Silver Jews play "Pretty Eyes" in a cave.

- Silver Jews
The Natural Bridge, Side B

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks play "Brain Gallop" at KCRW.

John Fahey plays "On the Sunny Side of the Ocean" in Hamburg in 1978.

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy plays "I See a Darkness" on KEXP.

annual best of the year mixes

(back cover/front cover)

(inside)

Download Volume 1.





(back cover/front cover)

(inside)

Download Volume 2.

Ty Segall plays on Late Show with David Letterman.

Age 13 (1955).

Video for "The Place Lives" by Mount Eerie.

Moonrise Kingdom (2012).

Guided by Voices - "King and Caroline"

Bob Mould plays "The Descent" on The Late Show with David Letterman.

Video for "Getting By" by The Rentals.

Father John Misty plays "Only Son of the Ladiesman" on The Late Show with David Letterman.





Video for "Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings"

Video for "Sometimes" by James.

FYF 2012

Moonface - "Fast Peter"



Future Islands - "Give Us the Wind"




M83 - "Reunion"



Father John Misty - "Fun Times in Babylon"



King Khan & the Shrines - "Luckiest Man"



Lightning Bolt



Dinosaur Jr. - "Thumb"



Dinosaur Jr. - "The Lung"



Dinosaur Jr. - "Kracked"

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds play "Sad Waters."

Video for "Shivers" by The Boys Next Door.

The Flaming Lips covered Smog in Milwaukee in 1993.

The Flaming Lips played "Talkin' 'Bout the Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues (Everyone Wants to Live Forever)" in San Francisco in 1995.

Ride plays "Vapour Trail"






and "Taste."

Ride plays "Dreams Burn Down" at Brixton Academy in 1992.

Together (2000).

Kicking and Screaming (1995)

Beginners (2010)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

What legendary actor would you most like to shave in a motion picture? Submit your answer and you may win a poorly drawn portrait of yourself destubbling your hero!

RIP Chris Marker

Sans Soleil (1983)

Vernon, Florida (1981).

This post consists of:

1. This clip from Sherman's March (1986)



2. this other clip from Sherman's March (1986), which I already posted several years ago,



3. which equals my futile attempt to convince anybody to watch this Essential American Documentary.

New Order played "Ceremony" at the Ukrainian National Home in New York in 1981.

A Dinosaur Jr. Evolution in Music Video

1. "Little Fury Things" (1987)


2. "Freak Scene" (1988)


3. "Just Like Heaven" (1989)


4. "The Wagon" (1991)


5. "Thumb" (1991)


6. "Start Choppin" (1993)


7. "Get Me" (1993)


8. "Feel the Pain" (1994)


9. "I Don't Think So" (1994)


10. "Over It" (2009)

Crumb (1994).

Oblomov (1979).

Coffee and Cigarettes (2003).

T. Rex plays "Baby Strange"; from Born to Boogie (1972).

Kurt Vile and the Violators play "Runner Ups"

The Virgin Suicides (1999).

The Future (2011).

Dirty Projectors and Jenn Wasner play "Gun Has No Trigger" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986).

My Winnipeg (2007).

Beat Happening played "Hey Day" in Norman, Oklahoma in 1992.

Built to Spill played "Stab" at the Glass House on February 22, 2012.

Mercury Rev played "Chasing a Bee" at the Phoenix Festival in 1993.

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra play "BlindBlindBlind" in New Jersey in 2011.

Melody (1971).

What We Did on Our Summer Vacation

Pierrot le Fou (1965).

Small Change (1976).

Bill Callahan played "Bowery" in Seattle in 2007.

Belle de jour (1967).

Romanian New Wave, Part 8

12:08 East of Bucharest (2006).

Intentions of Murder (1964).

O Amor Natural (1996).

Night and Day (2008).

Romanian [Proto] New Wave [Literary Supplement Version], Part 7

    Like every institution, theatres had to fulfil their own financial plan. With no one interested in the plays approved by the censors, and their coffin-making bringing in too little income, theatre directors were happy to turn a blind eye when black-marketeers turned up with pirated videos of Western movies.
    Outside the theatre, posters showed a frowning Romanian soldier. You bought a ticket ostensibly to find out what psychological problems he suffered during the Second World War. Inside, when the curtains rose, instead of the actor wrestling with his political conscience, you saw two large colour TVs waiting for you. The lights went down and the video began: Bruce Lee or 007 came out fighting. And it was my voice on the dubbed sound-track which turned James Bond into a Soviet double agent mocking imperialist spies. The story no longer made much sense, of course, but that was the only way to get the films approved. And I added a few embellishments of my own.
    I was translating three movies a week, sometimes just by listening to the sound-track - though Sylvester Stallone's muddy mumble was a bit of a challenge. I had to use my imagination. Rambo cries in the lap of his former Army commander, disappointed by the public's reaction to Vietnam: 'I'm weeping because people do not realize how good Socialism is,' my translation shouted from the loudspeaker.
    Sometimes the movies were pirated from Western TV and cut with advertisements. A beautiful blonde girl was skaing her hair after using I don't know what shampoo. I was supposed to keep quiet but, as the Romanian saying goes, my tongue was itching. 'Don't use this Western product, it makes your hair fall out!' my voice admonished from the screen.
    The ad showed teeth too perfect to be real, then a gleaming tube of toothpaste. 'Use this toothpaste and your teeth will rot,' my voice boomed in the dark.
    The audience didn't care what the translator was saying anyway. At a time when we had only two hours a day of approved TV, to see cars flying through the air or guests of the Great Gatsby dancing at his parties made people happy enough. Men, women and children crowded into the theatres as never before. Now, just imagine the uproar when the power was cut in a hall of 400 seats filled with a thousand people or more.
    The fun went on until Securitate found out whose mocking voice was doing the dubbing, and then I was banned from those translations as well. Not that I had a future in that freelance job anyway. A few months later the West complained about pirated videos and Ceausescu finally found out what was happening behind his back. The theatres were empty again.

- Dan Antal
Out of Romania

Innocence (2004).

The Pornographers (1966).

Romanian New Wave, Part 6

In an article published last summer in the English-language journal European Alternatives, Alex Leo Serban, one of Romania’s leading film critics, instructed readers to keep in mind that “there are no ‘waves,’ . . . just individuals.” When I met him in Bucharest in November, Puiu, the director of “Mr. Lazarescu,” was more emphatic. “There is not, not, not, not, not a Romanian new wave,” he insisted, hammering the point home against the arm of his living-room couch.

- "New Wave on the Black Sea"
The New York Times

Romanian New Wave, Part 5

California Dreamin' (2007).

Romanian New Wave, Part 4

The Way I Spent the End of the World (2006).

Romanian New Wave, Part 3

Police, Adjective (2009).

Video for "Indian Summer" by Beat Happening.

Romanian New Wave, Part 2

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005).

Destroyer plays "Kaputt" at Coachella in 2012.

Nicole, she, blasted on ecstasy
some East Pender hovel
circa 1993
it was a good year
it was a very good year

but now it's gone.

- My Favorite Year
Destroyer

Romanian New Wave, Part 1

Pop Quiz: How many cool haircuts are in this still from Tuesday, After Christmas (2010)?

Paris Belongs to Us (1961).

Routine Pleasures (1986).

Video for "Bastards of Young" by The Replacements.

Video for "Holy Holy" by Wye Oak.

The War on Drugs play "Baby Missles" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Video for "Believer" by John Maus

Video for "Give Us the Wind" by Future Islands.