News You Can Bruise for 2002 December 30 (entry 0)

Mon Dec 30 2002 22:20 More Capsule Reviews:

• The new Nirvana compilation: a big rip-off. I know, what did I expect? I expected to exchange the gift certificate I got for Christmas for a CD, and that's pretty much what happened. The liner notes feature unreadable, aggrandizing blab, which is probably par for the course. To my ear the remastered songs sound no different from the originals, though I was listening to them with my lame car stereo. "You Know You're Right" is not very good. Instead, they should have had the guts to put on the album my favorite Nirvana bootleg, "Gallons Of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through The Strip".
• No!, by They Might Be Giants. Fun songs; "Fibber Island", "Four Of Two", "The House At The Top Of A Tree", etc. Some duds, but let's not dwell on those. This CD would probably make a good supplement to other collections of children's songs, since it tells children about edge conditions not properly addressed in other songs (measurements can be inaccurate, authority can be abused, etc.). At least that's what it tells me it tells children.
• The Producers. I just watched this with Sumana, and it's very funny. The characters have amusing idiosyncracies which would kill the movie if any one character's were dwelt on for too long (the comedy graveyard is strewn with such movies), but it switched between characters fast enough to avoid problems, and was also pretty short. Only a couple of dull parts; almost every scene was full of amusing bits. Among other things: the goofy fake 60s flower-power song aged well, I think; it sounds pretty good now. Sumana made the point (paraphrased): "They mocked it, because they didn't know what was coming next."