Not Film 2012... but a film review anyway: Martha Marcy May Marlene

I went to the cinema last week and, because of the lateness of my arrival, had a limited choice: Carnage or Martha Marcy May Marlene (or 4M, as I shall henceforth refer to it. Judging by Rol's review I probably would have enjoyed the former very much. However, I went for the latter... and am very glad I did, to the extent that although it is only February I might have already seen my film of the year.

4M starts innocently enough - a young girl seems to be living a simple life in some sort of quasi-Amish agrarian commune in the Catskill's that might seem a bit odd to the casual observer but not really much more odd than, for example, the actual Amish might to the average 21st Century Westerner. But then our protagonist, who we come to think of as Martha, Marcy May or Marlene depending on the context, makes a break. She literally escapes the commune. What's going on?

Martha, an entirely convincing and scarily good Elizabeth Olsen (pictured), is quickly rescued by her estranged sister and from there two stories are told in parallel: Martha's struggle to adapt to conventional life and, in flashback, her time in the commune as Marcy May (and, on the phone, Marlene). And it's those flashbacks that make this film so effective, the way the story is delicately paid out. As you might expect, bad things happened in the commune. Very bad things indeed. I won't spoil the film for you here with any more detail than that, but what I will say is this. I like an FX-laden adventure fest as much as the next man. But I also love films that deliver a story at a slower pace, letting the viewer interpret without jump-cuts and excessive dialogue being imposed. 4M is just one such film - it tells a difficult story in its own way, at its own pace, and is all the better for it. Oh, and Elizabeth Olsen is nothing short of a revelation, giving a powerhouse performance - no mean feat, especially considering that she is on-screen for just about the whole time.

And the ending caught pretty much the whole of Screen 3 at my local picture house on the hop, including me, which can only be a good thing.

Here's the trailer - now go and see the damned film (you don't get that from Claudia Winkleman, do you?). Oh, and you'll be able to buy it on Amazon before you know it too.

Clandestine Classic XXIII - Far Away

The 23rd post in an occasional series that is intended to highlight songs that you might not have heard that I think are excellent - clandestine classics, if you will. Maybe they'll be by bands you've never heard of. Maybe they'll be by more familiar artists, but tracks that were squirelled away on b-sides, unpopular albums, radio sessions or music magazine cover-mounted CDs. Time will, undoubtedly, tell.

I'll be honest, I don't know too much about the band that provide today's classic. I only have this one track by them, and I only have that because it was on the cover-mounted CD that came with March 2006's Uncut magazine. In other words, sorry - if you came here hoping to read chapter and verse on Clearlake, you're in the wrong place. All I can tell you is what I've read on their website and Wikipedia page.

Seems that Clearlake are a four-piece that formed in Brighton in 1999, comprising Jason Pegg (vocals, guitar, keyboards), David 'Woody' Woodward (bass, guitar, vocals, unimaginative nicknames), Toby May (drums) and Jim Briffett (guitar, vocals). Spot the three vocal credits? You might expect some harmonies then (and you won't be disappointed, at least with today's track). Clearlake had some early critical acclaim, but less commercial success, as so often seems to be the case. What, I wonder, is the elusive "X" factor required to transform the former into the latter? Whatever it is, it isn't pedalled by Cowell et al, but I digress. Back to Clearlake. I like to think they named themselves after the town in Iowa where Buddy Holly played his last gig and where his plane crashed on take-off, but I have no way of knowing if that's true - I just like to think it is. And they released three albums - the third, in January 2006, was called Amber and included today's classic, Far Away.

The thing is, I listen to this song, and love it, but because I don't know anything else by Clearlake, I hear other bands, other songs, other sounds. I hear influences. And I hear snippets of my music collection littered throughout the track. That's probably why I like it so much, and think is worthy of clandestine classic status. Example? I hear the drum line from Pounding by Doves. I imagine a bit of Teenage Fanclub in the vocals. I even get a bit of early Charlatans in the harmonies. I can find bits of The Real People in the guitar motifs (remember them? They might feature here one day). A little bit of Electric Soft Parade too, maybe? Whatever. I hear all these things, but have no way of knowing whether they are representative of the general Clearlake sound. All I know is that they make this track sound good.

Looking at the band's website, it seems they've been very quiet of late - in fact, the only remotely recent activity seems to be solo gigging for frontman Jason. Perhaps Clearlake have called it a day. Would this be a shame? Again, I don't know. What I do know is that you may find this link of interest (which naturally has nothing to do with me). Alternatively, you can at least enjoy today's classic courtesy of YouTube - here it is. What do you reckon?

Ferris Bueller II (or, why wait for the Superbowl?)

I am British and so, by definition, have no real interest in the Superbowl. In fact, I was being generous by including the word "real" in that last sentence. But nevermind. Apparently much fuss is made about adverts that run during Superbowl commercial breaks - how they are special, how much they cost to place, that sort of thing. Normally, my response to this sort of fuss is, at best, an indifferent shrug. But this year, Honda are showcasing their new ad... an ad in which Matthew Broderick reprises his Ferris Bueller persona. Since Ferris Bueller's Day Off is one of my favourite films, I was intrigued. More than a little concerned too - I didn't want Broderick to ruin something really rather special just for a few (hundred thousand or more) Honda dollars. Imagine my relief then (and surprise, given what they must be paying for the Superbowl ad slot) at finding the ad is already available, like everything else, on YouTube. Here it is - what do you think?

Some time ago, I wrote about the film on which this ad is based and asked the question "if Matthew Broderick lives to be 150, will he ever top Bueller?" I think the answer to that is still no, but at least with this ad he manages to pull off something of an homage. Okay, maybe it's a sell-out... but it's a lovingly-crafted, respectful sell-out. Funny too. At the risk of stating the obvious, I'd still rather have a Ferrari 250GT than a Honda CR-V though...

Clandestine Classic XXII - For Tomorrow

The 22nd post in an occasional series that is intended to highlight songs that you might not have heard that I think are excellent - clandestine classics, if you will. Maybe they'll be by bands you've never heard of. Maybe they'll be by more familiar artists, but tracks that were squirelled away on b-sides, unpopular albums, radio sessions or music magazine cover-mounted CDs. Time will, undoubtedly, tell.

Before you leap straight to the comments link, no, I'm not touting For Tomorrow by Blur as a clandestine classic. It was one of their biggest hits, after all. Not clandestine in any way. So read on.

Twelve years ago, almost to the day, The Man Of Cheese and I went to see Gene at The Forum. They were, as you would expect, excellent. As were the main support band, Bellatrix (though I seem to recall my opinion may have been clouded by slightly fancying the singer). Of course we were too late arriving at the gig to catch the first support act, probably as a result of consuming ale in some pub or other first. Whatever the reason, we missed The Motorhomes. It didn't matter though; as we left the venue, a three-track promo for their album was pressed into my hand by a faceless record label marketing intern. I took it home and played it the next day. It wasn't good enough to make me go out and buy the album, so as a promotional tool perhaps it failed, but one track stuck.

What can I tell you about The Motorhomes? Not too much, actually, although Wikipedia tells me they formed in Jönköping, Sweden, in 1997 as a four-piece. By the time of the debut album, Songs For Me (And My Baby) in 1999 they had added a member. There biggest hit, Into The Night, came from that debut. As well as the Gene support slot, The Motorhomes were on the undercard for a Suede Scandinavian tour. Oh, and they played at the Reading Festival. But then... then there was one more album, The Long Distance Runner in 2002, before the band split in 2004 - singer Mattias Edlund decided he'd had enough.

I did find a Swedish music website that talked about The Motorhomes. Google translated some of it for me, and apparently the band produced "melancholy guitar-pop, brittle pop music and more things than you can name." Blimey. There are a couple more things that I can name though. For Tomorrow is characterised by what I can only describe as a real ear-worm of a guitar line, and an ethereal quality that you don't find too often with male vocalists. Maybe it's something to do with Mattias's entirely relaxed but utterly precise enunciation (something that a lot of Scandinavian bands singing in English seem to have).

Aside from his vocal style, what's he actually singing about? Seems to be about soldiering on in the face of adversity, perhaps a relationship that is doomed but somehow stumbles on in the vain hope that something - anything - might improve. I know, not what you'd call upbeat. But look...

Nothing's too good, nothing's too bad,
We can't live for today just live for tomorrow.
We got to go on, got to go on,
No, we never know.

...and...

Hold just one moment;
You're out of line,
And it is choking
What we've got.
I'm so tired
Of being right.

I don't know about you but those are better lyrics than I could write in Swedish.

Anyway. I can't tell you about the album, Songs For Me (And My Baby). It might be ace. It might be pony. What I can tell you is that For Tomorrow is beautiful. And whilst I couldn't find the track for you to download, we can at least rely on YouTube to provide us with the proof. Have a listen. What do you reckon?

In search of a comment (or, the great Danny Boyle re-tread scandal)

Some time ago, I pondered upping sticks and moving this blog to Blogger or WordPress or one of the others. I ummed and aahed. My reasons for moving? I wanted a nice blogroll and I wanted a decent commenting system. My reasons for holding back? I wanted to retain absolute control of how the blog looks, and I didn't want to be constrained by Terms & Conditions as to what I could include in a post. So I soldiered on as an independent, and found a way of producing a blogroll that met my exacting requirements. Happy days all round then.

Except the commenting thing really got to me. Don't get me wrong, I love it when someone comments, I really do. But the process of transferring that comment from your submission to its appearance on this page is painful and long-winded. First of all you get taken away from the blog, to a page that looks suspiciously like a generic contact form. Then you have to jump through lots of hoops, like filling in fields I probably don't need and reproducing a Captcha code. Then you get taken to what looks suspiciously like a generic thank-you form, and left to find your own way back to the blog. And that's only the start of it. I get a plain, vanilla email with your comment in it. I have to cut and paste bits of it, jiggle them around and encapsulate them in HTML to add them to the relevant post. Then I have to repeat the process but with XML for the comments RSS feed. Then I have to FTP both updated files to my host.

In short it's a faff, and a faff that had me on the verge of reconsidering my decision not to move to the whole shooting match to a proper blogging platform... In fact, I resumed my project of recreating the entire PipSpeak blog in Blogger. I got as far as 2010 - five years of posts - but gave up when I realised I couldn't embed an Amazon widget. Yes, I know you can put them in a sidebar gadget, but you can't in a post - you just get a big gap where your lovingly-crafted widget should be. And before you suggest WordPress or Tumblr or any of the others, from what I can see they have the same problem too.

Back to the drawing board then. How to make comments more natural for the user and less of a faff for me? I considered using Disqus as a third-party commenting system but there's too much CSS drama required to make it look how I would want it to within the site, so that was a no. Instead, I realised there was no choice but to write some code. So now you have a bespoke comments form that should open in a nice, discrete window of its own. There's a minimum of fields to complete, and no Captcha. If you have cookies enabled, the form will remember who you are for 31 days, so if you comment often (please do!) you shouldn't have to type your name and website in every time. And when you've hit "send" you get taken to an equally discrete and relevant thank-you form, with an easy "close" option, leaving you back at the blog post you started from. And for me, well, I let the form do some of the text-jiggling and HTML-wrangling for me. It's still a faff overall, but it's a little bit less so.

All I need now are some comments... so here's an idea I've been sitting on for nearly four years. Is Danny Boyle recycling his own films? Compare and contrast the opening sequences of Trainspotting (1996) and Slumdog Millionaire (2008), both shown below. Not the soundtrack, but the visuals. Does Danny have a "title sequence chase" check-box he likes to tick periodically? Paying homage to himself? What do you think?

And while you're busy commenting, do you prefer the new commenting "experience"?

That was the year that was: 2011

I don't usually write end-of-year reviews like this, but I know what you're thinking: stop apologising for the things you've never done 'cause time is short and life is cruel. On that basis, I guess it must be up to me to change my blogging habits, if not this town called Malice. Here, then, are my highpoints of 2011 or, as I understand I should now say if I am to be a pop-culture media figure, here are last year's best bits.

Best album

"The King of Limbs" by Radiohead - yes, here's where I admit that my taste in music is never going to get less parochial. I like what I like, and I shouldn't apologise for that. "The King of Limbs" isn't anywhere near as good as "In Rainbows" but the fact that it's still my album of the year suggests that either it's been a bad year for the long-player or that I haven't bought many. Possibly both.

Honourable mentions: "Collapse Into Now" by REM (still parochial); "What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?" by The Vaccines (a bit more down with the kids).

Best song

"Nørgaard" by The Vaccines - fast, exciting and enough to get me interested in the album. Better than their breakthrough single too, you know the one that very deliberately has "sex" in the title.

Honourable mentions: Slow Moving Millie's version of "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" from that ad, not least for giving blokes in pubs across the country the chance to rake over the coals of the "what makes a good cover" debate.

Best gig

Former Gene-frontman Martin Rossiter's triumphant return at the Barbican. He's still got it. If I were you, I'd make sure I had tickets for his slot at the Shepherd's Bush Empire on the 3rd of March, supporting My Life Story. I'll see you there (you can buy me a pint).

Honourable mentions: the amazing I Am Kloot at the Norwich Arts Centre; the triptych of Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and Morrissey at the Hop Farm Festival.

Best book

"Submarine" by Joe Dunthorne, 2011 being the year I got around to reading it, rather than the year it came out. And no, I haven't seen the film, though I understand that's okay. The book, though, is a compass-point-sharp description of being a teenage boy lost in the process of growing up, a hybrid of Catcher In The Rye, Black Swan Green and Adrian Mole, and full of cultural references that you'll enjoy. A little bit of a slow starter, but stick with it.

Honourable mentions: the ubiquitous "Room" by Emma Donoghue; "America Unchained" by Dave Gorman, in which he sticks it to The Man™.

Best film

"Black Swan" for its unsettling portrayal of mental illness, it's clever monochrome palette, great performances from Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis. A powerful film that left me feeling decidedly wrung out by the time the credits rolled.

Honourable mentions: "Another Earth" - a beautiful, intelligent and moving piece of sci-fi starring and co-written by Brit Marling, surely one to watch.

Best television

"Page 8" from the BBC. Just my kind of television: it made you think, it made you concentrate and it made you want it not to end. A great cast too, headed up by the always-watchable Bill Nighy and the bewitching Rachel Weisz.

Honourable mentions: "Black Mirror" from Channel 4 and the pen of Charlie Brooker, the first episode of which generated more discussion in the staff canteen than any other television of the year, including reality- and celebrity-shows.

Best comedy

"Dave Gorman's Powerpoint Presentation" which, I can quite honestly say, is the funniest live comedy show I have seen on any stage, anywhere, ever. He'll be touring it again in 2012 - if you enjoy intelligent comedy that isn't at someone's expense, that is observational without being McIntyre, that plays with your (pre)conceptions of the world around you, well, I really do urge you to pick up some tickets.

Honourable mentions: most things with Mark Watson in, for many of the same reasons as Dave.

And that's it. Agree/disagree? What were your best bits?

Clandestine Classic XXI - Between John & Yoko

The 21st post in an occasional series that is intended to highlight songs that you might not have heard that I think are excellent - clandestine classics, if you will. Maybe they'll be by bands you've never heard of. Maybe they'll be by more familiar artists, but tracks that were squirelled away on b-sides, unpopular albums, radio sessions or music magazine cover-mounted CDs. Time will, undoubtedly, tell.

It's Christmastime, there's no need to be afraid. Because whilst I did consider featuring a festive clandestine classic, I figured my last post covered that, so let's crack on with a conventional choice. Actually, being conventional seems slightly at odds with also being clandestine, but let's not get ourselves sidetracked with semantics.

I don't know much about Easy, other than that they hailed from Sweden. In the early 90s I picked a Mute compilation album (International, it was called) out of the bargain bin and today's classic, Between John & Yoko by Easy, was on it. Far and away the best track on the compilation, I played it to death and immediately set about tracking down the album from which Between John & Yoko was taken. That album, pictured left, was called Magic Seed, a title that might suggest psychedelia (particularly when accompanied by that fractal cover). However, the album is actually a far rockier affair than you might expect, featuring (and I'm quoting Documentary Evidence here) "hypnotic vocals, grinding bass, oceans of melodic guitars and solid drumming". Poor drummer - just solid...

But anyway. Magic Seed was released in 1990, and is a uniformly good album. Not spectacular, but definitely good. Between John & Yoko is the stand-out track though, by some margin. Listening to it again for this post, I find that yes, I can tick off the hypnotic vocals, grinding bass, melodic guitar and even the solid drumming. But there's more going on too. Wilfully obtuse lyrics - 21 years later, I'm still not entirely sure what they're about. Danceability (okay, yes, admittedly only danceable for the sort of indie-kid who bounces about at club nights with names like Popscene). And too many influences to count: I think I spot some early REM sounds in there; I imagine I can hear some Marr-esque rhythm-guitar-as-lead touches; the singer has listenend to some Robert Smith too, I fancy; and so it goes on.

I think Magic Seed was Easy's only album, which is a bit of a shame. Luckily, you can still find it on Amazon, so I suggest you go and buy it now. Like last month's Furniture track, I didn't expect to find too much for the file sharers amongst you, and again I wasn't wrong. But YouTube at least lets you listen to this clandestine classic, and sample a flavour of an incredible album.

Alternative Christmas tunes... choose your mood!

Don't know about you but I'm sick to death with the X-Factor procession that is the modern Christmas chart. I've also heard enough of Slade, Wizzard, Mud et al to last a hundred Yules. Wouldn't you rather hear some less well-known seasonal tunes? Ones to suit your prevailing views on the Christmas season...? I know I would.

All that's left, then, is to answer the following question:

Christmas makes me feel... Sentimental | Upbeat | Maudlin | All of these

It's all about meme

Stolen (post title an' all) from Sunset Over Slawit, who in turn stole it from Sunday Stealing...

1. If the whole world were listening to you right now, what would you say?

   Buy my book.

2. If you could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be?

   God. Only question 2 and I'm already starting to remember why I have quite such an intense dislike for memes like this. I mean, come on - that's a ridiculously hard question, like saying "what's the best film ever?" or "who's your favourite band?" The options are near limitless and every day would result in a different answer! Argh! But today, for now, I'll say Morrissey. Why not?

3. You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go?

   Annapolis. First class?

4. What do you think about most?

   Missed opportunities.

5. You have the opportunity to spend a romantic night with the music celebrity of your choice. Who would it be?

   Oh, for Christ's sake! Do I have to answer this? Oh, alright then... I used to have a bit of thing about Louise Wener out of Sleeper.

6. You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be?

   Easy... but not something I'm prepared to reveal here.

7. What's your strangest talent?

   Missing opportunities.

8. What would be a question you'd be afraid to tell the truth on?

   I refer the honourable gentleman to the answer I gave earlier... two questions earlier, to be exact.

9. Ever had a poem or song written about you?

   Of course not. But some feel tailor-made.

10. When is the last time you played the air guitar?

    I don't know but I played real guitar last Friday.

11. Do you have any strange phobias?

    Memephobia. This is therapy.

12. What's your religion?

    Humanist.

13. What is your current desktop picture?

    My partner, Ms Pip.

14. When you are outside, what are you most likely doing?

    This month, raking up sodding leaves.

15. What's the last song you listened to?

    Smithers-Jones by The Jam

16. Simple but extremely complex. Favorite band?

    See! Bloody memes with their unanswerable questions! Smiths? Jam? Weddoes? Gene? Let's say Gene. Where are they now?

17. What was the last lie you told?

    "I will answer every question in this meme fully and honestly."

18. Do you believe in karma?

    Only as a type of chameleon.

19. What is a saying you say a lot?

    "Yes, I'll rake those leaves up today."

20. What is your greatest weakness; your greatest strength?

    a) I miss opportunities. b) Self-awareness.

21. Who is your celebrity crush?

    Define celebrity - its meaning seems to have been diluted recently.

22. Give me the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word: heart.

    Break.

23. How do you vent your anger?

    With a roar to the heavens when I belt another shot into Row Z.

24. Do you have a collection of anything?

    Music. CDs, tape, vinyl.

25. What is your favorite word?

    Meme (insert string of wink-faced emoticons here, laugh like a loon, clap self on back heartily, etc)

Clandestine Classic XX - She Gets Out The Scrapbook

The twentieth post in an occasional series that is intended to highlight songs that you might not have heard that I think are excellent - clandestine classics, if you will. Maybe they'll be by bands you've never heard of. Maybe they'll be by more familiar artists, but tracks that were squirelled away on b-sides, unpopular albums, radio sessions or music magazine cover-mounted CDs. Time will, undoubtedly, tell.

I wanted to feature something a little bit extra-special for the twentieth post in the Clandestine Classic series. So what have I gone for? A band that you probably don't remember. An album that you probably don't own. And an album track, rather than the accompanying hit single. See? Extra special.

The band in question were Furniture. Formed in 1979, various line-ups recorded a couple of early mini-LPs, but it wasn't until the mid-80s when the line-up settled down and the band signed to Stiff Records that things started to happen (you already know this isn't going to end well, don't you?). The band's third album, The Wrong People, featuring new tracks and re-recorded highlights from the first two mini-LPs, was released in 1986. Lead-off single Brilliant Mind hit the Top 30 and, I think (though I may well have misremembered) garnered Furniture an appearance on Terry Wogan's thrice-weekly TV chat show. Things were promising. But... there's always a but, isn't there? Stiff Records had liquidity problems, and couldn't produce any more copies of the album after the initial pressing of 30,000 copies sold out (which happened quickly, on the back of Brilliant Mind). No CD copies were produced at all, and this was 1986, when the CD was really starting to take off - the new-fangled digital format was tailor-made for the rich musical tapestries that Furniture were weaving, yet the two never came together. This was a travesty, really, because the songs on the album are complex affairs, marrying restrained jazz inflections with honed pop sensibilities and distinctive vocals.

But never mind though. I bought a copy of the album on cassette so, unlike you, I know how good every single sodding track on it is. Sadly, cassette tape doesn't age well, and my Wrong People is oxidising at an alarming rate. Better hurry up and share something from it with you then, eh?

Choosing today's classic was hard, because there are so many outstanding tracks on the album. I could have chosen Brilliant Mind, but you've possibly (probably, if you listen to 6Music much) heard that already. I could have chosen the agenda-setting opener, Shake Like Judy Does, the up-tempo next single Love Your Shoes, the angry ode to jealousy that is Make Believe I'm Him or the heartbreaking paean to lost love, I Miss You. In fact, you could argue that the first six tracks of The Wrong People are as strong an opening as you are likely to find anywhere. Now if you were counting you'll have noticed I've only mentioned five tracks so far... which brings us nicely to today's offering, track four on side one of The Wrong People: She Gets Out The Scrapbook.

Yes, it's long (around six minutes). Yes, it's downbeat (but then it does chart the unravelling and eventual painful end of a relationship). But it also has skilfully crafted lyrics (this really is a piece of flash fiction set to music), a layered vocal performance, a beautiful piano line and a total change of direction after about two and a half minutes. All in all, this is my kind of love song. Maybe it's yours too. Love lost is still love, after all.

It took Furniture three years or so to extricate themselves from Stiff. They signed to Arista, recorded the Food, Sex and Paranoia album (which I also have on disintegrating cassette) and gave it another go. Singles were released but flopped - all momentum had been lost. Two fifths of the band went on to form, and have more success with, Transglobal Underground. All that was left of Furniture was a memory of what might have been and the PRS cheques that Brilliant Mind will always deliver.

But then, finally... Cherry Red records picked up The Wrong People, repackaged it with some bonus tracks (B-sides and demos, mostly) and gave it the CD release it has always deserved. Now I know I eulogise about every song in the Clandestine Classics series, but if you don't own this album already I really can't emphasise enough how much your life will improve if you do. So go and buy it now while you still can.

I didn't really expect to find too much for the naughty downloaders amongst you, and I wasn't wrong. But YouTube at least lets you listen to this incredible song, and sample a flavour of an incredible album. And no, incredible is not an word I use often, which hopefully tells its own story. Enjoy.