Diggin

Music

Well, it’s been a little while since my last update so there is much to talk about. At work, I find I need to have very specific types of music playing to help my ability to type fast and not be too far taken out of my concentration. With this in mind, two types of music continually find their way onto playlists I make and so are often my working music pieces. The first is hip hop and in the past few weeks, I’ve become partially obsessed with finding good, eccentric and esoteric hip hop albums that sound interesting and manage to avoid much of the posing and faux-gangster braggadocio of much of mainstream rap. Peanut Butter Wolf and Madvillain are both amazing for this with the second’s Madvillainy album now placing itself among my all-time favourites in any genre. Also working for me are Prefuse 73, Flying Lotus, Aesop Rock, Cadence Weapon, J Dilla, Cannibal Ox, Edan, El-P and Sage Francis. All are recommended to those who like to avoid getting too much syrupy R ‘n’ B with their hip hop. Having said that, a man whose purveyance of syrupy R ‘n’ B verges on the R Kelly, T.I., has made the incredible, thrilling ‘Swagger Like Us’ with Lil Wayne (whose ‘A Milli’ is also a total masterpiece), Kanye West and the king of brag-rap, Jay-Z. For all my dislike of that kind of hip hop from lesser minds, this is a truly incredible song.

The other portion that’s working for me right now is long-form electronica and textural compositions. Lindstrom’s new album is wonderful while I would thoroughly boost Tim Hecker and Fennesz for some more challenging and dense electronic work. I’ve also fallen head-over-heels for the sweet, weird little songs from Books, a fine group making slight but hugely enjoyable albums of electronic-inflected indie. Just as a post-note on this, you can also add into the genres I dig for writing krautrock. I love me some really repetitive, motorik sound of Neu and Can, the latter providing some far more out-there, almost hippie moments while the former, and superior, is guitar-based pounding symphonies of rhythm and discipline. Neu would probably rank up as my absolute favourite of all for writing.

Other than these, and outside of work, I’ve become a little over-obsessed with a cover of ODB’s ‘Shimmy Shimmy Ya’ by White Pony and I really love the uber-heavy reggae dub of The Bug. The Hold Steady continue to float every portion of my boat, Jay Reatard (terrible name) has a singles collection which is filled with dirty garage rock and hooky choruses, the new songs from TV on the Radio are awesome and ‘Nonpareil of Favor’, the new track from Of Montreal, is terrific. Also well done to Elbow for winning the Mercury, even if it should have gone to Burial. Seldom Seen Kid is a fine record, even if they should really have won for their first record. At least, unlike many of the last few winners, they looked genuinely happy to have won the award rather than skulking off and remaining ‘cool’ in the moment.

 
Film

Busy weeks again on this front. Tom and I completed our 1980s marathon by finding out that Top Gun sucks, as does Arnie’s Red Heat. However, Total Recall holds up far better than it has any right to do and has ushered in an Arnie marathon which has thus far included Terminator (still superb) and Conan the Barbarian (has its moments). More are planned so stay tuned for that.

Better, and way cooler, than any of this though is Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai. Following Alain Delon’s Jef Costello, a Parisian hitman, through and existential passage of his life following a hit, it’s maybe the finest example I have ever seen of a hitman movie. Melville’s true skill is the economy of his filmmaking, allowing enigma to exist without providing spoonfed explanations for all that occurs and never over-indulging in dialogue. Alain Delon is likely the coolest human and if you witness this movie and don’t have an immediate urge to go and purchase a trenchcoat and hat, along with at least 500 packs of cigarettes, I don’t know your kind. It’s beautifully filmed, sparely written and acted without any theatrics from anyone involved. All remains at a level of cool detachment that, rather than making this overly-cold or uncomfortable, just makes you try harder to understand and engage with the story, the rewards for which are more than satisfactory. Hyperbole perhaps but I think this goes straight in amongst my all-time favourite films and I cannot recommend highly enough that you seek it out and take it in. I will now be searching out the rest of Melville’s work, including Le Cercle Rouge and Le Doulos.

I also got to see Pineapple Express which I absolutely loved. I’m a big lover and apologist for the Apatow-Rogen team and I really found nothing to hate in the mixture. James Franco is outstanding as Saul, bringing all he has to make sure you completely empathise with their plight and laugh hard while doing so. Rogen isn’t as good but I still feel this quasi-paternal nuturing sensation towards his projects due to my loving his work in Freaks and Geeks all that way back. I loved it and honestly, I think most who haven’t just didn’t drink enough before hand. We had a couple of glasses of wine and this film rocked. As an aside, our housemate also saw it but stone sober and still loved it.

I’ve managed to set a new rule with my LoveFilm account, only keeping DVDs for two weeks at a time, after which, if not watched, they go back regardless. I’ve recently taken in Miranda July’s Me and You and Everyone We Know which was too quirky for its own good but still quite enjoyable. I watched Pierce Brosnan in The Matador which I was close to loving and I checked out The Saddest Music in the World, Guy Maddin’s least-insane film about a contest set up by Isabella Rossellini in which people are invited to come and play the saddest music in the world at her club and win a prize if there is truly the most sad. It was somewhere between an overly-arty minefield of quirk and a complete, emotionally shattering masterpiece and I don’t know if I ever know which one it is. Next up is Jacques Tati’s M Hulot’s Holiday. From there, it could be another Tati, some Tarkovsky, Point Break, Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia or Living in Oblivion.

I this week completed Generation Kill, the mini-series on HBO from David Simon and Ed Burns that I wrote about a little while ago. I really loved it by the end, but purely on a level of filmmaking and acting. This is some distance from being enjoyable TV, so relentlessly depressing is its depiction of top brass in the US military and the parallel realisation that the whole thing is based on a true story. But Simon doesn’t ever judge and he depicts without any really heavy-handed preaching and with a sense that you understand what happened, what’s going on and why the mess is there. Also, Alexander Skarsgaard as Brad Colbert might be my televisual performance of the year.

Tom and I checked out the pilot of Fringe which was only okay and could possibly get interesting but is likely to suffer due to its slightly-less-than-brilliant cast. My  liking of Joshua Jackson unfortunately comes from Dawson’s Creek and before that The Mighty Ducks, both pieces of not-well-aging nostalgia pieces that I’m unlikely to ever watch again. The other pilot we checked out was Alan Ball’s True Blood, the vampire love story thing set in the deep South of the US in which vampires are just another race of people facing the same prejudices as any other. At current, having watched the first two, I want to like it more than I do but Alan Ball, the creator of Six Feet Under and writer of American Beauty, has earned my trust so I’ll give him the first season to make things work before I lay into him.

Other than those, Gossip Girl returned brilliantly and is just the most ridiculously enjoyable show on TV right now. Mad Men is not as soapy and ridiculous but is probably the best show on TV right now in its own right, given that Jon Hamm’s performance remains so shockingly good and they are building out the rest of the cast with aplomb. The reimagined 90210 is okay but could prove an annoyance in the long-run while this month sees the return of Heroes, The Office and then a chunk of other bits and bobs to be getting on with.

 
Books

I read Remainder, the winner of The Believer Book Award, by Tom McCarthy which was really strange but kind of great. It follows a man who suffer a psychological shift following a major physical trauma. He wins a massive amount of money through a settlement and embarks on a project to build his own world which continues to escalate until it becomes truly dangerous. I don’t want to say too much about it because really, the best way to experience this, is coming in with little or no knowledge of it. In short: recommended.

Better than this was The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, a complete masterpiece from Dominican writer Junot Diaz about an overweight geeky kid and his misadventures in life and love while living in a dictatorial country. It taught me a huge amount about the Dominican Republic’s history without ever losing a flow and portraying a cast of fully-drawn character, none of whom were given short shrift. I loved every second of this book and I would advise anyone to seek it out and just sink into its perfect storytelling and sense of language. Nearly perfection.

I’m currently on The Master and the Margharita, a truly classic allegorical novel from Mikail Bulgakov that I’m not even remotely qualified to talk about. Suffice to say, I flipping love it so far but I’ll report back more soon.

 
Other

I’m currently getting addicted to shirts for the first time since a brief period when I was younger than saw me purchase a number of Hawaiian-style shirts but graduating to padded lumberjack pieces in the winter. Not a good time. Uniqlo is proving the best for all this right now as its cheap, the clothes are good quality and its stores in London don’t have the cattle market chav feel of a Topman or H&M. The latter is still worth a look though. My current ones to hit are Urban Outfitters, Uniqlo, H&M, American Apparel and then maybe some vintage shopping again once the corporatising of Camden is completed.

I’m also really enjoying the political race right now. I’ll probably write a piece on it again in the next week or two but the entry of Palin as produced a fascinating new figure that seems to be entirely outshining John McCain. If she’s bringing in women, she’s got to be pushing out those who were worried McCain was too old. More on that soon.

Diggin

Music: Some wonderful music flowing through me in the past few weeks (these posts will become weekly soon) and much of it is rediscovered or old stuff-discovered rather than my own blog-surfing ability to find new tuneage. The best rediscovery stands as Bikini Kill, a band that made songs which were incredibly simple to the point of dumbness and committed so much to the conviction of this view that they end up being total genius. ‘Rebel Girl’ is the key text, a song with lyrics that could be written by a fourteen-year-old punk chick but a will to find a way and a brilliant, insistent riff. The album Pussy Whipped is though, for all the lack of sophistication, something of a minor masterpiece.
I’ve also become semi-obsessed with indie or leftfield hip-hop from the past few years, notably beginning to worship J Dilla and Madlib. Madvillain and the self-titled album which came of this experiment is something of a stone-cold masterpiece, as is Dilla’s Donuts, an elegiac sketch record of beats and mini-tunes. Also on the playlist for this is their collaboration, Jaylib, which, as you might guess, I flipping love. Also worth looking at are Why?, Cadence Weapon, Peanut Butter Wolf and Aesop Rock.
There’s been a number of great songs and albums mixing in to my last few weeks but gosh darn it, The Hold Steady’s Stay Positive is yet another brilliant rock and roll record and my hands-down favourite album of the year so far.

Film/TV: Again, much to report. I got to see Rashomon on the big screen last week, a truly wonderful experience, and will be seeing Ikiru also to further enhance my Kurosawa knowledge. I’ve recently re-taken in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, a truly nostalgic experience for some but for me, a comedy without good gags and nearly two hours of suffering the stupefying lack of talent exhibited by Steve Martin, the most overrated comic ever. As a side, if you find this funny, you’ll likely love it.
My birthday occurred last week and my wonderful girlfriend treated me to a few Criterion DVDs of some of my favourite movies. I’ve yet to see Noah Baumbach’s Kicking and Screaming but its on this week’s list but I also received David Gordon Green’s low-key debut masterpiece George Washington and Dazed and Confused, still my favourite Linklater.
On this week’s agenda are two LoveFilm rentals I’ve left back through utter laziness, Night and the City, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and . Also up this week is Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, In Bruges, Gummo, An Evening with Kevin Smith and finally, some TV on the schedule. I’ll be catching up on Generation Kill this evening (probably writing about it also) and Mad Men returns tonight, a welcome addition to the schedules for a show I fell totally in love with last year. I am of the wide belief that it is indeed the best show on TV right now.

Books: I finally began my journey into Sandman, something I’m likely to chronicle on the site, and I’m quite enjoying the first book. More on that soon. Also I’m on Clockers, Richard Price’s mesmerising account of New York drug trading and the police who deal with the fallout. The book is basically The Wire (on which Price was a co-writer) even down to a couple of scenes being nearly lifted wholesale in the show and the character of Stringer Bell seeing strong echoes from one of the drug dealers in the book.

Other: Other is becoming the Podcast section but I really am loving two new ones to my schedule. Watching Theology is a spin-off and now main show of the Watching the Directors series and is pretty decent. The discussion on Lars and the Real Girl was very interesting indeed and the title may be misleading, this isn’t some sort of religious indoctrination show where everything is about Jesus. Also great is SMODcast, the podcast of Kevin Smith and his regular producer Scott Mosier. It’s very hit and miss but they are always engaging and occasionally very funny indeed, even if the self-indulgence that sometimes mars Smith’s films is given full-flight here.

Hot Links

(Picture from here)

Generation Kill writer Evan Wright has signed up to script Cocaine Cowboys.

The Dark Knight is doing some incredible business, now outgrossing the entire domestic run of Batman Begins.

Robot Chicken are going to a galaxy far, far away again.

Here’s an interview with the Luna Brothers.

Is The Devil’s Advocate a modern cult classic?

Footage from Tron 2 has been revealed at Comic-Con.

DiS talks to The Hold Steady, as all should be given the brilliance of their new record.

They also chat to Noah and the Whale, a charming upcoming group.

Aaron Eckhart talks to The Guardian.

Songs to slack to.

Not much love for the return of CSS. Time passed?

Neil Young is all about high-resolution sound.

How can print adapt to the digital age?

Most romantic gestures in movies, in list form.

Russell Brand is taking over the VMAs.

The second season of Mad Men is reviewed here.

Here’s a 1990 profile of Barack Obama from Vanity Fair.

Keitel joins Life on Mars.

A coffee table and a learning experience.

Is porn star Buck Angel a new feminist hero.

Robocop is officially coming back, with Aronofsky in the hot-seat.

Season 3 of Dexter is also being previewed at Comic-Con.

So is Alan Ball’s True Blood, the new HBO vampire deal.

Twitch has a review of Death Race with Jason Statham.

Tim Burton has found his Alice to venture into Wonderland.

Fiddy is pissed with Taco Bell.

Jim DeRogatis shows some praise for Canasta.

Albums Since My Birth

I’m so sorry not have have posted recently but you can check out a more regularly update version of the site on my Tumblr page. Bookmark that for more recommended links that I’ll be providing here.

Going round at the moment is a trend of listing the favourite albums since your year of birth and I thought I would indulge myself in that one. I’m going to do a movie one too so look out for that.

So, from my birth to now, my favourite records of every completed year thus far. An additional comment: I realise you are only supposed to choose one per year but damn, this was a little too hard for that. As far as my research goes, all are also based on UK release dates.

Big Linkin’

Wild Things… a cult camp classic?

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters finally gets a lavish DVD release.

Catch up with your grime and dubstep.

Barack bumper stickers available in all states.

Sherlock Holmes with Baron Cohen and Ferrell? How many mysteries will get solved?

Win a walk-on role in Mad Men.

Jezebel: Having a gay husband is kind of queer.

The Muppets wish everyone a happy Independence Day.

David Fincher is to make a CGI version of The Goon.

JoBlo interviews Wackness-director Jonathan Levine.

Here’s an interview with Alex Soropian from Wideload Games.

Here’s EW’s 25 music classics of the past twenty-five years.

Val Kilmer and Xzibit to be in Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant.

The Fly as opera. No Goldblum unfortunately.

Everybody loves Dolly Parton.

Ian Curtis’ gravestone has gone missing.

Another negative book about Harvey Weinstein is apparently on the way.

Minus The Bear in session for Daytrotter here.

Lily will leave if her second album doesn’t live up to the hype.

Rock Band 2 in September.

Girlgroup killed in Photoshop accident…

Bryan McFadden is big in Australia.

Here’s a live review of The Hold Steady.

Diggin

Music: The Hold Steady are taking over my mind yet again after dominating my stereo last year. Stay Positive is less immediate than Boys and Girls in America but that same manifesto of making people understand the live-saving power of great rock ‘n’ roll music. The lyrics are more oblique but they still work and my early prediction is that his is likely to become my number uno albumo over the year.
I’ve been trying to find more good music for writing this week and this seems to have split down two avenues. One is high-quality, beat-driven indie-hip hop, notably J Dilla’s Donuts and The Bake Sale EP by The Cool Kids. The former is sketches of genius from a sadly-missed producer while the latter is just a really great piece of summer driving music.
The other avenue the choices went down is somewhere around the drone/shoe gazing area. My Bloody Valentine EPs have filled the spaces between the neo-classical pieces of Eluvium and the dreaming drones of Stars of the Lid, the true sound of dreaming.

Films: It’s actually been relatively quiet week, mostly because I’m absolutely knackered and can’t seem to pull up enough energy or time to sit and watch a movie.
I do have a number on the list that I will be getting too in the coming, quieter week, including In America and Shock Corridor while Tom and I, on his return from the USA, will take in the Kinski-goes-crazy trip of Woyzeck in a continuation of our Herzog exploration.
The best thing I did manage to see this week was the pretty wonderful Imagine documentary on Annie Liebovitz, Beth and my favourite photographer. Watching her at work was nothing less than awe-inspiring but the scene when she breaks down when talking about her late lover/muse, Susan Sontag, brought me to tears too. A pretty great piece of documentary filmmaking from the ever-improving BBC institution, always better when Yentob just stays out of the way.

Books: I started The Rabbit Omnibus by John Updike, among my favourite short-story authors around, but couldn’t seem to get into it, likely because of a dual issue with the intimidating stature of the author and the busyness of my week. I needed something lighter and Muscle for the Wing by Daniel Woodrell covered that base nicely. A well-told neo-pulp novel concerning a group of interweaving storylines and troubled pasts, it canters along really nicely to a wonderfully bleak ending that seems entirely in keeping with the down ‘n’ dirty action of the rest of the novel. Highly recommended.

Other: I have to say that beer has proved a key component of my past week. I’ll likely need a dry week now to let my body recover but overall, it has cooled and calmed when needed and spurred and driven when I partied on a barge in Battersea. Right now though, the thing I think I love the most, is my bed.

Number of the Link

Downey Jr for Sherlock Holmes?

Here’s an interview with Baltar, aka James Callis.

The Happening is getting killed.

The Hold Steady are adding extra cuts to the special editions of Stay Positive.

Cameron Crowe has signed up Reese Witherspoon and Ben Stiller for his next project.

Here’s an interview with Alan Moore.

JJ Abrams is to prequel Fringe with a comic.

U2 is selling a Basquiat.

Blender has an oral history of Sub Pop.

David Denby discusses You Don’t Mess With the Zohan and The Incredible Hulk.

An adolescent gives an account of his experiences with the work of Greg Araki.

It seems to be Audrey Tautou week on The Guardian.

Here’s a clip from Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg.

Leo as Captain America?

Coldplay on Guitar Hero… My Chemical Romance is bad enough.

Aziz Ansari is to be in the Office-spinoff.

This dude’s photos of Russia are amazing. (Thanks to Boing Boing for pointing this out).

Paper Magazine has a nice list of the twenty-five most stylish ladies of song.

Did cable news assassinate the Clinton campaign?

Lots of new Dark Knight shizzle has turned up ahead of next month’s release.

Link Your Daughter, To The Slaughter

The AV Club pays tribute to Wet Hot American Summer.

The Apprentice got 10 million viewers for its finale.

The Hold Steady’s new record is on MySpace and, well, it flippin’ rocks.

Worst movie remakes ever? Ladykillers gets my vote.

Downey Jr is deservedly busy right now.

Here’s a list of the TV twosome with the strongest chemistry.

Judd Apatow has branched out to take Eric Bana and Jason Schwartzman under his comedy umbrella.

Paul Newman, one of my all-time top five actors, has cancer.

What’s on the Wayne-Coleen wedding playlist?

The BBC music archives have been thrown open following a deal with EMI.

Lil Wayne delivers again on his new set.

The Mogwai tracklisting is now available.

Also, details on the new Beck.

The Happening may well suck. But Zooey Deschanel can’t do any wrong for me.

The Wackness is apparently pretty good.

Here’s an interview with Adam Green, writer of the best song about Jessica Simpson ever.

Werner Herzog’s new documentary sound oh, so Herzogian.

Linko & Cash

The AV Club is doing an extended interview with Harlan Ellison.

And looks back on Jim Jarmusch’s marvellous Dead Man.

Tom Perrota interviews The Hold Steady.

Ewww… Knightley is trying to fill the shoes of Hepburn. No chance this is good.

The European Championships… of beer.

The top twenty-five animated movies.

Jimmy Smits in Dexter.

AO Scott offers his thoughts on You Don’t Mess with the Zohan.

Slate’s Audio Book Club discuss Anna Karenina.

Fleet Foxes are great. Pitchfork official.

Well-written songs are the true lifeblood.

AfterEllen has its own Hot 100 up.

Winehouse has sent Willis back off to rehab.

Dylan’s for Obama too.

New Deerhoof in October.

Dr Feel-link

I think I’ll round off the Motley Crue ‘puns’ today. Tomorrow, we’re keeping it hair metal but I won’t reveal how hairy or metallic it will be until tomorrow.

OMFG!!!!! The Hold Steady are returning!

Their producer muses on this return right here.

Also, Mudhoney are reissued and ready for reappraisal.

Noel Murray moves into I and J in Popless.

Please come to the UK too Liz Phair, please.

Steve Buscemi and Michael Cera will try to out awkward/charm each other in Youth in Revolt.

Rosie Swash rounds up this week’s singles.

Sexiest veggie celeb??

The Believer interviews genius novelist/screenwriter Richard Price.

It’s also got the shortlist for its 2007 Believer Book Awards.

Variety has a review of Clint’s Angelina-starring Changeling.