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Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and Dear Lemon Lima open in the U.S. this week. For the occasion, I'm combining one old review and one new one. I'm hoping it's not too obvious which one I labored over a few months ago for GR68 and which one I whipped up in 30 minutes. (The above portrait is taken from GR48, when I interviewed Apichatpong Weerasthakul on the occasion of his installation at REDCAT.) In the world of Weerasethakul’s Palme d’Or-winning flick, life on the farm includes friendly visits from ghosts and conjugal visits from spirits to humans. And they’re no big deal. Not only does the Thai filmmaker treat paranormal subject matter with a documentary-like, matter-of-fact tone that strips away any sense of sensationalism or even strangeness, but the characters themselves react as if they’re as normal as can be. “Why did you grow your hair so long?” the doomed protagonist asks his long-lost son who returns looking like a yeti after mating with a monkey ghost. By the time our unassuming hero’s kidney failure runs its course, his humble life touches on hot-button topics that range from killing commies to Thai-Laotian relations to government corruption–all handled as calmly as the weather. The supernatural world turns out to be not only one of the least troublesome aspect of life but one of the more interesting ones. By the time the story shifts to urban Thailand, you are not only unquestioning of odd things that happen but expecting and even hoping for them. For a teen movie, Suzi Yoonessi's Dear Lemon Lima is rather subdued as well. There are no hit songs, hyper edits, or wacky camera angles. Instead, the look is downright crafty with its hand-drawn chapter openings, cute school art projects, and cursive graffiti. And the actors are even genuinely teenaged. To illustrate the story of a precocious 13-year-old half-Eskimo's quest to get close to her well-off-but-aloof crush, she places the hyper detailed, hyper flawed cast of characters amidst the impossibly gorgeous scenery. The color-infused Fairbanks suburbs and its misty riverbank create an effect that is dreamy yet all-too-familiar to anyone who looks back at his or her childhood through rosy and nerdy glasses. So while the events of the
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I wasn't panning to attend, but… On Friday night, my friend Ben invited me to be his plus-one at a super-exclusive, secret show by an all-star band at a fancy gallery. After taking the scenic route in the Town Car though yet another starry night in Hollywood and arriving fashionably late, we still manage to see the local band take its way-too-long opening set over the top with a classic-rock version of a Superchunk song. Not really. It was more like serious rain prevented OFF! from playing its $5 show in the tiny parking lot behind Subliminal Projects following the opening of the totally rad punk rock photo show, Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die, but the folks at The Echoplex and Lou Barlow were cool enough to open up the stage after the scheduled Sebadoh show. I thought we'd be standing outside the doors getting drenched since we arrived before the announced midnight start, but we walked just before “Brand New Love.” I thought it was cool. Sebadoh plays music nothing like OFF! and I'd like to imagine that the bands are bound by pride in the local scene and shared punk rock roots. Actually, it was nice that not all of the fans overlap, since I got to walk straight up to the barricade after the official headliners left the stage. How many times can you see a band play the same 16 songs in the span of a few months? I don't know and unlike the Tootsie Pops owl, I'm willing to find out the hard way. At first exposure, the band seems to play spastic eruptions of anger led by Keith Morris' paranoid ranting, not trigged by nostalgia but loss. Nothing wrong with that. But after a few listens, the music slows down, melodies emerge, and the words actually make sense and burn into your brain. You'd expect no less from a band whose fliers would read “with members of Redd Kross, Earthless, ex-Black Flag, ex-Circle Jerks, ex-Rocket From The Crypt, ex-411, ex-Clickitat Ikatowi, ex-Hot Snakes…” if fliers still existed. Lost in the name-dropping is axeman Dimitri Coats. Although the Burning Brides leader doesn't have the punk rock pedigree as his bandmates, his effortless metal chops are a key part of the band's sound nonetheless. Coats co-wrote the band's album with Morris, so he probably knew he was going to be in the shadows, but probably not threefold. Totally tight and riffy like Thin Lizzy on speed. What can I say. Each of OFF!'s shows is interesting and inspiring: warehouses, in-stores, fests, secret shows. The audience goes apeshit every time and the band never disappoints. Keith stomping, jumping, and pointing as if the template that he created has never been used while the other guys play raw and hard–not because that's the only way they know how but because they are originators. This was the first time for me to see the band in a “real” club and it didn't make the show any...
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When I met Ken Wong (a.k.a. Monkmus), I was already a big fan of the videos he made for his cousin, Kid Koala. It turned out that my friend and Giant Robot contributor Aaron Stewart-Ahn had commissioned Monkmus to direct the “I Will Follow You Into The Dark” video for Death Cab For Cutie. So I was excited to join them, as well as yet another mutual friend, artist Dan-ah Kim, for dinner at my favorite vegan Thai restaurant in Silver Lake. Monkmus and I hit it off, and I interviewed him for an article that ran in Giant Robot 55. We kept in touch. I asked him to contribute comic strips for GR's back page, and since he moved to L.A. we've made a point to hit up Kings hockey and Dodgers baseball games now and then. So when he mentioned to me that he would be relaunching Monkmus.com, I figured it was a good time to get him back in the mix. GR: I went to your new site and it’s beautiful. Do you see it as something for fans, clients, or something else? M: Thanks for the kind words. Right now, the framework is in place from which I intend to expand, entertain, and update readers and clients on all things Monkmus. I’ll be adding to it on a weekly basis to maintain interest in the site and my work, but it’s more of a place for people to drop by, chill out, and watch and read stuff–a one-stop compendium for fans and clients alike. Updates will be added in the “lounge” section, where there will also be links to my blog, Twitter, and Facebook pages. I’ve got a weekly comic strip that will premiere on the site, as a well as a shop to be added later in the year. GR: In the press section of the site, I re-read your GR interview for the first time since it was on the newsstands. I must say, it was awesome. Am I delusional or was it pretty good for you, too? M: [Takes long drag of cig and exhales slowly.] Hells yeah. GR: What have you been doing since then? Any projects we should know about? M: At the start of the GR interview it mentions that I was on my way to New York City from San Luis Obispo. I was flying there to meet with Simon & Schuster, expecting it to be a meet-and-greet to suss out if there would be any potential for future projects together. The folks were super great and I walked out of the building with a children’s book deal that day. I’m currently aiming to have the first book completed this year, which means it won’t be on the shelves until 2012. It’ll be released by one of their imprints, Beach Lane Books. Otherwise, I’ve directed four more Sesame Street shorts (one below), made commercials for caffeinated aspirin pills for the Latin market, and created “’Tween the Cracks” comics for...
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More reviews. What binds these three bands together is that each is tied to a concert story for me. I saw Citizen Fish at the same show where I saw Cringer for the first and only time. The latter would go on to become J Church, one of my favorite bands ever, and the singer and guitarist Lance would become a good friend. R.I.P. I saw Street Eaters more recently, fucking shit up while opening for Forgetters. (Pic from The Echo, above.) The guitarist and I have become correspondents since then, and I was stoked when the band's latest releases were sent my way. I guess the Internet is pretty cool, after all. As for The Two Koreas, their CD has been in my stack of music to review for a few weeks now on the basis of their name alone. However, I didn't give it a listen until my friend Tom told me that there was this other really interesting band from Canada as we waited through Gang of Four's opener earlier this week…
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Sandy Vu from Dum Dum Girls turned me on to the music of Alex Zhang. Over lunch, she mentioned that the band that she drums for was going on tour with Dirty Beaches (his musical name) and then she sent some links. Holy crap. Obvious touchstones are the crooning of Elvis and distorted guitar of Suicide, but those are just starting points for an post-retro, completely reimagined aesthetic that's as realized as music by The Cramps or Guitarwolf or a movie by Jon Mortisugu or Wong Kar-Wai. And like all rad music, it's even better live. I had the pleasure of meeting Alex on a break during his current tour opening for Dum Dum GIrls, and it turned out he used to buy GR at the Tower at A La Moana. If you miss Dirty Beaches on tour this time around, don't stress. He will be back for a second round of gigs a few months. GR: Last week on your blog, you wished that music journalists would do half the research that CHRW's Bill Murray radio show did. As I read that, I thought, “Aw shit…” Do most of your interviews go poorly? DB: That guy did so much homework… I've met people who thought I was Japanese. I'm like, “What?” That's the rudest thing you can do in an interview–say I'm from a different country. GR: And has anyone ever complimented you on your command of the English language? DB: That happened with some French people. I should have said, “I speak English much better than you, motherfucker!” GR: You should have bust out with some Pidgin! DB: Like scrap or wot? I take care of you right now! GR: That was really good… So, brah, can you tell me about your dad? His picture is on more than one of your 7″ single sleeves now. DB: He sent the whole family to Canada and stayed in Taiwan working to support us. As a result I didn't see him much, and pretty much grew up without him. GR: Was he a musician or did he just dress like one? DB: He played in a band. You know all the kids with greasy hair in Asia during the '60s? In Cantonese they called them fay jai. Basically, they were like delinquents. My dad was definitely one of them. He was in a gang and he was a debt collector. Then he went into the military, and that's when he straightened out. He started working construction and became a real estate guy. GR: Does he always look hip in pictures? DB: Those are the ones that speak to me. They also remind me how much my parents love posing. You know, like one leg on a tray? They love doing that shit. I pick the ones where they look more natural. GR: They're Chinese and they're cool. I like that, and feel the same way about the mix tapes you post on your blog. I've discovered so many cool new...
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