SIFF 2013 Top Film Picks

African Films

The African Cypher (South Africa) * TOP PICK *
Dancing is an integral part of many societies, but in South Africa, it becomes a fashion, a status symbol, and a set of morals to guide by and a way of life. Bryan Little does a fantastic job of letting the story tell itself as he follows and interviews various dancers throughout South African townships as they eventually end up at the “Big Dance Competition”. Featuring breathtaking dance sequences, it is clear that in South Africa, dancing is less of a social experience and more a form of personal expression. - PETER WOODBURN
May 18, 2013 – 6:30 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 19, 2013 – 1:00 PM – AMC Pacific Place 11

Horses of God – Les Chevaux de Dieu (Morocco)
On May 16, 2003, a total of 45 people died in Casablanca, Morocco in what is the country’s worst terrorist attack in history. Horses of God follows the trials and tribulations of the youths living in the shanty towns of Sidi Moumen, where eventually all of the suicide bombers would hail from. Horses of God is wide in its scope, following the kids from childhood to adulthood as they become disenfranchised from the richer Moroccan sector and find their solace in extremist Islamic views. - PETER WOODBURN
June 7, 2013 – 6:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
June 8, 2013 – 6:00 PM – Kirkland Performance Center

East Asian & Southeast Asian Films

The Act of Killing (Denmark / Indonesia) * TOP PICK *
Harrowing and bizarre in almost every way imagined by humanity, The Act of Killing follows perpetrators of 1960s death squad genocides as they recreate the historical events, scaring babies, relishing in hypothetical murder, and stirring up horrific memories and sights along the way. This film feels like something that truly needs to be seen to be believed. Documentary master Werner Herzog describes the film, saying, “I have not seen a film as powerful, surreal, and frightening in at least a decade… it is unprecedented in the history of cinema.” - Vivian Hua
May 18, 2013 – 4:00 PM Harvard Exit
May 22, 2013 – 9:30 PM Harvard Exit

The Guillotines – 血滴子 (China / Hong Kong)
Andrew Lau (Infernal Affairs) makes an ode to Fatal Flying Guillotine that looks kind of like a Transformers movie. I’ve had pretty good luck with big dumb wuxia epics at SIFF before, so why not try my luck again? - Allen Huang
VIEW TRAILER
June 1, 2013 – 11:55 PM – Egyptian Theatre

Pieta – 피에타 (South Korea) * TOP PICK *
I haven’t seen a Kim Ki-Duk movie since 2006′s Time, at which point I got fairly sick of the director’s predictable formula and aesthetic tics. But there’s always been something fascinating about his absurdist morality plays (3-Iron being the best execution of this), and since the waning of the Korean Film Wave, it’d be nice to get reacquainted with Kim’s style. A little research says he’s been through a lot of personal shit lately, culminating in the documentary Arirang. It’ll be interesting to see whether his meditations on death and loss and tragedy actually lead to a revised outlook on life. - Allen Huang
May 17, 2013 – 10:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 19, 2013 – 9:00 PM – AMC Pacific Place 11

A River Changes Course (Cambodia) * TOP PICK *
The things which move me with burning desire to see this film lies in the spaces beyond words or even location. Arresting cinematography turn everything in this documentary focus on Cambodia – from the country’s most rural to its most industrial centers – into splendid, arresting works of moving art. Vivian Hua
May 26, 2013 – 5:30 PM - SIFF Cinema Uptown Uptown
May 27, 2013 – 12:00 PM - SIFF Cinema Uptown Uptown

The Rocket (Australia / Laos)
October Sky but in Laos, and instead of Chris Cooper, a dude named Uncle Purple. I liked October Sky, but it definitely needed more lush jungle scenes and a James Brown impersonator. - Allen Huang
VIEW TRAILER
May 22, 2013 – 4:30 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 24, 2013 – 6:30 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown

Wolf Children – Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki (Japan) * TOP PICK *
When people talk about who will take up Hayao Miyazaki‘s mantle as the king of Japanese animated film, two names come up time and time again. One, Makoto Shinkai, whose last film Children Who Chase Lost Voices took those comparisons very seriously, and two, Mamoru Hosoda, whose last three films have won a plethora of awards, including the Japan Academy Animation of the Year for all three films. Hosoda shares many of Miyazaki’s traits: fascination with young women as protagonists, bright color schemes, and a firm grasp of character development. But while his last two films were sci-fi in nature, Wolf Children is pure fantasy that doesn’t hesitate to deal with some very real themes. - Allen Huang
June 1, 2013 – 11:00 AM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
June 3, 2013 – 7:00 PM – Egyptian Theatre

Eastern European & Western European Films

Celestial Wives of Meadow Mari – Nebesnye Ženy Lugovykh Mari (Russia)
Folkloric and full of whimsy, this film by Aleksey Fedorchenko, the director of Silent Souls, is deeply embedded in nature and sunshine as it bizarrely and playfully links together the stories of twenty-two women whose names all begin with the letter O. Magic, strange creatures, and beautiful women abound, and it seems like anything goes. - Vivian Hua
VIEW TRAILER
June 6, 2013 – 8:30 PM – Kirkland Performance Center
June 8, 2013 – 9:30 PM Harvard Exit
June 9, 2013 – 4:00 PM Harvard Exit

Cockneys vs. Zombies (United Kingdom)
Lazy comparisons will label this film the East London version of Shaun of the Dead; and while it lacks the insatiable wit and satire the Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg masterpiece had, Cockneys vs. Zombies has plenty of odes to the working class section of London, plenty of blood to satisfy the zombie craving, and enough Cockney accents to make this a borderline foreign film. It is a tribute to the less glamorous side of London in the best way possible. - PETER WOODBURN
VIEW TRAILER
June 8, 2013 – 11:55 PM – Egyptian Theatre
June 9, 2013 – 8:30 PM – Kirkland Performance Center

Harmony Lessons – Uroki Garmonii (Kazakhstan) * TOP PICK *
The work of Kazakh director Emir Baigazin, Harmony Lessons takes a look at the rarely-represented Eurasian country through the eyes of young boys, as they bully and are bullied, abuse and are abused. The interactions between characters are raw, often feeling unrefined in their simplicity – but it is this sense of raw honesty that makes the moments captivating, as well as made it a main contender of the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival. - Vivian Hua
June 4, 2013 – 8:30 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
June 6, 2013 – 3:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown

The Hunt – Jagten (Denmark) * TOP PICK *
Thomas Vinterburg is the other guy when it comes to Dogma 95. Less prolific, less incendiary but no less talented than Von Trier, Vinterburg weaves similarly intricate character studies, all without dooming the entirety of humanity time and time again. The Hunt, his first film since 2010′s Submarino, won best actor at Cannes for Mads Mikkelsen, whose best known in America for playing the main antagonist in Casino Royale. A desperate, pained character study about a man wrongfully accused of being a child molester, the visual tone alone make it look worthwhile. - Allen Huang
June 4, 2013 – 7:00 PM Harvard Exit
June 6, 2013 – 4:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown

Paradise: Love – Paradies: Liebe (Austria)
Paradise: Faith – Paradies: Glaube (Austria)
Paradise: Hope – Paradies: Hoffnung (Austria)
The Paradise Trilogy by Ulrich Siedl might be grouped as such, but each chapter of the series explores a facet of humanity in a vastly different way, as it follows an overweight 50-year-old Caucasian woman as she explores Kenya’s sex tourism scene (Love), a religious self-flagellating missionary (Faith), and a 13-year-old as she experiences the highs and lows of weight-loss camp (Hope). - Vivian Hua
Paradise: Love – VIEW TRAILER
May 23, 2013 – 3:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 27, 2013 – 8:30 PM Harvard Exit
Paradise: Faith – VIEW TRAILER
May 22, 2013 – 6:30 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 25, 2013 – 12:30 PM – AMC Pacific Place 11
Paradise: Hope – VIEW TRAILER
May 23, 2013 – 6:30 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 25, 2013 – 3:00 PM – AMC Pacific Place 11

Yesterday Never Ends – Ayer no termina nunca (Spain)
In this age, the near future might be more compelling than the distant beyond. To formulate what the world might be like in the next five, ten years is in many ways much more difficult than imagining a distant utopia/dystopia. Spanish Director Isabel Coixet takes a stab at it, framing a love story with a world where financial ruin is the norm and not the fear. - Allen Huang
VIEW TRAILER
June 1, 2013 – 5:30 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
June 2, 2013 – 12:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown

Middle Eastern Films

A World Not Ours – Alam laysa lana (Lebanon)
It’s a rare occasion that I enjoy a purposely awkward film, but A World Is Not Ours is not awkward because it is channeling Napoleon Dynamite hipness – but because it is a home video surrounding topics which one might never expect to see via home videos. This is awkwardness on screen that feels its way into your bones, as you realize, while watching videos of small children posing jokingly with guns or grown men filmed on cellphones while commenting on how trapped they feel in society, that you’re damned fortunate for being in a movie theatre, or in your home, or wherever, being given the luxury of watching a film from the other side of the world, while some people might never be able to even imagine what that would be like. Not that the film is necessarily purposely trying to be a bummer or anything, necessarily – there certainly seem to be funny casual moments from time-to-time – but often, even those are rooted in scenarios we might consider way too discomforting in their “realness”.
VIEW TRAILER
May 23, 2013 – 3:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 27, 2013 – 8:30 PM Harvard Exit

After the Battle – Baad el Mawkeaa (France / Egypt)
This drama is based on the true story of the horsemen President Mubarak hired to stifle the protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. The horsemen, many of whom were caught between personal poverty and political turmoil during the Arab Spring, were widely condemned by fellow Egyptians following the event. Yousry Nasrallah paints a delicate picture of these horsemen, vilified throughout the country for good reason, but also widely misunderstood for their actions as well. - PETER WOODBURN
VIEW TRAILER
May 23, 2013 – 6:30 PM – AMC Pacific Place 11
May 25, 2013 – 2:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown

North American Films

A Band Called Death (United States)
When people throw around the names of bands that birthed punk rock, the Motown-based trio Death are often left off the list. This is quite understandable, as the three brothers from a working-class black neighborhood never saw the success that their peers in The Ramones and The Sex Pistols did at the time, and it wasn’t until much later in life that anyone actually heard of the band. Jeff Howlett and Mark Convino craft an interesting documentary in A Band Called Death, doing the most punk rock thing possible — being a punk band without even realizing it. - PETER WOODBURN
May 18, 2013 – 3:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 28, 2013 – 9:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown

Blackbird (Canada)
Sean Randall is a social outcast in high school and makes threats online, which, after the terrors of the Newtown shootings, land him in the hands of the police and eventually in jail. Toeing the fine line that of what constitutes enough action to be guilty of jail time, Randall’s experience in Waterville, one of the country’s toughest youth prisons, forces him to realize that although he may have changed, public and media perceptions of the non-teen killer only drive him further down the spiral of depression. - PETER WOODBURN
VIEW TRAILER
May 31, 2013 – 8:30 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
June 2, 2013 – 11:00 AM – SIFF Cinema Uptown

The Bling Ring (United States)
Perfect companion piece to Spring Breakers? I’ve never been thrilled by a Sofia Coppola film but I wasn’t a big Korine fan either, and his film blew me away. Here’s hoping that these teenage criminals aren’t given some reductivist morally-redemptive ending and the film stays meta. - ALLEN HUANG
VIEW TRAILER
June 9, 2013 – 6:30 PM Cinerama (Closing Night Gala)

I Declare War (United States)
A group of kids gathered with arms and sticks head off into the woods to play a game of Capture the Flag. On this day, the two sides find out the treacheries of war as their fake weapons turn into real instruments of death in a homage to Stand By Me and Lord of the Flies. - PETER WOODBURN
VIEW TRAILER
May 20, 2013 – 7:00 PM – AMC Pacific Place 11
May 21, 2013 – 4:30 PM – AMC Pacific Place 11

Muscle Shoals (United States)
I’m a huge fan of the Numero Group’s archivist efforts, and especially the amount of context they provide with their releases. They’ve devoted chapter after chapter to the musically rich legacy of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and I’m going to eat up every second of this documentary because of that. - Allen Huang
VIEW TRAILER
May 29, 2013 – 7:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 30, 2013 – 4:30 PM – Egyptian Theatre

Somm (United States)
The Master Sommelier exam is one of the hardest exams in the world, with one of the lowest passing rates across the globe. Jason Wise follows four individuals attempting to pass the Master Sommelier exam, something less than 200 people have ever done, also granting humorous insights into the bizarre and glamorous world of high-priced wine. - PETER WOODBURN
VIEW TRAILER
June 2, 2013 – 4:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
June 4, 2013 – 7:30 PM – Kirkland Performance Center

The Way, Way Back (United States) * TOP PICK *
14-year-old Duncan is forced to spend the summer at his mother’s new boyfriend’s house in this coming-of-age story rife with dysfunction. This is worth seeing just for the directorial debut of Jim Rash and Nat Faxon, who won Oscars for writing The Descendants. Featuring Steve Carrell and Sam Rockwell. - PETER WOODBURN
May 25, 2013 – 6:30 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 26, 2013 – 4:30 PM – Egyptian Theatre

Yellow (United States)
Mary Holmes mental breakdowns force wild hallucinations and daddy dreams as a substitute teacher flees to her Oklahoman upbringing to try and get some peace and quiet. Instead of solace, she finds drama in the family that was never resolved when she left home in the first place. Yellow a visually stunning, excessively colorful film showcasing what happens when people truly hit rock bottom. - PETER WOODBURN
VIEW TRAILER
May 23, 2013 – 7:00 PM – Egyptian Theatre
May 24, 2013 – 4:30 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 25, 2013 – 6:00 PM – Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center

South American Films

7 Boxes – 7 Cajas (Paraguay)
This low -budget action film from Paraguay proves you don’t need big Hollywood bucks to keep the chase scenes interesting. 17-year-old Victor is offered $100 dollars to deliver the contents of seven boxes across town, and of course, little does he know the boxes contain something from some sinister plot. Soon, he is being chased by both the police and others who want those boxes at a breakneck, foot-racing speed throughout town. - PETER WOODBURN
VIEW TRAILER
May 29, 2013 – 6:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 30, 2013 – 4:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown

Éden (Brazil)
What can I say? I love me a good cult film – in the literal, religious dysfunction sense of the term. Éden, which tells the story of a pregnant woman who finds a charismatic evangelist and his strange Church of Éden after her husband is murdered, certainly fits the bill with paranoid tension and visually-striking imagery. - Vivian Hua
VIEW TRAILER
June 7, 2013 – 10:00 PM - SIFF Cinema Uptown Uptown
June 8, 2013 – 2:00 PM - SIFF Cinema Uptown Uptown

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Related posts:

1. SIFF 2012 Festival Preview: Latin American & African Film Picks
2. SIFF 2012 Festival Preview: Asian & Middle Eastern Film Picks
3. SIFF 2012 Festival Preview: Documentary Film Picks

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) 2013 Preview: Films We’re Looking At Potentially Being Excited About

Rachel: People in Austin are so nice! I’d almost forgotten from living in New York for so long.
Gina: Portland’s spoiled us; I don’t think I can live anywhere where people aren’t nice.
Vivian: I don’t think people in New York are that bad…
Gina: Yeah, we’ve had some good convos there.
Vivian: It’s just all kinds.

¹ Flan
² “$3 coconut cube cake” aka an Australian Lamington; National Lamington Day is July 20th

³ Nookies from Torchy’s Tacos

RE: SNAXXX

Rachel: I feel like food and air were the highlight of the whole trip for me. Michoacan had pupusas for $1.69 Gina of course also had a flan.¹
Vivian: I certainly do wish Portland had more Mexi-markets. My do I love FIESTA in Austin… LOVE THAT FIESTA. Hate that Mexican sweetbread though. Don’t get it.
Rachel: Hahahaha. Ate that. Funny ultimate food highs and lows.
Gina: I tried to save my flan for later. Had it in my backpack to eat between bands at the day party.
Rachel: Gross!!! Was it gross?
Gina: It was a little gross. Definitely starting to sweat.
Vivian: I thought you wrote, “Had it in my backpack to eat with hands at the day party” — which is way better.
Gina: Haha, I totes ate it anyway. But as it happens, flan and guac are about on par in terms of bad foods to tote in the heat.
Rachel: Yeah… but guac is non-dairy….
Gina: Oh true.
Rachel: I always bring food with me like a weirdo hobo fool. I brought like oatmeal and grapefruits.
Gina: We are just resourceful! All that’s downtown are artisan hybrid tacos.
Rachel: That made me feel crazy. $3 coconut cube cake.²
Vivian: Whuteva dude, mighta been the best thing ever.
Gina: Hahaha it’s true we’ll never KNOW!
Rachel: Stop making me regret my life!
Vivian: Could have known for $1 each, but noooo.
Rachel: You’ll never forgive us.
Gina: It’s okay we can learn!: http://www.joyofbaking.com/Lamingtons.html
Vivian: No, I will because you bought some deep-fried cookies at Torchy’s, but that’s the only reason.³ Mmmmmmmmmmm.
Gina: Oh yeah, those were amazing. Deep-fried cookie dough balls disguised as “cookies”. Called “nookies”.
Rachel: I had two more tacoments after you guys left. Sooooo goood.
Gina: Omigod there’s Lamingtons in Portland; we’re saved!
Rachel: FUCK YOU GUYS. That’s what I meant to write earlier when you told me you were having your meeting at an ice cream place.
Gina: Hahaha we got thwarted! We’re just at a coffee shop now. It started hailing which I deemed ice cream — prohibitive. Not without some debate, though.
Vivian: Alright so basically we went to Austin for food. Don’t know what that SXSW thing is.
Rachel: Yes! And weather.

RE: DAY PARTIES

⁴ Vans at Mohawk
⁵ Disclosure

⁶ Charli XCX

Rachel: Wait, what else did we do Thursday?
Gina: We went to the Vans day party at Mohawk.⁴
Rachel: I just remember spending Wednesday in a sweater puddle while electronic music played and people around me either got their pictures taken, or pointed at people having their pictures taken.
Rachel: That was Thursday. Ahhh. Got it.
Vivian: How was the show?
Gina: The show was cool. Disclosure was amazing.⁵ Such a good party. Adorable blonde brothers. sweet, nerdy, generally killin’ it. If I found it profound at 3pm, I bet at night in a danceclub it would be transcendent!!
Vivian: Awesome
Gina: Drumpads forever.
Rachel: Instead of cargo-shorted dudes with neon DTF hats looking around for something to do. I liked Charli.⁶
Gina: She was good, too; Charli XCX played as well. She was dressed like a Spice Girl; it was amazing. She had a neon green sports bra and like, big pajama pants on.
Rachel: You saw Disclosure and Charli XCX, and I stared into the abyss and the security guard guarding the super wet-noodle VIP.
Gina: Yeah, that was the least interesting VIP section ever.
Vivian: How so?
Gina: Everyone just seemed bored? You know how sometimes convenience is a curse? I think about this a lot — how with Festivals, some amount of suffering is necessary and even good. It’s this intense environment where you just sacrifice all bodily comforts in the name of maximizing your own exposure to this thing you’re obsessed with. It’s an insane but interesting pace! BUT when you’re in the cush VIP — or even on the guest list at a show, say — you can just waltz in and out in this very disconnected way. Always sheltered by a tent and kinda removed.
Vivian: Hrm makes sense maybe, but then if you’re used to the VIP thing you’re just expectant of that from then on. I feel like sometimes musicians or whoever will opt to stay backstage in the VIP area rather than going out into the heart of the festival just because they’re used to it, even though the sound back there sucks or you might see better from the front, etc. It’s kinda weird.
Gina: Yeah, definitely. I certainly don’t blame them. But i think the emotional lows (and therefore highs) are so much less pronounced. Hence a lot of blase VIP hangs.
Rachel: Uhh… also it was the VANS VIP. Everyone’s wanting to make a VIP out of nothing.
Gina: Hahaha so true.

RE: FASHION

⁷ SXSW seapunk princesses in Monster High Girls form^8,9 Sad things that exist :(

Rachel: Mohawk is awesome; you can see everything from the top level. I wanted to take a picture of some girls…
Gina: The seapunk princesses?⁷ Oh my god, they were so good.
Rachel: Like Monster High dolls! They had faded purple and pink hair, six-inch heels. One of them had a tight dress on and then this flowy robe, and a gold purse with an alligator on it.
Gina: Yeah!!!
Rachel: They both were the same, so they always had to be together.
Gina: They had these little floral crowns that were so good.
Vivian: They probably feel weird when they’re by themselves.
Gina: That’s what we were saying! They can never be apart, and yeah, one of them was wearing a see-through jumpsuit. I was the most envious ever. It was so good. Gigantic velvet platforms and yeah, this little crown, and this faint purple mermaid hair, and I was like, “I just want to be you…”
Vivian: By yourself, it’s not as cool…
Gina: And it’s also like, “What can you do on a day-to-day basis?” You couldn’t do any actual activities in that outfit besides standing around and looking awesome, so you basically need a job that involves that.
Rachel: Later they let us down by just being Forever 21 hoes with pink and purple hair.
Gina: Yeah, it’s true. The outfits made it. Transparent floral jumpsuit!!! I was agonizing with jealousy!
Rachel: Uh, I wasn’t but it was cool!
Gina: Hahaha
Rachel: Wait, also is this a thing in anyone’s mind? so many hoes! Weird spring break barf on sixth street.
Gina: Oh yeah, totally.
Rachel: By Saturday, we were seeing so many nipples and so many neon hats.
Gina: The party bus had many a tube dress in various degrees of malfunction!
Rachel: We rode the bus with a chubby man that had an overly groomed goatee and a “slut” hat.
Gina: Oh, I hated him! Almost enough to say! There was one dude who had set up shop with all the neon horrors. DTF and SLUT trucker hats.
Vivian: Yeah gotta wonder who that guy is. Gina and I recently saw a cup that said “Vagina” in Coca-Cola font, and I saw a “Tide” shirt that said TITS. People still wear trucker hats?^8,9
Rachel: People that wear sparkly beads do.

RE: CORPORATE SPONSORSHIPS

¹⁰Shaved alpacas!
¹¹Fall Out Boy @ The Twix Shed

Rachel: Some guy was hitting on us on the party bus, and he gave us a pass that just says, “All access to the Twix shed,” and he kept going, “I mean, you girls know the Yeah Yeah Yeahs??”
Vivian: Yeah Yeah Yeahs with a question mark on the end?
Gina: Yeah. He was a tidy Korean man, and he just kept sort of touching Rachel’s arm and then reaching around to put his arm around me at the same time.
Rachel: He got a little too much of the idea that it was a party bus…
Gina: Totally.
Rachel: … his partner that he made the film with was a girl, and she kept coming up and trying to talk to him, and he kept saying, “You don’t even realize how selfish you’re being right now.”
Vivian: Ahhhh haha!
Rachel: Like he had any chance by giving us a Twix pass.
Gina: Totally, like the Twix pass was the secret.
Rachel: I wouldn’t mind going to it if he gave me an actual Twix.
Vivian: But imagine the Twixes they have at the Twix Lounge!
Gina: They probably…! Oh wait!
Rachel: Gina had a good point that “shed” is the least exciting stage term. Fort, stage, even yard but yeah. Did not excite us.
Gina: As opposed to “fort” which sounds cool and secret and like some sort of club HQ. Honestly though, it hadn’t crossed out minds that it might just be a shed FULL OF TWIX.
Rachel: Or MADE OF TWIX…
Vivian: At least it wasn’t shack? Was it shack or shed?
Rachel: Shed. Shack implies dwelling, shed implies junk. Or alpacas. Overflow bands storage.
Vivian: Next year: alpaca shed sponsored by the Native farmer’s association of Peru. Sorry, I am on the alpaca brain tip since you mentioned them. (Inserting picture of adorably shaved alpacas.)¹⁰
Rachel: Bwahahahha.
Gina: So cuuuuute. Uh-oh we fucked up! Coulda just frolicked in a pile of Twix w/ Fall Out Boy!¹¹
Rachel: They seem frolicky.
Vivian: Wow, Fall Out Boy are still a thing?
Gina: Apparently?
Vivian: Why haven’t I seen more chocolate sponsors?
Rachel: Well, Sandy and I got this chocolate that’s like, caffeinated chocolate that describes how it fucks up your brain on the back. But this guy had a huge box of it, and he was kind of hoarding it, and he was like, “Somebody just gave this to me!” So somebody had a job passing them out and just gave him the whole box.
Vivian: Whoa. What kinda chocolate is it? Did you try it? Did it fuck up your brain?
Rachel: Nope, because when I’m already drunk, I do have the sense to not eat chocolate that is caffeinated.
Vivian: It’s like those Pringles that tell you you’ll poop yourself.
Gina: Wait… what?
Vivian: They’re like fat-free Pringles with this thing called Olestra that makes you have a leaky bottom.
Gina: Ohhh no… ewrghhhh. Worst potential side effect ever.
Rachel: That’s when I laugh at the idea that, “I’m really skinny, but I might shit myself.” Not really worth it.
Vivian: Apparently it’s not even shit, it’s just like a puddle of oil… it probably smells like shit, though…
Gina: Oh no! I… I hate that… that last three seconds was pretty rough. Oh no. Eeheeehee.
Rachel: I don’t know if this is going to be useful to our…
Gina: Could put that in there…
Vivian: This is SXSW.
Gina: Yeah, that was pretty amazing. So yeah, maybe we should go to the shed sometime for some Twix.
Vivian: Where is it?
Gina: It’s by Stubb’s; in or near. We were kinda looking at it so perplexed, thinking it was fake, but we walked right by it today, and we were like, “That’s our shed!”
Vivian: Pop in there.
Gina: It is Fuse and Twix, but hopefully Twix is involved in a producty way.
Vivian: What other way would they be involved?!
Gina: I mean, maybe they just wanna put their logo everywhere. There are all of these Redbox pedi-cabs, for example, and they have no movies! There are no movies there!
Vivian: That would be cool.
Gina: That would be pretty cool. Rent a movie while riding home.
Vivian: That would be the ultimate. Rent Redbox movies to drunk people who are only in town for SXSW and have no idea where they can go to return the movies. They’d make a fortune!

RE: KATE BUSH & BOUNCE MUSIC

¹²Hounds of Love Haus Show
¹³ Lots of ass… a lot…

¹⁴ Big Freedia

¹⁵ Lady can’t really shake her ass :(

¹⁶ Fat Tony and SNACKS

Gina: I had a great time at the Hounds of Love Haus Show!¹² It just felt like a Portland house show and I had a home away from home feeling, seeing buddies in a backyard.
Vivian: I liked when everyone was crowded around an industrial construction lamp thing as though it was a bonfire.
Gina: Oh yeah! I remember that! It was like a Portland party, except instead of everyone clustered around a fire pit outside, there were just these weird shop lights set up in this dead dirt yard? But everyone still circled around the light like moths.
Rachel: I think Kate Bush as house music in between sets is a bad move. You’re just begging to be upstaged. I mean, I liked it. But it made me just want to listen to Kate Bush.
Gina: Hehe true. Although Weyes Blood was pretty KB-realm.
Vivian: IT’S CALLED THE HOUNDS OF LOVE HAUS PARTY, RACHEL. They just listened to that record on repeat. Are we over that record? Though we used it as the intro to our zine? Over it?!!
Rachel: Hahahahah! Only like house and bounce now!!!!!!!
Never over anything EVERERRRR. But no longer see it as a guiding totem all the fucking time.
Gina: Hahaha it’s true, KB was our main beacon goddess!
KB and MJ over and over for me.
Rachel: Why can’t Vockah Redu be our new beacon of life guiding goodness? Just like “Y’all can hate me now, but I won’t stop now”¹³
Gina: Not a bad idea!
Rachel: And “do it up hup hup”, etc.
Gina: Very life-affirming! Also THEEsatisfaction. 2013 should be the year of fierceness!
Vivian: Man, I needa see a bounce show, still haven’t
Rachel: RULIN!
Gina: Oh man, remembering our first Big Freedia experience!¹⁴
Vivian: Lucky
Rachel: Yes!!! Why did we take Chris the second time? He was soooooo not into it. Two times!! I would be in any cult she had.
Gina: She said she wanted us all to have our hands on the ground. So it was just a sea of butts in the air!!
Rachel: I would learn to go on my head and shake my ass. Yes! Then she asked who got more head! And everyone was screaming!!!
Gina: Ahhhh
Vivian: I think I used to practice bounce-type butt shaking when I was a kid. Ahead of the curve. Shoulda known there was a career in that somewhere.
Gina: Hehe I’m so immature about it still! Maybe that’s the point. Nothing more amusing than shaking one’s own butt around.
Rachel: Dude, everyone should love to shake their own butt!
Vivian: Oh man, Van recently showed us this video where this lady was trying to do the bounce ass-shaking thing, and she had such amazing background dancers, but she herself did not know how to do it at all. It is most amazing.¹⁵
Rachel: Hahahahhaha.
Gina: Hehehe.
Rachel: I wish you guys could have seen!!! It was that and a bunch of punk bands. So good. Also saw this dude. His producer was called Tom Cruz. This video rules. PEOPLE MADE OF SNACKS!!!!!¹⁶
Vivian: Sweeet. Weird.
Rachel: And then his other songs were like shouting out very specific shitty Brooklyn neighborhoods. Only thing that could get my spirits up. Then he went into this long thing about women not letting men beat them and I was like, “Yeah okay, dude, I can get down with not beating women; I WILL wave my hands”. Though I don’t know where drunk ended and sick and hungover began.

RE: FRIDAY’S FAILURES

Vivian: Do we want to talk about Friday’s failures?
Gina: That was rough. Eternal wait for a day party to see Poolside and Youth Lagoon.
Vivian: WASN’T EVEN THAT LONG!
Rachel: OKAY okay. I just take door people at their word!
Gina: We were falsely told that we needed a Spotify app for entrance and gave up when we were close!
Vivian: Stupid distractions from naysaying people about RSVPs and random guy who was hanging out and wanted to go to Viceland! I woulda gladly waited forever! That’s what I get! And of course Jake said that Poolside was the best band he saw all day and got in ten minutes after we left. Sonsa bitchez.
Gina: I knowwwww.
Rachel: Dude, I totally thought we weren’t going to get in.
Gina: I was just believing the official-looking girl about the app thing.
Rachel: Me too!
Gina: Yeah. I didn’t mind the wait.
Vivian: It sucks cause my personal plan was to wait another 15 minutes because they always let more people in when a band is changing over, and that is totally what happened. Failure!
Gina: Yeah, there were several “if I could go back in time” moments, and that was definitely one.
Vivian: Because we then walked around aimlessly, wondered about a Doritos-sponsored stage, and then foolishly tried to get into Toro Y Moi after his set had already started — of course impossible! I was so frustrated that day since I had only seen one band at SXSW by late Friday afternoon. Grumps. And then we saw Small Black who suck shit. Mostly cause the singer was going all U2.
Rachel: Yeah, the music was pretty okay; it was the singer that killed me. And the worse he got, the more awesome he felt. A common frontman trait. Or vice versa.
Vivian: Hahaha.
Rachel: I hate that “Yeah, I’m killin it” face. Makes me want to kill. But I was still glad to be in the shade, in a weird cool bar. Didn’t care. Also I saw Toro Y Moi later, so suck that.
Vivian: I dunno I just felt mid-Small Black’s set and its bad vocals that this indie dance music shit is getting so homogeneously boring it’s crazy. I was also thinking about how bands like Gardens & Villa do similar things but don’t suck and what it is that is different really, cause it’s hard to really discern… I mean other than that their vocalist doesn’t suck.
Rachel: Sometimes though, a live performance just hits you the wrong way at the wrong time. Like, we deserved so much after waiting so long! Or maybe its the other way. Maybe suffering makes it sweeter.
Vivian: So actually small black was even worse? Hahahaha.
Gina: It’s really just what content you put in… like with Small Black, when it’s only about a “chill vibe”, chillwave’s downfall in general, there’s just nothing there to fall in love with. You can be enamored by or occasionally infatuated with a vibe or aesthetic, but it can’t hurt so good or inform the way you live your life!
Vivian: Meh and the vibe and aesthetic of chillwave are just so vanilla.
Gina: Versus say Gardens & Villa, where they are white dudes making funk-pop but they have angelic William Blake metaphysicial visions.
Rachel: But the vibe in that place was nuts! Flamingo dirt bar; the place was giving its all. Blahahaha.
Vivian: There was a very very very dirty giant flamingo and a ceiling that looked like it was sprayed with flame retardant but was actually covered with giant balls of crust-dust…
Gina: Oh yeah! It looked like an abandoned courtyard. Just layers of grime on the rafters.
Rachel: I just want to talk to these people sometimes. You give everyone the benefit of transcendence. Which makes me look at them with this critical “You’re probably dumb” eye.
Vivian: Eh, we have talked to G&V and there are transcendent ideas there. Haven’t talked to Small Black; maybe there are transcendent ideas but that might be a bummer.
Rachel: Hahahahahah. Forget Small Black. What else did we do? Is that ALL WE DID?
Gina: Boxed water! From their Virgin house which was to be our sanctuary.

¹⁸ Blue Hawaii

¹⁹ Jessie Ware

Vivian: YeahhhhH! We also saw The Flaming Lips playing to thousands of people on a jukebox-wattaged speaker system….¹⁷
Rachel: Oh fuck! That’s right we did. That’s only characterized by bathroom lines and having my chips and guacamole feed a fat security guard.
Vivian: …much to the chagrin of all who have heard tales of their live performance magnificence.
Rachel: Like, “He’s holding a baby”. That’s cool. I can’t really hear them. He’s still holding a baby, but yeah.
Vivian: Holding a baby is just not long-lasting enough of a gimmick, especially when he takes like 5 minutes in front of everyone to awkwardly don the baby-attached tentacle-suit.
Rachel: Hahahha. Yeah. I think babies are, in general, anti-climactic. And it was just a straight up baby doll. Didn’t do anything. And he kept kissing it and talking to it like, “Do you think they’re into this baby? I still love you.”
Gina: And then brought that guest vocalist onstage and grabbed her hair from the roots while she sang, with both of them frozen like that. That was disconcerting.
Rachel: Hahahah.
Vivian: That was actually the most interesting part IMHO. Girl from Phantogram.
Rachel: Would have ruled if it was SUPER LOUD.
Vivian: yeah.
Gina: It was interesting but creepy!
Rachel: But since it was like mid-level, it was just like watching your neighbor’s house party break down or something
Gina: Yeah, I expected him to be floating atop the crowd in a giant bubble or something with this manic energy going. I’ve just heard larger-than-life things about them.
Vivian: Probably with better sound, it woulda been more awesome. The songs were cool… the new single is rad.
Rachel: Yeah!!! It was also really beautiful to be in a park.
Vivian: True.
Rachel: You saw something else, right?
Vivian: Oh, I saw Blue Hawaii.¹⁸ They were cool… lady from Braids doing shit with vocal loops and effects and guy doing beats… their live show’s better than their record which is kinda low-key and samey. The live show covers more electronic ground and harder beats and stuff rather than just simple cut and paste electronics.
Rachel: I think that’s the most special. When something’s just a performance.
Vivian: Yeah, defo.
Gina: I wish Jessie Ware had been there! Current favorite thing.¹⁹
Vivian: Is there a song I should check out?
Gina: The indie world smiles on the pop star.
Vivian: Ah
Rachel: Thought it was okay… didn’t get pumped. Maybe would be more into it live, though.
Gina: http://stereogum.com/1220252/jessie-ware-sweet-talk-video/video/
Vivian: I saw a glimpse of lady wearing a dress in a field and quit that music video ~_~’
Rachel: Hahahhaha. I wanna be that lady!

RE: FEEL YOU, OUR UNOFFICIAL PARTY

²⁰ 1,250 Free Dos Equis beers!

²¹ Psychic Twin

²² Delicate Steve

See complete 2013 party recap.

²³ Casiokids at our first SXSW House Party in 2011

Rachel: Party ruled. Especially since I didn’t have to truck all the beer. How did you truck all the beer? Did they help you load it? Holy hell.
Vivian: I rented a U-Haul. They helped load, but Mark and I moved them all out of the car and into the basement. Definitely a workout. All 1,250 beers.²⁰
Rachel: Ah.
Vivian: What were some of our favorites of the day? Psychic Twin were surprisingly my favorite act of the day, though that was super early.²¹
Rachel: Which were they?
Vivian: Lady with vocal loops, two dudes on either side with drum pads, playing outside.
Gina: Same here! They were so good!
Vivian: Also, the nicest dudes. They were like helping later bands with sound and getting them water and shit. Blew my mind!
Gina: It’s true! And thanked us profusely for having them
Vivian: That’s my favorite thing about doing parties like this. Community in a weird non-community-oriented SXSW.
Rachel: Yeah. People are so into the house vibe. And I loved Grigor, that housemate ecstatically dancing barefoot in a skirt the entire night, then begging for it not to end!
Vivian: Oh yeah Grigor is the best.
Gina: So sweet!
Vivian: I also liked the two goth guys who were present for Darktown Strutters. One was wearing a miniature hair veil and told me he didn’t need help opening a Dos Equis because he was Mexican. The other had an amazing purse with brass knuckles as the handle; he said his mom gave it to him, too. So rad. I love how every year we have the really devoted weirdos.
Gina: It’s true!
Rachel: I liked watching Delicate Steve on the roof. Watching stars come out.²²
Gina: That was the best!
Vivian: His show seemed really epic. I was tending bar and missed!
Gina: They invited the crowd “onstage” but it’s just a yard, so it kinda meant everyone enveloping them from every direction
so that it was just this huge cluster of people grinning.
Vivian: Sweet. Remember our first year’s party when Casiokids did that?²³ Afterwards, they totally said, “We thought the party would be whack, but it turned out to be one of our best shows.” I was also a big fan of the gentlemanly crust-punks who kept picking up spare bottles and returning them to us. And Rachel’s effective beer-bottle-return-threatening ways.
Gina: Hehehe so awesome. Yeah, Rachel was slanging beers pretty hard!
Vivian: She drilled into their heads that they could only get beers if they returned a bottle. “The one rule to getting unlimited free beers is that you have to bring us back your empties!”
Gina: So rad! I would try to open them for people and like, one out of four would take me 2+ tries! Lacked the dexterity for that one.
Vivian: Rachel said you also almost fell off the roof ladder :X
Gina: Did not! Hehe. Well… chose bad foot placement. But Gian boosted me up.
Rachel: She totally would have fallen. I almost screamed
Muscly dude and I saved it.
Vivian: Ahaha.
Gina: Ahhhhh. Worth it when we got up there though. The warm evening… and we had that LED projector that made water-textures, projected onto the trees like they were dancing!
Vivian: Yeah, that projector was awesome. I can’t believe we followed up our party with being force-fed a hot dog in a bun. I’m glad though I was stoned as he –ll thanks to the guy who gave an edible for tips! — I still had the good sense not to eat a freaking hot dog at 1am.
Gina: Oh, I was so stoned! That glazed doughnut just WAS the embodiment of perfection at that moment.
Vivian: Double-donut-did, right?
Gina: Yeah. Did a choco sprinkle. It looked better than it was, though.
Rachel: UgHhh. Still can’t believe I ate that cheese-oozing hot dog thing. Colachi?
Vivian: Oh yeah, it had cheese in it… Is that what it’s called!? I was trying to figure it out. Bummer. Well, don’t get a freaking sour cream donut either… boring.
Gina: Glazed was the jam!
Vivian: Hm, kolachi seems like something else…
Rachel: Nope. None of these are tiny hot dogs pumped with CHEEZ cheese with a z style cheese.
Gina: Kolaches! http://www.thedailymeal.com/kolaches-breakfast-hot-dogs-texas-style. I think they just have a “local” definition of them.
Vivian: Ahh.
Gina: Shuddering at the term “unique weiner presentation”.
Vivian: Hahaha.
Gina: OMG, we’re so snacky! Snacks take the lead every time.

Related posts:

1. FEEL YOU (#25) SXSW 2013 Unofficial House Party Mixtape
2. SXSW 2013 Picks: Official & Unofficial SXSW Showcases, Parties, and Bands
3. BODY||MIND 2012: An Unofficial SXSW House Party

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

TRIFECTA x SXSW: A Three-Way Conversational Guide To Shows & Snacks

— YOUTH LAGOON – WONDROUS BUGHOUSE ALBUM REVIEW
03/13 – 10:40pm @ Stubb’s (NPR Showcase)
03/14 – 5:00pm @ 1100 Warehouse (Pitchfork Party)
03/15 – 4:00pm @ Hype Hotel (Stereogum Range Life)
03/15 – 5:30pm @ Red Eyed Fly (After the Gold Rush)
03/15 – 12:00am @ Club de Ville (Paradigm Showcase)

— POOLSIDE FESTIVAL LIVE SHOW REVIEW
MON, MAR 11 – 8:00pm @ The Mohawk (Transmission Entertainment Showcase, 912 Red River)
MAR 13 – 5:20pm @ Cheer Up Charlie’s (Spaceland Showcase, 1104 E 6th St.)
MAR 13 – 9:30pm @ The Tap Room (School Night Showcase)
MAR 13 – 1:30am @ Red 7 (Windish Showcase, 611 East 7th St.)
MAR 14 – 1:35pm @ Flamingo Cantina (Under The Radar Showcase, 515 E 6th St.)
MAR 14 – 6:00pm @ Sonos House (606 E 3rd St.)
MAR 15 – 4:00pm @ Red Eyed Fly (Another Planet Entertainment Showcase)
MAR 16 – 4:00pm @ Lustre Pearl (97 Rainey St.)

03/12 – 12:00am @ AMOA Arthouse at Jones Center
(Plus an unannounced surprise performance!)

Band Recommendations

03/13 – 5:00pm @ Lustre Pearl (FILTER On Rainey Showcase)
03/14 – 6:00pm @ Emo’s East (Check Yo Ponytail Party)
03/14 – 12:00am @ Clive Bar (FILTER On Rainey Showcase
03/16 – 12:00am or 1:00am @ Hype Hotel (HypeM Party)

03/13 – 11:00pm @ Empire Control Room (Official SXSW Showcase @ Empire Control Room)
03/14 – 1:15pm @ 1100 Warehouse (Pitchfork Day Party)
03/15 – 5:00pm @ Urban Outfitters (Urban Outfitters Back Lot Party)
03/16 – 3:00pm @ Old Emo’s (Brooklyn Vegan Day Party)

— ANDY STOTT LIVE SHOW REVIEW AT DECIBEL FESTIVAL

See Resident Advisor’s Official Showcase (right) for details.

03/13 – 12:00am @ Cedar Street Courtyard (Carson Daly Official Showcase, 208 W 4th St.)
03/14 – 5:00pm @ Waterloo Records (600 N Lamar St.)
03/16 – 4:15pm @ Mohawk (The A.V. Club Showcase, 912 Red River St.)

03/13 – 5:00pm @ The Hype Hotel (Gorilla vs. Bear Party, 301 Brazos)
03/13 – 12:30am @ Pitchfork Warehouse (1100 E 5th St.)
03/14 – 12:35am @ 1100 Warehouse
03/15 – 5:15pm @ Fader Fort
03/15 – 10:05pm @ La Zona Rosa (612 W. 4th)
03/15 – 12:50am @ Scoot Inn (1308 E. 4th St)

MAR 14 – 10:55pm @ Red 7 (Secretly Canadian Showcase, 611 E 7th St.)

See StubHub Live Official SXSW Showcase (right) for details.

03/12 – 7:00pm @ Panache SXSW Kick Off Party
03/12 – 10:00pm @ Pitchfork Interactive Party
03/13 – 2:25pm @ Flamingo Cantina (Under The Radar SXSW Party)
03/13 – 4:30pm @ Stage on 6th (Paste Magazine Party)
03/14 – 5:00pm @ Club Deville (Insound/Oh My Rockness SXSW Party)
03/15 – 12:30pm @ Easy Tiger Bakery (Pure Volume Party)
03/15 – 9:00pm @ Hotel Vegas (Panache Booking)

03/14 – @ Soccer Camp (The Hounds of Love, 2107 E 16th St.)
03/15 – 7:30pm @ The Hideout (Not Not Fun Showcase)

— MIDNIGHT MAGIC BAND INTERVIEW

See StubHub Live Official SXSW Showcase (right) for details.

03/13 – Lamberts (SXSW Day Party)
03/14 – Hype Hotel (SXSW Official)
03/15 – Cedar Street Courtyard (FILTER Magazine Day Party)

03/15 – Impose Showcase
03/16 – Captured Tracks Showcase

See Flaunt Magazine’s Official SXSW Showcase

03/13 – 5:30pm @ In.Gredients (2610 Manor Rd.)
03/14 – 5:15pm @ Fado’s (Rethink Pop Music & Ninkasi Showcase, 214 W 4th St.)
03/16 – 3:00pm @ The New Movement (Pop Press International Showcase, 616 Lavaca St.)
03/16 – 8:00pm @ TenOak (The Greater Pacific NW Official Showcase, 409 Colorado St.)

03/13 – 3:30pm @ Trailer Space Records (Burger Party, 1401 A Rosewood Ave)
03/13 – 4:40pm @ Cheer Up Charlie’s (Echo/Echoplex & Origami Party, 1104 E 6th St.)
03/14 – 2:00pm @ Peckerheads (My Old Kentucky Blog Party, 402 East 6th St.)
03/15 – 10:45pm @ Cheer Up Charlie’s (Ad Hoc Party, 1104 E 6th St.)
03/16 – 1:30pm @ Yellow Jacket (Impose Party, 1704 E 5th St.)
03/16 – 4:30pm @ Hotel Vegas (Burgermania, 500 E 6th St.)

03/14 – 3:45pm @ The Liberty (Austin Psych Fest)
03/14 – 10:00pm @ Clive Bar (Filter Magazine Showcase)
03/15 – TBA @ ? (Tiny Mix Tapes / Northern Spy Unofficial Party)
03/16 – 3:55pm @ The Liberty (Pop Montreal)
03/16 – 8:00am @ The Museum of Human Achievement (Hometapes)

03/13 – 8:00pm @ Lamberts (Bond Music Group Official SXSW Showcase, 401 W 2nd St.)

– SOLEY – SMASHED BIRDS MUSIC VIDEO INTERVIEW

03/13 – 10:00pm @ Hilton Garden Hotel
03/14 – 11:00am @ Cedar Street Courtyard (FILTER Magazine Day Party)
03/15 – 12:30pm @ The Mohawk

— TORO Y MOI – ANYTHING IN RETURN ALBUM REVIEW

03/12 – @ Mohawk (SXSW Interactive Official Showcase, 912 Red River St.)
03/13 – 12:00pm @ Haven
03/14 – 11:00pm @ Lustre Pearl
03/15 – 1:00am @ The North Door

03/13 – 1:30pm @ Parish (Consequence Of Sound Day Party)
03/13 – 5:00pm @ Urban Outfitters Back Lot (Urban Outfitters / Rookie Magazine)
03/13 – 1:30am @ Holy Mountain (Enabler PR Showcase)
03/14 – 1:30pm @ Scoot Inn (Thrasher / Converse Day Party)
03/14 – 3:20pm @ 1100 Warehouse (Pitchfork Day Party)
03/15 – 2:00pm @ Gypsy Lounge (Blundertown Day Party)
03/15 – 5:00pm @ Bar 96 (Filter Magazine Day Party)
03/15 – 10:15pm @ The Long Center (Syrian Benefit)
03/16 – 3:15pm @ Old Emo’s (Brooklyn Vegan Day Party)
03/16 – 6:50pm @ @ The Yellow Jacket (Impose / WNYU Day Party)

03/16 – 12:00pm @ Waterloo Records (600 N Lamar Blvd.)

Ω

Related posts:

1. garage _ psych _ dance Non-Official SXSW Party: 3-Part Event Recap
2. garage _ psych _ dance Non-Official SXSW Party: Extras Recap
3. BODY||MIND 2012: An Unofficial SXSW House Party

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

SXSW 2013 Picks: Official & Unofficial SXSW Showcases, Parties, and Bands

The Portland International Film Festival (PIFF) is upon us again, and we have whittled down their list of 100+ international shorts and full-length films to summarize the most interesting, socially-conscious, and boundary-pushing of the bunch.

This year’s festival runs from February 7th through the 23rd, beginning with an Opening Night celebration featuring Blancanieves, a silent Spanish reworking of Snow White. Purchase tickets and find out more.

Our festival preview begins below with this year’s top five picks, followed by the rest in alphabetical order.

Beyond The Hills
Directed by Cristian Mungiu (Romania)
Based on the novels of Tatiana Niculescu Bran, which are real-life documents of demonic possession, Beyond The Hills is a bleak and stark religious drama set an Orthodox monastery in Moldovia. Though Alina (Cirstina Flutur) heads to the monastery to convince her friend Voichita (Cosmina Stratan) to leave and return to Germany, Alina finds herself sucked more and more into the environment and its callings. Flutur and Stratan both shared the Best Actress Prize at Cannes Film Festival for these performances.
         Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 8:30 PM (Whitsell Auditorium)
         Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 7:30 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 4)

Hannah Arendt
Directed by Margarethe von Trotta (Germany)
Based on the life of German philosopher and writer Hannah Arendt, Hannah Arendt chronicles her writings for The New Yorker on the 1961 war crimes trial of Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann covered a scenario that was not black and white but veiled in greys, causing great conflict and protest amongst an American public and the publication’s editing staff. Hannah Arendt is a drama about journalism, and the social duty of reporting as one sees as truthful, rather than as it is idealized or pressured to be.
         Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 8:45 PM (Whitsell Auditorium)
         Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 5:15 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 4)

Laurence Anyways
Directed by Xavier Dolan (Canada)
Despite being happy and in love, high school teacher Laurence finally reveals to his girlfriend Fred his long-standing desire to become a woman. Fred agrees to support him on his quest, though once the transformations begin, social complications begin to pressure, ostracize, and place fear into the hearts of the couple. Through it all, Laurence Anyways is a tale of love and the ability to weather storms for it.
         Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 8 PM (Cinema 21)
         Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 7 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 10)

Leviathan
Directed by Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel (United States)
Leviathan presents experimental filmmaking at its finest or its worst, depending on your opinion of macro-view, immersive documentary art. The New York Film Festival describes Leviathan as “a hallucinatory sensory experience quite unlike any other”, and the trailer is seems to assert this with views of commercial fishing, as presented with only abstract sounds and imagery.
         Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 3:15 PM (Whitsell Auditorium)
         Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 6 PM (Cinemagic)

Lore
Directed by Cate Shortland (Australia)
After World War II and the death of Adolf Hitler, five young children are left to fend for themselves when their Nazi SS parents are captured. In an attempt to reach their grandparents in Hamburg, they traverse 500 miles of changing landscapes, meeting unfortunate families along the way and finding a savior in a young Jewish man whose kindness goes against all of their programmed teachings.
         Sun, Feb 10, 2013 at 7:30 PM (Whitsell Auditorium)
         Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 5:45 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 10)

After Lucia
Directed by Michel Franco (Mexico)
In this jarring Mexican drama about teenage cruelty, unfortunate circumstances become exponentially worse after bullying enters the equation. Alejandra is a young teen still dealing with the death of her mother, when she finds herself in a new town. One drunken mistake soon spins into a web of social abuse and bends stunted familial communication further beyond repair. After Lucia won the main prize in the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes Film Festival and is this year’s Mexican submission for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
         Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 2:15 PM (Regal Fox Tower 6)
         Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 8:45 PM (Whitsell Auditorium)

Alien Boy: The Death and Life of James Chasse
Directed by Brian Lindstrom (United States)
The ever-complex circumstances surrounding the United States’ mental health resources are examined in Alien Boy: The Death and Life of James Chasse, a documentary about a schizophrenic young man who was beaten to death by police officers in Portland, Oregon in 1996.
         Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 7 PM (Cinema 21)

American Winter
Directed by Joe Gantz, Harry Gantz (United States)
Shot over the winter months of 2011 to 2012, American Winter is an intimate portrait that follows the lives of eight Portland households that find themselves falling into poverty for the first time. A reflection on the current economic crisis, these families are just a small cross-section of the larger trend, as American Winter navigates how families deal with new financial difficulties and the use of social services.
         Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 3 PM (Whitsell Auditorium)
         Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 7:30 PM (Cinemagic)

Chinese Take-Out (Un Cuento Chino)
Directed by Sebastián Borensztein (Argentina)
South America is surprisingly prevalent with Chinese immigrants, and this multicultural comedy takes a close look at the life of Roberto, a routine-oriented owner of a hardware store in Buenos Aires, after a Chinese immigrant named Jun begins living in his home. Listed as Chinese Take-Out at PIFF, this film is more often listed as Chinese Take-Away.
         Sun, Feb 10, 2013 at 2:30 PM (World Trade Center Theater)
         Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 3 PM (World Trade Center Theater)

Coming of Age (Anfang 80)
Directed by Sabine Hiebler, Gerhard Ertl (Austria)
Almost everyone fears to grow old and to die alone, or to never truly fall in love. Bruno and Rosa meet when Rosa only has six months left to live – but despite internal and external opposition, the two seniors decide to choose a life of mortality and happiness rather than its dreary opposite. The description “cute old people” seems to sum up Coming of Age fairly accurately.
         Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 3:30 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 10)
         Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 6:30 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 10)

Comrade Kim Goes Flying
Directed by Anja Daelemans, Nicholas Bonner, Kim Gwang Hun (North Korea)
There’ve been times when I have mentioned Korea’s music or art scene and been met with the question, “North or South?” To these people, I’ve often scoffed, relaying that nothing comes out of North Korea, for its dictatorship is in full reign and its free speech mostly suppressed. Yet now, with Comrade Kim Goes Flying, my less politically-savvy friends can finally rest assured that their inquiries are in part valid, for North Korea is now sending films to the global marketplace. The calisthenics-participating ways of gymnast and coal miner Kim Yong-mi may lead one to believe romance is alive and well in North Korea, in a film that is visually and musically reminiscent of grainy old-school films from mainland China. The trailer may not reveal much – and seems not to give one any sense of the “comedy” that is supposedly inherent in this “romantic comedy” — but on the basis of seeing a different side of North Korea that is not Vice Magazine’s expository fright-fest, one might take interest in Comrade Kim Goes Flying.
         Sun, Feb 10, 2013 at 5:15 PM (Regal Fox Tower 6)
         Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 6:30 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 4)

The End of Time
Directed by Peter Mettler (Canada)
How, oh how, do we as mere humans, with our three-dimensional knowledge of the world, learn to wrap our heads around Father Time? Swiss-Canadian filmmaker Peter Mettler apparently wondered the same when he set out around the globe to explore the past and the present, with modern and primitive cultures, to document and research how they relate to and philosophize about time. The film seems to bring up a series of rhetorical questions set against pleasant imagery — and it seems unclear whether the film actually brings one any closer to understanding the nature of time… but it seems that Mettler is at least trying.
         Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 3:15 PM (World Trade Center Theater)
         Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 6 PM (World Trade Center Theater)

The Gatekeepers
Directed by Dror Moreh (Israel)
A film with great explosive and divisive potential, The Gatekeepers gives an inside look at the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, as pieced together via interviews from intelligence officers and former directors of the Israeli security agency Shin Bet.
         Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 5:15 PM (Cinema 21)
         Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 6 PM (Cinemagic)

A Hijacking (Kapringen)
Directed by Tobias Lindholm (Denmark)
Possibilities are bound and sea-stranded in this tense drama about a cargo ship that is hijacked by Somali pirates, who take all of the crew members hostage. Ransom and negotiations are far from smooth as the company’s alpha male president decides to take matters into his own hands, at the risk of sacrificing the life of his workers.
         Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 8:45 PM (Whitsell Auditorium)
         Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 6 PM (Regal Fox Tower 6)

The Hunt (Jagten)
Directed by Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark)
A small community becomes a dangerous breeding ground of misunderstanding and suspicion as Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen) is charged with child molestation. Though the charge is overturned, the outcome remains unchanged in the eyes of the community, as Lucas feels first-hand the cruelty of former friends and neighbors who wish to exact vengeance.
         Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 7:30 PM (Whitsell Auditorium)
         Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 8:30 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 10

Just The Wind (Csak a Szél)
Directed by Benedek Fliegauf (Hungary)
Simply watching the trailer for Just The Wind will give one a sense of the film’s near-documentary style of capturing mundane oddities in backwoods Hungary. All things said, the destination seems almost as important as the filmmaking vehicle. This year’s Hungarian submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
         Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 6:15 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 4)
         Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 6 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 4)

Keep Smiling (Gaigimet)
Directed by Rusudan Chkonia (Georgia)
A roving eye captures the drama between ten housewives shallowly hoping to win a beauty competition open only to mothers with three or more children. Soon it becomes apparent that the competition is all a fraud, and things begin to fall apart even further, unraveling in true tragicomic fashion.
         Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 7:45 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 4)
         Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 8:45 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 4)

La Camioneta: The Journey of One American School Bus
Directed by Mark Kendall (United States)
Decommissioned school busses leave the United States daily to become transformed into community vehicles for Guatemalans. La Camioneta: The Journey of the American School Bus, follows one repurposed vehicle on its pilgrimage towards a more useful and colorful life, wherein five Guatemalans impacted by the bus reveal their stories.
         Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 6 PM (World Trade Center Theater)
         Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 7:30 PM (World Trade Center Theater)

Reality
Directed by Matteo Garrone (Italy)
Reality is a color explosion that pokes fun at Italian high society and its population’s shallow desires for fame! Part fantastical and part realistic, this film light-heartedly portrays reality as it sometimes really exists – in ways stranger and more whimsical than fiction.
         Sun, Feb 10, 2013 at 7:30 PM (Regal Fox Tower 6)
         Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 5:45 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 4)

Nairobi Half Life
Directed by David Tosh Gitonga (Kenya)
19-year-old Mwas leaves his village life to pursue his dreams in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi — but his starry-eyed view of the world is soon shattered. As he falls into a life of crime and violence, Mwas struggles with holding onto glimpses of his former dreams. This is Kenya’s second film ever to be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
         Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 6 PM (Regal Fox Tower 6)
         Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 7:30 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 10)

Our Children (À Perdre La Raison)
Directed by Joachim Lafosse (Belgium)
Based on the story of Genevieve Lhermitte, Our Children tells of Murielle (Émilie Dequenne), who can’t seem to escape a nightmarish marriage full of financial struggle and suffocating interpersonal relationships, as she is surrounded by a demanding husband and a domineering father-in-law.
         Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 8:45 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 4)
         Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 7:30 PM (Regal Fox Tower 6)

Paradise: Love (Paradies: Liebe)
Directed by Ulrich Seidl (Austria)
The first in director Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise trilogy, Paradise: Love is about the collision of Christian virtues with secular life. Middle-aged Teresa visits a sex tourism destination in Kenya, where what she wants and the rigid rules she believes in become ever more obscured and foreign.
         Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 6 PM (Cinemagic)
         Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 8:45 PM (Cinemagic)

The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology
Directed by Sophie Fiennes (Great Britain)
2006′s The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema (see our review HERE) gets a follow-up, as Slovenian philosopher and film theoretician Slavoj Žižek once again waxes poetic — this time, on how films are representations of collective fantasies. A hodge-podge of films are included in The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology, including Robert Wise’s The Sound of Music, John Carpenter’s They Live, Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, and Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver.
         Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 12 PM (Cinema 21)
         Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 8:30 PM (Cinema 21)

Polluting Paradise (Der Müll im Garten Eden)
Directed by Fatih Akin (Germany)
In the 2000s, the Turkish village of Çamburnu was accidentally turned into a garbage landfill when a nearby site began to pollute the village’s air and groundwater. From 2006 to 2011, director Fatih Akin returned to Turkey numerous times to chronicle the ever-growing problem and government neglect of Çamburnu’s environmental woes.
         Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 3 PM (World Trade Center Theater)
         Sat, Feb 23, 2013 at 12:45 PM (World Trade Center Theater)

Post Tenebras Lux
Directed by Carlos Reygadas (Mexico)
Post Tenebras Lux is a film that could most certainly fall flat on its face or be a work of genius, but the words of the Stockholm Film Festival make it sound eerily enticing: “In this expressionistic Mexican film, magnificent dreamlike exteriors together with memories and dream sequences tell the story of one man’s ability to resist temptation and stop himself from sinning. The story is at times told from the perspective of Satan, showing us the world through the Devil’s ambivalent eyes. The use of a nonlinear storyline gives way for emotions, hopes, and dreams of a family looking for redemption and the meaning of life.”
         Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 6 PM (Cinema 21)
         Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 6 PM (Cinema 21)

Sleep Tight (Mientras Duermes)
Directed by Jaume Balagueró (Spain)
A film that grows ever more sinister as it develops, Sleep Tight follows César, the doorman of a Barcelona apartment building, and his ever-growing distaste for one of the building’s residents, Clara. In unpredictable fashion, César becomes increasingly obsessed with the woman – not as a person in love, but as one who aims to ruin her life as completely as possible.
         Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 8:45 PM (World Trade Center Theater)
         Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 7:30 PM (Cinema 21)
         Sat, Feb 23, 2013 at 6 PM (World Trade Center Theater)

Film times and schedules are subject to change.
Please consult the PIFF website for up-to-date details.

Related posts:

1. Portland International Film Festival 2012: Documentary Film Preview Guide
2. Portland International Film Festival 2012: Festival Preview Guide, Part Two
3. Portland International Film Festival 2012: Festival Preview Guide, Part One

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Portland International Festival 2013: Festival Preview & Picks

A generally daunting experience, CMJ Music Marathon hosts an extremely wide range of bands over the course of 5 days in NYC. To those who attempt to tackle this festival, the lineup can seem overwhelming.

One advantage to being a 10-year CMJ veteran is that you not only know to have a strategy; you can put it all in perspective. And it’s good to have a basis for comparison, too. From year to year to year, CMJ has progressed, in both good ways and bad. While my first few years felt completely daunting, the past few have felt manageable. There weren’t so many bands that both my CMJ partner-in-crime Devorah and I were initially excited about, but that’s the thrill of CMJ: discovering new gems. Last year was all about not getting into the right shows and being frustrated with CMJ in general. We went into this year cautiously, but it ended up being much easier to gain entry to shows and all of the venues seemed a bit more relaxed (with the exception of the Ghostface Killah show in Williamsburg on the last night, in which the whole block had to be closed due to overcrowding).

Below are our picks for our favorite bands, of which there were happily a large amount.

SEE FULL FESTIVAL RECAP

Teen Daze

Murals

Nneka

LIVE SHOW REVIEW CONTINUES BELOW

Nneka’s opening band, Bajah + The Dry Eye Crew, was an apt starter for the evening. An ensemble group from Sierra Leone, they had a very agreeable Afro-pop reggae sound, perfectly upbeat, with a gorgeous male-female vocal dynamic. They played a pretty short set, but it was highlighted by a fantastic cover of “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes,” a nice hat tip to Paul Simon while also being political commentary.

Orca Team

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Related posts:

1. CMJ Music Marathon 2012: Festival Preview & Picks
2. Culture Collide 2012: Festival Review & Recap
3. CounterPoint Music Festival 2012: Festival Review & Recap

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

CMJ Music Marathon 2012: Festival Review & Recap

Attending Culture Collide is the easiest and cheapest way to feel like you have been around the world in just four days. When you watch two US bands open a show where groups from Singapore, Argentina and the Netherlands are also on the bill, you start to feel like the most worldly person on the planet. And night after night, numerous different countries were represented under one roof, giving people the opportunity to discover bands that maybe otherwise they would have not come across. Culture Collide deserves praise for making diversity the rule and not the exception. But if I had one suggestion for this young festival, it is to go beyond the comforts of the indie rock and electronic genres a bit. With bands flying in from countries like Peru and Estonia, it’d be nice to take the cultural schooling up a notch and invite bands who are giving new life to traditional sounds from their native countries. It didn’t take long for American rock n’ roll to start influencing music in other countries, but hopefully a festival like this will help more international sounds infiltrate the US.

SEE FULL FESTIVAL RECAP

PHOTOGRAPHY BY Jasmine Safaeian, FILTER

Poolside

When Brazil’s Bonde do Rolê had to cancel because of visa issues, Los Angeles’ Poolside stepped in to provide some tropical tunes and funky beats. While not as wild as Bonde do Rolê, Poolside were a pleasant addition to the outdoor portion of the festival. With the sun shining, the duo was accompanied by a drummer and second keyboardist, and provided a nice warm up for a full night of dancing. The main stage would later see Niki & The Dove and of Montreal. Instead of taking an aggressive approach to dance music, Poolside provided a relaxed atmosphere with mid-tempo melodies and calming synth lines. Still, you couldn’t help but feel like you were whisked away to some exotic island.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra

While most bands use reverb to create dark and heavy moods, UMO crafted the opposite effect during their closing set at the Taix Champagne Room on Friday night. While the band seemed a bit stand-offish to start, it didn’t take long for the crowd to warm up to them and vice versa. Playing songs off their self-titled album, the trio left a joyful and luminous impression. Songs like “Ffunny Ffriends” and “Thought Ballune” were intricate but bundled with fun melodies that made them easy to digest.

On many occasions, vocalist Ruban Nielson thanked the crowd for being there, which made the band even more likable. Besides the music carrying a positive tone, the band members did not hold back when playing their instruments, proving that they are a solid band all around.

Niki & The Dove

Although I saw Niki & The Dove perform on both Saturday and Sunday, I still didn’t feel like it was enough. One of the downfalls of festivals are the short 20-30 minute sets. However, the Swedish duo made the best of their time and on both days had the crowds wrapped around their fingers. The electro beats were irresistible and had everyone dancing from start to finish while asking for more at the end. From the hair to the high energy, vocalist Malin Dahlström brought to mind ’80s icons like Deborah Harry of Blondie. Additionally, what made Niki & The Dove’s set outstanding is that they went beyond the recorded music that can be heard on their album Instinct. On songs like “The Drummer” and “Somebody”, there were small surprise adornments, and at times it even seemed like the songs went into remix mode, making the live performance sound unique.

Admiral Fallow

Admiral Fallow were a charming bunch from Glasgow that got better and better as the night progressed. In addition to interchanging male and female vocals and the usual guitar, bass, drums, piano setup, the group also threw in some clarinet and flute, which made it difficult for one to not smile during their set. From their latest release, Tree Bursts in Snow, Admiral Fallow played the songs “Isn’t This World Enough” and “Brother”, showing that music can be both delicate and grandiose at the same time.

Of Montreal

If there was a way to entertain all five senses with a live show, I’m sure that of Montreal would be the first to do it. But for now, they just keep fascinating crowds through audio and visuals. Between hearing fan favorites like “Bunny Ain’t No Kind Of Rider” and “Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games”, the Culture Collide crowd witnessed a group of characters running around the stage. At one point there were three people draped with white sheets and releasing a bundle of balloons into the crowd. One minute later, they were dressed up as wrestlers and knocking each other down on stage. During all the commotion, of Montreal didn’t miss a beat once. Kevin Barnes and his bandmates were dressed in ’60s garb and playing as if there was no spectacle behind them. Though some may have thought that the visual performances were distracting, they were all part of the zany art form that made of Montreal so great. And to show that anything can happen at of Montreal show, the night ended with two Spidermen crowdsurfing.

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Related posts:

1. Culture Collide 2012: Festival Preview & Picks
2. FYF Fest 2012 Festival Recap & Photo Gallery
3. CounterPoint Music Festival 2012: Festival Review & Recap

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Culture Collide 2012: Festival Review & Recap

PHOTOGRAPHY BY IWALLY PHOTOGRAPHY

Abakus

A late addition to the 75-plus lineup, Abakus was the first to kick off the party in the beat tent. Russ Davies, professionally known as Abakus (and son of Ray Davies of The Kinks), wasted no time and immediately dropped his unique blend of ambient trance, dub, electro, and breakbeats to get the crowd moving. Walking in, my only impression of Abakus was from a cool ambient track the CounterPoint website sampled, called “Rocket”. Needless to say, my impression of respect developed instantly into a “this is really good’ liking. So like many, I found myself head nodding and shoulder swaying at the command of each beat. As the tent filled, the builds grew higher and the drops were laced with heavier bass sounds, which, as a moderate bass music enthusiast, I thoroughly enjoyed.

Adventure Club

A dubstep production duo hailing from Montreal, Christian Srigley and Leighton James formed Adventure Club in early 2011. Known for their ability to churn the innards of a track and let the raw wicked dub hang loose in intense dark emotions, Adventure Club, not surprisingly, have collected a staggering fan base in very little time. Quite possibly their most notable remix is “Crave You”, a disco influenced downtempo track by Flight Facilities. The beat tent was sprawling with handmade staffs topped with beloved characters like Pikachu and Mario to eerie elephant heads and fiesta cacti. With both arms reached high, the crowd signaled drops and rocked up and down as though worshipping and beckoning the flashing lights further. Though they’ve quickly matured and fallen into the dubstep niche, there’s no doubt Adventure Club will continue to experiment and evolve to find continued acclamation in EDM.

Beats Antique

Where do we begin with Beats Antique? This eclectic ensemble made up of David Satori, Zoe Jakes, and Tommy Cappel lived up to their enchanted reputation. Their musical style falls under numerous categories: not only electronica but also a union of Middle Eastern belly-dancing music, downtempo, hip-hop, jazz and more. I was standing near the speakers eager to pop my Beats Antique cherry and lust over Zoe Jakes. She appeared in tribal-like garbs and mesmerized the crowd with each pound of her drum. Later, in a white dress and oversized antlers with dangling chains; her body jutted and flowed like the waves after a wild rainstorm while Satori and Cappel strummed and drummed alongside. The performance more or less looked and felt like a mushroom-incepted fantasy filled with frolicking animal heads playing with an alien. All psychedelics aside, Beats Antique are mind-bending enough without them.

Crystal Castles

Because of a severe rainstorm and temporary festival suspension mid-afternoon on day two, acts leading up to headliners were altered to fit the schedule. Unfortunately, Crystal Castles’ act was cut short and was also late to start! On a better note, the audience was ecstatic when they spotted vocalist Alice Glass’ purple hair and green army jacket get up and producer Ethan Kath behind the keyboard. This being my first time seeing Crystal Castles live, I was ready for the chaotic and thrashing performance that I’ve only had the pleasure of reading about. Glass’ stage presence was undeniable; her punk girl ‘don’t give a damn’ attitude flew through as she sang and flailed about on stage. At some point near the end, she was crowdsurfing and lit a joint, all while carelessly basking in the energy emitting from below her. I may or may not be a little obsessed with her. Okay, maybe more than a little. But I digress; categorizing Crystal Castles’ music style is like being in a graduate level analytical theory class. We could sit and attempt to pinpoint their sound — but the end result will be explicit but still inconclusive. Or maybe that’s just me. Nevertheless, I hope their ferociously skull-penetrating ear-digging musical ingenuity keeps evolving and continues to be pumped through speakers and into my ears.

Zoogma

I was sitting with my campmate before the day’s festivities when our neighbor popped out of his tent. We began chatting about the weather, of all things, and who we were most eager to see. He mentioned a band called Zoogma that was scheduled to start off the main stage on day three. Zoogma is a four-piece electronic group from Oxford, Mississippi; their music is a blend between rock, jazz, hip hop and electronica. While performing renditions of popular songs like Big Poppa by Notorious B.I.G and Starry Eyed by Ellie Goulding, I specifically remember a fan on the guard rail relentlessly jumping and grooving to the music. With one on drums, another on keyboard and bass and the other two alternating between guitar and DJ, Zoogma put on a lively, beat driven, dance party performance.

Skrillex

Sure he’s mainstream and is a commercial success. To say Skrillex has exploded in EDM is an understatement. He’s the grimy wobble, electro synth, hamster vocals dubstep sound that is so distinguished to his brand and has funneled into ear holes all around the world. Since I aimed to cover acts that left a lasting impression, he was unforgettable. Despite the thousands of fans screaming and busting out all sorts of weirdness before him, he remained characteristically humble and played a great show! I saw him live last summer at EDC (Electric Daisy Carnival) in Orlando but this time it was infinitely more centralized to his own originals and remixes. In addition to the raunchy dub drops that we expected from Skrillex, to our pleasant surprise, he incorporated a few funky moombahton-esque dub tunes in his set. Throughout the show, Skrillex wooed the crowd with hype and praise. In the finale, he climbed up on the turntable and lip-synced the vocals to “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites” while gesturing to the audience to indicate that he is no different than the rest of us. Soon after, Ellie Goulding’s voice emanated from the speakers the ambient plucky lead of “Summit” and sends waves of laser lights into the sky. Music is intended to be heard and experienced live; feelings and emotions are best received as the artist intends. And boy did I get the tingles! This show was one of the most memorable thus far in my EDM enthusiast career, and I would not hesitate if given the chance to experience it again.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MORRE PHOTOGRAPHY

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Related posts:

1. CMJ Music Marathon 2012: Festival Review & Recap
2. Culture Collide 2012: Festival Review & Recap
3. Bumbershoot Festival 2012: Festival Review

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

CounterPoint Music Festival 2012: Festival Review & Recap

Every year, CMJ Music Marathon lives up to its nerve-wracking name by offering showgoers an array of shows at a huge number of venues across New York City. But unlike some events that follow a similar model, CMJ is still a great place to begin scouting out up-and-coming bands before they make it big. With enough room to stretch their wings and enough competition to want to work hard, bands playing CMJ are forced to put on put on some of their best shows in some of the tiniest spaces. In our complete CMJ guide, we highlight an array of shows, mostly in the pop and electronic realms, and provide easy listening stations for the best ones so you can decide within seconds if a show is right for you.

SEE ALL 27 FESTIVAL PICKS

Psychic Twin

Tuesday, October 16th @ Piano’s
I was lucky enough to catch this duo last year at CMJ by happy accident. The duo was charmingly lo-fi but they had enough spark to electrify the jaded Brooklyn crowd with their sweet Mates of State-influenced tunes. - JUDY NELSON

Physical Therapy

Wednesday, October 17 @ Public Assembly
Physical Therapy, aka producer/DJ Daniel Fisher, released EP Safety Net to positive reviews in June. Distilling old rave beats with jazz and ambient percussion, and sometimes adding floating samples or vocals, the sound he creates addictive and impressive. - DEVORAH KLEIN LEV-TOV

Poolside

Saturday, October 20th @ Gramercy Theatre
The band basically spells out relaxation with their name choice. Their music videos and album art reiterate that fact; the video for their song “Slow Down” is perfectly California cool. - JUDY NELSON

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Related posts:

1. CMJ Music Marathon 2012: Festival Review & Recap
2. Culture Collide 2012: Festival Preview & Picks
3. Top Pops! Top Tracks of 2012

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

CMJ Music Marathon 2012: Festival Preview & Picks

Jimmy Edgar

The Decibel Festival guide claimed that the Warp Records showcase on Wednesday evening would be for fans of Prince, which led to some confusion for me. Would that be in reference to main headliner and mad music scientist Clark? Certainly not. Then who?

The winner of the prestigious association — and pleasant surprise for the festival — turned out to be 1983-baby and astrology-enthusiast Jimmy Edgar. Edgar, a most handsome and dapper fellow, rose to the stage behind a stripped-down version of the LED light rig he usually travels with, ready to perform his 2012 Hotflush release, Majenta. No hitches here, it seemed… until the projections behind Edgar began to fill the screen.

The generic and low-quality visuals, which were more suitable for Windows 95 screensavers than for Edgar’s clean productions, seemed like a stock offer from Decibel rather than Edgar’s own choice. They became a painfully glaring and vibe-dampening reminder that the newfound “necessity” of supplying electronic shows with accompanying visuals can sometimes go awry when the visuals are tasteless, or of a different taste than the musician’s music. They were distracting, to say the least, and it was unfortunate that habit dictated that they received much more attention than they warranted. (Apologies, I suppose, if they are indeed Edgar’s creation, though I doubt it, and the criticism remains.)

Unfortunate visuals aside, Edgar queued up quite a dance party by passionately embracing every type of electronic music that might even be tangentially related to Prince — from C&C Music Factory-type club jams and dirty ’80s breaks to breathy R&B-influenced slow jams. Soul was at the heart of all of Edgar’s music, and its presence in his body was also clear, from his intense concentration to his spontaneously fabulous uses of vocoder. Such sensory vibage was not lost upon the audience, either. Never have I seen a grouping of men so stoked about the performance of another man, as man after ecstatic man screamed, “Jimmaaaay!!!!!” as though they were going to tear their shirts off in support of Edgar at any given minute. Twas one of the best shows I saw at Decibel, and most certainly one that made a lasting impression.

Clark

UK producer Chris Clark took the stage after Jimmy Edgar to equally adoring fans, including one next to me who wouldn’t stop showing off all of the LPs he had just bought and continuously called Clark by his first name, as though they were actually friends. But just as a shirt-ripping crowd seemed appropriate for Edgar, so did a fanatic one for Clark.

By contrast to Edgar, the visuals accompanying Clark’s set were very much his own and matched the existing aesthetic found in his music videos and on his album covers. High contrast images with loads of film grain provided backgrounds for collaged and dismembered body parts to float around in surreal form. Clark’s workstation, half comprised of a ridiculously tangled mass of cables, also added to a general sense of disorder that matched his sonic output. As a performer, he seemed only minorly concerned about reaching the right moment at the right time. He was sloppy in many of his transitions and definitely in his portrayal of who he is as an artist; he banged blindly at his Moog synthesizer and often cut off beats halfway as he filtered them.

But somehow it’s all okay, because it’s Clark. The frenetic energy he typifies comprises a good portion of his charm and appeal, not necessarily his tendency towards order. From moment to moment, one has absolutely no idea where Clark is headed or what he might do to throw the audience for a loop, but it seems clear that he too has no idea. His performances are brilliant in a similar way that Pavement’s performances are brilliant; they seem completely irreverent. But just as with Pavement, the lack of concern for the audience can become obnoxious at points, particularly for anyone who might want a real dance party. Killing momentum in a set is only part of the game for Clark, and it is certainly not cause for apology. Luckily, his music in and of itself is so impressive, and he manufactures such wonderful sounds out of his extensive hardware setup alone, that his knob-twiddling prowess is enough to command one’s attention.

SEE ALSO: CLARK + WARP RECORDS

Demdike Stare

I was greatly looking forward to the Modern Love showcase, where Andy Stott, Demdike Stare, and Cut Hands would be playing. I had already seen Demdike Stare score Jean Rollin’s La Vampire Nue film live earlier in the week, but despite occasional moments of excellence, it had been very forgettable. I imagined their showcase set would be a vast improvement, as they would be working from their own material this time around. I imagined wrong. Their set was predictably full of dark and droning ambient sounds, accompanied by vintage collages of nature and nude women — but unfortunately, the sounds were far from captivating, and the visuals were apparently a repeat from a previous Seattle show.

Perhaps my vantage point gave Demdike Stare a disadvantage. I was so close to them I could see every button they were pressing and every piece of gear they were using, so I was able to see the awkwardness in which they crossed over one another to share the same pieces of equipment. Spontaneous creations are certainly nothing new in live electronic music, but Miles Whittaker and Sean Canty looked as though they were figuring out how to use their equipment as they went, and their movements seemed under-practiced and completely stilted. At certain segments, textured layers were turned off abruptly as though by accident, creating huge gaping holes where there should presumably have been smoother transitions. The surprised looks on their faces after these hiccups seemed to firmly drive the point home that they weren’t planned misfortunes, though I suppose they could have been stylistic. If so, they were stylized poorly.

It was clear from the crowd’s enthusiasm, though, that they were less skeptical than I was. Demdike Stare’s one-note tooting was exactly what they wanted. And while I agree that there were certainly moments when the duo got into a satisfying groove, I’d expected more.

Andy Stott

To follow Demdike Stare was UK producer Andy Stott, who jumped right into his set with little prep or transition time. Less experimental and gnarly this evening than many of his recorded outputs or his festival showcase partners would’ve led one to believe, Stott upped the entire vibe with energy and all-star dynamism, though he never strayed far from dark and minimal house.

Even so, Stott managed to expertly squeeze in as many satisfyingly pop-structured vocal samples as possible without rendering his set trite, and he had a unique ability to use subtle cues that fell under one’s conscious radar. The stepping stones he snuck in to lead from breaks back into beat drops were always so slight that they were subconsciously successful in preparing a listener to dance when the proper moment came — but one would’ve never realized his trick unless one were paying attention. Stott’s music also stood so powerfully by itself that the horribly mismatched projections of landscapes slowly passing by were conveniently and thankfully omitted from one’s memory, so that one was free to concentrate on the heavy rhythms and the darkness elsewhere in the room.

Next to Jimmy Edgar, Stott’s set was the best one that I saw from Decibel Festival. It was well past 1:00am by the time he came on and I had been destroyed by multiple days of festival carousing, but even so, I couldn’t make myself leave. This captivation paid off. Stott ended his set with a completely unexpected change of pace, by breaking out of the 4/4 mold and into a drumstep or halftime drum n’ bass track that was pummeling and satisfyingly free of frills.

Orbital

Celebrating their first United States tour in over a decade, Orbital were much talked about performers throughout Decibel Festival, and whether or not they could live up to their past reputation was very much a question on everyone’s mind.

As large electronic acts are wont to do these days, the brotherly duo traveled with an extensive lighting and LED display rig. They were selective in its use, turning it off at times in favor of darker or more traditional lighting mechanisms, and I definitely appreciated the occasional respite from sense data overflow. That’s one thing they did right.

Twenty minutes into Orbital’s set and one quickly gathered the other major thing they could do right: transitions. My favorite one of the evening featured the aggressive rapping of a female musician who recalled Nicky Minaj at her strongest. The lyrics, which machinegunned with quick-paced “now now now”‘s and “wow wow wow”‘s, built until they skyrocketed into the sonic stratosphere and eventually erupted into a beat drop. These moments, coupled with Orbital’s neverending desire to fist-pump and emote with their hands, certainly hyped up what I would call a generally undiscerning crowd.

But here the positives stop. Transitions were probably Orbital’s strongest suit was because they used them so often that they became experts at them. The duo’s fist-pumping breakdowns became so predictable that one could count on their resurgence every 16 bars. Even worse was that break after break and build after build, Orbital would bounce back in with breakbeats — a style of electronic music that has grown tired since the days when The Crystal Method and The Prodigy were still at the top of the electronic music scene. Even if Orbital’s breakbeats were huddled beneath Irish faerie-like swells or slightly harsh electronic noises, their moves were unpalatably obvious throughout their entire set, with only the occasional dubstep or house variation.

It makes some sense that Orbital might be a bit rusty and a bit confused about what to offer showgoers on their first stateside shows in some time. But what they should realize is that the Orbital the majority of people know and love is not the current Orbital they are offering. What the audience probably wants is the Orbital that is at least 150% more experimental and more willing to take a risk with different types of music, different types of transitions, and simply pushing the envelope, if even slightly. And sure, that Orbital existed a long time ago, but that Orbital is one they should keep mind of if they want to continue their legacy with any kind of relevancy.

Decibel Festival Photo Gallery

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LYMAY IWASAKI

Monolake

Dalot

Natasha Kmeto

Machinedrum

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Related posts:

1. Decibel Festival 2012: Schedule & Previews
2. Decibel Festival 2012: Robert Henke, Biosphere, The Sight Below Live Show Review (Optical Series)
3. Decibel Festival 2010 : Ben Frost, Grouper, Lawrence English Live Show Review

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Decibel Festival 2012: Andy Stott, Jimmy Edgar, Clark, Demdike Stare, Orbital Live Show Reviews & Photo Gallery

 

In its third year, Culture Collide Festival will be welcoming 63 artists from 25 countries to Los Angeles in the span of four days. Other than SXSW, there are very few festivals that consciously provide such an international scope of the indie music scene. And considering how common it is for international bands to come across visa issues, Culture Collide takes on an admirable task in the name of global harmony. The nice thing about the festival is that most artists schedule more than one show during those four days. So while you may stick to the big names for one night, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to take a chance on a few unknowns that hail from a country across the globe.

SEE ALL 14 FESTIVAL PICKS

of Montreal (USA)

Saturday, October 6 – 12:00am @ The Echoplex
Sunday, October 7th – 8:00pm @ The Main Stage
It’s pretty impossible to not have fun at an of Montreal show. This group is kooky with a whirlwind of pop, psychedelia, electro, and glam. And with six members, it’s always a party on stage. There will probably be some costumes too, so just embrace it, don’t ask questions. of Montreal have recently have recently released Daughter of Cloud, a compilation of 17 of Montreal recordings from the time of their Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? era to the present. The track “Hindlopp Stat” from the album is below, along with the tripped-out music video for “Spiteful Intervention”, from Paralytic Stalks.

Bonde do Rolê (Brazil)

Sunday, October 7 – 5:30pm @ The Main Stage
Even if you don’t understand Portuguese, Bonde do Rolê are so worth your time. Heavily hyped by Diplo, the trio is always out to start a sweaty dance party and is known for singing about having a crazy good time. The group features a female and male MC who roll quick lyrics over club beats that you’d hear in the US and a type of Brazilian dance music called funk carioca. Just remember, it gets pretty sweltering on the other side of the equator.

SEE ALSO: Bonde Do Role + DIPLO + BRAZILIAN ARTISTS & MUSICIANS

Drug Cabin (USA)

Thursday, October 4th – 9:30pm @ Echo Park United Methodist Church
Every project featuring former members of Pretty Girls Make Graves has been pretty legit, and Drug Cabin is no exception. Nathan Thelen teams up with former Ambulance LTD member Marcus Congleton for some delightful indie and folky sounds. Their songs are honest and simple, yet are full of magic. The warm vocals and guitar strums will make you wish that they could serenade you every night.

SEE ALSO: Drug Cabin

Boxeur the Coeur (Italy)

Thursday, October 4th – 8:30pm @ The Echo
Saturday, October 8th – 8:30pm @ Taix Champagne Room
Boxuer the Couer is the project of Pabliz Yocka who lives in Bologna and seems to put no limits on his music. His style of electronic music varies from spacey, cryptic noises to catchy melodies and bright repeated tones. By listening to his album, November Uniform, you can tell that he is a little eccentric, but that seems to be what fuels the diversity and strong danceability in his music. Earlier this year he performed at Primavera Sound and will surely be a nice treat at Culture Collide.

SEE ALSO: ITALIAN ARTISTS & MUSICIANS

Colorfeels (USA)

Thursday, October 4th – 12:00am @ Taix Front Lounge
Sunday, October 7th – 4:00pm @ Red Bull Soundstage
Colorfeels is a band from Nashville that won a contest run by Red Bull for a slot at the festival. And like their name denotes, their take on the indie rock sound is full of colorful touches. Whether it be a glisten of banjo on one song or the adornment of a sax on another, Colorfeels write memorable songs that bring to mind a mix of bands like Fleet Foxes and The Clientele.

Kyst (Poland)

Thursday, October 4th – 7:30pm @ Echo Park United Methodist Church
Friday, October 5th – 7:00pm @ Origami Vinyl
Sunday, October 7th – 7:00pm @ Taix Front Lounge
Don’t let Kyst fool you. Their songs may start off lethargic, but give them a few seconds to reveal where they are going, and you’ll be surprised by their dramatic and sweeping movements. Their music combines the grandiose touches of Beirut, atmospheric interludes of the Album Leaf and angular guitar lines of Maps & Atlases.

SEE ALSO: POLISH ARTISTS & MUSICIANS

Unknown Mortal Orchestra (NZ/USA)

Friday, October 5th – 11:30pm @ Taix Champagne Room
Unknown Mortal Orchestra make fuzzy melodies that are fun and easy to get stuck in your head. While there is no lack of distortion, you never feel like you get lost in the nebulous psychedelic world. Instead you are actively entertained with vibrant guitar phrases, playful beats and quirky, almost-childlike vocals.

Zola Jesus (USA)

Friday, October 5th – 11:30pm @ The Echo
Zola Jesus’ voice is one of the most commanding voices out there today. Having studied opera at a young age, her voice is unwavering, and it is compelling to see how she adjusts it to fit different moods. While her music is mostly dark, she is able to add an almost godly tone and can make some songs sound warm and vulnerable as well.

SEE ALSO: Zola Jesus + Sacred Bones Records

Sudden Weather Change (Iceland)

Friday, October 5th – 9:30pm @ The Echo
Sun, October 7th – 9:30pm @ Taix Champagne Room
It doesn’t take long to notice that Sudden Weather Change are influenced by the angst of ’90s rock. They have a youthful sound full of grinding guitars and tempo changes. There are times where their music also brings to mind bands that you’d find on Polyvinyl Records such as American Football and Braid. It is common for their songs have loud bursts of passions at times, while other songs convey a more introverted melancholy mood. With that combination, you can expect a booming and complex live show.

SEE ALSO: ICELANDIC ARTISTS & MUSICIANS

Magic Wands (USA)

Friday, October 5 – 9:30pm @ Taix Champagne Room
Magic Wands are a dream pop duo from Los Angeles with sharp beats and a tropical spirit. Rather than creating sunny beach melodies, the duo uses moody lyrics and tender female vocals to set the scene for nightfall at a sandy place. Grab a piña colada and enjoy the night breeze from the nearby ocean.

Niki & The Dove (Sweden)

Saturday, October 6th – 11:30pm @ Taix Champagne Room
Listening to Swedish electropop group Niki & The Dove is like watching a fairy sprinkle her glittery fairy dust around the word or watching a shooting star. In other words, it’s magical. The electronics are smart and well thought-out to produce optimal dance music. At the same time, there are some earthy tones that create a nice balance and add some romanticism. The live show should be a stunning sight.

SEE ALSO: SWEDISH ARTISTS & MUSICIANS

Admiral Fallow (Scotland)

Saturday, October 6 – 10:30pm @ Taix Champagne Room
Admiral Fallow is one of those groups that seem unsuspecting at first, but then end up blowing your mind. The Glasgow five-piece has a grandiose indie pop sound incorporating dulcet piano melodies, flute, clarinet and glorious group singing.

SEE ALSO: UNITED KINGDOM MUSICIANS

Pageants (USA)

Saturday, October 6 – 9:30pm @ Echo Park United Methodist Church
Simply put, this Los Angeles duo is just lovely. While the songs are soft and a bit fuzzy, the band really turns heads with its spell-bounding vocals and floating melodies. Pageants is a nice dose of dream pop that is not pretentious.

DIIV (USA)

Sunday, October 7th – 6:00pm @ Red Bull Soundstage
DIIV make music that you’d expect from a band on Captured Tracks, and considering that the band was started by Zachary Cole Smith, who plays guitar in Beach Fossils, the hazy songs make sense. However, the song compositions carry a tempo kick that makes the band stand out and engages listeners a bit more than most bands of this genre. Instead of sticking to an aesthetic that seems completely worn out, the music has a touch of sunshine and crispness, sort of like the moment on a foggy day when the fog starts to dissolve.

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Related posts:

1. Culture Collide 2012: Festival Review & Recap
2. CMJ Music Marathon 2012: Festival Preview & Picks
3. SIFF 2012 Festival Preview: Latin American & African Film Picks

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Culture Collide 2012: Festival Preview & Picks