Some New Tunes + The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

First up...

Here We Go Magic :: Collector

HWGM is a definitely a breakout band from last year; they hail from Brooklyn.  This new track from their upcoming June release (on the always great Secretly Canadian) sees them (that's actually a change... the last album was recorded on a four-track by just one guy; now he has a whole band, which I actually saw him play with when they opened for Grizzly Bear last June) with a little bit of a more upbeat kinetic sound.  I really enjoyed it... I always like to see bands doing something different than what they have already done.  Oh, and it has some nice art to go with it, which is always a plus for me.
mp3: Collector [Link to Secretly Canadian's site... sorry they took the direct mp3 down... now you can get it for the price of an email]

Fitz and the Tantrums
Just heard about these guys from none other than a commenter on this blog!!  See, it is productive!  These guys are from the LA area, so that's another bonus... They have a very 60s soul sound, which is certianly what they are going for... I mean their name, and the cover art below... it's excellent.  Check it out.

DOWNLOAD THE SONGS FOR AN EMAIL BELOW (they are from a live session the band did at KCRW... also check out the song Breaking the Chains of Love)

  

  

Ariel Pink and the Haunted Graffiti :: Round and Round
This one has really been heating up on the interwebs the past week or two, and for good reason.  I had never really listened to a lot of Ariel Pink up until now, but this track has certainly turned me on.  For those uninitiated, it's a super 60s, maybe even 70s sound that is really generated by the bass used and the echoed vocals.  It's got a nice melowness to it, which maybe even gives it a little bit of a dance feel some how... Horrorshow good stuff if you ask me..
mp3: Round and Round

And Now, For Something Completely Different (Props if you know what I am referencing)... A movie/book suggestion/review (sort of... more of a suggestion)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
By now, you have probably read this book or seen somebody reading this book... mostly likely they bumped into you because they were walking around completely engrossed in it... or at least heard something about it.  To sum it up, it is a complex, multi-layered (I find I use those two words in a row a lot when describing stuff on this blog... I should probably practice my writing skills...) mystery novel that will DEFINITELY keep your eyes glued to the book.  I hesitate to call it a thriller, because of a) the fact that much of it is really the story of the main character slowly trying to gather each piece of a massive, multi-generational puzzle, and b) it is not the type of book that I like to call a Roman de'Gare (which means train novel... and is also the name of a French movie that is also the opposite of a train story), i.e. a John Grisham style book, although you will zoom through its 600 pages because it is so good.  Even though it hasn't excellent complexities and twists in it, what I find most appealing about, and what I believe most people who read it find to be most appealing, is of course, the girl with the dragon tattoo.  She is one of the most interesting characters in a book that I have read recently, rivaled only by perhaps (IMO) Alex from A Clockwork Orange (whom I decided to of course throw in a reference to above... did ya catch it?).  She is on one hand the epitome of the cyberpunk (although this book in no way deals with any of those themes); on the other hand, and this is what makes her interesting, she is an introverted, enigmatic character who won't open up to anyone.  I'm not going to really talk about the plot because I think you should just read it for yourself.  I don't want to talk too much about the book at all really though because this is supposed to be about the movie, and I have already started rambling!

The book was originally written in Swedish and was hugely popular in Europe, so of course it was made into a Swedish movie a few years ago, which has just seen a limited release in the US.  Tonight (Friday) was the opening night, so of course my dad (that's right, I hang out with him...) and I had to go.  The movie lived up to the book in almost every sense.  It managed to pack all the twists and turns of the book into 2 hours and 40 minutes excellently, never feeling like it was moving too fast.  It capturedd the solving of the intricate mystery, while at the same time not feeling like anything was left out (of course lots of stuff was cut out, but it is done extremely well).  Even having read it, it still manages to pull you in and be enthralled by the mystery, EVEN IF YOU KNOW THE ENDGAME.  That I think is what makes the movie so excellent.  Well, I know I really haven't said that much about it even though I've written a lot, but I don't really want to give a lot away.  JUST SEE IT JUST SEE IT JUST READ IT ETC.

-- A Teenage Elephant.