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It’s been three years since the release of Our Love To Admire, the majestic third album by New York’s coolest band, Interpol.  Since the conclusion of that tour (which I attended in Boston that September), the band took time off to chase other projects and the future of their collective work was uncertain.  There were doubters, but those with true faith, such as myself, knew that they still had plenty of work to do.  Tonight, I am happy to learn that the wait is coming to an end.

These gentlemen have something to show you.

If you click on Carlos, Dan, Paul, and Sam, you’ll be taken to their sparse website, and after a rather spooky new logo animation, you’ll be treated to a download link to their new song, “Lights.”  I just gave it a listen and I’m very happy with the results.  It’s very much an Interpol song; dark, brooding, and somewhat dreamy.  At nearly six minutes, it builds up over time and swells up into a beautiful denouement before fading out.  Paul is still singing about unconventional romance and traveling by waterway.  Basically, it sounds like “The Lighthouse” with a real guitar riff and a little extra muscle.  If you’ve been listening since Turn on the Bright Lights, you could see sounds like this coming.  Can’t wait to hear what the rest of these latest sessions have brought.

This gives me a good opportunity to discuss Paul Banks’ solo album, which he released last summer.  Julian Plenti Is… Skyscraper was a good album, but it’s kind of like when Dave Matthews takes a vacation from the band to record something by himself.  You sit there thinking, “This is pretty good… but I wonder what it would have sounded like if…”  In this case, you get a couple of songs that could have really used some support from the rest of the group, and other tracks that work fine on their own.  For instance, check out the video for the lead single, “Games for Days”:

The song is great.  In fact, this track actually sounds 90% like it was an Interpol song to begin with.  Meanwhile, the video is kind of like the whole Garth Brooks/Chris Gaines thing.  “Julian Plenti” is a pseudonym that Banks has used for years, and the scenario here has me thinking that Black Shirt Paul is his Interpol persona, while Hat and Glasses Paul is more like his sensitive-artist persona.  Chuck Klosterman talked about Chris Gaines in his new book (I’ll get to that some other time), but I thought of this first.

So, there you have it.  Once the new album comes out, I’m sure to pick it up and review it post-haste.  Till then, keep an eye on the wire.

My friend Neal seemingly does nothing but consume the Internet all day.  Every day, he adds peculiar links on his Facebook page, be they strange articles, photos, or YouTube videos.  The other day he managed to introduce me to a YouTube channel that consists of mostly casting videos from a studio in Chicago.  I initially thought that the videos were all a part of some elaborate joke.  Then again, that’s what we all thought about After Last Season.

None of these brief “video headshots” features good acting.  And of course, this is something that I hate to be critical of.  Acting is something I’ve loved to do for years, so I’d hate to say something disparaging when they believe themselves to be good at it.  Then again, I have rarely worked with anyone this bad, even at my community theater level.  I don’t know if these people have enrolled in these classes because they want to have a career in acting or if they just want to feel more comfortable interacting with people.  What’s more, I don’t know what type of instruction these people were given.  Still, you’re always bound to find a diamond in the rough.  Take, for example, the great Bill Dollear:

I absolutely love how the guy can’t keep from laughing when his partner tells him she’s pregnant.  Whether that scene was supposed to be funny or full of tension, that’s likely the one reaction that he wasn’t supposed to come up with.  He also does a killer Scottish accent.

This channel is full of other little nuggets, such as a guy who robotically delivers Rutger Hauer’s classic death scene from Blade Runner, or some bozo who drains a Simpsons reference of humor.

With sites like Awkward Family Photos and sexypeople popping up so much these days, videos like this seem like a logical progression to me.  What is with our fascination with odd people?  I think it kind of plays into the voyeuristic tendencies we all have.  We want to see people in their natural state;  sites like this satisfy that desire, and it’s all in the presentation.  These glimpses of people are submitted and they never expected anyone to do so.  I think that’s why we love it.

I could go on and on about that, I guess.  Maybe another time.

Do not test The Bear.

I guess that I’m a lucky guy, being someone who has two beloved hockey teams that are both in the playoffs.  The Bruins have managed to stumble up to sixth place in the conference.  This is good stuff.  I guess it gives us a chance of at least getting to the second round, although Buffalo seems to be blessed once again with an otherworldly goalkeeper in the form of Ryan Miller.  The series should be a good one, but the rest of the conference competition is pretty steep.  Should be just another bad springtime trip for the Black and Gold.  At least we should get a killer draft pick, that’s all I really think the team needs.

Oh, yeah, I mentioned that I had two teams in the race.  Well, that wouldn’t be the same race, really, seeing as how it’s the Worcester Sharks.  I saw them clinch the division in person on Saturday night.  They played damn well; the defense was tight and there was nothing but hustle on offense.  It was a real flip from the only other game I saw this year, which was the home opener.  They played pretty badly that night.  I’m thinking they’re headed for the finals if Alex Stalock can build on his 40 wins.

I forget where else I was going with this.  Lost is coming on soon, so I’m a little distracted.  I guess I was just looking for an excuse to post that video… so sue me.

So you make a one minute video for a friend and upload it to YouTube.  As soon as it finishes, it gets muted because Warner Music Group knows that you played the beginning of “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash over it.  I understand the importance of copyright infringement, but if you’ve got the ability to know that your video of kids trying to breakdance contains sixty seconds of a song, and then block it, it seems… disturbing?  Frustrating?  A little of both?  Of course,  I don’t want to sound whiny.  But it’s just a little scary that your own content can be instantly removed because a song that you think fits well should be included in it.

However, I hear that there’s a new deal in place to bring Warner’s material back to YouTube, but they’ve been saying so since September, with a scheduled date of  “by the end of the year.”  Week and a half to go…  I wonder if it’ll be worth the trouble.

Yet somehow, this classic managed to slip through the cracks…  I’m bringing back a couple of old NP1 Films and putting them up on the Tube, because that’s the only way people are going to watch them these days, anyway.  If you still think this is funny, then God bless you.

All this talk about RSS feeds is making me curious.  Probably making you more confused every time I mention it.  Why don’t we all watch this educational video and maybe we’ll feel better.

I hope that was fun for all of you.  I only recently caught onto the idea of syndication, and I think it’s because I was  sort of resistant to the interconnectivity happening online.  But that’s what was leaving me behind.  I suggest using Google Reader, both because it’s easy too use and because Google is going to take over the world and I really don’t mind.  So give that little orange box a click and subscribe.  It sure beats aimlessly checking in.