Vanessa Carlton
Heroes and Thieves
Motown

Here at GoD, we review virtually everything that comes our way, there are gems and there are the polar opposite of gems (CHUCK). So when Vanessa Carlton‘s Heroes and Thieves was dropped in my lap to review, I jumped at the chance just because I love music (nothing to do with not having or wanting a television).

Today however I am rapt in anguish and dismay. See, Vanessa’s Heroes and Thieves, her third “released” album (traditionally a difficult moment in an artists career) came to me in a nice folksy/eclectic CD cover with a beautiful picture of her sultry form on it.

Colin Brady is directing a movie version of Astroboy, due for release in 2009. Brady was Animation Supervisor for Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Hulk, and E.T. (special edition), and worked as an animator on A Bug’s Life, Toy Story/Toy Story 2, and Hocus Pocus).

Scared? Excited? Bored Shitless? I’m nervous.

Our pals over at First Showing have an exclusive interview with Colin Brady along with a first look some concept art for the film.

SHRED. Officially referring to the ripping apart of something. Unofficially referring to a rock guitarist’s best solos. Now, a cunning mix of both known as Shreds has arrived thanks to StSanders.

Finnish artist Santeri Ojala, aka StSanders, takes classic rock shredding footage and cunningly overdubs it with, well, anything but classic guitar work. Cleverly matching the fingerwork and some other on-stage antics, at first it’s tough to call it, til you realize just how utterly awful the solo is. StSanders has gone and put these Shreds through the shredder. (Check out our favorites: Jake E. Lee with Ozzy Osbourne and Eddie Van Halen.)

So, I decided to ask him some stupid questions….

Righteo!!!! It’s Felix the cat, the wonderful, wonderful cat.

Now I’m not 60, but I remember Felix the Cat reruns from Saturday morning cartoon time “Down Under” in Australia, back in the 80s, so I was thrilled to have a sneak preview of this DVD. For anyone like me that wants to have all of their tele-visual childhood experiences on DVD to relive at any moment, to abuse as wondrous escapes from the harshness of an adult life (am I sharing too much?), this is a great buy.

The Golden Anniversary Edition DVD of Felix the Cat has all 31 episodes from the 1958-59 TV series, plus an AWESOME short film made in 1920 that is tagged as the precursor to Felix — you totally HAVE to see this. It is taking all my strength not to give away the ending of this old cartoon. My goodness. It will surely make your eyes pop out of your skull! I cannot imagine what went through the writer’s head, other than how utterly miserable their own life must have been, perhaps? You decide.

So this album is huge and as it’s name suggests, full of compositions. Some musicians write tunes, others write songs, but the really dedicated virtuoso types… They write compositions. This album, or this “moment of genius” as I prefer to relate to it, is just that. Fans of musicians who utterly bury themselves in their art, or to put it more bluntly, musicians wanking, need to put their seat-belts on, or some such metaphor.

The production… Huge.
The musicianship… Huge.
The compositions… Huge.

When I was initially handed the CD I had a completely different idea of what I was about to feed my brain. The Henge-like imagery and the ethereal sky suggested a calming natural ambiance. I saw a serious Lindsey Boullt on the inside cover concentrating on one of his guitars and overall the feeling was that this would be a fairly smooth and chilled out collection of tunes. WRONG.