Let me take a quick moment here and break away from talking about music to talk a little bit about another great passion of mine, which is film. I realize this isn’t a film site, and while I’ve considered adding film commentary and reviews to what I’m already doing with music, it’s not something I’ve pulled the trigger on…yet. So pardon me if I want to talk movies for a quick minute with an eye on hopefully expanding your pop cultural horizons. If you don’t like it, skip straight to the mp3s. Still, I’ll make this brief. Late August isn’t exactly the best time for movies. Or at least traditionally it hasn’t been. It’s sort of the buffer zone between the big summer blockbusters and the awards bait prestige pictures that really start to emerge in October. But if you pay enough attention to independent films and are equally adept with technology these days, late August is actually a great time to be alive. While I’m a hardcore movie theater attendee (I’ve seen just about every widely released movie from 2013 so far in the theater), I’m not opposed to watching something on my flat screen and surround sound setup at home. I prefer the distractionless, reclining chair, massive screen and pitch black ambiance of a theater, but for some that’s just not a realistic option. Maybe you live in the middle of nowhere and the one movie theater near you is really run down. Maybe you’ve got a megaplex nearby, but ticket prices are so high you don’t have the cash to go as often as you’d like. Independent cinema has got you (somewhat) covered these days, thanks to the advent of Video on Demand (VOD). I’m not going to argue in favor of it, because I firmly believe in the power of the theatrical experience with an audience, but I have found it useful recently to help me see some films that might otherwise have never been able to see. Movies like Drinking Buddies, starring Olivia Wilde, Anna Kendrick, Jake Johnson and Ron Livingston. It’s a great film directed by Joe Swanberg and it features not only some great Chicago locations (Revolution Brewery and The Empty Bottle among them), but has a strong soundtrack with songs from artists like Foxygen, Night Beds and Here We Go Magic. Worth your time? Absolutely. Available on VOD through iTunes, Amazon and some other online media purveyors. If you don’t live in New York or Chicago, there’s a chance the film won’t ever make it to your local art house theater (if you even have one). The same goes for a movie like Lovelace, which has everyone from Amanda Seyfried to James Franco to Sharon Stone and Peter Sarsgaard in its cast. It might seem from the trailer that it’s a basic biopic on Deep Throat star Linda Lovelace, but I assure you it goes way beyond that. Good luck finding it in more than a handful of theaters around the country at the moment, but VOD will let you screen it at about half the cost of a traditional movie theater ticket. I guess my lengthy point is this: There are a lot of good movies out right now, and if you’ve got a movie theater nearby showing them I hope you’ll go. But if that’s not the case or you simply don’t want to wait for a theatrical release, please be aware that VOD is an option you have. If it’s going to expose you to more interesting and challenging films than the ones currently being peddled in mass marketplaces, then maybe a night in is just what the doctor ordered. Speaking of doctors, let me prescribe you 10cc’s of Pick Your Poison. Be sure to ingest tracks from Botany, Buffalo Tales, John Davis, Julie Mar, Lemonade, Shark? and The Tranq. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream songs from A$AP Ferg, Eagulls, Ejecta (Joel Ford of Ford & Lopatin’s new project with Fight Bite/Neon Indian’s Leanne Macomber), M.I.A. and Polica.
Bad Cop – Light On (SOSA Remix)
Buffalo Tales – Puppet Strings
Josh Damigo – How Am I Not Supposed to Fall
Silent Rider & Camille Corazón – Black Crown
The Tranq – Dissident
SOUNDCLOUD
A$AP Ferg – Hood Pope
Distortion Mirrors – Prom Queen
Eagulls – Nerve Endings
Ejecta – Jeremiah (The Denier)
M.I.A. – UNBREAK My Mixtape
Polica – Chain My Name