Movie Weekend Thoughts

Where the Wild Things Are

After hearing everyone diss this film when it came out, I decided to wait a bit to see it. I'm not a fan of Eggers mellow-dramatic writing style, but it translates well on the screen. I like the movie and it stirred some emotion from within the cold cavity I have that holds my stone of a heart. The kid did a good job acting and the over-the-top Wild Things were compelling. The voices of the Wild Things was probably the films biggest fault. It's just hard to take the characters seriously until you get past the voices.

Grade: 7.2

Vengeance (Fuk Sau)

I like the Chinese name. It's fun to say. This French/Chinese noir-ish film is about a former hitman losing his family and going after the people responsible. There are a few leaps in logic and some large suspension of disbelieve moments in the film, but it was enjoyable enough. Don't expect the action scenes to be very creative as in so many modern Chinese film. This is a pure shoot-em-up picture.

Grade: 5.4

The Hurt Locker

Billed as one of the best movies to be released over the last year, this film follows a small bomb squad on their travels in Baghdad. There are some great suspenseful moments (as there should be when disarming bombs is involved) and some moments of absolute insanity. The hard shell of the characters is slowly peeled away to reveal the tragic and fragile nature of those subjected to war and how it becomes the only thing that one knows. I have to agree it is a great film, but not one I can see watching over and over again.

Grade: 8.4

Covers, covers! It's cold, pull up the covers!

Just go over a few recent listens real quick.

Various Artists - Introducing Townes Van Zandt via the Great Unknown

I'm a huge Townes Van Zandt fan. Hell, my Mom used to drag ME through Van Zandt County on the way to Dallas as a child. Introducing... is a covers record and not a very good one either. Such great songs done with such a thrown away attitude. J. Tilman's cover of "My Proud Mountain" is forgettable as is Stephen Duffy's (founding member of Duran Duran) cover of "Poncho and Lefty." Don't waste your time.

Grade: 1.7

Hellsongs - Pieces of Heaven, A Glimpse of Hell

Hellsongs are a Swedish group that specialized is re-imagining metal in a haunting, yet gentle, way. Sparse, forceful, and beautiful can all be used to describe the music and the female vocals are at times over-powering in their emotion. This record has covers of Iron Maiden, Halloween, Accept, & Ozzy among others all set with cello, acoustic guitar and piano. A record like this is proof that great songs are great no matter how they are performed. I must, however, recommend the EP over this full length due to the quality of the production being a little more lo-fi and having a more airy quality to it.

Grade: 6.3

Lemonheads - Varshons


I'm a huge 1990s Lemonheads fan, but the newest incarnation of the band that appeared a few years ago isn't the same band. Gone is the youthful delusions and now we have the leftovers-semi-lucid echos of druggy ramblings. It'd be like meeting Chuck Bukowski at 4:30 AM as he's stumbling home and completely incoherent. That being said, this record of covers is actually quite good. Dando and Co.'s cover of G.G. Allin's "Layin' Up with Linda" is great as is Leonard Cohen's "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" with Liv Tyler and Linda Perry's "Beautiful" (what most people would recognize as a Christina Aguilera track). All have the tenderness that was present in so much of their earlier work. To bookend these three review I have to mention the cover of Townes Van Zandt's "Waiting Around to Die." Townes' original possessed an upbeat feel, but Evan injects a Cohen-esque aire to the track that makes it slightly more hopeful. A lot of Evan Dando fans were honestly waiting around for him to keel over, but after putting out a record of such quality, albeit no original tracks, I will keep an eye out for fresh material from them.

Grade: 6.8

Massive Attack -Heligoland

I've listened to the new Massive Attack a dozen time now and I think I'm ready to sum it up. First off, it's an mediocre record with great production. The songs are simplistic in structure and fail to deliver anything beyond a single idea that dragged and pulled throughout every track (with the exception of 'Saturday Come Slow' and 'Atlas Air'). There's exactly three tracks I love and I really could live without the rest. 'Saturday Come Slow' with guest vocalist Damon Albarn is probably the most sincere track on the record, although it hardly sounds anything like Massive Attack. My other two favorites are 'Atlas Air' and 'Girl I Love You' (however I do find the horns in this 'Girl I Love You' as annoying as a homeless man trying to convince me he needs money to feed his wife and kids). 'Atlas Air' contains a truly unique and grimey bass line that I just love and 3D's lyrics/voice really shine here. So, the album as a whole blows but 'Atlas Air' is a winner along with 'Saturday Come Slow' and 'Girl I Love You', but again, I'm pissed over the poor choice in adding horns to 'Girl I Love You'.

Grade: 6.7

Big Fan

Patton Oswalt shows a different side of his talent in this film, which explores fandom and the power that celebrity has over people. Months ago, I won tickets to a screening of this film here in Seattle, but I didn't make it despite being a huge fan on comedian Patton Oswalt. I'm glad I didn't make it actually, because I found part of the picture quite painful to endure. In the film, Patton plays super-fan Paul Aufiero whose sole area of success in life is being able to call into local late-night sports talk radio (hosted, surprisingly, by Scott Ferrall) and get in without the long wait. He still lives with his mother on Staten Island and works at a parking garage for his career despite being 36 years old. After an encounter with his favorite player at a Manhattan nightclub, Aufieri's true character is unveiled when he must make a choice to voice the truth and doom his beloved New York Football Giants to another season without a post-season or lie and let the events go unpunished and let the Giants fortunes fall where they may. Despite Oswalt's enormous comedic acumen, there is little comedy in this film and he manages to portray the pathetic single-mindedness of fandom and all of it's delusions. The subject of fans transcends sports. Just think about your favorite actor or musician or artist or designer, etc., chances are that even the most gregarious of them, put in a certain situation, can and do come off as complete assholes. I've always believed that it's best not to meet people with any amount of fame and if you do see them in public, then a simple head nod and nothing above a "thank you" is necessary. If only poor Aufieri and the millions of other fans out there would heed this advice, we might have more modest talented people out there instead of the celebrity culture that has evolved over the last few decades. I thought this movie was disturbing and asked a lot of great questions, but in the end only showed the weakness of the human condition and offered no growth through experience.

Grade: 7.8

Top 10 of 2009

I think Mike summed it up perfectly. It wasn't a great year for music, but there were some really good records. Below's my top 10 for the year.

10.Röyksopp - Junior
9.Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
8.Kings of Convenience - Declaration Of Dependence
7.Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
6.Bear In Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth
5.Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms
4.Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
3.Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs - It's Blitz
2.Fever Ray - Fever Ray
1.Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion

2009 Top 10: Everyone Else is Doing it...

Not the best year in music (worse than 2008 to be honest), but there still were some stellar releases. A lot of these records below you've probably seen on other lists, but some you may have not. I made my list based on several factors: what initially appealed to me the most; it's lasting power or legs; the contribution it made to my day-to-day life; and the quality of the songs. Enjoy!

10. Tiny Vipers - Life on Earth

Like the old bat-shit crazy Cat Power we all loved, Tiny Vipers uses stripped down music to wear a thin mask to cover up the insanity of everyday life. You listen to the simple songs here and you feel it, but you also feel comfort in that we all share the same basic secret.

9. the Antlers - Hospice

Upon first listen, this was a fascinating record and I thought it had a great chance of being my record of the year; however, it's strained style and composition just didn't stick into my head and plead to be listened to like the records above it.

8. Frankel - Anonymity is the New Fame

Beautiful record much in the line of mid-90's Jude, but with less tongue in cheek and more focus on the style. I liked this record so much that I ordered the vinyl from this independent artist and even received a nice 'Thank You' note from him.

7. Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms

Chillwave (God, I hate that label!) is the late 2000's version turntablism blending multiple styles and recording techniques to achieve a constantly varying song type that mostly falls flat. Most of these groups get completely lost in the process and forget to make god songs. Neon Indian is not one of those-they make quality music and I look forward to hearing their style progress.

6. CFCF - Continent

CFCF is mostly known as a producer and this is his first full length release. Electronic simplicity is his goal with this record and it achieved beautifully. Most of the tracks are downtempo and consist of only a few generic sounds, but the songs develop something larger than their production.

5. Lee Fields & the Expressions - My World

This was my summer jam! I haven't listened to it in a couple months, but after going over it again I'm still loving this funky soul record. Production is simple and the music is full of emotion that can shake anyone to the bone.

4. Silversun Pickups - Swoon

Was extremely excited to see what they would do with a completely clean sheet on this record. I really didn't know what to expect and initially I just thought it was a decent effort, but about mid-way through the third listen I realized how much they have grown in the time from Carnavas to present and how great this record actually is. Some of the production may have been a bit over-the-top, but every band should experiment if they have the chance.

3. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone

Another 'grower' record. Upon first listen, I thought it was just another Neko record, but after a while I started craving the songs and getting excited hen I heard them randomly. Love her work, voice, and emotion.

2. Fever Ray - Fever Ray

Can't escape this record. It came out in mid-January and still sounds fresh, vibrant, and brilliant. It's jerky style always keeps your mind leaning forward to hear the next beat and section.

1. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion

Ok. I really dislike Animal Collective, but the more I heard 'My Girls,' 'Daily Routine,' 'Bluish,' 'Guys Eyes,' etc. the more I had to admit this was a great record. It made me go back and listen to all of their previous releases even-I still don't like them, but I am willing to concede defeat and crown MPP the best record of the year.

'til next time!

Kid British/Electric Sex/Japandroids

Time to catch up!

Kid British - It Was This or Football...
I'm a sucker for British pop, especially the upbeat/dancy variety, but Kid British is just too sugary for me. If you took the absolute worst aspects of Madness and mediocre 90's pop (think New Radicals), then you'd have Kid British. There are some stand-out tracks like 'Our House is Dadless' and 'Lost in London,' but they are worth hearing only because the formersamples Madness along with a decent beat and the latter has a good feel akin to the Streets first hit 'Let's Push Things Forward.' The ideas seem to be there, but the pop aspect is a full-on fail. Maybe they should have chosen football.

Grade: 3.3

Electric Six - Kill

Electric Six, who brought us the great 'Gay Bar' years ago, comes back with Kill and while it's dangerously close to being really good-it's relentless style changes and themes of over the top machismo kills most songs on this record. Anthemic dance beats usually give way to over-powering, Green Jelly/Ugly Kid Joe style guitars and it just doesn't mesh well. I liked the tracks 'My Idea of Fun,' which had a good progression and actually lacked the masculine aggression present on 90% of the record, and 'White Eyes,' which had a tolerable beat and a White Lies (the band) feel to the track despite the more terrible lyrics. Overall, yuck.

Grade: 2.6

Japandroids - Post-Nothing

A decent record, finally. Vancouver, B.C.'s garage rock is pretty good on record and imagine it's thrilling live. If you are into the Thermals, the Henry Clay People, or Titus Andronicus, etc. then you'll like Japandroids. I do think the Japandroids have some growing yet to do in order to be a really good band. The progressions and songwriting are not just up to par with bands like the Thermals yet. The songs lean keenly forward over the beat pushing tracks, like 'The Boys Are Leaving Town,' forward nicely, but not too much to make it uncomfortable to the listener. Emotion carries the band through the initial tracks, especially coming clean on 'Young Hearts Spark Fire,' but then falls flat. The band seems to blow it's 'load early and lose its electricity soon after the first few tracks regressing to sound more like a early 90's Dinosaur Jr. demo tape that was thrown away for good reason.

Grade: 4.2

So many records and so little time...

to post.

Let's get this started.

The Black Heeart Procession - Six

I am a huge fan of the Black Heart Procession's earlier work, but they have let me down over the years. The dirge-ridden and plodding tracks gave way to up-beat and overly thematic songs. The BHP return to the numbering system with their newest record and a few of the tracks return to their old nature as well. When the tempo increases,however, the music loses it's impact. There's no overbearing spectre or ghost behind your back on most the record, but 'Liar's Ink" and "Iri Sulu" are worth a spell. They are full of foreboding, fear, and haunting. These tracks are certainly worthy of the oncoming wintery weather.

Grade: 4.1

Zero 7 - Yeah Ghost

Zero 7 is another group who's releases have been less stellar as of late; although, they have not had many releases to mention. There is more depth of production on Yeah Ghost, but the whole of the album is not that good. While including more variances in style, they lose what they do best in most cases. Several tracks have a feeling of trying to do too much. Superfluous beats and a too contemporary feel make the record feel like it'd be better suited on VH-1 than an in a loungey set. The melodies are also missing with many of the tracks. When they do pull of quality songs it is with the methods that made them so great to begin with. The organ sound of "The Road" and the bounce of "Swing" are what you are looking for from Zero 7.

Grade: 3.8

Golden Ghost - The Unimaginative Body

Coming from Endicott, New York, Golden Ghost embodies a plugged-in farmers' market group with a lot of style and substance. Laura Goety's voice and talent are clearly present as is her spirit. The music has an ethereal psyche feel to it but with more depth to the sound which gives it more body. This psyche group is capable of so much more that daydreamy crap and I have to admit that I really dig their earthy sound. I kept "Plain Sight," "If You Are In Love Then Why Are You Aslpeep," and "Russet, Citrine, Olive & Black."

Grade: 5.6