Last week our Melbourne friends told us that the Laneway Festival is one of the least respected festivals in Australia, we were surprised, but it meant we entered the first Auckland Laneway festival with a hint of scepticism. We’d been told stories of forty minute-queues to see bands, poor facilities and an even poorer location, but on first inspection of the Britomart Square set-up it seemed to be very well laid out. There was plenty of room for fans to access both stages; the toilets seemed aplenty and food stalls appeared to be well situated through the area. It all seemed very different from the description we’d been told of the Melbourne event.
PARSLEY’S COMMLOCK
Film Review : Molière
Much to my surprise over Christmas I discovered that you can now watch films again on BBC iPlayer. I guess when the beeb buys films now they are getting clearance for the UK internet broadcast. One which I watched this way was a dramatisation of the life of French playwright Molière. According to wikipedia the story only vaguely reflected his actual life, but nevertheless it was an entertaining package.
Romain Duris, the guy who plays Molière, a.k.a. Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, was great at conveying contempt (for his vain patron Monsieur Jourdain, played by Fabrice Luchini, who hires him to teach him to act) and passion (for his patron’s long-suffering wife).
The conceit of the film is that eventually Molière’s most outrageous comedy is a faithful representation of this episode of his life. Whilst in his way rather bumbling, and almost Chaplin-esque with his moustache, Molière cleverly thwarts the worst ambitions of a fraudulent nobleman who is swindling Jourdain, and intertwines romance, comedy and tragedy in his anonymous love for Madame Jourdain, whilst ineptly pretending to be a priest staying with them to instruct their daughter.
Overall Review: Thumbs firmly up. A clever funny film.
I’m a bit behind today. Sorry for that, but I have spent the morning scrolling through all the various blogs and websites that attended last night’s Charlotte Gainsbourg show at The Bell House and I kind of feel like the coverage of the event has been blown out of proportion. Now I understand that last night was Charlotte’s first ever New York performance and likely her first ever show for paying customers, but just because of the special nature of the performance and the fact that Wayne Coyne showed up to watch the show does not make it the greatest concert of all time as all the other sites would have you believe. Instead what we saw on The Bell House stage last night was a performer that was nervous, quiet, and terribly shy - spending most of the set hiding behind her hair while standing at the microphone and the other half sitting on a stool gently crooning along with her band.
Starting with opening act Dean & Britta, the show last night was a subtle affair with hushed, whispering that took the place of singing, and a sound system that was as quiet as I have heard in New York in ages. For the opening set most of The Crowd provided a huge din that over shadowed the nuance of Dean & Britta and forced their set to be skewed by my disdain over the folks that spent $30 just to have a conversation. Normally that doesn’t matter when I go to shows, the sound system is usually so loud you couldn’t talk over it if you tried, but last night was meant to be something else and I truly wish people would have been able to restrain themselves from ruining a performance that could have been somewhat magical.
Along with a number of other bloggers, I did my fair share of hyping up The Soft Pack last year. And their debut album justifies all that enthustiastic frothing - because it is fucking ace. It’s the best debut album since Is This It changed the rock n roll topography 10 years ago.
When an unsigned band is named by the likes of Michael M of We Are The Physics as one of his top 10 acts of the year, you know they’re worth checking out. Ex Wives have been kicking around Glasgow for quite a while now, and been cranking out dismembered, scuzzy music for as long as I can remember.
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Masters of the art of standing outside the mainstream whilst simultaneously gaining widespread recognition and acclaim from the industry, Placebo finally returned to Glasgow’s SECC to deliver the niche which they have carved out over the years.
Confessions must be made. I never was a fan of Placebo till a couple of years ago. Infact, that’s not probably not strong enough. I had a fairly intense dislike of them, for no reason that I can articulate. Having my own voice compared to that of Brian Molko in my musical endeavours (Closet Organ) only served to add fuel to the fire.
I can’t get enough of this band. Seriously. Part of me feels that I should probably shut up about Pulled Apart By Horses before everyone else gets sick of the sound of them. Infact, maybe that wouldn’t be an altogether bad thing; protecting them from the droves of idiots who will no doubt jump on the populist bandwagon.
BBQ and King Khan have released another garage rock gem. Invisible Girl is a rock n roll soul party record - all handclaps, doo wop backing vocals, 12 bar chords and familiar melodies. And quite unbelievably filthy lyrics.
Big Ripper is a monstrous record. It’s the album Godzilla has in his headphones as he’s trashing Manhattan. It’s what King Kong hears in his head as he’s beating his chest at the top of the Empire State building.
Musically, it’s an exhilirating riff stew with drums the sound of wrecking balls demolishing houses. Everything is distorted - every sound is so far in the red the dials are practically bleeding.
We have collected some truly heinous examples of recent album covers, from Empire Of The Sun’s Star Wars travesty to the truly banal evil that is Razorlight’s Slipway Fire. Discretionary...
Album art in this gallery was selected based on several simple traits: strong concept, fine graphics including creative typography and general lushness. The first three of ‘The Best Record...
Placebo pictures: just in - some photos of Placebo and Brian Molko from last week’s gig at the Glasgow SECC.
Also check out the review here
A juicy set of Pulled Apart By Horses photos to enjoy with the review of their gig at Captain’s Rest in Glasgow.
Electro punkster, show girl Merrill Nisker aka Peaches promotes her latest album, I Feel Cream produced by Simian Mobile Disco’s James Ford. Peaches shared stage at KOKO on the 13th of December...
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