Review: 'Slow Summits' - The Pastels →
in Andrew R. Hill, music, review
POST 'Cavalcade' mini-album launch at Nice'N'Sleazy, 26 April 2013
Earlier this year Glasgow/Manchester's POST had our Andrew R. Hill in raptures with the digital release of their debut mini-album Cavalcade, which is now receiving a much deserved physical release on (the ever-excellent) We Can Still Picnic. The live launch for this gem of a record is this Friday at Glasgow's Nice'N'Sleazy - doors are 1930, and it's a fiver on the door or £3 in advance from Monorail Music or Tickets Scotland. Support comes from gauzy popsters The Yawns and the enigmatic Spread Eagle. So (if you're in the area...or even if you aren't) make sure you grab the chance to catch one of the country's most exciting new bands in action, and be sure to pick up an album while you're at it.
Review: 'In The House'
in cinema, Erika Sella, review
Record Store Day: Vic Godard & Subway Sect’s ‘Caught in Midstream’ 7” and Vic Godard & The Sexual Objects live in Mono, Edwyn Collins, and more…
20 April is this year’s Record Store Day, the day of the year that music fans and musicians celebrate their love of those most wondrous spaces – independent record shops. Since 2007 the event has grown and grown, with record shops across the world opening their doors (often early) to incredibly lengthy queues, hosting in-store performance and offering exclusive releases.
This year’s exclusive releases are of a particularly high standard (a full list can be found on the RSD website) but one that has particularly caught our ear is Vic Godard’s Caught in Midstream 7”, produced at West Heath Yard by Edwyn Collins compatriot Seb Lewsley, and released on Collins’ label AED Records. Both sides of the 45 come from the sessions for the follow up to 1979 Now (the follow up to 1978 Now) a future release of another ‘lost’ Subway Sect album that saw them in their influential (but largely undocumented) Northern Soul phase.
Godard will also be playing a special set of Velvet Underground songs for RSD at Mono in Glasgow with the inimitable Sexual Objects. World Peace and Ela Orleans are also playing and Deena E. Jacobs, David Barbarossa, Jenny Rollo and The Brogues will be DJ-ing throughout the day.
On a related note, Edwyn Collins will also be releasing a 7” with The Heartbreaks for RSD, and all of Orange Juice’s wonderful LPs are to be re-released on vinyl for this celebratory day. Collins is currently on tour and is in fine fettle, as we can attest to, having seen him at Glasgow’s ABC last night. Tears may have been shed.
Wherever you are and whatever you’re into, independent record shops are important for so many reasons, get along to your local (or locals) tomorrow if you can, even if it’s just to get reacquainted with that smell (you know what we’re talking about).
The Pastels - 'Check My Heart'
We've been a little bit slow to post this so no doubt many of you have heard it already, but we couldn't risk this wonderful slice of sun-infused hard pop escaping anyone's attention. The Pastels are one of Blasted's favourite bands and we can barely contain our excitement at the prospect of hearing new album Slow Summits, due out on Domino Records on 27 May. There's a taster in the form of the audio for first single, Check My Heart, below. Maybe the summer's on its way after all.
Casual Sex 'Stroh "80"' single launch at Nice'N'Sleazy this Friday
in blog, Andrew R. Hill, events, music, news
Glasgow's rarely short of excellent bands and now is no exception. At the forefront of the current scene are Casual Sex (featuring Sam Smith, previously of the much missed Mother & The Addicts) who bring to mind David Bowie, Magazine, Josef K and the Monochrome Set - in other words, they're bloody (s)excellent. They launch their new single Stroh "80" this Friday (5 April) at Nice'N'Sleazy, playing alongside The Amazing Snakeheads and Asian Babes, and costing an arousing £5 on the door, or an irresistible £3 in advance from Monorail Music or Tickets Scotland.
If you can't make that (or even if you can) then you can do far worse than to listen to their recent BBC 6Music session for Marc Riley, or to stream the single's erotic A-side below. A sexy 7" (or a download, if you so prefer) is available now on the Moshi Moshi Singles Club and can be bought directly from the band, the label, or any record shop worth its salt... The grooves on our copy are practically worn out already. See you at Sleazy's.
Mark Cousins' 'What Is This Film Called Love?' + Q&A at the Filmhouse this Thursday
in blog, Erika Sella, events, news, cinema
It’s important to take a breather after the stress and strain of a ‘big job’ - even a prolific workaholic like Jean-Luc Godard decided he needed to work on a smaller project after the the challenge of working on the big budget Cinemascope epic that was Le Mépris.
Mark Cousins may not appear to have much in common with Godard, but like the Swiss director, he completed a mammoth (15 and ½ hours long, and 6 years in the making) guided tour the history of cinema, the superlative The Story of Film: An Odyssey. Passionate, always engaging and clearly in love with the seventh art, Cousins is a rarity amongst modern-day film critics.
His latest work, What Is This Film Called Love?, was ‘made for £ 5.80’ and shot over 3 days in Mexico. A meditation on the nature of happiness, it seems like a very personal film - a world away from the academic approach of The Story of Film (Cousins himself noted that he never used the word “I” in the commentary). It also features music by Blasted favourites PJ Harvey and Bernard Hermann.
You could do much worse then get down to Edinburgh’s Filmhouse on Thursday at 18.15 and see it for yourself, and maybe even ask the man himself a few questions.
You can read more about What Is This Film Called Love? here, and you can also follow Mr Cousins on Twitter.
FOUND + Aidan Moffat + King Creosote - FREE Gig in Edinburgh this Thursday
Tomorrow (21 March), not one but three of Scotland's finest artists will grace the stage at The Caves. FOUND and "Falkirk's answer to Barry White" (not our words - FOUND's Ziggy Campbell there, although he does have a point), Mr Aidan John Moffat, have previously collaborated on the experimental #UNRAVEL project (video below) and the latter has just released a new album in his L. Pierre guise, so who knows what could happen. King Creosote is of course the fine purveyor of his own brand of pop-infused folk (or should that be folk-infused pop?) and head honcho of Anstruther's Fence Records. Not only that but it's free, with entry on a first-come-first-served basis, so there are no excuses really. Check it out.
Found Footage Festival
in blog, Erika Sella, events, cinema
When I was a student at Glasgow University, I found an abandoned box on the pavement near my flat on West Princes Street. The box contained notebooks, gig and cinema tickets, and lots of photographs. I was of course immediately fascinated my with my new treasure and tried to join dots and build a story around those discarded fragments. Who were those people? Why had the box been chucked?
Although a bit less dreamy, the spirit behind the Found Footage Festival is in a similar vein. Founded in 2004 by Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, the festival is essentially a comedy event that features VHS tapes gathered at second-hand shops, flea markets and jumble sales. The videos are often comical (a highlight of the current tour is a 1996 tape that teaches viewers how to care for their ferret), and sometimes very weird (I am personally intrigued by The Sexy Treadmill Workout).
The FFF has been growing steadily for the past 9 years, and it easy to see where its charm lies. It is a celebration of how bizarre the everyday lives of ordinary people can be. Those VHS tapes are, in the words of organiser Nick Prueher, "A more truthful representation of who we are as a people than the greatest films of the last 75 years".
The festival is currently touring the UK, so catch it at Edinburgh's Cameo Cinema at 9pm on Wednesday 20 March or at Glasgow's Grosvenor Cinema at 9pm on Thursday 21 March.
Follow @FoundFootage on Twitter and YouTube.
Feature: Roman Polanski's 'The Tenant' →
in Erika Sella, feature, cinema
