Sauvignon Blog

Off The Reel #6

With the soundtrack to The Dark Knight my writing companion for the past few weeks – a perfect listening experience on headphones, I must say – it reminded me just how amazing film scores can be. (It also reminded me how no film score, aside from TDK, had made an impression on me this year so far.) My record collection at home is littered with original soundtracks, as well as the odd fluff (American Pie and Charlie’s Angels being two soundtracks I’m not particularly proud of owning), and I’ve always found them to be superb writing utensils. There was a time when I literally couldn’t put pen to paper/fingers to the keyboard without Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard’s haunting Gladiator score or Gerrard and Pieter Bourke’s music for The Insider. I have a thing for Lisa Gerrard.

Angelo Badalamenti and Bernard Herrmann are my two favourite film composers however, both having scored two of my favourite films, David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive and Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo respectively. Badalamenti, a long time Lynch collaborator, is probably best know for his haunting Twin Peaks theme, but it’s the extremely unnerving incidental music to Mulholland Drive that lifted the film to such a height I consider it one of the greatest of all time. The love theme is breathtakingly beautiful, the incidental music accompanying the night shots being truly frightening. It’s not something you want to be playing on a late night drive…

Herrmann’s score for Vertigo may often be overshadowed by infamous music for Psycho he wrote, but one listen to the hypnotic prelude and you’ll be sucked into the mysteriously dark world of the film. Again, the love theme is strikingly romantic, without being saccharine like so many Hollywood scores can be. Hitchcock even takes a stab at the studio system in one scene where the two leads (James Stewart and Kim Novak) embrace, while waves crash against the coast and sweeping strings blare overhead.

The Dark Knight brings together two Hollywood greats: Hans Zimmer (who’s also scored The Lion King, Crimson Tide and The Last Samurai) and James Newton Howard (The Sixth Sense, Snow Falling on Cedars, The Interpreter). Zimmer’s style of sweeping strings, crescendos and bold motifs are present throughout the score, at times eerily reminiscent of his Gladiator score, while Newton Howard’s colder, minimalist sounds compliment well and echo Chris Nolan’s mood extremely well. Just watch out when the bass tones kicks in if you’re listening via headphones, it felt like my head was about to explode.

Other recommended soundtracks:
The Dust Brothers – Fight Club
Vangelis – Blade Runner
Danny Elfman – Edward Scissorhands
Bernard Herrmann – Psycho
Angelo Badalamenti – Twin Peaks
Luis Enriquez Bacalov – Il Postino
Yann Tiersen – Amélie
Nino Rota – The Godfather
Philip Glass – Koyaanisqatsi
Klaus Doldinger – The NeverEnding Story
Michael Nyman – The Piano
Gustavo Santaololla – The Motorcycle Diaries

Grate Expectations

Here’s my interview with The Grates that’ll appear in Monday’s issue of 3D World, while I’m in Brisbane.

WE’RE IN A RANDOM HALL at Sydney University where the walls are painted like the Sistine Chapel, only the artist has put himself smack bang in the centre of the mural. Weird. It’s a MySpace secret party and, more so than usual, the term ‘secret’ has not been used loosely. Having not studied on campus, wandering through the laneways and the graffiti tunnel, kinda lost, adds to the sense of spontaneity and fun that make The Grates so endearing. It’s like being back in Brisbane all those years ago when, at someone’s house party, this trio of quirkily-dressed misfits would take over the room and belt out 90-second pop songs about fucking and animals.

Two years have passed since the trio – who play live as a quartet – dropped their debut LP, Gravity Won’t Get You High, and became a cultural phenomenon in their hometown – Pae’s blue leggings being the indie girl outfit du l’annee for 2006. Within weeks, they’d taken over the nation, culminating with the inclusion of four tracks from Gravity… charting in triple j’s Hottest 100. (Triple j have practically adopted them as the station’s children.)

Countless tours ensued. In Australia they toured with Arctic Monkeys and headlined two extensive national tours. They toured the US with We Are Scientists, and again supporting Arctic Monkeys. They toured the UK with The Young Knives and The Zutons and received praise from indie bible NME. Then after a year of solid touring they returned home to Brisbane’s east and began writing again. John even grew a mean beard.

After having recorded their EPs – including the breakthrough The Ouch. The Touch – in their garages and Gravity Won’t Get You High in Brisbane, the trio found themselves in Bridgeport, Connecticut – “Connecticut is the place where all the people too rich to live in New York move…except for Bridgeport” – spending three months in the studio with Interpol/National producer Peter Katis, who’d previously mixed their debut.

On the other side of the world in a Sydney hotel the morning after the secret show John’s eating cheesecake while Alana sips tea – nothing too interesting there, but it’s far from their poison of choice during recording, which you’d know if you’ve been following their blog.

“I’ve never actually drunk all that much when it comes to beer or anything, but in America I had the time of my life,” Pae beams. “Just because we were working so damn hard it was really nice to kick back at midnight or one o’clock, watch something – Freak and Geeks we’d watch after a day of recording – and have a few beers that didn’t cost the earth and were super-delicious. I hadn’t been in that situation before because when we go away on tour I don’t do a lot of drinking because I have to, you know, do a lot of singing, and I can’t have tonnes of big nights.”

Which explains Pae’s absence from the afterparty the night before. Not that she isn’t a wild child at heart – during the secret show she’d crowd surfed the length of the room and dealt with a rather creepy fan that had gotten a little too close during Rock Boys.

The six new songs they played live, which included current single Burn Bridges, Earthquakes, Aw Yeah and potential next single Carve Your Name, hadn’t been played in Sydney before. In fact, it was officially only the third time they’d been showcased for the Australian public, after two gigs up north. Herein lies a major difference between the release of their two albums: all the songs featured on Gravity Won’t Get High had been played hundreds of times live prior to its release, but with Teeth Lost, Hearts Won, the public – close friends and distant fans alike – are hearing the contents largely for the first time – something the group are aware of.

“I guess most people hadn’t heard the songs on the first album when they bought it, they probably hadn’t come to the shows, but like, having people at your shows that are your fans that don’t know the songs is, kind of… it’s not weird, it’s exciting,” John says.

“We did feel really removed last year when we were writing the album,” Pae says. “We were so used to writing a song and then playing it live, and it was always like we were exposing them to an audience all the time – we’d just write one and as soon as we’d get half good at playing it, we’d just play it.

“Things were so insular writing [Teeth Lost, Hearts Won]; we weren’t on tour, we were all at home writing the album and you’re not really in that place where you can just be like, ‘Cool, let’s go out and play to people’. It wasn’t something we could do this time round because you need to go away, you need to take a step back from the scene and from your fans, so that they can have a break. It’s like having a holiday from your favourite thing: it’s nice when you get back to it.”

Hearing the tracks from Teeth Lost, Hearts Won live you’ll notice how much heavier the new songs are, something that Pae attributes to the, uh, ‘studio’ they recorded in.

“I think they’re just a lot fuller,” she says, with agreement from Alana. “Especially production-wise; they’re organic but big, and sonically just sound better, which is something that came with working with Peter Katis. It was a great combination of living in his house – which is something we’re very accustomed to, living in houses and recording in them at the same time – and having kick-arse equipment. He’s very good at what he does, and having his equipment that he trusts and he’s used time and time again… but then in a really casual situation like a house.

“It’s probably like the same recording pre-amps and mics and shit that, like, Timbaland is using except that he’s in a big fuck-off studio and we’re just in a house. It’s a blending of really quality things in a casual set-up.”

Off The Reel #5

“Che cazzo è? What did I drink last night?!” 

First things first: DVD releases. Two of the biggest blockbusters of the past six(ish) months, Juno and There Will Be Blood, still haven’t been released for home viewing as yet, while the likes of No Country For Old Men and Cloverfield have both been sitting on my DVD shelf for months (and let’s remember Cloverfield was released in cinemas after all the other above mentioned films). Disney, parent company of Miramax, have been pushing back the Daniel Day-Lewis epic, currently scheduled for a September release (why?), but a browse on EzyDVD last week (whilst checking out the pretty awesome Batman Begins special edition, although the Region 1 version is far superior) revealed that Fox will be releasing Juno on 6 August in three versions: the standard DVD with a free “big box” of Tic Tacs, on Blu-ray (alas, sans sweets) and finally in a limited edition over-sized orange Tic Tac box with bonus five-track mix-CD. No word on whether the casing uses ’90s scratch n sniff technology. That would be pretty cool.

Speaking of Juno, Michael Cera, who plays the father-to-be opposite Ellen Page and is also known for his role in the TV series Arrested Development, is starring in an upcoming film called Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, which, judging by the title, is going straight for Juno’s target audience. The film does revolve around a lot of live performances featuring blogger favourites Bishop Allen, for starters. The synopsis? At a bar, Nick asks Norah to be his girlfriend for five minutes while Nick’s ex-girlfriend appears in the room. One thing leads to a kiss and we then follow them for the remainder of the night as they embark on an all-night first date in New York City. Judging by the film’s title it looks like the dialogue will be High Fidelity meets Juno, which sits very well with me. Hopefully it won’t venture into 9 Songs terrain because that’s a side of Cera I don’t want to see.

Sticking to the DVD theme this week, Paramount Home are releasing one hell of a package on 7 August: The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration. Paramount Pictures, overseen by director Francis Ford Coppola, have restored The Godfather and The Godfather Part II and remastered Part III and are releasing the three films in a five-disc box set that also includes a disc of previously seen special features and a further disc of never-before-seen bonus features, including four short films and a host of featurettes. According to the press release each film is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ration, enhanced for 16:9 screens and feature Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound. The box itself is a beautiful looking thing, too. We can’t wait.

Finally, Batman: Gotham Knight, the anime film that binds the live action blockbusters Batman Begins and The Dark Knight together, is now available on DVD. It features six animated shorts by six different minds. You’ll find it on Amazon your online store of choice.

And that’s about it, really.

Off The Reel #4

2008 SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL REDUX

This year’s Sydney Film Festival was great – fantastic, even – there’s no denying that. There were some amazing films by amazing directors showing amazingly innovative ideas. But there were some films missing. So. I’ve decided to compile a list of the films the 2008 Sydney Film Festival could have included in a perfect world where money or distribution rights or whatever weren’t holding organisers back. The only rule with the following list is that all films must have been completed and ready for screening in May this year. Well, up to the Cannes level of ‘completion’ at least. OK, here goes:

OPENING NIGHT

My Blueberry Nights (Wong Kar-wai, 2007)
To me, there is no better film to opening the Sydney Film Festival this year than Wong Kar-wai’s My Blueberry Nights (pictured above, which opened Cannes 2007). With his past two films, In the Mood for Love and 2046, WKW’s unique and distinctively romantic noir has drawn huge acclaim, and brought Hong Kong cinema to a wider audience. With My Blueberry Nights, the director’s debut English-language film, Kar-wai has cast Norah Jones, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz and Jude Law into a road trip love story that would attract both arthouse lovers and mainstream fans alike.

DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT

Not Quite Hollywood (Mark Hartley, 2008)
This is perfect for Sydney. The only reason I can think of its exclusion is that Madman, the film’s distributor, have something cool planned for its release in August. The fact most of Madman’s upcoming films are actually being shown in the festival may be another reason. Not Quite Hollywood is a doco about the ‘Ozploitation’ genre films that came out of Australia in the ’70s and ’80s and contains interviews with the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Dennis Hopper, Barry Humphries and John Waters. Organise a Q+A and this could’ve turned into an entertaining nerd-fest.

MAIN PROGRAMME

Genova (Michael Winterbottom, 2008)
Anything by Michael Winterbottom, providing it’s ready, should be included in your film festival, whether it’s pop culture films (24 Hour Party People, 9 Songs) or hard-hitting, timely issues (The Road to Guantanamo). This time the British director sets his film in the Italian city of Genova and casts Colin Firth as a grieving widow looking for a new life with his two daughters – sounds like a box office mega-hit to me.

Youth Without Youth (Francis Ford Coppola, 2007)
Youth Without Youth may be garnering mixed reviews, but as Francis Ford Coppola’s first directorial output since 1997’s The Rainmaker this is an event film. Based on the novella of the same name by Romanian author Mircea Eliade, the film stars Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction) as a professor living as a fugitive in the years after World War II. The film was released in the United States in December, so it’s a mystery as to why it hasn’t appeared here yet.

Zombie Strippers (Jay Lee, 2008)
Film festivals aren’t just for those who read Sight & Sound and recite lines from Godard films in French at the drop of a beret (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Film festivals also attract, or should at least aim to, those that think sitting and watching It Came From Outer Space for the 10th time – to see the boom fall into shot* – is better than heading out to catch Iron Man. Therefore the onscreen collaboration of Robert ‘Freddy Kruger’ Englund and pornstar Jenna Jameson in a film called Zombie Strippers (pictured above) deserves its place alongside Happy-Go-Lucky.

INDIE-PENDENT CINEMA

Towelhead (Alan Ball, 2007) and The Go-Getter (Martin Hynes, 2007)
The inclusion of two films I’m hanging out to see, Towelhead (pictured above) and The Go-Getter, would have sealed the deal as an awesome festival. Towelhead, directed by Six Feet Under and American Beauty writer Alan Ball, stars Aaron Eckhart, Toni Collette and Maria Bello, and revolves around a young Arab-American girl sexually obsessed by her “bigoted Army reservist” neighbour. Topical much? There’s your pull right there. For more info on The Go-Getter check out Off The Reel #3.

TRIBUTE TO ANTHONY MINGHELLA

Truly, Madly, Deeply (Anthony Minghella, 1990)
On 18 March this year, English film director, playwright and screenwriter Anthony Minghella passed away. An Academy Award winner, Minghella is best know for his films The English Patient (which won nine Oscars), The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain. Perhaps a tribute screening of his directorial debut, Truly, Madly, Deeply, with an appearance from the film’s star Alan Rickman, could have worked?

*Don’t quote me on this.

Daniel vs Futurecop!

I just got the answers back from Peter Carrol of UK duo Futurecop! I’m really excited about seeing them at We Love Sounds this Sunday (and perhaps, if I can be arsed, at Trashbags next Saturday) so I thought I’d post the interview here.

I first heard Futurecop! last year when I found their track ‘Class of 1984′ on a music blog, and the song was on my shortlist for favourite songs of 2007. Their sound is steeped in ’80s nostalgia, particularly for John Hughes films (The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, etc.) and their soundtracks.

*****

Manzur Iqbal started Futurecop! in Manchester, before you joined the team in London. How did you meet, and at what point did you decided to do this project together?
We met at uni about eight years ago. Manzur played bass in a punk band for a while until he realised it was not the direction he wanted to take. He started to make electronic music on his own about two years ago, I can remember he became addicted to his Mac and MIDI keyboard and would never come out! He was obsessed with making synthy, occasionally cheesy, ’80s soundtrack sounds, even though it was going against the grain at the time as everyone else was making noise music. But he was just doing it for himself, to satisfy his appetite for nostalgia and to have fun. As he got more interested he got me involved, we were always into the same styles and these things are more enjoyable with your mates! I started concentrating on the live element while he did the production so it’s worked out pretty well (Manzur was never really into playing electronic music live, he grew up with live punk and metal bands – he’s getting used to it though).

I recently spoke with your peer, Russ Chimes, about your sound and how it’s a sound (and scene) that’s blown up in France, particularly surrounding the blog Valerie and associated club nights. It certainly sounds like it’s a great way to travel to France! What’s your take on the UK’s scene you and your peers are in?
The Valerie synths scene in the UK is still in its infancy really, it’s only us and Russ who are pushing it at the moment, while in France it’s become a big deal. But there is a great record label in the UK called Bright Lights Big City, who set up club nights around London and sometimes Manchester; they are very serious about the sound so I think it can only grow. And it’s always a pleasure to do parties with Russ; we are massive fans of his.

Do you think your music is borne out of a certain level of nostalgia?
Our music is all about nostalgia; we wanted to recreate the soundtrack of people’s childhoods. We both love all the ’80s stuff; the cartoons, the fashions, the films…

????????What equipment do you use?
A laptop and a MIDI keyboard for the production, and when we DJ we alternate between Ableton and CDJs.

Judging by images we’ve seen on the internet, you seem to be accompanied by backing visuals. Is this a strict complement to your music, or is it more simply incidental imagery? Or have we completely misinterpreted the pictures?
No, you are spot on! The music and the visuals we use go hand in hand, it’s as important as the music. We really hope the visual element to our show adds a lot to the performance. The production is inspired by the nostalgic imagery people associate with us; come along to the shows if you want to find out more!

There are a few of your tracks doing the rounds online – any plans for an EP or even an LP?
We have big plans for an EP release – it should be available later in the UK summer. Keep an eye on Bright Lights Big City, Valerie and the other blogs on the scene for some previews very soon!

You’re obviously fans of ’80s soundtracks, what composers/musicians are particular favourites of yours?
Manzur is obsessed with Stan Bush. He also likes Kenny Loggins, Cyndi Lauper, Huey Lewis and the News. We both love ’80s Madonna and any soundtracks with Corey Haim, Corey Fieldman, Molly Ringwald or the Brat Pack starring in the films.

Finally, you’ve a pretty loyal following here in Australia, what do you have to say to them ahead of your headlining shows this week?
Thank you for the support, it’s nice to know that we are not the only people into ’80s nostalgia – without you guys we are nothing! And get yourselves ready for some serious partying…!

*****

-> Download: ‘Starworshipper‘ (320 kbps)

Daniel vs My Morning Jacket

Here’s my first music interview for Oyster. And here’s hoping it’s not my last. I’ll admit, this isn’t my finest hour - I’m not entirely happy with the story - but considering I lost my sheet of questions on the way to work, and I know nothing about the band, I think I pulled it off considerably.

For your reading pleasure.

My first Muxtape

I found out about this great mixtape website through Slashfilm called Muxtape, so I decided to make my own mix today. It’s a pretty random selection of tracks overall, but that’s mainly because my work iTunes catalogue is rather random.

Tracklisting:
01. The Living End - ‘How Do We Know?’
02. The Submarines - ‘You, Me and the Bourgeoisie’
03. Albert Hammond, Jr. - ‘In Transit’
04. The Jesus & Mary Chain - ‘Head On’
05. Aqualung - ‘Good Times Gonna Come’
06. Yeasayer - ‘Sunrise’
07. Ivan Ives - ‘Fire at the Arcade’
08. N.E.R.D. - ‘Spazz’
09. Ghostland Observatory - ‘Dancing on My Grave’
10. MSTRKRFT - ‘Bounce’ (Bloody Beetroots Remix)
11. MSTRKRFT - ‘Vuvuvu’
12. Huey Lewis and the News - ‘Hip to Be Square’

Listen here!

The Holidays, a review

It’s a difficult task for any band to do, capturing the spirit of your live show on record, but The Holidays have managed to bring the energy of their stage performance to their self-titled debut recording, out through Michael Gudinski’s label, Liberation.

The Sydney quartet have a refreshingly unabashed pop feel, with bright guitar riffs and licks, warm bass lines and heartbeat drum patterns, complimented by Simon Jones’ raspy vocals, which echo James Mercer and Alex Turner with the twang of Mazarin’s Quentin Stoltzfus.

The Holidays is an apt name; the feel of bygone eras evident in opening tracks Holiday and Planes, evoking beachside jaunts, before upping the tempo with the Britpop/American indie tones of The Lovers and pure jangly pop bliss of Telephone… the kind of stuff the NME loves right now.

EP closer The Werewolf You Become parallels the relatively dark title (compared to the rest of the tracks, at least) with multi-layered and complex rhythms and melodies. Jones beginning by serenading over a poignant organ line, before the percussion and distorted bass kick in with all the intensity of a lost debut-era Arctic Monkeys track.

This is brilliant stuff from one of Australia’s most promising new bands.

Oyster link.

Over to you, Bob

I’ve found a new WordPress theme I like. It was designed by Bob Jiwakacau and modified by moi. That is all.

Off The Reel #3

Boy, is Speed Racer taking a pounding. The latest film by the Wachowski brothers (The Matrix, V For Vendetta) has had a phenomenal amount of hype and marketing surrounding it, but the fact that it looks like the aftermath of a night eating acid and Jelly Bellys isn’t going to save it from being one of 2008’s biggest flops. I’ve never seen such a gamut of colour. A quick browse on Rotten Tomatoes offers such quotes as “you might want to bring along something to read”, “messy”, “diabetics need to be wary…you’re likely to slip into a coma”, “catastrophic” et al. and if you’ve managed to make it through the entire trailer, just remember, it goes for over two hours! See it at your peril.

In what looks set to be the next little film that could (see Garden State, Little Miss Sunshine, Juno), The Go-Getter is being released in the United States next month, after premiering at the 2007 Sundance Festival. Starring Zooey Deschanel (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Almost Famous), Jena Malone (Donnie Darko) and Lou Taylor Pucci (Thumbsucker, Southland Tales), Pucci plays a young man who steals a car and embarks on a cross-country journey to meet up with his brother, after their mother dies. All the while building a relationship over the phone with the woman who owns the car he stole (Deschanel). Check out the trailer on slashfilm.com.

With so much focus on the upcoming Sydney Film Festival, it’s easy to forget that the world’s premier film festival, Cannes, is in full swing. If you hunt around on YouTube you’re sure to find a plethora of video footage from the festival, but make sure you check out the interview asking punters to pronounce Charlie Kaufman’s debut Synecdoche, New York. A couple of films have already been picked up by Australian distributor Palace Films, so you can expect to see them on the big screen locally over the next year. So far, Palace have acquired two French films – L’heure d’été (Summer Hours, starring Juliette Binoche) and Il y a longtemps que je t’aime (I’ve Loved You So Long, starring Kristin Scott-Thomas) – for general release, and two Italian films for the upcoming Italian Film Festival: Sanguepazzo (Wild Blood, from The Best of Youth director Marco Tullio Giordana) and Girl By the Lake, starring Valeria Golino (Rain Man, Leaving Las Vegas, Respiro).

Finally, I watched Southland Tales, Richard Kelly’s follow-up to Donnie Darko, last week. It was an interesting experience. After the mind-bending experience that was Donnie Darko – one of the greatest films of the 21st Century thus far? – Southland Tales truly does come across as an incomplete work. However, it’s absolutely worth watching for the insanity alone. Whether it’s The Rock looking totally confused in almost every scene to Justin Timberlake drunkenly singing The Killers directly to camera to the fact both The Rock and JT are in this film (along with Mandy Moore and Sarah Michele Gellar), it’s well worth watching. Where the film takes you ultimately is rather unrewarding but it’s definitely a fun journey along the way!

And that’s a wrap.