The Cure’s principle videographer for much of the 80s, Tim Pope, once said that a concert film is the greatest thing in the world to the fans of the band and means very little to anyone else—or something like that. Well, Iceland’s Sigur Rós may have finally shattered that mold. Combining concert footage of their 2006 tour of small venues in their homeland, interview clips and sweeping landscapes, Heima (“at home”) is a visually beautiful piece of film whether or not you’re that into the music of Sigur Rós. It might even make you a fan.
—Roy Christopher, 08 February 2010
The gig felt like several gigs in one. You were never quite sure if you were watching an indie or a dance band. It was different measures of both at different times. You were either dancing to overwhelming, ethereal bleeps in a techno-like bop or gazing at your shoes in an indie-type swagger.
The endless comparisons to other bands, such as Klaxons, Friendly Fires, Bloc Party, Orbital, M83 goes on and on but for some reason never quite hit the mark. Delphic are tipped as the next big band and are currently described as the new sound of Manchester. “Like New
—Johann Chan, 06 February 2010
Hubert Selby Jr’s critically acclaimed novel Last Exit to Brooklyn remains a classic among modern-day American writing. Still frighteningly relevant nearly fifty years after it was first published, Selby’s narrative looks deep inside the most primitive human emotions. Ruthless stories of violence, corruption, alcoholism and drug use in blue-collar Brooklyn set an unrelenting pace. Each account is an unrefined stream of consciousness that is unapologetic and in your face. If you were a fan of Selby’s Requiem for a Dream then put Last Exit to Brooklyn at the top of your ‘must read’ list for 2010.
—Anthony Smith, 15 January 2010
Pick up a thriller novel and chances are it’ll have a review quoted within that’ll assure you that you’ll not be able to put it down. “A page-turner.” I use these charity-shop-bought bestsellers at night to induce sleep: it requires turning only a page or two before my lights are out. (Bloke from Chicago Tribune, you’re an idiot.)
Stewart’s book, however, is, in fact—no, really—truly compelling. That it’s sort-of based on a period of the author’s own life makes it all the more so. It’ll have you wondering: Did he really work a crazy job on a fishing boat? Did he
—Chris Noble, 15 January 2010
Lucero’s latest release has the same good ol’ boy lyrics of lead singer Ben Nichols, but his distinctively raspy voice is accompanied by a healthy dose of southern soul in the shape of gospel-like backing vocals and robust horn sections. The result is a melodic collection of, to quote Nichols, “sad old bastard songs” for the soul. By the final track Mom, it’s clear that this is their most determined effort to date.
—Anthony Smith, 10 December 2009
Anyone who puts this film down has forgotten the feelings and emotions they had as a kid and doesn’t have kids of their own or do but have never paid attention to their feelings and emotions. Ah, it’s a sweeping statement, but why anyone wouldn’t be taken by this film is otherwise beyond me: at 101 minutes, it’s a startlingly faithful adaptation of a book that, adapted literally, would likely run shorter than the ad breaks during an episode of The Simpsons.
People who say it’s boring have probably watched too much Jackass for their own good, as the film is
—Chris Noble, 07 November 2009
I’m wary of buying stuff online. I like to feel the object, flip through the book, try on the shoes before I lay out my hard-earned. The lure of a book of Evan Hecox’s art was too much, though, and despite my fears of it being a half-arsed print job, I clicked “Buy”.
I needn’t have worried. This 160-page book is well built with a thick hardcover, great binding, quality printing and clean design, has an educational intro with shots of Evan’s studio, and depicts a large proportion of the man’s fine art work, sectioned out into his various methods and media—plates, linocuts, skateboard decks and whatnot.
If you like Hecox’s art, you’d do well to take the plunge and click this onto your coffee table. I’m glad I did.
—Chris Noble, 22 October 2009
In his directorial debut, Moon (2009), Duncan Jones—son of David Bowie—creatively recycles elements from a bygone era of sci-fi. Pieces from films past include a resurrection of HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) in the moon base’s in-house computer GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey), a nod to the hallucinations of Steven Soderburgh’s Solaris (2002), and a similar use of the memory implants from Blade Runner (1982). Also like Solaris, Moon is more concerned with inner space than outer space (and Clint Mansell’s score recalls Cliff Martinez’s best work). Sam Rockwell plays the lead astronaut in a role written specifically for him by Jones. If this movie doesn’t finally make the underrated Rockwell an A-lister then I am no longer qualified to write about movies. If you like the pre-CGI “golden age” of science fiction, Moon is your next destination.
—Roy Christopher, 22 August 2009
What else is there to say? Slayer is the best metal band on the planet. Period. They’ve been burning it down for almost thirty years and if you haven’t seen them play live, you must. They’re currently destroying the country with a million other metal bands on the Rockstar Mayhem Festival tour (which I caught last week in San Antonio, Texas) but with Slayer on the bill, no one else matters—and I’m not the only one who thinks so.
—Roy Christopher, 20 August 2009
What do you get when you get together the bass player from Head of David (Dave Cochrane), the bass player from jesu (Diarmuid Dalton) and the masterminds, guitarists and vocalists from jesu (Justin Broadrick) and Isis (Aaron Turner)? The most abrasive, most dissonant metal machine music since Godflesh’s Streetcleaner (which is still the blueprint of this sound Broadrick laid down twenty years ago), that’s what. Greymachine’s debut, Disconnected is two steps forward and one step back and loud and ugly and good in all of the ways this kind of noise should be. If you miss the discordance of Broadrick’s earlier work or you just need a good, hard kick in the ass, Greymachine is your ticket.
—Roy Christopher, 20 August 2009
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