Heeley Institute - 9th September

LITTLE ROBOTS/ZACHARY CALE/THIS FRONTIER NEEDS HEROES

"I feel like I'm on a hill in a little village somewhere, 

far away from home."

Is how Zac Cale described the vibe at the Heeley Institute on Friday night. Which was absolutely correct. The community centre, located just past the Sheaf view pub had been sweetly decorated and was dimly lit. The organisers had even cooked up an alluring cushion pile which bled onto the stage, where people who wanted more intimacy could lounge around and scoundrels who were too wasted could safely crash. All the bands from the evening were musical refugees from the End of the Road festival that'd finished just a few days before. There was some bad news that Kate le Bon, one of the scheduled artists couldn't make it due to a cold or ebola virus or some other weird pathogen, so it was up to the 3 other acts to fill up the night. 

Little Robots, first to take to the stage, are a charming assemblance of folksy musos, sporting a rag-tag collection of country instruments. Laura Little, Mary Booth and Dolly May spent the set working their beautiful and flawless vocal harmonies, while multi-musical talent Ric Booth underpinned them with hugely impressive banjo, guitar and violin performances. Goodbye Bennie Boy, a strange cocktail of blues-folk with almost Trip hop style beats by drummer Guy Whittaker was the stand out track of the set for me. It was a straightforward masterclass in group performance, with a technically perfect and gorgeously inventive guitar accompaniment by Ric. Little Robots are versatile, expert performers and accomplished songwriters who impressed me greatly. 

Next up was Brooklyn based Zachary Cale, who immediately changed the pace of the evening. Such was the intimacy of this concert, it was as if people held their breath collectively and the room closed in on him. His performance was narcotic and captivating and had a kind of dreamy, ambien-laced grace at all times. Eye for an Eye was probably my favourite song of the night, which was slow, rich and melancholic, and perfectly framed Zac's hypnotic style. He is a truly gifted man.

The final act were the slightly rugged, tambourine driven new-folk act, This Frontier Needs Heroes. Also from NYC, the group's comprised of Brad and Jessica Lauretti, a high powered brother-sister music duo. From the outset they won over the crowd with their sibling banter and Brads heavily quirky storytelling. At times the bands energy outmatched their technical skill and they were beset by a few tuning issues, which slightly hampered the performance. Even so, the best parts of their set were thoroughly enjoyable and they've produced some nicely crafted songs.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the Heeley Institue as a gig venue, but it surpassed my expectations hugely and provided a genuinely touching setting for one of the most intimate gigs I've attended in a long time. Sadly Zac Cale and This Frontier needs Heroes have departed UK shores on their European tour but both acts have material available on Itunes. However, the Little Robots remain on British soil. So seek them out, outstanding performance is guaranteed.

Photo by Ian Mackintosh 

Have I been on the Slutcam Marsha?

Everything's Gone Green

" Last night I jumped off Lions Gate Bridge 

and I drowned
but in the morning I came back to life

and I crawled onto the shore
and back to the office
and started my job
again and again and again....... "

Ryan Arlen is having a bad day. 

Very bad. 

One of those exceptional, million to one bummers that simultaneously screws with every aspect of your life in horrible and imaginative ways....   

The downfall of Ryan Arlen is gloriously entertaining. It might seem cruel to enjoy watching a good persons life dissolve in pitiful, cringe-worthy circumstances. But, the way I see it, is that cruelty is OK so long as it's happening to someone else. So in this instance, it's wholly acceptable.

Anyway,

Everything’s Gone Green focuses on this depressed and befuddled anti-hero, as he (oddly) calmly negotiates a steeplechase of extremely weird, troublesome circumstances and attempts to reconstruct his life after things unravel so hilariously. The whole movie has a kind of careless feel, a strange nihilistic undertone runs throughout. Everything feels slightly understated, partly because of the afflicted circumstance of the central character but mainly (I discovered) because the film is drenched with the essence of writer Douglas Coupland. 

After watching one scene in particular, where Ryan chastises his new boss for organising an office cruise. I was so taken with the script that I went out and bought Couplands Generation X. He's a good writer, and it's his combination of bleakness and dead pan wit that makes the movie what it is. 

And what it is is good. 

If you like offbeat independent films, check this one out. 

 

Eugene's Old Wisdom

Wristcutters: - A Love Story 

(Avoid the Trailer - It'll Mess with the Movie) 

"...I mean, she did say she'd be right back. 

Then again, Eugene's old wisdom is when a girl says that, she never does actually come back..."

You'd think a dusty, bleak, baking-desert purgatory, where nobody can smile and all the inhabitants have committed suicide isn't exactly the most obvious setting for an uplifting roadtrip movie. Some crackpot freaks might think it's perfect, but I'd say most people aren't too thrilled at the prospect of gawking at a trio of depressed outcasts roaming semi-hell for an hour or so. 

Most people however, would be mistaken. 

Unearthing and watching Wristcutters, a good 5 years after it's release was just an indescribably cool find. Immediately you're caught up in this curious barren retrograde scene, where entropy's taken it's toll and almost everything's broken or stuck together with gaffa. Strangely, this downbeat world has shitloads of charm and this weird kind of supernatural 'mystique glaze' which intrigues throughout. 

Eugene, Zia and Mikal are the main characters, played by Shea Whigham, Patrick Fugit and Shannyn Sossamon. All three are wayward and lost for some reason or another, but end up thrown together on a disorganised, bumbling quest to track down Desiree, Zia's recently offed-herself ex. Tom Waits makes an excellent and typically croaky appearance as the mysterious Kneller, a commune leader with a few secrets under his belt...

Mixing up downtempo storytelling and borderline insanity is a tricky move to pull off, but Wristcutters works it out gloriously. Any film which brews together the following ingredients: -

Romance +

Blackholes +

Suicidal Families +

Inuit Throatsingers +

Minor Miracles +

Spraypainted Flowers +

Inventive storytelling and genuinely touching scenes is hitting all the right notes for me.

ANYONE WHO READS THIS IS UNDER ORDERS TO WATCH AND ENJOY THE FILM

GET IT HERE £4

Vicious Rioters and Dim Responses

Rioters.

Early August 2011. 

We've been treated to some crazy sights over the past week. Dumb and vicious kids ruling the streets at night, mercilessly smashing up towns attempting to grab some free booty and cause general mayhem. Watching those scenes, endless loops of enhanced  real-drama on BBC news 24 was pretty sickly at times. Viewing the madness, I probably wasn't the only person in the country with mixed feelings. The lefty liberal in me was all :-

'Awww, these kids, if they had a reason to live and didn't grow up in Cameron's 'merciless UK' with monstrous role models. In what is possibly the most malign but boring generation in the history of the human race... They might be doing something useful.'  

While the other part of me (The dark side, has many names but on this occasion it was The Daily Mail Brute) was already lining up 12 tequila shots and drilling some 5 inch screws through a baseball bat, ready to go deliver some heavy puncture wounds, alongside a few splintered bones to these rioter bums. Fuck it, while HM's streets are lawless we might as well go get stuck in. Surely? Go out and get me some blood and Burberry-London soaked hoods. 

Hooding - 21st Century Scalping for the Disenchanted. 

Well - Hooding may seem like a good (Perhaps slightly vengeful, definitely legally grey) option. BUT - These people are total shits! Vengeful, godless, jobless, hopelessly pathetic wasters with no prospects and even less respect...

So what would be a fitting punishment? Well there is one rage-fuelled option which appears to be gathering a lot of attention.

E-petition - NO BENEFITS FOR RIOTER SCUMBAGS

Ok.

Just in case you didn't get it on first glance.

THIS IS A MORE IGNORANT AND REACTIONARY NON-SOLUTION THAN A FULL BLOWN, GOVERNMENT ENDORSED, NATIONAL DAY OF HOODING.

Approaching a neglected, poverty stricken area, then taking away the benefits of criminal youngsters who inhabit that area is going to LOWER crime? Benefits for are lot of these people are the only fucking ALTERNATIVE to crime. Many who've committed a petty act, or a first offence will be forcibly plunged into total criminality as a means of survival. One day they're pinching something from the local store, or say partaking in a night of idiotic vandalism. The next they're sliding underneath your grandmas back door with a screwdriver or machete, looking for food or cash or fingernail clippers, or whatever the hell else they need to survive.

Do we really think by taking peoples benefits away, in the midst of the worst financial meltdown in a goddamn century, while youth unemployment is stratospherically high, it's going to turn them directly into honest work? Really?

No.

I'd say this'll be a bad move, on all fronts, at the most basic and blindingly obvious level. The deeper implications are even more disturbing but I'm too tired and lazy and nauseated to go into it.

People are saying sign the petition.

I'm saying don't.