This week's Solid Steel includes a set by Diplo that looks like a slight variation on/extension of his recent DJ Shadow mix for Turntable Lab. Well worth your time.

Salon tackles Donnie Darko in a piece similar to their earlier dissection of Mulholland Drive, after extensive research including viewing of the soon-to-be-released director's cut. Apparently the fat guy in the tracksuit is supposed to be an FAA agent- I thought he was just supposed to be a Blue Velvet reference. Oh well.

Speaking of Mulholland Drive, a (class-required) viewing of Lost Highway in the proper Cinemascope format has re-piqued my interest in what I thought was one of Lynch's weaker films, and inspired me to try and write a longish discussion of the film, its implications, etc. I'll let you know if anything comes of it, but it'll probably be slow going since all I have to work with is the terrible Canadian DVD. But hey, at least we know Universal is working on a special edition release of...Dune? Sigh.

William Shatner sings Pulp's "Common People." Really.

YES

Found 'em. Do you know how freaking hard it is to find a band called "Cinnamon" with Google when the only thing you know about them is that they did a song called "Cakes and Pies"? Jesus. Anyway, give them a listen if you can- I've tried to track down freebie tracks or clips that are long enough to give you an impression, but no dice. They're like a spastic, glitchy, but still funky and silly...well...Cibo Matto, kinda. I feel like an ass immediately comparing them to another all-Japanese female-fronted band, but it's really the only comparison I can think of. Similar kind of silliness, albeit with more current electronic sounds- and they even sing about food too.

And the Modular People label out of Australia are hosting a nice hour-long mix by Cut Copy, which you can download after joining their mailing list. It's worth the hassle, believe me.

The word on Cinnamon and the second link both via the superlative Music For Robots.

Days until a new bandwidth billing cycle: 14.

Check this out: the trailer for Danny the Dog, starring Jet Li, Bob Hoskins and Morgan Freeman. Looks pretty good, despite the director's last job being the asstastic Transporter, but what really gets me excited is the confirmation that the original score by Massive Attack is going to be included and not discarded in favor of godawful nu-metal like their putative Matrix Reloaded score...though in retrospect, that was probably for the best. It may be too much to hope for Daddy G working with 3D on this, let alone some new vocal tracks, but it'll still be the first new work from any permutation of Massive Attack in two years. Nice.

Still not dead

Some minor updates- changed out the Current Listening sidebar and added a few links. Probably going to mess with the site template, and oh yes, write some content soon.

Keep an eye on the BBC's One World show- this Thursday they're broadcasting mixes from DJ Shadow and The Album Leaf.

Also: the movie doesn't hit the States until September (better late than never, but still annoying) but the soundtrack to Shaun of the Dead is freaking great. Especially the Kid Koala remix of "The Gonk" (the shopping mall music from the original Dawn of the Dead) and I Monster's insanely chirpy "The Blue Wrath." And it has Queen!

If the rest of I Monster's full-length album (Neveroddoreven) stays as catchy without lapsing into novelty, then I might have to check it out. PlayLouder like it, which is a good start, but I can't find anything substantial about it anywhere else...