Being a religious extremist is hard work: it requires dedication, blind faith and a fervour that only the mad could summon. Everyone should already be familiar with satirist Chris Morris’ debut feature ‘Four Lions’ which follows the story of five Muslim wannabe terrorists set on blowing up…well, blowing something up.
Huge thanks to Matt Poacher from Mountain 7 for this.
If you’re a fan of the film (and you should be), you’ll want to hear this grand reunion of the main players of cult movie classic, Withnail and I.
Download the 45 minute podcast here.
Wow. This looks awful. Each time I watch the trailer, it winds me up more and more. Kristin Scott Thomas? Oh, please! And what exactly has Sam Taylor Wood successfully directed in the past? With a screenplay written by a man whose credits includes episodes of Hollyoaks based on a story by Lennon’s half-sister, you can guarantee this is going to be an irksome watch.
Obviously, I’ll see it – but judging from this, it would appear to be a shiny, heartless interpretation of John’s early life.
X-factoring pop idolatry into the equation, Peter Kay’s ‘Britain’s Got the Pop Factor and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice’ is a hilarious, heavily sugared parody of reality pop show, X-Factor. From the credits right down to the key-changes, Kay’s Pop Factor is delivered with the style and precision of the show it so accurately apes. Watched by an audience of almost 6m earning Channel 4 its largest audience at the tail end of 2008, this DVD arrives in plenty of time before 2009’s X-Factor winner consumes the Christmas number 1 spot.
Kay’s ability to attract stars seems boundless, not only pulling in Neil Fox, Nicki Chapman and Pete Waterman to effortlessly overact as the judges, but also Paul McCartney, Stella McCartney, Rick Astley and Rustie Lee. Yes, OK – the pecking order falls off a little there, but nevertheless Astley and Lee throw in solid performances to nostalgic effect. The show (split into two segments – the results and the finals, all ably presented by the stunning Cat Deeley) succeeds mostly by appealing to different age groups. The 30-somethings who, like me, despise X-Factor will appreciate the kitsch additions of children’s stars from the ‘80s along with the genre mocking, and though younger audiences may not get these deft comic, cultural references, it’s the accurate competitor portraits that will sweep them along.
The young, northern R Wayne has less in common with R Kelly, and more with the the comic character Oor Wullie; 2 up 2 down features the singing talents of two couples – who each have a wheelchair bound partner; and then there’s Geraldine. Played by Kay, Geraldine is post-op, piano-playing Irish transsexual Gerald. Sounds preposterous? It is. And that’s precisely why it works so well.
Charting the adventures of all three artists, ‘Britain’s Got the Pop Factor and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice’ is an enjoyable 120 minutes of entertainment. Extras include a ‘Where are they now?’ feature that links nicely with some of the contestants who didn’t quite make the cut. Could X-Factor have to battle Geraldine for this year’s Christmas number 1? Don’t bet against it.
Pendulum‘s reputation has been growing steadily since the release of their debut album, the critically acclaimed Hold your Colour. In the space of just four years they’ve shot from the drum n’ bass underground into the mainstream with In Silico which saw the band morp into a rock / dance combo. OK, some might say metal / dance act, seeing as they like to cover target=”_blank”>Metallica‘s ‘Master of Puppets’ but they also cover target=”_blank”>Coldplay‘s target=”_blank”>’Violet Hills‘ so you can argue the toss till the sheep go to sleep for all I care.
This live DVD recorded at Brixton’s prestigious venue in December 2008 clocks in at just over 90 minutes and features an amalgamation of their hits to date. It would be simple and mostly true to say that fans of In Silico who have yet to see the band in action will want to catch this, but fans of their early work should give these discs (the DVD comes with a live CD) a wide berth. But that would seem unfair to anyone with travel sickness, as there is a distinct possibility that those particular individuals might not enjoy this particular ride either.
Though Pendulum’s playing is undoubtedly precise, the DVD suffers from Paul Caslin‘s manic direction along with some deeply annoying editing. No clip rests for longer than, say, eight seconds anywhere on this film. Eager to convey the heady, MAD experience of being at a Pendulum gig, Caslin has overdone it. Zooming in on gurning members of the audience, pretty girls chewing gum, sets of mystical eyes and a rioting mosh-pit may appeal to the director or editor, but the constant cutaways render most of Live at Brixton Academy unwatchable to the casual viewer.
Though the musical content of the DVD is mostly solid (though MC Jakes is entirely ill-disposed as an MC and should retire immediately), with the absence of the thrilling ‘Axle Grinder‘ most notable, extras include fervently disagreeable fan cams agonisingly postulating and spreading their stupidity over the screen; ‘fag-break’ inserts (where you can interrupt the concert and watch some people outside the gig smoking); a ‘band-cam’ (to watch the band arrive on-stage) and a camera that focuses on the embarrassment that is the mosh-pit.
A trip to see the band would be far more entertaining, as you would get to see first-hand just how little actual stage presence they have. Which probably goes some way to explain why the camera never stays on stage for long.
Pendulum – Live at Brixton Academy is released on June 15th (Warner Bros)
| 1. Intro |
| 2. Showdown |
| 3. Fasten Your Seatbelts |
| 4. Another Planet |
| 5. Voodoo People (Pendulum remix) |
| 6. Propane Nightmares |
| 7. 9,000 Miles |
| 8. Midnight Runner |
| 9. Mutiny |
| 10. Blood Sugar |
| 11. The Other Side |
| 12. Different |
| 13. Master Of Puppets |
| 14. Slam |
| 15. Hold Your Colour |
| 16. Tarantula |
| 17. Granite |
| 18. The Tempest |
| 19. Credits |
The Notorious B.I.G. (aka Biggie Smalls; aka Christopher Wallace; aka Frank White; aka one of the best rappers the world has ever seen) biopic will soon be arriving on DVD for home consumption. Rarely has the world seen such public bickering, the likes of which that raged between two musical icons in 1995: hyped by the media, the tragic climax of their dispute lives on, forever a scar on the history of hip-hop.
Directed by George Tillman, Jr. who previously tackled the Barbershop series and the dramatic Men of Honour, anyone who’s heard Biggie’s iconic ‘Ready to Die’ will immediately recognise Notorious as simply a poorly handled, heavily biased, lacklustre and deeply flawed piece of work.
Starting somewhat predictably with the shooting of Smalls the rap star, Notorious attempts to recreate and retrace the major steps in Wallace the person’s life and career. Coming up in Brooklyn a chubby boy at school to a single mother, he is a smart child before the drug trade takes hold of him at 17. After a spell in jail, he returns to the streets to up his game and earn more ‘paper’ while incidentally entertaining fellow crack pushers, users and the public on the corners of New York with his raps. Before long he is brought to the attention of producer Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs, who is thereafter fired from his position at Uptown Records. Puffy starts Bad Boy Records, Biggie makes his debut record which is a huge smash, he beefs with West Coast ally Tupac Shakur, and after 2Pac is first shot - both artists end up dying violent deaths on the streets.
There are a few seconds spent on the bad-boy Biggie, but that amounts to nothing more than non-actor and rapper Jamal “Gravy” Woolard pushing drugs and shouting menacingly at beau, Lil Kim (played by singer Naturi Naughton). There is no record of any actual violence perpetrated by Biggie which is at the very least what one might expect when your debut album features tracks like ‘Things done changed’, ‘Warning’, ‘Who shot ya’ and ‘Gimme the loot’.
Producers on Notorious include Biggie’s mother Voletta Wallace and Sean Combs which should immediately alert the viewer that they will not be getting a true picture of this rap icon, which is a shame. A missed opportunity, Notorious plays out with all the sheen and class of an R n’ B video on MTV: the grittier ‘coming up hard’ scenes are given the same treatment as when Biggie hits stardom, and practically all extras on the disc reveal a subservient, obsessive obsequiousness to seeking a true Biggie Smalls when, in reality, that never happens.
In fact, the only actual footage of the man himself comes from the ‘Bullshit and Party’ video which though grainy, reveals more in its few minutes than this DVD does over its entire course. If you want an introduction to the real Biggie Smalls, buy both albums and then maybe watch this. Just make sure you’ve a fistful of salt on standby.
2Pac and Notorious B.I.G. freestyle
Black Dice make some of the most fucked-up, psychotic music I’ve ever heard. At its core, Repo is industrial noise for the disconsolate. Or Black Dice are just taking the piss. One of the two. It’s almost incredulous to think that this is the fifth studio album for this Brooklyn trio, which just goes to show that there’s no accounting for taste. Let’s get it straight, you’re probably not going to like this album if your favourite album is something by Coldplay.
No, this is the sonic equivalent of a visual artist’s sketchings. Frequently unlistenable, Repo makes me wonder what Karlheinz Stockhausen would have thought to it. It is truly avant-garde and I fail to see how it is, in any sense, fully formed. Perhaps my brain is geared to chords, modes and, y’know – melody!
Bypassing any preconceived notions of ‘music’, Black Dice mash layers of sound together creating a textured impression of sampled beats and noise. Of course, my whole problem with this is: what determines this as art? Is it enough to say that because this audio collage exists and challenges the perception of music, it is art? No – using the technology available today, this album could have been thrown together within the very shortest of timespans. But, props to the team for being able to listen to it while making it: listening to Repo caused me to furrow my brow so deep, it could be rendered permanently fertile.
There’s little point in me choosing any of these abstract pieces to critique as they’re all as bizarre as eachother. They’re either going to float your boat or sink your ship. For me, this is supreme art wank, and anyone forcing me to hear it again will get themselves killed in the process. I’d rather listen to Coldplay. What does that tell you?
Heist was already a cool word. But put Thunder in front of it, and Thunderheist (TH) becomes some kind of übercool. It happened to Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s production of ‘Cats’; someone put Thunder in front of an otherwise lifeless, corporate title and presto! One iconic cartoon show. See? Actually, that doesn’t apply to Thunderheart. Or Thundercats.
Released on Ninja Tune’s Big Dada label, Canadian duo Isis and Grahmzilla have crafted their own brand of electro-rap sleaze. It’s akin to listening to Missy Elliott freestyling with Salt-N-Pepa in 1986, but with the lyrical sauce of 2009. Truth is, though you’ve heard music a bit like this in the charts before, I’d compare TH to a digital postman: a seemingly conventional, everyday workhorse – but dressed like Grace Jones and shovelling thick packets of sex through your door. If you’ve ever seen an episode of ‘The Wire’, I’d expect TH to be playing at Avon Barksdale’s strip club. Getting the picture? Yeah, good, innit?
From the off, ‘Sweet 16′ drops us into the dirty disco world of dirty dance and dirty talk, where little girls party in a big girls world. Though a cautionary tale of underage sex, it’s incredibly appealing (which I’m guessing is the point), especially with its singalong “Tap tap tap tap tap the booty” chorus. Just listening to the track makes me feel I’m in serious danger of committing a deeply illegal act. If you’ve not been locked up by track two, ‘Nothing to step to’ finds Isis taking her cue from Rakim, pushing you further into a world of sleaze and sweat to supremely danceable effect. With its floating analog synth lines, stomping percussive march, and perfumed vocal hooks, it’s pretty irresistible stuff.
The ravey ‘Jerk it’ features on the soundtrack to The Wrestler and can be heard in a scene with the delectable Marisa Tomei. The song’s video, however, stars a woman holding a live cock(erel). I can’t work it out. Can you?
‘LBG (Little Booty Girl)‘ is one of the best tunes on here. With a bassline similar to that found on Dead Prez classic ‘Hip-hop’, Isis even quotes from it with a slight change: “One thing ’bout music, when it hits you feel no pain, especially in the bank when you know you gettin paid”. It’s slick electro complete with 808 sounds and a vocal delivery bitten fresh out of Kanye‘s heartbroken corpse.
Sickeningly, there is little let-up in the album, with ‘Bubblegum’ enticing the listener to “Get ya back up off the wall, move sum’tin!” It’s not an album for a Sunday morning – unless you’ve not found your home yet. Naughty you. Maybe you’ve been asking where the afterparty at? Well that’s the question moodily posed asks over the dense, rolling bass of ‘The Party after’. Do these Canadians never sleep? No – sleep – till – Toronto?
Of course, no electro-inspired album would be complete without a vocoder. Thankfully, Grahmzilla drops one on the appropriately titled ‘Do the right thing’ which will surely have you pulling out a robot to shame Peter Crouch. Well, that’s not difficult.
TH have gifted us a great album: perfect for the club, the afterparty and the stripclub. Expect to hear it everywhere well into 2009 and beyond.
It looks like 2009 is set to spoil us with great films. Anvil follows the story of two friends both in their 50s: Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow (guitar and vocals) and the eerily named ‘Robb Reiner’ (drums) in their ceaseless quest for their band Anvil to earn the heavy metal glory they believe they so richly deserve. Having had a taste of the big time in the ’80s when Anvil toured with bands like Bon Jovi and The Scorpions, fans expected the band to break like similar heavy rock acts did at the time, but Anvil just never did. It’s a similar tale to that of Anton Newcombe’s Brian Jonestown Massacre as covered in the film target=”_blank”>Dig; only with spandex-clad, bondage-garbed Dulux dogs of men in place of smack-addled, coat-stand thin, ’60s inspired stoners.
Now, just because it’s about a heavy metal band, it doesn’t mean that you have to like or even understand the genre to watch this film. The same principles that drive and crush the band apply across any sphere. It’s about following and living ‘the dream’. Yes, all very quixotic and hippy-esque stuff – but if you thought that a film like (the heavily overhyped) Slumdog Millionaire was “feel-good”, Anvil is going to make your heart throw up.
The plot of the film so closely mirrors classic rockumentary target=”_blank”>This is Spinal Tap, I spent the first 20 minutes wondering if Anvil was, in fact, real. It doesn’t take much longer than that, however, to understand that it is. Much like Mickey Rourke’s Wrestler, all band members work day jobs. Kudlow works as a driver for a caterer and it’s uncanny to see him handling food with a hair net on much like Randy “The Ram” does in between wrestling bouts. Reiner seems to be in some sort of construction industry, but I only infer that as I recall seeing him using a drill half his size to break a stack of bricks apart. Maybe he’s an architect. I doubt it.
In tracking down British producer Chris Tsangarides to record their 13th album, 13 (I was going to say you couldn’t make it up – but Guest et al already did) – the band ‘self-finance’ their ‘best sounding’ recording with £13,000 of Kudlow’s sister’s money. Failing to secure a major label deal means the band have to self-release the album. yielding spectacular results.
Directed by long-time fan and one-time Anvil roadie, Sacha Gervasi, this is a compelling portrait of a life on the outskirts of stardom. Of course, it is filled with all the drama and sadness you would expect from being in a band, but the sheer passion of Kudlow in particular is enough to affect even the stoniest of hearts. With the band working on their 14th album, Anvil is a beautiful testament to friendship and a plaitive paean to music – one that is turned to all the way to 11.
Anvil play the Download festival later this year, and you can even buy Anvil’s latest album to help Lips recoup his sister’s cash here.
11/10