I read Alan Warner’s Morvern Callar in university, some seven or eight years ago, I think. Why? I don’t know – I do remember that it was the first piece of fiction I’d read in some time and that I got it from the university library, of all places. I honestly don’t remember too much of it, save that it was really kind of bleak and with a streak of black humour so subtle that if you weren’t looking for it, it was easy to miss. In a nutshell, the titular character is a Scottish girl who works in a supermarket. One day, she discovers her boyfriend has just completed his first novel and committed suicide. He leaves her instructions to hold his funeral and submit his book to a list of publishers. Instead, she disposes of the body, uses the funeral money to take a friend on holiday in Spain and submits the book as her own. Got it? Good, because that’s really about all there is to it. I don’t remember particularly liking it, but just thinking, “what an odd book”. I was more impressed that I’d chosen to spend the time on a piece of fiction rather than studying, but that’s another matter entirely.

So I was moderately surprised when I saw they’d made a film based on the book a couple years ago. I didn’t think there was nearly enough narrative in the novel to spin a film out of, and having now seen the film, I think I was correct. Director Lynne Ramsay pads the film with some nice shots of the Spanish countryside and some sequences perhaps intended to illustrate Callar’s state of mind, but when that state of mind is either utterly inscrutable or utterly vacant, that will only get you so far. Samantha Morton gives a good performance in the lead role, though I’m not sure how difficult “catatonic” is to pull off for 90 minutes. It’s an interesting directorial decision to do away any sort of score for the film – the only music to be heard is either environmental (ie- in a club) or heard via Morvern’s headphones. In the book, the mix tape and walkman left for her by her dead boyfriend plays a fairly large role in things – this prominence is maintained in the film, though I think they messed with the playlist some. On the whole, I didn’t dislike this movie – it didn’t make me angry or anything – it was just kind of pointless. There’s some plot at the beginning and the end, but the middle portion is left to the viewer to decide if anything is actually happening. Me, I’m not sure. I have theories as to what the themes and intent of the movie (and book) were, but they’re so subtle, it’s entirely possible I’m just up excuses for the author and director.

So yeah. This is what I get when all the copies of Anchorman are out.

Nothing else for today.

np – Sigur Ros / Agaetis Byrjun

An act new to me but starting to make a little noise in blog circles is Shivaree. Their decidedly two-edged claim to fame is having their song “Goodnight Moon” played over the closing scenes of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, Volume 2. I don’t think there’s been a director in recent memory responsible for creating more one-hit wonders than Mr Tarantino… but I digress. With the release of their third record Who’s Got Trouble this past Tuesday, they’re hoping to earn some cred on their own.

Fronted by the absurdly good-looking and wonderfully named Ambrosia Parsley, Shivaree produce an eclectic and peculiar mix of country, soul, cabaret and pop styles that hinges on Parsley’s strangely innocent/sultry vocals. I find her voice oddly compelling, and the same actually goes for Shivaree’s music in general. I personally find it fascinating, but I don’t love it yet. Howerver, I want to – perhaps with time. I think I’ve seen many copies of their 1999 debut I Oughtta Give You A Shot In The Head For Making Me Live In This Dump (the title right there should give you an idea about the band’s aesthetic) in used bins, so maybe I’ll take a flyer on that. There’s not much chance of finding 2002’s Rough Dreams as it never got a North American release.

If you’re curious, the newly-redesigned Womenfolk ran a piece on Shivaree yesterday, complete with four mp3s. There’s also some not-great-quality streaming audio from their European label and this old performance at KCRW.

This Shivaree talk is topical not only because it let me post a picture of Ms Parsley, but because they’re playing two shows at the Lula Lounge on February 15 and 17, tickets $12. I may go to the Tuesday show as it’s an early one, and Lula Lounge is so far out in the middle of nowhere, it’ll take me hours to flag down a dogsled to get home.

The Toronto Star (bugmenot: wow@mail.com/sowhat) considers Feist’s chances for success in the US. Let It Die comes out on Interscope’s Cherry Hill imprint in American on April 5 and if the label has its way, there’ll be tours opening for Norah Jones, new album artwork, dance remixes, soundtrack carpet bombing, television appearances – but no McDonalds commercials. A line must be drawn. But I can’t help feeling a bit of trepidation here…

Related – Pop (All Love) points us to this piece on The O.C. effect for indie artists. The first salvo of the Feist invasion of America was an appearance of “Let It Die” on an episode of The O.C. last year. No, I didn’t see it.

More Neko Case love – The Chicago Sun-Time and Cleveland.com preview her tour for The Tigers Have Spoken. Links from LHB.

SXSW Baby! is a new group blog dedicated to getting folks primed and educated to get the most out of SXSW this year. The excellent music festival guide comes courtesy of Kathryn Yu. A good resource, I’ll be visiting often.

For anyone laying bets on what I ended up doing last night, the smart money should have been on d) falling asleep on the couch listening to Lush at 9PM. I am a party animal, oh yes I am.

np – Sufjan Stevens / Seven Swans

Thanks to More Cowbell for directing me to this edition of NPR’s All Things Considered, which previews a number of albums due to come out in 2005, complete with commentary. There’s short clips linked directly from the page or you can listen to the whole show which has longer clips in many cases. The most noteworthy inclusion in their playlist is the new Son Volt album, which is still untitled but has an August release date.

As far as I know, this is the first look (listen) at the new Son Volt’s output anywhere, unless you were watching the in-studio webcam and reading lips (the one time I tuned in, Jay was sitting on a couch. Woo!). The two songs they feature, “Afterglow 61” and “Bandages and Scars”, sound good. It’s nice to hear Jay rocking again. On a related note, The San Diego Union-Tribune talks to Farrar about the reunion that never was and the new band that was. From Syntax Of Things.

That pic of the new Son Volt lineup is, like, the first one this week I’ve used that’s not either black and white or featuring people holding guns.

Some upheavals in Decemberists land – drummer Rachel Blumberg has left the band on the eve of the release of third album Picaresque to concentrate on her other band, Norfolk and Western. While this is unfortunate – one of the highlights of their show at the Horseshoe last year was Rachel running out from behind the kit to cover her vocal parts on “The Tain” before running back to pick up the sticks again – the void she’s leaving is being filled by a couple of very capable replacements. John Moen, who also plays with Stephen Malkmus’ Jicks, and Petra Haden, of That Dog and countless other bands, are the newest additions to the Decemberists lineup. Tour dates for Picaresque have been announced for the west coast and midwest – nothing for us Easterners yet. We will, however, get to see Norfolk and Western as they’re going on tour with M Ward and also doubling as his backing band. I assume this includes his February 27 show at the El Mocambo.

Neko Case tells JAM! why the Virginian feels like a Canadian.

If I can be so inclined to go out tonight – and I may – there’s a couple local shows that have my interest, both of the dream-pop variety. Down at the Drake, Hamilton’s A Northern Chorus are holding a video fundraiser to support their new album Bitter Hands Resign, which is out April 12. They’re playing with Alive and Living and Mayor McCa. In the other corner, we have blueScreen, who also gaze at shoes but whose sound is a little more old-school. They’re playing with sludge rockers Nice Cat at Sneaky Dee’s.

ANC builds their wall of sound through orchestration, blueScreen through old 4AD records and chorus pedals. You can check out their respective New Music Canada pages (with song samples) here and here. I’ll let you know tomorrow what I decide on, or if I just stay home and read a book.

np – Ambulance Ltd / LP

Hold My Life brings us one of the coolest things I’ve seen in ages – high-quality live video concert footage of a ridiculously young and raw Replacements circa 1991 1981, courtesy of their old label, TwinTone.

While it’s nice that the TwinTone website is finally putting up some decent material from their vaults, it’s still a crime that there’s not definitive ‘Mats resource on the web. Themats.com went AWOL a little while ago and all Google has otherwise are pages for that Keanu Reeves movie of the same name. Someone should do something about that. Someone besides me.

Update: Jeff submits Color Me Impressed – certainly looks promising to me!

eye runs a cover story on Emm Gryner, talking to her about her new record Songs Of Love And Death, out Tuesday.

The Gedge rattles off ten favourite album for Amazon.co.uk. The Wedding Present’s Take Fountain is out February 15.

Hooray to me for getting a namecheck in this week’s Anti-Hit List for linking the new Doves single, “Black & White Town” a little while back. And for an encore, here’s the video. (Via Poptart) A touch ironic that a song called “Black & White Town” would be their first promo clip shot in colour, no? Some Cities is out March 1, and preliminary reviews are very good.

Scenestars is first out of the box with the new Idlewild single, “Love Steals Us From Loneliness”. The album, Warnings/Promises is out March 8 (I think/hope). Torr reports that Idlewild will be at SXSW this year, along with ten other Scottish bands enjoying the fruits of government arts grants.

Ex-Helium frontwoman Mary Timony releases Ex-Hex, her first album for Lookout!, in mid-April. More details from Billboard.

While there is no Toronto date yet, Steve Earle is touring across Canada at the end of February – graphing distance versus time, we see that a February 28 show in Winnipeg should hopefully hopefully translate into a Toronto show at the very start of March… assuming this isn’t just a western swing and he’s going home after the ‘Peg. But, fingers crossed that he will make it over here and that it’ll be at Massey Hall and not the Kool Haus…

NOW previews Neko Case’s show this Sunday at the Phoenix, asking her about the making of The Tigers Have Spoken. She also talks about the making of her new studio album and confesses that we’ll be lucky to see a Fall release date – the original Spring target is right out.

NOW also points out that The Comas’ show February 16 at Lee’s is free! Excellent.

My Blog Is Poop lists off twenty-four reasons they love 24. From Information Leafblower.

This Super Mario Bros sheet music almost makes me wish I still knew how to play piano. Almost.

np – The Radio Dept. / Lesser Matters

Infernal Affairs = good frickin’ movie, though I can’t decide if the title is clever or awful. Originally released in Hong Kong in 2002 where it sell all kinds of box office records, it’s finally gotten some kind of lame ass release over here – I just rented the DVD though. For those not in the know, it’s a cop film about two cops – one of whom is a police mole in the Triads, the other is a Triad mole in the police department. As their respective operations come into conflict, they’re each charged with uncovering the identity of the other resulting in a pretty intense game of cat and mouse. I won’t reveal too much as it’s really worth seeing, but as the plot thicks, their respective orbits become more and more intertwined and their loyalties more and more convoluted and suspect until they all (naturally) come to a head. My only complaint would be that for undercover cops, they don’t seem to know the slightest thing about staying out of sight. For example, tailing a gangster’s car in a huge marked SUV or trying to follow the suspect by walking maybe 10 metres behind him very loudly? Come on.

Massively successful in Hong Kong, it’s already spawned two sequels, though the second film is technically a prequel. I’ve taken a look at the synopses and reviews and don’t know if I really want to see either of them – The film does just fine as a standalone story. Apparently Martin Scorcese wants to do a remake, I would be intrigued to see how that turns out. There’s nothing inherently Asian about the film, so in the right hands – and I think Scorcese qualifies – it could be just as good as a Western film. By the by, the ‘alternate ending’ on the DVD sucked major ass. Why even bother? But do see the film, it’s good.

Coolfer declares the Arcade Fire the most over-blogged band of 2004. I can’t really argue with that, I’m as guilty as anyone, but over-blogged doesn’t really reflect on the quality of the music – just the extent of the media feeding frenzy. And while I’m also guilty for giving constant props to Ted Leo, I stopped being interested in Franz Ferdinand in early Summer, only got involved in the Ashlee Simpson SNL fiasco for a couple days and didn’t actually write about Death Cab that much at all, all things considered. No new album and no Toronto shows pretty much kept them off my radar. I’m surprised that Wilco didn’t make his list, however. I would think that I alone would have tipped the scales to over-saturation. But the basic premise of his post is a little silly – all I do is talk about what interests me, and I suspect other bloggers do the same. I have no control over what anyone else writes nor do I especially care. And I think I make up for it – come on, when’s the last time anyone did a big post for, say, Six By Seven? Never, that’s when. But blogging is inherently viral – when something is legitimately good or interesting, the snowball effect is unavoidable.

Metric’s show at the Mod Club has turned into a bit of a residency – with both the original January 21 date sold out and the added January 22 date following close behind, they’ve now added a third show for Sunday January 23.

Billboard previews The Decemberists’ Picaresque, out March 22.

Good news – Eisley is coming to town. Bad news – they’re playing the Kool Haus opening for New Found Glory and Reggie & The Full Effect (April 3, if you’re actually interested). This is actually exactly what I expected to happen – by signing to a major label this early in their career, they’ve pretty much eliminated the chance of a club tour of their own, and will spend all their time opening for other acts I have no interest in seeing ad nauseum. Alas.

The CMW schedule is up. As expected, it’s mainly the same bands we usually see playing around town. Tahiti 80 are confirmed for the Reverb on Friday, March 4 as part of the “French Music Export Showcase”, along with Sebastien Tellier, Ghinzu and Vegomatic – admission $10 at the door or by wristband. Also promising is the lineup at Healey’s on Saturday March 5 – Adrienne Pierce, Motion Soundtrack, The High Dials, Telepathic Butterflies and The Frontier Index. I also recognize BC’s Hinterland from some shoegaze message boards… they’re at Clintons on the 4th. I’ll try to find the time to surf through some of the artist bios before deciding on what to attend, if anything.

np – Wilco / A Ghost Is Born