

And now I must give The National my highest compliment.  As a long time asping/failing musician myself, I often listen to music and imagine in my head what they could have added to parts of songs. like, "a little more bass melody here... add a backing string texture... drop that predictable bridge and add a new part,  jamming out an outro..." something like that.  But with the National's High Violet, that never happens.  I can't imagine changing or adding to the songs at all.  They just feel so full and complete.  What comes to mind is a quote from my favorite person, It is finished.

Other things to check out by the national:  song, Fake Empire. compilation, Dark was the Night. 

Things not to check out: every obnoxious politcal involvement, just pretend it never happened.

- By Mark

Scott Pilgrim

So Edgar Wright is making this movie (http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/universal/scottpilgrimvstheworld/) which is based off this graphic novel (http://www.scottpilgrim.com/) and it comes out August 13th. I'm excited, I love Edgar Wright, and I also really like Scott Pilgrim, I'm not the comic type of guy but I read this and it was pretty good, thumbs up for sure! And from the trailer it looks like a pretty freaking rad movie adaptation of a comic, Im totally into the onomatopoeia. This is the summer movie I'm anticipating the most. I'll let you know more after I see it. And not to mention the final book comes out this summer too!

And finally ,

I will be taking a little break from doing any posts for the summer. Because of my job I wont have much time for discovery or blog upkeep. But if the other guys write posts I'll try my best to get them up ASAP. Just wanted to give you all fair warning that posts might be sparse, but we'll be back in full swing in September. See you then, and keep an eye out for my final post that is still in progress and should be up soon!

- By Wes


UPDATE 5/31


New Trailer was released today check it out  its pretty freaking RAD! http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/universal/scottpilgrimvstheworld/


UPDATE 9/13


this is super late but I saw it twice and it was rad! go see it if you haven't or wait for the DVD but it is a must see super fun movie

British TV

I recently realized I really like british TV (in addition to my love of edgar wright's movies), with The Mighty Boosh, Look Around You, Spaced (which you all ready know I love). I decided to check out some other british stuff. The first show I looked into was Man Stroke Woman. Here's just one of the clips you can find on youtube. Apparently british TV is full of sketch shows, i'd say in monty python fashion. Tons of british comedy actors have a 2 season sketch show in their resume, this is one of them. Not every sketch is amazing but there are enough great ones to make it worth while. And the jokes are super british, theres no in your face american humor. Heres one of my favorites, theres a ton more on youtube check em out.

Another show I came across is Green Wing. It's a pretty classic hospital sitcom, I've read a lot on the net of people calling it the british Scrubs. I don't think its exactly like scrubs but its similar in that its a sitcom with mostly dry humor set in a hospital. The whole show is on Hulu (www.hulu.com/green-wing) so you should check it out. It's definitely worth a look, good characters, story, and pretty funny.

I like the fact that the more the internet develops more diverse stuff becomes really accessible, like british TV that I would have never seen without first reading about or seeing clips of online. It opens up a whole new bucket of content to Americans, and I don't have to stick with tired crap that gets pushed out season after season by major networks.

- By Wes