As April comes to a close, here are 5 tracks I found irresistible for the last 30 days. Enjoy. Or don’t. You decide!
1. Lotus Plaza – “Strangers”
Though Lockett Pundt lacks the indie-ubiquity of his Deerhunter bandmate Bradford Cox, his second solo album under the Lotus Plaza moniker confirms his ability to write music that is big, catchy, and incredibly good. “Strangers,” the first single from Spooky Action at a Distance, finds its lineage in Pundt’s Deerhunter contributions (especially “Desire Lines”), but doesn’t sound like a leftover from any of their sessions. Guitars twinkle and shine in between one another beneath Pundt’s calming voice in pure pop perfection. I could have picked any track from Spooky Action, but “Strangers” stands out for the simple fact that after nearly a month, I still want to listen to this song multiple times a day.
2. Father John Misty – “Hollywood Forever Cemetery”
For such a spare, minimally composed song, “Hollywood Forever Cemetery” packs an immediate punch. While I’ve never been a big fan of Fleet Foxes (the reasons why could fill a separate blog post), former member J. Tillman adds a jagged edge to their simple formula to craft a song that has more power than it would seem at first listen. With just reverb soaked guitar and clattering drums, “Hollywood Forever Cemetery” is the kind of song you can listen to at both 2PM and 2AM and experience it differently each time. Equal parts catchy and dark, the song showcases Tillman’s ability to craft complicated ideas in simple arrangements with great effect. (The Aubrey Plaza-starring video makes for an awesome companion btw)
3. The Walkmen – “Heaven”
The Walkmen have come a long way from the the discontented 20-somethings that broke onto the scene with their fantastic second record Bows + Arrows. On 2010’s Lisbon, they finally found the middle ground between the fire and passion of “The Rat” and the gorgeous “We’ve Been Had,” and the lead, eponymous single from their newest effort finds them in an even more comfortable spot than before. Hamilton Leithauser still lets his uncertainties and doubts come to the fore, but they’re mixed in with a sound and feeling of contentment the band has yet to display. I don’t know when exactly The Walkmen became one of my favorite bands, but songs like “Heaven” verify why.
Stream “Heaven” here
4. MMoths – “Heart (Featuring Keep Shelly in Athens)”
While fans of louder, faster tempo jams might find “Heart” too slow and atmospheric, the standout track from the band’s self-titled debut has been in heavy rotation for me since first hearing it. Equal parts meditative and moving, “Heart” builds slowly to a drop that is subtle, but powerful. The song finds the middle ground between Grouper’s palette of washed out beauty and Beach House’s dreaminess, coming together to create a song that draws you in and becomes embedded in your mind.
5. The Death Grips – “Get Got”
I’m going to be completely honest and say I have no idea why I find this song as compelling and great as I do. Sometimes, a song just has intangible qualities that are hard to define, and “Get Got” is undoubtedly one of them. I don’t know if it’s the track’s wiley hook or frontman MC Ride’s seemingly disinterested snarl or even the inherent weirdness of the song that has kept it on repeat, but whatever it is, it works incredibly well.
Honorable Mentions: Screaming Females – “It All Means Nothing,” The Chromatics – “Kill for Love,” Breton – “Edward the Confessor,” Dirty Projectors – “Gun Has No Trigger,” Japandroids – “The House That Heaven Built”
Best Old Song Discovered Now: Grizzly Bear – “Easier (Alternative Edit)”
Daniel Rossen’s fantastic solo EP led me back to the welcoming embrace of Grizzly Bear, especially this alternate take on the opening track from 2006’s Yellow House. A b-side to the band’s breakthrough, “Knife,” this version of “Easier” features a different set of lyrics and some major arrangement changes that in many ways are superior to the album cut. This song isn’t just for obsessives like myself either. It’s a gorgeously arranged song with a level of emotional resonance that made the band’s name in the first place.
Last week, Michael headed to the 2011 Savannah Film Festival, getting an early look at some of the films that figure to be Oscar contenders this year and some that disappointed:
Lynn Ramsey’s dark story abut a mother raising a disturbed son drew mixed results for the crowd at Trustee’s Theatre, but stood out as being one of the more interesting and better done films of the festival. Tilda Swinton was terrific as always as a the mother of the titular character, played with menacing evil by Ezra Miller. Flashing backwards and forwards through time before hitting the big reveal at the end, We Need to Talk About Kevin employed visuals better than any other film at the festival, providing a sense of dread the entire time. In a lot of ways, it’s a modern day horror film in the vein of Rosemary’s Baby, where the audience knows something bad will happen and spends the entire film waiting for it to happen. Though I don’t see any Oscar nods in its future, We Need to Talk About Kevin is definitely one of 2011’s must see films.
The latest film from the Mark and Jay Duplass (Cyrus, The Puffy Chair) escaped a lot of attention as one of the last films to be screened, but was among the most enjoyable of the festival. Jeff Who Lives at Home follows the titular character (Jason Segal), a lazy pot-smoker who still lives with his mother (Susan Sarandon). Looking for signs in the world to give him his true purpose, Jeff ends up on a journey around Baton Rouge, where he ends up connecting with his jerky brother (Ed Helms) and sister-in-law (Judy Greer). The Duplass Brothers’ loose, improvisational style gives both Segal and Helms a chance to do their best work on the big screen, each showing depth and range previously unseen. Jeff is also a significant step up for the directors from last year’s Cyrus, a film that failed to meet its potential. In contrast, Jeff features a tighter story and relies more on the emotional beats of characters than emotional beats in the story. Just as it did at the SFF, Jeff Who Lives at Home could fly under the radar for most moviegoers, but if you have the chance, check it out.
After a heavy night with Coriolanus (more on that in a bit) I was ready for some laughs. Thankfully, I decided to see Boy, a hysterical and charming film from New Zealander Taika Waititi. The film follows the titular character, a Michael Jackson-loving 11-year-old kid in a small New Zealand town who is left in charge of a house of even younger cousins and his brother Rocky when their grandmother goes out of town for a funeral. When his estranged criminal father (Waititi) returns, Boy finally has a male role model, albeit one that has him steal marijuana and dig holes to find the money he had stashed in a nearby field. Waititi is pitch perfect as the slightly insane Alamein, making him likable and detestable at the same time. The film started right away with laughs and never let up, even in its heavier moments. Boy may not be on the radar of a lot of film followers here in the U.S. yet, but it should be. Unfortunately, it’s not playing again at the festival, but be sure to keep an eye out for this charming and thoroughly enjoyable film.
In recent years, issues such as climate change, America’s school system, and the financial crisis have been greatly impacted by some incredible documentaries. An Inconvenient Truth changed the way we think about the environment, Waiting for a Superman was watched and mentioned by President Obama, and Inside Job put a spotlight on who was actually responsible for the financial collapse. What made these documentaries so successful was not just that they were well done, but that in some way, they impacted every viewer. Appropriately screening after a panel on how films can change the world, Lee Hirsch’s The Bully Project aims to do the same with a problem that impacts many kids and their parents across the country, hitting all the right notes in the process. The film tackles bullying from nearly every facet, following a middle-schooler facing it in his school, a girl who brought a gun on a bus to stop bullies, a small-town lesbian, and the families of two kids who took their own life because of bullying. Each segment features crushing moments of cruelty that largely goes unpunished or recognized by school and town officials, including one in which an assistant principle tells a boy to just ignore the bully that had told him he would kill him. It’s an incredibly touching film that at times touched very close to home. It may seem bleak at points, but The Bully Project does an excellent job at leaving its audience with a feeling of hope and purpose. What was especially great about yesterday’s screening was walking out and seeing a large group of local students in their seats. All of them were quiet and evidentially shaken by film. As much as it’s a documentary for adults unaware of the issue, The Bully Project is an should be required watching in middle and high schools around the country. See it if you can.
Kermit, Miss Piggy, and Fozzie got their world premier in Savannah as the secret Director’s Choice on Friday night, a move that 
The closing night selection, Sundance winner Like Crazy, also lead to a split decision from the audience. An entirely improvised film shot on a prosumer camera (the Canon 5D), I found Like Crazy to be a film with terrific performances, a great visual style, and a lackluster story. The film follows Jaccob (Anton Yelchin) and Anna (Felicity Jones), two college students that fall in love and suffer through a long distance relationship after visa problems keep her stuck in her native England. Both Yelchin and Jones are terrific, and the small camera allows the filmmakers to capture some terrific, intimate, improvised moments, but the film’s biggest flaw is its glacial pace and some plot decisions that lack explanation or motivation. There’s a good story in Like Crazy that is largely lost, leading the film to rely on visuals to work. While it doesn’t stick the landing, it’s an impressive low-budget indie that deserves the attention its gotten.
The biggest disappointment of the week came with David Cronenberg’s latest, a period piece about the relationship between groundbreaking psychologists Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender). Dry dialogue, relatively conventional visuals, and poor performances doom the film, which felt like it dragged on forever. Kiera Knightley offers a terribly over-acted performance as a patient of Jung’s that begins an affair with him after he gets her craziness under control. Fassbender breaks his hot streak, playing Jung with virtually no emotion, providing no reason to connect to his character. The film’s saving graces are Mortensen, who is charming and funny as Freud and Vincent Cassel, who turns up for about 15 minutes as a doctor/patient that encourages Jung to pursue his affair with Knightley. Overall, the film is sterile and devoid of any sort of emotional connection with the audience. Though the temptation to see a Cronenberg film may be there, skip A Dangerous Method and to avoid crippling disappointment.
Hands down the worst film of the festival, Coriolanus is clearly the vanity project of director/star Ralph Fiennes. Taking one of Shakespeare’s lesser known plays and setting it in “modern day Rome,” the film is an overindulgent mess that finds Fiennes in constant closeups while forgetting a terrific roster of supporting actors including Brian Cox, Vanessa Redgrave, Jessica Chastain, and Gerrard Butler. If Fiennes knows anything about film directing, it’s not apparent in Coriolanus. Do yourself a favor and spend two hours doing something other than seeing this movie.
Over the course of the last week, I heard several friends tell me they weren’t going to last night’s opening film, The Artist, because they didn’t think they’d have any interest in seeing a silent, black and white French film. Nevermind the critical acclaim or the fact that it was opening night, they all told me that without dialogue, they’d probably fall asleep or be bored. I was intrigued by film, not only for its premise but for the buzz surrounding it. After it screened at Cannes, the audience gave it a 20 minute standing ovation. That seemed a little extreme, but now, I can kind of understand why.My silence-fearing friends missed out big time. The 2011 festival started with a resounding bang with The Artist, a brilliant and beautiful story of a silent film star in the transition to sound. As one of the film’s stars, James Cromwell, said after, it’s textbook filmmaking. Simplicity was the name of the game here, and it worked to tremendous affect. There may not have been a 20 minute standing ovation, but I didn’t run into a single person all night who didn’t like the film. It’s hard to get consensus on the quality of a film from two film buffs, let alone a theatre of them, so it was hard to ignore the overwhelmingly positive response to it. While I don’t think we’ll be heading for a second era of silent films, The Artist is sure to be a film that resonates within those who’ve seen it for a long time.
For the second year in a row, I’ll be hitting the Savannah Film Festival in Savannah, GA. This year, I have the added bonus of a media pass getting me full access to the event, which features some high profile films such as Cannes hit The Artist, Sundance Winner Like Crazy, A Dangerous Method, Carnage, We Need to Talk About Kevin, and a many more. Be sure to check back here, on 
Once again, TUiW is fortunate enough to go to the Savannah Film Festival and get a sneak peak of some of this year’s Oscar contenders before they hit wide release. Headline films include Roman Polanski’s Carnage and Cannes favorite The Artist, and this morning, the festival announced its competition films. Check out the list below and check back when the festival starts to read our thoughts on them.
In the interest of full disclosure, I’m a die-hard Cubs fan. My great grandfather started the family tradition when he was a kid living in Chicago, and though I’ve never lived in the Windy City myself, I spend every spring getting my hopes up in time for them to be dashed by mid-June. Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS (otherwise known as the Bartman Game) was a particularly painful night for me, one that is still clearly etched into my mind. When I heard about “Catching Hell,” ESPN’s terrific documentary on the incident and scapegoat culture in baseball, my first reaction was to sigh, realizing I’d get to spend two hours reliving one of the worst nights of my sports fan life.
Welcome to a new TUiW feature, TV Report Card, in which we periodically check in on a show or shows that aren’t in our normal review rotation. Today, we start by evaluating the new comedies of the fall season.
After 31 years, R.E.M. are calling it quits. One of the most important bands of the last three decades, R.E.M. are responsible for the success and popularity of modern indie rock. There are obvious musical descendants, like The National, but every band on an independent label owes a little bit to R.E.M. for helping keep indies financially viable. Even after joining Warner Brothers, the band set the gold standard for artistic integrity in the MTV era, creating compelling, thoroughly enjoyable music without a hiccup for nearly 15 years. Though the band weakened a bit with the departure of drummer Bill Berry after 1997’s New Adventures in Hi Fi, the three remaining members went through a renaissance on their last two albums, 2008’s Accelerate and this year’s Collapse Into Now. Undoubtedly, their legacy will be centered into what they did between 1981 and 1995, but what the band leaves behind is a tremendous catalogue of music that very few bands can match.
It’s become a small tradition here at TUiW to report on every movement Neutral Milk Hotel frontman Jeff Mangum makes, but this one undoubtedly takes the cake. On the band’s newly redone website, Mangum announced the release of a massive vinyl box set of NMH material, including a slew of previously unreleased tracks. The box will contain the band’s two classics, On Avery Island and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, as well as the out of print Everything Is EP and 7″ for Aeroplane single “Holland, 1945.” The exciting part is the bonus EP, Ferris Wheel on Fire, that features seven previously unreleased tracks (and “Engine,” a b-side), a single of unreleased versions of Avery Island‘s “You’ve Passed” and “Where You’ll Find Me Now,” and a single with studio and live versions of unreleased track “Little Birds.” Phew. The box is available for pre-order for $88, while MP3s of the unreleased tracks will be available as pay-what-you-want on November 22 at the new 
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