Fuzzy Thoughts: June 2, 2006

What's going on in film?
While X-Men: The Last Stand's the success story of the week, there are a couple of major films that are out today. The first of which is The Break Up, which hopefully won't be ruined by Jennifer Anniston. Also coming out today is Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, which investigates global warming. Another noteworthy film that's coming out today that will particularly interest those looking for a fast-paced action flick is District B13, which was written by Luc Besson.

What's going on in music?
You might've also noticed I didn't do a Tuesday update. Well, in truth, there was nothing really to update as far as albums are concerned, but there were a few newly-released singles that are worth talking about that I was going to cover now. Fatboy Slim, the DJ that never goes away (for better or worse), is back with a new single entitled "That Old Pair of Jeans," that also features a nifty new video. Featuring Lateef on vocals once again, it sounds somewhere between "Wonderful Night" (which also had Lateef on vocals) and "Demons," but deals with a bit more of a serious issue from most other Fatboy songs as it's essentially a break-up song. Also out this week is the single "Kick Push" from Lupe Fiasco. You might remember him from Kanye West's "Touch the Sky," Lupe, like West, is from Chicago and his debut album Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor is rumored to be finally released in August. The original release date was to be June 27, but since the original album has been leaked heavily on the internet, Lupe went back into the studio to record eight new tracks. If the skateboard influenced single is any indication, Fiasco's debut may very well be worth the hype. Muse is also back in action with their new single "Supermassive Black Hole." It's completely different from every other song I remember Muse releasing, with it's incredibly dense, almost Eurhythmics like techno-rock backdrop. It's a little creepy, especially if you watch the video (S&M anyone? Actually NIN's "Closer" and those creepy leather-clad 80's vids come to mind [for those of you at work though, it's definitely not explicit, just creepy]), but it's strangely addicting. The single is from their upcoming album entitled Black Holes and Revelations, which comes out July 3rd.

What's going on in the concert scene?
Well, last night I saw the Walkmen in concert with Mazarin and Rockwell as the opening bands. Needless to say, the Metro was a perfect venue for both Mazarin and even more so for the Walkmen, as the latter got even the most apparently uptight rocker going by the time they got to their third song "The Rat." Hamilton Leithauser's howling vocals are all the more impressive live, even if he begins to lose his voice on the higher notes (something that's a lot more forgivable than you'd think, as everyone else is so incredibly loud you'd be hard-pressed to really notice), and in general they played a very solid setlist. They stuck to playing mainly their harder songs, which worked very well, and only faltered a bit with their encore, which began with their two-minute song "They're Winning" and ended with "Louisiana."
The latter was surprisingly impressive and complete with horn and saxophone to back the band, which made it all the more fun, but it still seemed a bit unbalanced considering they performed their strongest and perhaps best songs so early in their performance. Overall though, this was a very, very good show, the energy that the Walkmen maintained was enthralling to say the least.