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6 articles from 2008

6 October 2008 9:01 PM, PDT | From avclub.com | See recent The AV Club news

It's appropriate that the work of the late Bob Ross, the happily earnest, afro-sporting host of PBS' The Joy Of Painting, adorns the cover of Annuals' sophomore full-length Such Fun. The indie-pop group seems to live in one of Ross' fantasy worlds, brightly skipping through vibrant landscapes to the beat of their own shining, innocent pop tunes. 2006's Be He Me was a relaxing breath of fresh air from the orchestral intensity of Arcade Fire and their imitators, and Such Fun continues Annuals' knack for taking the hollow sounds of The Cure and The Walkmen and filling it in with cheery exuberance. Like a Ross painting, Annuals' sound looks impeccably unblemished; there's something refreshing about the clean polish of melodic mini-epics such as "Confessor." But, also like Ross paintings, its songs' easy formula becomes uninteresting with repetition: Such Fun soars with wide-open harmonies—none more so than "Springtime," where...

Chris Mincher

8 September 2008 9:08 PM, PDT | From avclub.com | See recent The AV Club news

Will Sheff has been known to balk at the term "lit-rock," but there's no getting around the fact that the Okkervil River frontman can be wordy. On last year's mostly awesome arts-and-entertainment deconstruction The Stage Names, Sheff's punk sneering and stalker crooning occasionally came off like a chat with a brilliant, well-read, too-talkative friend: At a certain point, it became tough to pay attention. Remarkably, though, the album's "sequel," The Stand Ins, feels relatively uncluttered. Sheff's narratives are still generous with details about porn stars ("Starry Stairs" finds them "slithering up rose corridors") and bland rich kids ("you wrote your thesis on the Gospel of Thomas"), but they're also more focused than before, sharply describing characters who embrace the lies they find in art or in their heads for the sake of sanity. Backing away from the eager-to-astonish, Arcade Fire-like grandeur of the last album, the songs often...

Spencer Kornhaber

4 August 2008 9:03 PM, PDT | From avclub.com | See recent The AV Club news

It's oddly reassuring that while bands like No Age and Abe Vigoda pump new life into L.A.'s musical bloodstream, blandly competent groups like The Airborne Toxic Event crank out the modern-day equivalent of Sunset Strip sleaze. The outfit's debut includes 10 songs, at least two of which are about a fresh-faced innocent arriving in the draining city fresh off the bus ("Missy") and "all these drugs and one-night stands" (the unintentionally ironically titled "Something New"). Somewhere, Axl is smiling. Their riffs are appropriately of the moment: "Sometime After Midnight" has Arcade Fire guitars and bombast to spare, but mostly, The Airborne Toxic Event sounds like another emo variant on post-punk, all start-stop jangle guitars. Lead vocalist Mikel Jollett toggles between a deep-voiced croon ("Papillon") and high-pitched whining. It's all perfectly competent and smoothly produced, and it's polished...

Vadim Rizov

19 May 2008 9:09 PM, PDT | From avclub.com | See recent The AV Club news

The DVD/Cd set A Skin, A Night & The Virginia Ep positions an hourlong documentary as the star of the show, but the album's worth of extra music is what should ultimately sell it. A Skin, A Night was shot and directed by French filmmaker Vincent Moon, who found Internet fame with a series of "Take Away Shows" featuring bands playing stripped-down songs in unusual, intimate settings—Arcade Fire in an elevator, R.E.M. in a car, The National around a table. There's no denying he has an incredible eye and sensibility, but The National recording the dark, elegant Boxer apparently didn't offer much story arc. There are hints of tension and doubt, but mostly A Skin, A Night offers a pretty, artsy, slightly boring hour of conversations, live performances, and recording sessions. The Virginia Ep, on the...

Josh Modell

13 May 2008 2:30 AM, PDT | From Digitalspy | See recent digitalspy news

Arcade Fire will compose the score for Richard Kelly's horror film The Box, Pitchfork reports.

The official website for producer Markus Dravs revealed that his next project would be "with Arcade Fire on a soundtrack for the forthcoming Richard Kelly film".

Kelly had earlier teased about the Montreal group's involvement in the movie, posting on his MySpace page that he had started to "work with a very famous band who . . .

Simon Reynolds

7 April 2008 12:14 AM, PDT | From wenn.com | See recent WENN news

Canadian singer Feist lead the way at the country's Juno Music Awards on Sunday night - scooping five gongs including Artist of the Year.

The Nova Scotia, Canada-born star also took home the awards for Single of the Year for 1234, Songwriter of the Year and Album of the Year and Pop Album of the Year for her third solo Lp The Reminder.

Singer/songwriter Michael Buble took home the Juno Fan Choice Award, R+B star Rihanna landed the prize for International Album of the Year and rockers Arcade Fire scooped Alternative Album of the Year.

Other winners included Wintersleep who were honoured with the New Group of the Year award, Blue Rodeo, who took home the gong for Best Group, Paul Brandt landed Country Recording of the Year and Finger Eleven took Rock Album of the Year.

The ceremony took place on 6 April in Calgary.

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6 articles from 2008