Chickfactor's 20th Anniversary, an indie pop dream

Sorry folks, I know there are many bands reuniting this year to play live: The Stone Roses, Afghan Whigs, At the Drive-In, Refused... but the most amazing announcement has arrived today. The mythic indie magazine Chickfactor (online since 2002 and happily still alive and kicking) is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a very special series of shows. INCREDIBLY SPECIAL!!

Five nights of music (three in NY, two in Washington DC, places where the magazine was born) in April including Stevie Jackson (Belle & Sebastian), A Girl Called Eddy, the great Frankie Rose, among other exciting names, plus The Aislers Set (wow), the band of Chickfactor co-founder Pam Berry, BLACK TAMBOURINE (first show since 1991), and THE SOFTIES!! (first since 2000). I know, capital letters are absolutely in order! 

I would kill to watch both bands live, specially The Softies, live. More shows are in the works. Please, please, please, Primavera Sound Festival bring them to Barcelona! 

"Moneyball", Brad Pitt hits a home run

Moneyball

To start with, there aren't many memorable sports films (boxing being the exception), just a few worth remembering. But the perspective of watching a movie about baseball was even more discouraging. Sorry folks, but I simply don't get baseball. It is such a boring game, in my opinion. So, a good film about baseball? Hard for me to believe it. Before I watched "Moneyball", that is.

"Moneyball" is, of course, about baseball, which made me miss some superficial details, or not sharing the emotional part of the games (few) we see during the film. But luckily it is more about the insights of a game, its nature, and need to evolve. And foremost, is the story, excellently constructed and brilliantly performed, of human beings.

Going to the "message" of "Moneyball" (I know, delicate subject), this is not the first movie that pretends to show us an inspiring "true" story, in this case the one of the Oakland A's, a team with low economic possibilities that managed to compete with the rich & powerful teams of the league, but have to face rebuilding after a successful season with very limited resources. That's when manager Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt, decides to make a drastic move in order to still be competitive. "Moneyball" then becames a film about standing against and overcoming the odds, combating the usual pattern that would condemn his team. It is unoriginal, but its quite moving and, as I said, despite being about baseball, that's just the backdrop. As a Spaniard is easy to make the analogy with our incredibly unbalanced and unfair Soccer League, not to mention other minority sports.

There are two major factors why this film succeeds: one is the striking, always intriguing and powerful script, written by Aaron Sorkin (who's also responsible of another brave screenplay, "The Social Network") in a great job adapting Michael Lewis' book. In a movie where dialogue is everything, this is always refreshing, dynamic, and alive. Even the familiar scenes, or the flashbacks in time, that could easily introduce a cheesy, unnecessary dramatic element to the film are there for the purpose of showing a more accurate portray of Beane's life. Praise director Bennett Miller and Sorkin for that.

The other driving force are the actors. Brad Pitt convinces as Billy Beane, portraying a character that, as every human being, is complex, imperfect and demanding. Without overacting or forcing any scene, Pitt is able to achieve a very remarkable creation: what we see in every scene is not an actor, but a person struggling against the enormous challenging he is facing. But even is Pitt is excellent, to me the surprise, and the actor that "steals the show" is Jonah Hill, who plays the Harvard "nerd" Pete Brand, the person that will give Beane the chance to compete against the rich teams with a new system of analysis of the players and the game that will shock the entire league (not to mention their own team). He is superb in his role, a mixture of fragility and doubt with a passionate, fierce conviction in what he does. Of course, Philip Seymour Hoffman (as always) is also great in his role as the Oakland's coach, but I would have love he had received some more scenes to develop his character a bit more.

Overall, a quality film, with great acting, direction and screenplaying. It might not be groundbreaking in its content or its conclusion, although is far more interesting than a vast majority of the sports genre. But if you allow me the easy end, is a solid, and very pleasant, home run. From a non-baseball fan.

SCORE: 7/10

Coachella 2012 announced: pure envy

I was preparing a movie post, but I'm too shocked/depressed by the lineup of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2012 revealed today, to finish it. What at an amazing catalogue of bands! Sure, there are a few ridiculous, unacceptable (I'm being polite) facts, like The Black Keys (awesome band) headlining instead of Pulp or Arctic Monkeys, or the inclusion of names as awful as David Guetta, Dr.Dre & Snoop Dog (worse, they headline too) but man I count at least 16 names that I would love to see, and the same amount of bands that interest me. It's funny (ironic mode on) to see that some names showed in a very small typography are almost headliners in some Spanish festivals. Now seriously, please tell me something bad about that Festival, because right now I envy everyone who will attend!!

Friday April 13 & 20 April
The Black Keys, Swedish House Mafia, Pulp, Refused, Arctic Monkeys, Mazzy Star, Afrojack, Explosions in the Sky, M83, Amon Tobin, Cat Power, Madness, Jimmy Cliff & Tim Armstrong, GIRLS, The Rapture, Madeon, M. Ward, The Horrors, Frank Ocean, James Alesso, Sebastien, Yuck, Neon Indian, Dawes, Black Angels, Deathgrips, Wu Lyf, Breakbot, Atari Teenage Riot, Feed Me, Givers, Other Lives, Band of Skulls, R3hab, Wolfgang, Midnight Beast, EMA, Ximena Sarinana, Kendrick Lamar, The Dear Hunter, Honeyhoney, Hello Seahorse!, Sheepdogs, LA Riots

Saturday April 14 & 21
Radiohead, Bon Iver, The Shins, David Guetta, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Kaskade, Miike Snow, Jeff Mangum, Sebastian Ingrosso, Andrew Bird, Feist, Firehose, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, St. Vincent, Martin Solveig, Subfocus, Sbtrkt, Flying Lotus, Manchester Orchestra, Kasabian, AWOL Nation, Azealia Banks, Squeeze, A$AP Rocky, Buzzcocks, Kaiser Chiefs, Destroyer, The Head and the Heart, Laura Marling, Tuneyards, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Black Lips, The Big Pink, Childish Gambino, The Vaccines, Zed’s Dead, Grouplove, Jacques Lu Cont, We Were Promised, Jetpacks, Gary Clark Jr., Borgore, Dragonette, We Are Augustines, Mt. Eden, Destructo, Suedehead, Keep Shelley in Athens, Pure Filth Sound

Sunday April 15 & 22
Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, At the Drive-In, Justice, Florence and the Machine, AVICII, La Roux, Beirut, The Weeknd, Girl Talk, The Hives, DJ Shadow, Calvin Harris, Nero, Wild Flag, Modeselektor, Dada Life, Porter Robinson, Santigold, Flux Pavilion, Dr. P, Gotye, Seun Keti, Egypt 80, Beats Antique, Fitz and the Tantrums, Araabmuzik, Company Flow, Real Estate, Zed, Le Bucherettes, Greg Ginn, The Growlers, Noisia, Morgan Page, Gaslamp Killer, First Aid Kit, Oberhofer, Lissie, Thundercat, Metronomy, Wild Beasts, Housse de Racket, Fanfarlo, Spector, Gardens & Villa, Airplane Boys, Sleeper Agent

Green- Definetely seeing them. Absolute must

Orange- If there are no overlaps (in particular with the green ones), I'll be there for sure

Yellow- Curious about it/"on research mode"

Discoverer 28: new indie findings

New year, and new band proposals!

Real Estate. There's always some great music you miss. It's impossible to reach everything. Luckily, you can always solve that problem. That's my case with the truly mesmerizing music of Real Estate. Formed in New Jersey in 2008, after some singles, an acclaimed self-titled debut on 2009, tours with Girls, Kurt Vile and Deerhunter, they signed with Domino in 2011 to release their sophomore record, "Days", a wonderful blend of jangling guitars and driving soft indie rock with a nostalgic, comforting vibe full of crystalline melodies. Sorry I missed you last year, guys. Won't happen again.


The Middle Ones. Let me introduce the lovely duo of Anna Knowles and Grace Denton. Anna went to Norwich to study in 2006, and there she met Grace, founding The Middle Ones. After their self-titled EP, they released "It Is the Rehearsal that will Make This" past April, a first album full that's full of harmonies, soaring vocals and melodies to keep your smile always on your face. This collection of little lo-fi and indie-pop gems is sometimes subtle, sometimes funny, sometimes delicate, but always gorgeous and contagious.


Wild Flag. If I say Carrie Brownstein, Mary Timony, Rebecca Cole and Janet Weiss you'll probably be unimpressed (specially the youngest ones). But if I write Helium, The Minders and, in particular, Sleater-Kinney, you should realise we are in front of a special band. This all-female American four-piece supergroup came to public knowledge in September of 2010, and a year after, following a couple of singles, they released their eponymous album. And what an album! Is a record you NEED. Upbeat, dynamic, vital, alive. A love letter to music, and a blood injection to you. Another missed album now rediscovered.
Wild Flag - Future Crimes
Wild Flag - Romance
Wild Flag - Glass Tambourine

Music to look forward to in 2012

Now that holidays are officially over, it's time to look ahead into 2012. This is a small summary of the music releases/events I'm looking forward to for this year. A brief shortlist of the gifts I ordered for the Three Kings Day. 

1. The year is starting with a very special, highly anticipated album. Of course I'm referring to "I'm Across, I'm Ashore", our beloved Nat Johnson and the Figureheads arrive in few weeks! Don't you think the artwork is lovely! Counting down the days!
2. There's one release I'm really excited after hearing its first available tune,"Serpents" (click on the title to hear/download). Sharon Van Etten will release "Tramp", her third album, in February, with stunning collaborations like the Dessner brothers' from The National or Matt Barrick from The Walkmen. Great expectations with this.
3. "Young and Old" Tennis sophomore album, also for February.
4. The Shins are finally back!. James Mercer has "Port of Morrow" scheduled for March. Yes!! What about coming to Barcelona (Primavera Sound maybe)?
5. Two sure-fire for spring-summer: Beach House and The Walkmen.
6. My second Primavera Sound Festival, of course
7. The long-play debut that confirms the greatness of this young band: Let's buy Happiness.
8. Phoenix, Basia Bulat and Cat Power should be releasing new works this year.
9. Indie-pop heavens: Baffin Island, The Hi-Life Companion, The Hermit Crabs, The School will be back ... and Camera Obscura?
10. And finally, 2012 has to be, finally, the year of Beth Orton's comeback. Please, please, please.

Sure, there are many more out there. Will The National complete a new album before the year ends (the couple of songs premiered a few weeks ago sound great, so there's hope) And U2? And a personal favourite,  The Mynabirds? 2012 is going to be an excellent year for music.

"Drive", stylised race to nowhere

Drive

Sorry to say that, but there's something seriously wrong with critics, or the situation with regards to cinema is even worse that I thought. I already expected that Malick's "The Tree of Life" would make it for the majority of best-of the year lists. It was too obvious: the critic's ego needed to include it. But also "Drive"? Sorry, that's too much.

Don't get me wrong. "Drive" is a way better film than Malick's. Much more focused, not that pretentious and complete. Its even quite engaging and suggestive, with a very peculiar aesthetics that obviously is its biggest attractive. But among the best of 2011? What an awful year it has been then.

"Drive" is a style exercise, ideal to make some "specialised magazines" to target it as the "coolest" film of the year. The way it is filmed (these sun-baked scenes mixed with the more usual dark ones), admittedly appealing, Ryan Gosling poses (and his jacket and gloves if you are into that kind of fetishism), the music (paused and abstract electro clearly devoted from the 80s),  the pink credits... Oh sorry, I forgot to say, the 80s electro music and the pink credits... are a bit kitsch (specially the song "A Real Hero"). But aside its nice envelope, there's nothing much to find here.  

Story-wise, "Drive" offers absolutely nothing new. We have seen Gosling's silent, lonely and unnamed character before. As interesting the brutal ellipsis or the lack of flashbacks to tell us why "our driver" behaves that way must be (good for director Nicolas Winding Refn in that sense) or how magnetic is Gosling's performance (as expected) the hero in our film is pretty hard to believe. And I don't buy the "violence is just part of the world he has chosen to live in) argument. Then some more explanation would be needed.

No, probably my major concern with "Drive" has to do with the criminal story, the noir thriller. Let's buy for a second our quiet, introspective driver would risk his life and his future career as a racer for the girl (strangely looking, aged Carey Mulligan) and her husband, who returns from prison (can anyone really have so little clue about the person who is married with?). But why the money cannot be simply returned? Who would really go to the cops if there's no one in the film without the hands covered in blood? Why all this genre films has this sort of "that's the unavoidable fate". Sorry, maybe its me that doesn't really gets into this kind of style, but to me the whole plot was just an excuse to justify the escalation of also stylised violent, crude scenes.     

Overall, a pretty solid film in what it really offers: a noir impact thriller where atmosphere and style is way ahead of emotion. And entertaining, intense and sometimes brutal recreation of the crime films of the 80's, but light-years from being a masterpiece.

SCORE: 6/10

"Iron Man", Robert Downey Jr. disguised show

Iron Man

Back from New Year's Eve and a false start of 2012 with a pretty serious flu, that, unfortunately, didn't let me watch any movies, with just one exception, "Iron Man". Which is a very easy film to rate. It's Robert Downey Jr.' show. Sometimes even disguised in a quite tacky armoured suit.

Because honestly, if it wasn't saved by Downey, the perfect choice to play Tony Stark, the vain, arrogant and cynical playboy that is also the greatest engineering genius on Earth, the movie would be outrageously silly. All the script fluctuates between the weak and the simply dumb, with some "memorable" moments to highlight, that can be summarised in the quite pathetic and completely unbelievable scenes in Afghanistan, where Starks designs the first version of the "Iron Suit" out of nowhere, while their captors are so stupid they can't realise he's not building the missile he has promised them (something you can easily do on a grotto in the middle of the desert, by the way). It has to do more with McGiver or the A-Team. It also puzzled me how lame was Stark's emotional "conflict". You build the most devastating and powerful super-weapons, but you are surprised they can be used by the "bad guys", really? Really? I'm not a fan of Iron Man, never read the comic. But if you are going to create a superhero without superpowers, at least the premise should be somewhat credible.

Anyway, this is (another) superhero adaptation so substance shouldn't be the main incentive. The rest of the film, there's a mixture of quite cool CGI effects, wasted secondaries (Terrence Howard and Gwyneth Paltrow) a villain, Obadiah Stane, that could have offered a lot more, specially considering it is played by the great Jeff Bridges, and action scenes where the luxurious budget can be justified, but also sacrificing any sense of verisimilitude (sure, it has to be very "cool" having a weapon that detects villains from innocent civilians... but my God, don't you realise it is absurd?) 

Having said that, I insist, the movie is a fine entertaining, and keeps you going. It has rhythm, it is well-packed, doesn't take itself very seriously (luckily) and benefits of the charisma and presence of Robert Downey Jr. I have the impression the "Iron Man" saga will only make sense while he is on board. I remember watching its second part (on a plane back home from Malaysia) wondering why director's Jon Favreau didn't put him on every scene of the film (he could have had some more room for the gorgeous Scarlett Johansson/Black Widow too), as it was obvious the whole movie suffered without its main attraction.

But again, as a mere, no-brainer entertainment, "Iron Man" works more than fine. 

SCORE: 5/10