Is Ted Nugent the Greatest Man Alive?

Of course not, he's a cunted fuck-stick. 'The Nuge' charges people up to $10,000 to take part in 'canned hunts' on his ranch Sunrize Acres, hates the gays, is mates with G.W Bush (his advice on Iraq? 'Our failure has been not to Nagasaki them.'), called Animal Rights Activist Heidi Prescott a 'worthless whore' and a 'shallow slut', has a song called 'Wang Dang Sweet Poontang' shall I go on? Did I mention he's mad into killing animals? Need more convincing? Check out the cover for his new album.

May he one day have his inside's slowly pulled through his gored asshole by an otter. Until that day lets hope he keeps doing bat-shit crazy things like his demented outburst on stage in California last week. Standing on stage wearing a super lame headset mic made famous by eh.. call centre workers, holding 2 two of his trademark AR-15 rifles above his head 'Sweaty Teddy' laid into Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton calling Barack a 'piece of shit' and Hillary a 'worthless bitch', he then invited both of them to suck on his guns! Watch the video, laugh like a hyperventilating hyena and then swear to piss in Ted's eyes if you ever happen across him.



- RV.

Battles, I'm A Fan You Know

Someone recently asked me what sort of music Battles made. Rather than actually trying to describe their sound I instead emitted and series of grunts and bleeps and started doing a strange twirly dance. This was on a packed Luas. It took me a few minutes to convince the ticket inspector that I wasn't actually having an episode but rather trying to express, through bodily contortions, the strange effect Battles music has on me. But enough about me. I'm only intermittently brilliant. Battles' set on Friday night in Tripod on the other hand was a flipping marvel from start to finish.

Arriving onstage to a hero's welcome the band played an infectiously rousing show. Freaky slabs of mewling techno spazz rock that had us jerking around like malfunctioning robots. Current single Atlas got the biggest reaction of the night but the highpoint for me was the brilliantly funky and deranged Leyendecker. Special mention has to be given to drummer John Stainer who gave the performance of at least four lifetimes. Up front and centre stage the man was a frantic blur of hands, sticks, sweat and cymbals. That's not to say the rest of the band took it lightly in any way. Tyondi Braxton and Ian Williams lunged from guitar to keyboard, sometimes playing both at the same time, like a pair of drunken children. It was a joy to watch.

In a word, sticky.

S.B.



Battles Myspace

Me fail English?! That's unpossible! (Something about The Killers)

I decided I'd have a bit of fun with today's post. I ran the piece through a language converter and changed it from English to German then back to English again. This seemed a lot funnier in my head.

You do not satisfy was conglomerates have with nearly destroyed music with its shocking shit sack of an album Hot Fuss Las Vegas throw The Murderers another tear there with the release of its impending B-sides collection. It gives two of types people that like The Murderer music. Idiots and that that intellectually are handicapped. If you earnestly consider, that the buying of this moving apology of an album of the world a favor makes, and skin your own throat immediately. They have obviously the entire intellect, the intelligence and the taste of a lamp.

The front man Brandon Flowers of The Murderers with its refuse beard and entire punchable face is a cackhead useless. It should be locked in for crime against humanity and has broke its thumbs every month for ten years. The remaining volume should have its instruments, that are inserted violent into its mast intestines. It is a sad situation if clowns of this not only like, is permitted to release music, but rather also one of the most popular volumes becomes on the planet.

If I happen ever on this quantity, that plays at a celebration, that I happen to be at I, would throw almost certainly a bottle of the urine at Flowers. Goods both that as whistles only very loudly from. This would be allowed to earn would carry me a blow in the face however I the bruise as a sign of the honor. In the reason the point I try to make with this entire nonsense, am, are that The Murderers a volume rotten, and its frontman is a complete idiot. Peace y'all!

S.B.

If you only buy one album this week {1}

Angels of Light - We Are Him {Young God Records}

You thought you were in the clear didn't you? You mealy-mouthed prick-hole! Thought you could just fanny about listening to Suburban Kids with Biblical Names and P:ano clapping yr hands, dancing like a girl never even considering the consequences! 'It's grand' you said 'Michael Gira's mellowed out since disbanding Swans, no more raping of slaves no more public castration. These days everything is good here yeah? NO!

After six albums as Angels of Light 54 year old Michael Gira has gone and gotten angry again. His tryannical voice has always given his songs a chilling darkness but more often than not it has been obscured by the shafts of light eminating from his beautiful acoustic arrangements and allmost too sweet melodies - like a cute kid smiling as they slowly saw through yr shin.

Throughout most of We Are Him the music sounds more like an army of sub-human rape spawn tearing yr body limb from limb, maniacly cackling, blood on their teeth.

Akron/Family once again act as backing band but the album features a fairly huge cast including mystical dominatrix Larkin Grimm and ex & current members of Swans / Ministry / REM / Alice Donut / Antony & The Johnsons / Cop Shoot Cop... the list goes on.

Violent, evil, dark but also tender at times and full of heart We Are Him is Angels of Lights most electrifying and absorbing album to date. Let those cyclical riffs crush yr bones to dust.

Black River Song mp3 {the opening evilness}

The Man We Left Behind mp3 {the softer stuff}

Angels of Light myspace
Young God Records

We are him is released on Friday 24th Sept.

- RV.

Michael Hutchence Will Wank Again!

Wow! What a week! Despite rumours to the contrary I am not actually dead. I woke up on Wednesday morning on the floor of the Clarendon Hotel, sans trousers, with a belt around my neck and half a lemon in my mouth. On a related topic, it seems that Michael Hutchence, celebrity auto erotic asphyxiator and frontman of Doors tribute band INXS, is set to return from beyond the grave. Hutchence, who famously wanked himself to death in a Sidney hotel room is to be the subject of a new rock bio-pic in development with, weirdly enough, Morgan Freeman's company Revelations Entertainment.

Slide Away will feature Hutchence's ghost guide his 11 year old daughter Tiger-Lily through various parts of his life, including taking her to the very hotel room where he bashed out his last. Despite what you may think I am not actually making this up. Presumably the sight of her old man blue faced, bulge-eyed, drooping cock in hand is how every father would want his daughter to remember him. Hayden Christianson, better known as the whingy twat who ruined Star Wars, is set to play Hutchence in what is likely to be the most fun filled family romp of the season.

- S.B.

The most words what I ever wrote in one go

Sorry there hasn't been any posts the last couple of days, I had a very busy weekend, a large part of which involved me standing in a muddy field getting rained on. I came down with a flu so did nothing but lie in bed watching The I.T Crowd on tvlinks, I just couldn't bring myself to attempt stringing words together in some sort of half readable fashion (I find that hard enough when I'm feeling 100%). Thats my excuse, I don't know whats up with yr other gimcracker SB, though he's probably been eating punnet after punnet of cherry tomatoes, getting in rumbles with his gang or giving back to nature, that's what he's into.

So i wake up today and i'm feeling much better, the sun is shining, I have a couple hours to kill before real work starts so I start thinking of something i can write about. My mind is blank. A quick sprint through the internet shows that it's been quite a quiet news week all over: The fuhrer of all music websites Pitchfork have an interview with Daryl Hall! of Hall & Oates fame, Our usual stop off for pointless un-news NME.com's top story is that huge abortion fan Madonna is selling her record company Maverick, anyone wanna own the rights to The Brood's back catalogue? Every other blog has been posting video's of Animal Collective live at the MIDI Festival in France so what's the point in even alerting you to that?

So I guess I'll just give you a quick run down of some of the great music i saw over the weekend yeah? Yeah.

The Spook of the 13th Lock: i can't praise these guys too much as they're friends but they really are shaping up to be one of the BEST BANDS IN THE WORLD EVER TIMES INFINITY!!!. Supposedly uncool elements like Trad, dual harmonising guitar solo's and Celtic Mysticism combine to make what some clownshoe is probably moments away from calling 'Horslips for the i-pod generation'.

Spook myspace

The Spook were one of the supports at the Brian Cullen's Love Bullets 10'' e.p launch in Toners of Baggot St. BCLB are one of the noisiest and most fun bands I've seen in a while, throwing sweets and hyperfuzzed sweet-pop into the crowd and their rapidly dying ear drums. The e.p comes with fantastic artwork and a board game designed by Studiomime aka Dublin musician David Donohoe and is already on the verge of selling out so get yrself down to Road Records as soon as you can and pick up one the the few remaining copies.

Love Bullets myspace

Straight after the BCLB gig i ran up to Crawdaddy for the Dan Deacon / So Cow gig. We've probably yakked on about Dan Deacon enough on this website so i'll just say his set was super fun, life-affirming stuff. The nialler9 blog has a more in depth review with pictures and video from the night, so go read. So what about So Cow? Well i have to say I'm kicking myself I didn't go see this guy more while he was home (he lives in the good Korea i think). Excellent lo-fi indie pop with smart/funny lyrics. Best part was he had his between song banter pre-recorded along with his backing tracks which constantly got me gigling.

So Cow myspace

Next morning i headed down to Wexford to play with Pantone247 at the Irish Green Gathering, Irelands first ever festival run entirely on petuli oil or something. Sunken stages, bails of hay used for toilets, minuscule organic burgers for 6.50, drum circles, no lights in the campsite and so many crusty types TG4's viewing figures must have been at an all time low - this was a lot of fun.

First act i caught were the always fun Cork langers Stanley Super 800, summery dance pop in the lashing rain, there's nothing better. The new songs sound great, speshly the supposed 'classic rock rip off' one. SS800 have a new album out in September.

SS800 myspace

Next up were the far too talented for their own good 10 past 7, breakneck rhythms, squiddly widdly guitar lines and so much jumping around that bassist Matt fell of the stage right into a pool of mud towards the end of their set. Brilliant stuff that you'd assume no one could follow.

10 past 7 myspace

Someone did follow and that someone was Rarely Seen Above Ground. It's fairly mind blowing stuff, one man from Kilkenny sat behind his drumkit playing and singing along to his own pre-recorded bass and guitar lines. His kit is augmented with all sorts of metallic bric-a-brac which he works into the beats with such furious speed as to make it seem like he's got an extra pair of hands. RSAB will be playing in Crawdaddy on Saturday (25th), go see him do his thing.

Rarely Seen Above Ground myspace
(his recorded work doesn't really give you the full effect, seriously go see him on Saturday)

- R.V

Razorlight To Split? (For Andy B)

Preposterous guffhead Johnny Borrell has denied this week that his piss poor excuse for a band Razorlight are to split. The rumors came after of a rift between Borrell and drummer Andy Burrows led to crisis talks in the band. You really know its time to call it day when even your bandmates reckon you're a tithead of massive proportions. Frankly, the news is a bit of a mixed blessing. On the one hand we wouldn't have to listen to Razorlight's godawful racket anymore. On the other there is the crushing inevitability that Borrell will inflict more of his whinging claptrap on us with a solo career. Sometimes I think this man embarked on a music career solely to annoy me. Perhaps he and Pete Doherty could patch things up after their spat a couple of years ago and form an indie-twat supergroup. Razorshambles? Babylight? The Utter Waste Of Everyone's Time?

S.B.

3 Quick Things!

First off, a Trapped in the Closet update: ifc.com are showing 1 new chapter a day! The run started on Monday so we're already up to Chapter 15. So far highlights include Kelly in a terible old man costume wishing a pigeon would shit on his wife's face and Will Oldham & Principal Blackman from Strangers with Candy playing cops!

go here!

Secondly Comedy Central broadcast their latest celebrity 'roast' on Monday. Following in the footsteps of William Shatner and Pamela Anderson, Public Enemy's Flava Flav took to the throne for some good natured slagging. You can watch each of the 'roasts' here but our favorite has to be Jeffrey Ross (below).

Comedy Central-Flavor Flav Roast-Jeff Ross
Uploaded by Shel18

Turdly, as previously reported, Dan Deacon will be bringing his rainbow of noise to Crawdaddy this Friday! Go, dance, sing, sweat, puke.



- RV.

Jessica Simpson Tops Idiotic List (but not for being an idiot!)

Claiming to be THE source for music 'news', Shoutmouth.com has put together a list of who they claim to be The Hottest Women in Music. Topping the list is aryan dolt-munt Jessispa Simpson, i wasn't even aware she was 'in music'. Other mentally deranged wrong-thoughts include deluded inside-out Praying Mantis Victoria Beckham, dead crow faced Simspon sister Ashlee, and the just plain bet-down Willa Ford, mind-fuckingly enough Nelly Furtado's reddner inducing 'look at me, i'm a sexy yoke now' schtick seems to have paid off aswell. Shoutmouth have set themselves some very stringent rules for this extremely non-vital gurn match: No Oldies! No Kiddies! No Pseudo Musicians! The banning's don't stretch to suicidal maniacs strangely enough.

Most worrying of all are some of the comments that accompany the bletcherous portraits, Kelly Clarkson has been 'hitting the Hagen Dazs', and Jewel 'still needs braces' then why are they on yr lame list? Paedo fantasies also feature sporadicly 'she would make the hottest fake 13-year old ever', 'his little sister is suddenly really hot' and the worst of all? 'Young girls, take note: Anorexia does work!'

The lists not all bad though Cat Power, M.I.A and someone called Katharine McPhee feature but where's stoner-eyed Annie Hardy, foul mouthed opera diva Anna Netrebko and Herman Dune sister Lisa Li-Lund? Where's Lovefoxx? Where's Joanna Newsom? Where's Elliot Gould?

Fux ache.

- RV.

Kasabian vs The Holloways: Somebody Get Me A Gun

(An Idiot From Kasabian)

Ever wondered what sort of chaos would ensue when two astonishingly bad bands clashed egos at 40,000 feet? We here at Gimcrack pride ourselves on bringing you the latest steaming hot piles of gossip straight from the gleaming porcelain toilet bowl that is showbiz.

On a recent flight from Japan to England following a performance at Summer Sonic Festival sub-Libertines shitehawks The Holloways, obviously getting ideas way above their station, blagged their way into the first class section of the plane. This apparently was too much for dance-rock crusaders and all round massive bell-ends Kasabian, who happened to be on the same flight. Deciding that the cheeky London scamps were not proper "rock-stars" (ha!), Tom and the other one got their skinny jeans in a twist and demanded that The Holloways be removed from sight and bundled back to economy class like the thieving little scrubbers they are.

Neither band were available for comment but a passenger had this to say: "It was all out mayhem! The thick looking one from Kasabian was pissed off cos those Holloway boys were having a right old time in first class. They had their guitars out and were strumming along like proper cockney scamps. That's when Tom and Serge from Kasabian got up and demanded they be removed. In fairness to Kasabian, they were working on their latest lame dance-rock, cod-political, face-stabbingly awful album at the time. They had a synthesizer right there on the plane and everything!" My next article will be entitled, If I Were A Suicide Bomber.

S.B.

A big list then some words, made up non-genes, pictures and songs.

Animal Collective, Battles , Parts & Labor, Angels of Light, Dan Deacon, Gowns, Stars of the Lid, No Age, Marnie Stern, Herman Dune, Electrelane, Of Montreal, Deerhoof, Menomena, Dirty Projectors, Trans Am, Do Make Say Think, Times New Viking, Big Business, Mice Parade, Taken by Trees...theres been so many amazing records released this year there's no point in even trying to start considering possibly compiling an end of year top 10. The best thing is, theres more coming! Loads more hopefully, but for now lets have a peek at 4 slabs of happy happy goodness set to lunge into your hearts over the next few weeks.

FOG - DITHERER released August 13th on Lex Records.

Country-indie-pop (coundie-pop? nu-cundy?) with added weird noises from an ex-nerd-hop turntablist and members of Mount Eerie, Why?, Low and many more.

Fog feat Low - What's up Freaks? mp3

Fog myspace

JENS LEKMAN - NIGHT FALLS OVER KORTEDALA released September 5th on Service (EU) and October 9th on Secretly Canadian (US)

Kitten-pillow pop. Super-sensitive songs about love and loneliness that'll make you cry with joy while hugging strangers in the que at yr local breakfast roll shop.

Jens Lekman - A Postcard to Nina mp3

Jens Lekman website

AKRON/FAMILY - LOVE IS SIMPLE released September 9th on Young God Records.

Pure Joy-rock. Possibly the greatest band in the world unleash another helping of hippy chanting, scoodle-wank solo's, tender plea's and anguished screams set to magicdust folk jams for parties on the tops of mountains. L.O.V.E.

Akron/Family - Ed is a Portal mp3

Akron/Family myspace

WHITE RAINBOW - PRISM OF ETERNAL NOW released October 1st on kranky.

Sunshine Drone. A lone man crouching over bucket of crystals shooting pink dolphins out of his guitar. Hippy shit again but so very very good.

White Rainbow - Mystic Prism mp3

White Rainbow myspace

- RV.

Maus: A Survivor's Tale

There are a great many people out there who take a dim view of graphic novels or "comic books". They probably view them as silly escapist fantasies for loser children and obese nerds. Well these people can just fuck right off with their big fat stinking opinions. I challenge anyone to find a more moving or thought provoking piece of art about the Holocaust. There are probably hundreds but that's not the point. The point is with Maus, Art Spiegalman has created a truly original take on a very difficult subject.

First published in 1973, the book tells two stories. Cutting between present day New York and Poland 1945 Spiegalman recounts his father's capture and eventual imprisonment in Auschwitz by the Nazis and the author's own troubled relationship with his father. Spiegalman presents his characters as different types of animals according to nationality or race. Jews, for example, are depicted as mice, Germans as cats, Americans as dogs, Irish as zebras, Norwegians as terrapins and so on.

Not exactly 10 Things I Hate About You I know but the book is beautifully illustrated and in turn moving, horrifying, funny and inspiring. Spiegalman pulls no punches in depicting the Poles as a race capable of acts of great kindness and unspeakable cruelty and the Nazis as extreme dickheads. In 1992 Maus won the Pulitzer Prize and Spiegalman went on to create the Garbage Pail Kids. If that's not a sign of Genius then I don't know what is.

If you don't read this I will come to your house at night and wreck up the place.

S.B.

Dirty Projectors - Rise Above

The Getty Address by New York's Dirty Projectors was one of my bestest albums of 2005, it's choral/orchestral glitchy avant R&B was unlike anything heard before and still continues to surprise. September 11th 2007 sees the release of main man Dave Longstreth's latest DP masterpiece Rise Above. I hate to be the kind of writer (I'm a writer?) who just copy & paste's the press release but this is too good not to regurgitate:

Following the 2006 EP New Attitude, Longstreth went to help his parents move out of the house he grew up in. Among his youthful artifacts was the cassette case from the Black Flag album Damaged. This brought back all sorts of memories – Black Flag was one of Longstreth’s first loves – but the tape itself was missing. So, like the character in the Jorge Luis Borges story “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote” who sets out to recreate Don Quixote line by line from memory, Longstreth went to the nearest Guitar Center, purchased the cheapest cassette four-track he could find, and embarked on recasting Damaged from memory, without re-listening to a single note or reading any lyrics. The ten songs that make up Rise Above (titled after one of the tracks on Damaged) stem from these four-track demos, recorded at his parents house on an acoustic guitar.

Load of Bollix? It would be if the album wasn't so jaw-droppingly beautiful and uniquely fucked up. Skittering beats? African Hi-life guitar? intricate 3 part girl-boy harmonies? If you haven't guessed already this sounds nothing like Black Flag. Here's the opening track:

Dirty Projectors - What I See mp3

which of course is nothing like:

Black Flag - What I See mp3

and while we're on the subject of Gregg Ginn's Hardcore legends why not watch the poop-inducingly funny video for T.V Party (unfourtunately not reinterpreted on Rise Above):



Rise Above will be released on September 11th on the Dead Oceans Label, please please please don't be silly enough to ignore it.

Dirty Projectors myspace

Dead Oceans

- RV.

Back to Mine 25: Adolf Hitler (-_-)

Semi-popular after hours chill-out comp compilers DMC have hooked a big one for their 25th installment. Ex-Leader of the Nazi Party and all round massive shit Adolf Hitler will follow in the footsteps of other famous evil doers such as Liam Howlett, Faithless and the most villainous of them all The Audio Bullys. The collection will feature the fuhrer's obvious fave's Wagner and Beethoven but also surprising selections from Jewish and Russian composers Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky and Borodin, unsurprisingly "negro swamp music" will not feature.

Full Story

Back to Mine website

- RV.

Lee Hazelwood 1929 - 2007

I know very little about Lee Hazelwood.
So I'm not going to attempt to write an obituary when the interweb has already been filled with more eloquent and touching examples. All I know is that his voice may as well have been God's and he wrote some damn fine songs, like these two.

R.I.P

Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood - Some Velvet Morning mp3

Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood - Ladybird mp3

Lee Hazelwood Fan site

- RV.

Iron & Wine To Play TBMC 27th October 2007

Though he may look like an enormous bearded infant, Sam Beam is one of the most compelling artists to emerge from the contemporary folk scene in the last few years. Hailing from Florida, Beam has quietly been releasing literate, gentle and extremely lovely music under the guise of Iron & Wine since his emergence in 2002.

After catching the attention of Sub Pop honcho Jonathon Poneman with a series of home recorded lo-fi tapes Beam released his debut album, The Creek Drank The Cradle, to widespread critical acclaim. Iron & Wine's second album, 2004's Our Endless Numbered Days, was a studio based affair recorded with a full band. While the increased production values gave rise to a cleaner more polished sound the songs themselves were as intricate and emotional as ever. 2005 saw the release of In The Reins, a collaboration with Arizona based band Calexico. Blending Iron & Wine's graceful melodicism with Calexico's widescreen orchestral grandeur the record garnered many positive reviews and easily stands up beside any of Beam's solo Iron & Wine works.

The band will play Temple Bar Music Centre on Saturday, October 27th as part of their European tour. Expect lots of hugging, weeping and nostalgic reminiscing of lost loves. Not content with being an acomplished musician and gifted songwriter Beam also directs many of the band's own videos. Talented bloody bastard! The one I've posted is for the single Naked As We Came taken from Our Endless Numbered Days. Awww! Doesn't it just make you feel all warm and gooey inside? No? Heartless pricks!

Sub Pop have confirmed the release date of Iron & Wine's third full length album, The Shepard's Dog, as 25th September 2007.

S.B.

Oh Shit!

Brace yourself. R'n'B legend, sometime McDonalds employee and supposed teenage girl pisser on-er R. Kelly is about to unleash the 13th thru 22nd chapters of his ground breaking 'hip-hopera' Trapped in the Closet. The preview trailer (below) mainly deals with telling the story so far and an 'angel' Kelly saying 'Oh Shit' every two seconds but in the final moments we get a glimpse of whats to come: an old man in bed! a screaming woman (Gwendolyn?)! the midget! in an 'erotic' cowboy suit! gangsters! guns! gospel singers! and most pant-shittingly exciting of them all, a helicopter - car chase! a fucking helicopter chasing a car!
I'm seriously going to poop myself.



- RV.

Of Montreal: Crawdaddy 1st August 2007

Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes is widely regarded as one of the most gifted songwriters to emerge from the second wave of acts from the Elephant 6 Recording Company. The release of this years Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? saw Barnes' songwriting take a darker, more personal turn. Following the breakup of his marriage Barnes' recorded most of the album himself while living alone in Norway. Themes of depression and isolation pervaded whereas previous records showcased the band's unique talent for mashing sunny sixties pop together with a more experimental side. It was released to widespread critical acclaim in January this year.

Last night's show in Crawdaddy began as the album does with the breakneck glam-stomp of Suffer For Fashion. While Barnes is a natural showman, all glitter and pomp, there is an unmistakable feeling of a band going through the motions. Between song banter doesn't improve matters with Barnes explaining that the band has a plane to catch in couple of hours. Things improve slightly with Bunny Ain't No Kind Of Rider a gloriously shambolic mess of looping bass, choppy guitars and a fantastically funky chorus.

Requiem For O.M.M.2 from 2006's Sunlandic Twins showcases Barnes' talent for more traditional pop sensibilities and gets one of biggest crowd reactions of the night. Typical of the band's sound its two and half minutes of pop hooks with a deliciously catchy chorus. Hissing Fauna's centerpiece, The Past Is A Grotesque Animal, falls short of the claustrophobic intensity of the record and ends up sounding slightly tedious. Onstage the band kitted out in angel costumes and grim reaper outfits look almost bored while upfront Barnes does his best Marc Bolan impersonation. Chrissy Kiss The Corpse from Satanic Panic In The Attic is fun and infectious as you would expect it to be and the band finish with The Kinks' All Day And All Of The Night.

The overall impression was a lack of feeling from the musicians and a lack of interest from the crowd. You get the sense that there was a brilliant performance in there somewhere if they would just cut out the needles showboating and costume changes. Not a complete disaster by any means but a very big letdown for fans of a band capable of so much better.

Of Montreal - Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider mp3


S.B.

No Country For Old Men

Enigmatic indie darlings the Cohen Brothers unleash their latest slice of ultraviolent Americana upon our screens in early 2008. No Country For Old Men is a modern day Western adapted from the novel of the same name by the behemoth of American litereature Cormac McCarthy. The film follows antelope hunter Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) who stumbles upon the bloody aftermath of a drug deal gone belly up near the Mexican-American border in Southwest Texas. Taking a satchel containing $2.4 million in cash but leaving behind a truckfull of heroin and a badly wounded witness Moss finds himself and his wife pursued by all manner of thugs, psychopaths and ex-special forces agents.

The cast includes Tommy Lee Jones as a guilt wracked local sherrif who tries to atone for his actions during World War Two by resolving to protect the two fugitives and recover the money and Scotland's Kelly McDonald as Moss' wife. Spanish born actor Javier Bardem, last seen in Goya's Ghosts, gives an apparently magnificent performance as the psychopathic Anton Chigurh, a seemingly unstoppable assasin charged with the task of recovering the stolen money. Reports suggest that Bardmen, who's Chigurh dispatches his victims with a cattle bolt gun to the skull, is a shoe-in for an Oscar nomination.

The movie is seen as a return to the classic noir roots of their earlier films for the brothers who's last outing, an ill advised remake of the Ealing classic The Ladykillers, was greeted with howls of derision from critics and which audiences stayed away from in droves. While No Country For Old Men is also adapted from source material, early word from Cannes suggests that this the brothers most fully realised movie to date. Ecstatic reviewers suggested a brutal but poetic meditation on man's capacity for violence, greed and redemption played out against the stunning backdrop of the American West. As with any Cohen Brothers movie expect moments of extreme carnage intercut with off-kilter humour and a masterful eye for cinematic detail. Incidentaly the film's title comes from W.B. Yeat's poem Sailing to Byzantium. No Country For Old Men is released here on the 8th February 2008.

S.B.

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NO DECENT IDEAS

Revolutionary free-thinkers Hard-fi have shocked the music world to it's very foundations this week. On September 4th those edgy ATM-botherers will release their second slab of exxxtreme truth-rock and guess what? It wont have any cover art! To make sure you realize that theres no cover art they've helpfully provided a cover with the words NO COVER ART printed in planet sized white letters on a yellow background. Frontman Richard Archer had this to say:

''We wanted to break the rules. We don't need some airbrushed band shot just because it might be expected. Fuck that. This is about the music'' {source: NME.com}

This isn't the first time the working class heroes from Staines have rattled the worlds tiny brain cage, 2005's zeigeist defining Stars of CCTV dealt with super-important issues like working all week so you can go have a pint on friday, having no credit on your phone, skipping the bus fare and contemplating running off on your girlfriend because she's pregnant. Yeah thats right, the shit the MAN doesn't want you knowing about! Can you handle it? Do you care?

- RV.