Control freak

A few days ago, I went to our local art-house (Athens Ciné) and caught Anton Corbijn's "Control" on big screen. I'm still awed by the performance of the lead actors, Sam Riley (as Ian Curtis) and Samantha Morton (as Debbie Curtis). Riley in particular does an excellent job in portraying Curtis from a Bowie fan, stolen pill-popping teenager to married man to rock star, his struggles with fame, family life and fits of epilepsy. His natural was just amazing. All the live Joy Division songs of the movie were actually performed by the actors: commendable choice that made the experience even more enjoyable. The image was also splendid, Corbijn did well to shoot in color before a transfer to black and white. The last shot of the black smoke coming out of the crematorium was a perfect ending.
Of course, it was a bit difficult not to compare the movie to "24 hour party people", which also partly describes the period Warsaw-Joy Division: same period, same characters, same anecdotes. There was even a cross-reference: in "Control", in a scene taking place after the Bury gig riot, Tony Wilson tries to cheer-up Curtis by telling him that after all, he's not the band leader of the Fall: Riley played Mark E. Smith in "24 hour party people". The respective goals of the two films were quite different, "Control" focusing on Curtis, when "24 hour party people" dealt with Factory Records. Both are great movies, "Control" is more subdued and feels deeper emotionally.

On a personal note I wonder whether the hypnosis scene was really necessary. And Alexandra Maria Lara, who plays Annick, the Belgian mistress, really reminded me of an old flame of mine, which was a bit melancholy. But you probably don't care, and that's quite OK with me.





(Photo (C) by Dean Rogers)

With a little help of my friends...

Some random news, mostly plugging friends.

The Lolligags are playing a free(?) french-colored show at Go Bar on Saturday, Jan. 19th. Opening will be Andy from Denver, the new "band" of Andy G., of M(arshmallow) Coast fame. "Band", because Andy plays solo, guitar, keyboards and sequencer. The show will be another Budding Helping Buddies production, which already brought us the Lodger, Spring Tigers, Black Kids, and "Control".

Mike W. from Deadly Designs posted pictures of the last PCC/Casper show (cf previous post).

Hillary B., half of the famous Team Brown, posted some videos of yesterday's Yo La Tengo show (this one, that one, and that later one).

"Return to Horse Mountain", the new track of the Buddy System, kicks ass, as the audience of their Saturday Jan. 12th show at the Georgia Theater could witness. It starts western, it ends kung-fu, there are evil horses and their dark overlord, I'm a fan. Lauren, marry me.

Update 01/17/2008:
Well, turns out that the Buddy System just posted the clip of "Return to Horse Mountain" on Youtube. Check their myspace page as well to listen to their new song, "Watermarx". Thanks guys !




(Flyer artwork by Eric H.)

Pub notes #2

Last Tuesday, I accompanied a friend to a famous DIY venue downtown, to catch Everybody Everybody, the new project of Nate CCBB Mitchell (on bass) and Laura Swindall from Christopher's Liver (on drums), and a third member whose name eludes me for the moment. Interesting rhythmic section, heavily influenced by Pylon, but disappointing show overall. Some ideas deserve a longer cooking time.

Maybe I'm getting old, but I'm certainly getting weary of the kids gathering over the keg and not really giving any hear to what's playing. The tiredness lowered my patience level as well, and I spent a good part of Wednesday ruminating.

However, that Wednesday saw an awesome gig at Caledonia: Poison Control Center were opening for Casper and the Cookies, which brought me back faith in humanity (or at least indie pop).

So it was a Wednesday, the total attendance was less than 30 people (among them, Vanessa B-H. and Michael L. from Pylon, and Bryan P. from the Late BP Helium and that other band, you see what I mean, whose new haircut a la Robyn Hitchcock was the subject of a 15-minute conversation). The name-dropping isn't entirely gratuitous, as it should help you get a feel of the atmosphere: far more mature than the day before, connoisseurs (I hate this word), in one word, the indie family.

PCC is a quartet (Patrick, Devin, Joe and Don) from Ames, IO. It was my second? third? show with the full band. They played Athens Popfest regularly, last year being a notable exception, but they were here to promote "A Collage of Impressions", their latest album released last September on Afternoon Records. Their live is an experience, just pure rock energy, guitar acrobatics, ripped pants, and usually a lot of people on stage for their now classical encore, "Magic Circle Symphony". Remember the Bunnygrunt cover last Popfest ? Voila.

The Cookies show was pretty amazing. Three brand new songs made their premiere, along classics from the Optimist Club, "Marcel Marsalis", and many more (14 songs total). The songs fitted really well: the upcoming album they are currently composing and recording should be awesome. No I'm not partial.

With evenings like that, I'm not ready to give up the scene. Thanks guys.

"Love, love is the answer, until you get cancer, then you're lying, dying, dead..."

(Props to Daytrotter for the PCC MP3)