Year Zero is a Loss for the Aliens and the Music Industry

Year Zero by Rob Reid may seem to have a far-out premise to some, but, upon starting the book, I considered it pretty great. Aliens discover Earth's amazing catalog of rock music and attempt to acquire rights to it all.

Many reviewers have compared it to the classic Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which is certainly one of the best sci-fi novels of all-time. And Reid's style and language tricks are indeed very similar to those of Hitchhiker author Douglas Adams. But the comparisons end there.

Year Zero begins promisingly. The main characters are established and the reader starts to feel a connection with them.

The somewhat-uninteresting aliens visit Nick Carter, a low-level lawyer whom they mistake for a former Backstreet Boy. Ever since they heard the Welcome Back, Kotter theme, they have been obsessed with Earth's rock music. Now they have a plan they present to Carter that they believe will help them acquire all that music. Nick realizes that this may be a good way to undermine his awful bosses and win a girl that is way out of his league.

I loved all that part, but then the second half of the book wallows in a mess of navigating through an unnecessarily complicated inter-galactic journey that never really seems to go much of anywhere. The ending completes the mess when (I don't feel too bad in telling you) Bill Gates is some kind of alien and somehow behind it all. Even that sounds like it could be a somewhat interesting premise, but Reid's story is so convoluted that I had lost the ability to care by that point.

** out of ***** stars

Minneapolis Treats Me Well Again, From the Mall of America to Westerberg

The family just returned from a kid-focused weekend in Minneapolis to visit our old friends/cousins/drummers Paula and Harlan, and their 2-year-old Davis.

I had never been to the Mall of America, and we headed straight there from the airport. If you have a 5-year-old, and it's snowy with not much else to do, it's really tough to beat the low prices of the rides in the amusement park at the famous shopping center. The park is mammoth, and the mall itself supposedly is big enough to hold seven Yankee Stadiums.

Jackson takes after me in loving the log flume the most of any amusement park rides.

Then, except for one night out at a tasty restaurant and local-character-filled tavern, it was mostly more of a kids weekend. As these photos display, there was snow on the ground when we arrived and more fell while we were there. It made for some of the most perfect sledding and snowman-making I've experienced in decades.

And, along with going to look at many of the haunts from my mom's childhood growing up in Edina (just southwest of downtown Minneapolis), I got this photo outside of legendary rocker Paul Westerberg's house. He lives about a mile from Paula and Harlan. 

And I'm pretty sure it was his wife, author Laurie Lindeen, who looked out the window right after I snapped this photo. I felt a little bit like a stalker and feel that way even more after reading her blog about some teenage girls who once violated her privacy to see her rock star husband. But c'mon, this guy is one of the top 10 rock stars of all time, I had to get a picture of his house.

I really love Minneapolis and think it's one of the few cities where I would want to live in the U.S. besides D.C.

Things to do next time I visit? Perhaps see more of little Davis' future school. It's incredibly the same one that my mom attended years ago. And also see Prince's house, although that's a long shot since it's way out in the 'burbs.

And, according to this list of my favorite things about Minneapolis (Westerberg's former band The Replacements ranks as #1), there are a lot of other things I still need to check off my list.

Need Some Cale? Read My Letter Printed in Magnet Magazine

For the third time in the past year, my favorite music magazine has published a letter from me. The letters don't appear on Magnet's website, but I opened it up at my mailbox today and found my screed about John Cale of the Velvet Underground.

---------

Thanks so much for having "A Conversation with John Cale." What a breathe of fresh air from all the other "old rockers" who appear on the pages of Rolling Stone and other music magazines. 

Ever since soon after the moment in the 1980s when I heard my older brother's copy of New Sensations by Lou Reed (still way underrated, despite the dink-pop elements), I have included the Velvet Underground in my pantheon of favorites. But despite digging deep into Lou Reed's unstoppable catalog, I had never given his former bandmate Calemuch of a chance until this past year. And now I can't stop listening.

How in the world has he floated relatively under-the-radar for so long? Perhaps he drifts too far into proggy Emerson, Lake, and Palmer territory from time to time, but my god, this man has so much incredible music! I keep being floored by song after song in his extremely diverse catalog. Sometimes he's like the best Of Montreal, often like David Byrne, and always powerfully creative and with hooks galore spread throughout his avant-garde stylings.

There is literally something for everyone with Cale. With the added benefit of having tons of great new material, something that is highly debatable with the likes of Neil Young, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan.

Best New Albums: January 2013

This is a monthly feature I recently introduced. You can stream all the albums mentioned here for free at this Spotify link, which I keep updated.

Best Albums of the Month (tie):

These two albums could be a preview of what my year-end "best of" list will look like. Cult-like musical magician Christopher Owens (whose recent concert I reviewed here) and L.A. classic-rock mash-upper duo Foxygen simply both blow me away.

Buy Owens' Lysandre and Foxygen's We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic now.

Best of the Rest:


Guided By Voices - The Bears For Lunch
Readers of this blog probably know I put a lot of GBV out there. But really, it doesn't matter how many records leader Robert Pollard puts out per year (and it's a lot), I want them all. This is one of his best.

Big Dipper - Crashes on the Platinum Planet
Speaking of Pollard, this great lost band from 1980s Boston is inexplicably back, and the highlight of their resurgent power-pop record is a song called "Robert Pollard" (in which his voice is a dead ringer for my former bandmate and mentor who now helms the legendary Edwardsville, Illinois band Rock Hill Academy). Big Dipper's entire collection was recently released. Buy it all, fast.

The Highballers - Soft Music and Hard Liquor
My son was in the process of getting married to The Highballers' showman-leader Kendall's daughter in their preschool class. That would have made this review a conflict of interest, but luckily it was clean-up time and the kids were unable to comlete the ceremony. Regardless, I saw this band live at Arlington's Artisphere and they were a force. It's easy to compare them to an offshoot of Johnny Cash and June Carter (what with the boy-girl vocals and all), but The Highballers are much funnier, have smoking and tasteful musicianship all around, have lots of songs about drinking (which is, let's admit, the point of honky tonk), and gloriously adds a modern twist ala Uncle Tupelo and The Bottle Rockets.

Yo La Tengo - Fade
One of my favorite space-rock bands of the 90s is back with possibly their best album in years. The seven-minute opener "Ohm" will surely go down as one of their finest songs, and the pace remains pretty strong through most of the record.

Tame Impala - Lonerism
If you like fuzz-psych bands dating from Jimi Hendrix to MGMT, then this is the new band for you. This is super catchy all the way through. They are from Australia and so probably don't tour the U.S. very often, but I imagine the live show would be large.

Wanderlust Wanders Out of Lust

Just that fact that a Judd Apatow comedy starring Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston came out a year ago and I didn't see it until now is scary.

I don't miss Rudd movies. Or Apatow. And Aniston is difficult not to love.

But my instincts were right. Wanderlust simply isn't very good. Sure, it's fun at times. And the sight of watching Rudd (and Aniston) trying to join a hippie cult is irresistible in small doses.

Highlights include Alan Alda as a four-decader in Georgia's hippie commune Elysium. He constantly recites the list of names of his fellow founders. Rudd and Aniston end up there after things in New York and Atlanta don't work out. Rudd's scene speaking to himself in the mirror to pump himself up for the free-love lifestyle is classic. Two supporting actors (Rudd's potential love interest, played by Malin Akerman, and his jerk brother, a high-strung and racist Ken Marino) are about as hilarious as they are on the excellent Comedy Central show Children's Hospital.

But too much of the humor and plot wander. The movie doesn't really go anywhere, and the near-impossible task of not really caring about Rudd and Aniston is almost entirely accomplished.

**1/2 out of ***** stars

Christopher Owens, Formerly of Girls, Mesmerizes a Sit-Down 9:30 Club

Many dozens of shows viewed at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. and this was a first for me. A sit-down concert.

So there Gordie, Dan, Rachel, and I were in the third row Sunday night where we got a thrilling display from Christopher Owens, formerly of Girls (a band I missed back in 2009 when they were very obscure).

I thought it might simply be an acoustic, one-man set. But no, all the pieces from his brilliant new solo album - saxophone, flute, two female backup singers, lead guitarist, bassist, drummer, keyboard - were there. I also thought Owens (seated in the photo) would be the only stage presence capturing our attention. But he has recruited a fascinating and mesmerizing cast of characters.

And that's saying a lot. It's not easy to compete with Owens, a guy whose back story includes growing up in California's way-out Children of God cult (which apparently hired thousands of female escorts to recruit members into their sexually, shall we say, adventurous, family).

Further, Owens is a premiere musician. I've waited a long time to see him. (Girls' album Father, Son, Holy Ghost was ranked #1 in my top 70 list of 2011 and the band's self-titled debut was a way under-ranked #16 in my 2009 top 40.) The wait may have been wise, because I would be shocked if the solo album, called Lysandre, will be anywhere lower than my top three of 2013, but we'll see.

In short, his two-and-a-half Girls albums and now his solo one are almost entirely flawless. This was really, really apparent Sunday night because the first half of the show consisted of songs off his new album and had arguably much better lyrics and music than the second half of the show, which was made up of well-done soft-rock covers all largely regarded as classics in the rock 'n' roll cannon like "The Boxer" by Simon and Garfunkel, "Wild World" by Cat Stevens, "Lalena" by Donovan, and "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" by Bob Dylan. It was almost as if Owens was trying to rub it into his idols' faces that he's better.

My only complaint is that he didn't play any of those great songs off his Girls albums. But that's a small complaint. Hopefully he'll release another solo record in the next year or so, and he can play his original material for a lot longer into the night next time. (Openers Melted Toys provided an enjoyable jolt of 80s wave with memorable guitar licks liberally scattered throughout.)

****1/2 out of ***** stars

Django Unchained is Tarantino's Second-Best Movie Ever

Django Unchained is a stunner. I never thought I would say that a Quentin Tarantino film is almost as good as his piece de resistance Pulp Fiction, but this one comes close.

Much like Pulp Fiction, this movie is not so much about the plot but rather about the dialogue that drives the masterful suspense and the scene after scene of purely tantalizing cinematography and episodic brilliance.

Chapter after chapter roll past and the viewer rarely wants the scene to end, but it always does, and Tarantino always leaves us wanting more. Even the most graphically violent scenes never overstay their welcome, which helps make them so enjoyable and some of them even downright hilarious (like when the southern lady gets swooped off her feet and out of the room by one of Django's righteous bullets).

Christoph Waltz, who was so captivating in Inglourious Basterds at "The Jew Hunter," is flat-out the actor of the year in this one. Forget Daniel Day Lewis in Lincoln. It's pretty safe to say that Waltz is the top master at delivering Tarantino's also award-deserving scriptwriting lines.

Jamie Foxx as Django and Samuel L. Jackson as an influential house slave are also great. Leonardo DiCaprio could be better as the wack-job slave-plantation owner Calvin Candie, but that said, perhaps I have too high of expectations for the actor, who may not be capable of being quite as evil as he needs to be in this part. (He's still pretty darn evil though.)

This is my movie of the year, and the second-best Tarantino movie ever.

***** out of ***** stars

Where Does Lincoln Fall Among Spielberg's Best Movies?

It's no stretch to admit that Lincoln is one of the best movies of 2012. And it focuses on one of the most important stories - the battle over the 13th Amendment - from all of American history.

But where Django Unchained, for example, is a relentlessly entertaining take on the battle over slavery, Lincoln feels more like something quite a bit drier, something produced for The History Channel. Something very serious, but a little less entertaining.

Daniel Day Lewis no doubt deserves the best actor award. Every word and story that comes out of his mouth as Honest Abe is mesmerizing.

Tommy Lee Jones, Sally Field, James Spader, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are each perfect for their roles. But in just two-and-a-half hours, there is really not enough room for any of them to become knowable or deep characters. It's a shame, and it shows how Lincoln's story really is more suited for a TV miniseries (or series) than for the silver screen.

**** out of ***** stars

So where does it fall into the pantheon of Steven Spielberg movies?

Honorable Mention: The Goonies, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Color Purple, Men in Black, Amistad, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Flags of Our Fathers, True Grit, The Lovely Bones, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Who Framed Roger Rabbit

15: Jurassic Park (1993)
14: Catch Me If You Can (2002)
13: Minority Report (2002)
12: Lincoln (2012)
11: Back to the Future (1985)
10: Cape Fear (1991)
09: The Blues Brothers (1980)
08: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
07: Austin Powers in Gold Member (2002)
06: Poltergeist (1982)
05: Saving Private Ryan (1998)
04: Shindler's List (1993)
03: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
01 (tie): E.T. the Extra Terrestrial (1982)
01 (tie): Jaws (1975)

What do you think? Is this the same order of your favorite Spielberg-related flicks?

Best Magazine Reads: Kate Moss May Not Be What You Think

I don't follow fashion closely. I've never thought much about Kate Moss before. She's always seemed to simply hang around and look all drugged out and anorexic with flamboyant rock stars.

Perhaps that why Vanity Fair's November 2012 cover story was such an eye-opener for me. The article is one the best of many magazine articles I read last year. It showed that Moss is actually not much of a druggie, is someone everyone wants to hang out with because she's so much fun, has boundless endurance and enthusiasm, has no qualms about taking nude photos (as this article's accompanying shoot can attest), doesn't suffer any fallout from taking said nude photos like most Playboy centerfolds do, and doesn't care much for fashion either. She simply lucked into it, has a natural talent for it, and keeps getting asked (decade after decade) to come back for more photo shoots.

The interviewer flies in very ritzy style all over the world with Moss. The piece reads a bit like a Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous episode. And perhaps he, James Fox, makes her look way better than she really is, but he convincingly won me over to her.

I guess it speaks to my own style in that I go for the "unfashion" fashion model. Regardless, this is as good as magazine writing gets.

No Judd Apatow Fatigue with This is 40

At some point, Judd Apatow fatigue has GOT to set in. His list (see below) of producer, director, and writer credits arguably make him among the very top comedy minds ... not just of this era, but of all time.

The fatigue hasn't set in yet with This is 40 (and it's not likely to in 2013, with Anchorman 2 on the way and almost guaranteed to be a smash).

Picking up where they left off in 2007's Knocked Up, Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann's characters continue as the happily married couple with typical mid-life issues.

His production of Graham Parker's album isn't going so well and her clothes shop has its own struggles. There are moments when This is 40 could be funnier, and it's certainly a little too long, but this is highly watchable entertainment.

Rudd and Parker are both impossible not to love. (Parker, whose 1982 song "Temporary Beauty," unfortunately not included in the soundtrack, is one of my all-time favorites. It's an MTV classic that is better than anything Elvis Costello ever did.)

With a slew of cameos, the best ones are Melissa McCarthy, Megan Fox, AlbertBrooks, John Lithgow, and Jason Segel.

***1/2 out of ***** stars

(The following list of Apatow's movies doesn't even count TV shows he's been involved with such as Freaks and Geeks, The Ben Stiller Show, and Girls.)

Year	Film
		Director	Producer	Writer	Actor
1992	Crossing the Bridge	No	Yes	No	No
1995	Heavyweights	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
1996	Celtic Pride	No	Yes	Yes	No
	The Cable Guy	No	Yes	Yes	No
2004	Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy	No	Yes	No	Yes
	Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie	No	Yes	No	Yes
2005	Kicking & Screaming	No	Yes	No	No
	The 40-Year-Old Virgin	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
	Fun with Dick and Jane	No	Yes	Yes	No
2006	The TV Set	No	Yes	No	No
	Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby	No	Yes	No	No
2007	Knocked Up	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
	Superbad	No	Yes	No	No
	Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story	No	Yes	Yes	No
2008	Drillbit Taylor	No	Yes	No	No
	Forgetting Sarah Marshall	No	Yes	No	No
	You Don't Mess with the Zohan	No	No	Yes	No
	Step Brothers	No	Yes	No	No
	Pineapple Express	No	Yes	No	No
2009	Year One	No	Yes	No	No
	Funny People	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
2010	Get Him to the Greek	No	Yes	No	No
2011	Bridesmaids	No	Yes	No	No
	Zookeeper	No	No	No	Yes
2012	Wanderlust	No	Yes	No	No
	The Five-Year Engagement	No	Yes	No	No
	Mansome[62]	No	No	No	Yes
	This Is 40	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
2013	Can a Song Save Your Life?[63]	No	Yes	No	No
	Anchorman 2[64]	No	Yes	No	No