Well, this is take two of my post on EBlogger. I wrote out a post earlier tonight and tried to add it to my blog, only to find out that the system was down and lose my post entirely. Since this is the second time tonight I’m writing this the content may seems a little more brief than normal.
I recently saw the trailer for Casino Royale, the upcoming James Bond movie starring some blond ugly guy who always looks like he stayed up way too late the night before. The early word has been this Bond will be like Batman Begins meets Bourne Identity. The trailer seemed to support this to an extent, as Bond is shown assassinating people and brooding a lot. Daniel Craig, that’s what the new Bond’s name is. There were some flashy visuals in the trailer with the usual exotic locales, beautiful women and action sequences.
It’ll be interesting because the “serious” Bond has been attempted before. In the late 80’s, Timothy Dalton was extremely serious and acted like a smile might break his face (and if you saw him smile…it kinda did. I’ll never forget seeing Dalton smile during License To Kill and my friend remarking “that’s one ugly dude.”). Dalton’s Bond was a failure at the box office and almost killed off the series. Will history repeat itself or will Craig’s Bond be edgy and cool like in Dr. No? We won’t find out until November.
Speaking of ugly, Number 91 is:
The Cars – The Cars (1976)
Clickclickclickclickclickclick BANG! Clickclickclickclickclickclick BANGBANG!! The opening part to The Cars new wave hit “Just What I Needed” became the source of inspiration for many, including The Strokes, Fountains Of Wayne and Circuit City. The Cars drove out of Boston and found the road to success immediately on their first album. OK, enough with the metaphors. This is one of the great debut albums in rock history as almost every track is a classic rock hit.
Led by singer / guitarist Ric Ocasek, The Cars were among the definitive “skinny tie” bands to emerge in the late 70’s. Ocasek’s nervous vocals meshed well with the squiggly synths, jagged rhythms and angular guitarwork. In addition to the classic hit “Just What I Needed”, The Cars included the pop irony of “My Best Friends Girlfriend”, the roller coaster “Don’tcha Stop”, the jaded “Bye Bye Love”, the laconic “Good Times Roll” and the Phoebe Cates theme song, “Moving In Stereo”. My favorite song is the stomping “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight”.
The Cars were the rare band that was capable of having it both ways with their audience. They were new wave cool, but had a mainstream rock audience. They were nervous and twitchy, yet anthemic. They were ugly, but married supermodels (OK, just one of them did). The Cars first album wrapped up everything this band did well in one package and is definitely worth a listen.
2 comments:
Poor ugly Bond. Hey, with all of the running and getting shot at, what is he supposed to look like?
Love your blog. I love you too honey!
:-)
Ah, I remember the Cars. I grew up in the 80's so I am a little past their time, but I do remember the "uh oh, it's magic" song. Good stuff.
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