Media Junkie

Pure Entertainment - Pure Detroit's 11th Birthday - Live at the Magic Stick, Detroit MI - 11 December 2009

It must be obvious that as a Metro Detroit local, I am a big supporter of local bands and businesses.  I frequent mostly independent local record shops such as Record Time (shameless plug for the best record store in Detroit), love local bands such as The Silent Years, The Summer Pledge, and more recently, The Great Fiction, and proudly wear Made In Detroit and Pure Detroit apparel. 

In celebration of Pure Detroit's 11th birthday, 11 bands and artists gathered together last night at the Magic Stick for over five hours of pure entertainment.  A diverse musical lineup that stretched from psychedelic rock, funk, hip-hop, pop-rock, country, electro, and bluegrass ensured that there would be something for just about anybody, and showcased some of Detroit's best bands.

CD Review: Lymbyc Systym - Shutter Release

Lymbyc Systym
Shutter Release
2009
Mush Records

Buy This Album

Two years ago I discovered the duo of brothers Jared and Michael Bell, known as Lymbyc Systym, as an opening act for The Album Leaf.  Impressed with the rich sound created by only two people, I purchased their stellar debut EP Carved By Glaciers, and anxiously awaited the release of their first full-length record.  Love Your Abuser came out later in 2007 and continued to impress, but since that day, the band has toured almost non-stop.

Considering their rigorous touring schedule, it was surprising when the announcement that the duo would be releasing their second full-length album was made only five weeks before its November 3rd street date. 

Shutter Release is the next logical step in the brothers' sound.  It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it improves upon everything that made Love Your Abuser a solid debut.  It's bigger, fuller, louder, and more dramatic, but retains the essence of their earlier works, from the beautiful melodies to the booming drums.

Required Viewing: Where The Wild Things Are

Where The Wild Things Are
Warner Bros. Pictures
PG
110 Minutes
2009

I love movies.  I love the way they transport us to other lands.  I love they way they prey on our fears.  I love the way they tug on our heart strings.  I love when they weave complex, thought-provoking stories and when they make us laugh ourselves silly. 

Every once in a while, however, I see a film that transcends being a mere movie.  It sticks with me hours after I've left the theater, and I find myself pondering every scene.  It speaks to me on a deep, emotional level and has a profound impact on me.  These films are rare, and sadly few and far between, but I always know them when I see them.  I can feel it as I sit in the darkened theater, trying unsuccessfully to quell he flood of emotions rising within me so that complete strangers won't see me blubbering like a newborn. 

Director Spike Jonze's enrichment of Maurice Sendak's classic children's story Where The Wild Things Are is just such a film and the first to be added to that very short list of motion pictures that left me stunned, speechless, and with a tsunami of feelings swirling inside since 2004's Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.

Movie Review: 9

9
Focus Features
PG-13
79 Minutes
2009

Expectations have a nasty way of getting the better of you.  Rarely does a movie truly live up to the expectations we build for it in our own minds, and this is even rarer after months of anticipation. 

Shane Acker's original short film, 9, was nominated for an Academy Award and impressed famed director Tim Burton so much that Burton and director Timmu Bekmambetov, best known for his work on 2008's phenominal high action graphic novel adaptation of Wanted, produced a feature length reimagining of the story. 

Featuring stunning visuals, a superb voice cast including Elijah Wood, Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, and Crispin Glover, 9 looked like it would be one of the most imaginative, impressive films of the year.  Upon viewing the trailer that preceded Coraline (still one of the year's best films), 9 jumped right to the top of 2009's must-see list.

Unfortunately, seven months later, my expectations did indeed get the better of me.

A Nice Time - Moby, Live at St. Andrew's Hall - Detroit, MI - 29 September 2009

I must admit, I was not a Moby fan from the beginning.  I, like many others, discovered Moby through his critically acclaimed album Play.  For what it's worth, the music elitist in me feels it's worth mentioning that I was on board before the album became a success, having heard several tracks on the local NPR station (most notably "If Things Were Perfect", which remains one of my favorite songs on the album). 

We first saw him live at St. Andrew's Hall in 1999 in front of a small, but incredibly energetic crowd.  This was still our earlier days of discovering electronic music and one of the first genre concerts we'd been to, so we had little idea of what to expect.  The crowd was packed in so tight that when they jumped, you jumped - mainly because you were practically lifted off your feet anyway. 

Moby was a ball of energy, running about the stage, playing his guitar, switching to bongo drums, and keyboards - though I'm pretty sure about 95% of the show was all pre-recorded DAT tapes back in those days.

We've seen him many times since then - traveling for the second leg of the Play tour in 2000, where I discovered Hybrid, at the Area: One and Area: Two festivals with the likes of Outkast and the legendary David Bowie, and in mid-sized venues such as our own State Theater (now known as the Fillmore Detroit) - but it seems apropos that 10 years after our first experience and touring behind his best album since Play, Moby would return to the place we first saw him at.  Only this time, the experience was much different.

Sound the Toll - Bell X1 Live at the Bling Pig - Ann Arbor, MI - 24 September 2009

Irish rockers Bell X1 recently made their first stop in the Metro Detroit area to perform in front of a packed house in Ann Arbor's famous Blind Pig.  Little more than a dive bar, The Blind Pig has hosted such legendary acts as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and R.E.M. early in their careers.  It may not look very pretty, but it's a surprisingly fantastic venue for concerts.  The sound carries well in the cramped confines, and the dancefloor is large enough for attendees to get down or rock out, if they so choose.

Bell X1 are one of those bands who are very divisive.  Many liken them to other pop-rockers such as Coldplay, and the comparisons to U2 are practically inevitable simply because they hail from the same part of the world.  Fans dig their catchy tunes and lead singer Paul Noonan's cleverly written lyrics, chock full of classic one-liners.  Detractors hate them for many of the same reasons, arguing the hooks are cheesy and the lyrics aren't nearly as clever as Noonan thinks they are.  Most of all, hipsters like those kooky kids over at Pitchfork Media - who only listen to the coolest bands, of course - hate them because one of their songs appeared in the popular television show The O.C.  This instantly makes them sellouts, naturally, because no self-respecting band would ever try to promote their own music via a show with millions of viewers.

So I guess you can call me a sellout too, because Bell X1 put on one of the best live shows I've seen this year, living up to the great rock 'n' roll history of the venue. 

Temporary Hiatus

You may have noticed that my article about James Cameron's Avatar preview did not appear.  Nor did my reviews of the last Summer Pledge concert I attended, the latest comedy from Mike Judge, Extract, or any CD reviews.

Fear not, dear reader(s), Media Junkie is not dead. 

As some of you may remember, earlier this year my family was the victim of a house fire.  That was almost 7 months ago.  A lot has happened in that time and the house is in the final stages of completion.  My free time, which is what I dedicate to this blog, is more sparse while we're out shopping for new furniture, appliances, and necessities.  

Updates may still trickle through, and they will once again become more steady throughout October.  I am also working on several other projects, both personal and public, that will receive the attention they deserve after we have moved back into our real house. 

This is an exciting time for my family and I, but I have not forgotten how much I love writing reviews and sharing my opinion with others.  Media Junkie isn't going away any time soon, and when it returns there will most likely be an overabundance of articles and reviews that I've had on the backburner for some time now, as well as the promised new feature, Approved For All Audiences.

Thanks to those who loyally read this blog!  See you soon!
-Matt A.

New Feature: Approved For All Audiences

It's time to unveil a new feature here at Media Junkie.  It's one I've debated doing for a long time, but I'm just going to run with it.

There are plenty of movie sites out there on the internet.  If you want the latest scoops, you go to Ain't It Cool News, if you want exhaustive information you go to the Internet Movie Database, and if you want trailers, you go to Apple.  Therefore, it seemed kind of redundant to post trailers for films I'm looking forward to at this blog, but then I remembered - this is MY blog.

I'm not trying to compete with those sites.  I love those sites and visit them on a daily basis.  I'm not trying to be the biggest music/movie blog on the internet or paint myself as an authoritative voice.  I'm just a nerd with a passion for these forms of entertainment, a passion for writing, and too much free time on my hands.  Media Junkie is a fun side project for me, so why shouldn't I write short pieces about upcoming features and their trailers? 

With that in mind, I'm going to begin sharing the films I'm excited to see in the feature Approved For All Audiences, and I'm going to kick things off later this weekend with my write-up of the 16 minute preview of James Cameron's new 3D science fiction epic, Avatar, I witnessed yesterday before attending a late screening of Inglourious Basterds.

Nobody is going to come to this blog to see the latest trailers, but that isn't the point.  The point is, was, and always will be to share my enthusiasm for the things I love, and if anybody enjoys reading them, that's just a bonus. 

Required Viewing: Inglourious Basterds

Inglourious Basterds
Universal Pictures
R
153 Minutes
2009

The word "genius" is a word that gets thrown around too often.  I'm no stranger to hyperbole and frequently use adjectives such as fantastic, terrific, amazing, and so on to describe motion pictures or albums, but I rarely use the term "genius."  That word is reserved for only those experiences that go even beyond the exemplary; the experiences that remind you why you love going to the movies or listening to music in the first place.

It is with great enthusiasm that I write this: Inglourious Basterds, the latest epic from writer/director Quentin Tarantino, is a work of pure, utter genius.

Poster Boys - The Summer Pledge Live at the Post Bar, Ferndale, MI - 20 August 2009

After a short but spirited set at Rochester's Gold Music and Arts Festival only days earlier, Detroit's spacey post-rockers The Summer Pledge made a lasting impression on the crowd at Ferndale's popular nightspot, the Post Bar.  There were plenty of reasons for the crowd, who were packed in the small main floor area like sardines, to walk away satisfied: the roughly hour-long set was loud and the band was as energetic as I'd ever seen them, playing in front of a great deal of friends.

The Post isn't really a concert venue - it's a bar.  There is no stage, no lighting, which doesn't make for a picture-friendly environment, so I wasn't able to capture any shots of the show, but my near-photographic memory hasn't failed me one bit.