Your Daily Song: 'Somebody That I Used To Know (Feat. Kimbra)' by Gotye (2011)

Today's feature song is Somebody That I Used To Know (Feat. Kimbra) by Australian musician Gotye. Gotye (Wouter De Backer) is multi-instrumental musician originally from Belgium but who now identifies himself as Australian and has been active in the music scene circa 2001. He is also one of the primary members of Melbourne-based pop-band The Basics. Somebody That I Used to Know is a single off of his latest album Making Mirrors, which is set for release on August 19th, 2011, and it features guest vocals from New Zealand singer/songwriter  Kimbra. 

Brief Movie Review: 'The Man Who Knew Too Little' (1997)

Movie: The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997)
Director: Jon Amiel
Rating: 3/5 Stars *** 

This film is what I consider to be a classic Bill Murray film, with his usual humor and personal touch. Yet this one is from 1997 so its already ancient history. If you like Bill Murray you will get a laugh out of this one, its very similar to other spy/cop spoofs (The Naked Gun for example.)

Daily Song Post: 'Streamers' by Brous (2011)

Today's song post is one with a unique sound that I really dig, and the song is Streamers by Australian pop artist Brous. Brous (Sophia Brous) is a Melbourne-based musician, and coming from a second-generation Austrian/Polish migrant family, Brous's early musical experimentation was influenced by a family made up of musicians, sculptors and novelists which sparked her interest in many diverse forms of music at a young age. For live performances Brous is accompanied by Alexander Garsden, Shags Chamberlain, Jeanette Little, James Rushford and Joe Talia. Streamers is a single release that will appear on her upcoming self-titled debut EP, and if you have listened to this song you will know that it is something to anticipate. If you like what you have heard and want more info or you want a free and legal download of this mp3, you can visit her Unearthed page HERE, or her website HERE. 

Your Daily Song Post: 'Don't You Evah' by Spoon (2007)

Your daily song post is another one from 2007, so not too new or anything like that, and it is Don't You Evah, by American rock band Spoon. Spoon have been active on the scene circa 1994, they are based out of Austin, Texas, and band members are Britt Daniel (vocals and guitar), Jim Eno (drummer), Rob Pope (bass guitar, guitar, keyboards and backing vocals) and Eric Harvey (keyboards, guitar, percussion and backing vocals). Don't You Evah was actually an EP release by Spoon in April of 2008, but the song first appeared on their July 2007 release album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. The song is a cover of the original Don't You Ever by The Natural History. So there is the daily song, if you like what you've heard you can head over to the band's website HERE for more.

Brief Movie Review: The Color of Money (1986)

Movie: The Color of Money (1986)

Director: Martin Scorsese

Rating: 3.3/5 Stars ***'

For some reason this 80's classic, and sequel to The Hustler (1961), eluded me until only recently, which is shocking seeing that it was a Scorsese film with Paul Newman and Tom Cruise! The focus is pool, nine-ball specifically, although thankfully there isn't too much of it in the film as it mostly focuses on old-hustler (Newman) and his desire to train and coach the young pool-prodigy (Cruise) to swindle and hustle the best of the best. The film lacked something however, it just never seemed to quite get traction as a film if that makes any sense, sort of leaves you floating in limbo wondering when the formula plot is going to kick in more, however if you saw the first movie you will want to follow it up with this one.

Your Daily Feature: 'West Coast' by Coconut Records (2007)

Your daily feature song for today is.... and I know they haven't been to daily lately, but its Summer folks ;-) ...West Coast by American indie rock-pop solo-act Coconut Records. Now this is an older song (5 years old already!) but its still a good one and I am always happy to post the great ones on this blog. Coconut Records started out in Los Angeles in 2006 as a solo-project of artist  Jason Schwartzman. 
West Coast comes off of the 2007 debut album Nighttiming. If you dig the song go to the artist's website HERE. 

Steve Judd's Global Forecast for August 2011

Brief Movie Reviews: 'Dreamscape' (1984)

Movie: Dreamscape (1984)
Director: Joseph Ruben
Rating: 3.8/5 Stars ***'
Definitely an 80's era sci-fi film, and personally I found this film more interesting than its fancy effects/over complicated, grand-child-film Inception. Dennis Quaid's character, who has some telepathic and psychic abilities, is reluctantly recruited by a covert government experiment on dreaming, and trained to enter other people's dreams via use of special lab equipment. After a few benign dream tests Quaid discovers that there is more to the experiment than any of them had bargained for. Check this one out, it is a classic.

Turntable.fm

Sorry everybody, been spending heaps of time on Turntable.fm, you should check it out if you haven't already, after all everyone wants to be the DJ!
http://turntable.fm/

Your Daily Feature: 'Cold Dust Girl' by Hey Champ (2010)

Today's feature song is Cold Dust Girl by Chicago-based indie-electro band Hey Champ. Hey Champ have been active in music circa 2004 and consists of members Saam Hagshenas (Vocals and Guitar), Jonathan Marks (Drums), and Pete Dougherty (Synths). Cold Dust Girl comes off of their debut album Star, which was released in July of 2010. If you like the song then you can visit their website HERE for more music and info.

A Brief Movie Review: 'The Thing'

Movie: The Thing (1982)

Director: John Carpenter

Rating: 3.4/5 Stars ***'

This is the 1982 John Carpenter version, and I just noticed they've remade it again for 2011. I haven't seen the old-old one or the new one, but this one was pretty good as far as 1980's slimy-alien-sci-fi flicks go. I have been getting into John Carpenter movies a bit lately so you may see a few more reviews coming up for them. There's always more coming.

Your Daily Feature: 'Midnight City' by M83 (2011)

Today's feature song is Midnight City by French dream-pop/shoe-gazing artist M83. M83 (named after the spiral galaxy, Messier 83) is French musician Anthony Gonzalez who has been active on the scene since around 2001 and is based out of Antibes, France. Midnight City is a single release off of M83's upcoming Hurry Up, We're Dreaming album, which is set for an October 18th, 2011 release, so definitely look forward to that. If you like what you hear go to the website HERE and if you do it soon you can get a free mp3 download of this there!

A Brief Movie Review: 'One Crazy Summer' (1986)

Movie: One Crazy Summer (1986)

Director: Savage Steve Holland

Rating: 2/5 Stars **

One Crazy Summer is a classic 80's comedy that falls in line with other goof-ball/jock vs. nerd comedies like Revenge of the Nerds, Caddyshack, and Police Academy. So if you dig those movies you will definitely like this one, as it has all of the same awkwardly acted scenes and humor. I wonder what Demi Moore and John Cusack think now when and if they watch this movie nowadays?