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Is there a more entertainingly batshit movie from the ‘80s than Repo Man?

English filmmaker Alex Cox’s 1984 directorial debut is a satirical black comedy set in a version of Los Angeles (undoubtedly inspired by Cox’s years studying film at UCLA) where the food—even the alcohol—is blandly,...

The Velvet Underground is the music that feels like home to me. I discovered them at age 13 when I found "The Velvet Underground & Nico" at my local library. As Jonathan Richman phrases so succinctly in Todd Haynes' "The Velvet Underground," I thought, "these people would understand me." They've been my favorite band ever since.

Haynes is the perfect filmmaker to helm a documentary about The Velvets. The director's first short film, "Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story" — which remains unreleased officially, due to music rights issues — told the story of its titular star from an incredibly heartfelt perspective ... with Barbie dolls.

My introduction to Haynes was "Velvet Goldmine," which made me fall head over heels for the auteur's work. Haynes initially had hoped to make a David Bowie biopic, but when he couldn't get the rights to the musician's songs, he had to get creative. "Velvet Goldmine" is a love letter...

Three highlights in the 12th edition of Doc NYC’s Short List program shed light on the workings of adventurous, troubled men who have been idolized by many and put on a pedestal as role models of independent masculinity. Lou Reed in Todd Haynes’s look inside The Velvet Underground, Anthony Bourdain in Morgan Neville’s fast-paced Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (these two share a Jonathan Richman connection), and Liz Garbus’s revealing Becoming Cousteau on Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

Through writings by Cousteau, read by Vincent Cassel, interviews, and plenty of archival footage from above and below sea level, we learn about his life. How a bad accident ruined his chances as a French navy pilot, and how his wife Simone (both of her grandfathers were admirals) told him in 1937: “I give you two children, you give me the sea.”

Jacques-Yves Cousteau, the most famous...

Organizers of an Olympia, Washington festival believed they booked Jonathan Richman for an August 28th concert, a gig that would have marked his first pandemic-era performance. However, a day before the show, they learned they instead had been scammed by a person pretending to be the Modern Lovers singer, who was actually unaware of the scheduled performance.

According to the Olympian, the ruse wasn’t uncovered until Friday, when Evergreen State College’s Kaos DJ Mark “Markly” Morrison reached out to Richman’s publicist to arrange an interview prior to the show.

Todd Haynes wasn’t even in Cannes yet for the premiere of his new documentary, “The Velvet Underground,” when things got emotional. During a stopover in Amsterdam, he met up with Christine Vachon, his longtime producer who had worked with him ever since his early days of “Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story” and “Poison.” Forced to different sides of the country when the pandemic set in, they were finally reunited to launch another film.

“I hadn’t been separated from Christine Vachon this long in our entire lives together,” Haynes said in an interview from the festival a few days later. “We just burst into tears. For people who work collaboratively, it’s hard not to be around each other.”

That sentiment has been on his mind a lot over the past year. Haynes had been developing a nonfiction look at the history of Lou Reed’s seminal New York...

Todd Haynes has created an intoxicating documentary about the legendary avant-garde band that was the Velvet Underground. Starting with some key moments from the early 1960s, most notably Walter Cronkite’s announcement of the assassination of JFK, the footage sets the scene for the genesis of one of the century’s most seminal and exciting bands.

Haynes uses an almost constant split screen throughout the film, shifting between close-ups of the band member under discussion, footage from contemporary events and plenty of sequences taken at Andy Warhol’s Factory, where the band truly came into being. When not employing the split screen, Haynes treats us to a stream of entertaining interviewees: erstwhile band members John Cale and Moe Tucker, Lou Reed’s sister, the singer-songwriter Jonathan Richman and others all give their take on the band’s beginnings, development and eventual demise.

Cale in particular is such an erudite speaker about the music,...

, Todd Haynes’ “The Velvet Underground” is a documentary (his first) by a man whose previous musical tributes include a glam-rock fantasia that gave David Bowie the “Citizen Kane” treatment, a “Mishima”-esque kaleidoscope that refracted Bob Dylan through the infinity mirror of his own myth, and an underground Karen Carpenter biopic that cast the late singer as a literal Barbie doll. It makes Haynes’ choice to make a comparatively straightforward non-fiction movie about his favorite band is a curious one, and it calls implicit attention to the kind of artistic intentionality that most womb-to-tomb music docs only highlight in their subjects.

What might compel an auteur capable of exorcising “Far from Heaven” from the ghost of Douglas Sirk to make a film so full of talking heads and archival footage? Why would someone with Haynes’ gift for interpolating his influences in unexpected ways submit himself to the strictures of a...

Documentarian Morgan Neville didn’t know Anthony Bourdain personally, but he felt the globe-trotting chef and author was a kindred spirit. “In many ways, we were doing the same kind of work,” says the Oscar-winning director, whose raw and personal documentary “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain” premieres Friday at the Tribeca Festival ahead of a theatrical opening on July 16.

In Neville’s eyes, Bourdain was “this champion of the democratization of food, of treating street foods seriously and ethnic foods seriously, breaking down the border of Michelin star cooking.” With “Roadrunner,” Neville wanted to explore that adventurous side of the man who traveled hundreds of days every year, from Iran to the Congo to L.A.’s Koreatown. But, he says, there was also a question mark over his life: “How does that happen? How does a guy like that kill himself?”

Neville did know several people in Bourdain’s orbit,...

We told you. Remember the rules. You didn’t listen. Now we’re Back with an all new batch of guest recommendations featuring Blake Masters, Julien Nitzberg, Floyd Norman, Tuppence Middleton and Blaire Bercy.

Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Wild Angels (1966)

Spirits of the Dead (1966)

The Trip (1967)

Mooch Goes To Hollywood (1971)

Stalker (1979)

The Candidate (1972)

The Parallax View (1974)

Network (1976)

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Ace In The Hole (1951)

Margin Call (2011)

Death Wish (1974)

Death Wish (2018)

Seconds (1966)

Soylent Green (1973)

Rage (1972)

Assault on Wall Street (2013)

Repo Man (1984)

Elmer Gantry (1960)

The Train (1965)

Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)

Strange Brew (1983)

To Have And Have Not (1944)

Singin’ In The Rain (1952)

Easter Parade (1948)

The Band Wagon (1953)

Guys And Dolls (1955)

On The Town (1949)

Casablanca (1942)

The Dirt Gang (1972)

Back To The Future (1985)

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

The Big Sleep (1946)

Bomba, the Jungle Boy (1949)

My Man Godfrey...

Jackson Browne unveiled a sleek new song, “Downhill From Everywhere,” just in time for Earth Day (April 22nd).

The song will be released as a single paired with his recent track “A Little Soon to Say” as the B-side. Both will be included on his upcoming studio album, out October 9th.

“Downhill from everywhere/Downhill from all you see/The ocean is downhill from gravity,” Browne sings along a smooth guitar riff. “Downhill from here/Downhill from everywhere/Downhill from all of humanity.”

Browne has been working on “Downhill From Everywhere” for the past 10 years.

So, How Was Your Decade is a series in which the decade’s most innovative musicians answer our questionnaire about the music, culture and memorable moments that shaped their decade. We’ll be rolling these pieces out throughout December.

Pearl Jam may have only released one album this decade, 2013’s Lightning Bolt, but they were hardly inactive. They celebrated their 20th anniversary in 2011 with the Cameron Crowe-directed documentary Pearl Jam 20, toured the world to celebrate their anniversary, entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year...

Nearly 30 years ago, Jonathan Richman asked how the Velvet Underground got their sound. The band Mattiel seem to have cracked the code on “Millionaire,” the latest single to be released off the Atlanta group’s excellent Satis Factory album. Amid brittle guitars, laconically Lou Reed-esque “bah-bah-bah” backup vocals, and a thwapping backbeat, singer Mattiel Brown channels Nico with her gorgeously yearning, full-voiced alto range, as sings about her poor lot in life.

Brown has said that the song was inspired by “high expectations and empty promises,” the exact mathematical...

“The world is crumbling and I don’t have much to say,” sings Greta Kline, leader of the band Frankie Cosmos, on the band’s new album. It’s a striking admission in a time when everyone else seems to be playing pundit in their own teapot echo chamber. And despite specializing in gently drifty guitar-rock and singing with the kind of recessively reedy voice that usually implies a retreat into one’s interior biosphere, Klein isn’t an escapist, at least not always. “For what it’s worth,” she notes a couple songs later,...

On June 28th, Wilco will return to the rolling hills of North Adams, Massachusetts, to kick off the sixth installment of their Solid Sound Festival. For Wilco and their fans, it will be more than just a weekend of great music: This year, Solid Sound doubles as a welcome-back party celebrating the official end of Wilco’s year-plus hiatus.

“We’re as excited as we’ve ever been,” says frontman Jeff Tweedy, calling from the Loft, the band’s Chicago recording studio. “Maybe a little bit more, because it’s...

Solange, When I Get Home

Solange carries her history like a talisman. It’s there to remind her — and us — how to remain grounded while moving forward. With When I Get Home, she pays tribute to her roots in Houston by presenting a therapeutic and transfixing scrapbook that seamlessly brings together the past and the future of her home. With 19 songs the clock in at under 40 minutes total, Solange’s tribute takes an unusual form. She offers brief but potent statements; over half the tracks are under three minutes and...

Stella Donnelly spools out the kind of cuddle-core guitar pop that traditionally goes best with cardigan sweaters and shy glances in the dustiest recesses of the local used bookstore. But the Australian singer-guitarist is hardly the retiring type. “Your personality traits don’t count/If you put your dick in someone’s face/And no, it’s never too late/We sat there silently while you kept your job/And your place and your six-figure wage,” she sings on her #Metoo masterpiece “Old Man.”

Donnelly’s gently conversational singing and...

Wilco enlisted Courtney Barnett, experimental rock act Tortoise, jangle-pop band the Feelies and — in an intriguing and unexpected turn — Mad Men actor Jon Hamm for the 2019 edition of their own Solid Sound Festival, scheduled for June 28th through the 30th at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, Massachusetts. The lineup also includes two headlining Wilco sets — their first U.S. shows in nearly two years — along with spots from Jonathan Richman, Cate Le Bon, the Minus 5, comedian John Hodgman, Milo, Wand, Foxwarren and Clipping., among others.

Hamm...

Louis Forster of the excellent Australian indie-pop band the Goon Sax started writing songs when he was seven years old, right after he got his grade-school-aged mind blown by Green Day’s American Idiot. He kept at it for years, but he never really felt comfortable sharing his work with anyone else — even his uniquely musical parents. His father, Robert Forster, was co-frontman of the Go-Betweens, one of the Eighties’ most acclaimed indie-pop bands; his mother, Karin Bäumler, was in the German group Baby You Know. “Songwriting is such a personal thing,...

Season 2 of The Deuce not only has new faces, the theme song is now updated for the 1977 setting to feature more shots of the porn movie business, discos and other late-Seventies imagery. They are now accompanied by a brand new version of Elvis Costello’s “This Year’s Girl” made especially for the show. It combines Costello’s vocals from the original 1978 version with new vocals by Natalie Bergman from the band Wild Belle, to turn it into a decades-spanning duet with a faster beat.

“Elvis and his producer Sebastian Krys...

Have you ever wondered about the origins of “yacht rock”? Or how Van Morrison made his enigmatic classic? Look no further than these excellent new books.

3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z and Hip-Hop’s Multibillion-Dollar Rise by Zack O’Malley Greenburg

In the past 20 years, hip-hop has produced enough wanna-be Warren Buffetts to fill the biggest strip club in Atlanta. But, according to Forbes editor Zack O’Malley Greenburg’s new book, only a trio of artist-entrepreneurs have risen to a status that rivals the corporate titans: Jay-Z, Dr. Dre and Diddy.

Ralph Carney has left this mortal coil far too soon. He was one of us, a musician from Akron who made it out and had become a much-beloved multi-instrumentalist where ever he hung his hat. (The last two years in Portland, Or.) Carney was also the uncle of Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney. He added his brilliance to acts like Tom Waits, The B-52s, Elvis Costello, Kronos Quartet, Jonathan Richman, St. Vincent... basically any band worth their salt that needed some brilliant reed component, whether clarinet or saxophone or some other homemade instrument!

He had lived in NYC for a spell after leaving Akron and his initial brush with success with one of Akron's coolest bands Tin Huey, a band that the legendary Jerry Wexler signed. Their album Contents Dislodged During Shipment (Warner Brothers, 1979) is not to be missed. This Akron band boasted an incredible lineup that also including my musical mentor Harvey Gold,...

Author: Jon Lyus

This sweltering evening in London town saw the return of one of the brightest stars in the cinematic sky. Director Edgar Wright brought his latest film to the capital and we were there to meet him and the cast on the red carpet of Baby Driver.

The new film from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz man Edgar Wright stars Lily James, Kevin Spacey, Ansel Elgort, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, Eliza Gonzalez, Cj Jones, Jon Bernthal, Lanny Joon, and Paul Williams which is a ridiculously good cast. They are elevated in the film by Baby’s Driver secret weapon – the soundtrack. You can see the full tracklist below, and will no doubt have enjoyed the kinetically pleasing trailers. Wright’s command of editing and his keen ear for cinematically apposite music is put to full use in the film, and you can read our 5 star review of the film right here.

HeyUGuys own Colin Hart and Scott Davis at the Baby Driver Premiere

Scott Davis and Colin Hart were on the carpet this evening, here’s how they got on.

Baby Driver is released in UK cinemas June 28.

Baby Driver European Premiere Interviews

Baby Driver Motion Picture Soundtrack Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – ‘Bellbottoms’ Bob & Earl – ‘Harlem Shuffle’ Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers – ‘Egyptian Reggae’ Googie Rene – ‘Smokey Joe’s La La’ The Beach Boys – ‘Let’s Go Away For Awhile’ Carla Thomas – ‘B-a-b-y’ Kashmere Stage Band – ‘Kashmere’ Dave Brubeck – ‘Unsquare Dance’ The Damned – ‘Neat Neat Neat’ The Commodores – ‘Easy (Single Version)’ T. Rex – ‘Debora’ Beck – ‘Debra’ Incredible Bongo Band – ‘Bongolia’ The Detroit Emeralds – ‘Baby Let Me Take You (in My Arms)’ Alexis Korner – ‘Early In The Morning’ David McCallum – ‘The Edge’ Martha and the Vandellas – ‘Nowhere To Run’ The Button Down Brass – ‘Tequila’ Sam & Dave – ‘When Something Is Wrong With My Baby’ Brenda Holloway – ‘Every Little Bit Hurts’ Blur – ‘Intermission’ Focus – ‘Hocus Pocus (Original Single Version)’ Golden Earring – ‘Radar Love (1973 Single Edit)’ Barry White – ‘Never, Never Gone Give Ya Up’ Young Mc – ‘Know How’ Queen – ‘Brighton Rock’ Sky Ferreira – ‘Easy’ Simon & Garfunkel – ‘Baby Driver’ Kid Koala – ‘Was He Slow (Credit Roll Version)’ Danger Mouse (featuring Run The Jewels and Big Boi) – ‘Chase Me’

Movie Synopsis

A talented, young getaway driver (Ansel Elgort) relies on the beat of his personal soundtrack to be the best in the game. When he meets the girl of his dreams (Lily James), Baby sees a chance to ditch his criminal life and make a clean getaway. But after being coerced into working for a crime boss (Kevin Spacey), he must face the music when a doomed heist threatens his life, love and freedom.

The post European Premiere Interviews: Edgar Wright, Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm & more for Baby Driver appeared first on HeyUGuys.

The Guardians of the Galaxy films are famous for incorporating classic tracks into the films' scenes and narrative -- nothing beats watching Kurt Russell talk his way through 'Brandy (You're A Fine Girl)' by Looking Glass. James Gunn is not the only director who very carefully considers every track, writes to the music he has picked, and seamlessly weaves it into his films. Edgar Wright has been obsessed with his musical choices since his TV show Spaced, with the following soundtracks for Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World's End, and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World all including some pretty deep cuts that make for fine listening, long after you've seen the film.

Baby Driver is Wright's next film, and the latest trailer not only included 'Tequila' by The Champs, but was also titled "Official TeKillYah Trailer" to put further emphasis on the music. The trailer also sports...

We know that Edgar Wright's highly anticipated heist movie Baby Driver is fuel injected with a lot of music unlike any of his previous movies. Some of the songs are so important to the story that they even dictate how scenes unfold. Now we're learning what music specifically is in the movie.

Thanks to NME.com we now have a full list of all the songs on the soundtrack, although its unclear if all the music will be in the movie:

1. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – ‘Bellbottoms’

2. Bob & Earl – ‘Harlem Shuffle’

3. Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers – ‘Egyptian Reggae’

4. Googie Rene – ‘Smokey Joe’s La La’

5. The Beach Boys – ‘Let’s Go Away For Awhile’

6. Carla Thomas – ‘B-a-b-y’

7. Kashmere Stage Band – ‘Kashmere’

8. Dave Brubeck – ‘Unsquare Dance’

9. The Damned – ‘Neat Neat Neat’

10. The Commodores – ‘Easy (Single Version)’

11. T. Rex – ‘Debora’

12. Beck – ‘Debra’

13. Incredible Bongo Band – ‘Bongolia’

14. The Detroit Emeralds – ‘Baby Let Me...

Author: Zehra Phelan

Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver couldn’t very well have a limp wristed soundtrack to pound the ears of our fast paced getaway driver so who better to lend a few musical strings than the likes of Queen, Blur, Beck and (obviously) Simon and Garfunkel.

Watch the latest Baby Driver trailer here

The onus falls heavily on a music based theme and heavy weights tracks are needed to help Baby (Ansel Elgort) in order to time bank robbery getaways with beat perfect precision. The soundtrack, which will consist of thirty eclectic tracks, features the cream of the crop from names such as Sky Ferreira, Barry White, the Commodores, Focus, Dave Brubeck, Golden Earring, Young Mc, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers, the Damned, Martha and the Vandellas and Sam & Dave, among others. It also includes one original song, Danger Mouse’s “Chase Me,” featuring...

In “Baby Driver,” Ansel Elgort plays a getaway driver who constantly has music playing in order to drown out his tinnitus. And, like “Drive” before it, that music seems to be an integral part of the experience in Edgar Wright’s upcoming film, which premiered at SXSW to strong reviews.

“Baby Driver” doesn’t arrive in theaters until later this month, but the tracklist to its soundtrack (which includes three different songs with the word “baby” in the title) is now available courtesy of NME:...

Director Edgar Wright certainly knows his needle drops, but “Baby Driver” may be his most impressive collection yet of playlist ready jams. The summer movie about a getaway driver who gets behind the wheel, with his iPod never far from his side, is going to feature a cartload of songs on the official soundtrack, and the details have now been revealed.

Again, Wright likes his deep cuts, so you’ll be getting everything from Beck to punk legends The Damned to the amazing Jonathan Richman to Simon & Garfunkel, singing the title jam.

Continue reading Massive ‘Baby Driver’ Soundtrack Tracklist Revealed at The Playlist.

Queen, Beck, the Beach Boys, Blur and Simon & Garfunkel highlight the all-star soundtrack for Edgar Wright's upcoming action-comedy film, Baby Driver. The 30-song set is out June 23rd via Danger Mouse's Columbia imprint, 30th Century Records.

The album also features previously issued tracks from Sky Ferreira, Barry White, the Commodores, Focus, Dave Brubeck, Golden Earring, Young Mc, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers, the Damned, Martha and the Vandellas and Sam & Dave, among others. It also includes one original song, Danger Mouse's "Chase Me,...

In Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain's essential book on New York's Seventies subcultural scene, the authors dedicate their work to Danny Fields, "forever the coolest guy in the room." He may not be a household name, but as a manager, publicist, label exec and journalist, Fields was always at the center of every important rock movement for two decades – the six-degrees-of-separation connection between the Beatles and "Beat on the Brat."

Danny Says, a new doc on the music-industry multi-hyphenate currently in theaters,...

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly look at the new movies hitting theaters this weekend, as well as other cool events and things to check out.

This Past Weekend:

While the new movies reigned at the box office this past weekend, both Antoine Fuqua’s The Magnificent Seven (Sony) and the animated Storks (Warner Bros.) didn’t fare nearly as well as our projections, both falling short by about $10 million. The Magnificent Seven, starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt, fared decently with $34.7million, which is about the average for Washington’s films, but the fourth highest opening for a Western after last year’s The Revenant, the animated Rango, and Cowboys and Aliens. Storks’ $21.3 million opening wasn’t great compared to other animated September releases with Sony still holding the September opening record with Hotel Transylvania 2, but it should continue to do well with no other animated movies opening for another month.

More and more movies are being adapted into TV series, and the latest additions have a similar affiliation: they're both based on gangster plots. Find out how and when The Departed and Get Shorty will make their way to the small screen below.    The Departed  Martin Scorsese's Best Picture-winning remake of Infernal Affairs is getting reworked again and is heading to Amazon, according to Variety. This time, instead of Boston, the setting is Chicago, where a young cop infiltrates a Latino gang while a member of that gang infiltrates the city's police force. Jonathan Richman, who scripted the Bangkok Dangerous remake and created the cop show Detroit 1-8-7, is writing the series, which now apparently has to...

Read More...

Every year, IndieWire asks the Toronto Film Festival’s ace documentary programmer, Thom Powers, to dig into the new lineup. The doc czar’s influence extends beyond Toronto to IFC Center’s Stranger than Fiction series, The SundanceNow Doc Club, and November’s influential festival Doc NYC, which selects the infamous Short List, many of which head for Oscar contention.

This year, the Tiff doc program (September 8-18) numbers 37 titles. It’s led by four veterans — Steve James, Raoul Peck, Errol Morris, and Werner Herzog—big names who will pull audiences, playing alongside newcomers who will benefit from the Tiff spotlight. Fisher Stevens and Leonardo DiCaprio have made a new documentary that they hope will push the needle on climate change. Netflix boasts four high-profile offerings likely to factor in the always intense doc Oscar race. And there’s a plethora of new titles that await discovery — and buyers.

Read...

Every year, IndieWire asks the Toronto Film Festival’s ace documentary programmer, Thom Powers, to dig into the new lineup. The doc czar’s influence extends beyond Toronto to IFC Center’s Stranger than Fiction series, The SundanceNow Doc Club, and November’s influential festival Doc NYC, which selects the infamous Short List, many of which head for Oscar contention.

This year, the Tiff doc program (September 8-18) numbers 37 titles. It’s led by four veterans — Steve James, Raoul Peck, Errol Morris, and Werner Herzog—big names who will pull audiences, playing alongside newcomers who will benefit from the Tiff spotlight. Fisher Stevens and Leonardo DiCaprio have made a new documentary that they hope will push the needle on climate change. Netflix boasts four high-profile offerings likely to factor in the always intense doc Oscar race. And there’s a plethora of new titles that await discovery — and buyers.

Read...

Chicago – Before 1998’s “The Big Lebowski” there was 1996’s “Kingpin”, the Farrelly brothers bowling comedy that didn’t have the narrative intricacies of the Coen brothers’ classic, but had plenty of jokes about middle-aged men playing the sport. Today finds the release of “Kingpin” to Blu-ray for the first time, coming with only one new special feature.

Rating: 2.5/5.0

The occasion of “Kingpin” is related less to marking a point in American cinematic history than to note the upcoming release of “Dumb and Dumber To,” the next film from the Farrelly brothers and their bizarre set of Hollywood gross outs. This bowling movie was a followup to “Dumb & Dumber,” and certainly saw the filmmaking duo following some of the same course (by literally making a buddy road movie), with the gross-out humor that became huge of them. With films like “There’s Something About Mary” and “Me, Myself & Irene” coming after it,...

Seattle’s Bumbershoot festival, held Aug. 30-Sept. 1, at Seattle Center, will have a little something for everyone this year. Headliners include veteran rockers Elvis Costello & The Imposters and The Replacements, rap acts J. Cole and Wu-Tang Clan, and relative newcomers Foster the People and The Head and The Heart. Also on the diverse bill are Panic! At the Disco, Schoolboy Q, Capital Cities, Neon Trees, The Afghan Whigs, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Mission of Burma, Los Lobos, Bootsy Collins, The Both, Walk the Moon, The Dismemberment Plan, Real Estate, and about 75 other acts. Of particular interest are Big Star’s Third, a collection of artists who come together to play the rock band’s third album, a cult favorite known as “Third” and “Sister Lovers.” The collective usually includes Big Star drummer Jody Stephens as well as others either affiliated with Big Star or acolytes. Here’s what the...

It's hard to overestimate the impact of "There's Something About Mary," which celebrates its 15th anniversary this week (it was released on July 15, 1998 -- scroll down for "There's Something About Mary: Where Are They Now?").

Even casual viewers of the film can never hear the phrase "frank and beans" the same way. The Farrelly Brothers' comedy dared to go where few comedies had gone before, and where countless others have tried to go since.

"Mary" wasn't the first gross-out comedy (though it may be one of the first to make a sight gag out of a zipper-mangled penis, or a misplaced glob of body fluid). But it was the first to work that gross-out humor into a sweet romantic comedy about believable, well-rendered characters. It was, in a perverse way, a movie for everybody, with the scatological humor targeting male audiences and the character-driven romance targeting female audiences. But...

Forgive me, but I have to write about Man of Steel some more. Or, more specifically, the current marketing of Superman. Last week, I wrote about how disappointed I was in the apparent shame felt by comics fans and Warner Bros. about Superman’s optimism. But it’s not just that this kind of grim’n’gritty Superman is disturbing. There is also the character’s complete disregard for the welfare of the people of Earth. As a New Yorker who lives within a mile of the World Trade Center, I tend to get upset by such images of destruction. I don’t expect filmmakers to contort themselves to my memories. In fact, I can appreciate the opportunity for catharsis. However, I would like to see some acknowledgement that there were humans living in a city that is ravaged by superhuman destruction, and these humans were affected by the smashing skyscrapers.

So the lineup for Fyf, or F*ck Yeah Festival, 2013 is pretty much amazing.

The big names: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, My Bloody Valentine, TV on the Radio, Beach House, Yo La Tengo, Deerhunter, Mgmt, Devendra Banhart, Washed Out, Solange and Flag.

Our other personal favorites: Kurt Vile, Thee Oh Sees, Foxygen, Charles Bradley and, of course, the legendary Jonathan Richman.

The lineup is so fantastic that single-day tickets sold out soon after they went on sale Thursday at noon. Weekend passes are still available for $99. Sure, that's a lot more than the "good old days" when Fyf was Diy and $20... but we still think the lineup makes it worth it.

See the poster lineup below, and check out photos of some of the bands we're excited for:...

"The popcorn you are eating has been pissed in. Film at eleven." – 'The Kentucky Fried Movie' (1977)

Greetings from the apocalypse! If you lost some fingers to frostbite while walking down the driveway to get your mail, don't panic, that's perfectly normal for this time of year … on the east coast, anyway. A few bits of drudgery opening at the multiplex will numb your brain even more than the cold, but lucky for you I've scouted out some alternative routes towards weekend moviegoing satisfaction.

Friday, January 25

There was a minute or two in the late '90s/early '00s when The Farrelly Brothers were the undisputed heavyweight champions of comedy, but after round-one knockouts like "The Heartbreak Kid" and "The Three Stooges" they're officially classified "punch-drunk." Now it seems Peter Farrelly has made a movie so bad even his brother Bobby's not involved, and it's called "Movie 43." Taking...

This is part 1 of 4 of our "My Coachella" Series. Check back once a week in April for profiles on our favorite Coachella bands.

The Black Keys graced the cover of Rolling Stone for the first time this year with the headline, "Black Keys Rising," but fans with the most street cred know that singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney have been making some of the best music out there for years. The Akron, Ohio duo has most certainly brought the blues back.

Their whistle-while-you-go, soulful hit "Tighten Up" from the critically acclaimed 2010 album Brothers propelled the band out of underground clubs and into mainstream music. And the hits just keep on coming.

El Camino, their most recent album, was immediately ranked one of the best of 2011 for its soulful mix of blues, rock and hyper-personal lyrics -- and despite a black out at their performance at last year's Coachella Music Festival,...

Our critics' picks of this week's openings, plus your last chance to see and what to book now

• Which cultural events are in your diary this week? Tell us in the comments below

Opening this weekTheatre

A Provincial Life

Russia comes to Wales as Peter Gill returns to the city of his birth to christen the rebuilt Sherman theatre with his own adaptation of Chekhov's short story. The 17th National Theatre Wales production is about the search for equality in a world of rich and poor. Sherman, Cardiff (029-2064 6901), Thursday to 17 March.

The Lady from the Sea

Joely Richardson follows in the wet footsteps of both her mother, Vanessa Redgrave, and her sister, Natasha, in playing Ellida Wangel, Ibsen's mysterious heroine haunted by memories of a sailor and the sea. Rose, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey (0844 482 1556), tonight to 17 March.

Film

Rampart (dir. Oren Moverman)

James Ellroy is the screenwriter of this...

Public Image Ltd and Katy B have been announced for this year's Summer Sundae Weekender. Other stars on the bill for the 2012 event include Asian Dub Foundation, Reverend and the Makers, Willy Mason, and Jonathan Richman. The festival takes place from August 17-19 at De Montfort Hall and Gardens. Early Bird tickets are currently on sale at 2010 prices of £95. Early bird tickets for 14-17-year-olds are £60 and for 5-13-year-olds £30. Further acts and other entertainment over five stages will be confirmed in the coming weeks and months. All camping (more)...

Our critics' picks of this week's openings, plus your last chance to see and what to book now

• Which cultural events are in your diary this week? Tell us in the comments below

Opening this weekTheatre

Bingo

Patrick Stewart stars as the ageing Shakespeare in Edward Bond's play in which the playwright, now a rich landowner, is facing pressure from local Stratford people. Young Vic, London SE1 (020-7922 2922), until March 31.

An Appointment with the Wicker Man

National Theatre Scotland take on the cult 1970s movie with a play within a play about an amateur dramatic society on a remote Scottish island who are putting the play on stage. But when one of their actors falls ill, a replacement is called in from the mainland. His Majesties, Aberdeen (01224 641122), Tuesday to Saturday, then touring until 24 March.

Film

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (dir. Stephen Daldry)

Oscar-nominated drama, based on the Jonathan Safran Foer novel.

Feist has been named as the first headliner of this year's Green Man festival. The singer-songwriter tops the bill on August 19 as the event celebrates its tenth anniversary. "Green Man is downright delighted to unveil the wonderful Feist as his first fantastic headliner for summer 2012!" the festival announced. "What better way to end Green Man's tenth birthday bash than in the company of one of the most beguiling voices in modern music? Heavenly... " Other acts confirmed for this summer's festival included The Walkmen, Jonathan Richman, The Felice (more)...

Jonathan Richman has unveiled a full UK tour for 2012. The ex-Modern Lovers frontman plays in February and March next year backed by regular drummer Tommy Larkins. Richman said of his constant touring schedule: "Travelling and playing for new people in new places is one of my favourite things. It's great playing places that are off the beaten track. "You can learn a lot when you play in a little town in Holland or Western Australia, and you learn different things than you would learn playing a big city." He added: "Playing shows and making records keeps been getting easier and more fun." Tickets for the new (more)...

We start the Top 7. You finish the Top 10.

Sometimes we want to move our feet and tap our toes, but we don’t realize it until the moment is upon us. Thankfully, movies are here to rescue us. Sure, there are the full-out musicals like Evita, and Singin’ in the Rain. I’m not talking about those. And then there are the films like Saturday Night Fever, Dirty Dancing and Footloose. But those are films that thrive on a soundtrack and dance numbers within the dramatic story. So, even though the remake of Footloose is the reason I thought of this Top 7, we’re going deeper. For this Top 7, we’re hitting the dance sequences that came out of nowhere, made you recheck which genre you’re sitting down for, then wish the characters wouldn’t stop moving and/or grooving. Not surprisingly, comedy makes its presence known.

7. Young Frankenstein (1974)

Recap: Dr.

Jonathan Richman sang, "No one ever called Pablo Picasso an asshole." This probably wasn't entirely true. In any case, the talented and witty painter Nicola Tyson weighs in on Picasso, whose Guitars are now on view at MoMA.

02/14/2011

Dear Picasso,

A journalist recently asked me if as a female figurative painter -- as opposed to just a figurative painter -- I’d been influenced by you, which I thought is a bit like asking if my diet had been influenced by Monsanto. Unavoidable.

read more...

You know who loves Jonathan Richman, formerly of The Modern Lovers? Everyone. Everyone loves him. Even the Farrelly brothers love him: Yeah, that was him in There's Something About Mary. And last night he popped into Jimmy Fallon's show to play a new song. If you've been tracking the man's work since his heyday, you'd know that he's still and always will be in his heyday. Proof:  And for [...]...

I got a higher than average number of propositions last night both in real life and on Pajiba. I know why I did in real life, I was walking around dressed as Leeloo from "The Fifth Element" which is a costume that could most appropriately be referred to as "nerd bait" (Not that that's a bad thing) but I am a little bewildered as to why I all of a sudden got them over here. Any explanation would be appreciated, and that's the extent of my intro because I'm still waiting for the Advil to kick in. Here's your Monday night TV:

7:30pm: "World Series Game #5" on Fox

8:00pm: "90210" on The CW

"Chuck" on NBC

"Dancing With the Stars" on ABC. It's the 200th episode of this show. I'm just going to let you all think about that for a couple minutes.

"How I Met Your Mother" on CBS

"Little People,...

Galaxie 500 and Luna while critically adored, tend to be overlooked and in this music lover's opinion, remain two of the most under appreciated bands of my lifetime. Frontman Dean Wareham moved on from Galaxie and then from Luna with his lovely bandmate, Britta Phillips, married her and the two began recording as Dean & Britta. Sort of a rock and roll Bonnie and Clyde -- I mean that in the most French way possible.

Their latest project, endorsed and by invitation of the Andy Warhol Museum, is a collection of soundtracks made to accompany 13 of Andy Warhol's "Screen Tests." Boring or brilliant, they were originally conceived by Warhol as portraits, portraits on film rather than canvas, and feature some people who are ridiculously famous. It's all in the eye of the beholder of course, if you're fascinated by Bob Dylan or Edie Sedgwick you'll want to ogle their "Screen Test.