Posted by: minifigpootles on: 23 December, 2008
Alongside Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes produced one of the best albums in 2008 and they too also did a grand job of, musically, looking both backwards and forwards. The album (and preceeding Sun Giant EP), with its floating melodies, enchanting harmonies and stripped-down production sounds like it could have been recorded in the 1960s and [...]
Posted by: minifigpootles on: 22 December, 2008
Yes, yes, strictly speaking this album is from 2007, but the year that it found its audience was 2008. The album was originally self-released in 2007, but its major label releases came in February and May of this year, so it’s fair to include it, I feel.
The album is helped greatly by its now oft-told [...]
Posted by: minifigpootles on: 13 August, 2008
On the weekend of 10/11 August, Victoria Park in Tower Hamlets hosted a couple of small festivals. The latter of these, The Underage festival is created exclusively for 14-18 year olds, and so didn’t seem like my cup of tea. Besides, I think it would violate my parole. Field Day boasted one of the best [...]
Posted by: minifigpootles on: 24 July, 2008
They didn’t perform together, before you start wondering. They didn’t even perform particularly close to each other either temporally or geographically, but I didn’t review either of them when they happened, so I thought I’d do it now.
Firstly, The Futureheads played the Electric Ballroom all the way back on 29th May. They made me realise [...]
Posted by: minifigpootles on: 2 June, 2008
There are bands that, frankly, I just never expected to see live, and Public Enemy are pretty much mythical in my mind. Seeing Chuck D and Flavor Flav come onstage at Brixton Academy wasn’t just magical in the sense that it was an amazing thing to see, it felt magical insofar as it was totally [...]
Posted by: minifigpootles on: 25 May, 2008
There’s something a little bittersweet about seeing music in the Astoria at the moment, in the knowledge that you’re seeing it in its last days. Soon it’s to be demolished to make way for the Crossrail project. However, if my spirits were slightly knocked by the knowledge of this fact, this gig made up for [...]
Posted by: minifigpootles on: 22 May, 2008
(Actually, he was supporting Jens Lekman, who I have nothing against, but I didn’t stick around to see. After seeing Bon Iver, there didn’t seem to be any point.)
Sometimes gigs come at just the right moment. The ‘right moment’ is usually the point where I’ve been listening to an album for long enough that I [...]
Posted by: minifigpootles on: 20 May, 2008
I like drum and bass. Rather a lot in fact. I’m not too keen, however, on going to places where DJs are playing lots of it and sweaty people are prancing around. Which is why I can’t tell you about any of the people who were on before or after Pendulum, because I didn’t see [...]
Posted by: minifigpootles on: 18 May, 2008
When I bought the tickets to this gig, Vampire Weekend were of the so-hip-it-hurts camp. Since then, they’ve released an excellent debut (in a year full of excellent debuts, might I add) and despite this, the music press seem to have moved on.
Frankly though, I don’t know why. Their eponymous album is rather astonishing for [...]
Posted by: minifigpootles on: 28 April, 2008
I guess that Anton Corbijn’s control was never likely to be the cheeriest of films. Charting the brief rise and fall of Joy Division, and concentrating on the demise of their lead singer, Ian Curtis through suicide at 23 I guess that casting Adam Sandler and making it into a slapstick comedy probably wouldn’t have [...]
Posted by: minifigpootles on: 18 April, 2008
Some people feel that Hammer and Tongs first foray into feature films, the ill-fated Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie was a bit of a disappointment, and yes, it was flawed, but it had some great moments as well. The opening was great, Martin Freeman was a perfect bit of casting, Marvin was a lot [...]
Posted by: minifigpootles on: 11 April, 2008
The Orphanage (El Orfanato) is a Spanish film produced by Guillermo del Torno, and directed by Juan Antonio Bayona. A couple move into the orphanage in which the woman was raised. It being a horror film, strange things happen, especially regarding their child who appears to have a range of imaginary friends. During a party, [...]
Posted by: minifigpootles on: 2 April, 2008
When bands go away for 10 years, they may as well not bother coming back. Apart from maybe a reunion gig where lots of now slightly-too-old people can gather round them and realise (probably falsely) that they didn’t miss out on much first time around.
Normally this is the case, anyway. Which is why it was [...]
Posted by: minifigpootles on: 27 March, 2008
Wes Anderson Season 2008: Part 2
This is the film that kicked off my little Wes Anderson season. It’s one of my favourite films. I watched it first back in 1999 when it first came out (well, first came out in the UK anyway).
It’s difficult not to love this film. From the early wide-angle shots [...]
