‘Twilight’ Dawns on Gobbledygeek

To quote the esteemed Dr. Egon Spengler, “This is big, [loving Gobbledygeek fan]. This is very big.” Millions of fangirls and fanboys (or fangirls’ boyfriends) will thrill to The Twilight Saga: Eclipse at midnight tonight. Now, Twilight is not exactly a geek subject. At Comic-Con 2008, the first Comic-Con upon which the Twilight cast and their adoring fans descended, I clearly remember people in Joker make-up and Spock ears proclaiming with disgust that this prettyboy vampire shit was ruining the Con. It didn’t particularly hinder my experience, though I will admit I scoffed at the weirdos camping overnight outside Hall H (then again, I would scoff at anyone camping out overnight for anything…you losers).

Paul and myself are on record as not being Twilight fans. However, Michele Durham, a good friend of the show, is. She has graciously accepted our invitation to join us on this Friday’s show. She’ll shed some light on the Twilight phenomenon for us outsiders, we’ll share our differing points of view, and hopefully we’ll all come away enlightened, having learned the ways of other cultures. Or something. I think it will be fun and, with any luck, rather insightful.

Michele’s already done a lot of impressive prep work for the show, and Paul and I are actually planning on watching New Moon to ready ourselves. So I think this is going to be a good one. All that’s missing is your input. What do you think of the Twilight saga? Love it? Hate it? Super ambivalent about it? Curling in the fetal position until it goes away? We want to hear from you. If you’ll just shoot us an e-mail, we’ll read it live on this Friday’s show. Thank you kindly.

Hey, Mr. AJ: Tame Impala, True Blood, Dum Dum Girls, Wild Nothing, Twilight, Robyn

Hey, Mr. AJ is a new column in which I plan on writing some things about the new music I hear. They’ll be brief reviews, divided into sections: MAXIMUM GOBBLING for the masterpieces; GOBBLE IT for the merely great; WORTH GOBBLING for other good releases; GOBBLE? for those albums which aren’t really good or bad, just sort of okay; DO NOT GOBBLE for the shitty; and RUN, DON’T GOBBLE! for the awful. Got it? Now, don’t ask me again.

INNERSPEAKER
by Tame Impala

I’m a Beatlemaniac, so I see the Beatles everywhere. Bear with me. On their debut album Innerspeaker, Australian psych-rock band Tame Impala manage to do what the Olivia Tremor Control did on 1996’s masterful Music from the Unrealized Film Script, Dusk at Cubist Castle; without compromising their creativity or their own unique vision, they capture the spirit of the post-Sgt. Pepper, pre-Abbey Road Beatles. Specifically, both albums remind me of the more freewheeling psychedelic cuts on Yellow Submarine, like George Harrison’s “It’s All Too Much.” Indeed, lead singer Kevin Parker’s voice reminds me of Harrison’s in that soaring, nasally way, which also makes it at times resemble John Lennon’s. But as I said, this is no rip-off, and Tame Impala sound like their own band, embracing the hazier realms of psychedelia that the Fab Four rarely did. It’s misty, delightful music that lulls you into another world with its spiraling distorted guitars, insistent drums, and far out yet pleasingly retro production techniques. Innerspeaker hasn’t made its way to the States yet, but whenever you get the chance, take a listen. You’ll be glad you did.

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