On Saturday night, Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement made their long-awaited return to HBO with a new hour-long comedy special called Flight of the Conchords: Live at the London Apollo. The special captures the Conchords’ recent “Flight of the Conchords Sing Flight of the Conchords Tour”. during which the comic songbirds performed new original songs as well as past classics. Flight of the Conchords: Live at the London Apollo is now available on HBO On Demand, HBO Go, and HBO Now. Below, you can watch a trio of clips from the special, including a new song called “Deana and Ian”, the fan favorite “Hurt Feelings”, and some on-stage banter about complimentary muffins. Ahead of this weekend’s premiere, Flight of the Conchords appeared on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert and performed their new song “Father & Son”. Beyond his work in Flight of the Conchords, Clement has a number of other upcoming projects in the works, including a U.S. television adaptation of the breakout New Zealand horror comedy, What We Do In the Shadows, as well as a theatrical sequel. source https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/10/flight-of-the-conchords-live-at-the-london-apollo/ via Tumblr Flight of the Conchords’ new special, Live at the London Apollo, premieres on HBO: Watch
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Further proof we’re all living in a simulation: Limp Bizkit’s set at Rock Allegiance Festival in Camden, NJ on Saturday night was briefly interrupted after Insane Clown Posse’s Shaggy 2 Dope reportedly rushed the stage in an attempt to dropkick Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst. Shaggy was ultimately unsuccessful as his kick landed short of Durst’s body. He was immediately confronted by security and a fight ensued on the side of the stage. For his part, Durst didn’t seem to recognize that Shaggy was his assailant. “What a pussy, he couldn’t even pull it off,” Durst remarked, before telling security to “calm down… It’s just one guy.” As a user on reddit points out, Limp Bizkit and ICP actually have bad blood dating back two decades, and it seems like things finally came to a head on Saturday night. ICP had played a set at the festival hours earlier. “Well it all started 20 years ago when ICP was trying their hardest to sell out. They performed at Woodstock and after was told ‘Fred wants to meet with you’ they had no idea who the fuck Fred was. I guess Fred Durst was a mega superstar and egoed out on them hard like wouldn’t look at them or anything while he talked. He invited them on the Family Values tour with Korn and all those bands then at the last minute told them to fuck off outside and booted them. They were on this huge festival show Monster sponsored together and I’m assuming he was a c*nt again.” Watch footage of Shaggy’s attack below. source https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/10/icp-fred-durst-dropkick/ via Tumblr Insane Clown Posse’s Shaggy attempts to dropkick Fred Durst during Limp Bizkit concert The first time we see Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) in Rushmore, he’s in the middle of a hubristic dream about himself. Nonchalantly taking a moment away from his morning stock market reading to solve a math problem that even his teacher’s mentor at MIT couldn’t crack, Max is all smug swagger, the kind of assured prep-school type who knows he’s about to jog through life on his sheer genius. And then, a second after that, Max wakes up. Twenty years on, Rushmore has become one of the pre-eminent coming-of-age movies of the 1990s. It’s influenced everything from laborious Fall Out Boy song titles to a new generation of industrious, low-budget indie comedies about ambitious underachievers set to meticulously curated soundtracks. It cemented a melancholic version of Bill Murray that may well be more familiar to younger generations than the rambunctious Murray of so many classic comedies. It made Schwartzman a star, and its director Wes Anderson an even bigger one. A great deal of its appeal comes from its mod-rock style and its perfectly executed dark comedy, but it’s also stood the test of time better than a majority of late-’90s teen comedies by having a wisdom about young (and old) men that most of its peers lacked. One of the things that Rushmore understands well, even if its fans sometimes don’t, is that Max is more than a little bit obnoxious. Sure, Anderson treats his compulsive need to be acknowledged for his efforts with bemusement a lot of the time, but he and Owen Wilson’s screenplay also has an excellent ear for the ways in which the precocious Max still sounds and acts like a self-obsessed teenage boy. Like a lot of disaffected high schoolers, Max is desperate to buck a system that he views as repressive and misunderstanding of his genius. Also like a lot of them, he fails to see how desperately indifferent most of them are to his plight. Dr. Guggenheim (Brian Cox), the principal of Rushmore Academy, wants Max to be anyone else’s problem but his. Max’s father (Seymour Cassel) is dealing with the loss of his wife and Max’s mother in his own quiet way. Max’s only real friend is his chapel partner Dirk (Mason Gamble), he’s failing all his classes, and he’s desperate to be loved in the way that a lot of teenagers want to be loved: by somebody who’ll at once lust after them and coddle them like a parent. The second he meets Rushmore’s new first grade teacher, Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams), Max decides that Rosemary is his soulmate, and neither age nor Rosemary’s total lack of interest nor his own shortcomings will get in the way. In a lot of filmmakers’ hands, Rushmore could turn creepy really quickly. Particularly in a terse classroom exchange between Max and Rosemary late in the film, even Anderson straddles that line on occasion, but the film’s blunt pragmatism about all the ways in which Max isn’t ready for the realities of the life he’s chosen for himself is what keeps it on an even keel. Max is a child, and in large part thanks to Schwartzman’s nasally gawky performance, he looks like a child. He’s a child desperate to be respected and adored the way he thinks men will be, but he’s still a child when it counts. So is Herman Blume (Murray), and the relationship between he and Max is where Rushmore lands on some of its most affecting ideas about maturing into adulthood. In short, Anderson and Wilson use the film to drive at the point that growing up isn’t a finish-line sort of thing, at least not in the ways you’re taught as a kid. Max and Herman hit it off right away because they’re mirror images of one another. Max might be poor and Herman rich, but they’re both self-destructive, both full of anger, both desperate to cling to somebody who can make sense of all the things they dislike about themselves so that they won’t have to. Both of them see Rosemary as that figure, and Williams finds a great deal of emotion in Rosemary’s willingness to let her guard down around both men at various points, even knowing that no good will probably come of it. She projects a mature vulnerability that’s constantly at odds both visually and in the story with Schwartzman’s dweeby simpering and Murray’s forlorn, distant ache. There’s a lot of depth to Rushmore, but lingering in those depths for too long does a disservice to how consistently funny it also is. Like a number of Anderson’s best films, the jokes in Rushmore might sting, but they do so while simultaneously landing the belly laugh. Rushmore is full of classic setpieces (the montages involving Max’s various school activities and he and Herman’s eventual game of reckless one-upsmanship), but some of its biggest laughs are shoved into the margins. This comic sensibility would become a hallmark of Anderson’s work to come, but some of his best gags can be found here: Herman stuffing an elementary schooler’s 3-point shot in mid-phone call, Max jotting liner notes into a bible in artful calligraphy, pretty much any background image from the post-pay “Heaven and Hell Cotillion” at the film’s end. Rushmore cemented so much of Anderson’s stylistic sensibility, from the Mark Mothersbaugh score to the meticulous rule-of-thirds photography, but most of all it established him as a filmmaker who could exist as both one of his generation’s best comic directors, and as one of its most thoughtfully melancholic. Here, that melancholy largely manifests itself in the form of anger, but it’s not the kind of anger you typically think of when “movie anger” comes to mind. Rushmore is an angry movie in the way that people are usually angry in life: exhausted, sometimes a little wearily funny, often just trying to find something or someone else to help shoulder the burden for a while. It’s mostly unsentimental about how selfish that kind of anger can be, but hey, that’s growing up. Max is the kind of totally unique creation that only a pair of enterprising screenwriters could dream up, but he’s also little more than the insane pipe dreams of every art-minded teenager brought to vivid life. The hardest part of growing up is realizing that being older won’t automatically give you the answers, but by the time Max and Herman reach the end of Rushmore, they’ve figured out that the next best thing is just making it as far as they have at all. source https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/10/classic-film-review-rushmore/ via Tumblr Classic Film Review: Rushmore Gets Angry and Real About Growing Up Without Answers The success of thrash metal around the world in the ‘80s, even without the help of mainstream radio and MTV, had many of its purveyors feeling particularly emboldened. The biggest artists of that era were poised to make their grandest statements yet: Master of Puppets, Among The Living, Pleasure To Kill, Darkness Descends, Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?, etc. All albums marked by intense, fevered performances and intricate songwriting inspired by prog rock’s complexity and punk’s clenched fists. Slayer’s Reign In Blood, released October 7th, 1986, lands smack in the middle of that decade like an axe hitting a bullseye. No other metal release that year or during that era felt quite as demanding and insurgent. It hit fast — clocking in under less than a half-hour in its original release — and hit hard, helping push a band that was already respected among their fans and peers toward new levels of success. A spot on the Billboard 200 chart. Gold-certified sales. Bigger concert dates. And a level of inter-band tension that wouldn’t settle down for the better part of 15 years. A good chunk of the credit for the progress that Slayer achieved on that album and beyond needs to be meted out to producer Rick Rubin. The future impresario was already a fan by the time he saw them live at the CMJ New Music Seminar in 1985. But it was that performance at New York’s The Ritz that turned him into an out-and-out obsessive. In D.X. Ferris’s book Slayer 66 ⅔: The Jeff & Dave Years…, Rubin told the author, “I don’t recall much of anything that night before Slayer. They totally annihilated…I can’t imagine any other band in the world mattered that night.” As legend has it, the producer hounded the band after that, urging them to sign with Def Jam and let him behind the boards for their third full-length. Smelling blood and cash in the water, Slayer acquiesced and about six months later, they had recorded Reign In Blood. Rubin’s influence was, in part, to quit messing around and aim straight for the jugular. The tempos for their songs were ratcheted up to near hardcore punk BPMs, pushing everyone to play right up to the edge of their abilities. It was a tightrope walk at times, but everyone stayed aloft, or, as was often the case with Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King’s guitar solos, soared through it all like a hawk soaring toward its prey. Rubin took a dominant hand in the producer’s chair, suggesting drum fills and helping whittle the material until it reached a sharp point. And he kept the studio free of alcohol and drugs. “I think he maybe made us a little more accessible to some people,” drummer Dave Lombardo admitted to Ferris, “to where maybe those people wouldn’t have given it a chance otherwise.” Reign In Blood is bookended by its two longest songs: “Angel of Death” and “Raining Blood.” The former, written by Hanneman, is a pulverizing tune that speaks of the evil deeds of Josef Mengele, the Nazi scientist who performed experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz. It was custom built to court controversy, with charges of Nazi affiliation following the band for the next three decades. And it was the song that made Def Jam’s then-distributor Columbia balk at releasing the album, sending the label into the arms of Geffen. Composed by Hanneman and King, the latter was a blasphemous vision of an angel cast out of heaven, f–king shit up in purgatory. The music follows suit, pivoting from a double-time assault to a chugging stomp that feels like it’s cracking the earth’s crust. Recognizing their impact on audiences from the jump, both songs have been mainstays of Slayer’s live setlists ever since. In between are eight tracks that offer only brief moments of reprieve, like the pinging buildup that kicks off “Piece by Piece,” or “Postmortem,” which settles into an early headbanging pace before a manic circle pit breaks out. Everything else in this meaty middle section of the album oozed with its titular crimson. And it put the rest of the metal world on notice: the whole scene was going to be different from here on out. Or as future Slayer drummer Paul Bostaph recalled to Decibel magazine about hearing Reign In Blood for the first time coming from Forbidden guitarist Craig Locicero’s boombox, “I stood in front of that box for the entire 20-some-odd minutes. I remember looking at Craig and going, ‘We’re fucked.’” Beyond its immediate impact, the shockwaves of the album are still being felt as strongly as ever. Reign In Blood continues to be heaped with praise and somewhat meaningless accolades, like its induction into Decibel magazine’s Hall of Fame, the first record to be given such a treatment, and high placement on lists of the best metal releases of all time and the best albums of the ‘80s. And it continues to find fans. If you’ve been lucky enough to see Slayer in concert, especially on this current run that is supposedly the band’s final tour, you’ve likely felt how the air in the room shifts when King and Gary Holt hit the opening riff of “Raining Blood.” It’s as if an electric charge has jolted everyone to attention, an army ready to charge into the breach without question. Few songs and fewer albums, metal or otherwise, can command that kind of response. Thirty-plus years later, Reign In Blood still has that power. source https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/10/slayer-reign-in-blood-album-anniversary/ via Tumblr Slayer’s Reign In Blood Still Reigns Supreme 32 Years Later How lackluster was last week’s Season 44 premiere of Saturday Night Live? Well, the only things people were still talking about come Monday were Matt Damon’s bro-tastic impression of Judge Brett Kavanaugh (not that we ever need to see it again or want to relive any portion of the past two weeks) and an embarrassing Kanye West rant that took place after the cameras had quit rolling and America had gone to sleep. A week later and, for the life of me, I can’t remember anything else that happened other than something about Pete Davidson and Ariana Grande. Shrugs. Maybe they’re dating or something. This week, SNL returns with rapper and Crazy Rich Asians co-star Awkwafina, musical guest and hottest hip-hop artist on the planet Travis Scott, and the perpetual hope that comes with a show that once survived the Joe Piscopo years. Hope that a sketch or two will stick, that a joke or three will land, and that a cast member or several will show a pulse. All I know is that if a show hosted by someone named Awkwafina doesn’t hydrate some water-cooler talk come Monday, then it’s going to be a long, long season. Live from New York… _________________________________________________________ Hot or Cold Open?: Thank “the male lord” Donald Trump remains sidelined on the cold opens. However, while Beck Bennett’s Mitch McConnell, Kate McKinnon’s Lindsey Graham, and Cecily Strong’s Susan Collins took incisive jabs at the moral cowards they were mocking, there isn’t much humor in watching impersonations of terrible people celebrating one of the darkest days in Supreme Court history and delivering a direct “fuck you” to women and survivors of sexual assault. As McConnell mentions in the skit, Kavanaugh’s confirmation served as a decided victory for “white men over 60 to white men over 70.” Maybe that demographic found this cold open funny as they had the last laugh … again. The Host with the Most?: SNL’s problem has not been its hosts. Like Adam Driver before her, Awkwafina took fairly humorless roles like Tiny Biggs, Didi the dog walker, and a contestant on “So, You’re Willing to Date a Magician” and squeezed out laughs with her point-blank deliveries and blunt style. Also poignant was her shout-out to actress and former SNL host Lucy Liu, whom she credited with “opening doors” for Asian-American women. Awkwafina hosting tonight’s show definitely felt like a slight win in a recent stretch full of social setbacks. Musical Guest or Pest?: If Kanye is the most talkative rapper out there these days, then Travis Scott might be the most talked about — and rightly so. The Houston native did nothing less than bring ASTROWORLD to New York City, with Kevin Parker and John Mayer pitching in on a “Skeletons/ Astrothunder” medley and Scott returning for an inspired rendition of “Sicko Mode”, during which he performed from the spinning car of a theme park ride while a gorgeous waterfall effect allowed smoke to pour down from the rafters. And kudos to Scott (aka Lil Bang Bang) for the sick serve he delivered by battle dancing to the Final Jeopardy theme. Best Sketch: Two episodes into this season and there has yet to be a truly memorable sketch. However, political inserts about a hype crew trying to make Ted Cruz look cool like Beto O’Rourke (good luck!) and, better still, a slam on Trump’s midweek emergency alert and how annoying they could potentially become if abused played a lot sharper — the latter with a great twist of being a Cricket Wireless commercial. Worst Sketch: Again, not a single sketch here will live on in any meaningful way. If one has to get this dubious distinction, then let’s go with the History Channel’s Hidden Tales of Egypt bit, in which Cleopatra gets a makeover that results in the style we all know today. Like most skits last night, it’s a workable premise that went absolutely nowhere despite Awkwafina’s best efforts to save the scene. The Real Fake News: Luckily, “Weekend Update” stepped in last night to pretty much save the show. After the cold open offered no catharsis after a nightmarish week on the social justice front, Colin Jost and Michael Che summed up how the bulk of Americans must be feeling: Jost pointing out the brevity of the FBI investigation of Kavanaugh by turning it into a 10-second Law and Order episode and Che both mocking the president’s takeaway that white men are living in “scary times” and calling out the complicity of white Republican congresswomen (“If a white lady in Keds can’t get justice, there’s no chance for my black ass in Jordans”). Joining Jost and Che were the brilliant duo of Mikey Day and Alex Moffat as Donald Jr. and Eric Trump, a bit highlighted by Eric talking to a puppet named King Funnyface and repeating his father’s favorite joke: “What did the gay, black Jew say?” Pete Davidson, donning a red “Make Kanye 2006 Again” cap, chimed in on Kanye West and related what most of us have been quietly thinking all year long: “Being mentally ill is not an excuse to act like a jackass.” Most Ready for Prime Time Player: In an extremely thin field, let’s go with Mikey Day for his return as Donald Jr. and his admonishing role of Pat from Pat’s Pumpkin Patch. Remember, the orangest pumpkins are the softest inside. Verdict: For the second week in a row, the host and musical guests left it all out on the SNL stage. “Weekend Update” hit its mark, and the return of McKinnon’s Debette Goldry, though a bit stale as a premise, was fun to see. But that doesn’t make up for a writing staff and cast that still haven’t proven that they can put together a complete sketch or create something clever or absurd enough to be memorable. While watching Day and Moffat play out their Trump bros. bit to perfection, I noted how little chemistry there seemed to be in most sketches and how so many skits seemed less like ensemble pieces and more like scenes with just a lot of people doing their own thing. As always, until next week. source https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/10/tv-review-saturday-night-live-awkwafina/ via Tumblr TV Review: Saturday Night Live Remains a Late-Night Yawn The surviving members of Nirvana hit the stage together last night for a surprise performance to close out Foo Fighters’ Cal Jam Fest. Following Foo Fighters’ own headlining set, Krist Novoselic joined Dave Grohl and Pat Smear for a six-song set of Nirvana songs. In place of the late Kurt Cobain, the trio recruited Deer Tick singer John McCauley and punk legend Joan Jett to front the reunion. (Both singers previously participated in Nirvana’s reunion gig following their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.) McCauley sang lead on “Serve the Servant”, “Scentless Apprentice”, and “In Bloom”. Jett then took the stage for performances of “Breed”, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, and “All Apologies”, the latter of which also featured The Distillers’ Brody Dalle on bass. Watch fan-shot footage of the reunion below. Setlist: source https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/10/nirvana-members-reunite-cal-jam/ via Tumblr Surviving Nirvana members reunite at Cal Jam for surprise performance: Video + Setlist SNLs Pete Davidson responds to Kanye: Being mentally ill is not an excuse to act like a jackass10/6/2018 Last week’s season premiere of Saturday Night Live amounted to what Keanan Thompson described as a “hostage” situation, as the show’s cast was forced to stand next to Kanye West as he ranted about a series of nonsensical topics, including his admiration for Donald Trump. This week, during the show’s “Weekend Update” segment, Pete Davidson responded to Kanye on behalf of the cast. Davidson explained that some people thought “Weekend Update” co-anchor Michael Che “should be the one to talk about Kanye, but we discussed it, you know, because Che is black, but I’m crazy and we both know which side of Kanye is at the wheel right now.” “What Kanye said after he went off the air last week was one of the worst, most awkward things I’ve ever seen here,” Davidson remarked. “And I’ve seen Chevy Chase speak to an intern.” Davidson took specific issue with Kanye’s contention that he was bullied backstage for wearing a MAGA hat. “He started by saying people backstage tried to bully him into not wearing it. He wore it all week. Like, nobody told him not to wear it. I wish I bullied you. I wish I suggested that, you know, it might upset some people, like, your wife or every black person ever.” “You know how wrong about politics you have to be for me to notice?” Davidson added. “Kanye is a genius, but like a musical genius. Like Joey Chestnut is a hot dog-eating genius, but I don’t want to hear his opinion about things that aren’t hot dog-related.” Davidson concluded his remarks by advising Kanye to take his meds, because “being mentally ill is not an excuse to act like a jackass.” He then donned a red hat that featured the phrase, “Make Kanye 2006 Again.” Watch Davidson’s full remarks below.
source https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/10/pete-davidson-kanye-snl/ via Tumblr SNL’s Pete Davidson responds to Kanye: “Being mentally ill is not an excuse to act like a jackass” Travis Scott made his SNL debut with a pair of star-studded performances supporting his smash new album, ASTROWORLD. The Houston rapper was joined on stage by Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker and John Mayer as he ran through a medley of “Skeletons” and “ASTROTHUNDER”. Catch the replay below. Both Parker and Mayer contributed to ASTROWORLD, which went twice No. 1 to the chagrin of Nicki Minaj. Beginning next month, Scott will embark on “The Wish You Were Here Tour.” You can grab tickets here. source https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/10/travis-scott-astroworld-snl/ via Tumblr Travis Scott brings ASTROWORLD to SNL with help from Kevin Parker and John Mayer: Watch Austin City Limits kicked off its 44th season Saturday night with a rousing 13-song performance from the incomparable St. Vincent. The career-spanning set kicked off with six tracks from Annie Clark’s 2017 LP, MASSEDUCTION, before touching on past favorites like “Marrow”, “Cruel”, “Cheerleader”, and “Digital Witness”. Replay the full performance below. Earlier this week, St. Vincent announced a full reimagining of MASSEDUCTION, featuring stripped-down piano arrangements of the album’s tracks. Entitled MassEducation, it’s due out next Friday, October 12th. Setlist: source https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/10/st-vincent-austin-city-limits-tv/ via Tumblr St. Vincent kicks off Austin City Limits’ 44th season with thrilling 13-song set: Watch Scott Wilson, the veteran actor who played Hershel on The Walking Dead, has died at the age of 76. According to TMZ, Wilson died from complications of leukemia. He passed away peacefully at his home in Los Angeles. Hours before news of his death was reported, AMC announced that Wilson would be returning to The Walking Dead for its upcoming ninth season. It’s unclear how many episodes he was set to appear in, or whether he had already filmed his appearance. He originally appeared on The Walking Dead beginning in season two through season four, playing farmer Hershel Greene, the father of Maggie and Beth Greene. Wilson’s first major film credits came in the 1967, as he appeared in both In Cold Blood and In the Heat of the Night. The latter film went on to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. In 1974, he appeared in The Great Gatsby, playing the owner of a filling station who and kills Robert Redford’s Jay Gatsby. In 1980, Wilson’s role in The Ninth Configuration earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Other notable film credits include Sean Penn’s Dead Man Walking (1995), Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor (2001), and Patty Jenkins’ Monster (2003). He also appeared in three installments of the children’s film series Shiloh, as well as on the CBS crime drama CSI. source https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/10/r-i-p-scott-wilson-obituary/ via Tumblr R.I.P. Scott Wilson, Walking Dead actor has died at 76 |