Those upbeat, jangly guitars!  That odd, addictive voice!  It can only be Houseguest!

A surprising gem in a sea of twee pop, messy garage rock, and electronic promo albums laying on my desk, Houseguest’s High Strangeness was one of my favorite albums that I received in 2007.  Quick, short, and to the point, High Strangeness is a high-energy pop record whose most interesting feature, its skewed, subversive tone, is carried strongly by singer Ted Mallison’s unique voice.  Upon first listen, I remember thinking, “Wow, these guys…actually know how to write a good song.  Awesome!”

Here are two tracks from High Strangeness, blazing album opener ‘Fashionable Living Room’ and the equally delightful ‘On Waldon Software’.  To listen to some new cuts from their up coming 2008 release, visit the band’s Myspace page.

Houseguest - Fashionable Living Room

Houseguest - On Walden Software

Purchase Houseguest’s High Strangeness on Amazon.com

After circling around YouTube for a while, these gloriously curious music videos featuring the now defunct Showtime Pizza band Rockafire Explosion have been recently erased off the face of the net. Who knows, perhaps the world wasn’t quite ready to see these animatronic musicians perform such modern day hits as Usher’s Love in This Club and Huey’s Pop Lock and Drop It. Fortunately for us, the videos are creeping back again- and while I’m using that word, let me not downplay how creepy these clips are. If I were to suddenly awaken in the room while this was going on, I would no doubt promptly a) shit myself and b) begin to cry uncontrollably. I’m assuming that is how most children’s birthday parties at Showtime Pizza went once the curtains were pulled aside and Mr. Keyboard Chimp and the gang started playing their music.

Here’s to more videos being produced and the others being re-upped.

Yet another friend of mine has a band that is quickly gaining popularity, at least around Chicago.  Empires is a soulful “indie-rock” band that is getting a lot of attention lately.  They just released a full-length, for free mind you, and had their record release show which went excellent.  They vocals are easily my favorite part of this band because there is a lot of emotion behind them.  Some songs may sound like The Spill Canvas and I’m not going to say whether that’s a good or bad thing.  Take it as it is.  If you don’t like the rest of the album, I know you’ll like the intro track because it’s hard not to.

Empires - Spit The Dark

Download Empires Entire Full-Length “Howl” Free at Weareempires.com

The release of the four DVD set of Derek Jarman films under the name Glitterbox could not have come at a better time. Not only have there been retrospective viewings of Jarman’s groundbreaking, and sometimes controversial, films around the U.S., but also a documentary feature looking at the life and career of the English filmmaker will soon see wide release.

With this box set bringing together films from early in Jarman’s career with the three films that he completed before his death in 1994, it seems one of the best places to begin to draw out some understanding of his intentions as a filmmaker: to speak frankly about his homosexuality and infection with AIDS, to challenge the narrative constraints of modern cinema (especially in England in the late ’70s/early ’80s when he first arrived on the scene) and to bring to bear his avant garde/experimental and political leanings in an infinitely watchable form.

The latter is especially true of the two pseudo-biopics that are on this set – Caravaggio and Wittgenstein . Both weave the groundbreaking work of these men into the films (especially the challenging and beautiful paintings of Caravaggio) into stark evocations of their lives brought to bear on sparse sets and Brechtian stagings of key moments in their careers. Even with the tiny budgets Jarman had to work with, both films are filled with arresting imagery and capture the essence of the two men without resorting to over-dramatization or the dull recitation of facts.

Glitterbox also brings to DVD (for the first time, if I’m not mistaken) the film that Jarman is possibly best known for: Blue . The 76-minute film is a single shot of a blue screen accompanied by a stark and beautiful musical score composed by Simon Fisher Turner and the voices of Jarman and frequent collaborator Tilda Swinton (among others) telling the story of his life and ambitions and visions as an artist. It is a rare achievement and comes as close as any director has in capturing how one person views the world in a very literal sense.

What this set truly captures is how liberating viewing Jarman’s work can be. If you are willing to remove all kinds of expectations and thoughts about how a movie should be made or how a story should be told, you will get so much out of the five films on this set. They practically beg you to let the sure hand of Jarman and his nimble mind guide you. Until Matthew Barney and Guy Maddin arrived in the film world, no other director seemed willing to ask so much of an audience. For that alone, Jarman and this lovely set of films should receive the highest of praise.

Purchase the Derek Jarman: Glitterbox boxset on Amazon.com

Wow. This is embarrassing. You know how I’m a really important music blogger and I always find out about cool bands before anyone else does? You know? Well, turns out I’ve totally been sleeping on this Fleet Foxes cd that SubPop sent me. Check out all this good stuff people have been saying about it weeks before I even took it out of it’s effin’ digipack sleeve:

“A stunning debut then, and one that will make Fleet Foxes one of the most sought after bands of the year.” - musicOMH

“It all adds up to a landmark in American music, an instant classic.” - The Guardian

“At its best, Fleet Foxes is warm and cathartic, with all the hopefulness of a balmy summer night.” - SPIN Magazine

SON OF A BITCH! Spin stole my ‘balmy summer night’ line. I was saving that for the next Beirut full length. Oh well, I guess that’s what I get for falling asleep at the wheel on this one. But no seriously, this new Fleet Foxes record is a landmark in American music, an instant- wait. SON OF A BITCH! Those assholes at the Guardian used my other line too. DAMMIT. This is what happens when you celebrate getting 200 hits in one day by drinking a lot of Red Stripe (I saw a pic of the guy from Rilo Kiley drinking Red Stripe) and fall asleep on the rooftop garden you always wished you had because you’re biggest wish in life is to live in a New York apartment that has a rooftop garden where you invite all your friends to party and watch your singer songwriter friend play his original accoustic songs to a starry eyed, cocaine-fueled crowd.

Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal

Purchase Fleet Foxes’ self titled full length on Amazon.com

In my formative years as a cinephile, I remember seeing the box for Diva on the shelf of my local video store – a reproduction of the iconic poster that apparently graced the walls of many a liberal arts college dorm room and studio apartment in the years following its release.

Knowing vaguely that the film was French, it seemed out of my league and above my level of understanding. It seemed, in a word, grown-up. That kind of thinking, unfortunately, kept Diva off my radar for exactly 27 years, which is the length of time from its theatrical release to this remastered DVD edition’s release date.

Now that I’ve finally watched it, not only do I see what the fuss was all about with this film, but I also regret that it has taken me this long to finally give myself over to its hyper-stylized beauty and riveting mise-en-scene.

Diva has often been called a thriller, which in some senses it is, but that kind of thinking seems to diminish its more poignant qualities. The title character is Cynthia Hawkins, an opera singer who refuses to be recorded for mass consumption. So, obsessive fans like Jules are forced to sneak tape machines into her recitals to make bootlegs. At a particular recital, Jules also decides to steal the diva’s dress. These items play important roles in the film, but are pure MacGuffins.

In fact, another tape is at the heart of Diva – the fast beating thriller heart of the film. It’s a confession by a former prostitute about an illegal trade in drugs and women going on in Paris. In her last moments, the prostitute sneaks the tape into the bag on Jules’s trusty moped, enmeshing him in a whirlwind of pulse-quickening chase scenes (including a much-talked about moped vs. man pursuit through the Metro) and sinister dealings.

Attempting to harmonize these two visions, one dreamy and romantic, the other hard-boiled and sordid, has undone many a filmmaker, but director Jean-Jacques Beineix is able to walk the tightrope between the two, while not losing a second of the film’s momentum and ecstatic allure. Although much of the credit should be handed off to DP Philippe Rousselot and set designer Hilton McConnico for capturing the unabashed cool of these bohemian Parisians, Beineix stitches it all together seamlessly with nice dashes of wit and goofball humor thrown in for good measure.

Purchase Diva on DVD at Amazon.com

All it took was finding an amazing wallpaper on Google images to look up Grand Island on myspace, and I thank God that I did.  After hearing one song I was immediately hooked and had to hear their other songs.  I guess you could group them with that garage rock genre filled with the Raconteurs and the Strokes and such.  But this band has some serious pop.  Every song has such energy in it.  The vocals are phenomenal and random horns and keys just jump out.  I can’t say enough awesome stuff about these fellows from Oslo.  The song I have posted is from their older album “Say No To Sin”, but they just released a new full-length a few months ago.

Grand Island - Us Annexed

Purchase Grand Island’s New Album Boys & Brutes on Amazon.com

With a brand new release off Better Looking Records, Meho Plaza delivers a unique sound creating noisy 8-bit synth patterns with echoing vocals.  They are really a tough band to compare to others, but I’ll give it a shot and say this is for fans of Q & Not U and The Dismemberment Plan.  Some songs have great structure and grooving choruses and others are heavy, noisy bits.  They just released their album on May 6th, so take a listen.

Meho Plaza - The Beach

Purchase Meho Plaza’s Self-Titled Full-Length on Amazon.com

The time has never been better for policy-driven documentaries, non-fiction films that hope to inspire people to change their ways or to work towards a better world. The lines of communication between the U.S. and the rest of the world is, these days, unprecedented, allowing us a glimpse at a changing climate, a variety of unfortunate human rights issues and of late natural disasters that threaten millions of lives.

This kind of access allows the Western world the opportunity to see the effects of the violence against the people of Darfur, Sudan with unblinking clarity as well as hear the stories of the millions that have been forced from their homes and their land by a paramilitary group known as the Janjaweed. It is their stories that truly lie at the heart of the documentary Darfur Now , a film that hopes to educate and embolden viewers to seek out information and fight for changes in that embattled region.

The film, however, does not solely stay focused on the people of Darfur, but instead puts the camera on a wide swath of people, all of whom are hoping to make a difference in the lives of the Sudanese. They range from a field officer with the UN’s World Food Programme to a prosecutor with the International Crimes Commission to the head of an American non-profit.

The stories that linger most are those being told about the people within the country. One story follows a sheikh who lives in a vast displacement camp, mediating and trying to make the lives of the refugees a little more comfortable. He is also the one who wants to make sure that stories of hardship and abuse are heard – his town hall-style meeting where he encourages people to recount their experiences, all of them welling up with sadness and anger, is one of the most moving sequences to be seen on screen in at least 15 years.

The most chilling aspect of Darfur Now is when the focus of the film is on a woman who, after losing a son at the hands of the Janjaweed, becomes a member of the Sudanese Liberation Army. Her talking head interviews where she expresses, without emotion, how easy it was for her to learn how to shoot a gun and how willing she is to sacrifice herself for this cause is both chilling and strangely inspiring.

Like most documentaries of this kind, though, Darfur Now is not meant to leave you with a sense of joyous redemption. By the end, you should feel shaken, angry, sad, and hopefully ready to do something on behalf of the millions of people suffering in Sudan. It is an encapsulation of the power of the moving picture and one that should not be shied away from.

Purchase Darfur Now on Amazon.com (only $4.99!)

I apologize for this, the second Wolf Parade post in a week. I know I should be out with my ear to the wind, trying to find the next big experimental solo artist, but I can’t help myself. I’ve spent more time with these Wolf Parade teaser mp3s and the more I listen to them, the more I realize I love them. I hate to diss such a recent incarnation of myself but what was I thinking 4 days ago?

Take a listen to ‘Language City’, the second legally released mp3 from At Mount Zoomer. It doesn’t sound too different from ‘Call It a Ritual’. It doesn’t really pop. Or grab you. What it does is sink into your head like a brain worm and carve a home for itself, deep in your sub-conscious. Eventually you will go brain dead and die, but until then you can enjoy the refined indie-pop coming out of your lobes. Speaking of which, I’ll be damned if ‘indie-pop’ isn’t the least descriptive label ever. I wish I knew fancier words, or even how to write. That’d be useful.

Wolf Parade - Language City

Pre-order Wolf Parade’s At Mount Zoomer on Amazon.com