THE COOLDUDE CLUB (Secret Hammer) #BlastProcessing: 1998

Showing posts with label 1998. Show all posts

Monday, July 10, 2023

Songbook Xtended: Turquoise Hexagon Sun

Boards of Canada - Turquoise Hexagon Sun (1998) [Original Post]

Monday, May 22, 2023

TrailerClub: SLC Punk

SLC Punk! (1998) [Original Post]

You ever see the SLC Punk! poster? The one with the lime green and bright orange? I sure have -- but it still took me this long to actually check the movie out. It's one of those ones that comes up from time to time. It always seemed potentially interesting, even if I thought it might have weak fundamentals, and play about as convincing to its subject as Hackers was to being cool. When the subject came up again I thought about having never seen SLC Punk and wondered if I might enjoy SLC Punk. So I watched SLC Punk. And it was good. Generally good. A fun movie unto itself, populated with interesting characters, and an amusing reflection on its subject. Weirdly nostalgic as an artifact of 1998 as much as anything else. Matthew Lillard is a treat: lankily filling the screen with character and awkward charm as he impotently hops and down with mohawk flopping, and generally pontificating a philosophy that inevitably runs its course. I like a bit of chaos within strict borders of rigid rule -- lines that must not be crossed -- but these days we could probably all do with a little bit of punk in our lives.

Saturday, March 25, 2023

Songbook Xtended: Stripped

Rammstein - Stripped (1998) [Original Post]

Usually I present these selections without comment. Who has the energy to be insightful? I try not to think about the project too much, but the CDClub Songbook is a subjective analysis and cataloguing of chronology. Did Justin Bieber kill music? That guy who smashed the thumbs down on YouTube in 2014 sure thought so! I try to stay naive, making heartfelt selections in the moment. Music that speaks to me. Yet as I update the master list - I can't help but notice this is the first appearance by Rammstein. How unlikely. I suppose one was part of a post-mourning exodus - a distraction. The German growler's addition to a Depeche Mode covers album. Self-effacing Songs For The Masses. I suppose it only makes sense. What would Depeche Mode be without their entry into Berlin leather bars? "Let me hear you make decisions without your television". English speakers shouldn't say tele-vision so deliberately, but I can live with it. It's evocative. That video is probably Not Safe For Work -- watch out for that. I've been researching mythologies and World War II for an unrelated project. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with how this participated in that, but here we are. An amusingly guttural cover of synthboy edginess.