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The Oklahoman's George Lang

Random 10 for Jan. 31, 2008 January 31, 2008 | Comment on this article

1. Redskins, “Kick Over the Statues!” Socialist party music from 1986, and note that I didn’t capitalize the “p” in “party.” Yeah, the idea of setting Trotsky boilerplate to music sounds like a swift dash to Boredomland, but “Kick Over the Statues!” is some furious, horn-fueled soul-punk action.... Read More

I Want My Antique MTV

January 30, 2008 Nothing satisfies quite like a raw feed from a mundane moment in history. In this case, a random posting from the excellent music blog Idolator sent me into a three-hour fugue state. An early MTV viewer with fastidious and deeply geeky archiving tendencies recorded three hours of footage from the music video... Read More

Rhymefest Rocks With You

January 30, 2008 Music lovers, welcome to the Wild West. Yes, the future of the record business could be a post-apocalyptic “Road Warrior” landscape where musicians “shoot” first and ask questions later. And the beautiful thing about such a breakdown in the system is that we’re going to hear some amazing music emanating... Read More

Dance the Night Away

January 23, 2008 David Lee Roth flies the flag Tuesday night at the Ford Center. (photo by Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman) From the moment David Lee Roth appeared at the top of a giant runway that snaked through the Ford Center audience Tuesday night, he wore the one thing that told every Van Halen fan that everything was right... Read More

Bob Berney and Gray Frederickson Talk Oscars

January 22, 2008 Big winners, big losers and even bigger uncertainty greeted Tuesday’s announcement of the 80th Annual Academy Awards nominations in Los Angeles. “No Country For Old Men,” “Juno,” “Michael Clayton” and “There Will Be Blood” dominated the major award categories, while... Read More

Heath Ledger dead at 28

January 22, 2008 Not one we saw coming: Heath Ledger, star of “I’m Not There,” “Brokeback Mountain” and the upcoming “The Dark Knight,” in which he played the Joker, was found dead in a Manhattan apartment this morning in what police are characterizing as a possible drug-related incident. Beyond this, not much more is... Read More

Random 10 for Jan. 22, 2008

January 22, 2008 1. Lush featuring Jarvis Cocker, “Ciao!” One of the great, nasty kiss-off songs of all time. As Sound Opinions said in a recent “Desert Island” tribute, Lush was a first-rate 4AD shoegazer band, but by the time of 1996′s Love Life, the group had almost completely abandoned its My Bloody... Read More

Random 10 for Jan. 21, 2008

January 21, 2008 1. Jay-Z + Danger Mouse + Beatles, “Encore.” This is probably a tie with “Change Clothes” for the most astonishing recontextualization (or mash-up, if you like) of The Grey Album. The irony is that it took “Savoy Truffle” by a quartet of pasty Scouse boys to give Sean Carter’s track... Read More

Bad Robot!

January 21, 2008 The teaser trailer for J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” is up at Yahoo! Movies. Read More

Music Review: Shelby Lynne, “Just a Little Lovin’” (Lost Highway)

January 21, 2008 Shelby Lynne could not sing a dishonest syllable if she tried, but whether it’s record labels that don’t know what they’ve got or producers with misguided notions of material or arrangements, the right elements rarely come together for the countrypolitan siren. Lynne’s 10th disc, Just a Little Lovin’,... Read More

DVD Review: “The Invasion” * 1/2

January 18, 2008 Nicole Kidman hides from the agent who signed her up for “The Invasion,” “The Golden Compass,” “Bewitched,” “Margot at the Wedding”… What a mess. “The Invasion” was supposed to be a philosophical take on Jack Finney’s 1955 novel “The Body Snatchers,” which had previously been... Read More

Film Review: “Cloverfield” * * *

January 18, 2008 Face it — watching a guy in a zipped-up Godzilla costume knocking down cardboard boxes simply does not work anymore. Even the slick-but-stupid computer-generated version from a decade ago bored viewers to death with its lizard-brained script. The solution delivered in the bracing, revisionist monster movie... Read More

Music Review: Lupe Fiasco “The Cool” (1st and 15th/Atlantic) * * * 1/2

January 18, 2008 While most of hip-hop’s regional fiefdoms crank out dumb-as-dirt party music and deny their art form’s potential for speaking real truths, Chicago is emerging as home to the most thoughtful exponents of the genre: Common, Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco. In 2006, Fiasco’s “Food and Liquor” expanded rap’s... Read More

Random 10 for Jan. 18, 2008

January 18, 2008 1. Jim Noir, “I Me You.” A Mancunian with sharp pop skills, Jim Noir made a minor splash with the direct melodies on 2006′s “Tower of Love (My Dad).” I’m particularly a fan of “Key of C,” a bright little synth bauble that might have made a great Howard Jones song in 1983 if only Noir infused it with... Read More

“American Idol” and the Ultimate Low

January 17, 2008 Carly Hennessy Seven years ago, I received five promotional copies of a compact disc that became a music industry legend. Now, with “American Idol” returning to Fox for its seventh season, millions of people are hearing about Carly Hennessy, the would-be pop star who became infamous for the spectacular... Read More

Random 10 for Jan. 17, 2008

January 17, 2008 1. LCD Soundsystem, “New York, I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down.” Of all the songs from Sound of Silver, “All My Friends” gets the most attention, and by all means, it’s one of the best songs written about real life and friends getting away from you while you were busy building yourself up.... Read More

Random 10 for Jan. 15, 2008

January 15, 2008 1. Muscles, “Ice Cream.” 2. Ween, “Where’d the Cheese Go?” This is a 29-second jingle that Deaner and Gener created for Pizza Hut in 2002, and naturally, the multinational flat food purveyor gave our boys the bum’s rush. In a 2003 statement, Ween said it “is one of the best tunes... Read More

Platinum Music? Pass.

January 09, 2008 Josh Groban That death rattle you hear has a bad beat and you cannot dance to it. This week, Nielsen SoundScan made it official: the music industry cratered in 2007. Total compact disc sales fell 19 percent over last year, and while digital downloads were on the upswing, the rise in online sales was not... Read More

WGA Reaches Deal with United Artists

January 07, 2008 Now Hiring: United Artists According to Variety, the Writer’s Guild of America has reached an interim deal with United Artists that would allow its members to return to work. This is a similar deal to the one reached with David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants, and could point to other deals with small... Read More

TV Review: “Law & Order,” Season 18

January 04, 2008 Jeremy Sisto Nearly 400 episodes are in the can, and I’ve never seen anything like it: Det. Cyrus Lupo (Jeremy Sisto) is running down the middle of a street in pursuit of a kidnapping suspect who is fleeing the scene on bicycle. The neighborhood is in the middle of a blackout, so it’s quiet. And... Read More

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Staticblog" is a repository for the musings and harangues of Assistant Entertainment Editor George Lang, featuring indie music videos, movie news.

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Skating Polly - Lost Wonderfuls

Delo Creative produced this video for the title track of Skating Polly's new album, "Lost Wonderfuls," which was produced by Exene Cervenka with engineering by Kliph Scurlock.