Psyched for The Social Network

I'm not one to tout a movie based solely on the merits of one Mr. Pete Travers, but he makes a compelling case, and for what it's worth, I think that the excitement the idea of movie like this offers can't be argued with. Rare, and perhaps never truly done right, has there been a dramatization based on such an important figure in his own time, before the man has even left his twenties. It's modern Americana, and you couldn't even make it up. It's a tale that only the brash intellectuality of an anti-intellectual society would breed.

The themes are probably obvious, but ripe: ambition, obsession, alienation, deception, greed. In fact, they're quite in your face, every ad designed to slap you with the torpid stare of a punk kid from white plains that gains "more friends than Jesus". A boy whom we will likely discover needs to have not just friends, but followers, willfully brings them to him by the virtue of a single concept that gets him more than he bargained for. This is just the bag of thrills I was looking for.

Social Network

But what I'm most excited about is the soundtrack. I have to confess, I was a bit on the fence about seeing the movie until Trent Reznor came on board. He and Atticus Ross at their peak, having just done an instrumental record together that laid the groundwork for what you hear on the sample. Sounds good. And the tracks are a bit more than what you would expect. I recall some talk of how fantastic it would be if NIN built the sound for the new Terminator movie, but that might have been the wrong move for Reznor, adding in the fact that Terminator 4 was not the movie anyone wanted. It would have come off bloated and post 80's, I think.

No, there is a direct darkness to each tune, much more in the vein of Ghosts, that lends itself well to the story of a brilliant twerp who wins not the just the girl, but all of them. Here, Reznor and Ross make Hollywood work. The Gentle Hum of Anxiety pierces the spleen of a generation that wants to believe the question of soul doesn't matter. It is the tale we've been waiting for, one of a moment of genius that comes from a drunken night to become something we hadn't even dreamed of, fueling the crushing ambition it takes to conquer our world, every opportunity said yes to, every person stepped on the way to get there. This isn't a heart warming success story, it's the truth to the cost of ambition, the entry fee to the upper echelon of greatness.

Why isn't anyone covering Huey Lewis and The News?

I'm serious. I'm not joking around.

This is an amendment to a recent post of mine discussing my feelings toward retro bands. So the question becomes, not only why is no one covering Huey Lewis and the news, why is no one interested in revisiting this form of rock? It's fertile ground for retro-rockers.

Okay, perhaps that notion is a bit ludicrous (although ripe, I am really not joking about this, I think people would listen to an 80s retro rock group of this caliber, and religiously), but consider the fact that this is a Grammy award winning outfit that, at one time, had the hit video on MTV, and not just once. Come on!

• The Heart of Rock & Roll
• The Power of Love
• Back in Time!
• Hip to Be Square

Nerd rockers, where are you? There is an opportunity here to bone up on all that Revenge of the Nerds love, watch the Back to the Future trilogy in one sitting, and come up with a well done contemporary nod to a group that not only had a hit song on a soundtrack, but all of whose albums in the 80s went gold, if not platinum or multi. Sure, record sales don't actually equal band success any more, but back then, that was stupendous.

And if not that, I'm begging for a metal, or even a Gaga version, of Back in Time. They did it in the movie! Huey Lewis was there! He was the guy that told them they were too loud. If this is not hitting you as bad-ass, you should hit yourself. Otherwise, consider the scene from American Psycho. Mr. Bateman makes a strong case for both my arguments. 

Corn Sugar?

A New Name for High-Fructose Corn Syrup - NYTimes.com

Don't be fooled friends. While the article sites that evidence remains inconclusive about whether or not Corn Syrup poses a health risk, that's not the only thing it's about. There are several small farmers that have been put out of business by companies that genetically engineer corn, and then sue the small farmers when these strains appear on their farm. It should be noted they have virtually no control over this as the process of seed being spread is naturally done by wind and animals that carry the seeds.

 Aside from Food, Inc., you should check out the documentaries in featured here.

I like that new The Sword record

You know, I'm really not a fan of the whole retro thing, and while I appreciate that thrash has been completely revitalized, it leads to an unavoidable problem. How do you write new material that doesn't already sound old out of the gate?

You see, even though Dragonforce isn't much more substance than fun, at least they sound like they came out of a time capsule as a band that was somehow not discovered in the time they were supposed to be in.

That's pretty much why I like The Sword. They have a simple goal. Sound like they're from another time. And while comparisons can be made to Black Sabbath, among other pioneers of old school metal, they're doing their own thing.

Warp Riders is definitely riffing on and paying tribute to their hard rock roots by going Sci-Fi. Have keyboards, must be from space. And the concept, aside from some solid song writing, is fantastic fantasy. An archer on a planet experiencing tidal lock is banished from his tribe to discover a magical orb that gets him in touch with an entity known as The Chronomancer who puts him on a path to save a planet. 3 Witches. And ancient androids. It is just darn good clean fun.

And that's the point of retro, I guess. So I get it now. But don't worry. No plans to get too into it.

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