‘I just wrote that on our first press release because I didn’t want the press to have to come up with a name for us.  I was terrified that it would involve the word “gothic.”‘

What amazed me in that moment was not that Palmer had made up the “Brechtian Punk Cabaret” term.  After all, lots of artists and journalists partake in musical genre speciation.  Simon Reynolds coined ‘post-rock;’ Jerry Wexler announced ‘R&B.’  Sometimes these terms are meaningless, or applied to a type of music that so rapidly becomes disassociated with the original artist that the intended meaning becomes irrelevant.

So what is Palmer’s genre becoming? Her first solo album, “Who Killed Amanda Palmer,” almost reminds me more of Danish new wave psychopunk trio HorrorPops than it does of the Dresden Dolls itself.  The difference is “Who Killed Amanda Palmer” has more depth and scope than albums from either the ‘Pops or the Dolls.  The Dresden Dolls’ self-titled, for example, is much more light-hearted—almost frivolous—compared to the darker, but still furiously energetic, Who Killed.  However, if there was one deficiency of Palmer’s work, Dresden Dolls included, it might be that she just can’t quite pull off a song that’s supposed to feel ‘laid back.’  She should know better than to try to use Zoë Keating (of Rasputina) in a song like ‘Ampersand,’ for example, because it sticks out from the rest of this album—and not in a good way.

Other songs, like ‘Guitar Hero,’ epitomise the dark, passionate, angry humour that is so characteristic of Amanda Palmer, and in its jabbing commentary on violence and entertainment, maybe even finally does the ‘Brechtian’ part of ‘Brechtian punk cabaret’ some justice.

“Who Killed Amanda Palmer,” produced in collaboration with Ben Folds, is out now from Roadrunner Records.  Fans of David Lynch will pick up on the Twin Peaks undertones of the album’s name.
7/10

Fasciinatiion has been a long time coming, though. The Faint’s last album, Wet from Birth, was released in 2004; since its success, many have wondered what the band’s next move would be. A couple of months ago, a catchy single from the upcoming album, The Geeks Were Right, made its way onto iTunes, providing a hint of what was to come. This is no return to the 1998 punk feel of Media, a direction that many alt-punk groups in The Faint’s position have leaned towards. Instead, like 2001’s revered Danse Macabre, it is a push further into the experimental realm of electronic and synth dance beats.

The promising venture is not without unfortunate glitches, though. While the opening three tracks, ‘Get Seduced,’ ‘The Geeks Were Right,’ and ‘Machine in the Ghost,’ are charming and playful, the fourth track, ‘Fulcrum and Lever,’ nosedives into blatantly repetitive synth drums. The rest of the album, though, redeems itself; most of the best songs are intriguing, rhythmic combinations of live instruments and vocoded vocals, interrupted only by the overly-repetitive and uncreative loops of ‘Fulcrum.’

If you’re expecting The Faint’s best album between the covers of Fasciinatiion, I have my doubts that you will find it. However, it adds to my ever-growing suspicion that there is just no band quite like The Faint. After a series of disasters among other techno-pop groups in attempts to re-invent themselves, I was expecting the worst from Fasciinatiion; age 13 is right around when bands like The Faint jump the shark. For now, though, I’m confident in saying that Fasciinatiion delivers. Here’s to hoping it’s not the last.

Fasciinatiion will be released August 5th from blank.wav.

8.5/10

Stanton has been involved, one way or another, in every feature film Pixar has made.  Having written the screenplay for Toy Story, co-directed A Bug’s Life, executive produced Monsters, Inc., and directed Finding Nemo, among other accomplishments, he was the man for the job of directing this summer’s epic family sci-fi, WALL-E.

In a way, Stanton’s self-imposed limitations seem perilous for cinema ostensibly aimed at children.  The two star-crossed robotic protagonists in Pixar’s ninth and latest film are given only eyes for facial features.  The dialogue between them is limited to little more than a handful of synthesized syllables and beeps.  Star Wars would be nothing without R2-D2, of course, but imagine a Star Wars whose first 30 minutes are R2-D2 roaming around on the desert planet of Tatooine alone.  Having already read my own share of reviews of WALL-E, my expectations for it were high, but I still had my doubts.  Could Stanton and Pixar really pull this off? Could they turn a post-apocalyptic trash-filled wasteland devoid of life into a lovely kids’ movie?

Indeed they have; what makes WALL-E brilliant is not that there are colorful fish swimming among coral reef, as there are in Finding Nemo, or dynamic superheroes fighting superevil, as in The Incredibles.  There is arguably no tangible and straightforward villain in the movie, à la the sadistic fireworks-loving Sid of Toy Story.  The evil described by Wall-E is much more sinister.  It is the insidious American brand of insatiable consumerism and decadent capitalism, wrapped in a sardonic depiction of a future global conglomerate called Buy n Large, whose sprawling one-stop megastores are reminiscent of Wal-Mart, and whose total domination of—well, everything—has resulted in the Earth becoming uninhabitable.

If this was all there was to the movie, we wouldn’t be much better off than Titan AE.  Fortunately, intertwined with this dark prediction is the charming interaction between the last operating trash-collecting robot on Earth, WALL-E, and a sleek interplanetary probe in search of life, EVE.  They speak little more than their names to each other, but the depth of their emotion reveals the true extent of Pixar’s storytelling and animation talent.

Equally astounding was the technical detail that went into the film.  In the rare moments that I was able to remember that it was a mere movie I was watching, I imagined how long it must have taken to model and render particular scenes.  Despite its Disney-influenced caricatures, Stanton has managed to make WALL-E feel more like a live-action film than any Pixar film before it.  In this way, it echoes the heritage of the animation studio’s parent company, Disney, who pioneered high-quality traditional animation techniques in the ‘30s and ‘40s.

Ultimately, I hesitate to say that WALL-E is as pioneering as Toy Story, or even A Bug’s Life, but it comes darn close.  Disney’s own forays into computer animated films have thus far produced mediocre results, and my advice to them would be to yield to Pixar.  With five more films in production, the studio’s future looks bright—at least, until a takeover by Buy n Large.