The Shockedelic Radio Show Episode 3:03 "Spidey Sense"

The Shockedelic Radio Show

June 15th, 2008 - Episode 3:03

"Spidey Sense"

Click this here link to download this new episode of The Shockedelic Radio Show to your Computer. It's an mp3 file (80 minutes long, about 38 or so megs) that you can transfer to your MP3 Media Player, burn to a CD or just listen on your computer. If you prefer to just have it stream to your computer via WinAmp or Windows Media Player (or whatever streaming player you use), click On this particular link.

Legal stuff:

It's a very litigious society, so please understand that this MP3 Podcast is presented as a radio show promoting new and lesser well known artists. All of the music here is copyrighted and the copyright proprietors retain ownership of the material presented here. No rights are given to the downloader or listener or are implied as such. In short, listen to the show and enjoy it, but don't go dissecting the program. If you hear something you like, track it down and purchase it. Supporting the artist is crucial. Make sure you do your duty.

Wanna subscribe to this on iTunes? Do this:

Open iTunes
Go Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast
Type the following into the Pop Up Box (exactly like this. No Spaces.):
http://www.geocities.com/Schmilsson1969/Shockedelic/shockadelic.xml

There you go! You'll be in tune with the rest of the Universe now!

Hope you enjoy it.

ERRATA UPDATE: Nary a show goes by that I don't make a gaffe or two. My mind was elsewhere (read: turned off completely) while I was doin' the announcing thing-a-ring, so I mistakenly stated the drummer for The Major Labels was Ducky Carlton when his name is Ducky Carlisle. Sorry, Ducky! I also neglected to say the name of Liam Finn's album that the song "Second Chance" originates from; which is I'll Be Lightening. Sorry, Liam. I'll post more errors as they reveal themselves to me. Enjoy the show e'rebuddy!

Review: The "My Sassy Girl" Remake

OK. This is a tough one. This morning (11:30am; 8-2-08), I finally, finally viewed the United States remake of the South Korean classic, My Sassy Girl.

First things first: I DIDN'T hate it. There, I wrote it. There is much to be said for going in with the mind wide open. I'm not going to say the film was very good or that it would, in any way, compare to the original. It has many, many faults. We'll list them, but first, a brief synopsis.

Charlie Bellow (Jessie Bradford) is a Country bumpkin who moves to the city to attend College. One day, in the subway, he rescues a girl, Jordan Roark (why did they name her? Played by Elisha Cuthbert) from being hit by a train. She calls him "Honey" and collapses. He takes it upon himself to take care of her, which lands him in jail. Their relationship grows in spite of her erratic and abusive behavior.

(Note: this review is going to go deep into spoiler territory. I'm also going to assume you, the reader, has seen the original film.)

The main problem with the film is the length. This film is attempting to compress a 2 hour and 5 minute film into a 90 minutes. This would have me believe that the remake was going to remove a lot of scenes found in the original. Wrong. This movie includes virtually EVERY key scene from the original, including the Military hostage scene (which was the first scene I expected to be excised from the remake). This makes the film move at a rapid fire pace. This remake moves so fast that actual exposition is sometimes glossed over or removed completely. It reminds me of those old Super 8 film digests, where all the key scenes are there with nothing to link them. This is especially problematic in the opening scenes where it's not exactly explained sufficiently how the cops showed up at Charlie's apartment.

Jessie Bradford is a very bland leading man as Charlie Bellow. He seems to be playing the role like Freddie Prinze channeling Jon Cryer. He's too handsome to play the "I-can't-get-a-nice-girl" role and he's too upwardly urban to be playing a guy from the rurals.

Charlie has an Unnecessary sidekick in Leo (Austin Bass). Gyun Woo, in the original, had friends, but he never spent time pointlessly discussing what we already know.

The film also has a bad case of "Explain-it-all-ity". The original had the good sense to at least pretend the audience wasn't a group of idiots. Here, in this remake, everything is spelled out with narration so that even the biggest idiot can see the final plot revelation coming from Mars.


Thankfully, the film has Elisha Cuthbert. The character is unwisely rewritten; she's not mean enough when it counts and we never see her as a danger. She never even says, "Wanna Die?" once in the film. The beauty of Jun Ji-Hyun's masterful performance was that she was a constant danger to herself and everyone around her, yet we still fell in love with her in spite of it all. That said, Elisha Cuthbert carries the movie on her shoulders. Her performance is so good that she even sells the most mediocre lines (and there are a ton of them) beautifully. She is completely faultless here. No one could fill Jun Ji-Hyun's shoes and Cuthbert seems to know this.

Joanna Gleason, in a double role as Charlie's Mother and Aunt, is fine here and Chris Sarandon is almost unrecognisable as Jordan's Father.

I also have to give special notice to the Cinematography. The movie looks lovely.

So, there is a lovely surprise here. It's not a wonderful movie. It's not even all that great by any stretch, but somehow, it doesn't embarrass the memory of the original.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Thicke, Bitch.

I love Thicke. Robin Thicke, that is. I still remember the morning I woke up, turned on the TV and saw his video for "When I Get You Alone" on MTV (yeah, back when they not only played videos, but when they played more than two types of music genres). I forgot, for the longest time, who the artist was. I searched everywhere to no avail. A friend finally found out "who that artist with one name" was. It turns out, his album Cherry Blue Skies never got a release until a year later when some additional tracks were added and retitled A Beautiful World. Luckily, the Internet once again came to the rescue and revealed it's bounty upon me. I grooved to Cherry Blue Skies long before many people knew who Thicke was (well, outside of being famous for his parents Gloria Loring and Alan Thicke).

His breakthrough album, The Evolution of Robin Thicke, to my ears, suffered from too much modern Soul sounds. You know, finger popping percussion over either light Flamenco guitar or a driving string section. I missed the straight ahead funk of his debut album (in either configuration).

Well, a new single is out, entitled Magic. It's a return to the earlier, old school sound that made me love Thicke in the first place. The video is a good watch, too. It has a fun parody of the old THX theater snipe and a cool send up of key images from 2001: A Space Odyssey as well as some hat tipping to Fred Astaire. The video is below. Groovy.

OMG! NOOOOOOOO! They're KISSING!!!!!!

One more My Sassy Girl remake trailer. Too much physical contact in my opinion.

....and they're KISSING????!?!!!?? This movie is going to emotionally kill me, I'm positive.




...and to wash the tast of that out of your mouth, here is the Music Video, I Believe, from the Original My Sassy Girl.

Note: It's not subtitled, but in the spoken word portion in the middle of this clip, Gyun-Woo is giving the Girl's new boyfriend "Ten Rules" of her likes and dislikes so he can get along with her better. I've added the subtitled "Ten Rules" after the Music Video.

God, the original film is so, so great. I love this movie. The remake is gonna kill me, I just know it.

Speed Racer crushes the Batmobile!

Sorry, everyone. I've been gone away for a while. The reason for my absence is kinda funny. I've been hiding out, frightened for my life. Why? I was stupid to publicly say The Dark Knight was just okay. That's not to say I hated it, but I might as well have, considering the near violent reactions from all who've heard me speak of it. Honest to God, it seems that if I say it was anything less than amazing, then I'm a fucking leper and have no taste. I've been told I'm biased because of my less than stellar reaction.

The bottom line is this. Yes, I know it's an event film. Yes, I know I'm supposed to rhapsodise over Heath Ledger's posthumous performance. I wish I could just shit flowers all over this movie, but I can't. I went in with an open mind. Truly, I did. I wanted to be nothing less than entertained... and I was, but I didn't witness the second coming of cinema that night. It was just another Batman movie, but this time Batman was just a footnote to the story; a supporting character that just happens to be the film's namesake.

As much as I disliked the Tim Burton Batman (But I did enjoy the first sequel, Batman Returns), I'm seriously beginning to believe he got it right. Well, more right than anyone else did. ...and no one is going to sway my belief that Caesar Romero is the penultimate Joker. Hail Caesar.

He was far more annoying than frightening, but Heath Ledger's performance was great. No question.

However:

• 1) He wasn't (and shouldn't have been) the best reason to see the film


• 2) There are many competent actors who could have pulled off that role. The entire role consisted of makeup, lighting and chewing of scenery. Hell, Carrot Top could've done it as well.
  
• 3) I'm convinced, had he not died, there wouldn't have been near as much raving about this simply above average movie


• 4) His ultimate best performance was Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain and it's unfortunate that he won't be widely remembered for that role.

Other complaints:

The film was too long. 40 minutes could've easily been excised. The film couldn't decide if it wanted to be a realistic crime melodrama or a dark graphic novel come to life. The script was a bit too mean spirited for it's own good. Christian Bale was woeful as Batman. That damn Bran Muffin in his throat killed every scene he was in. As Bruce Wayne, he was fine. I'll give him that.

Also fine in their roles were Gary Oldman and Michael Caine; their presence giving some balance and prestiege to the piece. Morgan Freeman was great, too, as always, but I'm puzzled by his presence here. His role amounts to nothing more than a pale copy of James Bond's "Q".

My biggest complaint is the disservice being done to the actor Aaron Eckhart who played Harvey Dent / Two Face. There was no mention in the advance press or previews of this particular villain's appearance in the film and, in my opinion, Harvey Dent / Two Face was a far more compelling character than the Joker.

The Joker's character arc was "I'm bad and crazy - I'm bad and crazy - I'm bad and crazy". In fact, his antics were getting a bit annoying towards the end. Harvey Dent / Two Face's character arc was much more complicated. Seeing how a true good guy could be perverted by vengeance and then redeemed was the real glue of the story in The Dark Knight for me.

So, no, I guess I wasn't The Dark Knight's target audience and I'm sure there a lot more people who don't like it as much as they say they do for fear of being an outcast. I don't care. Never did. That's why I have so few friends. Suffice it to say, I predict a ton of revisionism once it's released to Home Theatre systems.

At least it was far better than the royal turd that was Batman Begins.

The Summer Movie season in general has been pretty damn wonderful, however. I really liked Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and it's poor cousin, Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D was light family entertainment that used it's 3D effects to wonderful advantage. I haven't yet seen Iron Man, but It's high on my list. The biggest and best surprise for me this summer was Speed Racer, an incredibly beautiful and surprisingly thoughtful film that I fully regret not seeing on the biggest screen possible. I'm sure it killed in IMAX. I have a feeling that Speed Racer will do wonderful business on Blu-Ray and I'm also sure it'll sell tons of Blu-Ray units as well. It will leave your eyes popping and your ears bleeding (something they also said about Suspiria back in the day). Speed Racer may well be my favorite popcorn movie of 2008.











(Heath Ledger is the new Matt Damon)

The Major Labels' Major Debut Album

You may have noticed on the left hand side of this blog, there is a widget dedicated to a group called "The Major Labels" and their new album, Aquavia. I urge everyone reading this to stop and click on the widget. This is a brand new album by Expert Popsmiths Bleu, Mike Viola and Ducky Carlisle and it is exquisite. I've personally had it on a loop for 2 weeks straight. It's a very addictive confection. You can listen to some samples of the album, but I recommend you dive in head first and immerse yourself into the album, start to finish. Although I loathe the term normally, the album is Beatlesque. The album is also T-Rexy, Bowie-y, Lennon and Mccartney solo-y and, to my uncannily trained ears, Hudson Brothers-y.

The opening and closing songs ("The Major Labels Got It Made" and "TML4EVA") bookend the inner content with the first proper song within those bumpers being, "Don't Hear A Single"; a paean to the great pop records of the past. If you're past 35, you'll be able to fully appreciate the sentiment here. There is some incredible Lennon/McCartney-ism going on with 2 seemingly different songs welded together to form a whole.

The next song is simply the best 3 and a half minutes spent in 2008. "Velveteen Queen" can be called a number of things: Baroque, Glam, Psychedelic... they may all fit, but labels aside, it's simply pop brilliance. The guitars, vocals, lyrics all come together with the nudge of a higher power's hand.

"The Bitter Pill" shares a kinship with "Don't Hear A Single" in it's record store delving theme.

"Richard Randolph" is a curious song. It's about a harmless middle aged man child who wants nothing more than to play with the local children. The parents, however, won't stand for it. The vaudeville type melody belies a darker lyric about automatically deeming anyone with a love for children and remaining a child himself (the Peter Pan Syndrome) a pervert. A worthwhile, challenging song.

"Hummingbird" is Bleu's beautiful second cousin to McCartney's "Blackbird". Simple and lovely.

This is where side two on a vinyl record would be (and one is forthcoming, I've been assured!) and it is an Abbey Road type suite of sweeping themes and melodies. It kicks of with the assaulting driving rock of "Jimmy Kenney" and lands on the doorstep of "The Sweet", a fascinating pop piece with movements and themes that would've made Brian Wilson proud.

Then there's "An Ode To Something To Cry About"... This is an oddball one joke one off. Possibly the weakest cut on the album, but it's a funny joke piece that reminds me of Nilsson's "Ivy Covered Walls" off of his Sandman Album.

"Deja Vu (All Over Again)" is a short and sweet Merseybeat like tune that comes complete with Ringo Drums and 12 string Rick melody lines. It's just an appetizer for the album's namesake.

"Aquavia" is a devastating and haunting song that wouldn't be out of place on an early 70's Elton John album. The melody and chorus will stay with you for days.

After the "TML4EVA" closer, the cheeky bums had the nerve to round out the album with 6 minutes of noise.

Seriously, this is one wonderful album and one of the best albums I've heard all year. Download it for free, or better yet, throw 6 or 7 dollars their way. They more than deserve it.

The Major Labels home base are on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/themajorlabels