Seeing as it came out in December, I suspect that most of you reading this in America have already seen ‘Juno’. Well, after months (probably about 6) months of anticipation, it finally hit the cinemas here in February. Considering the length of time it’s been floating around in your parts, I intend not to write a film review, but more of a music-in-the-film review. Firstly, it’s fair to say that I am a HUGE Kimya Dawson fan. In the 4 or so years that I’ve listened to her music, it’s affected my life in more ways than I can count. Saying that, it was a very odd experience to hear her songs (notably Tireswing, So Nice, So Smart, My Rollercoaster *WITHOUT THE LYRICS*, Loose Lips *ditto, I believe*, and Sleep) booming out of the big screen speakers into the massive audience. Although there’s always the fear something could happen to my precious music, I found that it was played at exactly the right points to fit the film, and really added a lot to it in terms of continuity and all round cuteness. Of course these were not Kimya’s only contributions to the film.
As well as a couple of Antsy Pants song (a band Kimya is in with some friends, they sing very cute kid songs and generally rock the fuck out), including the fabulous Vampire closing the credits, the moldy peaches’ contribution was super important. The use of Anyone Else But You (what I believe to be one of the greatest love songs I have ever owned) really took the film, and relationship of Juno and the delectable Bleeker, up about a million levels. As one of my favourite things about the Moldy Peaches was their ability to split the vocals 50/50, dish them out, and bring them back together to make a song so tight and so romantic that I want to cry when I sing it. I rarely do though, because I smile so much. Anyway…. it really worked. 
As well as pumping in my favourite duo and my favourite singer (apart from Jeffrey Lewis) to an insane degree, the soundtrack also features some of my other favourite bands, Belle and Sebastian and the Velvet Underground. The thing about the Velvet Underground is that they can have songs with 18 minutes of feedback solo (see Sister Ray) or they can flip right round to perfect little pop songs that almost out-twee Belle and Sebastian. Obviously here, they plumped for the latter with I’m Sticking With You. Belle and Sebastian offered two songs to the film, Expectations (ironic as it is, not actually about pregnancy, despite the misleading name) and Piazza, New York Catcher slotted in rather nicely and made me incredibly happy. If you haven’t seen this film, I don’t want to give too much away, but at the distressing climax of this film a song is played that literally broke my heart in two. It was a song that I am slightly ashamed to say I hadn’t heard before. That song is Cat Power’s Sea of Love. Taken from her covers album, it’s literally in the top 10 most depressing/beautiful songs I have ever heard. The thing about it is (similarly to her amazing cover of the Velvet Underground’s I Found A Reason), the lyrics profess love, and can definitely be read as a song of love, rather than heartbreak. Somehow she has the ability to completely mutate this. I don’t know how she does it, but it’s wonderful. All in all, great film (getting amazing reviews from everyone here, sort of freaking me out), even better music, and Michael Cera. What more do you need? (PS- Paragraphs stopped working for me half way through this post, sorry)
Author Archive for rhiannon
Ok, so, confession time. I’ve been incredibly busy of late with various deadlines coming and going and then coming back with a vengeance. Basically, I’m sorry for not posting a blog last week, I am a terrible person who is easily overcome by the perils of college work.That being said, this week I found the time to watch the immensely funny Superbad. Though I am sure the majority of you reading this will have already seen it, it just came to DVD in the UK, and being too busy to go to the cinema, it was a very big deal for me and my friends.Starring Jonah Hill and the infinite hotness that is Michael Cera as the chief protagonists, the plot is centred around their quest to get the booze to the party and bed the girls of their dreams. After asking a friend of mine whether she’d seen it she squealed in horror at the misogyny and crudeness involved. I was pretty shocked at this as I hadn’t really considered any kind of sexist message underlying the hectic plot. After some deliberation, I concluded that this was not the case. It’s funny, it’s well written, well shot, and ultimately delivers the right message: If you plan on getting a girl drunk to sleep with her, it won’t work, so just be a good guy and all the other crap will sort itself out. That’s my kind of film. Set in a Ulysses-style 24 hour period, we see Seth, Evan and their insanely squeaky friend Fogell (eg- McLovin) they flee from parties, flee from policemen (who also have a pretty significant role in the film, but I don’t have time to get into that now) and discover the true nature of their friendship. Ta daaaaaa! 
I’m still not very good at this fomatting lark.
There have been two people overshadowing my week. One has been a long term crush who I am fearful to talk to (but that’s not for here) and the other has been a certain Jens Lekman.
A year or so ago a very nice, but supremely cool, friend of mine mentioned that she thought I would like this chap. She was right. With his happy pop songs filled with pretty intense romance and images of his native Sweden there was no way I could fail to be hooked. Unfortunately, I did not heed this advice straight away. In fact I thought no more about it until two of his tracks (one from a free CD in the wonderful Plan B magazine, the other on a mix from a friend) made their way into my life almost a year later and reminded me what I’d been missing. And so, flash forward to a couple of weeks ago, on a whim I bought “Oh You’re So Silent Jens”, a collection of previously released singles, EPs, and compilation appearances recorded between 2003-2004.
The main dominator of my brain was “I Saw Her In The Anti-War Demonstration”. I’ve been getting obsessed. Opening with a sprawling violin/viola/cello trio it changes direction into something altogether more marchy. With that, in come the vocals, filled with romance and rhyme. The story of Jens’ love for an ex-punk he met on an anti-war demonstration leading to the epic rhyme of six: “And the skies/were clear blue skies/And her eyes/were clear blue eyes/And her thighs/were about the same size as mine/And we were walking in the anti-war demonstration”. Pretty glorious stuff.
Another highlight of the album is the fabulous Maple Leaves (there are two versions on this album, EP or 7”), the story of the best type of miscommunication: “But she said the dreamers just make believe/and I thought she said maple leaves” and “And when she talked about the fall/I thought she meant Mark E Smith/I never understood at all”.
On another album Maple Leaves or ISHITAWD could (possibly) take the cake for most romantic (in my skewed way of seeing the world), unfortunately, everything is thrown off by the Someone To Share My Life With. Unlike most other tracks, the only accompaniment Jens’ voice gets is some low-down guitar and subtle glockenspiel, making the lyrics stand out even more. “I don’t want a girl who hangs on every word I say”, right here Jens, “who shows me off to her parents over roast beef on Sundays”, you have my word, “I don’t want a girl who thinks she has to fake”, seriously Jens, I think we could be good together, “I don’t want a girl who laughs at every little joke I make”, no fear of that, “I just want someone to share my life with/and that someone could be you”. Then it’s settled/Download link http://www.sendspace.com/file/sie81j
In my dismal quest to complete all my college work before the end of the Christmas holidays I found myself reading Shakespeare’s Measure For Measure alone in my bed, feeling a little lonesome. Due to my inability to take in any information whilst decent music is playing I often find myself having to choose between keeping up with my work and playing some kickin’ choons. Then the solution hit me: INSTRUMENTALS! I found the key to this to be Yann Tieren’s soundtrack to the popular flick Amelie (Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amelie Poulain), and even though I’ve seen the film a number of times before and have come over the songs themselves, I still felt totally shocked about the absolute greatness of it. My favourite track, Le Deux Pianos is a delightfully twinkly piano duet (as the name would suggest) that badly makes me want to practice my piano a lot more and get beyond grade 2.
After consulting my French-studying sister over the translations of the titles we noticed that a running theme of the soundtrack is a waltz. They pop up all over the place, played on an array of instruments including pianos, strings and accordions. Sometimes the music feels really simple and traditional for about a minute, but it almost always steps up into something totally unreserved and becomes this big French orchestra freak out. Wonderful, wonderful stuff.
Sounding original, kitsch, cute and more than a little funky, if I was granted a soundtrack to my life I would definitely want it to be this.
I’m sorry I can’t find a URL this time. Have a pleasant week.
Being both a casual Joy Division fan and a relatively new and somewhat uneducated Bob Dylan fan, I am not perhaps the most suited person to review the two (somewhat) current biopics Control and I’m Not There. At first glance you may place these two films in the same sort of box in your head. Before I saw them I did the same thing. Not so now. Having been waiting to see Control for some months (after missing it at the cinema and being too early for rental) I was super-excited to watch it on the internet with friends this new year’s eve. I was also bitterly disappointed. I’m Not There provided the total antithesis. While Corbijn’s film was moving, beautifully shot and featuring a stunning performance from Samantha Morton as the unappreciated and emotionally tortured Deborah Curtis, there was no subtlety. Everything was spelt out so that it quickly became a narrative going through the motions without a hint of originality. That is probably a little harsh, but the plot was so brutally hammered into the film that it felt like there was nothing under the surface. As I say, I’m Not There was completely opposite to this. For a start, the story itself was never told. With Bob Dylan never being mentioned by name and six actors taking on his role simplicity went out the window. It felt like you had to think about things; take in the surroundings of each scene, mentally capture each character to find out later how they joined on to another, try desperately to work out the date. Much more rewarding than Control’s linear narrative. It also contained the most stunning performance from Cate Blanchett as Dylan post ’66 (where he was named Jude. Get it?). Since then I’ve watched the documentary No Direction Home which caused me to sit with my mouth open! Cate Blanchett was even better than I’d thought at the time! Every movement and utterance was spot on. As well as narrative, this film also fucked with the chronology, making it hard to follow, rewarding to understand, and cooler than ever when two of the “Dylans” met at the end. Glorious!
To be honest, one of the best things about each of the films was the soundtrack. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
(Sorry for rambling, that is all).
When I first heard that my favourite songwriter and future husband Jeffrey Lewis was releasing an album covering the songs of 80’s British punk band Crass it’s fair to say I was more than a little alarmed. What I loved about his music was the use of words; the whimsical, intelligent, insightful lyrics that set him apart from your average “folk” musician. Fortunately, it turns out that that’s exactly what Jeffrey loves as well, and far from being a guitar driven noise-fest it could very easily be mistaken for his original material. The fun comes for me with trying to learn every single lyric to all the songs. “Huh?” I hear you collectively cry, “Isn’t that normal for an album that you like?” Of course it is, but the difference here is that a lot of the songs go at a hundred miles an hour with no room to breath. On top of that, the lyrics are so skillfully written that not one word is wasted. Everything is there to make a cynical statement about the state of our fucked up world or form part of an internal rhyme with nothing left to chance. Now this is exactly what we’re used to with Jeffrey Lewis, with the difference being in the overt politics and criticism of both the 1980s British government and current US administration. Although (obviously, being a super-fan) every track is a winner, the standout tracks for me are Banned From The Roxy and Securicor. The former begins with the bitterness stemming from being banned from a music venue but quickly leads to a scathing attack on modern politics and the government’s use of power and violence: “Defence, it’s nothing less than war/And no-one but the government knows what it’s for/Oh yes, they say it’s defence, say it’s decency/My Lai, Hiroshima know what I mean”. In keeping with the energy of the song, the lyrics (to both songs previously mentioned) are spat out pretty darn fast in a similar fashion to a lot of Jeffrey’s original material (see: Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror). To conclude, if you’re looking for an album that will make you sit up, watch the news, get angry, cry, get angry again and then do something about it, this is the album for you. If that isn’t what you want you should still get it because the arrangements and the lyrics and the humour and the anger is also worth it.
This is my first post, so please excuse any shaky editing, writing, formatting and lack of fancy things. BUY THIS ALBUM! That is all.
