About
Following
Starring: Michael Cera, Steve Buscemi, Ray Liotta, Portia Doubleday
Director: Miguel Arteta
Running Time: 90 Minutes
Year: 2010
Youth in Revolt is an adaptation of a novel of the same name and stars Michael Cera as nerd (of course) Nick Twisp who is a virgin and seeks the girl of his dreams. One thing leads to another (as most films do) and he finds her, but there are several complications throughout the film which get him and his evil side (Francois) into trouble.
The idea of the film sounds very appealing and it has all the right factors to make into a nice teen comedy however there is something missing. After seeing the trailer and reading a few positive reviews my expectations were high, but the film definitely lacked something. A case of what could have been once again..
6/10
Video Nasties - Jellybean
Really underrated band and album, this song is so good.
Beach Fossils - Daydream (Download via Mediafire)
The perfect music for this weather, absolutely awesome.
Sleigh Bells - Run the Heart (Download via Mediafire)
Sleigh Bells are a two piece from Brooklyn, New York and have just recently released their debut album, ‘Treats’ on M.I.A.’s label. The album is full of (the pun had to be done) treats and none more so than ‘Run the Heart’ which epitomises everything great about the band. The soft and touching vocals mixed with the heavy bass and music makes this band such an incredible sound.
Avi Buffalo - What’s In It For? (Download via Mediafire)
This is a lovely summer video which is very fitting with the weather at the moment, oh yeah and the song is pretty sweet too. I had the pleasure of seeing Avi Buffalo last weekend at ATP Curated by Pavement and they were fantastic. This is my favourite video of the week.
Male Bonding - Nothing Used To Hurt (Download via Mediafire)
In the past couple of weeks Dalston trio Male Bonding have arrived in my life and thank God they have. It is so refreshing to hear a British band making lo-fi music so well, most of the best music at the moment appears to be coming from across the shores. So it is always awesome to discover a band from this country who are making wonderful lo-fi simple rock music. This song comes from their debut album ‘Nothing Hurts’ and is easily my favourite song at the moment.
Canadian collective Broken Social Scene return with their fourth studio album on the back of two outstanding releases in ‘You Forgot It in People’ (2002) and ‘Broken Social Scene’ (2005) so it was always going to be a difficult task to make another great record.
Five years in the making, ‘World Sick’ the opening track from the album begins and by the end of it those five years seems totally worth it. The world epic is one of the most over used and annoying words currently, but the only word that comes to mind when describing ‘World Sick’ is epic. At six minutes forty-nine seconds it is an epic opening track that reminds you of just how good Broken Social Scene can be.
One of the most impressive things about the record is the depth that it shows and the variation of songs that it boasts. Songs like ‘World Sick’ and ‘Ungrateful Little Father’ showing their ability to write longer more grand songs.
Further from that this album shows that Broken Social Scene can write really good pop songs with songs like ‘Art House Director’, ‘Texico Bitches’, ‘All to All’, ‘Chase Scene’ and ‘Forced To Love’ all strong candidates for singles.
Songs like ‘Sweetest Kill’, ‘Water in Hell’ and ‘Sentimental X’s’ are slightly softer but really show off the wonderful vocals of the various members of the band. Instrumental track ‘Meet Me in the Basement’ manages to keep you dancing, nodding, moving, humming etc for it’s entirety and is conformation of just how good Broken Social Scene be in any form of song writing.
Commonly with a lot of bands is that the more records they make the worse they get, you’ve only got to look at British examples like Bloc Party, Maximo Park, The Rakes, The Futureheads etc. However it appears North American bands get better with each release, LCD Soundsystem, The National, Spoon, Yo La Tengo come to mind. Broken Social Scene are a band who fit that mould and with the release of ‘Forgiveness Rock Record’ Broken Social Scene release an album totally on par with the previous two and possibly even better (time will tell).
9/10
