Happy 4th!

As has become our custom, we give you the mighty Soundgarden's "4th of July," one of our favorites from the landmark Superunknown album. Enjoy!

Milestones: 'Le Dernier Combat' (The Last Battle)

A quarter of a century ago, when he himself was just 25 years of age, noted director Luc Besson (The Professional, The Fifth Element, The Messenger) debuted with a film that can only be construed as a disastrous self-parody:
a French, black-and-white, post-apocalyptic, sci-fi movie with no dialogue.

Until you watch it, that is.

At the center of the grim, doomsday thriller that is The Last Battle (1984) is a struggle for survival, mainly between a man and his brutish enemy (played by Besson regular Jean Reno) in as dire circumstances as the premise would indicate. While the film has deservedly earned its cult status, it's fitting to point out that Besson is an artsy Frenchman--stereotypical redundance? you bet--enamored with Hollywood, a balance which helps keep the film in check. Definitely worth seeking out.

Another One Bites the Dust: Vibe Magazine

The popular music mag is calling it quits after more than a decade-and-a-half of publication. Founded by Quincy Jones in the early '90s, Vibe was a leader in urban news and entertainment. But despite a banner decade, which coincided with the stratospheric rise in popularity of R&B and hip-hop at the time, the magazine had fallen on hard financial times of late. According to The New York Times, Vibes's closing down is to be immediate.

Happy Birthday

Gen-X film icon and political activist, John Cusack (43), on June 28th.

We're Speechless

Our Favorite Tribute

i saw michael jackson when i was about 8 years old, with my dad, jackson 5 live at the richmond coliseum...michael jackson was my first rock star. i had the records, the posters, watched the cartoon, had the 'goin back to indiana' record and tv special memorized. he was this 8-10 year old's james brown.

about 2/3 of the way through the school year, the jackson 5 came to town. my dad took me. can still feel the excitement hangin in the nosebleeds watchin tito storm the stage w/ gtr in hand. was a magical moment when michael came out. 8 year me screaming. bout halfway through the show, a group of black kids approached us. i lost it, yelled to my dad, "these guys go to school with me!" they were flummoxed I was there, me likewise. my dad ended up emptying his wallet buying popcorn & sodas for everyone. we had a fucking blast. and next day at school, i ended up being the white dude who knew the black dudes.

- GodIHateYourBand on growing up a Michael Jackson fan in 1970s Virginia. And the almighty, motherfucking power of music to bridge gaps; racial and otherwise.

Milestones: 'Off the Wall'

[This one was already on our list of albums which celebrate significant milestones this year. We were going to feature it closer to the anniversary of its release but sadly, for obvious reasons, we decided to post it now. -KJ]

MICHAEL JACKSON
Off The Wall
[Epic-1979]

We never really got into the massive-selling Thriller; too overblown, too polished for our taste. (Not even the presence of one of our all-time heroes, Mr. Edward Van Halen on “Beat It”, could ignite much of a spark for the album.) That’s not to say we didn't enjoy one or two album tracks—namely “Human Nature” and “Pretty Young Thing”—but Off The Wall was not only more to our liking, it’s actually the blueprint for Thriller itself.

It seems weird to say this, since these two albums were released only three years apart, but Off The Wall was the product of a different, simpler time: during the infamous “Disco Sucks” shenanigans that polarized many popular music fans; before the rise and questionable dominance of MTV; and before Jackson’s notorious eccentricity had begun to overshadow his talent. Regardless, Off the Wall is a cohesive, visionary album—produced by the great Quincy Jones—made under relatively little pressure. Yes, Jackson was one of the most famous pop stars in the world, both alone and with his brothers, but expectations were nowhere near what they have become since, especially in the post-Thriller world. [nostalgia kicking in...now]

In any event, the results more than speak for themselves: thirty years later—damn!—Off The Wall may have been overshadowed by the monster that was Thriller, but the truth is, artistically speaking, the latter will never eclipse Jackson’s first and definitive statement as a solo artist. Off the wall, indeed.

Faves: “Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough”, “Rock with You”, “Girlfriend”, and the magnificent title track.

RIP

The legendary "King of Pop", Michael Jackson died on Thursday,
June 25th in Los Angeles, after suffering cardiac arrest.

He was 50 years old.



'70s sex symbol and TV icon Farrah Fawcett also died on Thursday, June 25th, at a Santa Monica, CA hospital after battling cancer for 2 1/2 years.

She was 62 years old.

'Persepolis'

Seemed like an appropriate time to watch the animated film version of Iranian author/illustrator Marjane Satrapi's acclaimed book.

Rapidshare to Pay German Music Industry $34 M

This is how you do it:

The file-sharing site Rapidshare has been found guilty of violating German copyright law by The Regional Court of Hamburg, and ordered to pay about €24 million ($34 million) to the country’s royalty-collection agency GEMA. More importantly, though, the court put the burden of figuring out whether or not copyrighted material was on Rapidshare’s servers on the people running the service, and not the infringees; the court also said that the site’s current efforts to figure out whether or not content on its servers infringed copyrights were insufficient.

[h/t Idolator]

Celebrity Lack of Self-Awareness Alert!

"But it does suck for those kids, even if their parents chose to pimp them out on TV for $$$$."

- Gossipmonger Perez Hilton states his position on reality TV show Jon and Kate plus 8 to fellow reality TV personality Khloe Kardashian.

Artie Lange vs Joe Buck

We finally caught a rerun of HBO's Joe Buck Live, the initial foray into talk show land by the noted sportscaster, which has attained a certain level of notoriety due to the infamous appearance of Howard Stern sidekick Artie Lang on the show's debut.

For those of you yet to see it, Lange seemed to have forgotten he wasn't on Stern's show, and his crude and unfunny hijacking of a brief segment was more lame than controversial and undoubtedly out of place. How this guy happens to have a career is one of those perennial headscratchers.

As for JBL itself, it's definitely a work in progress and it showed. However, with only 4 shows per calendar year scheduled, it will either never get its bearings or will probably be markedly reworked and hopefully infused with a bit more of life. We'll see...

Sunny Day Real Estate Add Tour Dates

Here they are:

Sept. 17 - Vancouver, BC
Sept. 18 - Portland, OR
Sept. 20 - Salt Lake City, UT
Sept. 21 - Denver, CO
Sept. 23 - Minneapolis, MN
Sept. 24 - Chicago, IL
Sept. 25 - Detroit, MI
Sept. 27 - New York City
Sept. 28 - Boston, MA
Sept. 30 - Washington, D.C.
Oct. 1 - Philadelphia, PA
Oct. 3 - Atlanta, GA
Oct. 6 - Houston, TX
Oct. 7 - Austin, TX
Oct. 9 - Tempe, AZ
Oct. 10 - Anaheim, CA
Oct. 11 - Hollywood, CA
Oct. 13 - San Francisco, CA
Oct. 15 - Spokane, WA
Oct. 16 - Seattle, WA