Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

31 Jan

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is the movie that my friends and I intended to see the night we ended up seeing The Descendants.  I really like Gary Oldman and when I hear that he was going to be in a film based on a John le Carre novel, I was ready to go opening day.  Unfortunately, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was only playing in select theaters at that point (i.e. nowhere near the cultural node that is Albany, NY).  It was released locally a few weeks later during my busiest work season and so I figured that I would have to wait until it came out on Netflix or DVD before I’d get a chance to see it.  Luckily, a local theater, The Spectrum, plays movies worth seeing after the major box offices have kicked them to the curb. Continue reading

Lessons in Post-Rock, Final Episode: Mogwai

31 Jan

Every time I listen to Government Commisions (Mogwai’s collection of live recordings from the BBC) I get the same feeling. Radio 1 DJ John Peel introduces them in a minimalist, but succinct and no-nonsense way: “Ladies and gentlemen… Mogwai.” My heart starts beating faster, breath shorter. I can feel the little hairs in my ears and the small brittle bones in my eardrum perking up in anticipation. Mogwai.

It all begins and ends with Mogwai. In a mere moment Continue reading

Indie Canon Inductee: Guided by Voices

30 Jan

Guided by Voices is a band that you may know by name but have never listened to.  If that’s the case, this article will hopefully warrant a listen.  I myself hadn’t listened to GBV until a few years back outside of a few tracks of theirs I had on a Matador Records sampler.  Since then, they have become my most listened to artist according to last.fm, surpassing Beat Happening and Joy Division a few days ago thanks to my non-stop research over the past week.  I wouldn’t consider Guided by Voices my favorite band, but there are reasons why I’ve listened to them as much as I have… Continue reading

Bud Light Platinum

29 Jan

Somewhere, likely in Missouri, someone decided that Bud Light just wasn’t getting America’s college students and off-duty bus drivers drunk fast enough.  Why sell it in a brown beer bottle, when it can be blue? Let’s pretend there is somehow a premium clientele for our high selling, beer-flavored enhanced water beverage.  The end result, is Bud Light Platinum.

Anheuser-Busch’s newest creation boasts a 6 percent alcohol by volume, (up from 4.2%) and a special blue bottle normally reserved for over priced mineral water sold to women in funny hats at the race courses.  Bud Light Platinum is even stronger than Continue reading

Guided by Voices – Let’s Go Eat the Factory

26 Jan

Guided by Voices is a band that I didn’t start listening to until about two years ago.  Since then, they have become one of my top 5 most listened to artists. Hearing of a new LP to be released on January 16, 2012 had me revved up for two reasons: 1) frontman Robert Pollard had officially disbanded Guided by Voices in 2004, and 2) the new LP, Let’s Go Eat the Factory, was to include the most celebrated GBV roster of Robert Pollard, Tobin Sprout, Greg Demos, Mitch Mitchell and Kevin Fennell who hadn’t played or recorded together since 1996 when Pollard reportedly fired the rest of his bandmates after a falling out with Sprout. Continue reading

Beard of the Week: January 26

26 Jan

It’s Thursday! Which means it’s time for yet one more lovely beard to be honored over here at Beard of the Week!

Let’s go back to the sports world, with the help of pal (and new roomie!), Justin, I’ve come across quite a beard.

Pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, Brian Wilson!

I think that photograph says it all. Continue reading

The Self-Hating Hipster’s Top 51 Tracks of 2011

22 Jan

As promised, below you will find the Self-Hating Hipster’s T0p 51 Tracks of 2011 thanks to a scramble at my lake house, indirectly motivated by six girls working on their Masters theses.  I actually mistakenly published the article about a week ago but quickly made it “Private” so as not to give you readers a glimpse of the SHH in his article underpants.  I didn’t realize (stoopit!) what a massive undertaking this article would prove to be as a solo project.  I know it’s too late, but I’m hoping that you don’t find it to be too little.  I’ve been really busy with my job lately, and in the words of Garth Marenghi, “I’m not Jesus Christ…I’ve come to accept that now.”

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51.  Fucked Up – “Queen of Hearts”

David Comes to Life

Fucked Up adds a cute, poppy flare to post-hardcore as evidenced by “Queen of Hearts.”

“Hello, my name is David!”  Hi, David.  “Let’s be together!  Let’s fall in love!”

Stop yelling, David. Continue reading

Stop SOPA and PIPA

19 Jan

“Why was Google blacked out yesterday?”  “Did I hear that Wikipedia is down?”  “Why didn’t SHH post anything on WordPress yesterday?”  The last question could be answered with either protest or sloth…  The real answer to these questions is that these websites, along with a number of others, protested against the passage of SOPA and PIPA. Continue reading

Beard of the Week: January 19

19 Jan

This week’s beard is another obvious winner, but I decided to do it anyway because this man is just so darn handsome (dare I say, even without a beard?), that I had to.

I can’t count how many times I’ve used the phrase, “Oh, he’s a total Clooney.” And with good reason, beard lovers, I present you with Mr. George Clooney!

I mean, the smile, the eyes, and the obnoxious amount of charm Continue reading

The SHH Guide to Porters

15 Jan

IT FINALLY SNOWED! After what seemed like forever, there is snow on the ground where I live.  It is officially winter.  The holidays are over and there is nothing but the grey sky and shoveling for two/three months.  Refreshment be damned; it’s about staying warm.  Stouts get all the love, and I’ve been on a porter kick lately [Ed’s note – not a euphemism] so I decided to crack an egg of knowledge all on all ya’ll. Porter: the other dark beer.  Wikipedia’s got a whole bunch of facts that you can read if you want, but since I already did that just sit tight.  Anyways, you know the band Joy Division? Yeah, Love Will Tear Us Apart and all that.  Porter is what all their dad’s drank after a hard day at a Manchester textile factory.  Your son would be depressed enough to write “The Eternal,” too.   Continue reading