The folks from EMPIRE Magazine send this along: Empire Magazine has launched the ultimate Lord of the Rings challenge, three fiendishly hard quizzes spanning the entire trilogy. Only for the die-hard fans, these ‘How Well Do You Know’ quizzes are not for the faint hearted, but if anyone has what it takes to get to the top of the leaderboard, we’re guessing TheOneRing.net readers do! [More]
Month: September 2006
From The Hollywood Reporter (via superherohype.com): 20th Century Fox has picked Academy Award-winning visual effects house Weta Digital to oversee the upcoming film Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer. The studio tapped Weta to create a state-of-the-art version of the Marvel Comics character Silver Surfer. Noted character actor Doug Jones (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy) will provide performance and movement references for Weta, in a process similar to the way Andy Serkis portrayed Gollum in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. The voice casting of Silver Surfer has yet to be determined. The Hollywood Reporter says Weta has developed an advanced computer-generated animation process that employs motion-capture techniques updated to add further dimensionality to the liquid-metal hero.
A ton of interesting new films are out on DVD this week. Take an early look on our ‘DVD Tuesday’ feature…every Monday! Check out some TV goodies like ‘Brotherhood – S1’, ‘One Tree Hill – S3’ & ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway? – Season 1, Vol. 1’. Be sure to check out the ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street: Infinifilm’ Collection and a vew DVD sets of Gene Autry films. There are quite a few DVDs on the Iraq war and 9/11, check out ‘Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers’, ‘Parallel Lines’, ‘The Ground Truth’, ‘Combat Diary: The Marines of Lima Company’ & ‘9/11: Press For the Truth’. Personally I’m excited about ‘Kids in the Hall-Best of’, ‘Transformers Armada: Season 1 – Part 2’, ‘Voltron, Vol. 1: Defender of the Universe’ & ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway? – Season 1, Vol. 1’. Check out the whole list here! [More]
A repeat airing of Orlando Bloom’s recent appearance on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ airs tonight on ABC. You can either stay up late to catch that interview or simply download it from us! Take a look! (35MB MOV)[More]
Los Angeles, CA – September 19, 2006 – Celebrated indie rock band The Apples in Stereo have been signed to a new label and will release their first album in five years, the pop triumph New Magnetic Wonder. Scheduled for release on February 7th, New Magnetic Wonder marks the debut album to be distributed on Elijah Wood’s newly formed Simian Records (co-released and distributed via Yep Roc Records/Elephant 6/Redeye Distribution). [More]
REVERED INDIE ROCK BAND THE APPLES IN STEREO RETURN WITH FIRST NEW ALBUM IN FIVE YEARS
NEW MAGNETIC WONDER TO BE INAUGURAL RELEASE ON ELIJAH WOOD’S NEWLABEL, SIMIAN RECORDS
New Magnetic Wonder Released on February 7
Los Angeles, CA – September 19, 2006 – Celebrated indie rock band The Apples in Stereo have been signed to a new label and will release their first album in five years, the pop triumph New Magnetic Wonder. Scheduled for release on February 7th, New Magnetic Wonder marks the debut album to be distributed on Elijah Wood’s newly formed Simian Records (co-released and distributed via Yep Roc Records/Elephant 6/Redeye Distribution).
Apples lead singer Robert Schneider met Wood at SXSW music festival in Austin, TX in 2003. As fate would have it, the Apples, who recently departed from their long-time label spinART, were looking for a new label at exactly the same time Wood was launching Simian Records.
“I’ve been a fan of the Apples for years,” said Elijah Wood. “I’m truly honored and excited that New Magnetic Wonder will be Simian Records first release.”
Glenn Dicker, President and Co-owner of Yep Roc Records continues, “Everyone at Yep Roc is very excited about the relationship we are building with Elijah and his new label. Given our mutual passion for the Apples, this is a fantastic record to get the ball rolling with on this new venture. We’re looking forward to doing many new projects together in the future.”
New Magnetic Wonder is an ambitious LP clocking in at 53 minutes containing 14 songs and 12 additional musical segue-ways (or ‘link tracks’ as Schneider refers to them). The album features an array of special guests including many members of the Elephant 6 collective. Sticking with their indie-rock pedigree the Apples sought the production skills of acclaimed engineer Bryce Goggin (Pavement, Sebadoh, Phish, Sean Lennon) who mixed their last record “Velocity of Sound.”
Recorded in five cities (Brooklyn, NY; Lexington, NY; Denver, CO; Athens, GA; and Benton, KY) over 12 months, the recording and completion of New Magnetic Wonder spanned great change within the band (which includes bass player Eric Allen and guitarist John Hill). New Magnetic Wonder led Schneider through a labyrinth of new directions, including the recent departure of the band’s longtime drummer and second vocalist, Hilarie Sidney, to focus on her own band The High Water Marks, as well as Schneider’s invention of a new musical scale.
The “Non-Pythagorean Scale” will be featured on an enhanced portion of this multimedia CD release, which includes digital files for MIDI usage and an in-depth description by Schneider of the Non-Pythagorean scale both in both document and video form.
New Magnetic Wonder contains such fist pumping anthems as “Can You Feel It?,” the 70’s AM radio-esque “Same Old Drag,” the slice of infectious vocoder heaven “Joanie Don’t U Worry” (a ‘link track’ throwback to the ‘Computer Love’ of the late 80s/early 90s), and the Mellotron majesty of “Energy.” This is perfect music for Jeff Lynne and Brian Wilson to make-out to.
However, this is a mere fraction of New Magnetic Wonder’s pop conquest!
National and regional tour dates for the Apples in Stereo will be announced shortly.
Track Listing:
SIDE 1
1. Can You Feel It?
2. Skyway
3. Mellotron 1
4. Energy
5. Same Old Drag
6. Joanie Don’t U Worry
7. Sunndal Song**
8. Droplet
9. Play Tough
10. Sun is Out
11. Non-Pythagorean Composition 1
SIDE 2
12. Hello Lola
13. 7 Stars
14. Mellotron 2
15. Sunday Sounds**
16. Open Eyes
17. Crimson
18. Pre-Crimson
19. Vocoder Ba Ba
20. Radiation
21. Beautiful Machine Parts 1-2
22. Beautiful Machine Parts 3-4
23. My Pretend
24. Non-Pythagorean Composition 3
**Composed by Hilarie Sidney