As the university year looms, another summer is wasted on films, music and pretending to find a job, and we’re are pretty rubbish at putting stuff up here. So that something positive came out of this summer we have decided to put up recommendations for films and music once a week. We’re starting off with 10 of both as a summer special, all of which we have enjoyed recently, but we will mellow to 5 a week after this one. New, old, recent discoveries or old favourites, all of which we love and think you might do too. 10 films and 10 albums in no particular order, dip in and you might find something you end up loving.
Film Recommendations
Chinatown: A Roman Polanski film about a private detective that through a simple adultery case stumbles into a complex and mysterious investigation involving murder, corruption, incest and the cities water supply. Jack Nicholson plays the super cool detective J. J. Gittes in this fantastic film, and he doesn’t disappoint.
A Fist Full of Dollars: Or any Clint Eastwood film, but this is probably my favourite. Action cinema as it should be, this was a real break through for one of the best western star ever and the first in Sergio Leones acclaimed Man with No Name films.
The American Friend: The first Wim Wender film i ever watched and it sparked off a love for the director that only my bank balance has managed to subdue, his films are really hard to find or just plain expensive.
Rear Window: Hitchcock needs no introduction and this is a film that even if you don’t know, you will have seen it referenced in countless TV shows. A truly fantastic film.
Synecdoche New York: Weird, really weird, but in quite an unsurreal way, i think.
Weekend At Bernie’s: I challenge all the snobs in the world to watch this film and not enjoy how wonderfully stupid it is. (Although if i hadn’t watched this the other day this slot would probably be taken up by a Leslie Nielsen film)
Spirited Away: Whimsical, naive, magical and sickly sweet, normally words i use with a healthy dose of disdain and irony but not in this film. Studio Ghibli just do it better then anyone since early Disney.
Tree of Life: Real marmite this, probably the most pretentious film I have ever watched, not because its ideas are that out there but because it smothers you in it. I have never seen I longer winded film or a film that goes more out of its way to be an ‘art’ film, but if you can stomach it you are in for a real treat. It rewards the patience with some of the most beautiful, tender and passionate film in years.
Old Joy: A tranquil story of old friends catching up in the great American outdoors, Yo La Tengo provide a fantastic score and direction from Kelly Reichardt. The two main characters take a car up into the mountains to a natural spring, uncovering the awkwardness and (unless I read it wrong) sexual tension bubbling under the surface of their friendship. Another great American car film.
Belle de Jour: Luis Bunuels most accessible film, Belle de Jour is the story of the strange sexual desires of a frigid housewife, who only finds fulfilment in the arms of paying customers.
Music Recommendations
Galaxie 500 - On Fire: A superb dream pop album, that feels like it should be an American staple, like Kerouac’s On the Road or Easy Rider. The band are named after a car how much more American can you get. Both optimistic and melancholy.
Luminous Orange - Drop Your Vivid Colours: Like a noisy Japanese Flaming Lips, Japan is definitely making the most interesting music right now.
Neil Young - After the Goldrush: Because its just really good.
Battles - Gloss Drop: Just as interesting as their first album and no where near as annoying. Not normally my cup of tea but the quality of the album shines through.
Titus Andronicus - The Monitor: Because nothings better when your drunk then Irish American Punk, especially when its a concept album about the American Civil War. Noisy, enraged, drunken, emotional and most of all heartfelt, the most believable album I have heard in years.
A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory: Super cool hip-hop that I managed to miss until quite recently. Chilled out lyrics and almost narcoleptic beats, what the genre in its contemporary state is badly missing, some groove.
Algernon Cadwallader - Demo: It annoys me when people come out with genres like Kinsellacore, but if your a fan of any of the bands that the prolific Kinsella family have formed then you will know what Kinsellacore means. And if you aren’t its the sweat spot between mathrock and pop-punk that can only be described as shouty mathy punk, or I guess post-emo. Algernon Cadwallader played at the Well recently and they are a hell of a band.
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Airplane Over the Sea: In my opinion one of the greatest albums ever written, and listening to this through out the time I spent in a summer house near the Danish coast this summer has only strengthened that view. One of those albums that broke the band, like My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, to daunting an album to follow. It is a concept album about Anne Frank’s diary, it is powerfully moving and unpredictable, full of surreal lyrics and abstract sounds.
Julee Cruise - Floating Into The Night: David Lynch had to make it into this post somewhere, Julee Cruise and Lynch first collaborated on the fantastic film Blue Velvet. A collaboration that flourished and resulted in the full length album Floating Into The Night. All of the songs on the album where written by Lynch and the composer Angelo Badalamenti and included ‘Mysteries of Love’ from Blue Velvet, ‘Falling’ the theme for Twin Peaks and ‘Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart’ which also featured in Twin Peaks. The writing thoroughbred mixed with Cruise’s graceful vocal makes for a fantastic dream pop album, I love this album.
Butthole Surfers - Cream Corn From the Socket of Davis: Possibly the weirdest group of songs that ever came out America, at least from a serious band. Butthole Surfers are infamous for their LSD inspired music and their hellish live shows. I am a reasonably long standing fan of this Texas freak show and even I was bewildered by this EP. Honestly some of the weirdest songs I have heard, check them out even if you don’t enjoy it at least to hear something that you probably haven’t heard before.
I hope you enjoy any of these little gems as much as I did. Its a shame I didn’t spend all this wasted time making art or reading for my dissertation, but that would have been a good idea now wouldn’t it.
Archive
Mobile
RSS
Revista Theme
Tumblr
