arc of time

yup, it’s back. i know it’s been awhile but give me some sort of a break. i have been traveling across oceans and what-not. also none of you are buying anything from amazon based on my picks anyway, so my financial incentive to keep up with this is shall we say not exactly high.

that being said, i am not exactly writing this thing as a money making enterprise anyway and i do enjoy piecing this together and my kiddo appears to be sleeping in this morning so i guess i have a few minutes to put something together.

i struggled with finding a musical selection to put together. i’ve been listening to the bright eyes albums i’m wide awake, it’s morning and lifted or the story is in the soil, keep your ear to the ground quite a bit while i have been flying, since they are good mellow albums for background while reading or napping on a long haul flight, but i profiled cassadaga last month*, and it’s probably too soon for another bright eyes album so that’s out. i’d go ahead and highlight the beggar’s guild’s ep breaking me down since i am also listening to them a bit right now, but much like manchester orchestra, there is no pic of the album on amazon so it’s gonna look kind of silly in the sidebar.

never to fear though, i like a lot of music and as i was flipping through my i-tunes library i came across one of my favorite and a very-underappreciated album from 2006 to bring to you. this week’s pick of the week is dog problems by arizona native the format. the bands second album iit is absolutely one of my favorties of the year. it’s catchy pop with some experimentation but it’s the real merge of the fun, catchy music with some very stirring lyrics about love gained and lost that grab me.

several tracks are just out of this world including the title track, which is really a few different songs in one, and is one of my favorite songs about the damage people in love with each other can do to each other. the last song, if work permits is one of those that starts poppy and catchy and then blares into a rock jam that is pretty unbelievable to behold.

i am not really sure why this album didn’t get more attention. most reviews of it were almost glowing in their praise of it. check out this one from absolutepunk.net and pitchfork ignored it so maybe that is why.

anyway, check it out, it’s well worth it. below is the video for dog problems which might convince you.

for this week’s movie, i offer up robert altman’s masterpiece nashville. i actually had never seen it so i took it with me on the plane determined to watch it before i go back from my journeys. it was recently ranked number 59 on the afi’s top 100 film list, and while i certainly agree with the atl malcontent that there are serious discrepancies with this list, there is no doubt that nashville belongs on it and perhaps even higher. it’s funny because i watched a few days after watching dreamgirls , which somehow garnered a best picture nomination but thankfully is NOT on the afi’s list (although perhaps in time it will be), which is very similar in what it attempts to do as nashville, which is cover the personality and character of a particularly american blend of music.

unlike dreamgirls altman’s work is nowhere near as character driven. like most altman’s movies, its an ensemble piece where the real stars are the script and the cinematography, and in the case of nashville, the music. i watched it over the course of multiple flights and couldn’t wait each time to pull out my computer and finish it.

i don’t write well about movies, so i can’t really describe justly just how well this movie captures the spirit of the time, the city, the people and the music that were coming from nashville in the mid-70′s, but it does. check it out if you never have.

phew, the kiddo is up now. finished that just in time.

right, so i am a day early but what the hell? i didn’t do pow this week do i figure its all right. plus i am frustrated from my bonked run (see previous post), and blogging helps so what the hell.

for our cd this week, i really want to pick the john squire cd time changes everything, which just arrived in the mail this week. the solo effort from the former stone roses guitarist is phenomenal, and i can’t believe i had never heard of it before (then again i was pretty much messed up for most of 2001.) i have to thank pandora for putting it in front of me (thanks, tim!). can’t stop listening to it and i would love for it to be pick of the week, but amazon wants 33 bucks for the thing, so i really have to recommend you pick up a copy on ebay like i did for around $18. it’s good piano-infused indie rock.

so this week’s pick of the week has got to be the new offering from bright eyes, cassadaga. the latest from the sage of omaha, connor oberst, is much more i’m wide awake, tt’s morning than it is digital ash in a digital urn but i would actually call it more country than the folk and singer-songwriter vibe that dominated wide awake.

of course, it being bright eyes, the lyrics are densely complicated commentaries on society, politics, relgiion and human relationships. i think it was a paste magazine review i read that said only connor could write an upbeat country jam with lyrics like this –

but when great satan’s gone
the whore of babylon
well she just can’t sustain
the pressure where it’s placed
she caves

that coming from the tune four winds (youtube video here) which is a pretty phenomenal jam. actually every song is good on this one with if the brakeman turns my way and classic cars being my favorites. this is by far bright eyes’ most produced album and while something is certainly missing in the move away from the lo-fi recording style, it kinda cool to see what connor can do with full instrumentation and top notch production. it works, and while different, it’s always nice to know connor refuses to allow himself to get comfortable in one genre or style.

okay, your dvd this week is the aforementioned shaun of the dead. me and i watched this on dvd after seeing hot fuzz in the movie theatre a few weeks ago. we laughed so hard at it that we i almost immediately put shaun of the dead in my netflix queue. the movie is the first offering from british comedy duo, edgar wright and simon pegg, and is a spoof on the zombie genre. it’s not a spoof in the scary movie mold, but rather intelligently written, acted with classic english understatement and almost insanely well directed.

i think the movie contains the greates single shot i have ever seen. there is a shot where the main character, shaun, leaves his house to go to the convenience store to buy something. he goes all the way to store, buys his paper and come all the way back without ever noticing that everyone around him is a zombie. every time he would see one he gets distracted. it’s perfectly acted and directed as well as shot, with the whole 3-4 minute segment comprising one camera shot.

amazing.

anyway, pick it up. well worth it.

and that my friends is picks of the week.