ph: Ryan Yoon
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Rarely Heard: Intelligence - Secret Signals
"Seattle-based noisenik Lars Finberg has played in some of that city's noisiest, weirdest bands, including the A Frames, Unnaterual Helpers, and the Dipers, but as the Intelligence he throws downright poppy melodies in with jagged beats and shards of new wave and no wave guitars and keyboards. The Intelligence began in 1999. Finberg recorded the Intelligence's earliest work in his bedroom, playing his five-year-old son's drum kit and slathering everything in reverb and distortion to get a distinctive lo-fi sound." (allmusic.com) They're still around today with a slightly more poppier sond, their last album is from 2012.
Concerts: Hedvig Mollestad Trio
This was the second time I got to see the Hedvig Mollestad Trio, as a fan I'll never miss an opportunity to see them. This time they played at the Regensburg Alte Mälzerei in their Underground room, which is fairly similar in size and atmosphere to the cellar at the Lederer where they had performed in the previous years. I brought along some friends, also fans of the band, and we all had positive but slightly differeing opinions. I had the impression that this concert was even better than last year's (which had me enthused as well), the Trio seemd in a terrific good mood and were enjoying the concert just as much as we were. Some will call their music due to the heavy sound rock, but it is jazz in the best sense of the world, and Hedvig Mollestad plays some of the best guitar you'll ever be able to hear. I hope they stick to their regular anual performances in Regensburg, and I'll certainly be there, too.
Friday, October 10, 2014
Down (2001)
When the express elevators in the Millennium Building, one of New York's most famous landmarks, start to malfunction and behave in erratic ways, an elevator mechanic is sent out to find the cause of the problems.
Remake of the director's own 1983 Dutch movie is meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but is still rather silly and unsuspenseful.
Concert: The Town Heroes
The Town Heroes are a Canadian duo who played as support for the Hedvig Mollestad Trio at the Alte Mälzerei in Regensburg last Tuesday. Most of the audience including myself hadn't heard of the band before and was mainly there for the main act. Of course, this is a common disadvantage for support acts, many simply ignoring the performance or appearing later to arrive for the second concert. The Town Heroes took those present by surprise with a blasting start which scared some to leave the room. It's a pity, since they missed a great inspired concert of a driving rock sound with great melodic passages. I'll be getting their CDs for certain.
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Rarely Heard: His Name Is Alive - Are We Still Married?
His Name Is Alive are an experimental rock band from Livonia, Michigan, founded in the late 80s and debuted their first album with the great 4AD label in 1990. I came across the band when the company I worked for gave away stuff they wanted to get rid of and I got me a promotional copy of their EP The Dirt Eaters which had me instantly intrigued. (I also came across Broght Eyes and Pram the same way). Throughout the band's long history, leader wARREN Defever has been the only constant member, with a variety of musicians and singers contributing over the years. Their music is hard to describe, since they successfuly integrate many different genres into their sound. As I see they will be relasing anew album at the end of this month.
Invitation to a Gunfighter (1964)
Frontier town enlists half-black gunman to rid them of uncontrollable Confederate veteran.
Above standard western with some diffuse political and existentialist pretensions, but it has a moody atmosphere and Yul Brynner does a great job in the lead role as a complicated gunfighter.
Halliwell*: "Predictable, rather self-satisfied Western with a studio look. Smart script and performances."
Maltin**1/2: "Cast surpasses turgid, talky script..."
The Zodiac (2005)
An elusive serial killer known as the Zodiac terrorizes the San Francisco Bay in the late 1960s, while detectives aim to stop him before he claims more victims.
Directed with style and with a good cast this movie describes bleak prospects to solve this murder mystery, but has been surpassed by David Fincher's take on the same story a few years later.
Maltin*1/2: "Earnest but flat examination...Well-defined feel of the late 60s is undermined by a bland performance by Chambers as a cop struggling with a puzzling case, made more intense by a panicked community and the ensuing media pressure. Film is as unsatisfying as the real-life status of these crimes."
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
The Outer Limits: Corpus Earthling (1963)
Parasitic advance guard from outer space strive to kill a physician, the only human who can hear them.
If you can accept the premise that talking rocks are actually English-speaking alien invaders, then you might find this episode intriguing and well-played.
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