February 2011
HOLLER AND THE MOAN: TRAILER
February 28, 2011
FEATURE: BURIED BEDS
February 24, 2011
When I think back on my college days, I think of those years in two distinct eras: 1) Before I discovered the Elephant 6 Collective; 2) After I heard The Olivia Tremor Control, Apples in Stereo, Beulah, Of Montreal and, of course, Neutral Milk Hotel. Before discovering that fuzzy, sometimes psychedelic, often poppy crew of DIY misfits I was merely a shell of a man, playing Rolling Stones, Pavement and Kinks album all day long, convinced that nothing else mattered.
Buried Beds, a still-somewhat-new pop band out of Philadelphia, bring those days to mind. Those glorious, life-changing days when I started to really understand the glory and majesty of grandiose, incredibly detailed pop music. And while the Beds - comprised of Eliza Jones, Brandon Beaver, Tommy Bendel, Hallie Sianni and Dave Hartley - don't sound all that much like any of the E6 bands (BB's vocals are far to pretty for a direct comparison), they definitely have that thing.
That thing that makes music sound not only cool and easy, but absolutely essential to one's lifestyle and happiness. Though they've not quite crashed their way onto the national stage just yet, the BBs are doing just fine as of late, touring the country in advance support of the upcoming LP release of their sophomore record, Tremble The Sails, alongside bands like Dr. Dog, mewithoutYou and Murder By Death. That record, which came out on CD last year (and I've heard and dearly love), will be out on LP nationwide, via Admiral Byrd Records, on March 11.
But, ya know, since we're making introductions here, maybe we should take a step back, dontchathink? Where did this particular breed of pop majesty come from?
"Beaver and I have been friends since high school and started making music in our college years," Jones, the angel-voiced co-founder of the Beds explained. "Our musical influences are pretty diverse. Beaver is a prog and pop master and has a record collection full of deep cuts. His record collection and love of music is much ... [Continued]
SCREENTIME: LOOKING FORWARD TO OSCAR
February 22, 2011
What's that you say? The Oscars? Yep, that's right, the only awards show still worth watching. Sure, it's a bit contrived and the idea of rich beauties celebrating themselves is a bit sickening. But hey man, this is America! We love our cinema and, in our opinion, the Oscars remain the most exciting and, we suppose, accurate of the awards shows. There have been some serious cred-killers over the last few years (Christopher Nolan not getting a Best Director nomination for The Dark Knight and Sandra Bullock winning a Best Female Actor award for a pseudo-Hallmark Movie of the Week), but plenty of great things happen at the Academy Awards show every year. Here are our thoughts/predictions/rants about this year's upcoming show on Sunday, February 27:
Best Lead Actor (Female): In our book, this race is between Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone) and Natalie Portman (Black Swan), but all the old fogies out there who think The Kids Are All Right is actually an above average and culturally relevant movie of its time have been pushing for Annette Bening. Don't get us wrong, we love Annette very much … but Portman was a powerhouse in Darren Aronofsky's Swan, giving what will likely go down as her signature performance and one of the great female performances of her time. If she doesn't win, we might just become one of those Oscar Hater types, as we feel that Bening's work was slightly above that of any great soap opera performance out there. (Seriously, is Kids better than movies like Please Give or June Bug, neither of which came close to the acclaim Kids has seen? The answer is no.) Also nominated are Nicole Kidman and Michelle Williams. Prediction: Portman. Complaint: No Noomi Rapace? No Amy Ryan?
Best Lead Actor (Male): Lots of great nominees this year, including Jeff Bridges for True Grit. He was great, but he always is. Also, he won last year, and repeats at the Oscars are almost unheard of. ScreenTime favorites James Franco (127 Hours) and Javier Bardem (Biutiful) are also nominated but wont win. This year's race comes down to Colin Firth as a king with a stutter in Tom Hooper's The King's Speech and Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network. It was a toss-up until Firth won the Golden Globe a few weeks ago, not it feels like a lock. Me? Well, I've seen both movies multiple times and ... [Continued]
ALBUM: APOLLO KIDS
February 21, 2011
On October 29, 1996, six months after getting my driver’s license, I set the path for my future. By skipping school that day in order to pick up a record called Ironman, the debut - and now classic - record from Wu-Tang Clan emcee Ghostface Killah, I took the first big step towards a life in the gutter of obsession. I was a music fan before then, but, by putting myself in the way of a harmless kind of danger, I’d married myself to the music. Recorded music. Ever since, things haven’t gone so well. Just last week, for example, I emptied my basket of food at Target, putting all the items back on the shelf when I spotted the latest Ghostface record, Apollo Kids, on the shelf. I told myself I’d prefer to spend my last $15 on new music and starve than eat and listen to old music.
So now, arriving full circle, I sit here listening to Ghostface once again, against the odds. And while I don’t think Apollo is his best record, I’d easily put it in his Top 4, up there with 2000’s Supreme Clientele, 1996’s Ironman and 2006’s Fishscale. After his last solo record, 2009’s Ghostdini, it’s something of a return to form, that record being an R&B-influenced misfire. Apollo sees its maker doing what he does best: rapping baffling, interesting and abstract verses over dirty, hard beats produced by some of today’s best beat makers. Unlike Ghostdini, the record features a number of fitting guests, many of which are Wu-affiliated and most of which contribute great verses (not exactly the norm in the land of Hip-Hop Guests these days).
Opener “Purified Thoughts” works as something of a segue from Ghostdini, featuring a blast of R&B which quickly fades out, only to return as an big, brash Wu-styled banger beat that does everything it can to keep up with a furious Ghost verse full of witty and strange punchlines and tongue twisters. The other two best Wu writers, Killah Priest and GZA, stop in for excellent guest verses, quickly establishing Apollo as an album to get excited about, especially if you’re a fan of classic-era Wu-Tang records. The beat, produced by Frank Dukes ... [Continued]
NEWS: HOLLER AND THE MOAN
February 18, 2011
Ze Catalist owner, publisher and lead writer Greg W. Locke made a movie! The film, a documentary that focuses on a year in the life of singer/songwriter Lee Miles, will have two fundraiser screenings at the Cinema Center Tech theater in Fort Wayne, Indiana on Friday, February 25 (8 pm) and Sunday, February 27 (4 pm). Tickets for those screenings are only $5, and your ticket stub from Friday's premiere will get you into a Lee Miles concert at The Brass Rail following the show. An after-party of sorts. All money made from these screenings will be used to offset the cost of entering the film into some film festivals.
Here's a synopsis: We follow Lee Miles, a struggling singer/songwriter working his way through both personal setbacks and health problems, as he navigates through another year as an out-of-time artist who can't find his way out of the mud. Along the way we meet his friends, fans and bandmates, hear his songs, go on tour, get a look at his city and learn that our hero has a personally relevant - and quite grand - new project in the works.
Head over to www.hollerandthemoan.com for additional details, some footage, plenty of production notes and still and more! Wish Greg luck!
INTERVIEW: KNEW FRAME'S MATT MCCROY
February 17, 2011
GREG LOCKE: Tell me about the production team. Everyone. How did you guys all get together?
MATT MCCROY: Knew Frame Productions is made up of Matthew McCrory, Nichole Root, Kiowa Ackley and Evangeline (Evan) Figg. We all met while at IPFW in production classes and then a Film Production Organization that Nichole had started. She started the group in an attempt to expand upon the limited filmmaking resources offered on campus and in the Fort Wayne area in general. We worked on lots of projects together ranging from bad to worse (that we wouldn't dare show anyone!) and basically taught ourselves everything we could until our projects progressively got better. We got to the point where we were quite confident in our abilities and we knew we just needed to have the right project, and a talented cast and crew, to be dedicated and make something happen, which, is no easy feat in this area. We've all been involved with projects with other local production companies and local TV stations, and some of those experiences have been great, but we really wanted to have the chance to do something more artistic.
GL: Tell me a bit about how you guys decided to turn Kiowa's script into a film.
MM: Before I had moved to Fort Wayne, Kiowa, Nichole and a few others had the intentions of turning the script into a film (it was called "Spiral", at that time), but they decided to wait and focus on shorter projects. Kiowa had showed me an early draft of the script about 4 years ago and I immediately related to it. Not just the fact that one of the central characters finds himself returning to small town life from Los Angeles, which I had just done, but the dialogue and storylines of the film's troubled and apathetic leads was so authentic to people I knew and had been surrounded by, spending my teenage years in a small Midwestern town.
I had read scripts and seen films set in small towns that always depicted them as a "safe haven" or sweet escape from the problems of troublesome big city life and it was interesting to see a different perspective. In the story the characters are in an environment where everyone knows each other and nothing substantial ever happens. To focus on characters who are lost, it seemed important that they be in a town that could easily be lost on the map. It was an interesting dynamic having a setting where the characters are essentially isolated from most of the outside world, but also in a location that could be relatable to a lot of people. Reading the script I almost thought of it as a "Lord of the Flies" type story, but instead of a bunch of kids trapped on an isolated island doing horrible things to each other, it was a bunch of kids trapped in an isolated small town. There were different instances in the town I grew up in where the police would not report a crime or not bring someone with a warrant in, simply because they knew that person. When you have a group of characters in a setting like that, where no one really cares what you do, it makes the situations they find themselves in seem more out of control. (Note: although we filmed in Fort Wayne and surrounding areas, the small town which the film is set, is NOT Fort Wayne nor meant to resemble Fort Wayne as none of us actually grew up here) ... [Continued]
UPDATE: NOTE TO THE READER
February 16, 2011
After months of fighting it out, we've finally thrown in the towel. Every time we update this website, something goes a little crazy. And then crazy becomes crazier, and so on. It's gotten to the point where the homepage seems to have a life of its own, so much so that doing an update on this page feels similar to tossing a notebook full of sentences (not to mention formatting) into a bag, shaking it up and pulling out items and organizing them at random. We've done all we know how to do.
Thus, starting now and lasting until who knows when, the homepage will just be simple text. No formatting, no nothing. Just words. You'll still find all the archived content with formatting and photos - same as ever. But this homepage is going to - for the time being - looking like something out of 1997. We apologize. Don't give up on us! Our archives are pretty great, we think!
Posted by G. William Locke
ALBUM: MY DIVIDER
February 15, 2011
I first heard Dinosaur Bones on a fluke, playing in the Indie Lounge in Indianapolis after a screening of Another Year. (I was drinking a $6 Blue Moon and (loved the film, if you're wanting to know all the deets.) My first impression of what I heard was that maybe the guys in The Whigs all had wimpy younger brothers who also formed a band. Never mind that, I ended up intrigued, seeking out the record within a few days.
The record's cover - simple, timeless and cool - also helped sell me on My Divider, the excellently titled new debut record from Toronto's unfortunately named indie rock studs, Dinosaur Bones. Produced by Jon Drew (Fucked Up, Tokyo Police Club, etc.), the 11-track debut reminds instantly of Chavez, but without Matt Sweeney's sometimes-too-big guitar play (blasphemy, I know!). The vibe here is 90s New York indie, where the boys play it cool and fuzzy, warm and detached. A band trying to make accessible songs that Lou Reed would like if Lou Reed liked anything other than Lou Reed.
But, really, my first impression was the one that matters - Dinosaur Bones are a more Canadian - and less lively - version of The Whigs, but with an added layer of cool guy drone. It all works just fine, the result being a record that would've done very well on college radio in 1998, back when cool was still cool and fuzz wasn't always a click away. The non-typical element of sound here (for pseudo-garage stoners, that is), a keyboard, works well enough, though at times it distracts from the faux lo-fi fuzziness more than it aides it. Ben Fox, the singer and lead guitarist, has his eye ... [Continued]
SCREENTIME: EAST OF NOWHERE
February 14, 2011
A few weeks ago I mentioned a local production called East of Nowhere, a feature film which has been in production for almost a year now. I haven't seen any proper footage, I don't know the people involved personally and I've not read a script … but, from what I can tell, it feels like the real thing. I recently interviewed one of the film's major players, co-director Matt McCroy, about the production.
As McCroy broke down the members of his production company, Knew Frame Productions, I got the feeling that Nowhere was, in fact, a project to very much look forward to. Joining McCroy (who studied at the New York Film Academy and is currently a camera operator for the NBA Development League) are McCroy's co-director Nichole Root,Nowhere writer Kiowa Ackley and Evan Figg. I'd go over the credentials of these four people if I had the space; needless to say, they're all seasoned video production professionals.
After a period of working on a number of smaller projects, the foursome began to really come together as a unit. "We got to the point where we were quite confident in our abilities and we knew we just needed to have the right project, and a talented cast and crew, to be dedicated and make something happen, which is no easy feat in this area," explained McCroy.
It started, as it always should, with a script. "Before I had moved to Fort Wayne, Kiowa, Nichole and a few others had the intentions of turning this script into a film, but they decided to wait and focus on shorter projects. Kiowa had shown me an early draft of the script about four years ago and I immediately related to it. Not just the fact that one of the central characters finds himself returning to small town life after living in Los Angeles, which I had just done, but the dialogue and storylines of the film's troubled and apathetic leads was so authentic to people I knew and had been surrounded by."
McCroy next explained that he and some of his cohorts realized that they were all soon to graduate and, mostly likely, move out of town for a job in their field. With that in mind, they felt it was time to take Ackley's script more seriously ... [Continued]
ALBUM: HAVE ONE ON ME
February 13, 2011
Yeah, sure, I know, it's been months since Have One On Me was released. Many months. But this is a triple album. And not just any 'ol triple album, a long, heavy, stylistically diverse triple album from one of today's most unique and indescribable musicians. The question, in this writer's opinion, is not "why did I take so long to review the record," but, rather, "how did all these other reviewers get to know these songs so quickly?" (In my world, you have no business writing a word about an album until you really get to know it.)
To say that Have One On Me is a whopper of a record is an understatement. Have One On Me, Newsom's third proper studio record and first since she released her modern day classic, Ys, is beautiful stuff - elegant even. Absolutely original, and in many, many different ways - no doubt about that. The real questions here are simple: 1) Is Joanna Newsom able to build on the majesty and mystery of Ys, and, if so, how could that even be possible? and 2) Did she really need to release a triple album?
We'll start with question No. 2. Yes, she needed to release a triple album. Why? Well, because the style of music Newsom makes is overwhelming. Taking up about 124 minutes of disc space, Have One On Me could have easily fit on two discs with room to spare. But Newsom, wisely, I think, split her songs up into three separate pieces, by doing so, keeping her listeners from feeling overwhelmed. I was skeptical at first, and thus slow to play along. Eventually I started digging in, getting to know one disc at a time, spending about a month or two with each disc before moving on to the next - no matter how strong the urge to jump ahead was. The result? About nine months of never-boring and very-frequent Newsom-love. The only other proper triple album I ever kept in my collection, The Clash's Sandinista!, is a great one, for sure, but not the kind of album that you can explore for the better part of a year. No, only Have One On Me, and endlessly interesting listen, offers that much entertainment. (And maybe Bitches Brew.)
For starters, the record is far more accessible than the previous two Newsom records - flirting with jazz, pop and even blues genres, as well as her usual outsider folk sound. The songs, averaging about six minutes in length (some are nine minutes, some three) and all pretty elaborately composed, almost all feel like little journeys, full of musical twists and turns ... [Continued]
SCREENTIME: TRAILER LOVE
February 11, 2011
ScreenRant: Over the past two years my sleep patterns have become so erratic that, most days, I sleep in completely random three- or four-hour bursts, once or twice a day. Sometimes not at all. Late at night, when desperate for some Zs, I either watch one of those local Christian TV channels, read or, most often, watch film trailers. Seeing as how I’ve hardly slept a wink over this past week, I figured I’d tell you about a few of the best trailers I’ve seen over the past few days. First up is the trailer for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, a very dreamy looking film that took home the Palme D’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. The trailer doesn’t tell us much, nor does it impress with it’s cinematography or editing. Hmm … maybe it has a mysterious Julien Donkey-Boy-like appeal? Next up is writer/director/actor Matt Delia’s American Animal, a film about a dying twenty-something who goes slightly crazy after learning that his best friend/roommate is planning to leave the nest. Looks wild, weird and unique. And awesome. The first full-length trailer for J.J. Abrams’ next movie, Super 8, was finally released. Ninety or so seconds in length, the trailer plays through like a big, beautiful and stylized teaser, giving almost no info about the film - not even the actors. The just-released trailer for Win Win, directed by Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent, The Visitor) and starring Paul Giamati and Amy Ryan, looks incredible. Cold Weather, a truly unique-looking film directed by Aaron Katz (Dance Party, USA, Quiet City), will finally see a release in select theaters this week after doing very well at last year’s Sundance Film Festival. I can’t quite figure out how to describe the movie’s appeal, other than to say that it appears to be very well made and, above all else, very unique in a Brick sort of way. Mike Mills’ Beginners, starring Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer and Melanie Laurent, tells the story of a lonely man who talks to his dog and, eventually, starts a relationship with a woman that brings up old memories of his father, a closeted gay man who came out at age 75. Looks pretty fantastic. Last but not least is Im Sang-soo’s The Housemaid, a movie I’ve been anticipating for a good while now. The film, a favorite at this year’s Cannes Festival, tells the story of an innocent young housemaid who gets caught up in the drama of a wealthy and twisted Korean family. Pretty much every shot in the trailer is a mastershot. Thus far no U.S. release date has been set. C’mon, America, get your s&%# together! Also be sure to check out trailers for Elektra Luxx, Even the Rain, Monogomy and the surprisingly fun looking Brides Maids.
Opening This Weekend: Four big studio movies open wide this week, none of which look even remotely worthwhile to the ScreenTime staff. First up is period piece The Eagle, starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell. Looks like a solid D+. Then we have Buena Vista’s new animated flick ... [Continued]
ALBUM: ANALOG OCEAN
February 9, 2011
Before I was born my father spent years through the 70s making ends meet as a professional rock radio deejay. So yes, there were stacks of records around the house from day one and yes, there was plenty of rock music played in the car. But not until I was around 19 did I have that big moment where I "discovered" the … err … the glory of rock n' roll, or whatever. Having grown up around the pop sounds of the Beach Boys and Beatles, it was not until I heard three specific records that I felt, ya know, the explosive heat and passion of rock-done-right. Two of those three artists who changed my life (Iggy Pop and The Rolling Stones) are heavily represented in spirit on Analog Ocean, the debut record from The Sacred Broncos (fka Jinx and the Back Alley Cats). And while Analog doesn't really sound too much like Raw Power or Beggars Banquet, I get the impression that the band - brothers Brian and Michael Jenkins, Pete Dio and Derek Mauger - are the kind of guys I'd have felt a kinship to all those years ago.
Their sound best described as a 90s-informed take on 60s garage rock, the Broncs recorded Analog with local musician/producer Jason Davis (Streetlamps for Spotlights) at his excellent all-analog Off the Cuff studio in Fort Wayne. The result is a 10-song (and two interlude) collection that plays through like a very cohesive riff on borderline psychedelic rock, fitting somewhere between early Kinks, The Animals and a handful of today's garage revival bands ... [Continued]
ALBUM: KAPUTT
February 8, 2011
I feel quite strange while listening to "Chinatown," the opening track on Dan "Destroyer" Bejar's new record, Kaputt. I feel … I feel like I should be watching Top Gun in a non-ironic way and talking about Ronald Reagan in between trips to the video arcade. As the song plays on I smell Aqua Net hairspray and taste Pop Tarts. My mustache grows while the blues and whites in my jeans split time and roll tight. You get it - the 1980s. Not the Jim Jarmusch and Paul Westerberg 1980s, but the other stuff - the cheesy stuff.
And not just the 1980s in a hip, fantasy-like Adventureland sort of way, but a true white suit, Alf doll, Camaro and cheese-on-everything sort of way. In this age of nostalgia aping where we use the best recording technology ever to make music that sounds authentically old and dated, Bejar may be the new King. Kaputt sounds so much like a hip, artsy take on 1980s smooth and sexy cheese that he must be commended. Even more so, the record's maker should be applauded for his straightforward humor and pop craft ability.
Once you get past the novelty some solid and memorable songs appear. Bejar, known both as a member of The New Pornographers and a theater-loving rocker with a prolific past, is simply adding new elements to his sound. Humor, cheesy keyboards, some social commentary, saxophones and plenty of flutes that sound quite a bit like dolphins, to name just a few of the new elements at play, are the things that make this surprisingly listenable record tick along. The end result is a very cohesive and focused listen that always sticks to its tongue-in-cheek guns. (To a fault, even? Maybe. Well see how it ages.)
So why and how does this whole dolphins and horns thing work? Easy ... [Continued]
ALBUM: KISS EACH OTHER CLEAN
February 5, 2011
Painter. Father. Filmmaker. Beard grower. College professor. Writer and songsmith. Sam "Iron and Wine" Beam's story is an impressive one about a middle class boy who had a normal youth and excellent college-age career. Following grad school, Beam taught film and cinematography at one of the nation's better film schools, all along writing and self-recording barebones songs on a modest four track recorder. More recently, the closing track from Beam's third proper studio album, The Shepherd's Dog, titled "Flightless Bird, American Moth," played during the pivotal moment of a blockbuster film called Twilight. That very cinematic-sounding song (as many of Beam's works are, notch) is, I'd bet, the one that did it. And by "did it," I mean that it's the one that moved Iron and Wine from indie favorite to the Best Buy end cap circuit.
His songs also featured in Garden State, "House, M.D.," "The OC," "Friday Night Lights," "90210," "Grey's Anatomy" and so on, I suppose it was just a matter of time before the big boys (in this case, Warner Bros. Records, home to The Flaming Lips and Built to Spill) came with a bag of money and promises. Having started out as a simple singer/songwriter whose work brought to mind Elliott Smith and Nick Drake, Beam has progressed very much over the years, the result being Kiss Each Other Clean, an at-times huge sounding record that expands on the sonic palate of The Shepherd's Dog, a very good record in its own right. (Note: Beam did release an often incredible double compilation record called Around the Well in between the releases of Dog ... [Continued]
SCREENTIME: AWARDS SHOWS AND MORE
February 4, 2011
ScreenRant: Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech won Best Picture at this past Sunday’s SAG (Screen Actor Guild) Awards, beating out all the usual suspects. Kinda surprising, really, seeing as how The Social Network has hogged most of the 2010’s awards thus far. The individual acting awards were all totally predictable - Colin Firth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale and Melissa Leo all taking home the same honors they’ve been scoring at ever other show (umm, Amy Adams, anyone?!). And, for the most part, all of the television acting awards were also completely unsurprising - and totally not worth talking about. Also in the news this past week was the Oscar nomination announcements, most of which were also very predictable, most of the field being almost identical to the SAG and Golden Globe selections. Two bits that stood out: Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine) not getting a Best Actor nomination and Christopher Nolan (Inception) not getting a Best Director nomination. Umm … huh? Really? Also, Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours received six nominations, including Best Picture and Best Lead Actor. I saw this movie last weekend and, to put it lightly, I found it to be a very overrated flick. Boyle’s bright palates, gimmicky editing and run and gun segments (think Mountain Dew commercials) were all as overwhelming and painfully British as ever. Also, I didn’t feel the urge to purge at any point.
Opening This Weekend: Thrillers The Roommate and Sanctum both open everywhere this weekend. Sanctum, an underwater 3D flick starring a number of no-names, is produced by James Cameron and said to be quite good. We kind of doubt it. The Roommate, starring Leighton Meester and Curvy Leighton Meester (Minka Kelly), is a campus-set movie about a once-crazy roommate who goes off her meds, obsesses over her well-adapted roommate and then beings doing seemingly evil things. There, no need to see that one, I just told you 90 percent of the story - all based on the trailer ... [Continued]
ALBUM: THE KING IS DEAD
February 2, 2011
Back in the early 2000s the indie kids were cuter. They liked reading novels like "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," movies directed by Michel Gondry, thai food and thrift shops. They also liked the first Decemberists album, Castaways and Cutouts, very much. By 2009, the year of the last proper Decemberists release (rockish opera The Hazards of Love), the kids were into tattoos, craft beer and either pop/dance music, hillbilly posturing or punk rock (or some hybrid of those things). Known for their bibliophile-friendly writing and accordion laced shanty sound, The Decemberists have seen their popularity amongst the hip kids drop over the last two years, so much so that their new record, The King is Dead, hardly earned them a silent shout from the indie community.
But that's okay, as the album, comprised of 10 pop-fitted, REM-influenced gems, debuted at No. 1 regardless. Go figure - maybe the bloggers and tat shops and Facebook updates and Tweets of the world don't quite have the New Era power we give them so much credit for. Me, I bought the record at Target for $7 on release day, right off an endocarp, sitting loudly between Michael Jackson and Nicki Minaj.
Their thesaurus-informed language here brought down to earth more than usual and their arrangements about half as dressed up as on their other releases, The Decemberists here remind me most of Bright Eyes during his I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning era ... [Continued]
SCREENTIME: KILLING TIME IN MOVIELAND
February 1, 2011
ScreenRant: After recently watching writer/director Kelly Reichardt’s third proper film, Wendy and Lucy, I felt a burst of excitement and hope rush over me. Well, sure, maybe that sounds a bit dramatic. But really, movies like Wendy (low budget, modestly produced, authentically acted and written, stylistically directed) very often do the most for me. Reichardt’s film before Wendy, the excellent Old Joy, also appealed to me, as have a huge number of other modestly produced films made since Richard Linklater’s Slacker and Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise changed the game. Made since the directorial heyday of the late John Cassavetes “changed the game,” really. An upcoming film, titled East of Nowhere (pictured) and filmed here in Fort Wayne, just might end up fitting in somewhere in this realm of modestly created works whose end product greatly exceeds its means. Directed by Matt McCrory and Nichole Root and written by Kiowa Ackley, the movie tells the story of five disillusioned young adults struggling to find their way in a small Midwestern town. Sound familiar? We hope to bring you some exclusive info about the film’s progress very soon, so stay tuned. In the meantime, check out EastOfNowhereUpdate.BlogSpot.com.
Opening This Weekend: Simon West, know for such films as Con Air, When a Stranger Calls and that ridiculous Tomb Raider flick, will see his new action blast, the very promising-looking Mechanic, open nationwide this weekend. Starring Jason Statham and the always excellent Ben Foster, the style-happy action flick is thus far getting some very promising reviews and buzz. Also opening around the country is The Rite, a Warner Bros. thriller starring Anthony Hopkins and Rutger Hauer. Meh. The forth film from director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who has thus far made three features (all modern classics, IMO), titled Biutiful, will finally begin to see some U.S. distribution, as will the Lionsgate produced rom-com From Prada to Nada (a movie with a title so bad that I didn’t even look it up) ... [Continued]