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Blue Tongue Films
I was so impressed by David Michod's debut feature Animal Kingdom that I've spent the last few days stalking him and his friends on the internet. Turns out they have a film collective called BlueTonguefilms that have put out a swathe of excellent short films, including Crossbow (something of a precursor to Animal Kingdom) and Oscar Nominee Miracle Fish. Also don't miss the excellent Netherland Dwarf, or Nash Edgerton's Spider.
11th Jan 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
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Best of 2010
CSF
Just because most of our 2010 reviews have been happening on Twitter doesn't mean quality music hasn't be coming in thick and fast this year. Here's my top 5 for 2010:
Abe Vigoda - Crush
Probably my most unexpected favourite for 2010, Crush finds LA Smell regulars Abe Vigoda moving up a notch to make their most accessible album yet. If a band like this can ever hit the mainstream, this is certainly great prep - like Interpol with more ideas and better beats.
The Soft Pack - The Soft Pack
The San Diego post-punkers graduate from community college with straight A's in 'chorus'. After a lot of hype and a fairly average live sighting, I was surprised to find myself so engaged with this first album proper. Side A rules.
LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
The bubble may have burst as LCD Soundsystem set to disband, but there was still time for one last go-around. Not quite as ace as Sound of Silver, but with tracks like 'All I Want' and 'Home', it's still stuffed with classics.
Spoon - Transference
Harnessing all their studio 'accidents' into another masterfully produced masterpiece, Spoon yet again deliver a five star album. So consistent I almost forget about them. Some great slow burners on here.
Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart
Almost forgot this one ...which is a surprise considering how bombastic it is. After the note perfect In The Future, Black Mountain had no hope of topping getting even better just yet, but the least they could do was shore up their legend. Old Fangs and the title track cruised into their best-ever playlist.
DULY NOTED: Weezer - Hurley / Pinkerton Deluxe
With their departure from a major label, it seemed certain that Weezer would put aside all the contractually-obliging crap they're been churning out and finally release a great record again. Nope. Hurley crawled back up to a 3, but luckily the time had come for a deluxe edition of 90's classic Pinkerton. A re-release shouldn't be anyone's best album in a decade, but this one is stuffed full of long-lost tracks, b-sides and oddities - plus it's getting a five star rating for being overlooked the first time round.
Monsters was a great movie. Somewhere one of the worst ever. Kings of Leon, The National and Band of Horses all disappointed. Roll on 2011.
1st Jan 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
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The 1930's in Colour
Been meaning to put this up for a while: a great set of early colour photos from the Library of Congress. It's so strange to see an era we are so accustomed to seeing in black and white represented in such vivid colour. For the first time, you feel that these are real people that you can relate to as humans. So real that the photos look magically art directed.
Via Vincent Laforet
30th Dec 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
It's Complicated
Promising romcom for grown ups ...which isn't that complicated.
24th Dec 2010
Read more 3 star reviewsWho'd have imagined that Lethal Weapon would take such a regular spot in the Christmas schedule? No doubt next up on ITV4, Die Hard 1.
21st Dec 2010
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The Babelfish is here...
...but only in Spanish for now. Amazing video of an augmented reality app that converts written text between English and Spanish. In reality it's apparently not quite as slick as the video, but not far off.
Via Engadget
21st Dec 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Love: Finishing a tough week with a blissed out, full volume Late Night, Maudlin Street by Morrissey. That's how to do it. Peace and I'm out
17th Dec 2010
Read on Twitter@thecoldvein His batting average is 4 for 4 - although you're right, that isn't a lot. Number 5 is filming already though.
15th Dec 2010
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Trailer Park: Nice Beaver
It's release has been on ice since his recent meltdown, but Mel Gibson's new flick The Beaver could just break that ice....
6th Dec 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Google Googles
Ever since Shazam wowed the world with their call-this-premium-number-to-ID-some-music trick, I've been wondering when the concept will expand to other searches - such as faces, book covers, posters and more. Google goggles does that through their Google App.
Only problem is, if it's a book cover you can probably already tell what it is, by the power of eyes. Check out two tests below of stuff in my office. Goggles ID'd Jennifer Aniston OK, but for some reason they think the Chimpomatic logo belongs to The Misfits...
28th Nov 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Love : Lyric: "This week has been a bad massage, I need a happy ending." Kanye West - Gorgeous. I hear that...Ding Ding.
26th Nov 2010
Read on TwitterJust realised that Larry Cohen wrote 'Phone Booth', 'Cellular' and 'Messages Deleted'. I'm sensing a theme.
25th Nov 2010
Read on TwitterHate: I seem to be surrounded by chirpy, smug bullshit music that should be confined to the attic of T-Mobile or Apple ads. Driving me crazy
19th Nov 2010
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Plane Graveyard
Ever wondered where that airplane graveyard that looks so good in films and on TV is? It's here.
18th Nov 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Beatles on iTunes
Bore me again. The Beatles are finally on iTunes, and as usual it's in their own rip-off style. £10.99 for each album, £17.99 (!) for the double disc greatest hits albums and the white album.
The Rolling Stones meanwhile are happy to stick to the standard prices that everyone else uses. You can even get Beggars Banquet for £4.99 or Hot Rocks for £8.99...
16th Nov 2010 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
1080p is the VHS of the future
How's that 47", 1080p, Full HD-ready TV working out for you? Nice try, but it's already out-of-date. What you really want is a Super Hi-Vision plasma screen, capable of a resolution of 7680x4320 - 16 x better than 1080p.
OK there is a projector, but while the TV sets don't exist yet (you can use 4 x 4K sets together) the camera does - and the BBC and Japan's NHK just did a test broadcast of a studio session from The Charlatans. Not quite sure how that content decision came about.
The quality is so clear that a special lens had to be built to cope, and much like 3DTV, the format has dictated a shooting style of its own - with a single camera wide-shot being so big and clear that the viewer would be distracted by too much editing and can just cast their eyes around the screen instead.
Watch more at the BBC
16th Nov 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Blitz
The boys are back in town for this Jason Statham-led UK serial killer thriller, also starring Paddy Considine and that irish guy that's the mayor in The Wire ....who steals this trailer with one of his lines: "I want a lawyer and a sandwich. And I want to update my Facebook status."
11th Nov 2010 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Break it down...
Ever wondered who that was ranting about parking tickets on DJ Shadow's Stem/Long Stem? Turns out it was Murray Roman (not Elliot Gould, surprisingly). A question I finally answered thanks to www.whosampled.com - a database of beats and pieces listing all types of loops and lifts.
"Traffic offences! Bah! Parking tickets!"
9th Nov 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Fire up the Chimp-O-Matic?!
not quite sure what to make of this until we've talked to our Chimp-o-lawyers (especially as we're lovers, not fighters), but there's a Chimp-O-Matic weapon in PS3 game Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
"The Chimp-o-Matic was a weapon that turned enemies into chimpanzees and, according to its demonstration video, was originally designed as a party gag by bored GrummelNet engineers. Robotic enemies were turned into toy monkeys with cymbals, while organic enemies turned into normal chimps."
30th Oct 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Hot Sauce Update
OK just to be clear, here's what's going on with the new Beasties record (TRANSLATION: some songs you haven't heard yet are now going to be replaced by some other songs you haven't heard yet but you'll still get to hear the other lot later):
BEASTIE BOYS HOT SAUCE COMMITTEE PART 2 TRACK LISTING REVISED, REPLACED ENTIRELY WITH SONGS ORIGINALLY RECORDED FOR HOT SAUCE COMMITTEE PART 1
In what can only be described as a bizarre coincidence, following an exhaustive re-sequence marathon, Beastie Boys have verified that their new Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 will be comprised of the same 16 tracks originally slated for inclusion on Hot Sauce Committee Part 1. The record (part 2 that is) will be released as planned in spring 2011 on Capitol.
The tracks originally recorded for Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 (which now are actually back on Part 1) have now apparently been bumped to make room for the former Hot Sauce Committee Part 1 material. Wait, what?
"I know it's weird and confusing, but at least we can say unequivocally that Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 is coming out on time, which is more than I can say about Part 1, and really is all that matters in the end." says Adam "MCA" Yauch. "We just kept working and working on various sequences for part 2, and after a year and half of spending days on end in the sequencing room trying out every possible combination, it finally became clear that this was the only way to make it work. Strange but true, the final sequence for Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 works best with all its songs replaced by the 16 tracks we originally had lined up in pretty much the same order we had them in for Hot Sauce Committee Part 1. So we've come full circle."
Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 marks Yauch, Mike "Mike D" Diamond, and Adam "Ad Rock" Horovitz's first full length effort since 2007's Grammy winning all-instrumental The Mix-Up. The new track listing of the album is now as follows:
1. Tadlock's Glasses
2. B-Boys In The Cut
3. Make Some Noise
4. Nonstop Disco Powerpack
5. OK
6. Too Many Rappers (featuring NAS)
7. Say It
8. The Bill Harper Collection
9. Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win (featuring Santigold)
10. Long Burn The Fire
11. Funky Donkey
12. Lee Majors Come Again
13. Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament
14. Pop Your Balloon
15. Crazy Ass Shit
16. Here's A Little Something For Ya
UPDATE: The Beasties also have a new website.
25th Oct 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Vile 7"
Kurt Vile is putting the finishing touches to his next full length album, but to tide us over he's putting out another 7" first. Tracks are In My Time (mp3 here), with 2 b-sides: Early Dawnin' and Sad Ghost.
While the MPFree format usually means filler, if Kurt Vile's recent EP is anything to go by that will not be the case here. I even bothered to buy that last free EP.
In the words of Matador themselves:
"...although you're likely to hear one of these tracks on Kurt's next album, this 7", like every other of his releases, is an item that's worthy of it's own recognition."
21st Oct 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Parallax View
Forgot that I watched this, slow, self important conspiracy classic on Moviedrome in the 80's.
Halliwell says: Stylish, persuasive political thriller with a downbeat ending; the villains win.*
#JustWatched
#Film
#CSF
#Halliwell
16th Oct 2010
Read more 3 star reviewsThe War On Twitter
"Just noticed Twitter keeps prompting me to "Add a location to your tweets". Not falling for that one."
I'm loving the official Al Qaeda Twitter page (unverified).
2nd Oct 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Everyday Is Like Sunday
Morrissey's classic single Everyday Is Like Sunday is back on the digital record shelves today, in support of the upcoming Bona Drag re-issue. So, here's the classic video that accompanies the track - featuring a literal depiction of nearly every line in the song, with added walkman-sporting-moody-teenager and freeze frame ending. Love it.
27th Sep 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Black Mountain
Wilderness Heart
With album number three, Vancouver's Black Mountain may be threatening to hit the mainstream ...and with an output history this solid and thrilling, they deserve nothing less.
While 2008's In The Future was a decade highlight for me, Wilderness Heart proves to be something of a departure from it's predecessor - eschewing that early 70's monolithic rock sound for something a little more modern. Circa 1978. Synths and keyboards litter the sound with hidden flourishes, while Amber Webber gets more time in the lime light on these concise, deceptively simple tracks.
Opener The Hair Song exudes a swaggering confidence, while Old Fangs is built around a riff worthy of AC/DC themselves. Empires are smashed, tempos are shifted and War of the Worlds-style synths rule in one of many mini epics on the album - where no tracks head far north of 5 minutes.
Rollercoaster dips before Webber's vocals soar. Let Spirits Ride takes the band on a freight train of their most thundering thrash to date, complete with electrifying guitar and keyboard solos. A calmness decends with the orchestral overtones of Buried by the Blues - but throughout the album Josh Wells' drumming is again a magnificent highlight, running in and out of the layered and intricate guitars and keyboards and providing a muscular and spine tingling backbone.
Title track Wilderness Heart is the highlight, cramming a ten minute epic into just under four minutes as all the elements magically come together perfectly: thunderous intro, duelling vocals, pneumatic waves of drumming and a soaring coda all weaving in and out of each other into a towering, all-conquering masterpiece. Thrilling.
13th Sep 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
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Rebel Without A Cause
Beautifully shot, acted and directed - Nicolas Ray's masterpiece is still ahead of it's time.
Halliwell says: The first film to suggest that juvenile violence is not necessarily bred in the slums, this somewhat dreary melodrama also catapulted James Dean to stardom as the prototype fifties rebel.**
#JustWatched
#Film
#CSF
#Halliwell
8th Sep 2010
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Viral Exorcism
Check out this clever/creepy viral promotion for The Last Exorcism. The viral played on the potentially dirty minds of users of Chat Roulette - a webcam site that hooks you up with a random other user...
8th Sep 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Come Around Sundown
Those Kings of Leon are nothing if not productive. In between their never-ending London gigs, they still manage to record new albums. Come Around Sundown is due on October 18th, first single Radioactive should be hitting the radio waves today.
The identity crisis continues however. That's the US cover above, UK below.
8th Sep 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Scott Pilgrim vs The World
Edgar Wright
A film that's so shallow it's almost deep, Scott Pilgrim is fun, bubblegum matinee viewing. Your enjoyment might depend on your tolerance for Michael Cera's mumbling, videogame references, Batman-style POW! BLAM! ZOM! effects, indie band battles etc etc, but if that's all up your street, you'll enjoy it.
Cera is Scott P, a Canadian slacker who falls for a new hot NY chick who skates into town with a host of evil exes in tow - if Scott wants to date her, he has to get through them first. Meanwhile his band, Sex Bob-Omb is working its way through a battle of the bands contest and his gay roommate Rory Culkin is trying to get him to move out of his flatshare so Scott can stop cramping his style.
It's never really explained why Scott has to battle Ramona's exes: is it all in his mind, the reaction of a post-adoscent brain fried by a lifetime of videogames to meeting someone with a past?
6th Sep 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3 star reviewsTerminator Salvation
Badly thought out, derivative sequel that ultimately entertains at the expense of the franchise.
4th Sep 2010
Read more 3 star reviewsDetective Twitter
Following her arrest for drug possession, Paris Hilton claimed that the purse with the drugs in wasn't hers - but an archived post on her own Twitter feed suggests otherwise.... Gawker has the details.
3rd Sep 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Jaill
That's How We Burn
Sub Pop
Sub Pop's newest signings are really lightening my mood of late with this debut album of effortless indie rollers. With lead singer Vincent Kircher's grasp of melody and the ease of which this band deliver their message, That's How We Burn emerges as a record beyond its years. This could be due to the band's stint in relative musical obscurity - a stint that saw them develop their style and form a sense of unity that, well, unites this sound.
Nothing's being rewritten here; there are few stand-out moments and the album works more as a whole as it runs on a pretty even tempo for its entirety. But it's in this simplicity and familiarity that my enjoyment has found its foothold. With songs like Everyone's Hip Jaill inject a certain degree of muscle into the archetypal indie jangle and a good dose of the surf rock vibe presides throughout. Falling neatly alongside bands like The Soft Pack, Jaill have stuck to what they know and done themselves proud.
3rd Sep 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
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CSI: CSNY
CSI: CSNY "When veteran TV producer Larry Bruckheimer went looking for a new angle for his smoking hot CSI: Crime Scene Investigation franchise he had no idea it would be this good.
After meeting with the members of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young to discuss using some of their music in a future episode, Bruckheimer was surprised when he learned that the Grammy Award winning artists were not only huge CSI fans, but were also all licensed private detectives.
Bruckheimer's creative juices started to boil over. He had an idea."
1st Sep 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Unseen Mickey Mouse
Interesting article over at AICN featuring an unfinished Mickey Mouse cartoon that was shelved for being an awkward length (6m 52), followed by an open letter from Harry to Pixar's John Lasseter with a plea to finish it - along with other hidden treasures in the Disney archive.
31st Aug 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP Corrine Day
Sad news that photographer Corrine Day has passed away.
#CSF
#CurrentAffairs
#Photography
28th Aug 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Sufjan Stevens
All Delighted People EP
All's been quiet from the Sufjan camp in terms of new material since 2005 - and out of the silence emerges this 8 track EP. To put it mildly I think I'd prefer to watch reruns of England vs Algeria 2010 than listen to this again. It's equally as dull, but just doesn't have so much riding on it. To be honest I think I'd given up on Mr Stevens somewhere between Illinoise and one of the endless Christmas albums. Bookending the now pretty formulaic delicate and breathy ditties are two songs that stretch out in a bloated and directionless yawnfest. I'm even getting bored of writing this review, I'm officially done with Sufjan Stevens, shame I won't get to see the conclusion of his American States project.
27th Aug 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 2 star reviewsObama To Create 17 New Jobs By Resigning And Finally Opening That Restaurant http://onion.com/a0V23H
21st Aug 2010
Read on TwitterJust watched 30 seconds of Matrix 2. Don't think I will ever make it through that film.
18th Aug 2010
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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.
18th Aug 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
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May The $$$ Be With You
In possibly the first bit of exciting Star Wars news for 10 years, Darth Lucas has announced that the original trilogy will be released on Blu-ray in Fall 2011.
The unaltered original trilogy is now being referred to as the 'classic trilogy' by Lucas, in a not dissimilar way to how Coke back-pedalled out of their new recipe fiasco in the 80's. He has previously put them down as 'workprints' for the eventual grand-vision cartoony versions he released in the 90's and re-tweaked in the 00's.
Of course it was obvious that he would re-jig the films back to their 'classic' state at some point, so if the franchise hasn't been poisoned for you too much this may hopefully be the first time you can get the original films in any kind of decent format. Or more decent than the 90's Laserdisc box at least.
All this info is coming from the Star Wars Celebration V convention being held this weekend, which is providing all sorts of tidbits, articles, links and clips:
- Great article about producer Gary Kurtz vision for a darker Return of the Jedi
- Great Today Show footage from 1980 with Mark Hamill, plus Harrison Ford discussing how much he likes Empire.
- Revelation that Harrison Ford has only seen Empire once.
There was also a screening of one of several deleted scenes that will appear on the Blu-Ray as bonus material. The originally planned opening for ROTJ (below) shows Luke receiving bad vibes from Vadar, while building his own lightsaber and hiding it inside R2D2 - a trick that paid off later in the film. Back when kids couldn't watch the films whenever they wanted I was sure this was the opening to the film - probably as it was in the novelization of the film that I had as an 8-year-old geek. The same goes for Luke watching the space battle at the start of Star Wars through his binoculars.
Nearly all via La Times or AICN
UPDATE: Woodward & Bernstein might suggest a second source on this. AICN is talking original, original trilogy. No one else is that specific. Lucas just talks about the 'highest picture and audio quality' and how the old versions needed a lot of re-mastering, but StarWars.com doesn't actually specify if Han shoots first.... Whatever. Pick 'em up in the 2012 HMV Biggest Summer Sale Ever.
15th Aug 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet