News
Reviews
Articles
Surveillance
R.I.P. Arthur Lee
Arthur Lee of Love has died at 61. He had been battling leukemia.
Forever Changes is an all-time favourite, and seeing Love at Glastonbury in 2003 was probably the highlight of the festival for me.
Links
Tags
4th Aug 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
iScreen
it's not big or clever, and you've probably had it set for ages, but the iTunes art screensaver option is very entertaining… (well, as entertaining as screensavers go)
3rd Aug 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Interview: Tapes 'n' Tapes
After storming this year's SXSW festival, and signing to major label XL, Minneapolis' Tapes 'n Tapes' debut album The Loon has finally been released in the UK. As the band prepare for another UK tour, Chimpomatic talked to Matt Kretzmann about their new-found success - as well as Minneapolis's most famous miniature rock-star. read article
3rd Aug 2006 - Add Comment
Tapes 'n Tapes Interview
After storming this year's SXSW festival, and signing to major label XL, Minneapolis' Tapes 'n Tapes' debut album The Loon has finally been released in the UK. As the band prepare for another UK tour, Chimpomatic talked to Matt Kretzmann about their new-found success - as well as Minneapolis's most famous miniature rock-star.
Links
Click here for the Chimpomatic interview.
Tags
3rd Aug 2006 - 4 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Idlewild
just chimped up a review of the new Outkast speakeasy musical, Idlewild. Not out for an idlewhile, but pretty fun…
3rd Aug 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Idlewild
(dir. Bryan Barber)
Under The Cherry Moon, The Bodyguard, Swept Away, Glitter… the popstar-to-actor route isn't exactly littered with a long list of great movies. So, even though I've enjoyed Outkast's output over the last few years, I wasn't exactly looking forward to their movie debut.
But they've pulled it off. Idlewild's not without its faults, but in making an old-fashioned musical they've created an enjoyable vehicle that plays to their strengths.
Set in the Prohibition-era South, Big Boi (aka Antwan A. Patton now he's an actor) is a roguish bootleg booze-running club owner/rapper (yup, lots of anachronistic flourishes here) who's a ladeez man/nice guy really. Andre 3000 (aka Andre Benjamin now he's an actor) is a mortician by day/piano player in Big Boi's club at night. A foxy singer shows up, there's a nasty gangster moving in on the action, Big Boi gets trouble from his wife, Dre's getting it from his uptight dad etc…nothing too original in the plot but it works.
Shot by Bryan Barber, who did the videos for The Whole World, Hey Ya! and The Way You Move, it's packed with little animated touches, bursts into choreographed musical numbers every now and then (which is fine, as they are both playing musicians who are singing songs - it's not one of those musicals where they burst into song when they want someone to pass the toast), and lets the Outkast charisma come through.
The music's up to scratch too - basically the Outkast template reworked in an early jazz style - but still using drum machines, rapping, hip hop breaks etc.
3rd Aug 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3.5 star reviewsturn off air pollution
air pollution protest, hong kong style…
3rd Aug 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Search
Beever
As noted by c71, Julian Beever's chalk-on-the-pavement murals are almost as strangely/cheesily compelling as that crazy juggling guy.
1st Aug 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Song Of The Day: Volume III
Billy 4 by Bob Dylan from the Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid soundtrack.
As an album it's a bit long, but this song (and Billy's 1 & 7 for that matter) is fantastic.
Links
Tags
1st Aug 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Jackass Number Two
The inventively titled Jackass Number Two is out in September, while Jackass 1.0 is on Channel 4 this Saturday (Paramount's highest grossing movie of 2002 ?!).
I know it's stupid and dangerous, but it's funny.... and has a great theme tune.
Links
Tags
1st Aug 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Gimme Shelter
rare, great Stones doc Gimme Shelter is getting an airing on BBC4, 7 Aug, as part of a Maysles bros season
31st Jul 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
New Moguls Of New Media
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about the New Moguls Of New Media (NMoNM's (TM Chimpomatic))... and it's the contributors, rather than the people behind the technology that we're talking about here.
Links
Tags
31st Jul 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Song Of The Day: Volume III
Two songs have been stuck in my head all weekend. The currently-very-annoying Frosties theme tune, and the beautiful Heaven by Talking Heads - from the difficult / brilliant album Fear of Music. One of those is today's Song Of The Day.
Links
Tags
31st Jul 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
american hardcore
trailer up for American Hardcore a doc on 80s US punk - Black Flag, Bad Brains and Minor Threat etc
30th Jul 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
the departed
could we finally have a scorsese film to get excited about? the trailer for his remake of hong kong undercover cop v undercover gangster thriller infernal affairs the departed is up, looks pretty good
Links
Tags
30th Jul 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
NASA Image Of The Day
NASA's Image Of The Day feature (also available with a custom Google homepage) is distracting me on a near-daily basis at the moment. In true NASA style there are hi-res images available for nothing on their site - as the Earth belongs to all of us, man.
28th Jul 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
More Vice
While the once 'gritty' and 'realistic' TV pilot recently fell apart during a 6pm ITV4 screening, the upcoming movie version of Miami Vice is getting good reviews and is out stateside tomorrow (August 4th in the UK).
The website has been updated with new clips and stuff - including an 'over 18's' section (which non-US readers will struggle to infiltrate). The movie looks great and for me this is looking like the first movie to be making the most of shooting on HD video, after the dry run of Michael Mann's own Collateral.
There's already talk of sequel(s) "if the numbers come in", although Mann's never done a sequel before. Not as if that stopped Red Dragon/Brian Cox, who'd previously said the same thing...
27th Jul 2006 - 3 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
lolla lives
while dave navarro farts around with tommy lee and inxs looking for new identikit rockers to join their new fake bands, perry farrell's busy interviewing people like OBEY legend Shepard Fairey, surfing champion Kelly Slater and filmmaker Ondi Timoner for his new online show
Links
Tags
26th Jul 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Walkmen
A Hundred Miles Off
The last album by The Walkmen, 'Bows and Arrows' was a real favourite of mine and in 'The Rat' featured a track that would easily make the starting 11 of the best songs ever (probably as a tireless, attacking full back) ...but then they seemed to disappear for a while. Their new album is a beauty, and while they haven't changed much since 'Bows and Arrows' and that is no bad thing. I just love their sound: all saloon pianos, shambolic guitars, irregular drumbeats and a howling Dylan-esque vocal. All this loosely hangs together and is heavily reverbed, making it sound as if you have just walked in some bar somewhere, mid-set and they couldn't care less whether you like them or not.
A few songs tick all the boxes for immediate favourites. Album opener 'Louisiana', with its brass section and Mexican-fiesta feel, the driving/drunken singalong of 'Lost in Boston' and mournful closer 'Another One Goes By'. But there is enough quality here to suggest other songs will come to the fore after 6 or 7 listens. Early frontrunners: 'Good for You's Good for Me' - which has the nice line "I don't get some people/but I don't really try", the slightly sinister 'All Hands and the Cook', but my money is on 'Don't Get Me Down (Come On Over)' and its awesome guitars.
Enjoy.
26th Jul 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 4 star reviews
radar
new "make a video for a band" festival… download tracks for battles, jamie lidell, Franz Ferdinand, Nightmares on Wax, The Kills etc from Bleep (or you get one free if you contact radar direct), make a video using your mac, send it in and they'll show them all at the london mac store… The deadline for entries is 31st August 2006
Links
Tags
26th Jul 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
abracadabra
not quite sure why there are two films featuring victorian magicians coming out… but there are: Christopher Nolan's the prestige has Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Scarlett Johansson; in the other corner, Neil "interview with the assassin" Burger's the illusionist stars Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, and Jessica Biel…
26th Jul 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
real life computing
maybe you can bluetooth up this real-life cursor kite with your new mighty mouse
25th Jul 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
mouse with no tail
mac have released a bluetooth version of the mighty mouse
25th Jul 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
owen wilson not smooth
steely dan are taking on owen wilson for his unsmoothness - they reckon me, you and dupree is a ripoff of their song cousin dupree
25th Jul 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
new auster
new paul auster novel out in october: Travels in the Scriptorium - a slim 120 pages - bit less of a doorstop than the new pynchon. he does knock them out a bit quicker though. actually, maybe we could use this as a bookmark for the pynchon
24th Jul 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Post Space Race
Some nice space pictures by Dan Holdsworth over at Store Gallery.
24th Jul 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Squid And The Whale
(dir. Noah Baumbach)
From the writer of Wes Anderson's modern classic The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou comes a much straighter take on 1980s tennis-playing New Yorkers than Anderson's own Royal Tennenbaums. Anderson also produces here, and the feel's pretty close - same great soundtrack (lots of Bert Jansch in this case); alienated families working out their dysfunction in memorised therapy speak; nicely judged take on the 1980s... all feels a bit like an update of the Salinger Glass family novels.
Jeff Daniels is a novelist turned college teacher whose career is on the wane. Laura Linney's his wife whose writing is just starting to take off. The film plays out the tension of their divorce, filtered through their two sons, who take sides under the strain of the day-on day-off joint custody arrangement. William Baldwin's a pretty smooth washed-up tennis pro-turned kids' coach; Anna Paquin a young writing student who moves into Daniels' new house.
The kids, Jesse Eisenberg and Owen Kline, are great, freaking out over ping pong matches or the pressure of trying to live up to a self-proclaimed genius dad. Peppered with great one-liners and some heart-breaking divorce moments, it's a classy, tightly structured take on a marriage that's beyond repair; funny, great acting, interesting shots.
23rd Jul 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 4 star reviews
The US vs John Lennon
trailer up for the us vs john lennon. those who don't remember history are condemned to repeat it…
23rd Jul 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Tindersticks II at The Barbican
Tindersticks will be playing a one off show at the Barbican, as part of the ATP Don't Look Back strand, playing Tindersticks II in it's entirety. Wonder if that's the CD re-issue version, which is what Mudhoney played for Superfuzz Bigmuff.
Links
Tags
22nd Jul 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
leak a rolling stone
new dylan tracks leaked onto the net apparently…
21st Jul 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
new pynchon!
as many chimps will know, it's not every day you get news of a new thomas pynchon novel… but yes, there's one on the way - and he's written the amazon blurb himself! almost as cool as the time he appeared on the simpsons with a paper bag over his head
Links
Tags
21st Jul 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
besson not on and on
luc besson's had enough
Links
Tags
21st Jul 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
film4 somerset house
loved the somerset house open-air cinema last year; if this global warming weather holds, should be worth checking:
Film4 Summer Screen
DJs from 7.30 and the film at 9.15pm as darkness falls.
10 August North by Northwest
11 August School of Rock & Nacho Libre
12 August The Shining
13 August The Outsiders
15 August The Night of the Hunter
16 August Howl's Moving Castle
17 August Brazil
18 August Starship Troopers & Aliens
19 August The Big Lebowski
20th Jul 2006 - 3 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
M Ward Signs to 4AD
M Ward has signed to UK label 4AD, who will release his new record Post-War in September.
That album is produced by one of Bright Eyes (no, the other one) and features chimp favourite Jim James amongst others.
M Ward is also on tour in the UK August 11th:
Friday 11th // London Bush Hall
Saturday 12th // Oxford Zodiac
Sunday 13th // Birmingham Glee Club
Tuesday 15th // Manchester Late Room
Wednesday 16th // Glasgow ABC2
Tursday 17th // Shefield Leadmill
Saturday 19th // Bristol Fleece & Firkin
Sunday 20th // London Bush Hall
20th Jul 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Bat Stamps
DC Comics are getting their own stamps printed in the US, featuring Batman, Superman and Wonderwoman amongst others. Maybe we should have UK stamps with Dennis the Menace or Desperate Dan.
Links
Tags
20th Jul 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Surfing In Dirty Water
I spent the evening channel surfing last night, amazingly managing to simultaneously watch Rising Sun on Channel 5, The Poseidon Adventure (the TV mini-series-with-Steve Guttenberg-version) on Sky 3 and the Richard Gere classic Internal Affairs on Sky Movies.
Guttenberg literally walked through his part, Internal Affairs still holds up quite well and Rising Sun was worse than I could have possibly remembered. I think Wesley Snipes is long overdue a career evaluation.
20th Jul 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
chad vader
more sith action - now feel the dark power of chad vader, evil day shift manager…
19th Jul 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
mercury 2006
it's that time again… here's the list:
Guillemots - Through the Window Pane
Richard Hawley - Coles Corner
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Hot Chip - The Warning
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - Ballad of the Broken Seas
Editors - The Back Room
Thom Yorke - The Eraser
Zoe Rahman - Melting Pot
Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
Scritti Politti - White Bread, Black Beer
Sway - This Is My Demo
Lou Rhodes - Beloved One
18th Jul 2006 - 3 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
sky broadband
sky's jumping into the broadband wars, with a 2mb/2gb "free" offering to anyone who's got sky at the moment…
Links
Tags
18th Jul 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
more CSI
five's new five us channel is going to be showing lots more csi action, with video on demand stuff too - more in comments
17th Jul 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Sheena Is A Parasite Video
The new Chris Cunningham video for The Horrors is now online over at You Tube.
It's not bad - kind of like a twisted performance video.
17th Jul 2006 - 3 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Star Status: Sean Connery
On a recent chimp beer session the subject of Sean Connery came up with some debate on his good movie to bad movie ratio. We've looked into his filmography and reckon he has a success rate of around 30% (and we are being a little generous). Not very impressive. Watch out for more in this series.
(2003) The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - MISS
(2001) Finding Forrester - MAYBE
(1999) Entrapment - MISS
(1998) Playing By Heart - MISS
(1998) The Avengers - MISS
(1996) The Rock - MAYBE
(1996) Dragonheart - MISS
(1995) Just Cause - MISS
(1995) First Knight - MISS
(1994) A Good Man In Africa - MISS
(1993) Rising Sun - MISS
(1992) Medicine Man - MISS
(1991) Highlander II: Renegade Version - MISS
(1990) The Hunt For Red October - MAYBE
(1990) The Russia House - MISS
(1989) Family Business - MISS
(1989) Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade - HIT
(1988) The Presidio - MISS
(1987) The Untouchables - HIT
(1986) Highlander - MAYBE
(1986) The Name Of The Rose - HIT
(1984) Sword of the Valiant - MISS
(1983) Never Say Never Again - MISS
(1982) Five Days One Summer - MISS
(1982) Wrong Is Right - MISS
(1981) Outland - MAYBE
(1981) Time Bandits - MAYBE
(1979) Cuba - MISS
(1979) Meteor - MISS
(1979) The Great Train Robbery - MAYBE
(1977) A Bridge Too Far - MAYBE
(1976) Robin And Marian - MAYBE
(1976) The Next Man - MISS
(1975) The Man Who Would Be King - MAYBE
(1975) The Terrorists - MISS
(1975) The Wind And The Lion - MISS
(1974) Murder On The Orient Express - MISS
(1974) Zardoz - MISS
(1973) Offence - MISS
(1971) Diamonds Are Forever - MAYBE
(1971) The Anderson Tapes - MAYBE
(1971) The Red Tent - MISS
(1970) The Molly Maguires - MISS
(1968) Shalako - MISS
(1967) You Only Live Twice - MAYBE
(1966) A Fine Madness - MISS
(1965) The Hill - HIT
(1965) Thunderball - MISS
(1964) Goldfinger - HIT
(1964) Marnie - MAYBE
(1964) Woman Of Straw - MISS
(1963) From Russia With Love - HIT
(1962) Dr. No - HIT
(1962) The Longest Day - MISS
(1961) On the Fiddle - MISS
(1961) The Frightened City - MISS
(1959) Darby O'Gill and the Little People - MISS
(1959) Hard Drivers - MISS
(1959) Tarzan's Greatest Adventure - MISS
(1958) Another Time, Another Place - MISS
(1957) A Night to Remember - MISS
(1957) Action of the Tiger - MISS
(1957) No Road Back - MISS
(1957) Time Lock - MISS
(1954) Lilacs in the Spring - MISS
That's:
65 films
47 Misses
10 Hits
8 Maybes
Giving a generous 10 points to the hits, 5 to the maybes and 1 to the misses generates 187 points out of a possible 650.
28.8%
Sean Connery
Rated
17th Jul 2006 - 15 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
zzzzz
trailer for gondry's the science of sleep up - makes it look a bit cheesier than it actually is… it's a pretty smooth ride, really
16th Jul 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
a scanner 24
the first 24 minutes of richard linklater's a scanner darkly are up over on ign. bit blocky, but feels like it's going to be pretty great
Links
Tags
15th Jul 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
itrip uk
the arcane uk law banning itrips has been overturned. so now you can listen to your new yacht rock playlist on the radio… of course you haven't before
14th Jul 2006 - 3 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Ronald's Ray Gunz
Wired are running an article about Christopher Howarth's Ray Gun collection.
They look good, but they're not a patch on this one. Another step towards Judgement Day.
Personally, I never go anywhere without a good blaster by my side.
14th Jul 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Animal Collective Astoria Review
Marmot was at last night's Animal Collective / Battles gig at the Astoria. Reviewed here.
Links
www.paw-tracks.com
www.bttls.com (nice site)
Tags
14th Jul 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet