blog interrupted

The Mountain Goats were so great. Really great. Astonishingly great. Just as much storytellers as musicians. Chatting between songs. I laughed a great deal. Music reviewers are funny people. I met one of them last night. There was another music reviewer there that we were laughing at. I'm not naming names. I drank more than I should and today has been a bit rough. But it was worth it. Had lots of fun and caught up with a few friends. One thing I didn't point out is that the Mountain Goats featured on the soundtrack of Campbell Walker's film Little Bits of Light which I raved on about in another blog post. In fact, they were the soundtrack. And it was a perfect match to the film.

Anyway - heading off in the morning so won't be posting for a while.

Got to remember to:
charge the camera
charge the phone
make a thermos of coffee for the trip
collect together phone numbers of southern friends
make sure I've got the hotel info
get up in time for the ferry
make sure there's enough food so the teenagers don't starve (yes, I'm escaping sans enfants)

Later.

Smoke and Mirrors

SOD's brother Ben has a major show of his work at Aratoi Museum, and the opening is tonight. We've timed our holiday rather badly - we don't have time to head over the hill to Masterton to get to it as we are booked for the early ferry in the morning. How disorganised is that? Anyway, I designed his catalogue for the show and thought I'd get it up online. Here's the link. It's about 1Mb. The cover looks great. The title in the printed version is done in UV overgloss (printing/design geeks will get this). Looks pretty cool. Hopefully we'll get to check out the show the weekend we get back.

O O O I'm so Excited!

Yes indeed I am. I've been dabbling in the downloading lately. Just picking up a bit of new music here and there. I was doing a search for Dntel (essentially Jimmy Tamborello, who put out the fantastic Life is Full of Possibilities a few years back and who is also half of Postal Service together with Death Cab for Cutie's Benjamin Gibbard) and found an album with a Dntel mix. It's called Monika Force. Celebrates 40 releases under the german label of the same name. This is the first time in ages I've listened to something and just immediately loved it. It's got some chocolatey smooth synth but with that slightly dark germanic edge at times. Nice electronica, slightly glitchy. European sensibilities. What fucking topped it all off with a cherry was a cover of Brian Eno's "I'll Come Running" off Another Green World. In a German accent. Loving it. Hey, and there's a song called "Burka Blue" by an Afghani all-girl band. First listen only so far, but I can see this being on heavy rotation for a few weeks at least.

And I was right about my "Masochistic Tendencies" post. Three hits a day at least for specific searches. I wonder if many of them stick around.

holiday highlight

One of the highlights of our little southern tour is the opening of Matt Couper's show Arbroath Devotional in Christchurch on the night before we head home. Looking good, Mr Couper!

bloc party

Got my ticket for Mountain Goats. Picked up a ticket for Fly My Pretties while I was there. And, of course, there had to be the obligatory CD purchase while I was there. Picked up Bloc Party, Silent Alarm. Not bad. Still on the first listen. Very Brit-pop.

Holiday countdown: five days to go.

Polanksi No. 2

Listening to: Department of Eagles, Whitey on the Moon UK LP

I just LOVE these guys. Favourite song on the album: Piano in the Bathtub.

Here's a nice little quote about them.

***"A curiously charming, genre-jumping music that carries trace echoes of the Beta Band, Beck, and (on occasion) Blur at their most whimsical. Eclecticism can often seem forced, but Department of Eagles' magpie instincts are waggish, beguiling, and natural." - Record Collector

Okay, we watched Repulsion this afternoon and I was suitably impressed. I'm glad we saw it soon after his first film – I could spot a few recurring character traits in his characters that I wouldn't have noticed if I'd left more time between viewing. His detached women. His nervous strained men. The cigarettes smoked when under duress. The draped bodies. He likes to film women undressing. The casual disrobing. The only thing that annoyed me was her false eyelashes. Really Roman, they just don't stay on after a rough night of insomnia. And your hair doesn't stay that pretty. But hey, it's only recently that we have come to expect some naturalistic fashioning to our films. But fuck, I loved it. The shot composition was something to be wondered at. You just don't get that nowadays.

Polanski trio

Went to the vid store last night and got out three Polanski films: Knife in the Water, Repulsion, and Cul-de-sac.

I realised that I've only seen one Polanski film. Good lord. I've only seen Rosemary's Baby. How slack of me.

We've decided to watch the films chronologically, so we watched Knife in the Water (1963) last night. This was his feature debut, made in his native Poland. The next two films made were UK productions: Repulsion and Cul-de-Sac.

I enjoyed Knife in the Water. It's great to see a psychological drama that doesn't stoop to sensational plot devices. Set on a yacht over a period of two days, with only three characters, it was still totally engaging. I'm looking forward to watching the other two films.