Everyone Everywhere – self-titled 12″

September 1st, 2010 § 0

Self-titled 12" coverYet another rad US band ploughing a furrow of ambient, emotive music, Everyone Everywhere stand apart from the crowd thanks to a real knack for dynamic songwriting and an evocative warmth that emerges from their musical compositions and lyrical subject matter. Leisurely is another term that applies well to this LP; whilst hardly sedate the listener has the sensation that Everyone Everywhere are proceeding at exactly the pace they wish to. And they would say to hell with everyone else, but really they’re too mellow that, so why not just hang and jam instead?

Sonically they have a buzzy, fuzzy guitar sound with a lot of resonance; there’s minimal gain and distortion here but simultaneously it’s a full sound and far from sparse. Melodic, soothing vocals and some great double-time chord progressions underpinned by a warm, vibrant bass sound and rounded percussion complete the effect. There are quite a few instrumental parts which work really nicely, emphasising when the vocals kick in. Lyrically their singer focuses on personal stories and anecdotes, using them to paint a broader, more universal picture.

A definitely highlight is ‘Raw Bar’, which exhibits some of the aforementioned killer chords, and opener ‘Tiny Planet’ with its extended instrumental intro before cutting right back for the lazily drawled vocal refrain “Oh, I’ve got bigger fish to fry”. There’s a subtle and gentle wit at work throughout as evidenced by the catchy and sly final vocals of closing number ‘Obama House, Fukui Prefecture’: “Warm and comfortable / Purely functional”.

Everyone Everywhere are well worth your time and I heartily recommend you check them out. I’m writing this review at about 11pm after spending 12 hours at work, coming home and working on some freelance copywriting for another few hours, and I’ve found this record’s faintly nostalgic tone, varied songwriting, highly competent yet suitably understated musicianship and easygoing, accessible yet far from banal subject matter to be a great comfort. That’s not to pin the band as a one-trick or one-mood outfit; more that this melodic emo/indie-rock derived music is comfortable and pleasant and will probably resonate with a lot of people, wherever they find themselves whilst listening.

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Linkfest: August. Um, all of it.

August 31st, 2010 § 0

Del.icio.us links for August 2nd through August 19th:

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The ENA’s pathetic showing in Brighton

August 30th, 2010 § 0

Today’s appearance in Brighton by the racist English Nationalist Alliance only managed to muster what looked like about 30-odd people. It was hard to tell, concealed as they were behind huge lines of fluorescent jackets. I’d say that Sussex Police easily had three times as many officers as the ENA had attendees and that was just escorting their march, not even counting those watching over the rest of us.

The number of various anti-racist, anti-fascist and queer activists, Brighton folk, socialists and trade unionists was a bit more impressive with something like 2-300 people joining the main march, plenty of other people showing support as we passed, and I think a few dozen anarchists running about and trying to block / tussle with the ENA.

The police forced us to move on from the station (I think, I joined the march just as it got going) and we headed along Queen’s Road, then down North Road to Victoria Gardens where we found ourselves penned in. Great. This was pretty shit but spirits were pretty high and most folks were having a laugh, enjoying the sun, listening to a few short speeches and generally not being reprehensibly awful human beings. The reprehensibly awful human beings took about an hour to show up, possibly due to interference from the anarchist bloc, police management or just through being too stupid to walk about 15 minutes to their destination.

When they eventually arrived they spent about 20 minutes listening to some speeches – thanks to getting ourselves penned we had no idea what was going on so consoled ourselves with chanting at them. Hmm. After that was up they were escorted back to the station, surrounded by a cloud of onlookers, hopefully a few of whom were sharing their opinions of the ENA and the EDL. Eventually we were let out of our pen but not before a few spirited attempts to break through the fence were made. A few people were arrested, mostly for being mouthy as far as I could see, and hopefully have been / will be released without charge (I didn’t know any of them).

After that I headed homewards and found the remnants of the ENA arrayed outside the station with a bunch of the remaining counter-protesters chanting at them. I left at this point but apparently the fun continued for a while longer when the ENA got themselves an escort to a nearby pub (would that the police offered this service to regular folk) which was again surrounded. Well, I imagine they got the idea that they’re not welcome here and easily outnumbered, even with an almost total lack of promotion for the counter-demo.

A bunch of photos and a very short video follow. I am not a good photographer I’m afraid, so suck it up.

The front of the column

The front of the column

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Time for us to fix some album covers

August 19th, 2010 § 2

Fixed version of Soundgarden's Telephantasm cover

Okay yes yes I am working on some REAL posts and reviews and things. Work is hard at the moment! Which means I gotta get my relax on, rather than slaving over a hot keyboard for y’all. xx

A review of a review of a film I have not seen (Inception, 2010)

August 2nd, 2010 § 2

Inception movie posterIt’s so nice to see an intelligent movie for a change. I can enjoy a dumb action flick or a sentimental tear-jerker as much as the next slob, but smart movies seem really rare if you don’t really watch many movies.

Critical reaction has been mixed. I like to think that all the people with different opinions to mine are narrow-minded or less clever than I am, because that way I get to feel intellectually superior even though I position myself as an everyman “reviewer” rather than some hoighty-toighty ivory tower “critic”.

This review is not the kind of nonsense I feared it would be when I first started writing it. I was afraid it would be another review where I’m dreaming I’m writing it and then I wake up but I’m really still dream-writing and only dreamed I woke up, but then I really wake up, but no, really I’m still dream-writing, ad infinitem (sic). This is a little bit like the movie, but most of the story challenges the audience to follow a very complex plot, rather than trying to trick the audience into falling for special-effects razzle-dazzle. There are dreams within dreams, but most of the time the audience knows when that is happening, even though this review may not really back that statement up.

So, does Inception make sense? I’m not sure. It makes more sense than most action films. It is not stupid. But it is complicated, and I’ll have to see it a couple more times before I decide if it plays fair. This sort of analytical laziness is fine because I’m a reviewer and not a critic.

On the other hand, any screenwriter who knows enough physics to understand that inside an elevator you can’t tell gravity from acceleration has my respect, because I like things that correspond with what I already know even when they’re mostly insignificant when discussing works in this medium.

This is not Leonardo DiCaprio’s best work but there are excellent actors in smaller parts, especially Michael Caine and Cillian Murphy. I’m going to assume you know the roles they play and not discuss them any further.

And Inception is popular, proving wrong the conventional wisdom that nobody wants to see films that make you think like the famously unsuccessful Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Vertigo, Seven Samurai, Fight Club, City of God, or Nolan’s own Memento. Inception is already #3 on the IMDB all time greats — a little too soon but a good sign for the future of smart science fiction films, or at least an indicator of how fickle people can be when it comes to recent blockbusters.

Imagine Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy directed by Christopher Nolan. Then keep imagining it, and pretend you’re dreaming, because I’m not going to explain this bizarre conclusion to my “review”.

[Disclaimer: I've not seen Inception. I'll probably check it out on DVD as it sounds interesting. I also have nothing against Rick Norwood. He's probably a really nice guy doing cool stuff, but this is not a good review by any stretch of the imagination.]

Linkfest: July 14th – August 1st

August 1st, 2010 § 0

Del.icio.us links for July 14th through August 1st:

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Triangle (2009)

July 22nd, 2010 § 5

This isn’t really a review so much as a “Wot I Think” – a quick run-through of some half-developed ideas and reasons why I liked or didn’t like this film. I’ve been arguing with a few friends about this movie and figured I may as well appropriate this argument for Great Justice, i.e. a post on my poor, neglected blog.

So, Jonathan McCalmont has been writing alternative ballots for the Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form category of the Hugo Awards (an award perhaps best known for the controversy it causes by being utterly uncontroversial). Triangle is one of the films he included on the list and one of those which I checked out for myself.

Triangle posterThe basic concept of Triangle is simple: a small yacht is capsized in an unusual storm and the few survivors are picked up by a cruise liner, the Aeolus, which appears to be uncrewed – until a masked figure begins picking them off with a shotgun. It’s not long before even weirder shit starts happening. Okay, from this point onwards there are going to be spoilers so if you want to check out the film free of preconceptions, stop reading now.

What makes Triangle unusual is its use of mechanics familiar to anyone who’s seen Groundhog Day or Primer – the sequences of events aboard the Aeolus, culminating in the murder of almost all of the survivors, continually repeat. Single mother Jess is the only survivor who appears to be an actor in these events rather than a recurrent victim, and as such she sets about trying to change events – to save the survivors, or to prevent them from boarding the ship in the first place.

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Linkfest: July 5th – July 12th

July 18th, 2010 § 0

Del.icio.us links for July 5th through July 15th:

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“Got a basement full of booze & some blues to lose, I’ll ignore the whole world tonight”

July 17th, 2010 § 0

Hey, loyal readers and random googlers (I hope you find the BioShock/Gor slashfic you’re looking for). There’ve been a lack of reviews recently for these exciting reasons:

1.) My band is recording a second demo tomorrow. TOMORROW! So I’ve been busy practising our newer songs, installing new tubes in my amp (turns out that balancing the power tubes in a DSL100 is pretty easy, even when you’re drunk) and restringing my guitars (ugh, replacing strings is for when you break them, at least in my book). EXCITING.

2.) I’ve had a promotion at work at the same time as a friend / colleague has left so I’ve been pretty preoccupied with plugging gaps in dayjob-world.

3.) I’ve been kind of inclined to spend my free time chilling out with films, videogames and friends rather than writing in a darkened room. Not that I have a problem with the latter, but it’s more like work than blowing off steam.

4.) IT’S THE SUMMER <3 <3 <3

I’ll post up the occasional review as and when the mood takes me & will be back with three more levels of experience and a +1 Something of Whatever in the near future. I may also have other cool stuff to share, e.g. a friend and I are going to collaborate on an indie game… I’ll provide writing and “ideas” and she’ll do the hard work. Awesome!!!

If you want to follow something I’m doing in the meantime, check my twitter or tumblr thingies.

Brighton’s live music venues: an R.I.P. round-up

July 9th, 2010 § 4

The news broke today that the Freebutt will no longer be able to operate commercially as a live music venue. Head over here to read their official statement; the gist is that they need £20,000 for the required soundproofing, which they don’t have, and the council have reduced the limiter to 95db which is too low for amplified music. They’ve shut the venue as making £20k from live acoustic music doesn’t seem feasible.

(The Penthouse above the ‘butt will be still be running, though, so do keep heading there. It’s a scrappy little bar that I’m still really fond of, and it has some cool esoteric DJ nights.)

This rapidly follows confirmation that The Providence is being sold by the Barracuda chain, quite likely to Tesco. Make of that what you will; it’s been pointed out that several other Tesco branches are about 5 minutes walk away, and there are already 11 Tesco shops in Brighton (plus there’s the one they’re considering building in Lewes Road too). I wasn’t hugely fond of the Providence as a pub but the sound was decent enough and some long-standing promoters put on a lot of shows there.

In the last month we’ve also heard news that The Engine Room has been closed. No official statements have been released as far as I’m aware, although the word on the street is that there just wasn’t enough money for some payment or another. Anyone reading this got the facts? [UPDATE: minutes after I posted this, an article popped up on the local paper's website explaining that the venue is up for sale. Balls!]

And of course earlier this year came the end of the Hobgoblin, a genuine Brighton punk rock and metal institution, which despite eking a few more months of life after its initial closure late in 2009 has been bought by another chain. They’re currently in the process of entirely revamping it; initial rumour was that it was being turned into a gastro pub (ah yes, no shortage of those in Brighton) although its new exterior paintjob does still tout “live music” as a feature. It seems unlikely that they’ll want to play host to the same D.I.Y. promoters and touring bands as in the past, though.

Several years back the Pressure Point was sold to a developer following a lack of interest from purchasers who wanted to keep it running as a venue. It’s since been converted into a hostel with a bar. The Brighton Gloucester / Barfly remains closed and unused following Barfly / MAMA’s abortive attempt to break into the local music scene around the same time. I assume they still own it and may intend to reopen it in brighter economic times.

The saddest thing is that most of the venues that have bitten the dust were the ones doing the most to support relatively unknown outfits, small touring bands, local groups and musicians and so on.

SIGNS OF LIFE

On the positive side of things the Hydrant (was the Hare & Hounds) is making a huge and laudable push into supporting local music with both a large upstairs function room for shows and regular gigs in the downstairs pub as well. Then there’s Hector’s House which seems to have picked up a lot of the punk and metal shows the Hob would once have hosted – and good on them, speaking personally it’s greatly preferable to the student drum ‘n bass crowd I remember from 5 years ago! Finally one of my current favourite venues, the Prince Albert, is also keeping on rocking – and their P.A. is one of the best I’ve heard in a small venue.

And of course there are other venues like Jam, the Greenhouse Effect, Audio and larger venues like the Concorde 2. So live music in Brighton has taken some major blows, but there are still plenty of places to go and play.

If you’re involved with a local venue, whether as an owner or a promoter, please get in touch via email or the comments below. I’d like to do a round-up of venues in a separate post in the near future, and counteract some of this bad news with a reminder of how Brighton still has a lot to offer!