I think David Mamet’s Spartan came and went from theatres earlier this year with barely a blip, and to be honest it didn’t register with me either. If I recall, trailers were vague about the plot – someone is kidnapped, action ensues – and there weren’t any really big names in the cast. Val Kilmer hasn’t really been a big name for a while now, I think, and William H Macy gets his name on the poster despite barely being in the film.

Either way, it’s a shame because it’s really quite a good film. Kilmer is quite good as an Army Ranger who’s called in when the daughter of a high-profile individual goes missing, and it goes from there – I’m not going to go into it any further lest I spoil the story. By doling out the information very slowly through the film, revealing just enough to keep things moving, Mamet keeps the tension up from the get-go and keeps things masterfully off-balance – nothing is spelled out, it’s left to the viewer to work it out in their heads while trying to keep up with the action. You don’t even have time to absorb the amount of political commentary until it’s all over. It’s only in the final act, which seems to be Mamet’s Achilles Heel, that things go off the rails, but even then it doesn’t negate the fine job that’s been done to that point.

In truth, it felt a lot like a particularly good episode of 24, less the real-time gimmick and unnecessary filler. That’s a compliment, by the way. Mamet seems to be coming into his own as a filmwriter and not just a playwright writing for film. This film has more action than his earlier films, though it still maintains his trademark dialogue and rhythm. I’ll give this one a definite recommendation and certainly worth a rental.

Americana UK interviews comeback kid Juliana Hatfield about where she’s been hiding the last few years and her new album In Exile Deo.

Bloggers love Sea Ray. This time, the band gets interviewed by Gothamist. From Information Leafblower.

Some Toronto concert notes:

This should have been great. An acoustic show featuring two of the brighter talents to come out of the local scene in recent years – Emily Haines of Metric and Amy Millan of Stars – should have been something special. Something you’d be able to say down the line that you’d been one of the lucky few in attendance. Instead…

First up was Amy Millan, who has been writing and performing as a solo artist outside Stars for some time now. While she didn’t offer any information about her solo record that was supposedly supposed to come out sometime this year, she did perform a few numbers on acoustic guitar along a theme of “love and loss”, as she put it throughout her set. The material was by turns folksy and country-ish, pleasant enough but not overly remarkable. Amy’s voice is like comfort food, though, so when her 40 minutes or so were up, I wasn’t incredibly stoked but still in a good mood and looking forward to the headliner. And I’m still eagerly anticipating Honey From The Tombs, whenever it comes out.

I should have known something was up when a fellow started handing out programs for the show entitled, “Emily Haines Plays The Piano Alone” and the song listing featured a grand total of two songs from Old World Underground out of 13, and the “available for funerals” note on the front turned out to be more promise than joke. Emily came onstage wearing a t-shirt, jeans and sneakers (a big change from her usual Metric pseudo-military miniskirt ensemble), blindfolded and stumbling around, relying on the audience to give her directions to the piano. Why? I have no idea, but she made it without much incident and without a word, began playing a new song. It was slow, sparse and dirge-like. She finished, everyone applauded, she started the next song. It was slow, sparse and dirge-like. She finished, everyone applauded, she started the next song. It was slow, sparse and– do I need to continue? The entire set was slow, sparse and dirge-like.

I don’t think I’d have minded as much if she’d taken the time to explain to the audience that she was going to be doing something different that night, that this was new material that was going to be on the next record or given any sort of context to the show, but instead she plugged through nearly three-quarters of the set before even acknowledging the audience and was seated such that her back was facing half the room and the piano blocked the view for a good portion of the other half. The whole thing came off as incredibly arrogant and off-putting – Haines would do well to realize she’s not nearly a big enough star to take her audience for granted like that. Maybe it’s a good thing she had her back to the audience, so she couldn’t see the number of people walking out mid-show… and it wasn’t just because it was suffocatingly hot in the club. I guess I’ve just used a lot of words to say one simple thing – big disappointment.

No pics besides the one of Emily stumbling for the piano – just some shots of Amy too dark to salvage and a couple pictures of Emily’s back while she plays. Not worth posting. The lighting at the ElMo is really pretty awful and the bizarre seating setup (a few rows of chairs up front, some tables in the middle and sides and everyone else standing in-between everything) made for awful sightlines. And really, there was nothing to see.

Graig has a completely opposite take on the show from me, however.

Moving on.

Jim Guthrie will also be playing that free show at Harbourfront Centre on August 27 along with Broken Social Scene.

The Sadies will celebrate the release of their latest album Favourite Colours on August 24 with two shows at the Horseshoe, September 17 and 18.

The Fiery Furnaces show in September has been pared down from a plural to a singular, the 12th of September, and will be at the Mod Club, not the Drake. Hey, don’t blame me, blame their booking company’s website. White Magic support. I listened to a little of Blueberry Boat at Soundscapes the other day (listening station!) and was more intrigued than I was by the random mp3s I had. I won’t be at that show, however, as that’s the same night as the Old 97s show at Lee’s, and I ain’t missing that one.

Six By Seven’s new album has a new title, :04, and a release date – September 13. I am not holding my breath for a North American release… hello Amazon.co.uk!

The Belfast Telegraph talks to Tanya Donelly about motherhood and new album Whiskey Tango Ghosts, out Tuesday.

Watched David Fincher’s Panic Room yesterday. It was suspenseful, stylish and had a wickedly nasty performance from Dwight Yoakam, but the ending was really abrupt and unsatisfying. Oh well, it was neat technically-speaking, at least.

The official title of the new Star Wars film is Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith, and not Star Wars: Sucks Even Harder Than The Last One as expected. The George Lucas – always keeps us guessing.

“It’s got gryphons and sphinxes and books and librarians and a most unreliable juggler.” Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean discussed their new film Mirrormask at the San Diego Comic Con.

np – Doug Martsch / Now You Know

“Nice” is such an inadequate adjective – it sounds like such faint praise (ie – “oh, that’s… nice”) – but sometimes it’s just the most appropriate descriptor. For example, last night’s Camera Obscura show at the Horseshoe was just NICE. It would be inaccurate to say “it rocked” or “it blew me out of the water” or some bit of hyperbole like that, because that’s not what Camera Obscura’s elegant throwback pop is about – it’s just nice. Charming, literate, melodic, immaculately arranged and performed and nice. I’m pretty sure the band themselves are nice, too – even the huge guys who look more like they should be playing rugby than twee-pop. The seven-piece Glaswegien outfit was making their live Canadian debut and they couldn’t have picked a better city than Toronto, since we tend to give undconditional love to any band with an accent. They earned it, however, turning in a stellar performance of songs from both their albums over the course of a tight one-hour set (less encore). Tracyanne Campbell’s voice was the perfect mix of sweet and forlorn and harmonized perfectly with co-lead vocalist John Henderson, who did a fine job working the tambourine, shakers and melodica when not stepping up to the mic. Never underestimate the power of the simplest percussion instruments, handclaps or finger snaps to put a song over the top – a good tambourine shake is a thing of beauty. Keyboardist Carey Lander’s backing vocals were pretty much inaudible, though – a pity. All in all, a very, um, nice show. Underachievers nothing. Pictures here.

I didn’t have great expectations for openers Pony Up! going into the show, the samples I listened to off their website didn’t really impress, but I came a way somewhat turned around on them. While the stuff I had heard previously was still the weakest material, that’s a compliment of sorts because some of their other stuff was quite good. A couple of guitarist-sung numbers really put the other material to shame, it was so much more accomplished. And definite props for successfully incorporating some unconventional instruments (glockenspiel, concertina) into their sound. They’re quite young and have got the ingredients to do something interesting in the future – I was persuaded enough to pay attention down the line.

What a night for shows in town last night, though. Besides the nearly-sold out Camera Obscura show, I’m sure the Hidden Cameras CD release show at Trinity-St Paul’s and The Weakerthans gig at the Mod Club were both great shows and heavily attended. So many choices.

Post-punk rock legends Mission Of Burma are finally coming to Toronto. October 22, venue TBA. Woot. Now if only Television could find their way up here someday…

Be Good Tanya gone solo Jolie Holland is at Lee’s Palace October 16, tickets $16.

The Delgados are back in town again on October 23 at Lee’s with Crooked Fingers as support, tickets $15. Why, you ask? To support their new album Universal Audio, out on September 28. Chemikal Underground has a tracklisting and album artwork as well as a 30-second clip of the first single, “Everybody Come Down”. I daresay they sound positively peppy… what gives?

Another “Happy Birthday Merge” interview, this one from CMJ.

Check out a nice live video performance and interview from Sarah Harmer at Sympatico.ca. From Soaring With Eagles.

np – Calexico / The Black Light

ComiX-Fan had the opportunity to interview Grant Morrison after his controversial run on New X-Men ended a few months ago. Not surprisingly, his most drastic plotlines are already in the process of being undone by the new creative teams (Magneto beheaded? No problem, that was… just an imposter! Yeah! The REAL Magneto is still alive… Feh) but he’s not surprised. He also goes into what he was trying to accomplish with the Sea Guy miniseries, which is good because I just picked up the last issue and like much of his work, it’s utterly incomprehensible on first read. But as I’ve learned over the years since his early days on Animal Man and Doom Patrol, there’s two very important things to remember about Grant Morrison – firstly, he doesn’t just write stories – he writes in elaborate metaphors, allegories and abstractions. What may initially come off as inscrutable will eventually reveal the depths of his artistic expression and social commentary. Secondly, he’s probably completely out of his mind.

And while on the topic of genius/demented British comic book writers – Salon gets Alan Moore’s opinions on the state of the world.

And just because three is a nice round number and he’s always a good read, we’ll finish up the theme with Neil Gaiman’s blog. And it looks like the Death movie is slowly moving out of development hell?.

The Globe & Mail profiles The Hidden Cameras. The Cameras release Mississauga Goddam August 3 and play Trinity-St. Paul’s tonight ($10 at the door) as well as Harbourfront Centre on August 28 for free.

The Raleigh Independent celebrates fifteen years of Merge by talking to head honchos Mac and Laura. From Largehearted Boy.

Pitchfork reports that Broken Social Scene hope to have their third album, tenatively titled Windsurfing Nation, out in February of next year. Don’t forget their free show on the 27th of August at Harbourfront Centre!

Because Fridays rhymes with ‘funny’… except that it doesn’t, really:

Matthew Sweet’s new album Living Things will finally be coming out September 7, some three months after it was initially slated to be released. Home-recorded and self-produced, fingers are crossed that it yields as good results as 2003’s Kimi Ga Suki * Raifu. It would also be great if the Fall touring plans with Velvet Crush go off as rumoured – Matthew playing guitar with the Crush and then them acting as the backing band for his set.

I’ve gushed about Kimi Ga Suki in the past, but for those unfamiliar with it, it’s a Japan-only album Matthew wrote and recorded at home over the course of a week utilizing much of the same lineup from the Girlfriend era, that is – Ric Menck, Richard Lloyd and Greg Leisz. It’s rawer than anything he’s done in years and is also better than anything he’s done in years. Originally only available in North America as a Japanese import, it was given a very limited domestic release this past January and was seemingly available only from Parasol at domestic prices. They’re giving the domestic release another go-around on October 5 though, obviously to go along with the release of Living Things. Definitely worth seeking out.

Elvis Costello’s September 21 Lost Highway release with The Imposters has a title – The Delivery Man. Yes, that’s it. Scintillating, no?

Pitchfork is saying that Luna’s Rendezvous has been pushed back from September 28 to October 26. This makes me angry. How angry? So angry that right now I am TYPING VERY HARD. That angry.

Rhino’s Left Of The Dial: Dispatches From the ’80s Underground box set, due out October 4, is a pretty compelling argument against anyone who ever said the 80s sucked. Check out the tracklisting – over the course of the four discs, it offers an excellent primer of the great music coming out of the American, British and Australian alternative/college/indie scenes over the much-reviled decade. It’s pretty mainstream, relatively speaking, but impressive in its comprehensiveness. I’ll bet the liner notes are a great read as well. I couldn’t justify the purchase myself, as I already own a lot of the material on their original albums, but it’s a great starting point for anyone who thinks the 80s were only about The Thompson Twins, Men Without Hats and Wang Chung.

Jim White has been added as support to the Wilco show at the Mod Club August 3. Who is Jim White?

Flagpole talks to the busiest man in pop, Ken Stringfellow about his current on-the-go projects (a new solo record, a new Posies record, a new Big Star record, a new R.E.M. record…) From LHB.

The Songs: Ohia website (run by No Love For Ned recently conducted a big long Q&A with Jason Molina. Here’s the outcome. The new incarnation of the band, The Magnolia Electric Co., play the Horseshoe October 2.

NOW does journalistic battle with Camera Obscura, and by ‘battle’ I mean they talk to them nicely about their show tomorrow night at the Horseshoe. The Toronto Star gets round two.

Glorious Noise reports back on the all-star (relatively speaking) Neil Young tribute in NYC last month. I can only hope that there are bootlegs from this show circulating, I would love to hear some of these performances. Can anyone point me to a copy?

NOW compiles a list of their top 10 comic book adaptation films of all time.

He’s a Baldwin, she’s a Baldwin, wouldn’t you like to be a Baldwin too? Now you can! But for the love of God, spend a little extra and at least get a William. The world doesn’t need another Daniel.

np – Velvet Crush / Melody Freaks