Scanner : pink floyd

Richard Wright Went To That Great Gig In The Sky (sorry for the obligatory obituary title)

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:14:00 GMT

(What about: Richard Wright: Wish You Were Here... or Richard Wright Is Dead, Here Come The Wor-- no, too offensive.)

Richard Wright, who made his final on stage appearance with the reunited, core Pink Floyd at Live 8 three years ago, and who wrote Us And Them and The Great Gig In The Sky for Dark Side of The Moon, succumbed to cancer today. Here he is playing Comfortably Numb and leaving the stage with the other members for the final time. (He did, however, play with fellow member David Gilmour on Gilmour's solo tour two years ago.)

He seemed like such a nice guy, and in most accounts we've read about the Pink Floyd meltdown, circa The Wall recording sessions, he remained above the fray, like Ringo to their Beatles. During his time with the Floyd, which he helped found in the mid-sixties, he wrote and played on some of rock's greatest tunes. Here he is on our all-time favorite Pink Floyd tune, Us And Them:

Video of the Day: 7 Year Old Guitar God

Brian Fairbanks — Fri, 30 May 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Because you can't fake talent like this.

On the day that Rolling Stone releases its list of The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs, we thought we'd nominate a few of our own, including this unforgettable version of Santana's "Samba Pa' Ti," performed for Carlos's pleasure... by a seven-year-old Argentinian.

Ted Leo/Pharmacists - Biomusicology. Although nothing could ever top the majesty of the studio version, indie rock's truest poet did once blow Iggy Pop off the stage once with this, so that's gotta mean something.

Blue Cheer - Summertime Blues

Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb, which Roger Waters didn't even want on "The Wall"... we guess until he heard playback on the guitar solo at the end. (Solo at the 4:25 mark.)

The Velvet Undergound - I'm Waiting For The Man. You could pretty much pick any Velvet Underground track, especially Heroin, Sweet Jane, Rock And Roll, What Goes On (the live version), and slap it on this list-- unfortunately, Rolling Stone didn't. With any of them.

The Top 10 Most Overrated Movies Of The Past 14 Years

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:27:00 GMT

These are not necessarily bad movies per se, although all have exceeded whatever welcome they may have earned when they were met with critical or cultural orgasms.

10. The Queen. This is one of those movies that should have been a Sunday night movie on Showtime. Great acting, uninteresting premise, not enough dramatic tension to fill an arthouse screen.

9. Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle. Besides being a very poorly made film, with over-the-top acting, an irritatingly tiresome storyline (especially when having eaten pot brownies during a screening), it's also a two-hour product placement for a restaurant chain that makes worse hamburgers than Wendy's, which is a startling achievement. Just because it's funny doesn't mean it's worth watching, yo. The Wayans Brothers have a few good jokes here and there, but they still suck.

8. Forrest Gump. This is more of a backlash choice-- if it had stayed the crowd-pleasing summer blockbuster it tried to be and not robbed both Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption of a Best Picture win, it may have escaped the gallows that is this definitive list.

7. The Squid And The Whale. How the hell is it possible that an auditorium full of white Brooklynites would not recognize that kid is playing Pink Floyd's "Hey You"?

6. Gladiator. Did anyone else notice this actually ripped off two movies in the span two hours? We understand that maybe five or six people out there have never seen "Spartucus," but what's their excuse for having stolen 75% of "Braveheart"?

5. Magnolia. If a movie could be a full hour shorter and ends up being used as an example of egomaniacal filmmaking by Kevin Smith (!), you know it's time to cut, at minimum, the preachy Aimee Mann singalong... for starters.

4. Representing the number of ill-advised Oscars this movie won: Million Dollar Baby. We didn't get it. It seemed like a very well done but forgettable movie with more cliches than Rocky 10 will ever hope to cram in: the cynical manager, the token wise black Morgan Freeman type (played by, of course, Morgan Freeman), the tough-as-nails girl venting for her poor upbringing... must we go on? Again, this isn't a bad movie on any level, but in a year where "Eternal Sunshine" wasn't even nominated for Best Picture and MMB's closest competition was from a really forgettable movie called "The Aviator," there wasn't much else to go on...

3. Titantic. Leonardo DiCaprio's performance in this film is one of the worst in his career and deservedly overlooked for a nomination.

2. Juno. This movie is so annoying it even made us hate the Moldy Peaches, which is very upsetting.

1. Crash. Where do we start with this one? Apparently, every single person in Los Angeles says the "N" word in every sentence. Matt Dillon somehow escaped unscathed.

Coming up: Scanner Bryan's list.

Scanner Emily's: "'The Sixth Sense'—everyone built up the end so much that by the time I saw it I was like, "Oh, that's it? He's dead? Big Whoop."

[Senor DobleV helped with this post-- thanks to him and to Scanner Bryan and Scanner Emily for their additional lists.]