Spent quite a bit of last week travelling to and from the UK for work, so not much to report in many categories. I finished 'Cheney' and overall found it a quite balanced and actually rather fascinating portrait of a very strange and quite scary man. Next on Kindle is probably to finish 'Who really runs Ireland' by Matt Cooper, which I abandoned a few weeks ago with too many new downloads to try out. I also enjoyed on TV the sight of Sky News' Adam Boulton losing his cool in rather spectacular fashion to Alistair Campbell in a very 'Thick of it' scene here. Obviously, it is often surmised that the legendary Malcolm Tucker was based on Campbell, and it is very very easy to picture him standing there with that scary half-grin on.....
Anyway, main stories thus about music and movies for this week:
Music
Listening to ‘High violet’ a lot, unsurprisingly, and reading every review I can get my eyes on; these are generally very positive, and Q gave it album of the month. It is pretty firmly established in my head by now, and has matured to a much more coherent album than I may have first feared. As I have wittered on about before, I have never approached an album with such a mix of fastidious research and anxious anticipation before, and I am still not sure I have sufficient perspective for an objective review as yet. My favourite switches from day to day (‘Lemonworld’ usually tops, in fairness), and ‘Anyone’s ghost’ is steadily growing on me (it is close to their first 3-minute pop song, in my view), while ‘Runaway’ is clearly far superior to ‘Racing like a pro’, but I do not yet have my ‘Apartment story’. I also find myself singing lines like ‘I don’t have the drugs to sort it out’ or ‘I was afraid I’d eat your brains’ at inappropriate moments!
They appeared on BBC's Later with Jools Holland on Friday night and played very good and slightly different versions of 'Bloodbuzz ohio', 'Anyone's ghost' and 'Terrible love'. I have only found a clip of the first on-line so far, which is below:
Last Saturday night, they also played a concert in Brooklyn which was streamed on Youtube/Vevo, which I did not stay up for as it would have started at 3 in the morning Irish time! I am counting on it becoming available afterwards but so far the footage is not available to Irish viewers for copyright reasons, which is pretty bloody frustrating. Hopefully this might change (lots of complaints on the site), or at worst maybe a DVD will ultimately appear. The fact that is directed by the legendary DA Pennebaker should hopefully make it enough of a big deal to warrant wider distribution, if no reason other than the band and record company (and Vevo) would surely make money from a European distribution (certainly a healthy profit from me alone).
In a more local (to Cork) development, I know through work a member of a band called Boa Morte, who have just released their second album 'The dial waltz'. Boa Morte are very Americana in spirit, even if from Cork, and their music has a hushed gradneur and stately grace particularly reminiscent of Lambchop in their more mellow phases, or perhaps Smog. I have seen them live quite a few times and so many of the songs are familiar, but they are lovely and tracks like 'Darkened doorway', 'Priceless prize' and the beautifully-titled and sung 'All this we must consider' really grow on you with their slow and sombre atmosphere. The harmonies when used are unusual and quite ghostly at times, and I like the subtle drumming. I found one video, for 'Wooden floor', below:
Otherwise, I have listened some more to AA Bondy, which is really quite lovely, and I really like his voice. Songs like 'On the moon', 'I can see the pines are dancing' and 'Mightiest of guns' are perfect examples of the kind of alt-country which I have previously raved about so extensively, and which I find fewer great examples like this of each year.
Movies
The Guardian on Friday had a very interesting article on fan-made movie parodies and homages on Youtube, which can be read here. I checked out a few of these and really enjoyed 'Award-winning movie trailer' below:
There was also a very funny DVD commentary one here, and some of them showed how much work people are prepared to put in, including the mini-epic 'Hunt for Gollum' below:
Otherwise, I did get to watch 'Zombieland', which I downloaded onto my iPod last week, and watched it on a trip to the UK, between a long train trip and my hotel bed. I actually thoroughly enjoyed it, and found it quite watchable on the small screen (will certainly try soon to hook up to my TV and watch that way too). Classic moments included the whole opening credits, the point at which out two heros meet (the thumb!), the 'puppy love' clip, and of course the celebrity cameo which I am sure everyone knows about by now. Well worth my first experiment in iTunes movies, and the viewing experience made up in convenience what it may have lost in scale (as for books as per recent discussions on this blog). Of course I could not see myself watching 'Avatar' on it, but for some things I think it will do just fine.
That's all for now, as already a day later than usual posting!
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