Movies for Music Lovers: 2009 Edition Click here for the2008 editionI'm always pleased when my top 10 doesn't look like anybody else's, but I'd never set out to create something unique just to stand out from the crowd. Not unless my heart was really in it.Last year, it was all about the re-release of Jerzy Skolimowski's long-lost Deep End (and this year, the reissue of two forgotten Sylvester albums from the early-1970s top my music list).But not all years are created equal. In 2006, I gave pride of placeto 1969's Army of Shadows, indicating that the year had nothingbetter to offer—not that I don't stand by Jean-Pierre Melville'samazing movie—but I re

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A Surp-risingly Cohesive Whole Dios, We Are Dios, Buddy-head Records [2/16/10]On their third full-length, Cali quartet Dios tosses a grab bag of styles and moods into the mix and makes them into a surprising-ly cohesive whole. Driving beats collide with acoustic guitar inter-ludes, while treated vocals spar with enchanting chimes. As with Black Moth Super Rainbow, they also wield the flute, an instru-ment making quite a comeback lately, with aplomb. Fans of Beck and the Beta Band would do wise to give We Are Dios a try. Note: According to the AMG, "In summer 2004, guitarist RonnieJames Dio served Dios with a cease and desist order, citing potential co

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Movie of the Month: Part 13I recently reviewed the fol-lowing film forVideo Librarian, and thought the results were worth sharing.THE MERRY GENTLEMAN [***1/2](Michael Keaton, US, 2008, 97 mins.)Last summer, Michael Keaton (Batman, Game 6)made his directorial debut with The Merry Gentle-man, a two-pronged character study shot in shades of noir.The set-up begins in Chicago with Keaton's Frank Logan wan-dering through the wintery weather. Kate Frazier (Kelly Mac-donald), meanwhile, lives in an unnamed town with another man(Bobby Cannavale), and enters the scene with a bruised eye. Af-ter her cop companion leaves for work, she packs up her stuff,catches a

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Search ResultsEvery few months, I check Google to see where my re-views (and oth-er ephem-era) are ending up. Here are some of the more interesting results.Cinema Cinema:AndMoreAgain review of Exile BabyCinema of the World:Siffblog review of Skin, SkinDVD Beaver:Amazon review of Food, Inc. Fandango:Amazon review of This Is ItHot Splice:Siffblog photo of director Barry JenkinsMagnolia:Humpday thanksReel Black:Amazon review of Music Is the WeaponReverb Nation: AndMoreAgain reviewof The End of Suffering Rivercoast Film: Amazon review of American MethThe Spiritualized Forums:Wire interview with Loop's Robert HampsonTracyMorgan.net:Amazon review of Totally

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Eat, For This Is My BodyBlack Moth Super Rain-bow, Eat-ing Us, Grave-face Eating Us is like the answer to a dream I didn't know I had.Imagine if Air re-recorded Moon Safari under the influence ofsome powerful psychotropics and invited a few old folkies andyoung dance denizens to the party. In an ideal world, the re-sults from that schizophrenic soirée would resemble the lat-est enchantment from this mysterious Pittsburgh collective.Goofy video for a great song.Don't go looking to the glossy booklet for further information,however, other than song titles. Like the cover, it consists en-tirely of black and white photographic collages daubed withsplashes

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Acts of Com-municationHotel St. George, City Boy Lemon, This Is TightropeAdd singer/guitar-ist Matt Binder tothe list of Ameri-cans who think—or wish—they'dbeen born in Brit-ain. Growing up,I was often surpris-ed by the numberof Brits who sangsans accent until I heard Herman's Hermits and the Kinks.This San Diego quartet doesn't bring either act to mind,though they've probably got a few UK records in their col-lection, since they combine precise vocals with layers of fuzzand reverberating beats, like a cross between the Stone RosesNew Order, and the Vapours (that's a compliment, by the way).Note: Vinyl and digital download only.Julie the Band, An Act

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December Reviews These are the reviews and other pieces I'm working on this month.Amazon DVDs: The Edge of Love, Hung (HBO Series) - Season One, Bewitch-ed - The Complete Eighth Season [four-disc set], Dare, andMental - The Complete First Season [four-disc set].Amazon Theatricals: Brothers (Jim Sheridan directsJake Gyllenhaal, Toby Maguire, and Natalie Portman), In-victus (Clint Eastwood directs Morgan Freeman and MattDamon), Broken Embraces (Pedro Almodóvar directsPenélope Cruz), and The Imaginarium of Doctor Par-nassus (Terry Gilliam directs Heath Ledger).Still playing (or yet to open): Coco before Chanel, Law Abiding Citizen, Me and Orson Welles, T

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Fountain of EverythingVivian Girls, Everything Goes Wrong, In the RedSo often on their second record, a band will tighten things up inorder to present a more precise version of their signature sound.To which, Brooklyn's Vivian Girls say, in essence, "Screw that!"On Everything Goes Wrong, they crank up the volume,quicken the pace, and color outside the lines. This full-steam-a-head approach breeds excitement, but at the expense of finesse,i.e. their schoolyard sing-a-long vocals are even unrulier thanbefore. Not that I'm complaining—not much, at any rate.As on their self-titled debut, the trio's girl-group harmonies getthe job done, but enunciation goe

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Movie of the Month: Part 12I recently reviewed the following film for VideoLibrarian, and thought the results were worth sharing.IL DIVO [****](Paulo Sorren-tino, Italy, 20-08, 110 mins.)With his audacious portrait of Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, Paulo Sorrentino (The Consequences of Love)reinvents the biopic—or at least turns it inside out.If comparisons to Nixon aren't completely off the mark, they'realso misleading (New York Times critic Stephen Holden's cita-tion of the British miniseries I, Claudius makes more sense).While Oliver Stone offered a conventionally Freudian reading ofthe former president, Sorrentino trades back story for s

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The Un-real Is Real Broadcast and the Focus Group, Inves-tigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age, Warp Records"You feel that this is all really happen-ing, and you’re in it up to your neck."-- Lee Arizuno, The Quietus reviewBirmingham's Broadcast (Trish Keenan and James Cargill)and artist/musician the Focus Group (Julian House, the foun-der of Ghost Box Records) fill this collaboration with 23 tracksof beautiful, sometimes scary weirdness (House has design-ed every one of Broadcast's eye-catching album covers).I love the beauty, which stems from theunion between Keenan's multi-trackedmutterings and the chiming, cascadinglullaby-like melodies, but have mix

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We Had SylvesterSylvester and the Hot Band, The Blue Thumb Collection,Hip-O SelectSan Francicso didn't need me. They had Sylvester.-- Bowie on his failure to sell out the Bay in '73This might be my fav-orite release of 2009—it's certainly in the topfive. No matter thatThe Blue Thumb Collection contains material recorded between 1972-73.The time is ripe for a Sylvester revival. And I'm not just talkingabout the disco icon behind "(You Make Me Feel) Mighty Real,"but the man as a whole: drag performer (see The Cockettes), BayArea icon (read The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, the Music, the Seventies in San Francisco), and gospel-funk entertainer(hear th

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