Despite being home to two of the 20th century’s most talented artists, John Cale and Tom Jones (duh), Wales’ place in Great Britain’s pop pantheon is decidedly small. And though Stereophonics and Manic Street Preachers were bit players in the Britpop movement of the mid-to-late ’90s, the best Welsh band by far (sorry Charlotte Church) […]
Kip Berman
Posted inMovies & TV
Austen City Limits
Pride & Prejudice: Better than that Headline
The umpteenth retelling of Pride & Prejudice remains faithful to the plot, if not entirely to the spirit, of Jane Austen’s late 18th century social satire. The noble yet provincial Bennets, beset with five daughters and no male heir, teeter on the brink of financial ruin. The voluble, vapid Mrs. Bennet (Brenda Blethyn) feverishly frets […]
Posted inMusic
They Are the Village Green
Pop Pirates Set Sail
Like a lighter that sparks and sparks but never quite catches fire, J. Nicholas Allard has long been a source of frustration to those waiting for him to realize the fits of promise that he has shown throughout the many incarnations of the Village Green. Whether picking an ill-fated fight with a crowd of drunks […]
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Al Qaeda Soundsystem
Who Needs an Army, When You’ve Got an iBook?
Pullout: Mercury Music Issue
Posted inMovies & TV
I’m Staying Home
Virgins No More!
When I was a teenager, I was pretty sure I’d grow up to be a 40-year-old virgin. Thankfully, Hollywood offered hope that even dorky white kids from the suburbs could, someday, do the nasty. While deflowerings in horror flicks usually have all the moral subtlety of Chick tracts, other genres don’t stray too far from […]
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Cause For Celebration
The Ponys Grow Into Thoroughbreds
The Ponys Wed August 10 Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside The Ponys care. Yes, the same Ponys who no more than a year ago were gleefully singing “Let’s Kill Ourselves” and “I Love You ‘Cause (You Look Like Me)” on their In The Red debut, Laced With Romance. Today, it seems that the Ponys […]
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Mercury Video Picks
Calling Mr. Dahl
Whether you’re 6, 10, 25, or 007, the grown-up world is a frightening place. Children’s author Roald Dahl does his best to create fictional worlds that, though populated by giant peaches, telekinetic first graders, and witches, speak to our very real fears of abandonment and isolation. Though Tim Burton’s recent (acid) trip to Willy Wonka’s […]
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Portland’s Magic Number
A Three-Way (Almost) CD Release
The Kingdom, Point Juncture, WA, Invisible Fri July 1 Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside Though it is a double–rather than the originally planned triple–CD release party, tonight witnesses a new generation of Portland bands casting their hearts, hopes, and frailties into the ever-rising sea of local independent art. And while CD release shows are […]
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Book Smarts
More Than Text and Violins
The Books Sat May 14 Holocene 1001 SE Morrison Experimental post-rock was probably originally commissioned by the Chicago chapter of the Independent Coffee House Workers Union during the early 1990s–in order, I suspect, to combat the workplace hazards of Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, and Pearl Jam. From Tortoise and Gastr del Sol to […]
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Top of the Scotpops
PETA-Approved Glaswegians
Dogs Die In Hot Cars Sunday April 17 Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside I DID NOT invent the phrase “Scotpop,” though I wish I had. However, as so many exciting bands have recently emerged from the home of the Loch Ness Monster, Sean Connery, and Franz Ferdinand, this moniker is both a convenient and […]
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L’état C’est Moi Moi Moi
Sex, Drugs, and… More Sex?
Louis XIV Thur April 7th Loveland 320 SE 2nd Ave The reign of Louis XIV (1643-1715) saw the ascendancy of France, both politically and culturally, as the pre-eminent European power of the 17th century. His ability to make synonymous the body politic and his person, asserted in the famous utterance, “L’état, c’est moi” (I am […]