Yeah Right

This Is Not Good For My Stress Level

Loyal Yeah Right readers will know that Weezer is my favorite band.  They have a new album coming out this fall.  We've already established that it has a stupid name.  That had me a bit worried.  Now I'm ready to panic. Why?  Weezer posted the first single to the album on iTunes and their MySpace page last week.  I hate it.  Panic!

Movie Monday: The Goods

My thoughts on The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard can be summed up in one sentence: How can a movie with so many funny people in it not be funny?  Seriously, Check out this cast list:  Ed Helms and Craig Robinson from The Office, Tony Hale from Arrested Development, Jeremy Piven from Entorouge, Ken Jeong from Role Models, and David Koechner from Anchorman.  And yet, not funny.  Not funny at all.  Not even a cameo of Will Ferrell as a skydiving Abe Lincoln could save this train wreck of a movie.  Piven more or less played his Ari Gold character in the role of Don Ready, a star used car salesman. 
 
The plot is thus: family run Selleck motors is on the brink of shutting down so they call in Ready and his crew to revamp the place for a blow-out July 4th sale in hopes that it will save the business.  In the process Ready develops a crush on Selleck's daughter.  Too bad she's engaged to Helms' character, who is in the adult boy band (aka man band) Big Ups.  Cue Piven's mission to save the dealership and steal the girl away from Helms.  Boring. And not funny.  The characters didn't so much say jokes as they would pause and then shout a curse word.  It got old very quickly.
 
The verdict: two stars.*
 
*Speaking of stars.  I recently caught up on season two of Flight of the Conchords.  My favorite part was when Murray gave the band one star in a review after a bad gig.  Jemaine protested that one star out of five was a bit harsh.  To which Murray responded, "We'll I hate to disappoint you Jemaine but it actually out of 100 stars.  1 out of 100.  So it's actually much worse than that."  That scene was about a hundred times funnier than anything in The Goods.

Song of the Week

My days as a lady of leisure are numbered.  After a month of vacation I start grad school and a new job tomorrow.  So I'm going with Rainer Maria's "Life of Leisure" as the Song of the Week.  Full band version below, stripped down version here.

A Song for the End of Summer

Tuneage has a well-written post about one of the enduring songs of the indie subgenre "twee": Beat Happening's "Indian Summer."  You can play the track there as well.  They observe:

The song is about the final days of a perfect pastoral summer. The lyrics play a highlight reel of idyllic delights—motorbike to cemetery, picnic on wild berries, French toast with molasses—but it’s advanced nostalgia. “We’ll come back for Indian Summer,” Calvin confidently pronounces, echoing a million unfulfilled summer-camp pacts.... That “Indian Summer” is twee’s greatest hit is no surprise; it dramatizes the genre’s greatest anxiety: The moment when the earnest musical escape ends and we have to grow up and go our separate ways.

Normal people will be turned off by the shock of Calvin's clumsy baritone, but it's really part of the charm.  That said, the band Eugenius (the post-Vaselines effort of Eugene Kelly) did a lush version that's also quite good which you can consider seeking out.

More about "The Room"

I know I already reviewed this flick a couple weeks ago, but if anyone is looking for more you can check this out.  It does have one truly amazing revelation - "The Room" cost $6 million!!!  Why didn't anyone tell me?  I could have gotten a few friends together and made it for $5 million - although I probably wouldn't  be able to replicate Tommy Wiseau's accent. 

Five Star Friday

I had originally planned on discussing today’s five star flick at some indeterminate point in the future because it’s likely the most controversial movie on my list. I decided to talk about it now, though, as a result of Allison’s posting last week of Quentin Tarentino’s video list of his favorite movies since 1992. The connection? Today’s Five Star Friday selection was #1 on Tarentino’s list.

IU on TV

If you missed it the first time around, the fab documentary Indoctrinate U is returning to TV soon.  Details here.

Cross Branding Alert

Behold Sub Pop sneakers.

Hat tip: Brightest Young Things

Open Thread Thursday

Go!

Download These Songs Now (And Thank Me Later)

She & Him - "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" (Smith's cover)
Brendan Benson - "Feel Like Taking You Home"
Jay Reatard - "Rotten Mind"
The Big Pink - "Dominos"
Kasabian - "Thick as Thieves"