Variety SHAC

I've been watching the video shorts of Variety SHAC over and over this past week. It all started when I was watching TV a couple weeks ago. I saw that The 40 Year Old Virgin was on. I hadn't seen it before, but it was almost over. I tuned in right when Jane Lynch was singing a seductive song to Steve Carell, and I was laughing really hard already. I knew I'd have to just rent the movie and watch it from the beginning.

So I went over to the video rental store. They seemed to have been rearranging their stock. I couldn't find The 40 Year Old Virgin, but I did notice Reno 911!: Miami sitting on the shelves. I didn't even know they made a movie of that show. So I went with that.

Got home, watched it, enjoyed it a lot. That got me really curious about the cast and writers. That led me to The State, Stella, and David Wain (the last time I paid attention to that gang was when their show on Comedy Central came and went). I wound up watching all the Wainy Days series, which is amazing. In one episode I saw Andrea Rosen, who I traced to the Variety SHAC group.

My favorite shorts are "Hot Apple Cider," "Book Club," and "River Thoughts," but they're all awesome and genius. Comedy people blow me away. I'm not sure why weird music and comedy are what excite me the most, but I'm happy about it.

Also, I got obsessed with this clip from Michael and Michael Have Issues. Genius!

Reiko & Tori Kudo

In hunting around for more Maher Shalal Hash Baz recordings on the web, I came across a new album released by Reiko Kudo and Tori Kudo (though the music was recorded in 2005 and 2006). It's called Light, and I found it at the fantastic blog Experimental Etc. It's one of those album postings where I could have been like, "Eh, it's just some odd release by two people that are in a band I like, but I don't really care to check it out. I'll pass."

For some reason I decided to listen to Light, and thank goodness I did. It's beautiful. Much like the music of Maher Shalal Hash Baz, the songs on Light radiate some kind of emotional power I can't describe, but every time I play this album it draws me in and leaves me breathless.

And that's just the music. When I checked out the liner notes and read the translations of the lyrics, the album took on a whole new level of beauty.

Maher Shalal Hash Baz

I'm a big fan of a bunch of Japanese rock bands. Miminokoto, Fushitsusha, and Musica Transonic in particular achieve this ecstatic guitar greatness that I really crave. I had heard of this band called Maher Shalal Hash Baz here and there, but I never listened to them. Now, thanks to Mutant Sounds I finally gave them a listen. They don't pull off the guitar pyrotechnics associated with Keiji Haino, Kawabata Makoto, or Munehiro Narita, but they do something else totally amazing and just as awe-inspiring as the other Japanese bands I love. For me, their music is endlessly fascinating and beautiful. I've been listening to Return Visit to Rock Mass the last couple days while noodling along on my guitar. It's perfect for that.

Also, check out this incredible picture of John Dwyer, one of the non-Japanese ecstatic guitar heroes of our time. His project Thee Oh Sees is one of my favorite bands currently making music.