So Many Gigs, So Little Time

Will be quiet here for a while…might be able to get a couple of posts up but over the next week I will be out every night- mostly at gigs so I will not have the time to get stuff up here as well!

Just a quick note about the last two…

Dark Room Notes- intimate gig in the Button Factory- lots of new tunes and some pretty damn good ones they are. Still like Lets Light Fires and really looking forward to an album from them soon. Good support acts as well.

Iron and Wine- actually had company for this one- a Wonderful Woman who I unexpectedly met on Friday (friend of a friend of the mates as post below) so the mind was on more than just the gig. Some favourites though: Jezebel, Woman King, Boy With A Coin and the lovely Innocent Bones. Some excellent rocking tunes as well and the arrangement was spectacular. Overall: beautiful, sublime and just excellent to be in their company…that goes for WW and Iron and Wine!

Guilty Pleasures…

Went to meet a mate in Club Nassau last night- yes Club Nausea is back!  Lots of cheesy 80’s pop songs….absolutely loved it!

So the voice is in tatters since I knew the words to almost every song they played and the legs are like rubber with all the moving (dancing would an relative term for my moves!)

Great start to the gig week…now where did I put that Solpadeine?

Dan le Sac vs Scroobious Pip- Button Factory Gig 8/5/08

In the Button Factory again…it’s becoming a regular haunt for me these days and quickly becoming my favourite spot- good size and great sound.

Messiah J and the Expert were on first and it is the first time I had seen them live. I only knew one or two of their songs and to be honest I don’t particularly like rap and think that the music is fairly limiting. However he did have three tunes which I quite liked: Megaphone, Abandon Ship and Go Jane Go which were fairly catchy and had some dance beats mixed in there to give it that extra bounce. The rest were standard rap fare and were fairly similar to other stuff out there.

Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip

First let me say that this was the first time that I had heard them sober- I had seen them at Electric Picnic and at a very late show in Crawdaddy so on both occasions there was plenty of vodka in the blood. Sometimes with this sort of music having a good buzz is helpful since the dance beats are bloody good. While the place wasn’t packed it was busy and as Scroobius acknowledged it says a lot for a group whose album hasn’t even come out yet. The crowd knew most of the tunes as well which is always a good sign….although there was still some chatter during the slower songs. The set list was more or less the same as Crawdaddy- with only one albums worth of songs it’s hard to change it around too much.

As usual I am not 100% on the order of songs but they were all there- they started off with the rather infectious The Beat That My Heart Skipped and moved on to a rather dark song about suicide. Then the sit down for the Tommy Cooper song and then the rather good Spoken Word Poetry which is just what it says- no music but good timbre and cadence really make this a song. He did have a quiet set piece then with some other props on stage and he put up a sign at the end of the song with a website that of course I cannot remember but am trying to find. Then was Angles (My Name Is Bob…) which is a song that starts off slow enough and builds to a nice crescendo. Of course it wouldn’t be one of their gigs without Though Shalt Always Kill which is another of their favourites that the audience knew which was followed by Hip Hop is Art before running off stage. Between all of the songs there was continuous interaction with the audience from Scroobius which really creates a good atmosphere and adds to the experience.

I don’t know all the proper titles of the songs since I haven’t gotten my hands on the cd yet which is released today in Ireland (thought they would have had some at the gig!) so some of them will be different than I mentioned…and I know I have forgotten some since I think there only have the 10 tunes and they played them all. For the encore they played Nite Klub from The Specials which they did a good job on…but I preferred the way they did the Prince song Cream in Crawdaddy.

Overall it was a good gig and I think that the venue and sound were the best yet but overall it was missing that frentic energy they had at the gig in Crawdaddy. Maybe it was because I was sober and it was midweek but the buzz just didn’t seem to be there- they were running off to play a DJ set at Crawdaddy after the Button Factory so maybe they were saving some of the energy for that…sometimes it sucks having a 9-5 job!

So I think that is enough of Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip live for the time being- I will look forward to the cd and their new work over the next year though- besides Dans excellent beats what I do love is the intelligent writing of Scroobius- there are a few groups out there that I wouldn’t particularly listen to the lyrics but with these, they deserve to be noticed.

On the way down to the coatroom I recognized Shane from his Phantom pic so said a quick hello- good to put faces to other bloggers! Also saw Aoife again so another quick hello there…think I will be running into quite a few people over the next week with the number of groups that are playing!

Coolest Gadget…EVER!

Letting the Star Wars geek out for this post!

A colleague sent me this link….a life-size remote control R2D2 video projector that you can use for almost any multimedia imaginable!  Three grand but thats in dollars and with a fantastic exchange rate at the moment….hmmmmmm

P2

P2 can be boiled down to three things:

1. It was the only film that fit the time slot before the Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip gig

2. It has Rachel Nichols who has a very fine figure indeed

3. She was wearing a tight low cut dress for most of the film

In fairness- it was entertaining and a few tense moments but nothing new- what sustained it was Wes Bentley’s humour and Rachel’s running around.

Lars And The Real Girl

Lars And The Real Girl

An indie film with all the elements- great story, cast, and acting that really makes this superior to most films released this year.

While the story might look ludicrous on paper it is so deftly handeled that it never dips into the tawdry and is rather heartwarming- so while a sex doll is a main character it is the community and human emotion that shine through.

I really cannot give enough praise for the cast and the acting- Ryan Gosling as the main character really embodies his role and is so believable that his pain is nearly palpable. Patricia Clarkson is quite good as well and Emily Mortimer is very good as the sister in law who is trying her best to get Goslings character to interact with the world again- she does a good job at the American accent although I wish she had the English one for the film since I love her voice so much.

There is a lot of humour in this film as you may imagine and sometimes it is difficult not to actually laugh out loud. There are some serious issues here but they are dealt with in a unique and imaginative way. Gosling really does an outstanding job at showing the inner struggle and it is great the way the story plays out with the family history. The way the community takes him in and trys to support him while at the same time trying to ween him off it by dealing with the doll as a real person is really the main key to the story- nowaday’s it is great to see the community taking an active roll instead of sweeping the problem aside and treating it with medication.

Parts of the story are predictable and you can see how it is going to end but it’s the journey that counts here- and a great journey it is. The smiles at the end of the film say it all and will leave a smile on your face as well.

Flashbacks Of A Fool

Flashback Of A Fool

A good film from the first time film director Baillie Walsh who also penned the script as well.

The story is quite well done and starts off great showing the innocence of childhood then immediately showing how the main character Joe, played by Daniel Craig , has turned out with the excess of women and drugs. Great acting by Craig in these early scenes and I do have to mention his body- even as a straight man it is eye catching!

The continuous flashback then to his childhood has some excellent acting by Harry Eden as young Joe, Jodhi May as Evelyn, and Felicity Jones as young Ruth who are the main characters at this stage. The rawness of Evelyn’s attraction to Joe is quite well played and of course is the downfall of Joe’s character. There are a couple titillating scenes during the flashback between Joe and Evelyn but the funniest scene has got to be Joe and his friend Boots wanking in the in the haunted house ride at the carnival.

I did think that the film would have more of a musical bent to it but alas there was only one real scene where David Bowie’s songs played a part- that was extremely well done though and is the most memorable part of the film for me. The rest of the story for this period was fairly well done and even though I knew what was going to happen to Evelyn’s daughter from the trailer it was heavily foreshadowed.

The film really falls down though when Joe leaves town and we are brought back to the present with Craig returning to England. While you know that Joe had left you don’t know what happened at all during this time and quite a bit of this part of the film is filling in the blanks for you which doesn’t really work well. Although I am not going to complain about seeing Keeley Hawes (as Joe’s younger sister) and Claire Forlani as the present day Ruth- the scene with Keeley and the slow walk up to Claire was another standout moment.

The last scene of the film with Joe returning to LA seemed a bit odd- it didn’t particularly show that Joe had changed at all…not that all questions have to be answered but I think it would have had a better ending leaving it out.

Overall it was a good film and there were some memorable scenes- as I said I thought that music was going to play more of a role and I wish it had since there were lots of moments that had just a forgettable backing soundtrack- even silence would have been better than that.

The Orphanage (El Orfanato)

Yet another one where the post was lost and has been a while…

The Orphanage

A Spanish mystery/horror film that is fairly well done and very atmospheric.

It centres around Belén Rueda’s character who is absolutely superb in the role. Without her the film would be fairly lifeless and she brings a great mania that keeps you entertained.

The film starts off well- with an old scene of children playing a game outside and was actually a little more unnerving than a later scene of the same type. The timing of the film is also well done for the duration- sets the stage nice and slow with the interaction of the mother and father and son while only slowly introducing other characters and the bits of vital information.

The story itself is a good idea and there are some good themes that run throughout- some are fairly easy to guess at but the way that they are woven together keeps the story moving at a good pace.

When the son has imaginary friends you just know what is coming but you only find out what happened to the other children in the orphanage after he goes missing. The game that he is playing with the mother of course is the key to the film and the film does slow down a tad bit too much between the drama of him disappearing and when she starts to play the game. The physic is one of the more memorable scenes at this stage- it is something that has been done numerous times but it manages to build the tension quite a bit. When it finally looks like she has cracked is when the tension really mounts and leads to a great conclusion of what had happened to the children. While the scene itself wasn’t that scary it probably wasn’t the best time for the mobile to start vibrating in the pocket!

The conclusion to the film is quite good as well and a bit moving- you can guess what will happen by the events of the beginning of the film but it was a touching scene.

Overall it was a very good film- atmospheric and keeps you entertained.

In Bruges

In Bruges

One of the posts that didn’t save and has been a few weeks since I have seen it so not quite as detailed.

Directed by Martin McDonagh who did the excellent short Six Shooter and has a fair stab at his first full length feature.

Starts with the two main characters Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell and is dialogue driven which is done well with Gleeson more in the role than Farrell.  Sometimes Farrell’s acting varies between a man who is a bundle of nerves to a jaded yuppy type figure.  The dialogue can be very snappy but sometimes it is just too forced and it doesn’t always hit the mark.

The story is well done and there are some good moments: the touring around Bruges, the moments between Farrell and new girlfriend, and the midget/dwarf and the hookers to name a few.

It is Ralph Fiennes character though who really makes this film- even the scenes where he is only talking are the more memorable.   The phone call with Gleeson and Fiennes is excellent and of course when they are finally face to face on screen in the square and tower near the end.

The main supporting cast is good but some of the others are only memorable for the fact that they actually distract from the film to a certain extent.

There is some great cinematography but most is fairly average…one of the best scenes was when Fiennes character is going onto the movie set at the end of the film- great angles and lighting.

Overal it was a good film but only that- it was fairly uneven and although there were  moments where everything gelled into quite a nice whole, they were only moments.

Kleerup- Until We Bleed (feat Lykke Li)

Via Swedes Please at Zeon’s Music Blog there is a download for Kleerup- Until We Bleed (feat Lykke Li). There is also a stream and YouTube for it over on Pitchfork.

From Zeon’s blog it is worth checking out Crash and Burn Girl who has some good tunes as well.

Finding more music blogs is getting seriously bad for my health…yet another two I am going to have to add to the surfer and I don’t have enough time for the other ones as it is!