Movie of The Month - This Is The End

Wow this movie was great.  It delivered in a big way and in fact exceeded my expectations.  And they were high (no pun intended, but sort of, I mean who doesn't like a good pun?). 

Anywho, if you are a fan of Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg written hilarity, dark humor, cameos, or apocalyptic films in general, I can guarantee this movie will satisfy.  It is vulgar, gratuitous, deprecating, and all around hysterical.  The fact that the main ensemble play caricatures of the real actors themselves is tickling enough, but they nail their publicly perceived idiosyncratic personalities perfectly.  James Franco kills, Seth Rogen is excellent, Jonah Hill provides appropriate pretension, Jay Baruchel is great, Craig Robinson is hilarious as always, and Danny McBride is truly exceptional.  And though certainly the male-driven bromantic comedy must certainly burn out at some point, this particular film puts a pretty tasty twist on said genre.

If you have not seen this flick yet, please do asap.  It is a great theater viewing experience filled with action, severely ridiculous and quotable dialogue, copious drug use, and a large number of wonderfully placed amusing cameos.  In short, this movie kicks ass and I would gladly see it again many times in the theater.

Ty

Album of The Month: Queens of The Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork

 
I have been waiting for this one for some time.  Rarely do I get overly excited for an album release, I was for this one.  And boy did Josh Homme and company deliver.  As expected.

So.  Queens of The Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork.  It has been just over six years since QOTSA's previous 2007 release, Era Vulgaris.  Thus, ...Like Clockwork can justifiably be filed under the category of long-awaited.  In the fore-mentioned QOTSA-less time period leader Josh Homme was certainly not sitting on his ass counting his royalty checks, no he was busy with other projects such as Eagles of Death Metal and the Grammy-award winning Them Crooked Vultures with Led Zeppelin bass-man John Paul Jones and Foo Fighters leadman Dave Grohl on drums.  And Dave Grohl has been a "pseudo-behind-the-curtains-member" of QOTSA for quite some time having recorded on several of their past records including this current featured release.

I'll start by tagging a few keywords that I believe represent well the flavor of this record: dark, sexy, raunchy, grimy, and funky.  Good lord the funky on this record is truly revelatory.  There are even some sensitive moments which generally are quite rare to find on a Queens album.  All these attributes are wrapped up in the usual QOTSA poise and composure.  The textures and timbres found on this record are simply out of this world; par for the course for these fellas.  

The concise ten-track album runs the gamut of styles all under the umbrella of modern rock.  From the mid-tempo swinging grooves of "Keep Your Eyes Peeled" to the tender remorse of "The Vampyre of Time and Memory".  The alluring middle-eastern-tinged "I Sat By The Ocean" to the tribal stomping of "My God Is The Sun".  And the bawdy foor-on-the-floor "If I Had A Tail" to balls out, flailing rock in sections of "I Appear Missing".  All this is inevitably infused with signature rhythmic displacements and hilariously audacious lyrical declarations such as, "I blow my load over the status quo, hear we go..."

So thank you Queens of The Stone Age for satiating my need for some good 'ole gritty rock & roll stimulation.

Queens of The Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork on iTunes
Queens of The Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork on Spotify

Also, you can witness the power of QOTSA live in this video of their recent show at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theater in its entirety:


Happy listening all,

Ty

TYENCE! - Brewing Beer Pt. 2, The Long Awaited Sequel

Okay.

Remember that post I did about the beer brewing last January?

Well, as it last stood, my brother bottled the beer and informed me that the resulting beverage was... weird.

Ultimately, I left it at that and basically moved on.  I chalked it up to a valiant effort and assumed the beer would be aborted.  Not so.  I came back to Cleveland to find excessive amounts of the hearty brew available for consumption.  Nice.

One may be inclined to conclude that since so much of this brew has remained months after being bottled is a sign that it is slightly undesirable.  I would not go so far as to say this, but I enjoy a nice thick, hefty beer like a porter, which this particular brew is.

So, first I will briefly delve into zymology, the science of fermentation.  The essential process of fermentation is converting sugar to acids, gases, or alcohol using yeast or bacteria.  It is "a form of anaerobic digestion that generates adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by the process of substrate-level phosphorylation."  Sure.  The following equation sums it all up:

Whatever that means.

Humans have apparently been employing the process of fermentation for producing food and beverages since the Neolithic (around 10,200 BC through 4,500/2,000 BC).  Though the first person to connect yeast with the process of fermentation was Frenchman Louis Pasteur in 1857.  He originally defined fermentation as "respiration without air".  So you could say fermentation has been around the block and then some.

And we humans have advanced the fermentation process to yield such tasty beverages as the English porter.  The recipe we used was called Mama's Porter.  But unless you are a master brewer then every brew is going to be inconsistent and unique.  Thus, we shall dub our porter with a new name.  We have yet to officially put the stamp on this one and any suggestions are welcome.  I will have more on porter and the naming of our beer in the next episode.

Til next time,

Ty

Getting Punked at The Ice House, New Star Trek Movie, Signing to Red River Records/Sony Red, and I'M AN UNCLE!!!!

So.

As you may know, we at 28 North are quite fond of live stand up comedy.  This past Sunday we made our first visit to The Ice House in Pasadena to see Marc Maron, a current favorite.  You may know Maron from his new show on IFC and his wildly popular podcast WTF with Marc Maron.  Both of these are quality programs and I encourage you all to check them out if you haven't.

Anyway, first off Maron was great.  He seemed uninhibited right off the bat; ready to rant, vent, converse, connect in strange, abrasive ways that only stand up comedy can allow.  Unfortunately, Mike, Mark, and myself bore the blunt end of the stand up comedy flailing stick.  That is correct, we were ultimately heckled by Maron.  Now, it lasted probably a mere thirty seconds, which is a tiny fraction of the substantial hour and a half set he did, and it wasn't so bad.  But nonetheless, Maron briefly shat on our dream of being in a band by turning it into a joke and essentially served us one of our most feared scenarios: getting made fun of by a man with a microphone in front of a crowd.  And it certainly could not have been karma coming back to bite us in the ass, we have been regular supporters of stand up for years and never have we heckled a comedian.  I guess the risk of potential, brief humiliation is one which must be accepted when entering the realm of stand up comedy...


We still love you Maron

Also, we saw the new Star Trek.  It was pretty decent.  I enjoyed it as a non-Trekkie and I am sure I missed countless references and allusions to previous Star Trek films and all that, but regardless this is a fun movie for anybody, Trekkie or non.

Aaaaaaaaaannnnd....

I'M AN UNCLE!!  That is right folks, I would like to extend a very special CONGRATULATIONS to my amazing sister Claire Bond and her fiancee Chris Massero for bringing two beautiful babies into this world last Monday night.  Welcome Hadley and Logan!!!!  I'm so proud and delighted for you all!!!!!




Oh yah...

We also signed to RED RIVER RECORDS/SONY RED/BOB FRANK ENTERTAINMENT!!!!!  YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

We are beyond excited for this new chapter.  HUGE thanks to our incredible manager Jerry Heller for putting in the hard work to land this deal for us.  Also, big thanks to producer Gavin MacKillop for putting in countless hours to perfect the record which has helped us earn this deal.  And of course we must thank our wonderful families who have been so patient and tolerant of our dream and sacrificed along with us to get to this level.  But most importantly we want to thank the fans who have come to shows, bought records, and supported us in any way.  Without you guys, we do not exist.  So a MASSIVE heart felt THANKS to every 28 North fan out there!!!

Now the true work starts and the payoff shall commence!!

Until next time,

Ty