FANTASTIC FOUR TEASER TRAILER

While the wife and I marginally enjoyed the first one so hopefully this is better. I love comic book movies even if they do tend to suck. This teaser is really just Johnny chasing after the Silver Surfer and you get to see SS's all CGI abilities. Get it while it's hot!

Fantastic Four trailer at Apple

ALBUMS WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO IN '07

Next year looks to be a pretty stellar for us musically, with most of our top bands putting a CD out. Good for 2007, bad for the withdrawl the next few years will bring.

The Good, The Bad, The Queen - The Good, The Bad, The Queen: Out January 22nd

The Shins - Wincing the Night Away: Out January 22nd

Bloc Party - A Weekend in the City: Out February 7th

Arcade Fire's Neon Bible out March or April with European dates in January

Interpol: Recording now in NYC, hopefully a 2007 date.

DOVES "We’re hoping to get in the studio proper Feb '07 to record these songs fast (that’s the plan anyway) & we’re aiming, all being well, for summer/autumn 2007 release."

Stars Maybe a new album by Fall

Maybe some Radiohead, Postal Service?

* I started this last week but Stereogum beat me to it with a more comprehensive list. Check there for more releases.

TESTPILOT ALBUMS of 2006

The albums that tickled me this year In no particular order. Possible mp3's to come.

The DEARS Gang of Losers
BUY IT

The ELECTED Sun, Sun, Sun
BUY IT

M. WARD Post-War
BUY IT

The RACONTEURS Broken Boy Soldiers
BUY IT

WOLFMOTHER Wolfmother
BUY IT

COLD WAR KIDS Up in Rags EP and Mulberry Street EP
BUY IT

EDITORS the Back Room
BUY IT

HOT CHIP The Warning
BUY IT

the DECEMBERISTS the Crane Wife
BUY IT

BAND of HORSES Everything All the Time
BUY IT

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
TV on the RADIO Return to Cookie Mountain
SUFJAN STEVENS The Avalance
MUSE Black Holes And Revelations

My Christmas Gift to You

If your office is not closing down for the holidays like mine and you need something to do, head over to VirtualNES for a major time killer. Tons and TONS of NES games are made avaialble to you after you download some handy dandy Java player-AND IT WORKS FOR MAC's TOO!

The controllers are anything but intuitive and it is really awkward with my directional controllers on the right instead of the left and the buttons are vice versa but heck, you KNOW I will be mastering Contra by the end of next week!

PS - You have to double click on the title screen for nearly every game to get it to work properly.

BLOC PARTY Video Podcast

Hey there! Did you hear that Bloc Party has a videocast available through iTunes for free? So far they have the first one out that will be from a series of 6. The first was only about 5 minutes long and showcased footage of the band recording their A Weekend in the City while their first single The Prayer played over it. Pretty decent - chegg it out.

Subscribe to Bloc Party Video Podcast at iTunes

TRANSFORMERS TRAILER IS OUT!!!

Too much picture, fade to black, picture, fade to black but still...friggin... SICK.

TRANSFORMERS TRAILER

REIGN OVER ME

Adam Sandler gets damn serious for his next movie, Reign Over Me. Pearl Jam covers the Who track of the same name at the end of the trailer.

Reign Over Me trailer

NEW 300 TRAILER

What looks to be the most visually stunning movie of 2007, 300 now has the theatrical trailer out. Check it out for more jaw dropping effects and visuals. Awesome.

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE on SNL

If you saw JT's performance on SNL the weekend, then you witnessed a pretty funny show as well as one of the greatest songs ever.

DICK IN A BOX - INSTANT CLASSIC SNL digital short


Also watch these:
HOMELESSVILLE


JT performing MY LOVE

TESTPILOT JAMS of 2006

These artists might not have had a album that fully engulfed me BUT DAMN, I could not get these songs out of my head or off the playlists this year.

Thoughts Of Rena The VOOM BLOOMS (20 repeats)
Saint John COLD WAR KIDS (18 repeats)
Chinese Translation. M. WARD (18 repeats)
Pittsfield SUFJAN STEVENS (15 repeats)
Boys from School HOT CHIP (13 repeats)
Young Folks PETER BJORN & JOHN (13 repeats)
You And I Are A Gang Of Losers The DEARS (12 repeats)
My Love ft T.I. JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE (11 repeats)
Mattresses Underwater COLOUR REVOLT (11 repeats)
Cinematic The A-SIDES (9 repeats)
Lonely Love The GRAY KID (8 repeats)


Honorable Mentions:
I Ain't Saying She's Better Than You - Donovan Woods (8)
Fergilicious - Fergie (8)

NOTE: This was surprisingly scientific. I basically read through my songs added in the year 2006 and saw what had the highest playcounts - THANK YOU, iTUNES! Also, I limited the countdown to 1 song per artist to keep from getting saturated and kept the stuff that I remembered being of personal significance. And of course, stuff in the last half of 2006 was recalled much easier than the first half but we do what we can!

Christmas Movies

Herein, a list of Christmas movies I always look forward to seeing every year but don't always catch:

1. It's A Wonderful Life - A long, long movie but I love it. "Buffalo gals won't you come out tonight, come out tonight, come out tonight!"

2. A Christmas Story - personally, I liked it better when TBS didn't run it for 24 hours on Christmas day. In my life, I don't have 2 hours to sit around during a day of travel and family time to watch this classic.

3. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - I seem to be able to catch this every year, usually airing on a Monday or Saturday.

4. Scrooged - I think this airs on TBS or TNT or USA. They haven't showed it in recent years as far as I know.

5. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - We have this on DVD now and watch it with our son all the time but I still enjoy it every year.

6. White Christmas - This has became a annual ritual. The movie feels like it is 3 hours long but I try and not fall asleep.

7. Love Actually - not really a Christmas movie but it takes place at Christmas time and my wife and I love it.

8. Elf - We own it on DVD but I think it is coming to television this year. Hilarious!

9. Charlie Brown Christmas - I don’t know why I find this appealing but I try and watch it every year. I think it really isn't funny at all and I think I miss the point of it.

10. Frosty the Snowman - If it's on, I'll watch it.

What am I missing?

NEW CYHSY TRACKS

2005's buzz band, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are prepping for their 2007 release, Some Loud Thunder, and have released 2 NEW TRACKS on their website as well as streaming at their MySpace page.

For those of you who can't wait until the official release January 30th, you can buy the album in mp3 format, at Insound, starting on January 16th. Then they'll send you a real-life copy of the record soon after for free.

if you decide to buy the record directly from the band's website, they'll also have an exclusive t-shirt available.

NEW BLOC PARTY VIDEO: The Prayer

BBC Radio 1/Zane Lowe have the new video from Kele and the Bloc Party boys the Prayer, up for viewing.

It continues with the theme of 'boredeom in urban life' that Kele has said they are focusing on for their upcoming album, A Weekend in the City. The video features the boys sitting around with complete apathy to the dancing, strobe lights and thumping music in a late night club. Eventually Kele trips out and shat gets wierd.

the TEST PILOT HOLIDAY MIX 2006

Back for another year, the TestPilot Holiday Mix. Combining more indie Christmas tunes with a healthy dose of Sufjan, check it out and have a good Holiday season. Don't forget the original artwork as well.

Download the tracks individually OR take it all home in this handy, dandy ZIP file here or here. It is a YouSendIt file so follow the link. ALSO, it has a limit of 100 downloads so I will check back frequently and see if it has expired so I can re-up.

The Ice Storm - The GO! Team
Sufjan Stevens - Hey Guys Its Christmas Time
Magnet-Let It Snow
The Arcade Fire - The Christmas Song
Beck - Little Drum Machine Boy
Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Sufjan Stevens - Holy, Holy, Holy
Coldplay - 2000 Miles
Jimmy Eat World - 12_23_95
Run DMC - Christmas In Hollis
Travis - The River
Sufjan Stevens - Sister Winter
Ron Sexsmith - Maybe This Christmas
Sufjan Stevens - Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!