Review

The Philadelphia Film Festival ended a couple of weeks ago, and as it turned out, about 4 of the 8 screenings I attended were worthwhile.

The highlights included Haute Tension (as reviewed in my previous post), a French slasher gross-out; Time of the Wolf, Austrian auteur Michael Haneke’s latest chilling diatribe on the human condition; Robot Boy, a Tim Burton-esque fairy tale short; and Harvie Krumpet, the newest in Aussie genius Adam Elliot’s animated series… See more →

The 13th Philadelphia Film Festival began on Thursday and I’ve managed to fit 8 screenings into my schedule this year, including The Best of the 48 Hour Film Project, for which our film Lunch Break has been chosen!

My first film of the fest was last night’s Danger After Dark opener Haute Tension (High Tension).

Ostensibly filling a time-honored serial slasher mold, Haute Tension opens in familiar territory: College roommates Marie (Cécile De France) and Alex… See more →

Spaceboy Music got the new Tortoise album, It’s All Around You, nearly two weeks ahead of its release date, so I did too. I like it, and I expect to like it more as I listen to it more, but there are no great departures from the oft-imitated Tortoise sound to report, and nothing noteworthy about this newest assemblage of ambling, polyrhythmic post-rock that wasn’t already made noteworthy on one of the band’s previous outings.… See more →

BREDSTIK Entertainment made its second foray into frenetic weekend filmmaking, this time for the 48 Hour Film Project, on the weekend of the 19th–21st. Our randomly-drawn and decidedly unsavory genre options, Musical or Western, actually proved to be less of an impediment than the generally intensified circumstances; contrasting our last project of this sort, we had less time, fewer people, and for some reason, we devised a more complicated script. So the result, Lunch Break… See more →

Mike Patton and Rahzel visited the Trocadero and bored me to tears. It’s like this: these are two very talented guys whose respective bags of tricks are only so deep.

Patton, who should absolutely be commended for his below-the-radar noise experimentation and tireless commitment to collaboration, ultimately excels more in the field of mutated pop music, where the established conventions of the genre allow a much more forgiving space for him to repeat himself. His… See more →

The Dillinger Escape Plan played a super cheap four dollar show at the super small First Unitarian Church with the super great Kayo Dot and Medications. This was one of the best Dillinger performances I have seen, which I find myself saying just about every time I see them (and I’ve lost count of how many Dillinger shows I’ve seen). Such a distinction is especially rare amidst musicians of their jaw-dropping technical proficiency, whose opportunity… See more →

I’m not often interested in shows that could conceivably sell out in less than five minutes after tickets have been made available, so imagine my disappointment when that exact thing happened on Friday as I waited in line for Darkness tickets. Now it appears that my only chances at seeing what will probably be the best show of the year are spending upwards of $100 on eBay or winning a radio station contest, neither of… See more →

Okay, here’s a pretty charming concept: You’re a musician who combs estate sales for the personal slide collections of the deceased—family vacations, corporate presentations, educational slideshows, etc. You create stories from the photos, write songs to tell the stories, and project the slides on a screen as you perform their accompanying songs live. You sing and play guitar and keyboard, your wife runs the slide projector and designs the costumes, and your ten-year old daughter… See more →

Okay, here’s a pretty charming concept: You’re a musician who combs estate sales for the personal slide collections of the deceased—family vacations, corporate presentations, educational slideshows, etc. You create stories from the photos, write songs to tell the stories, and project the slides on a screen as you perform their accompanying songs live. You sing and play guitar and keyboard, your wife runs the slide projector and designs the costumes, and your ten-year old daughter… See more →

Philadelphia is in the eye of a winter storm today; the snow and ice already coating the ground will soon be joined by reinforcements. During this temporary absence of airborn aggravation, my inbox is relentlessly pounded by dozens of MyDoom/Novarg messages. I delete them to the tune of Talkie Walkie, Air’s triumphant return to the magical realm of Very Good Music (after vacationing in Mediocre Music with 10,000 Hz Legend).

Meanwhile, Jason Santa Maria has unveiled… See more →

Over the last couple of months, this site has offered its visitors little respite from boredom. I’ll make no apologies for this, since the lack of updates results directly from my own boredom, which is itself respite from my heated, ongoing battle with the coding of the site’s long-overdue web standards-compliant redesign. There have, however, been a few recent occasions that my attention has been occupied by something other than a spot on the wall… See more →

You know, neither my physique nor my personality suggests a similarity to any hibernating animal that I can think of, and yet, this site routinely falls silent at the beginning of winter, as if I had found a comfortable cave in which to reduce my vital signs and nap for a few months. If South Philadelphia hides any such caves, it hides them well, so unless business as usual is a mundane hallucination, it’s safe… See more →

[…] thoroughly mesmerized by a too-short Kayo Dot performance at the Rotunda.

The winter has otherwise mostly kept me at home, though I’ve snuck out now and then to get a laugh from Brendon Small, H. Jon Benjamin, and Eugene Mirman at the Khyber….

I emerge from over three weeks of silence to tell you about The Darkness. If you’re like everyone else on the planet, the band is already old news (as evidenced by a tour spanning three continents that’s nearly sold out through March), but if you’re like me, you had never heard of them before a month ago, didn’t bother to listen to them before last week, and have since compensated for that missed month of… See more →

Since Pittsburgh is the other big city in Pennsylvania, and I had never been there, I decided to check it out with Merritt this past weekend. The chosen weekend was timely; The Animation Show (which isn’t scheduled to visit Philadelphia) was screening in Pittsburgh, and since I wasn’t going to Ottawa this year, this was a good excuse to drive several hours to see some animation, and see whatever else Pittsburgh had to offer while… See more →

I remain too distracted to produce contemplative opuses detailing my recent experiences, so here is some brusque vagueness about my tremendous weekend and some recent adventures in cinema:

Kevin Cornell’s bachelor party meant food, booze, billiards, and video games all night at Dave & Buster’s on Friday. The Table’s opening reception for the Land Lines exhibition meant beautiful photographs from Nicki Stager and Micah Danges on Saturday. The Incomparables’ second annual warehouse party meant rock… See more →

I pedaled to the Khyber last night to see Stars, my second blind date in as many nights with a Canadian pop band. Once again, the decision was a good one. Live, Stars could be described as an atmospheric Britpop outfit; on record, it’s more of an electro-twee-pop affair, without the detached cynicism. The band does both equally well. You can definitely hear traces of The Smiths and New Order, but somehow Stars’ heart on… See more →

I hadn’t heard Broken Social Scene before tonight. Having recently been informed that the band is comprised, in part, of Do Make Say Think and A Silver Mt. Zion members, the power of Canada compelled me to have my first listen in a live setting. This was such a good idea. As all three bands on the bill (including Jason Collett and Metric) are involved in the same Toronto collective, the stage had a revolving… See more →

Kevin Cornell recently launched Bearskinrug version 4; it is as delicious as might be expected.

Lots of shows lately: The Raveonettes, Luna, Stinking Lizaveta, Mogwai, Andrew W.K. Some scattered moments: Meathead Group A on the TLA floor uses cell phones to call Meathead Group B in the balcony to alert Group B to being given the finger by Group A. “E-A-G-L-E-S!” chants abound. The Troc house lights don’t go up until Luna has played not… See more →

Meathead Group A on the TLA floor uses cell phones to call Meathead Group B in the balcony to alert Group B to being given the finger by Group A. “E-A-G-L-E-S!” chants abound. […] Many a Philadelphia Mogwai fan is apparently uninterested in the low end of the band’s notorious dynamic shifts and sees the circumstances fit to have discussions over the music. After being asked to quiet down by someone who actually wants to… See more →

The Troc house lights don’t go up until Luna has played not one, but three obviously planned encores.

I have been very fortunate (except perhaps in the case of Thirteen) to have so many free movie opportunities lately. Yesterday’s was Step Into Liquid, the new surfing documentary from Dana Brown (son of Bruce Brown, director of the legendary The Endless Summer). Step Into Liquid doesn’t shatter any documentary filmmaking molds, nor should it be expected to. Its strength is in its dazzling surf cinematography, thanks largely to the skills of the world-class athletes… See more →

I learned so much tonight! Were you aware that adolescence is difficult, and that teenagers sometimes abuse drugs and alcohol? Apparently, they have also been known to act disrespectfully toward their well-meaning parents. Sometimes they even get involved in sexual activity! For more eye-opening details, see Thirteen..

Mine is now the supreme pleasure of having viewed the Japanese cult hit Battle Royale. The premise goes like this: In the not too distant future, the Japanese economy has fallen into decline. Unemployment has skyrocketed, and the subsequent rise of unruly, disobedient youth causes the government to concoct the Millennium Educational Reform Act, a.k.a. the BR Act (“Battle Royale Act,” get it?). This act mandates the random selection of one class of students each… See more →

Massive Attack and Mondays don’t mix. My eyelids weren’t giving gravity much of a fight this afternoon.

Last week’s lucky sneak preview was American Splendor, and it was great. An adaptation of the underground comic of the same name, it is an unassumingly unusual film, whose fusion of documentary and dramatization (both factual and fictional) is only occasionally seamless, but nevertheless assiduously works to marvelous effect. It falters here and there toward the end, as… See more →

After redeeming my pass to a sneak preview of Dirty Pretty Things, I somehow stumbled into the wrong theater; when the lights went down and the film began, I discovered that I would be seeing The Magdalene Sisters instead, followed by a Q&A with its director, Peter Mullan. Since Magdalene was one of many movies on my wish list that didn’t fit into my excessively ambitious Philadelphia Film Festival schedule back in April, I sat… See more →

The Philadelphia stop of the Dismemberment Plan farewell tour was last night at the TLA, and the band made it count, playing a setlist-free, all-request show that lasted nearly two hours. It was bittersweet, to be sure, enjoying such a great show and knowing all the while that it would be my last opportunity to see The Plan live.

My friends and fellow Kutztown alumni in the Table Collective opened a small exhibition with a variety of work in their co-op gallery in North Philly last night. My favorite piece was an untitled sound sculpture comprised of textures contributed by (I think) every artist in the show, which were mixed randomly through two channels. I believe the show will be up through next weekend, when a performance is scheduled for Friday night, but unfortunately… See more →

I was going to begin this long-overdue post with a verbose description of the difficulties of keeping a weblog like this: the busier a person is, the less time he has to write, and the larger the pile of experiences to write about becomes. I have opted instead for the succinct description you have just read, which still has not prevented this from being my longest post to date. There’s tons to talk about, and… See more →

Tonight I rode to and from the First Unitarian Church to see Melt-Banana, whose engrossing, skin-blistering noisepunk is still ringing in my ears.

I ventured out to the Friendship House last night, a cool space in North Philly previously unknown to me. DAT Politics made it hop. Espers made it sleep. Lucky Dragons made it buzz and squeak. Nathan Michel made it chirp. Wrist + Pistols made it twang. There was much knob-twiddling and pointing and clicking. It was a long night, but a good one.

My roommates and I have found a rather nice apartment in South Philadelphia. We signed the lease on Friday. We will move around the end of June.

Friday night was unusual, to be sure, finding my Conshohocken cohorts and me receptive to the idea of following our friend Stan (or “Jason,” as he prefers) to a hotel sports bar in King of Prussia to hang out with people none of us really knew. It turned… See more →

I did a stupid thing Monday night: I forgot to bring my camera when I went to see I Am Spoonbender. When one considers the fact that I was actually thinking about skipping the show, the forgotten camera is almost trivial, but, oh, the images I failed to document…

Needless to say, the show was amazing. Drums, synthesizers, samplers, telephone mics, and various unidentified electronic gadgets (analog and digital) were all manipulated live and fed… See more →

It was a beautiful day for a drive to Doylestown yesterday, where an “Independent Double Feature” screened at the County Theater, consisting of an odd pairing: the Brothers Quay short In Absentia and Chris Smith’s documentary Home Movie, accompanied by Jeff Krulik’s cult favorite Heavy Metal Parking Lot.

In Absentia is typical Brothers Quay fare, which is not to say it is formulaic or predictable. Their surreal images rely heavily on texture, which is often achieved… See more →

Last night was the sixth installment of R5’s “In the Sanctuary Concert Series,” featuring Essex Green, Aereogramme and The Delgados in the sanctuary of the First Unitarian Church (shows at the church are usually in the basement).

Essex Green plays polished, country-tinged psychedelic pop. I’m told their music is the most authentic of the modern psych-pop revivalists, but having little frame of reference from that era and genre, I couldn’t help but be reminded of… See more →

If you read Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None: Hollywood fed it through the Shyamalan and Craven machines and changed its name to Identity. Wait, that could be read as a compliment. Try this instead: If you saw Adaptation: Donald Kaufman’s script for The Three has been made into a movie. They changed the name to Identity. James Mangold directed it. Thank goodness for free sneak previews. I was thinking about paying to see… See more →

So a bunch of stuff happened in the last week.

Puppetmania on Monday turned out to be the best of the animated shorts program at this year’s Philadelphia Film Festival, offering such gems as Jesse Rosensweet’s The Stone of Folly and Patrick Bouchard’s Brainwashers, both of which I missed at Ottawa last fall. On Friday night, the ultra-low budget kung-fu musical Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter entertained me far beyond my low expectations. On Saturday night,… See more →

More film fest stuff this weekend. I caught a little bit of the Lost Film Fest 8.0 on Friday, including 156 Rivington, a documentary about the legendary New York arts/activism space ABC No Rio, and a selection of short films and interesting copyright lecture by Carrie McLaren, curator of the infamous Illegal Art exhibition and editor of Stay Free magazine. Then I had to fly back across town for the Philadelphia Film Festival presentation of … See more →

Dirty Three and Shannon Wright played an awesome, 3+ hour show at the TLA. Shannon Wright played the guitar with her whole body. Dirty Three’s Warren Ellis provided hilariously long-winded explanations for the origins of each composition the band played. It was a happy night of sad music.

Congratulations to my cousin Bill and his wife Tara, who, around 3:00 on Friday afternoon, gave birth to my tiny new second cousin Justin!

I dove into the Philadelphia Film Festival this weekend, beginning on Saturday with Winged Migration, an amazing nature documentary about migratory birds. Six film crews spent four years following countless species of birds all over the world, filming them with the assistance of all manner of ingenious camera-equipped flying devices. The… See more →

Two shows, seven bands at the Church this week. Sentence fragments ahead.

Sunday

Dysrhythmia: My favorite Philadelphia band; missed the first half of their set. LickGoldenSky: Screamy hardcore not unlike other screamy hardcore. Hot Cross: shrieking metal/melodic hardcore hybrid, a la Drowningman. Burnt by the Sun: What Pantera might have sounded like if they ever got into Black Flag. Singer sounds exactly like Phil Anselmo, but does not appear to be a redneck.

Tuesday

An… See more →

An Albatross: The east coast’s answer to The Locust. Lineup was a little different from the last time I saw them, including requisite addition of cute keyboard girl who couldn’t look less interested in what she’s doing. Singer needs to lose the Mick Jagger/Iggy Pop schtick. Decent set otherwise. Angry Atom: Radio-ready Avail. Only caught the last couple songs. Mih. Wesley Willis: Highlight of my week. Indescribable entertainment value. Played a handful I never heard… See more →

Dysrhythmia: My favorite Philadelphia band; missed the first half of their set. LickGoldenSky: Screamy hardcore not unlike other screamy hardcore. Hot Cross: shrieking metal/melodic hardcore hybrid, a la Drowningman. Burnt by the Sun: What Pantera might have sounded like if they ever got into Black Flag. Singer sounds exactly like Phil Anselmo, but does not appear to be a redneck.

I saw Lost in La Mancha last night, a documentary account of visionary filmmaker Terry Gilliam’s ill-fated first stab at realizing his decade-old script for The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. La Mancha is at once comical and devastating, since it is clear that if Gilliam’s Quixote is ever finished, it will be an astounding picture, but the production is plagued by every problem imaginable (and unimaginable). From a creative perspective, this must be the… See more →

Lightning Bolt’s Wonderful Rainbow refuses to detach itself from my playlist, and has come dangerously close to bullying the rest of the playlist’s discs into silence. I very much like the other music currently in rotation—such as Isis’s Oceanic and Aereogramme’s Sleep and Release—but have thus far permitted Wonderful Rainbow its thoughtless self-indulgence because it is so damn good that its wild cries for attention simply cannot be ignored. The album is no less… See more →

Interpol and The Raveonettes played the Troc last night. I was quite pleasantly surprised by the feedback-drenched Raveonettes, who sounded kind of like a garage-y Jesus & Mary Chain. I think I shall purchase their record. Interpol turned in another stoic performance devoid of spectacle, which is not to say I did not enjoy it. I admit my attention wandered at times (I often wondered, for example, how bored the superfluous keyboard player must be… See more →

Interpol and The Raveonettes played the Troc last night. I was quite pleasantly surprised by the feedback-drenched Raveonettes, who sounded kind of like a garage-y Jesus & Mary Chain. I think I shall purchase their record. Interpol turned in another stoic performance devoid of spectacle, which is not to say I did not enjoy it. I admit my attention wandered at times (I often wondered, for example, how bored the superfluous keyboard player must be… See more →

I waited in line for an hour last night in 20º weather to see Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the first of what is supposed to be many R5 shows at the Starlight Ballroom on 9th St.

The Black Dice opened up. Apparently they decided at some point to take a very different direction from the crazy noisecore stuff I’ve heard. Samplers and effects pedals and loops, oh my! There are lots of people out there… See more →