90 MILES TO CUBA

SOUND AND FURY (2011) VS. HELLFEST (2001)

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The Internet is buzzing with the second Sound and Fury announcement this morning and it's also the day I realized I don't like hardcore as much as I used to. It's kind of sad.

S&F is a three day HC music festival in Santa Barbara, California and it's the thing that everyone (that listens to that kind of music) is looking forward to this summer. I looked at the first announcement and the only bands I even kind of wanted to see were Ringworm, The Suicide File and Harvest. I looked at the second announcement (that happened this morning) and the list of bands I wanted to see didn't change.

Looking at this year's Sound and Fury line-up, I can safely say I've never heard 85% of the bands playing. Some of them are probably great (like Twitching Tongues, who I heard a few days ago) and some of them are probably just... there. Not good and not bad, but just generic enough that I won't remember them five minutes after I've heard them.

I made some jokes about it on Twitter and what not, but I don't really have the right to do that. It wasn't Sound and Fury, but 10 years ago, I got really excited for a different summer festival called Hellfest. This is where S&F has me beat—it's in Santa Barbara, which is a beautiful place. It's a little bit more north than I like to be in California, but it's still in California. Hellfest was in Syracuse, New York which, if I'm ranking the cities I've been to that I hate the most, is right near the top.

But there were bands that I had to see. Earth Crisis playing their last show (supposedly) Burn It Down's last show, Martyr AD, Hatebreed (when all they had out was Under the Knife and Satisfaction is the Death of Desire), SkyCameFalling, Arkangel, Length of Time, etc. Those were the ones that got me on a plane to New York. I don't regret it, either. That was an awesome weekend.

But, times have changed. If you put the Sound and Fury 2011 line-up next to the 2001 Hellfest line-up, you'll get older guys like me that will take Hellfest 9 out of 9 times. But I'm almost positive that anyone just coming up in the hardcore scene (probably 22-23 years old or younger) will take Sound and Fury without any hesitation.

And that's fine. The excitement for Sound and Fury (and ensuing Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr posts) just got me thinking about how excited I was when the Hellfest line-up was announced ten years ago. Of course, that was through a really well done Geocities website. Then we all had to jump on AIM and talk to our MakeOutClub friends about how excited we were to see the bands and finally meet up.

Some things never change.

You can find the Sound and Fury line-up everywhere on the Internet this morning, most notably here. And you can click that picture to see the Hellfest schedule from 2001.

"APRIL IS THE CRUELEST MONTH..."

April has officially become my least favorite month of the year. This whole month has just been awful and I started thinking about it and came to the realization that every April is horrible from beginning to end for multiple reasons.

1) April Fool's Day. I love jokes. I love practical jokes even more. I hate that the Internet has ruined them. I used to love April Fool's Day because I had to get creative. Now bands just tweet that they're breaking up, girls post that they're pregnant on their Facebook walls and silly things like that. And people fall for it. Every year. Without fail. April Fool's Day is the most annoying day to be on the Internet.

And that's how the month starts.

Look, I've pulled Internet April Fool's jokes for my old band before, but I feel they were somewhat clever. One of them didn't work because the sound guy at Kilby Court was a complete fucking moron and didn't understand what we were trying to do and ruined weeks of work. Another year, I just logged on to the Cherem MySpace (remember that?) and changed our band name to "The Dick Holsters" for the day, without any sort of announcement and started posting asinine bulletins confusing the shit out of everyone. That might have been the best.

2) The weather in April sucks. One day it'll be 60 degrees and sunny, then it will rain for three days straight, get sunny and awesome for two days and then start snowing all of a sudden. It drives me nuts.

3) April Fool's Day is definitely the most annoying day to be on the Internet, but there's another day this month that's a close second—April 20. Better known as 4/20. It's the day when everyone makes bullshit posts about how awesome they are for smoking weed, links to Bob Marley videos, pictures of themselves with joints, bongs, pipes, cokes cans and a whole bunch of other stuff that you should have outgrown when you turned 17. If you smoke weed every day anyway, who fucking cares? We know you smoke. No one gives a shit.

Especially me. I've been straight edge for well over a decade and I couldn't care less if you smoke weed. I don't particularly want to hang out with anyone while they're high because it makes them dumb, slow, forgetful and harder to have a conversation with but I'm totally okay with you doing it. If that's what makes you happy, then more power to you.

But I don't want it to be legal. I know it would solve a lot of problems and taxing it would help the economy greatly, but that would also mean that hippies got their way. And we just can't have that. The last thing I want is an overly happy guy, stoned out of his mind, wearing a Phish t-shirt coming up to me all smiles saying things like, "Yeah bro, we stuck it to the man, man! We stuck it to the man!" 


Thank god there's only 10 days left before May.

THURSDAY

A Michigan window cleaner gave this to me at work today.

He's in town for a skating competition and as I dropped his check off, he pulled it out and flipped it on the table.

"That's for you," he said.

I thought it was a wooden nickel at first, so I picked it up. It's the same size and weight, but that's not what it was.

"Do you know what that is?"
"I have no idea."
"It's a little bit of a riddle."

I turned it over in my hands looking at the design on the front. I was already over thinking it. Whenever I get something like this from a customer—and I get a lot of them—it's always stupidly simple. As soon as I get it, I'm equally amused that someone went through the trouble to carry it out but upset that I didn't get it right away.

I looked over the letters, T U I T pressed into hard plastic, almost like a poker chip but not as heavy. The way the T's are imprinted and slightly larger made me think there was something more to it. I began looking for a design between the letters and his wife already knew I was trying too hard.

"You're thinking too much," she said, "I can already tell."

This is something he does all the time. At every new restaurant in every new city they visit. He gets a kick out of it but his wife, who has seen it too many times, is sick of it and always just a tad embarrassed. But she sees how happy it makes him, so she never says a word.

He handed me his credit card. "Think it over a minute."

I ran the card and came back still no closer than I was before. As he signed the receipt, he looked up, smiling.

"Still got nothing," I said.
"Think about the shape."
"Circular?"

He stood up and grabbed his coat to leave.

I know there is no way that he's leaving without telling me what the hell this is. I know that for sure. It's all part of his little game (luckily this was my last table of the day so I had time to dick around with silly riddles) and I just had to wait it out.

"Maybe not circular," he said. "Well we've gotta get going."

I stood there waiting for the inevitable punchline for this joke that's now gone on a bit too long."

"But don't worry," he said as he walked away, "you'll get a round to it."

Click.

A round TUIT.

I let out a long sigh that he's obviously heard before. The kind of sigh that says "God damn it. Why didn't I think of that right off the bat?"

He turned back around, laughed and proceeded to tell me the origin of his Round TUIT gag while his wife kept inching closer and closer to the door waiting for him to finish this story for the thousandth time.

And then he left.

This is what I do at work.

ARLANDRIA

Might be my favorite track on the new album. And for the record, I was pretty close a few months back when I said there would be three songs that were completely awesome and 8 others that I'm indifferent about.

Don't care though. Foo Fighters are still one of my favorite bands.

THE ORSON WELLES SHOW

I really want the entire episode of this to surface so I can watch Orson Welles get weird.



From Crackajack - The Orson Welles Show was an unsold television talk show pilot. It has never been broadcast or released. Filming began in September 1978 and the project was completed around February 1979. […] Welles interviewed Burt Reynolds (taking several questions from the audience,) Jim Henson and Frank Oz, and performed two magic tricks assisted by Angie Dickinson. Several of The Muppets were featured in taped segments, including Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo the Great and Animal.

INTO THE LIGHTS

I used to drive around the country with this guy, talking about awesome 90s bands and playing hardcore shows every night.

We started probably 6 bands that never went beyond a single practice and a few more that actually managed to get a little bit done.

Then he moved to NYC and I have no one to be in bands with anymore.

Sounds like he's doing just fine without me though. Check out my man Dan Fletcher and his new song "Into the Lights" below and then head over to Fletcher Lives to keep tabs on him, his life and (hopefully) more music.

Because if it takes too long for another new track, I'll just make a video for "Sharps" and post that myself (you know I've still got that on my iPod DF, so get to work).

RECORD STORE DAY - 4/16/11

This Saturday (4/16/11) is Record Store Day. You all know what that means, right? If not, let me fill you in.

It's a day when a bunch of bands release (usually) limited vinyl to get people off the Internet, away from iTunes, out of their houses and down to the few local record stores that are still in business. This year there are a ton of great releases and a little something for everyone, no matter what your musical taste may be.

Seriously, check out this list.

A lot of local stores around Salt Lake City are going to be participating with all kinds of things going on. One of the best and most dedicated local shops in the city is SLOWTRAIN (221 E. 300 S.) and they are going all out this year. In addition to live bands like Plastic Furs, Birthquake, Ryan Tanner, Desert Noises and a bunch more, NOBROW will be dispensing the morning coffee to those die-hard fans waiting in line early that day to get first dibs on the merchandise. Later in the day, the SALT LAKE CITY FILM FESTIVAL will be teaming up with local brewer BOHEMIAN and supplying beer to all those that want it (and are 21, of course). BREATHE UTAH will be dishing out pizza from RUSTED SUN PIZZERIA and SLUG MAGAZINE will be there with some of the local crafters that make up CRAFT LAKE CITY. Also, special edition Record Store Day t-shirts will be sold benefitting SPY HOP PRODUCTIONS.

Plus, as many records from that list as they are able to get their hands on.

It's a day long event with a little pre-party the night before, so make sure you've got some free time this weekend.

SLOWTRAIN RECORDS (check their blog for more info) is the place to be. Hopefully we'll see you all there.

Most importantly, that's where I'll be all day, pouring beer, since I'm one of the only SLCFF staff with a SIPS/TIPS license (weird right?). So come on down and hang out.

And bring treats too. Like cookies and cupcakes and stuff.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING REDNECKS

In honor of this Utah/Portland game, I'd like to direct you to one of my favorite Portland related stories of all time.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present the NIGHT OF THE LIVING REDNECKS

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS

So just like it usually does, the Internet has stepped up and made a fake opening credit sequence that will be vastly superior to the one used in the actual movie.

Remember the one last year for THE WALKING DEAD? Better in every way. I put off watching this for two days, because I'm really sick of fan-made posters and trailer mash-ups, but I finally gave in and this one is totally worth it.


X-Men: First Class Title Sequence from Joe D! on Vimeo.

STATS

I looked at the stats for trevorhale.com just now and was actually pretty happy with the results. However you may have stumbled across this site, I'm glad you took a few minutes to look around and hopefully you come back. I like doing this. It's fun for me.

So far this week, this is a little bit of what the traffic looks like and what I found most interesting.

• The majority of people have gotten here either via Google or another search engine from Denmark.
• The most popular search terms are "trevorhale," "Cathedral Tattoo" and five variations of "miniature giraffe."
• Because of that, my fake miniature giraffe order post is the most popular.
• Last but not least, most people viewed this site from a Windows computer running Internet Explorer.

2/20/1967 - 4/5/1994

You know how the older generation always talks about how they remember where they were when John F. Kennedy was shot? I think the closest thing I have (at this moment in time, anyway) is where I was when I heard the news about Kurt Cobain.

Nirvana was one of my favorite bands when I was 13 and I was at my friend Nick's house one day and his mom and her friend told us that some rock star died. We turned on MTV news (probably with Kurt Loader reporting) and learned it was Cobain.  I didn't really know what to think, because it didn't really make sense to me. She said that it was probably a drug overdose, but at that time, I thought only hippies from the 60s died of drug overdoses. Surely current rock stars that were feuding with Axl Rose, married to a pretty (albeit still trashy, even when I was 13 I knew that) girl with a young daughter didn't die of drug overdoses. Then we watched the news for a bit longer and found out that it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. I knew what suicide was, because a kid that lived up the street from me had unintentionally hung himself a few years back, but it didn't really occur to me that people did it on purpose.

I wasn't heartbroken, by any means, but still a little bummed. We went outside, played basketball for a bit then I went home and listened to In Utero all night waiting for the 10 o'clock news to start and hoping that they would talk about him at least a little bit.
I cut out the article from the newspaper when it ran and hung it in my locker for the rest of the year. I still have it in a little photo album with all my concert ticket stubs from when I was younger.

Also found this video earlier today, but had no idea what it was until Badass Digest filled me in, so I'm re-blogging what he wrote about it. He's got a longer piece on Cobain over there if you want to check that out, too.

"Patton Oswalt retweeted someone who shared this YouTube clip of Nirvana on Top of the Pops way back in the prehistoric days of the early 90s. They came on to flog their single Smells Like Teen Spirit, something that deeply disturbed Kurt already. To make matters worse, Top of the Pops was essentially karaoke, with Kurt singing live over recorded musical tracks. In true punk fashion, the band drew attention to the artifice, barely even pretending to play their instruments. But best of all, Kurt crooned the song in a deep voice that he said was his attempt to imitate Morrissey. While he was taking the piss, as the Brits in the audience might have said, Kurt ended up doing one of the great variations on the song."

"WHEN IT'S NOT YOUR TURN"

THE WIRE is one of my favorite TV shows of all time. It's got so many layers, interconnecting stories and sub-plots and most importantly it's got absolutely fantastic characters. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and watch it.

And this is what I love about the Internet. Someone has taken THE WIRE and re-imagined it as a contemporary literary classic from the early 1900s, in the vein of a Charles Dickens novel.

Head over and check it out. Worth your time for sure.

I SAW THE DEVIL

It's very rare these days (for me anyway) to see a movie that actually inspires me.

Once in a great while, I'll see something that makes me remember why I signed on to be a film major in the first place, remind me what I loved about movies when I was 19 and had the whole world at my fingertips. It rarely happens, but when it does, it's a great feeling. Those are the movies that make me want to break out the camera or fire up Final Draft and get to work making my own.

I SAW THE DEVIL was one of those movies.

It's a relatively straight-forward revenge flick (as far as plot devices go) but the execution and the performances took it to a whole new level.

The entire film rests in the capable hands of OLDBOY's Min-sik Choi who plays Kyung-Chul, a deranged serial killer who gets off on kidnapping, degrading, torturing and killing women. He has such a charisma about him and is almost the perfect anti-thesis of what a typical movie serial killer should be that he's fascinating every time he's on screen. Anyone that knows me knows how much I hate the silly obsession people have with serial killers, which is why I hate most movies about them, but I SAW THE DEVIL was different. Much, much different.

The movie employs a trend that could be a terrible idea in less capable hands of using the villain as the protagonist. Kyung-Chul is a far more interesting character than the "good guy" that's hunting him, specially trained secret agent Soo-hyeon Kim (Byung-hun Lee). He's so charismatic and such a joy to watch that he's the perfect foil for Kim's straight-forward, mostly emotionless character.

That's not to say that Agent Kim isn't completely awesome, though. He has a fiercly determined drive and his cold, deadpan demeanor is the polar opposite of his counterpart.

A lot of what makes this movie great is the way that director Ji-woon Kim shoots it. He's masterful at building tension with long, tightly-framed takes that make the disturbing scenes more intimate than they should be. He doesn't shy away from showing anything and there are a few instances when you hope the scene is nearly over only to have it take another turn for the worst.

The most fascinating aspect of the movie is whether or not you agree with the concept of justice replaced by revenge (I'm a hardcore kid at heart and if you got that joke, then you are too). Every time Kim lets Kyung-Chul walk free to satisfy his twisted retribution and another innocent life is lost, it warrants the question of "is it worth it?"

In real life, no, it isn't. In real life Agent Kim makes one bad decision after another and his dedication to making Kyung-Chul pay for what he's done repeatedly backfires.

But I SAW THE DEVIL is not real life. It's the story of a man so overcome with grief he has no idea where the line is or how long ago he crossed it. But it has been crossed and the only way to finish it is to go further into the abyss.

HOW WALT DISNEY CARTOONS ARE MADE

Those "hundreds of pretty girls in a comfortable building all their own" have it pretty good, I think.

SENSORY OVERLOAD

Everyone's been all hyped on that Kanye West video, ALL OF THE LIGHTS and I'll admit, as much as I hate the guy, his music is still really, really good.

The problem I have is everyone saying that the video is brilliant and that West and director Hype Williams really took it to another level. The reality is (and I'm not the first one to point this out) that they both saw Gaspar Noe's ENTER THE VOID and decided to just take that idea and run with it.

While ENTER THE VOID itself is a whole different topic, the opening credit sequence has always impressed me. I saw the movie at Sundance last year and it just knocked me back. One second the lights were all on, the next it was pitch black and this is how it starts out. Just goes right into it. If no one has had seizures watching this movie in a theater I'll be surprised.

THE WONDERFUL THING ABOUT TIGGERS....

I have a real soft spot for traditional hand drawn animation—especially Disney. It's equal part jealousy because I can't draw at all and just remembering how much I loved watching those cartoons as a kid.

While I was at the theater the other night, I saw a poster for the new WINNIE THE POOH movie and, I'm not going to lie, I got a little bit excited. Then I watched the trailer for it and it became official—I'll be seeing it when it comes out.

And you say I'm an emotionless robot. How dare you.

It's also kind of funny that I go from gushing about how awesome, violent and sadistic I SAW THE DEVIL was (half-assed review coming soon) and how much I loved it to raving about how excited I am for WINNIE THE POOH, but whatever. That's just how I roll.