Concert Preview: Does It Offend You, Yeah?

9 October 2010 @ The Palace

35 Station Road
Aldershot
GU11 1BA

7.30pm

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Sorted! I just bought tickets to see Does It Offend You, Yeah? on 9 October 2010 and I cannot wait!  The band are embarking on a massive eleven date tour of the United States in September with Kele (of Bloc Party fame) and then they return home just in time for the release of their new album Don't Say We Didn't Warn You in October.

DIOYY were awesome at Exit Festival and were certainly one of the highlights of the weekend for me and so I am expecting big things from this gig!  Click to read my review of Exit Festival 2010.

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Music Review: Cheese People – Cheese People

Artist: Cheese People  Album: Cheese People Label: Media Factory Japan/Zoom Release date: 21 April 2009 Genre: Dance Punk / New Rave Rating:  4/5

With the return of the dance punk genre and the rise of new rave, bands such as Klaxons, CSS and Does It Offend You, Yeah? have experienced dizzying levels of success. Drawing inspiration from the indie rock, disco and new wave genres, these bands have managed to sound loud, fresh and exciting.  Even established masters like Groove Armada have given a definite nod to slightly retro sounds in their latest work as evidenced on their critically acclaimed album Black Light.  While Klaxons and Groove Armada continue to delight and excite, many bands have simply sounded old and tired and I have become increasingly selective when choosing new acts in the genre.

It was with some interest then that I picked up the self-titled Cheese People debut. They claimed to have been isolated from the mainstream and to have based their music on acts such as Prodigy and Gloria Gaynor but they were increasingly likened to CSS, Datarock and New Young Pony Club. 

Hailing from the Russian city of Samara, Cheese People have been playing together since 2003. They started off playing in basements but their brand of manic pop has seen them become Russia's most popular disco punk band.  Vocalist Olga Chubarova and guitarist Anton Zalygin wrote and recorded most of the songs with the help of producer Shipovnic. 

The album begins with the funky disco beats of "Stroitel". Far from being a simple retro tribute, the song soon explodes into electronic and synthetic beats and introduces Olga's distinctive meowing vocal style.  For a band supposedly cut off from the modern world, Cheese People are certainly achieving most of the new rave standards. Next up is "Ua-A-A", my favourite song on the album.  The sardonic vocals and menacing beats make this a really catchy feminist anthem and I was most pleased to see that the album included an extended version of the song at the end. 

"Catch U" begins as a catchy pop tune that sounds like a more accessible CSS in places. The song is saved from mediocrity as it explodes into grinding guitars and a catchy refrain. "Boombasters" is funky filler featuring rather absurd lyrics from Anton. It is a silly song and certainly more about the music than the meaning. It makes me realise that Cheese People must be incredible live though. 

I’m surprised, actually, that more comparisons haven’t been drawn to acts like Le Tigre or feminist pop.  The middle of the album certainly leans towards those acts as Cheese People depart from the new rave sounds.  "Moon" is a lyrical song with a rough, garage sound to it and features Olga’s drawling riot grrrl-esque vocals and "Wake Up" is similar in sound and a catchy anthem..

"O-Djaz" is simply a jazzy, funky interlude and "Tibet+6++" follows with a haunting, experimental sound. "Down & Down" features Anton on lead vocals again with Olga supporting with wonderfully Eastern sound vocals. It is quite a laid back song and certainly one of my favourites on the album.

“Open My Eyes” is an upbeat and energetic return to electronic sounds and Olga’s sardonic vocals while “Eats Your Popcorn” is just silly.  The album closes with “I Hate This Sound” which has all the hallmarks of a classic dance anthem.  It is a surprisingly ambitious and multi-layered song to find at the end of the album and it is a great final track.  Some versions of the album also feature the fabulous extend Gari remix of “Ua-A-A”.

After listening to this album, I could certainly imagine seeing Cheese People on the same line up as CSS, Klaxons or New Young Pony Club.  It seems incredible that Cheese People emerged from a state of relative musical isolation to release such an authentic dance punk album.  This is a rich album with a nod to several musical styles though and perhaps that isolation allowed them a little more freedom in their musical expression?  One thing is for sure though: geographical borders and language barriers are beginning to mean less and less and I imagine that I’ll be listening to far more Eastern European music in the months to come.

Cheese People is an energetic, fun and unique album and a fine introduction to this talented band.  I give the album four out of five stars.

Buy: Amazon.co.uk ¦ Amazon.com

Listen: Last.fm ¦ MySpace

Article first published as Music Review: Cheese People – Cheese People on Blogcritics.

5 Reasons to Ditch Your Record Label by likeZebra.com

This week, likeZEBRA.com released 5 reasons an artist or band should ditch record labels:

1. Competition for Attention - Music artists are already forced to compete for the attention and interest of fans; they shouldn't have to compete for that attention within their own record label. Labels divvy up their focus between multiple signed artists.  Whereas an artist may be giving 100% to developing their music career, a label can only allocate a fraction.
2. Quantity over Quality - A record label's main concern is the monetary return on their investment, but  an artist's main passion is the quality of the music being produced.  Conflicting core values between labels and artists unnecessarily inhibit the creativity and uniqueness of the artists' music.
3. Taxation without Representation - Labels take a cut of the money earned by artists for performing tasks that the artists could actually do themselves with the right access to resources and guidance.  Web sites such as likeZEBRA.com offer recording and promotional tools to get the music directly out to an audience without being an expensive middle man. 
4. Out of Touch - Labels have a toxic fixation on record sales. This is an anomaly in today's low record-selling music industry.  With the easy access to cheap or free music online, labels are rapidly losing their relevance for turning their focus more towards the importance of live performances.  Even major bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails addressed their labels' irrelevance by selling recent albums directly to fans online.
5. Trade-Offs of Contracts - What does an artist really get in return for signing with a label? Lack of creative control? A portion of their own paychecks? Restrictions and inflexible deadlines? Binding obligations to labels leave much to be desired when artists can now rely on themselves to get their music produced, promoted and purchased.

likeZEBRA.com caters exclusively to independent and unsigned bands.  Bands can upload their albums and retain 100% ownerships of the material.  The site is marketed to music fans as “the voice of the underground” and they claim to have the largest database of undiscovered talent.  I’ve played around with the site tonight and have noted some positives and negatives:

+	You can discover songs by track name, artist name, genre or by checking out what other people are listening to.
+	You can then listen to the tracks in the player while continuing to browse the site (something Last.fm does not allow).
-	But if there is a way to make playlists or add multiple tracks to the player then I certainly can’t find it.
-	And if you click on a song from the search above, it should start playing immediately (or at least queue to be added to the playlist.  It doesn’t and you have to still go start the song on the player.
-	My very best way of discovering new artists is by genre and to do this, you need quality control.  There is little quality control on the site and heavy rocks bands have managed to add themselves to the house and techno genres.
+	There are charts which include the Top 10, Top Downloads, Most Loves and Popular tracks.  If you click on one of the charts then you can play the whole playlist.

My verdict is that with slightly more focus on the fans and a greater degree of quality control, this could be a powerful site that could change the face of music forever.

Movie news: Twelve (starring Chace Crawford)

This one looks interesting.  In 2002, seventeen-year-old Nick McDonell released the controversial novel Twelve which was a sort of modern day combination of the great Bret Easton Ellis novel Less Than Zero and Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City.  According to the blurb, Twelve is a story about the “disaffection, despair, drug use and violence” among a group of Manhattan's elite teenage set and was one of those books that people either loved or hated. 

Now Twelve has been made into an allegedly powerful film of the same name directed by Joel Schumacher.  The film is due for release on August 6 and stars Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl), Emma Roberts (Valentine’s Day) and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson with Kiefer Sutherland narrating.

Twelve tells the story of White Mike (played by Chace Crawford), a drug dealer who peddles to the rich and privileged teens of Manhattan.  White Mike’s world is turned upside down when his cousin is murdered and his best friend is arrested for the murder.

I really like Chace Crawford in Gossip Girl and I think he is great as Nate Archibald.  Of course, I don’t like him quite as much as Ed Westwick who plays Chuck Bass and who just happens to be sex on legs. 

It will also be interesting to see whether Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson can actually act.  He’s been in a handful of films over the past five years though and has never made a splash so I’ll have to reserve judgement until I see this film.

Emma Roberts plays Molly, White Mike’s pure and somewhat sheltered friend.  Emma Roberts is the is the niece of Julia Roberts and the daughter of Eric Roberts and looks to make quite an impact in years to come. 

I think this film could be good if it doesn’t take itself too seriously.  I’m definitely looking forward to this film but I know it could easily turn out to be complete rubbish.  It could be as good as Less Than Zero or even Cruel Intentions or it could miss the mark completely and tank.  Perhaps the eye candy alone will keep viewers interested?

DVD Review: ER – The Complete Thirteenth Season

 

ER was the longest-running medical drama to run on primetime television and it ran for an impressive fifteen seasons.  It received an incredible 124 Emmy nominations, winning 24 times and launched the careers of several big Hollywood stars including George Clooney and Julianna Margulies.  ER was one of the first television shows to really take American television programming up a notch and the storylines, casting, acting, sets and medical storylines were all fantastic.  For fifteen years, millions of viewers tuned in for every episode and faithfully followed the story of the doctors and nurses in the emergency room in the fictional County General Hospital in Chicago. 

It has been a really long wait but finally, three years after the season aired on NBC, Warner Brothers have released the region 1 DVD of the complete thirteenth season of medical drama ER.  This is perhaps one of the most explosive and exciting seasons and the one in which everything changes. 

The previous season of ER had ended with Nurse Sam Taggart’s ex-husband Steve being brought into the ER following a prison fight.  With the help of an EMT trainee, Steve and the other prisoner stage a violent escape drugging Luka, shooting Jerry and kidnapping Sam (Linda Cardellini) and Alex.  The season closed with the pregnant Abby (Maura Tierney) collapsing outside the trauma room door as a paralysed Luka (Goran Visnjic) watched, unable to help.

The first episodes of thirteenth season of ER were amongst the most exciting episodes of television that have aired in recent years.  In three short episodes, everything changed and we saw new faces arrive at the hospital and one staff member was demoted.  The season opened as staff at the hospital fought to save Jerry’s life and to save Abby and the baby while Sam and Alex dramatically escaped from the violent and psychotic Steve.  Parminder Nagra’s grieving character Dr. Neela Rasgotra struggled to recover emotionally from the death of Gallant and former-paramedic Tony Gates (played by John Stamos) arrived as an intern at the hospital.

The season barely slowed down from there and included the usual collection of intriguing and at times heart-breaking medical cases.  It was the relationships between the characters and the character development that set this season apart though.  There was a love triangle as Neela found herself the object of affection of both Dr. Ray Barnett (Shane West) and Tony and Neela and Ray’s relationship hurtled towards an ultimately tragic and shocking conclusion.  Tony became a pivotal character in the season and his personal story, secrets and challenges kept the audience tied to the television screen for episode after episode.  One of the longest standing characters on the show, Dr. Kerry Weaver (played by Laura Innes), left mid-season and as sad as I was to see her go, it also gave way for a new guard in the emergency room at County General Hospital. 

One of the biggest stories of the season was that between Luka and Abby.  The talented Forest Whitaker guest-starred as Curtis Ames, a disgruntled former patient of Luka’s that came to take out his revenge on Abby and the baby. Forest Whitaker was nominated for an Emmy for this role in the category Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.  The storyline was explosive and for most of season you were left guessing as to whether their relationship would survive the pressures of Luka’s new position at the hospital, the effect of the trauma and the arrival of their new baby. 

The last three episodes of the season were at times incredibly tragic and sad and the season ended with the promise of even more action and wider changes than ever before.

The cast and acting were always incredible in ER and this season was no different.  I believe the strongest performances came from Parminder Nagra in her role as Dr. Neela Rasgotra and Shane West in his role as Dr. Ray Barnett.  Special mention must go to Chloe Greenfield who plays Sarah, the daughter of Dr. Tony Gates.  Chloe would have been a pre-teen when the season was filmed and she showed herself to be a talented young actress as her character loses her mother and fights to stay with Tony.

The region 1 DVD release of the complete thirteenth season of ER consists of six discs and has an information booklet complete with episode summaries.  Extra features include outpatient outtakes on several episodes which provide a bit of comic relief when some of the storylines get quite hectic.  There are unaired scenes too which are quite interesting but in most cases you can see why they were left out.  The set has English and French subtitles on the main episodes but not on the extra features.

As frustrating as it is to wait so long for the ER seasons to be brought to DVD, it is wonderful to watch them all again and to recall what made this television series great in the first place.  This award-winning and powerful drama is greatly missed and I would certainly recommend this box set.  I give it five out of five stars and wait patiently for the region 1 releases of the last two seasons.

 

Photos courtesy of © Warner Brothers Entertainment

Article first published as DVD Review: ER – The Complete Thirteenth Season on Blogcritics.

Music Monday ~ 26: Make Your Move – Dave Armstrong

 

#4: “Make Your Move” by Dave Armstrong

One of the best memories I have of my trip to London in 2004 was rushing around on the London Underground all the time listening to this song.  I found London so fast-paced and exciting and loved the efficiency and anonymity of the Underground.  I should have known then that it wouldn’t take me too long to move to London.  I don’t often catch the Underground these days and I’ve never captured the heady fever of that summer trip in 2004 but this is the city that I love and that I call home.

“Make Your Move” will always remind me of London and the London Underground.

Ten reasons to love Last.fm

Are you on Last.fm?  Last.fm is a brilliant social media site if you are into discovering and sharing music.  It is quite a complex site so I’ll try break down what I use it for the most.

1. Tracking music listened to: Last.fm was originally called Audioscrobbler and all it did was track the music you listened to on systems like Windows Media Player, Winamp or iTunes.  In around 2004, Last.fm was launched in its current form and became much more powerful.  The system now supports most popular mp3 players including iPods and iPhones.  I love that I can share what I am listening to and it has various uses across websites, Twitter and Facebook for example.
   
2. Charts: the biggest benefit of tracking your music is the ability to generate playlists and charts which you can embed on your blog, MySpace or website.  I have a “recently played” widget in my right side bar on this blog and there are all sorts of charts that you can generate.
   
   
   
   That is my "top artists" chart and there are tons of different designs. 
   
3. Find out what your friends are listening to: Last.fm works best if you invite your friends to join.  That way, you can see what they are listening to and thus discover new music.  This is my profile if you’d like to friend me there: http://www.last.fm/user/mandys.
   
4. Listen to music: not only can you discover the names of new bands but you can listen to their music, watch their music videos and check out their bios and photos too. 
   
5. Recommendations: perhaps the most powerful section of the website is the Recommendations page.  This incredible page takes note of what you have listened to and makes recommendations based on those bands.  For example, because I love Does It Offend You, Yeah?, The Whip and Klaxons, Last.fm tells me I should really be listening to Shitdisco, Hadouken! and Crystal Castles.  Right, I’ll get straight to it then.
   
6. Radio stations: This incredible feature forms the basis of the Last.fm iPhone application.  Listening to music on Last.fm does have limitations and you can’t strictly listen to whatever you want.  If you live in the UK, US or Germany though, you can listen to unlimited music for free through radio stations.  You can chose a band, genre, user, tag or pretty much any other variable across the site and you can listen to a radio station based on that variable.  So I can go to the Klaxons page and listen to similar bands for as long as my heart desires.
   
7. Finding friends: Last.fm is a great site for finding friends with the same music tastes as you.  The page is known as Neighbours and it tells you who you should be friends with an why.  Which is useful if you are looking for someone to go to gigs with.
   
8. Events:  Last.fm has a super powerful Events section which lists all the events taking place in your town on any given day.  You can filter the results by date, genre and recommendations.
   
9. New Album Releases: Another great feature is the New Releases page.  You can filter results according to artists from your library or recommendations from Last.fm.  I get lost in this page sometimes as I realise just how much new music comes out every week and how silly things like sleep and work just get in the way of listening to it all.  I really need a job where I can listen to music again during the day!
   
10. Free mp3s: The final feature is obviously one of the most favourite features for many users and that is free mp3s.  You can find all the free mp3s recommended to you by Last.fm or you can just go to their Free Music Downloads page.  The best part of that is that it is all 100% legal. 

Last.fm is not without their changes and controversies but I hope that in the future they will focus on their listeners and continue to provide this powerful music listening site for a wider range of users.  Let me know if you join up!

Music Monday ~ 25: Sunny – Boogie Pimps

 

As we speak, I’m travelling home from an awesome weekend at the Exit Festival in Serbia.  It was an awesome, life changing experience and I will be sure to write up about it over at Emm in London.   Over to number five of the most-played songs on my iPod.

#5: Sunny by Boogie Pimps

As with Milk & Sugar’s “Let The Sun Shine” that I posted four weeks ago, I have been a life long fan of the original version of this song.  When this jazzed up, extended dance version originally came out, I immediately loved it and proceeded to play it to death!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows one sheet

The first one sheet has been released for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows films.  The seventh book in the massive series will be split into two films with part 1 showing in November this year and part 2 showing in July 2011.

(Click on the image for full resolution image)

Seriously, all I want for Christmas is for it not to be a disappointment. 

Your can see the first trailer and stills which I posted last week: Deathly Hallows (part 1)- trailer and stills.

Music Monday ~ 24: I Want You Back – The Kooks

 

#6: I Want You Back by The Kooks

I can’t believe it is only 18 months since I first discovered (and raved about) The Kooks.  While most of the songs in this top ten have been on my iPod and playlist for several years, the Kooks are pretty new and that just goes to show how much I played this song!  If I remember correctly, I played it on repeat for just about the whole of October 2008.  A brilliant band and I’d certainly recommend visiting my previous post to listen to more of their music.

The Awesome Andrew Garfield is the New Peter Parker

The news broke yesterday that Andrew Garfield will play Peter Parker in the upcoming Spiderman films.  This is the best news I have heard since the rather shocking revelation that Tobey Maguire had pulled out of the Spiderman franchise over scheduling and script conflicts.  The news was announced at a Sony press event in Cancun, Mexico.  Many people will not have heard of Andrew Garfield before but I have been followed his acting career for quite some time and I think he is a phenomenal actor.

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Andrew Garfield in Boy A (2007)

I first discovered Andrew Garfield when he starred as Jack Burridge in Boy A.  Boy A is an incredibly moving and award-winning film about a young offender who is released after serving a prison sentence for a murder he committed as a child.  The parallels to the Jamie Bulger murder were clear in this touching and chilling tale.

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Andrew Garfield in the Red Riding trilogy (2009)

Andrew Garfield got another chance to show off his brilliant acting skills when he starred as journalist Eddie Dunford in the Red Riding trilogy.  The trilogy was a series of gritty and dark films based on David Pearce’s crime thriller which were loosely based on the Yorkshire Ripper murders. 

The film featured veteran actors such as Paddy Considine and David Morrissey but Andrew Garfield shone in his role as a rookie journalist who will go to the ends of the world to get to the bottom of the murders.

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Andrew Garfield in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)

Andrew was Anton in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.  This was not his strongest nor his most prominent role but might have introduced him to international audiences.

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Andrew Garfield in Never Let Me Go (2010)

Although I found the book to be interminably depressing, I will be rushing out to see the film adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go simply to see Andrew in it.  I think he will be great in the role of Tommy and I think he will be able to put people’s minds to ease as to whether he can play a teenager.

Andrew Garfield is a versatile and talented actor and I think he will be great as Peter Parker.  I do hope he gets to show off some of his greater acting skills though and that he continues with the tougher roles too.  Personally, I am just happy to know that I’ll be seeing a lot more of him in future.

Blu-ray review: The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)

The Men Who Stare at Goats was meant to be the hilarious film that blew the lid off a top-secret wing of the US military that harnessed paranormal abilities in the fight against its enemies.  There was no way that an all-star cast of Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges could go wrong and the ensemble cast should have ensured first class comedy for the discerning movie fan.  It is no surprise the that I had high expectations of the film and was really looking forward to seeing it but I have to say that The Men Who Stare at Goats just didn’t work for me at all.

Click on any of the photos for full resolution stills. 

Ewan McGregor is Bob Wilton, a reporter from Ann Arbor.  The film begins with him interviewing Gus Lacey, an ex-military man who claims to have been in a secret unit that investigated psychic abilities.  Wilton brands Lacey as crazy and soon forgets about him. When a colleague at the paper suddenly dies and his wife leaves him for his one-armed editor, Wilton leaves for Kuwait in a fit of anger hoping to get into Iraq during the Gulf War.  In Kuwait, he meets Lyn Cassady (played by George Clooney) and remembers his name from his interview with Gus Lacey.  Cassady was in the secret unit, known as the “Jedi Warriors” and he soon reveals that they were involved in a host of paranormal activities including cloud bursting, remote viewing and walking through walls.

I usually love films about the paranormal and have no problem stretching my imagination and suspending disbelief but The Men Who Stare at Goats is not about that.  It is a slapstick comedy about supposedly real life events and a bizarre plan to end war as we know it.  I hesitate to compare one film to another but The Men Who Stare at Goats seems to try so hard to be a Coen brother film complete with dream sequences, weird animals and endless dialogue but it ultimately fails to deliver.  It is really hard to buy into some greater moral message when a film deteriorates so severely into the silly and ridiculous.

Featuring desert vistas, the jungles of Vietnam and the streets of urban, war torn Iraq, The Men Who Stare at Goats is perfect for the Blu-ray format and features an impressive MPEG-4 AVC 1080p video quality.  The visuals are great and are no doubt aided by the excellent costume design and makeup as the story flits between the 1980s and the present day.  The Blu-ray also features Dolby TrueHD 5.1. audio which I sometimes prefer over the currently favored DTS-HD Master Audio.  The audio certainly coped with the various transitions between dialogue, music and action scenes and picked up on some impressive aspects of the scenery.

The Blu-ray release features commentary tracks with director Grant Heslov and author Jon Ronson.  It also includes two featurettes which delve into the truth behind the story and the real events upon which the film is based.  They are 'Goats' Declassified: The Real Men of the First Earth Battalion and Project "Hollywood": A Classified Report From the Set.  In many ways these featurettes are more interesting than the film itself.  The final feature is a set of character bios which takes a look at the main characters in the film.

I really wish The Men Who Stare at Goats had been better but I don’t think that it was high expectations that ruined the film.  What a disappointment!  I give the film 1 out of 5 stars for good cinematography and video quality.

Buy The Men Who Stare at Goats from Amazon.co.uk and receive free delivery anywhere in the UK.

Photos courtesy of © BBC Films / Momentum Pictures

Article first published as Blu-ray Review: The Men Who Stare at Goats on Blogcritics.