Video of the day (The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Heart In Your Heartbreak)

Say what you like about the new Pains album (personally I'm surprised at how much I like it) but the new video for Heart In Your Heartbreak is great. Charming, sweet and funny. And it's a great song as well.

(via pitchfork)

Video of the day (Peelander-Z - Ninja High Schooool

Are you weak?

Join Ninja High Schooool!!!!!



Have a good weekend!

Harmony Korine on Letterman

After I finished Rubin and Ed last night I got stuck on youtube watching Harmony Korine interviews until the wee hours. The Letterman clips are genius. I'm not a huge fan of Letterman himself, but it's fascinating to see the changes in Korine himself between the different shows.

In 1995, promoting Larry Clark's Kids, which he wrote the screenplay for.



In 1997, promoting his own feature debut (and one of my all-time favorite films) Gummo.



And finally in 1999, promoting the release of his "novel" A Crack-up At The Race Riots



Amazing.

My cat can eat a whole watermelon

I've wanted to see Rubin and Ed for a long time. The first time I heard about it was when Joe Escalante of The Vandals (one of my favourite bands at the time) mentioned the film as one of his favorites on the band website at some point in the late 90-s (I think). That was before super-fast internet connections and downloading films just wasn't done, by me anyway. As far as I know the film has never been released in the UK and has never been released "properly" on DVD at least. The only way you can get it on DVD is by ordering it directly from the director himself, Trent Harris.


Anyway, I finally got round to watching it last night and what a delightful little film it turned out to be. Made in 1991 it stars Crispin Glover as Rubin and Howard Hesseman as Ed, two strangers whose paths cross by accident and who embark on a strange and wonderful journey together. Rubin is a social recluse mourning the death of his beloved cat. When his mother confiscates his stereo and refuses to hand it back until he makes some friends, Rubin is forced to leave the house. He soon bumps into Ed, who's unsuccessfully trying to lure strangers off the street to sign up for the dodgy 'get-rich-through-real-estate' Organisation he's working for. Rubin promises to attend the seminar if they can just bury his dead cat first. The cat has been kept in the freezer while he's been mourning/waiting for the right place, so into a cool box and then into the trunk of Ed's car it goes. However, the "right place" proves rather difficult to find and they soon find themselves lost in the middle of the desert without water or food. That's pretty much it. Rubin and Ed argue, get separated, find each other again, argue some more and strange friendship slowly develops. So, not a whole lot happens, but the way it's played is just mesmerising. With plenty of memorable dialogue and surreal imagery, it's just an absolute pleasure to watch. It's quirky, sweet and extremely well acted. Crispin Glover is especially brilliant.

So, do seek this film out. It's a charming little indie gem that deserves to be seen.

Here's a clip to whet your appetite.



Order the film directly from Director Trent Harris here.

Soo who did it? Who killed him?

Captain Alex that is. The trailer for Uganda's first action movie hit the internet at some point last year and it was just amazing. The special effects, the obvious passion involved in making it, everything. Like a million or so other people I watched the trailer, laughed until I cried and wanted desperately to see the whole thing. But, with the internet having killed my attention span completely, I soon forgot all about Captain Alex. Until today, when I thought I'd see if I could find the film online. And I did. On youtube even. The whole thing. The only thing is that it seems to have a director's commentary track on it....or just one guy doing overdubs for all the action by constantly shouting. I really don't know. But, I just couldn't do it. I mean...well done for making it and all...I guess...but, there is just no way I'm gonna be able to sit through an hour and a half of that. I'll stick to the trailer, which is just perfect. Here it is.



Ah-Ah-Ah-Ahhhh-ACTION!!

Video of the day (Graffiti Island - Head Hunters)

Last night I was looking for upcoming gigs on Songkick and noticed that I never really use the site. Well, I get the gig alerts by email, by I hardly ever bother to click the I'm going or I was there buttons. So, I started adding gigs I'd been to...and pretty soon my "gigography was up to 180 or so...I was bored, ok? Looking back at all these shows it also struck me how often you don't really realise how incredible a line-up is until a long time after the event. Like 3rd December 2008 at the Old Blue Last. It's a pretty small venue, but that night I saw Vivian Girls, supported by The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and Graffiti Island. Now, that is a fucking incredible line-up and I really don't think I appreciated it enough at the time. Anyway, it mainly made me remember Graffiti Island and how awesome they were...are? What happened to them? Are they still going? So, today's video is the awesome Headhunters...



I believe the video is footage from the movie Beach Babes 2: Cave Girl Island, which I've never heard of, but looks pretty damn amazing. If I can find it somewhere online I think I may have tonight's viewing sorted. Definitely looks like more fun than I Spit On Your Grave, which I watched last night.

Graffiti Island on myspace

Video of the day (Trash Kit - Cadets)

I didn't pay much attention to the Trash Kit album last year. I remember listening to it and thinking it was a bit meh. Then, after being given the new seven-inch split with Woolf a couple of weeks ago I decided to give it a second chance. This quickly turned into a third, fouth and fifth chance and now I just can't stop listening to it. It truly is a brilliant record. Better late than never, though...right?

Here's the awesome video for Cadets.



Buy the record from Upset The Rhythm HERE!

Trash Kit official blog/website thing

Video of the day (Pansy Division - Bad Boyfriend)

Best. Video. Ever.


Really.

Suicide Club (aka Suicide Circle)

So…I watched Shion Sono's Suicide Club on Sunday morning. Now, it's perhaps not the most obvious choice for a lazy Sunday morning movie, but I had just been reading about it and was a bit curious. Well, what can I say? There was quite a lot to take in and I'm still not sure what to make of it. From the infamous opening sequence where 50 smiling Japanese schoolgirls jump in front of a speeding subway train to the surreal bowling alley sequence where kidnapped humans and animals are kept inside white duvet covers, whilst their captors perform weird songs about death, the whole thing is quite a mind-boggling mess. And let's not forget the "wheel of flesh" that occasionally makes an appearance. Yes, that's right. It's a wheel made out of strips of human flesh, taken from soon-to-be suicide victims and stitched together to form a giant wheel.


As you'd expect from the subject matter, it's a very dark film. It shows a bleak world where the only people who look happy are the ones who have made the decision to end their lives. And who's to blame? The internet? Vacuous pop music? Our obsession with fame? Are there supernatural powers at work here? The film doesn't provide us with any answers and throws in more than a fair share of surreal elements to confuse the audience...the above mentioned wheel of flesh being one. But maybe that's the whole idea, to make us question why some things are considered weird and some aren't. Why do we accept that 50 young school girls would collectively kill themselves, but get confused about a wheel of flesh?


Anyway, I really have no idea what to make of it and I'm not going to pretend that I do. Extremely tasteless and troublesome, but still quite a fascinating watch.

Suicide Club on imdb

Video of the day (The Death Set - Slap Slap Slap Pound Up Down Snap)

This video was out about in January and I can't remember why I didn't post it at the time. Maybe I wanted to wait for the release of the album, before I started going on and on and on about The Death Set.

The video is a just a total blast of energy and brings to mind the video for New Noise by Refused, which is one of my all-time favorite music videos (watch here). And, even though it doesn't quite match that video in levels of awesomeness, it's still really fucking intense.



The Death Set will be coming to Europe during the summer, but it looks like the only confirmed date so far is a festival in Slovakia. I can only hope that they find time for some UK dates.

The new album, Michel Poiccard, is out now on Ninja Tune and you can buy it here. It's absolutely awesome!

The Death Set official website

Girls Names, Standard Fare and Shrag live (The Lexington, 4th March 2011)

Absolutely brilliant line-up at The Lexington last night. All three bands were soooo good. Some photos...


Girls Names (official website/blog)






Standard Fare (official website)




Shrag (myspace)

Video of the day (Shrag - Talk To The Left)

It's Friday! Yay! Shrag AND Standard Fare playing at The Lexington this evening! Double Yay! It's been a rather shit and dull week, so I'm really looking forward to this. I can't even remember the last time I saw Shrag. Judging from my Shrag tag it was back in June 2009 at Cargo with Tender Trap and The Pains.

Here's the video for Talk To The Left, the first Shrag song I ever heard.


Their most recent album Life! Death! Prizes! narrowly missed out on my top-10 of 2010 and ended up in 11th place. It's awesome and you can/should buy it from the WIAIWYA website.

Video of the day (Eternal Summers - Pogo)

Today's video of the day is Eternal Summers' Pogo, one of the highlights on the podcast I posted yesterday.

If you're heading to SxSW (which, sadly, I'm not) you should definitely try to catch these guys.


Eternal Summers official website/blog

What? A podcast...no, really.

It's so cold and miserable out there, so I thought I'd share a summery podcast with you. Well, it's kinda summery anyway. It's been over a year since my last one, so I thought it was about time really. It's very guitary and quite shouty in bits. Some old classics, mixed with some new favorites to help you bounce the cold away. Anyway, here it is. Enjoy!


1. Pointed Sticks - Out Of Luck
2. Avtalet - Dina Vänner Kan Dö
3. The Love Gestures - No Worries
4. The Germs - Lexicon Devil
5. Eternal Summers - Pogo
6. The Childballads - Cheekbone Hollows
7. Humousexual - Seven Hundred Kilometres
8. Japanther - Seventy Nine
9. Nodzzz - I Have Bad News
10. Sea Pinks - Japanese Knotwood
11. The Ponys - Pop Culture (Revisited)
12. Jaill - She's My Baby
13. The Mr. T Experience - More Than Toast
14. Garbo's Daughter - He Makes My Heart Go Pop
15. Cloud Nothings - Not Important
16. The Proper Ornaments - Home
17. Death - Rock N'Roll Victim

Download podcast number 6 here (via Mediafire)