Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Pony Pony Pony




In our age of convenience, it is so rare when things are not attainable. I just discovered the band Holy Hail, and I want more and I want it now! The band has releases stateside and in the UK. At this point, the band doesn't seem to have a lot of their material recorded and I am feeling totally thwarted by iTunes. The UK iTunes store has so much good stuff, but can we buy it here in the US- noooo, we can't. I thought we were in a global economy. It's a conspiracy I tell ya'.

Anyhoo, so I discovered this band Holy Hail. They have an EP for sale called "Big Guns." It should be called "Big Guns Cubed," as there are 3 different versions of the song on this EP. Two versions are remixes, which are fun to listen to for sure. Remember the playfulness of Le Tigre and the B-52's? Well, you can find it again with this band. Holy Hail's sound is similar to the more current band New Young Pony Club, but I think Holy Hail is better. They capture the spirit of the punky, glitchy new wave sound so much better than NYPC and make you want to pony harder.

Back to my bitterness about our global economy, so their best song is "Born of a Star" and you can't buy it here in the US. Grrrr. But you can listen to it repeatedly on Myspace. Right now, I feel like one of those teenagers who drives their parents crazy because they can't stop listening to their favorite song over and over and over again. Oh, and don't act like you have never done this dear reader. Oooh, Holy Hail is making me feel sassy with their drumbeats. Go check it out now! Now!

Monday, July 30, 2007

A really swell movie


Okay, yeah right, this is a music blog. But I just saw the movie "Once," and it is a beautiful film about music and love. If you have never heard of this movie, then let me give a little synopsis. Basically, two musicians meet while one is busking for money on the streets. From the day they first meet, there is an immediate connection between the two musicians and a musically based relationship ensues.

There is not much dialogue in the film and some of it is in other languages. But you don't need to really know what the characters are saying. The soundtrack and the songs that they sing within the film help push the plot along just fine. Each song helps to convey the relationship that has formed between the musicians. Some of the songs are so haunting that you will get goosebumps at times.

An interesting factoid, in reality the two musicians, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, in this film form the band The Swell Season. The director of the film originally asked them to write songs for the film but then decided he wanted to use them as the actors, which makes the whole story that much more interesting to me. If you know any musicians, then you know that there often is a very intense bond that forms between band members. Even though they may be platonic, the act of creating music together creates a very passionate relationship.



Side note: BTW- did you know that shoegazer bands are back? There was a recent article in the NY Times and long discussion on NPR this weekend regarding its comeback. Honestly, I didn't know that it had ever left, especially since I just saw Mojave 3 at the Cat's Cradle not too long ago.