I’m going to try and blog more often than once a month. I mean it this time.
Anyway, the thing I wanted to talk to you about this June is Jeff Caudill.
It’s a well documented fact that I love(d) Gameface, and pretty much everything that Jeff has done since. You might also be aware that my favourite Gameface LP was 2001s “Always On”
The album was as radio friendly as anything the band ever did, with My Star becoming a bona fide indie radio hit. I could talk forever about each of the songs and the memories that they hold. But then that’s what was so great about Gameface, their songs were always so easy to make your own…. But I digress.
So, fast forward a decade, and Jeff has just released Always On – an acoustic LP to mark the tenth anniversary of the original. All your favourites, but acoustic and a little more mature (I swear, if the new version of Warmest Heart Attack doesn’t melt your heart just a little bit, then you probably don’t have one)
The record is available through Unless You Try, here – and is pressed on black, blue and clear vinyl. (You also get a copy of Every Last Song, the rarities and demo’s record that I love so much, with each purchase)
To support the release of this record, Jeff is heading to the UK this July. It’s a small DIY tour so it’d be awesome to see some of you there. Looking forward to the Windmill so much!
I just got finished with James Francos first fictional offering “Palo Alto“, this afternoon, and I have some thoughts about it that I’d like to share with you.
It’s set out as a series of short stories, each from different characters who live in and around the Palo Alto area in the mid 90s. Some of the characters know each other, others don’t. Some are male and some are female, they’re mostly around high school age and few seem to have many scruples.
Firstly, at the beginning of the book I was struck by how simple it was to read, considering Franco’s boner for Gus Van Sant and being an “artist” and all I was expecting a pretty verbose affair, but the the prose was super readable and the characters immediately intriguing if not intrinsically likeable.
As I progressed through the book it became apparent how massively in love with Easton Ellis, and indeed the entire blank fiction movement he is. The prose is sparse, the characters are mostly misogynists and the interconnectedness of the characters is less like a hipster Tales of the City and more like The Rules of Attraction picked up and planted right in the middle of mid 90s Palo Alto.
The thing was, I couldn’t figure out if I liked it. It was a pretty engrossing read and he’s obviously crazy talented in a myriad of departments, but I don’t know how interested I am in books about horrible teenage boys anymore (No-one here has even a hint of Holden). I think if I was in my early twenties I’d probably love this. And it’s definitely better than anything that Ethan Hawke has written. It’s pretty hard to read this and not imagine Franco’s Freaks & Geeks character as any one of the male protagonists. Although even he would have difficulty making some of these guys likeable.
It reads quite similarly to Nick McDonnell’s “Twelve” but that might just be the disaffected youth thing. All of this being said, it’s one of the simplest things I’ve read recently and I’m glad I did. I like his style, I’d be interested to see a change in subject matter, but I think that might be because I’m 33.
Pop punk outfit of awesome Mixtapes released their new EP Hope Is Important last week. Needless to say it’s fantastic, and you should head over to http://animalstylerecords.bandcamp.com/ and pick it up for a paltry 5 bucks. It probably won’t blow your mind as it’s more of the same from Cincinatti’s finest, but it will, because they’re consistently great.
What sets Mixtapes aside from the rest of the pop punk crowd for me, isn’t just the juxtaposition of sweet female/gruff male vocals or any of that, but the slightly grumpy, don’t want to party all the time but with an underlying sense of positivity lyrics.
Anyway, enough from me, they just released a video for the title track from “Hope Is For People”. Watch it, fall in love with it and all of that Latterman inspired pop punk summer stuff.
There are still no plans for them to come to the UK as yet, but they’re heading out across the US this Summer with Dear Landlord, and later with Red City Radio. (which I’m a little gutted about missing)
I initially found Julie Klausner’s book on Amazon after reading something about the book being converted for TV with Lizzie Caplin up to star as the protagonist. My decision to purchase was also influenced by the only review for the book, written by a horrible woman who really didn’t seem to understand humour and was upset that it wasn’t more like Sex And The City. I was sold!
The book is primarily about Julie’s dating exploits from childhood through to her early 30′s, where we find her, well adjusted, today. However, it’s most definitely not one of those “Smart Girls Guide To Breaking Up/Who Needs A Man Anyway” deals. Far from it. Julie LOVES men. And that’s one of the things that stops this memoir falling into the realm of angry young feminist sitting in Clevercleverland.
Right from the get go, this book is pretty fucking hysterical.
Learning about young Julie’s childhood struck at least a few chords of resonance with me – well, of the Judy Blume/Paula Danzinger inspired childhood I had in my mind if not my own dull English Countryside existence. From her desperation to be a child star through to her initial foray into the world of boys, and her catalogue knowledge of TV shows, movies and indie rock. (Now I realised that this describes pretty much any girl that came of age in the 90s and has ever picked up a copy of Bust, but trust me, these days we’re a dying breed)
From long distance early internet romances through an adolescent obsession with phone sex lines, there are many cultural markers that will ring true to many a girl of a certain demographic. At times it’s as if she’s dredging up my own sordid teen years, but without any of the stomach-in-mouth embarrassment that would usually accompany.
I particularly enjoyed reading Turn Down The Glamour about the relationship with her first real boyfriend David, who “tried to strip away all of Kate’s lovely lashes and wigs and iridescent outfits to reveal what he was confident was the mousy, wide-eyed, ragamuffin little girl that he wanted to love me as, and who he wanted me to be”
Who hasn’t been in this situation with at least one punk/indie rock boy?
Another favourite is the essay I originally read years ago “I Don’t Care About Your Band” about dating an “Indie Rock Musician” from “Williamsburg” (I remember at the time reading a rumour about who the piece was about, and then meeting the supposed suitor myself a little while later, and also being super-surprised by how short he was)
This piece has always rung so true to me, because boys in bands do refuse to grow up – more than boys in general. They will literally be in their 40s and still behaving the same way they have been since their teens. Although this is an appealing prospect in your early 20s, as a woman, regardless of how many pins still adorn your denim jacket, you’ll soon find yourself wanting more than an encyclopaedic knowledge of Elephant 6 releases.
And it’s always nice to be validated.
Julie traverses the New York dating landscape and encounters almost as many types as you’ll find in 90s classic Field Guide To The North American Male. Learning a little something from each and every encounter. She finds humour sometimes even sense, and rarely strays into bitterness in her descriptions.
I’d love to write more about just.how.good I found this book, but I’m already a little on the verbose side, and I have one more point I’d like to make.
One of the things that really upsets me about other reviews I’ve read about this book is the assumption that because at times Julie warns you that you can’t trust all your female friends, and has the audacity to have a gay best friend (jeeez, how stereotypical) then she can’t possibly be a feminist.
This is the kind of (haha) rationale that will send me into a huge fit of rage. There are literally hundreds of books written by girls who just love shopping and “chicklit” and weren’t appalled by the way Sex And The City finally ended. And there are also hundreds of books written by Wimmin’s Studies majors who despise lipstick and believe wholeheartedly in the power of girlhood. You know what there aren’t hundreds of books about? Girls who fall between the two camps. Girls who grew up with Riot Grrrl, but also lust after pin up good looks and hate being photographed without their Rubywoo.
Girls the media often refers to as “sassy”
I’m one of those girls, and I’m glad that someone has eventually written a book so smart and so funny that I can actually relate to.
I’ll admit it, I didn’t really take an interest in Parenthood up until a couple of weeks ago – when it was at the Upfronts and was being pitched as a “reworking” of the movie of the same name, of which I am not a fan, I shrugged and moved on.
But, I have a Life, Unexpected shaped hole in my viewing schedule (and shhhh, maybe also in my heart) and this season’s tv mostly sucks. Supernatural has been patchy at best – shoulda kept it to the original 5 season plan guys – and I’ve given up on Vampire Diaries and Gossip Girl.
What then, to bridge the 20/30 something viewing gap – something that’s smart and funny and un-contrived, and in an ideal world has some soul?
In steps Jason Katims, yes he of OMG! didn’t he used to write for My So Called Life ? And Roswell? and Friday Night Lights? fame
(Before I get into explaining why this show is so mind blowingly good, I’ll tell you that out of the 3 people I have recommended the show to of recent all 3 have got in contact to tell me how in love with it they are. Who doesn’t trust the opinion of 4 random strangers?)
The premise is simple and much the same as the movie. The plot centres around the lives of 4 siblings and their families. At this stage it could’ve gone either way – but for the casting.
The show stars Peter Krause as Adam Braverman – eldest brother of the clan, Lauren Graham (Laurielei how I’ve missed you!) as quirky younger sibling Sarah, Dax Shepherd as irresponsible-younger-brother type and Erica Christensen as together-lawyer-sister, Julia. Oh, and we probably shouldn’t forget everyone’s favourite haunted-house-movie-dad Craig T Nelson, as the Braverman family patriarch.
The show begins as Sarah moves home and back into her parents house in Berkley with her two teenage children. The first episode packs a whole bunch of saw-that-comin’ punches, but with writing as good as this, you really don’t care.
Let me level with you here. If you’re a dude, this probably isn’t the show for you, unless you’re the kind of dude that enjoys relationships and loved Dawson’s Creek. But if you yearn for that inimitable feeling you used to get at the end of certain MSCL/Party of 5 episodes, where for 10 seconds you forgot you hated everything about them and you wished your family was like the Chases/Salingers then this is going to KILL you.
I wanted to write a whole thing about the characters and the way they interact, and how it’s got an almost SATC vibe when it comes to which one of the protagonists you most see yourself in, except in this show, there is no Carrie. No-one is inherently likeable or inherently flawed, and in this lies the shows magic. The characters are so believable that you’re willing to let all that, preaching to the masses/moralistic message TV shit that goes along with a network show in the USA slide.
I’m only at the beginning of the second season, and I’m not going to post any spoilers, I just wanted you to know that you should be watching it. It’ll make your life better, in a way actual family can’t.
It’s Valentine’s, and me being a girl and all, despite punk rock leanings and an at-times-Daria-esque shell, I sometimes like to watch rom coms. DON’T JUDGE ME.
Not real Rom Coms of course, I’m way to self aware for that stuff – my guilt complex only allows me to fully enjoy them if they’re of the indie variety. So without further ado, here are my top 5 indie rom coms to watch alone, or with your best girl pal (boys really take the edge of them, I speak from experience)
Dedication
Justin Theroux directs Billy Crudup as Henry Roth, a massively damaged and misanthropic childrens books author living in New York. Through some saddening fate twists he’s forced to work with new illustrator, Mandy Moore (with the nicest heavy eye-makeup I’ve ever seen). He’s awkward and mental, she teaches him not to be – you know the deal, but everyone is pretty, there are heartbreaking moments of honesty and Theroux handles the direction well with beautiful lighting and a perfect score.
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
I don’t understand what there’s not to love about this movie. Sure, the book was a little more punk rock in it’s name dropping but JEEEEZ. Did you see how downright adorable everyone in this movie is. And not in a really sickening way either. Kat Dennings is a huge girl crush of mine, based on her basic perfection. Michael Cera is admittedly type cast, but dang, he does it so well. Adorable, sweet, cute, a harkback to 80′s into the night movies and laugh out loud funny. ALWAYS improves my mood – and a singalong soundtrack to boot.
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Kevin Smith has a huge hard on for John Hughes movies, but who doesn’t, right? This is where he has come closest to getting it right. Elizabeth Banks is awesome as Miri, and this was the movie where Seth Rogen started becoming less annoying in general. Porn stars, hockey, star wars, high school reunions and a jaw droppingly funny cameo from Justin Long. Oh, and it leaves you with that warm and fuzzy feeling you haven’t had since 1994.
Going The Distance
If you know me at all you know that a) My dedication and love for Drew Barrymore knows no bounds and b) I completely believe in the potential of long-distance-relationships. Thereby, it’s not a huge leap to assume that I would be smitten with Going The Distance from the get go. Yes, it’s very cheesy, there are some cringeworthy moments and it’s very predictable, but it’s adorable and funny and Long and Barrymore carry it beautifully. It’s also a treat for fans of Top Gun.
Lars and the Real Girl
Written by long time 6 feet Under scribe Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl centres around the character of Lars played to perfection by Ryan Gosling (in his least dreamy role to date). He’s very damaged by circumstance, and, long story short imports a Russian sex doll and parades her about the small town he inhabits, apparently believing she’s his girlfriend. Stay with me, I know it sounds so indie quirky that you want to die, but give it a chance by the end of the movie it’s pretty much the dictionary definition of heartwarming, albeit you’ve taken an odd route to get there.
I feel pretty good about myself that I managed to write this list and avoid Zooey Deschanel completely. I have tons more that I wanted to add to the list, but really, who wants to read all of that on Valentines . It’s a day for smooching or eating cupcakes and listening to pop-punk, right?
And on that note, I’m off to partake in one of the above.
Remember how I put Spinning In Circles Is A Gateway Drug in my best of the year list?
Well, now I’m stoked that Red City Radio have released a video for the very same audio masterpiece. It’s by no means world changing, it’s pretty standard punk fair as far as videos go, but it’s still catchy as fuck and cheering up my slightly miserable, rainy Thursday afternoon.
It does however, make me feel massively aware that I work in marketing.
So, the other day I was going through my RSS and found a link to the Just A Quiet Evening comp on punknews. It features a bunch of people that you’ve probably not heard of yet, doing acoustic covers of (amongst others) Brand New, Lifetime, Saves The Day, Broadway Calls and Bouncing Souls. The cover of Lifetime’s Young, Loud, and Scotty by one Kristia Moya (of Dead Ringer) instantly became my favourite thing about this month. She’s barely 21, hails from New Jersey and seems to love the 90s almost as much as me.
On googling her YouTube (she has dozens of acoustic covers up – like a punk rock Julia Nunes -less trading on adorable, more on awesome) I discovered she’s also a Jawbreaker obsessive and has covered a bunch of not just Jawbreaker but Jets to Brazil stuff. So yes, she’s my new favourite and after you watch this video she might well be yours too – check out her cover of Jawbreaker’s Jinx Removing:
Kind of like smitten? You can get the Dead Ringer demo on their bandcamp and download Kristia’s covers from Mediafire.
Their official facebook is here and Kristia just posted an acoustic version of their new song “We’re Brown As Fuck” from their upcoming EP. That should keep you going for a little while, eh?
2010 was – without doubt – my favourite year of my life thus far, strangely it was probably also the year that I have paid the least attention to pop cultural releases. I’m not drawing any lines between the two, but it’s given me something to think about.
Anyway, without further procrastination, here are my favourite musical things about 2010:
No surprises here, it’s no secret how much I adore these dudes. It’s a solid record from beginning to end, and I loved it from the get-go. This being said, I haven’t really listened to it since another “seeing them live and walking them out midway through” incident this October. The Levi’s sponsorship still leaves a curious taste in my mouth. Anyway, all of this aside it’s still a fantastic record, and Orphans is my stand out track.
It’s odd to think my love affair with Miss Caitlin Rose only began this year when I fell hard for her Dead Flowers EP, followed by what may well have been my favourite show ever, upstairs at the Old Queens Head earlier this year. I literally counted don the weeks for her to release her full length, so that I could once again hear the song “New York” which was every bit as good as I remembered it. If you don’t know and love her already, check her out and pay no attention to the “handed on a plate” haters, she’s awesome, as a second show this year at the Slaughtered Lamb with a full band proved.
Maps came from nowhere at the end of January and made my life an altogether better place to be. Every track on the album makes me grin like a maniac. Somehow striking a perfect balance between pop punk and indie rock with boy-girl vocals they rapidly became my favourite new band of the year. The release of “Thoughts About Growing Up” cemented this belief and they just about blew my mind with the release of the Halloween themed split with other new faves Direct Hit! Get it, learn it and love it throughout the whole of 2011
Direct Hit had been floating around on mixtapes since earlier this year but I only really started to pay attention when Snickers or Reeses (Pick Up The Pieces) found its way onto one of my go to playlists. They’re basically everything I ever loved about pop punk, and with a heady amount of songs about monsters (which ALWAYS makes me swoon) They had a cassette version of the anthology up for grabs this November, if you didn’t manage to snag one worry not! The debut studio full length should be out early next year.
On first listen this seems a little bit “gruff punk by the numbers” but you soon realise it’s waaaaay bigger than that. It’s a perfect posi/gruff/pop punk single. Listen to it and try and feel bad I dare you. This shit makes me happier than Latterman. They sorta sound like a heady blend of the Riot Before and Broadway Calls, sorta.
To be honest, I’d have fallen for this record based on song titles, it being freakin’ rad was a big plus. It’s poppier and more refined than Shitty Rambo and the demo and it’s awesome for it. It makes every day feel like mid July when you were 19, dig? I’m all about the first track - Every Town Has an Elm Street.
This year was lacking a proper Weakerthans record, but this (and the John K Samson EP) more than made up for it. Ottawa native Jim Bryson teamed up with the Winnipeg legends to produce this slice of magic. A perfect record for the transition from Fall to Winter, full of big, layered sounds and softly softly vocals as melody stylings. Lives in that happy land between country and indie rock. “Metal Girls” is a great poppy introduction.
Lets face it, John K Samson can do no wrong. Any year without a Weakerthans record could have been made exponentially better with the release of one, but this 3 song EP makes all that yearning go away. When he sings “I know I’m just your little ampersand” in “The Last And” I defy your heart to not melt, at least a little. And I don’t know anyone else that could make a song about broken code and unclosed tags seem ethereal, but he does. New Weakerthans next year please.
This is going to be the release that makes your Mum love Justin T, but who cares – it’s awesome. I thought about not including this after that whole postponing the UK tour and going into rehab thing but with the imminent rescheduled date I forgave him. This record is just a tiny bit better than Midnight at the Movies and melancholic in an altogether more upbeat way. I’m kind of in love with “Christchurch Woman”
As if I wasn’t going to include Blake on this list. After the break up of Thorns of Life I was more than slightly sad, and then forgetters (no capital F) made everything all okay again. Although this EP is more Jawbreaker than Jets and I’m old and it’s winter I love love love this record. I love “Vampire Lessons” the most even though it’s not the best song on the EP. (Blake Schwarzenbach with vague vampiric leanings? JESUS)
Anyway, that was it, my favourite records of this year. I’m going to try and add books and TV later this week, but I have a tax return to complete so we’ll see how that goes. I’m also going to try and upload my best of 2010 mixtape later on, but I’ll let you know.
Edit – I uploaded the mix to 8tracks because today I am a fan of legality. Here you are – go crazy!
So I may not be American, I may not agree with the holiday and I may not really get along with my family, in fact I think it’s for these reasons that I’m so attracted to the notion of the Thanksgiving movie. They’re a different breed than the Christmas movie (although don’t get me wrong, I’m addicted to those too) there’s no moralistic time-of-the-season suagr to buy into, and most often the characters seem reticent about the notion of being forced to spend time with their nearest and dearest. I think this is why my Virgo self finds it all so appealing, enforced family time that one can’t escape, but I digress.
With the exception of Planes,Trains… the Thanksgiving movie is generally a slightly sombre affair. It lends itself to the US indie perfectly – just think of the opportunity! Beautiful cinematography, huge open air shots of large expanses blanketed in snow (even in the city-centric Pieces of April we’re given enough freeway shots to meet this demand) lots of tiny conversations that don’t come to filling the space, all of the staples!
The notion of home and family is a particularly complex one in the 21st century, which is probably why the Thanksgiving movie exists. Anyway, these are my favourite Thanksgiving movies that I always find the time to watch around this time of year.
This is my favourite of the lot, I feel like I may have over romanticized it slightly, given it still hasn’t been released on DVD and my VHS version was lost years before my VHS player. The cast reads like an all star indie fest, and unsurprisingly director (and husband of Julianne Moore) Bart Freundlich was up for the Grand Jury at Sundance the year it came out.
It follows the children and their respective partners returning to their familial home for Thanksgiving, Roy Scheider and Blythe Danner play Mom and Dad and the children (and others) include Noah Wyle, Julianne Moore, Hope Davis, Michael Vartan and James LeGros.
It’s hard to explain the beautiful understated simplicity of this movie (and harder still to understand how Bart went on the direct The Rebound). The relationships are honest in their confusion and blurry boundaries and pretty much everyone delivers a flawless performance. It’s a near perfect American Indie.
Remember back when Ang Lee hadn’t ruined the Incredible Hulk for everyone and people still swooned about his direction? Yeah, this is a shining example of that. It’s no secret I find the 70s massively comforting, so this is ideal for me. Featuring another all star cast, with Sigourney Weaver in her meanest role to date it centres around Kevin Kline’s Connecticut family and their surrounding community in the lead up to Thanksgiving in 1973. It has everything, a young Christina Ricci corrupting an even younger boyfriends sibling, Katie Holmes all fucked up on valium in an NY apartment, key parties, Tobey Maguire pre-Spiderfame, child death, storms AND family dissolution. And somehow, it all looks beautiful.
I love this Jodie Foster directed affair. It stars Holly Hunter, Downey Jnr and Guttenberg (!) and somehow manages to occupy the space between think-y indie and National Lampoons. I think my favourite moment is when Hunter arrives home and meets her parents at the airport having dropped her coat in the arrivals lounge is berated by her mother for lack of warmth and dressed in her spare, immediately demoting her to child status. As she’s sitting in the back of the car on the way back from the airport, she glances into the car in traffic next to theirs and sees a man her age also sitting in the back seat bundled in a huge coat listening to his parents yapping incessantly. It’s these moments of quiet comedy that this movie excels at. Oh, and cheeky prankster Robert Downey Jnr is fantastic too. It’s everything I love about Thanksgiving Movies.
I think we’re all agreed that Katie Holmes was best when she was playing Joey on Dawson’s? Well, she basically plays her again here, but in a slightly quirkier (crazy hair coloured) way.
She plays April, a bad girl (she’s living with a black guy and everything!) who has some issues with her overbearing mother. She’s invited her whole family to have Thanksgiving in her tiny shoddy NY apartment for the first time, and they haven’t spoken in years. Obviously everything that can fuck-up does – it’s the story of trying to repair past damages within an impending timeframe created by her mothers illness.
It’s better than it sounds and that’s down to the always amazing Oliver Platt lightening the tension with underplayed comedic genius at the exact moments it’s needed. Not your traditional big-house-in-the-country Thanksgiving movie, but it’s nice to see that setting doesn’t really have any bearing on the disfunction of familial interaction.
Hello,
