You Should Know About: Crippled Black Phoenix

Crippled Black Phoenix is bits and pieces of other outfits brought together to make some seriously awesome aural deliciousness. You have Justin Greaves, former drummer of Electric Wizard, Dominic Aitchison from Mogwai, Nial Mcgaughey of 3D House of Beef, and Andy Semmens and Kostas Panagiotou, both from Panthiest. Really, Mogwai is the only band that we here have really spent a great deal of time with, but that doesn't matter. What matters is the songs found on this debut album, A Love Of Shared Disasters, are a thing of beauty. The music ranges from ambient sounds to folkish ditties and rock freakouts. I picked this up on vinyl, so I haven't spent enough time with it yet to really talk about it intelligently, but I discovered the limited edition 10" vinyl that preceded this filed away in the Mogwai section a couple of months ago and listened to both sides three or four times in one sitting. That's kind of saying something if you are me. The standout track at this point in the listening experience is "Suppose I told the truth (why I had to go)". It doesn't come with a lyric sheet, so I don't know exactly what it's about yet, but let's just say the music and lyrics are just as heartfelt and immediate as the name of the song. The track immediately following this, "When You're Gone," continues with these themes. When the vocals kick it up a notch a few minutes in, going from soft delivery to a gravelly pleading, it makes for a chilling experience. Geoff Barrow from Portishead liked them enough to sign them to his Invada Records label, so that should be enough for you to want to check this out as soon as you can. This first offering is being billed as part one of a trilogy. I really can't wait to hear the other two installments.

Crippled Black Phoenix on MySpace

Buy A Love Of Shared Disasters

Official Site

Invada Records

Sunshine

Title: Sunshine
Cast: Cillian Murphey, Michelle Yeoh, Chris Evans, Cliff Curtis
Director: Danny Boyle
Writer: Alex Garlan
Studio: Fox Searchlight

The story goes like this: the year is 2057 and the sun is dying. A crew of Earths best and brightest are sent into space with a device to help jump start the sun and create a "star within a star" to save humanity. We join the crew of Icarus II just before they are crossing over the point where those aboard will lose all communication with Earth. The astronauts send their last warm messages of hope home, with promises of rescuing the planet and a safe return. Early on, we learn that there was a similar voyage attempted about seven years earlier, with the crew of Icarus I disappearing without a trace. Just as the second crew is celebrating their passing of the planet Mercury and their last final steps towards completing their mission, they receive an eerie distress call that is deciphered to be coming from the long lost Icarus I. The decision must be made- does the crew continue on and complete the mission and disregard the S.O.S. or do they try to attempt a rendezvous with their sister ship and try to rescue any surviving crew members. And that's where things start to go wrong.

Much has been made regarding Danny Boyle's genre hopping. From Trainspotting to The Beach to 28 Days Later to Millions and now Sunshine, the gent just doesn't seem to be interested in making the same movie twice. As far as I can tell, this is being celebrated more than it's being debated. It's refreshing to sit down to a movie by a familiar director and not really know what you are going to get out of your cinematic experience. With Sunshine, Boyle has attempted the epic space thriller, and all in all comes out with all guns blazing.

The cinematic direction of Sunshine is perfect for a movie made about deep space. It feels immediate and lonely, claustrophobic and uneasy. This is the perfect movie to see in the theater as watching it in complete darkness only adds to these tensions and worries. If one were to wait and watch this one on DVD in the comfort of their living room with the lights on and their feet propped up on the couch...well, it just wouldn't feel the same.

The acting is rather well. Cillian Murphey plays Cappa, they physicist who is forced to make the big decision- continue with the mission or meet up with Icarus I? Adequate supporting performances come from Michelle Yeoh and Chris Evans (Fantastic Four's Human Torch). It's nice to see Evans in a different role, although it's easy for one to note that it seems like he might be starting to be typecast in movies that seem to always want to turn up the heat.



It feels like space thrillers go one of two ways. Either you have the straight forward panic mission, where everything that goes wrong is more or less explainable (Apollo 13), or you have the types of movies where the plot is thickened by some fantastical element that could only happen in the outer regions of the universe (2001: A Space Odessy, Solaris or the more or less forgotten Event Horizon). The twist in Sunshine is it's kind of a mixture of the two and thats what helps to set it apart.


photos copyright belongs to Fox Searchlight

Celebrating The B-Side

B-sides are exciting. Artists that really know how to recognize the art of the b-side and offer up that extra value for their fans are even more exciting. What does a b-side usually indicate? Leftovers? Not-good-enoughs? Some musicians cry bollocks in the face of such statements. Some musicians ask the question, "Why shouldn't the b-side be just as good as the album cuts?" Morrissey is one of those artists (producer of quality b-sides and regularly plays them in concert). Oasis is another (anything off of The Masterplan can more than hold it's own up against the first two proper albums). Radiohead is yet another (Amnesiac has been lovingly referred to as Kid B). And now we have the Arctic Monkeys.

Before even releasing Favourite Worst Nightmare the Monkeys more or less could have unleashed their b-sides record. In fact, they kind of did. Last year saw the vinyl release of Unreleased Tracks, Demos & Live on arctic white wax. Side A had 5 unreleased demos, while side B uncovered three live songs, another demo and "Riot Van" with alternate lyrics.

The point of all of this is this- it's so nice to see a current band understand the fun and collectibility a fan can experience when they don't have to wait years between records to experience new and unheard music from their favorite musicians. Since the April release of Nightmare I have purchased no less than eight additional new tracks from the Arctic Monkeys that weren't included on that release, all of which are just as good as both proper albums.

The most recent tracks come from the "Fluorescent Adolescent" single, which arrives in three formats (CD, 10 inch, 7 inch). Both the CD and 10 inch have three b-sides, four tracks total while the 7 inch takes the single and includes "The Bakery" on the flip side. I would like to imagine these guys are just getting warmed up. So keep the b-sides coming Monkeys, and hopefully some of my other cherished bands will start cribbing your notes.

CD and 10 inch:

1. "Fluorescent Adolescent"
2. "The Bakery"
3. "Plastic Tramp"
4. "Too Much To Ask"

7 inch:

A side: "Fluorescent Adolescent"
B side: "The Bakery"

Buy it from Domino

"Fluorescent Adolescent" video:



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While we are on the music note (nice pun!), I would like to continue applauding the record labels who have been recently rewarding vinyl buyers with a little something extra. While unreleased tracks not included on the CD version are always welcome and probably preferred, many labels have been including a free digital download with the purchase of the LP. Merge, Touch and Go and the Beggars / Matador family have all been doing this for some time now. What's interesting is the majors are starting to catch on now as well. Purchasers of Wilco's Sky Blue Sky and Interpol's Our Love To Admire will discover a full CD version of the album safely tucked away in the record sleeve. Keep up the good work music industry- we might just save this bitch yet.

- Seth

You Should Know About: Minus Story

Minus Story - "Stitch Me Up"

Released last month on Jagjaguwar, My Ion Tuss is the latest release from Minus Story. Listeners familiar with Explosions In The Sky probably won't be surprised to find that this was produced by John Congleton (who twiddled the knobs for The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place and All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone) . Both the guitar and the drums could easily be straight off either of the aforementioned EITS records, but that's where the comparisons end. John Geiger's lyrics are delivered in a way that gives this song a fine balance between ethereal pop and wide open post-rock. This is my first introduction to Minus Story and based on this record, I'll be tracking down their earlier releases soon.

Purchase My Ion Tuss

- Seth