Diggin

Music: I’m really loving two new records this week. First is No Age’s Nouns, the follow-up to their much-hyped EP compliation Weirdo Rippers. It’s streamlined noise-pop mastery at its best and manages to rattle through its songs fast enough that any sense of pretension or posing never materialises. The other is the amazing Music Hole by a capella chanteuse Camille which expands on the rough-hewn fun of Le Fil and creates a tangible world for her to exist in.
I managed to get hold of two great Jim O’Rourke soundscaping albums (Bad Timing and I’m Happy, I’m Singing, And a 1,2,3,4) and they are proving fantastic for working. As a general rule of thumb, krautrock and motorik electronica are efficient soundtracks for writing. I’m still obsessed with Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago which might be my favourite album of the year so far.
I got to see Sebadoh play Bubble & Scrape live as part of the Don’t Look Back series from ATP and that was some experience. The crowd didn’t quite get the concept fully, constantly requesting during the album portion of the show, but the band were affable and in good spirits so they took it well. For the record, it’s a much better album live.
Elsewhere, the new Scarlett Johannson record has a couple of nice moments but is mostly a slightly misguided folly. Death Cab for Cutie’s follows the trajectory of Plans in being good enough but not really closing in on the brilliance of Photo Album, We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes and their masterpiece, Transatlanticism.
Portishead are reassuringly brilliant and Wolf Parade are spiky but not fully satisfying. I haven’t absorbed My Morning Jacket’s Evil Urges yet but first listen reveals an album falling somewhere between the church-hall grandiosity of the first two and the slinky brilliance of Z.

Moonlinker

PopSugar UK has the trailer for the Sex and the City movie.

Scott Tobias starts up a new feature on new cult movies for The AV Club.

The Guardian joins the rest of us in praise of the new album from Goldfrapp.

John McCain really is kicking off with The New York Times.

Pitchfork has Black Mountain on Conan.

In very serious news, two deeply evil men have been sent to jail. Here and here.

IGN has trailers for the new GTA.

PopMatters re-expresses its distaste at The Two Jakes, the follow-up to the unimpeachable Chinatown.

Lots of Oscar talk on Slate. Who’s going to win? What about Michael Clayton? A guide on how to score a moody western.

David Denby talks through his views on the Coen Brothers for The New Yorker.

There are worries over the campaign spending of Hillary.

The Boston Globe is loving Be Kind Rewind.

David Simon talks to Newsweek.

Roger Deakins, genuis cinematographer behind the Assassination of Jesse James and No Country for Old Men, is interviewed right here.