This One’s For Renfield
Looks good!
How can one rock band be successful, underrated, hugely influential, and criminally overlooked all at the same time? Edgar Wright’s debut documentary THE SPARKS BROTHERS, which features commentary from celebrity fans Flea, Jane Wiedlin, Beck, Jack Antonoff, Jason Schwartzman, Neil Gaiman, and more, takes audiences on a musical odyssey through five weird and wonderful decades with brothers/bandmates Ron and Russell Mael celebrating the inspiring legacy of Sparks: your favorite band’s favorite band.
Directed by Edgar Wright. In Theaters June 18.
Spooooooooorts!
Have a great weekend, you dirty bastards.
The World Needs More Supergrass
Somebody in the comments said these guys were 18 when they wrote this. Talented people suck.
I Can Almost Understand It
Italian singer Adriano Celentano released a song in the 70s with nonsense lyrics meant to sound like American English, apparently to prove Italians would like any English song. It was a hit, and resulted in this: THE GREATEST VIDEO I HAVE EVER SEEN. pic.twitter.com/B3mQWmQgXq
— Harry (@HarrietMould) November 26, 2020
Catchy!
Ringo Starr, Genius
Ringo Starr was more than just a lucky drummer who hooked up with The Beatles. This video makes the argument that his originality, technique, skill, patience, and influence all add up to making him an unqualified genius of his instrument. He was, by all meaningful ways, the FIRST rock and roll drummer.
Also want to add that something about this guy reminds me of Lurker.
Shit?
Massively influential, but hard to mourn his passing. Long but informative obit here.
Would You Like To Play A Game?
This is Life, a simple computer game designed by John Conway in 1970. It has three rules:
– Birth rule: An empty, or “dead,” cell with precisely three “live” neighbors (full cells) becomes live.
-Death rule: A live cell with zero or one neighbors dies of isolation; a live cell with four or more neighbors dies of overcrowding.
– Survival rule: A live cell with two or three neighbors remains alive
It has fascinated people for years.
”I first encountered Life at the Exploratorium in San Francisco in 1978. I was hooked immediately by the thing that has always hooked me — watching complexity arise out of simplicity.
Life ought to be very predictable and boring; after all, there are just three simple rules that determine the position of some dots on a grid. That really doesn’t sound very interesting until you start tweaking those rules and watching what changes.
Life shows you two things. The first is sensitivity to initial conditions. A tiny change in the rules can produce a huge difference in the output, ranging from complete destruction (no dots) through stasis (a frozen pattern) to patterns that keep changing as they unfold.”
– Brian Eno
More here.
The Club Is Open
0:00 Cut-Out Witch
3:01 Wrong Turn On
4:52 I Am A Scientist
7:45 Rally Boys
9:33 Game of Pricks
I’m currently reading Closer You Are: The Story of Robert Pollard and Guided By Voices, so here’s a little GBV for you. I must say, His Bobness is looking rather healthy these days.
I, Robot Musician
Some algorithm is making sure I see ads for this everywhere I go. I’m sure the flashing light will trigger a previously undiagnosed seizure disorder.