The new Spike Jonze film, Adaptation, opens tomorrow!

Other good news – the new issue of The Big Takeover should be out next week. It’s trying having one’s favorite magazine being a semi-annual publication, let me tell you.

I am trying to install the GD Graphics Library on the NT server at work, and all it’s giving me to download is a set of uncompiled C files. What the hell am I supposed to do with those?

The office Christmas party is tonight. I have been given permission to pencil in 8 hours of hangover on tomorrow’s timesheet, though I don’t know how much festive joy I’ll be partaking in – there’s a cold a-brewing in the back of my throat.

“She’s got cheekbones like geometry

and eyes like sin

and she’s sexually enlightened

by Cosmopolitan”

— Lloyd Cole, “Perfect Skin”

np – Lloyd Cole & The Commotions / 1984-1989

Swung by Soundscapes after work, hoping to feed my Longwave jones, alas the response to ‘Do you have any Longwave?’ was, ‘What’s Longwave?’. Erkk. It’s rare that Soundscapes disappoints me, but this was one of those times. Also disappointed that they had every Joe Pernice release except the Big Tobacco record. I may grab the Scud Mountain Boys’ last album Massachussets eventually, I keep forgetting it’s still in print.

There was some consolation that I snagged a copy of the new TapeOp – though it looks like I have totally missed the last issue and am going to have to be placing another order for the three issues I am without.

This Mountain Goats record is really growing on me. According to the 75 Words Or Less review, it’s a concept record about “a married alcoholic couple who move across the U.S. desperately trying to save their gin-soaked relationship by buying a house in Florida”. Sounds good to me.

np – The Mountain Goats / Tallahassee

Doing a little trivia research this morning, and was surprised to find out that Lloyd Cole produced Ivy’s Apartment Life as well as played on Matthew Sweet’s seminal Girlfriend. The man gets around.

This is topical because I’ve had “Rattlesnakes” in my head all day (well, for about an hour and a half now).

“Jodie wears a hat although it hasn’t rained for six days

she says a girl needs a gun these days

hey on account of all the rattlesnakes”

— Lloyd Cole, “Rattlesnakes”

np – Suede / Suede

So I’ve been going on about Longwave for a while now. Well, having just gotten back from their Toronto debut show, I can tell you I’ll be going on about them for a good while longer. Putting on a moderately-hyped band from NYC at 9:45 of a free music night seems a little odd, but I’m not complaining one bit.

These guys are the real deal – lazy music critic comparisons… Interpol without the overtly affected British influences. Longwave are less tightly wound and anxious than their hometown compatriats, but are just as or maybe even more explosive. Great songs and sonics, these guys are going to be ones to watch. Recently signed to RCA, their major-label debut The Strangest Things is out in February. They’re currently touring behind the Day Sleeper EP, produced by uber-producer Dave Fridmann.

Though it was a brief set, maybe 40 minutes, I’d say they won over the smallish crowd who’d braved the bitter cold to be there. The response was enthusiastic and deservedly so – I wouldn’t have wanted to be the acts following these guys.

Their stuff seems impossible to find in this city – the fact that they brought no merch across the border means that I’ll be placing an order somewhere to get their first album Endsongs and the EP ASAP.

I took a handful of pics at the show, view here.

np – Spoon / Kill The Moonlight

I finished Iain Banks’ Dead Air this morning. This one ranks right up there with Complicity and The Crow Road as my favorite of his works, and is a very satisfying return to form after the lacklustre The Business.

Banks made his non-initial name with twisted and disturbing works of fiction like The Wasp Factory and Walking On Glass, but has recently concentrated on more conventional narratives with a focus on character development and plot – the result being less mind-bending but ultimately more satisfying novels.

The novel kicks off in the afternoon of September 11, 2001, London time. I initially had concerns that 9-11 would be a major theme of the book, a risky proposition not even a year later but thankfully it’s only used to establish the setting and some context. Using radio DJ and protagonist Ken Nott as a mouthpiece, Banks does manage to fit in a few political rants, but they’re all in character and well-delivered.

Instead of a political screed, Dead Air is basically the story of a man who falls in love with a gangster’s wife. There are a number of excellent subplots including the one mentioned in an earlier entry about a television interview with a white supremecist, but the main plot thread is a classic love triangle.

If you hadn’t guessed, I prefer the newer Banks material to the older. Sure, I liked the visceral response I got from the hospital scene or the kite incident in The Wasp Factory, but the more recent stuff is more mature and engaging. Banks is better at creating fully-fleshed out characters and no longer needs to rely on enigma and inscrutability to make his characters intriguing. By the same token, he’s learned a well-constructed and executed plot is more effective than counting on shock tactics to leave an impression on the reader.

Dead Air – good stuff. Next on my list is Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot, which was recommended to me by Jeff way back in the summer. I’ve not tried to tackle a translated classic in a long time, maybe since Dante’s Inferno. I hope my gray matter is up to the task.

np – The House Of Love / Babe Rainbow