Sunday, August 28th, 2005
 |
Frank Black / Honeycomb (Back Porch)
Frank Black is one canny fellow. By giving in to demands for a Pixies reunion last year, he a) guaranteed some serious income, b) raised his media profile exponentially and c) got the creative license to break away from his former band’s sound completely. Anyone who wants to accuse him of living off past glories would do well to give Honeycomb a listen first, as it’s light years away from anything he’d have ever done with the Pixies.
With it, Black makes good on his promise to make a country-soul album manned by Nashville session players and he pulls it off pretty damn successfully. Favouring a low-key, almost conversational singing style, Honeycomb is Black’s Dylan album – not that anyone ever would have thought he’d have a Dylan album in him. The tone of the record has echoes of Nashville Skyline and Blood On The Tracks (particularly “Strange Goodbye”, a duet with Black’s soon-to-be ex-wife), and Black himself had joked about calling the record Black On Blonde in tribute to Dylan.
So anyone who wants to hear Black as a creatively vibrant artist would do well to investigate his solo albums like Honeycomb. And anyone who wants to hear “Planet Of Sound” again, go buy a concert ticket. |
 |
Soft
I got an email from one of the guys in Soft last October… so yeah, this is potentially how long it could take me to get around to writing stuff up. You’ve been warned. Anyway, there’s not much I can say about these guys because I actually have almost no information about them – nothing in the email, precious little on the website. I remember initially being a little dismissive of them based on the sort of Billsberg chic photo gracing the top of their webpage but am glad I took the time to actually listen to their music. They could be just as easily be from Brooklyn or London, with a distinctively early 90s British sound that’s got too much swagger to be shoegaze but too much texture for Britpop. They’ve also got a more upbeat, joyous sound that’s a refreshing change from the dourness of many of their fellows (think New Order at the Hacienda rather than Joy Division at Rafters) and they contemporize their influences so as not to sound too retro, not unlike Ambulance LTD. There don’t appear to be any albums yet, just singles. I definitely like what I hear – just wish I could find out ANYTHING else about them. I suppose I could ask, but that’s, like, work. |
Only a couple of reviews this week. Time has been at a wee bit of a premium, y’understand. Hopefully back to a troika next week.
np – Slowdive / I Am The Elephant, You R The Mouse Original Soundtrack
Saturday, August 27th, 2005
The Brothers Grimm is not one of Terry Gilliam’s best films. Not even close – and I’m a Gilliam fan, willing to extend him a longer rope than I would some directors. I loved Baron Munchausen, so even when he goes completely off his nut, I’m right on board. On paper, it should have been great – the Brothers Grimm as 19th century ghostbuster con men in French-occupied Germany who find themselves faced with a genuine supernatural situation – but something went awry between concept and completion and the end results are disappointing.
It’s easy to put a finger on exactly why it doesn’t work – the script is confusing and doesn’t manage to pull the many many plot threads together into anything cohesive. The film definitely bears the scars of it’s difficult birthing process (check out the links below). But Matt Damon and Heath Ledger are just fine in the title roles and seem to be enjoying themselves immensely – most of the cast does, actually. The effects and visuals are considerably less over-the-top than you’d expect from Gilliam in this context, and maybe that’s where it fails to even be a spectacular failure, just a failure. The film spends too much time in the drab real world of Will Grimm and not enough in the fantastical fairy-tale world of brother Jake. There are high points, including probably the creepiest gingerbread man ever, but they’re more like exclamation marks at the end of plain, unexclamatory-worthy sentences. It’s certainly not a wasted two hours, even with all it’s shortcomings I found it a fun, enjoyable film, but it could have – should have – been so much more. Alas.
IGN has an extensive interview with Gilliam about the making of the Grimm, as does the official website. The LA Daily News has some background on the studio politics and general production nightmares that kept The Brothers Grimm on the shelf for so long since it wrapped production way back in Fall 2003. AZ Central also has a talk with Gilliam abou the film. Meanwhile, Zap2It finds out that Gilliam’s dream project, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, still isn’t dead. If you’ve seen Lost In La Mancha, you’ll understand why I hope against hope that Gilliam somehow, someday gets to make this film and that it’s as amazing as the doc showed it could have been.
Yahoo! Music interviews Carl Newman, head New Pornographer (via For The Records).
Durham, NC’s Independent Weekly welcomes home John Darneille, on the road with his Mountain Goats.
Sigur Ros begins what’s sure to be a huge and neverending press circus surrounding the release of Takk on September 13 by talking to The Guardian about Tommy Lee. Last two links via Largehearted Boy.
Check out the trailer for Bob Dylan biopic No Direction Home. This is one of the films playing at the Toronto International Film Festival next month. Via Golden Fiddle.
BlogTO features yours truly in this week’s “Blogerati Files” feature.
The Onion AV Club submits a list of critically reviled films that may yet be worth watching (though not necessarily because they’re not as bad as most think).
What do you get when you put five of the top voiceover artists in America in the back of a limo? The funny. Video gone! Alas. Video returned! Huzzah.
np – My Morning Jacket / Z
Friday, August 26th, 2005
Penny Black Music (almost) completes their set of Slowdive interviews by catching up with guitarist Christian Saville and bassist Nick Chaplin some ten years since that band’s final album, Pygmalion, which neither really contributed to in any meaningful sense (link via Bradley’s Almanac). Nick sums up the Slowdive mystique as “A good looking guy, a good looking girl and three ugly looking blokes behind them”. This piece goes nicely with Penny Music Black’s past interviews with Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead. Drummers Adrian Sell and Simon Scott should be expecting a call from PBM any day now.
These days, Christian plays in Monster Movie, which is actually quite good – definitely in keeping with the spirit of his old band. I wish there was some Mojave 3 news to update you on, but since they said work was continuing on their fifth album back in the Spring, there’s been no word on anything. I think Ed, who runs the M3 website, checks in here every once in a while – any news?
Another old Creation alumnus shoegaze-era band getting a second look is The Boo Radleys, who just put out their Find The Way Out double disc anthology. The BBC talked to Boos songwriter Martin Carr about suriving the Britpop era (everyone’s about the Britpop reminiscing these days) and getting the best-of treatment. Link via Information Leafblower.
The Guardian recounts the secret history of the Pixies. How secret? Kim Deal reveals she still lives with her parents. Via One Louder.
Rob Dickinson is now my MySpace friend. Won’t you make him yours as well?
NOW talks to Neil Young about his new album Prairie Wind from the floor of the Ryman, where he performed his first post-aneurysm shows last week.
Thanks to Prefix for pointing out this video of Calexico performing their marvelous cover of Love’s “Alone Again Or” at last year’s Austin City Limits festival, culled from their DVD document of the whole festival.
PopMatters finally gets around to publishing an interview with Joe Pernice conducted waaaay back in April.
Ryan Adams tells Billboard that anyone spreading rumours the Cardinals have split up “can go fuck themselves”. The swearing means he’s really emphatic about this – passionate, even. His next album September (née Jacksonville City Nights – the article doesn’t even manage to keep it straight) is out September 27.
It’s a Bay Area Golden State invasion when The Warlocks and The Gris Gris hit Lee’s Palace on October 18.
np – Okkervil River / Down The River Of Golden Dreams
Thursday, August 25th, 2005
With Superchunk on the back burner indefinitely, Mac McCaughan has turned former side project Portastatic into his primary creative outlet. It’s no coincidence that each successive Portastatic album released after the last Superchunk record (2001’s Here’s To Shutting Up) sounds more and more like a ringer for Superchunk. Whereas the older albums were a catch-all for McCaughan’s musical experiments outside the Superchunk mould, 2001’s excellent Summer Of The Shark and its companion mini-album Autumn Was A Lark were fully realized rock records that could stand shoulder to shoulder with anything his day job released in the past decade. It’s a trend that continues with his/their latest record, Bright Ideas, which came out this past Tuesday.
Notable for being the first Portastatic record recorded as a full band (with Superchunk guitarist Jim Wilbur on bass and Mac’s brother Matt on drums), the album opens with the quiet and textured title track, which sounds more like earlier-era Portastatic but from there on it’s solid power pop that could pass for the ‘Chunk if they’d turned the gain knobs on their distortion pedals down a touch – more jangle than fuzz. For reasons unbeknownst to me, it took a few listens to get into this record but now I’m enjoying it quite a bit. It’s a shame this record is coming out so late in August – it would have been a great soundtrack for the Summer.
Bright Ideas also comes with companion pieces – an EP previewing material from the album called Looking For A Power Supply was released earlier this Summer on a Spanish label, but copies are available domestically for you completists out there. Also, early pressings of Bright Ideas came with a disc of demos called Ideas For Bright Ideas – I found my copy of the album used over a month ago, so it had no bonus disc. It did have a big fancy hole punched through the UPC code, though. That’s just as good as demos!
Mac and co are embarking on a fairly extensive Fall tour that includes a stop at Lee’s Palace on September 12th with Tenement Halls. I’ve never seen Superchunk live (and may never get the chance to) but did see Portastatic open for Yo La Tengo a few years back. Good show, recommended. And RelishNow has an interview with Mac (via Largehearted Boy).
MP3: Portastatic – “I Wanna Know Girls”
Initially reported by Adam Radwanski and now confirmed by Billions – the October 9th New Pornographers/ Destroyer show has moved from the desolate Docks to the much friendlier Phoenix. I dashed out and bought the album and a ticket after work yesterday – after all, the capacity of the show just got cut by 2000 heads. I think a sell-out is a much safer bet now.
Also at the Phoenix – Spoon return to Toronto with Mary Timony in tow on November 1. American Music Club join the tour four days later. Alas, I guess it was not to be for us, though I notice New York get Mary Timony AND American Music Club. Because, you know, New York doesn’t get enough good shows. Not at all.
And a little more show news – Matt Pond PA will be opening for Athlete at the Opera House on September 19. Liz Phair at the Phoenix on October 23. Interesting pairing.
Okkervil River’s Will Sheff took guest-blogging duties yesterday at Said The Gramophone, taking the opportunity to offer a first-year course in Tim Hardin, who was the inspiration for Okkervil’s latest album Black Sheep Boy. Coincidentally, I picked up Down The River Of Golden Dreams yesterday – it’s lovely.
Colin Meloy of The Decemberists confides to Billboard that they won’t be playing a lot of new material on their upcoming Fall tour (including a show October 13 at the Phoenix in Toronto) because they, like, want the next album to be a surprise. The faithful shouldn’t expect the follow-up to Picaresque until late next Summer, but they can look forward to the band’s first DVD due out sometime… you know, later.
AmAnSet has another website courtesy of their new lable,Arts & Crafts. There’s also a listening party for their new album Set Free at The Drake tonight, if you can’t wait till it comes out September 20.
NOW puts pop culture pundit Chuck Klosterman on this weeks cover (and fawns all over him in the accompanying article) in advance of his Killing Yourself To Live book reading at the Horseshoe next Wednesday. It’s free!
The Torontoist week in shows.
np – The New Pornographers / Twin Cinema
Wednesday, August 24th, 2005
Rolling Stone is first out of the blocks with information on the new Belle & Sebastian album. Coming out earlier than expected, The Goalkeeper’s Revenge has been given a target release date of January 2006. Handling production duties on this one was Tony Hoffer, who has a very impressive contemporary indie-pop resume. It will be interesting to see what the band keeps from Trevor Horn’s heavier-handed production on Dear Catastrophe Waitress. I’ve been a longtime B&S fan, but tend to go through feast-or-famine phases with the band. I haven’t spun any of their stuff in some time, come to think of it – betcha that ends soon.
Also exciting is the Rolling Stone piece mentions expectations of a Spring North American tour. I’ve seen the band twice, almost thrice (their 1998 show at the Opera House was cancelled at the last minute due to an Isobel Campbell fit of pique) and the last show at Massey Hall in November 2003 was one of the best I’ve ever seen. I would assume a T.O. date would again be at Massey Hall… here’s hoping I can work my front-row centre Massey Hall magic again! Finally – they will also be contributing a track to the upcoming War Child benefit compilation Help: A Day In The Life (available online on September 9 and in stores shortly thereafer) and the official bio has a website (though really, there’s nothing there). And they’ve updated the Q&A section of their own website (Stuart calls The Hidden Cameras “a pack of scavaging whore-mongers” – but in a good way).
Paste has a quickie with The New Pornographers. Twin Cinema is absolutely rocking Metacritic right now. I usually avoid the big stores but HMV has Twin Cinema for $14.99… tough price to beat.
I’m pleased to see Wheat’s lovely “Don’t I Hold You” will be included on the soundtrack to Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown. Wheat never got the success they were due before going on hiatus last year – hopefully this will put some dollars in their pockets. My only question is whether Crowe was wise enough to include the far superior Hope & Adams version in as opposed to the re-recorded, overproduced Per Second Per Second Per Second Every Second version? Probably not. Also appearing on the soundtrack are My Morning Jacket and Ryan Adams. The album is out September 13, the movie October 14.
For The Eardrums offers up an interview with Dirty On Purpose for the eyeballs.
John Cale, ex of The Velvet Underground, will be in town for a three-night stand at the Lula Lounge from November 13 to 15. Tickets are $25, though there’s sure to be some weird dinner/show packages available from the Lounge. Shows @ Lula Lounge = weird.
There’s really not much you can say about a news story like this.
np – Mat Pond PA / Emblems
No Comments
facebook
![[Valid RSS]](http://www.chromewaves.net/images/interface/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed"){kind=small}