Review: Indie Music I

July 4, 2005 · Posted in Reviews · 6 Comments 

Two posts in two days! Shock, horror! I wonder how long I can keep this up.

As I'm sitting here listening to obscure indie music I have downloaded from the web, it occurs to me that it may be interesting to tell people about it. So, this is my blog post about music I like which you have probably never heard of.

Atrina – this band no longer exists, but their defunct Geocities website is still up, together with mp3s. Something about these songs just grabbed me as soon as I heard them, although the quality of some of the recordings isn't very good. The music is weirdly atonal in places, and uses chords which nobody else seems to use – which is possibly why I like it so much. Recommendations: Memento, Eviscerate, Polaroid, Sulu, Seven Ways, Spy, Witness, Sci-Fi #2.

Laika – this band had a song featured in the Buffy soundtrack, which is why I looked for them on the internet. They have a weird style which is hard to describe (as I'm sure you can tell, I'm not a rabid music fangirl). Recommendations: Black Cat Bone, Breather.

Soltero – they sing slightly off-key, like the Violent Femmes. This has stopped irritating me; it's kind of nice to hear songs that haven't been processed to perfection. Some of the lyrics are really cool. Recommendations: The Moment You Said Yes, Communist, Laundry Day Dreams, Autobahn, Lucky Little Girl, Oh Noelle.

Pretty Girls Make Graves – noisy rock with cool wibbly guitar bits. Recommendations: Something Better, Something Brighter, Liquid Courage, Speakers Push the Air.

Floater – possibly my favourite. Good, solid, interesting rock. The style changes somewhat from album to album. Recommendations: Alone, Cinema, Diamond.

The Rondelles – a sort-of eighties pop type of band, I think. Recommendations: Safety In Numbers, I'll Melt With You, Back-stabber.

Arockalypse and the Amazing TransMetropolitans – generally upbeat rock with lyrics that sound like freaky pulp sci-fi. Recommendations: Future Pretty, Necropolis, TransMetropolitans, Super Scientist, Robot Nation.

Splendid – another band featured on the Buffy soundtrack – several times, apparently. They do mellow love songs. Recommendations: Blue (Angie Hart solo), Charge, Love and Other Bruises, You and Me.

I have more, but I think I'll save them for a later post.

I found most of these while I was at university (and had access to broadband, such as it was). I will hopefully soon have broadband at home, and will once again have the freedom to download huge swathes of random music, most of which is going to turn out to be crap.

A lot of these bands sell CDs through CD Baby; Simon and I are going to get some, assuming we aren't forced to subsist on beans and crackers for the next few years.

We're moving into our hopefully-soon-to-be-actually-purchased-no-really flat on the fifteenth. Wheeee! And urgh, packing.

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Reviews: Batman Begins; What the Bleep Do We Know!?; Underwater Light

July 4, 2005 · Posted in Reviews · Comment 

Batman Begins

I really liked Batman Begins. And not just because it was populated by some of my favourite actors, although that was an added bonus. Mmm, Liam Neeson… and Christian Bale… and Gary Oldman… and Cillian Murphy*… er, ahem. I think it's the first Batman movie which is faithful to the atmosphere of the Batman comics (or at least the modern comics, which are the ones with which I'm familiar). It doesn't take the Lone Supervillain In Tights route, choosing instead to present corruption and organised crime as Gotham's major problem. It drops the classical Batman origins story in favour of a revised version (which did originate in the comics, as far as I know; I'm not that familiar with them) There is a Ninja Training Montage in Tibet. There is a tank-like proto-batmobile. We see the future Commissioner Gordon at an early point in his career. It is widely suspected that we also get shown a young Dick Grayson.

Since the movie is primarily an origins story, it mostly just sets the scene for Batman's further adventures. It looks like this is going to be a new franchise, and it looks very good so far.

* Cillian Murphy and Tom Welling: separated at birth? Jo thinks so too. I did a double take.

What the Bleep Do We Know!?

This is a semi-documentary which is allegedly about quantum mechanics. What it actually is is a collection of pseudoscience and philosophy collected from dubious sources and blobbed together into a Grand Theory of Everything (full of truck-sized holes, unless you are a solipsist and have had no scientific education whatsoever) which claims, basically, that we can manipulate reality with our minds. The movie is saved from being unwatchably awful by the unintentional hilarity of its claims and the bad acting in the dramatised bits (the best actor, by far, is the little kid with the basketball). The hilarity kicks in at about the point at which you realise how bad the science is, and coincides with the cameo appearance by Armin Shimerman.

The special effects were done by a Capetonian company; if you've seen any of our awful homemade CGI adverts, you know what to expect.

I wouldn't recommend actually spending money to see this in the cinema. If you want a taste, check out the official website.

Fanfiction Column

Today I would like to pimp one of my favourites: Underwater Light by Maya. This is the kind of Harry Potter fic I like best – an epic mystery. The students of Hogwarts are disappearing, singly and in groups. Someone on the inside is working for Voldemort – but who is it? The Harry/Draco 'ship is tastefully and believably presented against a riveting backdrop of Find The Traitor. The second-last chapter has just been posted.

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