What I'm Listening To (With a P.S. of What I Saw)

Time yet again for another installment of this classic weekly series in which I tell you what you should be listening to, because I'm listening to it. You all know how amazing my taste in music is. What's wrong with you? Go buy the stuff I tell you to.

Don't get me started on how things would be better if I ruled the world. Lets just get into the musical selections of the week shall we?

So have we all finally accepted Jack White of the White Stripes as our personal lord and savior? I know I have!

Jack is back again with singer/songwriter Brendan Benson and the rest of The Raconteurs for another stellar album. Their sophomore release "Consolers Of The Lonely" shows just what happens when 2 cosmically stellar musical forces combine for not just a first, but a SECOND album. Solid all the way through, and yet, only came close in dethroning Air Traffic's "Fractured Life" for my favorite album of the year so far. God, (aka Jack White) may strike me down for saying so, but right now the race for album of my heart ('08 edition) belongs to them Brits.

Specifically, the tracks "You Don't Understand Me", "Salute Your Solution", "Old Enough", and "Many Shades of Black" are my faves. I'm listening to the album as I write this. Pick it up, you will not be disappointed in the least! The tracks that are even mixes of Jack and Brendan are nothing short of beauty.

Oh, Stephen Malkmus. (admirable sigh) How I remember rocking out to your now legendary 90's-college-radio-friendly band known as Pavement. Then how after when I got out of high school, lost everything I owned, couch hopped all over the North Hollywood/Studio City hood, drove around in my piece of crap car rocking out to quite possibly the best song ever written about Yule Brenner called "Jo-Jo's Jacket" from your solo album; I would smile and want to get home to watch the movie "West World". Yet sadly, I am a bit disappointed in your new album. Well, disappointed may be a harsh term for the moment. I'm a bit preoccupied with the now broken out street war between Air Traffic and The Raconteurs. Never the less, when my ears can take no more of either of the champions for my heart, I'm listening to "Real Emotional Trash" from Stephen and his new band The Jicks. I'm on the fence about it now, but I'm sure when my ears clear, and Jack White has laid waste to what was once the band Air Traffic, I will listen to this album and like Stephen's past releases, enjoy them with a passion. For right now, my heart belongs to Jack, and not in a gay way.

Now we end this week's feature with a bit of the unusual. In accompaniment with what I've been listening to, I would like to bring to light, what I recently saw at my local cineplex. It's now firmly been established that I will go see anything Simon Pegg is in. (With the exception of the forthcoming Star Trek movie. I just can't do it. I've had far too much sex in my life to be able to sit through a Trek film, no matter who's in it, or who helmed it) Simon Pegg, you may or may not know as Shawn of "Shawn of the Dead" and the Fuzz, of the film "Hot Fuzz", in which he played Sargent Nicholas Angel. Not only does he star in the film, he co-wrote it with MTV's "The State" alum, Michael Ian Black. Oh but wait, it gets better! It stars quite possibly one of the most underrated actor/comedians of our time; One Mr. Hank Azaria. Now the bad news is, it was directed by David "Ross from Friends" Schwimmer, who you all know we had to forgive at some point for the whole Ross and Rachel debacle. Finally we are now able to do so and David may return to the rest of society. He turns in a fine directorial debut in this film. A film that is full of heart, and laughs, and even a few shots of a very unattractive British man ass. Go see it, and listen to The Raconteurs on the way to the theater.