yeah, you should probably buy me a few of these. =D

so my homey benji (who incidentally wrote the score for carefully descending as well) did a quick little 3-song EP a few weeks ago as lord huron and the inter-webs are going BALISTIC over it already!

go get the 3-song EP right now for only $3 and if you’re in LA tomorrow – you can see them live at The Grandstar in Chinatown tomorrow night.

check them out. you won’t regret it.

=ck

the following is kind of the finale to a comment chain i got sucked into yesterday comparing film critic Roger Ebert with film shock jock Armond White. [article on MovieFone.com by Jack Mathews] while the article does make some valid points, i find something within it’s underlying premise a bit lacking. i honestly just don’t see much purpose in the entire occupation of film “critique”. the overly-intellectual critics seem to be speaking to a very small and self-important percentage of the population while the rest seem to talk about their own opinions as if they’re fact.

art, and the appreciation of art, is personal. for instance kendall loooooooves her comedies and i love my geek-y stuff. we typically like what the other enjoys as well, but when given a little extra time, she’ll always head for a 30 Rock or an Office re-run while i’ll read a comic book, play a video game or watch some crappy Sci-Fi flick on-demand. why our tastes differ so much – and with those of all our friends and family at the exact same time – is irrelevant, but it’s the truth and always will be. critics that talk about art like they’re the only ones who actually understand it because they’ve read some ancient obsolete book by some jack-ass who couldn’t create a decent piece of art himself – critics like that need to go sequester themselves with the six or seven other people in the world who care about their opinion and leave the rest of us alone.

… but i digress. the following comment was left after a short chain from a guy who didn’t seem to be as familiar with white as i was and started to the take the premise of the article – that white and ebert should even be in the same sentence – seriously. i began to very civilly disabuse him of this idea and he went on to read a few other white reviews, but still didn’t see how ludicrous this guy is. his tone was always very civil though and so i decided to get a little more detailed with my argument. and here it is:

you know, the truth is that i’ve always had a strong and deep-seated hatred of the art critique world in its entirety. i’ve just never understood the purpose of talking about art in a way that doesn’t lead to the creation of more and better art. while i agree that parts of our culture are trending dangerously close to anti-intellectualism – especially when it comes to politics and the news media – , i simply don’t see the point of over-intellectualizing art. and i definitely have a hard time trusting “critics” who’ve never actually created something themselves.

ebert, turan and a handful of other critics however seem to see something that Dave Cable just addressed (which incidentally is urging me to re-think my prejudice against all critics right now) in his comments below. they seem to see that there are films that should be considered art and that there are films that should be considered escape.

escape is important sometimes. in my life i probably watch a tiny bit more to escape than to absorb as art, but i know what i’m doing when i do it. and i guarantee you that most other people do as well. shakespeare wrote for both and IMHO the very best artists do the same.

the bottom line is this: ebert writes a review and about 75-80% of the time i’ll agree on the most important point: whether or not its worth seeing at all. white writes a review, and that percentage actually goes up substantially … but in the completely OPPOSITE direction. he likes something, i hate it. he hates it, i like it – perhaps even love it.

… and the fact that his is consistently the very first bad review of any excellent or really good film on Rotten Tomatoes is the ONLY reason we’re talking about him at all right now. he’s attained a notoriety for doing just that and that’s why i call him the rush limbaugh of the film critique world. he’s trying to get a rise out of people and that’s his only purpose. i mean, i’m totally falling for it right now – i know – but it’s with the hope that people will finally see through his BS and stop treating him like a “real” critic.

rush limbaugh, michael savage and anne coulter deep down know what they are – even if the people that love them don’t. i argue that white does as well. that’s its calculated and that it’s gained him readership and spotlight that he never would have attained otherwise. and whatever – bravo, white. if that’s the game you want to play, play it.

but i’m not about to just sit back and let people get sucked in.

and here’s a really cool video of a performance by REM0TEKONTROL

enjoy!