Champion Versions

1. Amy Winehouse's 'Rehab' is ace and has been played a lot by my iTunes lately. I'd write about it, and how it's sassy Motown blues with a 21st century edge - or something - but Fluxblog has already done that, so just read what he said. Anyway, my favourite TV-offshoot-pop-band Girls Aloud just did a cover of 'Rehab' for Jo Whiley's radio show, and you can nab their cover of it right here. It's not as good, but, y'know, an interesting listen. And for a great post about the two songs, and Girls Aloud as fem-pop icons, click this one. With the current storm about girls in the NME, it's worth a read.

2. A cover of 'The Dark of the Matinee' by Franz Ferdinand in Spanish? Yes mate! Makes their sexiest song even sexier. Have at it.

Maybe our connection is unique

As previously discussed on these pages, sensational Scotch grumpies Arab Strap packed it in earlier this year. Well, here's a live show of theirs from February this year, recorded in Malmo, Sweden. The quality is really good, the setlist focuses mostly on 'The Last Romance', and Aiden is in top chatty form. Of special note is the ridiculously heavy take on 'New Birds', the last minute of which is as powerful as the band ever got. Check out their official site, which finally got a facelift, and enjoy the songs. Don't enjoy them too much cos, well, they split up. But just enjoy it enough.

Christ, I miss the Cold War.

You know that part in the first Austin Powers film where Dr Evil famously demands one million dollars from the U.N. and everyone laughs at him? That’s kind of what I was thinking of when watching Casino Royale, the new James Bond film. Amidst the standard plot hoo-hah (terrorists, weapons, blah blah blah), there was a thing where one bad guy was ruthlessly trying to get back $150m which Bond had caused him to lose. One hundred and fifty million? That’s like, stealing Chelsea. Hardened international criminals? You’re having a laugh.

Anyway, that aside, it was a very decent film. I know that being the best James Bond film ever is up there in terms of credibility as being “the best Nickelback album” or “the least unhealthy McDonalds item”, but even so, it was enjoyable enough. Daniel Craig did well as Bond, not too many appalling one-liners, and a nice high badass rating (at one point he performs auto-defibrillation). Double crossing, a nice car, a neat chase, some torture, hi-jinx on the runway at Miami International… and a really hot Bond Girl… so what if the story didn’t really make much sense, the theme song was one of the worst ever and there was hardly any nudity?

Not as great as the RT indicator would suggest, but worth watching at a dollar theater or on a plane, easily. Sorry, these guys, but it was good.

There's a time, and there's a place

Last night the good ship Cursive sailed into Gainesville. The gig was in an auditorium on the third floor of the student union, with the only bar anywhere nearby closing at 8pm. That, and everyone in the audience having beards, did not set it up as a great concert atmosphere. Jeremy Enigk, formerly of Sunny Day Real Estate was in support (The Cops, too, but we missed them), and the extra-bearded older emo dudes lapped up his heartfelt-troubadour solo set.

Cursive’s newest record ‘Happy Hollow’ sees them taking on a newer, deeper sound, and so it was nice to see their set begin very quietly, with Tim Kasher strumming, joined gradually by a clarinet, some brass, a cello, and then the other members of the band. After a couple of minutes of gentle warm-up, they kicked into ‘The Game of Who Needs Who the Worst’ off their ‘Domestica’ record. The crowd remained pretty still throughout, maybe they were taking easy because of some student government meeting downstairs. Cursive played a pretty even mix of songs from their three most recent albums, with guitarist Ted Stevens (yes, I know… not that Ted Stevens, although he’s on my Fantasy Congress team) taking lead vocals on ‘Flag and Family’ and ‘Bad Science’. With strings AND brass, songs like ‘Some Red Handed Sleight of Hand’ and ‘Butcher the Song’ sounded newly beefed up. Kasher went from scream to whisper and back again in under ten seconds, and spoke a little about Thanksgiving.

For the big finale, the band rocked through an extended version of ‘Art is Hard’, with a breakdown in the middle that began with a pretty cello solo but lasted a little too long. There was a lot of energy onstage throughout, but not really matched by the audience. It was still really good, though, despite the lack of ‘Bad Sects’. Good beards, no beer, a song about heathens. Fair thee well, gentlemen. Oh, and their cellist seemed to be named Annyong.

I think the setlist is pretty much correct, maybe one or two errors. Also, the video is of the 'Art is Hard' breakdown from earlier this tour.

The Game of Who Needs Who the Worst / So So Gigolo / Driftwood: A Fairy Tale / The Great Decay / Flag and Family / The Radiator Hums / Butcher The Song / Dorothy At Forty / Some Red Handed Sleight of Hand / Bad Science / The Recluse / Am I Not Yours? / Hymns For the Heathen...
Encore: Big Bang /The Martyr / Art Is Hard

The Batshit Crazy State

What did you do last Friday? Me, I saw the Oracle of Truthiness, Stephen Colbert do a rare live, stand up style performance, for Florida State's Homecoming. It was ace, and despite what he said at the beginning, many clips are surfacing on Youtube. Here's The Word. The filmer appears to be really close to where I was sitting, although I don't remember the person with the ghoulish laugh. Enjoy!

Looks like your nose needs some Corrections

People always diss the Simpsons.

But tonight's episode featured Michael Chabon, Jonathan Franzen, Gore Vidal, Tom Wolfe and J.K. Simmons, and it made this jaded Literature major very happy. Good stuff.

Another Awards Ceremony!

The World Music Awards were last night, in popular national capital London, hosted by someone affectionately known as Firecrotch. The main controversy of the night seems to be centred around Michael Jackson not, as promised, performing 'Thriller'. On the plus side, Kanye won an award, but sadly T.I. didn't storm the stage. The best thing to happen all night, though? Guess who the, ahem, "Best Rock Band in the World" is.

No? This is how I remind you.
(Sorry)

Lord, let us go.

A couple of things to waste your time with today. Firstly, here's a clip of Borat on Fox News last week. I know he did promo out the wazoo all month and you're thinking "it's always the same ten jokes!" Well, you're mostly correct, but here there are some new bits which are funny. Not least because poor Alan Combes doesn't really seem to know what to make of his guest. Some nice talk about how Borat would vote if he were American, and disgraced Mark Foley.



Also, Information Leafblower has just put out its fourth annual "Best Bands in America" list. If, like me, you haven't heard of most of the bands, fear not, they have plenty of downloads for you to sample.

Meanwhile, here's a song from an American band who I love, that didn't make the list (of course), but they're coming to Gainesville next week and I'm excited, so there. If you'd like a full live show of theirs, from Ryspace, go here.

[download Cursive - Retreat!]

Even fratboys get the blues!

From BBC News:

US students sue over Borat film

Two US students are suing a film studio claiming they were duped into appearing in spoof movie Borat starring Sacha Baron Cohen as a Kazakh journalist.

Legal papers said the two men "engaged in behaviour that they otherwise would not have engaged in". ...The film "made plaintiffs the object of ridicule, humiliation, mental anguish and emotional and physical distress, loss of reputation, goodwill and standing in the community," the papers stated.

Spokesman for 20th Century Fox Gregg Brilliant said the case "has no merit".

You are what we French call ‘Le Fruitcake’

Here’s why I really enjoyed Aardman Animation and Dreamworks’ new film ‘Flushed Away’.

• Hugh Jackman seems to be channeling Geoffrey Rush’s voice in ‘Shine’ for his character.
• The baddie is a giant toad who loves the British Royal Family and is voiced by Ian McKellen.
• There are little slugs who sing ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’ and ‘Proud Mary’ in completely cute fashions.
• They parody James Bond and Benny Hill, though not concurrently.
• There’s a crazy old grandma character that’s in love with Tom Jones.
• There is a joke about England losing on penalties to Germany. It always hurts!
• One of the characters is an evil French mercenary called Le Frog voiced by - who else - Jean Reno.
• Two really funny things happen right toward the end, when the (big danger to the good guys) is (averted at the last minute). Whilst everyone is celebrating and cheering, one slug says to another “Hi-Five!” and then they look at each other, both say “Oh, right” and look sad. I dare say it’s even funnier than “My wife is dead, hi-five!”
• The other thing, which really summed the film up for me, was a really small visual gag. (Slight spoiler alert) – The big danger is a tidal wave which is about to drown everyone, but at the last second it is somehow stopped, hence the aforementioned cheering. So whilst all the rats in the sewer are cheering and hugging and otherwise displaying their rodent joie de vivre, this young rat comes running up with a surfboard with a huge smile, looks up at the now-frozen solid wave, gets annoyed, and throws his surfboard to the ground. That to me is what makes Aardman films stand out from most – it’s a Simpsons style touch, throwing in an extra laugh which doesn’t further the scene, but just makes it funnier. That’s good writing.

It’s very high-paced and action heavy. The voices are spot on (especially Bill Nighy as a tough henchman) and the shift to computer animation really suits them well. Take a child to go and see it if you feel silly going to a kid’s film.

All other countries are run by little girls

Those of you who don’t know me personally, and I perhaps naively choose to believe that some of you that read this site DO indeed fit that category, should know some things about me. I am not Jewish, female, homosexual, Uzbek, native American, an evangelical Christian, black, a former star of TV’s Baywatch, southern, or a prostitute. None of them. And, as such, I wasn’t too offended by ‘Borat’, the film currently sweeping the critics, the box office, Best Week Ever, and, uh, John Mayer’s thoughts.

The first half of the film was merely quite funny, mostly because much of it was regurgitated from ‘Da Ali G Show’ – most noticeably the interview with an etiquette specialist – and also because the media frenzy over the last couple of weeks has caused the clips to be played on TV repeatedly. Not that the driving lesson scene isn’t funny, it’s just not as funny as it was the first time, although when he shouts “Suck my shit!” at a fellow motorist, it’s hilarious.

The second half, though, where an actual story sort of develops, is terrific. There are three really great scenes, involving frat boys on an RV, evangelicals at a super-church, and finally, that chick from Barb Wire. The laughs come thick and fast. As you may have already heard, your enjoyment of the film will depend greatly upon how you feel about naked, hairy men wrestling.

There’s been talk after seeing the film about how much of it was scripted, and I’ve heard people use that as criticism. I don’t really agree that it lessens the film if some of the scenes are staged, it’s still funny as aw’hell, and there’s at least three parts where he would have got arrested or stabbed or arrested and stabbed. All the laughs you need, and at the end the line “Everyone knows that iPod Minis are for girls!” and a cheesy romantic ending – I think? – make this a great comedy. Not the funniest film ever made, but certainly very funny. Funniest of the year? What other good comedies were there this year though?

Go and see it, just don’t take your grandparents to see it with you.

We. Are. Your Friends.

Good: Muse won an award at last night's MTV European VMAs.

Gooder: Video of the year went to Justice v Simian's 'Never Be Alone'. [The ever reliable GWFA has their even sexier video for 'Hustler' right here]

Goodest: Kanye West didn't win Video of the Year, and not for the first time, he complained about it: "Best video should have been mine. I should have won." He said that MTV was "sharing the wealth" by awarding it to JvS.

I love bitter Kanye.

Edit: Much more about this at the Superficial.


--

From the XFM Scotland archives, go here, and scroll down quite a bit, and you can find an old cover of Take That's 'Back for Good' by the Concretes. It's interesting, but I think that sometimes Victoria's ice-coolness doesn't help the song, and this is an example. She's so detached from a really warm lyric that it doesn't work too successfully. Still, it's a nice curio.

Trifecta of Filmic Gooditude

Been catching up on recent and not-so-recent films lately, here’s a quick summaview.

Confetti: British. Funny. Fake documentary. Stars lots of familiar faces from the small screen. Jessica Stevenson (Spaced), Martin Freeman (The Office), Rob Webb (That Mitchell and Webb Look), Olivia Coleman (also Mitchell and Webb), Jimmy Carr (Distraction) and Mark Heap (Spaced) to name more than a few. It’s an iffy premise – three couples compete to be named Confetti Magazine’s Most Original Wedding of the Year. Some of the characters are great – the two gay wedding planners, Mark Heap’s holy man – but most of them are kind of forgettable, such as the Billy-Baldwin-in-Squid-and-the-Whale-lite tennis coach, the estranged dad, and, and… I’ve forgotten. It’s an enjoyable film, that I really wanted to love because of the really strong cast, but it really lagged in parts, most notably when following the couple who are really into tennis. There’s one great line about the Flaming Lips that I can’t remember, and a really sweet emotional scene between the couple who are into Broadway, but overall there was a little too much of Rob Webb’s penis (his numberwang?) and not enough of the heart, or indeed of the laughs.

V for Vendetta: Slightly older, and I finally got around to seeing it. By pure coincidence, I also just rediscovered ‘The Day that Thatcher Dies’ by Hefner. The imagery and cinematography alone are really powerful, and Natalie P’s patchy accent doesn’t overshadow how pretty the film looks. The flashbacks are really well handled, the visuals are just incredible. V’s dialogue is great, too. He’s a very verbose villain. Eh? Eh? So yes, see it if you haven’t already, and there are no longer prizes available for watching the film and thinking “Hey! It’s just like our society!” so don’t try and claim that.

The Departed: Until today, it was the best reviewed major-label film of the year, but a certain ubiquitous fake journalist is overtaking it. That doesn’t matter. The Departed is indeed fantastic. The plot is brilliantly tense, Leo and Matt Damon are on the top of their games, Jack hams it up more than usual but I definitely prefer overacting psycho Jack to wishy-washy romantic comedy Jack. In the bit parts, Alec Baldwin and Marky Mark are funny and tough and just right. The soundtrack is solid, and what can you say about Scorsese? It’s surprising to me that critics keep calling this film a return to form, as if ‘Gangs of New York’ and ‘The Aviator’ weren’t any good. Regardless, this film is a must-see, so long as you don’t mind a lot of people getting shot in the head. Go see it!

"I don't wanna be a product of my environment, I want my environment to be a product of me."

Best fascist dictator: Adolf Hitler!

You got me, I watched Annie Hall again last night, and the above quote stuck in my mind. It seems appropriate, though, for this posting, because apparently it's that time of year again. Yep, not even out of October, but today was the first of the big end-of-year award ceremonies, as not-really-that-relevant music mag Q invited some fancy-pants big names to a fancy-pants hotel in London.

Why should you care? You shouldn't, really. Awards for Muse (live band), Arctic Monkeys (album), Gnarls Barkley (single, for 'Smiley Faces'... just kidding) and The Killers (video). Oasis won best band in the world, which you may have something to say about.

The main reason, though, that the Q Awards aren't allowed to be taken seriously is that.. well.. here are some of the awards:

Q Inspiration Award, Q Outstanding Contribution to Music Award, Q Groundbreaker Award, Q Icon Award, Q Idol Award, Q Classic Songwriter, Q Outstanding Performance, Q Lifetime Achievement Award, Q Merit Award, Q Innovation Award, Q Legend Award, and, best of all, Q Award of Awards.

WHAT DOES ANY OF THAT MEAN?

Remember when there was just one token award, usually Lifetime Achievement? Here there are like ten of them with different names. Do you think they allocated awards to everyone who bothered to RSVP? It's very very odd. Oh, and Karma Chameleon was named Q Classic Song.

Full results here.

I am melancholy eternally

The Runout Groove has a great feature about one of my favourite records, 'Everything Must Go' by Manic Street Preachers. It's a really pivotal album of my youth, and I'd write more about it, but their feature is far more comprehensive. So read that.

Here, though, is a b-side from one of the 'Everything Must Go' singles - Australia, I think - called 'Sepia'. It's ace and namechecks one of my favourite films. Everyone's a winner.

[download Manic Street Preachers - Sepia]

A mobster with a gay son. That's ironic.

Look, I don't always claim to be topical, alright? With that in mind, last night I saw the film 'Lucky Number Slevin', which came out earlier this year. Seeing as Josh Harnett's other recent film stank out the joint, and how the reviews have been middling, I was a little worried that it would be rubbish, but Paul McGuigan (The Acid House, Gangster #1) is a convincing reason to overcome my prejudices.

Fortunately, 'Lucky Number Slevin' is fanfuckingtastic. Great dialogue, really neat editing and cinematography, lots and lots and lots of deaths, a really tight twist-heavy plot, great cast, barely any women... also, Bruce Willis has a great haircut that screams "serial rapist".

Rent it now, it's great.

Lindsey: What happen to your nose?

Slevin: I used it to break some guy's fist.

"This is a wonderful show"

Portland icons and language enthusiasts The Decemberists just put out their newest record The Crane Wife and it's dead good. They're playing in Atlanta on Friday, and since I live about seven hours from there, I shan't be going. It's a pity, because I saw them there last summer, and they were terrific. Later in the year, they came to Tallahassee (unheard of!) and it was the best gig of 2005. No Florida date on this tour, alas, so I guess I'll have to make do with the live recording of their date at the Wiltern in Los Angeles last week.

It's pretty 'Crane Wife'-heavy, of course, although there's a sad lack of 'Yankee Bayonet', but 'Odalisque' is back in there, so rejoice rejoice. And Colin leads the audience in a vocal warm up exercise. Plus there's talk about nubian princesses, and we all need more of that.

The best way to listen to this: dress up your friends, and if possible your pets, as 19th century merchants, put fairy-lights up all around your living room and try to acquire enough sand to cover the floor.

[download The Decemberists - Live at the Wiltern, 2006-10-21]

You're only nineteen for God's sake

One time for the Long Blondes. There's no shortage of talk about them on the blog-front at the moment, since their debut album 'Someone to Drive You Home' just found its way onto the internet.

They're from Sheffield, like the Arctics, Human League, Pulp [see most recent post], and perpetual relegation. As it happens, the record is produced by Pulp's bass player, the fine-haired Mr. Steve Mackey. A lot of the tracks have been online for a while in earlier forms, and the album recordings are tighter, most notably opener 'Lust in the Movies', which I've bigged up in here before. It's in turns jaunty ('Once and Never Again', 'Seperated by Motorways'), dark and spoken-wordy ('You Could Have Both', 'A Knife for the Girls') and, for the most part, balls-out fun, best exemplified by previous single 'Giddy Stratospheres' (live video below!).

Like the other ace Sheffield album from earlier this year, these songs are simple, catchy and will stick in your head for ages. Unlike that record, though, this band has sexy ladies. Everyone's a winner.

I'm not gonna upload any songs from the record, but it's not too hard to find them on other great sites.

I wanna dance, that's all

Three updates in a day? I must really be slacking off elsewhere.

I wanted to do a post about the new Pulp reissues, and was dallying, so The Onion AV Club's feature today about their album This Is Hardcore was all the inspiration I needed. Pulp was the first band I ever saw in concert. It was March 1996, a few weeks after Jarvis became a household name thanks to invading Michael Jackson's stage at the Brit Awards. It began my now decade long love affair with both live music, and tie-wearing. Good stuff.

The band followed the sudden success of 'Different Class' with Jarvis getting into drugs and porn, and writing This Is Hardcore, released in 1998. The title track remains their best ever (I will fight anyone that disagrees, and what a video too), and with the glamtastic 'Party Hard', epic 'Seductive Barry', brooding 'The Fear', tender 'A Little Soul' and 'Dishes', it's a phenomenally dark and impressive album. Don't even get me started on the guitars in 'I'm A Man'...

The bonus CD that's part of the new reissue is equally fascinating. It begins with the scathing 'Cocaine Socialism', which is about a certain member of the Blair family and isn't too complimentary. Elsewhere, there's their attempt at a Bond theme ('Tomorrow Never Dies'), a string-heavy remix of 'This is Hardcore', and today's download, a song called 'It's A Dirty World', which would've made for a great subtitle for the record overall.

Just as an aside, Jarvis Cocker has a solo record coming out soon. There's a song you can download over at Fluxblog. Do that, won't you?

I am not Jesus, though I have the same initials.

[download Pulp - It's A Dirty World (Session Outtake)]

She looks like that dead girl! How sick are you?

There are many things which, popular wisdom dictates, you should never do. Drive whilst intoxicated, for instance. Punch a bear in the face. Call Mike Tyson a big, lisping twat. Add to this esteemed list, “watch Brian de Palma’s The Black Dahlia” because, friends, it’s balls. Not THE balls, which would be good, but just plain balls.

The 1940s noir look is slick, the costumes are dead on, everyone smokes, and the cinematography is pretty. Beyond that, there was nothing to enjoy about the most lumpen, painful and generally boring two hours since England drew 0-0 with Macedonia. I’m sure James Ellroy’s novel is great, but the adaptation did not film well at all. It was confusing, dragged repeatedly, and the final act is just overtly melodramatic in a way that’s unintentionally hilarious.

None of the performances were great, and this from great actors! Aaron Eckhart undoes his cred-forming turn in Thank You For Smoking, Scarlett Johansson phones it in over a dodgy phone line. Hilary Swank (Oscar winner!) is okay as a lesbian femme fatale with a family that’s spectacularly crazy. And Josh Hartnett sort of drifts by.

The film is ostensibly about a Hollywood actress that got killed, but that seems to be a background detail. The problem is, the foreground’s details are all over the place.

Never taken a short cut before?

Rejoice!

Two teasers are now online for the best film of 2007, Hot Fuzz.

Watch them now.

Nick Frost is great.

"Is it true that there's a place in a man's head that if you shoot it, it will blow up?"

http://www.workingtitlefilms.com/trailers/menu_hotfuzz.htm

(edit: SOULJACKER PART ONE... by eels. That's the song in there. It bugged me all day.)

Is it wrong to be strong?

Alright, I admit it. I don't really have a justification for loving Jackass: Number Two. There's obviously no plot, the first half features a lot of bare male ass, there's a decent wait until the vomit shows up, you get to see Wee Man's, erm, wee man, there's some horse shit, and someone drinks horse semen. There isn't even any Party Boy this time around!

Despite all this, it's still the most fun I've had at a movie for a while. There was more Knoxville and less Bam this time around, which I'm happy with. That said, there's one scene called 'The Switcheroo' which is Bam-instigated and fantastic. Further, there are a lot of animals in this one. The horse sex we've discussed, also some bulls, leeches, bees, sharks, and snakes (a lot of snakes). Plus John Waters, Academy Award winners (!) Three Six Mafia, and Jay Chandrashekar, a facefull of pubes, a rocket to the moon, and a Sideshow Bob style rake-to-the-face gag. Plus a lot of rocket-powered pranks.

I'd definitely recommend it, just take a shower afterwards.

There's blood on my laptop y'all

Last night was something of a rite de passage for me. I went to my first gig in my new hometown (Gainesville, FL), at the Common Grounds venue. It was nice to finally catch a show in what is, honestly, a poor town for live music. Opening up were The Ettes from L.A. and they were steadfastly okay. Seriously, a solid three-piece who had good dynamics, catchy hooks but nothing that you'd remember after they finished. They reminded me a LOT of the Sheffield band The Long Blondes, whose 'Lust in the Movies' is available here, and has been one of my most played of the last few weeks. Although the Ettes didn't really have anything as catchy, they were a decent support band.

The headliner was Girl Talk, who is just one dude, Gregg Gillis from Pittsburgh, and his laptop. Mashups were everywhere in 2002 in the UK, and then disappeared for awhile, and his album 'Night Ripper' combines having a shit-ton of illegal samples with being fantastic. The live show was a lot more surreal. Gregg took the stage in a full suit, said a few words, and hit play on the computer and then proceeded to invite the audience onto the stage, and then rock the fuck out. Beyonce's 'Ring the Alarm' was in there early, but it'd be pointless to go through all the songs played. Some were famous - 'Ain't No Other Man', 'Where Is My Mind?' - some were not. Gillis' on-stage energy was huge and everyone that made it up there before security stopped allowing more people up were having a great time. On the floor, it was less convincing, although by God, we tried.

Disaster struck when someone hit the wrong key on the laptop, so Rick Ross' 'Hustlin' got stuck on a loop. It takes a while for someone that isn't soaked in sweat to make it to the stage to fix the problem, and after that there's only time for one more song. It's Girl Talk's ill-advised, and honestly quite rubbish, cover of Nirvana's 'Scentless Apprentice' (see video below). Gregg is shirtless by this point and jumping off the stage, rolling on the floor, and generally being a bit weird. Great fun, great entertainment, great night's worth of dancing...

If you didn't come to party, then why did you come here?

No more songs about sex and drugs and rock n' roll

I know it seems like I write about these two bands a little disproportionately, but that's only because they played together recently, that's all. I promise this'll be the last post about We Are Scientists and Art Brut for a while.

The Rich Girls are Weeping has a download of WAS covering the Brut's 'Bang Bang Rock And Roll' from their split tour-only single. It's done in the style of the Velvet Underground. It's not, as promised, seventeen minutes long. Still no sign of Art Brut's cover of WAS' 'The Great Escape' which apparently is a 'Freebird' ripoff (Eddie's words).

[download We Are Scientists - Bang Bang Rock N' Roll]

Levitation ain't your only friend

Well, the Killers' new record is out today. Not shockingly, Sam's Town is not the greatest album of the last twenty years. But unlike most, apparently, I actually quite like it. Putting the intro after the first track is still daft, despite Flowers' explanation, but the segue from 'Enterlude' into single 'When You Were Young' works well. Since Hot Fuss was essentially a handful of great songs, a couple of good ones, and then a few crap ones, the only real disappointment for me is that Sam's Town has fewer great songs.

All the criticism that this record is too overblown, too MOR, too 80s... I don't really feel it. The last record, after all, had a gospel choir (they're back here, by the way), and to be fair to them, they'll never write another song as bad as the shimmering shit-pile that was 'Glamourous Indie Rock n' Roll.' The best bits here are still cheap-disco, big-chorus, dance-like-a-twat capital-F Fun.

'When You Were Young', with all its "burning down the highway skyline on the back of a hurricane" nonsense, is still a great summer single. (Although Rolling Stone's comments about the lyrics are worth a read). 'For Reasons Unknown' is huge. 'Bones' is ace and brassy. 'Uncle Johnny' is a cousin, or, well, an uncle, to 'Andy You're A Star'. Things tail off towards the end, as they did on the first album.

It's a little too easy to hate on The Killers these days, but Sam's Town shows that they still have a few tunes up their flowery sleeves. Based on what they look like these days, I think that they'd make for a great Halloween costume. If only I had three friends.

[The Killers on the Hype Machine]

Are you trying to mock me on live television?

Given that his 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' was so universally beloved, there's a lot of hype upon Michel Gondrey's new film 'The Science of Sleep'. Someone warned me that not only is it NOT the best film of the year, it's not even the best Michel Gondry film of the year (That'll be 'Dave Chappelle's Block Party').

Well, as you may expect, it's visually stunning. There's a lot of the homemade special effects that we've seen in many of his music videos. In fact, you don't have to watch Science too closely to find nods to his videos for 'Everlong', 'Bachelorette' or 'Deadweight'. The dream sequences are really arresting and there's a strong sense of fun throughout the film.

Where I thought it was lacking was the narrative. For a film rooted in dreams vs. reality, it is sometimes tough to keep up with. It's hard to love the (waking) characters, Gael Garcia Bernal's character is close to the line between sweet and creepy. His co-worker Guy is ace, though. Gondry wrote this one himself, and it doesn't carry the tenderness of Charlie Kaufman's scripts that he's worked with before.

Definitely see it if you can, but don't expect anything too amazing.

She's electric, got a family full of eccentrics

I saw 'Who Killed The Electric Car?' last night. Now, I'm pretty liberal politically, but from this one, even I was yearning for a little more balance. It's a really interesting documentary and all, with some nice interview footage of Tom Hanks and Mel Gibson (get this: Mel brings the crazy!) and it of course presents a great case for the electric car. All I'm saying is, it didn't really offer any perspective other than saying "Big oil companies / the Government / consumers were to blame". There's a good amount of resources on the film website, so if you're interested, give it a read. Good film, well presented, just could've given the bad guys more of a voice.

Nothing's right if you ain't here

There's a strong chance that everything Mark Lanegan touches turns to evil. In addition to his solo and Screaming Trees stuff, his collabs with Queens of the Stone Age and more recently, Isobel Campbell, are dark as aw'hell. Lately he's been working with The Twilight Singers who just announced a new tour. Their newest record, Powder Burns, is one of my faves of the year (and Denis Leary's), so I'm hoping to make that Orlando show. They're supported by Stars of Track and Field who sound like the kind of band I'd have liked maybe three years ago. There are a few songs you can get of theirs from Good Weather for Airstrikes. Check 'em.

But damn, on the Singers' Myspace they've just put up their cover of Live With Me by Massive Attack, and I can honestly say, it's pretty immense. The original, from the recent 'Collected' best-of, wasn't nearly this brooding or dark. Lanegan and Dulli singing together give it such an evil, sinister edge. Check it out now.

And here's a live video of them doing it. Heh, I said doing it.

Good Weekend

The Spinto Band / Art Brut / We Are Scientists
Club Downunder, Tallahassee, FL
September 22nd, 2006

British bands don't come to Florida, and when they do, they certainly don't come to Tallahassee. In the last three years, I can remember Arab Strap, Four Tet, Mogwai, and Andy Rourke from the Smiths. Even Elton John cancelled a show at the Civic Center. So you can imagine my excitement about Art Brut making the trek over. Apparently, lots of other people had the same excitement, because when The Spinto Band took their twelve-legged rock and roll machine to the stage, the house was nicely packed. Their set was good fun, solid indie and well enjoyed. To be honest, I was kind of preoccupied catching up with friends whom I hadn't seen since the spring, so I didn't give them the attention that they deserved. So I missed their between-songs anecdote about some bad stuff that happened to them in North London, the memory of which was triggered by my NORF LONDON t-shirt that they'd seen earlier in the night. Heard the story later from their guitarist Jon, who forgave my t-shirt shaped indiscretion.



Next up were the band for whom I'd made the trip. Straight into 'Back in Black', a fine choice of intro, before morphing into 'Formed A Band'. Jasper and Ian were a mess of hair, Converse and Shakira. Eddie Argos, meanwhile, had just chipped a tooth the previous day, and the significant pain was offset by a lot of alcohol. They played almost all of 'Bang Bang Rock N Roll', plus a couple of new ones, and 'These Animal Menswe@r'. There were a lot of blank faces in the crowd, although a lot of people were digging it. 'Bad Weekend' was introduced as a blues song. 'Emily Kane' featured a whole status report vis a vis Emily's getting back in touch with Eddie. During 'Moving To L.A.', everyone pointed at L.A. Great energy and great songs. The live Brut is beefier than the recorded Brut and twice as fun. Go and see them, already.




The headliners, We Are Scientists, had been to Club Downunder before, but in the ensuing eleven months, they've become really quite popular. Especially in the UK. But their return to Tallahassee was a sellout, and the expectations were high for their show. It's a shame, then, that they weren't very good at all. Don't get me wrong, I like them a lot. But on Friday, WAS were dirgy, flat, lethargic and just plain unimpressive. The songs were played really slowly, it felt, and whilst you can't criticise them for playing new songs, there seemed like way too many of those. The crowd seemed to respond - by the time set-closer and highlight 'The Great Escape' was played, augmented by Art Brut, the floor was maybe 70% full, in what had been a packed house. And I think a lot of people were turned off by Keith and Chris' initially-funny-but-eventually-quite-grating stage patter. Here's a picture of when Chris went upstairs to check out the view. In the middle of a song.



Incidentally, about an hour after the end of the gig, I found myself in the back seat of a car, between Eddie Argos and Michael Tapper (drummer for WAS), going to a house party, talking about kegstands. Eddie said that he doesn't do them anymore, ever since his mum found this video on YouTube.

All in all - go for the science, stay for the art.

Academic Excellence

Florida State University To Phase Out Academic Operations By 2010

Go Seminoles! After Lost and The Simpsons, someone else makes fun of my alma mater.

Rock.