Chimpomatic

The War on Drugs

Future Weather

Following Kurt Vile's departure WOD seem to have shaken the Waterboys stigma.

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14th Jun 2011

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Stephen Malkmus

The Senator (Single)

On-form return w Jicks in tow & Beck on deck. Love a good outro solo.

10th Jun 2011

Terminator Salvation

This under rated (by me), well handled, stylish addition to the franchise has much to offer.

3rd Jun 2011

Cemetery Junction

Well-trodden but effective coming of age movie from the Reading suburbs of the 1970's.

24th Apr 2011

Whip It!

Touching coming of age roller derby chick flick, with some serious indie cred. Impeccable soundtrack too.

22nd Apr 2011

Foo Fighters

Wasting Light

Despite the near death metal opening, album 7 veers more towards classic 70s rock.

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18th Apr 2011

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Whip It!

Pacy roller derby fun from Drew Barrymore. Ellen Page great again, punchy soundtrack, warm, wise teen life .

17th Apr 2011

The Other Guys

Will Ferrell brings his A Game in this LOL-packed stupido comedy.

13th Apr 2011

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TVOTR

Caffeinated Consciousness

INXS Guns In The Sky meets RCHP chorus (in a good way) looking fwd to the album

28th Mar 2011

Brothers

Powerful post-war drama from Jim Sheridan with intense perfomances from Toby Maguire and Donnie Darko.

26th Mar 2011

Eddie Vedder

Longing To Belong

Slight, but not insignificant new single from the PJ front man. Ukulele-heavy.

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21st Mar 2011

Crazy Heart

Entertainment by numbers as Jeff Bridges channels his inner dude as washed-up country singer Bad Blake.

6th Feb 2011

The Future

Miranda July's quirky sophomore feature hits many of the same notes as her first, to great effect.

22nd Jan 2011

Fifty Dead Men Walking

Involving drama about a deep cover IRA informant.

20th Jan 2011

The Sum Of All Fears

Decent re-boot, as Ben Affleck's Jack Ryan plausibly defuses World War III.

9th Jan 2011

The Town

Thoroughly entertaining heist movie from Ben Affleck. Deducting for so thoroughly 'homaging' Heat.

7th Jan 2011

Jarhead

Magnificently assembled film, unfortunately offering little more than updated 80's war movie cliches.

3rd Jan 2011

The Fantastic Mr Fox

Clever old school animation from Wes Anderson brings Roald Dahl's cheeky chap to life.

25th Dec 2010

Lakeview Terrace

Tense and well handled suburban thriller from Neil LaBute, with Samuel Jackson and Patrick Wilson.

7th Dec 2010

Slumdog Millionaire

Danny Boyle does Chungking Express in this deftly handled tale.

5th Dec 2010

The Hangover

Old School meets Weekend At Bernies, thin, but with some fine comedy moments.

6th Nov 2010

This was the opening night of guitar maestro Jeff Beck’s UK tour, with his last date 26 October at the Royal Albert Hall. He was fronting a three-piece band of percussion, bass and keyboards. Bassist Rhonda Smith did limited vocals, but the majority of the programme was not surprisingly instrumental to allow Beck to show off his technical virtuosity. Jeff doesn’t talk much; so don’t expect introductions, except to the other members of the band.

The numbers oscillated in a balanced way between jazz funk and lyrical anthems such as Beck’s Bolero and (amazingly) Nessun Dorma. Best of all was his acclaimed grammy winning version of A Day in The Life, where he recreates the varying moods of the piece through his brilliant playing. It was a little disappointing not to hear more work from his early blues-rock era, but this has clearly been superseded by works from his more recent albums.

The support act on the show was Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue. Shorty (Troy Andrews) plays not only trombone but is equally at home on trumpet and vocals with a mixture of jazz of all types. Virtuoso solos and a brilliant rhythm section made for an excellent opening act.

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22nd Oct 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet

Up

Heart wrenching tale from Pixar about life's opportunities. Lovely.

10th Oct 2010

Hot Tub Time Machine

Surprisingly bearable 80's retro mash up, where BTTF meets Groundhog Day.

29th Sep 2010

Training Day

Twisting thriller with a typically OTT performance from Denzel. Better than I remembered.

7th Sep 2010

Doubt

Cerebral nun-as-detective period film with Meryl Streep.

22nd Aug 2010

Various Artists

Dogs In Space OST

As a big fan of this cult Australian movie, I've been looking out for a copy of the Dogs in Space soundtrack since the early 90's - and only now, thanks to the magic of file-sharing I finally get my hands on it. And it's fan-expanded edition at that.

The film and therefore the soundtrack are set in Melbourne's 'Little Band' scene of the late 70's, with some of the acts from that era reforming briefly to play on the soundtrack - such as The Primitive Calculators and Whirlywirld. Michael Hutchence stars in the film and leads the band of the title, but also provides a couple of more punky solo tracks here, of which Golf Course is pretty fun. Hutchence was inspired by the film and his work with veteran Melboune producer Ollie Olsen and the two of them worked together in the late 80's on Max Q.

Of course the ongoing success of some of the acts highlights their contributions here. Iggy's Endless Sea (from New Values) is a highlight of the movie and the soundtrack, while Nick Cave's Boys Next Door provide a classic in Shivers. Another highlight is the Thrush & The Cunts cover of the same song. Charming name.

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18th Aug 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet

Jerk With A Bomb

Death To False Metal

Last week's Black Mountain gig sent me into a completist spin of Black-Mountain-Army-MP3-domination and as a result I dug up this previously overlooked, very early Jerk With A Bomb album. Before Pink Mountaintops and before Black Mountain it was just One Easy Skag and the Silo - AKA Stephen McBean and Joshua Wells.

While later JWAB efforts - 2001's The Old Noise and 2003's Pyrokenesis - have their moments (Pyrokenisis in particular with stellar stand-outs Fine Health Is At Home and the sublime To The Graves), both could be considered relatively patchy affairs. Death To False Metal on the other hand aims a little lower but maintains a solid, consistent level of entertainment - as well as a healthy live feel. You could imagine these two turning up at your BBQ and wowing the camp fire crowd with this whole album.

That's not to say it's all at one note - and This Broken Heart, New Wave Is Dead and particularly Half Mast provide some momentous highlights. Sure, it's still a lo-fi affair, but the passion and fury unleashed on some of the tracks is astounding and the record serves as a welcome early warning of Stephen McBean's deep reservoir of song-writing talent, not to mention Joshua Wells' epic drumming.

Listen in full over at CBC Radio 3 (Track 5 onwards is this album, the first 4 are from the 2 later albums).

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23rd Jul 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet

Black Mountain

The Lexington, London

With a new album on the way and a slew of festival dates lined up, Canada's 2007/8 chimprock staple Black Mountain were back in town for an intimate gig at the perfectly-sized Lexington in preparation for this weekend's Latitude festival.

Pastiche-heavy new song Radiant Hearts opened the show, before new album highlight Wilderness Heart moved the band quickly into a higher gear, storming though In The Future classics Evil Ways, Tyrants, plus Old Fangs, Rollercoaster and Let Spirits Rise from the new record.

Sadly, sound problems slowly encroached into the show -with McBean's increasingly problematic amp hampering the real growth of the performance. While the rest of the band made valient efforts to paste over the cracks - with an extended jam allowing some roadie tech action, before McBean stepped back in with a blistering riff, only to be denied again. Lightning Dust star Amber Webber's wailing vocals provide a much more pronounced appearance when seeing the band live and she provided a real focus for tonights show, holding the stage like a modern day Grace Slick. The keyboard-heavy sounds of the new album also got plenty of time in the spotlight via Jeremy Schmidt, while Joshua Wells' incredible drumming stole the show on several occasions - with the robotic licks of Tyrants never failing to deliver a spine-tingling thrill.

Ultimately, the sound issues were too much to overcome, and like a (muscle) car without gas, Steve McBean sloped off unfulfilled. However, some quick tweaks from a roadie and the band were back for a super-charged encore. The newer big hitters were nearly done, but the super-sub of Stormy High saw the band roar back into action, before chunky live versions of Druganaut and Don't Run Our Hearts Around brought the band's self-titled debut album back into the favourites list.

It would take a lot more than bad electrics to keep these guys down ...and I suspect their the following night may have been unbelievable. Tonight we just had to be satisfied with awesome.

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15th Jul 2010 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Cast Away

Tom Hanks' solitary performance lifts this Hollywood take on Robinson Crusoe out of the ordinary.

30th Jun 2010

Moon

Interesting and original - if not totally successful - sci-fi, with great performances from Sam Rockwell.

26th Jun 2010

Let The Right One In

Subtle, slow, stylish, Swedish, subtitled.

21st Jun 2010

Snatch

A little dated, but only by 'homage' to the original.

13th Jun 2010

The Drums

Island

Emerging bleary eyed from the Christmas/New Year haze I was confronted with nothing but talk of immanent financial hardship and the merits of a New York band called The Drums. I laughed off both as mere hype but lo and behold they've both come true and after hearing this debut album the latter certainly certainly makes the former rumor more easy to bear. If you have the Summertime Ep released last year then you'll be familiar with a lot of this but that shouldn't dampen your enjoyment in the least. Swamped in British eighties warmth but infused with a charm and freshness that seems to only emanate from the States at the moment The Drums continue in part what bands like Vampire Weekend started. These are simple songs heavily recalling bands like The Cure or New Order but laced with a rolling surf-rock sensibility. It's a fine mix and one that benefits form a full length format. They've bravely left off two of their most popular songs from Summertime, I Felt Stupid and Submarine, but left their flagship Let's Go Surfing, a song that won them their considerable acclaim on the blogs.

In these dark times I continuously look across the pond for indie-pop alleviation and with The Drums I look no further. It's not reinventing the wheel but who needs reinvention with a record as joyous as this. Highlights include Forever And Ever Amen and I'll Never Drop My Sword.

11th Jun 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet

Active Child

Curtis Lane

Merok

As the dying beauty of opener I'm In Your Church At Night fades gently into the background you'll ask yourself where on earth this sound came from and how dare it pop up and steal your heart this damn easy and with such little warning. Well it's the momentous achievement of Pat Grossi who's soaring falsetto vocals are the instant attention grabber. They float with a fragility that caries with it real power. Miscellaneous fuzz and effects follow it's every movement and when supported by the calamitous drums on Weight Of The World the effects are utterly dazzling. This music is dream-like in its production with different planes of sound from twinkling harp to great synth oceans sliding in front of the vocals and pushing everything into the distance and rendering it all untouchable. This only serves to encourage your ears and soul to strain even harder to reach the prize.

With such simple strokes Grossi produces epic magnitude and though the EP only spans 6 songs its power is astonishing. It's the soundtrack to a momentous event in your life.
Killer tracks: When Your Love Is Safe, I'm In Your Church At Midnight.

11th Jun 2010 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

James Murphy & Various Artists

Greenberg Soundtrack

Parlophone

Arranged and composed by LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy this soundtrack to Noah Baumbach's film is a fantastic mix of genres, tempos and moods. Kicking off with The Steve Miller Band's Jet Airliner this features many heavyhitters, the highlights being Galaxie 500 and Duran Duran surprisingly. But the real delights, unsurprisingly, come from Murphy himself. This is obviously the perfect vehicle for him to flex muscles not permitted in his day job. And these muscles conjure up a more thoughtful and etherial sound comprised of minimal song structures and reflective, fragile vocals. The whole collection is perfectly conceived and further illustrates Murphy's dominance of everything creative in the whole world ever.

4th Jun 2010 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Male Bonding

Nothing Hurts

Sub Pop

Male Bonding are trio from London and after an early spell of pretty abrasive noise-pop they've evolved into a more well rounded band and have been scooped up by Sub Pop the lucky little beggars. Their early noise excursions still remain in the mix here but have been filled out with a delicious serving of mangy punk-rock packed full of hooks, fierce guitars, crashing cymbals, basically everything you'd want from this label. Very much in the neighborhood of bands like No Age or Abe Vigoda these guys marry perfectly the lo-fi scuzz with the garage-rock sensibility and always keeping a sideways glance in the direction of melody and structure. Nothing Hurts doesn't quite match the reckless abandon of Japandroids but it's brimming over with excitement and raw passion. Killer tracks are More Things This Way and Franklin.

4th Jun 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet

Holy Fuck

Latin

Young Turks

This is the third album from the beautifully named Holy Fuck and it's an altogether tighter affair than its predecessors and dwarfs them all in terms of size. As the the ambient 4 minutes of 1MD opens the album it looms into view like an advancing apocalyptic, 7 storey doomsday machine. As its debris clears Red Lights booms with colossal rhythm and the pace and magnitude rarely lets up until the dying textures of the brutal closer P.I.G.S. Their combination of synth melodies, crunching rhythm and booming guitars seem to gel more concisely here and as each song serves to build this machine higher and stronger and the even more threatening Latin will leave you wasted and spent in its wake.

4th Jun 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet

Sage Francis

Li(f)e

Anti

It's been a long time coming but finally the follow up to 2007's Human The Death Dance drops and it sees Mr. Francis all grown up. I remember seeing Sage Francis at Plastic People many many years ago as he stood in the middle of the crowd spitting venomously into his mic and backed by a CD of recorded beats that he himself had to operate. Well Li(f)e is a far cry from that set up and is the first time Sage's unique and intricate poetry is given the panoramic backdrop of a a full and live band, not to mention the guest appearances. Opener Little Houdini sees Sage hook up with Grandaddy's Jason Lytle and Slow Man teems up with Joey Burns of Calexico. The result is a far richer concoction and one that works on may levels. It's more low key than previous releases and the warmth with which his beats emanate seem to give Sage's rhymes more body.

Three Sheets To The Wind livens up the general slow pace with Death Cab For Cutie's Chris Walla on guitar, Slow Man shimmers with midwest heat and closer The Best OF Times continues Sage's tradition of ending on an epic note. WIth rich orchestration he wrenches the heartstrings to the bitter end.

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28th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet

Moon Duo

Escape

Woodsist

Moon Duo are a San Francisco duo consisting of Sanae Yamada and Eric Johnson who in case you didn't know is the guitarist behind the swirling psychedelia of Wooden Shjips. Escape, their debut full length is very much a continuation of the head-fuck hypnotics that Wooden Shjips ooze out. It spans only 4 tracks and clocks in at just under half an hour as you'd expect. As the guitars whip up a monotonous pounding rhythm Johnson's vocals emanate with a whisper and get buried under the calamitous sonic onslaught. Some are slow and driving and some are nimble but all are bloated with strength.

Escape is a worthy addition to what Wooden Shjips do so well. Eight minute opener Motorcycle, I Love You never lets up with it's narcotic repetition and Stumbling 22nd St fizzes with scuzz. Awesome.

28th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet

Phosphorescent

Here's To Taking It Easy

Dead Oceans

I guess there's two ways to approach a critical analysis of this record. Firstly on its own merit and as a piece of work independent of its predecessors and then secondly in direct comparison to said predecessors. Taking the first route, Here's To Taking It Easy is blissful. Matthew Houck's fragile vocals are complemented and bolstered by a full band and swelling, rich orchestration full of horns, meaty rhythm and soaring backing vocals. It comes off the back of 2009's For Willie, an album of Willie Nelson covers, and sees Houck's writing happier, fuller and and more linear.

Now for the second route. Houck's 2007 release Pride was an exceptional piece of work. It was uncompromising and difficult, it was haunting and utterly bewitching. As track after track sprawled out over nine minutes it hypnotized you with its looped vocals and stark atmospherics. Houck's same fragility threatened to break under this weight and the tension was what kept you hanging on. There is very little of that approach in this record and so I must admit to a certain degree of disappointment. I had figured the tempo and general upbeatness of For Willie was due to it being covers. But it looks like this is the way Houck is heading. Having said that, I love it as a country record, full of heartfelt tales of sorrow and love-lost. I think I'm over-thinking this way too much.

28th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet