I saw this in 3D last night before Captain America and got super excited.  The first person shots were excellent eye candy in 3D (and a direct homage to Mirror’s Edge which I enjoyed).

I sure do love me some Spider-Man!

Valve means to fix the low billing of the song in the game with the Portal 2 Music Video Contest.

I don’t know how to fix the problem of not enough people playing amazing games that represent some of the most creative work I’ve seen in years.

In any case, the point of this post was that it’s awesome when things you love come together.

Thanks to Kottke for the LOLs.

Jack Wall did excelent work on the first two Mass Effect games, but Mass Effect and Mansell is like peanut butter and jelly!

For the details, check out Mansell’s recent interview with The Quietus where he also muses on composing the score for Black Swan and working with Aronofsky.

You can download the first single, ‘Down by the Water’, in exchange for your email address on their site right now. It’s kind of country and folksy but with that unique Decemberists quality.

…or maybe it’s just me? Have a listen yourself on Amazon or iTunes.

Also, do yourself a favor and go see them live.

Here’s ‘The Wanting Comes in Waves’ live on Leno in 540p HD (114 MB) or iPod (37MB) formats. The performance features Lavender Diamond’s Becky Stark (in green) on backing vocals along with Shara (in white), Colin, and the rest of The Decemberists.  As you’re watching, imagine everything twice as loud and Shara even more animated and you’ll get an idea what the live concerts are like.

Enjoy!

It felt like wonderful NYC fantasy that was almost too reflective of my own experience in NYC, like looking it a distorted mirror.

5.0 Stars

Insert snarky elitism comment here.

Enjoy and be sure to also check out Ra Ra Riot on Conan.

Mieko on Conan (HD 540p, 80 MB H.264)

I’ve also got the iPod/iPhone compatible clip (35 MB).

Enjoy!

I also made and iPod/iPhone version for all of you out there (download it for iTunes by saving the target of that link).

Enjoy!

Buy it now on Amazon or iTunes. See them if you can. You won’t regret it.

Best comic book movie of 2009?

Update: If you’re looking for the music from the trailer, it’s a Smashing Pumpkins B-Side called The Beginning is the End is the Beginning. You can pick it up on Amazon’s MP3 store for just 89¢. I could pick out the artist but thanks to inFocus for the tip of the song name.

Enjoy.

PS: If anyone out there has the ‘Colin Meloy Sings Morrissey’ tracks please give me a shout in the comments.

‘The Slip‘ is available in a variety of audio formats completely free of charge.  Multitrack audio files (for remixing) are also available and a traditional physical media release will happen in July.

Two awesome things about the album:

1. It’s released under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike license so it can be shared and remixed freely.
2. The digital downloads include unique album art and lyrics for each song (which, of course, can be seen on the iPhone).

So far the album hasn’t grabbed me like ‘Year Zero’ or ‘Ghosts I-IV’ did but I’ll give it some time to absorb.

BTW, I’m loving the level of interaction Trent and the band are having with their fans now that they shed their label.

Update: The whole album has now been released for free. Details.

1. Freeway
2. Stranger Into Starman
3. Looking for Nothing
4. Phoenix
5. Borrowing Time
6. It’s Over
7. Thirty One Today
8. Great Beyond
9. Medicine Wheel
10. Columbus Ave.
11. Little Tornado
12. True Believer
13. Ballantines

Nice distribution info and more on CMJ.

They apparently have lost a drummer though. WTF? Boo.

More details from CMJ.

A bunch of wonderful pics of people flipping-off Hummers.

(Via Deron Bauman @ Kottke.)

Bristol based genre-spanners Portishead, after months of speculation and a full 11 years since their last album, have finally announced the release of THIRD, their, appropriately, third LP, out April 14.

Hell yeah!

(Could it possibly be good enough to warrant an 11 year wait though?)

(Via CMJ.)

Tickets are $90 per day, available Friday, January 25th.

The Kronos Quartet are playing a concert in February where they will perform Clint Mansell’s Requiem for a Dream suite.

(Via Choire at Kottke.)

1. Feist – The Reminder: Overplayed and too popular now (so I might have to hate it henceforth), but this doesn’t change the fact that it’s an amazing album of indie rock at the core. Not having any track less than good on the album helps too.
2. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver: Electronic music taken to whole new places with touching and insightful lyrics.
3. Earlimart – Mentor Tormentor: A masterpiece of the introspective with layers of strings upon haunting vocals upon wonderfully tuned distortion.
4. Ra Ra Riot – EP: A band that you’ve never heard of (unless I’ve already shilled them to you) perfected the art of rocking out to the cello & violin.
5. Cinematic Orchestra – Ma Fleur: Listening to this album is like watching your favorite a bittersweet film; if you close your eyes you can see it play out right in front of you.

Inspired by the beauty of their native English countryside and a bit of California, the album is ‘gilded in the butterfly colors of English Surrealism,’ according to their MySpace blog, adding that the latest work may shock long-term fans.

Tracklist after the jump.

Woot.

(Via CMJ.)

Tracklist for Goldfrapp’s ‘Seventh Tree’:

1. Clowns
2. Little Bird
3. Happiness
4. Road to Somewhere
5. Eat Yourself
6. Some People
7. A&E
8. Cologne Cerrone Houdini
9. Caravan Girl
10. Monster Love

Some people are not pleased with this.

I am, so far, conflicted. Don’t fuck with my Feist.

1. ‘Shadow’ – Beady Belle
2. ‘Fast Car’ – Tracy Chapman
3. ‘A Dream for Us’ – The Appleseed Cast
4. ‘To Build a Home’ – The Cinematic Orchestra
5. ‘Together We Will Live Forever’ – Clint Mansell, Kronos Quartet, & Mogwai

Extra Special Sixth Bonus Track: Overplaying has desensitized me to it, but ‘Freshman’ by The Verve Pipe deserves to be on this list too.

After spending two years touring the world in support of the internationally acclaimed, gold selling album Set Yourself On Fire, Stars set to work writing and recording their fourth studio album. In Our Bedroom After The War was recorded at the Warehouse Studios in Vancouver, BC and was mixed by Joe Chiccarelli (Morrissey, The Shins, The White Stripes).

They even posted the first single “The Night Starts Here” as a free MP3.

Here’s the full track listing for the new album which hits September 25th, 2007. (Mark your calendars!):

1. The Beginning After the End
2. The Night Starts Here
3. Take Me to the Riot
4. My Favourite Book
5. Midnight Coward
6. The Ghost of Genova Heights
7. Personal
8. Barricade
9. Window Bird
10. Bitches in Tokyo
11. Life 2: The Unhappy Ending
12. Today Will be Better, I Swear!
13. In Our Bedroom After the War

Finally they mention planning a North American tour so keep a watch out for that. Exciting stuff!

(Link via CMJ.)

1. Ambulance LTD – Yoga Means Union
2. Spoon – The Beast & Dragon, Adored
3. Creper Lagoon – So Little to Give
4. The Decemberists – Sons & Daughters
5. Philip Glass – Metamorphosis 1

Can’t can’t can’t wait to see her at the end of the month.

(Thanks Mom.)

PS: The Reminder is still the best album of the year and we’re halfway through… but does anyone know some good challengers? I don’t see much competition on the field but there’s always room for surprises.

A guy’s gotta dream.

With the expected success of the spring blockbuster Spider-Man 3, Marvel Comics will be bringing the masked web slinger to Broadway. The new musical will be directed by Tony Award-winning director Julie Taymor (The Lion King), and will feature new songs written by Bono and Edge of U2. Although no opening date has been set, auditions and a summer reading are already in place.

Damn fuckin’ damn it! Is nothing scarred, is no story safe from The Musicalists? Keep your lame dances and mildly comedic songs off my comic book!

(Via CMJ.)

Reminder: The Reminder comes out May 1st and it’s the best album I’ve heard this year.

Update: Here’s a YouTube rip (16MB .mov) of the video for your iPod. Unfortunately it’s very low quality… I’d love something better (so let me know if you find something).

(NYT Link via Mom.)

Update (4/17): Right now Amazon is offering a pre-order The Reminder for just $7.99 (Thanks P). Get a few copies a give them to all your friends.

Also see this Rolling Stone article that picks the album as one of the ‘Fifty Must-Hear Albums of the Spring’.

Here it is on YouTube. I can’t wait to see this in HD from Apple.

Update (4/10): Apple has put it up here (or in HD). Nice!