Nov 30, 2011

Anna Ternheim – The Night Visitor (2011)

Swedish songwriter Anna Ternheim returns this week with her fifth album, The Night Visitor, released across Europe on Friday. The twelve-track album is her first since 2008′s Leaving On A Mayday, which won Album Of The Year at the Swedish Grammis in addition to Anna being named Best Female Artist (again).
In a message posted on her website Ternheim revealed that she finally broke a bout of post-tour writer’s block last summer after buying a 1930s Gibson guitar and taking lessons from Matt Sweeney, but the actual music has been a well-kept secret with Ternheim promising to take us to an “unknown place”.

John Maus - Quantum Leap (Live)

Nov 29, 2011

Odonis Odonis – Hollandaze (2011)

Based in Toronto, Canada, Odonis Odonis came into being in 2010, taking its name from a mate of bandleader, Dean Tzenos, who was unforgettably called Adonis Adonis. A prolific writer, Dean initially recorded recorded nearly 40 demos in a couple of months before picking out 10 which he took to Vancouver to record with Colin Stewart (Black Mountain). Those 10 tracks were sent over to FatCat, and we were instantly smitten by what we heard.

Nov 28, 2011

I Like Trains – This Skin Full of Bones EP (2011)

I Like Trains have announced plans to release a live CD/DVD entitled ‘This Skin Full of Bones’.
Alongside their latest release, I Like Trains also plan to release yet another special edition of tea: this time, their take on Earl Grey.

PAPA



Nov 26, 2011

King’s Daughters and Sons – If Then Not When(2011)


Debut album from this band featuring various Touch & Go alumni. Hailing from Louisville KY, King’s Daughters & Sons feature members of Rachel’s, Shipping News, The For Carnation and Shannon Wright. Three years in the making If Then Not When was recorded by Kevin Ratterman (California Guitar Trio, My Morning Jacket, Wax Fang) and mastered by Bob Weston (Shellac).
Band are informed by, though not beholden to, the history of its respective members: haunting, spare and at times explosively unsettling, they have been described as part William Faulkner, part Led Zeppelin. The music on the album deals mostly with ghost stories, murder ballads and grimoires: dark narratives that recall Nick Cave and the work of Louisville luminaries Slint.

The Moth & the Mirror – Honestly, This World (2011)

"Comprising previous and occasional members of bands including Frightened Rabbit, Smoke Jaguar and The Reindeer Section, The Moth & The Mirror form a smouldering collective, finely balancing tentative acoustic suggestions within patterns of climactic cacophony. Opener Everyone I Know heralds this approach, as delicately picked notes contrast with sturdy bass undertones and dissolving layers of steely guitar.
Vocalist Stacey Sievwright, whose performance here at times recalls Beth Gibbons in collaboration with Rustin Man, is complemented by Tony Doogan’s nuanced production; in fact each song illuminates the strengths of each player as well as the potent chemistry of the group.

Richard Warren – The Wayfarer (2011)

Perhaps for a musician like Warren, who has enjoyed a long career playing with many successful bands, making bleak, insular but obviously very personal records like these is a kind of necessary phase. On the basis of The Wayfarer, however, it is tempting to hope that it will be a short one.

His diverse musical career has seen Warren go from operating at the interface of rhythm and noise as punk-primitive electronicist Echoboy, to playing guitar with Mark Lanegan. It’s the latter whose shadow looms longest over The Wayfarer, Warren clearly finding his true self in the blues, “twistin’ guilty and burning in chains”, as he puts it in “Wasteland”.

Frontier Ruckus – Way Upstate & The Crippled Summer, Pt 2 (2011)


"Frontier Ruckus is a roots-based band from East Lansing, MI that incorporates elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, country, blues, and jazz into their lyric-driven songs. The band recorded a six-song EP in 2006 entitled I Am the Water You Are Pumping, which was self-released. Five of those songs appeared again in 2008 on the band’s first full-length album, The Orion Songbook, named for Orion Township, a Metro Detroit suburb. The following year, Frontier Ruckus released The Orion Songbook as a double vinyl on Lower Peninsula Records with Way Upstate & the Crippled Summer, Pt. 1, another 6-song EP, appearing as the 4th side.

Capricorn One (Peter Hyams, 1978)

Charles Brubaker is the astronaut leading NASA's first manned mission to Mars. Seconds before the launch, the entire team is pulled from the capsule and the rocket leaves earth unmanned much to Brubaker's anger. The head of the programme explains that the life support system was faulty and that NASA can't afford the publicity of a scratched mission. The plan is to fake the Mars landing and keep the astronauts at a remote base until the mission is over, but then investigative journalist Robert Caulfield starts to suspect something.

Nov 25, 2011

Blackout Beach – Fuck Death (2011)

Uz ovaj glas, sto se mene tice: fuck death, life...and everything else!!!
There’s a common misconception that you need CliffsNotes, or perhaps a Ph.D. in Carey Mercer, to enjoy a Frog Eyes record. This is because a Frog Eyes record often sounds like a Shaksepearean play on amphetamines, pummeling you at a frenzied pace with wordplay, allusions, and vaguely familiar proper nouns. You might also need a stomach for the macabre: Frontman Mercer often shrieks like someone being burnt at the stake, the soundscapes around him melting into a hallucinatory drip.

Nov 22, 2011

The Angelus-On A Dark&Barren Land(2011)

"It feels like every single song is a chapter from a truly important novel." - Simon Raymonde (Cocteau Twins)

The Angelus have been stirring hearts and unhinging jaws all over Texas for more than half a decade with a brand of honest-to-God flat out glorious electrified folk music that is as difficult to pin down as it is to forget. Led by the enigmatic vocal powerhouse Emil Rapstine, whose brooding tones and mesmerizing stage presence bring to mind any number of iconic front men from Morrissey to Nick Cave, and backed by four young men who quietly summon up epic sounds that build like storm systems and burst into bone rattling sonic downpours, The Angelus often leave even the hardest hearted hipsters teary eyed and shaken.

Fleet Foxes: "The Shrine/An Argument"

Nov 20, 2011

Nedelja Vece...


Nedelja popodne...

Maison Neuve – Joan (2011)


Maison Neuve are a band who love the guitar, the drums, the organ, the sax, paid jobs, insomnia and Paris. Maison Neuve were brought up on folklore music from places like Rodez, Stockholm, Toulouse or the Landes, while dreaming of Bossa Nova, Calypso and Rock’n’Roll when at the Père Lachaise. Maison Neuve invoke prophets and great female singers, they feel for sentimental excitement and fantasize about wild life, big cities and true love.
“Now and then, Maison Neuve drew attention on their songwriting skills, and were therefore considered supporters of a well defined pop, the same once claimed by the Sarah Records’ team or the Young Marble Giants. In fact, the minimal arrangements and the clarity of the vision, somehow echoing to Leonard Cohen’s Songs of Love and Hate, could have made you believe that their writing was tending towards standard pop. Yet, the remarkable intensity of their live performances soon enough convinced the fans that the purpose was slightly different.

Nov 19, 2011

You Won’t – Skeptic Goodbye (2011)

You Won’t sticks out from the monotony of repetitive acoustic warbling to bring something truly rare to their genre. Rooted in Josh Ardnouse’s twangy singing style, the duo brings to mind Bob Dylan’s earlier works, giving every tune and beautiful lyric a raw and heartfelt edge. Additionally, to create the whimsical instrumentation found on their new album, Skeptic Goodbye, Ardnouse and band mate Raky Sastri incorporate everything from electric and acoustic guitar to street signs and other non-musical objects. Self-produced and recorded in the Massachusetts woods, the release doesn’t use any over-produced vocals or overly fine-tuned guitars. In its stead are clap-a-long tunes, pure guitar and vocal pairings stripped down with love and layered ethereal sounds.

Kate Bush – 50 Words for Snow (2011)

Za zimu, za popodneva, za noci...
The album’s scenarios are as startling as the ones Bush spun in the plastic-fantastic 1980s, when she became famous for taking on myriad alter egos, from Houdini’s bride to Wilhelm Reich’s son to a whole menagerie of mythical creatures. But the tighter focus of Snow makes it one of Bush’s most cohesive works, despite the daunting length of each track. (The shortest is nearly 7 minutes long.) Spinning variations on a theme instead of offering one long narrative, Bush reimagines the concept album as a poet would, connecting its elements with delicate thread.
The opening and closing cuts invoke a chill as they dwell on the ephemeral nature of the life cycle. “Snowflake,” which features the choirboy pipes of Bush’s 12-year-old son Bertie, gives voice to the melting consciousness of the natural world itself; “Among Angels” reads like the sweetest kind of suicide note. In between there are imagined couplings – with a gender-bending snowman in “Misty,” and with a lover found and lost through many reincarnations (and played with brio by Elton John) in “Snowed In At Wheeler Street.” The bounding “Wild Man” chases a yeti.

Esben & The Witch – Hexagons EP (2011)


Nov 17, 2011

The Black Belles – The Black Belles (2011)


Jack White’s Third Man Records has cultivated and released music from a wide variety of artists (including an auctioneer), but no act in White’s stable may be more interesting than The Black Belles. The band — comprised of basisst Ruby Rogers, drummer Shelby Lynne, synth player Lil’Boo, and guitarist/vocalist/organ player Olivia Jean — create a dark blend of ’60s garage rock and soul with a modern twist. And that’s without mentioning their Hocus Pocus clothing sytle.
The Black Belles first came to our attention when Third Man put out their debut, White-produced single in January 2010. A record contract soon followed, as did more singles and a White-directed music video. If you recall, they also served as the musical accompaniment for Stephen Colbert’srecent musical venture.

Nov 16, 2011

Mathieu Mondoux

..pravi plakate za koncerte Piano Magic..

http://regardabsent.blogspot.com/



















Baby Dee – Goes Down To Amsterdam (2011)

Glas jeseni i tuga ove zime...
The haunting and comical charm of Montreal born Baby Dee is showcased perfectly on live album Baby Dee Goes Down To Amsterdam. This follow up to Regifted Light, released in March, collects together some of Baby Dee’s finest songs and allows the listener to hear them as new, adapted and reinvigorated live on the stage of renowned Amsterdam jazz club Bimhuis.
The two disc album opens with applause from the audience followed by Dee’s first quip of the evening “Aren’t you nice to be clapping for me when I haven’t even done anything yet?” which nicely leads into opening track The Robin’s Tiny Throat, a powerfully sombre song seeing Dee solo at the harp, allowing her voice to appear both vulnerable and stentorian from one bar to another. Love’s Small Song and Book Of Songs For Anne-Marie follow a similar vein, with strings added to the arrangement, before Dee shifts to the piano on Lilacs. Throughout, Dee plays her instruments with flawless energy, accompanying her vocal pushes and pulls in perfect momentum.

Nov 15, 2011

Dersu Uzala (1975), Akira Kurosawa

A few months after his notorious suicide attempt, Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa was regenerated by the notion of helming the first Russian/Japanese co-production. Co-scripted and directed by Kurosawa, Dersu Uzala is the story of an elderly guide and Goldi hunter (Maxim Munzuk), who, at the turn of the century, agrees to shepherd a Russian explorer (Yuri Solomin) and a troop of soldiers through the most treacherous passages of the Far East. The guide has been "one" with the land almost from birth, and is thus able to save his party from perishing. Four years in the making, Dersu Uzala won the 1976 Best Foreign Film Oscar and restored the flagging Akira Kurosawa to the top ranks of the Japanese film industry.

The Beach Boys SMiLE Sessions - Heroes and Villains

Female Trouble (John Waters, 1974)

A riotously funny bad-taste epic from director John Waters, Baltimore's "Prince of Puke," this sick classic tells the depraved life story of obese criminal Dawn Davenport (Divine), from her bad-girl youth as a go-go dancer on Baltimore's infamous Block to her death in the electric chair. Mink Stole is terrific as Dawn's bratty daughter Taffy, conceived following a romp on a junkyard mattress with a fat derelict in soiled underpants (also played by Divine).

Nov 14, 2011

The Wooden Sky – City Of Light EP (2011)


Info from exclaim.ca:
Toronto alt-country troubadours the Wooden Sky will kick off an intimate tour of Southern Ontario tomorrow night (October 19) with a sold-out show in their hometown. In conjunction with the tour dates, the band are also getting set to release their new City of Light EP on October 25…
The EP should hold fans over until the Wooden Sky’s new full-length record is made available in early 2012. As a special treat for concertgoers, 400 limited-edition copies of the EP will be available at the shows in cassette format.

Nov 11, 2011

Nathalie Granger (Marguerite Duras, 1972)


The most insidious thing about the nouveau movie, which is a polite way of describing Marguerite Duras's newest, most minimal film, "Nathalie Granger," is that it traps you in its own time, unlike the nouveau roman, which can be skipped through or read at leisure in an afternoon or a year.
You can't skip through "Nathalie Granger." To see it you are forced to watch it for as long as it lasts, while, in turn, it watches its characters, rather as if the camera were a Siamese cat whose feelings had been hurt.
Without betraying the slightest interest, the camera records the physical appearance of two expressionless women who look a lot like Jeanne Moreau and Lucia Bose. They share a house with their two children, one of whom, Nathalie, is apparently a problem. "She wants to kill everyone," says one of the women, who seem to be interchangeable. "She wants to be an orphan, or a Portuguese maid."
Nathalie, however, remains docile—this being a minimal movie.

A Pure Formality (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1994)

Onoff is a famous writer who hasn't published any new books for quite some time and has become a recluse. When he is picked up by the police one stormy night, without any identification, out of breath and running madly, without clear memory of recent events, the Inspector is suspicious. Through interrogatory dialectic, the head of this lonely, isolated, broken-down police station tries to establish what has happened, by delving into the mind of his writer-hero, and clearing up a mysterious killing.

Cass McCombs – Humor Risk (2011)


From CoS:
In April, singer-songwriter Cass McCombs released a truly minimalist and depressing album in Wit’s End. This November will see the release of McCombs’ second album of the year with the decidedly more musically upbeat Humor Risk.
Recorded in various homes and studios in California, New York, New Jersey, and Chicago. McCombs once again teamed up with Ariel Rechtshaid, who co-produced Wit’s End and 2009′s Catacombs, for this eight-track effort. According to press for the LP, McCombs hopes to paint a new side of himself, one not seen with our last look into the artist. “Humor Risk is an attempt at laughter instead of confusion, chaos instead of morality, or, as fellow Northern Californian Jack London said, ‘I would rather be ashes than dust!’. Musically, it is more rhythm-based, tempos swifter to nearly rocking, than the sparse Wit’s End.”

Nov 8, 2011

Reigns – The Widow Blades (2011)

...TisinaPrazninatisinaprazninaTisinaPraznina...



This release from an enigmatic UK duo REIGNS has the potential of becoming a cult favorite. The Widow Blades is a concept album based on the true story of a woman who disappeared during a blizzard in 1978.

Nov 5, 2011

Peggy Sue – Acrobats (2011)


Produced by John Parish (PJ Harvey, Sparklehorse, Giant Sand, Eels etc) in early 2011, the album finds the band moving away from the acoustic sounds of their first album to something heavier but just as subtle and beautiful. This new sound may surprise some fans – only one song on the album features acoustic guitar – but the dual vocals and tribal drums familiar from their debut are still present and more developed and breath-taking than ever before.

Gates of Heaven (1978), Errol Morris

Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris' debut immediately attracted acclaim for its straight-faced treatment of a subject practically begging for ridicule. When the Foothill Memorial Gardens pet cemetery, located north of San Francisco, closed (its land was sold for a housing project), the 450 animals interred there had to be moved to Bubbling Well Memorial Park in nearby Napa. Morris saw the transfer as an opportunity to explore the world of pet owners who are so devoted that they see nothing wrong with giving their animals a full dose of the last rites. His simple technique was to film his subjects, usually seated, talking about their loved ones, alternating with shots of the two cemeteries and the move. Critic Roger Ebert became an early champion of the film, and Morris' struggles to finish it resulted in a very amusing short film, Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe. The German filmmaker had bet Morris that he would never complete the film, and when he did, Herzog publicly boiled and consumed one of his shoes for the camera of director Les Blank.

Young Man – Ideas of Distance (2011)

Young Man is a true American success story of the modern age. The solo project of Colin Caulfield (no relation to Holden), the upstart singer-songwriter began posting home videos of himself on YouTube, covering some of his favorite songs. These ranged from contemporaries like Bon Iver and Animal Collective to classics such as the Beatles and David Bowie. People started noticing. A record deal was signed. An EP was released. Tours were embarked upon.

Nov 3, 2011

Supreme Dicks – Breathing and Not Breathing (4CD/2011)

Disati ili NE Disati, Pitanje Je Sada?
Diskografija godine, bez razmisljanja!!!


Supreme Dicks put out one single in their career. It was a double B-side. Maybe they had a sense of humor, but in hindsight it's hard to tell.
Falling somewhere between Captain Beefheart, Throbbing Gristle and SALEM in the lineage of musicians who've found a muse in the nasty, brutish brevity of life, Supreme Dicks chose to cloak disarmingly real paranoia and grief in the contemporary trappings of late '80s and early '90s lo-fi college rock. They may have inhabited the same sonic and physical space as colleagues like Dinosaur jr. (Lou Barlow was an occasional Dick, and at least one early Dinosaur jr show was actually played by Dicks in disguise), but they stripped away all youthful yearning and anticipation in favor of a bleak and unblinking certainty.
Honest, frank, and free of ironic distance.

Nov 1, 2011

Despair (1978), Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Having made as many films as he had years, at 31, Rainer Werner Fassbinder essayed a slightly different approach for his 32nd film, Despair. Here, he uses a witty screenplay written by the well-known playwright Tom Stoppard, based on a novel by Vladimir Nabokov. Furthermore, the entire film, set in 1930s Germany, is in English. It received mixed reviews, if only because it is so unlike the director's other works. In the story, a Russian owner of a German chocolate-factory, whose business and marriage are both on the rocks, fantasizes about leaving his current life, and living another one. Indeed, he has delusions that he is somehow outside himself, watching himself live his life. So strong is his desire to alter his life that when he encounters a tramp while on a brief business trip, he imagines that the man looks exactly like him, decides to exchange identities with the tramp, and murders him.

Dark Captain – Dead Legs & Alibis (2011)


From Boomkat:
Dark Captain make shimmering experimental folk, and give it the kind of epic scope we last witnessed in the days of post rock. That’s no bad thing either; with the grandiose wail of Godspeed and the heart and soul of Fairport Convention the band are on to something really special, and coming from the LOAF camp you know you’re in for a delicious treat. Somehow there’s a very defiant British streak to ‘Dead Legs & Alibis’, and deep beneath the gorgeous production and noisier elements there’s a record that even my dad could hold near and dear. I can’t for the life of me work out why more people aren’t listening to Dark Captain instead of plumping for arch-twats Mumford and Sons, but then the world isn’t very fair, is it now? Well good.