Underwire Taking the Pulse of Pop Culture

Beck.com’s All-Star Record Club Covers Classic, Offer Downloads

  • By Scott Thill Email Author
  • June 17, 2009  | 
  • 9:02 pm  | 
  • Categories: music

Good news, Beck fans — and others looking for interesting ways to leverage your artistry and friends into internet revenue.

Beck.com will relaunch in July with new features, including a Record Club wherein the plugged-in sonic chameleon gathers together musical pals like Devendra Banhart, Jamie Lidell, Nigel Godrich or MGMT, covers a classic album in its entirety in one day, and then offers one track a week for download shortly thereafter.

Which is, well, pretty cool.

The once-named Bek David Campbell and his posse will tackle The Velvet Underground and Nico first. One one can only imagine what the surreal “Sunday Morning” or destabilizing “Heroin” will sound like after his motley crew gets done with them.

Andy Warhol, a repurposing icon, would be proud.

Beck’s Record Club will not arrange or rehearse anything ahead of time, and interested surfers can follow the online experiment as it unfolds. Now all this thing needs is an iPhone app and a Twitter feed and it’s mellow gold, baby.

Photo: Peter Yang/Wired Magazine

See Also:

Tags: ,

Movies: Moon Goes Wider as Year One Aims for Ancient Laughs

  • By Hugh Hart Email Author
  • June 17, 2009  | 
  • 8:34 pm  | 
  • Categories: Movies

year-one-2shot-660

Jack Black recently told talk show troublemaker David Letterman he hopes to channel some Monty Python-style Holy Grail mojo for Year One, his new ancient-times buddy flick that hits theaters Friday.

Playing goofballs from centuries ago, Black and co-star Michael Cera (pictured above) can only hope their comedy, directed by Ghostbusters‘ Harold Ramis, plays better than Will Ferrell’s Land of the Lost prehistoric adventure earlier this month.

See also:

Moon Is Duncan Jones’ Homage to Classic Sci-Fi

Review: Masterful Moon Takes Shot at Sci-Fi Greatness

Meanwhile, Duncan Jones’ critically adored indie sci-fi flick Moon, which stars Sam Rockwell as a lunar helium miner, expands from New York and Los Angeles to play theaters in Chicago, Boston and California (San Francisco, Palo Alto and San Diego).

Also new this weekend: Curb Your Enthusiasm malcontent Larry David stays grumpy in Whatever Works (opening in New York and Los Angeles) while Ryan Reynolds, last seen as Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, goes the romantic-comedy route opposite Sandra Bullock in The Proposal.

None of this weekend’s new entries are likely to match Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which opens next Wednesday. The giant-robot sequel is widely expected to become the summer’s top-grossing picture.

Vote for your favorite new films of the week below.

Year One
Synopsis: This backdated buddy comedy from director Harold Ramis (Analyze This, Groundhog Day) stars Jack Black and Michael Cera as two hapless hunter-gatherers. Forced to leave their village, Zed and Oh stumble into misadventures of biblical proportions. Oliver Platt and David Cross co-star.
Rated: PG-13

The Proposal
Synopsis: Sandra Bullock plays a high-powered exec on the verge of deportation to Canada. She forces her put-upon assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her, but only after they take a trip to meet his nutty family in Alaska. Anne Fletcher (27 Dresses, Step Up) directs.
Rated: PG-13

Whatever Works (limited)
Synopsis: Writer-director Woody Allen casts Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm) as a cranky New York chess genius who meets a southern girl (Evan Rachel Wood ) and her Mississippi family (Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley Jr.).
Rated: PG-13

Vote for This Week’s New Movies

Continue Reading “Movies: Moon Goes Wider as Year One Aims for Ancient Laughs” »

Tags: ,

Born-Again Bride of Frankenstein in Works

  • By Hugh Hart Email Author
  • June 17, 2009  | 
  • 6:38 pm  | 
  • Categories: Movies

bride

Following on Benicio del Toro’s retooling of The Wolf Man, Universal Pictures hopes to launch an electrifying new take on Bride of Frankenstein with filmmaker Neil Burger at the reins.

Burger may direct and co-write the Bride of Frankenstein remake, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The original 1935 horror film featured Elsa Lanchester (pictured) in the title role. Sting and Jennifer Beals co-starred in a lame 1985 remake called The Bride; to avoid a similar fate for the current reboot, uber-producer Brian Grazer (Angels & Demons) will oversee development on behalf of Imagine Pictures.

Worth noting: Burger’s biggest hit came in 2006 when he cast Jessica Biel as a turn-of-the-century temptress in The Illusionist. Unsolicited casting advice: Make Biel the Bride.

We’d also suggest Uma Thurman. Anyone who watched her ass-whooping turn in Kill Bill knows Thurman would make a fierce monster bride. Which actress do you see channeling the spirit of a mad scientist’s big-haired beauty-beast? Weigh in below.

See also:

Tags: , ,

Wired Playlist Podcast: Big Pink, Street Sweeper, ‘WTF LOL’

  • By Scott Pierce Email Author
  • June 17, 2009  | 
  • 4:43 pm  | 
  • Categories: music

Robbie Furz and Milo Cordell are the duo behind The Big Pink. Photo by Tom Beard

This week’s Wired Playlist rages against the machines with former Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello. Yes, it’s 2009 — but we are definitely having early ’90s Lollapalooza flashbacks and loving it.

Don’t judge.

However, if you are thinking, “WTF LOL,” you are correct. That’s exactly the message Chicago-based punks Mannequin Men are getting out there.

If you like what you’re hearing on weekly editions of Wired Playlist on iTunes and on The Underwire, let us know. Spit out some comments below or shoot us a message at wiredplaylist@gmail.com.

Playlist Podcast: Episode 8

Who: The Big Pink
Song: “Velvet”
Album: Velvet
We have several tracks from The Big Pink stuck on repeat. The electro-rock duo (pictured above) concocts a wonderfully ethereal aura on the incredible “Velvet.” The follow-up, “Stop the World,” will be available June 29. This is definitely a band to watch.

Continue Reading “Wired Playlist Podcast: Big Pink, Street Sweeper, ‘WTF LOL’” »

Tags: , , , , , ,

Story That Takes 1,000 Years to Read Is Antidote to Media Whirlwind

San Francisco conceptual artist and journalist Jonathon Keats is trying to rejuvenate literature in the age of hyperspeed media by writing a story that will take a millennium to tell.

The catch? The story, printed on the cover of the recently released Infinity issue of Opium Magazine, is only nine words long.

“I’m interested in exploring deep time,” the thought experimentalist and Wired contributor explained in an e-mail to Wired.com during a visit to Europe, where he is probably concocting a scheme to wormhole Paris or something.

“Like most people, I live my life in a rush, consuming media on the run,” said Keats, who has copyrighted his mind, tried to pass a Law of Identity and attempted to genetically engineer God.

“That may be fine for reading the average blog,” he said, “but something essential is lost when ingesting words is all about speed. My thousand-year story is an antidote. Given the printing process I’ve used, you can’t take in more than one word per century. That’s even slower than reading Proust.”

Continue Reading “Story That Takes 1,000 Years to Read Is Antidote to Media Whirlwind” »

Tags: , , , ,

From Fairy Tales to Porn, Anime Heats Up for Summer

  • By Hugh Hart Email Author
  • June 17, 2009  | 
  • 2:20 pm  | 
  • Categories: Movies

pf_10_anime_drag_slg_glad02.jpg

It’s shaping up as one hot summer for anime fans as new films, museum shows and DVDs shove Japan’s most idiosyncratic pop-culture export further into the mainstream.

These upcoming events celebrate anime in all its saucer-eyed glory.

Ponyo was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's story The Little Mermaid. Image courtesy Disney.

Ponyo was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's story The Little Mermaid. Image courtesy Disney.

Ponyo

The English-language version of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated movie Ponyo screens at The Los Angeles Film Festival on June 28 and hits theaters Aug. 14. Best known in the states as the director behind 2002’s Oscar-winning Spirited Away, Miyazaki brought on Tina Fey, Matt Damon and Cate Blanchett to voice the dubbed version of his goldfish fairy tale.

Anime! High Art — Pop Culture

This exhibition, hosted through Aug. 23 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, California, showcases more than 400 pieces of manga- and anime-related artwork. Storyboards, drawings and figurines, including rare items seldom seen outside Japan, shed light on the history of the art form, Japan’s Pixar equivalent Studio Ghibli, sci-fi classic Ghost in the Shell and TV series like Dragonball (pictured top).

The Anime! show also includes an X-rated space devoted to the genre’s erotic elements. Exhibition curator Ellen Harrison tells Wired.com: “Japanese culture has a lot of restraints and codes of behavior, but as far as sexuality goes, it’s much more accepted as a form of artistic expression.”

Anime Expo

The Anime Expo celebrates manga-inspired graphics, movies and TV at the Los Angeles Convention Center from July 2 to 5. The Robot Chicken brain trust, including Seth Green, will join more than 40 Japanese artists to glad-hand an expected 51,000 visitors.

Astro Boy: The Anime Series, Volumes 1 to 5

This contemporary reboot of the 1960s Japanese TV series about an atomic-powered robot boy with rockets in his legs aired on the Kids WB network starting in 2004. Each 10-episode Astro Boy DVD volume, available Aug. 18, costs $15.

Continue Reading “From Fairy Tales to Porn, Anime Heats Up for Summer” »

Tags: , , ,

Alt Text: A Hard-Core Proposal for Gamers

  • By Lore Sjoberg Email Author
  • June 17, 2009  | 
  • 12:00 am  | 
  • Categories: Games

hardcore-image

I am not a hard-core gamer. I’m not even a medium-core gamer. My core, gaming-wise, could best be described as “nougaty.” Oh, I play a lot of games, across all sorts of genres, but it’s always on standard difficulty. The only game I’ve gotten 100 percent completion on is the odd Sudoku.

I had kind of a heavy World of Warcraft thing going on for a while, but claiming to be a hard-core gamer because you play a lot of Warcraft is like claiming to be a criminal mastermind because you can’t stop shoplifting nicotine patches.

bug_altext

Even though I’ve somehow managed to come to terms with the fact that I don’t care about videogames more than every other thing in the entire universe, sometimes a game rubs it in my face. Most recently it was Super Mario Bros 2, a game released in 1988 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. I downloaded it on the Wii — supposedly not a hard-core system — and realized that I am nothing.

I may not have mastered games like Halo 2, but at least I finished them. This is because they have this obscure little feature called “save games.” You might not have heard of it — it’s kind of obscure — but here’s how it works.

Say you spend four hours fighting a boss where you have to perfectly time your attacks while dodging flame and giant rock fists. First off, saving your game lets you go straight to the boss instead of having to mow through mooks every time you lose a fight. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, saving your game makes it so that you never have to look at that monster ever again. It’s like a bad date; once you get through it, it’s over. You can seek counseling and move on.

Continue Reading “Alt Text: A Hard-Core Proposal for Gamers” »

Tags:

Review: Spinal Tap Comes Back From the Dead

  • By Chris Kohler Email Author
  • June 16, 2009  | 
  • 6:12 pm  | 
  • Categories: music

backfromthedead

Back From the Dead, the new CD from the realest fake band in the world, features tracks spanning the entire nonexistent career of Spinal Tap.

Released Tuesday, just in time to miss the 25th anniversary of the legendary mockumentary movie This Is Spinal Tap, the disc features many of the classics from the comedy film, plus new songs written in the Tap tradition of gross misogyny and intentionally clumsy mixed metaphors.

They’re the innermost thoughts of oblivious rockers Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins and Derek Smalls, played to the hilt as always by veteran actors Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer.

Do rock stars mind being made fun of like this? Quite to the contrary, they seem to love it: Why else would Keith Emerson, Steve Vai, Phil Collen and John Mayer sit in on some of the new tracks? Emerson lends a free-form keyboard solo to “Heavy Duty,” which captures that classic Tap spirit in its lyrics:

Heavy duty
Heavy duty rock ‘n’ roll
Heavy duty
Brings out the duty in my soul

Continue Reading “Review: Spinal Tap Comes Back From the Dead” »

Tags: , ,

TV’s Tweeting Tattoo Artist Offers Free Twitter Ink Session

  • By Hugh Hart Email Author
  • June 16, 2009  | 
  • 3:41 pm  | 
  • Categories: television

news_generic_tattoo_highway1

A television show will soon make Twitter far more permanent than an ephemeral tweet: Tattoo Highway host Thomas Pendelton plans to ink one Twitter user’s handle on his or her body.

Pendleton (pictured right), artist-in-residence for A&E’s reality series, has already received a bunch of tweets from fans begging for the chance to be inscribed with their Twitter user names.

“I’d get ‘maryisbusy’ on my wrist so that I could just lift my arm to let people know I’ve no time for them,” said @maryisbusy in a series of tweets. “I’ve been ‘maryisbusy’ for eight years now, I think that’s a tattoo-worthy level of commitment. Or maybe a forearm ambigram like in Angels and Demons so people will see I’m ‘busy’ from all angles?”

To qualify, Twitter users must follow Pendleton, then tweet @ThomasPendelton with hash tag #A&EWed10 stating why (and where) they want their Twitter handle permanently inked onto their body.

Pendleton will pick a winner before the next Tattoo Highway episode, set to air Wednesday at 10 p.m. EST.

See also:

Tags: , ,

High Seas: Eclipse Cruise Gets Cosmic With Boredoms’ Drum Scrum

  • By Michael Calore Email Author
  • June 16, 2009  | 
  • 2:19 pm  | 
  • Categories: music

bore_tront_flickr

Avant-garde Japanese band Boredoms is taking its electronically enhanced drum circle shtick to the middle of the ocean, where it will provide a live soundtrack to a total solar eclipse.

lsd_tour

Organizers of Tokara The Sun & Moon Festival have booked a Russian ferry and hired the Boredoms, along with New York’s Gang Gang Dance and Japan’s Goma, to play a show during the next Saros 136 eclipse, which will take place July 22. The spectacle is subtitled, “The Lucy in the Sky With Diamond Ring Tour.”

The Boredoms are pretty much the perfect choice for such an event. The genre-bending band emerged from Osaka’s noise-punk scene in the late 1980s before shifting its style to a percussion-heavy mix of psychedelic rock, trance-heavy beats and sun-worship chants.

Several of the band’s albums, including Vision Creation Newsun and Seadrum/House of Sun, explore this style. As the titles indicate, the themes embrace the solar, the aquatic and the cosmic.

A typical Boredoms show finds the band performing as a four-piece, with three drummers sitting in a circle and pounding out thunderous, lock-step rhythms as bandleader/vocalist Yamantaka Eye plays assorted electronic instruments, manipulates various effects and directs the flow of the action. Things get even noisier once Eye starts screaming and pounding away on his custom seven-neck guitar with a pair of meter-long sticks. (See a video of the band below.)

Continue Reading “High Seas: Eclipse Cruise Gets Cosmic With Boredoms’ Drum Scrum” »

Tags: ,
« OLDER POSTS
See more Underwire