Director Michael Johnson sent us this music video that he recently did for the band HoneyHoney (Ironworks Records). Good stuff.
Spanish Prisoners – Songs to Forget
2008, Exit Stencil Records
Spanish Prisoners‘ first album, Songs to Forget, starts and ends sparsely, but definitely not forgettably.
The album begins with a nice guitar and strange vocals, and ends with a kind of combination medieval folk and Live In Chicago-era Joan of Arc. On the second track, lead man Leonid Maymind sings that there’s “No solace from the sunrise,” amid synth drums and loud guitars. The album continues along that vein for a while, then relaxes a bit in the middle (the swelling instrumental “This is Not That”). After this point, Spanish Prisoners seem to really get their footing. The tracks that follow, “Mantequilla,” “Dear Just Curious,” and “How the Fallen Fell,”–especially with “Fallen”‘s Neil Young harmonica–are the album’s highlights.
B+
Interview: Ryan Kattner of Man Man
Owl&Bear: Can you tell us a little bit about Man Man‘s musical beginnings? How’d you get into music in the first place?
Ryan Kattner: The band as a whole—everyone in the band has been playing music forever. They’re all really accomplished musicians. They have backgrounds in hardcore and punk rock and heavy metal and jazz. Me personally, it’s funny: I learned by banging my head on a keyboard and not touching a piano again until my twenties, and then, you know, banging my head on a keyboard (laughs).
Persepolis
2007, Sony Picture Classics
Written/Directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
Starring: Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, Danielle Darrieux, Simon Abkarian
I have a bit of a thing for French/Iranian far-left cartoon women, so this movie was kind of my territory. If you don’t know, Persepolis is a beautifully hand-drawn film based on an autobiographic graphic novel of the same name by Marjane Satrapi. It has a few flaws, but it’s very entertaining–assuming you can get past its blatant socialist message.
Review: Grizzly Bear/LA Philharmonic; March 1, 2008 at Walt Disney Concert Hall; Los Angeles
Grizzly Bear and the LA Philharmonic split a bill at the impressively designed Walt Disney Concert Hall. You must see this monstrosity designed by Frank Gehry. I swear there is not a single right angle inside or outside, and I’m willing to wager that it was constructed with stealth technology.The LA Philharmonic played the first set, and the clarity delivered by the venue is phenomenal. It’s easy to realize that no medium (be it vinyl, CD, or reel-to-reel) really does a symphony justice. Selections of their performance were pieces chosen as influences by Grizzly Bear.