Sep 24, 2014

The Enforcer ( Bretaigne Windust, 1951)

Humphrey Bogart plays Martin Ferguson, a prosecutor about to put Albert Mendoza (Everett Sloane), the head of a murder-for-hire ring, on trial. But the night before the trial, his key witness, Joe Rico (Ted de Corsia), dies in a fall out of the window of the room in which he's been guarded, part of an abortive escape attempt to keep from testifying. His case in shambles, Ferguson and detective Captain Nelson (Roy Roberts) try to piece the entire four-year investigation back together from square one, trying to find something that might give them another way to prosecute Mendoza.

Sep 23, 2014

Sea Oleena – Shallow (2014)

... Carobnica klub ...

Montreal native Sea Oleena’s first full-length album, Shallow, is a beautifully melancholy collection that sounds like dreaming. Shallow was written and recorded with Oleena’s brother, Luke Loseth, after self-releasing two mini-albums,Sea Oleena and Sleeplessness in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

Sep 22, 2014

I’m Kingfisher – Avian (2014)

I’m Kingfisher’s new release “Arctic” is a conceptual album about polar expeditions.
 It’s also the fourth solo offering from the prolific Swedish indie/folk-artist Thomas Jonsson, now working under the alias I’m Kingfisher. Though the obsolete theme, this album is Thomas’ by far most personal, outgoing and experimental material to date. He blends acoustic and synthetic elements together with the odd bird’s chirp, follows a similar path as fellow indie/folk-colleagues M Ward, Gillian Welch and Jason Molina but also adds occasional sparks of stuff like Akron/Family, Mogwai and Cat Power. A recent show was aptly reviewed as “John Fahey meets Sonic Youth”.

Ariel Pink - Put Your Number In My Phone


Sep 18, 2014

Perfume Genius – Too Bright (2014)

... New School ...

On September 23rd, Mike Hadreas, who performs as Perfume Genius, will release “Too Bright,” a profoundly beautiful record that remains intense throughout its brief, thirty-three-minute running time. The album, his third, was co-produced by Portishead’s Adrian Utley, and sounds much larger than his previous albums, which were mostly duets made up of vocals and either guitar or piano.What you notice first in Hadreas’s new songs is silence, which he then breaks apart with his tremulous but accurate voice and a host of supporting instruments.

Leonard Cohen – Popular Problems (2014)

 ... Old School ...

Leonard Cohen is not a man for manifestos. Peripatetic bohemian, Montreal native, Zen meditator, diaspora Jew: Rock’s almost-octogenarian philosopher emeritus inhabits identities that are multiple, contested, and resistant to orthodoxy. He is, however, willing to lay some things on the line. “I’m slowing down the tune, I never liked it fast,” he intones over a burlesque blues line in the first track on his 13th studio album, Popular Problems. “You want to get there soon; I want to get there last.”

Shellac – Dude Incredible (2014)

... I'm The Jesus Lizard King , I Can Do Anything ...

Steve Albini revs up the Shellac mobile for their first album in seven years with Dude Incredible. Albini mans guitar, Todd Trainer on drums, and Bob Weston plays bass.
Their fifth LP was recorded sporadically over the past few years at Steve’s esteemed Electrical Audio studios in Chicago and captures ten strapping examples of their classicist rock discipline rendered with immediate clarity and vitriol.

Sep 16, 2014

Love Inks – Exi (2014)

Combining sparse, graceful guitar with resonant bass and simmering drum machines, Love Inks’ back and forth between tension and release is masterfully executed”  //  “Love Inks is a minimalist pop group making music that harkens back to early 80s UK (Marine Girls, Young Marble Giants) and David Lynch’s Roadhouse. The group’s sleek, needle-precise sound comes distinctly from Austin, Texas

Sep 9, 2014

Moonface – City Wrecker EP (2014)

... Album of the month ...
Spencer Krug, formerly of Wolf Parade and Sunset Rubdown, release a new EP under his Moonface moniker. City Wrecker is the latest body of work since last year’s Julia with Blue Jeans On LP, and arrives September 16 on Jagjaguwar.
According to a press release, the new set of tunes marks the final dispatches from Krug’s temporary home of Helsinki, Finland.
In a press release, Krug writes: “City Wrecker is the title track of the EP. I wrote it before Miley Cyrus released “Wrecking Ball”, but I cannot prove it. Oh well. In describing the song (and maybe the whole EP) I would say it’s the aesthetic opposite of “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus, which is not to say that’s a good thing or a bad thing, just an apple for you to hold up beside your orange.

A Year Afar – Better Life (2014)

On debut EP Better Life, A Year Afar adorns striking vocalist Suzanne Tufan with savvy support from Box Set guitarist Jim Brunberg, longtime Holcombe Waller collaborator Ben Landsverk and Blind Pilot’s Dave Jorgensen, conjuring a cohesive identity — though no two tracks sound alike.
Landsverk and Jorgensen constitute the rhythm section, but it’s their contributions on cello, trumpet and keyboards that flesh out the arrangements, alongside Brunberg’s variety of guitar textures.Tufan’s elastic vocal range and unbridled melodies recall eccentric chanteuses like Kate Bush and Mary Margaret O’Hara, though her slightly more mannered approach ends up closer to the prosaic quirks of, say, Natalie Merchant.

My Brightest Diamond – This is my Hand (2014)

My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden was working on an audio-visual collaboration, Matthew Barney and Jonathan Belper’s six-hour long cine-opera, River of Fundament, set in the automobile factories of latter-day Detroit. In the film, a high school-style marching band is seen in procession through the streets of Motor City and playing in its vast, echoing factory spaces.

The Meetings of Anna (Chantal Akerman, 1978)

Anna, a detached and diffident director, arrives in Germany to show her latest film; she checks into a hotel, invites a stranger to her bed, and abruptly tells him to leave. He asks her to a birthday lunch with his mother and daughter; she goes. Afterward, in Cologne, she meets an old friend, a Polish Jew and war refugee. In Brussels, she spends the night at a hotel with her mother, whom she rarely sees. On the train, a stranger tells his story. Last, it's home to Paris, where her lover Daniel picks her up and they go to a hotel. Throughout, people make personal revelations to her, and Anna listens with little affect.

The Captive (Atom Egoyan, 2014)

Eight years after the disappearance of Cassandra, some disturbing incidents seem to indicate that she's still alive. Police, parents and Cassandra herself, will try to unravel the mystery of her disappearance.

Sep 2, 2014

It Looks Sad. – It Looks Sad. EP (2014)

It Looks Sad. originally began playing shows in early 2012 under the name It Looks Sad, That's Why I Said It's You. After a few line-up shifts the band emerged in late 2013 under the shortened name, It Looks Sad. In the Winter of 2013 the band recorded a handful of shimmering, sharp guitar pop / post-punk songs that echo the influence of bands like Surfer Blood and Beach Fossils. Along with the shortened moniker, It Looks Sad. professes a leaner, more straight-forward approach with their new material. The band's live show is also something to behold as their songs are given a bit more power and room to breathe. Hometown label, Tiny Engines, will release the band's proper Self-Titled debut in the Summer of 2014.